| Adrian IV | |
|---|---|
| Papacy began | 4 December 1154 |
| Papacy ended | 1 September 1159 |
| Predecessor | Anastasius IV |
| Successor | Alexander III |
| Personal details | |
| Birth name | Nicholas Breakspear or Breakspeare |
| Born | c. 1100 Hertfordshire, England |
| Died | 1 September 1159 Anagni, Papal States, Holy Roman Empire |
| Other Popes named Adrian | |
Pope Adrian IV (c. 1100 – 1 September 1159),[1] born Nicholas Breakspear or Breakspeare, was Pope from 1154 to 1159.
Although Adrian IV is considered to be the only Englishman ever to occupy the papal chair, his antecedents are possibly of Norman origin.[2][3] It is generally believed that Nicholas Breakspear was born at Breakspear Farm[4][5][6][7] in the parish of Abbots Langley in Hertfordshire and received his early education at the Abbey School, St Albans (St Albans School).
Contents |
His father was Robert, who later became a monk at St Albans.[8] Nicholas himself, however, was refused admission to the monastery, being told by the abbot to "wait to go on with his schooling so that he might be considered more suitable" (Abbey chronicles). In the event, he did not wait and went instead to Paris and finally became a canon regular of the cloister of St. Rufus monastery near Arles. He rose to be prior and soon thereafter was unanimously elected abbot.[3] This election has been traditionally dated to 1137,[3] but evidence from the abbey's chronicles suggests it occurred about 1145.[9]
His reforming zeal as abbot led to the lodging of complaints against him at Rome; but these merely attracted to him the favourable attention of Pope Eugene III, who created him Cardinal Bishop of Albano in December 1149.[10]
From 1152 to 1154 Nicholas was in Scandinavia as papal legate, organising the affairs of the new Norwegian Archbishopric of Nidaros (now Trondheim). Papal authority over the Scandinavian Christian churches had always been weak and until the arrival of Nicholas, the Church there was de facto under local control. Under Nicholas, Papal control was made direct, leading to the suppression of the previous diocese, the removal of the Scandinavian bishop, and the establishment of a new Diocese at Hamar. Additionally, he opened new Cathedral schools in Norway's bishopric cities all staffed by men directly appointed by Rome. These schools were to have a lasting effect on Norwegian Catholic spirituality and history, even after King Christian III of Denmark ordered the Reformation in his kingdom. A late example is Scandinavia's most creative and forceful Counter-Reformation figure, the Jesuit Laurentius Nicolai Norvegicus, born as Laurids Nielsen after the Reformation, who attended Oslo Cathedral School in his youth. As a result of these influential institutions for Roman Catholic influence, the Reformation took control of the schools away from Rome and placed them within their respective national churches. Reformed their Popery, the schools continued to remain centers of Christian learning in their respective Kingdoms. As a result of 20th century Secularism, today, despite the prestigious prefix Cathedral, these schools have no formal Church ties.) As a means of centralizing Roman Catholic control within the royal administration of Sweden, thereby also reducing Danish influence in Scandinavia, Nicholas made arrangements which resulted in the recognition of Gamla Uppsala (later moved to Uppsala) as seat of the Swedish metropolitan in 1164. As a compensation for territory thus withdrawn, the Danish archbishop of Lund was made legate and perpetual vicar and given the title of primate of Denmark and Sweden.
On his return to Rome, Nicholas was received with great honour by Pope Anastasius IV and the Roman curia which celebrated his victory in overthrowing the local Christian authorities and establishing direct Roman Catholic control over the Scandinavian churches. On the death of Anastasius, Nicholas was elected pope on 3 December 1154,[11] taking the name Adrian IV. Meanwhile, there were many within the Roman curia and other institutions of the Roman Catholic Church which were at odds with the increasing centralization of Christian administration in Rome and the promotion of the primacy of the Papacy. Furthermore, there was within the pro-papal faction those who wished to keep the Pope solely Italian or even Roman. Realizing a combination of the two factions could bring about the downfall of the newly establishing primacy of the Papacy, Adrian IV at once endeavoured to bring down Arnold of Brescia, the leader of the anti-papal faction in Rome. Meanwhile, the Roman faction broke out in violence leading to disorder within the city and the murder of a cardinal, thereby causing Adrian, shortly before Palm Sunday 1155, to take the previously unheard-of step of putting Rome under interdict. Faced with both the force of Ecclesiastical power and the eventual power of the Pope's armed servants and allies, the Senate (City Council of Rome) thereupon exiled Arnold.
Concurrently, jurisdictional bounderies over Christian authority in Southern Italy and Sicily were causing great distress to the balance of power in Italy. Previously, the area had been under the authority of the Byzantine Empire and the Patriarch of Constantinople a competitor to the Papacy. However, a combination of Moors, Arabs, and Normans had defeated Byzantine forces in the late 11th century. By 1071, the Normans had established themselves as the predominate power and by the early 1100's had created their own Kingdom. Furthermore, these kingdom had been established without Papal authority thereby creating a vacuum in both temporal and spiritual authority which the Normans were quick to take advantage of by establishing their own direct control over Church authority. Lastly, the Normans of Sicily had become powerful enough to influence politics within the Papacy itself, indeed, helping to make Adrian IV Pope himself.
However, in 1155, Byzantine Emperor Manuel Comnenus declared his re-establishment of the ancient authority of Byzantium over the area and invaded the Italian peninsula from the south, landing his forces in the region of Apulia. Making contact with local rebels who were hostile to the Norman Sicilian crown, Greek forces quickly overran the coastlands and began striking inland. Pope Adrian IV watched these developments with some satisfaction. Although a friend of the Normans, he realized that his own power would always be curtailed by the favor he owed the Normans, whilst the remainder of the Roman administration within the Papacy was never on good terms with the Normans of Sicily, except when under duress by the threat of direct military action. Having the Eastern Roman Empire on its southern border was preferable to Adrian than having to constantly deal with the troublesome Normans, their notion of an independent Sicilian church, and their constant threats of military interference in Papal rule.
