Patarine

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A Patarine or Patarene (Italian: Patarino, plural Patarini) was a member of an eleventh-century group of Milanese tradesmen who were motivated by personal piety to support papal sanctions against simony and clerical marriage.

The patarini, in contesting ancient rights of the cathedral clergy of Milan, supported the reforming popes of the eleventh century. They joined with the lesser clergy in opposition to the practices of simony^[1] and of clerical marriage and concubinage in Milan. The name patarini was given them by their opponents and means "ragpickers" in Milanese.^[2] The conflict between the patarini and their supporters and those in favour of the simoniac archbishop, which eventually led to civil war in the mid 1070s, received its most dependable contemporary chronicler in Arnulf of Milan.

The ancient contrast between the impoverished lesser clergy and the magnates of the Church resurfaced following the elevation to the archbishopric of Guido da Velate (archbishop 1045–1071), to succeed Ariberto da Intimiano (archbishop 1018–1045). Ariberto, signore of Intimiano, as archbishop was the indisputable absolute signore of Milan and Milanese territories, over which he waged a struggle against his nominal overlord, Conrad II, to control his own feudal subordinates and to maintain intact all the ancient privileges of the archbishops of Milan. Powerful and well-connected, Ariberto was out of touch with the movement of personal piety experienced by many of the borghesi of Milan.

On the death of Ariberto in 1045, the Milanese clergy requested of Henry III, Holy Roman Emperor, who controlled the election of bishops in his realms, to choose from among four candidates deemed "retti ed onesti": Anselmo da Baggio, Landolfo Cotta, Attone and Arialdo da Carimate.^[3] The Emperor's choice, nevertheless, fell upon the thoroughly worldly Guido, known for his support of the practice of clerical marriage and concubinage, generally accepted especially in rural areas, which was now being given the name nicolaism, recalling a passage in Revelations 2.6, 14- 15.^[4]

The uprising of the patarini, to protest what had come to be perceived as an abuse, took the form of refusal to accept communion at the hands of priests with unofficial wives or who kept concubines. Some churches emptied while others were packed with the faithful. The movement formed behind its leaders, the four rejected "upright and honest" priests. To defuse the situation the emperor named Anselmo da Baggio bishop of Lucca, which carried him securely away from Milan,^[5] and the archbishop excommunicated the intractable Arialdo da Carimate and Landolfo Cotta.

Following the pontificate of Benedict IX, the papacy too began to sense the urgency of reform and Pope Leo IX condemned both the practice of simony and concubiange among priests.

When Landolfo Cotta attempted to present the position of the Milanese patarini before Pope Stephen X, the archbishop's ruffians caught up with him at Piacenza and came near killing him. A second attack in 1061 was successful.

In 1060 Pope Nicholas II sent a delegation to Milan under the direction of Peter Damiani and Anselmo da Baggio, and calm was restored to the city.

Notes

References

• William Chester Jordan. Europe in the High Middle Ages (Penguin Books 2001) pp 90-93. A full account of this part of the investiture conflict.

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