1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Anastasius

ANASTASIUS, the name of four popes.

Anastasius I., pope from 399–401. He it was who condemned the writings of Origen shortly after their translation into Latin.

Anastasius II., pope from 496–498. He lived in the time of the schism of Acacius of Constantinople. He showed some tendency towards conciliation, and thus brought upon himself the lively reproaches of the author of the Liber pontificalis. On the strength of this tradition, Dante has placed this pope in hell.

Anastasius III., pope from 911–913, was a Roman by birth. Practically nothing is recorded of him, his pontificate falling in the period when Rome was in the power of the Roman nobles.

Anastasius IV. was pope from 1153 to 1154. He was a Roman named Conrad, son of Benedictus, and at the time of his election, on the 9th of July 1153, was cardinal bishop of Sabina. He had taken part in the double election of 1130, had been one of the most determined opponents of Anacletus II. and, when Innocent II. fled to France, had been left behind as his vicar in Italy. During his short pontificate, however, he played the part of a peacemaker; he came to terms with the emperor Frederick I. in the vexed question of the appointment to the see of Magdeburg and closed the long quarrel, which had raged through four pontificates, about the appointment of William Fitzherbert (d. 1154)—commonly known as St William of York—to the see of York, by sending him the pallium, in spite of the continued opposition of the powerful Cistercian order. Anastasius died on the 3rd of December 1154, and was succeeded by Cardinal Nicholas of Albano as Adrian IV.