January, 897. Rome. A sitting pope had his dead predecessor exhumed, dressed in full papal regalia, propped upright on a throne, and put on trial. A deacon was appointed to speak for the corpse. The corpse lost.

This is the Cadaver Synod, and it is not a metaphor. Pope Stephen VI dug Pope Formosus out of the ground — nine months dead — convicted him on every charge, cut the blessing fingers from his right hand, and threw the body in the Tiber. It is one of the most unhinged spectacles in the history of organized religion. The moment you stop laughing, it becomes something colder: a study of what an institution does when no one left alive has the power to tell it no.

April Rain walks you onto the crime scene — the collapse of Charlemagne's empire, the street-fight papacy of the ninth century, and the politics of revenge under the theater — and asks the only question a crime scene ever really asks: who benefited.

History is a crime scene. This week, the body is a pope.

Listener note: institutional corruption, political violence, and the desecration of human remains. For entertainment purposes only.

Sources and the research rabbit holes: thevelvetguillotine.substack.comSupport the show: patreon.com/thedownpourEverything else: linktr.ee/thedownpour

Stay dark. — April