e then far beyond the Christians); and it
was he who first taught Christians to use the Arabic figures (such as 1,
2, and 3) instead of the Roman letters or figures (such as I., II., and
III.). He also made a famous clock; and on account of his skill in such
things people supposed him to be a sorcerer, and told strange stories
about him. Thus it is said that he made a brazen head, which answered
"Yes" and "No" to questions. Gerbert asked his head where he should
die, and supposed from the answer that it was to be in the city of
Jerusalem. But one day as he was at service in one of the Roman churches
which is called "Holy Cross in Jerusalem," he was taken very ill; and
then he understood that that church was the Jerusalem in which he was to
die. We need not believe such stories; but yet it is well to know about
them, because they show what people were disposed to believe in the time
when the stories were made.

The troubles of the papacy continued, and at one time there were no
fewer than three popes, each of whom had one of the three chief churches
of Rome, and gave himself out for the only true pope. But this state of
things was such a scandal that the emperor, Henry III., was invited from
Germany to put an end to it, and for this purpose he held a council at
Sutri, not far from Rome, in 1046. Two of the popes were set aside, and
the third, Gregory VI., who was the best of the three, was drawn to
confess that he had given money to get his office, because he wished to
use the power of the papacy to bring about some kind of reform. But on
this he was told that he had been guilty of simony--a sin which takes
its name from Simon the sorcerer, in the Acts of the Apostles (ch.
viii.), and which means the buying of spiritual things with money. This
had never struck Gregory before; but when told of it by the council he
had no choice but to lay aside his papal robes, and the emperor put one
of his own German bishops into the papacy.

CHAPTER VII.

MISSIONS OF THE NINTH AND TENTH CENTURIES.

It will be pleasanter to tell you something about the missions of those
times; for a great deal of missionary work was then carried on.

(1.) The Bulgarians, who had come from Asia in the end of the seventh
century, and had settled in the country which still takes its name from
them, were converted by missionaries of the Greek Church. It is said
that, when some beginning of the work had been made, and the king
himself had been b