Prosp. 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.]
Anastasius II., bp. of Rome, succeeded Gelasius I. in Nov. 496 (Clinton's Fasti Romani, pp. 536, 713). The month after his accession Clovis was baptized, and the new Pope wrote congratulating him on his conversion. Anastasius has left a name of ill-odour in the Western church; attributable to his having taken a different line from his predecessors with regard to the Eastern church. Felix III. had excommunicated Acacius of Constantinople, professedly on account of his communicating with heretics, but really because Zeno's Henoticon, which he had sanctioned, gave the church of Constantinople a primacy in the East which the see of Rome could not tolerate. Gelasius I. had followed closely in the steps of Felix. But Anastasius, in the year of his accession, sent two bishops, Germanus of Capua and Cresconius of Todi, (Baronius) to Constantinople, with a proposal that Acacius's name, instead of being expunged from the roll of patriarchs of Constantinople as Gelasius had proposed, should be left upon the diptychs, and no more be said upon the subject. This proposal, in the very spirit of the Henoticon, gave lasting offence to the Western church, and it excites no surprise that he was charged with communicating secretly with Photinus, a deacon of Thessalonica who held with Acacius; and of wishing to heal the breach between the East and West—for so it seems best to interpret the words of Anastasius Bibliothecarius—"voluit revocare Acacium" (vol. i. p. 83).
Anastasius died in Nov. 498. He was still remembered as the traitor who would have reversed the excommunication of Acacius; and Dante finds him suffering in hell the punishment of one whom "Fotino" seduced from the right way (Dante, Inf. xi. 8, 9).
Two epistles by him are extant: one informing the emperor Anastasius of his accession (Mansi, viii. p. 188); the other to Clovis as above (ib. p. 193).
[G.H.M.]
Anastasius Sinaita (Ἀναστάσιος Σιναίτης). Three of this name are mentioned by ecclesiastical writers, among whom some confusion exists. Two were patriarchs of Antioch; and it has been reasonably questioned whether they were ever monks of Mount Sinai, and whether the title "Sinaita" has not been given to them from a confusion with the one who really was so, and who falls, outside our period (see Smith's D. C. B. in loc.).
(1) Bp. of Antioch, succeeded Domnus III. A.D. 559 (Clinton, Fasti Romani). He is praised by Evagrius (H. E. iv. 40) for his theological learning, strictness of life, and well-balanced character. He resolutely opposed Justinian's edict in favour of the Aphthartodocetae, and encouraged the monastic bodies of Syria against it, A.D. 563 (Evagr. iv. 39, 40). Justinian threatened him with deposition and exile, but his death in 565 hindered his design, which was carried into effect by his nephew Justin II., A.D. 570. Fresh charges were brought against Anastasius of profuse expenditure of the funds of his see, and of intemperate language and action in reference to the consecration of John, bp. of Alexandria, by John, bp. of Constantinople, in the lifetime of the previous bp. Eutychius (Evagr. v. 1; Valesius's notes, ib.; Theoph. Chron.; Clinton, Fast. Rom.). He was succeeded by Gregory, on whose death, in the middle of 593 (Clinton), he was restored to his episcopate. This was chiefly due to the influence of Gregory the Great with the emperor Maurice and his son Theodosius (Evagr. vi. 24; Greg. Mag. Ep. i. 25, 27, Ind. ix.). Gregory wrote him a congratulatory letter on his return to Antioch (Ep. iv. 37; Ind. xiv.); and several epistles of his are preserved relating to the claim the bp. of Constantinople was then making to the title of "universal bishop" (Ep. iv. 36, Ind. xiii.; vi. 24, 31, Ind. xv.). Anastasius defended the orthodox view of the Procession of the Holy Ghost (Baron. Annal. Eccl. 593), and died at the close of 598 (Clinton, Fast. Rom.). Five sermons, "de Orthodoxa Fide," and five others, printed in a Latin version by Migne and others, are ascribed by some to this Anastasius. Oudin, Dupin, and others refer them more probably to a later Anastasius. For a catalogue and description of the works assigned to him, either existing or lost, see Fabricius, Bibl. Graec. vol. ix. pp. 332‒336, and Migne.
(2) Followed the preceding as bp. of Antioch in the beginning of 599. A letter of Gregory the Great to him (Ep. vii. 48, Ind. ii.) acknowledges one announcing his appointment and declaring his adherence to the orthodox faith. Gregory had written to him before 597 (Ep. vii. 3, Ind. i.), exhorting him to constancy under the persecutions of heretics. He translated Gregory's de Curâ Pastorali into Greek (ib. x. 22, Ind. v.). His death occurred in an insurrection of the Jews, Sept. 610 (Clinton, F. R.). Nicephorus (H. E. xviii. 44) confounds him with (1).
[E.V.]
Anatolius, bp. of Constantinople, 449 A.D., through the influence of Dioscorus of Alexandria with Theodosius II., after the deposition of Flavian by the "Robber Council," having previously been the "apocrisiarius" or representative of Dioscorus at Constantinople (Zon. Ann. iii.). After his consecration, being
