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ADRIAN IV (Nicolas Breakspear, pape de 1154 à 1159). Bulle signée garantissant à l'évêque de Ravello et à ses successeurs les bénéfices de l'église de Ravello et de ses environs, Agnani, 11 Septembre 1157. Signée par Adrian IV d'une croix entre les deux cercles concentriques de la Rota.
ADRIAN IV (Pope, 1154 - 1159, Nicholas Breakspear). Bull, a Privilege signed by Adrian IV, addressed to the Bishop of Ravello [Giovanni Rufolo], granting to him and his successors the possessions and benefices of the church of Ravello and its surroundings and confirming that Ravello is subject only to the authority of Rome, Anagni, 11 September 1157.
Manuscript on vellum, written in brown ink in a late Carolingian papal chancery hand, in Latin, the first line (the opening Protocol) in laterally compressed and elongated letters with flourishing ascenders, papal knot abbreviations, SIGNED BY ADRIAN IV with a cross between the two concentric circles of the Rota on the left of the subscription ('Ego Adrianus, Catholicae Ecclesiae episcopus subscripsi') and the Monogram of 'B[ene] V[alete]'; subscribed and countersigned by five cardinals including Hubaldus, priest cardinal of San Prassede [Hubald Allucingoli, later Pope Lucius III, 1181 - 1185]; Hubaldus, priest cardinal of Santa Croce in Jerusalem; Johannes, priest cardinal of SS Giovanni e Paolo; Ardicio, deacon cardinal of San Teodoro, and Boso, deacon cardinal of SS Cosma e Damiano; dated at the foot (according to the Florentine year of Incarnation), 'III. Id. Septb. Indictione. v. Incarnationis d[omi]nce anno M.C.LVII. Pontificatus vero Domni ADRIANUS IIII. PP. anno III' [11 September 1157], 'per manum Rolandi, Sanctae Romanae presbyteri cardinalis et cancellarii' [Rolando Bandinelli, later Pope Alexander III, 1159 - 1181]; 25 lines written on one membrane, 540 x 512 mm, folded back at foot, yellow silk tags (lacking leaden bulla); endorsements in later hands on verso (splits in folds in line 4 affecting legibility of 3 words, and in line 22 with loss of fragment of vellum in Rota (not touching papal signature), and touching ascenders of papal subscription; slight worm damage with loss of letters in 3 words in lines 17 and 18, and touching Rota; small tears in blank areas).
Ravello had been elevated to an episcopacy in 1087, and Giovanni Rufolo, its third bishop, held office for 57 years from 1150. From its earliest foundation, Ravello was exempt from the jurisdiction of the archbishop of Amalfi and subject only to the authority of Rome. This, with its other privileges, is confirmed in the present Bull, '...prefatam Ravellensem Ecclesiam, cui Deo auctore, preesse dinosceris, sub Beati Petri et nostra protectione suscipimus et presentis scripti privilegio communimus, statuentes, ut quascumque possessiones, quecumque bona eadem Ecclesia in presentiarum iuste et canonice possidet, aut in futurum concessione pontificum, largitium regnum vel principum, oblatione fidelium seu aliis iustis modis, Deo propitio, poterit adipisci, firma tibi tuisque successoribus et illibata permaneant'. The bishop's possession of the surrounding district of Ravello ('omnem vero ambitum Ravellensis parrochiae') is also confirmed.
Nicholas Breakspear, the only Englishman to be enthroned as Pope, was elected as Adrian IV on 4 December 1154. Reputed to have been the son of a monk at St Albans, he studied in Paris in his youth, and owed his subsequent promotion at Rome to Eugenius III. Modest and unassuming in manner, his pontificate, lasting barely five years, initiated the age of the great mediaeval popes. The second half of the 12th century witnessed the growing conflict between the ideology of the lay-monarch, exemplified by the emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, and the traditional and hierocratic view supported by Adrian IV whose coronation symbolised and affirmed the monarchic functions of the pope. The tension between the pope and emperor was the dominating factor in Adrian's papacy, and was symbolised by his insistence before crowning Barbarossa as emperor in June 1155, that the latter perform the service of Strator, holding the reins of the pope's horse, a duty to which Frederick reluctantly submitted, regarding it as incompatible with his own concept of his role as an autonomous sovereign.
Adrian IV also refused to crown William I, son of Roger II of the Norman Kingdom of Sicily, who declined to recognise papal suzerainty and invaded the papal territory. When eventually a reconciliation was made, it was in Ravello that Adrian confirmed William as King, and said mass in the cathedral. Adrian IV died at Anagni on 1 September 1159, while preparing to issue an excommunication against Frederick Barbarossa.
