RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Lactantius
ing at the beginning. In the year named it was published by C. M. Pfaff in full from a manuscript discovered by Maffei at Turin. It is addressed to a /rater Pentadius, possibly Lactantius' own brother, and offers not so much a selection as a complete recasting in briefer form of the large work, made, according to the preface, long afterward.
The De ira Dei treats a question suggested in the Institutiones (II., xvii. 5) — whether a personal affection like anger may properly be ascribed to God. According to it, Christian theology presupposes a God who is the ruler of the world, and whom we must reverence and fear. Without the fear of God, man would fall a prey to his desires, and if God looked upon this without anger he would be permitting sin. The date can not be more closely fixed than by its references to the Institutiones; Brandt places it in 308, but it was more probably written after the cessation of the persecution, and thus at least as late as 311 or 312. Of the lost works of Lactantius, outside of a few fragments, nothing is known beyond the titles given by Jerome. Completely lost are the Symposium,
the Grammaticus, the two books ad- 2. Lost dressed to Asclepiades, and the met- Works. rical description of Lactantius' journey
from Africa to Nicomedia, in which he followed a wide-spread literary fashion of his time. A few fragments remain of the three collections of letters mentioned by Jerome, which seem to have been rather small treatises on various subjects in epistolary form than letters in the modern sense. Damasus complains (Epist. ad Hieronymum, in Jerome, Epist., xxxv. 1) that they are long and tedious, insufficiently representative of Christian doctrine, and written too much in the tone of a pedagogue.
To the works whose authenticity is doubtful belongs the treatise which has been known since 1679 from a single manuscript where it bears the title L. Coscilii liber ad Donatum confessorem de
mortibus persecutorum. Its purpose is 3. Doubt- to show that the persecutors of Chrisful Works, tianity have been visited by special
divine judgments. The author is apparently well informed as to the facts he narrates, though obviously inspired by bitter hatred of the persecutors and disposed to give credence to any current gossip that suited his purpose. The book was written before the outbreak of the Licinian persecution in 321, and, since the death of Diocletian (Dec. 3, 316) is mentioned in it, not earlier than 317. The authorship has been questioned almost ever since its first publication — in recent times most vigorously by Brandt; but conclusive grounds for denying the Lactantian authorship have not yet been presented. The following facts have weight in the discussion: the style shows both resemblances to and differences from that of Lactantius, and is thus inconclusive; tradition, from Jerome down, is favorable to Lactantius; the author evidently was in Nicomedia during the persecution, and states the facts fairly, though making his own selection of them; he was evidently a man of position, from the way in which he gives important people as his authorities. The hypothesis of
a literary forgery presents too many difficulties, while there is nothing in the known facts of Lactantius' life which militates against the acceptance of his authorship, since the date of his leaving Nicomedia is unsettled. The poem De ave phaenice is a version of the old phenix legend, written by a Christian, as is shown in the conclusion, where the phenix comes to symbolize Christ in his resurrection. There are resemblances in diction between this and the prose works of Lactantius, who is known (see above, § 2) to have written verses; and since the manuscripts ascribe it definitely to him, there is no reason for doubting this attribution, in spite of the fact that Jerome does not include it in his list. Two other poems sometimes attributed to Lactantius are now known not to be his: that entitled De resurrectione or De pascha is by Venantius Fortunatus (see Foetunatus), and of the De passione Domini, first published in the Aldine edition of 1515, no manuscript has yet been found, so that it may possibly be a Renaissance forgery.
All the works of Lactantius bear the marks of his rhetorical profession. They are pleasant reading, and successfully imitate the best classical models in style, showing a wide range of historical and antiquarian knowledge and frequently citing the classical poets and philosophers. These endowments, however, which won for Lactantius from Pico della Mirandola the title of the Christian Cicero, are less valued to-day than those of such technically inferior authors as Tertullian and Augustine. As a theologian he has small importance. Becoming, as it seems, a Christian only in his mature years, he never fully penetrated the deeper religious spirit of his new faith. In Brandt's edition the index of his quotations from classical authors fills twenty-four pages, against four for those from the Scriptures; and of the latter most are given on Cyprian's authority. His main theological content is summed up in the belief in God as the Creator of the world and in the power of the new law given by Christ, the following of which frees men from sin and its penalty. He was not touched by the Christological controversy, and his eschatology is a reproduction of the old millenarian teaching. In a word, Lactantius does not belong to the really great men of the early Church; but with all his superficiality he stands out as an attractive personality, followed as a leader by a great many in his own and later ages.
(Ehwin Preuschen.)
Bibliography: Literature on the subject is to be found in ANF, Bibliography, pp. 77-81; Kruger, History, pp. 307-317; Potthast, Wegweiser, p. 703; J. M. Baldwin, Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology, iii. 1, p. 325. New York, 1905. The Opera of Lactantius have been frequently printed, eighty-six editions being known 1461-1739. Among the best issues are those by O. F. Fritzsche, 2 vols., Leipsic, 1842-44, in MPL, vi.-vii., and in CSEL, xix., xxvii., parts 1-2, Vienna, 1890-97. Eng. transl. with introductory notice is in ANF, vii. 1-328. Accounts of the life, so far as known, are usually found in the prolegomena to the editions of the Opera. Consult: R. Pichon, Lactance, Paris, 1903 (an important contribution to the subject); P. Bertold, Prolegomena zu Lactantius, Metten, 1861; S. Brandt, Ueber das Leben des Lactantius, Vienna, 1890; C. E. Freppel, Commodian, Arnobius, Lactantius, Paris, 1893; A. Mancini, in Studi storici, ii (1893), 444 sqq.
On his writings and phases of his work consult: B
Lacticinia Lagarde