ERAS'TUS (Lat., from Gk. 1paorOs, lovely; a translation of his German name Lieber or Lieb ler), Tuom.ts (1524-83). A Swiss physician and theologian. Ile was born in the Canton of Aargau, September 7, 1521. lle studied theology at Easel (1540-44) and adopted the doctrines of Zwingli. In 1544 he went to Italy and studied medicine at Padua and Bologna. After nine years he re turned to his own 1 country, and became physician to the Count of Henneberg. lle acquired a great reputation as a physician. In 1558 he went, by invitation, to the Court, of the Elector Palatine, and bevame first physician and Privy Councilor and professor of medicine at the University of Heidelberg. In 1580 he accepted a similar ap pointment at Easel, and in 1583 undertook also the professorship of ethics. Ile died at Basel, December 31, 1583. Before his death he estab lished a foundation for the education of poor students in medicine, la was long known as the Erastian Foundation. As a physician Eras tus opposed the astrology and magic of Para celsus and his school, and held that experimental investigation is the true road to knowledge. He approved of prosecutions for witchcraft. A col lected edition of Ins medical works :Appeared at Zurich in 1595. He is now remembered, how ever, chiefly for his theological writings. In 1564 he had taken part in the conference at Maulbronn between theologians from the Pala tinate and Wittenberg, and had contended for the Zwinglian doctrine of the Lord's Supper. In
defense of this view he published his om Per stand der Wort Christi, "Das ist mein Leib," in 1565. His great work is the Explieatio Graris sim• Question-is ',arum Excommunieatio Man dato Nitatur Divino an Excogitata Sit ab In this book Erastus maintains that, while the Church may decide who are its mem bers, it should do so upon doctrinal grounds alone, and not exclude for vice or immorality; and that in no ease should the Church inflict punishment, to do which properly belongs to the civil magis trate alone. Ile denies the right of excommuni cation altogether, and compares a pastor to a professor of any science, who can merely instruct his students. The work was written in 156S, hut not published until six years after Erastus's death. had expressed similar views, how ever, during Ids lifetime in a controversy at Heidelberg with certain refugees from the Nether lands, and particularly one Caspar Olevianus, of Treves, who were zealous for censures and excom munications and stirred up in the Palatinate what Erastus called a febris exrommunicatoria. Ile was opposed at that time by Datnenus and Beza. Consult: Lee, The Theses of Erastus Touching Exco-mmunication (Edinburgh, 1844) ; Bonnard, Thomas Eraste et la discipline cede siastique (Lausanne, 1894).