Elected Adrian VI was Dutch and his born name was Adriaan Florenszoon Boeyens.
On this day the last non-Italian Pope was elected, 455 years before the election of John Paul II in 1978. Thus, over the course of the next four-and-a-half centuries (1523 – 1978), all the popes were Italians. Elected Adrian VI was Dutch and his born name was Adriaan Florenszoon Boeyens. He was also the only Dutchman ever elected as pope. He was the tutor of Emperor Charles V, who was thrilled when he heard that his tutor was elected to the papacy.
But it soon became apparent that the new pope wants to reign independently from the emperor. It was a time of the early stages of the Lutheran Protestant movement (Luther started the Reformation in 1517, during the time of the previous Pope Leo X from the Medici family). Some believe that Adrian VI did not recognize the danger presented by Luther’s movement, which had serious consequences later.
