ABSTRACT
Many" other passages could likewise prove to us that in places Lactantius reached the real foundation of the Christian spirit. And what gives a rcal interest to the study of the Institutiones is that we find very different tendencies intermingled and confused in thcm, some the legacy of the past, and others indications of a new spirit. His writings contain more traces than we might think of the intransigeant attitude hostile to every concession which had animated certain writers of the first centuries. Lactantius had some liking for logic carried to extreme lengths, the weapon dear to Tertullian which, if carried out to the letter, would have extinguished the possibility of any social life for the Christian and would have cut him off from the civil. Neither trade nor war concerned the Christian: l it is true that Lactantius immediately admits that necessity may constrain him, but, only for a moment, and he adhered to the old mistrust which had so long dwelt in the minds of Christia.ns of strict observance against cupiditas acquirendi and against the shedding of blood. Lactantius is so unbending over the Non occides that in his view a Christian has not even the right to require the penalty of death against an accused man, for " it was equally criminal to kill people by word as by the sword." 2 More severe than '1'ertullian,3 who only condemned
art in so far as it ministered to pagan worship, Lactantius discountenances it without any extenuation. More ruthless than Clement of Alexandria, he denounced perfumes and flowers: if God created them, it was in order that man might exercise his virtue by not making use of th~m. As regards music, he only authorised it on condition that it be con~ secrated to the praise of God.1
