Editing Pope Anastasius II

{{Short description|Head of the Catholic Church from 496 to 498}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2019}}
{{for|the Byzantine Emperor|Anastasios II}}
{{Infobox Christian leader
|type=Pope
|honorific-prefix=[[Pope]]
|name=Anastasius II
|title = [[Bishop of Rome]]
|church = [[Catholic Church]]
|image =
|term_start=24 November 496
|term_end=16 November 498
|predecessor=[[Pope Gelasius I|Gelasius I]]
|successor=[[Pope Symmachus|Symmachus]]
|birth_place=[[Rome]], [[Italy]]
|death_date=19 November 498
|death_place= [[Rome]], [[Ostrogothic Kingdom]]
|other=Anastasius
}}

'''Pope Anastasius II''' (died 19 November 498) was the [[bishop of Rome]] from 24 November 496 to his death.<ref name="ce-anastasius">{{cathEncy|wstitle=Pope Anastasius II}}</ref> He was an important figure in trying to end the [[Acacian schism]], but his efforts resulted in the [[Laurentian schism]], which followed his death. Anastasius was born in Rome, the son of a priest,<ref>{{cite book|author=George L. Williams|title=Papal Genealogy: The Families And Descendants Of The Popes|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-mq7ctwMNdoC&pg=PA255|access-date=8 March 2013|year=2004|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0-7864-2071-1}}</ref> and is buried in [[St. Peter's Basilica]].<ref name=McBrien />

Pope Anastasius II is one of only two popes in the first 500 years of church history not to be [[canonized]] a saint in the Catholic Church. [[Pope Liberius]] is also omitted from sainthood in the Catholic Church, although he is considered a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church.

==Acacian schism and conciliation==
The church had been in a serious doctrinal dispute since 484, between the Eastern and Western churches of Christianity, known as the [[Acacian schism]]. Popes [[Felix III]] (483–492) and [[Gelasius I]] (492–496) had generally taken hardline stances towards the Eastern church and had excommunicated many of the major religious figures including [[Patriarch Acacius of Constantinople]]. Efforts at reducing the problem by [[Zeno (emperor)|Zeno]] were not recognized by Felix III or Gelasius I and so there was a large schism between the churches. Upon the death of Gelasius I, Anastasius II was named pope largely with support from a faction that wanted to improve relations between the West and the Eastern churches and end the schism.<ref name=McBrien>{{cite book|author=Richard P. McBrien|title=Lives of the Popes: The Pontiffs from St. Peter to John Paul II|url=https://archive.org/details/livesofpopespont00mcbr|url-access=registration|access-date=8 March 2013|year=1997|publisher=HarperCollins|isbn=978-0-06-065304-0|pages=[https://archive.org/details/livesofpopespont00mcbr/page/82 82]–83}}</ref><ref name=Morehead>{{cite journal|last=Morehead|first=John|title=The Laurentian Schism: East and West in the Roman Church|journal=Church History|year=1978|volume=47|issue=2|pages=125–136|doi=10.2307/3164729|jstor=3164729|s2cid=162650963 }}</ref>

Upon being named pope, Anastasius II immediately sent two bishops to Constantinople to meet with the [[Byzantine Emperor]] [[Anastasius I (emperor)|Anastasius I]], who had the same name as the pope, and work on an agreement to end the Acacian schism.<ref name=Morehead/> Anastasius II indicated in a letter that he was willing to accept the baptisms that had been performed by Acacius and to let the issue be decided by the divine rather than by church authorities<ref name=Morehead/> and Anastasius I seemed similarly willing to cooperate but wanted acceptance of the ''[[Henotikon]]'', the compromise position developed by Zeno.<ref name=McBrien /> As a signal of attempting to reduce the tension, Anastasius II was rumored to have given [[Communion (Christian)|communion]] to [[Photinus of Thessalonica]], an associate of Acacius.<ref name=McBrien />

The result of these conciliatory gestures was to outrage many of the bishops and clergy in Rome and to create a clear division between those who supported moderation toward the [[Monophysitism|Monophysites]] in the Byzantine Empire and those who opposed such moderation.<ref name=Morehead/> Because of the communion with Photinus, many in Rome refused to receive communion from Anastasius II and the situation grew to a crisis point.<ref name=McBrien />

==Death and legacy==
[[File:Sandro Botticelli - Illustration to the Divine Comedy (Inferno) - WGA02859.jpg|thumb|Illustration to [[Dante's Inferno|Dante's ''Inferno'']] with the grave of Anastasius II.]]
At the peak of the tension created by these attempts to improve relations between the East and the West, Anastasius II unexpectedly died.<ref name=Morehead/> For those who opposed his attempts at remedying the schism his death in 498 was seen as divine retribution.<ref name=McBrien /> The factions that had formed during his rule as pope split decisively from one another and each appointed a rival pope. The faction against conciliation was able to name [[Pope Symmachus|Symmachus]] as the pope to follow Anastasius II.  However, the important Roman Senator [[Rufius Postumius Festus]], who had been a major instigator for the conciliation attempts of Anastasius II and may have led to his naming as pope, supported a rival papal claim of [[Antipope Laurentius|Laurentius]].<ref name=McBrien /> The Roman church then had its own schism between different factions which made efforts at reducing the schism between the church in Rome and the church in Constantinople impossible.<ref name="Barker1966">{{cite book|author=John W. Barker|title=Justinian and the Later Roman Empire|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LiJljEXvwAoC&pg=PA58|access-date=8 March 2013|year=1966|publisher=Univ of Wisconsin Press|isbn=978-0-299-03944-8}}</ref>

