Alexander V, Antipope

ALEXANDER V, Antipope. - Pietro Filargo, of very humble origin, was born in Crete in 1340. Protected by a Franciscan friar, he entered the Friars Minor, studied at Oxford and in Paris, where, having become a master of theology, he also taught. His outstanding intellect made him highly esteemed, particularly by the Visconti in Milan, so that he became successively bishop of Piacenza, Vicenza, Novara and archbishop of Milan in 1402. Innocent VII in 1405 created him cardinal of the SS. Apostles. When in Apr. 1408 the cardinals defected from Gregory XII and met at Pisa, where they joined a group of cardinals of Benedict XIII, Filargo was absent from the Curia; but he immediately worked for the Council of Pisa summoned by those cardinals to put an end to the schism. Indeed he was present at that Council from its opening (25 March 1409) and took part in the sentence of deposition pronounced against the two rival popes. When the conclave assembled at Pisa itself on 26 June 1409, Filargo was elected pontiff with the name A. V, through the efforts, it was said, of Card. Baldassare Cossa. Thus a third obedience was formed in Christendom, to the detriment of the two that had kept the faithful divided since 1378. A. closed the Council on 27 July; in Nov., because of the plague, he left Pisa for Pistoia. In Dec., after the defeat of Ladislaus king of Naples, a supporter of Gregory XII, the Roman people declared for A., who would have wished to go there; but Card. Cossa, fearing that Rome was still not safe enough, persuaded A. to go to Bologna, where he was legate. There A. on 31 Jan. 1410 renewed the condemnation of his two rivals and confirmed everything that had been done at Pisa. Death surprised him suddenly at Bologna on 3 May 1410. He was buried in the church of S. Francesco.

In his time he was famosissimus in theologia magister and judged doctissimus in sacra pagina; he composed a very remarkable commentary on the four books of the Sentences, published by F. Ehrle in 1925 (Sentenzenkommentar Peters von Candia).