Pataria

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The Pataria was an ecstatic religious movement in northern Italy in the 11th century . The origin of the name is unclear. The movement, which arose in Milan in the middle of the 11th century and was known as Pataria since 1075 at the latest , spread from the center of Milan to Cremona , Piacenza and Brescia and also had connections to Florence . The name Patarener was later used across the board and without historical continuity for the Cathars .

meaning

The origin and development of Pataria are closely interwoven with the major lines of conflict of the 11th century. Here, too, the dispute between the Pope and the kingship over the investiture of the bishops was of central importance . At the end of the 11th century it became a fundamental conflict between spiritual and secular violence.

Against this background, the work of Pataria, a religious movement, can be seen in several cities in northern Italy. Radical clerics and, in the vast majority, lay people in Milan, Cremona, Piacenza and Brescia took the moral and religious renewal into their own hands against the local bishop or archbishop and the respective urban clergy . In particular, the wealth of the higher clergy, the cohabitation of many clerics and the simony were the subject of their criticism. They cleverly used the existing early communal structures for their agitation and the implementation of their goals. In this way, the already existing forms of communal will-formation and decision-making were significantly upgraded. The work of Pataria accelerated communal development in northern Italy.

Origin - ascent - failure

The course of the first Pataria and its struggle for the purification and moral elevation of the Milanese clergy can be roughly divided into two phases. Ariald, the founder of Pataria, can be traced back to around 1055. Its first appearance corresponded to the reform efforts of the middle of the 11th century. In part under the influence of Roman reform ideas, he preached a radical cleansing of the Milanese clergy, who above all were held responsible for the sin of simony . The support of the cathedral cleric and descendant of one of the leading noble families in Milan, Landulf Cotta, was of central importance. The various sources particularly highlight his oratory. He succeeded in conveying to the citizens of Milan in often drastic language that a salable and unchaste clergy threatened the salvation of all of their souls. The greatest success of this time, with the help of a papal legation under the leadership of Petrus Damiani and Anselm von Lucca, later Pope Alexander II , is the enforcement of an oath with Archbishop Wido (1045-1071) and the entirety of the Milan Cathedral Clergy of Simony renounced. After Landulf died around 1062 of the long-term effects of earlier abuse, a new phase of Pataria began with the appearance of the layman Erlembald, his powerful and respected brother, in 1064, which is to continue until his death in the spring of 1075. It is characterized by the clear and, by many Milanese, quite critical leaning of the Patarenes on the Roman reformers and long-lasting arguments about the (new) occupation of the archbishopric. With Erlembald, his vassals and feudal people were also involved in the Pataria, which thus had clearly bellicose features since 1064.

Erlembald obtained the excommunication of Archbishop Wido of Milan in Rome in 1066 , but apparently underestimated the violence of the backlash within Milan. Ariald had to leave the city that same year and was murdered by his opponents while fleeing. After Ariald's death as a martyr, the Pataria was now directed towards Erlembald's sole management. Erlembald, who repeatedly invoked his papal mandate, ended up being increasingly isolated because his radical actions were less and less approved by the majority of the city's population, but for several years he dominated Milanese politics. It was not until a major fire in 1075 that his opponents, who repeatedly emphasized the independence of the Milanese towards the Roman Church as a legitimation (→ Ambrosian rite ), the opportunity to overthrow him. They succeeded in presenting the fire to the Milanese as God's judgment for Erlembald's deeds. On April 15, 1075 Erlembald was killed in a street fight. Several of Erlembald's closest followers were killed or mutilated, others managed to escape to Cremona, and some perhaps even to Florence.

The social component of these disputes should not be underestimated. Admittedly, the followers of Pataria came from all classes, but all sources, including those friendly to Pataria, emphasize the broad non-aristocratic following, while the noble families, from whose ranks the Milan Cathedral clergy came, were opponents of Pataria. The propatarenic engagement of Erlembald and Landulf Cotta, members of the Milanese leadership, is an exception.

Public - urban community - popular assembly

When examining the work of Pataria in the years from 1057 to 1075, not only the upgrading of the urban community as a coherent structure, the parts of which were functionally coordinated and related to one another, but also the importance of the public as space , in which the disputes between Patarenes and representatives of the Ambrosian order took place. If the urban community of Milan was both the area of ​​application as well as the bearer and guarantor of the existing order, the public meant the demonstrative participation and obligation of all or the presence of the permanent, so to speak, everyday community. That is, what to be dealt with and what was to be decided was open to everyone and in the case of important, all relevant measures, decisions, contracts and agreements, the public had a consensus-building and substantiating character. Associated with this was also the potential for growth in the importance of public speaking. In the far-reaching disputes about the purity of the Milanese Church, even the most powerful urban groups could only implement far-reaching measures in cooperation with the township in the people's assembly. If, beyond the community formation of Ariald and the hasty activism of the early years, an establishment and lasting effect of the Pataria could be achieved, then this was the instance that had to be influenced.

