Of a learned man who was studying the
classic poets, he said: "This man, confused by the magic of evil
spirits, had the impudence to propound doctrines contradictory to our
holy faith. In his opinion everything the ancient poets had maintained
was true. Peter, the bishop of the town, condemned him as a heretic. At
that time there were many men in Italy believing this false doctrine;
they perished by the sword or at the stake." We have a letter, written
at the same time by Gerbert, who later on became Pope Sylvester II., to
a friend, beseeching him to obtain for him manuscripts of the Latin
philosophers and poets. He wrote textbooks of astronomy, geometry and
medicine, and introduced the Arabic numbers and the decimal system into
Europe. In consequence he, too, was accused of magic and intercourse
with Arabian pagans. A chronicler relates that he sold his soul to the
devil and became pope through the devil's agency; and that, when he was
on the point of death, he ordered his body to be cut to pieces so that
the devil should not carry it away.
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