Pope Adrian VI (Latin:Hadrianus VI;Italian:Adriano VI;German:Hadrian VI.;Dutch:Adrianus/Adriaan VI), bornAdriaan Florensz Boeyens[1] (2 March 1459 – 14 September 1523), was head of theCatholic Church and ruler of thePapal States from 9 January 1522 until his death on 14 September 1523. The onlyDutchman to becomepope, he was the last non-Italian pope until the PolishJohn Paul II 455 years later.[2]
Adrian came to the papacy in the midst of one of its greatest crises, threatened not only byLutheranism to the north but also by the advance of theOttoman Turks to the east. He refused to compromise with Lutheranism theologically, demandingLuther's condemnation as aheretic. However, he is noted for having attempted toreform the Catholic Church administration in response to theProtestant Reformation. Adrian's admission that theRoman Curia itself was at fault for the turmoil in the Church was read at the 1522–1523Diet of Nuremberg.
His efforts at reform proved fruitless, as they were resisted by most of his contemporaries, and he did not live long enough to see his efforts through to their conclusion. He was succeeded by the secondMedici pope,Clement VII. Adrian VI andMarcellus II are the only popes of the modern era to retain theirbaptismal names after their election. Adrian VI is the last pope to date to take on the pontifical name "Adrian".
Adriaan Florensz was born on 2 March 1459 in the city ofUtrecht, which was then the capital of the Prince-Bishopric of Utrecht,[3] a part of theBurgundian Netherlands in theHoly Roman Empire. He was born into modest circumstances as the son of Florens Boeyensz, also born in Utrecht, and his wife Geertruid. He had three older brothers, Jan, Cornelius, and Claes.[4] Adrian consistently signed withAdrianus Florentii orAdrianus de Traiecto ("Adrian of Utrecht") in later life, suggesting that his family did not yet have a surname but used patronymics only.[5]
Adrian was probably raised in a house on the corner of the Brandstraat and Oude Gracht that was owned by his grandfather Boudewijn (Boeyen, for short). His father, a carpenter and likelyshipwright, died when Adrian was 10 years or younger.[6] Adrian studied from a very young age under theBrethren of the Common Life, either atZwolle orDeventer and was also a student of theLatin school (nowGymnasium Celeanum) inZwolle.[7]
In June 1476, he started his studies at theUniversity of Leuven,[8] where he pursued philosophy,theology andCanon Law, thanks to a scholarship granted byMargaret of York, Duchess of Burgundy. In 1478 he had the title ofPrimus Philosophiae, as well as that ofMagister Artium (that is, he took his undergraduate degree). In 1488 he was chosen by the Faculty of Arts to be their representative on the Council of the university.[9]
On 30 June 1490, Adrian was ordained a priest.[10]
After the regular 12 years of study, Adrian became aDoctor of Theology in 1491. He had been a teacher at the university since 1490, was chosenvice-chancellor of the university in 1493, andDean ofSt. Peter's in 1498. In the latter function he was permanent vice-chancellor of the university and de facto in charge of hiring. His lectures were published, as recreated from his students' notes; among those who attended was the youngErasmus. Adrian offered him a professorate in 1502, but Erasmus refused.[5]
In 1515, Charles sent Adrian to Spain to convince his maternal grandfather,Ferdinand II of Aragon, that the Spanish lands should come under his rule, and not Charles's Spanish-born younger brotherFerdinand, whom his grandfather had in mind. Adrian succeeded in that just before Ferdinand's death in January 1516.[5] Ferdinand of Aragon,[11] and subsequently Charles V, appointed AdrianBishop of Tortosa, which was approved by Pope Leo X on 18 August 1516.[12] He was consecrated by Bishop Diego Ribera de Toledo.
On 14 November 1516 the King commissioned himInquisitor General of Aragon.
