ADRIAN, or Hadrian, Publius Aelius, the Roman emperor. He was born at Rome on the 24th of January, in the 76th year of Christ, A. u. c. 829. His father left him an orphan, at ten years of age, under the guardianship of Trajan, and Coelius Tatianus, a Roman knight. He began to serve very early in the armies, having been tribune of a legion before the death of Domitian. He was the person chosen by the army of Lower Moesia to carry the news of Nerva’s death to Trajan, successor to the empire. Trajan, however, conceived some prejudices against him; and Adrian, perceiving that he was no favourite with the emperor, endeavoured to ingratiate himself with the empress Plotina, by which means he succeeded in obtaining for his wife Sabina, the emperor’s grand-niece and next heiress. This was probably the first step to his future advancement, and facilitated his ascent to the throne. As questor he accompanied Trajan in most of his expeditions, and particularly distinguished himself in the second war against the Dacians. Afterwards he was successively tribune of the people, pretor, governor of Pannonia, and consul. After the siege of Atra in Arabia was raised, Trajan, who had already given him the government of Syria, left him the command of the army; and at length, when he found death approaching, it is said he adopted him. Adrian, who was then in Antiochia, as soon as he received the news thereof, and of Trajan’s death, declared himself emperor, on the 11th August, A. d. 117.

No sooner had he arrived at the imperial dignity than he made peace with the Persians, to whom he yielded up great part of the conquests of his predecessors; and from generosity or policy he remitted the debts of the Roman people, which, according to the calculation of those who have reduced them to modern money, amounted to 22,500,000 golden crowns; and he burnt all the bonds and obligations relating to those debts, that the people might be under no apprehension of being called to an account for them afterwards. There are medals in commemoration of this fact, in which he is represented holding a flambeau in his hand, to set fire to all those bonds which he had made void. He went to visit all the provinces, and did not return to Rome till the year 118, when the senate decreed him a triumph, and honoured him with the title of Father of his Country ; but he refused both, and desired that Trajan’s image might triumph. No prince travelled more than Adrian, there being hardly one province in the empire which he did not visit. In 120 he went into Gaul; from thence he went over to Britain, in order to subdue the Caledonians, who were making continual inroads into the provinces. Upon his arrival they retired towards the north. He advanced, however, as far as York, where he was diverted from his intended conquest by the description there given him of the country [7:2:163]by some old soldiers who had served under Agricoa. In hopes, therefore, of keeping them quiet by enlarging their bounds, he delivered up to the Caledonians all the lands lying between the two friths and the Tyne; and at the same time, to secure the Roman province from their future incursions, built the famous wall which still bears his name.^[1. This work, though called by the Roman historians murus, which signifies a wall of stone, was only composed of earth covered with green turf. It was carried on from the Solway Frith, a little west of the village of Burgh on the Sands, in as direct a line as possible, to the river Tyne on the east, at the place where the town of Newcastle now stands; so that it must have been above 60 English, and near 70 Roman miles in length. It consisted of four parts: 1. The principal agger, mound of earth or rampart, on the brink of the ditch; 2. The ditch on the north side of the rampart; 3. Another rampart on the south side of the principal one, about five paces distant from it; 4. A large rampart on the north side of the ditch. This last was probably the military way to the line of forts on this work: it was so to those formerly built by Agricoa; and if it did not serve the same purpose in this, there must have been no military way attending it. The south rampart might serve for an inner defence in case the enemy should beat them from any part of the principal rampart, or it might be designed to protect the soldiers from any sudden attack of the provincial Britons. For many ages this work has been in so ruinous a condition, that it is impossible to discover its original dimensions with certainty. From their appearance, it seems probable that the principal rampart was at least ten or twelve feet high, and the south one not much less; but the north one was considerably lower. From the dimensions of the ditch, taken as it passes through a lime-stone quarry near Harlow Hill, it appears to have been nine feet deep, and eleven wide at the top, but somewhat narrower at the bottom. The north rampart was about twenty feet distant from the ditch. ] Having thus settled matters in Britain, he returned to Rome, where he was honoured with the title of Restorer of Britain, as appears by some medals. He soon after went into Spain, to Mauritania, and at length into the East, where he quieted the commotions raised by the Parthians. After having visited all the provinces of Asia, he returned to Athens in 125, where he passed the winter, and was initiated in the mysteries of Eleusinian Ceres. He went from thence to Sicily, chiefly to view Mount Aetna, contemplate its phenomena, and enjoy the beautiful and extensive prospect afforded from its top. He . returned to Rome in the beginning of the year 129; and, according to some, he went again the same year to Africa; and, after his return from thence, to the East. He was in Egypt in the year 132, revisited Syria the year following, returned to Athens in 134, and to Rome in 135. The persecution against the Christians was very violent under his reign; but it was at length suspended, in consequence of the remonstrances of Quadratus, bishop of Athens, and Aristides, two Christian philosophers, who presented the emperor with some books in favour of the Christian religion. He conquered the Jews, and by way of insult erected a temple to Jupiter on Calvary, and placed a statue of Adonis in the manger of Bethlehem: he caused also the images of swine to be engraven on the gates of Jerusalem. At last he was seized with a dropsy, which vexed him to such a degree that he became almost raving mad. A great number of physicians were sent for, and to the multitude of them he ascribed his death. He died at Baiae in the 63d year of his age, having reigned 21 years. The Latin verses he addressed to his soul, which he composed a short time before his death, in a strain of tender levity, have been much criticised, and have been the subject of numerous translations and imitations.
Animula vagula, blandula,
Hospes, comesque corporis,
Quae nunc abibis in loca
Pallidula, rigida, nudula,
Nec, ut soles, dabis jocos?
Ah! fleeting spirit! wand’ring fire,
That long hast warm’d my tender breast,
Must thou no more this frame inspire?
No more a pleasing cheerful guest?
Whither, ah whither art thou flying?
To what dark undiscover’d shore?
Thou seem’st all trembling, shiv’ring, dying,
And wit and humour are no more!
Pope.

