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Pope Silvester II
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Pope Sylvester II, or Silvester II (c. 946–May 12, 1003), born Gerbert d'Aurillac, was a prolific scholar, teacher, and pope. He introduced Arabic knowledge of arithmetic, mathematics, and astronomy to Europe, reintroducing the abacus and armillary sphere which had been lost to Europe since the end of the Greco-Roman era. He was the first French Pope (see list), reigning from 999 until his death. Due to his connection with science and intellectualism of the Arab world, there were many rumors and legends in Europe of Sylvester II being a sorcerer in league with the devil.
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Pope Sylvester II, or Silvester II (c. 946–May 12, 1003), born Gerbert d'Aurillac, was a prolific scholar, teacher, and pope. He introduced Arabic knowledge of arithmetic, mathematics, and astronomy to Europe, reintroducing the abacus and armillary sphere which had been lost to Europe since the end of the Greco-Roman era. He was the first French Pope (see list), reigning from 999 until his death. Due to his connection with science and intellectualism of the Arab world, there were many rumors and legends in Europe of Sylvester II being a sorcerer in league with the devil. There is also speculation that he had Sephardic-Jewish ancestry.
Life
Gerbert was born about 946 in the town of Aurillac, Auvergne region, France. Around 963, he entered the monastery of St. Gerald of Aurillac. In 967, Borrell II of Barcelona (947–992), visited the monastery, and the abbot asked the Count to take Gerbert with him so that the lad could study mathematics in Spain and acquire there some knowledge of Arabic learning, but probably only through Latin translations. In the following years, Gerbert studied under the direction of Atto, Bishop of Vich, some 60 km north of Barcelona, and probably also at the nearby Monastery of Santa Maria de Ripoll.
Borrell II of Barcelona was facing major defeat from the Andalusian power so he sent a delegation to Córdoba to request a cease fire. Part of the delegation was Atto who met with Al-Hakam II of Cordoba who received him with an honorable ceremony. Atto was mesmerized by the Arabic palaces in Cordoba and returned with great respect for the Arabs. Gerbert insisted that Atto teach him more about these Arabic princes who were more taken by sciences and literature than warfare. Gerbert was fascinated by the stories of the Christian Bishops and judges who dressed and talked like the Arabs, they were well-versed in mathematics and natural sciences like the great teachers of the Islamic universities. This sparked Gerbert's veneration for the Arabs and his passion for mathematics and astronomy. Gerbert learned from the Arab teachers in Spain subjects that no one in the rest of Europe had even heard of, the most important being the Arabic numbers. It used to be rumored that he would sneak out from the monastery at night to study under the Arabs.
In 969, Count Borrell II made a pilgrimage to Rome, taking Gerbert with him. There Gerbert met Pope John XIII (965–972) and the Emperor Otto I, surnamed the Great (936–973). The Pope persuaded Otto I to employ Gerbert as tutor for his young son, the future Emperor Otto II (973–983). Some years later, Otto I gave Gerbert leave to study at the cathedral school of Rheims where he was soon appointed a teacher by Archbishop Adalberon.
When Otto II became Holy Roman Emperor in 973 (he was co-emperor with Otto I from 967), he appointed Gerbert the abbot of the monastery of Bobbio and also appointed him as count of the district, but the abbey had been ruined by previous abbots, and Gerbert soon returned to Rheims.
After the death of Otto II in 983, Gerbert became involved in the politics of his time. In 985, with the support of his archbishop, he opposed Lothair of France's (954–986) attempt to take the Lorraine from Emperor Otto III (983–1002) by supporting Hugh Capet (987–996). Capet became King of France, ending the Carolingian line of Kings in 987.
Adalbero died on January 23, 989. Gerbert was a natural candidate for his succession, but Hugh Capet appointed Arnulf, an illegitimate son of Lothair instead. Arnulf was deposed in 991 for alleged treason against the King, and Gerbert was elected his successor. There was so much opposition to Gerbert's elevation to the See of Rheims, however, that Pope John XV (985–996) sent a legate to France who temporarily suspended Gerbert from his episcopal office. Gerbert sought to show that this decree was unlawful, but a further synod in 995 declared Arnulf's deposition invalid.
Gerbert now became the teacher of Otto III, and Pope Gregory V (996–999), Otto III's cousin, appointed him Archbishop of Ravenna in 998. With the Emperor's support, he was elected to succeed Gregory V as Pope in 999. Gerbert took the name of Sylvester II, alluding to Pope Sylvester I (314–335), the advisor to Emperor Constantine I (324–337). Soon after he was elected Pope, Sylvester II confirmed the position of his former rival Arnulf as archbishop of Rheims. As Pope, he took energetic measures against the widespread practices of simony and concubinage among the clergy, maintaining that only capable men of spotless lives should be allowed to become bishops.
