Hadrian VI.

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Hadrian VI, painting by Jan van Scorel , 1523

Hadrian VI. , real name Adriaan Floriszoon (Florenszoon) Boeyens or Adriaan Florisz d'Edel , in the spelling at that time Adriaen Floriszoon Boeiens , in German also known under the name Adrian von Utrecht (* March  2, 1459 in Utrecht ; †  September 14,  1523 in Rome ), was Pope from January 9, 1522 until his death .

origin

Birthplace of the future Pope

Adrian was born as the son of the ship's carpenter Floris (Florens) Boeyenszoon Dedel († 1469) and his wife Geertruid in the house of his grandfather Boudewijn in the Oude Gracht, corner of Brandstraat (Brandsteeg), in Utrecht ( Hochstift Utrecht , Burgundian Netherlands ). His paternal grandfather's name is Boudewijn Jansz. (or Boeyen Jansz. ) handed down; the abbreviation Jansz. means "Jan's son" ( Jans zoon ). The grandfather is also called Boudewijn d'Edel or Dedel , with which a closeness to the noble and distinguished Dedel family could be constructed. The papal coat of arms of Hadrian VI. therefore resembles that of the Dedel family. The family name Boeyens is a patronymic of Boudewijn (Balduin), the grandfather.

education

After his father's death, his mother gave him at the age of ten to live with the brothers who lived together in Zwolle , where he received a solid basic scientific education; His spirituality was also strongly influenced by the Devotio moderna . From 1476 he studied philosophy at the Artes Faculty in Leuven , where he obtained a master's degree in 1478; in the same year he began to study theology and canon law , to which he devoted himself for ten years. After he had received a licentiate in theology on August 1, 1490 , his doctorate in theology followed on June 8, 1491 . In teaching and studying, Adrian von Utrecht dealt with the classical school theology of scholasticism . He also had an interest in mathematics, whereas humanistic endeavors and poetry affected him less.

Church and political career

After he was ordained a priest on June 30, 1490 in Leuven (then Duchy of Brabant , now Belgium), he taught theology as a professor at the university there from 1493 . Since 1488 he had also given lectures in philosophy. He was a famous teacher whom Erasmus from Rotterdam also heard. From 1493 to 1501 he was chancellor of the university and from 1493 to 1494 and from 1501 to 1502 its rector.

In addition to his teaching activities, Hadrian also worked as a preacher, although he was considered a dry speaker. As a theologian, he wrote works on various theological problem areas, for example on sacramental theology and dogmatic and ethical questions. In addition, he set up a Burse for theology students in Leuven .

Already since 1490 pastor of the great beguinage in Leuven, which he was to remain as Pope, he was also pastor in Goedereede in South Holland and from 1497 dean of the collegiate church Sint-Pieter in Leuven. In addition there was the post of provost in Utrecht and Liège and one canonical each in Antwerp and Anderlecht .

Hadrian was widely valued as a counselor and expert and was almost considered the "Oracle of the Netherlands". Margaret of Austria (1480–1530) soon drew him to her court as an advisor; In 1507, the future Emperor Maximilian I appointed him the teacher of his grandson, the later Emperor Charles V (as King Charles I of Spain), whom he taught in the classical languages. This is how Hadrian gained influential access to the ruling family. In 1509 he finally gave up his academic offices in favor of his activities at the court. As a teacher he is said to have been kind and benevolent, but also pedantic.

In 1516 Hadrian was sent to Spain to prepare for the arrival of the young King Charles. On August 18, 1516 he was appointed Bishop of Tortosa . In 1516 he was ordained bishop by Diego de Ribera, the bishop of Segovia . Since November 1516 General Inquisitor for Aragon and Navarre , he also became General Inquisitor for León and Castile in 1518 . But he was not only the inquisitor for all of Spain, but also the king's governor for the provinces of Castilla and León . He also worked with Cardinal Jiménez de Cisneros as governor for the absent king. After Cisneros' death he was sole governor.

In his job as governor Adrian was not only conscientious and pedantic, but also clumsy in his manner. So he could not prevent the outbreak of the Comuneros uprising in 1520 , which the troops of Charles could only overthrow after hard fighting.

Adrian was held in high regard as a clergyman. On July 1, 1517 Pope Leo X elevated him to cardinal and on July 16, 1517 made him cardinal priest of the titular church Ss. Giovanni e Paolo .

pontificate

Hadrian VI's coat of arms.

