St. Pope Gelasius I (died 496) | WEST

(Updated July 15, 2025)

This Author Quote Archive collects pertinent quotes from the Church Father, St. Pope Gelasius I.

Next to each quote are the Topic Quote Archives in which they are included.

This Quote Archive is being continuously updated as research continues. Quotes marked with “***” have not yet been organized into their respective Topic Quote Archives.

Letters

St. Pope Gelasius, Letter 12: To Emperor Anastasius Augustus (494)

• The Papacy and the Invincibility of the Church | §§2-3
• Christendom: The Spiritual and Temporal Powers, and the Conversion of the Empire | §§2-3

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(§§2-3)¹

(§2) …In fact, august Emperor, there are two ways in which this world is chiefly ruled: the hallowed authority [auctoritas] of the pontiffs (pontificum) and royal power [potestas]. In these two the responsibility of the bishops (sacerdotum) is so much greater, to the extent that at the time of divine judgment they will render an account even for the very rulers of human beings. Indeed, my most indulgent son, you must know that you are permitted to superintend through high office of a human kind; however, in your devotedness you bow your head to the leaders (praesulibus) of divine affairs, and from them you await the occasions for your salvation, and, in both taking the heavenly sacraments and being suitably disposed to them, you acknowledge that you must be subject to the order of religion, rather than be in control of it. And so in these affairs you depend on their judgment, and do not wish them to be reduced to your will. For if, as much as pertains to the order of public discipline, by acknowledging that the imperial rule has been conferred on you by heavenly dispensation, the overseers (antistites) of religion themselves also obey your laws, lest their opinions which are extrinsic to worldly affairs be regarded as standing in opposition to them, with what willingness, I entreat you, is it fitting that you obey those who have been assigned to the most excellent and venerable mysteries? Accordingly, just as a charge of no light weight presses upon the pontiffs to remain silent because of the worship of the Divinity, as is proper, so there is no middling danger for those (heaven forbid!) who despise those whom they should obey. And if, in general, when all the bishops are administering divine affairs properly, it is appropriate for the hearts of the faithful to be subject to them, how much more should agreement with the leader of that see [Rome] be adhered to, whom the most high Divinity willed to be preeminent among all the bishops, and the loyalty of the entire church has honored continually?

(§3) Wherever Your Piety turns a clear gaze, never has anybody been able to raise himself by any completely human counsel to the privilege or acknowledgement of that one whom the voice of Christ set before all [Peter], whom the venerable church has always acknowledged and in her 74 | 75 devotedness holds as primate. The ordinances established by divine judgment can be assailed by acts of human presumption, but they cannot be overcome by the power of any of them… 75 | 78

(§9) …Indeed, because the authority of the Apostolic See [Rome] has been put at the head of the Universal Church in all Christian centuries, it is strengthened both by a succession of canons of the Fathers and by a complex tradition…

Footnotes

1. St. Pope Gelasius I, Bronwen Neil and Pauline Allen, trans., The Letters of Gelasius I (492-496): Pastor and Micro-Manager of the Church of Rome (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols Publishers, 2014), 74-75, 78. ↩︎