The Sorcerous Pope
Cardinal Beno of San Martino e Silvestro (fl. 1082-1098) claimed in his pamphlet Gesta Romanae ecclesiae contra Hildebrandum (Deeds of the Roman Church against Hildebrand) that Gerbert of Aurillac (Pope Sylvester II) was a sorcerer who had learnt magick in Cordoba and Seville, allegations repeated in some detail by English historian William of Malmesbury (1095-1143) in De Gestis Regum Anglorum (The Chronicle of the Kings of England).
The allegations were that Gerbert had stolen a book of spells from an Arabic scholar, and sold his soul to the devil (or a succubus named Meridiana) in return for advancement in the Church.
He is said to have created a bronze head which could predict the future by answering yes-or-no questions.
Accusations of sorcery or necromancy were also levelled against Popes Leo I (r. 440–461), Leo III (r. 795–816), Gregory VII (r. 1081–1084), Honorius III (r. 1216–1227), and Boniface VIII (r. 1294–1303), as well as the antipopes Benedict XIII (r. 1394–1423) and John XXIII (r. 1410–1415).
Summary
From William of Malmesbury:
Born in Gaul, from a lad Gerbert of Aurillac grew up a monk at Flory; afterwards, when he arrived at the double path of Pythagoras, either disgusted at a monastic life or seized by lust of glory, he fled by night into Spain, chiefly designing to learn astrology and other sciences of that description from the Saracens. Spain, formally for many years possessed by the Romans, in the time of the Emperor Honorius, fell under the power of the Goths. The Goths were Arians down to the days of St Gregory, when that people were united to the Catholic church by Leander Bishop of Seville, and by King Recared, brother of Hermengildus, whom his father slew on Easter night for professing the true faith. To Leander succeeded Isidore, celebrated for learning and sanctity, whose body purchased, for its weight in gold, Aldefonsus king of Gallicia in our times conveyed to Toledo. The Saracens, who had subjugated the Goths, being conquered in their turn by Charles the Great, lost Gallicia and Lusitania, the largest provinces of Spain; but to this day they possessed the southern parts. As the Christians esteem Toledo, so do they hold Hispalis, which in common they call Seville, to be the capital of the kingdom; they’re practising divinations and incantations, after the usual mode of that nation. Gerbert then, as I have related, coming among these people, satisfied his desires. There he surpassed Ptolemy with the astrolabe, and Alcandraeus in astronomy, and Julius Firmicus in judicial astrology; there he learned what the singing and the flight of birds portended; there he acquired the art of calling up spirits from hell: in short, whatever, hurtful or salutary, human curiosity has discovered. There is no necessity to speak of his progress in the lawful sciences of arithmetic and astronomy, music and geometry, which he imbibed so thoroughly as to show they were beneath his talents, and which, with great perseverance, he revived in Gaul, where they had for a long time been wholly obsolete. Being certainly the first who seized on the abacus from the Saracens, he gave rules which are scarcely understood even by laborious computers. He resided with a certain philosopher of that sect, whose goodwill he had obtained, first by great liberality, and then by promises. The Saracen had no objection to sell his knowledge; he frequently associated with him; would talk with him of matters of time serious, but others trivial, and lending books to transcribe. There was however one volume, containing the knowledge of his whole art, which he could never by any means enticing to lend. In consequence Gerbert was inflamed with anxious desire to obtain this book at any rate, “for we ever press more eagerly towards what is forbidden, and that which is denied is always esteemed and most valuable.” Trying, therefore, the effect of entreaty, he besought him the love of God, and by his friendship; offered him many things, and promised and more. When this failed tried a nocturnal stratagem. He plied him with wine, and, with the help of his daughter, who connived at the attempt through the intimacy which Gerbert’s attentions procured, stole the book from under his pillow and fled. Waking suddenly, the Saracen pursued effusive by the direction of the stars, in which art he was well versed. The fugitive to, looking back, and discovering his danger by means of the same art, hid himself under a wooden bridge which was near at hand; clinging to it, and hanging in such a manner is neither to touch earth nor water. In this manner the eagerness of the pursuer being included, he returned home. Gerbert, then quickening his pace, arrived at the sea-coast. Here, by his incantations, he called up the devil, and made an agreement with him to be under his dominion forever, if he would defend him from the Saracen, who was again pursuing, and transport into the opposite coast: this was accordingly done. Probably some may regard all this is a fiction, because the vulgar are used to undermine the famous scholars, saying the man who excelled in any admirable