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V. Memoir of the Life of Adrian the Fourth
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 January 2012
Extract
Nicholas, the son of Robert Breakspear, was born early in the twelfth century at Langley Abbot's, in Hertfordshire.
His father appears to have been a younger son of a family deriving its name from a place situated in the adjoining parish of St. Michael; but was so indigent as to have had recourse to mendicant habits, in which his child probably participated. Upon the death of his wife, Robert Breakspear became first a lay-brother, and then a monk, of the adjacent Abbey of St. Alban's, leaving his young son to provide for himself. Nicholas, thus deserted, very naturally hung about the monastery of which his father was an inmate, waiting among the crowd assembled at its gate for the daily distribution of its broken victuals, and occasionally being employed in fulfilling some of the menial offices of the establishment.
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References
page 39 note a Stowe's Chronicle, p. 150. Robert Breakspear, whose name is also spelt Break-speare and Breke-spere, has been termed Robert Chambers by Lingard (vol. ii. p. 272), who describes him as “an obscure clerk, and afterwards Monk of St. Alban's.” Nicholas, his son, is said to have been born at St. Alban's, in Baker's Chronicle, p. 83, but he was probably born at Langley, before his father removed to the neighbouring town of St. Alban's.
page 40 note a Baker affirms that the monastic habit was refused him because he was a bondman of the house.
page 40 note b Nicholas is said to have been rector of Tydd St. Mary's, a village on the south-eastern border of the county of Lincoln, by Gough, in his Continuation of Camden, vol. ii. p. 341, and is described as an “Antient Rector” of that place, in “Britannia Antiqua et Nova, ” but he never appears to have revisited his native country after this his early emigration from it as a pauper.
page 41 note a The Pope's exact words were, “I know who raises this storm; it is Satan: Go and choose one with whom you can, or rather will live in peace; he of whom you thus complain shall be no longer burthensome to you.”—W. of Newburgh, I. 2, C. 6. The circumstance of Nicholas's foreign birth is supposed to have been the cause of this angry feeling towards him by some (see Lingard, vol. ii. p. 272); but as he was popular in his house as a monk, and his election to the abbacy appears to have been unanimous, it seems clear that it was the rigid discipline he wished to establish, and not his Anglican extraction, that excited so much hostility against him.
page 41 note b Hist, B. Platinæ de vitis Pontificum Romanorum.
page 41 note c Ibid.
page 42 note a Newbrig. II. 6. “Coronam et phrygium merito clara videri, quia ignea sunt.” Joan Salis. Policrat.
page 42 note b Toward's the, close of Innocent the Second's pontificate (1142), Tivoli, Palestrina, Tusculum, and Albano had endeavoured to throw off the papal dominion, and to secure their independence; whilst two years afterwards, when Lucius II. had assumed the tiara, the Romans participating also in these designs, although they acknowledged Lucius as their lawful bishop, rejected him entirely as their sovereign, and assuming the government themselves, elected Jordan, the son of Peter Leo, as their Prince, and appointed a senate. Upon this, Lucius, unable to procure any assistance from the Emperor of Germany, to whom he appealed, boldly collected together some forces, and putting himself at their head advanced to the capitol, where the senate was assembled, intending to drive them out, but his troops were repulsed, and he was so seriously injured by a stone flung at him, that he died a few days afterwards. His successor, Eugenius III., at first contented himself with retaining only the spiritual power, but by force of arms and the assistance of the Tiburtines in the first place, and secondly by that of Roger King of Sicily, having recovered the temporal power twice, he as often was compelled to fly from Rome, and finally returned only through consenting to submit to a compromise with the Romans. Anastasius the Fourth being of an exceedingly conciliatory disposition, and his reign lasting only for one year, although the struggle had not been again renewed, the question still remained undecided when Adrian succeeded to the papal chair.
page 42 note c Arnold was by no means the first schismatic teacher or reformer of the twelfth century; a series of these having arisen from time to time who strongly inveighed against the lives and doctrines of the Romish Clergy. In 1119, when Calixtus II. was Pope, a Reformation was attempted at Toulouse by a party of persons under Peter de Bruis, who condemned the Eucharist, Infant Baptism, Marriages, and all ecclesiastical Orders. In 1134, when Innocent II. was Pope, Henry the Hermit in his preaching condemned Infant Baptism, Cross worship, the Mass, Prayers for the Dead, Altars, and even Churches, as being superstitious, and by the aid of pretended miracles had attracted together a vast number of followers. Again, a little later, Peter Abelard preached in Prance against the same doctrines, and also against the possession of temporalities on the part of the clergy, maintaining that they ought to possess no property, but be satisfied with the tithes and offerings of the laity, leading sober self-denying lives, and discarding the proud titles they had assumed, as being highly unbecoming the lowly followers of Jesus. And then Arnaldo of Brescia, having studied under Peter in France, began to preach the same doctrines in Italy 1139, where his great natural eloquence, and the support of the laity, enabled him to bring the clergy into much contempt, until at length he, together with his followers, was silenced by a sentence of banishment from Italy. But though absent in person, very many who had embraced his opinions formed a large party, still remaining in Rome, which had doubtless caused the death of Pope Lucius, aud the repeated flight of Eugenius.
