Barbarossa and The Death of Adrian IV
At the diet of Besançon in October 1157, the legates presented to Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor a letter from Adrian IV which alluded to the beneficia or "benefits" conferred upon the Emperor, and the German chancellor translated this beneficia in the feudal sense of the presentation of property from a lord to a vassal (benefice). Frederick was infuriated by the suggestion that he was dependent on the Pope, and 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 or "a good deed," i.e. the coronation. The breach subsequently became wider, and the Emperor was about to be excommunicated when Adrian died at Anagni on 1 September 1159, reputedly choking on a fly in his wine, but probably of quinsy.
His biography was first written by Cardinal Boso in his extension to the Liber Pontificalis.
Read more about this topic: Pope Adrian IV
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