Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 1.djvu/511

Rh ANASTASIUS 455 ANATHEMA P. L.. CXXVIII. 439-450; Lib. Pont. (e<i. Duchesne), I, 258; tlKMMCR in Dill, de Thtol. Calh.. I. 1103-04; Thiel, Epitl. Rum. Punt. (1808), II. 82-85, 014-15. Anastasius III, Pope, the one hundred and twpnty-tliird occupant of the Holy See, elected .September, 911; d. November, 913. He was a lioriiaii, being the son of a certain Lucian. Hi.s reipii wxs marked with iiioiloration, but beyond tills hi.storj' gives no <iotails of his life, except that he was active in dotenniniiiK tlic ecclesiastical divisions of (lermany. He succeeded Scrgiiis III (904-911), and reigned, at most, about two years and two months. /'. I... CXXXI. 1181; jAKi-fc, Regeata Pont. Rom. I, 448; II, "Oil; HoKFKii, Biour. unit'., 1, 477. Anastasius IV, Pope, crowned 12 July, 1153; (1. in Rome, 3 December of the following year. It was during his pontificate and owing to his exertions that the Pantheon was restored, lie also granted special privileges to the Order of the Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem. He is diiefly known for liis attitude towards Frederick IJarbarossa and recogni- tion of Wichmann!»s Bishop of Magdeburg by which he terminated an ecdesiiistieal quarrel. His extant works consist of some letters and a treatise on the Trinity. /'. C CI.XXXVIII. 985; Jakkk. RR.PP.. II, 89-102; 719- 201. 7.59; Wattericb, Pont. Rom. Vita (1802), II, 321, 322. Anastasius, S.unt, once a magician, became a eonxert of the Holy Cross and Wiis martyred in 028. He was a soldier in the army of Chosroes when that monarch carried the Cross from Jerusalem to Persia. The occasion prompted him to a.sk for information; then he left the army, became a Christian, and after- w arils a monk in Jerusalem. His Persian name,Mag- undat,he clianged to Anastasius. After seven years of the most exact monastic oteervance, ho was moved, as he thought, by the Holy Ghost to go in que-st of martyrdom and went to Ca>sarca, then subject to the Persians. Reproaching his countrymen for their magic and fireworship, both of which he had once practised, he was taken prisoner, cruelly tor- tured to make him abjure, and finally carried down near the Euphrates, to a place called Rarsaloe, or Bcthsaloe, according to the Bollandists, where his sufferings were renewed while at the same time the highest lionours in the service of King Chosroes were promised him if he would renounce Christianity. I'inally, with seventy others, he was strangled to death and decapitated, 22 Januarj-, 628. His body, which was thrown to the dogs, but was left untoudied by them, was carried thence to Palestine, afterwards to Constantinople, and finally to Rome. Acta SS., 3 Jan.; Bctler, Livet of the Saintt, 22 Jan. T. J. Campbell. Anastasius Apocrisiarius. Sec Maximus, S.iint. Anastasius of Saint Euthymius. See John Dam vscknk. Saint. Anastasius Sinaita, Saint, a Creek ecclesiastical writer, t. at .lexandria in the first half of the seventh centir>'; d. after 7(XJ. He was ablx)t of the monas- terj- iif Mt. Sinai, and so active an opponent of the Monophysites, .Monothelites, and Jews that he was known as "the new Moses". His principal work is the "Hodegos" ('OSiryis), or "Ciuidc", written in defence of the Catholic Faith .igainst the attacks of the aforementioned heretics. It was a popular manual of controversy among the meflieval Creeks. The (1.5-4) "Questions and Answers on Various Theo- logical matters" attributed to him are in part spurious. He al.so wrote a "Devout Introduction to the Hexaemeron" in twelve Ixioks, the first eleven of which have reached us only in a Latin tninslation. These and other minor writings are found in .Migne 'P.G. LXXXIX). Le Quien attributed to him. without sufficient reason, the "Antiquorum Patnim Doctrina de Verbi Dei Incarnatione ". Bardeniiewer, Patrologie (1902), 512, 482; KumpfuCller, De .inatlatio tiinaM (WUrzburg, 1805); Krumuaciier, Gttch. d. h„z. Lit. (2.1 <-I. p. 04. Tho.m.s J. Shahan. Anathema (Cir. dfd$efia, or ifiiri/jia, literally placed on high, suspendetl, set aside), a term formerly indicat- ing offerings made to the divinity which were sus- pended from the roof or walls of temples for the pur- pose of being exposed to view. Thus anathema according to its etymology signifies a thing offered to God. The word anathema is sometimes used in this sen.se in the Old and New Testaments: In Judith, xvi, 23, it is saidtliat Judith, having taken all the arms of Holofernes which the people had given him. and the curtain of his bed which she herself had Ijrought, offered them to the Lord as an anathema of oblivion. In II .Mach., ix, IG, .iiliochus promises to adorn with iirecious gifts (anathemata) the temple he has pil- laged; and in Luke, xxi, 5, mention is made of the temple built of precious stones and adorned with rich gifts (anathemata). As odious objects were also exposed to view, e. g. the head of a criminal or of an enemy, or his arms or s|X)ils, the word anathema came to signify a thing hated, or execrable, devoted to public abhorrence or destruction. "To under- stand the word anathema", says Vigouroux, "we should first go back to the real meaning of htrcm of which it is the equivalent. Ilcrem conies from the word haram, to cut off, to separate, to curse, and indicates that which is cursed and condemned to be cut off or exterminated, whether a person or a thing, and in consequence, that which man is for- bidden to make u.se of." This is the sense of anath- ema in the following pas.sage from Deut., vii, 26: "Neither shall thou bring anything of the idol into thy house, lest thou become an anathema like it. Thou shalt detest it as dung, and shalt utterly abhor it as uncleanness and filth, because it is an anatli- ema." Nations, individuals, animals, and inanimate objects may become anathema, i. e. cursed and de- voted to destruction. It was thus that the people in- habiting the Promised Land were anathematized as Mo.ses says (Deut., vii, 1, 2): "When . . . the Lord thy God shall have delivered them to thee, thou shalt utterly destroy them." When a people was anathe- matized by the Lord, they were to be entirely exter- minated. Saul was rejected by God for ha ing spared Agag, King of the Amalecites, and the greater jiarl of the booty (I K. xv, 9-23). Anyone who spared any- thing belonging to a man who nad been declared anathema, became himself anathema. There is the story of Achan who had charge of the spoils of Jericho: "The anathema is in the midst of thee, O Israel: thou canst not stantl Ix-fore thy enemies till he be destroyed out of thee that is de- filed with this wickedness." Achan, with his family and herds, was stoned to death. Sometimes it is cities that are anathematized. When the anathema is rigoroiLs all the inhabitants are to lie extermi- nated, the city burned, and permission denied ever to rebuild it, and its riches offered to Jehovah. This was the fate of Jericho (Jos., vi, 17). If it is less strict, all the inliabitants are to l>e put to death, but the herds may be divided among the victors (.Jos,, viii, 27). The obligation of killing all inhabi- tants occasionally admits of exceptions in tlic (■;i.-;e of young girls who remain captives in the hands of the con(|uerors (Num., xxxi, 18). The severity of the anathema in the Old Testament is explained by the necessity there was of pre.ser'ing the Jewish people and protecting them against the idolatry profes.sed by the neighbouring pagans. In tli(^ .ew Testament anathema no longer entails de;itli, but the loss of goods or echision from the society of the faithful. St. Paul freiiuently uses this