Gallican antecedents and supported the claims of the papacy.^1495 He did, however, nothing remarkable
during his short and troublesome pontificate (between 999–1003), except crown King Stephen of
Hungary and give the first impulse, though prematurely, to the crusades at a time when hundreds
of pilgrims flocked to the Holy Land in expectation of the end of the world after the lapse of the
first Christian millennium.^1496
His character has been very differently judged. The papal biographers of the later middle
ages malignantly represent him as a magician in league with the devil, and his life and pontificate
as a series of monstrous crimes.^1497 This story arose partly from his uncommon learning and supposed
contact with Mohammedanism, partly from his former antagonistic position to Rome. Some modern
historians make him an ambitious intriguer.^1498
His literary labors are chiefly mathematical.^1499 His theological works are few and
unimportant, and do not rise above the superstition of his age. His short treatise, "De Corpore et
Sanguine Domini," is a defense of the doctrine of transubstantiation as taught by Paschasius
Radbertus, with the additional notion that the consecrated elements are not digested like other food
(as the Stercorianists held), but are imperishable spiritual nourishment for the inner man, and
constitute the germ of the future resurrection body.^1500 Where words give out there is the more
room for faith.^1501
In his sermon De informatione episcoporum, if genuine,^1502 he presents the high theocraticview of the middle ages, raises the episcopate far above royalty,^1503 and attacks the common traffic
in ecclesiastical dignities (simony), but maintains also that all bishops share with Peter the care of
(^1495) Hefele (IV. 654) assumes a gradual change in his views on the papal power in consequence of deeper reflection and
bitter experience, and applies to him the words of Pius II.: "Aeneam rejicite, Pium recipite." Reuter says (I. 84): "Der Heros
der Aufklärung wurde, der Repräsentant der auf übernatürlichem Fundament basirten Autorität." But Gerbert was a strong
supernaturalist before that time, as his book on the Lord’s Supper proves. His controversy with the papacy had nothing to do
with doctrine any more than the controversy between Gallicanism and Ultramontanism. It was simply a question as to the extent
of papal jurisdiction.
(^1496) See above, p. 295 sq.
(^1497) Döllinger, in his Papstfabeln des Mittelalters (English transl. ed. by Henry B. Smith, pp. 267-272), devotes several
pages to this fable, and tram it to Rome and to Cardinal Benno, the calumnious enemy of Gregory VII., who was likewise
accused of black arts. According to Benno, Satan promised his pupil Gerbert that he should not die till he had said mass in
Jerusalem. Gerbert thought himself safe till he should get to Palestine; but when he read mass in the Jerusalem church (Santa
Croce in Jersalemme) at Rome, he was summoned to die, and caused his tongue and hand to be cut off by way of expiation.
The Dominicans adopted the myth, and believed that Gerbert early sold himself to Satan, was raised by him to the papal throne,
and had daily intercourse with him, but confessed at last his enormous crimes, and showed his repentance by hacking off one
limb after another. Since that time the rattling of his bones in the tomb gives notice of the approaching death of the pope.
(^1498) So especially Gfrörer, partly also Hauck. But Hock, Büdinger and Damberger defend his character and orthodoxy.
Neander, Hefele, Giesebrecht deal justly with him.
(^1499502)
"Lesavoir dominant de Gerbert était la science des mathematiques." (Hist. Lit. de la France.) He wroteDe
numerorum divisione; De geometria; De spherae constructione; De Rationali et Ratione uti, etc. See Migne, l.c. 125 sqq.
(^1500) In Migne, col. 179-188. Comp. above, p. 552.
(^1501) De Corp. et Sang. D. c. 7 (col. 185): "Ecce quantum fides proficit, ubi sermo deficit."
(^1502) Olleris and Giesebrecht doubt the genuineness.
(^1503) L.c. col. 170: "Sublimitas episcopalis nullis poterit comparationibus aequari. Si regum compares infulas et principum
diademata, longe erit inferius, quasi plumbi metallum ad auri fulgorem compares.’’