Pope Benedict IV

Pope Benedict IV
Papacy began	1 February 900
Papacy ended	July 903
Predecessor	John IX
Successor	Leo V
Personal details
Born	Rome, Papal States
Died	July 903 Rome
Other popes named Benedict

Pope Benedict IV (Latin: Benedictus IV; died July 903) was Pope from 1 February 900 to his death in 903. He was the son of Mammalus, a native of Rome. The tenth-century historian Flodoard, who nicknamed him the Great, commended his noble birth and public generosity. He succeeded Pope John IX (898–900) and was followed by Pope Leo V (903).

Benedict IV upheld the ordinances of Pope Formosus, whose rotting corpse had been exhumed by Pope Stephen VI and put on trial in the Cadaver Synod of 897. In 901, after the Carolingian Emperors had disappeared, Benedict followed the example of Pope Leo III and crowned Louis of Provence as Holy Roman Emperor. In his reign, he also excommunicated Baldwin II of Flanders for murdering Fulk, Archbishop of Reims. He died in Rome during the summer of 903 and was buried in front of St Peter's Basilica, by the gate of Guido.

References

• This article incorporates text from the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia article "Pope Benedict IV" by Horace K. Mann, a publication now in the public domain.

Literature

• Bertolini, Ottorino (1966). "Benedetto IV, papa". In Ghisalberti, Alberto M. (ed.). Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (DBI) (in Italian). Vol. 8. Rome: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana. pp. 27–31.
• Ottorino Bertolini: Benedetto IV. In: Massimo Bray (ed.): Enciclopedia dei Papi. Volume 2: Niccolò I, santo, Sisto IV. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 2000, pp. 54–58 (treccani.it).
• Rudolf Schieffer (1980). "Benedikt IV". Lexikon des Mittelalters, I: Aachen bis Bettelordenskirchen (in German). Stuttgart and Weimar: J. B. Metzler. col. 1858. ISBN 3-7608-8901-8.

External links

• Papa Benedikto IV katika Kamusi Elezo ya Kikatoliki
• Encyclopædia Britannica
• Opera Omnia by Migne Patrologia Latina with analytical indexes