06S THIKD PERIOD, A.B. 311-590.
clesianic persecution, but afterwards to have enlarged and improved it about the year 321 ; for lie dedicated it to the emperor, whom he celebrates as the first Clmstian prince.'
To the same apologetic purpose was his work De morte, oi mortibus, persecutorum, which is of some importance to the external history of the church.' It describes with minute knowledge, but in vehement tone, the cruel persecutions of the Christians from Nero to Dioclesian, Galerius, and Maximinus (314), and the divine judgments on the persecutors, who were compelled to become involuntary witnesses to the indestructible power of Christianity.
In his book De opificio Dei' he gives observations on the organization of the human nature, and on the divine wisdom displayed in it.
In the treatise De ira Dei * he shows that the punitive justice of God necessarily follows from his abhorrence of evil, and is perfectly compatible with his goodness ; and he closes with an exhortation to live such a life that God may ever be gracious to us, and that we may never have to fear his wrath.
We have also from Lactantius various Fragmenta and Carmina de Phoenice, de Passione Domini, de rcsurrectione Domini, and one hundred JEnigmata, each of three hexameters.^
' L. L c. 1 : " Quod opus nunc nominis tui auspicio inchoamug, Constantine imperator maxirae, qui primus Romanoruui prineipum, repudiatis erroribus, majes. tatem Dei gingularis ac veri cognovisti et honorasti," &c. Tliis passage, by the way, does not appear in all the codices. Comp. the note in the cd. of Fritzsche, Pars i. p. 3.
" In the ed. of Fritzsche, P. ii. pp. 248-286. This woik is wanting in the earlier editions, and also in several manuscripts, and is therefore sometimes denied to Lactantius, e. g., by Dom de Nourry, in a learned dissertation on this question, reprinted in the Appendix to the second volume of Migne's edition of Lactantius, p. 839 sqq. But its style, upon the whole, agrees with his ; the work entirely suits his time and circumstances ; and it is probably the same that Jerome cites under the name Pe persecutione. Jac. Burckhardt, in his monograph on Constantine the Great, I860, treats this book throughout as an untrustworthy romance, but without proof, and with an obvious aversion to all the fathers, similar to that of Gibbon.
• In the ed. of Fritzsche, Pars iL pp. 172-208.
♦ Ibid. ii. 208-247.
* Ibid. ii. p. 286 sqq. Other works of Lactantius, cited by Jerome, are lost
^ 174. HILAKT OF POITIERS. {:>5S
§ 174. Hilary of Poitiers.
L S. HiLARitrs Pictaviensis : Opera, stndio et labore monach. S. Benedict! e congreg. S. Mauri. Paris, 1693, 1 vol. fol. The same ed. enlarged and improved by Scip. Maffei, Verona, 1730, 2 vols. fol. (reprinted in Venice, 1749). An ed. by Fr. Overthur, Wirceburgi, 1785- '88, 4 vols. ; and one by Migne, Petit-Montrouge, 1844r-'45, in 2 vols. (Patrol. Lat. torn. ix. and x.).
II, The Prasfatio et Vitas in the first vol. of the ed. of Maffei, and Migne (tom. i. 125 sqq.). Hieronymtts : De viris illustr. c. 100. Tillemoh'' (toin. vii.) ; Oeillier (tom. v.) ; and Butler, sub Jan. 14. Kling, in Herzog's Encykl. vi. 84 ff. On the Christology of Hilary, comp. especially Dornkr, Entwicklungsgeschichte, i. 1037 ff.
Hilary of Poitiers, or Pictav^iensis, so named from liis birth-place and subsequent bishopric in Southwestern France, and so distinguislied from other men of the same name,' was especially eminent in the Arian controversies for his steadfast confession and powerful defence of the orthodox faith, and has therefore been styled the " Athanasius of the West."
He was born towards the end of the third century, and embraced Christianity in mature age, with his wife and his daughter Apra." He found in the Holy Scriptures the solution of the riddle of life, which he had sought in vain in the writings of the philosophers. In the year 350 he became bishop of his native city, and immediately took a very decided stand against Arianism, which was at that time devastating the Gallic church. For this he was banished by Constantius to Phrygia in Asia Minor, where Arianism ruled. Here, between 356 and 361, he wrote his twelve books on the Trinity, the main work of his life.* He was recalled to Gaul, then banished again, and spent the last years of his life in niral retirement till his death in 368.
We have from him, besides the theological work already mentioned, several smaller polemic works against Arianism,
' As Hilarius Arelatensis (f 449), celebrated for bis contest with pope Leo I.
^ We have from him an Epistola ad Apram (or Abram in other manuscripts), filiam suam, wiitten in 358, in tom. ii. 549 (ed. Migne). He sent to her his famoua morning hymn : " Lucis largitor splendide."
* De trinitate hbri xii. (tom. i. 26-472, ed. Migne).