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Pope Adrian I

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Pope
Adrian I
Bishop of Rome
Denarius of Adrian I
Denarius of Adrian I
Church Catholic Church
Papacy began 1 February 772
Papacy ended 25 December 795
Predecessor Stephen III
Successor Leo III
Orders
Consecration 9 February 772
Personal details
Born 700
Rome, Italy, Eastern Roman Empire
Died 25 December 795 (aged 94-95)
Rome, Papal States
Other popes named Adrian

Pope Adrian I (Latin: Hadrianus I; 700 – 25 December 795) was the bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States from 1 February 772 until his death on 25 December 795.[1] Descended from a family of the military aristocracy of Rome known as domini de via Lata,[2] he was the son of Theodore, who died when Hadrian was still very young; he was welcomed by his paternal uncle Theodotus (or Theodatus) consul, dux et primicerius Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae.

Adrian and his predecessors had to contend with periodic attempts by the Lombards to expand their holdings in Italy at the expense of the papacy. Not receiving any support from Constantinople, the popes looked for help to the Franks. Adrian's tenure saw the culmination of on-going territorial disputes between Charlemagne and his brother Carloman I. The Lombard king Desiderius supported the claims of Carloman's sons to their late father's land, and requested Pope Adrian crown Carloman's sons "Kings of the Franks". When the Pope failed to do so, Desiderius invaded Papal territory and seized the Duchy of the Pentapolis. Charlemagne besieged Pavia and took the Lombard crown for himself. He then restored the Pentapolis to the Papacy as well as some of the captured Lombard territory.

Start of papacy

Shortly after Adrian's accession in 772, the territory ruled by the papacy was invaded by Desiderius, king of the Lombards, and Adrian was compelled to seek the assistance of the Frankish king Charlemagne, who entered Italy with a large army. Charlemagne besieged Desiderius in his capital of Pavia. After taking the town, he banished the Lombard king to the Abbey of Corbie in France, and adopted the title "King of the Lombards" himself. The pope, whose expectations had been aroused, had to content himself with some additions to the Duchy of Rome, the Exarchate of Ravenna, and the Pentapolis in the Marches, which consisted of the "five cities" on the Adriatic coast from Rimini to Ancona with the coastal plain as far as the mountains. He celebrated the occasion by striking the earliest papal coin,[3] and in a mark of the direction the mediaeval papacy was to take, no longer dated his documents by the Emperor in the east, but by the reign of Charles, king of the Franks.[4] He recognized the authority of Pope Adrian I, and in return the pope gave Charlemagne the title of "Patrician of Rome".

A mark of such newly settled conditions in the Duchy of Rome is the Domusculta Capracorum, the central Roman villa that Adrian assembled from a nucleus of his inherited estates and acquisitions from neighbors in the countryside north of Veii. The villa is documented in Liber Pontificalis, but its site was not rediscovered until the 1960s, when excavations revealed the structures on a gently rounded hill that was only marginally capable of self-defense, but fully self-sufficient for a mixed economy of grains and vineyards, olives, vegetable gardens and piggery with its own grain mill, smithies and tile-kilns. During the 10th century, villages were carved out of Adrian's Capracorum estate: Campagnano, mentioned first in 1076; Formello, mentioned in 1027; Mazzano, mentioned in 945; and Stabia (modern Faleria), mentioned in 998.[5]

Foreign relations

Lombards

While the Lombards had always been openly respectful of the papacy, the popes distrusted them. The popes had sought aid from the Eastern Roman Empire to keep them in check. Adrian continued this policy. Because the East could offer no direct aid, Adrian then looked to the Franks to offset the power of the Lombards.

