Thomas Erastus

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Thomas Erastus
University of Heidelberg
Academic advisorsLuca Ghini[1]
Notable studentsPetrus Ryff

Thomas Erastus (original surname Lüber, Lieber, or Liebler;

Erastianism.[2]

Biography

He was born of poor parents on 7 September 1524, probably at

University of Heidelberg until 1580 ; Anselmus Boetius de Boodt (1550-1632) was one of his student.[3] His patron's successor, Frederick III, made him a privy Councillor and member of the church consistory in 1559.[4]

In theology he followed

Calvinists, led by Caspar Olevian, to introduce the Presbyterian polity and discipline, which were established at Heidelberg in 1570, on the Geneva model.[4]

One of the first acts of the new church system was to excommunicate Erastus on a charge of Socinianism, founded on his correspondence with Transylvania. The ban was not removed until 1575, Erastus declaring his firm adhesion to the doctrine of the Trinity. His position, however, was uncomfortable, and in 1580 he returned to the University of Basel, where in 1583 he was made professor of ethics. He died on 31 December 1583.[4]

Work

Erastus published several pieces focused on medicine,

excommunicating power of the presbytery was sustained.[6]

The Treatise of Erastus (1589) was published by Giacomo Castelvetro, who had married Erastus's widow.[7] It consists of seventy-five Theses, followed by a Confirmatio in six books. An appendix of letters to Erastus by Heinrich Bullinger and Rudolf Gwalther, showed that the Theses, written in 1568, had been circulated in manuscript form. An English translation of the Theses, with a brief account of the life of Erastus (based on Melchior Adam's account), was issued in 1659, entitled The Nullity of Church Censures; it was reprinted as A Treatise of Excommunication (1682) and was revised by Robert Lee, D.D., in 1844.[8]

Erastianism

In his Theses, he argued that the sins committed by Christians should be punished by the State, and that the Church should not withhold sacraments as a form of punishment. This view is now known as Erastianism.

In his Theses, Erastus explained that sins of professing Christians are to be punished by civil authority, and not by the withholding of sacraments on the part of the clergy. Those holding this view in the Westminster Assembly included John Selden, John Lightfoot, Thomas Coleman and Bulstrode Whitelocke, whose speech in 1645 is appended to Lee's version of the Theses. However, after much controversy, the opposite view was carried, with Lightfoot alone dissenting. The consequent chapter of the Westminster Confession of Faith (Of Church Censures) was not ratified by the English parliament.[8][9]

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, "The Theses and Confirmatio thesium appeared together in 1589. The central question about which the "Theses" turned was that of excommunication. The term is not, however, used by Erastus in the Catholic sense as excluding the delinquent from the society or membership of the Church. The excommunication to which [it] alludes was the exclusion of those of bad life from participation in the sacraments."[10]

Notes

  1. ^ Charles Gunnoe, Thomas Erastus and the Palatinate: A Renaissance Physician in the Second Reformation, Brill, 2010 p. 41.
  2. ^ a b "Thomas Erastus | Swiss physician and theologian". Retrieved 2016-07-18.
  3. ^ Zylberman, Nicolas (2022). "Anselme Boece de Boodt, 1550 – 1632, gemmologue praticien. De Bruges à Prague, itinéraire européen d'un humaniste - 1ère partie" (pdf). Ikuska. 53: 49-51.
  4. ^ a b c Chisholm 1911, p. 732.
  5. ^ Allen G. Debus, The English Paracelsians (1965), pp. 37–39.
  6. ^ Chisholm 1911, pp. 732–733.
  7. ^ With the title Explicatio gravissimae quaestionis utrum excommunicatio, quatenus religionem intelligentes et amplexantes, a sacramentorum usu, propter admissum facinus arcet, mandato nitatur divino, an excogitata sit ab hominibus. The work bears the imprint Pesclavii (i.e. Poschiavo in the Grisons) but was printed by John Wolfe in London, where Castelvetri was staying; the name of the alleged printer is an anagram of "Jacobum Castelvetrum." In the Stationers' Register (June 20, 1589) the printing is said to have been allowed by Archbishop Whitgift.
  8. ^ a b Chisholm 1911, p. 733.
  9. ISBN 978-9004187924
    .
  10. ^ Ward, B. "Erastus and Erastianism". The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1909.

References

Further reading

External links

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