Adrian IV The English Pope (1154–1159) by Brenda Bolton Anne J. Duggan

Author:Brenda Bolton, Anne J. Duggan [Brenda Bolton, Anne J. Duggan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, General
ISBN: 9781351960731
Google: BA0kDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2017-05-15T04:54:27+00:00

And as well as this, the same Gualganus absolved all members of his own familia in respect of the oath by which they were bound to him, bringing them into membership of another, even closer, familia, the ‘new family of St Peter’!

Adrian’s achievement in recovering lost territory within the Patrimony of St Peter was never less than impressive. In comparison with his predecessor, Eugen-ius III, and his successor, Alexander III, and in a shorter pontificate than theirs, he brought more castra, together with their inhabitants, into the jurisdiction and under the protection of the Holy See. Nor were the circumstances in which he achieved this success overly favourable. A considerable period of isolation in the new papal palace at St Peter’s, from which he was unable to emerge for four months, was followed by an enforced stay of more than eight months in papal territory at Benevento. Yet, notwithstanding this isolation, he somehow managed to maintain an effective organization of curial officials, who worked behind the scenes to achieve his aims. Assisted enormously by Boso, Roland and the other cardinals, teams of officials travelled around, using local notaries whose knowledge and skills were placed at their disposal. Boso’s depiction of Adrian IV as benevolent and kindly in his treatment of the inhabitants of the cities and castra of the Patrimony was certainly balanced. In Orvieto, where no pope had ever ventured before, Adrian made certain of his direct overlordship of the city and, in exchange, elevated Orvieto to the status of most important city of the papal territories to the north of Rome, at the same time favouring its territorial expansion. Boso described with enthusiasm the veneration given by the people of Orvieto to the pope and the pope’s own benevolence towards all Orviétans great and small. It was similar throughout the Patrimony. All local castra and their inhabitants experienced papal benevolence: absolution from past sins, the benefit of papal protection, much safer roads, and firm, but impartial justice for all. In those cases which have been recorded, the balance maintained between subjugation and restitution of property and rights was always on a sound footing. The significance of Adrian’s exceptional gains in the Patrimony has not been properly recognized. No pope was able to match them until the pontificate of Innocent III. For Maccarrone, Adrian IV was ‘il grande e vero predecessore della politica di Innocenzo III’,168 or, to put it the other way round, only Innocent, the great Roman, realized the value to the papacy of following where Adrian, the unique Englishman, had led.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.