9 January 1522 A.D. Dutchman Dedel Didn’t Last Long: (Non-Italian) Pope Adrian VI--The Pope who said the Papacy was corrupt from head to toe
Graves, Dan. “Dutchman Dedel Didn’t Last
Long.” Christianity.com. May
2007. http://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1501-1600/dutchman-dedel-didnt-last-long-11629928.html. Accessed 7 Jul 2014.
History, like our personal lives, is a series of if onlys.
If
only the captain of the Titanic had slowed down when he was
warned there was ice ahead. If only General Belasarius had not been
recalled from Italy so soon. If only Adrian VI had not died before
he could effect church reform.
When Pope Leo X died, he left
the Roman church in serious
difficulties. German reformers stirred in the north. Church finances
were in disarray, squandered on arts and extravagances. Rome reeked of
corruption.
On this day, January 9, 1522, the college of Cardinals made a serious effort to change the direction
of the church. For the first time in 200 years they chose a non-Italian pope.
The move caught Adrian Dedel, Inquisitor of Spain, by surprise. He had never
even been to Rome before.
Taking the name Adrian VI, the
new pope entered the ancient city eight months later, on August 29, 1522.
Adrian had been born in Utrecht,
Netherlands. Stinting herself, his mother put him through school, for Adrian
was left fatherless at a tender age. He also found a benefactress in Duchess
Margaret of Burgundy, who defrayed the expenses of his higher education.
A scholar of distinction, Adrian
became a popular professor of theology at Louvain and a
high-placed administrator of the school. Admiring students compiled and
published his lectures without his permission; they sold well. Emperor Maximillian
appointed him tutor to his son, Charles of Hapsburg. So well did Adrian ground
his pupil in the Catholic faith that when Charles became Emperor Charles V, he
was the staunch defender of Catholicism throughout the Reformation era.
When the teenaged Charles became
King of Spain, Adrian went to Iberia with him. There he worked shoulder to
shoulder with Cardinal Ximenes--who is remembered for his denunciation of the
indulgences offered by Julius II and Leo X (read more about him tomorrow). The
Dutchman Dedel was sixty-two and regent of Spain when called to the papacy.
The situation would have tested
the strongest man. The luxury-loving clergy of Rome didn't want a reforming
pope. Islam, on the march again, wanted to devour Christendom. Plague struck
and the cardinals fled the city, crippling the pontiff's reforms. All who were
dependent on the Vatican reproached the austere pope as a miser, because the
coffers were bare. Adrian failed in his effort to get Elector Frederick of
Saxony to withdraw support from Luther. He said that the corruption of the
popes did not forfeit lay obedience. "Thou art a sheep; presume not to
impugn thy shepherd, nor to judge thy God and Christ."
Possibly death came as a relief
to Adrian when he departed this life less than two years after assuming the
highest office of the Catholic church. In the short time at his disposal he was
able to prove himself even-handed, but was not able to deal with the German
Reformation or get papal finances back in the black. And that is why Catholic scholars
say wistfully, if only...
Bibliography:
Bezold, Friedrich von. Geschichte der Deutschen
Reformation. Berlin: Derlagsbuchhandlung, 1890.
Brusher, Joseph Stanislaus. Popes through
the Ages. Princeton, N. J.: Van Nostrand, 1959.
De Rosa, Peter. Vicars of Christ; the dark side of the papacy. Dublin:
Poolbeg Press, 2000.
Lea, Henry C. Studies in Church
History. Philadelphia: Henry
C. Lea; London: Samson, Low, Son, & Marston, 1869; esp. pp. 378 - 9.
Loughlin, James F. "Pope Adrian VI." Catholic
Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton, 1914.
Montor, Chevalier Artaud de. Lives and
Times of the Popes. New York: Catholic Publication Society of
America, 1909.
Various encyclopedia and internet articles.
Last updated May,
2007.
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