He travelled to Rome several times, where he appears to have caught the attention of Pope Eugene III, and was sent on a mission to Catalonia where the Reconquista was attempting to reclaim land from the Muslim Al-Andalus.

As a result, Adrian entered into an alliance with the Byzantine emperor, Manuel I Komnenos who was keen to re-assert his authority in the south of Italy, but was unable to do so due to the Norman kings' occupation of the region, now under William I of Sicily.

[22] It was probably in 1148 that Breakspear met who would become his good friend, John of Salisbury, in Rheims,[25] and soon after when [21][26] Eugenius appointed him Cardinal-Bishop of Albano,[4] making Adrian at the time only the second Englishman to have been promoted to that rank.

[35] Egger suggests, however, that Breakspear's Catalonian mission was of great benefit to St Ruf, which became the blueprint for the religious houses created by Berenguer in the wake of the retreating Muslim empire.

[38] although no official record of his instructions survives, Bergquist suggests that they can be inferred from his actions: to divide the existing Archbishopric of Lund—which covered both Norway and Sweden–into two distinct national metropolitans, to arrange payment of Peter's Pence and to generally reorganise the church along Italian and European lines.

[4] Boso later lauded how Breakspear brought "peace to the kingdoms, law to the barbarians, tranquillity to the monasteries, order to the churches, discipline to the clergy and a people pleasing to God, devoted to good works".

The historian Anne A. Latowsky explains how this was the cause of tension in the European polity:[72] Despite grandiose allusions to the German inheritance of the universal dominion of Augustus, the Roman Empire continued to be, as it had been for centuries, a primarily theoretical concept based on an idealized notion of the protection of all Christendom...such claims often clashed with papal pretensions to the primary role as guardians of a unified and universal Christendom[72]Norwich argues that, by now, whatever the public statements of either Papal or Imperial party, they were mutually antagonistic, and had been for many years.

Even before Adrian's pontificate, he says, no peace treaty was strong enough to unite them for long: "The days when it had been realistic to speak of the two swords of Christendom were gone—gone since Gregory VII and Henry IV had hurled depositions and anathemas at each other nearly a hundred years before".

[80] Relations with the commune were so bad that Adrian was forced to remain in the Leonine City[note 19] and was thus unable to immediately complete the enthronement ceremony, as tradition dictated, by making his adventus into Rome itself.

[88] Due to Arnold's presence in Rome, there were a number of acts of religious significance that it was impossible to perform, such as the ceremony of the sede stercoraria, the physical claiming of the curule seats of Saints Peter and Paul.

[60] Byzantine funding enabled Adrian to temporarily restore his vassal Robert, Count of Loritello,[129][117] although on one occasion William was able to capture 5,000 pounds (2,300 kilograms) of gold from Manuel that had been destined for the Pope's war chest.

[57] This was, however, suggests Robinson, on generous terms, including "homage and fealty, reparation for the recent encroachments on the papal patrimony, help against the Romans, freedom from royal control for the Sicilian church".

Anne Duggan, on the other hand, suggests this view is "scarcely credible": not only was Adrian in no position of strength from which to threaten Frederick, but he was also aware that the Emperor was planning a campaign against Milan for the following year, and would hardly wish to provoke him into marching on towards the Papal States.

[159][note 38] Adrian's letter, suggests Godman, both upbraids the Emperor for "dissimulation" and "negligence" while accusing Rainald of Dassel of being a "wicked counsellor ",[162] although Duggan describes it more as a "mild rebuke".

[161] Barber comments that "the tone is that of one who is surprised and a little hurt that, having treated Frederick so affectionately and honourably, he had not had a better response, but the actual words used to express these sentiments gave rise to immediate offence".

[204] Adrian, suggests the papal scholar Brenda M. Bolton, had a particularly "special relationship" with his "home abbey" of St Albans, demonstrated in his generous and wide-ranging privilege Incomprehensibilis, published in Benevento on 5 February 1156.

[219] The Bull "granted and gave Ireland to King Henry II to hold by hereditary right, as his letters witness unto this day", and was accompanied by a gold Papal ring "as a token of investiture".

[242] Adrian continued the reform of the Papacy's finances that had begun under his predecessor in an attempt at boosting revenue,[243][note 54] although he regularly had to resort to requesting large loans from major noble families such as the Corsi and Frangipane.

In his January 1159[238] letter Satis laudabiliter, while flattering both kings diplomatically, he advised that "it would seem to be neither wise nor safe to enter a foreign land without first seeking the advice of the princes and people of the area".

[31] Boso reported how, for example, "in the church of St Peter [Adrian] richly restored the roof of St. Processo which he found collapsed", while in the Lateran, he "caused to be made a very necessary and extremely large cistern".

Particularly in the early years of the reign, his travels reflected the political context, consisting of "short bursts" as he sought to either meet or avoid the Emperor or William of Sicily as the situation required.

[87] Adrian's own view of his office, suggests Sayers, is summed up in his own words: his "pallium was full of thorns and the burnished mitre seared his head", would have supposedly preferred the simple life of a canon at St Ruf.

[92] Duggan argues that Adrian's strength of personality can be seen in his very election: in spite of being an outsider, a newcomer and lacking the support or patronage of an Italian noble house he attained the apotheosis of his church.

[293][note 70] However, as soon as the Emperor heard of the Pope's death, says Madden, he "sent a group of agents and a great deal of money to Rome" in an attempt to secure the election of a successor with pro-Imperial sympathies.

[306] Although the Papal forces were insufficient to defeat Barbarossa outright, the war in Lombardy gradually turned against the Emperor, and following the recognition of the Kings of France and England, the military situation became more evenly balanced.

[308] One such letter, supposedly to Archbishop Hillin of Trier, comments Latowsky, "is of particular interest since it contains a deliberately erroneous rewriting of Charlemagne's assumption of the imperial title".In it, Adrian launches into a diatribe, condemning the German kings who owe everything to the Papacy yet refuse to understand that.

contrary to the honour of God's Church and of the empire, great division and discord have arisen (not without cause) among the cardinals...blinded by money and many promises and firmly bound to the Sicilian, wickedly defended the treaty.

[322] On the other hand, the Dixie Professor of Ecclesiastical History, Christopher N. L. Brooke argues that, on account of the number of different countries he dwelt in over the years, he illustrates the cosmopolitan nature of 12th-century religion.

While agreeing that Adrian was "the greatest pope since Urban II", he argues that it would be difficult not to "tower...above the string of mediocrities who occupied the throne of St Peter during the first half of the century, just as he himself is overshadowed by his magnificent successor".

[153] The period immediately preceding Adrian's pontificate, argues Malcolm Barber, was one where "even without a direct imperial threat, Roman feuds, Norman ambitions and incompetently led crusades could reduce grandiose papal plans to ashes".