Pope Victor III says of Pope Benedict IX: “His life as a pope was so vile, so foul, so execrable, that I shudder to think of it.” (Quoted in “Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Libelli de lite” (in Latin) (Dialogi de miraculis Sancti Benedicti Liber Tertius auctore Desiderio abbate Casinensis ed.), Hannover: Deutsches Institut für Erforschung des Mittelalters (1934), p. 141. While some pontiffs were unfortunately very sinful persons as private individuals, it can be said to Benedict IX’s favor that he never promoted unorthodoxy in the faith, the orthodox faith being a necessary prerequisite to obtain and retain the office of the papacy.)