Adrian IV - the only English Pope
Listener's query
"Who was the only English Pope and can you tell me about him?"
Brief summary
Nicolas Breakspear was born possibly on the site of what is now Breakspear Farm at Bedmonton near Abbots Langley in Hertfordshire. Born in about 1100, he became Pope for four and half years in 1154.
Nicholas Breakspear was the son of an educated but poor man. He was a Saxon and was not admitted to the Abbey at St Albans a few miles away, so went travelling to get on in the world. He went to France to study at Arles, and joined the St Ruf monastery where in time he became its tenth Abbot. He went to Rome on Abbey business, but was spotted by the Pope, Eugenius III, and kept there, being made a cardinal and Bishop of Albano in Italy. Because of his clear thinking, administrative abilities and knowledge of the law, Nicholas was given important jobs including organising the church in Catalonia after the defeat of the Saracens, and also in Scandinavia.
When he returned from Scandinavia in 1154, Eugenius had died and Nicholas was elected Pope as Adrian IV. It was a short but eventful pontificate. His ability to think on his feet became important because he had inherited a can of worms - there were power struggles in and around Rome which led to him briefly excommunicating the city. Crucially there was a dangerous tension with the secular power of the Holy Roman Emperor, then the ambitious Frederick I Barbarossa. The position of Emperor depended on him being crowned by the Pope in Rome. Eugenius had agree to crown Frederick and Adrian carried out the promise, but relations between Pope and Emperor became difficult and eventually broke down.
Pope Adrian was a scholar, a lawyer, a skilled administrator and problem solver and he made his mark in church history with two particular rulings. He looked after parish priests by allowing them to keep part of the tithe money. He also ruled that serfs could marry without having to gain permission from their lords.
For centuries Pope Adrian had a bad named in Ireland because of a papal bull Laudabiliter, known as the Donation of Ireland, which appeared to give Ireland in perpetuity to the British king - thus giving him the reputation of being a major contributor to the centuries of the Irish difficulties. Modern scholarship suggests that this is inaccurate and that others later put a different interpretation on events.
Experts consulted
Dr Brenda Bolton and Barry Clifton
Further reading
Brenda Bolton and Anne Duggan, editors, Adrian IV, the English Pope (Ashgate, 2003)
Scott Hastie, Abbots Langley: A Hertfordshire Village (Abbots Langley Parish Council, 1993)
Websites
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Vanessa has presentedÌýscience and current affairs programmes for ±«Óãtv, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Discovery and has presented for ±«Óãtv Radio 4 & Five Live and a regular contributor to the Daily Telegraph and the Mail on Sunday, Scotsman and Sunday Herald.Ìý