MILAN, ARCHDIOCESE OF. – It now comprises a territory of 4,850 sq. km. and extends, in addition to the present province of Milan, also into parts of the provinces of Como, Bergamo and Pavia.
The boundaries of the diocese have varied at different times, and it is not always possible to fix them with precision; more important is the note on the extent of the metropolitan circumscription of Milan, already mentioned at the time of the Council of Sardica (343-44); and until the 5th century in northern Italy the only metropolitan bishop appearing is that of Milan, and a little later also that of Aquileia. At its greatest extent, the Milanese metropolitan province would have embraced the vicariate of Italy, i.e., Liguria (now Liguria, Piedmont and Lombardy), Emilia, Venice and Istria, the Cottian Alps and even Raetia I, with its capital at Chur; but soon Aquileia and then Ravenna withdrew from Milanese jurisdiction the eastern part of the territory, and in the 9th century, under Angilbert II, Chur was placed under the archbishop of Mainz. In the Beroldus (Ecclesiae Ambrosianae Mediolanensis kalendarium, ed. M. Magistretti, Milan 1894) of the 12th century, 18 episcopal sees of the Milanese province are listed; by the end of the 12th century only 15 are listed, and between the 15th and 16th centuries Milan lost the dioceses of Vercelli and Turin; now the dioceses of Bergamo, Brescia, Cremona, Lodi, Crema, Como, Pavia and Mantua belong to the Milanese province; however, 54 parishes in Switzerland still follow the Ambrosian rite (v. AMBROSIAN LITURGY) today, in the Pievi of the Three Valleys, Valle Capriasca and Brissago; 29 parishes in the diocese of Bergamo (vicariate of Calolzio, Caprino, S. Brigida and Sottochiesa), and 7 parishes in the diocese of Novara (Pieve of Cannobio); while 30 parishes in the diocese of Milan (Monza, Treviglio, Trezzo d'Adda, Varenna and Civate) practice the Roman rite.
The current inhabitants dependent on the diocese of Milan are about 3,500,000; the parishes number 879, the churches 2,003, the diocesan priests 2,100, the male religious orders and congregations 31, and the female ones 119.
The diocese has a theological seminary at Venegono Inferiore with a lyceum seminary; gymnasium seminaries are at S. Pietro Martire (Seveso) and at Masnago (Varese); a cathedral seminary with the annexed school of S. Araldo and the Pontifical Ambrosian Institute of Sacred Music (for the Beato Angelico school and the Sacred Heart University: V. SCUOLA SUP. D'ARTE CRIST. B. A. e S. CUORE, UNIV. del). In the diocese there are also numerous archiepiscopal colleges: in Milan the S. Carlo, others at Gorla Minore, Arona, Porlezza, Saronno, Desio, Tradate, Seregno, Monza, Lecco, Cantù and Vimercate. Colleges and institutes run by religious are in Milan the Gonzaga, the Zaccaria, the Leone XIII, the college of the Salesians, besides numerous female ones run by nuns.
