This week in Christian history: English pope dies, Charles Finney born

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Sunday, August 27, 2023

Only English pope dies – Sept. 1, 1159

Pope Adrian IV (1100-1159), the only English pontiff in Catholic Church history. | Wikimedia Commons

This week marks the anniversary of when Nicholas Breakspear, who, as of this date, remains the only Englishman ever to serve as head of the Roman Catholic Church, died.

Elected in 1154 and known as Pope Adrian IV, the English pontiff is probably best known for having reportedly issued a papal bull allowing English King Henry II permission to invade Ireland.

“The Pope was pleased to agree that ‘you may enter that island and perform therein the things that have regard to the honour of God and the salvation of that land,’” wrote Richard Cavendish of History Today in 2004.

“Whether the document was genuine or a forgery has been hotly disputed, but most authorities tend to accept that Rome issued it or something like it. Adrian meanwhile had died at Anagni, near Rome, in 1159.”