Pope Adrian I
700 CE–795 CE · Rome
From a noble Roman family, Adrian I (Hadrian I) reigned nearly twenty-four years—among the longest of the early medieval popes—in close partnership with Charlemagne. When Lombard king Desiderius menaced Rome, Adrian appealed to Charlemagne, who conquered the Lombard kingdom in 774 and confirmed and expanded the papal territories. Adrian rebuilt Rome's walls, aqueducts, and churches on a grand scale, and his name headed the formative collection of canon law sent to the Franks. He also approved the Second Council of Nicaea (787), which restored the veneration of icons, though tensions with Frankish theologians over its decrees foreshadowed lasting East-West frictions.
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RomeרומאItaly
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Rome in this era
Between the 8th and 15th centuries Rome was the seat of the popes and capital of the Papal States, which grew from the Frankish king Pepin's grant of 756; Charlemagne was crowned emperor in St Peter's in 800. The city shrank far below its ancient size, and from 1309 to 1377 the popes resided at Avignon before returning to Rome.
About Rome
Rome, on the Tiber in central Italy, grew from an Iron Age settlement into the capital of the Roman Republic and then of an empire that by the 1st century CE ruled the whole Mediterranean. Its Jewish community, attested from the 2nd century BCE, is among the oldest in Europe. Christian tradition holds that the apostles Peter and Paul died there, and the city became the seat of the popes. After the Western Empire ended in 476 it passed to Gothic kings, to Byzantium and then to papal rule as capital of the Papal States, until it became the capital of unified Italy in 1871. Vatican City, independent since 1929, lies within it.
In Rome at the same time
Pope St. Gregory II, Pope St. Zachary, Pope St. Paul I, Pope Stephen II, Pope Stephen III, Alcuin of York
In the same place & time
Sages whose lives overlapped with Pope Adrian I’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.
The world in their lifetime
Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Pope Adrian I’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
Works
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