Editing Pope Adrian IV (section)

==Personality==
{{Quote box|bgcolor=#FFFFF0|quote=For he was very kind, mild, and patient; accomplished in English and Latin, fluent in speech, polished in eloquence. An outstanding singer, and an excellent preacher; slow to anger and swift to forgive; a cheerful giver, lavish in alms, distinguished in every aspect of his character.{{sfn|Duggan|2003b|p=216}}|source=Cardinal Boso, ''Vita Adriani IV'' (late 1170s)|width=30em}}

The historian Colin Morris notes that Adrian's character appears contradictory: "Some historians have seen him as tough and inflexible, but others as a relatively mild man" who could be manipulated by those around him.{{Sfn|Morris|1989|p=190}} Duggan disputes that he was either a cypher to be manipulated by the cardinals or a ''[[prima donna]]''. Rather, she suggests, he was "a man of discipline, who fitted in with the norms and routines already in place...a man of affairs who had no fixed program, but who responded judiciously to the problems brought before his court.{{Sfn|Duggan|2003b|p=202}}

Adrian's [[Chamberlain (office)|chamberlain]], Boso—who later wrote Adrian's ''Vita''{{sfn|Eden|2006|p=292}}—described the Pope as "mild and kindly in bearing, of high character and learning, famous as a preacher, and renowned for his fine voice".{{sfn|Sayers|2004}} Julius Norwich describes Adrian as being eloquent, able and with "outstanding good looks".{{sfn|Norwich|1970|p=172}} The German [[antiquarian]] [[Ferdinand Gregorovius]] believed that by nature Adrian was "as firm and as unyielding as the granite of his tomb", while Norwich tempers this suggestion, believing that, at least after Benevento, he must have been far more open to the possibilities of change.{{sfn|Norwich|1970|p=186}} Duggan wonders whether he deliberately utilised these traits to forward his career. Boso's characterisation, she suggests, "could imply that he was ready to ingratiate himself with the powerful, to make friends and influence people by accommodation and charm".{{sfn|Duggan|2003b|p=198}} Sayers also suggests that something similar is detectable in the accounts from John of Salisbury,{{sfn|Sayers|2004}} a close friend to the Pope since the days of Adrian's curial visits.{{sfn|Egger|2003|p=20}}{{refn|Indeed, [[Reginald Lane Poole|R. L. Poole]] has asserted that John had an illegitimate son, which he named Adrian in the Pope's honour, and that, had the child been a girl, he was going to name her Adriana.{{sfn|Poole|1969|p=271}}|group=note}}{{Quote box
| bgcolor = #FFFFF0
| quote = For I call on the Lord Adrian to witness than no one is more miserable than the Roman Pontiff, nor is any condition more wretched than his. ... He maintains that the papal throne is studded with thorns, that his mantle bristles with needles so sharp that it oppresses and weighs down the broadest shoulders ... and that had he not feared to go against the will of God he would never have left his native England.{{sfn|Norwich|1970|p=177}}
| source = John of Salisbury, ''[[Polkratkus]]'', Book VIII, xxiii.
| align = left
| width = 30em
}}

Adrian's own view of his office, suggests Sayers, is summed up in his own words: his "[[pallium]] was full of thorns and the burnished mitre seared his head", would have supposedly preferred the simple life of a canon at St Ruf.{{sfn|Sayers|2004}} However, he also respected those who worked beneath him in the curia's officialdom; on one occasion he instructed that "we ought to reward such persons with ecclesiastical benefices when we conveniently can".{{sfn|Morris|1989|p=549}} This approach is reflected in the elevation of fellow Englishmen—Walter, and potentially John of Salisbury—to high office. Brooke suggests that, ultimately, Adrian "had not forgot his origins; he liked to have Englishmen about him".{{sfn|Brooke|2003|p=12}}

His increasing control over Rome and the Patrimony demonstrate that he was an effective organiser and administrator, argues the scholar Edward Whalen.{{sfn|Whalen|2014|p=125}} Duggan argues that Adrian's strength of personality can be seen in his very election: in spite of being an outsider, a newcomer and lacking the support or patronage of an Italian noble house he attained the apotheosis of his church. And, she says, these were the qualities that made him independent.{{sfn|Duggan|2003a|p=153}}

His biographer, Cardinal Boso,{{refn|Boso also wrote ''vitae'' of Innocent II, Eugenius III and Alexander III.{{sfn|Luscombe|Riley-Smith|2004|p=770}}|group=note}} was a close friend who visited Adrian at Rome between November 1155 and June the following year.{{sfn|Sheehy|1961|p=58}}{{refn|Sheehy describes Boso as "one of the most influential clerics in the England of his day", who later became [[Bishop of Chartres]].{{sfn|Sheehy|1961|p=58}} He was also a good friend to the English [[Archbishop of Canterbury]], [[Thomas Becket]], although there is no evidence, says Duggan, to suggest that he was either English or a nephew of Pope Adrian's, as Victorian historians believed.{{sfn|Duggan|2004|pp=181, 181 n.24}}|group=note}} John's feelings for Adrian were strong enough, indeed, for them to have been compared with, for example, that of [[Richard the Lionheart]] for [[Philip II of France|Philip of France]]. Boswell notes that in John's ''[[Metalogicon]]'', he used terms reminiscent of those used by chroniclers to describe relations between the Kings.{{sfn|Boswell|1980|pp=48, 216 n.30|p=}}{{refn|The gender historian [[James Boswell]], writing in his ''[[Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality]]'', emphasises, however, that this does not make them, in modern terminology, "latently homosexual", but rather that {{blockquote|text=John and Hadrian, who conceived of their love for each other in terms very like those used to describe the passion between the two kings, would have reacted somewhat differently to homosexual sentiments than modern churchmen, who would not describe their friendships with men in such terms".{{sfn|Boswell|1980|p=48}}}}|group=note}}

Modern historiography has not always been complimentary to Adrian. Freed argues that Adrian was capable of both shameful and specious arguments in his dispute with Barbarossa.{{sfn|Freed|2016|p=252}} Likewise, [[David Abulafia]] has called Adrian "petulant",{{sfn|Abulafia|1988|p=56}} and Latowsky has criticised his "sarcastic" manner towards Barbarossa.{{sfn|Latowsky|2013|p=163}}