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<!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en"> <head> <title>CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Pope Adrian I</title><script src="https://dtyry4ejybx0.cloudfront.net/js/cmp/cleanmediacmp.js?ver=0104" async="true"></script><script defer data-domain="newadvent.org" src="https://plausible.io/js/script.js"></script><link rel="canonical" href="https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01155b.htm"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> <meta name="description" content="Reigned 772-95"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS" href="http://feeds.newadvent.org/bestoftheweb?format=xml"><link rel="icon" href="../images/icon1.ico" type="image/x-icon"><link rel="shortcut icon" href="../images/icon1.ico" type="image/x-icon"><meta name="robots" content="noodp"><link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="../utility/screen6.css" media="screen"></head> <body class="cathen" id="01155b.htm">  <br/> <div id="capitalcity"><table summary="Logo" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width="100%"><tr valign="bottom"><td align="left"><a href="../"><img height=36 width=153 border="0" alt="New Advent" src="../images/logo.gif"></a></td><td align="right"> <form id="searchbox_000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0" action="../utility/search.htm">  <input type="hidden" name="safe" value="active"> <input type="hidden" name="cx" value="000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0"/> <input type="hidden" name="cof" value="FORID:9"/>  <label for="searchQuery" id="searchQueryLabel">Search:</label> <input id="searchQuery" name="q" type="text" size="25" aria-labelledby="searchQueryLabel"/>  <label for="submitButton" id="submitButtonLabel" class="visually-hidden">Submit Search</label> <input id="submitButton" type="submit" name="sa" value="Search" aria-labelledby="submitButtonLabel"/> </form> <table summary="Spacer" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td height="2"></td></tr></table> <table summary="Tabs" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr> <td bgcolor="#ffffff"></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../"> Home </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_white_on_color" href="../cathen/index.html"> Encyclopedia </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../summa/index.html"> Summa </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../fathers/index.html"> Fathers </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../bible/gen001.htm"> Bible </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../library/index.html"> Library </a></td> </tr></table> </td> </tr></table><table summary="Alphabetical index" width="100%" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td class="bar_white_on_color"> <a href="../cathen/a.htm"> A </a><a href="../cathen/b.htm"> B </a><a href="../cathen/c.htm"> C </a><a href="../cathen/d.htm"> D </a><a href="../cathen/e.htm"> E </a><a href="../cathen/f.htm"> F </a><a href="../cathen/g.htm"> G </a><a href="../cathen/h.htm"> H </a><a href="../cathen/i.htm"> I </a><a href="../cathen/j.htm"> J </a><a href="../cathen/k.htm"> K </a><a href="../cathen/l.htm"> L </a><a href="../cathen/m.htm"> M </a><a href="../cathen/n.htm"> N </a><a href="../cathen/o.htm"> O </a><a href="../cathen/p.htm"> P </a><a href="../cathen/q.htm"> Q </a><a href="../cathen/r.htm"> R </a><a href="../cathen/s.htm"> S </a><a href="../cathen/t.htm"> T </a><a href="../cathen/u.htm"> U </a><a href="../cathen/v.htm"> V </a><a href="../cathen/w.htm"> W </a><a href="../cathen/x.htm"> X </a><a href="../cathen/y.htm"> Y </a><a href="../cathen/z.htm"> Z </a> </td></tr></table></div> <div id="mobilecity" style="text-align: center; "><a href="../"><img height=24 width=102 border="0" alt="New Advent" src="../images/logo.gif"></a></div>  <div id="mi5"><span class="breadcrumbs"><a href="../">Home</a> > <a href="../cathen">Catholic Encyclopedia</a> > <a href="../cathen/a.htm">A</a> > Pope Adrian I</span></div> <div id="springfield2"> <div class='catholicadnet-728x90' id='cathen-728x90-top' style='display: flex; height: 100px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; '></div> <h1>Pope Adrian I</h1> <p><em><a href="https://gumroad.com/l/na2"><strong>Please help support the mission of New Advent</strong> and get the full contents of this website as an instant download. Includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more  all for only $19.99...</a></em></p> <p>From about 1 February, 772, till 25 December, 795; <a href="../cathen/04636c.htm">date</a> of birth uncertain; d. 25 December, 795. His pontificate of twenty-three years, ten months, and twenty-four days was unequalled in length by that of any <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">successor of St. Peter</a> until a thousand years later, when <a href="../cathen/12131a.htm">Pius VI</a>, <a href="../cathen/04737b.htm">deposed</a> and <a href="../cathen/12430a.htm">imprisoned</a> by the same <a href="../cathen/06238a.htm">Frankish</a> arms which had <a href="../cathen/05479c.htm">enthroned</a> the first Pope-King, surpassed Adrian by a pontificate six months longer. At a critical period in the history of the Papacy, Adrian possessed all the qualities essential in the founder of a new dynasty. He was a Roman of noble extraction