Pope Benedict IV

Pope Benedict IV
Bishop of Rome
Coins of Pope Benedict IV and Louis the Blind
Church	Catholic Church
Papacy began	1 February 900
Papacy ended	July 903
Predecessor	John IX
Successor	Leo V
Personal details
Born	c. 840 Rome, Papal States
Died	30 July 903 Rome, Papal States
Other popes named Benedict

Pope Benedict IV (Latin: Benedictus IV; c. 840 – 30 July 903) was the bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States from 1 February 900 to his death. The tenth-century historian Flodoard, who nicknamed him "the Great", commended his noble birth and public generosity.

Benedict was a native of Rome, the son of one Mammalus, and was ordained priest by Pope Formosus. He succeeded Pope John IX. In 900, he excommunicated Count Baldwin II of Flanders for murdering Archbishop Fulk of Reims. In 901, Benedict crowned Louis the Blind as emperor. In 902, Berengar of Friuli defeated Louis III and forced him to leave Italy. Benedict died in Rome during the summer of 903; it is possible that Berengar had some involvement. Benedict was buried in front of St Peter's Basilica, by the gate of Guido. He was followed by Pope Leo V.

Literature

• Bertolini, Ottorino (1966). "Benedetto IV, papa". Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani (in Italian). Vol. 8: Bellucci–Beregan. Rome: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana. pp. 27–31. ISBN 978-88-12-00032-6.
• 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.

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

Pope Benedict IV — Date of birth unknown; died in the summer of 903.

The Popes Benedict from the fourth to the ninth inclusive belong to the darkest period of papal history. The reigns of several of them were very short, and very little is known about their deeds. The dates of their accession to the See of Peter and of their deaths are largely uncertain.

Benedict IV, a Roman and the son of Mammalus, became pope in the first half of 900. His high birth, his generosity, his zeal for the public good are loudly commended by the contemporary historian Frodoard, who gives him the title of "Great". The principal historic act of his reign was his crowning Louis the Blind as emperor. He supported the decision of Pope Formosus, who had ordained him priest, in favour of Argrim's claim to the See of Langres (Jaffé, "Regesta", 3527, 3528), upheld the cause of Stephen, Bishop of Naples (Auxilius ap. Dümmler, "Auxilius und Vulgarius", 96 sqq.), excommunicated the assassin of Fulk, Archbishop of Reims (Frodoard, Hist. Remensis, IV, 10), and offered practical sympathy to Malacenus, Bishop of Amasia, who had been driven from his see by the advances of the Saracens (Jaffé, loc. cit., 3530). Fulda and other monasteries received privileges from him. He was buried in front of St. Peter's near the gate of Guido.

The most important source for the history of the first nine popes who bore the name of Benedict is the biographies in the Liber Pontificalis, of which the most useful edition is that of Duchesne, Le Liber Pontificalis (Paris, 1886-92), and the latest that of Mommsen, Gesta Pontif. Roman. (to the end of the reign of Constantine only, Berlin, 1898). Jaffé, Regesta Pont. Rom. (2d ed., Leipzig, 1885), gives a summary of the letters of each pope and tells where they may be read at length. Modern accounts of these popes will be found in any large Church history, or history of the City of Rome. The fullest account in English of most of them is to be read in Mann, Lives of the Popes in the Early Middle Ages (London, 1902, passim).

External links

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