Adrian VI

Adriaan Florensz Boeyens · 1522 – 1523

The last non-Italian pope before John Paul II, a Dutch reformer who tried to clean up the Roman Curia but died after only one year.

Adriaan was from Utrecht and had been a theology professor and tutor to the future Emperor Charles V. Elected pope in 1522, he was a genuine reformer who acknowledged that the Church's corruption had contributed to the Protestant Reformation. He tried to reform the Roman Curia, cut spending, and address abuses — but the entrenched interests of the court resisted him fiercely. He died in September 1523, after barely a year. Romans celebrated his death. He would be the last non-Italian pope for 455 years.

Why He Matters

Adrian VI told the truth: the Church had failed, and reform was necessary. The Roman court hated him for it, and he died before he could accomplish much. But his honesty about the Church's problems was itself a kind of integrity that later reformers would build on.