Pope Adrian I (Latin:Hadrianus I; 700 – 25 December 795) was thebishop of Rome and ruler of thePapal States from 1 February 772 until his death on 25 December 795.[1] Descended from a family of the military aristocracy of Rome known asdomini 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 betweenCharlemagne and his brotherCarloman I. The Lombard kingDesiderius 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 theDuchy of the Pentapolis. Charlemagne besiegedPavia and took the Lombard crown for himself. He then restored the Pentapolis to the Papacy as well as some of the captured Lombard territory.
Shortly after Adrian's accession in 772, the territory ruled by the papacy was invaded byDesiderius, king of theLombards, and Adrian was compelled to seek the assistance of theFrankish kingCharlemagne, who entered Italy with a large army. Charlemagne besieged Desiderius in his capital ofPavia. After taking the town, he banished the Lombard king to theAbbey of Corbie inFrance, and adopted the title "King of the Lombards" himself. The pope, whose expectations had been aroused, had to content himself with some additions to theDuchy of Rome, theExarchate of Ravenna, and thePentapolis in theMarches,[3] which consisted of the "five cities" on theAdriatic coast fromRimini toAncona with the coastal plain as far as the mountains. He celebrated the occasion by striking the earliest papal coin,[4] 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.[5] 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 theDomusculta Capracorum, the centralRoman villa that Adrian assembled from a nucleus of his inherited estates and acquisitions from neighbors in the countryside north ofVeii. The villa is documented inLiber 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 andvineyards,olives, vegetable gardens and piggery with its own grain mill, smithies andtile-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 (modernFaleria), mentioned in 998.[6]
While the Lombards had always been openly respectful of the papacy, the popes distrusted them. The popes had sought aid from theEastern 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.
Upon the death ofPepin the Short in 768, his kingdom was left to his sonsCharlemagne andCarloman 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 marriedHildegard, the daughter of CountGerold of Kraichgau and his wife Emma, daughter, in turn, ofDukeNebe (Hnabi) of Alemannia.[7] 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.[8] 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.[9]
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.[9] With Charlemagne occupied with a campaign against the Saxons, Desiderius saw an opportunity to take all of Italy. He invaded theDuchy 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".
15th-century miniature depicting Adrian I greeting theFrankish kingCharlemagne
From 781 Adrian began dating papal documents by the years of Charlemagne's reign, instead of the reign of theByzantine Emperor.[10]
Friendly relations between pope and king were not disturbed by the theological dispute about the veneration of icons.[11] In 787,Second Council of Nicaea, approved by Pope Adrian, had confirmed the practice and excommunicated theiconoclasts. Charlemagne, however, who had received the council's decisions only in a bad Latin translation, consulted with his theologians and sent the Pope theCapitulare contra synodum (792), a response critical of several passages found in the council's acts. He also had his theologians, includingTheodulf of Orleans, compose the more comprehensiveLibri Carolini. Pope Adrian reacted to the Capitulare with a defense of the council. In 794, a synod held atFrankfurt discussed the issue but refused to receive the Libri and contented itself with condemning extreme forms of veneration of icons.
Regarding the Muslims, he maintained the prohibition ofPope Zachary of selling slaves to Muslims, whom Adrian described as "the unspeakable race ofSaracens,"[12] in order to guarantee a labor pool and to keep the power of Muslim rivals in check.[13] He also encouraged Charlemagne to lead his troops into Spain against the Muslims there,[14] and was generally interested in expanding Christian influence and eliminating Muslim control.[15]
The rise in the number of Christian girls being married to Muslims inal-Andalus prompted a letter of concern from Adrian.[16] Adrian's response was due to dispatches from bishop Egila, who had been tasked with preaching the gospel in the peninsula.[16] Egila eventually fell in with theMigetians, a rigorist sect, provoking Adrian's condemnation.[17]
Adrian restored some of the ancientaqueducts of Rome and rebuilt the churches ofSanta Maria in Cosmedin, decorated by Greek monks fleeing from the iconoclast persecutions, and ofSan Marco in Rome. At the time of his death at the age of 95, his was the longest pontificate sinceSaint Peter (the first pope) until it was surpassed by the 24-year papacy ofPius VI in the late 18th century. Only three other popes –Pius IX,Leo XIII, andJohn Paul II – have reigned for longer periods since.
Adrian's epitaph was originally located in his burial chapel inSt. Peter's Basilica, which was demolished in the mid-15th century as reconstruction works were initiated byPope Nicholas V; since 1619 it has been preserved in theportico as rebuilt byCarlo Maderno.[18] It is placed high on the wall between theDoor of the Dead and the Door of Good and Evil.[19]Charlemagne commissioned it in 796 and organized a literary competition for the text, won byAlcuin; a competing entry byTheodulf of Orléans also survives.[20]: 347–351 Alcuin's text,[21][22] in which Charlemagne speaks affectionately of Adrian as his lost (spiritual) father, was carved inRoman square capitals onblack limestone fromSclayn in theMeuse valley, now inBelgium.[20]: 350 Its lettering has been described as "perfect and sharp" and is a notable exemplar of Carolingian monumental script.[23][24] The contemporaneousAnnals of Lorsch refer to Adrian's epitaph being made inFrancia and transported to Rome on Charlemagne's orders, and describe it as "written in gold letters on marble."[20]: 349
^Giorgio Schneider Graziosi,La «domus Theodorae» sull'Aventino, in «Bullettino della Commissione Archeologica Comunale di Roma» — 42.1915; pp. 339-340.
^Robin Blackburn (1998).The Making of New World Slavery: From the Baroque to the Modern, 1492–1800 (illustrated, reprint ed.). Verso. p. 43.ISBN9781859841952.
^John Victor Tolan; Gilles Veinstein; Henry Laurens (2013).Europe and the Islamic World: A History (illustrated ed.). Princeton University Press. p. 83.ISBN9780691147055.
^Alex Roberto Hybel (13 May 2013).Ideology in World Politics. Routledge. p. 30.ISBN9781134012503.
^Karolyn Kinane; Michael A. Ryan (9 Apr 2009).End of Days: Essays on the Apocalypse from Antiquity to Modernity. McFarland. p. 51.ISBN9780786453597.
^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.JSTOR292542.
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