Everything about Adrian Of Utrecht totally explained
Pope Adrian VI (
Utrecht,
March 2,
1459 –
September 14,
1523), born
Adriaan Florenszoon Boeyens, son of Floris Boeyens, served as
Pope of the
Roman Catholic Church from
1522 until his death. He was the last non-Italian pope until
John Paul II, 456 years later. He is, together with
Marcellus II, one of two modern popes to retain his baptismal name as his regnal name. He is buried in the German national church in Rome,
Santa Maria dell'Anima. He has been the only
Dutch Pope in the history of the Roman Catholic Church.
Life and work
He was born under very modest circumstances in the city of
Utrecht, which at that time was capital of the bishopric of Utrecht, the
Netherlands. Utrecht was at that time part of the
Holy Roman Empire. In Germany he's often considered the 7th German pope, as the Holy Roman Empire was largely inhabited by Germans, but especially because of nationalistic purposes during the 19th century. His nationality (not
ethnicity, which was undoubtly
Dutch) more accurately was that of an 'imperial subject' rather than 'German'. Nevertheless 'German' is often used as the demonym of the Holy Roman Empire, though not always correctly.
He was the last pope to have come from outside
Italy until the election of the
Polish Pope John Paul II in
1978. Adrian VI was in addition the only pope from
the Netherlands as well as the last 'German' pope until the
election of
Pope Benedict XVI.
Adrian VI was known for having attempted to launch a
Catholic Reformation as a defense against the
Protestant Reformation. He was, however, ignored by his contemporaries.
Adrian studied under the
Brethren of the Common Life, either at
Zwolle or
Deventer. He was also a student of the
Latin school (now
Gymnasium Celeanum) in
Zwolle. Some texts mention his name as Adrian or Adriaan Florisz, A. Florisz Boeyens, A. Florens or any other combination. 'Florens' or 'Florisz' means 'Floriszoon' – son of Floris. In fact, his father was called Floris and his grandfather Boeyen. Therefore, he's sometimes referred to as Adriaan, son of Floris, son of Boeyen: Adriaan Florisz Boeyens.
At the
University of Louvain he pursued
philosophy,
theology and
Canon Law, with a scholarship granted by
Margaret, Duchess of Burgundy, becoming a
Doctor of Theology in
1491,
dean of St. Peter's and vice-
chancellor of the university. His lectures were published, as recreated from his students' notes – among those who attended them was the young
Erasmus.
In
1507 he was appointed
tutor to the seven-year-old Charles, grandson of the Emperor
Maximilian I (1493 – 1519), who was to reign as Emperor
Charles V (1519 – 58). He was sent to
Spain in
1515 on a diplomatic errand. After his arrival at the Imperial court in
Toledo, Charles V secured his succession to the
see of
Tortosa, and on
14 November 1516 commissioned him
Inquisitor General of
Aragon. The following year,
Pope Leo X (1513 – 21) created him a
cardinal, naming him Cardinal Priest of the
Basilica of Saints John and Paul.
During the minority of Charles V, Adrian was named to serve with
Francisco Cardinal Jimenez de Cisneros as co-
regent of Spain. After the death of the latter, Adrian was appointed, on
14 March 1518, General of the Reunited
Inquisitions of
Castile and
Aragon, in which capacity he acted until his departure for
Rome on
4 August 1522 to assume his
pontificate. During this period, Charles V left for the Netherlands in
1520, making the future pope Regent of Spain, in which capacity he'd to cope with the
revolt of the comuneros.
In the conclave at the death of the
Medici Pope Leo X, his cousin, Cardinal
Giulio de' Medici was the leading figure. With Spanish and French cardinals in a deadlock, the absent Adrian VI was proposed and on
January 9,
1522 he was elected pope by an almost unanimous vote. The Emperor Charles V was delighted upon hearing that his tutor was elected to the papacy but soon realized that Adrian VI was determined to reign impartially. Francis I 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. Fears of a Spanish Avignon based on the strength of his relationship with the Emperor as his tutor and regent proved false. Adrian left for Italy at the earliest possible time and made his solemn entry into Rome on
29 August. Pope Adrian VI was crowned in
St. Peter's Basilica on the
31 August, at the age of sixty-three and immediately entered upon the lonely path of the reformer. The
Catholic Encyclopedia characterized 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 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'.
