"Les Vrais Portraits Et Vies Des Hommes Illustres" by André Thévet

Origen (or Origenes, also Origen(es) Adamantius) was an early Christian scholar. He lived in Alexandria in the 3rd century. He was born in the year 185 or 186, and proably died around the year 254. Today, he is regarded as one of the Church Fathers, but not as a Saint. This is probably because he had some ideas, which were declared to be false later on. These ideas included that the human soul existed before conception, and entered the human body before birth (generally known as pre-existence). Another idea was that of the souls entering a different human body after death. A third idea, called Apocatastasis, is that the reign of god would be restored when the world ends. These ideas were discussed by church fathers, but it was decided that they were false beliefs. The Ecumenical Council of Constantinople in 453 CE posthumously excommunicated Origen, and the 2nd Council of Constantinople in 553 CE declared apocatastasis as heresy. However, in recent years the idea has found some reconsideration especially among Restorationist Christian groups.