Formosus

Formosus was already old when he was elected, and famous. Bishop of Porto since 864, he had been Nicholas I's missionary to the Bulgars, so successful that Boris asked for him as archbishop and two popes refused; and in 876 he was the man John VIII accused of conspiring against him and coveting the papacy. He fled, was excommunicated, and at Troyes in 878 was degraded and made to swear never to return to Rome. Marinus released him from the oath and gave him back his see in 883, and on 6 October 891, at about seventy-five, the clergy and people of Rome elected him pope. The move from Porto to Rome broke the canon against translating bishops, as Marinus's had, and his enemies remembered it.

His problem was Spoleto. Stephen V had crowned Guy of Spoleto emperor; Formosus, under pressure, crowned Guy's son Lambert co-emperor at Ravenna in April 892, and then wrote secretly to Arnulf, king of the East Franks, begging him to come and free Italy and the papacy from the Spoletans. Arnulf came twice. In February 896 he stormed the Leonine City, and on the 22nd Formosus crowned him emperor in Saint Peter's and the Romans swore to him. Arnulf marched on Spoleto, was struck by paralysis, and went home, leaving the pope to face the family he had crossed. Formosus died on 4 April 896.

He was a learned, austere, and much-admired bishop whose name no pope has used again.