The exact dates of Theodore II's pontificate are unknown, but modern sources generally agree that he was pope for twenty days during December 897.
Some historians believe that Romanus had been deposed because he had not acted to restore Formosus' honour quickly enough, though others suggest that he was removed by supporters of Stephen VI.
[2] Theodore also ordered Formosus' body to be recovered from the harbour of Portus, where it had been secretly buried, and restored to the original grave at Old St. Peter's Basilica.
[1] Flodoard cast Theodore in a positive light, describing him as "beloved of the clergy, a friend of peace, temperate, chaste, affable and a great lover of the poor.
[9] Horace Kinder Mann offers a different suggestion in his papal history, noting that it is possible that popes who were "infirm or even older than [...] their predecessors" might have been elected intentionally.
John IX held synods reaffirming that of Theodore II, and he further banned the trial of people after their death.