he sanctimoniousness of a certain type of
Puritanism; but _piety_ still remains sweet and wholesome, and, like its
Latin original in the middle ages it seems to express one beautiful
aspect of the Christian life better than any other word. In the old
Roman religion _pius_ meant the man who strictly conforms his life to
the _ius divinum_; this we know from the very definite ancient
explanations of its contrary, _impius_. The _impius_ is the man who
_wilfully_ breaks the _ius divinum_ and the _pax deorum_; for him no
_piaculum_ was of avail.[974] Such a crime is the nearest approach in
Roman antiquity to our idea of sin. _Pius_ is therefore, as we saw in
discussing Aeneas, the man who knows the will of the gods, and so far as
in him lies adjusts his conduct thereto, whether in the life of the
family or as a citizen of the State. As applied to things, to a war for
example, the word _pium_ is almost equivalent to _iustum_ or _purum_,
_i.e._, _pium bellum_ is a war declared and conducted in accordance with
the principles of the _ius divinum_.[975] _Pietas_ is therefore a
virtue, that of obedience to the will of God as shown in private and
public life, and it herein differs from _religio_, which is not a
virtue, but a feeling. But we need not be surprised to find that in
Lactantius _pietas_ can be used to explain _religio_; for _religio_ is
no longer a feeling only or a cult only, but, as we saw just now, a
mental devotion capable of building up character. In one passage he says
that it is no true philosophy which "veram religionem, id est summam
pietatem, non habet."[976] In another interesting chapter he shows
plainly enough that he uses _pietas_ just as he uses _religio_, to
express the whole Christian mental furniture.[977] He begins by
scornfully pointing to Aeneas as the typical _pius_, and asking what we
are to think of the _pietas_ of a man who could bind the hands of
prisoners in order to slaughter them as a sacrifice to the shade of
Pallas[978] (little dreaming, indeed, that Christian piety should ever
be guilty of such slaughter in the cause of the faith); and ends by
asking, "What, then, is _pietas_? Surely it is with those who know not
war; who keep at peace with all men; who love their enemies and count
all men their brethren; who can control their anger and curb all mental
wilfulness." And once again, _pietas_ is the main ingredient in
_iustitia_, that is, in Christian righteousness, for "pietas nihil aliud
est