Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 10.djvu/346

 MILAN

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MILAN

Giovanni M.iri:i liaviiiR Keen assassinated in 1412, Filippo Maria reniaincil sole iluko, and with tlio assist-- ance of Carniagnola, rt'took a t;n:it portion of tlu" lost territory. The oftensivo proecedinj; of Filii)[)o Maria causcil the house of Esto, the Gonzagas, and Venice to form a league against him, which led to a long war; in the course of it, several famous battles were fought, among thi-m tliat of Maohxiio (1427), l)y which the Duke of .Milan lost Hrrganioand Brescia, and the naval battle of I'ortolino tI4:U) disastrous to the Genoese allies of Milan. The peace concluded in 1433 was favourable to Venice; but the war broke out again, and continued until the death of Filippo Maria, in 1447, when the Ambrosian Republic was pro- claimed (1447-50).

For militarj' reasons, Francesco Sforza was made capilano del popiilo, and succeeded in taking pos- session of the fortress and in having himself recognized duke (1450). This event led to a new war with Venice and the King of Naples, closed by the peace of Lodi in 1454. Francesco was succeeded in 14C6 by his son Galeazzo Maria, who, hated by his subjects, was stabbed to death in 1476. His son Giovanni Galeazzo had as regent, first his own mother, and then (14S0), his ambitious uncle Ludovico il Moro, who succeeded his nephew, at the latter's death in 1494. Louis XII, who pretended to rights over Milan, entered into a compact with Venice for the division of the duchy. Ludovico il Moro attempted to resist them, but was constrained to seek refuge in Germany, and Milan came under the power of the French. In 1500, Duke Ludovico returned to his dominions for a time, b\it other French troops were sent against him, and he died a prisoner in France. The expulsion of the French from Italy ensued upon the death of Gaston de Foix, the victor of Ravenna (1512), and Milan was given to Maximilian Sforza, a son of Ludovico il Moro, although the Spaniards were its real masters. After the battle of Marignano, Maximilian surrendered Milan at the end of a brief siege, and remained a prisoner. The French had been definitively excluded from the peninsula by the battle of Pavia, when Francis II, a brother of Maximilian, became duke, and at hisdeath Charles V took the Duchy of Milan for him- self, and bequeathed it to his successors on the Span- ish throne. The peace of Utrecht (1713) gave Milan to Austria, which power had occupied the duchy since 170(5. During the war of the Austrian succession, Austria's dominion over Milan was interrupted for a time (1745), and France even offered the duchy to Savoy. Under Maria Theresa and Joseph II much was done for the prosperity of the Milanese, and civil and ecclesiastical reforms were also introduced. In 1796 Milan became the capital of the Cispadan Republic, soon transformed into the Cisalpine Republic, antl (1805) into the Kingdom of Italy; the Cispadan Re- public was supported entirely by French arms, which checked by .\ustria (1799), returned victorious, after Marengo. In 1814 the Austrian domination was re- established, and lasted until 1859. Encouraged by the revohition of Vienna in 1848, Milan revolted, in an effort to throw off the foreign yoke; and the five days (18 to 22 March of that year) remain famous; a pro- visional committee was formed and the Austrians were compelled to retreat; but the consequent war. Piedmont having taken up the cause of Italy, was disastrous to the insurgents; and Milan (with Lom- bardy) again became subject to Austria. The war of 1859, however, decide<l the final annexation of Lom- bardy to the Kingdom of Italy.

Milan is an archiepiscopal see. According to an eleventh-century legend the Gospel was brought there by St. Barnabas, and the first Bishop of Milan, St. Anathalon, was a disciple of that apostle. But a dio- cese cannot have been established there before 200, and pos,sibly not till much later, for the list of the bishops of Milan names only five predecessors of Merocles, who

was at the Council of Home (313). During the perse- cution.s .several Christians suffered martyrdom at Milan; anmng tlicin Saints (iervasius and I'rotasius (first per.sceulion of Diocletian), SI. \ictor (304), Sts. IS'abor and Felix, and Sts. Mazariiis and Celsus. Among its bishops shoidd be named St. Euslorgius, St. Protasius, and St. Diony-sivis, who firmly oppused the .\rian emperor ConstMntiiis, and was exiled to Cappa- docia (3551, while the -Vrian ,\uxcntius was put on the episcopal throne of Milan. But the people remained faithful to the Catholic religion. At the death of St. Dionysius, the great St. Ambrose was elected bishop (375-97), vanquished paganism and Arianism, and was the guide of those good princes Gratian, Valen- tinian II, and Theodosius. He was succeeded by St. Simplicianus (397), and Venerius (400); Lazarus (438-49) appears to have amplified the Ambrosian rite of Milan; Laurentius (490-512) presided over the Roman councils in the cause of Pope Symmachus; St. Datius (530-52), lived almost always in exile at Con- stantinople, on account of the Gothic War; Vitalis (552) adhered to the schism caused by the " Three Chapters", but Auxanus (556) re-established the union of the diocese with Rome. Honoratus (568) sought refuge in Genoa, with a great number of his clergy, during the siege of Milan by the Lombard Al- boin, and at his death the Milanese at Genoa elected to succeed him Laurentius II, while Fronto (elected at Milan) was not recognized. When Laurentius died, King Agilulfus wished to secure the election of an Arian bishop, in which, however, he was thwarted by the vigilance of St. Gregory the Great, and both at Genoa and at Milan, Constantius was elected to the vacant see; under him, the cathedral of Monza was erected, Agilulfus became a Catholic, and the conver- sion of the Lombartls to the Faith was begun, while the episcopal residence was again taken up at Milan. The first prelate of this diocese who bore the title of archbishop was St. Petrus (784), but it is certain that St. Ambrose had already exercised metropolitan juris- diction over northern Italy, from Bologna to Turin, and that the Prankish king Childebert gave to Bishop Laurentius II the title of Patriarch. St. Petrus estab- lished an asylum for foundlings, one of the first insti- tutions of its kind in Europe. Mention has been made above of Ansperto da Biassono.

In 980 Landolfo, a son of the imperial vicar, Bonizo, became archbishop through simony; he was ilriven from the city on account of his abuse of power, but was taken back by the emperor Otto II, and repaired the evil that he had done. He was succeeded by Arnolfo II (998) and Ariberto d'Intimiano (1018), mentioned above. The latter was succeeded by Ciuido ( 1045), also a simoniac. At this time the morals of the clergy were deplorable: simony and concubinage were common, and out of these conditions developed the famous pataria, a popular movement for social and ecclesiastical reform, headed by the priest Anselmoda Biaggio, later Bishop of Lucca, and by the cleric Arialdo, both of whom used force to compel the clergy to observe continence, and to drive its members from benefices obtained by simony. From this great con- fusion ensued. In 1059 Nicholas II sent to Milan St. Peter Damian and the same Anselmo, at which the people murmured, demanding that the church of Milan be not subject to that of Rome. Archbishop Guido, however, promised amendment, and accepted the conditions imposed upon him, but soon relapsed, and Arialdo, with whom the noble warrior Eriembaldo was associated, began again to agitate the people, in consequence of which he was brutally assassinated 27 June, 1066. Eriembaldo then gave a military organi- zation to the pataria, and Guido, who was excom- municated, was compelled to leave the city. While the election of his successor was being discussed, Guido sold the archiepiscopal dignity to his .secretary. Until 1085 there were several pretenders to the see;