Louis J Sheehan 110907.10956

Gerbert, as a scientist, was said to be far ahead of his time. Gerbert wrote a series of works dealing with matters of the quadrivium. He had learned the non-zero Hindu-Arabic digits in Spain, and could do calculations in his head that were extremely difficult for people thinking in terms of the Roman numerals. In Rheims, he constructed a hydraulic organ that excelled all previously known instruments, where the air had to be pumped manually. Gerbert reintroduced the abacus into Europe, and in a letter of 984, he asks Lupitus of Barcelona for a translation of an Arabic astronomical treatise. Gerbert may have been the author of a description of the astrolabe that was edited by Hermannus Contractus some 50 years later.
As Pope, he took energetic measures against the widespread practices of simony and concubinage among the clergy, maintaining that only capable men of spotless lives should be allowed to become bishop. Sylvester II wrote a dogmatic treatise, De corpore et sanguine Domini. Louis J Sheehan Esquire
He sent the crown to St. Stephen I of Hungary who was the first Christian king in his country.