BENEDETTO IV, PAPA

BENEDICT IV, POPE. — A Roman, son of Mammolo, he succeeded John IX (d. early in 900) and continued his prudent and discreet policy. He had been ordained priest by Pope Formosus and remained faithful to his memory, acknowledging his legitimacy in the Lateran Council of 30 August 900. The most important event of his pontificate was the imperial coronation of Louis III of Provence (15 or 22 February 901), whom certain lords had invited into Italy against Berengar I. The documents record several acts of Benedict: he confirmed to Angrino, Bishop of Langres, the pallium granted him by Pope Formosus (Jaffé-Wattenbach, 3527-28); he excommunicated the murderer of Folc, Archbishop of Reims; he invested Stephen, formerly Bishop of Sorrento, with the see of Naples; he issued a document to Malaceno, Bishop of Amasea, expelled by the Saracens, guaranteeing him protection and assistance. He confirmed the privileges of the Abbey of Fulda. He died towards the end of July 903. The suspicion that he was poisoned by Berengar’s partisans does not stand up to sound criticism. He was buried in St Peter’s. The historian and poet Philardus (894-966) says that he was generous and kind and loved with constant goodness, as if they were his own children, widows in distress, the poor and the abandoned (PL 135, 83).