About this Event
📍 Location: Exact address given in confirmation email
🧠 Lecture: "The Cadaver Synod: The Trial of a Papal Corpse"
🎙️ Speaker: Dr. John J. Murphy
In 897, Rome witnessed one of the most bizarre episodes in papal history: the Cadaver Synod. Pope Stephen VI ordered the corpse of his predecessor, Pope Formosus, exhumed, dressed in full papal regalia, and put on trial in a macabre courtroom drama that stunned even medieval observers.
Join us as Dr. John J. Murphy guides us through the bitter political rivalries, family feuds, and factional chaos that engulfed the Church and the city of Rome at the end of the ninth century. Discover why a dead pope became the centerpiece of a grotesque show trial, how this spectacle reflected deeper struggles over power and legitimacy, and what the Cadaver Synod reveals about the darker side of medieval religion and politics.
Don’t miss this chance to explore one of history’s strangest and most unsettling gothic nightmares—and what it still has to say about institutions, authority, and vengeance.
Get a drink, connect, and learn at Lectures on Tap! 🙌
Agenda
6:30 PM – Doors open: find a seat (open seating!), order food & drinks, and expect a bar line—arriving early is key.
6:55 PM – Host introduction
7:00 PM – Lecture begins
7:45 PM – Audience Q&A
8:00 PM – Have 1:1 time with the speaker, mingle with fellow guests, and order another round
8:30 PM – Wrap up.
Event venue & nearby stays
Logan Square, Logan Square, Chicago, United States
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