Circle

Long before Chaucer began to build the English language, long before Buonarroti sketched his plans for St. Peter's, a British islander named Nicholas Breakspear became priest, then Abbot, then Cardinal, then Legate, then Pope, assuming the grand Roman Imperial name of Adrian (Hadrian) IV. And never before or since has an islander been Pope.

It was in 1146 that Breakspear quit the monastery of which he was Abbot in a pleasant Province, and proceeded, as Cardinal-Legate, to the rough untutored northlands of Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

There he did such Christian service that the Northmen remembered it for 800 years; and, recently, the Norwegian Royal Academy of Science presented to the Vatican a marble tablet in memory of the English Pope.

Last week, this tablet was unveiled in the crypt of St. Peter's. A Spanish Cardinal, Merry del Val, of the huge and solemn eyes, attended the ceremony. So, too, did Cardinal Gasquet, one of the three living British cardinals. So, too, did Cardinals Granito (Italian) and Van Rossum (Dutch). So, too, did the Swedish, the Norwegian, the Danish Ministers to the Royal Kingdom of Italy. The presence of the three ministers was not lost upon the Cardinals, for this was probably the first time since 1870 that diplomats accredited to the Kingdom of Italy have foregathered officially with Cardinals. Gratified, the Spanish Cardinal made comment. Here was the kind of circle History dotes upon.