The election of Pope Boniface VI, a native of Rome, had come about as a result of riots soon after the death of Pope Formosus.

Prior to his reign, he had twice incurred a sentence of deprivation of orders as a subdeacon and as a priest.

After a pontificate of fifteen days, he is said by some to have died of gout, by others to have been forcibly ejected to make way for Stephen VI, the candidate of the Spoletan party.

Pope Stephen VI had been made bishop of Anagni by Pope Formosus.

The circumstances of his election are unclear, but he had been sponsored by one of the powerful Roman families, the house of Spoleto, that contested the papacy at this time.

Stephen is chiefly remembered in connection with his conduct towards the remains of Pope Formosus, his last predecessor but one.

The rotting corpse of Formosus is exhumed and put on trial in the so-called Cadaver Synod (or Synodus Horrenda) in January 897.

Pressure from the Spoleto contingent and Stephen's fury with his predecessor probably precipitated this extraordinary event.

With the corpse propped up on a throne, a deacon is appointed to answer for the deceased pontiff.

During the trial, Formosus's corpse is condemned for performing the functions of a bishop when he had been deposed and for receiving the pontificate while he was the bishop of Porto, among other revived charges that had been leveled against him in the strife during the pontificate of John VIII.

The corpse is found guilty, stripped of its sacred vestments, deprived of three fingers of its right hand (the blessing fingers), clad in the garb of a layman, and quickly buried; it is then re-exhumed and thrown in the Tiber.

All ordinations performed by Formosus are annulled.

The trial of Formosus has excited a tumult.

Though the instigators of the deed may actually have been Formosus' enemies of the House of Spoleto (notably Guy IV of Spoleto), who had recovered their authority in Rome at the beginning of 897 by renouncing their broader claims in central Italy, the scandal ends in Stephen's imprisonment and his death by strangling in August.

Romanus, whose personal name is unknown, born in Gallese, Italy near Civita Castellana, is elected to succeed the murdered Stephen VI.

Romanus, like many popes of the era, annuls all the acts and decrees of his predecessor.

His short rule is regarded as a virtuous one by contemporary historian Flodoard, but fifteenth-century historian Bartolomeo Platina scorns him for continuing the practice of annulment.

An opposing faction deposes him in November of the same year and he will end his days as a monk.

His date of death is unknown.

Romanus’ successor, Pope Theodore II, had been ordained as a priest by Pope Stephen V; also his brother Theotius is a bishop.

He reinstates the clerics who had been forced from office by Pope Stephen VI, recognizing the validity of the ordinations of Pope Formosus.

He has the body of Formosus, which had been thrown in the Tiber and recovered near the ancient harbor of Porto, just south of Rome, reburied in St. Peter's Basilica.

He dies after ruling for twenty days in December 897.