Pope Benedict III

[1] Benedict was educated, and lived in Rome and was appointed by Pope Leo IV as cardinal-priest of the church of San Callisto.

The legates returned with the imperial envoys and had Benedict's election disavowed and Anastasius installed.

He wrote to the Frankish bishops, rebuking them for remaining silent in the face of the disorder affecting the Carolingian realms.

[3] Æthelwulf of Wessex and his son, the future king Alfred the Great, visited Rome in Benedict's reign.

[1] A medieval tradition claimed that Pope Joan, a woman disguised as a man, was Benedict's immediate predecessor.