An English Pope

Pope Adrian IV. was by birth an Englishman, and the only one of that nation who has ever occupied the papal chair. He was a native of Langley, near St. Albans, in Hertfordshire.

He was born before A.D. 1100; his real name was Nicholas Breakspear. He is said to have left England as a beggar, and to have become a servant or lay brother in a monastery near Avignon, in France, where he studied with such diligence that in 1137 he was elected abbot. His merits soon became known to Pope Eugenius III., who made him cardinal-bishop of Alba in 1146, and sent him two years later as his legate to Denmark and Norway, where he converted many of the inhabitants to Christianity.

Soon after his return to Rome, Nicholas was unanimously chosen pope, against his own inclination, November, 1154.

Henry II. of England, on hearing of his election, sent the abbot of St. Albans and three bishops to Rome with his congratulations. With Adrian began the long struggle between the papal power and the house of Hohenstaufen, which ended in the destruction of that dynasty.

Frederick Barbarossa entered Italy at the head of a large army, for the purpose of receiving the crown of Germany from the hands of the Pope; Adrian met him at Sutri.

The demand that he should hold the Pope's stirrup as a mark of respect was refused by Frederick, and not until after two days' negotiation was he induced to yield the desired homage.

His Holiness then conducted the emperor to Rome, where the ceremony of coronation took place in St. Peter's Church, A.D. 1155. It was in these transactions that the quarrel originated. The Pope addressed a letter to Frederick and the German bishops in 1157, asserting that the emperor held his dominions as a beneficium. This expression being interpreted as denoting feudal tenure, aroused in Frederick and the Germans the fiercest indignation. Explanations were attempted, but the breach could not be healed. Adrian was about to pronounce the sentence of excommunication upon Frederick, when he died at Anagni, Sept. I, 1159. During the pontificate of Adrian, the doctrine of Transubstantiation, advanced by Petrus Lombardus, was established.