RAINALLUCCI (RAINALDUCCI), PIETRO, ANTIPOPE. - A Franciscan friar and unwary supporter of Louis IV of Bavaria (v.), and antipope under the name of NICHOLAS V, he was born into a humble family at Corvaro (Rieti) in the second half of the 13th century and died at Avignon on 16 Oct. 1333.
Having abandoned his wife, Giovanna Mattei (a fact later exploited by his adversaries), he entered the Franciscan Order and for a long time lived in the Aracoeli convent. Among contemporary writers, some portray him as a holy religious and a genuine apostle, while others present him as a consummate hypocrite of dubious reputation. In any case, Rainallucci committed the grave error of accepting the supreme pontificate from Louis of Bavaria in opposition to JOHN XXII (v.). He was elected by a college of 13 electors chosen from the Roman clergy, without the participation of any cardinal, on 12 May 1328, and received from Louis the name of Nicholas V. On 15 May, before his coronation (22 May), he created six cardinals, then set to work to form a curia and a court that were far from practising the perfect poverty of which Rainallucci had previously been an advocate. Nicholas V created in all nine cardinals (Eubel, I, pp. 16-17) and about twenty bishops, chosen mainly from the Augustinian Hermits and the Franciscans, the latter being in agitation against John XXII (v. MICHELE DA CESSENA). 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 when Louis of Bavaria was driven from Rome (4 Aug. 1328), Nicholas V had to follow him; after spending some months at Viterbo and wandering through the Patrimony of St Peter, he reached Louis at Pisa on 2 Jan. 1329. There, on 8 Jan., he granted an indulgence to the enemies of John XXII, confirming the sentence of deposition already decreed on 18 Apr. and 13 Dec. of the previous year by Louis of Bavaria, and on 19 Feb. he consented to perform in the Pisan cathedral the ceremonial act of condemning and degrading John XXII, represented by a puppet dressed in pontifical vestments. When Azzone Visconti’s defection forced Louis to hasten to Upper Italy (11 Apr. 1329), Nicholas V found himself alone in Pisa, abandoned by all his supporters except Cardinal Paolo di Viterbo; to save him Count Boniface of Donoratico hid him in his castle of Burgaro, but brought him back to Pisa as a Florentine army approached. When John XXII learned of Nicholas V’s presence in Pisa, he demanded his surrender from the count (10 May 1330). Negotiations were immediately opened: the Pope undertook to guarantee his life and to grant him pardon and a pension. After his abjuration in the presence of the archbishop of Pisa and the bishop of Lucca (25 July), on 4 Aug. Rainallucci sailed for Marseilles and on the 24th reached Avignon. On the 25th he appeared before the Conclave dressed as a Franciscan friar with a rope round his neck: after renewing his abjuration (Rainallucci calls himself “antipope”: Baluzius, I, p. 148), the Pope pardoned 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 at Avignon.