I. ORIGINS AND EARLY HISTORY OF THE CITY
Preceded perhaps in the centre and in some outlying sites by Neolithic stations (Cascina Ranza, Cattabrega di Crescenzo) and by Celtic villages (at S. Antonino and S. Protaso), Mediolanum owed its origin and fortune to its position (as its Celtic name probably also indicates) at the centre of the Lombard plain and at the crossroads of roads for merchants and soldiers. The Romans occupied it after 222 BC and retook it after the Second Punic War around 191 BC; in 49 BC it was recognized as a Roman municipium, and in 42 BC incorporated into Roman Italy; from Augustus onwards it was a Roman centre against the Alpine peoples and, from the end of the 3rd century AD, a temporary seat and then a stable seat of emperors.II. ORIGINS OF MILANESE CHRISTIANITY AND THE MILANESE CHURCH
A legendary tradition, which does not go back beyond the 11th century, attributes the origin of the Milanese Church to the preaching of St. Barnabas, and relates that the Saint stopped in the suburb to avoid paying homage, in passing through the city gates, to the pagans by whom each gate was adorned; he would therefore have begun his apostolate in the suburb, and it is said that the place can be pinpointed a few steps from the present basilica of St. Eustorgio, where the little church of St. Barnabas at the fountain stood, destroyed in the 17th century; unless one day, having taken up the Cross and overthrown the pagan idols, from Porta Orientale, now Porta Venezia, the Saint entered the city and took possession of it, giving the first apostolic organization to the Milanese Church and the first bishop, St. Anatolian.Another legend, or at least a narrative richly coloured with legendary details, speaks of a certain Philip, a man of illustrious name both in the world and before God (Datiana historia, 5, p. 20, ed. Birgah, Milan 1848), who would have made a gift of an orchard to St. Caius, who in turn would have turned it into a Christian cemetery; and it also speaks of Philip’s domus, the first seat of worship in the city and in the suburb, and of Porcius and Fausta, Philip’s children, who would in turn have donated two basilicas to the Milanese, called after their names.
In reality, as to the time and manner of the introduction of Christianity to Milan, one can only conjecture that in a place like Milan, which grew in importance year by year from the 1st century AD onwards, the new faith must soon have spread, especially in the silence of the humble, through the work of unknown missionaries, and the episcopal see was established.
The Milanese martyrology, which can be recognized as authentic, is represented by SS. Victor, Nabor and Felix, Gervase and Protasius (v.), Nazarius and Celsus; on whom legend has greatly elaborated.
Under St. Ambrose, who was bishop from 374 to 397, the Church of Milan reached its highest point of prestige and influence, so that the emperors Gratian, Valentinian II and Theodosius were often present in the city and were strongly influenced by him, both in religious and political matters. After the death of Theodosius (395) and St. Ambrose (397), Milan still enjoyed some moments of splendour during the reign of Honorius and Stilicho, until in 402, following the threats of Alaric’s Goths, the court was transferred to Ravenna; then in the middle of the 5th century Attila came with the Huns, and at that time the city found its most valiant defenders in its bishops, from Eusebius to Laurence I. The rule of Theodoric and the Goths and the destruction of the city in 539 by the Goth Uraias, and then the advent of the Lombards in 579, changed Milan’s fortunes and opened a new historical era for II.
III. MILAN IN THE MIDDLE AGES
With the arrival of the pagan and Arian Lombards, Bishop St. Honoratus and part of the population fled to Genoa, where the Milanese episcopate remained in exile until the 7th century. Meanwhile in the city, above all through the merit of Queen Theodolinda (d. 628) and Pope Gregory the Great, a fusion began to take place between Romans and Lombards, and Milan became the seat of a duke, who had his court where today is the Cordusio (curia or curtis ducis). In 605 King Adaloald of the Lombards was crowned in the circus of Milan, and at the beginning of the 8th century the Lombard Theodore, brother of King Liutprand, became bishop of Milan, while his sister Aurora founded, in the present Via Monte di Pietà, the monastery that took her name. With the arrival of the Franks in 774, the duke was replaced by a count, and gradually in the new feudal order his political power merged with the religious power in the person of the bishop, who was created missus dominicus by Charlemagne and admitted to the national assemblies with high authority; among other things, the bishop was to provide for the city’s fortifications, so that a belt of the city walls will take its name from Ansperto of Biassono (868-881).With the collapse of the Carolingian Empire in 887, only the archbishop of Milan, as bishop-count, represented the Italian tradition, which was confirmed by Conrad II of Salic in 1026, when, in receiving the Iron Crown in the basilica of St. Ambrose, he granted to the bishop
Milan. ARCHDIOCESE OF – Wooden door of the basilica of St. Ambrose (5th century) – Milan.
MILAN, ARCHDIOCESE OF – Roman tower at Carrobbio.
