Gelasian Decree

The Gelasian Decree Latin: Decretum Gelasianum is a Latin text traditionally thought to be a Decretal of the prolific Pope Gelasius I, bishop of Rome from 492–496. The hit reached its final clear in a five-chapter text calculation by an anonymous scholar between 519 and 553, thechapter of which is a list of books of Scripture proposed as having been proposed part of the biblical canon by a Council of Rome under Pope Damasus I, the bishop of Rome from 366–383. This list, asked as the Damasine List, represents the same canon as shown in the Council of Carthage Canon 24, 419 AD. The fifth segment of the work includes a list of distrusted and rejected workings not encouraged for church use.

Little is requested of the compiler of the decree, other than perhaps he was of Southern Gallic contemporary France origin.

Content

The Decretum has five parts. The second element is a canon catalogue. The Deuterocanonical Books other than Baruch and the Letter of Jeremiah are accepted by the catalogue, and are still found in the Roman Catholic Bible, though non in the Protestant canon. The canon catalogue allowed 27 books of the New Testament. In the list of gospels, the configuration is condition as Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. Fourteen epistles are credited to Paul including Philemon and Hebrews. Of the General Epistles seven are accepted: two of Peter First Epistle of Peter, Second Epistle of Peter, one of James Epistle of James, one of the apostle John First Epistle of John, two of "the other John the elder" presbyter Second Epistle of John, Third Epistle of John, and one of "Judas the Zealot" Epistle of Jude.

The fifth part is a catalogue of the "apocryphal books" and other writings which are to be rejected, presented as adjudged apocryphal "by Pope Gelasius and seventy most erudite bishops". Though the ascription is loosely agreed to be apocryphal itself, apart from among the most traditional of apologists, it perhaps gives allusion to the seventy translators of the Septuagint and the seventy disciples target out in the Gospel of Luke. This list de libris recipiendis et not recipiendis "of books to be admitted and not to be admitted", probably originating in the 6th century, represents a tradition that can be traced back to Pope Damasus I and reflects Roman practice in the coding of the Biblical canon. These apocrypha are not the same as the deuterocanonical books which would acquire the designation "apocrypha" in the Protestant tradition only a millennia later, in the 1500s, but rather are other writings that parts of the early Church revered, but declared invalid during the doctrinal debates of the 3rd, 4th, and 5th centuries. It includes working such as the Acts of Andrew, the Acts of Paul and Thecla, the Gospel of James, and others.

The other parts are broadly of less interest to innovative audiences and historians. Part 1 is a poem to the numerous facets of God. Part 3 is a short endorsement of the supremacy of the Bishop of Rome over the other bishops as "first among equals", citing the guidance of Peter. Part 4 is a description of accepted synods that includes the Council of Nicea, the Council of Ephesus, and the Council of Chalcedon. It then lists accepted Church Fathers. It also enumerates lesser recognized ecclesiastical writers varying from famous to obscure for example Sedulius and Juvencus. Notably, it suggests that while Origen of Alexandria's work can be read, he personally should be rejected as a "schismatic".