Page:Omniana.djvu/41

Rh  Silvester II. (who is commonly called pope Silvester, being the most notorious of the name,) made clocks and organs which were worked by steam. The old historian explains intelligibly to us what he did not understand himself: fecit arte  mechanica orologium, et organa hydraulica,  ubi, mirum in modum, per aquæ calefactæ  violentiam, implet ventus emergens concavitem  barbiti, et permulti foratiles tractus  æreæ fistulæ modulatos clamores emittunt.

Prideaux (an older author than the biographer of Mahomet, but resembling him in blind and brutal bigotry) classes Silvester among the Egyptian magicians, by no means the worst of the orders into which he has distributed the popes. Yepes, t. 5. ff. 255. Vincentius Belvacensis, c. 24. c. 98, quoted, and the continuator of Bede c. 2. c 14.

  Aristotle has been libelled in all ages. 