146 THE FRATICELLI. which he himself complained bitterly ; and, on the 17th, sentence of deposition was solemnly read to the assembled people before the basilica of St. Peter. It recited that it was rendered at the request of the clergy and people of Rome; it recapitulated the crimes of the pope, whom it stigmatized as Antichrist ; it pro- nounced him a heretic on account of his denying the poverty of Christ, deposed him from the papacy, and threatened confiscation on all who should render him support and assistance.* As a pope was necessary to the Church, and as the college of cardinals were under excommunication as fautors of heresy, re- course was had to the primitive method of selection : some form of election by the people and clergy of Rome was gone through on May 12, and a new Bishop of Rome was presented to the Christian world in the person of Pier di Corbario, an aged Fran- ciscan of high repute for austerity and eloquence. He was Minis- ter of the province of the Abruzzi and papal penitentiary. He had been married, his wife was still living, and he was said to have entered the Order without her consent, which rendered him " irregular " and led to an absurd complication, for the woman, who had never before complained of his leaving her, now came forward and put in her claims to be bought off. He assumed the name of Nicholas V., a college of cardinals was readily created for him, he appointed nuncios and legates and proceeded to de- grade the Guelfic bishops and replace them with Ghibellines. In the confusion attendant upon these revolutionary proceedings it can be readily imagined that the Fraticelli emerged from their hiding-places and indulged in glowing anticipations of the future which they fondly deemed their own.f Although the Franciscan prefect of the Roman province as- sembled a chapter at Anagni which pronounced against Pier di Corbario, and ordered him to lay aside his usurped dignity, it was impossible that the Order should escape responsibility for the re- bellion, nor is it likely that Michele da Cesena was not privy to the whole proceeding. He had remained quietly at Avignon, and
- Chron. Sanens. (Muratori S. R. I. XV. 77. 79).— Martene Thesaur. II. 684-
723.— Nicholaus Minorita (Bal. et Mansi III. 240-3). t Nicholaus Minorita (Bal. et Mansi III. 243). — Ptolotnaei Lucensis Hist. Eccles. cap. 41 (Muratori S. R. I. XL 1210).— Chron. Sanens. (Muratori XV. 80). —Wadding, ann. 1328, No. 2-4, 8 -11.
