Benedict IX's reign was incredibly scandalous, and factional strife continued. Ferdinand Gregorovius, a historian otherwise severely critical of papacy, wrote that in Benedict, "It seemed as if a demon from hell, in the disguise of a priest, occupied the chair of Peter and profaned the sacred mysteries of religion by his insolent courses." Horace K. Mann calls him "a disgrace to the Chair of Peter". He was the first pope rumoured to have been primarily homosexual. Pope Victor III, in his third book of Dialogues, referred to "his rapes, murders and other unspeakable acts of violence and sodomy. His life as a pope was so vile, so foul, so execrable, that I shudder to think of it."