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Dromo's Den
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[Up] [Dromo's Den] Formosus Biography FORMOSUS. Pope, 891–896. He was born about 816, probably in Rome, and first appears in history as Cardinal Bishop of Porto (864); he was sent on an embassy to the Bulgarians by Nicholas I in 866 and trusted with important missions by Adrian II. His period was one of strife between the factions which drove on the disruption of the Empire of Charlemagne. Having sided with the German faction against John VIII, he was excommunicated and banished; but on taking an oath never to return to Rome or again to assume his episcopal functions, he was readmitted as a layman to the rites of the church (878). From this oath he was absolved by Marinus, the successor of John VIII, and restored to his dignities (883); and on the death of Stephen VI, in 891, he was chosen Pope. The Italian faction had chosen Sergius; and the election of Formosus, which was in opposition to an old rule against the translation of bishops from one see to another, could not be confirmed without violence; but he was rendered secure for a time by the success of the arms of Arnulf of Germany. After the withdrawal of Arnulf Formosus was compelled to grant the Imperial crown to Lambert, son of Guido of Spoleto; but this act did not pacify the Italian faction, and Formosus was released from very hard straits only by the arrival of Arnulf, who captured Rome in the end of 895. In the following year Arnulf was crowned Emperor by Formosus, who died soon after. His successor, Stephen VII, had his body disinterred and treated with contumely as that of a usurper of the papal throne; but Theodorus II, in 897, restored it to Christian burial, and at a synod presided over by John IX, in 898, the pontificate of Formosus was declared valid and all his acts confirmed. Consult A. E. McKilliam, Chronicle of the Popes from St. Peter to Pius X (London, 1912). The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. IX (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 31-32. |