Having been driven from Argos by Amphiaraus, Adrastus fled to
Sicyon, where he became king on the death of Polybus. After
a time he became reconciled to Amphiaraus, gave him his sister
Eriphyle in marriage, and returned to Argos and occupied the
throne. In consequence of an oracle which had commanded him
to marry his daughters to a lion and a boar, he wedded them
to Polyneices and Tydeus, two fugitives, clad in the skins of
these animals or carrying shields with their figures on them,
who claimed his hospitality. He was the instigator of the
famous war against Thebes for the restoration of his son-in-law
Polyneices, who had been deprived of his rights by his brother
Eteocles. Adrastus, followed by Polyneices and Tydeus, his two
sons-inlaw, Amphiaraus, his brother-in-law, Capaneus, Hippomedon
and Parthenopaeus, marched against the city of Thebes, and
on his way is said to have founded the Nemean games. This
is the expedition of the ``Seven against Thebes,'' which the
poets have made nearly as famous as the siege of Troy. As
Amphiaraus had foretold, they all lost their lives in this war
except Adrastus, who was saved by the speed of his horse Arion
(Iliad, xxiii. 346). Ten years later, at the instigation of
Adrastus, the war was renewed by the sons of the chiefs who had
fallen. This expedition was called the war of the ``Epigoni''
or descendants, and ended in the taking and destruction of
Thebes. None of the followers of Adrastus perished except his
son Aegialeus, and this affected him so greatly that he died
of grief at Megara, as he was leading back his victorious army.
Apollodorus iii. 6, 7; Aeschylus, Septem contra Thebes; Euripides,
Phoenissae, Supplices; Statius, Thebais; Herodotus v. 67.
ADRIA (anc. Atria; the form Adria or Hadria is less
correct: Hatria was a town in Picenum, the modern Atri), a
town and episcopal see of Venetia, Italy, in the province of
Rovigo, 15 m. F. by rail from the town of Rovigo. It is
situated between the mouths of the Adige and the Po, about
13 1/2 m. from the sea and but 13ft. above it. Pop. (1901)
15,678. The town occupies the site of the ancient Atria,
which gave its name to the Adriatic. Its origin is variously
ascribed by ancient writers, but it was probably a Venetian,
i.e. Illyrian, not an Etruscan, foundation--still less a
foundation of Dionysius I. of Syracuse. Imported vases of
the second half of the 5th century B.C. prove the existence
of trade with Greece at that period; and the town was famous
in Aristotle's day for a special breed of fowls. Even at
that period, however, the silt brought down by the rivers
rendered access to the harbour difficult, and the historian
Philistus excavated a canal to give free access to the
sea. This was still open in the imperial period, and the
town, which was a municipium, possessed its own gild
of sailors; but its importance gradually decreased. Its
remains lie from 10 to 20 ft. below the modern level. The
Museo Civico and the Bocchi collection contain antiquities.
See R. Schone, Le antichita del Museo
Bocchi di Adria (Rome, 1878). (T. As.)
ADRIAN, or HADRIAN (Lat. Hadrianus), the name of six
popes. ADRIAN I., pope from 772 to 705, was the son of
Theodore, a Roman nobleman. Soon after his accession the
territory that had been bestowed on the popes by Pippin was
invaded by Desiderius, king of the Lombards, and Adrian found
it necessary to invoke the aid of Charlemagne, who entered
Italy with a large army, besieged Desiderius in his capital of
Pavia, took that town, banished the Lombard king to Corbie in
France and united the Lombard kingdom with the other Frankish
possessions. The pope, whose expectations had been aroused,
had to content himself with some additions to the duchy of
Rome, and to the Exarchate, and the Pentapolis. In his
contest with the Greek empire and the Lombard princes of
Benevento, Adrian remained faithful to the Frankish alliance,
and the friendly relations between pope and emperor were
not disturbed by the difference which arose between them on
the question of the worship of images, to which Charlemagne
and the Gallican Church were strongly opposed, while Adrian
favoured the views of the Eastern Church, and approved the
decree of the council of Nicaea (787), confirming the practice
and excommunicating the iconoclasts. It was in connexion with
this controversy that Charlemagne wrote the so-called Libri
Carolini, to which Adrian replied by letter, anathematizing
all who refused to worship the images of Christ, or the
Virgin, or saints. Notwithstanding this, a synod, held
at Frankfort in 794, anew condemned the practice, and the
dispute remained unsettled at Adrian's death. An epitaph
written by Charlemagne in verse, in which he styles Adrian
``father,'' is still to be seen at the door of the Vatican
basilica. Adrian restored the ancient aqueducts of Rome,
and governed his little state with a firm and skilful hand.
ADRIAN II., pope from 867 to 872, was a member of a
noble Roman family, and became pope in 867, at an advanced
age. He maintained, but with less energy, the attitude of his
predecessor. Rid of the affair of Lothair, king of Lorraine,
by the death of that prince (869), he endeavoured in vain to
mediate between the Frankish princes with a view to assuring
to the emperor, Louis II., the heritage of the king of
Lorraine. Photius, shortly after the council in which he
had pronounced sentence of deposition against Pope Nicholas,
was driven from the patriarchate by a new emperor, Basil the
Macedonian, who favoured his rival Ignatius. An oecumenical
council (called by the Latins the 8th) was convoked at
Constantinople to decide this matter. At this council Adrian
was represented by legates, who presided at the condemnation
of Photius, but did not succeed in coming to an understanding
with Ignatius on the subject of the jurisdiction over the
Bulgarian converts. Like his predecessor Nicholas, Adrian
II. was forced to submit, at least in temporal affairs, to
the tutelage of the emperor, Louis II., who placed him under
the surveillance of Arsenius, bishop of Orta, his confidential
adviser, and Arsenius's son Anastasius, the librarian.