On January 9, 1522, after the death of Pope Leo X, Hadrian was elected his successor after the election of Cardinal Schiner , who was declared opponent of France, had failed due to the resistance of the French cardinals. He was a compromise candidate because the interests of Emperor Charles V and Francis I of France could not be united. Charles V didn't really want him, but Giulio de 'Medici . Henry VIII tried to get Cardinal Wolsey through. Finally, Adriaan Florensz was proposed as a consensus candidate by Giulio de 'Medici himself. The choice of a non-Italian was met with clear rejection in Rome, which was documented, among other things, in many mock poems that were attached to the so-called Pasquino :

"O del sangue di christo traditore
Ladro collegio chel bel vaticano
Alla tedescha rabbia hai posto in mano
Come per doglia non ti scoppia el cuore -"
Translation:
"Oh you traitor of the blood of Christ,
predatory college, you the beautiful Vatican of
German anger delivered:
Why doesn't your heart break with pain? - "

Three cardinals brought him, who had not attended the conclave, news of his election, which he accepted on March 8, 1522. After he went ashore in Civitavecchia on August 25, 1522, his coronation took place on August 31, 1522. Cardinal Marco Cornaro as the incumbent cardinal protodeacon put the tiara on him. As the pope's name, he kept his baptismal name. After him, only Pope Marcellus II did that.

With his endeavor to distance himself from the lavish court rulings of the Renaissance popes, Hadrian soon aroused criticism and resistance from the clerics and artists who had benefited from the earlier conditions. Undisputed, but also provocative for his opponents, were his personal, honest way of life, his deep erudition and piety.

Protestant Reformation

Hadrian VI. From the beginning of his pontificate he was confronted with the greatest problems. First and foremost, he had to respond to the beginning Lutheran Reformation in the Holy Roman Empire . Hadrian tried to prevent a split in the church; for this he also wanted to win Erasmus of Rotterdam and invited him to Rome. With a radical reform of the church, he tried to stop the effects of the Reformation. Among other things, Hadrian restricted the luxury of the papal court, as well as the granting of indulgences and benefices . However, the cracks were already too big and it was no longer possible to implement the Edict of Worms , as the Reichstag in Nuremberg , which sat from 1522 to 1523, postponed the decision. Nevertheless, the confession of guilt, which Hadrian read out by his legate at the Diet on January 3, 1523, remains remarkable : God let this confusion happen “because of the people, and especially the sins of priests and prelates”.

Ottoman problem and the Habsburg-French antagonism

Another pressing problem that the new Pope had to deal with was the Turkish Wars , especially as a result of the siege of Rhodes (1522) . After the island was conquered by the Ottomans under Suleyman I , the Order of St. John had to give up its seat in Rhodes and retreat first to Crete and then far to the west, where it expanded Malta into its new headquarters around 1530 .

The conflict between the imperial family of the Habsburgs and the French crown also turned out to be an insoluble problem. The empire and France fought for hegemony in western Europe, with the armed conflicts in Italy growing in severity.

Cardinal appointments

During his brief pontificate, the Pope only raised a single cardinal. This happened on September 10, 1523. The chosen one was Wilhelm III. von Enckenvoirt , the Bishop of Utrecht, home of the Pope.

death

The tomb of Pope Hadrian VI.

After a short term in office, the Pope died in the late summer of 1523. Hermann Schreiber comes to the conclusion in his book History of the Popes that Hadrian VI. was probably poisoned. The Lexicon of Saints and Popes , however, assumes a not unlikely feverish death, as mosquitoes became a plague in the swamps around the Vatican that were not yet drained . He was buried first in St. Peter's Basilica and later in the church of the German-speaking Catholic parish of Santa Maria dell'Anima in Rome . The church goes back to a hospice foundation of the Petri couple from the Dutch town of Dordrecht in the 14th century.

