Pope Theodore II (; 840 – December 897) was the

bishop of Rome The pope is the bishop of Rome and the visible head of the worldwide Catholic Church. He is also known as the supreme pontiff, Roman pontiff, or sovereign pontiff. From the 8th century until 1870, the pope was the sovereign or head of sta ...

and ruler of the

Papal States The Papal States ( ; ; ), officially the State of the Church, were a conglomeration of territories on the Italian peninsula under the direct sovereign rule of the pope from 756 to 1870. They were among the major states of Italy from the 8th c ...

for twenty days in December 897. His short reign occurred during a period of partisan strife in the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

, which was entangled with a period of violence and disorder in

central Italy Central Italy ( or ) is one of the five official statistical regions of Italy used by the National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT), a first-level NUTS region with code ITI, and a European Parliament constituency. It has 11,704,312 inhabita ...

. His main act as pope was to annul the recent

Cadaver Synod The Cadaver Synod (also called the Cadaver Trial; ) is the name commonly given to the ecclesiastical trial of Pope Formosus, who had been dead for about seven months, in the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome during January 897. The trial wa ...

, therefore reinstating the acts and ordinations of

Pope Formosus Pope Formosus (896) was the pope and ruler of the Papal States from 6 October 891 until his death on 4 April 896. His reign as Pope was troubled, marked by interventions in power struggles over the Patriarchate of Constantinople, the Kingdom of ...

, which had themselves been annulled by

Pope Stephen VI Pope Stephen VI (; died August 897) was the bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States from 22 May 896 until his death in August 897. He is best known for instigating the Cadaver Synod, which ultimately led to his downfall and death. Famil ...

. He also had the body of Formosus recovered from the river

Tiber The Tiber ( ; ; ) is the List of rivers of Italy, third-longest river in Italy and the longest in Central Italy, rising in the Apennine Mountains in Emilia-Romagna and flowing through Tuscany, Umbria, and Lazio, where it is joined by the R ...

and reburied with honour. He died in office in late December 897.

Background

Little is known of Theodore's background; he is recorded as being born a Roman, and the son of Photios. His brother Theodosius (or Theosius) was also a bishop.Mann (1902), pp. 88–90.Kelly, Walsh (2010), p. 115. Theodore was

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are Consecration in Christianity, consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the religious denomination, denominationa ...

as a priest by

Pope Stephen V Pope Stephen V (; died 14 September 891) was the bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States from September 885 to his death on 14 September 891. In his dealings with Photius I of Constantinople, as in his relations with the young Slavic Ortho ...

. In January 897,

held what is known as the

. Because his predecessor, Formosus, sided with

Arnulf of Carinthia Arnulf of Carinthia ( – 8 December 899) was the duke of Carinthia who overthrew his uncle Emperor Charles the Fat to become the Carolingian king of East Francia from 887, the disputed king of Italy from 894, and the disputed Holy Roman Emperor, ...

rather than Stephen's ally, Lambert of Spoleto, in their struggle for the imperial dignity, Stephen had the corpse of Formosus exhumed and tried for "perjury, violating the canons prohibiting the translation of bishops, and coveting the papacy". The dead pope was found guilty, his body thrown in the

, and all his acts and ordinations were annulled. Supporters of Formosus rebelled and deposed Stephen VI. His successor, Romanus, is generally assumed to have been pro-Formosus, but he too was soon deposed.

Papacy

Theodore II was elected to succeed the deposed Romanus as

pope The pope is the bishop of Rome and the Head of the Church#Catholic Church, visible head of the worldwide Catholic Church. He is also known as the supreme pontiff, Roman pontiff, or sovereign pontiff. From the 8th century until 1870, the po ...

. The exact dates of Theodore II's pontificate are unknown, but modern sources generally agree that he was pope for twenty days during December 897.

Flodoard Flodoard of Reims (; 893/4 – 28 March 966) was a Frankish chronicler and priest of the cathedral church of Reims in the West Frankish kingdom during the decades following the dissolution of the Carolingian Empire. His historical writings are ...

, a tenth-century French chronicler, only credited Theodore with a twelve-day reign, while in his history of the popes, Alexis-François Artaud de Montor listed Theodore's reign as being twenty days, from 12 February to 3 March 898. Like Romanus, Theodore was a supporter of Formosus. Some historians believe that Romanus had been deposed because he had not acted to restore Formosus' honour quickly enough, though others suggest that he was removed by supporters of Stephen VI. In either case, Theodore immediately threw himself into the task of undoing the Cadaver Synod. He called his own synod, which annulled the rulings set out by Stephen VI. In so doing, he restored the acts and ordinations of Formosus, including the restoration of a large number of clergy and bishops to their offices. Theodore also ordered Formosus' body to be recovered from the harbour of Portus, where it had been secretly buried, and restored to the original grave at

Old St. Peter's Basilica Old St. Peter's Basilica was the church buildings that stood, from the 4th to 16th centuries, where St. Peter's Basilica stands today in Vatican City. Construction of the basilica, built over the historical site of the Circus of Nero, began dur ...

. Like Romanus before him, Theodore bestowed a privilege upon the See of Grado, and had a coin minted, bearing the name of Lambert on the obverse, and " Scs. Petrus" and "Thedr." on the reverse. Flodoard cast Theodore in a positive light, describing him as "beloved of the clergy, a friend of peace, temperate, chaste, affable and a great lover of the poor." He died in office, though the cause of his death is unknown. Because of this, some writers, such as Wendy Reardon,Reardon (2004), p. 68. suggest the possibility of foul play. Horace Kinder Mann offers a different suggestion in his papal history, noting that it is possible that popes who were "infirm or even older than ..their predecessors" might have been elected intentionally. Theodore was buried at St. Peter's Basilica, but his tomb was destroyed during the demolition of the old basilica in the seventeenth century.

Aftermath

After Theodore's death, both John IX and Sergius III claimed to have been elected pope; the latter was excommunicated and driven from the city, though he did later become pope in 904. John IX held synods reaffirming that of Theodore II, and he further banned the trial of people after their death. In turn, Sergius III later annulled the synods of Theodore II and John IX, and reinstated the validity of the Cadaver Synod.Kelly, Walsh (2010), pp. 118–19.

References

Bibliography

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