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SILVESTER II

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Originally appearing in Volume V25, Page 119 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SILVESTER II ., See also:pope from 999 till 1003, and previously famous, under his See also:Christian name of See also:Gerbert, first as a teacher and afterwards as See also:archbishop successively of See also:Reims and See also:Ravenna, was an Aquitanian by See also:birth, and was educated at the See also:abbey of St Gerold in See also:Aurillac. Here he seems to have had Gerald for hisabbot and See also:Raymond for his instructor, both of whom were among the most trusted correspondents of his later See also:life. From Aurillac, while yet a See also:young See also:man (adolescens), he was taken to the See also:Spanish See also:march by " Borrell, See also:duke of Hither See also:Spain," prosecuting his studies. Borrell entrusted him to the care of a See also:Bishop Hatto, under whose instruction Gerbert made See also:great progress in See also:mathematics. In this duke we may certainly recognize See also:Borel, who, according to the Spanish chroniclers, was See also:count of See also:Barcelona from 967 to 993, while the bishop may probably be identified with Hatto, bishop of See also:Vich or Ausona from about 96o to 971 or 972. In See also:company with his two patrons Gerbert visited See also:Rome, where the pope, See also:hearing of his proficiency in See also:music and See also:astronomy, induced him to remain in See also:Italy, and introduced him to the See also:emperor See also:Otto I. A papal diploma, still extant, shows that Count Borel and Bishop Octo or See also:Otho of Ausona were at Rome in See also:January 971, and, as all the other indications point. to a corresponding See also:year, enables us to See also:fix the See also:chronology of Gerbert's later life. When brought before the emperor, Gerbert admitted his skill in all branches of the quadrivium, but lamented his See also:comparative See also:ignorance of See also:logic. Eager to See also:supply this deficiency he followed See also:Lothair's See also:ambassador Germanus, See also:archdeacon of Reims, to that See also:city, for the See also:sake of studying under so famous a dialectician in the episcopal See also:schools which were rising into reputation under Archbishop Adalbero (969—989). So promising a See also:scholar soon attracted the See also:attention of Adalbero himself, and Gerbert was speedily invited to See also:exchange his position of learner for that of teacher. At Reims he seems to have studied and lectured for many years, having amongst his pupils See also:Hugh See also:Capet's son See also:Robert, afterwards See also:king of See also:France, and Richer, to whose See also:history we owe almost every detail of his See also:master's See also:early life. According to this writer Gerbert's fame began to spread over See also:Gaul, See also:Germany and Italy, till it roused the envy of Otric of See also:Saxony, in whom we may recognize Octricus of See also:Magdeburg, the favourite scholar of Otto I., and, in earlier days, the instructor of St See also:Adalbert, the apostle of the Bohemians.

Otric, suspecting that Gerbert erred in his See also:

classification of the sciences, sent one of his own pupils to Reims to take notes of his lectures, and, finding his suspicions correct, accused him of his See also:error before Otto II. The emperor, to whom Gerbert was well known, appointed a See also:time for the two philosophers to argue before him; and Richer has See also:left a See also:long See also:account of this dialectical See also:tournament at Ravenna, which lasted out a whole See also:day and was only terminated at the imperial bidding. The date of this controversy seems to have been about See also:Christmas 98o, and it was probably followed by Otric's See also:death, on the 1st of See also:October 981. It must have been about this time that Gerbert received the great abbey of See also:Bobbio from the emperor. That it was Otto II., and not, as formerly supposed, Otto I., who gave him this See also:benefice, seems evident from a diploma quoted by See also:Mabillon (Annales, iv. 121). Richer, however, makes no mention of this event; and it is only from allusions in Gerbert's letters that we learn how the new See also:abbot's attempts to enforce his dues waked a spirit of discontent which at last drove him in See also:November 983 to take See also:refuge with his old See also:patron Adalbero. It was to no purpose that he appealed to the emperor and empress for restitution or redress; and it was perhaps the See also:hope of extorting his reappointment to Bobbio, as a See also:reward for his services to the imperial cause, that changed the studious scholar of Reims into the wily secretary of Adalbero. Otto II. died in See also:December 983, leaving the See also:empire to his See also:infant See also:heir Otto III. Lothair, king of the See also:west See also:Franks, claimed the guardianship, and attempted to make use of his position to serve his own purposes in See also:Lorraine, which would in all See also:probability have been lost to the empire but for the efforts of Adalbero and Gerbert. Gerbert's policy is to be identified with that of his See also:metropolitan, and was strongly influenced by gratitude for the benefits that he had received from the first two Ottos. According to M.

