Saint Anastasius I

Anastasius was elected on 27 November 399, the day after Siricius was buried, and reigned for just over two years. He was a Roman, the son of Maximus, and, according to Jerome, the father of the next pope, Innocent, which makes the succession of 401 the only one in papal history from father to son that the sources treat as unremarkable.

The one controversy of his reign came from Alexandria by way of Bethlehem. Rufinus had translated Origen's treatise On First Principles into Latin in 398 and, in his preface, cited Jerome as an admirer of Origen; Jerome, who had turned against Origen, was furious, and his Roman friends Marcella and Pammachius, joined by Theophilus of Alexandria, pressed the new pope for a ruling. In 400 Anastasius condemned Origen's writings in letters to the bishops of Milan and Jerusalem, while pointedly declining to condemn Rufinus, who had written him a dignified defense. It was the first papal judgment on a theologian dead for a century and a half, and it set a precedent for judging books rather than men.

He also wrote to the African bishops, meeting at Carthage in 401, urging them to keep up the fight against the Donatists, and took measures against the Manichaeans in Rome. The Liber Pontificalis credits him with two customs: that priests should stand with bowed heads while the Gospel is read, and that clergy arriving from overseas be admitted only with letters from five bishops.