indivisible and could not be shared with temporal rulers, he argued. As such—as the descendant of St Peter—neither should he. Central to Adrian's view of his Papacy, says Sayers, was the conviction that his court was the highest court in Christendom and, so, the final court of appeal, and he encouraged appeals from many countries. In an early letter, defending the principle of Papal Monarchy, he compares Christendom to the human body: all the parts can only function as they should if they have an overarching guide and facilitator. To Adrian, Christian Europe was the body, and the Pope the head. The historian Neil Hegarty has suggested that, on the assumption that Laudabiliter as is extant can be believed, Adrian firmly believed in "enlarging the borders of the Church, setting bounds to the progress of wickedness, reforming evil manners, planting virtue, and increasing the Christian religion". Adrian was keen to know what people thought of the Roman Church, and often asked the question of John of Salisbury. John also recorded Adrian's view's on the Papacy accepting gifts from Christians, which some viewed as simonaical and evidence of corruption. Adrian, reported John, replied with reference to the fable of the belly. The European analyst Andreas Musolff explains the Pope's position as "deducing from it the church's right to receive, and allocate, the nourishment to the Christian body according to merit and utility". Adrian, argues Ullmann, was a man of action with little "inclination towards lengthy theoretical discussions", although Norwich argues that he could still be hesitant. For instance, following his radical change of Papal policy at Benevento, he may still not have grasped the significance of what he had done, and certainly not to the extent of radically exploiting the new policy. Partner suggests that Adrian was "an able administrator who used able agents". He was also a traditionalist; a firm follower of Pope Gregory VII, Adrian believed it his duty to not just believe in those ideals, but to enforce them. He also believed in the necessity of reform, as his clarification of the marriage sacrament and enforcement of free episcopal elections demonstrates. He was also, like Eugenius had been before him, a firm believer in the supremacy of the Bishops of Rome over both the Empire and other churches, writing how the Papacy, Writings The 16th century jesuit commentator Augustino Oldoini, in his re-edition of Alphonsus Ciacconius' Papal History,