During the medieval period, Anastasius II was often considered a traitor to the Catholic Church and an apostate. The writer of the ''[[Liber Pontificalis]]'', supporting the opponents to Anastasius' efforts, argued that Anastasius II's death was divine retribution and that he had broken with the church.<ref name=GratianThompson>{{cite book|author1=Gratian|author2=Augustine Thompson|author3=Katherine Christensen|title=The Treatise on Laws (Decretum DD. 1–20) with the Ordinary Gloss|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kdI36eCs36EC&pg=PA111|access-date=8 March 2013|year=1993|publisher=CUA Press|isbn=978-0-8132-0786-5}}</ref> Similarly, the ''[[Decretum Gratiani]]'' writes of the pope that "Anastasius, reproved by God, was smitten by divine command."<ref name="Beckwith2012">{{cite book|author=Christopher I. Beckwith|title=Warriors of the Cloisters: The Central Asian Origins of Science in the Medieval World|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Qp_rL64_1p0C&pg=PA33|year=2012|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-0-691-15531-9}}</ref> This medieval view is described by modern commentators as a "legend",<ref name=GratianThompson /> a "misinterpretation",<ref name=GratianThompson /> a "confused tradition",<ref name="Schadé2006">{{cite book|last=Schadé|first=J.P.|title=Encyclopedia of World Religions|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XRkfKdho-5cC&pg=PT54|access-date=8 March 2013|year=2006|publisher=Foreign Media Group|isbn=978-1-60136-000-7}}</ref> and "manifestly unjust."<ref name=McBrien />

[[Dante]] placed Anastasius II in the [[Inferno (Dante)#Sixth Circle (Heresy)|sixth circle of hell]]: "''Anastasio papa guardo, lo qual trasse Fotin de la via dritta''" ("I guard Pope Anastasius, he whom [[Photinus of Thessalonica|Photinus]] drew from the straight path").<ref name=McBrien /> However, modern Dante scholars consider this to be a mistake: the person Dante intended to put at that level was the Byzantine emperor of the time, [[Anastasius I Dicorus|Anastasius I]].<ref name=AlighieriMusa>{{cite book|first1=Dante |last1=Alighieri|others=Translated by Mark Musa|title=Dante's Inferno|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TPkqYo-6QwkC&pg=PA92|access-date=8 March 2013|year=1995|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=978-0-253-20930-6}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Hudson-Williams|first=T.|title=Dante and the Classics|journal=Greece & Rome|year=1951|volume=20|issue=58|pages=38–42|quote=Dante is not free from error in his allocation of sinners; he consigned Pope Anastasius II to the burning cauldrons of the Heretics because he mistook him for the emperor of the same name|doi=10.1017/s0017383500011128|s2cid=162510309 }}</ref><ref name="Zimmerman2003">{{cite book|author=Seth Zimmerman|title=The Inferno of Dante Alighieri|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O--hbH-2krIC&pg=PA75|access-date=8 March 2013|year=2003|publisher=iUniverse|isbn=978-1-4697-2448-5}}</ref>

Anastasius II is, with [[Pope Liberius]],<ref>Earliest Pope not yet canonized by the Catholic Church. Liberius is revered as Saint Liberius the Confessor in Eastern Christianity, with a feast day of 27 August.</ref> one of only two of the first 50 popes not to be [[canonization|canonized]].<ref name=McBrien /> However, Liberius is mentioned in the Greek Menology and is recognized as a saint within the [[Eastern Orthodox Church]].<ref name=oca>{{cite web|title=St. Liberius the Pope of Rome|url=http://oca.org/saints/lives/2015/08/27/102408-st-liberius-the-pope-of-rome|website=oca.org|publisher=Orthodox Church in America|access-date=14 April 2015}}</ref>

==References==
{{Portal|Biography|Christianity|History}}
{{Reflist|30em}}

==External links==
{{commons category|Anastasius II}}
{{Catholic Encyclopedia poster|Pope Anastasius II}}
*{{cite web|last=Brusher|first=Joseph|title=Anasatius II|url=http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=5823#anast2|publisher=Catholic Culture|access-date=9 March 2013}}
*{{cite web|title=ANASTASIO|url=https://webdept.fiu.edu/~mirandas/bios494.htm#Anastasio2|access-date=7 February 2019|archive-date=16 September 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190916040206/http://webdept.fiu.edu/~mirandas/bios494.htm#Anastasio2|url-status=dead}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-rel|ca}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Pope Gelasius I|Gelasius I]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Pope]]|years=496–498}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Pope Symmachus|Symmachus]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{Popes}}
{{Catholicism}}
{{History of the Catholic Church}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Anastasius 02}}
[[Category:498 deaths]]
[[Category:5th-century archbishops]]
[[Category:Italian popes]]
[[Category:Ostrogothic Papacy]]
[[Category:Popes]]
[[Category:Year of birth unknown]]
[[Category:Burials at St. Peter's Basilica]]
[[Category:5th-century popes]]