ERASTUS, THOMAS. - German-Swiss theologian and physician, who Hellenized his original name Lieber into Erastus, "the most beloved"; b. at Baden-Durlach (Switzerland) in 1524, d. at Basel in 1585. After completing his studies at Basel and Bologna, he was appointed in 1557 by the Palatine Elector Otto Henry as professor of medicine at the University of Heidelberg. When the Elector died in 1559, his successor banished Catholicism and Lutheranism from his territories. The triumphant Calvinists immediately thought of imposing their doctrines and a Calvinist regime. One of them, George Wither, an English exile, published certain theses on excommunication, asserting that it was "de iure divino" and independent of civil authority. E., who professed Zwinglian doctrines, was at the head of the opposition and published the Explicatio gravissimae quaestionis, in which, in 75 theses, he refuted Wither's doctrine. The Calvinists prevailed, and E., excommunicated, left Heidelberg and withdrew to Basel, where he died.
E.'s doctrine may be summarized as follows: the Church has no right and no power to inflict censures or excommunications. God has conferred upon it the power of the keys, which consists solely in the preaching of the word. The Church must be subject to the Christian State, from which it derives its authority. He therefore denies that civil authority is subject to the censure of the Church, and permits appeal from the ecclesiastical tribunal to the civil one, since the latter is the supreme tribunal in all matters of the State.
This aroused struggles and dissensions, from which there derived: a strong current of religious individualism among the English (Quakers); a hardening of all sects opposed to any ecclesiastical authority (Baptists and Congregationalists); an exaggerated opinion of the supreme authority of the civil tribunals and of Parliament, condensed in the doctrine proclaimed by Hobbes (1588-1679; Leviathan, III, 42) that being a Christian is not obligatory unless it is sanctioned by an act of Parliament or by another competent secular authority.
Erastianism, which corresponds almost to what is commonly called Caesaropapism, has at present in England taken a turn somewhat different from that of the first Erastians.
At the beginning it arose and spread among nations that were almost totally and officially Protestant, reserving coercive jurisdiction, even in ecclesiastical cases, to the civil magistrates alone, who were supposed to be all Christians and members of a single sect, wishing to avoid having two jurisdictions within the same State. For it taught that the civil magistrate, as representative of state authority, was the only person authorized to punish crimes, and, since excommunication involves some kind of punishment, it could not be inflicted without his sanction.
But now civil authority, especially in the case of the Parliament of England, resides in men of various religions or of none, with powers in a nation that tolerates all religions; and Parliament has the right to judge even in matters of faith, but only over the Church of England; religious questions, at least the most important ones, are judged by civil tribunals (Privy Council, House of Lords, House of Commons) in which the magistrates may be agnostics. With reason, therefore, Benham says that Erastianism means the doctrine of the supremacy of the State in ecclesiastical matters, and the incompetence of ecclesiastical power to change its own laws without the consent of the State. The Anglican bishops claim that their authority comes directly from God, since the king or queen of England cannot ordain new ministers or consecrate bishops, but in fact Article 37 of religion still exists and is in force in England, and ecclesiastical jurisdiction has passed from the king to the State (to Parliament), which makes it felt in the election of bishops and even more so through its "veto," as when it was a question of making certain changes in the Prayer Book.
Bibliography4 works
Camillo Crivelli