The Divinae Institutiones (Divine Institutes) is a major work of Christian apologetics written by Lucius Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius (c. 250-c. 325 CE), a Roman rhetorician who converted to Christianity and became one of the most eloquent defenders of the new faith in the Latin West. Composed in seven books during the reign of Diocletian and the Great Persecution, the Divinae Institutiones presents Christianity as the true philosophy, superior to all pagan systems, and argues that divine wisdom is the foundation of human happiness, immortality, and the good life. Lactantius wrote in a polished Ciceronian Latin that earned him the title the Christian Cicero, and his work was widely read throughout the medieval and Renaissance periods.

The section of the Divinae Institutiones most relevant to the Atalanta Fugiens is Book III, Chapter XIII, which discusses the immortality of the soul and the nature of wisdom. Lactantius argues that Sapientia (wisdom) is the food of the soul, the nourishment without which the soul withers and dies just as the body dies without physical food. This identification of wisdom with nourishment connects the patristic theological tradition to the alchemical tradition of the philosopher's stone as elixir and medicine: both offer a transformative sustenance that overcomes mortality and imperfection.

De Jong identifies Lactantius as one of the sources feeding into the dense scriptural and patristic apparatus of Emblem XXVI of the Atalanta Fugiens, the wisdom emblem at the structural midpoint of the work. Maier cites Lactantius in the discourse of Emblem XXVI alongside Solomon, the Liber Sapientiae, Proverbs, Baruch, and Morienus, constructing a chain of authority that links pagan philosophy, Old Testament wisdom literature, patristic theology, and alchemical tradition into a single argument for the identification of alchemy with sacred knowledge. Lactantius's description of wisdom as the food of the soul bridges the Christian and alchemical registers, supporting Maier's claim that the alchemical quest for the philosopher's stone and the spiritual quest for divine wisdom are fundamentally the same enterprise.

The patristic strand represented by Lactantius reinforces Maier's presentation of alchemy as legitimate religious knowledge rather than a merely technical or worldly pursuit. By citing a Church Father alongside biblical wisdom texts and alchemical authorities, Maier positions the alchemist within the tradition of Christian theological inquiry, claiming the same kind of authority for the pursuit of the stone as the theologian claims for the pursuit of salvation.

De Jong notes that the unusually dense scriptural marginalia of Emblem XXVI, unique in the Atalanta Fugiens, suggests that Maier wished to draw particular attention to the religious foundation of his enterprise. Lactantius's presence among the cited authorities signals that this religious foundation extends beyond the Old Testament wisdom books to the patristic tradition of the early Church.

For the modern reader, the presence of Lactantius in an alchemical emblem book may seem surprising, but it illustrates a fundamental feature of Renaissance intellectual culture: the absence of the sharp boundaries between theology, philosophy, and natural science that modern readers take for granted. For Maier, a Church Father's discussion of wisdom and a Turba philosopher's discussion of the stone were contributions to the same conversation.