The only English pope

There is almost an entire generation of Roman Catholics who are used to the fact of non-Italian Popes and who might even consider it the norm. We have gone 34 years since the last Italian pope. John Paul II was elected in 1978 and the current 265th Pope, Benedict XVI, was elected in 2005.
Older generations would have taken the election of an Italian cardinal for granted and would remember the hope and expectation that greeted the election of Cardinal Karol Wojtyla.
Not only was he the first pontiff from Eastern Europe, he was the first non-Italian elected to the Papacy in over 400 years. The previous non-Italian was Adrian IV, a native of Utrecht in the present Netherlands who was elected in 1522. His reign was short lived and only lasted one year, 248 days.
In earlier times, non-Italian popes were far from unusual. Indeed, Benedict XVI is not the first German and in the second millennium there have also been popes from France, Spain, Portugal and England.
The nationality of popes was much more widespread in the first millennium, reflecting the early origins of the Church. They included popes from Greece, Syria, Africa, Croatia, Palestine and Judea.
In all the history of the Church, there has only been one English pope, Nicholas Breakspear, who was elected in 1154 and took the name Adrian IV.
In Ireland, he is remembered for his Papal Bull, Laudabiliter, in which, it is said, he encouraged Henry II of England to invade Ireland to bring the Celtic Church into line with the Roman regulations.
Some doubt the authenticity of the Bull but it was not uncommon for popes, in those days, to interfere in different countries. Pope Alexander VI from Valencia divided the newly discovered world between his native Spain and Portugal in the Papal Bull Inter Coetera. He was also said to have had a number of children, among them Lucrezia Borgia.
Nicholas Breakspear is believed to have been born in Abbotts Langley in Hertfordshire and received his education at the Abbey in St Alban’s. His father later became a monk at that Abbey but Breakspear himself is reputed to have been refused admission when he wanted to become a monk himself.
Supposedly, the abbot told him to continue his schooling until he became more suitable. Instead, he became a wandering scholar on the continent and joined the Augustinian Order at the Abbey of St Rufus near Avignon. Here, he became prior and was then elected abbot. His reforming zeal made him enemies and he was complained to Rome.
This merely brought him to the attention of the pope and he was created Cardinal of Albano. His earliest mission was as papal legate to the church in Scandinavia. Here, he organised the affairs of the Church in Norway, Sweden and Denmark, creating new dioceses and setting up cathedral schools.
His mission to Northern Europe lasted two years from 1152 to 1154 and when he returned to Rome, he was hailed as the Apostle of the North.
Shortly afterwards, Pope Anastasius IV died. Nicholas Breakspear, Cardinal of Albano, native of Herefordshire and the only Englishman to sit on the Throne of Peter, was elected in his place on December 3, 1154 – 858 years ago this week.