The Presbyters Project

Letter 6

9. Quapropter nimis incusamus fratres et coepiscopos nostros, maxime per Piceni provincias Ecclesiam Domini gubernantes, qui non solum ineptissimi senis abiectaeque personae pravum non deterruere colloquium, verum etiam suo nutrivere consensu. Quis audiat, quis ferat, passos esse pontifices, ut cadaver nescio quod indignum presbyterum sibi non acquiescentem auderet communione privare? Quomodo talis vel susceptus ab aliquo vel patienter auditus est?

[...]

(ed. Thiel 1868: 333)

Letter 6

9. Therefore, we strongly condemn our brothers and fellow bishops, especially those who govern the Church of the Lord in the provinces of Picenum, because not only did they not avert the perverse talks with the foolish dotard and the sordid person, but they even sought agreement with him. Who would hear about it, who would bear it, that, with the permission of the priests (pontifices) this unworthy cadaver would deprive of the communion a presbyter who did not agree with him? How can such a person be accepted by anybody or patiently listened to?

(trans. S. Adamiak)

Discussion:

The letter deals mainly with the persistence of the Pelagian heresy in Picenum (central Italy, on the Adriatic coast). We do not know who was responsible for the irregular excommunication of a presbyter, which made Gelasius so angry.

About the source:

Author: Gelasius I
Title: Letters, Epistulae
Origin: Rome (Rome)
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian

Gelasius I was the bishop of Rome between AD 492 and 496.

Edition:

Thiel A. ed., Epistulae Romanorum pontificum genuinae et quae ad eos scriptae sunt a S. Hilario usque ad Pelagium II, 1, Braunsberg 1868, 287-510.

Categories:

Described by a title - Presbyter/πρεσβύτερος

PR887.

Conflict

PR887.

Administration of justice - Ecclesiastical

PR887.

Administration of justice - Excommunication/Anathema

PR887.

Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: S. Adamiak, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER1952, http://presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=1952