Aribert, Archbishop of Milan, had gone to Konstanz in June 1025, with other bishops of Northern Italy, to pay homage to Conrad II of Germany, the beleaguered founder of the Salian dynasty.

There, in exchange for privileges, he had agreed to crown Conrad with the Iron Crown of Lombardy, which the magnates had offered to Odo of Blois.

This he does, on March 31, 1026, at Milan, for the traditional seat of Lombard coronations, Pavia, remains in revolt against imperial authority.

Aribert negotiates a decision of the precedence of the archdiocese of Milan over that of Ravenna at a synod at the Lateran in 1028.

The pataria is 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, affect the pataria.

The subsequent popularity of the Cathar movement in Milan during the twelfth century will be a result of the pataria.

The chief targets of the patarini are the rich, secular, aristocratic landowners and the simoniacal and nicolaitan clergy.

They contest the ancient rights of the cathedral clergy of Milan and support the Gregorian reforms.

They join with the lesser clergy in opposition to the practices of simony and of clerical marriage and concubinage.

The morals of the clergy are attacked, too, as is monastic discipline.

The contrast between the impoverished lesser clergy and the magnates of the Church resurface as a point of contention.

The archbishop Guido da Velate had been a particular victim of the patarini.

On the death in 1045 of the warrior and prince-bishop Ariberto da Intimiano, the Milanese had 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, had fallen 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).

Guido, however, had not not fulfilled his vows to fight simony and had been forced to resign.

The patarini had initially protested the abuse by their refusal to accept communion at the hands of priests with unofficial wives or concubines.

Some churches had been 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 had named Anselmo da Baggio bishop of Lucca, which carried him securely away from Milan, and the archbishop had 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 had condemned both the practice of simony and concubinage among priests.

When Landolfo Cotta attempted to present the position of the Milanese patarini before Pope Stephen IX, the archbishop's ruffians had caught up with him at Piacenza and came near to killing him.

A second attack in 1061 was successful.

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

After Landolfo's death, his brother Erlembald had stepped in to take his place, and has transferred the movement from one primarily socioreligious to principally military.

The pataria at this moment receive the support of Popes Alexander II and Gregory VII while the Ambrosian see falls into schism and war.

Emperor Henry IV had been forced by the Saxon Rebellion to come to amicable terms with Gregory VII at any cost.

Consequently, in May 1074 he had done penance at Nuremberg—in the presence of the papal legates—to atone for his continued friendship with the members of his council who had been banned by Gregory in the two years since his election.

Taking an oath of obedience, he had promised his support in the work of reforming the Church.

This attitude, however, which had at first won him the confidence of the pope, had been abandoned as soon as he defeated the Saxons at the First Battle of Langensalza on June 9, 1075.

The tension between Empire and Church has culminated in the councils of 1074–75, which constitute a substantial attempt to undo Henry III's policies.

Among other measures, they deny secular rulers the right to place members of the clergy in office; this has dramatic effects in Germany, where bishops are often powerful feudatories who, in this way, are able to free themselves from imperial authority.

In addition to restoring all privileges lost by the ecclesiastics, the council's decision deprives the imperial crown of almost half its lands, with grievous consequences for national unity, especially in peripheral areas like the Kingdom of Italy.

Henry, suddenly hostile to Gregory, does not relent from his positions: after defeating Otto of Nordheim, he continues to interfere in Italian and German episcopal life, naming bishops at his will and declaring papal provisions illegitimate.

Henry now tries to reassert his rights as the sovereign of northern Italy without delay.

He sends Count Eberhard to Lombardy to combat the Patarenes; nominates the cleric Tedaldo to the archbishopric of Milan, thus settling a prolonged and contentious question; and …

Conrad, born on February 12, 1074, at Hersfeld Abbey while his father, Henry IV, was fighting against the Saxon Rebellion, had been baptized in the abbey three days later.

After his victory against the Saxons, Henry had arranged for an assembly at Goslar on Christmas Day 1075 to swear an oath recognizing Conrad as his successor.

After the death of Duke Godfrey IV of Lower Lorraine on February 22, 1076, Henry had refused to appoint the late duke's own choice of successor, his nephew, Godfrey of Bouillon, and instead named his two-year-old son Duke of Lower Lorraine.

He did appoint Albert III of Namur, the deceased duke's brother-in-law, as his son vice-duke (vicedux) to perform the daily functions of government.

He also allowed the march of Antwerp to pass to Godfrey of Bouillon.

The total absence of Conrad from his duchy has caused or abetted the decline of ducal authority in it.

In 1082, while Conrad was in Italy, the peace of God had been introduced into the diocese of Liège.

Conrad had passed Christmas 1076 at Besançon with his parents.

Early the next year, he had accompanied his father across the Alps on the way to Canossa, because there was no one in Germany to whom Henry could have entrusted his son.

Conrad had subscribed to his first royal charter in 1079.

When Henry returned to Germany, Conrad had remained in Italy to act as a pledge to the imperialist party there.

He had been placed in the care of Archbishop Tedald of Milan and Bishop Denis of Piacenza, both excommunicated prelates and opponents of Pope Gregory VII.

In October 1080, Conrad had been present in the camp when a force from northern Italy defeated the troops of Marchioness Matilda of Tuscany near Mantua.

The Saxon lords who had supported the kingship of the late Rudolf of Swabia against Henry gathered in December 1080 "to discuss the state of their kingdom [Saxony]" in Bruno of Merseburg's words.

Henry had sent envoys to the Saxons asking them to accept his son Conrad as their king, and in exchange he promised never to enter Saxony.

(Conrad was apparently back in Germany.)

