_Adrian the Fourth._--Adrian the Fourth was the only Englishman who ever
filled the Papal chair. His name was Nicholas Breakspeare, and he was
born at Abbot's Langley, a village in Herts. Such was the unbounded
pride of this pontiff, that when the Emperor Frederick the First went to
Rome, in 1155, to receive the imperial diadem, the Pope, after many
difficulties concerning the ceremonial of investiture, insisted that the
emperor should prostrate himself before him, kiss his feet, hold his
stirrup, and lead the white palfrey on which the holy father rode.
Frederick did not submit to this humiliation without reluctance; and as
he took hold of the stirrup, he observed that "he had not yet been
taught the profession of a groom." In a letter to his old friend, John
of Salisbury, he says that St. Peter's Chair was the most uneasy seat in
the world, and that his crown seemed to be clapped burning on his head.
Yet did this haughty Pope (according to Dr. Cave) allow his mother to be
maintained by the alms of the church of Canterbury.