For this reason, it was by no means a coincidence that the Patarenes repeatedly chose the popular assembly and the places where it took place for their agitation. Here there was the opportunity to inform and unite a large number of residents as quickly as possible. Through the work of Pataria, the means of the General Assembly changed from a long-established practice to a widely used one. The patterns of action used are already recognizable for the year 1057, when Ariald's messengers read out written appeals to the town squares and thus called for a meeting. The history of this action: After a member of the Milanese cathedral clergy hit Ariald after making insulting statements about the Ambrosian clergy, Landulf and several other Patarenes ran to the theater with loud screams, and from there the messengers were sent to gather everyone. The loud screaming of the victim not only brought charges in front of everyone, but also appealed to the urban community for protection and punishment and brought about the necessary immediate gathering of the urban community. Even sources hostile to patares do not note any resistance or irritation here. All members of the urban community came naturally. To publicly - preferably with his supporters - complain about the injustice done , that was what mattered , so the public was created, the urban community called upon to maintain order. In addition, it was precisely the use of the 'legal' meeting forms and forums that ensured the greatest possible attention. In this way the Patarenes and the Ambrosians were able to secure the necessary degree of publicity. It was not certain from the outset whether the hoped-for way of mobilizing everyone would be successful, so the theater, the cathedral or S. Ambrogio, traditional meeting places that would have a certain degree of control or control through prestige and architecture, offered themselves for very practical reasons. enforced oaths could guarantee reluctant attendees.

The gathering in the theater, for example, which is often mentioned in passing in the sources, was not only a place for public debates and joint resolutions, but also a kind of forum for indictments in the case of violations of urban peace and the ideally universal urban peace order. The fact that we are not only looking at an abstraction product, but also a source-like tangible consciousness and the qualitative change in what was decided there and now, is tangible, is particularly shown by reports of the anti-pataria Landulf the Elder about attacks on the Pataren leaders Ariald and Landulf . They make it clear that precisely the accusation of violating urban peace was repeatedly the reason for convening the people's assembly. Even if there is the impression that the Patarenes in the cases described by Landulf the Elder could have created the reason for the convocation themselves through targeted provocations, it is nevertheless clear that such a meeting could neither be called arbitrarily, nor is it to suspect could simply be resolved or disregarded. According to this, not only the position of the individual town citizen within the township was measured, but also Erlembald's authority, which had to be updated again and again, in the second phase of Pataria. The people's assembly is therefore not only to be seen as a scene of spectacular events, but also as a place of political decision-making.

Landulf's colorful reports on the riots connected with the work of Pataria cannot hide the fact that in the gatherings described by the sources and called with fanfares and bells, it was not inconsistent mob, but the Milanese population who made and supported fundamental, binding decisions for all , and committed to compliance through the iuramentum commune. This also applied to the ecclesiastical order of the city. From the perspective of Arnulf, another anti-patarian author, and Landulf the Elder, these gatherings were an expression of political power that the Patarenes could abuse. But also on the part of the representatives of the old Ambrosian party one saw here a legitimizing power which one could use.

New beginning

Erlembal's death in 1075 was not the end of Pataria in Milan. By 1095 at the latest it becomes clear that there was a new active Pataria. Their importance within Milan was from Arnulf III. thoroughly appreciated, whereupon the elevation of the bones of the Patarenerführer Erlembald by Pope Urban II and Archbishop Arnulf III. refers in May 1095. This central event can be seen as an attempt by the archbishop to come to an agreement with the Patarenes, who were now again established as a fixture in urban life. It was soon demonstrated demonstratively to everyone that the situation in Milan had changed. The fact that a now positive evaluation of the first Pataria for its second phase under Erlembald had or should begin at least among parts of the Milanese population is shown by the subsequent translation of the pataren leader, slain in 1075, into the magnificent basilica of S. Dionigi with the one located nearby , richly endowed monastery of the same name founded by Archbishop Aribert. This resulted in a spectacular integration of the martyr for an orientation towards Rome in the Ambrosian tradition, which also endured for the subsequent period.

