The last Pope Adrian was Adrian VI, a Dutchman who was so unfamiliar with Rome that he thought he was going to need to rent a place to live in. He lasted about a year--well-meaning reforming pope up against a lot of cardinals who were not keen on reforming. An earlier Pope Adrian, Adrian IV, is the one who gave the go-ahead to the English to conquer Ireland. He happens to be the only Englishman ever elected pope.
“The last Pope Adrian was Adrian VI, a Dutchman who was so unfamiliar with Rome that he thought he was going to need to rent a place to live in. He lasted about a year—well-meaning reforming pope up against a lot of cardinals who were not keen on reforming.”
This was in the early stages of the Protestant Reformation and Adrian proposed that perhaps the Church was at fault and its doctrines needed to be reformed. This of course went against the entrenched power structure in Rome who wouldn’t countenance any sort of change and continued to argue for the idea of papal/Church infallibility.
Also of course Adrian’s ethnic background went against him. As he was not Italian, he encountered the hostility of the Roman populace who considered him a stranger and a barbarian from a faraway country. His death was met with celebrations in the streets.
“An earlier Pope Adrian, Adrian IV, is the one who gave the go-ahead to the English to conquer Ireland. He happens to be the only Englishman ever elected pope.”
How very convenient. “God has ordained that England (my homeland) conquer the heathen Irish.” Oh well, that was just how things were in medieval times when the Papacy was a political football.