The Gelasian Decree () is a Latin text traditionally thought to be a decretal of the prolific Pope Gelasius I (492–496). The work reached its final form in a five-chapter text written by an anonymous scholar between 519 and 553. The second chapter is a list of books of Scripture defined as part of the biblical canon by a Council of Rome, traditionally dated to Pope Damasus I (366–383) and thus known as the Damasine List. The fifth chapter of the work includes a list of rejected works not encouraged for church use.

In The Carolingians and the Written Word, Rosamond McKitterick wrote:

Content

The Decretum exists in a number of recensions of varying lengths. The longest has five chapters, another recension has the last four of these chapters, another the last three, and another the first three. The Decretums canon of Scripture is thus identical with the Catholic canon issued by the Council of Trent.

  1. a short endorsement of the supremacy of the Bishop of Rome over the other bishops, citing the authority of Peter, and a statement of the order of precedence of the three principal episcopal sees: Rome, then Alexandria, then Antioch.
  2. a list of writings that are "to be received": the decrees of the first four ecumenical councils, and the writings of the Church Fathers and ecclesiastical writers mentioned in the chapter, 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".
  3. a list of writings that are "not to be received": many early Christian gospels, acts, apocalypses and similar works that are part of what we know as the New Testament Apocrypha. Mentioned are:).
  4. the Apocalypses of Paul, Thomas, and of Stephen.
  5. the Testament of Job, the Apocryphon of Jannes and Jambres, the Lots of the Apostles and the Letters from Jesus to Abgar and from Abgar to Jesus.

Attribution

The various recensions of the Decretum appear in multiple surviving manuscripts. It is "attributed in many manuscripts to Pope Damasus (366–384). In other and more numerous manuscripts the same decree occurs in an enlarged form assigned within the documents in some cases to Pope Gelasius (492–496), in others to Pope Hormisdas (514–523), and in a few cases the documents are simply anonymous."

The Damasine recension