Background

Upon the death of Pepin the Short in 768, his kingdom was left to his sons Charlemagne and Carloman I. Relations between the brothers were said to be strained. In 770 Tassilo III, Duke of Bavaria married a Lombard princess, Liutperga, daughter of King Desiderius, to confirm the traditional alliance between Lombardy and Bavaria. That same year, Charlemagne concluded a treaty with Duke Tassilo, and married Liutperga's sister, Desiderata, to surround Carloman with his own allies. Less than a year later, Charlemagne repudiated Desiderata and married Hildegard, the daughter of Count Gerold of Kraichgau and his wife Emma, daughter, in turn, of Duke Nebe (Hnabi) of Alemannia.[6] Hildegard's father had extensive possessions in the territory under Carloman's dominion. This marriage was advantageous to Charlemagne because it allowed him to strengthen his position east of the Rhine and also bind the Alemannian nobility to his side.[7] With Desiderata's return to her father's court at Pavia, Desiderius was grievously insulted, and appears to have made an alliance with Carloman against Charlemagne and the Papacy, which looked to the Franks for protection against Lombard incursions into Papal territory.[8]

Italy

Carloman died in December 771, and when Charlemagne seized his brother's territory, Carloman's widow, Gerberga, and their two sons fled for refuge to the Lombard court at Pavia. Desiderius made overtures to Pope Adrian, requesting that he acknowledge Carloman's sons' right to succeed their father, and crown them as Kings of the Franks.[8] With Charlemagne occupied with a campaign against the Saxons, Desiderius saw an opportunity to take all of Italy. He invaded the Duchy of the Pentapolis which had been given to the papacy in 756 by Charlemagne's father. Desiderius's support of the claims of Carloman's sons posed a potential challenge to the legitimacy of Charlemagne's possession of his brother's lands. In 773, he cut short a military campaign near Paderborn, crossed the Alps, and laid siege to Pavia. In exchange for their lives, the Lombards surrendered and Desiderius was sent to the abbey of Corbie. Charlemagne assumed the title "King of the Lombards".

Franks

From 781 Adrian began dating papal documents by the years of Charlemagne's reign, instead of the reign of the Byzantine Emperor.[9]

Friendly relations between pope and king were not disturbed by the theological dispute about the veneration of icons.[10] In 787, Second Council of Nicaea, approved by Pope Adrian, had confirmed the practice and excommunicated the iconoclasts. Charlemagne, however, who had received the council's decisions only in a bad Latin translation, consulted with his theologians and sent the Pope the Capitulare contra synodum (792), a response critical of several passages found in the council's acts. He also had his theologians, including Theodulf of Orleans, compose the more comprehensive Libri Carolini. Pope Adrian reacted to the Capitulare with a defense of the council. In 794, a synod held at Frankfurt discussed the issue but refused to receive the Libri and contented itself with condemning extreme forms of veneration of icons.

English

In 787 Adrian elevated the English diocese of Lichfield to an archdiocese at the request of the English bishops and King Offa of Mercia to balance the ecclesiastic power in that land between Kent and Mercia. He gave the Lichfield bishop Hygeberht the pallium in 788.

Muslim Spain

Regarding the Muslims, he maintained the prohibition of Pope Zachary of selling slaves to Muslims, whom Adrian described as "the unspeakable race of Saracens,"[11] in order to guarantee a labor pool and to keep the power of Muslim rivals in check.[12] He also encouraged Charlemagne to lead his troops into Spain against the Muslims there,[13] and was generally interested in expanding Christian influence and eliminating Muslim control.[14]

The rise in the number of Christian girls being married to Muslims in al-Andalus prompted a letter of concern from Adrian.[15] Adrian's response was due to dispatches from bishop Egila, who had been tasked with preaching the gospel in the peninsula.[15] Egila eventually fell in with the Migetians, a rigorist sect, provoking Adrian's condemnation.[16]

Legacy

Adrian restored some of the ancient aqueducts of Rome and rebuilt the churches of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, decorated by Greek monks fleeing from the iconoclast persecutions, and of San Marco in Rome. At the time of his death at the age of 95, his was the longest pontificate since Saint Peter (the first pope) until it was surpassed by the 24-year papacy of Pius VI in the late 18th century. Only three other popes – Pius IX, Leo XIII, and John Paul II – have reigned for longer periods since.

