This Gerbert whom we have mentioned, became pope after Gregory V. by the name of Sylvester II. It was he who, being archbishop of Rheims, and seeing himself condemned by John XV. had expressed himself in these words:¹³¹ “If the bishop of “Rome sin against his brother, and that, often warn− “ed, he obey not the church, he ought to be re− “garded as a publican: the more elevated the rank, “the greater the fall. When St. Gregory said, that “the church ought to fear the sentence of its pastors, “whether just or unjust, he did not mean to recom− “mend this fear to the bishops, who do not consti− “tute the flock, but are the heads and leaders thereof. “Let us not furnish our enemies with an occasion to “suppose that the priesthood, which is one in every “church, be in such sort subject to a sovereign pon− “tiff that if this pontiff suffer himself to be corrupted “by money, favor, fear or ignorance, no person can “hence be a bishop, unless he upholds himself by “such means. The church has for a rule, the “Scriptures, the decrees, and the canons of the Holy “See, when these are conformable to Scripture.” Driven from Rheims, Gerbert was received by Otho the III., who created him, first, archbishop of Ravenna, then head of the church in 998. He died in 1002, after having in this short pontificate, confirmed as far as in his power, the imperial authority at Rome, and refused the indications of independence which had agitated her citizens. We cannot take leave of the 10th centuiy, without lamenting the gross ignorance into which Europe was plunged. Possessions were regulated by custom, and transactions pursued by remembrance alone. In the midst of these people, these nobles, these kings, who knew neither how to read nor write, the rudest instruction was, in the clergy suffered to put them in possession of the civil administration.¹³² ¹³¹ Concilior. vol. 9, p. 744. A discourse which Arnoul bishop of Orleans, pronounced in the Council of Rheims in 991, has been occasionally cited under the name of Gerbert, which discourse may be read in the history of this council revised by Gerbert. This very remarkable document is too long to be inserted here. ¹³² Researches on France, b. 8, c. 13. “The ecclesiastics, says Pasquier, di− “vide among themselves the keys as well of reli− “gion as of letters, altho’ so to speak, they derived “from these only sufficient provision for their “cubs.” They alone could spell ancient writings, and trace some letters. They assumed the dictating of wills, the regulation of marriages, contracts, and public acts; they extorted legacies and donations, they freed themselves from the secular jurisdiction, and endeavoured to subject all things to a jurisprudence of their own.¹³³ ¹³³ Velly’s Hist, of France, vol. 2, p. 293. CHAPTER IV. ENTERPRISES OF THE POPES OF THE ELEVENTH CENTURY