Pope Sylvester II, another Great Pope, unlike the current version.

Gerbert of Aurillac, was Pope just before the year 1000. Unlike the current Pope who believes that plant food causes global devastation, or the philosophers Darwin, Hawking, Tyson, and other sundry cult members of Darwinism, Gerbert was a practitioner of real science, applying techniques that would not be out of place in our world, to resolve complex mathematical issues. As with Pope Gregory the Great, Gerbert puts lie to the myth, taught as fact [it is fiction], that 'all' Popes were sex-addled bandits, and the Church a zealous inquisitional institution, run by mafia, stifling science and asking poor heroes such as Galileo for proof to support their claims and research paid for with Church money [Galileo famously said that heliocentricity was proven by tidal movements, which are of course caused by the moon, a fact Jesuit astronomers had known about for 30 years. So much for his science].

Gerbert was educated in part at the Cathedral school of Chartres in the last part of the 10^th century. This was basically a university, a system of education without compare in any other region in the world. Cathedral schools dominated Europe, providing a higher education for those with means and for monks and the clergy. Many rich sent their sons into these monastic schools to enrich and improve their minds and skills. Book learning, philosophy, math, translations, great art embedded in manuscripts, along with farming, brewing, manufacture and pharmaceutical innovation, can be found within these schools. Here Gerbert was trained.

His personal interest was in mathematics. He helped pioneer the use of the '0', and the replacement of the cumbersome and rather nonsensical Roman numerals, which could not be used to devise higher mathematics and which impeded scientific formulation. He translated and interpreted Euclid and Greek geometry and describes how the Greek Alexandrians discovered laws of geometry because it had a practical usage in measuring fields. He wrote important treatises on the abacus, a simpler and more effective system of counting notation than that employed by the Romans and also on the astrolabe a device first invented by the Greeks in the 6^th century BC and later improved upon in Christian Byzantine, but still not widely used in the West by the 10^th century. He also appeared to have a talent and extraordinary comprehension of music, writing about musical notation and compositions. Given the enormous volumes of manuscripts he collected, it is clear that he was an inquisitive and widely read man.

There are many myths about Pope Sylvester II and in times past many stories or legends have been attached to his name. But the real man is impressive enough. Unlike today's current Pope Sylvester knew about math, science and innovation. He formulated a dedication to learning, culture and curiosity which so exemplifies the medieval Church and Christendom. Culture is king, and a man like Gerbert, can only arise from a culture which itself is open to real science, intelligence and improvement.