Pope Benedict IV

Who was Pope Benedict IV?

Pope Benedict IV was the head of the Catholic Church 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 and was followed by Pope Leo V.

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.