Various legends speak of St. Calimerius, bishop, describing him as of Greek or Roman origin and claiming that he died a martyr in the place where his basilica arose, drowned in a well. Moreover, other *Passiones* link to Milan saints who were not from Milan, e.g., St. Alexander, St. Fidelis, St. Carpophorus, St. Exantus, the SS. Fermus and Rusticus. Presented as confessors of the faith are the early bishops St. Anatolian and Anatolius, St. Caius, St. Castrizianus, and then, besides St. Calimerius, St. Mona up to St. Mirocles, who succeeded one another until the time of Constantine, alongside an Aurelius Diogenes and a Valeria Felicissima whose funerary inscription, discovered in 1786 and later lost (CIL, V, 6186) near the cemetery *ad martyres*, states that they were crowned by the Lord and blessed confessors, *comites martyrum*.
In 313, with the emperors Constantine and Licinius having convened in Milan to establish the directives of their policy, they confirmed the eastern edict of Galerius of 311, favorable to the recognition of Christianity; this new recognition, however, not proclaimed in a specific document, takes its name from a supposed edict of Milan. From then on, during the 4th century, Milan became an important center for the development of Western Christianity, not without contrasts, both with paganism and with heresies, and especially with Arianism; this, toward the middle of the century, enjoyed the protection of Constantius II and Justina, who acted as patrons of Arian bishops, until Ambrose, having become bishop in 373, through a series of providential circumstances, valiantly fought the heresy and, positioning himself as a staunch supporter of the Roman Church, succeeded in dominating imperial politics in the West, maintaining close relations with Gratian, Valens...
Aribert of Intimiano (v. 1018–45) held the title of imperial vicar. Urban life then developed around the bishop in the persons of the captains and greater feudal lords and merchants, who carried on their trade through the Ticino valleys, the temporal domain of the bishops themselves. Once again Milan was at the center of Lombard life, but the temporal authority of the bishops within the feudal system provoked the rebellion of lesser vassals, whose fiefs were not hereditary; after defeating the greater feudal lords and the bishop-count at Campomalo, Conrad II the Salic intervened to grant, with the *constitutio de feudis* of 1037, the right of inheritance even to lesser feudal lords, had Aribert arrested, and besieged Milan. But the people rebelled, uniting with Aribert, who had fled from Piacenza to Milan, and it seems that Aribert himself then devised the Carroccio, drawn by oxen and bearing the Cross with the image of the Redeemer, to rally around him, to the sound of the *martinella*, the Milanese people in defense of their freedom. The emperor withdrew, but not long afterward, in 1042, the wealthy merchants, under the leadership of the judge Lanzone, drove out the nobles and laid the first foundations of the Commune of Milan, which was realized at the end of the 11th century through an agreement between the nobility and the bourgeoisie, who allied themselves—under the banner of the so-called *patria*—to fight the immoral and simoniacal clergy; among the most listened-to preachers was the Blessed Ariald (v.), and with him were Anselm of Baggio and Landulf Cotta, canons of the Duomo, while opposing them was Bishop Guido. Meanwhile, the civil strife over the conduct of the clergy was intensifying; St. Peter Damian intervened to restore peace, and Anselm of Baggio, having become pope in 1061 under the name Alexander II, strengthened with his new authority the party of the reformers; there followed the excommunication of Guido, the intervention of Erlembald, knight and brother of Landulf Cotta, then the arrest and killing of St. Ariald, and finally, after other events in which the excommunicated Milanese were gravely implicated and in which the authoritative and pacifying intervention of the Pope occurred repeatedly, Erlembald (1075) was killed; then, little by little, tranquility returned among the factions in Milan.
The Commune then developed under the protection of the archbishop’s power and was led by consuls, and thus, for reasons of safeguarding its interests, began the struggle against other communes—Lodi, Como, Cremona, Pavia—despite the preaching of Bernard of Clairvaux and the monks of the Abbey of Clairvaux and of Morimondo, which he founded during his long stay in Milan.
