09-21-2007, 07:28 AM
|
#1
|
|
Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Midwest Minnesota
Posts: 721
|
Lesser known catholic stuff
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Sylvester_II
Quote:
Gerbert was supposed to have built a brazen head, or to have acquired it from the Buddhist secret society of the Nine Unknown Men. 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 of Saint Mary of Jerusalem (also called "Jerusalem church") 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.
|
Quote:
|
It is commonly believed that Sylvester was Jewish, French-Sephardic in origin, and either secretly practicing Judaism or in any case acutely aware of his heritage. There is evidence that Sylvester studied the books of the Kabbalah. It said that people feared him and trembled in his presence, thinking he was well-versed in all manner of sorcery; this is the usual mythology surrounding Jewish historical figures who do not remain publicly in the Jewish faith.
|
|
|
|