science, hold converse with the devil. Of these, Boethius, in his book, On the Consolation of Philosophy, complains; and affirms, that he had the discredited such practices on account of his ardent love of literature, as if he had polluted his knowledge by detestable arts for the sake of ambition. “It was hardly likely,” says he, “that I, whom you dress up with such excellence is almost to make me like God, should capture the protection of the vilest spirits; but it is in this point that we approach nearest to a connection with them, in that we are instructed in your learning, and educated in your customs.” So far Boethius. The singular choice of his [Gerbert’s] death confirms me in the belief of his league with the devil; else, when dying, as we shall relate hereafter, why should he, gladiator-like, made his own person, unless conscious of some unusual crime? Accordingly, in an old volume, which accidentally fell into my hands, wherein the names and years of all the boats are entered, I found written to the following purport, “Sylvester, who was also called Gerbert, 10 months; this man made a shameful end.” Gerbert, returning to Gaul, became a public professor in the schools, and had as brother philosophers and companions of his studies, Constantine, Abbot of the Monastery of St Maximin, near Orleans, to whom he addressed the Rules of the Abacus; and Ethelbald Bishop, as they say, of Winteburg, who himself gave proof of ability, in a letter which he wrote to Gerbert, on a question concerning the diameter in Microbius, and in some other points. He had as pupils, of exquisite talents and noble origin, Robert, son of Hugh surnamed Capet; and Otto, son of the Emperor Otto. Robert, afterwards king of France, made a suitable return to his master, and appointed him Archbishop of Rheims. In that church are still extant, as proofs of his science, a clock constructed on mechanical principles: and an hydraulic organ, in which the air escaping in a surprising manner, by the force of heated water, fills the cavity of the instruments, and the brazen pipes emit modulated tones through the multifarious apertures. The king himself, too, was well skilled in sacred music, and in this and many other respects, a liberal benefactor to the church: moreover he composed that beautiful sequence, “The grace of the Holy Spirit be with us;” and the response, “He hath joined together Judah and Jerusalem;” together with Moore, which I should have pleasure in relating, were it not irksome for others to hear. Otto,Emperor of Italy after his father, made Gerbert archbishop of Ravenna, and finally Roman pontiff. He followed up his fortune so successfully by the assistance of the devil, that he left nothing and executed which he had once conceived. The treasures formally borrowed by the inhabitants, he discovered by the art of necromancy, and removing the rubbish, applied to his own lusts. Thus viciously disposed of the wicked towards God, and thus the abuse his patients, though he had rather that they repent and perish. At last, he found ways master would stop, and as the proverb says, “in the same manner as one crone picks out another crows eyes,” while endeavouring to oppose his attempts with art like his own. There was a statue in the Campus Martius near Rome, I know not whether a brass or iron, having the forefinger of the right hand extended, and on the head was written, “Strike here.” The men of former times supposing this should be understood as if they might find a treasure there, had battered the harm the statue by repeated strokes of a hatchet. But Gerbert convincted them of error by solving the problem in a very different manner. Marking where the shadow of the finger fell at noon-day, when the sun was on the meridian, he their place to post; and at night proceeded thither, attended only by a servant carrying a lantern. The earth opening by means of his accustomed arts, displayed to them a spacious entrance. They see before them a vast palace golden walls, golden roofs, every thing of gold; golden soldiers amusing themselves, as it were, with Golden dice; a king of the same metal table with his queen; delicacies set before them, and servants waiting; vessels of great weight and value, where the sculpture surpassed nature herself. In the inmost part of the mansion, a carbuncle of the first quality, though small in appearance, dispelled the darkness of night. In the opposite corner still a boy, holding a bow event, and the arrow drawn to the head. While the exquisite art of every thing ravished the eyes of the spectators, there was nothing which might be handled though it might be seen: four immediately, if anyone stretched forth his hand to touch any thing, all these figures appeared to rush forward and repel such presumption. Alarmed at this, Gerbert repressed his inclination: but not so the servant. He endeavoured to snatch off from the table, and knife and admire the workmanship; supposing that inability of such magnitude, so smaller theft could hardly be discovered. In an instant, the figures all starting up with loud clamour, the boy let fly his arrow at the