and years, when the end of the
world was so universally looked for. Gerbert was famous for his
attainments in every branch of science, and indeed so many wonderful
traditions have collected around his name in this matter that one
hesitates to accept most of them. There seems to be no doubt, however,
that he was the beloved master of Fulbert of Chartres, who did much
for medicine in France at the beginning of the eleventh century and
who was the founder of the so-called school of Chartres and himself
the teacher of John of Chartres, who became the physician to King
Henry I., of France, and of Peter of Chartres and Hildier and
Goisbert.

Before the end of the eleventh century Pope Victor III., who had been
the Abbot of Monte Cassino, was elected Pope much against his will. He
occupied the Papal throne only for about a year and a half. He had
been especially recommended by Pope Gregory VII., the famous
Hildebrand, as a very suitable successor. Desiderius, as he was called
before becoming Pope, was one of the best scholars of his time, and
had taught for some years with great distinction at Salerno. It is not
known absolutely that he taught medicine, but, as the university of
Salerno is usually considered not to have been founded until the
middle of the next century, and as before that time the main teaching
faculty was that of the medical school and all other teaching was
subordinated to it, Desiderius must surely be considered as a teacher
at least of medical students. At that time a physician was expected to
know something more than merely his {228} profession. Mathematics and
philosophy were the two favorite subjects to which, besides medicine,
they devoted themselves. The presence of the future Pope at Salerno
is, moreover, the best possible index of the sympathy between the
ecclesiastical authorities and the medical school.

Besides there are definite records of the friendship which existed
between Alphanus, Archbishop of Salerno, and Desiderius, while they
were both members of the Benedictine Community of Monte Cassino.
Alphanus subsequently taught medicine at Salerno, and some of his
writings on medicine have been preserved for us. He was the author of
a work bearing the title _De Quatuor Elementis Corporis Humani_, a
treatise on the four elements of the human body, which is a compendium
of most of the knowledge of anatomy and physiology of the time, though
it also contains much more than the information with rega