TIL that Michelangelo spent two months hiding in the underground chamber while evading a death sentence ordered by the Pope

[u/MyKinkyCountess]

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2023/oct/31/michelangelo-secret-sketches-under-church-in-florence-open-to-public

[u/[deleted]]

In the pope's defense he did try to piss them off. But, popes back then were wild anyways. One pope ordered the former popes body to be dug up after 7 months and tried in a court. When the dead pope somehow won the trial, the pope ordered the body thrown in the river. Then the active pope went to jail for this and was strangled to death

[u/gentlybeepingheart → u/[deleted]]

The Cadaver Synod! The dead pope was actually found guilty, and that's why the live pope threw him in the river.

But the dead pope was basically put on trial for internal political reasons, and so most of the common people did not know or care why he was posthumously put on trial. They just knew that the current pope had desecrated the body of god's previous representative on earth (whose dead waterlogged body was also allegedly preforming miracles) who seemed like a cool and important guy to them, and so they got pissed and deposed the live pope and then he got strangled.

Also they appointed an "interpreter" for the dead pope for his trial. It was some guy who would lean in and pretend to listen to the dead pope's rotting corpse and then relay the dead pope's "response" to the rest of the court.

It was an interesting time for popes.

[u/ooouroboros → u/[deleted]]

Read Cellini's autobiography - it isn't really funny but it is wild.