THE Oxford Dictionary says, The con

THE Oxford Dictionary says, The connection of the word religion with religion, to bind, has usually been favored by modern writers. This etymology, given by the Roman grammarian (end of 4th cent. A. D.) Servius (Relligio, id est metus ab eo quod mentem religet, dicta religio)' was supported by the Christian philo- sopher Lactantius (about 313 A. D.) who quotes the expression of the celebrated Roman philosophical poet Lucretius (c. 96 to 55 B. C.):2 religionum animum nodis exsolvere, in proof that he considered ligare, to bind, to be the root of religio. 3 Several commentators upon Lucretius, e. g. Merrill, Munro,4 Harper's Dictionary of Classical Literature and Antiquities (edited by Harry Thurston Peck, 1898) and also Joseph Mayor in his commentary (2, 186) on Cicero's De Natura Deorum, agree that this notion of binding was in the mind of Lucretius. St. Augustine, the most celebrated father of the Latin church, A. D. 354 430, makes this derivation. 5 The Century Dictionary, though referring to the uncertain origin of religio, cites the English ligament as perhaps allied. So Harper's Latin Lexicon refers to Corssen's Aussprache (1, 444sq.) as taking religio in the same sense as obligatio. Other Latin nouns like lictor and lex have the root lig.