Epitaph

Adrian's epitaph was originally located in his burial chapel in St. Peter's Basilica, which was demolished in the mid-15th century as reconstruction works were initiated by Pope Nicholas V; since 1619 it has been preserved in the portico as rebuilt by Carlo Maderno.[17] It is placed high on the wall between the Door of the Dead and the Door of Good and Evil.[18] Charlemagne commissioned it in 796 and organized a literary competition for the text, won by Alcuin; a competing entry by Theodulf of Orléans also survives.[19]: 347–351 Alcuin's text,[20][21] in which Charlemagne speaks affectionately of Adrian as his lost (spiritual) father, was carved in Roman square capitals on black limestone from Sclayn in the Meuse valley, now in Belgium.[19]: 350 Its lettering has been described as "perfect and sharp" and is a notable exemplar of Carolingian monumental script.[22][23] The contemporaneous Annals of Lorsch refer to Adrian's epitaph being made in Francia and transported to Rome on Charlemagne's orders, and describe it as "written in gold letters on marble."[19]: 349

See also

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

Pope Adrian I, from about 1 February, 772, till 25 December, 795; date of birth uncertain; d. 25 December, 795. His pontificate of twenty-three years, ten months, and twenty-four days was unequalled in length by that of any successor of St. Peter until a thousand years later, when Pius VI, deposed and imprisoned by the same Frankish arms which had enthroned the first Pope-King, surpassed Adrian by a pontificate six months longer. At a critical period in the history of the Papacy, Adrian possessed all the qualities essential in the founder of a new dynasty. He was a Roman of noble extraction and majestic stature. By a life of singular piety, by accomplishments deemed extraordinary in that iron age, and by valuable services rendered during the pontificate of Paul I and Stephen III, he had so gained the esteem of his unruly countrymen that the powerful chamberlain, Paul Afiarta, who represented in Rome the interests of Desiderius, the Lombard king, was powerless to resist the unanimous voice of the clergy and people demanding for Adrian the papal chair. The new pontiff's temporal policy was, from the first, sharply defined and tenaciously adhered to; the keynote was a steadfast resistance to Lombard aggression. He released from prison or recalled from exile the numerous victims of the chamberlain's violence; and, upon discovering that Afiarta had caused Sergius, a high official of the papal court, to be assassinated in prison, ordered his arrest in Rimini, just as Afiarta was returning from an embassy to Desiderius with the avowed intention of bringing the Pope to the Lombard court, "were it even in chains." The time seemed propitious for subjecting all Italy to the Lombard rule; and with less able antagonists than Adrian and Charles (to be famous in later ages as Charlemagne), most probably the ambition of Desiderius would have been gratified. There seemed little prospect of Frankish intervention. The Lombards held the passes of the Alps, and Charles was engrossed by the difficulties of the Saxon war; moreover, the presence in Pavia of Gerberga and her two sons, the widow and orphans of Carloman, whose territories, on his brother's death, Charles had annexed, seemed to offer an excellent opportunity of stirring up discord among the Franks, if only the Pope could be persuaded, or coerced, to anoint the children as heirs to their father's throne. Instead of complying, Adrian valiantly determined upon resistance. He strengthened the fortifications of Rome, called to the aid of the militia the inhabitants of the surrounding territory, and, as the Lombard host advanced, ravaging and plundering summoned Charles to hasten to the defence of their common interests. An opportune lull in the Saxon war left the great commander free to act. Unable to bring the deceitful Lombard to terms by peaceful overtures, he scaled the Alps in the autumn of 773, seized Verona, where Gerberga and her sons had sought refuge, and besieged Desiderius in his capital. The following spring, leaving his army to prosecute the siege of Pavia, he proceeded with a strong detachment to Rome, in order to celebrate the festival of Easter at the tomb of the Apostles. Arriving on Holy Saturday, he was received by Adrian and the Romans with the utmost solemnity. The next three days were devoted to religious rites; the following Wednesday to affairs of state. The enduring outcome of their momentous meeting was the famous "Donation of Charlemagne", for eleven centuries the Magna Charta of the temporal power of the Popes. (See Charlemagne.) Duchesne's thorough and impartial investigation of its authenticity in his edition of the Liber Pontificalis (I, ccxxxv–ccxliii) would seem to have dissipated any reasonable doubt. Two months later Pavia fell into the hands of Charles; the kingdom of the Lombards was extinguished, and the Papacy was forever delivered from its persistent and hereditary foe. Nominally, Adrian was now monarch of above two-thirds of the Italian peninsula; but his sway was little more than nominal. Over a great portion of the district mentioned in the Donation, the papal claims were permitted to lapse. To gain and regain the rest, Charles was forced to make repeated expeditions across the Alps. We may well doubt whether the great King of the Franks would have suffered the difficulties of the Pope to interfere with his more immediate cares, were it not for his extreme personal veneration of Adrian, whom in life and death he never ceased to proclaim his father and best friend It was in no slight degree owing to Adrian's political sagacity, vigilance, and activity, that the temporal power of the Papacy did not remain a fiction of the imagination.

