The Story of the English Pope

Never in the whole course of history has the proverb that "Truth is stranger than fiction" been better exemplified than in the case of Nicholas Breakspeare, the only Englishman who ever occupied the Chair of St. Peter. The tale of the mythical Dick Whittington, romantic though it be, is quite commonplace in comparison with the true story of this other, vandering beggar-lad, who, by virtue of his own abilities, rose, as we hope to tell, from the extreme poverty of a vagrant scholar, through the various degrees of Canon, Abbot" Legate, and Cardinal, to the proud position of Supreme Pontiff. Nicholas did even more, for he became not only a Pope, but a very good and great Pope, and we are not half proud enough of this countryman of ours whose success was in large measure due to his eminently English characteristics. Unfortunately very little is known about his early life, and about that little historians are not always agreed.