ADRIAN IV., (l'opE) the only Englishman who ever attained that dignity, was raised to the pontificate A. 1). 1151. His original name Y as Nicholas B•oke spere, a native of near St Albans, in Hertford shire. Being refused annlission into the monastery at St Albans, w here his lather had assumed the monastic habit, he wont to Paris ; and though extremely poor, soon attracted notice by his uncommon application, and his proficiency in theological studies. Front Paris he re mooted to where he, became a regular clerk in the monagtei ) of St Rufus. In consequence of his prudence, learning, and attention to discipline, he was first advanced to the canonical order ; and afterwards, on the death of the abbot, in 1137, was chosen superior of the institution. Notwithstanding his acknowledged merit, the monks would not submit to the government of a foreigner ; and Pope Eugenius Ill. was obliged to remote him in 1146, though, as a proof of his esteem, he immediate]) appointed him cardinal bishop or Alba. Two years afiei, he WaS sent as papal legate to Den mark and Norway, w here he coot cried those nations to the Catholic Faith, and erected the archiepiscopal see of Upsal. On returning to Ronie, after the death of Pope Anastasius, he was unanimously chosen to fill the va cant chair ; and assumed the name of Adrian. As soon as the account of his promotion reached England, Henry II. sent the abbot of St Albans and three bishops to cen gratulate him; and though he refused the valuable pre sents which they offered him, he bestowed considerable grants on that monastery ; particularly an exemption from all j urisdiction, except that of the papal see. Scarce ly was he seated on the throne, when Arnold of Brescia, ho had been repeatedly condemned under the pontifi cates of Innocent the Second and Anastasius the Fourth, for sowing seeds both of religious and political dissen sion among the subjects of Rome, felt the effects of his vengeance. Ile forced the magistrates to renounce the
liberty, which they had assumed, of electing consuls with out the authority of the pope ; refused to enter the late ran till Arnold, the champion of liberty, was banished from the city ; and when the people, in revenge, had kill ed or wounded one of the cardinals, he laid an interdict or, their religious worship, which continued from Christ mas to Easter. The banishment of Arnold procured the removal of this interdict ; but Adrian was yet unappeas ed, and nothing but the death of this seditious innovator would satisfy him. At length, having made peace with Frederic Barbarossa, king of the Romans, who conde scended to hold his stirrup whilst he mounted his horse, Adrian, to the great mortification of his own subjects, Ill iced the imperial crown on the head of this prince, and obtained, by his influence, the recal of Arnold, who had fled for protection to the viscomits of Campania. IP• was act ordingly brought to Rome, publicly burned alive, and his ashes were thrown into the Tiber, lest the ...tics should collect and worship the relics of their master. The same year, 1155, Adrian excommunicated William, king of Sicily, for ravaging the territories of the church ; but was afterwards reconciled to him, and honoured him with the title of King. of the Two Sicilies.
Adrian died in 1159, after a short, but enterprising- and igorous reign of four years and nine months ; during Which, though he added considerably to the dignity and power of the papal dominions, be found, as he wrote to his friend and countryman, John of Salisbury, that the pontificate was a situation of difficulty and danger ; and that its splendid crown often burns the head that wears it. Some of his letters and homilies are still extant. See Muratori. .S'cript. Per. hut. Plain. Baron. —In. xii. fume's Ihst. vol. i. p. 445. (d)