During the minority of Charles V, Adrian was named to serve with CardinalFrancisco Jimenez de Cisneros asco-regent of Spain. After the death of Jimenez, Adrian was appointed (14 March 1518) General of the ReunitedInquisitions ofCastile andAragon, in which capacity he acted until his departure forRome.[14] When Charles V left Spain for the Netherlands in 1520, he appointed Cardinal AdrianRegent of Spain, during which time he had to deal with theRevolt of the Comuneros.
In the conclave after the death of the MediciPope Leo X, Leo's cousin, CardinalGiulio de' Medici, was the leading figure. With Spanish and French cardinals in a deadlock, the absent Adrian was proposed as a compromise and on 9 January 1522 he was elected by an almost unanimous vote. Charles V was delighted upon hearing that his tutor had been elected to the papacy but soon realised that Adrian VI was determined to reign impartially.Francis I of France, who feared that Adrian would become a tool of the Emperor, and had uttered threats of a schism, later relented and sent an embassy to present his homage.[15]
Fears of a SpanishAvignon based on the strength of his relationship with the Emperor as his former tutor and regent proved baseless, and Adrian, having notified the College of Cardinals of his acceptance,[16] left for Italy after six months of preparations and trying to decide which route to take, making his solemn entry into Rome on 29 August. He had forbidden elaborate decorations, and many people stayed away for fear of the plague that was raging. Pope Adrian wascrowned atSt. Peter's Basilica on 31 August 1522, at the age of 63.[17]
He immediately entered upon the path of the reformer. The 1908 edition of theCatholic Encyclopedia characterised the task that faced him:
"To extirpate inveterate abuses; to reform a court which thrived on corruption, and detested the very name of reform; to hold in leash young and warlike princes, ready to bound at each other's throats; to stem the rising torrent of revolt in Germany; to save Christendom from theTurks, who fromBelgrade now threatenedHungary, and ifRhodes fell would be masters of theMediterranean - these were herculean labours for one who was in his sixty-third year, had never seen Italy, and was sure to be despised by the Romans as a 'barbarian'.[3]
His plan was to attack notorious abuses one by one; however, in his attempt to improve the system ofindulgences he was hampered by his cardinals. He found reduction of the number ofmatrimonial dispensations to be impossible, as the income had been farmed out for years in advance byPope Leo X.[14]
Portrait of Pope Adrian VI (1568)
Adrian VI was not successful as a peacemaker among Christian princes, whom he hoped to unite in a war against the Turks. In August 1523 he was forced into an alliance with theEmpire,England, andVenice againstFrance; meanwhile, in 1522Suleiman the Magnificent (1520–66) had conquered Rhodes.[18]
In his reaction to the early stages of theLutheran revolt, Adrian VI did not completely understand the gravity of the situation. At theDiet of Nuremberg, which opened in December 1522, he was represented byFrancesco Chieregati, whose private instructions contain the frank admission that the disorder of the Church was perhaps the fault of theRoman Curia itself, and that it should be reformed.[19][20] However, the former professor and Inquisitor General was strongly opposed to any change in doctrine, and demanded thatMartin Luther be punished for teachingheresy.[14]
Charles V's ambassador in Rome,Juan Manuel, lord of Belmonte, wrote that he was worried that Charles's influence over Adrian waned after Adrian's election, writing "The Pope is 'deadly afraid' of the College of Cardinals. He does whatever two or three cardinals write to him in the name of the college."[24]
Adrian VI died in Rome on 14 September 1523, after one year, eight months and six days as pope.[3] Most of his official papers were lost after his death. He publishedQuaestiones in quartum sententiarum praesertim circa sacramenta (Paris, 1512, 1516, 1518, 1537; Rome, 1522), andQuaestiones quodlibeticae XII. (1st ed., Leuven, 1515).[14] He is buried in theSanta Maria dell'Anima church in Rome.[3]
He bequeathed property in the Low Countries for the foundation of a college at the University of Leuven that became known asPope's College.[25]
The birth house of Pope Adrian and accompanying poem. Detail of an engraving of 'Famous Dutch Men and Women'.
