Aribert (Eribert) d'Antimiano

ARIBERTO (ERIBERTO) D'ANTIMIANO. – Archbishop of Milan (1018–45), descended from a knightly lineage of Lombardy, he was a prince of the Church who was more political than religious, involved in all the conflicts of a temporal nature that were unsettling the clergy before the Gregorian reform. Mainly through the efforts of Emperor Henry II, he was elevated to the see of s. Ambrogio and consecrated on 20 March 1018. He was often to be 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), in order to obtain his protection against the Lombard nobility, he closely allied himself with the German sovereign, crowned him king of Italy in 1026, and accompanied him to Rome for the imperial coronation, which took place on 26 March 1027. The emperor and Pope John XIX confirmed extensive privileges to him, one of which was precedence over the archbishop of Ravenna. He imposed a bishop on the people of Lodi by right of war. A. fought everywhere on behalf of his imperial lord. We shall mention only the war against Odo, count of Champagne, fought in 1034; on his return from it, he found himself confronted by the revolt of his vassals (valvassori), whom he had mistreated. The long and indecisive struggle that A. had to sustain was brought to an end by the intervention of the emperor, who sought to reconcile the adversaries at a public diet in Pavia. Later, however, when the emperor discovered that A. was fomenting the discontent spreading among the Milanese against him, he had him arrested. Having succeeded in escaping, he fortified himself in Milan, which the emperor placed under siege. Even after the imperial troops withdrew, A. organized the defense of Milan by establishing a municipal militia distinguished by the standard of the famous «carroccio», upon which a crucifix and two white flags were raised. In 1040, at Ingelheim, A. made peace with the new emperor Henry III, and in the final years of his life he once again had to settle the dispute that had arisen between the nobility and the citizens of Milan. He died on 16 January 1045.