EUSTATHIANS. — This name was given to those heretics who, following EUSTATHIUS, bishop of Sebaste, exaggerated his ascetic teachings, reviving the encratite tendencies of the previous age; they were therefore condemned at the Council of Gangra in Paphlagonia (c. 340?).
They condemned marriage, arguing that in that state it was impossible to serve God; they therefore separated spouses, causing disturbances in the process, held property in common, introducing strange customs in dress, maintained that the rich could not be saved unless they abandoned their possessions, and had peculiar customs regarding fasting.
BIBL.: Hefele-Leclercq, I, pp. 1029 ff.; F. Loofs, Eustathius Sebaste und die Chronologie der Basilius-Brüte, Halle 1868; F. Succhetti, Il Sinodo di Gange e uno scritto pseudoatanasiano, in Ricerche religie., I (1925), p. 548; S. Salvillé, Eustathie de Sebaste, s.V. in DThC, V, cols. 1365-71. Giuliano Gennaro