The Divine Institutes Books Ivii The Fathers Of The Church 49 Lactantius by Lactantius 9780813215679, 0813215676 instant download after payment.

Biographical data on Lactantius are meager. In his catalogue of
illustrious men St. Jerome informs us that Lactantius studied under
Arnobius. Accepting an imperial invitation Lactantius taught rhetoric at
Nicomedia but relinquished this professorship after the outbreak of the
Diocletian persecution. In 317 Constantine summoned Lactantius to Trier
to supervise the education of his son Crispus. The principal work of
Lactantius is the Divine Institutes ( Divinae institutions) which was written over a period of years (304-313). It is an apologetic work in seven books which bear the following titles: On False Religion, The Origin of Error, On False Philosophy, True Wisdom and Religion, Concerning Justice, On True Worship, and On the Blessed Life.
From the viewpoint of literary criticism the diction of these books
flows gently and pleasantly and is so reminiscent of the style of Cicero
that Lactantius has frequently been styled the "Christian Cicero". This
encomium can be traced back to the days of St. Jerome who wrote in a
letter to Paulinus the Presbyter that Lactantius' works were like rivers
of "Tullian eloquence" that demolished pagan beliefs.