and majestic stature. By a life of singular <a href="../cathen/12748a.htm">piety</a>, by accomplishments deemed extraordinary in that iron age, and by valuable services rendered during the pontificate of <a href="../cathen/11577a.htm">Paul I</a> and <a href="../cathen/14289a.htm">Stephen III</a>, he had so gained the esteem of his unruly countrymen that the powerful chamberlain, Paul Afiarta, who represented in <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a> the interests of Desiderius, the Lombard king, was powerless to resist the unanimous voice of the <a href="../cathen/04049b.htm">clergy</a> and people demanding for Adrian the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">papal</a> chair. The new pontiff's temporal policy was, from the first, sharply defined and tenaciously adhered to; the keynote was a steadfast resistance to Lombard aggression. He released from <a href="../cathen/12430a.htm">prison</a> or recalled from exile the numerous victims of the chamberlain's <a href="../cathen/15446a.htm">violence</a>; and, upon discovering that Afiarta had caused Sergius, a high official of the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">papal</a> court, to be assassinated in <a href="../cathen/12430a.htm">prison</a>, ordered his arrest in <a href="../cathen/13057c.htm">Rimini</a>, just as Afiarta was returning from an embassy to Desiderius with the avowed intention of bringing the Pope to the Lombard court, "were it even in chains." The time seemed propitious for subjecting all <a href="../cathen/08208a.htm">Italy</a> to the Lombard rule; and with less able antagonists than Adrian and Charles (to be famous in later ages as <a href="../cathen/03610c.htm">Charlemagne</a>), most probably the <a href="../cathen/01381d.htm">ambition</a> of Desiderius would have been gratified. There seemed little prospect of <a href="../cathen/06238a.htm">Frankish</a> intervention. The Lombards held the passes of the Alps, and Charles was engrossed by the difficulties of the Saxon <a href="../cathen/15546c.htm">war</a>; moreover, the presence in Pavia of Gerberga and her two sons, the <a href="../cathen/15617c.htm">widow</a> and <a href="../cathen/11322b.htm">orphans</a> of Carloman, whose territories, on his brother's death, Charles had annexed, seemed to offer an excellent opportunity of stirring up discord among the <a href="../cathen/06238a.htm">Franks</a>, if only the Pope could be persuaded, or coerced, to anoint the children as heirs to their father's throne. Instead of complying, Adrian valiantly determined upon resistance. He strengthened the fortifications of <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>, called to the aid of the militia the inhabitants of the surrounding territory, and, as the Lombard host advanced, ravaging and plundering summoned Charles to hasten to the defence of their common interests. An opportune lull in the Saxon <a href="../cathen/15546c.htm">war</a> left the great commander free to act. Unable to bring the deceitful Lombard to terms by peaceful overtures, he scaled the Alps in the autumn of 773, seized <a href="../cathen/15360a.htm">Verona</a>, where Gerberga and her sons had sought refuge, and besieged Desiderius in his capital. The following spring, leaving his army to prosecute the siege of Pavia, he proceeded with a strong detachment to <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>, in order to celebrate the <a href="../cathen/05224d.htm">festival of Easter</a> at the <a href="../cathen/14773b.htm">tomb</a> of the <a href="../cathen/01626c.htm">Apostles</a>. Arriving on <a href="../cathen/07424a.htm">Holy Saturday</a>, he was received by Adrian and the Romans with the utmost solemnity. The next three days were devoted to religious rites; the following Wednesday to affairs of state. The enduring outcome of their momentous meeting was the famous "Donation of Charlemagne", for eleven centuries the Magna Charta of the temporal power of the Popes. (See <a href="../cathen/03610c.htm">CHARLEMAGNE</a>.) Duchesne's thorough and impartial investigation of its authenticity in his edition of the <em>Liber Pontificalis</em> (I, ccxxxv-ccxliii) would seem to have dissipated any reasonable <a href="../cathen/05141a.htm">doubt</a>. Two months later Pavia fell into the hands of Charles; the kingdom of the Lombards was extinguished, and the Papacy was forever delivered from its persistent and hereditary foe. Nominally, Adrian was now monarch of above two-thirds of the Italian peninsula; but his sway was little more than nominal. Over a great portion of the district mentioned in the Donation, the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">papal</a> claims were permitted to lapse. To gain and regain the rest, Charles was forced to make repeated expeditions across the Alps. We may well <a href="../cathen/05141a.htm">doubt</a> whether the great King of the <a href="../cathen/06238a.htm">Franks</a> would have suffered the difficulties of the Pope to interfere with his more immediate cares, were it not for his extreme personal veneration of Adrian, whom in life and death he never ceased to proclaim his <a href="../cathen/11478c.htm">father</a> and best friend. It was in no slight degree owing to Adrian's political sagacity, vigilance, and activity, that the temporal power of the Papacy did not remain a fiction of the <a href="../cathen/07672a.htm">imagination</a>.