September 1, 1159 - Pope Adrian IV Dies
Pope Adrian IV (Nicholas Breakspear), chromolithograph, 1879. Municipal Library of Trento. Public domain (CC0), via Wikimedia Commons.
On September 1, 1159, Pope Adrian IV died at Anagni, bringing to an end a five-year pontificate that unfolded amid some of the most important struggles between church and political authority in medieval Europe. Born Nicholas Breakspear in England around 1100, Adrian remains the only Englishman ever to have served as pope. Yet the importance of his career extends well beyond that distinction. His work in Scandinavia and his confrontations with rulers in Italy and the Holy Roman Empire placed him near the center of the twelfth-century expansion of papal authority.
Little is known with certainty about Breakspear’s early life. He was born in England, probably in or near Hertfordshire, and eventually traveled to continental Europe. In southern France he entered the community of St. Ruf near Avignon, a house of Augustinian canons, where he rose through the ranks and eventually became abbot. His abilities brought him to the attention of Pope Eugene III, who made him cardinal-bishop of Albano.
Breakspear’s most important assignment before becoming pope came when Eugene sent him as papal legate to Scandinavia in the early 1150s. Christianity had been established there for generations, but the ecclesiastical organization of the region was still developing. Breakspear helped reorganize the Norwegian church by establishing an independent archbishopric at Nidaros, modern Trondheim. The new ecclesiastical province included dioceses extending beyond mainland Norway to Iceland, Greenland, and other North Atlantic territories.
He also traveled to Sweden, where he attempted to establish a separate archbishopric. Rivalries over where the metropolitan see should be located prevented him from completing that part of his mission, although Sweden received its own archbishopric at Uppsala several years later. Breakspear nevertheless strengthened ties between the Scandinavian churches and Rome and promoted reforms involving clerical discipline and church administration. His successful northern mission significantly enhanced his reputation.
After returning to Rome, Breakspear was elected pope in December 1154 following the death of Anastasius IV. He chose the name Adrian IV.
He immediately inherited serious political problems. Rome itself was divided by a republican movement associated with the religious reformer Arnold of Brescia. Arnold criticized the temporal wealth and political power of the clergy and became associated with opponents of papal government in the city. Adrian responded forcefully, at one point placing Rome under an interdict. Arnold was eventually captured after the intervention of the German king Frederick I Barbarossa and was executed by secular authorities in 1155.
Adrian and Frederick initially appeared capable of cooperation. On June 18, 1155, Adrian crowned Frederick Holy Roman Emperor at Rome. But beneath the ceremony lay a fundamental disagreement over the relationship between two of medieval Europe’s most powerful institutions. Frederick sought to restore imperial authority in Italy, while Adrian sought to protect papal territories and the independence of the papacy.
The relationship deteriorated dramatically. One famous dispute followed a papal letter presented at the imperial Diet of Besançon in 1157. The letter used the Latin word beneficium in discussing the emperor’s relationship with the papacy. Imperial officials interpreted the word as suggesting that Frederick held the empire as a “benefice,” or fief, from the pope. The implication that imperial authority might somehow derive from papal authority infuriated Frederick and his supporters. Although papal representatives attempted to explain the wording differently, the episode revealed how deeply pope and emperor disagreed about their respective powers.
Adrian’s Italian policies were equally complicated. He initially opposed William I, the Norman king of Sicily, and excommunicated him during their conflict. Changing military circumstances, however, led Adrian to negotiate. The Treaty of Benevento in 1156 recognized William’s kingship and established a new relationship between the papacy and the Norman kingdom. The settlement angered Frederick, who viewed developments in Italy through the competing claims of imperial authority.
Adrian’s name is also connected with one of the most controversial documents of his pontificate: Laudabiliter, traditionally dated to 1155. The document purportedly authorized England’s King Henry II to intervene in Ireland, partly in the name of church reform. Medieval writers later treated the grant as papal authorization for English involvement in Ireland, but modern historians have debated the authenticity and precise meaning of the surviving text. Evidence indicates that Adrian communicated with Henry concerning Ireland, but exactly what authority the pope intended to grant remains disputed.
By the final years of Adrian’s pontificate, his conflict with Frederick Barbarossa had become increasingly serious. The dispute involved more than the personalities of two ambitious leaders. It reflected a larger medieval question: how were authority and jurisdiction to be divided between pope and emperor in a Christian society where both claimed responsibilities extending beyond ordinary territorial government?
Adrian died at Anagni on September 1, 1159. His death did not end that conflict. Instead, the disputed papal election that followed produced both Alexander III and the imperial-backed antipope Victor IV, beginning a schism that lasted for years. Frederick’s struggle with Alexander would continue many of the disputes already visible during Adrian’s reign.
Why It Matters
Adrian IV’s career illustrates the increasingly international reach of the twelfth-century papacy, from the organization of churches in Scandinavia to disputes involving England, Sicily, Rome, and the Holy Roman Empire. His pontificate also helped set the stage for the much longer confrontation between Frederick Barbarossa and Pope Alexander III over the political independence and authority of the medieval papacy.