Of the cardinals whose signatures appear in the Bull, Roland Bandinelli (later Pope Alexander III) was papal chancellor and a preeminent figure in the mediaeval church, representing the new class of specialised and trained scholars holding offices in the Curia. He served both Anastasius IV and Adrian IV, whom he succeeded in the disputed election of 1159. As chancellor, his duties included the careful supervision of all documents issued by the Curia with particular responsibility for examining documents confirming privileges.
Hubaldo Allucingoli (later Pope Lucius III), a Cistercian from Siena, was also cardinal bishop of Ostia. As pope he met Frederick Barbarossa in 1184, and refused to crown his son, Henry VI, as emperor. Giovanni di Sutri, cardinal of SS Giovanni e Paolo, was a member of Adrian IV's delegation to Barbarossa in 1155. Ardicio [Ardizzone di Rivoltella], cardinal of San Teodoro, had attended the Concordat of Constance with Eugenius III. Ubaldo Caccianemici, cardinal of Santa Croce in Jerusalem, was a member of Alexander III's Curia. Cardinal Bosone, according to an unproven tradition an Englishman, was chamberlain ('camerarius') to Adrian IV, and the biographer of both Adrian and Alexander III. He was the principal figure in the reorganisation of the patrimony of St Peter under Adrian IV.
The Bull of 11 September 1157 was published from the original manuscript by F. Ughelli in Italia Sacra, I/2, Venice 1713, col. 1185, and again from the original in F. Pansa's Istoria dell'Antica repubblica d'Amalfi, II, Naples, 1724, page 65. In 1844 the manuscript was examined and transcribed by a local historian from Amalfi, Matteo Camera (d. 1891). It was among the manuscripts in Ravello cathedral archive that was subsequently dispersed (P.F. Kehr, Italia Pontificium sive privilegiorum et litterarum a Romanis pontificibus ante annum 1198 Italiae ecclesiis, monasteriis etc., vol. VIII, Regnum Normannorum - Campania, Berlin, 1935, pages 402 - 403).
Literature:
Ph. Jaffe, Regesta Pontificium Romanorum ab condita ecclesia ad annum post Christum natum MCXVIII, II, Leipzig 1888, (2nd edition), page 126, no. 10303
R.L. Poole, Lectures on the History of the Papal chancery, Cambridge, 1915
I.S. Robinson, The Papacy 1073 - 1198, Cambridge, 1990
A.H. Tarleton, Nicholas Breakspear, London, 1896
W. Ullmann, 'The Pontificate of Adrian IV', Cambridge Historical Journal, XI, 1955, pp. 233 - 252
ADRIAN IV (Pope, 1154 - 1159, Nicholas Breakspear). Bull, a Privilege signed by Adrian IV, addressed to the Bishop of Ravello [Giovanni Rufolo], granting to him and his successors the possessions and benefices of the church of Ravello and its surroundings and confirming that Ravello is subject only to the authority of Rome, Anagni, 11 September 1157.
Manuscript on vellum, written in brown ink in a late Carolingian papal chancery hand, in Latin, the first line (the opening Protocol) in laterally compressed and elongated letters with flourishing ascenders, papal knot abbreviations, SIGNED BY ADRIAN IV with a cross between the two concentric circles of the Rota on the left of the subscription ('Ego Adrianus, Catholicae Ecclesiae episcopus subscripsi') and the Monogram of 'B[ene] V[alete]'; subscribed and countersigned by five cardinals including Hubaldus, priest cardinal of San Prassede [Hubald Allucingoli, later Pope Lucius III, 1181 - 1185]; Hubaldus, priest cardinal of Santa Croce in Jerusalem; Johannes, priest cardinal of SS Giovanni e Paolo; Ardicio, deacon cardinal of San Teodoro, and Boso, deacon cardinal of SS Cosma e Damiano; dated at the foot (according to the Florentine year of Incarnation), 'III. Id. Septb. Indictione. v. Incarnationis d[omi]nce anno M.C.LVII. Pontificatus vero Domni ADRIANUS IIII. PP. anno III' [11 September 1157], 'per manum Rolandi, Sanctae Romanae presbyteri cardinalis et cancellarii' [Rolando Bandinelli, later Pope Alexander III, 1159 - 1181]; 25 lines written on one membrane, 540 x 512 mm, folded back at foot, yellow silk tags (lacking leaden bulla); endorsements in later hands on verso (splits in folds in line 4 affecting legibility of 3 words, and in line 22 with loss of fragment of vellum in Rota (not touching papal signature), and touching ascenders of papal subscription; slight worm damage with loss of letters in 3 words in lines 17 and 18, and touching Rota; small tears in blank areas).
