abstract:The Antipope is a comic fantasy novel by the British author Robert Rankin. It is Rankin's first novel, and the first book in the Brentford Trilogy (which, , consists of 9 novels).
There were three rival claimants to the papal throne at that time - the Roman Pope Gregory XII, the Avignon Pope Benedict XIII, and theAntipope John XXIII.
He was brave to pick the name John at all, says Melloni, since the last man to hold the name is viewed as an "antipope" because he was elected pontiff during a schism in the church in the 15th Century.