STEPHEN VI (VII), Pope. - A Roman, bishop of Anagni. Elected pope (May 896) contrary to the rules of ecclesiastical discipline then in force, played a most deplorable part when Lambert, consecrated emperor in 892 by Pope Formosus, entered Rome with his mother Agiltrude in 897.

The descendant of the dukes of Spoleto did not forgive the deceased Formosus for having consecrated his rival Arnulf emperor on 22 February 896. S. agreed to preside over the sinister Council, at which the body of the dead man was brought in, dressed in the pontifical vestments, and he believed he could take advantage of the sentence declaring null the ordinations performed by Formosus and thus consolidate his power, because the canonical impediment to his promotion was thereby dissolved. But in the course of a popular insurrection he was seized, relegated to a prison and strangled (August 897).

Bibliography4 works

BIBL.: Lib. Pont., II, p. 299; Stephani Papae VI epistolae et privilegia: PL 129, 855-60; L. Duchesne, Les premiers temps de l'Etat pontif., 3rd ed., Paris 1911, pp. 297-301; Fliche-Martin-Frutaz, VII, nos. 14-16.

Guglielmo Mollat

@incollection{ec11_stefano_vi_vii_papa, author = {Mollat, Guglielmo}, title = {Stefano VI (Vii), papa}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {XI}, pages = {1310--1311}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1953}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/stefano-vi-vii-papa} }

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Stephen VI (VII), Pope

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