A sect in the fourth century, so denominated from their founder, Eustathius, a monk so foolishly fond of his own profession, that he condemned all other conditions of life. Whether this Eustathius were the same with the bishop of Sabastia, and chief of the Semi-arians, is not easy to determine. He excluded married people from salvation; prohibited his followers from praying in their houses, and obliged them to quit all they had, as incompatible with the hopes of heaven. He drew them out of the other assemblies of Christians, to hold secret ones with him, and made them wear a particular habit: he appointed them to fast on Sundays; and taught them that the ordinary fasts of the church were needless after they had attained to a certain degree of purity which he pretended to. He showed great horror for chapels built in honour of martyrs, and the assemblies held therein. He was condemned at the council of Gangra, in Paphlagonia, held between the year 326 and 341.
Despite a stated reliance on the plain meaning of the Bible and the dictates of common sense, Buck's Theological Dictionary, first published in London in 1802, seeks to provide a textual basis for the evangelical community. By combining brief essays on orthodox belief and practice with historical entries on various denominations, Buck provided an interpretive lens that allowed antebellum Protestants to see Christianity's almost two millennia as their own history.Wikipedia
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