011eris's arrangement of the letters, Gerbert was at See also:

Mantua and Rome in 985. Then followed the death of Lothair (2nd of March 986) and of See also:Louis V., the last Carolingian king, in May 987. Later on in the same year Adalbero crowned Hugh Capet (1st See also:June) and his son Robert (25th December). Such was the See also:power of Adalbero and Gerbert in those days that it was said their See also:influence alone sufficed to make and unmake See also:kings. The archbishop died on the 23rd of January 989, having, according to his secretary's account, designated Gerbert his successor. Notwithstanding this, the influence of the empress Theophana, See also:mother of Otto III., secured the See also:appointment for See also:Arnulf, a See also:bastard son of Lothair. The new See also:prelate took the See also:oath of fealty to Hugh Capet and persuaded Gerbert to remain with him. When See also:Charles of Lorraine, Arnulf's See also:uncle, and the son of Louis IV. D'Outremer, surprised Reims in the autumn of the same year, Gerbert See also:fell into his hands and for a time continued to serve Arnulf, who had gone over to his uncle's See also:side. He had, however, returned to his See also:allegiance to the See also:house of Capet before the fall of See also:Laon placed both Arnulf and Charles at the See also:mercy of the See also:French king (March 991). Then followed the See also:council of St Basle, near Reims, at which Arnulf confessed his See also:treason and was degraded from his See also:office (17th June 991). In return for his services Gerbert was elected to succeed the deposed bishop.

The episcopate of the new metropolitan was marked by a vigour and activity that were See also:

felt not merely in his own See also:diocese, but as far as See also:Tours, See also:Orleans and See also:Paris. Meanwhile the See also:friends of Arnulf appealed to Rome, and a papal See also:legate was sent to investigate the question. As yet Hugh Capet maintained the cause of his nominee and forbade the prelates of his See also:kingdom to be See also:present at the council of Mouzon, near See also:Sedan (June 2, 995). Notwithstanding this See also:prohibition Gerbert appeared in his own behalf. Council seems to have followed council, but with uncertain results. At last Hugh Capet died in 996, and, shortly after, his son Robert married Bertha, the widow of See also:Odo, count of See also:Blois. The pope condemned this See also:marriage as adulterous; and Abbo of See also:Fleury, who visited Rome shortly after See also:Gregory V.'s See also:accession, is said to have procured the restoration of Arnulf at the- new pontiff's demand. We may surmise that Gerbert left France towards the end of 995, as he was present at Otto III.'s See also:coronation at Rome on the 21st of May 996. Somewhat later he became Otto's instructor in See also:arithmetic, and had been appointed archbishop of Ravenna before May 998. Early in the next year he was elected pope (See also:April 999), and took the See also:title of Silvester II. In this capacity Gerbert showed the same See also:energy that had characterized his former life. He is generally credited with having fostered the splendid See also:vision of a restored empire that now began to fill the See also:imagination of the young emperor, who is said to have confirmed the papal claims to eight counties in the See also:Ancona march.

See also:

Writing in the name of the desolate See also:church at See also:Jerusalem he sounded the first See also:trumpet-See also:call of the See also:crusades, though almost a See also:century was to pass away before his See also:note was repeated by See also:Peter the See also:Hermit and See also:Urban II.1 Nor did Silvester II. confine himself to plans on a large See also:scale. He is also found confirming his old See also:rival Arnulf in the see of Reims; summoning Adalbero or Azelmus of Laon to Rome to See also:answer for his crimes; judging between the archbishop of See also:Mainz and the bishop of See also:Hildesheim; besieging the revolted See also:town of See also:Cesena; flinging the count of See also:Angouleme into See also:prison for an offence against a bishop; confirming the privileges of See also:Fulda abbey; granting charters to bishoprics far away on the Spanish See also:mark; and, on the eastern See also:borders of the empire, erecting See also:Prague as the seat of an archbishopric for the Slays. More remarkable than all his other acts is his See also:letter to St See also:Stephen, king of See also:Hungary, to whom he sent a See also:golden See also:crown, and whose kingdom he accepted as a See also:fief of the See also:Holy See. It must, however, be remarked that the genuineness of this letter, in which Gerbert to some extent foreshadows the temporal claims of See also:Hildebrand and See also:Innocent III., has been hotly contested, and that the See also:original document has long been lost. All Gerbert's dreams for the See also:advancement of church and empire were cut See also:short by the death of Otto III., on the 4th of See also:February 1002; and this event was followed a year later by the death of the pope himself, which took See also:place on the 12th of May 1003. His See also:body was buried in the church 1 This letter, even if See also:spurious as now suspected, is found in the 1 i t:1-century See also:Leiden MS., and is therefore anterior to the first crusade. of St See also:John Lateran, where his See also:tomb and inscription are still to be seen. A few words must be devoted to Silvester II. as regards his attitude to the Church of Rome and the learning of his See also:age. He has left us two detailed accounts of the proceedings of the council of St Basle; and, despite his reticence, it is impossible to doubt that he was the moving spirit in Arnulf's deposition. On the whole it may be said that his position in this question as to the rights of the papal see over See also:foreign metropolitans resembled that of his great predecessor See also:Hincmar, to whose authority he constantly appeals. But he is rather the practised debater who will admit his opponent's principles for the moment when he See also:sees his way to moulding them to his own purposes, than the philosophical statesman who has formulated a theory from whose terms he will not move. Roughly sketched, his See also:argument is as follows.

