Gerbert, born at Aurillac, and brought up in the monastery of St.Geraud, had, when he was summoned to the directorate of the school of Rheims, already made a trip to Spain, visited Rome, and won the esteem of Pope John XIII.

and of the Emperor Otho II., and had thus had a close view of the great personages and great questions, ecclesiastical and secular, of his time.

On his establishment at Rheims, he pursued a double course with a double end: he was fond of study, science, and the investigation of truth, but he had also a taste for the sphere of politics and of the world; he excelled in the art of instructing, but also in the art of pleasing; and the address of the courtier was in him united with the learning of the doctor.

His was a mind lofty, broad, searching, prolific, open to conviction, and yet inclined to give way, either from calculation or attraction, to contrary ideas, but certain to recur, under favorable circumstances, to its original purpose.

There was in him almost as much changeableness as zeal for the cause he embraced.