The agitations began again. You are connected to Liprand, a close confidante of Erlembald, who was mutilated after his death. But he had survived the abuse he had suffered. In his Defensio Heinrici regis , written at the end of 1083, Petrus Crassus informs about the continued work of the Pataria in Milan, whereby Liprand is described as disfigured, but still agitating. In a letter from 1075, Gregory VII comforted Liprand not only because of the abuse he had suffered, but also urged him to continue to exercise his priesthood. The explicit reference that he would be received with great honor if he came to Rome suggests not only that Liprand was still in Milan, but also that his role within Pataria was more important than let earlier defamatory statements of the chronicler Arnulf appear. It could also be argued that Liprand must have played an important role, otherwise Arnulf would hardly have bothered to disparage him.

Gregory VII also granted Liprand papal protection and at the end of 1075 granted him the right of appeal, a privilege that was later granted by this Pope to some "patrons of the blessed Ariald". Nevertheless, from 1075 onwards, the pataria no longer seems to play an important role.

cleavage

From 1096 onwards, however, it appeared again openly in action, when another conflict-ridden replacement of the Milanese bishop's chair was due. The upcoming disputes about the Milanese Archbishops Anselm IV., Grossolan and Jordanus show once again how urban parties are struggling for the support of the township and how attempts are being made in the people's assembly to resolve and resolve these conflicts. But times had changed for the Pataria too. The Patarenes community was affected by a long-term schism that split them into two groups under Liprand and Nazarius Muricula. As a result, each of the two Patarener groups supported a different candidate in filling the Milanese bishopric in the following years. As in the time of the first Pataria, the sensitive area of ​​the relationship with the Roman Church also played an important role in 1096/97. The problematic relationship with Urban II or the Roman Church was then probably what led to the division of the existing Patarenic community into a 'Roman' and a 'Milanese' wing. In 1097 the Patarenes around Nazarius stood for a close and unconditional adherence to Urban II, while the Patarenes around Liprand only demanded the support of Urban II in the struggle to purify the Church of Milan and did not see themselves as an instrument of the Pope.

The new Archbishop Anselm IV tried to gain broad support from both Patarenic groups. A clear indication of this is the demonstrative translation carried out by Anselm IV in 1099 of the remains of the pataren leader Ariald according to S. Dionigi. This could have been the clearest attempt to subsequently win the support of the patarenes under Liprand who opposed him. With the translations of the bones of Erlembald and Ariald from the old Patarean base of S. Celso to the splendid Monastery of S. Dionigi, the founding of the then legendary Archbishop Aribert from the first half of the 11th century, Pataria was twice through the Milanese within a few years Archbishops have been upgraded and demonstratively integrated into the Ambrosian tradition.

For Anselm IV, obtaining the support of all Milanese groups for the upcoming first crusade seems to have been of particular importance. The crusade venture was probably not just controversial among the Patarenes. The fact that Anselm managed to gain broad support is shown by the departure of the numerically impressive Lombard division to Asia Minor in 1100. In addition to many other respected Milanese, former opponents of the new archbishop typically also took part.

Judgment of God

Anselm IV died on September 30, 1101 in Constantinople after the spectacular failure of the Lombard crusaders. The uprising of his successor Grossolan was so controversial from the beginning that he was soon forced to submit to a divine judgment that had been demanded by the Pataren leader Liprand for a long time , which took place under tumult-like conditions. Liprand, following the example of the Vallombrosans in Florence , had justified the trial by fire with allegations of simony against Archbishop Grossolan and agreed to go through the stake to prove the accuracy of his accusations. The sources, in particular Landulf the Younger, a nephew of Liprand, transmit a previous tumultuous, public debate in which the controversial archbishop defended himself in vain against the simony allegations prior to the trial by fire. While Grossolan allegedly relied on the papal authority behind him, Liprand succeeded in convincing the township in the popular assembly that the trial by fire had to be carried out. The judgment of God was then carried out with the authority of the people's assembly.

What is particularly characteristic of the course of the divine judgment is that its legality as an objective procedure was guaranteed by - probably equally selected - representatives of the people's assembly. The Milan parish claimed to be able to bring about a decision on the legality of the circumstances of the survey and the conduct of office of its archbishop through an objective process, the divine judgment, the legality of which it ensured through the participation of its representatives. Grossolan left the city in a hurry after the judgment of 25 March 1103, which had turned to his disadvantage, when Liprand had apparently passed the ordeal by fire. He now turned to Pope Paschal II himself , but the Roman decision in his favor of 1105 was ignored in Milan. It is noticeable that Liprand was no longer in Milan by 1105/6 at the latest. Shortly after the trial by fire, doubts arose. After several days of still exceptionally severe injuries with no visible healing progress on the hands and feet of Liprand, according to many, showed that he too had not passed God's judgment. The helpless explanation that a horse later stepped on Liprand's foot seems to have increased the tension. Armed clashes broke out again, in the course of which a large part of the urban community once again made an oath. Liprand had to leave the city soon after Grossolan and that is how the traditional history of Pataria in Milan and Northern Italy ends.

