Sylvester II
The scholar Gerbert, archbishop of Reims and then pope by the favour of Otto III. Thietmar of Merseburg praises his knowledge of the stars. A Life written a century later says that the pope of these years sent a crown to Stephen of Hungary.
Thietmar of Merseburg gives a short portrait of him. Gerbert came from the western lands and was schooled from boyhood in the liberal arts. He was raised to the see of Reims, unjustly as Thietmar thinks, and was later driven from his country and came to the emperor Otto. He excelled his contemporaries in learning and knew how to read the courses of the stars; at Magdeburg he made a clock, setting it by sighting through a tube the star that guides sailors. After the death of Pope Gregory he succeeded by the emperor’s favour, took the name Sylvester and sat until the time of King Henry. Thietmar’s editor dates the pontificate from 999 to 1003 (Thietmar, Chronicle 6.100, p. 392).
Hartvic’s Life of King Stephen tells how the pope, warned in a vision, gave the Hungarian envoy a crown that had been made for the duke of the Poles (Hartvic, Life of King Stephen addition to chapter 9, pp. 233–234). The passage does not name the pope; the editor identifies him as Sylvester II (Hartvic, Life of King Stephen editor’s preface, p. 223). Thietmar, the contemporary, says that Stephen I of Hungary received crown and blessing by the favour and urging of the emperor, and does not mention the pope (Thietmar, Chronicle 4.59, p. 198). See Stephen I and the Christian Kingdom of Hungary.
In the timeline
- AD 1000 or 1001, estimated dateStephen I and the Christian Kingdom of Hungary
Stephen, ruler of the Hungarians, defeats pagan rebels, founds bishoprics with Esztergom at their head, and is crowned king. A writer of his own day credits the emperor Otto III; a Life written a century later says that the pope sent the crown.