His program was to attack notorious abuses one by one; but in his attempt to improve the system of granting
indulgences he was hampered by his cardinals; and reducing the number of matrimonial dispensations was impossible, for the income had been farmed out for years in advance by Leo X.
The Italians saw in him a pedantic foreign
professor, blind to the beauty of classical antiquity, penuriously docking the stipends of great artists. Musicians such as
Carpentras, the composer and singer from
Avignon who was master of the papal chapel under Leo X, left Rome at this time, due to Adrian VI's indifference or outright hostility to the arts. Musical standards at the
Vatican declined significantly during his tenure. Famous 'speaking statue' Pasquino(actually a mutilated marble statue of Menelaus holding the body of Patroclus once admired by Cardinal Oliviero Carafa and located in the Piazza di Pasquino near Piazza Navona; another Roman copy of the ancient Greek statue exists at the Loggia della Signoria in Florence) made many remarks on his papacy, growing from funny and witty poems, to downright hurtful accusations. This process, going on from right after his election, arrived at the point where Adrian VI declared he wanted to throw the statue into the Tiber river. The Italian poet Torquato Tasso, however, convinced him not to.
As a peacemaker among Christian
princes, whom he hoped to unite in a protective war against the Turks, he was a failure: in August
1523 he was forced openly to ally himself with the
Empire,
England,
Venice, etc., against
France; meanwhile in 1522 the
Sultan Suleiman I (1520 – 66) had conquered
Rhodes.
In dealing with the early stages of the
Lutheran (later to be called
Protestant) revolt in what is now
Germany, Adrian VI didn't fully recognize the gravity of the situation. At the
diet which opened in December
1522 at
Nuremberg he was represented by
Francesco Chiericati, whose private instructions contain the frank admission that the whole disorder of the Church had perhaps proceeded from the
Roman Curia itself, and that there the reform should begin. However, the former professor and Inquisitor General was stoutly opposed to doctrinal changes, and demanded that
Luther be punished for
heresy.
The statement in one of his works that the pope could err, privately or in a minor decree, in matters of faith (
haeresim per suam determinationem aut Decretalem assurondo) has attracted attention.
Catholics claim that it was just a private opinion, not an
ex cathedra pronouncement, therefore it doesn't conflict with the dogma of
papal infallibility, while others claim that the concept of
ex cathedra was only invented in the
19th century. Adrian VI died on
14 September 1523, after a pontificate too short to be effective.
Most of Adrian VI's official papers disappeared soon after his death. He published
Quaestiones in quartum sententiarum praesertim circa sacramenta (Paris, 1512, 1516, 1518, 1537; Rome, 1522), and
Quaestiones quodlibeticae XII. (1st ed., Leuven, 1515).
Italian writer
Luigi Malerba used the confusion among the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church, which was created by Adrian's unexpected election, as backdrop for his amusing 1995 novel,
Le maschere (The Masks), about the struggle between two Roman cardinals for a well-endowed church office.
Trivia
In an 1998 episode (
#173 "Divorce") of
Law & Order, a mentally ill man suspected of murder claimed to be "Pope Adrian VI of Utrecht" as part of his psychosis.
Adrian VI is probably the pope who has a role (albeit a somewhat ridiculous role) in Marlowe's "Doctor Faustus"
Bibliography
- 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)
and vol.2 (1521-1530) from Google Books. Reprint of Vol.1, Wipf & Stock Publishers (March 2006). ISBN 1-59752-601-0
- Gross, Ernie. This Day In Religion. New York:Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc, 1990. ISBN 1-55570-045-4.
- Malerba Luigi. e maschere, Milan: A. Mondadori, 1995. ISBN 88-04-39366-1
Further Information
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