The Minor Works (The Fathers of the Church, Volume 54)

Lactantius lived through one of the greatest turning points in the
history of Europe. It has been aptly described as the moment when the
old world of paganism was in travail, when against its will it gave
birth to the Christian Empire. The writings of this author are, together
with those of Eusebius, the principal sources for the period of the
great persecution of Diocletian and for the first years of the peace of
the Church after the Edict of Milan. For the period of the Council of
Nicaea, there is somewhat more abundant source material, but for the
years 312-324 reliance must be made upon Eusebius and Lactantius. Both
may be considered to have written with considerable bias. They are too
extravagant in praise of Constantine; Lactantius especially manifested
an odium theologicum toward Galerius and the persecutors. Their
works are still of high value, however, as historical sources. From the
time of the studies of Maurice, moreover, the evidence of numismatics
has verified the historical accounts of these contemporary sources.

The
writings of Lactantius, therefore, were composed in one of the most
eventful epochs of ecclesiastical history. The Church, after suffering
the most sever of despotic persecutions, was suddenly received under
state protection and began to enjoy, not merely tranquility and legal
status, but even a considerable portion of political influence. The
fourth century saw the great fusion of the Christian Church with the
Roman state and Hellenistic culture, the fusion which was to spell out
Western civilization and determine its achievements.

Perhaps no
other writer is more completely revealing of his own times. As pagan
rhetoricians were abandoning the schools and the philosophers, the
culture of the world was bring saved in the very Church that was charged
with its destruction. Lactantius is a sharer of Minucius Felix'
attitude toward traditional culture. He believed that it possessed a
vitality, that its treasure should be preserved, that the 'spoils of the
Egyptians could become the pride of the despised Galilaeans.' In the
very act of despoiling them, however, he assigned himself the task of
addressing those Egyptians and, in a number of essential features,
accepted their own literature and learning. In this way, he saved much
of their culture for the Church and became thereby one of the founders
of Christian humanism.