The Probert Encyclopaedia of People

SYLVESTER II

Sylvester II (born Gerbert) was the first French Pope. He was born in 945 at Aurillac (Auvergne) and died in 1003. By the influence of emperor Otto I he was appointed to the cathedral school at Reims, and was made archbishop or Reims in 991. He was deposed from his position and retired to the court of Otto III whom he accompanied to Italy and in 998 was made archbishop of Ravenna by Pope Gregory V, on whose death he was elected pope. Sylvester II was also an inventor, he invented a pendulum clock, a hydraulic organ and introduced the use of Arabic figures into Europe.
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