Secondly, that souls are bound in this body as in a prison; and that before man was made in paradise they dwelt among rational creatures in the heavens. Wherefore, afterward, to console itself, the soul says in the Psalms, “Before I was humbled I went wrong,” and “Return, my soul, unto thy rest,” and “Lead my soul out of prison,” and similarly elsewhere.
Thirdly, that he says that both the devil and the demons will some time or other repent and ultimately reign with the saints.
Fourthly, that he interprets the coats of skins, with which Adam and Eve were clothed after their fall and ejection from paradise, to be human bodies, and no doubt they were previously in paradise without flesh, sinews, or bones.
Fifthly, he most openly denies the resurrection of the flesh, the bodily structure, and the distinction of sexes by which we men are distinguished from women, both in his explanation of the first psalm and in many other treatises.
Sixthly, he so allegorizes paradise as to destroy the truth of history, understanding angels instead of trees, heavenly virtues instead of rivers; and he overthrows all that is contained in the history of paradise by his tropological interpretation.
Seventhly, he thinks that the waters which in the Scriptures are said to be above the heavens are holy and supernal powers; while those which are upon the earth and beneath the earth are, on the contrary, demoniacal powers.
Eighthly, that the image and likeness of God, in which man was created, was lost and was no longer in man after he was expelled from paradise.
(d) Anastasius, Ep. ad Simplicianum, in Jerome, Ep. 95 (MSL, 22:772.)
Condemnation of Origen by Anastasius, bishop of Rome, A. D. 400
To his lord and brother, Simplicianus, Anastasius.