ADRIAN ADRIATIC SEA. 



39 



a Roman, elected 884, was pope for one year and four 

 months only. He was opposed to the influence of 

 the emperors on the election of the pope, and de- 

 termined, if Charles the Fat should die without heir, 

 to give Italy a new king. ADRIAN IV., an Eng- 

 lishman, originally named Nicolas Breakspear, rose, 

 by his great talents, from the situation of a poor 

 monk to the rank of cardinal, and legate in the 

 north, where he established at Drontheim the first 

 Norwegian archbishopric, and a second at Upsal. 

 He was elected pope in 1154, and waged an unsuc- 

 cessful war against William, king of Sicily, who, at 

 the peace of 1156, claimed the privilege, still exist- 

 ing in the monarcAice Sicilta, so called, that, in mat- 

 ters relating to the church, nothing should be done 

 by the pope without the consent of the king. The 

 "emperor Frederic I., who before had held his stir- 

 rup, and had been crowned by him at Rome, June 

 18, 1155, was opposed to this peace with William 

 his enemy. A. increased his resentment by the 

 haughty language of his letters, and instigated the 

 Lombards against him. Frederic, on the other hand, 

 acted in ecclesiastical matters as if there had been 

 no pope. Before these difficulties came to a close, 

 A. died, Sept. 1, 1159, at Anagni. He was the 

 only Englishman that ever sat in the papal chair. 

 The permission which he gave to Henry II., king of 

 England, to invade Ireland, on the condition that 

 every family of that island should pay annually a 

 penny to the papal chair, because all islands belong 

 to the pope, is worthy of remark. On this grant 

 the subsequent popes founded their claims on 

 Ireland. ADRIAN V., previously called Ottoboni 

 da Fiesco, of Genoa, settled as legate of the pope, 

 the dispute between king Henry III. of England 

 ami his nobles, in favour of the former ; but died 

 soon after his election to the papal chair, 1276. 

 ADRIAN VI., son of a mechanic of Utrecht, and 

 professor in Louvain, was, in 1507, appointed tutor 

 of the emperor Charles V. When ambassador of 

 the emperor Maximilian, in 1515, he persuaded 

 Ferdinand the Catholic to nominate young Charles 

 his successor to the Spanish throne ; after which he 

 became, in 1516, bishop of Tortosa and regent of 

 Spain, and, in 1517, cardinal. The Spaniards were 

 not pleased with his severe and often partial govern- 

 ment, and expressed great joy when, at the sugges- 

 tion of Charles V., he was elected to the papal chair, 

 in 1522. He was not less hated at Rome, on ac- 

 count of his antipathy to classical literature, and his 

 honest endeavours to reform the papal court, to abo- 

 lish the prevailing luxury, bribery, and other abuses ; 

 but his efforts were frustrated by the cardinals, and, 

 if they had been successful, could not have prevented 

 the progress of the reformation already begun in 

 Germany. A. opposed the zeal of Luther with re- 

 proaches and threats, and even attempted to excite 

 Erasmus and Zuinglius against him ; but his abili- 

 ties were not equal to the existing emergency. His 

 measures against France also were unsuccessful. 

 Notwithstanding his honest efforts and upright cha- 

 racter, he died unlamented, in 1525, after a reign of 

 one year and a half. His reign was, according to 

 his own confession, the most unhappy period of his 

 life. On his tomb, in the church of St Peter, is the 

 following epitaph : 



Adriaiim Papa VI. hie situs >-(, 

 Qiii nihil sibi infelictua 



la vita, 



Quam quod imperarct, 

 Duxit. 



ADRIAN (de Castello), a learned Italian, who, 

 from a low origin, raised himself to the purple, was 

 born at Cometta in Tuscany. He was often em- 

 ployed by the pope, in missions to England and 



Scotland ; and during his stay in the former country, 

 he acquired the friendship of Henry VII., who con- 

 ferred on him the see pi Hereford, and afterwards 

 that of Bath and Wells. He, however, had other 

 and more ambitious views than an English bishopric, 

 for he dwelt chiefly at Rome, where he was discov- 

 ered in a plot to dethrone Leo X. and elevate him- 

 self to the vacant chair. His property was confiscat- 

 ed, and he fled, it is said to Riva, in the bishopric of 

 Trent, where he died. He was not only himself a 

 learned man, but literature lost in him a liberal and 

 discriminating patron. 



ADRIANI, John Baptist, secretary to the republic, 

 of Florence, in 1511; died 1579. He is known 

 chiefly by a History of his own Time, which was 

 published at Florence, in 1583, fol. and Venice, 1587. 

 3 vols. 4to. 



ADRIANOPLE, (in Turkish, Edrene), the second 

 capital and residence of the Ottoman rulers, is situ- 

 ated in ancient Thrace (now Rumelia), on the banks 

 of the navigable river Hebrus (now Maritza). On 

 this spot a small town formerly stood, inhabited by 

 the Bessi, a Thracian tribe. The emperor Adrian 

 founded this city on the left bank of the Hebrus, 

 called it after his own name, and made it the capital 

 of the province of mt. Haemus. From the range of 

 hills on which it is situated, it commands a beautiful 

 prospect over a large and fertile plain, divided by 

 two ranges of hills, between which the river runs. 

 It was fortified, and resisted, in the 4th century, the 

 violent attack of the victorious Goths, who were, 

 however, ignorant of the mode of conducting a re- 

 gular siege. To give it the appearance of a Greek 

 origin, the writers of Byzantium called it Ores tea or 

 Orestias. According to their accounts, it is five days' 

 journey distant from Constantinople. In 1360, it 

 was taken by Amurath, the Turkish sultan ; and 

 from that time it continued to be the residence of the 

 Turkish emperors for nearly a century, until the 

 conquest of Constantinople. The number of the 

 houses is 16,000, and that of the inhabitants 100,000 

 among whom there are 30,000 Greeks, under an 

 archbishop. It contains also an imperial palace, 40 

 mosques, of which that of Selim II. and of Amurath 

 II. are the most magnificent, 22 bathing establish- 

 ments, with beautiful aqueducts, important manufac- 

 tures, and exports, among other articles, oil of roses, 

 which is made in its vicinity, of the best kind. 



ADRIAN'S WALL ; a celebrated Roman work in 

 the north of England. This work, though called by 

 the Roman historians murus, which signifies a wall 

 of stone, was only composed of earth covered with 

 green turfc It was carried from the Solway frith, 

 in as direct a line as possible, to the river Tyne, on 

 the east, at the place where the town of Newcastle 

 now stands; so that it must have been above 60 

 English and nearly 70 Roman miles in length. It 

 consisted of four parts : 1 , the principal agger, mound 

 of earth or rampart, on the brink of the ditch ; 2, 

 the ditch on the north side of the rampart ; 2, ano- 

 ther rampart, on the south side of the principal one, 

 about five paces distant from it ; 4, a large rampart 

 on the north side of the ditch. For many aces, this 

 work has been in so ruinous a condition, that it is 

 impossible to discover its original dimensions with 

 certaintj. But from their appearance, it seems pro- 

 bable that the principal rampart was at least ten or 

 twelve feet high, and the south one not much less 

 the northern one was considerably lower. The ditch, 

 taken as it passes through a lime-stone quarry near 

 Harlow hill, appears to nave been nine feet deep and 

 eleven feet wide at the top. The north rampart was 

 about twenty feet distant from the ditch. 



ADRIATIC SEA (mare Adriaticum, ddrianum), 

 now more commonly called gulf of f'enice, though 



