Thomas Erastus (September 7, 1524 – December 31, 1583) was a Swiss theologian best known for a posthumously published work in which he argued that the sins of Christians should be punished by the state, and not by the church withholding the sacraments. A generalization of this idea, that the state's supreme in church matters,'s known somewhat misleadingly as Erastianism. Life Erastus, whose surname was Liber, Lieber, or Liebler, was born of poor parents, probably at Baden, Canton of Aarg… (More on Erastianism)