St Stephen. Commands from the Pope and Willigis of Mayence sent him back to his see, but renewed wanderings brought him a martyr's death in Prussia. He had also visited Poland and there, at Gnesen, he was buried. Such a career reminds us of St Boniface, but there is a distinction between the two to be noted. Boniface had always worked with the Frankish rulers, and had depended greatly upon their help. Adalbert, on the other hand, looked far more to Rome. Pope, German rulers, and even German bishops like Pilgrim of Passau, had independent or even contradictory plans of large organisation. In Bohemia, Hungary, and Poland, the tenth century saw the beginning of national churches, looking to the Papacy rather than to German kings. Thus were brought about later complications in politics, Imperial and national, which were to be important both for general history and for the growth of Papal power. But although Gregory was thus able to leave his mark on distant lands, and to legislate for the churches of Germany and France, he could not maintain himself in Rome itself; he was driven from the city (996), faced by an anti-Pope John XVI (who has caused confusion in the Papal lists), and was only restored by the Emperor for one short year of life and rule before Gerbert succeeded him. The strength of the Papacy lay in its great traditions and its distant control; its weakness came from factions at Rome.
Gerbert, born in Auvergne, a monk at Aurillac, a scholar in Spain, at Rheims added philosophy to his great skill in mathematics. As Abbot of Bobbio he had unhappy experiences. For a time, through the favour of Hugh Capet, he held the Archbishopric of Rheims, where he learnt the strong local feeling of the French episcopate, in which his great predecessor Hincmar had shared. Otto the Great admired his abilities; Otto II sent him to Bobbio; Otto II, his devoted pupil, made him Archbishop of Ravenna (998) and, a year later, Pope. Moulded in many lands, illustrating uniquely the unity of Western Christendom, the foremost thinker of the day, yet on the Papacy he left no mark answering to his great personality.
Not even insignificant Popes and civic strife lessened Papal power as might have been supposed. Benedict VII (1012-1024) came to the throne after a struggle with the Crescentii: his father, Count Gregory, of the Tusculan family, had been praefectus navalis under Otto II, and had done much for the fortification of the city against the Saracens who had once so greatly harassed John VIII (872-882). Benedict himself was dependent upon the Emperor for help against Byzantines, Saracens and factions in Rome itself. He could not be called a Pope of spiritual influence, but he was an astute politician, and under him the
