Pope St. Gelasius I
Died at Rome, 19 Nov., 496. Gelasius, as he
himself states in his letter to the Emperor Anastasius (Ep. xii,
n. 1), was Romanus natus. The assertion of the "Liber
Pontificalis" that he was natione Afer is consequently
taken by many to mean that he was of African origin, though
Roman born. Others, however, interpreting natione Afer as
"African by birth", explain Romanus natus as "born a
Roman citizen". Before his election as pope, 1 March, 492,
Gelasius had been much employed by his predecessor, Felix II (or
III), especially in drawing up ecclesiastical documents, which
has led some scholars to confuse the writings of the two
pontiffs.
On his election to the papacy, Gelasius at
once showed his strength of character and his lofty conception
of his position by his firmness in dealing with the adherents of
Acacius (see ACACIUS, PATRIARCH OF CONSTANTINOPLE). Despite all
the efforts of the otherwise orthodox patriarch, Euphemius of
Constantinople (q. v.), and the threats and wiles by which the
Emperor Anastasius tried to obtain recognition from the
Apostolic See, Gelasius, though hard-pressed by difficulties at
home, would make no peace that compromised in the slightest
degree the rights and honor of the Chair of Peter. The constancy
with which he combated the pretensions, lay and ecclesiastical,
of the New Rome; the resoluteness with which he refused to allow
the civil or temporal pre-eminence of a city to determine its
ecclesiastical rank; the unfailing courage with which he
defended the rights of the "second " and the "third" sees,
Alexandria and Antioch, are some of the most striking features
of his pontificate. It has been well said that nowhere at this
period can be found stronger arguments for the primacy of
Peter's See than in the works and writings of Gelasius. He is
never tired of repeating that Rome owes its ecclesiastical
princedom not to an oecumenical synod nor to any temporal
importance it may have possessed, but to the Divine institution
of Christ Himself, Who conferred the primacy over the whole
Church upon Peter and his successors. (Cf. especially his
letters to Eastern bishops and the decretal on the canonical and
apocryphal books.) In his dealing with the emperor he is at one
with the great
medieval
pontiffs. "There are two powers by which chiefly this world is
ruled: the sacred authority of the priesthood and the authority
of kings. And of these the authority of the priests is so much
the weightier, as they must render before the tribunal of
God an
account even for the kings of men." Gelasius's pontificate was
too short to effect the complete submission and reconciliation
of the ambitious Church of Byzantium. Not until Hormisdas
(514-23) did the contest end in the return of the East to its
old allegiance. Troubles abroad were not the only occasions to
draw out the energy and strength of Gelasius. The Lupercalia, a
superstitious and somewhat licentious vestige of paganism at
Rome, was finally abolished by the pope after a long contest.
Gelasius's letter to Andromachus, the senator, covers the main
lines of the controversy.
A stanch upholder of the old traditions,
Gelasius nevertheless knew when to make exceptions or
modifications, such as his decree obliging the reception of the
Holy Eucharist under both kinds. This was done as the only
effective way of detecting the Manichaeans, who, though present
in Rome in large numbers, sought to divert attention from their
hidden propaganda by feigning Catholicism. As they held wine to
be impure and essentially sinful, they would refuse the chalice
and thus be recognized. Later, with the change of conditions,
the old normal method of receiving Holy Communion under the form
of bread alone returned into vogue. To Gelasius we owe the
ordinations on the ember days (Ep. xv), as well as the
enforcement of the fourfold division of all ecclesiastical
revenues, whether income from estates or voluntary donations of
the faithful, one portion for the poor, another for the support
of the churches and the splendour of Divine service, a third for
the bishop, and the fourth for the minor clergy. Though some
writers ascribe the origin of this division of church funds to
Gelasius, still the pontiff speaks of it (Ep. xiv, n. 27) as
dudum rationabiliter decretum, having been for some time in
force. Indeed, Pope Simplicius (475, Ep. i, n. 2) imposed the
obligation of restitution to the poor and the Church upon a
certain bishop who had failed in this duty; consequently it must
have been already regarded as at least a custom of the Church.
Not content with one enunciation of this charitable obligation,
Gelasius frequently inculcates it in his writings to bishops.
For a long time the fixing of the Canon of the Scriptures was
attributed to Gelasius, but it seems now more probably the work
of Damasus (367-85). As Gelasius, however, in a Roman synod
(494), published his celebrated catalogue of the authentic
writings of the Fathers, together with a list of apocryphal and
interpolated works, as well as the proscribed books of the
heretics (Ep. xlii), it was but natural to prefix to this
catalogue the Canon of the Scriptures as determined by the
earlier Pontiff, and thus in the course of time the Canon itself
came to be ascribed to Gelasius. In his zeal for the beauty and
majesty of Divine service, Gelasius composed many hymns,
prefaces, and collects, and arranged a standard Mass-book,
though the Missal that has commonly gone by his name, the "Sacramentarium
Gelasianum", belongs properly to the next century. How much of
it is the work of Gelasius is still a moot question. Though pope
but for four years and a half, he exerted a deep influence on
the development of church polity, of the liturgy and
ecclesiastical discipline. A large number of his decrees have
been incorporated into the Canon Law.
In his private life Gelasius was above all
conspicuous for his spirit of prayer, penance, and study. He
took great delight in the company of monks, and was a true
father to the poor, dying empty-handed as a result of his lavish
charity. Dionysius Exiguus in a letter to his friend, the priest
Julian (P.L., LXVII, 231), gives a glowing account of Gelasius
as he appeared to his contemporaries.
As a writer Gelasius takes high rank for
his period. His style is vigorous and elegant, though
occasionally, obscure. Comparatively little of his literary work
has come down to us, though he is said to have been the most
prolific writer of all the pontiffs of the first five centuries.
There are extant forty-two letters and fragments of forty-nine
others, besides six treatises, of which three are concerned with
the Acacian schism, one with the heresy of the Pelagians,
another with the errors of Nestorius and Eutyches, while the
sixth is directed against the senator Andromachus and the
advocates of the Lupercalia. The best edition is that of Thiel.
The feast of St. Gelasius is kepton 21
Nov., the anniversary of his interment, though many writers give
this as the day of his death.
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