[f. LAX a. + -IST.] One who favors lax views or interpretation: spec. the designation given by modern historians to the school of casuists in the Roman church who maintained that it was justifiable to follow any probability, however slight, in favor of liberty. Also attrib.
1865. F. Oakeley, in Ess. Relig. & Lit., 144. One of two extreme attitudes; that of unpractical theorists, on the one hand, or that of practical laxists on the other.
1882. Littledale, in Encycl. Brit., XIV. 638/2. Some of the stricter casuists say so, but Liguori sides with the laxists.
1884. Ch. Times, 366/2. There is a disastrous recommendation of the laxist school in handling moral questions.
1890. Guardian, 7 May, 741/1. There have been ‘rigorist’ and ‘laxist’ views on points of morals and discipline.
