Pope Benedict XIII

Pietro Francesco Orsini, scion of a great Roman noble house, was a devout Dominican who renounced his inheritance for the cloister and reluctantly accepted the papacy. Genuinely pious and ascetic, he held a Roman synod (1725) promoting clerical discipline and devotion, and lived simply amid the splendor of the Curia. Yet he proved a poor administrator and trusted his fellow Beneventan, Cardinal Niccolò Coscia, whose corruption and venality scandalized Rome and burdened papal finances. Benedict also approved a controversial Dominican-favoring stance in the grace-and-free-will disputes. His reign is a study in personal holiness undermined by misplaced confidence in unworthy associates.