Brenda Bolton - Adrian IV The English Pope (1154–1159)

General Editor: Brenda Bolton

About the series

In the last generation an important transformation has taken place in the study of the Medieval Church in the Latin West. This new focus has moved away from a narrow concentration on single religious themes to introduce a greater cultural awareness. Recent cross-disciplinary studies on the Churchs rules on consanguinity provide a case in point while other research has benefited from theological, political or literary perspectives.

This new Ashgate series, Church, Faith and Culture in the Medieval West will contain some of the most innovative work from this area of current research and will be drawn not only from more established scholars but also from those who are younger. The series, therefore, will contribute much new work, approaching the subject either vertically throughout the period from c.400 to c.1500 or horizontally throughout the whole of Christendom. The series is conceived as primarily monographic but will also include some collected essays on themes of particular relevance and the significance of individuals. The aim will be to draw authors from a range of disciplinary backgrounds, but all will share a commitment to innovation, analysis and historical accuracy.

About the volume

The year 2000 witnessed the 900th anniversary of the birth of Adrian IV, the only Englishman to sit on the papal throne. His short pontificate of four and a half years, distracted by crisis and controversy and followed as it was by an 18-year schism, could be judged a low point in the history of the papacy. The studies in this book challenge the view that Adrian was little more than a cipher, the tool of powerful factions in the Curia. Relations with the Empire, the Norman kingdom and the Patrimony are all radically reassessed and the authenticity o f Laudabiliter reconsidered. At the same time, the spiritual, educational and devotional contexts in which he was operating are fully assessed; his activities in Catalonia and his legatine mission to Scandanavia are examined in the light of recent research, and his special relationship with St Albans is explored through his privileges to this great abbey. These studies by leading scholars in the field, together with the introductory chapter by Christopher Brooke, reveal an active and engaged pope, reacting creatively to the challenges and crises of the Church and the world. This is the first large-scale work on Adrian since 1925, and is supported by a substantial appendix of relevant sources and documents in translation.

Church, Faith and Culture in the Medieval West

General Editor: Brenda Bolton

Other titles in the series:

Michelle Still
The Abbot and the Rule
Religious life at St Albans, 12901349

Gillian R. Knight
The Correspondence between Peter the Venerable and Bernard of Clairvaux
A Semantic and Structural Analysis

Richard Kay
The Council of Bourges, 1225
A documentary history

A drian IV grants a priviledge to Abbot Leonate and the monks of S. Clemante a Casauria (Paris, Bibliothque Nationale, MS. Lat. 5411, Chronicon Casauriensis, fol. 253r)