Otto of Northeim, speaking for the Saxons, "desired neither the son nor the father" since he had "often seen a bad calf begotten by a bad ox."

Henry had in December 1080 entered Italy, where he endeavored to wed his son to a daughter of Robert Guiscard.

He had offered Robert the march of Fermo as well, but no marriage could be agreed to since the duke had refused to do homage for his duchy of Apulia.

Again Henry left Conrad in Italy (July 1081), this time in the care of the lay princes "to watch over the province for him", according to the Annales Brunwilarenses and Annales Patherbrunnenses.

Conrad had returned to Germany in 1087 and, on May 30, had been crowned king in Aachen by Archbishop Sigwin of Cologne.

The ceremony was attended by Albert of Namur, Godfrey of Bouillon and Duke Magnus of Saxony, according to the Annales Weissenburgenses.

The last reference to Conrad as duke of Lower Lotharingia (dux Lothariorum) comes from a charter issued at Aachen shortly before his coronation, after which Henry had appointed Godfrey of Bouillon duke in his place.

On December 27, shortly after Conrad’s departure from Germany, his mother dies at thirty-six in Mainz.

By January 1088, Conrad has returned to Italy, with Bishop Ogerius of Ivrea as his chancellor and advisor.

The passing of Bertha perhaps provokes the rupture between Conrad and his father.

Emperor Henry had enjoyed some initial success against the lands of Canossa, but his defeat in 1092 causes the rebellion of the Lombard communes.

…Milan).

He was instigated to revolt, according to Ekkehard of Aura, by "one of his father's ministeriales, who was likewise named Conrad".

This is perhaps the same person as the Count Conrad sent by the young king as an envoy to King Roger II of Sicily, according to Geoffrey Malaterra.

Ekkehard otherwise gives positive account of Conrad's motivation, describing him as "a thoroughly catholic man, most devoted to the apostolic see, inclining to religion rather than government or war ... well enough furnished with courage and boldness [yet] preferr[ing] to occupy his time with reading rather than with sports" (Robinson, Ian S. (2000). Henry IV of Germany. New York: Cambridge University Press., p. 288).

Other sources favorable to Conrad include the Annales sancti Disibodi and the Casus monasterii Petrishusensis.

Among sources unfavorable to him are the Annales Augustani and Henry IV's anonymous biography, the Vita Heinrici IV, which describes Conrad as a pawn in hands of Matilda of Tuscany.

Bernold of Sankt Blasien records that Henry was so abject after Conrad's rebellion that he attempted suicide, but this may be a hyperbole allusive to the suicide of the biblical King Saul. (Robinson 2000, p. 288.)

Conrad is captured in mid-March by his father through a ruse, but soon escapes.

Otho de Lagery, named cardinal-bishop of Ostia around 1080 by Pope Gregory VII, has been one of the most prominent and active supporters of the Gregorian reforms, especially as legate in Germany in 1084 and is among the few whom Gregory VII had nominated as papabile (possible successors).

After Desiderous’s short reign as Victor III, Otho had been elected Pope Urban II by acclamation at a small meeting of cardinals and other prelates held in Terracina on March 12, 1088.

He has taken up the policies of Pope Gregory VII, and while pursuing them with determination, shows greater flexibility and diplomatic finesse.

At the outset, he has to reckon with the presence of the powerful antipope Clement III in Rome, but a series of well-attended synods held in Rome, Amalfi, Benevento, and Troia support him in renewed declarations against simony, lay investiture, clerical marriages (partly via the cullagium tax), and in continued opposition to Emperor Henry IV.

In accordance with this last policy, the marriage of the Countess Matilda of Tuscany with Welf, or Guelph, of Bavaria is promoted; Prince Conrad of Italy is assisted in his rebellion against his father and crowned King of the Romans at Milan in late July 1093 by Archbishop Anselm III; and Henry IV's wife, the Empress (Adelaide), is encouraged in her charges of sexual coercion against her husband.

According to the historian Landulf Junior, he is also crowned at Monza, where the Iron Crown is being kept.

After Conrad's coronation, Anselm dies and the new king invests his successor, Arnulf II, on December 6, 1093, although many of the bishops present to celebrate his coronation refuse to attend the simoniacal investiture of Arnulf.

The papal legate who is present, probably to speak with Conrad, immediately declares Arnulf deposed.

The accusation might have been that Arnulf had performed undue service to Conrad to secure his investiture, or that he had been too obeisant, a charge of simony ab obsequio.

Conrad is at the height of his power in 1094, when his father is staying with Margrave Henry and Patriarch Udalric in the March of Verona, unable to enter Italy.

His antipope, Clement III, elected at the Synod of Brixen in 1080, who is traveling with him, even offers to resign so that Henry can negotiate with Pope Urban II if that is all that stands in the way.

A contemporary tract, Altercatio inter Urbanum et Clementum, argues the two popes claims should be adjudicated by a council.

Urban II exchanges much correspondence with Archbishop Anselm of Canterbury, to whom he extends an order to come urgently to Rome just after the archbishop's first flight from England; he had earlier given his approval to Anselm's work Epistola de Incarnatione Verbi (On The Incarnation of the Word).

Milan, made part of the German Empire by Charlemagne, has prospered as a center of trade due to its command of the rich plain of the Po and routes from Italy across the Alps.

The city’s Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio, originally founded by Saint Ambrose and begun in the mid-tenth century, is completed in 1128 as the outstanding example of mature Lombard Romanesque architecture.

Although the atrium and narthex reflect adherence to Early Christian traditions, the features typical of the Lombard Romanesque include the basilican plan without transept, the lack of a clerestory, towers outside the perimeter walls, brick construction, and a vaulted covering.