Adrian had married in his youth, and his wife and daughter
were still living. They were carried off and assassinated
by Anastasius's brother, Eleutherius, whose reputation,
however, suffered but a momentary eclipse. Adrian died in 872.
ADRIAN III., pope, was born at Rome. He succeeded Martin
II. in 884, and died in 885, on a journey to Worms. (L. D.*)
ADRIAN IV. (Nicholas Breakspear), pope from 1154 to
1159, the only Englishman who has occupied the papal chair,
was born before A.D. 1100 at Langley near St Albans in
Hertfordshire, His father was Robert, a priest of the diocese
of Bath, who entered a monastery and left the boy to his own
resources. Nicholas went to Paris and finally became a monk
of the cloister of St Rufus near Arles. He rose to be prior
and in 1137 was unanimously elected abbot. His reforming
zeal led to the lodging of complaints against him at Rome;
but these merely attracted to him the favourable attention
of Eugenius III., who created him cardinal bishop of Albano.
From 1152 to 1154 Nlicholas was in Scandinavia as legate,
organizing the affairs of the new Norwegian archbishopric of
Trondhjem, and making arrangements which resulted in the
recognition of Upsala as seat of the Swedish metropolitan in
1164. As a compensation for territory thus withdrawn the
Danish archbishop of Lund was made legate and perpetual
vicar and given the title of primate of Denmark and Sweden.
On his return Nicholas was received with great honour by
Anastasius IV., and on the death of the latter was elected
pope on the 4th of December 1154. He at once endeavoured
to compass the overthrow of Arnold of Brescia, the leader
of anti-papal sentiment in Rome. Disorders ending with the
murder of a cardinal led Adrian shortly before Palm Sunday
1155 to take the previously-unheard-of step of putting
Rome under the interdict. The senate thereupon exiled
Arnold, and the pope, with the impolitic co-operation of
Frederick I. Barbarossa, was instrumental in procuring his
execution. Adrian crowned the emperor at St Peter's on the
18th of June 1155, a ceremony which so incensed the Romans
that the pope had to leave the city promptly, not returning
till November 1156. With the aid of dissatisfied barons,
Adrian brought William I. of Sicily into dire straits; but
a change in the fortunes of war led to a settlement (June
1156) not advantageous to the papacy and displeasing to the
emperor. At the diet of Besancon in October 1157, the
legates presented to Barbarossa a letter from Adrian which
alluded to the beneficia conferred upon the emperor, and the
German chancellor translated this beneficia in the feudal
sense. In the storm which ensued the legates were glad to
escape with their lives, and the incident at length closed
with a letter from the pope, declaring that by beneficium
he meant merely bonum factum. The breach subsequently
became wider, and Adrian was about to excommunicate the
emperor when he died at Anagnia on the 1st of September
1159. A controversy exists concerning an embassy sent by
Henry II. of England to Adrian in 1155. According to the
elaborate investigation of Thatcher, the facts seem to be as
follows. Henry asked for permission to invade and subjugate
Ireland, in order to gain absolute ownership of that isle.
Unwilling to grant a request counter to the papal claim
(based on the forged Donation of Constantine) to dominion
over the islands of the sea, Adrian made Henry a conciliatory
proposal, namely, that the king should become hereditary
feudal possessor of Ireland while recognizing the pope as
overlord. This compromise did not satisfy Henry, so the matter
dropped; Henry's subsequent title to Ireland rested on conquest,
not on papal concession, and was therefore absolute. The
much-discussed bull Laudabiliter is, however, not genuine.
See Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopadie, 3rd ed. (excellent
bibliography), and Wetzer and Welte, Kirchenlexikon, 2nd
ed., under ``Hadrian IV.''; also Oliver J. Thatcher, Studies
concerning Adriani IV`. (The University of Chicago: Decennial
Publications, 1st series, vol. iv., Chicago, 1903); R. Raby,
Pope Adrian IV.: An Historical Sketch (London, 1849); and
A. H.Tarleton, Life of Nicholas Breakspear (London, 1896)
ADRIAN V. (Ottobuono de' Fieschi), pope in 1276, was a Genoese
who was created cardinal deacon by his uncle Innocent IV.
In 1264 he was sent to England to mediate between Henry III.
and his barons. He was elected pope to succeed Innocent V.
on the 11th of July 1276, but died at Viterbo on the 18th of
August, without having been ordained even to the priesthood.
ADRIAN VI. (Adrian Dedel, not Boyens, probably not Rodenburgh,
1459-1523), pope from 1522 to 1523, was born at Utrecht in
March 1459, and studied under the Brethren of the Common
Life either at Zwolle or Deventer. At Louvain he pursued
philosophy, theology and canon law, becoming a doctor of
theology (1491), dean of St Peter's and vice-chancellor of the
university. In 1507 he was appointed tutor to the seven-year
old Charles V. He was sent to Spain in 1515 on a very important
diplomatic errand; Charles secured his succession to the see
of Tortosa, and on the 14th of November 1516 commissioned him
inquisitor-general of Aragon. During the minority of Charles,
Adrian was associated with Cardinal Jimenes in governing
Spain. After the death of the latter Adrian was appointed, on
the 14th of March 1518, general of the reunited inquisitions
