Pilgrim, Archbishop of Cologne

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Pilgrim (died 25 August 1036) was the archbishop of Cologne (1021-1036) and archchancellor of Italy (from 1031) in the Holy Roman Empire, a dignity he obtained for all his successors.

His origins are not known with certainty, he either descends from the counts of Isengau or Margrave Aribo of Austria.

He was a warrior-prelate and accompanied both Emperors Henry II and Conrad II on their expeditions to the Mezzogiorno, even being given command of a division of the imperial army on its march south through the Italian Peninsula in 1024.

From 1016 to 1021, Pilgrim was provost in the Cathedral of Bamberg. On 29 June 1021, Henry II appointed him archbishop of Cologne and, on Easter 1028, he crowned Henry's son Henry III as king of Germany in Aachen.

On the 1024 campaign, he travelled with his army along the western coast through the Papal States. Charged with arresting the abbot of Montecassino, Atenulf, and the prince of Capua, Pandulf IV, he besieged Capua after bypassing the great Mediterranean abbey, which Atenulf had abandoned in haste. As Pandulf no longer had the loyalty of the populace and the Norman mercenaries, the city gates were soon thrown open to the archbishop and Pandulf was forced to submit. Instead of immediately turning eastwards to Troia, where the rest of the imperial host was massing, he turned to Salerno and began a siege. The fear he struck in the heart of the Duke of Naples, Sergius IV, caused him too to submit, without even the threat of a siege.

After only a month besieging Salerno, he let up in exchange for hostages and joined the rest of Emperor Henry's army. The emperor almost executed Pandulf, but the archbishop intervened to save Pandulf's life. The subsequent siege was a failure and the armies returned to Germany.

Pilgrim acquired for Cologne the right of minting coins for Cologne and Andernach. He was buried in the cathedral of St. Aposteln in Cologne.