Pope Adrian IV: An Historical Sketch

by Richard Raby

At first the emperor haughtily refused to grant these conditions; then, on further reflection, offered to abide by the decision of a committee of arbitration, to consist of six cardinals chosen by the pope, and six bishops chosen by himself. But Adrian, as Frederic foresaw and reckoned upon, at once rejected this offer, as derogatory to the dignity of a supreme Pontiff, which, regarded by christendom as superior to every temporal jurisdiction, could not therefore bow to one. At the same time, he reminded the Emperor of his concordat with Pope Eugenius, and called on him to stand to it. Frederic rejoined, that he considered himself exonerated from it, as Adrian had been the first to break it by his treaty of peace with the king of Sicily. That this charge was a false one, has already been shown. The Emperor persisted in his proposition for a committee of arbitration. As both parties continued inflexible, all prospect of a reconciliation vanished. Indeed, measures of a hostile character seemed on the point of being resorted to on both sides. For while Frederic gave audience to a republican embassy from Rome, and appeared to listen favourably to the overtures made; Adrian openly exhorted the Lombards to persevere in their resistance to the emperor, and formed fresh relations with the king of Sicily. He also addressed a brief to the archbishops of Mayence, Cologne, and Treves, in which he gives his feelings full vent, and asserts the superiority of his dignity over the emperor's, in the true spirit of the hierarchy of that age.

"Praised be God in the highest," writes he, "that ye remain faithful; while the flies of Pharao, sprung from the abyss of hell, and driven about by the whirlwind, are turned to dust, instead of darkening the sun according to their wish. Thanks be to God, who doubtless hath enabled you to perceive that betwixt us and the king there can be no more fellowship. This schism caused by him will yet rebound upon his head. Yes! he is like the dragon that would needs fly through the midst of heaven, and draw after him by his tail the third part of the stars; but toppled into the abyss, and left to his successors nothing but the warning, that he who exalts himself will be humbled. Thus does this fox—who is your hammer too—think to lay waste the Lord's vineyard; thus does this wicked son forget all gratitude and godly fear. Not one of his promises has he kept; everywhere has he deceived us; and deserves, therefore, our ban, as a rebel against God, and as a true heathen. And not only he, but also—we say it for your warning—every one who seconds him, yea, every one who either in word or thought agrees with him. He sets up his power as equal to ours, as though this last were confined to a mere corner like Germany—to Germany, which, till the Popes exalted it, passed only for the smallest of states: did not the German kings travel about in an oxen-drawn chariot, like any poor philosopher, till Pope Zacharias consecrated Charles? do they not still hold their court in a forest at Aix, whereas we reside at Rome? Even as Rome is above Aix, so are we above that king, who boasts of his world-wide sway; while he can hardly keep in check one of his refractory princes, or even subdue the rude and foolish race of the Frieslanders. In short, he possesses the empire through us; and that which we gave him,—on the supposition of gratitude alone,—we can resume. Do ye admonish him after this manner, and reclaim him to the right path,—to peace with us; for it will plunge you also into ruin, if there be schism between church and state."

It may easily be supposed, that words like these would be ill calculated to arrest Frederic's unprincipled career; nor, of course, did Adrian expect they would. He rather acted now under the persuasion that conciliation had reached its limits, inasmuch as further concessions would dishonour his dignity, and be a dereliction of his duty as chief pastor of the Christian Church;—the unconditional subjection of which under the brutal sway of the civil sword, Frederic plainly proved that it was his great aim to effect. Adrian therefore resolved, now that every advance and self-sacrifice on his side, consistent with reason and justice, had been made in vain, to arm himself with those thunders which the arm of a pope only can launch, and which the feelings of Christendom rendered so dreadful even to the most potent and hardened offenders.

To this course he was impelled all the more as Frederic, in further proof of his contempt of the most sacred obligations, when they stood in the way of his ambition, shortly added to his crimes against the Church another against public morals, by wantonly repudiating, out of motives of state policy, his lawful empress, to marry in her stead Beatrix of Burgundy. Any remnants of hesitation to adopt extreme measures which Adrian might still cherish, were completely eradicated in his mind by this crying scandal; and he at once prepared a ban of excommunication against the emperor; but in the moment of fulminating it, death paralysed his arm. This happened Sept. 1st, 1159, near Anagnia, in the Campagna, and according to William of Tyre, in consequence of a quinsy. Pagi relates that the partisans of Frederic told a story to this effect—that Pope Adrian died by a judgment of God, who permitted him while drinking at a well, a few days after denouncing excommunication against the emperor, to swallow a fly, which stuck in his throat, and could not be extracted by the surgeons, till the patient had expired through the inflammation produced by the accident. Adrian, however, did not excommunicate the emperor at all, but died on the eve of doing so. His body was carried to Rome, and entombed in a costly sarcophagus of marble, beside that of Eugenius III., in the nave of the old basilica of St. Peter.

In the year 1607, on the demolition of this church, the body was exhumed and found entire, as well as the pontificals in which it was arrayed. It was re-interred under the pavement of the new basilica.

According to Pagi, Pope Adrian IV. composed Catechisms of Christian Doctrine for the Swedes and Norwegians, a Memoir of his Mission to those nations—de Legatione sua—various Homilies, and a Treatise on the Conception of the Blessed Virgin,—performances which appear to have perished. The work, describing his mission to the north, must have been of great interest for the light which it no doubt threw on the history and manners of those countries. Münter, the church historian of Denmark, mentions that he sought to discover it at Rome, but without success; it being supposed, if still extant, to lie buried beneath the impracticable hoards of the Vatican.

Cardinal Boso, an Englishman, and Pope Adrian's private secretary, whom he sent out on a mission to Portugal, wrote a life of his patron, but so invaluable a work is also unavailable, as no trace of it now exists. From an anecdote preserved in William of Newbridge, Adrian IV. would seem to have pushed integrity in money matters to a harsh extreme; and so to have proved himself the antipodes of those popes who afterwards practised nepotism. For it is related of him, that rather than award a pittance towards the relief of his aged and destitute mother out of those ample revenues, which as pope he had at his disposal, but which he did not feel himself justified in diverting to private uses, he allowed her to subsist as best she could on the alms of the Chapter of Canterbury. Notwithstanding the incessant conflicts of his short career, he yet found time to do something towards the improvement and decoration of Rome. To this end he projected and carried out various new buildings and restorations, consisting in churches within and without the city, in castles for the protection of the Campagna, and in additions to the Lateran Palace. The duration of his pontificate comprised four years and eight months.

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