Some fragments of his Latin poetry are still extant, and there are Greek verses of his in the Anthology. He also wrote the history of his own life; to which, however, he did not choose to put his name; but that of Phlegon, one of his freedmen, a very learned person, was prefixed to it.^[2. Spartianus, in Adriano. ] He had great wit and a retentive memory, and he distinguished himself in the various branches of literature and science. In his natural disposition he was suspicious, envious, cruel, and lascivious. In his character there was a strange composition of virtues and vices. He was affable, courteous, and liberal; but he was capricious and unsteady in his attachments, and violent in his resentment. Thus he was distrusted by his friends, and dreaded by his enemies. Antoninus his successor obtained his apotheosis, and prevented the rescission of his acts, which the senate once intended.

Adrian I. Pope, ascended the papal throne a. d. 772. He was the son of Theodore, a Roman nobleman, and possessed considerable talents for business. He maintained a steady attachment to Charlemagne, which provoked Desiderius, a king of the Lombards, to invade the state of Ravenna, and to threaten Rome itself. Charlemagne rewarded his attachment by marching with a great army to his aid; and having gained many considerable advantages over Desiderius, he visited the pope at Rome, and expressed his piety by the humiliating ceremony of kissing each of the steps as he ascended to the church of St Peter. The affairs of the church now claimed Adrian’s particular attention; for Irene, who in 780 assumed the regency at Constantinople during the minority of her son Constantine, wishing to restore the worship of images, applied to Adrian for his concurrence. The pontiff readily acquiesced in her proposal for calling a council, and commissioned two legates to attend it. The first council, however, was dispersed by an insurrection of the citizens; but at the next meeting, in the city of Nice, in 787, which was protected by a military force, a decree was passed for restoring the worship of images. Adrian approved the decree, but in the western church it was deemed heretical and dangerous. Charlemagne condemned the innovation, and the French and English clergy concurred in opposing it. A treatise, containing 120 heads of refutation, was circulated as the work of Charlemagne, under the title of The Caroline Books, in opposition to the decree of the council. This work was presented to the pope by the king’s ambassador, and the pope wrote a letter to Charlemagne by way of reply. The king, and also the Gallican and English churches, retained their sentiments; and in 794 a council was held at Frankfort on the Maine, consisting of about 300 western bishops, by which every kind of image-worship was condemned. Adrian did not live to see a termination of this contest; for after a pontificate of nearly twenty-four years, he died in 795. Adrian seems to have directed his chief attention to the embellishment of the churches and the improvement of the city of Rome; and he was probably furnished by Charlemagne, out of the plunder of his conquests, with ample means for this purpose.
[7:2:164]

