Roman Catholic Pope. He was born Giovanni Gaetano Orsini in Descio, Italy near Milan, the son of a Roman nobleman who was a Roman senator and friend of St. Francis of Assisi. With the influence of his family, Nicholas would go on to serve eight popes. Pope Innocent IV made him cardinal-deacon of St. Nicholas in Carcere Tulliano. Later Pope Alexander IV made him inquisitor-general and Pope Urban IV made him protector of the Franciscans. After the death of Pope John XXI, there was a six-month vacancy in the papacy. Nicholas III, again largely through family influence, was elected pope on November 25, 1277. His brief pontificate was marked by several important events. A born politician, he greatly strengthened the papacy in Italy by concluding a concordat with Rudolph I of Habsburg in 1278. Later that year, true to his origin, he endeavored to free Rome from all foreign influence by issuing a constitution for the government of Rome, which forbade foreigners from civil office. Nicholas repaired the Lateran palace and the Vatican at enormous cost, and erected a beautiful country house at Soriano near Viterbo where he died of a stroke less than three years after being elected pope. Nicholas also established the Vatican as a papal residence. Ironically, Nicholas, who opposed outside influences in Italy was followed by a French pope, Martin V. He was an ecclesiastically minded pontiff of great diplomatic ability and, with the exceptions of his acts of nepotism, of unblemished character. Unfortunately it was his nepotism that caused him to become a character in Dante's The Divine Comedy, condemned to a place in Hell reserved for Simoniacs (Simony is the crime of buying or selling spiritual offices for money, which was greatly seen as evil in the Middle Ages).