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What was Gelasius's two-swords theory?

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In 494, Pope Gelasius I wrote the following letter (translated from Latin) to Emperor Anastasius I Dicorus: There are two powers, august Emperor, by which this world is chiefly ruled, namely, the sacred authority of the priests and the royal power. read more

The phrasing doesn't come from this letter, that much is obvious, but the basic metaphor goes as follows: the leader of the Church is divinely granted two swords. The leader of the Church keeps the greater of the two and grants usage, subject to certain conditions, of the lesser to some third party. read more

While this might at first seem to support the position of Gregory VII, it was widely believed that the Gelasian"two swords" theory maintained that these two powers-political and religious-should not be held by the same person. read more

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. read more

There are two powers, august Emperor, by which this world is chiefly ruled, namely, the sacred authority of the priests and the royal power. Of these that of the priests is the more weighty, since they have to render an account for even the kings of men in the divine judgment. read more

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. read more

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