page 43 note a According to “Platina de vitis Pontificum, ” Adrian assailed the people with such bitter execrations, that they both drove Arnaldo from the city and compelled the senators to resign the magistracy, leaving the power of governing the city entirely in the Pontiff's hands.
page 43 note b “Codex Vatican, apud Baron, ann. 1145.”
page 44 note a Afterwards Bishop of Chartiers, or Chartres.—Stowe, p. 150.
page 44 note b This observation was probably especially directed towards Abbot Robert, the successor of that Richard who had rejected him from St. Alban's; but he bore no ill will towards him or his abbey, and, as a sign of his favour, exempted that house from all episcopate jurisdiction, placing it immediately under the Holy See. Rose's “Life of Hadrian.” The abbot presented his holiness with gold and silver of no small weight, and other precious gifts of great value; also three mitres and sandals of admirable work, which the Lady Christian, Prioress of Margate, had diligently made. The Pope viewed the mitres and sandals, and commended greatly his devotion and courtesy, but merely said, “I refuse thy gifts, because thou once denied me shelter under the wings of your religious house when I craved your charity and begged the monastic habit.” To which this Abbot readily answered, “My Lord, it was not in our power to receive you when the will of God opposed it, whose great wisdom had designed you to serve him in a higher station.” Then the Pope, applauding his witty and ingenious answer, added, “Dear Abbot, ask boldly what thou desirest, for nothing shall be wanting to the blessed Alban.” Then the Abbot, encouraged by the leave of the Pope, disposed of all those gifts.—Historical Antiquities of Hertfordshire, by Sir Henry Chauncy, p. 434. Gathered from Matthew Paris.
page 44 note c Petrus Blesens. Ep. 163.
page 45 note a This prince was shortly afterwards elected by the people of Nantes to rule over them.—Lingard, vol. ii. p. 272. Hume seems to doubt the truth of this claim on the part of Geoffrey, vol. i. p. 293 (Hughes's Edition, and Note on the passage, p. 374): but it rests on the authority of William of Newbridge, p. 383; whilst the request on the part of Henry for a dispensation from the Pope in reference to this claim appears to be strongly indicative of its justness.
page 45 note b This licence or bull is contained in the “Topographia Hiberniæ, ” by Giraldus Cambrensis, dedicated to Henry the Second, and in Rymer's Fœdera, tom. I. p. 15. Henry meant to have given Ireland to his youngest brother William (“Chron. Norm, ad ann. 1154”), but he deferred the execution of this design until 1172.
page 46 note a In 1152, having previously been Duke of Suabia.
page 46 note b The wretched Arnaldo having been taken to Rome was publicly executed by order of the prefect or governor of that city, and his body was burnt, and the ashes thrown into the Tiber, lest they should be worshipped by the people as relics of a saint.—Otto Fris. I. i. c. 12.
page 47 note a The precise distance claimed was nine Roman paces; but Frederic had regarded this demand as an indignity to which he was unwilling to submit, Lothario, of all his predecessors, alone having consented to observe it in the Pontificate of Innocent the Second.
page 47 note b The rejection of such overtures by Frederic was doubtless very pleasing to the Pontiff, although the total want of any recognition of the Papal power over Rome must have been extremely galling to Hadrian's feelings, if he was cognisant of this at the time.
page 48 note a Otto Frising. I. i. c. 22.
page 48 note b Hist. B. Platinse de vitis Pontificum Romanorum.
page 48 note c Ibid.
page 48 note d Codex Vatican, apud Bar. ad ann. 1155.
page 49 note a Bowers' Hist, of the Popes, vol. vi. p. 86.
page 49 note b Hist. B. Platinæ.
page 50 note a Hist. B. Platinæ.
page 51 note a Guill. Tyr. I. 18, c. 8.
page 51 note b Adrian. Epist. vii.
page 51 note c Hist. B. Platinæ.
page 52 note a Roderic in Frideric. I. i. c. 8.
page 54 note a Roderic, I. i. c. 18.
page 55 note a Roderic, I. i. c. 18.
page 55 note b Ceccan in Chron. ad ann. 1159.
page 56 note a Guill. Tyr. I. 18. c.26.
page 57 note a Hist. B. Platina.
page 57 note b In a letter of his successor, Alexander the Third, to Becket, when Archbishop of Canterbury, that pontiff alludes to Adrian's allowing his mother still to be maintained as a poor person by the ecclesiastical alms of Canterbury. And although he is mistaken in this, as she had died (as we have seen) before Adrian left England, some near relation, such as an aunt or sister, is probably here spoken of.
page 57 note c Baronius, ex cod. Vatic. Rom. Pont. 379, thus sums up his character:—“Erat autem vir valde benignus, mitis, et patiens, in Græcâ et Latinâ linguâ peritus, sermone facundus, eloquentiâ politus, in cantu ecclesiastico præcipuus, predicator egregius, ad irascendum tardus, ad ignoscendum velox, hilaris dator, eleemosynis largus, et omni morum compositione præclarus.”