viewed with contempt by the Emperor. Relations with England Pope Adrian, comments Sayers, "was not unmindful of the interests and well-being of his English homeland", and Robinson identifies his pontificate as "the period in which English influence was strongest in the papal curia". Adrian remained faithful to the cult of St Alban and often promoted King Henry's political ambitions when he could. For example, suggests Brooke, following his lengthy stay with Adrian, John of Salisbury seems to have acquired the belief that he would at some point receive a cardinalate. However, John fell out with King Henry for a now-unknown reason, and Adrian—probably wishing to promote his friend but essentially a diplomat and a realist—could not afford to alienate his only major supporter in northern Europe. Adrian also favourably received at least two curial embassies from St Albans in 1156 and 1157. In 1156 Adrian ordered King Henry II to appoint an otherwise unknown Hugh to a London prebend. He wrote to Roger, Archbishop of York two months after Adrian's election confirming the Papal Legates in their offices. Adrian had been absent from England since 1120, and it should not be assumed that he bore an automatic affection for the country which, in Richard Southern's words, had given him "no reasons to cherish warm feelings" about it. However, in 1156, when John of Salisbury—"in circumstances which otherwise remain obscure"—had fallen into disgrace with the English King, Adrian regularly petitioned Henry for his friend's reinstatement. This was eventually won, but had taken a year to achieve. Anne Duggan, of King's College, London, describes Anglo-Papal relations at this time as "not so much to a policy, perhaps, but to persistent intervention...and to a degree of acceptance, willing or not, on the part of Church authorities". However, Adrian was willing to intervene in English church affairs when it suited, as in February 1156 when he threatened Nigel, Bishop of Ely with suspension from office over what the art historian C. R. Dodwell has called Nigel's having "stripped-down, sold, or used as security, a quite astounding number of Ely's monastic treasures". Among other patronages, he confirmed the nuns of St Mary's Priory, Neasham in possession of their church. and granted St Albans Abbey "a large dossier of privileges and directives" exempting it from the jurisdiction of its episcopal master, Robert de Chesney, Bishop of Lincoln. He also confirmed the primacy of the Archbishop of