The Holy See and the Wandering of the Nations, from St. Leo I to St. Gregory IAllies, T. W. (Thomas William)
History
The Holy See and the Wandering of the Nations, from St. Leo I to St. Gregory I
Allies, T. W. (Thomas William)
Church history -- Primitive and early church, ca. 30-600
How distinctly, and with what unfaltering conviction, the Pope of 494, then
locally a subject of Theodorick the Arian, set forth to the emperor at
Constantinople the universal authority of the Holy See, grounded on what he
calls the Apostle's glorious confession, on which followed the Divine Word
creating his office, is apparent through the whole of this magnificent
letter. Moreover, the distinction of the Two Powers and the character of
their relation to each other, and the divine character of each as a
delegation from God, solemnly uttered by the Pope Gelasius in 494 to the
Roman emperor so unworthy of the rank which the Pope recognised in him,
have passed into the law and practice of the Church during the 1400 years
which have since run out, and will form part of it for ever. Anastasius
disregarded all that the Pope said. He persecuted to the utmost his bishop
Euphemius, because, though not admitted to communion by the Pope, inasmuch
as he refused to erase from the diptychs the name of Acacius, he yet
vigorously maintained the decrees of the Council of Chalcedon. At length
the emperor, having ended his Isaurian wars and sufficiently strengthened
the Monophysite party, succeeded in deposing him in 496. His instruments
in this were the cowardly court bishops,[66] ready to be moved to anything,
who had also on this occasion to confirm the Henotikon of Zeno. Euphemius
was banished to Paphlagonia. The people rioted in the circus and demanded
his restoration, but in vain. However, they always venerated him as a
saint. While the emperor Anastasius was deposing at Constantinople the
bishop who withstood and reproved his conduct in supporting the Eutychean
heresy, while also he was compelling the resident council not only to
depose the bishop, but to confirm the document, originally drawn up by
Acacius, forced upon the bishops of his empire by Zeno, and now again
forced upon them by Anastasius, Gelasius was holding a council of seventy
bishops at Rome. What he enacted there synodically is a proof of the
entirely different spirit which prevailed in the independent West. Here
Pope and bishops alike were living under hostile domination, that of Arian
governments, but they were not crouching before the throne of a despot. The
Pope and the bishops passed at the synod of 496 the following decrees:
"After the writings of the Prophets, the gospels, and the Apostles, on
which by the grace of God the Catholic Church is founded, this also we have
judged fit to be expressed: Although all the Catholic churches spread
throughout the world are the one bridal-chamber of Christ, nevertheless the
holy Roman Church has been set over all other churches, by no constitution
of a council, but obtained the Primacy by the voice of our Lord in the
Gospel: 'Thou art Peter,' &c.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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