Pope Gelasius I was thebishop of Rome from 1 March 492 to his death on 21 November 496.[3] Gelasius was a prolific author whose style placed him on the cusp betweenLate Antiquity and theEarly Middle Ages.[4] Some scholars have argued that his predecessorFelix III may have employed him to draft papal documents,[5] although this is not certain.[6][7]
During his pontificate he called for strictCatholic orthodoxy, more assertively demanded obedience to papal authority, and, consequently, increased the tension between the Western and Eastern Churches. Surprisingly, he also had cordial relations with theOstrogoths, who wereArians (i.e.,Non-trinitarian Christians), and therefore perceived asheretics from the perspective ofNicene Christians.[8]
There is some confusion regarding where Gelasius was born: according to theLiber Pontificalis he was born in theRoman province of Africa (present-dayTunisia), referred to as "natione Afer", while in a letter addressed to theRoman EmperorAnastasius he stated that he was "born aRoman" ("Romanus natus").[9] J. Conant opined that the latter assertion probably merely denotes that he was born inRoman Africa before theVandals invaded it.[10][11]
The split with the Emperor and the Patriarch of Constantinople was inevitable, from the Western view, because they considered theMonophysite view ofJesus Christ having only a Divine nature aheresy. Gelasius authored the bookDe duabus in Christo naturis (On the dual nature of Christ), which describedCatholic doctrine in the matter. Thus Gelasius, for all the conservative Latinity of his style of writing, was on the cusp ofLate Antiquity and theEarly Middle Ages.[4]
During the Acacian schism, Gelasius advocated the primacy of theSee of Rome over the universal Church, both East and West, and he presented this doctrine in terms that became the model for successive popes, who also claimedpapal supremacy because of their succession to thepapacy from the first supreme pontiff,Peter the Apostle.[2]
In 494, Gelasius authored the very influential letterDuo sunt to Anastasius on the subject of the relation of Church and state, which letter had political impact for more than a millennium:[13]Pope Gregory XVI quoted from it in his letter to theSwiss clergy,Commissum divinitus (17 May 1835), responding to theBaden articles [de], which gave some of theSwiss cantons authority over church matters including the sacraments.[14]
Closer to home, after a long contest Gelasius finally suppressed theancient Roman festival of theLupercalia,[11] which had persisted for several generations among a nominally Christian population. Gelasius' letter to the senator Andromachus treated the primary contentions of the controversy and incidentally provided some details of the festival, which combinedfertility andpurification, that might have been lost otherwise.
Although the Lupercalia was a festival of purification, which had given its name "dies februatus", from "februare" ("to purify"), to the month of February, it was unrelated to the Feast of the Purification of theBlessed Virgin Mary, also commonly denominated "Candlemas", which latter feast commemorates the fulfillment of theHoly Family's ceremonial obligations pursuant to Mosaic law 40 days after the birth of the first son. In the instance of theHoly Family, that occurred 40 days afterChristmas, on 2 February.
A circa 870 image featuring the coronation ofCharles the Bald, flanked by Gelasius I andGregory the Great. Gelasius' writings gave him a high status with posterity.
Gelasius was one of the most prolific authors of the earlybishops of Rome. Over 100 Gelasian letters survive, although 49 of these are fragmentary, some as short as several lines.[15] 6 treatises are extant that bear the name of Gelasius. According toCassiodorus, the reputation of Gelasius attracted to his name other works not by him. Although his dogmatic letters connected to the Acacian Schism were widely circulated in late antiquity, and have been the focus of much scholarly interest, the majority of Gelasius' letters were in fact concerned with the administration of the church ofsuburbicarian Italy.[8]
The most famous of pseudo-Gelasian works is the listDe libris recipiendis et non recipiendis ("On books to be received and not to be received"), also denominated theDecretum Gelasianum, which is believed to be connected to the pressure for orthodoxy during his pontificate and intended to be read as a decretal by Gelasius on the canonical and apocryphal books, which internal evidence reveals to be of later date. Thus the determination of thecanon of Sacred Scripture has traditionally been attributed to Gelasius.[16]
In theLatin Catholic tradition, the pseudoGelasian Sacramentary is in fact a liturgical book that was derived from Roman sources and transcribed, with inclusion of native Gallican liturgical elements, nearParis in the middle of the 8th century. While including the texts of some prayers that Gelasius composed, he was not a principal author or compiler of the book. The manuscript (Vatican, Vatican Library, Reg. lat. 316 + Paris, National Library, ms. lat. 7193, fol. 41–56) is actually titled theLiber sacramentorum Romanae ecclesiae (Book of Sacraments of the Roman Church).[17]
The attribution to Gelasius is premised in part at least on the chronicle of theSupreme Pontiffs that is denominated theLiber Pontificalis, which states of Gelasius that he "fecit etiam et sacramentorum praefationes et orationes cauto sermone et epistulas fidei delimato sermone multas" ("he also made prefaces to the sacraments and prayers in careful language and many epistles in polished language regarding the faith").[18] An old tradition linked the book to Gelasius, apparently based on the ascription ofWalafrid Strabo to him of what evidently is this book.
CardinalGiuseppe Maria Tomasi quoted a portion of a missal that was attributed to Gelasius in the Mass that was entitled 'Contra obloquentes' and published it. The section read:
Grant, We beseech Thee, O Lord, that we do not trouble ourselves about the contradiction of spurious minds, but once that very wickedness has been spurned let us pray that you suffer us neither to be frightened by the unjust criticisms, nor to be attracted to the insidious flatteries, but rather to love that which Thou dost command ....
In 1751,Pope Benedict XIV published this quotation within his Apostolic ConstitutionProvidas that attacked freemasonry.[19]
^abThe title of his biography by Walter Ullmann expresses this:Gelasius I. (492–496): Das Papsttum an der Wende der Spätantike zum Mittelalter (Stuttgart) 1981.
^Pope Gregory XVI,Commissum divinitus, paragraph 8,Papal Encyclicals Online, accessed on 8 March 2025
^Gelasius I (2014). Neil, Bronwen; Allen, Pauline (eds.).The letters of Gelasius I (492-496): pastor and micro-manager of the Church of Rome. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols. pp. 8–9.ISBN978-2-503-55299-6.OCLC893407493.
^Translation is based on Louise Ropes Loomis,The Book of the Popes (Liber pontificalis) I, New York, New York, USA, Columbia University Press, 1916, pp. 110-4
^Translation is based on Louise Ropes Loomis,The Book of the Popes (Liber pontificalis) I, New York, New York, USA, Columbia University Press, 1916, pp. 110-4
Cohen, Samuel (2022). "Gelasius and the Ostrogoths: jurisdiction and religious community in late fifth‐century Italy".Early Medieval Europe.30 (1): 20–44.doi:10.1111/emed.12519.ISSN0963-9462
Norman F. Cantor,Civilization of the Middle Ages.
Neil, Bronwen, and Allen, Pauline (eds. and trans.).The letters of Gelasius I (492-496) : pastor and micro-manager of the Church of Rome. Turnhout, Belgium. pp. 8–9.ISBN978-2-503-55299-6OCLC893407493
