Pope Adrian VI
Pope Adrian VI | |
|---|---|
| File:Pope-adrian6.jpg | |
| Installed | January 9, 1522 |
| Term ended | September 14, 1523 |
| Predecessor | Leo X |
| Successor | Clement VII |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Adrian Adriaan Florenszoon Boeyens March 2, 1459 |
| Died | September 14, 1523 |
| Other popes named Adrian | |
Pope Adrian VI (March 2, 1459 – September 14, 1523), born Adriaan Florenszoon Boeyens, son of Floris Boeyens, served as Pope of the Catholic Church from 1522 until his death. It is notable that he is one of the few modern popes, together with Marcellus II, to retain his baptismal name as his regnal name. He was born under very modest circumstances in the city of Utrecht, which at that time was capital of the bishopric of Utrecht, a Dutch-speaking part of the Holy Roman Empire, now in the Netherlands. His paternal ancestors, named d'Edel (Dutch for "the Noble"), had lived in Utrecht from at least the mid-14th century [1]. Nevertheless, Adrian VI is often considered to have been both Dutch and German as the Low Countries were at the time part of the Holy Roman Empire, which was dominated by Germans.He was the last Pope (pontefice barbaro according to Guicciardini, XIV, v)[2] to have come from outside Italy until the election of the Polish Pope John Paul II in 1978. Adrian VI was also the only Pope from the Netherlands as well as the last Germanic Pope until the 2005 papal conclave that elected 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. 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 is sometimes referred to as Adriaan, son of Floris, son of Boeyen: Adriaan Florisz Boeyens.
At the University of Leuven 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 had 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 the 29th of August. Pope Adrian VI was crowned in St. Peter's Basilica on the 31st of 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[3][4](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. [5].
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 Protestant revolt in what is now Germany Adrian VI did not 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 does not 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 the 14th of 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.
Biblography
- 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
- Malerba Luigi. Le maschere, Milan: A. Mondadori, 1995. ISBN 88-04-39366-1
References
- ^ D'Edel Name Explanation
- ^ Pope Adrian VI Catholic Encyclopedia, retrieved August 10, 2006
- ^ Pasquino statue everything2.com, retrieved August 9, 2006
- ^ Piazza di Pasquino Baroque Rome in the etchings of Giuseppe Vasi, Roberto Piperno, 1999 - 2003, retrieved August 10, 2006
- ^ Pasquinade everything2.com, retrieved August 9, 2006
See also
External links
- Pope Adrian VI Catholic Encyclopedia
- Pope Adrian VI to Francesco Chieregati, Nov. 25, 1522[1] Re: Luther, corruption in the Catholic Church, the need for reform, ect.
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
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