Editing Pope Adrian II

{{Short description|Head of the Catholic Church from 867 to 872}}

{{Infobox Christian leader 
|type = Pope
|honorific-prefix=[[List of popes|Pope]]
|name=Adrian II
|title = [[Bishop of Rome]]
|church = [[Catholic Church]]
|image = 
|term_start=14 December 867<ref>{{cite web| url = https://w2.vatican.va/content/vatican/en/holy-father/adriano-ii.html| title = Adrian II, The Holy See}}</ref>
|term_end=14 December 872
|predecessor=[[Pope Nicholas I|Nicholas I]]
|successor=[[Pope John VIII|John VIII]]
|birth_date={{Birth date text|0792|792}}
|birth_place=[[Rome]], [[Papal States]]
|death_date=14 December 872 (aged 79–80)
|death_place=Rome, Papal States|
|other=Adrian
| spouse = [[Stephania (wife of Adrian II)|Stephania]]
| children = 1
}}

'''Pope Adrian II''' ({{langx|la|Hadrianus II}}; also '''Hadrian II'''; 792{{snd}}14 December 872) was the [[bishop of Rome]] and ruler of the [[Papal States]] from 867 to his death. He continued the policy of his predecessor, [[Pope Nicholas I|Nicholas I]]. Despite seeking good relations with [[Louis II of Italy]], he was placed under surveillance, and his wife and daughters were killed by Louis' supporters.

==Family==
Adrian was a member of a noble Roman family, related to Popes [[Pope Stephen IV|Stephen IV]] and [[Pope Sergius II|Sergius II]].<ref>Mann, Horace K., ''The Lives of the Popes in the Early Middle Ages'', Vol. II: The Popes During the Carolingian Empire, 795–858 (1906), p. 110</ref> In his youth, he married a woman named [[Stephania (wife of Adrian II)|Stephania]] and had a daughter with her. Adrian later became a priest after having already been married.<ref name="ReferenceA">{{Catholic |last=Loughlin |first=James |wstitle=Pope Adrian II |volume=1 |inline=1 |prescript=}}</ref> Catholic priests had been required to abstain from all further sexual relations since the 4th century at the latest.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Helen Parish |title=Clerical Celibacy in the West: C.1100-1700 |date=2016 |publisher=Taylor and Francis |isbn=9781317165163 |pages=49–51}}</ref>

Adrian was [[Papal selection before 1059|selected]] to become [[pope]] on 14 December 867. He was already at an advanced age (75), and objected to assuming the papacy.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> His wife and daughter moved with him to the [[Lateran Palace]].<ref name=Riche>Riche, Pierre (1993), ''The Carolingians'', University of Pennsylvania Press, {{ISBN|9780812213423}}</ref>

==Pontificate==
Adrian II maintained, but with less energy, the policies of his predecessor, [[Pope Nicholas I|Nicholas I]]. King [[Lothair II of Lotharingia]], who died in 869, left Adrian to mediate between the [[Franks|Frankish]] kings with a view to secure the imperial inheritance to Lothair's brother, [[Louis II of Italy]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} Adrian sought to maintain good relations with Louis, since the latter's campaigns in southern Italy had the potential to free the papacy from the threat posed by the Muslims.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Kleinhenz|first1=Christopher|title=Medieval Italy: An Encyclopedia|date=2 Aug 2004|publisher=Routledge|chapter=Hadrian II, Pope|isbn=9781135948795|quote=Hadrian sought to alienate no one in Rome, while also maintaining good relations with Louis II, whose campaigns in the south might free the papacy from the threat posed by the Muslims.}}</ref>

Patriarch [[Photius I of Constantinople]], shortly after the council in which he had pronounced sentence of deposition against [[Pope Nicholas I]], was driven from the patriarchate by a new [[Byzantine emperor]], [[Basil the Macedonian]], who favoured Photius' rival, [[Ignatios of Constantinople|Ignatius]]. The [[Fourth Council of Constantinople (Catholic Church)|Fourth Council of Constantinople]] was convoked to decide this matter. At this council, Adrian was represented by [[papal legate|legates]] who presided at the condemnation of Photius as a heretic, but did not succeed in coming to an understanding with Ignatius on the subject of jurisdiction over the [[Bulgarian Church]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

Adrian supported the work of [[Cyril and Methodius]] in [[Great Moravia|Moravia]], and authorized the use of the new Slavic liturgy. He subsequently ordained Methodius a priest. In 869, he consecrated Methodius archbishop and Metropolitan of [[Sirmium]].<ref>"The Life of Methodius",  ''Medieval Slavic Lives of Saints and Princes'' (Marvin Kantor) [Michigan Slavic Translation 5]. University of Michigan. (1983) p. 117. {{ISBN| 0-930042-44-1}}</ref>

Like Nicholas I, Adrian was forced to submit in temporal affairs to the interference of Emperor Louis II, who placed him under the surveillance of Bishop Arsenius of [[Orte]], his confidential adviser, and Arsenius' nephew, [[Anastasius the Librarian]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} Arsenius' son Eleutherius married Adrian's daughter, having withheld the fact that he was already espoused to another. In 868, he abducted and murdered Adrian's wife and daughter.<ref name=Riche/> Eleutherius was condemned to death for his crimes.

Adrian died on 14 December 872, after exactly five years of pontificate.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

{{Portal|Biography|Christianity|History}}

==References==
{{reflist|50em}}

==Further reading==
* {{Cite book|last=Dvornik|first=Francis|author-link=Francis Dvornik|title=The Photian Schism: History and Legend|year=1948|location=Cambridge, UK|publisher=Cambridge University Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X_A8AAAAIAAJ}}
* {{Cite book|last=Ostrogorsky|first=George|author-link=George Ostrogorsky|year=1956|title=History of the Byzantine State|location=Oxford|publisher=Basil Blackwell|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Bt0_AAAAYAAJ}}
* {{Cite book|last=Siecienski|first=Anthony Edward|year=2010|title=The Filioque: History of a Doctrinal Controversy|publisher=Oxford University Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=auT8VbgOe48C|isbn=9780195372045}}

==External links==
*[http://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu/01_01_0867-0872-_Hadrianus_II.html Opera Omnia by Migne Patrologia Latina with analytical indexes] {{inlang|la}}
*{{EB1911|wstitle=Adrian (popes)|display=Adrian s.v. II|volume=1|page=215}}
*{{cite CE1913|wstitle=Pope Adrian II|first=James Francis|last= Loughlin|volume=1}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-rel|ca}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Pope Nicholas I|Nicholas I]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Pope]]|years=867–872}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Pope John VIII|John VIII]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{Popes}}
{{Catholicism}}
{{History of the Catholic Church}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Adrian 02}}
[[Category:Popes]]
[[Category:Italian popes]]
[[Category:792 births|Adrian II]]
[[Category:872 deaths|Adrian II]]
[[Category:9th-century archbishops]]
[[Category:Married Roman Catholic bishops]]
[[Category:9th-century popes]]
[[Category:Burials at St. Peter's Basilica]]
[[Category:9th-century Italian nobility]]