The Untold Story of Pope Stephen VI's Scandalous Life

Throughout the history of the Catholic Church, there have been Popes who, no matter how you look at it, didn't act like the leader of the Christian faith.
Pope Stephen VI was different from these morally corrupt Popes...very different!
Where most scandals surrounding Catholic popes are attributed to sex scandals, political corruption, turning the Vatican into a brothel, or a propensity towards pedophilia, Pope Stephen VI is famous for something that had never been done before and will surely never be done again.
Stephen VI put the rotting corpse of his predecessor on trial!
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Today, the Papacy is a prestigious institution, and Popes are admired figures. During the time of Stephen VI, however, Popes were used as pawns in an ongoing political game and had commanded no respect.
Italy and Rome were in a perpetual state of anarchy at the time, ripped apart by feuding aristocratic families. From the middle of the ninth century to the middle of the tenth, this period was characterized by a rapid succession of pontiffs. Between 872 and 965, two dozen popes were appointed, and between the years 896 and 904, a new pope was elected annually. In their medieval Italian version of a Game of Thrones, the Papacy was merely another component and prize in the political struggles of the day.
It is for this reason that Stephen felt it necessary to put on one of the most macabre spectacles ever seen within the walls of the Vatican.
Stephen VI (the 6th) served as the pontiff of the Catholic Church from May 896 to August 897.
Stephen VI (the 6th) was elected as the successor to Pope Boniface VI (the 6th) during a turbulent time marked by factions led by the aristocracy of Rome and the rulers of Naples, Benevento, Tuscany, and Spoleto, whose ruling family he belonged to. Pope Stephen V (the 5th) reluctantly anointed Guy, duke of Spoleto, Holy Roman Emperor, in 891.
Formosus, Pope Stephen V's (the 5th) successor, deeply mistrusted Guy, the reigning emperor, and started looking for allies against him. Guy forced Formosus to crown his son Lambert as co-emperor in April 892 to reinforce his position.
Pope Formosus then did a turn around and convinced Arnulf of Carinthia the following year to liberate Italy from Guy's control by invading Rome. In 894, Arnulf's army occupied the entire region north of the Po River.