Biography
Born at Ostia, he became Cardinal Bishop of Portus in 864. He undertook diplomatic missions to Bulgaria (866) and France (869 and 872), and he persuaded Charles the Bald, King of France, to be crowned as emperor by the Pope in 875.
As early as 872 he was a candidate for the papacy, but due to political complications he left Rome and the court of Pope John VIII that year. John convened a synod, and Formosus was ordered to return or be excommunicated on charges that he had aspired to the Bulgarian Archbishopric and the Holy See; had opposed the emperor and had deserted his diocese without papal permission; had despoiled the cloisters in Rome; had performed the divine service in spite of the interdict; and had "conspired with certain iniquitous men and women for the destruction of the papal see". The condemnation of Formosus and others was announced in July 872. In 878 the sentence of excommunication was withdrawn after he promised never to return to Rome or exercise his priestly functions.
In 883, John's successor Marinus I restored Formosus to his suburbicarian diocese of Portus. Following the reigns of Marinus, Pope Hadrian III (884–885) and Pope Stephen V (885–891), Formosus was elected Pope on 6 October 891.
Supporters of Guy II of Spoleto forced Formosus to crown him as a Roman Emperor in April 892. Other immediate issues were that in Constantinople, the Patriarch Photius had been ejected and Stephen, the son of Emperor Basil I, had taken the office. There was a quarrel between the Archbishops of Cologne and Hamburg concerning the Bishopric of Bremen. In the contest between Odo, Count of Paris, and Charles the Simple for the French crown, the Pope sided with Charles.
Formosus persuaded Arnulf of Carinthia to advance to Rome, invade the Italian peninsula, and take control of Italy. In 894, Arnulf's army occupied all the country north of the Po River. Guy III of Spoleto died in December, leaving his son Lambert in the care of his mother Agiltrude, an opponent of the Carolingians. In autumn 895 Arnulf undertook his second Italian campaign, and in 896 he was crowned by the Pope in Rome. The new emperor moved against Spoleto but was struck with paralysis on the way and was unable to continue the campaign.
On 4 April 896, Formosus died. He was succeeded by Pope Boniface VI.
Read more about this topic: Pope Formosus
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