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>His merits were equally great in the more spiritual concerns of the Church. In cooperation with the <a href="../cathen/11330a.htm">orthodox</a> Empress Irene, he laboured to repair the damages wrought by the <a href="../cathen/07620a.htm">Iconoclastic</a> storms. In the year 787 he presided, through his <a href="../cathen/09118a.htm">legates</a>, over the <a href="../cathen/11045a.htm">Seventh General Council</a>, held at <a href="../cathen/11043a.htm">Nicaea</a>, in which the <a href="../cathen/05075b.htm">Catholic doctrine</a> regarding the use and veneration of images was definitely expounded. The importance of the temporary opposition to the decrees of the Council throughout the West, caused mainly by a defective translation, aggravated by political motives, has been greatly exaggerated in modern times. The controversy elicited a strong refutation of the so-called <em>Libri Carolini</em> from Pope Adrian and occasioned no diminution of friendship between him and Charles. He opposed most vigorously, by <a href="../cathen/14388a.htm">synods</a> and writings, the nascent <a href="../cathen/07256b.htm">heresy</a> of <a href="../cathen/01150a.htm">Adoptionism</a>, one of the few <a href="../cathen/14597a.htm">Christological</a> <a href="../cathen/05525a.htm">errors</a> originated by the West. The <em>Liber Pontificalis</em> enlarges upon his merits in embellishing the city of <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>, upon which he is said to have expended fabulous sums. He died universally regretted, and was buried in <a href="../cathen/13369b.htm">St. Peter's</a>. His epitaph, ascribed to his lifelong friend, <a href="../cathen/03610c.htm">Charlemagne</a>, is still extant. Rarely have the <a href="../cathen/12409a.htm">priesthood</a> and the empire worked together so harmoniously, and with such beneficent results to the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> and to humanity, as during the lifetime of these two great rulers. The chief sources of our information as to Adrian are the Life in the <em>Liber Pontificalis</em> (q.v.), and his letters to <a href="../cathen/03610c.htm">Charlemagne</a>, preserved by the latter in his <em>Codex Carolinus</em>. Estimates of Adrian's work and character by modern historians differ with the varying views of writers regarding the temporal sovereignty of the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">popes</a>, of which Adrian I must be considered the real founder.</p> <div class='catholicadnet-728x90' id='cathen-728x90-bottom' style='display: flex; height: 100px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; '></div> <div class="cenotes"><h2>Sources</h2><p class="cenotes">Liber Pontificalis (ed. DUCHESNE), I, 486-523, and praef. CCXXXIV sq.; ID., Les premiers ternps de l'état pontifical (Paris, 1898); JAFFÉ, Regesta RR. PP. (2d ed.), I, 289-306, Il. 701; ID., Bibl. Rer. Germanic. (Codicis Carol. Epistolae), IV, 13-306; CENNI, Monum. dominat. pontif. (1761), II, 289-316, also in P.L. XCVIII; MANN, The Lives of the Popes in the Early Middle Ages (London, 1902), I, II, 395-496; HEFELE, History of the Councils (tr.), III, passim; NIEHUES, Gesch. d. Verh ltnisses zwischen dem Kaiserthum u. Papsthum im Mittelalter (Munster, 1877), I, 517-546; GOSSELIN, Power of the Pope in the Middle Ages (Baltimore, 1853), I, 230 sq.; SCHN RER, Entstehung des Kirchenstaates (Cologne, 1894). For a bibliography of Adrian I see CHEVALIER, Bio-Bibliogr. (2d ed., Paris, 1905), 55, 56.</p></div> <div class="pub"><h2>About this page</h2><p id="apa"><strong>APA citation.</strong> <span id="apaauthor">Loughlin, J.</span> <span id="apayear">(1907).</span> <span id="apaarticle">Pope Adrian I.</span> In <span id="apawork">The Catholic Encyclopedia.</span> <span id="apapublisher">New York: Robert Appleton Company.</span> <span id="apaurl">http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01155b.htm</span></p><p id="mla"><strong>MLA citation.</strong> <span id="mlaauthor">Loughlin, James.</span> <span id="mlaarticle">"Pope Adrian I."</span> <span id="mlawork">The Catholic Encyclopedia.</span> <span id="mlavolume">Vol. 1.</span> <span id="mlapublisher">New York: Robert Appleton Company,</span> <span id="mlayear">1907.</span> <span id="mlaurl"><http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01155b.htm>.</span></p><p id="transcription"> <span id="transcriber"></span> <span id="dedication"></span></p><p id="approbation"><strong>Ecclesiastical approbation.</strong> <span id="nihil"><em>Nihil Obstat.</em> March 1, 1907. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor.</span> <span id="imprimatur"><em>Imprimatur.</em> +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.</span></p><p id="contactus"><strong>Contact information.</strong> The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address is webmaster <em>at</em> newadvent.org. Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I greatly appreciate your feedback — especially notifications about typographical errors and inappropriate ads.</p></div> </div> <div id="ogdenville"><table summary="Bottom bar" width="100%" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td class="bar_white_on_color"><center><strong>Copyright © 2023 by <a href="../utility/contactus.htm">New Advent LLC</a>. 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