AERIUS and AERIANS. - A., a priest of the 4th century, a native of Pontus, was placed in charge of the charitable institutions of the city of Sebaste, and in particular the great hospice for the poor (ptochotrophium), by Bishop Eustathius, who had been his companion in asceticism. He was, however, unfaithful to his bishop’s friendship: after nursing for some time a bitter resentment against him because he had been preferred for the episcopate, he began publicly to reproach him for abandoning asceticism, then, hurling serious calumnies against him, especially of avarice, he withdrew from the direction of charitable works and, setting himself up as a dogmatist, drew around him a group of followers (hence called A.) who professed, on certain points, particular doctrines. St. Epiphanius, in a chapter entirely devoted to refuting the A., attributes to them chiefly the following five errors (Haer. 75):
1) they did not believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ: they were semi-Arians, indeed, according to some authors, Arians in an exaggerated sense; 2) they denied any distinction between bishop and priest, confusing the meaning of the word “presbyteri,” used by St. Paul when he exhorts Timothy not to neglect the gift he had received through the laying on of the hands of the presbytery (1 Tim. 4:14); 3) they affirmed the uselessness of prayers for the dead; 4) they rejected obligatory fasts on certain days, holding that one could fast every day, even on Sunday, but maintained that fasts should be voluntary; 5) they condemned the celebration of Easter as a survival of Judaism, citing, out of context, the text: “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us” (1 Cor. 5:7).
The A. encountered opposition not only from Catholics but also from Arians. Moreover, they were few in number: driven out of all churches and forced to gather in the countryside and forests, they soon disappeared. The Protestants in part revived their heresies.