In 1001, the Roman populace revolted against the Emperor, forcing Otto III and Sylvester II to flee to Ravenna. Otto III led two unsuccessful expeditions to regain control of the city, and died on a third expedition in 1002. Sylvester II returned to Rome soon after the Emperor's death, although the rebellious nobility remained in power, and died a little later. Sylvester is buried in St. John Lateran.
Works and teaching
Gerbert, as a scientist, was said to be far ahead of his time. Gerbert wrote a series of works dealing with matters of the quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music), which he taught using the basis of the trivium (grammar, logic, and rhetoric). Walid Amine Salhab asserts that Gerbert's reintroduction of the emphasis on these liberal arts in Europe was inspired by the educational institution of Cordoba in Islamic Spain. In Rheims, he constructed a hydraulic-powered organ with brass pipes that excelled all previously known instruments, where the air had to be pumped manually. In a letter of 984, Gerbert asks Lupitus of Barcelona for a book on astrology and astronomy, two terms which historian S. Jim Tester states were used synonymously by Gerbert. Gerbert may have been the author of a description of the astrolabe that was edited by Hermannus Contractus some 50 years later. Besides these, as Sylvester II he wrote a dogmatic treatise, De corpore et sanguine Domini.
Abacus and Hindu-Arabic numerals
Gerbert learned of Hindu-Arabic digits and applied this knowledge to the abacus, but according to Charles Seife without the numeral of zero. According to William of Malmesbury (c. 1080–c. 1143), Gerbert stole the idea of the computing device of the abacus from a Spanish Arab. The abacus that Gerbert reintroduced into Europe had its length divided into 27 parts with 9 number symbols (this would exclude zero, which was represented by an empty column) and 1,000 characters in all, crafted out of animal horn by a shieldmaker of Rheims. According to his pupil Richer, Gerbert could perform speedy calculations with his abacus that were extremely difficult for people in his day to think through in using only Roman numerals. Due to Gerbert's reintroduction, the abacus became widely used in Europe once again during the 11th century.
Armillary sphere and sighting tube
Although lost to Europe since the terminus of the Greco-Roman era, Gerbert reintroduced the astronomical armillary sphere to Latin Europe via Al-Andalus in the late 10th century. The details of Gerbert's armillary sphere are revealed in letters from Gerbert to his former student and monk Remi of Trčves, his colleague Constantine, the abbot of Micy, as well as the accounts of his former student and French nobleman Richer, who served as a monk in Rheims. Richer stated that Gerbert discovered that stars coursed in an oblique direction across the night sky. Richer described Gerbert's use of the armillary sphere as a visual aid for teaching mathematics and astronomy in the classroom, as well as how Gerbert organized the rings and markings on his device:
First [Gerbert] demonstrated the form of the world by a plain wooden sphere...thus expressing a very big thing by a little model. Slanting this sphere by its two poles on the horizon, he showed the northern constellations toward the upper pole and the southern toward the lower pole. He kept this position straight by means of a circle by which the Greeks call horizon, the Latins limitans, because it divides the stars which are visible from those which are not visible. On this horizon line, placed so as to demonstrate practically and plausibly...the rising and setting of the stars, he traced natural outlines to give a greater appearance of reality to the constellations. . .He divided a sphere in half, letting the tube represent the diameter, the one end representing the north pole, the other the south pole. Then he divided the semicircle from one pole to the other into thirty parts. Six lines drawn from the pole he drew a heavy ring to represent the arctic polar circle. Five divisions below this he placed another line to represent the tropic of Cancer. Four parts lower he drew a line which set forth the rotundity of the equinoctial circle [the equator]. The remaining distance to the south pole is divided by the same dimensions.
Given this account, historian Oscar G. Darlington asserts that Gerbert's division by 60 degrees instead of 360 allowed the lateral lines of his sphere to equal to six degrees. By this account, the polar circle on Gerbert's sphere was located at 26 degrees, just several degrees off from the actual 23° 28'. Furthermore, this account illustrates that his positioning of the Tropic of Cancer was nearly exact, while his positioning of the equator was exactly correct. Richer also revealed how Gerbert made the planets more easily observable in his armillary sphere:
He succeeded equally in showing the paths of the planets when they come near or withdraw from the earth. He fashioned first an armillary sphere. He joined the two circles called by the Greeks coluri and by the Latins incidentes because they fell upon each other, and at their extremities he placed the poles. He drew with great art and accuracy, across the colures, five other circles called parallels, which, from one pole to the other, divided the half of the sphere into thirty parts. He put six of these thirty parts of the half-sphere between the pole and the first circle; five between the first and the second; from the second to the third, four; from the third to the fourth, four again; five from the fourth to the fifth; and from the fifth to the pole, six. On these five circles he placed obliquely the circles which the Greeks call loxos or zoe, the Latins obliques or vitalis (the zodiac) because it contained the figures of the animals ascribed to the planets. On the inside of this oblique circle he figured with an extraordinary art the orbits traversed by the planets, whose paths and heights he demonstrated perfectly to his pupils, as well as their respective distances.