In 1158 Milan suffered its first clash with Barbarossa, and in 1162 the city fell after a strenuous defense and was largely destroyed by the German imperial troops and by the citizens of the hostile Lombard communes; with the Oath of Pontida (1167), which created the anti-imperial Lombard League, the Milanese, now reconciled with their enemy communes, returned to the city, rebuilt it, and in the Battle of Legnano (1176) contributed to the Lombard resurgence against Barbarossa, who recognized the autonomy of the communes with the Peace of Constance (1183).
Meanwhile, Milan teemed with Cathar and Waldensian heretics, against whom now the Dominicans fought, settled in the convent of St. Eustorgius, while the Order of the Humiliati was founded, who engaged in the wool trade as well as in religious occupations, and now the Cistercians, who also worked on reclaiming the countryside around the city. Frederick II defeated Milan and the communes at Cortenova, but was then defeated by the Second Lombard League; thus, in Milan too, the struggles between Ghibellines and Guelphs flared up, with the nobles, protected by Archbishop Leone da Perego, a great persecutor of heretics, siding with the former, and the people, who in 1240 chose Pagano della Torre as their leader, siding with the latter. Finally, with internal strife in the city rekindled and complicated by external conflicts with the factions of neighboring cities, Pope Urban IV appointed Ottone Visconti (1262) archbishop of Milan, and thus began the rivalry between the Torriani and the Visconti, which in 1310, upon the entry into the city of Matteo Visconti as imperial vicar in the train of Henry VII, turned to the advantage of the Visconti. As Ghibellines, they incurred the excommunication of John XXII in 1321, while an interdict was proclaimed against Milan, and at Vaprio in 1322 the Guelphs allied against the city emerged victorious. The Visconti lords then succeeded one another in Milan until 1447, and during their rule the Visconti state expanded its territory and trade, nor did the excommunicated Milanese oppose it, counting among its bishops even Giovanni Visconti (1342). In 1395 Emperor Wenceslas granted the title of duke to Gian Galeazzo Visconti, and finally in 1450, after the brief interlude of the Ambrosian Republic (1447–50), Francesco Sforza took power, a skilled statesman and patron of the arts and letters, who passed it on to his successors, among whom Ludovico il Moro (1499–1508) brought Leonardo da Vinci and Donato Bramante to Milan.
IV. FOREIGN DOMINATION AND THE RENAISSANCE
In 1499, following the struggle against the Sforzas by the King of France Louis XII, the French entered Milan; after a brief interlude and following the victory at Marignano (1515), they remained until 1521, when Charles V declared the last of the Sforzas, Francis II, deposed, and upon his death annexed the Duchy to the Empire. Spanish rule then took hold in Milan, represented by a governor with almost absolute authority over nobles, clergy, and people in an environment such as that described in *The Betrothed*: an environment of despotism and at the same time of neglect for civic interests, in which, however, the figures of the two Borromeo cardinal-archbishops stand out: St. Charles (v.), concerned with implementing the reforms of the Council of Trent, sought in the diocese to safeguard independence from any lay interference in episcopal jurisdiction, reformed discipline, revived churches and convents and built new ones, provided for the restoration of the Ambrosian rite and the dignity and decorum of worship. Federico, besides devoting himself to the terrible plague of 1630, showed a singular love for culture, founding among other things the Ambrosian Library (1609) and the Pinacoteca (1621).
With the Treaty of Rastatt (1714), Lombardy and Milan passed to the Austrian Crown, which in 1736 occupied Milan, implementing under Maria Theresa and Joseph II characteristic economic and legal reforms. It was during this period that, after the Jesuits were expelled from the city, the Società Patriottica arose in Brera (1778) to promote culture, and under Joseph II there began an encroachment into the religious sphere that led, among other things, to the suppression of numerous churches and convents and the secularization of schools. It was also during this time that Abbot Giuseppe Parini lashed out against the world of privileges and corruption among the Milanese nobility and wealthy (Il giorno, 1763).
