Erastianism, the title generally given to "that system ' which would rest the government of the Church spiritual as well as civil altogether in the Christian magistrate.' This, however, 'was far from being an invention of Erastus, since in every kingdom of Europe the Roman claims had been resisted on the like principles for centuries before he was born ; the peculiaritj' of Erastus's teaching lay rather in his re- fusing the right of excommunication to the Christian Church' (see Oxf. Hooker, Ed. Pref. p. Iviii)' (Eden, Churchman's Dictionary, s. v.). Hardwick proposes " Byzantinism" as the proper title for the tlieorv named instead of "Erastianism" (History of the Refor- mation, chap, viii, p. 356). See also Niciiols, Anec- d'ltes of Bowyer (London, 1782, 4to), p. 71 ; Pretyman, The Church of England and Erastianism (Lond. 1854); Hagenbach, History of Doctrines (Smith's ed.), ii, 299; Cunningham, Historical Theology, ii, 569: Orme, Life and Times of Barter, i, 71; Christian Revieir, viii, 579; and the" articles Church; Discipline; Eccle- siastical Polity ; Erastus, Thomas.
Eras'tus ("Enrtoroc, betoved, an old Grecian name, Diog. Laert. iii, 31), a Corinthian, and one of P.-inl's disciples, whose salutations he sends from Corinth t9
ERASTUS
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ERECH
the Church at Rome as those of " the chamberlain (q. ; V.) of the city" of Corinth (Horn, xvi, 23). The word , so rendered (oiKoi'ofioc, Vulg. arcariuit) denotes tlie city treasurer or steward (Suicer, Thesuur. ii, 4G4 ; see Flessa, De arcariis, Baruth. 1725-6, ii, § 11 ; also Eis- ner, Obs. ii, G8), an officer of great dignity in ancient times (comp. Josephus, Ant. vii, 8, 2) ; so that the con- version of sucli a man to the faith of the Gospel was a proof of tlie wonderful success of the apostle's labors in that city. "We find Erastus with I'aul at Ephesus as one of his attendants or deacons (oi SiaKovovvng ai'Toi), whence he was sent, along with Timothy, into Macedonia, while the apostle himself remained in Asia (Acts xix, 22), A.D. ol. They Avere both Avith the apostle at Corinth when he wrote, as above, from that citv to the Konians, A.D. 55 ; and at a subsequent pe- riod (A.D. CI) Erastus was still at Corinth (2 Tim. iv, 20), which would seem to have been the usual place of his abode (tpeiin). According to the traditions of the Greek Church {Menol. Grcecum, i, 179), he w^-is first aconomiis to the Church at Jerusalem, and afterwards bishop of Paneas, and died a natural death. Many critrics, however (Grotius, Kype, Kuinol, De Wette, Winer, etc.), regard the Corinthian Erastus as a dif- ferent person from Paul's companion, on the ground that the official duties of the former would not allow such an absence from the city (Neander, Planting and Training, i, 392, note), or that, if he was with Paul at Ephesus, we should be compelled to assume that he is mentioned in the epistle to the Romans by the title of an office which he had once held and afterwards re- signed (Meyer, Kommentar. in loc).
Erastus, TnoM.\s (properly Lieber or Liebler, which he put into the Greek form, Erastus), was born at Baden, in Switzerland (according to another ac- count, at Auggen, in Baden-Durlach), Sept. 7, 1521. He studied divinity and philosophy at Basel, and after- ward at Pavia and Bologna, where he graduated M.D. In 1558 he became physician to the prince of Henne- berg. The elector palatine, Frederick III, also ap- pointed him first phj'sician and professor of medicine in the University of Heidelberg. In 1560 and 1561 he attended the conferences of Lutheran and Reformed divines at Heidelberg and Maulbronn on the Lord's . Supper, and vigorously maintained the Zuinglian view. He maintained the same doctrine in a treatise De Cmna Domini (1565 ; transl. bj' Shute, Lond. 1578, 16mo). He was charged with Socinianism, but with- out just ground. But his name is chiefly preserved for his views on Church authority and excommunica- tion. "A sort of fanaticism in favor of the use of ecclesiasticfll censures and punishments had been in- troduced by Olevianus, a refugee from Treves, and by several fugitives from the cruelties of the duke of Alva in tlie Low Countries, and had spread among the Protestants of the Palatinate. Erastus termed it 'febris excommunicatoria,' and thought it an unwise policy for the Protestants, surrounded by their ene- mies, to be zealous in cutting off memlters from their own communion. He examined the principles and Biblical authority of ecclesiastical censures, and car- ried on a controversy in which he was violently op- posed by Dathenus, and more mildh' by his friend Beza. This controversj' would have probably died as a local dispute had it not been revived hy Castelvetro, who had married the widow of Erastus, pul)lishing from his ]iapers the theses called Explicatio Qiicestionis gravissimrr de Ercommuniratinnf, which bears to have been written in 1568, and was first published in 1589. The general princiide adopted V)y Erastus is, that ec- clesiastical censures and other inflictions are not the proper method of punishing crimes, but that the ad- ministration of the penal law, and of the law for com- pelling performances of civil obligations, should rest with the temporal magistrate. He held tl^iat the proper ground on which a person could be prohibited from re- ceiving the ordinances of a church — such as the sacra-