His friend Wilhelm von Enckenvoirt had a precious tomb erected for him, whose much-quoted motto, which goes back to Hadrian himself, aptly names the work of this Pope, who failed despite his best efforts due to the overwhelming circumstances of the time: “Proh dolor! Quantum refert in quae tempora vel optimi cujusque virtus incidat! - Oh, how much depends on what time the best man's work falls! "

Hadrian was the last Pope from the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation . He is so far the only Pope from what is now the Netherlands and was the last non-Italian Pope until the election of Pope John Paul II in 1978. The Brotherhood of Santa Maria dell'Anima announced on November 17, 2010, following a symposium on Pope Hadrian VI. indicated that she intended to apply for his beatification .

literature

  • Wilhelm Maurenbrecher:  Hadrian VI . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 10, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1879, pp. 302-307.
  • Constantin Ritter von Höfler: Pope Adrian VI. Braumüller, Munich 1880 (with 570 pages the most extensive monograph to date).
  • James Loughlin:  Pope Adrian VI . In: Catholic Encyclopedia , Volume 1, Robert Appleton Company, New York 1907.
  • Robert E. McNally: Pope Adrian VI. (1522-23) and Church Reform. In: Archivum Historicae Pontificae Vol. 7 (1969), pp. 253-286.
  • Christian Fichtinger: Lexicon of Saints and Popes. Prisma-Verlag, Gütersloh 1980 (first edition; later reprinted several times, most recently by Ullstein, Frankfurt am Main 1995, ISBN 3-548-35532-3 ).
  • Hermann Schreiber : History of the Popes. Econ Verlag, Düsseldorf 1985 (later reprinted several times, most recently by Bechtermünz, Augsburg 1995, ISBN 3-86047-091-4 ).
  • Friedrich Wilhelm BautzHadrian VI. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 2, Bautz, Hamm 1990, ISBN 3-88309-032-8 , Sp. 429-430.
  • Markus Graulich : Hadrian VI. A German Pope on the eve of the Reformation. Schöningh, Paderborn 2009 (new edition 2017, ISBN 3-506-76737-2 ).
  • Michiel Verweij (Ed.): De Paus uit de Lage Landen. Adrianus VI, 1549-1623 (= Supplementa Humanistica Lovanensia, 27). Leuven University Press, Leuven 2009, ISBN 978-90-5867-776-1 (catalog of an exhibition shown in 2009/2010 in Leuven and Utrecht on the 550th year of Adriaan van Utrecht's birth; contributions in Dutch, English, German and French).
  • Eberhard J. Nikitsch: Roman networks at the beginning of the 16th century. Pope Hadrian VI (1522/23) and his clientele in the mirror of their grave monuments. In: Sources and research from Italian archives and libraries 91 (2011), pp. 278–317.
  • Hans Cools, Catrien Santing, Hans de Valk (eds.): Adrian VI: A Dutch Pope in a Roman Context (= Fragmenta. Journal of the Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome , 4/2010). Brepols, Turnhout 2012, ISBN 978-2-503-54536-3 (files from a specialist conference from 1999, English).

Web links

Commons : Hadrian VI.  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. Claudio Rendina: I Papi . Rome 2002, p. 619.
  2. ^ Ferdinand Gregorovius : The history of the city of Rome in the Middle Ages. Volume 8. Cotta, Stuttgart 1872, p. 381 ( digitized versionhttp: //vorlage_digitalisat.test/1%3D~GB%3D~IA%3Dgeschichtedersta08greguoft~MDZ%3D%0A~SZ%3D381~ double-sided%3D~LT%3D~PUR%3D ).
  3. Josef Gelmi: The Popes . Augsburg 2003, p. 178.
  4. ^ Heinrich Schreckenberg: Hadrian's Confession of Guilt. In: Christ in der Gegenwart, vol. 65 (2013), p. 515.
  5. Quoted from Franz Xaver Seppelt : Papal history from the beginning to the present . 5th edition. Kösel, Munich 1954, p. 208.
  6. The saying goes back to Pliny the Elder, Historia naturalis VII, 106 ( digitized version): “Etenim plurimum refert in quae cuiusque virtus tempora inciderit. - However, a great deal depends on the period in which each person's work falls. ”On his temporary grave in Alt-St. Peter had said: “Hadrianus sextus hic situs est: qui nihil sibi infelicius in vita quam quod imperaret duxit. - Here lies Hadrian VI, who was more unhappy about nothing in his life than that he had to rule. ”Eberhard J. Nikisch: Pope Hadrian VI. (1522/23) and his clientele in the mirror of their grave monuments. In: Lutherjahrbuch , 78th year (2011), pp. 9–37, here p. 19 ( digitized version ).
  7. ^ For Hadrian VI. beatification proceedings should be requested . Report on kath.net from November 19, 2010.
predecessor Office successor
Leo X. Pope
1522-1523
Clement VII
Lluís Mercader Bishop of Tortosa
1516–1522
Wilhelm van Enkevoirt