Roman mistery tour step #3 The magician Pope

We continue our mystery tour and we talk about a pope. A Pope?! Yes, the Magician Pope.

In 999 D.C. Gerbert d'Aurillac is elected as Pope Sylvester II. He was a Benedictine monk. He studied mathematics in Toledo and mathematics, astrology and astronomy, logic in Reims.

His election was accepted by the clergy and acclaimed by the people, but his adversaries put forth the rumor  he had made a pact with the demon to become pope, and they began to call him "the magician pope".

Pope Sylvester II

Why did he say that? The gossips said that he hadDe astrolabio, a book of magic, he stole it to an Arab from Cordoba, a master of witchcraft, and Gerberto was, in his youth, the daughter's lover

The book brought  rituals to get from the demons all that he wanted and also indications to build a Golem, clay creature animated by magic, Gerbert immediately hurried to make, thinking that it could help him.

The Pope's Golem was a rather rough work and could only speak with nods to say yes or no; Sylvester asked him if he would die before he song a mass in Jerusalem and the creature said no.

The Pope was reassured about his fate, of course he took good care not to go to the Holy Land, thinking in this way he would never die; but one day, while he was celebrating a mass, he learned that the church in which he was once was called the Holy Cross in Jerusalem.

Sure to be close to death, he summoned his cardinals and confessed the pact with the devil, making them promise that, at his death, they would follow a ritual to cheat Satan and not give his soul.

On 12 May 1003 Sylvester died; his body was put on a chariot pulled by two horses, one black and one white; the horses were driven to leave, but nobody guided them.

They arrived alone  in front of the Basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano and stopped; the ritual worked and the horrible screams of the defeated demon were heard.

Sylvester's body was buried in the church; the legend says that when a Pope is about to die, his grave exudes a transparent liquid; and a legend say in 1864, when the bury was opened, the body was found in perfect state of preservation, but in contact with the air it dissolved in salt and ashes, proving that Silvestro, expert in magic and alchemy , he really succeeded in subverting the laws of nature.

Pope Sylvester II , his tomb in San Giovanni in Laterano - Photo by Wikiwand