Ruff. ad Anast. p. 202. Footnote N42.2: Hier. vir. illustr. c. 54. Ruff. l. 2. p. 225. ----- [Sidenote: Anastasius _separates himself from his Communion_.] But this Confession, however orthodox, did not satisfy _Anastasius_, or rather _Jerom_ and his Friends in _Rome_. They continued, says _Ruffinus_, the Persecution which they had so successfully begun, and with their malicious Suggestions prevailed in the End on _Anastasius_ to comply with their unjust Demands[1363]; that is, I suppose, to separate himself from his Communion: for _Anastasius_, in his Answer to a Letter which _John_ Bishop of _Jerusalem_ had writ in favour of _Ruffinus_, acquaints that Prelate, that he had cut him off from his Communion, and left him to be judged by God and his own Conscience. _As to_ Origen, says he in the same Letter, _I knew not before who he was, nor what he had writ_. Ruffinus _has translated him into our Language; and, in so doing, what else could he have in view but to infect this Church with his pernicious Doctrines? He has expressed his own Sentiments in translating those of his Author; and is therefore no less guilty than Origen himself, whom we have all condemned_[1364][N43]. ----- Footnote N43: The same Charge lies against _Jerom_; nay, he was the more guilty of the Two. For he had not only translated many of _Origen_’s Works, containing Errors no less repugnant to the Catholic Truths than any in the _Periarchon_, but had besides filled his Comments on the Scripture, especially on the Epistle to the _Ephesians_, with the worst of Origen’s Errors, _viz._ with those relating to the Resurrection of the Body, to the Pre-existence of the Souls, and to the Duration of Hell-Torments, as is manifest from the many Passages quoted by _Ruffinus_ out of the Comments of that Father. _Jerom_ found great Fault with _Ruffinus_, for not confuting the Errors which he translated; concluding from thence, that he held the same Doctrines: and yet he was himself so far from confuting in his Comments any of _Origen_’s erroneous Opinions, that on the contrary he often delivered them in such manner as made many, and St. _Austin_ among the rest, believe them to be his own[N43.1]. Nay, in one Place he seems to own, that he held some of _Origin_’s Errors[N43.2]: but ends what he there writes of him thus; _If you believe me, I never was an_ Origenist; _but if you absolutely insist upon my having been one, I now tell you, that I am so no more; and it is to convince you of this, that I am become the Accuser of_ Origen. Footnote N43.1: Hier. ep. 89. Footnote N43.2: Hier. ep. 65. ----- In the same Letter _Anastasius_ mentions with great Joy a Decree of the Emperors, that is, of _Arcadius_ and _Honorius_, forbidding the Works of _Origen_, and imposing severe Penalties on such as should for the future read or peruse them[N44]. ----- Footnote N44: