[4] He became Abbot nullius of the Benedictine Farfa Abbey on 8 August 1477, upon the resignation of Giovanni Orsini, his mother's brother.
[1][5] On 1 April 1478, he was appointed Archbishop of Trani by Pope Sixtus IV,[6] in succession to his uncle Giovanni — a post he occupied until his death.
[1] Ludwig Pastor interprets the Consistory of 15 May 1480 as one that "further promoted the worldliness and pomp of the Sacred College.... With hardly an exception those raised to the purple were of high birth.
"[10] On Wednesday 12 September 1471, Pope Sixtus decided to take a vacation from the heat and persistent pestilences, and so travelled north some twenty miles to the lakeside town of Bracciano, which belonged to Virginio Orsini.
Nereo ed Achilleo was with him, despite a severe case of the gout, to protect the family interests.