On 15 May 1796 the French entered Milan with Napoleon, unleashing revolutionary fervor in the city, while French soldiers plundered churches, museums, and public treasuries. Milan became first the capital of the Cisalpine Republic, then of the Kingdom of Italy, and witnessed Napoleon’s coronation as king in the Duomo (1805), while persecution of religious orders intensified. After a brief period of renewed prosperity, popular discontent grew, culminating in 1814 with the mob killing of the minister Prina. Soon after, Milan passed into the Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia within the Austrian Empire, from which it suffered harassment, oppression, and worsening economic conditions, even as the patriotic program for revolution took shape, marked by the names of Giovanni Berchet, Silvio Pellico, Carlo Cattaneo, Cesare Correnti, and Federico Confalonieri. It was the era of Tommaso Grossi, Alessandro Manzoni, Massimo d’Azeglio, and Antonio Rosmini, and finally of Giuseppe Verdi. The result: the Five Days (18–22 March 1848) and a decade later the entry into Milan (8 June 1859) of Victor Emmanuel II and Napoleon III.
From then on, Milan led the work of political resurgence and economic consolidation in the country, despite alternating fortunes and setbacks.
V. ARTE
Milan, built in successive rings of walls and buildings ever more extensive around the center of Piazza S. Sepolcro and the nearby Piazza Mercanti and Piazza del Duomo, is rich in memories and monuments of every age, especially those dating from after the destruction by Barbarossa in 1162.Traces remain from the Roman age of a theatre, a circus, an arena, walls, and some other buildings. The columns of S. Lorenzo, perhaps taken from a pagan temple, and part of the towers of the Monastero Maggiore are for now the only visible elements of such constructions.
For the early Christian age, the most notable and best-preserved monuments, in their successive reconstructions and adaptations, are the basilica of S. Lorenzo, perhaps from the 4th century, with important museums; the basilica of the Apostles, now S. Nazaro; the Ambrosian Basilica, where St Ambrose is buried; and the basilica of S. Simpliciano, conceived and partly built by St Ambrose. Also noteworthy in the present basilica of S. Ambrogio is the ancient chapel of S. Vittore in ciel d’oro, and in that of S. Simpliciano the external masonry, still preserved, from the late 4th century.
From the communal period of Milan survives the Piazza dei Mercanti, which had at its center the Broletto Nuovo or Palazzo della Ragione, built in the 13th century; the church of S. Vincenzo in Prato; and the basilica of S. Eustorgio, now with the appearance it assumed in the 8th–9th centuries with important additions (the Portinari Chapel) from the 15th century; also the churches of S. Eufemia, S. Celso, and S. Calimero; the basilica of S. Satiro and that of S. Babila. The abbey of Chiaravalle, on the southern edge of the present city, was founded by St Bernard and his monks in the 12th century, and the church of S. Maria la Rossa from the 10th century lies in the suburb toward Pavia.
In the Visconti–Sforza period, the work of Giovanni Averulino, known as Filarete, and of Guiniforte Solari flourished—one the first exponent of Tuscan art in the early Renaissance, the other of the so-called Lombard Gothic style. Leonardo da Vinci and Bramante also worked in Milan under the Sforzas. In the Visconti–Sforza city there arose not only the new walls of Azzone Visconti (of which the Pusterla di S. Ambrogio and Porta Nuova remain), but also the Navigli, begun in the 13th century and completed in the 15th (Naviglio Grande, Naviglio di Pavia, Naviglio della Martesana, and Naviglio Interno). Heavily damaged by war is the Ospedale Maggiore “la Cà Granda,” founded by Francesco Sforza; important too are the church of S. Gottardo al Palazzo, the house of the Borromeo family (now almost entirely destroyed by bombing), the Monastero Maggiore (of which the church of S. Maurizio survives, with notable paintings by Bernardino Luini), the cloisters of S. Ambrogio (now the Università Cattolica), the church of S. Maria delle Grazie, a work of Bramante beside the famous Last Supper of Leonardo; the Castello, built in 1368; and other buildings in the suburbs, such as the Bicocca degli Arcimboldi, Villa Mirabello, and S. Cristoforo sul Naviglio.
