Benedict XVI, a German theologian with a cult following among traditionalist Catholics, was a conservative intellectual who ended his troubled tenure with the most revolutionary act committed by a modern pope. He died at the age of 95 on Saturday at the monastery on Vatican grounds where he has lived in relative seclusion since resigning on February 28, 2013. Benedict was the first pope in more than 700 years to take such action. That cleared the way for the election of his Argentinian successor Francis, the first non-European Catholic Church leader since the 8th century. “After having repeate…