Pope Adrian IV

Pope Adrian IV (c. 1100 – 1 September, 1159), born Nicholas Breakspear, was Pope from 1154 to 1159.

Adrian IV is the only Englishman who has occupied the papal chair. It is generally believed that he was born at Abbots Langley in Hertfordshire and to have received his early education at the Abbey School, St Albans (St Albans School).

Early life

His father was Robert, a priest of the diocese of Bath, who became a monk at St Albans. 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 monk of the Augustinian cloister of St Rufus near Arles. He rose to be prior and in 1137 was unanimously elected abbot.

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 (1145–53), who created him cardinal bishop of Albano.

From 1152 to 1154 Nicholas was in Scandinavia as papal legate, organizing the affairs of the new Norwegian archbishopric of Trondheim, and making 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 As a compensation for territory thus withdrawn, the Danish archbishop of Lund was made legate and perpetual vicar and given the title of primate of Denmark and Sweden.

Accession as Pope

On his return Nicholas was received with great honour by Pope Anastasius IV (1153–54), and on the death of the latter was elected pope on 4 December, 1154. He at once endeavoured to bring down Arnold of Brescia, the leader of anti-papal sentiment in Rome. Disorder within the city led to the murder of a cardinal, causing Adrian IV shortly before Palm Sunday 1155 to take the previously-unheard-of step of putting Rome under the interdict. The Senate thereupon exiled Arnold. The Pope, with the co-operation of Frederick I Barbarossa, was instrumental in procuring his execution. Adrian IV crowned the Emperor at Saint Peter's on 18 June, 1155, a ceremony which so incensed the Romans that the Pope had to leave the city, not returning until November 1156.

The Byzantine Alliance

Then, suddenly and unexpectedly, a new force dramatically appeared on the scene. In the year 1155, Byzantine Emperor Manuel Comnenus invaded Italy from the south, landing his forces in the region of Apulia. Making contact with local rebels who were hostile to the Sicilian crown, Byzantine forces quickly overran the coastlands and began striking inland. Pope Adrian IV watched these developments with some satisfaction. 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 "civilised" Eastern Roman Empire on its southern border was infinitely preferable to Adrian than having to constantly deal with the troublesome Normans. Therefore, negotatiations were hurriedly carried out, and an alliance was formed between Adrian and Manuel. Adrian undertook to raise a body of mercenary troops from campania. Meanwhile, Manuel dreamed of restoration of the Roman Empire at cost of union between Orthodox and Catholic Church. Negotiations for union of the eastern and western churches, which had been in a state of schism since 1054, soon got underway. 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 to the lure of gold. The future looked bleak for the Sicilians. It was at this point, just as the war seemed decided in the allies' favour, that things started to go wrong. The Byzantine 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 that were serving in the allied armies demanded impossible rises 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 all 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 surrendered; Manuel's subjects could never have accepted the authority of the distant Pope in 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 have remained divided ever since.

Adrian IV and Ireland

Adrian IV during his reign issued a papal bull, Laudabiliter, granting dominion over Ireland to the English monarch, Henry II. The bull made Ireland a feudal possession of the King of England under the nominal overlordship of the papacy. The title the English King was to hold over Ireland was "Lord of Ireland". The pope had the right to grant sovereignty over islands in Europe to different monarchs because of a document called the Donation of Constantine. The reason for Adrian granting possession of Ireland to the King of England was because at the time Ireland had a separate Christian Church that did not follow the Catholic Church and believed in various heretical doctrines. If the King of England took possession of Ireland, he reasoned, it would be easy to assimilate the Christian Church there into the Roman Catholic Church. Henry II ignored the bull until about 1170. At that time various English, Norman, and Welsh aristocrats had begun invading Ireland because the deposed King of Leinster, Dermot MacMurrough, had asked them to help him regain his throne from his enemy King Rory O'Connor of Connaught. Henry was afraid these invaders would turn Ireland into a rival Norman state so he invaded Ireland himself in 1171, using the papal bull to claim sovereignty over the island, and forced the Anglo-Norman warlords and some of the Gaelic Irish kings to accept him as their overlord. After that Ireland was a feudal territory of the English monarch under the nominal overlordship of the papacy until 1541, when it became a kingdom belonging solely to the King of England.

Barbarossa and the death of Adrian IV

At the diet of Besançon in October 1157, the legates presented to Barbarossa 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). Barbarossa 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," the coronation. The breach subsequently became wider, and Adrian IV was about to excommunicate the Emperor when he died at Anagni on 1 September 1159.

Gourt Home::Gourt :: Pope Adrian IV

Early life

Accession as Pope

The Byzantine Alliance

Adrian IV and Ireland

Barbarossa and the death of Adrian IV