His merits were equally great in the more spiritual concerns of the Church. In co-operation with the orthodox Empress Irene, he laboured to repair the damages wrought by the Iconoclastic storms. In the year 787 he presided, through his legates, over the Seventh General Council, held at Nicæa, in which the Catholic doctrine regarding the use and veneration of images was definitely expounded. The importance of the temporary opposition to the decrees of the Council throughout the West, caused mainly by a defective translation, aggravated by political motives, has been greatly exaggerated in modern times. The controversy elicited a strong refutation of the so-called Libri Carolini from Pope Adrian and occasioned no diminution of friendship between him and Charles. He opposed most vigorously, by synods and writings, the nascent heresy of Adoptionism (q.v.), one of the few Christological errors originated by the West. The Liber Pontificalis enlarges upon his merits in embellishing the city of Rome, upon which he is said to have expended fabulous sums. He died universally regretted, and was buried in St. Peter's. His epitaph, ascribed to his lifelong friend, Charlemagne, is still extant. Rarely have the priesthood and the empire worked together so harmoniously, and with such beneficent results to the Church and to humanity, as during the lifetime of these two great rulers. The chief sources of our information as to Adrian are the Life in the Liber Pontificalis (q.v.), and his letters to Charlemagne, preserved by the latter in his Codex Carolinus. Estimates of Adrian's work and character by modern historians differ with the varying views of writers regarding the temporal sovereignty of the popes, of which Adrian I must be considered the real founder.

Liber Pontificalis (ed. Duchesne), I, 486–523, and præf. CCXXXIV sq.; Id., Les premiers temps de l'état pontifical (Paris, 1898); Jaffé, Regesta RR. PP. (2d ed.), I, 289–306, II. 701; Id., Bibl. Rer. Germanic. (Codicis Carol. Epistolæ), IV, 13–306; Cenni, Monum. dominat. pontif. (1761), II, 289–316, also in P.L. XCVIII; Mann, The Lives of the Popes in the Early Middle Ages (London, 1902), I, II, 395–496; Hefele, History of the Councils (tr.), III, passim; Niehues, Gesch. d. Verhältnisses zwischen dem Kaiserthum u. Papsthum im Mittelalter (Münster, 1877), I, 517–546; Gosselin, Power of the Pope in the Middle Ages (Baltimore, 1853), I, 230 sq.; Schnürer, Entstehung des Kirchenstaates (Cologne, 1894). For a bibliography of Adrian I see Chevalier, Bio-Bibliogr. (2d ed., Paris, 1905), 55, 56.