The most notable and characteristic monument of Milan, whose construction began in 1386 under Gian Galeazzo Visconti and at the urging of Archbishop Antonio da Saluzzo, is the Duomo, dedicated to the Nativity of Mary. It is the largest and most complex Gothic architectural structure in Italy, laboriously built over centuries and completed only in Napoleonic times with a façade that is not entirely harmonious, while only in our own day are the bronze doors being installed. The entire structure is in marble from Candoglia (Lake Maggiore) and is adorned with 3,159 statues, most of them on the exterior; the main spire is 108.50 meters high, crowned by the famous Madonnina; the interior is rich in works of art, with large historiated windows, and contains an important and rich treasury; beneath the high altar is the crypt, where St Charles is buried.
During the Spanish domination, as regards monuments, Gaetano Alessi, Vincenzo Seregni, Pellegrino Tibaldi (known as Il Pellegrino), the Mangone, and the Richini were active in Milan. The Procaccini, Cerano, Morazzone, Crespi, and others contributed notable paintings to the city. A new and larger ring of walls was built by Ferrante Gonzaga, governor between 1549 and 1561—the one still called the bastions. From this period date the Lazzaretto, the Palazzo del Senato (now the State Archive), the present archiepiscopal palace, the churches of S. Maria della Passione, S. Stefano, S. Antonio Abate, S. Paolo e Barnaba, S. Maria presso S. Celso, S. Alessandro, S. Sebastiano, the present church of S. Vittore al Corpo, S. Raffaele, S. Marco, and then the Rotonda of the Hospital; the palaces of Belgioioso, Marino, Brera, and the Biblioteca Ambrosiana; and outside the city, the Villa Simonetta and the Certosa of Garegnano.
During the Austrian domination, characteristic noble palaces arose, such as the Palazzo Reale, the palaces of Trivulzio, Serbelloni, Sormani-Andreani, Cusani, Dugnani, Clerici, Crivelli, Arese-Litta, the Villa Reale, and above all the Teatro alla Scala, a work of Piermarini (1779) on the site of the ancient church of S. Maria della Scala.
Of the Napoleonic age are the Arena and the Arch of Peace, and of the Risorgimento age, besides some houses such as Manzoni’s, the Palazzo Melzi, that of the Borromeo d’Adda, the Palazzo Saporiti, the votive temple to St Charles, the modest monument to Leonardo, and the Public Gardens. More recently, Piazza del Duomo was rearranged with the construction of the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele and the buildings of the northern and southern arcades, and the equestrian monument to Vittorio Emanuele II and that of the Five Days; then the Via Dante district was built with the Foro Bonaparte, and the Castello and then the Parco were rearranged; the Piazza degli Affari district, Piazza Diaz and the Missori district, the Corso del Littorio (now Matteotti), Via dei Giardini, the Piazza Fiume district (now Piazza della Repubblica) were also founded; in Piazza S. Ambrogio the monument to the Fallen was erected. Three other buildings stood out for their grandeur, if not always for their art: the central station, the Palazzo di Giustizia and the new Ospedale del Perdono at Niguarda. A myriad of new constructions, after the destruction of the war, have intervened to alter and not always to beautify the city: thus the face of old Milan has been irreparably lost in many parts.
The city then preserves notable relics of art from every century in the great Brera Picture Gallery, the Ambrosiana, the Castello Museum, the Poldi Pezzoli and other minor collections; the new Archaeological Museum is under construction in the cloister of the Monastero Maggiore and the Museum of Technology, which will find its place in the cloister of S. Vittore al Corpo, are in preparation. — See plates LXIII-XXV.