​AQUARII, a name given to the Christians who substituted water for wine in the Eucharist. They were not a sect, for we find the practice widely in vogue at an early time, even among the orthodox. In Greek they were called Hydroparastatae, or those who offer water. Theodosius, in his persecuting edict of 382, classes them as a special sect with the Manicheans, who also eschewed wine. See Eucharist.