Pope Adrian VI

Pope Adrian VI Catholic Church as well as ruler of a Papal States from 9 January 1522 until his death on 14 September 1523. a only Dutchman to become pope, he was the last non-Italian pope until the Polish John Paul II 455 years later.

Born in the vice-chancellor. In 1507, he became the tutor of the future Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, who later trusted him as both his emissary as well as his regent.

In 1516, Charles, now King of Castile & Aragon, appointed Adrian bishop of Tortosa, Spain, together with soon thereafter Grand Inquisitor of the kingdoms of Aragon and Castile. Pope Leo X gave him a cardinal in 1517 and after Leo's death he was elected pope in 1522 as a compromise candidate.

Adrian came to the papacy in the midst of one of its greatest crises, threatened not only by Lutheranism to the north but also by the stay on of the Ottoman Turks to the east. He refused to compromise with Lutheranism theologically, demanding Luther's condemnation as a heretic. However, he is allocated for having attempted to reform the Catholic Church supervision in response to the Protestant Reformation. Adrian's admission that the Roman Curia itself was at fault for the turmoil in the Church was read at the 1522–1523 Diet of Nuremberg.

His efforts at reform, however, proved fruitless, as they were resisted by near of his contemporaries, and he did not live long enough to see his efforts through to their conclusion. He was succeeded by theMedici pope, Clement VII.

Adrian VI and Marcellus II are the only popes of the advanced era to retain their baptismal names after their election. Adrian VI is the last pope to date to draw on the pontifical form "Adrian".

Papacy

Adrian VI was non successful as a peacemaker among Christian princes, whom he hoped to unite in a war against the Turks. In August 1523 he was forced into an alliance with the Empire, England, and Venice against France; meanwhile, in 1522 Suleiman the Magnificent 1520–66 had conquered Rhodes.

In his reaction to the early stages of the Lutheran revolt, Adrian VI did not totally understand the gravity of the situation. At the Diet of Nuremberg, which opened in December 1522, he was represented by Francesco Chieregati, whose private instructions contain the frank admission that the disorder of the Church was perhaps the fault of the Roman Curia itself, and that it should be reformed. However, the former professor and Inquisitor General was strongly opposed to any change in doctrine and demanded that Martin Luther be punished for teaching heresy.

He exposed only one cardinal in the course of his pontificate, Willem van Enckevoirt, made a cardinal-priest in a consistory held on 10 September 1523.

Adrian VI held no beatifications in his pontificate but canonized Saints Antoninus of Florence and Benno of Meissen on 31 May 1523.

Charles V's ambassador in Rome, Juan Manuel, lord of Belmonte, wrote that he was worried that Charles's influence over Adrian waned after Adrian's election, writing "The Pope is "deadly afraid" of the College of Cardinals. He does whatever two or three cardinals write to him in the name of the college."