ERASTUS

erastus, thomas (1524-1583), german-swiss theologian, whose surname was luber, lieber, or liebler, was born of poor parents on the 7th of september 1524, probably at baden, canton of aargau, switzerland. in 1540 he was studying theology at basel. the plague of 1544 drove him to bologna and thence to padua as student of philosophy and medicine. in 1553 he became physician to the count of henneberg, saxe-meiningen, and in 1558 held the same post with the elector-palatine, otto heinrich, being at the same time professor of medicine at heidelberg. his patron's successor, frederick iii., made him (1559) a privy councillor and member of the church consistory. in theology he followed zwingli, and at the sacramentarian conferences of heidelberg (1560) and maulbronn (1564) he advocated by voice and pen the zwinglian doctrine of the lord's supper, replying (1565) to the counter arguments of the lutheran johann marbach, of strassburg. he ineffectually resisted the efforts of the calvinists, led by caspar olevianus, to introduce the presbyterian polity and discipline, which were established at heidelberg in 1570, on the genevan model. 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 till 1575, erastus declaring his firm adhesion to the doctrine of the trinity. his position, however, was uncomfortable, and in 1580 he returned to basel, where in 1583 he was made professor of ethics. he died on the 31st of december 1583. he published several pieces bearing on medicine, astrology and alchemy, and attacking the system of paracelsus. his name is permanently associated with a posthumous publication, written in 1568. its immediate occasion was the disputation at heidelberg (1568) for the doctorate of theology by george wither or withers, an english puritan (subsequently archdeacon of colchester), silenced (1565) at bury st edmunds by archbishop parker. withers had proposed a disputation against vestments, which the university would not allow; his thesis affirming the excommunicating power of the presbytery was sustained. hence the treatise of erastus. it was published (1589) by giacomo castelvetri, who had married his widow, 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 "alowed" by archbishop whitgift. it consists of seventy-five _theses_, followed by a _confirmatio_ in six books, and an appendix of letters to erastus by bullinger and gualther, showing that his _theses_, written in 1568, had been circulated in manuscript. an english translation of the _theses_, with brief 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, as revised by robert lee, d.d., in 1844. the aim of the work is to show, on scriptural grounds, that sins of professing christians are to be punished by civil authority, and not by withholding of sacraments on the part of the clergy. in the westminster assembly a party holding this view included selden, lightfoot, coleman and whitelocke, whose speech (1645) is appended to lee's version of the _theses_; but the opposite view, after much controversy, was carried, lightfoot alone dissenting. the consequent chapter of the westminster confession ("of church censures") was, however, not ratified by the english parliament. "erastianism," as a by-word, is used to denote the doctrine of the supremacy of the state in ecclesiastical causes; but the problem of the relations between church and state is one on which erastus nowhere enters. what is known as "erastianism" would be better connected with the name of grotius. the only direct reply made to the _explicatio_ was the _tractatus de vera excommunicatione_ (1590) by theodore beza, who found himself rather savagely attacked in the _confirmatio thesium_; e.g. "apostolum et mosen adeoque deum ipsum audes corrigere." see a. bonnard, _thomas eraste et la discipline ecclesiastique_ (1894); gass, in _allgemeine deutsche biog._ (1877); g.v. lechler and r. stahelin, in a. hauck's _realencyklop. fur prot. theol. u. kirche_ (1898). (a. go.*) eratosthenes of alexandria (c. 276-c. 194 b.c.), greek scientific writer, was born at cyrene. he studied grammar under callimachus at alexandria, and philosophy under the stoic ariston and the academic arcesilaus at athens. he returned to alexandria at the summons of ptolemy iii. euergetes, by whom he was appointed chief librarian in place of callimachus. he is said to have died of voluntary starvation, being threatened with total blindness. eratosthenes was one of the most learned men of antiquity, and wrote on a great number of subjects. he was the first to call himself philologos (in the sense of the "friend of learning"), and the name pentathlos was bestowed upon him in honour of his varied accomplishments. he was also called _beta_ as being second in all branches of learning, though not actually first in any. in mathematics he wrote two books _on means_ ([greek: peri mesoteton]) which are lost, but appear, from a remark of pappus, to have dealt with "loci with reference to means." he devised a mechanical construction for two mean proportionals, reproduced by pappus and eutocius (comm. on archimedes). his [greek: koskinon] or _sieve_ (_cribrum eratosthenis_) was a device for discovering all prime numbers. he laid the foundation of mathematical geography in his _geographica_, in three books. his greatest achievement was his measurement of the earth. being informed that at syene (assuan), on the day of the summer solstice at noon, a well was lit up through all its depth, so that syene lay on the tropic, he measured, at the same hour, the zenith distance of the sun at alexandria. he thus found the distance between syene and alexandria (known to be 5000 stadia) to correspond to 1/50th of a great circle, and so arrived at 250,000 stadia (which he seems subsequently to have corrected to 252,000) as the circumference of the earth. he is credited by ptolemy and his commentator theon with having found the distance between the tropics to be 11/83 rds. of the meridian circle, which gives 23 deg. 51' 20" for the obliquity of the ecliptic. his astronomical poem _hermes_ began apparently with the birth and exploits of hermes, then passed to the legend of his having ordered the heavens, the zones and the stars, and gave a history of the latter. his _erigone_, of which a few fragments are also preserved, is sometimes spoken of as a separate poem, but it may have belonged to the _hermes_, which appears also to have been known by other names such as _catalogi_. the still extant _catasterismi_, containing the story of certain stars in prose, is probably not by eratosthenes. eratosthenes was the founder of scientific chronology in his [greek: chronographia] in which he endeavoured to fix the dates of the chief literary and political events from the conquest of troy. an important work was his treatise on the old comedy, dealing with theatres and theatrical apparatus generally, and discussing the works of the principal comic poets themselves. works on moral philosophy, history, and a number of letters were also attributed to him. there is a complete edition of the fragments of eratosthenes by bernhardy (1822); poetical fragments, hillier (1872); geographical, seidel (1799) and berger (1880); [greek: katasterismoi], schaubach (1795) and robert (1878). see sandys, _hist. class. schol._ i. (1906). (t. l. h.)