Meridian

The female demon sucubus sumoned by use of stolen Necronomicon. Gerbert was supposed to have built a brazen head. This "robotic" head would answer his questions with "yes" or "no". He was also reputed to have had a pact with a female demon called *Meridiana*, who had appeared after he had been rejected by his earthly love, and with whose help he managed to ascend to the papal throne (another legend tells that he won the papacy playing dice with the Devil).

According to the legend, Meridiana (or the bronze head) told Gerbert that if he should ever read a mass in Jerusalem, the Devil would come for him. Gerbert then cancelled a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, but when he read mass in the church Santa Croce in Gerusalemme ("Holy Cross of Jerusalem") in Rome, he became sick soon afterwards and, dying, he asked his cardinals to cut up his body and scatter it across the city. In another version, he was even attacked by the Devil while he was reading the Mass, and the Devil mutilated him and gave his gouged-out eyes to demons to play with in the Church. Repenting, Sylvester II then cut off his hand and his tongue.

One day Gerbert left the city at noon as if for a

walk — all the while grievously tormented by hunger

— and, with all his thoughts far away, strolled deep

into a grove. There, in the very heart of the forest,

he found a woman of wondrous beauty, sitting upon

a great cloth of silk with a huge heap of money

before her. He tried to slink away undetected,

for he feared a phantom or a trick. But, calling

him by name, she bade him trust her, and, with the

appearance of pity, promised him the present sum,

and as large a store of wealth as his heart could

desire, if he would only disdain the mayor’s daughter

who had spurned so haughtily his suit, and would?

attach himself to her, not as to a sovereign lady,

but as to a mistress of his own rank. She added:

Meridiana by name and born of the best stock, I

have ever striven above all for this, to find a man

in every way my peer, so that I could count him

worthy to pluck the first flowers of my maidenhood.

but, until thou earnest, I hr. discovered no one

who did not lack something of what I craved?

Therefore, as thou please me at every point, do

not delay tasting all the joy which God in the

Highest, thy master and mine, rained down from

heaven upon thee. Unless thou provoke me to

just wrath, thou wilt be blest with all bounty of

money and rank; only when thou fully blossoms

forth once more through my care, thou must repel

thy lady disdain with the same scorn by which

she has made thee wretched. For I know that

she will repent and will turn again to what she

once despised if she has the chance. If she had

shrunk from thy love through mere maidenly

instinct, her conquest of thee would have redounded

to her credit. But this alone was the reason for

her insolent rejection of thee, v r ho, by general

opinion, wert the most lovable of all (her suitors),

that she might smile on others without exciting any

distrust, thus veiling Aphrodite with the false robe

of Minerva. Under the cover of thy repulse others

marched on to mastery. Alas! Pallas is driven

away and under the shield lurked a Gorgon. Thy

obvious overthrow hath given a shelter to the foul-

ness of a wanton; if thou shalt with proper spirit

declare this creature for ever unworthy of thy

embraces, I shall make thee pre-eminent among all

the lofty ones of the earth.

Perhaps thou fear

a cheat and thou art trying to shun the craft of

the incubus demon in me.

Footless is this fear,

for those whom thou fears are also on their guard

against the tricks of men,

and they entrust them-

selves to no one unless ample security if given.

and never do men bring back anything but sin from

those demons whom they have deceived.

For if

indeed, as seldom, the. demons bring success or

wealth — these (seeming blessings) die in such

futility and vanity that they are -of no account, or

else they lead to the distress and destruction of the

deceiver.

But I exact from thee no security, for

I have learned to the full the nature of thy sincerity.

Nor am I trying to be made secure, but to make

thee secure.

I am glad to give thee everything,

and I want thee to carry all this (money) away

before our union, and often to return for more

until thou shalt prove by discharging all thy debts

that it is not fairy gold, and thou shalt not fear

to make just return for the outlays of true love.

I desire love, not sovereignty, nor indeed do I wish

to be thy equal, but thy maidservant; in me thou

wilt find naught which will not to thy senses smack

of love, true judgment can detect in me no token

of enmity.’

Meridiana said these and many things to like

purpose, although needless, for Gerbert, greedy for

the things that he had lost, snatched her with hearty

assent almost during her words, eager to

escape through plenty the thraldom of poverty

and to enter with speed into the pleasing peril of

Venus. Hence the suppliant promised all, and

plighted his troth and — what was not asked —

joined to his oath kisses, leaving inviolate all else

that pertained to chastity.

Gerbert returned heavy-laden, pretending to his

creditors that he had received a remittance, and

he cleared himself of his debts slowly, to prevent

rumours of treasure-trove.

From now on, free

(from embarrassment) and abounding in the gifts

of Meridiana, he grew rich in chattels, he increased

his staff of servants, he heaped up stores of clothing

and coins, he filled his cellars and larders, so that

his plenty at Rheims was like the glory of Solomon

in Jerusalem.

Moreover, the full delight of his bed

was no less, though the great king was the lover

of many and he of one. \* Every night he was

taught by her, who had full knowledge of the past,

what to do during the day.

These were nights like

those\* marvellous ‘noctes’ of Numa, in which

Romans feigned that sacrifices were made and that

colloquies of the gods were in men’s ears, inasmuch

as he worshipped one (goddess) from whose teachings

he secretly sweated wisdom in nightly study.

