LUCIUS CAECILIUS FIRMIANUS

LACTANTIUS

THE BOOK ON THE WORKMANSHIP OF GOD, OR THE FORMATION OF MAN,

ADDRESSED TO HIS PUPIL DEMETRIANUS.

CHAPTER ONE.

Prologue and exhortation to Demetrianus.

You may judge from this little book how far I am from being at rest and in the greatest necessities; a book which I have written for you, Demetrianus, in almost crude words, as the mediocrity of my talent allowed, so that you might both know of my daily study and that I might not be wanting to you, acting even now as your teacher, though in a more honorable and better

A matter of learning. For if you proved yourself a sufficiently diligent pupil in letters that taught nothing but language, how much more docile must you be in these true things which pertain to life? Before you, I now profess that no necessity of property or time prevents me from fashioning something by which the philosophers of our secta sect/school of thought, which we defend, may become more instructed and learned for the future; even though they are now
B spoken of poorly and are chastised by the common people, because they behave otherwise

On the Workmanship of God, or the Formation of Man. We have restored this double title, in imitation of Plato, from Jerome, Honorius of Autun, the old editions of Lactantius, and many manuscript codices. In some, it is only On the Workmanship of God; in others, it is merely On the Workmanship of Man; but in two more recent ones—namely, one from Oxford and another from Colbert—and in Book II, Chapter 9 of the Divine Institutes, it reads The Work of the World and the Workmanship of God. Theodoret also discusses all parts of the human body excellently in Sermons 3 and 4 On Providence. See furthermore, if you like, Gregory of Nyssen on the Creation of Man. — The book On the Workmanship, which is the most corrupted of all Lactantius's books, and which I wish had been more accurately checked against written books, was published separately in Cologne from the office of Quentell in 1506 (following the Venice edition of 1497), then with notes by Desiderius Erasmus in Basel in 1529, Paris in 1529, and Willichius in 1542. FRITZSCHE.

To his pupil Demetrianus. That this book was inscribed to Demetrianus is indicated by Lactantius himself below, at the beginning of chapters 1 and 20, and in Book II, chapter 10 of the Divine Institutes, after the middle, and by Jerome in his book On Ecclesiastical Writers; and almost all printed editions and many manuscripts agree, not addressed to Demetrius, nor to Donatus, as it seemed to one learned man.

How little I am at rest. As often as quam equals how much, it is elegantly placed before superlative nouns, as in quam plurimis [as many as possible] or cum plurimis [with very many]. Moreover, when it is used for quantum, I do not remember it being joined to anything but positive adjectives in the works of authors who speak correctly. Therefore, in this place, I would have said, quam non sim quietus [how I am not at rest], or quam nihil mihi sit quietis [how I have no rest]. ERASMUS.

And in the greatest necessities. Erasmus warns that in some codices etiam [even/also] is read incorrectly for et [and]. This is evidence that the final particle is held in others. That et is required here is argued by the fact that it is not a new thing

for a man to be in the greatest necessities, or persecutions, and to be far from quiet; whereas if the conjunction et is retained, it merely repeats what was said before, in this sense: and how I am. SPARK.

Therefore we have restored 'et' [and], as the sense demands and the Graph, Gymnic, Crat, and Is. editions favor, as well as the manuscripts of Erasmus and 1 Colbertine, in which et is read by the first hand, with a small line in more recent and darker ink written above it, thus indicating by a second hand that it should be etiam [even], as in most manuscripts and editions: unless you prefer to read et jam [and now] with another Colbertine manuscript. In the third Colbertine, it is etc... with a sign of abbreviation.

Excudam [I will fashion]. The Royal manuscript of Pot and 3 recent ones read extundam [I will beat out/forge]; not bad.

Philosophers. Here Erasmus was forgetful, for even Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, and others called Christian doctrine philosophy and Christian teachers philosophers. Kortolt demonstrated this with many examples in his Commentary on Justin Martyr. BUN.

Our sect. He annotated this elegantly, though perhaps less theologically, noting that the Christians—because he composed this little book in a C philosophical style, much like Boethius did with his book On the Consolation of Philosophy. He used the word secta in a good sense, which Tertullian does several times, since the same word in Greek sounds like hairesis [heresy], which to us is a sect; and he calls the pious wise, piety wisdom, and the new profession Christianity. ERASM. — But with foreign dogmas sprouting in the Church, the name of sect began to become odious. — Our sect. Elsewhere, our author used the word sect in a bad sense, for example, Book IV of the Institutes, chapter 30, and On the Anger of God, chapter 2. Here he takes it in a good sense; just as Tertullian does in his Apology, chapters 1, 21, and 40, regarding the origin of the Christian sect. BUN.

And be chastised. He said castigare [chastise], not for emendare [to improve], but for corripere [to reprove] or flagellare [to scourge]. ERASM.