A Dictionary of All Religions and Religious Denominations/Erastians

ERASTIANS, the followers of Erastus, a German divine of the sixteenth century. The pastoral office, according to him, was only persuasive, like a professor of sciences over his students without any power annexed; the Lord's supper, and other ordinances of the gospel, were to be free and open to all; the minister might dissuade the vicious and unqualified from the communion-but might not refuse it, or inflict any kind of censure; the punishment of all offences being referred to the civil magistrate.