Gelasius I pope
Pope of African origin, theorist of the "two powers" that fed a thousand years of Western political thought.
- Late Antiquity
- Italy
- Feast day November 21
- † 496
- Pope
Listen to the life 0:47
Elected in 492 during the Acacian schism, Gelasius wrote to the emperor Anastasius a letter that became famous: the world is governed by two principles, the sacred authority of pontiffs and royal power, and the first bears the heavier charge since it will answer for kings at the judgement. This doctrine of the two powers fed all medieval reflection on the spiritual and the temporal — the theory of the two swords, sometimes credited to him, comes six centuries later. A rigorous administrator, he devoted a quarter of the Church's revenues to the poor during the famine of 494 and left some forty letters. He died after four years of pontificate.
