of the Roman Church, and finally Regent of Spain. He was no less surprised than the rest of mankind when the intelligence reached him that the unanimous voice of the Sacred College had raised him to the highest dignity on earth. Appalling tasks lay before him in this darkest hour of the Papacy. 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 the Turks, who from Belgrade now threatened Hungary, and if Rhodes fell would be masters of the Mediterranean—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." Adrian accepted the responsibilities of his office with a full conception of their magnitude. Charles was elated at the news of the elevation of his tutor, but soon found that the new pontiff, notwithstanding his affection for him, was resolved to reign impartially. Francis I, on the contrary, who had looked upon Adrian as a mere tool of the Emperor, and had uttered threats of a schism, before long acquiesced, and sent an embassy to present his homage. Apprehensions of a Spanish Avignon were baseless; at the earliest possible date Adrian embarked for Italy, and made his solemn entry into Rome on 29 August. Two days later he received the triple crown. History presents no more pathetic figure than that of this noble pontiff, struggling single-handed against insurmountable difficulties. Through the reckless extravagances of his predecessor, the papal finances were in a sad tangle. Adrian's efforts to retrench expenses only gained for him from his needy courtiers the epithet of miser. Vested rights were quoted against his attempts to reform the curia. His nuncio to Germany, Chierigati, received but scant courtesy. His exaggerated acknowledgment that the Roman Court had been the fountainhead of all the corruptions in the Church was eagerly seized upon by the Reformers as a justification of their apostasy. His urgent appeals to the princes of Christendom to hasten to the defence of Rhodes found unheeding ears; on 24 October that valiantly defended bulwark of the Christian Faith fell into the hands of the Turks, a disaster which hastened the Pontiff's death. His unrelaxing activity and Rome's unhealthy climate combined to shatter his health. He died appropriately on the feast of the Exaltation of that Cross to which he had been nailed for more than a year (14 September, 1523). His monument, erected by his faithful friend, Wilhelm Enckenvoert, is still seen at Rome, in the national church of the Germans, Santa Maria dell' Anima, with its quaint inscription, so often admired, to the effect that even the best of men may be born in times unsuited to their virtues: "Proh Dolor! Quantum refert in quæ tempora vel optimi cujusque virtus incidat" [Gregorovius-Ampère "Les tombeaux des papes Romains" (Paris, 1859), 200, 201, 294, 295]. To the times, in fact, was it owing, not to any fault of his, that the friendship of the sixth Adrian and the fifth Charles did not revive the happy days of the first Adrian and the first and greatest of the Charleses.
Burrmann, Analecta Historica de Hadriano VI (Utrecht, 1727); Reussens, Syntagma Theolog. Adriani VI: Anecdota de vitâ et scriptis Adriani VI (Louvain, 1862); Gachard, Correspondence de Charles Quint et d'Adrien VI (Bruxelles, 1859); Robinson, The Month (1877), XXXI, 350; Pastor, Hist. Jahrb. (1882), III, 121–130. The classic studies on this pope's life are those of Constantine von Höfler, among others Der deutsche Kaiser und der letzte deutsche Papst (Vienna, 1876); Leben des Papstes Adrian VI (Vienna, 1880); cf. his article on Adrian VI in Kirchenlex., V, 1426–27. Artaud de Montor, Lives and Times of the Roman Pontiffs (tr. New York, 1867), I, 698–707. For an extensive bibliography of Adrian VI see Chevalier Bio-Bibliogr. (2d ed., Paris, 1905), 57, 58.
Adrian, Roman Emperor. See Hadrian; Roman Empire.
Adrian of Canterbury, Saint, an African by birth, d. 710. He became Abbot of Nerida, a Benedictine monastery near Naples, when he was very young. Pope Vitalian intended to appoint him Archbishop of Canterbury to succeed St. Deusdedit, who had died in 664, but Adrian considered himself unworthy of so great a dignity, and begged the Pope to appoint Theodore, a Greek monk, in his place. The Pope yielded, on condition that Adrian should accompany Theodore to England and be his adviser in the administration of the Diocese of Canterbury. They left Rome in 668, but Adrian was detained in France by Ebroin, the Mayor of the Palace, who suspected that he had a secret mission from the Eastern Emperor, Constans II, to the English kings. After two years Ebroin found that his suspicion had been groundless and allowed Adrian to proceed to England. Immediately upon his arrival in England, Archbishop Theodore appointed him Abbot of St. Peter in Canterbury, a monastery which had been founded by St. Augustine, the apostle of England, and became afterwards known as St. Austin's. Adrian accompanied Theodore on his apostolic visitations of England, and by his prudent advice and co-operation assisted the Archbishop in the great work of unifying the customs and practices of the Anglo-Saxon Church with those of the Church of Rome. Adrian was well versed in all the branches of ecclesiastical and profane learning. Under his direction the School of Canterbury became the centre of English learning. He established numerous other schools in various parts of England. In these schools of Adrian were educated many of the saints, scholars, and missionaries, who during the next century rekindled the waning light of faith and learning in France and Germany. After spending thirty-nine years in England Adrian died in the year 710 and was buried at Canterbury. His feast is celebrated 9 January, the day of his death.
Stanton, A Menology of England and Wales (London, 1892); Ranbeck, The Benedictine Calendar (London. 1896); Montalembert, The Monks of the West (Boston), II, 344; Butler, Lives of the Saints; Lechner, Martyrologium des Benediktiner-Ordens (Augsburg, 1852); St. Bede. Life of Adrian, in Hist. Eccl., tr. by Baring-Gould, Lives of the Saints, 9 January.
Adrian of Castello, also called de Corneto, from his birthplace in Tuscany, an Italian prelate distinguished as a statesman and reviver of learning, b. about 1460; d. about 1521. In 1488 he was sent by Innocent VIII as nuncio to Scotland, but was recalled when the news of the death of James III reached Rome. However, Adrian had arrived in England and gained the favour of Henry VII, who appointed him as his agent at Rome. In 1489 he returned to England as collector of Peter's-pence and in 1492 obtained the prebend of Ealdland in St. Paul's Cathedral, and the rectory of St. Dunstan-in-the-East. On the death of Innocent VIII, he returned to Rome, where he acted as a secretary in the Papal treasury and also as ambassador of Henry VII. In 1502, he was promoted to the Bishopric of Hereford. In 1503 Alexander VI raised him to the cardinalate with the title of St. Chrysogonus. After the death of Alexander VI, Adrian's influence in Rome declined. In 1504 he was translated to the Bishopric of Bath and Wells, but never occupied the see. In 1509, fearing the displeasure of Julius II, he left Rome for Venice, and later for Trent, where he remained until the death of Julius and the election of Leo X, when he returned to Rome (1511). He was again, in 1517, implicated in a charge of conspiring with Cardinal Petrucci to poison the Pope, and confessed to having been privy to the affair. He was forgiven by Leo, but found it safer to escape
