that has since been written in the Roman Church upon the important events in which he took part.
We will first mention the letters of Metrophanes, metropolitan of Smyrna, of Stylien, Bishop of Neo-Cæsarea, and of the monk Theognostus. These three men are known as personal enemies of Photius. Anastasius the Librarian was so contemptible a man that no importance can be attached to his testimony. The following is an abstract of the sentence rendered against him at Rome itself in 868: "The whole Church of God knows what Anastasius did in the times of the Popes our predecessors, and what Leo and Benedict ordered in respect to him, that the one deposed, excommunicated, and anathematized him; the other having stripped him of his priestly vestments, admitted him to lay communion. Subsequently, Pope Nicholas reïnstated him on condition of his remaining faithful to the Roman Church. But after having pillaged our Patriarchal palace and carried off the Acts of the Councils in which he had been condemned, he has sent men out over the walls of this city to sow discord between the princes and the Church; and caused one Adalgrim, who had taken refuge in the Church, to lose his eyes and tongue. Finally, as many among you have, like myself, heard a priest, named Adon, a relative of his, say, he has forgotten our benefits to the extent of sending a man to Eleutherus to induce him to commit the murders you know of.[1] Therefore we order, in conformity with the judgments of Popes Leo and Benedict, that he be deprived of all ecclesiastical communion, until such time
- ↑ Eleutherus, son of Bishop Arsenus, having debauched a daughter of Pope Adrian II., carried her off and married her, though she was betrothed to another. This Pope obtained from the Emperor Louis commissioners to judge him according to the Roman law. Then Eleutherus became furious, and killed Stephanie the wife of the Pope, and his daughter, who had become his own wife. It was rumoured that Anastasius had put up his brother Eleutherus to commit these murders. At the commencement of his reign, about 868, Adrian had made Anastasius librarian of the Roman Church. (V. Annales Bertin.)
