Early Church Fathers
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128 Sed earum modum non tenent. [Augustine's anthropology better.]
131 [Homini amico ac familiari non est mentiri meum.]
132 Matt. v. 44; Luke vi. 28; Rom. xii. 14.
133 i.e., Jesus Christ the Son of God = the Word of God.
135 Animi sui complicitam notionem evolvere.
136 [Nisi lacessitus injuria.]
137 Comparem. Injustice and impatience are here represented as a pair of gladiators well matched against each other.
138 Pecudes, including horses and cattle.
139 Caninam, i.e., resembling a dog, cutting.
140 The allusion is to the Philippics of Cicero, a title borrowed from Demosthenes.
142 Quoad fieri potest. Others read, "quod fieri potest."
146 [Rather, indignation, cupidity, and concupiscence, answering to our author's "ira, cupiditas, libido." The difference involved in this choice of words, I shall have occasion to point out.]
147 [Here he treats the "three furies" as not in themselves vices, but implanted for good purposes, and becoming "diseases" only when they pass the limits he now defines. Hence, while indignation is virtuous anger, it is not a disease; cupidity, while amounting to honest thrift, is not evil; and concupiscence, until it becomes "evil concupiscence" (epiqumi/an kakh\n, Col. iii. 5), is but natural appetite, working to good ends.]
148 Desire. [See note 6, supra.]
151 [Quae, nisi in metu cohibetur.]
152 [Assiduis verberibus. This might be rendered "careful punishments."]
153 [Quod ignorantes Deum facere non possunt. In a later age Lactantius might have been charged with Semi-Pelagianism, many of his expressions about human nature being unstudied. But I note this passage, as, like many others, proving that he recognizes the need of divine grace.]
155 Coelum potius quàm coelata. There appears to be an allusion to the supposed derivation of "coelum" from "coelando."
156 [Intermicantibus astrorum luminibus. It does not seem to me that the learned translator does full justice here to our author's idea. "Adorned with the twinkling lights of the stars" would be an admissible rendering.]
157 [It is unbecoming for a Christian, unless as an officer of the law or a minister of mercy, to be a spectator of any execution of criminals. Blessed growth of Christian morals.]
158 Dissipari. [A very graphic description of the brutal shows of the arena, which were abolished by the first Christian emperor, perhaps influenced by these very pages.]
160 i.e., without reference to the manner in which death is inflicted. [Lactantius goes further here than the Scriptures seem to warrant, if more than private warfare be in his mind. The influence of Tertullian is visible here. See Elucidation II. p. 76, and cap. xi. p. 99, vol. iii., this series.]
161 [Sanctum animal. See p. 56, supra. But the primal law on this very subject contains a sanction which our author seems to forget. Because he is an animal of such sacred dignity, therefore "whoso sheddeth man's blood," etc. (Gen. ix. 6). The impunity of Cain had led to bloodshed (Gen. vi. 11), to which as a necessary remedy this sanction was prescribed.]
163 They thought it less criminal to expose children than to strangle them.
165 i.e., by exposing them, that others may through compassion bring then up.
167 i.e., at the shows of gladiators.
168 [How seriously this warning should be considered in our days, when American theatricals have become so generally licentious beyond all bounds, I beg permission to suggest. See Elucidation I. p. 595, vol. v.; also Ibid., pp. 277, 575, this series.]
171 The mimus was a species of dramatic representation, containing scenes from common life, which were expressed by gesture and mimicry more than by dialogue.
172 Praefigurat, not a word of classical usage.
173 [see Tertullian, vol. iii cap. 25, p. 89, this series.]
174 See p. 27, supra; also vol. vi. pp. 487, 488.]
176 Fundati, having the foundation well laid, trained. Some read, "Ab aliquo imperito doctore fundati."
177 It has been judged advisable to give this chapter in the original Latin. [Compare Clement, vol. ii. p. 259, notes 3, 7, this series.]
178 [Non bene conveniunt igitur legibus divinis quae supradicta sunt auctore nostro (vide p. 143, apud n. 2) sed haec verba de naturâ muliebri minime imperita, esse videntur.]
180 meta/noia. The word properly denotes a change of mind, resulting in a change of conduct.
181 Resipiscentiam. [Note the admitted superiority of the Greek.]
182 Pro pietate suâ. Augustine (De Civitate Dei, x. 1) explains the use of this expression as applied to God.
183 [Concerning the "planks after shipwreck," see Tertullian, pp. 659 and 666, vol. iii., this series.]
