Editing Pope Adrian I

{{Short description|Head of the Catholic Church from 772 to 795}}
{{redirect|Hadrian I|the Roman emperor|Hadrian}}
{{Infobox Christian leader
| type = Pope
| honorific-prefix = [[List of popes|Pope]]
| name = Adrian I
| title = [[Bishop of Rome]]
| church = [[Catholic Church]]
| birth_name = 
| term_start = 1 February 772
| term_end = 25 December 795
| predecessor = [[Pope Stephen III|Stephen III]]
| successor = [[Pope Leo III|Leo III]]
| consecration = 9 February 772
| cardinal = 
| birth_date = 700
| birth_place = [[Rome]], [[Exarchate of Italy|Italy]], [[Eastern Roman Empire]]
| death_date = 25 December 795 (aged 94-95)
| death_place = [[Rome]], [[Papal States]]
| other = Adrian
}}

'''Pope Adrian I''' ({{langx|la|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.<ref name="ce">{{CathEncy|wstitle=Pope Adrian I}}</ref> He was the son of Theodore, a Roman nobleman.

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 [[Franks|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 [[Duchy of the Pentapolis|Pentapolis]] in the [[Marches]],<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=1|wstitle=Adrian (popes)|display=Adrian|volume=1|page=215}}</ref> 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,<ref>{{cite book |first=Stanley |last=Lane-Poole |title=Coins and medals: their place in history and art |publisher=British Museum |year=1885 |page=80 }}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite book |first=Walter |last=Ullmann| author-link = Walter Ullmann|title=A Short History of the Papacy in the Middle Age |year=2003 |location=London |publisher=Routledge |page=79 |isbn=978-0415302272 }}</ref> 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 [[vineyard]]s, [[olive]]s, vegetable gardens and piggery with its own grain mill, smithies and [[tile-kiln]]s. During the 10th century, villages were carved out of Adrian's Capracorum estate: [[Campagnano di Roma|Campagnano]], mentioned first in 1076; [[Formello]], mentioned in 1027; [[Mazzano Romano|Mazzano]], mentioned in 945; and Stabia (modern [[Faleria]]), mentioned in 998.<ref>{{cite journal |first=J. B. |last=Ward-Perkins |title=Etruscan Towns, Roman Roads and Medieval Villages: The Historical Geography of Southern Etruria |journal=[[The Geographical Journal]] |volume=128 |issue=4 |year=1962 |pages=389–404 [p. 402] |jstor=1792035 |doi= 10.2307/1792035|bibcode=1962GeogJ.128..389W }}</ref>

==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 of the Lombards|Desiderata]], to surround Carloman with his own allies. Less than a year later, Charlemagne repudiated Desiderata and married [[Hildegard (queen)|Hildegard]], the daughter of Count [[Gerold of Kraichgau]] and his wife Emma, daughter, in turn, of [[Duke of Alemannia|Duke]] [[Hnabi|Nebe (Hnabi)]] of Alemannia.<ref>Reinhard Barth: ''Karl der Große'', Munich 2000, pp. 97–98.</ref> 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.<ref>Matthias Becher: ''Karl der Große'', München 1999, p. 108.</ref> 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.<ref name=McKitterick>McKitterick, Rosamond, ''The Frankish Kingdoms under the Carolingians''</ref>

====Italy====
[[File:Iron Crown.JPG|thumb|The [[Iron Crown of Lombardy]], for centuries a symbol of the [[King of Italy|Kings of Italy]]]]
Carloman died in December 771, and when Charlemagne seized his brother's territory, Carloman's widow, [[Gerberga, wife of Carloman I|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.<ref name=McKitterick/> 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===
[[File:Charlemagne and Pope Adrian I.jpg|thumb|15th Century miniature depicting Adrian I greeting the [[Franks|Frankish]] king [[Charlemagne]]]]
From 781 Adrian began dating papal documents by the years of Charlemagne's reign, instead of the reign of the [[Byzantine Emperor]].<ref>Asimov, I. (1968) ''The Dark Ages'', Boston: Houghton Mifflin, p. 157.</ref>

Friendly relations between pope and king were not disturbed by the theological dispute about the veneration of icons.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} In 787, [[Seventh Ecumenical Council|Second Council of Nicaea]], approved by Pope Adrian, had confirmed the practice and excommunicated the [[iconoclasm (Byzantine)|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 [[bishop of Lichfield|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]],"<ref>{{cite book|author1=Robin Blackburn|title=The Making of New World Slavery: From the Baroque to the Modern, 1492–1800|date=1998|publisher=Verso|isbn=9781859841952|page=43|edition=illustrated, reprint}}</ref> in order to guarantee a labor pool and to keep the power of Muslim rivals in check.<ref>{{cite book|author1=John Victor Tolan|author2=Gilles Veinstein|author3=Henry Laurens|title=Europe and the Islamic World: A History|date=2013|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=9780691147055|page=83|edition=illustrated}}</ref> He also encouraged Charlemagne to lead his troops into Spain against the Muslims there,<ref>{{cite book|author1=Alex Roberto Hybel|title=Ideology in World Politics|date=13 May 2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781134012503|page=30}}</ref> and was generally interested in expanding Christian influence and eliminating Muslim control.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Karolyn Kinane|author2=Michael A. Ryan|title=End of Days: Essays on the Apocalypse from Antiquity to Modernity|date=9 Apr 2009|publisher=McFarland|isbn=9780786453597|page=51}}</ref>

