Lentorama 2010: Two Millennia of Pointy Hats

Day 25: Adrian IV (1154-59)

The only English pope, he worked his way up the Vatican ladder when, after being rejected admission to an English monastery, he became a canon in France and later gained the eye of Eugene III due to his interest in reform. Named the cardinal archbishop of Albano, the future Adrian would then go on to serve as a papal legate to Scandinavia.

He returned to Rome shortly before the death of Anastasius IV, and was elected to the office after Anastasius' death, shortly after which he placed the city of Rome under an interdict in order to quell the disruption of an anti-papacy faction of nobles.

During his tenure, Adrian attempted an alliance with the Byzantines, who had invaded Sicily and beaten back the Norman nobles in charge of the island. The hope was that this would lead to the end of the Great Schism that separated the churches of Rome and Byzantium. But internal squabbling among the Byzantines allowed the Normans to rally, and Adrian was reluctant to give up his temporal power in order to heal the rift, just as the Byzantines weren't about to let their church be ruled by someone so far away.

After this, Adrian incurred the wrath of Frederick Barbarossa, who was given a misinterpretation of a letter sent by Adrian. Barbarossa thought the pope was giving him land and thus confirming that he was superior to Barbarossa. The pope tried to correct and say he was merely referring to Barbarossa's coronation, but that didn't placate Barbarossa, and as their rift was widening Adrian died, supposedly by choking on a fly that was in his wine.

Adrian also set the tone for centuries of Irish antipathy towards the English when he supposedly issued a bull allowing the King of England to invade and take Rome so that the Celtic church could be brought under Roman rule and so the savages of the island could be civilized. Future decisions on England and Ireland would be based at least partially on this "donation," allowing Adrian to screw over the Irish centuries after he died. You can imagine o one will be raising a pint to Adrian tomorrow.