Ravello had been elevated to an episcopacy in 1087, and Giovanni Rufolo, its third bishop, held office for 57 years from 1150. From its earliest foundation, Ravello was exempt from the jurisdiction of the archbishop of Amalfi and subject only to the authority of Rome. This, with its other privileges, is confirmed in the present Bull, '...prefatam Ravellensem Ecclesiam, cui Deo auctore, preesse dinosceris, sub Beati Petri et nostra protectione suscipimus et presentis scripti privilegio communimus, statuentes, ut quascumque possessiones, quecumque bona eadem Ecclesia in presentiarum iuste et canonice possidet, aut in futurum concessione pontificum, largitium regnum vel principum, oblatione fidelium seu aliis iustis modis, Deo propitio, poterit adipisci, firma tibi tuisque successoribus et illibata permaneant'. The bishop's possession of the surrounding district of Ravello ('omnem vero ambitum Ravellensis parrochiae') is also confirmed.
Nicholas Breakspear, the only Englishman to be enthroned as Pope, was elected as Adrian IV on 4 December 1154. Reputed to have been the son of a monk at St Albans, he studied in Paris in his youth, and owed his subsequent promotion at Rome to Eugenius III. Modest and unassuming in manner, his pontificate, lasting barely five years, initiated the age of the great mediaeval popes. The second half of the 12th century witnessed the growing conflict between the ideology of the lay-monarch, exemplified by the emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, and the traditional and hierocratic view supported by Adrian IV whose coronation symbolised and affirmed the monarchic functions of the pope. The tension between the pope and emperor was the dominating factor in Adrian's papacy, and was symbolised by his insistence before crowning Barbarossa as emperor in June 1155, that the latter perform the service of Strator, holding the reins of the pope's horse, a duty to which Frederick reluctantly submitted, regarding it as incompatible with his own concept of his role as an autonomous sovereign.
Adrian IV also refused to crown William I, son of Roger II of the Norman Kingdom of Sicily, who declined to recognise papal suzerainty and invaded the papal territory. When eventually a reconciliation was made, it was in Ravello that Adrian confirmed William as King, and said mass in the cathedral. Adrian IV died at Anagni on 1 September 1159, while preparing to issue an excommunication against Frederick Barbarossa.
Of the cardinals whose signatures appear in the Bull, Roland Bandinelli (later Pope Alexander III) was papal chancellor and a preeminent figure in the mediaeval church, representing the new class of specialised and trained scholars holding offices in the Curia. He served both Anastasius IV and Adrian IV, whom he succeeded in the disputed election of 1159. As chancellor, his duties included the careful supervision of all documents issued by the Curia with particular responsibility for examining documents confirming privileges.
Hubaldo Allucingoli (later Pope Lucius III), a Cistercian from Siena, was also cardinal bishop of Ostia. As pope he met Frederick Barbarossa in 1184, and refused to crown his son, Henry VI, as emperor. Giovanni di Sutri, cardinal of SS Giovanni e Paolo, was a member of Adrian IV's delegation to Barbarossa in 1155. Ardicio [Ardizzone di Rivoltella], cardinal of San Teodoro, had attended the Concordat of Constance with Eugenius III. Ubaldo Caccianemici, cardinal of Santa Croce in Jerusalem, was a member of Alexander III's Curia. Cardinal Bosone, according to an unproven tradition an Englishman, was chamberlain ('camerarius') to Adrian IV, and the biographer of both Adrian and Alexander III. He was the principal figure in the reorganisation of the patrimony of St Peter under Adrian IV.
The Bull of 11 September 1157 was published from the original manuscript by F. Ughelli in Italia Sacra, I/2, Venice 1713, col. 1185, and again from the original in F. Pansa's Istoria dell'Antica repubblica d'Amalfi, II, Naples, 1724, page 65. In 1844 the manuscript was examined and transcribed by a local historian from Amalfi, Matteo Camera (d. 1891). It was among the manuscripts in Ravello cathedral archive that was subsequently dispersed (P.F. Kehr, Italia Pontificium sive privilegiorum et litterarum a Romanis pontificibus ante annum 1198 Italiae ecclesiis, monasteriis etc., vol. VIII, Regnum Normannorum - Campania, Berlin, 1935, pages 402 - 403).
Literature:
Ph. Jaffe, Regesta Pontificium Romanorum ab condita ecclesia ad annum post Christum natum MCXVIII, II, Leipzig 1888, (2nd edition), page 126, no. 10303
R.L. Poole, Lectures on the History of the Papal chancery, Cambridge, 1915
I.S. Robinson, The Papacy 1073 - 1198, Cambridge, 1990
A.H. Tarleton, Nicholas Breakspear, London, 1896
W. Ullmann, 'The Pontificate of Adrian IV', Cambridge Historical Journal, XI, 1955, pp. 233 - 252