Events 
Nicholas Breakspear
Nicholas Breakspear was born in the year
1100, at Bedmond Farm in the parish of Abbots Langley, Hertfordshire. Presumably after the
death of his wife, his father, Robert Breakspear, became a monk of St Albans Abbey. When
Nicholas was about 18 years old, he too applied to enter St Albans Abbey. But he was
refused admission on the grounds that he had had too little schooling to qualify for
entrance.
Undeterred by this refusal, Nicholas went abroad to study. He went briefly to St Denys in
Paris, then to other places and finally came to Avignon. Here in 1130 he became a monk in
the Augustinian Abbey of St Rufus. He was elected Abbot in 1137 and came to the notice of
the Pope, Eugenius III. Recognising his qualities, the Pope made him Bishop and Cardinal
and sent him on a mission to war-torn Scandinavia. Nicholas restored peace and order to
the local churches and monasteries and set up two new archbishoprics. After four years,
now widely recognised as a man of integrity and strength, he returned to Rome to find that
Eugenius III had died and had been succeeded by Anastasius IV, a quiet, peaceful old man
of ninety. Within the year Anastasius too was dead, and in November 1154 Nicholas found
himself unanimously elected Pope. He took the name Adrian IV.
The story of Pope Adrian's short pontificate will emerge during this Nicholas Breakspear
week, in particular, his dealings with the emperor Frederic Barbarossa and the English
King Henry II. Nicholas Breakspear, Pope Adrian IV, died on September 1st 1159.
ASJ