Anisus, in Ancient Geography, now the Enz, a river of Germany; which rises on the borders of the territory of Salzburg; then separating Upper Stiria from Upper Austria, and washing the town of Enz, falls, at the distance of a mile below it, into the Danube, in a course from south to north.

Anathema, among ecclesiastical writers, imports whatever is set apart, separated, or divided; but is most usually meant to express the cutting off a person from the privileges of society and communion with the faithful.

The anathema differs from excommunication in the circumstances of being attended with curses and execrations. It was practised in the primitive church against notorious offenders; and the form of that pronounced Anathema pronounced by Synecius against one Andronicus is as follows: "Let no church of God be open to Andronicus, but let every sanctuary be shut against him. I admonish both private men and magistrates to receive him neither under their roof nor to their table; and priests more especially, that they neither converse with him living, nor attend his funeral when dead."

Several councils also have pronounced anathemas against such as they thought corrupted the purity of the faith; and their decisions have been conceived in the following form: Si quis dixerit, &c. anathema sit.

There are two kinds of anathemas, the one judiciary and the other abjurator. The former can only be denounced by a council, a pope, or a bishop; the latter makes a part of the ceremony of abjuration, the convert being obliged to anathematize the hereby he abjures.