Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 1.djvu/187

ADRIAN any confirmation of a previous grant, but how could we expect a second confirmation if Adrian's grant had in fact been already confirmed according to the text in Giraldus? There is no question as to the genuineness of the three letters of the 20th of September. They are found in the Liber Scaccarii, and are printed in Migne (P.L. CC, col. 882).

The Donation of Adrian was subsequently recognized in many official writings, and the Pope for more than four centuries claimed the overlordship of Ireland. In 1318 (1317?) Domhnall O'Neill and other kings and chieftains, and the whole laity of Ireland, forwarded to Pope John XXII a letter of appeal and protest. They state in the letter that Pope Adrian, induced by false representations, granted Ireland to Henry II, and enclose a copy of the Bull which the context shows was Laudabiliter. On 30 May, 1318, the Pope wrote from Avignon a letter of paternal advice to Edward II, urging him to redress the grievances of the Irish, and enclosed O'Neill's letters and "a copy of the grant which Pope Adrian is said to have made to Henry II." Edward II did not deny that he held under that grant. By an Act of the Irish Parliament (Parliament Roll, 7th Edward IV, Ann. 1467), after reciting that "as our Holy Father Adrian, Pope of Rome, was possessed of all sovereignty of Ireland in his demesne as of fee in the right of his Church of Rome, and with the intent that vice should be subdued had alienated the said land to the King of England … by which grant the said subjects of Ireland owe their allegiance to the King of England as their sovereign Lord", it was enacted "that all archbishops and bishops shall excommunicate all disobedient Irish subjects, and if they neglect to do so they shall forfeit £100." In 1555, by a consistorial decree followed by a Bull, Paul IV, on the humble supplication of Philip and Mary, erected into a kingdom the Island of Hibernia, of which, from the time that the kings of England obtained the dominion of it through the Apostolic See, they had merely called themselves Lords (Domini), without prejudice to the rights of the Roman Church and of any other person claiming to have right in it or to it. [Bull. Rom (ed. Turin.) VI, 489, 490.] In 1570 the Irish had offered or were about to offer the kingship of Ireland to Philip of Spain. The Archbishop of Cashel acted as their envoy. The project was communicated to the Pope through Cardinal Alciato, who wrote to the Archbishop of Cashel (9 June, 1570): "His Holiness was astonished that anything of the kind should be attempted without his authority since it was easy to remember that the kingdom of Ireland belonged to the dominion of the Church, was held as a fief under it, and could not therefore, unless by the Pope, be subjected to any new ruler. And the Pope, that the right of the Church may be preserved as it should be, says he will not give the letters you ask for the King of Spain. But if the King of Spain himself were to ask for the fief of that Kingdom in my opinion the Pope would not refuse". (Spicil. Ossor., ed. Card. Moran, I, 69). In conclusion there is not in my judgment any controverted matter in history about which the evidence preponderates in favour of one view so decisively as about the Donation of Adrian.

2em  Adrian V, a Genoese, nephew of Innocent IV), was elected at Viterbo, 12 July, 1276.  As Cardinal Fieschi, he had laboured to restore harmony in England between Henry III and the rebellious barons. He annulled the rigid enactments of Gregory X relating to the papal conclaves, but died before substituting milder ones, 18 August. He lived just long enough to experience "how great the mantle weighs". Dante (Purg., c. xix) held an interesting conversation with him in Purgatory.

2em  Adrian VI, the last pontefice barbaro (Guicciardini, XIV, v), and the only pope of modern times, except Marcellus II, who retained his baptismal name. succeeded Pope Leo X, from 9 January, 1522, to 14 September, 1523. He was born of humble parentage in Utrecht, 2 March, 1459. He lost his pious father, Florentius Dedel, at an early age, and was kept at school by the fortitude of his widowed mother, first at home, later at Zwolle with the Brothers of the Common Life, finally at the University of Louvain. After a thorough course in philosophy, theology, and jurisprudence he was created Doctor of Divinity in 1491. Margaret of Burgundy defrayed the expenses of the poor student. His popularity as professor of theology in Louvain is shown to have been deserved by his two chief works, Quæstiones quodlibeticæ (1521), and his ''Commentarius in Lib. IV Sententiarum Petri Lombardi'' (1512), which was published without his knowledge from notes of students, and saw many editions. As dean of the collegiate church of St. Peter in Louvain, and vice-chancellor of the university, he laboured to advance the arts and sciences, sacred and profane, and gave universal edification by a life of singular piety and severe asceticism. In 1506, he was, happily for the Church, selected by the Emperor Maximilian as tutor to his grandson, the future Charles V, then in his sixth year. Whatever accomplishments Charles possessed, beyond the art of war, he owed to the efforts of Adrian; most precious of all, his unalterable attachment to the Faith of his fathers. Transferred from the academic shades into public life, the humble professor rose to eminence with wonderful celerity. Within a decade he was the associate of Ximenes, Bishop of Tortosa, Grand Inquisitor of the Spanish peninsula, Cardinal