GELASIO I, PAPA, santo - Decretum Gelasianum; list of apocryphal books - Vatican Library, cod. Vet. Ist. 5845, f. 281v (2nd cent.).
His contemporaries, in their enthusiasm, acclaimed him as « Vicar of Christ and Apostle Peter », and the succeeding generation, in the person of Dionigi il Piccolo, wrote his encomium.
Throughout the duration of his pontificate, relations between the Church of Rome and that of Constantinople remained tense because of the Acacian schism: G., on the one hand, steadfast and faithful to the Council of Chalcedon and to the traditional doctrine of the Fathers against the Henoticon, sought, on the other, every opportunity to continue or resume correspondence with the emperor Anastasius I. As soon as he was elected pope, he communicated the news to the emperor but received no reply: in a new, highly respectful letter, he recalled that, if bishops have the duty to submit to princes in civil matters, princes must submit to bishops in matters of religion, and that particular respect is owed to the First Bishop and to the Roman Church. G. held the highest conception of his authority and founded the doctrine of the two powers. He wrote to Anastasius I: « There are, august emperor, two powers by which the empire of the world is chiefly divided: the sacred authority of the pontiffs and royal power; and the office of priests is all the more weighty because they will have to render an account before the divine judgment even for the kings of men themselves... no one may, for any human reason, rise up against the privilege of the confession, that is, against the primacy of him whom Christ has placed over all things, and whom the venerable Church has always recognized and devoutly regarded as its head » (Epist., XII, 2-3). By this G. became the creator of the papal idea that dominated the Middle Ages.
In Italy G. maintained good relations with Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, who, after his victory over Odoacer, gained control of the peninsula.
From the years of peace (494-95), two synods celebrated by G. in Rome are known: the first for a series of disciplinary decrees intended to settle disputes among the clergy, the second to put an end to the final consequences of the Acacian schism within the Church of Rome.
Among G.’s letters, which A. Thiel numbered at 43 and 49 fragments (later, a further 22 were discovered), some, because of the subjects treated, had a scope broader than the region to which they referred, being genuine treatises, such as the one on the Acacian controversy and, particularly, the one on the patristic tradition.
Among G.’s works there also appears, probably wrongly attributed to him, the celebrated Decretum Gelasianum, in five parts: « De Spiritu Sancto; De Canone Scripturae sacrae; De Sedibus patriarchalibus; De synodis oecumenicis; De libris recipiendis et non recipiendis ». This last part, by far the most important, is the first attempt at an index of prohibited books (cf. E. von Dobschitz, Das Decretum Gelasianum de libris recipiendis et non recipiendis, Lipsis 1912). The whole was probably compiled in the 6th century from earlier elements dating back to Damasus and Hormisdas. With regard to the so-called Sacramentarium Gelasianum, a recension of the Roman Missal, existing only in a Gallican recension, scholarly opinions to date remain divided (v. SACRAMENTARIO). G.’s homilies and hymns have been lost. His feast is recorded in the Martyr. Romanum on 21 November.
Approximately 36 manuscripts of the Gelasian Decree are known, and they can be divided into two classes. The first attributes all or part of it to Pope Damasus (366–84), the second to Pope G. (492–96); some more recent manuscripts attribute it to Pope Hormisdas (514–23). According to the testimony of the manuscripts, the Gelasian Decree comprises two independent parts, which are not attested before the 7th century, but which may have existed earlier.
Recent studies permit, though only as a hypothesis, the following conclusions concerning the origin of the Gelasian Decree: 1) the definitive writing resulted from the conjunction of two documents of different origin and value; 2) the first document, comprising chaps. 1–3, may date from the end of the 4th century and, in accordance with the title, may be the work of the Roman Council of 382 under the pontificate of Damasus I; 3) the second document (chaps. 3–5) is the work of a private individual, from the end of the 5th or beginning of the 6th century, who held great veneration for St. Jerome and was most faithful to the doctrines of the Roman Church; 4) the two documents were soon joined either in northern Italy or in southern France; 5) the Gelasian Decree thus composed remained unknown for some time, nor was it regarded as an official document. This explains why the testimonies are so late, namely from the 7th century (Bardy, col. 389).