the iĄaculty oÍ' Graduate Ątudies April, L96[ - MSpace at the ...

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and castigaiion. Gerberb, famous scholar of tenth-
century Gaul i,uho v¡as ctestined, to 'oecome Pope Sylvester fI
in 999, had v,¡on the admiration of his conlernporaries
through his r^¡ealih of maihelnalical, astronomical and
scieriuifj-c knolvledge, llov¡ever the nature of his re-
search leci'Lo the belief that he had acquired it all
by rnagic, The atmosphere is captured by a modern
historian who sLates:
rl]JaLer rneclieval legend macì.e of hirn a magician and
necromancer, but he seems to have dorle nothing
more rn¡ond.erÍ-ul than.-to"construct an abacus ano
build a PiPe-organ.tr )) "
rf the latter comrnent appears ludicrous, i-t also
suggests the magnetic attraction which non-conformity
holcts f or the popular rnind "
, In the cases of Simon IVIagus and Pope Sylvesüer II
it ma5' be presumed. that the rnoti-vatj-on for action lay in
lhe ind.ividualls obedience to some inner lav,r or com-
pulsion which by its very naLure i,¡as out of phase wiih
the popular mentaliby wiih which it came into contåcf.
iiithin the uni-versal terrrrs of the Perennial- Philosophy
this may be verified from the vlew that lr.""aLI .that we
are and" urill and do depends in the Last analysis, upon
ryhai we -believe the l'[ature of Tnings to be.tî 34"
this relationship between Thoughb and i3eing leads
inio iire persorlal motto of Paracelsu.s himself : Alteriu-s
non sit qui suus esse potest. Although open to inter-