Vitelleschi was born in Corneto (modern Tarquinia, then part of the Papal States), some kilometers north to Rome. He received a military education, which he refined as apostolic protonotary under Pope Martin V. The fighting bishop of Recanati from 1431, and afterwards made a cardinal, he was commander of the papal armies of Pope Eugene IV when the Colonna faction at Rome, infuriated by the reversal of their fortunes when Eugene succeeded Martin V (a member of the Colonna), backed an insurrection that raised a temporary republic at Rome and forced Eugene into exile at Florence in May 1434. The city was restored to obedience by Giovanni Vitelleschi in the following October, in a display of freocious cruelty. Vitelleschi abrogated all Roman rights and had the Roman senate declare him tertius