Gerbert profited to the full of his double instruction,

both bed and-of the benches, and he rose

in glorious triumph to the highest pinnacles of fame.

nor did the lore of the lecturer in his lesson advance

him less than that of the lectures of his liaison —

the second in winning his way to heights of fame,

the first in acquiring those arts that produce sweet-

ness and light. In a short time, he became every

one’s master, distancing all men — the bread of the

hungry, the robe of the needy, and the ready redemption

from all oppression — and there was no

city that did not envy Rheims.

When the ‘wretched daughter of Babylon’ who,

through her pride, had brought him into the depths

heard and saw these things, she awaited with

eager ears the wonted messages and marvelled at

and chid the delay; and when at length she

realized that she was spurned, then she, for the first

time, ‘glowed with fierce fires’ which she had

scornfully repelled. Now she lived more cleanly

and walked more meticulously and met him more

modestly and spoke more reverently; and because

she felt that she had altogether fallen into contempt

and dejection, she quaffed malice of mind from the

very beaker in which she had given her lover frenzy

to drink. She madly seized the bit, caring not

whither the reins guided or drew, but r obedient

throughout the whole course to whatever spurs

urged her; and she strove to lure him to her hook

with the devices with which he had' once tempted

her — that is, with every known bait. But in vain

did she lay her snares, \* stretch her nets, cast her?

hooks. For the avenger of old hatred and flatterer

of new love denied what love is wont to give and

cast at her what hatred is wont to inflict. Having

wasted all its efforts, the woman’s love grew to

madness, and her bitter anguish exceeded her sense

of sorrow; and just as the stupor of the limbs

admitted no medicine, so the spirit of exhausted

hope felt no solace. An old woman living near

Gerbert aroused her one flays, just as if she were

bringing the dead to life, and, through a hole in

her cottage wall, pointed him out walking alone

in his little orchard during the heat of the day after

his meal. In a little while they saw him lie down

under the shade of a branching oak and compose

himself in sleep. She could not compose herself,

but, casting aside her gown, she gave herself wholly

to him under his cloak in only her smock; and,

though veiled, excited him with kisses and embraces.

From the man, full of wine and food, she easily

obtained her wish, for the heat of youth and of

the season, and the warmth of wine and the fullness

here came together to one banquet of Venus. In

such wise, forsooth, Apollo and Pan, Ceres and

Bacchus, ever attend Venus, but, from the notable

gathering of these, Pallas (goddess of wisdom) is

ever excluded. The woman loaded Gerbert with

kisses and caresses, and, though sparing of words,

she bestowed flattering blandishment, until he re-

called Meridiana in the confusion of shame and

with the trepidation of a mighty fear. Wishing

ashamedly to escape (the amorous girl), he left her

with a promise to return, and in the accustomed

grove sought at the feet of Meridiana pardon for

his fault. She haughtily disdained him for a long

time, but finally she demanded and obtained of

him homage for security because he had been

found wanting, and he safely continued in her

service.

In the meanwhile, it happened that the Arch-

bishop of Rheims came to his end, and Gerbert, as

the reward of high repute, was enthroned in his

stead. Some time after that when he was staying

in Rome in connection with the business of his

newly found dignity, he was made by the Pope,

Cardinal and Archbishop of Ravenna; and after

a little while, upon the death of His Holiness, he

mounted by public election to his chair. During

the whole time of his priesthood, he did not once,

at the giving of the sacrament, partake of the Lord’s

body and blood (either because of fear or reverence),

but by dexterous stratagem pretended to do so.

Meridiana, however, appeared to him in the last

year of his papacy, assuring the pledge of his life

to him, until he should celebrate mass at Jerusalem.

he thought to escape by his vow of biding at Rome.

But it came to pass that he was celebrating mass

in that church where, by popular report, was placed

that beam which Pilate had fastened upon the top

of the Lord’s Cross, inscribed with the record of

His passion — hence the church is called to this day

Jerusalem — and lo, he beheld opposite to him

Meridiana clapping her hands, as though in joyous

expectation of his next coming to her. Having

grasped the meaning of the vision, and having

learned the name of the place, he called together

all the cardinals, the clergy, and the people, and

made confession, leaving unrevealed no fault of

his whole life. He moreover decreed that to clergy

and people the mass should be given in the presence

of all men. Hence many celebrate the mass on

an altar reared in the midst, while the Pope in his

chair partakes with his face fixed on the faces of

them all.

Gerbert made truly holy the short remnant of

his life by constant and earnest repentance and

reverently made his last confession. He was buried

in the Church of St. John Lateran, in a marble tomb

which perpetually sweated, but the drops do not

unite into a stream unless as a prophecy of the death

of some wealthy Roman. Men say that, when the

parting of a Pope is at hand, the stream flowed

to the ground, but when the death of some noble,

it poured out even to the third or fourth or fifth

part of the other, as if indicating the dignity of each

man, by its smaller or larger flow. Although Gerbert,

on account of his avarice, may have been long held

fast by the glue of the devil, yet he ruled with

splendour and with sureness of hand the Roman

Church: and it is said that some of his wealth

so hath endured to the times of all his successors.