See Rothan, La Politique Française en 1866 (Paris, 1879); and L’Affaire de Luxemburg (Paris, 1881); Sorel, Histoire diplomatique (Paris, 1875); Sybel, Die Begründung des deutschen Reiches (Munich, 1889), &c.
(J. W. He.)
BENEDICT (Benedictus), the name taken by fourteen of the popes.
Benedict I. was pope from 573 to 578. He succeeded John III., and occupied the papal chair during the incursions of the Lombards, and during the series of plagues and famines which followed these invasions.
Benedict II. was pope from 684 to 685. He succeeded Leo II., but although chosen in 683 he was not ordained till 684, because the leave of the emperor Constantine was not obtained until some months after the election.
Benedict III. was pope from 855 to 858. He was chosen by the clergy and people of Rome, but the election was not confirmed by the emperor, Louis II., who appointed an anti-pope, Anastasius (the librarian). But the candidature of this person, who had been deposed from the presbyterate under Leo IV., was indefensible. The imperial government at length recognized Benedict and discontinued its opposition, with the result that he was at last successful. The mythical pope Joan is usually placed between Benedict and his predecessor, Leo IV.
Benedict IV. was pope from 900 to 903.
Benedict V. was pope from 964 to 965. He was elected by the Romans on the death of John XII. The emperor Otto I. did not approve of the choice, and carried off the pope to Hamburg, where he died.
Benedict VI. was pope from 972 to 974. He was chosen with great ceremony and installed pope under the protection of the emperor, Otto the Great. On the death of the emperor the turbulent citizens of Rome renewed their outrages, and the pope himself was strangled by order of Crescentius, the son of the notorious Theodora, who replaced him by a deacon called Franco. This Franco took the name of Boniface VII.