The Collaborative International Dictionary
Erastian \E*ras"tian\ (?; 106), n. (Eccl. Hist.)
One of the followers of Thomas Erastus, a German physician
and theologian of the 16th century. He held that the
punishment of all offenses should be referred to the civil
power, and that holy communion was open to all. In the
present day, an Erastian is one who would see the church
placed entirely under the control of the State.
--Shipley.
Usage examples of "erastian".
Save for a few surface evils he sees nothing wrong in an acquisitive society, with its equation of money and virtue, its pious millionaires and erastian clergymen.
The State exerted an Erastian control of the Church, and the Church yielded submission.
From the most cosmopolitan and international of bodies it was fast becoming strongly nationalist, and was the chief center of an Erastian Gallicanism.
The old minister, to his mind, had been Erastian and lax, weak in doctrine and in discipline of the fold.
God and His people, and are obliged to maintain presbyterial government, as well against erastians as sectaries.