was engaged, and his thoughts no more than his actions were disquieted by any considerations of religion. From a teacher Gerbert became a politician. We discern his character in the arts by which he obtained the archbishoprick of Rheims.[1] Full of resource, unscrupulous in intrigue, he had the shrewdness, the practical sagacity, of a man of the world: moral difficulties were no difficulties to him. His record lies not in a fancied inauguration of the crusades (this was to all appearance but the hasty conclusion from a letter in which he laments the spoliation of the holy city, drawn by those who knew the potency of such an appeal a century later[2]); but in the imperial projects which he impressed on the boy Otto the Third and whereby he hoped to restore to Rome her ancient glory. Gerbert the magician is an imagination of later growth, but the currency of the fable bears witness to the uniqueness of his position.[3] A scholar who did not concern himself with the higher questions of faith and thought could only, it appeared, be susceptible of influences of an opposite and infernal origin.
- ↑ The Acts of the synod of Saint Basol by which his predecessor was deposed are printed in Bouquet 10. 513 sqq., and in Pertz 3. 658-686. The remarkable speech of Arnulf bishop of Orleans, which depicts the degradation of the papacy and fearlessly proposes an entire secession from its authority (Pertz 672 sq., 676), has been substantially reproduced by most of the historians: see Gfrörer 3. 1476 sqq., cf. vol. 4. 508; Milman 3. 338 sqq.; Giesebrecht 1. 654 sq. It deserves mention in this place because the Acts, if we are to believe Richer, Hist. iv. 51 Pertz 3. 648, and Gerbert's own preface, were edited by the latter; and, the province of an editor being undefined, we may reasonably give him a considerable share not only of the diction but of the spirit of the speech: cf. Neander, 6. 132 n. 1.
- ↑ [The letter seems to be merely an ornamental circular sent out to invite contributions for the charitable foundations established by the Christians in the Holy Land: 'Quod armis nequis consilio et opum auxilio subveni. Quid est quod das aut cui das? nempe ex multo modicum et ei qui omne quod habes gratis dedit nec tamen ingratus recipit.' Cf. Havet, Oeuvres de Gerbert, p. 22 n. 3.]
- ↑ It is significant that Gerbert was too much of a personality to be lost in his pontifical title. Thus in the Fleury chronicle, a. 1002, we have his obituary as Girbertus Papa, Baluze, Miscell. 2. 307; 1679. On the genesis of the story about Gerbert's magical powers and league with the devil, see J. J. I. von Döllinger, Die Papst-Fabeln des Mittelalters, 155-159, Munich 1863.