Adrian II. Pope, succeeded Nicholas I. a. d. 867. Having twice refused the dignity, he accepted it in the 76th year of his age, at the united request of the clergy, nobility, and people. The contest for power between the Greek and Latin churches had been very violent some years before his accession to the papal chair. Adrian, during this contest with the eastern patriarch, was extending his authority over the kings and princes of the West. He employed his whole interest to induce Charles the Bald, who had taken possession of the kingdom of Lorraine, and who had been crowned at Rheims by the archbishop Hinemar, to relinquish it in favour of the emperor; and he even sent legates to the king, after having attempted to engage Hinemar, the clergy, and the nobility, to desert him, ordering him to surrender to the emperor’s right. The king was invincible; and the pope was obliged to give up the contest. He also further interfered in the concerns of princes, by taking Charles’s rebellious son Carloman, and the younger Hinemar, bishop of Laon, under the protection of the Roman see. He proceeded in this business so far, that he was under the necessity of submitting without gaining his point. Death terminated his ambitious projects and his life of inquietude A. D. 872, after a pontificate of five years.

Adrian IV. Pope, the only Englishman who ever had the honour of sitting in the papal chair. His name was Nicholas Brekespere, and he was born at Langley, near St Albans, in Hertfordshire. His father having left his family and taken the habit of the monastery of St Albans, Nicholas was obliged to submit to the lowest offices in that house for daily support. After some time he desired to take the habit in that monastery, but was rejected by the abbot Richard. Upon this he resolved to try his fortune in another country, and accordingly went to Paris; where, though in very poor circumstances, he applied himself to his studies with great assiduity, and made a wonderful proficiency. But having still a strong inclination to a religious life, he left Paris and removed to Provence, where he became a regular clerk in the monastery of St Rufus. He was not immediately allowed to take the habit, but passed some time by way of trial, recommending himself to the monks by a strict attention to all their commands. This behaviour, together with the beauty of his person and prudent conversation, rendered him so acceptable to the monks, that after some time they entreated him to take the habit of the canonical order. Here he distinguished himself so much by his learning and strict observance of the monastic discipline, that upon the death of the abbot he was chosen superior of that house; and we are told that he rebuilt the convent. Pope Eugenius III. being apprized of the great merit of Nicholas, and thinking he might be serviceable to the church in a higher station, created him cardinal-bishop of Alba in 1146. In 1148 his holiness sent him legate to Denmark and Norway, where, by his fervent preaching and diligent instructions, he converted those barbarous nations to the Christian faith, and erected Upsal into an archiepiscopal see. When he returned to Rome, he was received by the pope and cardinals with great marks of honour; and Pope Anastasius, who succeeded Eugenius, happening to die at this time, Nicholas was unanimously chosen to the holy see in November 1154, and he took the name of Adrian. When the news of his promotion reached England, King Henry II. sent Robert, abbot of St Albans, and three bishops, to Rome, to congratulate him on his election; upon which occasion Adrian granted very considerable privileges to the monastery of St Albans, particularly an exemption from all episcopal jurisdiction, excepting to the see of Rome. Adrian, in the beginning of his pontificate, boldly withstood the attempts of the Roman people to recover their ancient liberty under the consuls, and obliged those magistrates to abdicate their authority, and leave the government of the city to the pope. In 1155 he drove the heretic Arnaud of Bresse, and his followers, out of Rome. The same year he excommunicated William, king of Sicily, who ravaged the territories of the church, and absolved that prince’s subjects from their allegiance. About the same time Frederick, king of the Romans, having entered Italy with a powerful army, Adrian met him near Sutrium, and concluded a peace with him. At this interview Frederick consented to hold the pope’s stirrup whilst he mounted on horseback. After which his holiness conducted that prince to Rome, and in St Peter’s church placed the imperial crown on his head, to the great mortification of the Roman people, who assembled in a tumultuous manner, and killed several of the imperialists. The next year a reconciliation was brought about between the pope and the Sicilian king, that prince taking an oath to do nothing further to the prejudice of the church, and Adrian granting him the title of King of the Two Sicilies. He built and furtified several castles, and left the papal dominions in a more flourishing condition than he found them. But notwithstanding all his success, he was extremely sensible of the disquietudes attending so high a station; and declared to his countryman John of Salisbury, that all the former hardships of his life were mere amusement to the misfortunes of the popedom, that he looked upon St Peter’s chair to be the most uneasy seat in the world, and that his crown seemed to be clapped burning on his head. He died September 1. 1159, in the fourth year and tenth month of his pontificate, and was buried in St Peter’s church, near the tomb of his predecessor Eugenius. There are extant several letters and some homilies written by Pope Adrian.

