, also known by the Latin mnemonic ('there are two'), is a letter written in 494 by

Pope Gelasius I Pope Gelasius I was the bishop of Rome from 1 March 492 to his death on 21 November 496. Gelasius was a prolific author whose style placed him on the cusp between Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages.The title of his biography by Walter Ullma ...

Byzantine Emperor The foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD marks the conventional start of the Eastern Roman Empire, which Fall of Constantinople, fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Only the emperors who were recognized as legitimate rulers and exercised s ...

Anastasius I Dicorus on the relationship between religious and secular officials.

Description

is a letter written in 494 by

Anastasius I Dicorus which expressed the Gelasian doctrine. According to commentary in the '' Enchiridion symbolorum'', the letter is "the most celebrated document of the ancient Church concerning the two powers on earth." The Gelasian doctrine articulates a Christian theology about division of authority and power. All Medieval theories about division of power between priestly spiritual authority and secular temporal authority were versions of the Gelasian doctrine. According to the Gelasian doctrine, secular temporal authority is inferior to priestly spiritual authority since a priestly spiritual authority is responsible for the eternal condition of both a secular temporal authority and the subjects of that secular temporal authority but "implies that the priestly authority is inferior to the secular authority in the secular domain."

Dualistic principle of Church and State

This letter established the dualistic principle that would underlie all Western European political thought for almost a

millennium A millennium () is a period of one thousand years, one hundred decades, or ten centuries, sometimes called a kiloannum (ka), or kiloyear (ky). Normally, the word is used specifically for periods of a thousand years that begin at the starting ...

. Gelasius expressed a distinction between two principles governing the world, which Gelasius called the "sacred authority of bishops" (') and the "royal power" (').

''Potestas'' and ''auctoritas''

These two principles—' lending justification to ', and ' providing the executive strength for '—were, Gelasius said, to be considered independent in their own spheres of operation, yet expected to work together in harmony.

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