Rome is indeed to be honoured as the mother of the churches; nor would Gerbert oppose her judgments except in two cases—(1) where she enjoins something that is contrary to the decrees of a universal council, such as that of See also:

Nice, or (2) where, after having been once appealed to in a See also:matter of ecclesiastical discipline and having refused to give a See also:plain and speedy decision, she should, at a later date, See also:attempt to call in question the provisions of the metropolitan See also:synod called to remedy the effects of her See also:negligence. The decisions of a Gregory or a See also:Leo the Great, of a See also:Gelasius or an Innocent, prelates of holy life and unequalled See also:wisdom, are accepted by the universal church; for, coming from such men, they cannot but be See also:good. But who could recognize in the cruel and lustful popes of later days—in John XII. or See also:Boniface VII., " monsters, as they were, of more than human iniquity "—anything else than " See also:Antichrist sitting in the See also:temple of See also:God and showing himself as God "? Gerbert proceeds to argue that the church See also:councils admitted the right of metropolitan synods to depose unworthy bishops, but contends that, even if an See also:appeal to Rome were necessary, that appeal had been made a year before without effect. This last clause prepares us to find him shifting his position still farther at the council of Causey, where he advances the proposition that John XV. was represented at St Basle by his legate Seguin, archbishop of See also:Sens, and that, owing to this, the decrees of the latter council had received the papal See also:sanction. Far firmer is the See also:tone of his later letter to the same archbishop, where he contends from See also:historical See also:evidence that the papal See also:judgment is not infallible, and encourages his See also:brother prelate not to fear See also:excommunication in a righteous cause, for it is not in the power even of the successor of Peter " to See also:separate an innocent See also:priest from the love of See also:Christ." Besides being the most distinguished statesman, Gerbert was also the most accomplished scholar of his age. But in this aspect he is rather to be regarded as the diligent expositor of other men's views than as an original thinker. Except as regards philosophical and religious See also:speculation, his writings show a range of See also:interest and knowledge quite unparalleled in that See also:generation. His See also:pupil Richer has left us a detailed account of his See also:system of teaching at Reims. So far as the See also:trivium is concerned, his See also:text-books were See also:Victorinus's See also:translation of See also:Porphyry's Isagoge, See also:Aristotle's Categories, and See also:Cicero's Topics with See also:Manlius's Commentaries. From dialectics he urged his pupils to the study of See also:rhetoric; but, recognizing the See also:necessity of a large vocabulary, he accustomed them to read the Latin poets with care. See also:Virgil, See also:Statius, See also:Terence, See also:Juvenal, See also:Horace, See also:Persius and See also:Lucan are specially named as entering into a course of training which was rendered more stimulating by a See also:free use of open discussion.

More remarkable still were his methods of teaching the quadrivium. To assist his lectures on astronomy he constructed elaborate globes of the terrestrial and See also:

