Who he was
Adrian was a Roman of noble family, admired for his piety and learning, who had served under Paul I and Stephen III. The clergy and people of Rome chose him with one voice, and he at once freed or recalled those the Lombard party's chamberlain had imprisoned or exiled. His reign of almost twenty-four years was not passed by any pope for a thousand years.
What he is remembered for
When the Lombards threatened Rome he called on Charlemagne, who ended the Lombard kingdom in 774 and confirmed the lands of the papacy, so that Adrian is reckoned the real founder of the popes' temporal rule. Through his legates he presided over the Second Council of Nicaea in 787, which set out the Church's teaching on the veneration of images, and he opposed the Adoptionist error in Spain. Charlemagne called him his father and best friend and is said to have written his epitaph.
Sources
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