Pataria

The pataria was an eleventh-century religious movement in the Archdiocese of Milan in northern Italy, aimed at reforming the clergy and ecclesiastic government in the province and supportive of Papal sanctions against simony and clerical marriage. Those involved in the movement were called patarini (also patarines or patarenes, from singular patarino), a word chosen by their opponents, which means "ragpickers", from Milanese patee "rags". In general the patarini were tradesmen motivated by personal piety. The conflict between the patarini and their supporters and the partisans of the simoniacal archbishops eventually led to civil war by the mid-1070s, the Great Saxon revolt. It received its most dependable contemporary chronicler in Arnulf of Milan.

The pataria was partially the result of church reform movements like the Peace and Truce of God and partially of the social situation in Milan. The influence of southern French movements, such as the Peace and Truce, affected the pataria. The subsequent popularity of the Cathar movement in Milan during the twelfth century was resultant of the pataria. The chief targets of the patarini were the rich, secular, aristocratic landowners and the simoniacal and nicolaitan clergy. They contested the ancient rights of the cathedral clergy of Milan and supported the Gregorian reforms. They joined with the lesser clergy in opposition to the practices of simony and of clerical marriage and concubinage. The morals of the clergy were attacked, too, as was monastic discipline. The contrast between the impoverished lesser clergy and the magnates of the Church resurfaced as a point of contention.

The archbishop Guido da Velate was a particular victim of the patarini. On the death in 1045 of the warrior and prince-bishop Ariberto da Intimiano, the Milanese requested the Emperor Henry III, who controlled the election of bishops in his realms, to choose from among four candidates deemed retti ed onesti (upright and honest): Anselmo da Baggio, Arialdo da Carimate, Landolfo Cotta, and Attone. The Emperor's choice, however, fell upon the thoroughly worldly Guido, known for his support of the practice of clerical marriage and concubinage, which was generally accepted in rural areas and which was now being given the name "nicolaism", recalling a passage in the Book of Revelation (2:6, 14–15).

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