Aribert (Eribert) d'Antimiano

ARIBERT (ERIBERT) D'ANTIMIANO. - Archbishop of Milan (1018-45), a descendant of a knightly Lombard lineage, he was a prince of the Church more political than religious, implicated in all the conflicts of a temporal nature that convulsed the clergy before the Gregorian reform. Chiefly through the efforts of the emperor Henry II he was raised to the see of St. Ambrose and consecrated on 20 March 1018. He was often at the courts of Strasbourg, Venice and elsewhere. On 10 Aug. 1022 he subscribed to 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 allied himself closely 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 great privileges upon 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 for his imperial lord. Let us recall only the war against Odo, count of Champagne, fought in 1034, on returning from which he found himself faced with the revolt of his vassals (valvassors) 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 in a public diet at Pavia. When, however, the emperor later discovered that A. was fomenting the discontent creeping among the Milanese against him, he had him arrested. Having managed to escape, he fortified himself in Milan, which the emperor encircled with a siege. Even after the retreat of the imperial troops, A. attended to the defense of Milan with the institution of a communal militia distinguished by the banner 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 last years of his life he still had to settle the dispute that had arisen between the nobility and the citizenry of Milan. He died on 16 Jan. 1045.

Lucchesio Spätling