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75 
Cardinal Adrian, Bishop of Bath and Wells. 
By the Rev. C. W. SHICKLE, M.A. 
(Read November 13th, 1906.) 
Among the memorials of the Bishops of the Diocese in Wells 
Cathedral are none to those whose names are most widely 
known. For many, Wells was only a halting place on the 
road to future greatness, and others are buried elsewhere. 
Archbishop Laud, buried first at Barking, now les at Oxford. 
The saintly Ken breathed his last within sight of Heaven's 
Gate at Longleat, and was buried at Frome, the nearest 
parish within his Diocese. The graves of John of V illula and 
of the great Fitz Jocelin are now, owing to the curtailed 
length of the Bath Abbey, like those of common felons, some- 
where beneath the road through the Orange Grove. Nelson 
lies in Wolsey’s proper coffin in the middle of St. Paul’s, while 
the Cardinal rests at Esher, but no one knows the end or the 
burial place of Adrian Castellensis, the prelate whom he 
succeeded, whom he maligned and whom he ruined, and the 
only memorials of him are his coat of arms on the shields in 
the roof of the choir and side aisles of the Bath Abbey, which 
were erected during his Episcopate, and to which he largely 
contributed. His predecessor in the See was Bishop Oliver 
King, to whom we owe the west front, and although Adrian 
never visited his diocese, the patron of Bramante and the 
friend of Michael Angelo without doubt took a great interest 
in the building then being erected on the site of John de 
Villula’s Cathedral. 
In a lowly cottage belonging to fisher folk, and similar to 
that in which the present Pope was born, the future Cardinal 
first saw the light (A.D. 1458 or 1459). It was at Corneto, a 
small fishing village, a few miles north of Civita Vecchia, and 
within sight of the ancient Tarquinii. The name of the 
family was Castellesi, and although there is said to have beon 
a certain Battista Castellisi at Rome as ambassador between 
A.D. 1455 and 1459 who was a friend of Rodrigue Borgia, it is 
doubtiul whether he was any relation, or gave the boy an) 
assistance in his early years, which are said to have been 
passed with distinction in the academies founded by Eugenius 
IV. and Sixtus IV. His conspicuous talent alone must have 
gained him promotion, for no hint is ever given of his being 
G Voi. XI., No. 2. 
