Pope Saint Gelasius I (died November 21, 496) was
popeThe pope is the Bishop of Rome and, as such, is leader of the worldwide Catholic Church...
from 492 until his death in 496. He was the third and last pope of African origin in the
Roman Catholic ChurchThe Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church. With more than a billion members, over half of all Christians and more than one-sixth of the world's population, the Catholic Church is a communion of the Western, or Latin Rite Church, and...
, Gelasius was a prolific writer whose style placed him on the cusp between
Late AntiquityLate Antiquity is a periodization used by historians to describe the transitional centuries from Classical Antiquity to the Middle Ages, in both mainland Europe and the Mediterranean world. Precise boundaries for the period are a matter of debate, but noted historian of the period Peter Brown...
and the
Early Middle AgesThe Early Middle Ages, or Dark Ages, is a period in the history of Europe following the fall of the Western Roman Empire. It lasted from about AD 500 to 1000. The period featured raiding, migration, and conquest by Huns, Germanic peoples, Arabs, Vikings, Hungarians and others. There was frequent...
. Gelasius had been closely employed by his predecessor,
Felix IIIPope Saint Felix III was pope from March 13, 483 to 492.-Biography:He was born into a Roman senatorial family and said to have been a great-great-grandfather of Saint Gregory the Great. Nothing certain is known of Felix until he succeeded St...
, especially in drafting papal documents. His reign was characterized by his call for strict orthodoxy, a more assertive push for papal authority, and increasing tension between the churches in the West and the East.
Struggle with Anastasius I and Acacius
Gelasius' election, March 1, 492, was a gesture for continuity: Gelasius inherited Felix's struggles with Eastern Roman Emperor
Anastasius IFlavius Anastasius or Anastasius I was Byzantine Emperor from 11 April 491 until his death. He was born at Dyrrhachium no later than 430/431, the son of Pompeius, a nobleman of Dyrrachium, and his anonymous wife...
and the
patriarch of Constantinople-Current Ecumenical Patriarch:The current Ecumenical Patriarch is His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople.-General Introduction:...
and exacerbated them by insisting on the removal of the name of the late
AcaciusAcacius was the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople from 471 to 489. Acacius was practically the first prelate throughout the Eastern Orthodoxy and renowned for ambitious participation in the Monophysitism controversy....
, patriarch of Constantinople, from the
diptychA diptych is any object with two flat plates attached at a hinge. Devices of this form were quite popular in the ancient world, wax tablets being coated with wax on inner faces, for recording notes and for measuring time and direction...
s, in spite of every ecumenical gesture by the current, otherwise quite orthodox patriarch Euphemius (
q.v. for details of the
Acacian schismThe Acacian schism between the Eastern and Western Christian Churches lasted thirty-five years, from 484-519 AD. It resulted from a drift in the leaders of Eastern Christianity toward Monophysitism, and the Emperor Zeno's unsuccessful attempt to reconcile the parties with the...
).
The split with the emperor and the patriarch of Constantinople was inevitable, from the western point of view, because they had embraced a view of a single, Divine ('Monophysite') nature of
ChristJesus of Nazareth —also known as Jesus Christ or occasionally Jesus the Christ—is the central figure of Christianity. Within most Christian denominations...
, which was a Christian
heresyHeresy is proposing some unorthodox change to an established system of belief, especially a religion, that conflicts with the previously established opinion of scholars of that belief such as canon. It is sometimes confused with apostasy which is disaffiliation from orthodoxy and blasphemy which is...
. Gelasius' book
De duabus in Christo naturis ('On the dual nature of Christ') delineated the Western view. Thus Gelasius, for all the conservative Latinity of his writing style stood on the cusp of
Late AntiquityLate Antiquity is a periodization used by historians to describe the transitional centuries from Classical Antiquity to the Middle Ages, in both mainland Europe and the Mediterranean world. Precise boundaries for the period are a matter of debate, but noted historian of the period Peter Brown...
and the
Early Middle AgesThe Early Middle Ages, or Dark Ages, is a period in the history of Europe following the fall of the Western Roman Empire. It lasted from about AD 500 to 1000. The period featured raiding, migration, and conquest by Huns, Germanic peoples, Arabs, Vikings, Hungarians and others. There was frequent...
.
Powers of Church and State
During the Acacian schism, Gelasius went further than his predecessors in asserting the primacy of Rome over the entire Church, East and West, and he presented this doctrine in terms that set the model for subsequent popes asserting the claims of
papal supremacyReferring to the doctrine of papal supremacy the Catechism of the Catholic Church notes in paragraph 882, “the Roman Pontiff, by reason of his office as Vicar of Christ, and as pastor of the entire Church has full, supreme, and universal power over the whole Church, a power which he can always...
.
In 494, Gelasius wrote a very influential letter, known from its
incipitThe incipit of a text, such as a poem, song, or book, is its first few words or opening line. In music it can also refer to the opening notes of a composition. Before the development of titles, texts were often referred to by their incipits. Incipit comes from the Latin for "it begins"...
as
Duo sunt, to Anastasius. This letter established the dualistic principle that would underlie all Western European political thought for almost a
millenniumA millennium is a period of time equal to one thousand years...
. In the letter Gelasius expressed a distinction between "two powers", which he called the "holy authority of bishops" (
auctoritas sacrata pontificum) and the "royal power" (
regalis potestas). These two powers,
auctoritas lending justification to
potestas, and
potestas providing the executive strength for
auctoritas were, he said, to be considered independent in their own spheres of operation, yet expected to work together in harmony.