Richer wrote about another of Gerbert's last armillary sphere that featured sighting tubes fixed on the axis of the hollow sphere which could observe the constellations, the forms of which he hung on iron and copper wires. This armillary sphere was also described by Gerbert in a letter to his colleague Constantine. Gerbert instructed Constantine that, if doubtful of the position of the pole star, he should fix the sighting tube of the armillary sphere into position to view the star he suspected was it, and if the star did not move out of sight, it was thus the pole star. Furthermore, Gerbert instructed Constantine that the north pole could be measured with the upper and lower sighting tubes, the Arctic Circle through another tube, the Tropic of Cancer through another tube, the equator through another tube, and the Tropic of Capricorn through another tube.
Gerbert in legend
Gerbert was reputed to have studied magical arts and astrology at the Islamic cities of Córdoba and Seville and even at the University of Al Karaouine in Morroco. This gave rise to legends that portray him as a sorcerer in league with the Devil. There have been other Popes who were suspected of sorcery, for example John XXI (1276–77) and Benedict XII (1334–42). Pope Gregory XII (1406–15) was questioned about magical practices in 1409 at the Council of Pisa.
Gerbert was supposed to be in possession of a book of spells stolen from an Arab philosopher in Spain. Gerbert fled, pursued by the victim, who could trace the thief by the stars, but Gerbert was aware of the pursuit, and hid hanging from a wooden bridge, where, suspended between heaven and earth, he was invisible to the magician.
Gerbert was supposed to have built a brazen head. This "robotic" head would answer his questions with "yes" or "no". He was also reputed to have had a pact with a female demon called Meridiana, who had appeared after he had been rejected by his earthly love, and with whose help he managed to ascend to the papal throne (another legend tells that he won the papacy playing dice with the Devil).
According to the legend, Meridiana (or the bronze head) told Gerbert that if he should ever read a mass in Jerusalem, the Devil would come for him. Gerbert then cancelled a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, but when he read mass in the church of Saint Mary of Jerusalem (also called "Jerusalem church") in Rome, he became sick soon afterwards and, dying, he asked his cardinals to cut up his body and scatter it across the city. In another version, he was even attacked by the Devil while he was reading the Mass, and the Devil mutilated him and gave his gouged-out eyes to demons to play with in the Church. Repenting, Sylvester II then cut off his hand and his tongue.
reads in part Iste locus Silvestris membra sepulti venturo Domino conferet ad sonitum ("This place, at the advent of the Lord, will yield to the sound [of the last trumpet] the buried members of Sylvester II", mis-read as "will make a sound") has given rise to the curious legend that his bones will rattle in that tomb just before the death of a Pope.
This is a curious reflection of the Jewish practice of bowing/moving during prayer, in order to fulfill the commandment of praising God with every bone in the body. It is yet another possible clue identifying Sylvester as Jewish. In fact, Sylvester was said to be petrified at the thought of the new millennium: on the last night of the year A.D. 999, Sylvester nervously celebrated mass, thinking the world might end even as he consecrated the bread and wine.
The alleged story of the crown and papal legate authority given to Stephen I of Hungary by Sylvester in the year 1000 (hence the reign title 'Apostolic King') is noted by the 19th century historian Lewis L. Kropf as a possible forgery of the 17th century. Likewise, the 20th century historian Zoltan J. Kosztolnyik states that "it seems more than unlikely that Rome would have acted in fulfilling Stephen's request for a crown without the support and approval of the emperor."
Bibliography
Gerbert's writings were printed in volume 139 of the Patrologia Latina. Darlington notes that Gerbert's preservation of his letters might have been an effort of his to compile them into a textbook for his pupils that would illustrate proper letter writing. His books on mathematics and astronomy were not research-oriented; his texts were primarily educational guides for his students.
- Mathematical writings
- Libellus de numerorum divisione
- De geometria
- Regula de abaco computi
- Liber abaci
- Libellus de rationali et ratione uti
- Ecclesiastical writings
- Sermo de informatione episcoporum
- De corpore et sanguine Domini
- Selecta e concil. Basol., Remens., Masom., etc.
- Letters
- Epistolae ante summum pontificatum scriptae
- 218 letters, including letters to the emperor, the pope, and various bishops
- Epistolae et decreta pontificia
- 15 letters to various bishops, including Arnulf, and abbots
- one dubious letter to Otto III.
- five short poems
- Other
- Acta concilii Remensis ad S. Basolum
- Leonis legati epistola ad Hugonem et Robertum reges
External links
- , lecture by Lynn H. Nelson.
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