ARIBERTO (ERIBERTO) D'ANTIMIANO

ARIBERTO (ERIBERTO) D'ANTIMIANO. — Archbishop of Milan (1018–45), descended from a knightly Lombard family, he was a prince of the Church more political than religious, embroiled in all the temporal conflicts that were convulsing the clergy before the Gregorian Reform. Chiefly through the agency of Emperor Henry II, he was elevated to the see of St Ambrose and consecrated on 20 March 1018. He was often found at the courts of Strasbourg, Venice and elsewhere. On 10 August 1022 he subscribed the acts of the Council of Pavia after Pope Benedict VIII. Under Conrad II (1024–39), to secure protection against the Lombard nobility, he drew closely to the German sovereign, crowned him in 1026 as king of Italy and accompanied him to Rome for the imperial coronation on 26 March 1027. The emperor and Pope John XIX confirmed him in extensive privileges, one of which was precedence over the archbishop of Ravenna. To the people of Lodi he imposed a bishop by right of war. Ariberto fought everywhere for his imperial lord. We need recall only the war against Odo, count of Champagne, fought in 1034, on returning from which he faced the revolt of his vassals (valvassors) whom he had maltreated. The long and indecisive struggle that Ariberto had to sustain was brought to a close by the emperor’s intervention, which sought to reconcile the adversaries at a public diet in Pavia. Later, however, when the emperor discovered that Ariberto was fomenting the persistent discontent among the Milanese against him, he had him arrested. Having escaped, Ariberto fortified himself in Milan, which the emperor then besieged. Even after the imperial troops withdrew, Ariberto continued to defend Milan by establishing a communal militia distinguished by the banner of the famous “carroccio,” on which were raised a crucifix and two white banners. In 1040 at Ingelheim Ariberto made peace with the new emperor Henry III, and in the final years of his life he had still to settle the dispute that had arisen between the nobility and the citizenry of Milan. He died on 16 January 1045.