Meanwhile, Manuel dreamed of restoration of the Roman Empire in which the Holy Roman Empire of Germany would be united with the Byzantine Empire. One Emperor would require one Pope. Thus, such a reunification would require union between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches which had been in a state of schism since 1054. Negotiations for such union soon got underway, with Adrian demanding recognition of being First among equals or Primate of the other, Eastern Orthodox, Patriarchs and Popes. An alliance was formed between Adrian and Manuel. In return for gaining this grudging acceptance from Manuel and the Orthodox Patriarchs and Popes, Adrian undertook to raise a body of mercenary troops from Campania and Germany to help in the attack. The combined Papal-Byzantine forces joined with the rebels against the Normans in Southern Italy, achieving a string of rapid successes as a number of cities yielded either to the threat of force or the lure of gold. The future looked bleak for the Norman Sicilians.
It was at this point, just as the war seemed decided in the allies' favour, that things started to go wrong. The Greek commander Michael Palaeologus alienated some of his allies by his arrogance, and this stalled the campaign as rebel Count Robert of Loritello refused to speak to him. Although the two were reconciled, the campaign lost some of its momentum. Yet worse was to come: Michael was soon recalled to Constantinople. Although his arrogance had slowed the campaign, he was a brilliant general in the field, and his loss was a major blow to the allied campaign. The turning point was the Battle for Brindisi, where the Sicilians launched a major counter attack by both land and sea. At the approach of the enemy, the mercenaries who were serving in the allied armies demanded impossible increases in their pay; when this was refused, they deserted. Even the local barons started to melt away, and soon Adrian's Byzantine allies were left hopelessly outnumbered. The naval battle was decided in the Sicilians' favour, and the Byzantine commander was captured. The defeat at Brindisi put an end to the restored Byzantine reign in Italy, and by 1158 the Byzantine Army had left Italy.
Hopes for a lasting alliance with the Byzantine Empire had also come up against insuperable problems. Pope Adrian IV's conditions for a union between the eastern and western church included recognition of his religious authority over Christians everywhere, and the Emperor's recognition of his secular authority; neither East nor West could accept such conditions. Adrian's secular powers were too valuable to be rendered and Manuel's subjects could never have accepted the authority of the distant Bishop of Rome. In spite of his friendliness towards the Roman Church, Adrian never felt able to honour Manuel with the title of "Augustus". Ultimately, a deal proved elusive, and the two churches remained divided.
Simulteneously, Adrian IV was looking once again northward for increasing the power of the Papacy over the realms of Europe. In 1155, three years after the Synod of Kells, Adrian IV published the Papal Bull 'Laudabiliter', which was addressed to the Angevin King Henry II of England. He urged Henry to invade Ireland to bring its Celtic Christian Church under the Roman system and to conduct a general reform of governance and society throughout the island. The authenticity of this grant, the historian Edmund Curtis says, is one of "the great questions of history." He states that the matter was discussed at a Royal Council at Winchester, but that Henry's mother, the Empress Matilda, had protested due to the growing unease by the Holy Roman Emperor and other sovereigns of Europe at the increasing power of the Papacy, thereby questioning whether Henry even asked for the Pope granting him authority or whether Henry was simply ordered. Nonetheless, whatever the interests involved, whether under orders of the Papacy, or whether under grudging acceptance that the King required the Pope's authority to invade, the facts or indisputable: The Papacy in one stroke of the pen declared the ancient kingdoms of Ireland and their Celtic Christian Church illegitimate. In Ireland, fractured by petty kinglets, however, nothing seems to have been known of it, and no provision appears to have been made to defend against the prospect of Angevin Norman aggression, despite their westward expansion throughout England and Wales.[12] Ernest F. Henderson states that the existence of this Bull is doubted by many[13] while, in noting that its authenticity has been questioned without success, P. S. O'Hegarty suggests that the question is now purely an academic one. It is notable that decisions of Pope Alexander III and his successor, Pope Lucius III, in stating the illegitimacy of the newly restored Kingdom of Ireland by the Irish Parliament and King Henry VIII through the Crown of Ireland Act 1542 was predicated on this document.[14]
The Normans did in fact invade Ireland, beginning with a small landing of Norman knights in 1169, followed by Henry's landing with a much larger force in 1171.
At the diet of Besançon in October 1157, the legates presented to Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor a letter from Adrian IV which alluded to the beneficia or "benefits" conferred upon the Emperor, and the German chancellor translated this beneficia in the feudal sense of the presentation of property from a lord to a vassal (benefice). Frederick was infuriated by the suggestion that he was dependent on the Pope, and in the storm which ensued the legates were glad to escape with their lives, and the incident at length closed with a letter from the Pope, declaring that by beneficium he meant merely bonum factum or "a good deed," i.e. the coronation. The breach subsequently became wider, and the Emperor was about to be excommunicated when Adrian died at Anagni on 1 September 1159, reputedly choking on a fly in his wine, but probably of quinsy.[5]
His biography was first written by Cardinal Boso in his extension to the Liber Pontificalis.[15]
| Catholic Church titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Pietro Papareschi |
Bishop of Albano 1149–1154 |
Succeeded by Gualterio |
| Preceded by Anastasius IV |
Pope 1154–1159 |
Succeeded by Alexander III |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||