RAINALLUCCI (RAINALDUCCI), PIETRO, ANTIPOPE. — Friar Minor, an unwary Bavaria (v.) and antipope under the name of Niccolò V, born to a humble family at Corvaro (Rieti) in the second half of the 13th century, died at Avignon on 16 October 1333.
Having abandoned his wife, Giovanna Mattei (a fact later exploited by his adversaries), he entered the Franciscan Order and lived for a long time in the convent of Aracoeli. Among contemporary writers, some portray him as a holy religious and an authentic apostle, while others, on the contrary, present him as a perfect hypocrite of dubious reputation. Be that as it may, R. committed the grave error of accepting the supreme pontificate from Ludovico of Giovanni XXII (v.). He was elected by a college of 13 electors chosen by the Roman clergy, without the participation of any cardinal, on 12 May 1328, and received from Ludovico the name of Niccolò V. On 15 May, before being crowned (22 May), he created six cardinals; he then set about forming a curia and a court that were far from practising that perfect poverty of which R. had previously been an advocate. Niccolò V created a total of 9 cardinals (Eubel, I, pp. 16–17) and approximately twenty bishops, chosen mainly from among the Hermits of St Augustine and the Friars Minor, the latter agitating against Giovanni XXII (v. MICHELE DA CESENA). The schism spread from Rome to Milan and everywhere the German party was active, thanks to the fanatical preaching of religious belonging to the two Orders already mentioned and to the Dominican Order; it was even accepted in Sicily.
On the day Ludovico of Bavaria was expelled from Rome (4 August 1328), Niccolò V had to follow him; after staying for several months at Viterbo and wandering through the Patrimony of St Peter, he reached Ludovico at Pisa on 2 January 1329. There, on 8 January, he granted an indulgence to the enemies of Giovanni XXII, confirming the sentence of deposition already decreed on 18 April and 13 December of the preceding year by Ludovico of Bavaria; and on 19 February he agreed to perform in the Cathedral of Pisa the disgusting ceremony of condemning Giovanni XXII as a heretic and degrading him, represented by an effigy dressed in pontifical vestments. The defection of Azzone Visconti having compelled Ludovico to hasten to Upper Italy (11 April 1329), Niccolò V found himself alone in Pisa, abandoned by all his supporters except Cardinal Paolo of Viterbo; to save him, Count Bonifacio of Donoratico hid him in his castle of Burgaro, but from there brought him back to Pisa as a Florentine army approached. On learning of Niccolò V’s presence in Pisa, Giovanni XXII requested that the count surrender him (10 May 1330). Negotiations were immediately opened: the Pope undertook to guarantee his life and to grant him pardon and a pension. After the recantation made in the presence of the archbishop of Pisa and the bishop of Lucca (25 July), R. set sail for Marseille on 4 August and reached Avignon on the 24th. On the 25th he appeared before the Consistory dressed as a Friar Minor with a cord around his neck; after renewing his recantation (R. calls himself “antipope”: Balazius, I, p. 148), the Pope forgave him and subsequently treated him with great liberality. He spent the last three years of his life in penance, in an apartment of the papal palace itself. He was buried in the church of the Franciscans of Avignon.