FORMOSUS, POPE. Perhaps a native of Rome. Nicholas I (858–67) in 864 or 865 made him cardinal bishop of Porto and in the autumn of 866 sent him with Paul of Populonia among the Bulgarians to promote their conversion. He was so successful that their king, Boris, requested him as archbishop.
Toward the end of 867 F. was recalled to Rome, held in high regard even by Pope Adrian II (867–72). But his successor John VIII (872–82), who considered him a personal enemy, after entrusting him with confidential tasks in the early years (Jaffé-Wattenbach, 3918), later placed him on trial, believing he had proof of plots hatched by F. against the Curia. F. fled from Rome, and then a synod excommunicated and deposed him (19 Apr. 876), a sentence renewed at the Councils of Pontifìcio (June 876) and Troyes (Aug. 878). On 14 Sept. the Pope admitted him to lay communion, on condition that he never again set foot in Rome. Instead, Marinus I (882–84) absolved him, and his successor Adrian III (884–85) restored him to his former see of Porto. In 885 F. consecrated the new pope Stephen V (885–91), who succeeded him on 19 Sept. 891. In the Photian controversy he took an extremely rigorous stance (Jaffé-Wattenbach, 3478); he pronounced in favor of uniting the sees of Bremen and Hamburg (ibid., 343, 348, 3488); he supported the Carolingian Charles against Eudes (ibid., 3490–94). On 30 Apr. 892 he crowned Lambert of Spoleto as emperor, associated with his father Guy. But soon, turning against the Spoletans, he summoned to Italy and crowned Arnold of Carinthia as emperor (22 Apr. 896). He died on 4 Apr. 896, in time not to see the Spoletans regain control of Rome. Their vengeance was fierce. In Jan. 897 the body of F., exhumed from the sepulcher where it had rested for nine months, was brought before a synod presided over by Stephen VI (896–97) and subjected to a formal trial. Declaring his election null, his acts illegitimate, and his ordinations invalid, he was buried in a common grave, whence the mob dragged him to cast him into the Tiber.
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**Formosa** – 1) Boundaries of ecclesiastical jurisdiction; 2) Railways.
It has a tropical climate and monsoon rains. Rich agricultural (rice, tea, sugarcane, cotton) and forestry production (camphor: 90% of the world’s output), and notable mineral possibilities (coal, gold, sulfur, petroleum).