References

  1. Back to citation Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Pope Adrian I". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  2. Back to citation Giorgio Schneider Graziosi, La «domus Theodorae» sull'Aventino, in «Bullettino della Commissione Archeologica Comunale di Roma» — 42.1915; pp. 339-340.
  3. Back to citation Lane-Poole, Stanley (1885). Coins and medals: their place in history and art. British Museum. p. 80.
  4. Back to citation Ullmann, Walter (2003). A Short History of the Papacy in the Middle Age. London: Routledge. p. 79. ISBN 978-0415302272.
  5. Back to citation Ward-Perkins, J. B. (1962). "Etruscan Towns, Roman Roads and Medieval Villages: The Historical Geography of Southern Etruria". The Geographical Journal. 128 (4): 389–404 [p. 402]. Bibcode:1962GeogJ.128.389W. doi:10.2307/1792035. JSTOR 1792035.
  6. Back to citation Reinhard Barth: Karl der Große, Munich 2000, pp. 97–98.
  7. Back to citation Matthias Becher: Karl der Große, München 1999, p. 108.
  8. Back to citation occurrence 8.0 Back to citation occurrence 8.1 McKitterick, Rosamond, The Frankish Kingdoms under the Carolingians
  9. Back to citation Asimov, I. (1968) The Dark Ages, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, p. 157.
  10. Back to citation Chisholm 1911.
  11. Back to citation Robin Blackburn (1998). The Making of New World Slavery: From the Baroque to the Modern, 1492–1800 (illustrated, reprint ed.). Verso. p. 43. ISBN 9781859841952.
  12. Back to citation John Victor Tolan; Gilles Veinstein; Henry Laurens (2013). Europe and the Islamic World: A History (illustrated ed.). Princeton University Press. p. 83. ISBN 9780691147055.
  13. Back to citation Alex Roberto Hybel (13 May 2013). Ideology in World Politics. Routledge. p. 30. ISBN 9781134012503.
  14. Back to citation Karolyn Kinane; Michael A. Ryan (9 Apr 2009). End of Days: Essays on the Apocalypse from Antiquity to Modernity. McFarland. p. 51. ISBN 9780786453597.
  15. Back to citation occurrence 15.0 Back to citation occurrence 15.1 Barton 2015, p. 21.
  16. Back to citation Cavadini 1988, p. 32.
  17. Back to citation Joanna Story; Judith Bunbury; Anna Candida Felici; Gabriele Fronterotta; Mario Piacentini; Chiara Nicolais; Daria Scacciatelli; Sebastiano Sciuti; Margherita Vendittelli (9 August 2013). "Charlemagne's black marble: the origin of the epitaph of Pope Hadrian I". Papers of the British School at Rome. 73. Cambridge University Press: 157–190. doi:10.1017/S0068246200003019. hdl:2381/2532. S2CID 191454077.
  18. Back to citation "The Portico". St Peter's Basilica.info.
  19. Back to citation occurrence 19.0 Back to citation occurrence 19.1 Back to citation occurrence 19.2 Janet L. Nelson (2019). King and Emperor: A New Life of Charlemagne. Oakland CA: University of California Press.
  20. Back to citation "Vatican, St. Peter, epitaph of pope Hadrian I (taken from Silvagni 1943, pl. II, fig. 6)". ResearchGate.
  21. Back to citation Joanna Story (2023). Charlemagne and Rome: Alcuin and the Epitaph of Pope Hadrian I. Oxford University Press. pp. xxii–xxiii. doi:10.1093/oso/9780199206346.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-920634-6.
  22. Back to citation Luitpold Wallach (1951). "Alcuin's Epitaph of Hadrian I: A Study In Carolingian Epigraphy". The American Journal of Philology. 72 (2). The Johns Hopkins University Press: 128–144. doi:10.2307/292542. JSTOR 292542.
  23. Back to citation Flavia Frauzel (2014). "The Carolingian Graphic Reform in Italy: Effects on Epigraphy". Academia.edu.

Bibliography

  • Barton, Simon (2015). Conquerors, Brides, and Concubines: Interfaith Relations and Social Power in Medieval Iberia. University of Pennsylvania Press.
  • Cavadini, John C. (1988). The Last Christology of the West: Adoptionism in Spain and in Gaul, AD 785–817 (Doctoral thesis). Yale University.
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