Pope adrian iv biography

Reigned Dec. 4, 1154, to Sept. 1, 1159; born Nicholas Breakspear, Abbot's Langley, on land belonging to St. Albans' abbey, c. 1100; d. Anagni; buried in St. Peter's, Rome, beside Pope Eugenius III; son of Robert of the Chamber, a clerk in royal service and later monk at St.

Albans; created cardinal bishop of Albano (c. 1149–50). The young Breakspear left England to study in France, eventually joining the reformed canonical congregation of St. Ruf near Avignon in the Arelate. Elected prior and then abbot (c. 1135) of this prestigious house, he more than once pursued the community's business at Rome before apparently so alienating his fellow canons that they petitioned the pope for his removal.

Eugenius, however, acknowledging his potential by a direct promotion to the cardinalate, later entrusted him with the legation to Scandinavia (1152), his high-profile mission being to reorganize and reform the Church there.

In Norway, he established a metropolita