celestial See also:spheres, on which the course of the See also:planets was marked; for facilitating arithmetical and perhaps geometrical processes he constructed an See also:abacus with twenty-seven divisions and a thousand counters of See also:horn. A younger contemporary speaks of his having made a wonderful See also:clock or See also:sun-See also:dial at Magdeburg; and we know from his letters that Gerbert was accustomed to ex-See also:change his globes for See also:MSS. of those classical authors that his own library did not contain. More extraordinary still was his knowledge of music—an accomplishment which seems to have been his earliest recommendation to Otto I. Probably he was beyond his age in this See also:science, for we read of Garamnus, his first See also:tutor at Reims, whom he attempted to ground in this subject: " Artis difficultate victus, a musica rejectus est." Gerbert's letters contain more than one allusion to See also:organs which he seems to have constructed, and See also:William of See also:Malmesbury has preserved an account of a wonderful musical See also:instrument still to be seen in his days at Reims, which, so far as the See also:English chronicler's words can be made out, seems to refer to an See also:organ worked by See also:steam. The same historian tells us that Gerbert borrowed from the See also:Arabs (Saraceni) the abacus with ciphers (see NUMERALS). Perhaps Gerbert's See also:chief claim to the remembrance of posterity is to be found in the care and expense with which he gathered together MSS. of the classical writers. His love for literature was a See also:passion. In the turmoil of his later life he looked back with regret to his student days; and " for all his troubles See also:philosophy was his only cure." Everywhere—at Rome, at Treves, at Moutier-en-Der, at See also:Gerona in Spain, at Barcelona—he had friends or agents to procure him copies of the great Latin writers for Bobbio or Reims. To the abbot of Tours he writes that he is " labouring assiduously to See also:form a library," and " throughout Italy, Germany and Lorraine (Belgica) is spending vast sums of See also:money in the acquisition of MSS." It is noteworthy, however, that Gerbert never writes for a copy of one of the Christian fathers, his aim being, seemingly, to preserve the fragments of a fast-perishing See also:secular Latin literature. Despite his See also:residence on the Spanish mark, he shows no token of a knowledge of Arabic, a fact which is perhaps sufficient to overthrow the statement of See also:Adhemar as to his having studied at See also:Cordova. There is hardly a trace to be found in his writings of any acquaintance with See also:Greek.

So remarkable a See also:

character as that of Gerbert left its mark on the age, and fables soon began to cluster See also:round his name. Towards the end of the t ith century See also:Cardinal See also:Benno, the opponent of Hildebrand, is said to have made him the first of a long See also:line of magician popes. Ordericus Vitalis improves this See also:legend by details of an inter-view with the See also:devil, who prophesied Gerbert's threefold See also:elevation in the famous line that Gerbert's contemporaries attributed to the pope himself: Transit in R. Gerbertus in R. See also:post papa vigens R. A few years later William of Malmesbury adds a love See also:adventure at Cordova, a compact with the devil, the See also:story of a speaking statue that foretold Gerbert's death at •Jerusalem—a prophecy fulfilled, somewhat as in the See also:case of See also:Henry IV. of See also:England, by his dying in the Jerusalem church of Rome—and that imaginative story of the statue with the legend " Strike here," which, after having found its way into the Gesta Romanorum, has of See also:late been revived in the Earthly See also:Paradise. Gerbert's extant See also:works may be divided into five classes. (a) A collection of letters, some 230 in number. These are to be found for the most See also:part in an Itth-century MS. at Leiden. Other important MSS. are those of the See also:Barberini Library at Rome (late 16th century), of Middlehill (17th century), and of St Peter's abbey, See also:Salzburg. With the letters may be grouped the papal decrees of Gerbert when Silvester II. (b) The Acta concilii Remensis ad Sanctum Basolum, a detailed account of the proceedings and discourses at the great council of St Basle; a shorter account of his apologetic speeches at the councils of Mouzon and Causey; and drafts of the decrees of two or three other councils or imperial constitutions promulgated when he was archbishop of Ravenna or pope. The important works on the three above-mentioned councils are to be found in the 11th-century Leiden MS. just alluded to.

(c) Gerbert's theological works comprise a Sermo de informatione episcoporum and a See also:

treatise en-titled De corpore et sanguine Domini, both of very doubtful authenticity. (d) Of his philosophical works we only have one, Libellus de rationali et ratione uti, written at the See also:request of Otto III. and pre-served in an i i th-century MS. at Paris. (e) His mathematical works consist of a See also:Regula de abaco computi, of which a 12th-century MS. is to be found at the Vatican; and a Libellus de numerorum divisione (filth- and 12th-century MSS. at Rome, See also:Montpellier and Paris), dedicated to his friend and correspondent See also:Constantine of Fleury. A long treatise on See also:geometry, attributed to Gerbert, is of somewhat doubtful authenticity. To these may be added a very short disquisition on the same subject addressed to Adalbold, and a similar one, on one of his own spheres, addressed to Constantine, abbot of Micy. All the writings of Gerbert are collected in the edition of A. 011eris (Clermont, 1867). (T. A.

End of Article: SILVESTER II

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