How Fra Michele and his followers ended

68 Michael of Cesena and the Emperor Ludwig 69 The antipope Nicholas V 70 He nominates Cardinals 71 The death of Nicholas and the withdrawal of the antipope

(68) Fra Michele was from a city in Romagna called Cesena in the Province of Bologna. Born of noble parents he applied himself to study from a young age. When he later became a Friar Minor, since he had a good disposition and was quite bright, he applied himself to the study of letters throughout all his youth and became a great theologian and was learned in nearlty all the disciplines. The General Chapter was convened in Naples in 1322 and he was elected Minister General of the whole Order of Saint Francis. Universally the Friars loved him immensely. However, when he entered the controversy against His Holiness, as we said above, disdainfully he took the side of the schismatic Emperor since he was the enemy of His Holiness. Because he encouraged other Friars to side with his opinion and that of the schismatic Emperor, the same Emperor used those Friars to go against His Holiness. That’s why when this Emperor was in Rome, where he had been quite seditious towards His Holiness, he attracted to himself many schismatics and heretics who were Prelates of Holy Church.

(69) This was the reason that on the 12 May 1328, the Ascension of the Lord, he had a very ornate stage erected on the steps of Saint Peter’s. There he placed a throne with a pulpit nearby. With his entire Barony and in the company of his schismatic Prelates he and his entourage made a great entrance. Regaled in his cloak and other imperial adornments he sat upon his throne with an almost infinite number of the Roman people around him. After achieving a general silence and everyone had calmed down, he had a certain Fra Pietro Corvaro from the territory of Rieti make his entrance. He was of the Order of Friars Minor and a very learned man whom all regarded previously as a Friar who led a good and holy life. When this Friar arrived before him the Emperor rose from his throne to honour his arrival. Straightaway he sat down and likewise had the Friar sit upon the stool of his throne. He then had a certain Fra Nichola da Fabriano, from the Order of Saint Augustine, ascend the pulpit. He gave a long sermon, taking as his theme the words of the Acts of the Apostles, Peter came to his senses and said, ‘Now I know in fact that the Lord sent his angel’. As is customary for heretics, he twisted this text and accommodated it to his distorted idea. He portrayed Pietro to be the Church and the angel of the Lord to be the Emperor. Herod, however, was the Pope in Avignon and the Jewish people were all those who supported His Holiness. When he finished preaching he concluded that the world ought to thank God very much for he had sent that angel to liberate it and who wanted to free the world from the hands of the impious men.

Then the Bishop of Venice came forward. He was one of the schismatic Prelates, as were all the others. (At that time Venice didn’t have a Patriarch.) Three times he cried out so that all the people heard. On behalf of His Majesty he asked them if they wanted Fra Pietro as Pope, a man of such a holy life whom the Emperor had provided for them and brought there. This disturbed the mood of the people. Not that they didn’t want another Pope but they wanted no one but a Roman. Nevertheless, since they feared the Emperor, they all gave their consent and said they accepted him as their Pope and Supreme Pontiff. All the clerics and religious present said the same with a loud voice.

The Emperor again rose to his feet and had a document read by the Bishop, according to custom, as a confirmation of the Antipope. Once the document had been read the Emperor venerated the Antipope. Then the schismatic Prelates present did the same. He was crowned immediately and given the pontifical ring and cloak,and the mitre was placed upon his head. He took the name Pope Nicholas V. The Emperor had him sit at his right hand. Then with great pomp, together with all the clergy and people, they went into the church where the Mass of this election, confirmation and coronation was sung with great solemnity. This deeply troubled the hearts of all the Catholics present.

(70) On the eighteenth day of that month of May, in the same year, the antipope wanted to show that he truly had pontifical authority. So he assumed to the Cardinalate seven of his apostate followers. These were: the bishop of Venice, the Abbot of Saint Ambrose in Milan, another German Bishop who earlier had read the judgement against the true Pope, Brother Nicholas of the Hermits of Fabriano, Pietro Oringa, Giovanni d’Arlotto – Romans – and the Bishop of Modena. He chose many other Romans but they didn’t accept because they feared God. Having become Cardinals they were confirmed by the false Emperor, Ludwig.

Thus you can see how much scandal those proud, learned men gave in the Church of God. For if the Emperor had not had the support of those schismatic Prelates he could not have done such an evil thing.

(71) His Holiness had deposed Fra Michele from his Generalate. When he heard that his followers had received so much honour from the false Emperor with Fra Pietro being made Pope, and that the antipope had made so many Cardinals, Fra Michele thought he should be magnified by the Emperor too. So he immediately left the Order and came to Rome and joined company with the antipope. However, everyone became aware of the malice of the Emperor and the madness of the antipope and his other schismatic followers. The majority of the people and his friends detached themselves from loyalty to the Emperor who left Rome and went straight to Pisa, taking the antipope with him. His arrival was a great catastrophe since he was short of money, and everyone hated him. So the majority of people abandoned him. He was forced then to withdraw to Germany. Out of fear for His Holiness, Fr Michele went with Ludwig and died in a friary in Bavaria. He was buried in that house of the Friars Minor. All the other above mentioned schismatic Prelates were excommunicated by His Holiness and soon came to grief.

With arrangements that he follow, the Emperor left the antipope in Pisa. However God did not want him to leave there since the Lord God did not want to abandon him on account of the good life he lhad ed before. Consequently, together with all his Cardinals, the poor and blinded Religious soon found himself taken prisoner by the Pisans, particularly by Count Boniface. The other Prelates, as we’ve said, went into disarray and fled to different places. Put on board two Provençal galleys with a good guard, the antipope was sent to Pope John at Avignon. On hearing of his arrival, Pope John ordered him to be brought to his Palace. His Holiness was meeting with all the Cardinals in the Consistory when, low and behold, the antipope Corvaro arrived in the public Consistory with a rope around his neck. He knelt at the feet of His Holiness and tearfully confessed his error. He accused himself of having been schismatic and confessed himself as such and said that he regarded the Emperor as false. He asked pardon first of all from God for all his many grave errors; then from His Beatitude and from all the Sacred College. He confessed those errors with such contrition and with such an effective request for forgiveness that the Pope wept profusely, as did almost all the Cardinals and other people present. It was something indescribable. However, what was more wonderful was that the Pontiff lifted him to his feet with his own hands and kissed him on the lips and forgave him everything. Moreover he had him assigned a locked room there in his own Palace. He ordered the whole Court that no one speak to him. He had him given many books so that he might have some means to study and so occupy himself so as to avoid idleness. He had him always choose his own food. He continued in that life for three years. At the end of that time he passed away in peace, always dressed as a Friar Minor. His Holiness had him buried with great honour in the Church of the Friars Minor.

Many years later, the false Emperor dropped dead suddenly while hunting in a field. In this way the end for all of them was different.