Opening the library…
The Divine Institutes
Lactantius
A large Latin presentation of Christian teaching that criticizes pagan religion and philosophy while treating justice, God, creation, Christ, worship, ethics, and the final destiny of humanity.
When the Stoics attempt to uproot the affections from
[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.]
[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” (επιθυμίαν κακὴν, Col. iii. 5), is but natural appetite, working to good ends.]
Desire. [See note 6, supra.]
Lust.
Anger.
[Quæ, nisi in metu cohibetur.]
[Assiduis verberibus. This might be rendered “careful punishments.”]
[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.]