[116] Probably, La république des Suisses, by Simler: Paris, 1578.
[117] Filippo Buoncompagni, a nephew of the Pope. He was born in 1548, died in 1581, and lies buried in S. Maria Maggiore.
[118] Paul de Foix. He began his career in the magistracy; and, having fallen under suspicion of favouring the Huguenots, was imprisoned by Henry II. He was released by the influence of Catherine dei Medici, and sent on diplomatic missions to England and Venice. Under Henry III. he entered the Church and became archbishop of Toulouse. He died in Rome in 1584. There is mention of him in Essais, iii. 9. “Cette perte (of M. de Pibrac) et celle qu’en mesme temps nous avons faite de Monsieur de Foix, sont pertes importantes à nostre couronnes. Je ne sçay s’il reste à la France de quoy substituer une autre couple, pareille à ces deux Gascons.”
[119] The romantic story of this Pope is well known. Gerbert was an Auvergnat, a youth of great promise, and after studying at the Cluniac school of Avrillac, and under the Arabic teachers at Cordova, he became a teacher in the school at Reims. He became archbishop in 991 and for a time enjoyed the favour of Hugh Capet, but in 996 he fled to the imperial court and accompanied Otho III. to Italy in 998, being created archbishop of Ravenna at once, and elected Pope as Silvester II. in the following year. He died in 1003.
The myths which gathered round Silvester’s personality are fully set forth by William of Malmesbury, and by Vincentius Bellovicensis in the Speculum Historiale. Having won the heart of his Arabian master’s daughter, he stole his books and fled, helped on, it is hinted, by the devil, who was anxious that he should be preserved and sit in the chair of Peter. Like Friar Bacon, he made a brazen head with power of speech, and besides this a clock and a musical instrument which worked by steam. The head aforesaid prophesied that he would become Pope, and would die in Jerusalem, a prediction which was held to be fulfilled by the fact that he died after performing mass at Santa Croce in Gerusalemme. The belief in his unlawful knowledge was widespread and persistent, and in the Vitæ Pontific. Ravennat. it is written, Homagium diabolo fecit et male finivit.
It is strange that Montaigne, with his mind always sceptical of the marvellous, should have been led to regard Silvester’s character in a sinister light. He had evidently read the laudatory epitaph in S. John Lateran written by Sergius IV., but he seems to have been inclined rather to credit the fables of the inscription in Santa Croce in Gerusalemme. The epitaph of Pope Sergius runs as follows:—
♰ IS̅E̅ LOCUS MUNDI SILVESTRI MEMBRA SEPULTI
VENTURO DOMINO CONFERET AD SONITUM
QUEM DEDERAT MUNDO CELEBRE DOCTISSIMA VIRGO
ATQ. CAPUT MUNDI CULMINA ROMULEA