Sources

For the period of the first Pataria in Milan, there is a contemporary, extremely rich tradition that does not otherwise exist in northern Italian cities and which in part was very critical of the Pataria. The comparatively large number of reports on the work of the Patarenes, their widespread social impact and the shocks they caused to the religious and political community has its deeper reason in the violent emotional reactions that dominated the conflicts in the Lombard metropolis and the contemporary sources in their situation-related shape essentially initiated. The following applies in particular to the authors who defended the old order against the Patarenes: the individual chroniclers, when reflecting on contemporary events, recorded events that were important for them in order to turn them into examples of political and moral behavior that were worth emulating or deterring. The historiographic and hagiographic reports available for the time of the Patarenes are almost always passionate statements for or against the Patarenic movement. In their historical modes of perception, they characterize the interpretive range of these years in their different perspectives and represent historiography with direct reference to action. The following applied to the evaluation of the Pataria by the protagonists of the Old Ambrosian order: a movement as threatening as the Pataria could not simply be condemned. An attempt also had to be made to interpret them, because the underlying principles of the Patarenes' actions have already puzzled contemporaries - and no less for later generations - and aroused controversy.

The phenomenon of pataria, whose most prominent signature was its extremely strong and much criticized mobilization and participation of lay people, required processing and processing. For both sides - the Patarenes and the representatives of the traditional Ambrosian order - it was important to make the behavior of their own direction understandable, also and above all by describing speeches, negotiations, appointments and agreements. The authors were all clergy and their focus was on the condition and threats to the Church of Milan and on the crisis of the Ambrosian order. The pro-Ambrosian authors sometimes admit that their condition before the disputes was by no means perfect.

The sources do not give any description of the “beginnings of the commune”. But the profound crisis also required a broad space to describe worldly events, with some fragmentary attempts to explain the changing structural framework conditions. In the literature, reference is often made to “omissions” and “falsifications” in the individual reports. However, this cannot be regarded as a sufficient standard of assessment for individual authors; rather, these “deficiencies” illustrate the different perceptions of the events by the directly affected contemporary witnesses. Since the most important sources were only written in the 1070s, the authors and the addressees of their works were hardly ever aware of all the details of the early days of the Patarenic turmoil since the 1050s.

Images of permanent turmoil and ongoing struggles from 1057 to 1075 must be regarded as extremely problematic, even if the immanent selection and concise representation of what is to be reported, especially in Arnulf and Landulf the elder, suggest such a view. Landulf the Elder's report in particular, which describes the conflicts in Milan in an extreme way, is clearly marked by the aim of its presentation. He tries to show how the God-willed and proven old order was threatened by the onslaught of the Pataria, how dangerous their activities were and how close the doom was again averted. His systematic representation often brings together events that were separate and unconnected by several years, shortening the time interval in favor of a closed image. This quickly creates the image of constant actionism in the 'street', which, by concentrating on the spectacular highlights, seems to leave out everyday life almost entirely. But also with Landulf the Elder it is noticeable how much the actually decisive event shifts from the "street" to the gatherings of the townspeople.

literature

  • Hagen Keller : Pataria and city constitution. In: Investiture Controversy and Imperial Constitution (= lectures and research 17). Sigmaringen 1973, pp. 321-350 (basic).
  • Hagen Keller, Olaf Zumhagen:  Pataria . In: Theologische Realenzyklopädie (TRE). Volume 26, de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1996, ISBN 3-11-015155-3 , pp. 83-85.
  • Paolo Golinelli: La pataria. Milan 1984.
  • Paolo Golinelli: Pataria. In: Lexikon des Mittelalters , Vol. 6. Berlin 1993, Sp. 1776f.
  • Olaf Zumhagen: Religious conflicts and communal development. Milan, Cremona, Piacenza and Florence at the time of Pataria. Cologne 2002 (with a description of the course of the Pataria also in the neighboring cities).
  • Anton Krüger: The Pataria in Milan :

Individual evidence

  1. ^ According to dtv dictionary of church history by Carl Andresen and Georg Denzler; dtv 3245, Munich 1984 (2), ISBN 3-423-03245-6 , Pataria, p. 460, it is a district of medieval Milan, after which the Patarenes are named. The dtv dictionary on history (dtv 3037, Munich 1983 (2) , ISBN 3-423-03037-2 ) translates Pataria as "rascals", which comes close to the word explanation in the Italian Wikipedia.
  2. Pataria , in: dtv Dictionary for History , Volume 2, dtv 3037, Munich 1983 (5), p. 601.