RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Adrian
ischen Kirche von Nikolaus I. bis Gregor VII., pp. 113-170, Bonn, 1892; E. Miihlbacher, Deutsche Geschichte unter den Karolingern, 1896; E. Dummler, tjber eine Synodalrede Papst Hadrians II., Berlin, 1899; Treaty of Meersen, Eng. transl. in Thatcher and McNeal, Source Book, pp. 64-65.
Adrian III.: Pope 884-885. He was a Roman by birth, the son of Benedict. The story of severe punishments inflicted by him points to revolts in the city during his rule. The assertion of the untrustworthy Martinus Polonus that he decreed that a newly elected pope might proceed at once to consecration without waiting for imperial confirmation, and that the imperial crown should thenceforth be worn by an Italian prince, are confirmed by no contemporary evidence. He died near Modena Aug., 885, on his way to attend a diet at Worms on the invitation of Charles the Fat, and was buried at Nonantula. [He was the first pope to change his name on election, having previously been called Agapetus.] (Carl Mirbt.)
Bibliography: Epistola, in Bouquet, Recueil, ix. 200, and in MPL, cxxvi.; Bulla anni 885, in Neues Archiv der Gesellschaft fur a. d. Geschichte, xi. (1885) 374, 376; Vita, in Liber Pontificalis, ed. Duchesne, ii. (1892) 225, and in L. A. Muratori, Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, III. ii. 440-446, 25 vols., Milan, 1723-51; Annates Fuldenses, in MGH, Script., i. (1826) 375-395 (separately in Script, rer. Germ., ed. F. Kurze, Hanover, 1891); Chronica Benedicti, in MGH, Script., iii. (1839) 199; J. M. Watterich, Pontificum Romanorum vita, i. 29, 650, 718, Leipsic, 1862; P. Jarre, Regesta, i. 426-427; Bower, Popes, ii. 293-294; R. Baxmann, Die Politik der Papste von Gregor I. bis auf Gregor VII., ii. 60 sqq., Elberfeld, 1869; E. Dummler, Geschichte des Ostfriinkischen Reiches, ii. 247, 248, Berlin, 1888; J. Langen, Geschichte der rdmischen Kirche von Nikolaus I. bisGregor VII., pp. 298 sqq., Bonn, 1892; T.R. v. Sickel, Die Vita Hadriani Nonantulana und die Diurnus Handschrift, in Neues Archiv der Gesellschaft fur a. d. Geschichte, xviii. (1892) 109-133.
Adrian IV. (Nicholas Breakspeare ; the only Englishman in the list of the popes): Pope 1154-59. He was born in England about the beginning of the twelfth century. He went to France as a boy, studied at Paris and Aries, enduring severe privations, and finally settled down in the monastery of St. Rufus near Avignon. Here he became prior, then abbot (1137), but met with bitter opposition from the monks when he attempted to introduce reforms. Eugenius III. made him cardinal bishop of Albano, and chose him (1152) for the difficult mission of regulating the relations of Norway and Sweden to the archbishopric of Lund. Returning to Rome, he was welcomed with high honors by Anastasius IV., whom he succeeded on Dec. 4, 1154.
His first troubles came through Arnold of Brescia (q.v.), who, besides his ethical opposition to the hierarchy, aimed at reestablishing the
Arnold of ancient sovereignty of Rome and its Brescia and independence of the papal see. Adrian
Frederick strove to secure Arnold's banishment, Barbarossa. and succeeded in 1155 only by pronouncing an interdict on the city. He made Arnold's capture and delivery to the ecclesiastical authorities a condition of crowning Frederick Barbarossa, who thus sacrificed a man who might nave been a powerful auxiliary in his conflicts with this very pope. The first meeting between Frederick and Adrian (June 9, 1155) was marked by friction; but Frederick managed, in return for
substantial concessions, to secure his coronation nine days later. The Romans, however, whose subjection to the papal see the new emperor had promised to enforce, refused their recognition; and when Frederick left Rome, the pope and cardinals accompanied him, practically as fugitives. Frederick had also promised to subdue William I. of Sicily, and was inclined to carry out his promise, but the pressure of the German princes forced him to recross the Alps.
Adrian then attempted to pursue his conflict with William, and, by the aid of the latter's discontented vassals, forced him to offer William I. terms. When, however, these were not of Sicily, accepted the king rallied his forces, the tide turned, and Adrian was obliged to grant his opponent the investiture of Sicily, Apulia, and Capua, and to renounce important ecclesiastical prerogatives in Sicily (Treaty of Benevento June, 1156). In consequence of this settlement, he was enabled to return to Rome at the end of the year, but the emperor resented this apparent desertion of their alliance, as well as the injury to his suzerainty by the papal investiture. An open breach came when, at the Diet of Besancon, in Oct., 1157, the papal legates (one of them the future Alexander III.) delivered a letter from their chief which spoke of the conferring of the imperial crown by the ambiguous term beneficium. The chancellor, Reginald, archbishop of Cologne, in his German rendering, gave it the sense of a fief of the papal see; and the legates thought it prudent to leave the assembly and retreat speedily to Rome. Imperial letters spread the same indignation among the people; and when Adrian required the prelates of Germany to obtain satis- Rebuffed faction from Frederick for his treatby ment of the legates, he was met by Frederick the decided expression of their dis- Barbarossa. approval of the offending phrase. Adrian's position was rendered more difficult by the appearance of a Greek expedition in Italy and by a revolt in Rome; he offered the concession of a brief in which he explained the objectionable word in the innocent sense of " benefit." Frederick took this as a confession of weakness, and when he crossed the Alps to subdue the Lombard towns (1158), he required an oath of fealty to himself, as well as substantial support from the Italian bishops. Attaining the summit of his power with the conquest of Milan in September, two months later he had the imperial rights solemnly declared by the leading jurists of Bologna. This declaration constituted him the source of all secular power and dignity, and was a denial equally of the political claims of the papacy and of the aspirations of the Lombard towns. The breach with Adrian was still further widened by his hesitation to confirm the imperial nomination to the archbishopric of Ravenna; and an acute crisis was soon reached. An exchange of communications took place, whose manner was intended on both sides to be offensive; and Frederick was roused to a higher pitch of anger when the papal legates, besides accusing him of a breach of the treaty of Constance, demanded that he should thenceforth receive no oath of fealty from
Adrian Advent