Sylvester II was pope from the years 999 until 1003. Formerly know as Gerbert of Aurillac, one of the greatest scholars of the 10th century, he was renamed Sylvester II, in memory of the pope who had baptized the Emperor Constantine and been entrusted by him with the government of the west. His short tenure as pope was marked by its close ties to emperor Otto III, who along with Sylvester II planned the establishment of a perfect peace through a universal monarchy ruled jointly by pope and emperor. Unfortunately both of them died before this idea could be put to work.

Richard C. Dales, The Intellectual Life of Western Europe in the Middle Ages, (Washington D.C.: University Press of America, 1980)

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