pope from 900 to 903. Benedict reigned during one of the darkest periods of papal history, when Rome was torn by partisan conflict over the memory of the posthumously excommunicated pope Formosus. Little is known of his life or acts. He excommunicated Baldwin II, count of Flanders, for causing the assassination of Fulk, archbishop of Reims, Fr. (June 17, 900); he crowned Louis III the Blind (Louis III) emperor in February 901.