secured other charges, and even for a year (971) forcibly held the abbotship of Lobbes. On April
25, 974, he died at the court of the count of Namur.
Ratherius "deserves in many respects to be styled the Tertullian of his time."^1487 Some see
in his castigation of vice the zeal of a Protestant reformer, but his standpoint was different. He was
learned and ambitious, but also headstrong and envious. His works are obscure in style, but full of
information. The chief are
- The Combat, also called Preliminary discourses, in six books.^1488 It treats in prolix style
of the different occupations and relations in life, and dwells particularly upon the duties of bishops.
It was the fruit of his prison-leisure (935–937), when he was without books and friends. - On contempt for canonical law.^1489 It dates from 961, and is upon the disorders in his
diocese, particularly his clergy’s opposition to his dispensation of its revenues. In all this Ratherius
sees contempt of the canons which he cites. - A conjecture of a certain quality.^1490 This is a vigorous defense of his conduct, written
in 966. Fourteen of his Letters and eleven of his Sermons have been printed.^1491 In the first letter
he avows his belief in transubstantiation.
§ 179. Gerbert (Sylvester II.).
I. Silvester II. Papa (Gerbertus): Opera, in Migne, Tom. CXXXIX. col. 57–350. Contains also the
biographical and literary notices of Natalis Alexander, Fabricius, and the Bened. Hist. Lit. de
la France. OEuvres de Gerbert par A. Olleris. Clermont, 1867. Pertz: Monum. Germ. Tom. V.
Script. III. contains Gerberti archiep. Remensis Acta Concilii Remensis, and the Libri IV.
Historiarum of Richerus monachus S. Remigii. Richer was a pupil of Gerbert, and his history
of France was first edited by Pertz.
II. Abr. Bzovius: Sylvester vindicatus. Rom., 1629. Hist. Lit. de la France, VI., 559–614. C. F.
Hock: Gerbert oder Papst Sylvester und sein Jahrh. Wien, 1837. Max Büdinger: Ueber Gerberts
wissenschaftl. und polit. Stellung. Marburg, 1851. Gfrörer: Allgem. Kirchengeschichte, Bd.
III. Abth. 3. Wilmanns: Jahrbücher des deutschen Reichs unter Otto III. Berlin, 1840.
Giesebrecht: Geschichte der deutschen Kaiserzeit, Bd. I. 613–616; 712–715: 842 (3d ed. 1865).
Hefele: Conciliengesch. Bd. IV. 637 and passim. (2d ed. 1879). A. Olleris: Vie de Gerbert.
Clermont-Ferrand, 1867. Eduard Barthelémy: Gerbert, étude sur sa vie et ses ouvrages, suivie
de la traduction de ses lettres. Paris, 1868. Loupot: Gerbert, sa vie et ses écrits. Lille, 1869. Karl
Werner: Gerbert von Aurillac. Wien, 1878. Hauck: Silvester II., in Herzog, XIV. 233–240.
Comp. also Ceillier, XII. 901–9II. Neander: III. 371–374, and Reuter: Aufklärung in Mittelalter,
I. 78–84.
Gerbert, the scholar and philosopher in the Fisherman’s chair, and the brightest light in the
darkness of the tenth century was born before 950, of low parentage, in or near Aurilac in Auvergne,
(^1487) Neander, Hist. Chr. Ch. III. 469.
(^1488) Agnosticon or Libri Proeloquiorum. Migne, CXXXVI. col. 145-344.
(^1489) De contemptu canonum. Ibid. col. 485-522.
(^1490) Qualitatis conjectura cujusdam. Ibid. col. 521-550.
(^1491) Epistolae. Ibid. col. 643-688. Sermones. Ibid. col. 689-758.