ANASTASIUS III, POPE. — A Roman, son of Lucianus, he succeeded Sergius III and was consecrated about the month of June 911. During his brief pontificate, which ended in 913, he was unable to exercise any political power because the family of Theophylactus, “consul et senator,” and his wife Theodora then dominated Rome, and, if we are to believe Liutprand, governed the city with a certain energy: “romanae civitatis non inviriliter monarchiam obtinebat” (Antapodosis, 2, 48). After Alexander ascended the imperial throne in Constantinople, Anastasius received a letter from the Byzantine patriarch Nicholas the Mystic, who complained that Sergius III had authorized his legates to permit the fourth marriage of Emperor Leo VI and sought to justify his own opposition to this marriage.
Indeed, the Eastern Church forbade such marriages, whereas the Western Church did not object. It is unknown whether the Pope replied to the patriarch of Constantinople. Only one bull of Anastasius survives, by which he granted Ragembertus, bishop of Vercelli, the use of the pallium. The other bull, by which he purportedly granted Ogerus, archbishop of Hamburg, and his successors extensive jurisdiction over the bishops of northern Europe, is not authentic. Anastasius was buried in St. Peter’s Basilica; the inscription on his tomb still remains.