But now concerning Gerbert I shall write,
To whom came these unhappy, seeking aid,
As men in darkness move toward the light,
Each knowing not the other so arrayed
Of Gerbert then I speak: he was the man
Who rose the highest in that age of dread.
First in Aurillac he a monk began:
Whence being expelled, he to Cordova went,
And thence reputed a magician:
For many years among the Moors he spent,
Learning astrology and alchemy,
Ere that to Rome his wandering feet were bent:
Where, having made a wondrous clockwork, he
Gained commendation to the Emperor,
And tutor to his son advanced to be.
Then to king Robert was he preceptor:
Master in Rheims of the cathedral school,
And then archbishop there, what time they bore
The good archbishop Arnulph from his rule
By unjust might, till Rome stopped Gerbert's reign,
Sending a legate with peremptory bull:
Whereon good Arnulph took his seat again,
And Gerbert wandered up and down the land
Full of fierce wrath, and burning with disdain:
The pope contemned he, and held no command
In the Lord's army, till within a while
Again great Otho took him by the hand.
Then was he lifted to his former style,
Archbishop of Ravenna he became,
And in new covert found new force and guile.
Forth from Ravenna's fort he levelled aim
Against the popedom, boasting to maintain
The freedom Gallican against that claim.
But here to my intent it is not main
In that concern to show him right or wrong,
But only his strange story to explain:
Which was divided thus: to be for long
The enemy of Rome; then, being made pope,
Beyond all former Fathers stout and strong;
The same that spread the Roman name and scope
Furthest abroad, was he at first who dared
The boldest pull against the Roman rope
But he the same in all things still appeared,
Great, crafty, haughty — Many men of fame
Unto God's service in his school were reared:
As Remi of Auxerre, whom others name
Haimon the Wise, who wrote upon the Mass;
Hubold, who did the blessed office frame
Which has the title Sancta Trinitas,
And many hymns: the good Leotheric
Of Sens archbishop: and of such I was:
I, who beheld how grave and politic
Was Gerbert with them, who yet honoured me
With singular care and apprehension quick
Perchance in me he thought with certainty
To find a vessel of obedience;
And, but for fate, this had been verily
But Mano's case in me made difference,
And love of Mano in those days began
To put down Gerbert from chief eminence.
They call lord Gerbert a magician;
But if some stories I shall here repeat —
Part of the attendant fame that round him ran —
They prove but only that the man was great,
And held high powers around him by his skill,
Not that they came through diabolic feat.
Howso these stories, if incredible,
Or admirable only, I set down
Concerning him: accept them whoso will
For it is said that in the Roman town
A brazen statue stood with outstretched arm
Bearing the word " Dig here: " great this renown,
And many they who dug and came to harm,
Not finding aught, nor guessing what was meant,
Till Gerbert reached it by a magic charm.
He marked what way the hand its shadow bent
Upon the equinox and at the noon,
Then dug, and found much gold, but sore was shent:
For a brass demon, keeper of the boon,
Leaped on him, and he scarce departed thence,
Leaving the riches o'er the cavern strewn.
Again 'tis rumoured that in conference
The devil told him that Jerusalem
Should see his death: whereas he parted hence
In the Church of Holy Cross, a stratagem
Being played on him, that church being oft so named: —
But that in death the fiend he did contemn:
For ere his death his corpse was torn and maimed
By the Evil One, but yet with his last breath
He gave advice how Satan might be shamed:
For in a cart to lay him after death,
And bury where the horses stopped, he bade:
And they unchecked, e'en as the story saith,
Stopped at the Lateran, where he is laid:
And from the clatter of his bones, the sweat
And moisture of his marble, it is said,
Omens and warnings to this day they get
When any pope may be about to die:
These and more doubtful things they tell; which yet
'tis better to relate than to deny.