carbuncle, and in a moment always in darkness; and if the servant had not, by the advice of his master, made the utmost dispatch in throwing back the knife, they would both have suffered severely. In this manner, their boundless avarice unsatiated, they departed, the lantern directing their steps. That he performed such things by unlawful devices is the generally received opinion. Yet, however, if any one diligently investigate the truth, he will see that even Solomon, to whom God himself had given wisdom, was not ignorant of these arts: four, as Josephus relates, he, in conjunction with his father, Burridge vast treasures in coffers, which were hidden, as he says, in a kind of necromancy manner underground: neither was Hyrcanus, celebrated for his skill and prophecy and his valour; who, to ward off the distress of the siege, dug up, by the same art, 3000 talents of gold from the sepulchre of David, and gave part of them to the besiegers; with the remainder building and hospital for the reception of strangers. But Herod, who would make an attempt at the same kind, with more presumption than knowledge, lost in consequence many of his attendants, by an eruption of internal fire. Besides, when I hear the Lord Jesus saying, “my father worketh hitherto, and I work;” I believe, that He, who gave to Solomon power over Demons to such a degree, as the same historian declares, that he relates there were men, even in his time, who could eject them from persons possessed, by applying to the nostrils of the patients a ring having the impression pointed out by Solomon: I believe, I say, that he could give, also, the same science to this man: but I do not affirm that he did give it. … [W]hat is reported of Gerbert should not seem wonderful to any person; which is, that he cast, for his own purposes, the head of the statue, by a certain inspection of the stars when all the planets were about to begin their courses, which spake not unless spoken to, but then pronounced the truth, either in the affirmative or negative. For instance, when Gerbert would say, “shall I be Pope?” The statue would reply, “Yes.” “And I to die, ere I sing mass at Jerusalem?” “No.” They relate, but he was so much deceived by this ambiguity, that he thought nothing of repentance: for when would he think of going to Jerusalem, to accelerate his own death? Nor did he foresee that it Rome there is a church called Jerusalem, that is, “the vision of peace,” because whoever flies thither find safety, whatsoever crime he may be guilty of. We have heard, that this was called an asylum in the very infancy of the city, because Romulus, to increase the number of his subjects, had appointed it to be a refuge for the guilty of every description. The Pope sings mass there on three Sundays, which are called “the station at Jerusalem.” Wherefore upon one of those days Gerbert, preparing himself for mass, was suddenly struck with sickness; which increased so that he took to his bed: an consulting his statue, he became convinced of his delusion and his approaching death. Calling, therefore, the Cardinals together, he lamented his crimes for a long space of time. They, being struck with sudden fear were unable to make any reply, whereupon he began to rave, and losing his reason through excessive pain, commended himself to be maimed and cast forth piecemeal, saying, “let him have the service of my limbs, who before sought their homage; for my mind never consented to that abominable oath.” William of Malmesbury’s Chronicle of the Kings of England, translated by J.A. Giles (Henry Bohn, London, 1847)
Historical Basis
Gerbert of Aurillac wasa prominent mathemetician, scientist and churchman who became Pope Sylvester II.
As Sylvester II, Gerbert proved a moral reformer who made efforts to stamp out simony and concubinage in the clergy. Cardinal Beno, who made the first accustions that Sylvester II was a magician, sided with the Holy Roman Emperor against reformist Pope Gregory VII in the Investiture Contest.
Reforming popes sometimes found themselves at odds with cardinals, and accusations for sorcery were an attempt to delegitimise a rival. For example, Cardinal Hugh Candidus accused Pope Gregory VII of necromancy, among other misdeeds, at the Council of Worms in 1076, allegations he repeated at the Synod of Brixen in 1080.
The accusations against Gerbert stuck more firmly than the merely political accusations of traditionalists against reformers. Gerbert was a proto-scientist, a mathematician who helped introduce the abacus into Europe. He was familiar with the work of Muslim scholars. People seemed all too ready to believe his knowledge, beyond that of most folk, was sorcerously acquired.
Spread
William of Malmesbury, a respected historian, expanded on the accusations in a lengthy digression in his Chronicles of the Kings of England (written shortly after 1120, with a second edition, by William, c. 1127)
by Cod. Pal. germ. 137, Folio 216v Martinus Oppaviensis, Chronicon pontificum et imperatorum ~1460
Date of First Recording
c. 1080
Date of Setting
967-1003
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