The rise in the number of Christian girls being married to Muslims in [[al-Andalus]] prompted a letter of concern from Adrian.{{sfn|Barton|2015|p=21}} Adrian's response was due to dispatches from bishop Egila, who had been tasked with preaching the gospel in the peninsula.{{sfn|Barton|2015|p=21}} Egila eventually fell in with the [[Migetians]], a rigorist sect, provoking Adrian's condemnation.{{sfn|Cavadini|1988|p=32}}

==Legacy==
[[File:Paus Adrianus I Hadrianus primus (titel op object) Liber Chronicarum (serietitel), RP-P-2016-49-58-8.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8 |Adrian I as depicted in the 15th century ''[[Nuremberg Chronicle]]'']]

Adrian restored some of the ancient [[aqueduct (Roman)|aqueducts]] of Rome and rebuilt the churches of [[Santa Maria in Cosmedin]], decorated by Greek monks fleeing from the iconoclast persecutions, and of [[Basilica di San Marco (Rome)|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 [[Pope Pius VI|Pius VI]] in the late 18th century. Only three other popes&nbsp;– [[Pope Pius IX|Pius IX]], [[Pope Leo XIII|Leo XIII]], and [[Pope John Paul II|John Paul II]]&nbsp;– 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 [[Narthex|portico]] as rebuilt by [[Carlo Maderno]].<ref>{{cite journal |title=Charlemagne's black marble: the origin of the epitaph of Pope Hadrian I |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date={{date|2013/08/09}} |author1=Joanna Story |author2=Judith Bunbury |author3=Anna Candida Felici |author4=Gabriele Fronterotta |author5=Mario Piacentini |author6=Chiara Nicolais |author7=Daria Scacciatelli |author8=Sebastiano Sciuti |author9=Margherita Vendittelli |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/papers-of-the-british-school-at-rome/article/abs/charlemagnes-black-marble-the-origin-of-the-epitaph-of-pope-hadrian-i/135C42520D99CB281326B1A59C955FD8 |journal=Papers of the British School at Rome|volume=73 |pages=157–190 |doi=10.1017/S0068246200003019 |s2cid=191454077 |hdl=2381/2532 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> It is placed high on the wall between the [[Door of the Dead in St. Peter's Basilica|Door of the Dead]] and the Door of Good and Evil.<ref>{{cite web|website=St Peter's Basilica.info |url=http://stpetersbasilica.info/Interior/Portico/Portico.htm |title=The Portico}}</ref> [[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.<ref name=Nelson>{{cite book|author=Janet L. Nelson |title=King and Emperor: A New Life of Charlemagne|date=2019 |location=Oakland CA |publisher=University of California Press}}</ref>{{rp|347–351}} Alcuin's text,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Vatican-St-Peter-epitaph-of-pope-Hadrian-I-taken-from-Silvagni-1943-pl-II-fig-6_fig1_319009882|title=Vatican, St. Peter, epitaph of pope Hadrian I (taken from Silvagni 1943, pl. II, fig. 6). |website=ResearchGate}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lIW9EAAAQBAJ |title=Charlemagne and Rome: Alcuin and the Epitaph of Pope Hadrian I |pages=xxii-xxiii |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=2023 |author=Joanna Story |isbn=978-0-19-920634-6 |doi=10.1093/oso/9780199206346.001.0001}}</ref> in which Charlemagne speaks affectionately of Adrian as his lost (spiritual) father, was carved in [[Roman square capitals]] on [[Noir Belge|black limestone]] from [[Sclayn]] in the [[Meuse]] valley, now in [[Belgium]].{{R|Nelson|page=350}} Its lettering has been described as "perfect and sharp" and is a notable exemplar of Carolingian monumental script.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Alcuin's Epitaph of Hadrian I: A Study In Carolingian Epigraphy |author=Luitpold Wallach |journal=The American Journal of Philology |date=1951 |volume=72 |issue=2 |pages=128–144 |publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press |doi=10.2307/292542 |jstor=292542}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=The Carolingian Graphic Reform in Italy: Effects on Epigraphy |author=Flavia Frauzel |date=2014 |url=https://www.academia.edu/11944940 |website=Academia.edu}}</ref> The contemporaneous [[Annales laureshamenses|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."{{R|Nelson|page=349}}

==See also==
{{Portal|Biography|Christianity|History}}
*[[List of Catholic saints]]
*[[List of popes]]
*[[List of popes by length of reign]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
*{{cite book |title= Conquerors, Brides, and Concubines: Interfaith Relations and Social Power in Medieval Iberia |first=Simon |last=Barton |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |year=2015}}
*{{cite thesis |first=John C. |last=Cavadini |title=The Last Christology of the West: Adoptionism in Spain and in Gaul, AD 785–817 |institution=Yale University |year=1988 |type=Doctoral thesis}}

==External links==
*{{commons category-inline|Hadrianus I|Pope Adrian I}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20050408061217/http://www.ccel.org/fathers/NPNF2-14/7nice2/session2.htm Partial letter from Pope Adrian to the 2nd session of the Seventh Ecumenical Council]

{{s-start}}
{{s-rel|ca}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Pope Stephen III|Stephen III]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Pope]]|years=772–795}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Pope Leo III|Leo III]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{Popes}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Adrian 01}}
[[Category:795 deaths]]
[[Category:Popes]]
[[Category:Italian popes]]
[[Category:8th-century archbishops]]
[[Category:700 births]]
[[Category:8th-century popes]]
[[Category:Burials at St. Peter's Basilica]]