Adrian V. Pope, a Genoese, whose name was Ottoboni Fiesci, succeeded Innocent V. a. d. 1276. He was by his uncle Innocent IV. created cardinal-deacon of St Adrian, and in 1254 sent by him to England, to settle the disputes between Henry III. and his barons. He was employed again for the same purpose by Clement III. when he issued a sentence of excommunication against the king’s enemies. When he was congratulated on his accession to the papal chair, he said, “I wish you had found me a healthy cardinal rather than a dying pope.” After his election he went to Viterbo to meet the emperor Rodolphus, for the purpose of opposing the usurpation of Charles, king of the Two Sicilies; but died soon after his arrival, having enjoyed his dignity only 38 days. He zealously encouraged the crusade to the Holy Land, and upon his election sent a large sum to Constantinople: towards building galleys.

Adrian VI. Pope, was born at Utrecht in 1459. His father was not able to maintain him at school, but he got 1 a place at Louvain, in a college in which a certain number of scholars were maintained gratis. It is reported that he used to read in the night-time by the light of the lamps in the churches or streets. He made a considerable progress in all the sciences, led an exemplary life, and there never was a man less intriguing or less forward than he. He took his degree of doctor of divinity at Louvain, was soon after made canon of St Peter’s and professor of divinity at Utrecht, and then dean of St Peter’s and vice-chancellor of the university. He was obliged to leave an 1 academical life to be tutor to the archduke Charles. This young prince made no great progress under him: however, never was a tutor more considerably rewarded; for it was by Charles V.’s credit that he was raised to the papal throne. Leo X. had given him the cardinal’s hat in [7:2:165]1517. After this pope’s death, several cabals in the conclave ended in the election of Adrian, with which the people of Rome were very much displeased. He would not change his name, and in every thing he showed a great dislike for all ostentation and sensual pleasures, though such an aversion had been long ago out of date. He was very partial to Charles V. and did not enjoy much tranquillity under the triple crown. He lamented much the wicked morals of the clergy, and wished to establish a reformation of manners among them. He died September 14. 1523.

Adrian, cardinal priest, of the title of St Chrysogonus, was a native of Cornetto, in Tuscany. Innocent VIII. sent him nuncio into Scotland and into France; and after he had been clerk and treasurer of the apostolic chamber, Pope Alexander VI. whose secretary he had been, honoured him with the cardinal’s hat. His life was a continued scene of odd alterations. He narrowly escaped death on the day on which Alexander VI. poisoned himself by mistake. Afterward he drew upon himself the hatred of Julius II. so that he was obliged to go and hide himself in the mountains of Trent. Having been recalled by Leo X. he was so ungrateful that he engaged in a conspiracy against him. The pope pardoned his foult; but the cardinal, not caring to trust to this, made his escape, and it could never be known exactly what was become of him. He was one of the first who effectually reformed the Latin style. He studied Cicero with great success, and made many excellent observations on the propriety of the Latin tongue. The treatise he composed, De Sermone Latino, et de modis Latine loquendi, is a proof of this. It was published at Rome in 1515, in folio. He also wrote, in elegant Latin, a treatise on the Christian religion, entitled De Vera Philosophia, printed at Cologne in 1548.