Suppression of pagan rites and heretics
Closer to home, Gelasius finally suppressed the ancient Roman festival of the
LupercaliaLupercalia was a very ancient, possibly pre-Roman pastoral festival, observed on February 15 to avert evil spirits and purify the city, releasing health and fertility...
after a long contest. Gelasius' letter to Andromachus, the senator, covers the main lines of the controversy and incidentally offers some details of this festival combining
fertilityFertility is the natural capability of giving life. As a measure, "fertility rate" is the number of children born per couple, person or population. This is different from fecundity, which is defined as the potential for reproduction...
and
purificationPurification is the process of rendering something pure, i.e. clean of foreign elements and/or pollution, and may refer to:* List of purification methods in chemistry* Organisms used in water purification...
that might have been lost otherwise. Significantly, this festival of purification, which had given its name—
dies februatus, from
februare, "to purify"— to the month of February, was replaced with a Christian festival celebrating the purification of the Virgin Mary instead: Candlemas, observed forty days after Christmas, on February 2.
Gelasius successfully suppressed the Manichaeans, a dualist sect suspected to be present in Rome in large numbers. Gelasius decreed that the
EucharistThe Eucharist, also called Holy Communion, Sacrament of the Table, the Blessed Sacrament, or The Lord's Supper and other names, is a Christian sacrament or ordinance, generally considered to be a commemoration of the Last Supper, the final meal that Jesus Christ shared with his disciples before his...
had to be received "
under both kindsCommunion under both kinds in Christianity is the reception under both "species" of the Eucharist.-Doctrine:...
", with wine as well as bread. As the Manichaeans held wine to be impure and essentially sinful, they would refuse the chalice and thus be recognized. Later, with the Manichaeans suppressed, the old method of receiving communion under one kind - the bread - was restored.
Gelasius natione Afer
Some have asserted that Gelasius was a black African by descent, because the
Liber PontificalisThe Liber Pontificalis is a book of biographies of popes from Saint Peter until the 15th century. The original publication of the Liber Pontificalis stopped with Pope Adrian II or Pope Stephen V , but it was later supplemented in a different style until Pope Eugene IV and then Pope Pius II...
plainly states that he was
natione Afer ('African by birthright'). This however does not necessarily mean that he was black, because black Africans were generally referred to in Latin as
Aethiopes. Gelasius' own statement in a letter that he is
Romanus natus (Roman-born) is certainly not inconsistent. There is a major controversy in the Catholic church about African saints and popes since the actual religion of Christianity trickled into Africa before having any sort of strengthened foothold in Europe. The Arian factions of Visigoths, Ostrogoths, and Vandals would not come for 3 hundred years. However during a period known as "La Reconquista" in Spain and Lower France (after the sacking of Bordeaux by Saracens in 734 led by Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi there was a vigorous attempt by the Roman Catholic Church to white wash it's African history. The image of Christ was painted white, his eyes dyed blue and his hair doused with 12th century peroxide.
Writings
Gelasius was the most prolific writer of the early popes. A great mass of correspondence of Gelasius has survived: forty-two letters according to the
Catholic Encyclopedia, thirty-seven according to Father Bagan and fragments of forty-nine others, carefully archived in the
VaticanVatican City , officially the State of the Vatican City , is a landlocked sovereign city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, the capital city of Italy...
, ceaselessly expounding to Eastern bishops the
primacyPrimacy is the state or condition of being prime or first, as in time, place, rank, etc., hence, excellency; supremacy. It may otherwise refer to a property of the office, rank, or character of a primate; the chief ecclesiastical station or dignity in a national church; the office or dignity of an...
of the see of Rome. There are extant besides six treatises that carry the name of Gelasius. According to
CassiodorusFlavius Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator , commonly known as Cassiodorus, was a Roman statesman and writer, serving in the administration of Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths. Senator was part of his surname not his rank....
, the reputation of Gelasius attracted to his name other works not by him.
Decretum Gelasianum
The most famous of pseudo-Gelasian works is the list
de libris recipiendis et non recipiendis ("books to be received and not to be received"), the so-called
Decretum GelasianumThe so-called Decretum Gelasianum or Gelasian Decree was traditionally attributed to the prolific Pope Gelasius I, bishop of Rome 492–496. In surviving manuscripts the Decretal exists on its own and also appended to a list of books of Scripture titled as attested as canonical by a Council of...
, supposed to be connected to the pressures for orthodoxy during the pontificate of Gelasius 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 fixing of the canon of scripture has traditionally been attributed to Gelasius and a non-historical Roman synod of 494 has been invented as the supposed occasion.
The "Gelasian Sacramentary"
In the Catholic tradition, the so-called "Gelasian Sacramentary", actually the
Liber sacramentorum Romanae ecclesiae ("Book of Sacraments of the Church of Rome") is a book of liturgy that was actually composed in Merovingian times. An old tradition linked the book to Pope Gelasius, apparently based on
Walafrid StraboWalafrid, alternatively spelt Walahfrid, surnamed Strabo , was a Frankish monk and theological writer.Walafrid Strabo's works are theological, historical and poetical...
's ascription to him of what is evidently this book. Most of its liturgy reflects the mix of Roman and Gallican practice inherited from the Merovingian church.
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