Formosus I

Pope (891-896), was bishop of Porto, and was sent by Nicholas I in 866 as legate to Bulgaria (q.v.), and would have been made archbishop there but that the canons (at that the) forbade transfers from one see to another. In the time of pope John VIII — he was condemned on a charge of conspiracy against Charles the Bald and the pope (Hefele, Conciliengeschichte, 4:496), A.D. 876. He was deprived of his episcopacy, and of all rights except lay communion. Pope Martin V restored him to his see in 883. Formosus was elected pope September 21, 891, and was the first instance in the West of a bishop transferred from one see to another. Soon after his election, legates sent by the emperor Leo and the Eastern bishops arrived in Rome to obtain a confirmation of the ordinations of Photius (q.v), but Formosus would not grant the request, and the East and West were still farther alienated. In 893 he took sides politically with Charles the Simple against Odo. On the death of Guido, 894, Formosus invited Arnulf Rome, and crowned him emperor, 895. Formosus died on Easter day, 896. Pope Stephen VI caused the dead body of Formosus to be taken up and brought into a synod at Rome, condemned as guilty of intrusion into the holy see, and treated with gross indignity. Stephen declared all the acts of Formosus null and void. His "character" was restored by pope John IX, A.D. 898. — Bower, Lives of the Popes, 5:71- 73; Baronius, Annales, A.D. 891-896.