The first series of engravings used to educate Dutch school children at the turn of the 18th century includes Adrian VI in its woodcut on 'Famous Dutch Men and Women' with the following poem:
In Utrecht wijst men nog dit huis den vreemdeling aan,
En noemt het om zijn naam 't huis van Paus Adriaan,
Nog praalt 's mans borstbeeld in den gevel. Min verheven
Was 't het stamhuis van dien Paus, een schuitemakers zoon,
Zijn naam blijft nog vol lof op duizend tongen zweeven,
Kort droeg hij, maar met roem, de pauselijke kroon.'
In Utrecht they still point out this house to strangers,
^Popes from outside Italy were sometimes qualified by the Italian phrasepontefice barbaro,'foreign pope', with Pope Adrian VI being the most strongly associated with this phrase as the last such Pope for a significant period of time.Loughlin, James Francis. "Pope Adrian VI". InHerbermann, Charles George (ed.).Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 1 (1913 ed.).New York City, USA: Robert Appleton Company. p. 159 – viaWikisource. [scan]
Gregorovius, Ferdinand.The History of Rome in the Middle Ages (translated from the fourth German edition by A. Hamilton) Volume 8 part 2 [Book XIV, Chapter 4-5] (London 1902)
Gross, Ernie.This Day In Religion. New York:Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc, 1990.ISBN1-55570-045-4.
Gulik, Guilelmus van; Konrad Eubel (1923). L. Schmitz-Kallenberg (ed.).Hierarchia catholica medii aevi (in Latin). Vol. III (editio altera ed.). Münster: sumptibus et typis librariae Regensbergianae.
Karl Adolf Constantin, Ritter von Höfler (1880).Papst Adrian VI. 1522–1523 (in German). Vienna: Wilhelm Braumüller.
Luther, Martin.Luther's Correspondence and Other Contemporary Letters, 2 vols., tr.and ed. by Preserved Smith, Charles Michael Jacobs, The Lutheran Publication Society, Philadelphia, Pa. 1913, 1918.vol.I (1507–1521) andvol.2 (1521–1530) fromGoogle Books. Reprint of Vol.1, Wipf & Stock Publishers (March 2006).ISBN1-59752-601-0
Malerba, Luigi.Le maschere, Milan: A. Mondadori, 1995.ISBN88-04-39366-1
McNally, Robert E. (1969). "Pope Adrian VI (1522-23) and Church Reform".Archivum Historiae Pontificiae.7:253–285.JSTOR23563708.
Pasolini, Guido.Adriano VI. Saggio Storico (Rome, 1913).
Pastor, Ludwig.History of the Popes (tr. R.F. Kerr) Volume VIII (St. Louis 1908).
Paulus Jovius, "Vita Hadriani VI," in Gaspar Burmann,Analecta historica de Hadriano Sexto (Utrecht 1727) 85–150.
Rodocanachi, E. (1931). "La jeunesse d' Adrien VI".Revue Historique.56 (2):300–307.JSTOR40944759.
Verweij, Michiel.Adrianus VI (1459–1523): de tragische paus uit de Nederlanden, Antwerpen & Apeldoorn: Garant Publishers, 2011.ISBN90-44-12664-4
Coster, Wim (2003),Metamorfoses. Een geschiedenis van het Gymnasium Celeanum, Zwolle: Waanders,ISBN978-90-400-8847-6
Creighton, Mandell (1919),A History of the Papacy from the Great Schism to the Sack of Rome, vol. 6, New York: Longmans, Green
Duke, Alastair (2009), "The Elusive Netherlands: The Question of National Identity in the Early Modern Low Countries on the Eve of the Revolt", in Duke, Alastair; Pollmann, Judith; Spicer, Andrew (eds.),Dissident identities in the early modern Low Countries, Farnham: Ashgate Publishers, pp. 9–57,ISBN978-0-7546-5679-1
Howell, Robert B. (2000), "The Low Countries: A Study in Sharply Contrasting Nationalisms", in Barbour, Stephen; Carmichael, Cathie (eds.),Language and nationalism in Europe, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 130–50,ISBN978-0-19-823671-9
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