Pope Anastasius I

Born in Rome to a man named Maximus, Anastasius became bishop on 27 November 399, succeeding Siricius. Almost immediately he turned against the newly translated writings of the Alexandrian theologian Origen, fighting them through his entire tenure. In 400 he convened a council that declared Origen unfaithful to the Church; his own letter promised that any other Origen texts "and their author are alike condemned by me." He pushed Christians in North Africa to resist Donatism and ordered priests to stand and bow when reading the gospels. Jerome, Augustine, and Paulinus counted him a friend—Jerom…