Anastasius I., bishop of Rome

From EcclesiasticalHistory

Anastasius I., bp. of Rome, was consecrated A.D. 398 ("Honorio IV. et Eutychiano coss." 26Prosp. Aq. Chron.), and died in April, 402 (Anast. Bibl. vol. i. p. 62). According to Anastasius Bibliothecarius, he put an end to an unseemly strife between the priests and deacons of his church, by enacting that priests as well as deacons should stand bowed ("curvi starent") at the reading of the Gospels. Jerome calls him a "vir insignis," taken from the evil to come, i.e. dying before the sack of Rome by Goths, A.D. 410. One letter by Anastasius is extant. Rufinus wrote to him shortly after his consecration (not later than A.D. 400, Constant. Epp. Pont. Rom. p. 714) to defend himself against the charge of complicity in the heresy ascribed to Origen. Anastasius replied (see Constant. l.c.) in a tone which, dealing leniently with Rufinus, explicitly condemned Origen. Nine other letters are referred to:—(1–5) To Paulinus, bp. of Nola (Paul. Nol. Ep. 20). (6) To Anysius, bp. of Thessalonica, giving him jurisdiction over Illyria; referred to by Innocent I., in his first letter (Constant.). (7) To Johannes, bp. of Jerusalem. (8) To African bishops who had sent him an embassy to complain of the low state of their clergy. (9) Contra Rufinum, an epistle sent ad Orientem (Hieron. Apol. lib. 3).

[G. H. M.].

[26]Dio Cassius (lx. p. 669) speaks of Claudius as not expelling the Jews, but only forbidding them to assemble. Probably this was an earlier measure not found sufficiently effective. The expulsion of the "Mathematici" about the same time (Tacitus, Ann. xii. 52) implies a general alarm as to the spread of "Eastern superstitions."