laxator

[Lat. laxatus, pa. par. of laxo = to loosen, to relax.] One who or that which loosens. Spec. in anatomy, as laxator tympani. *lax-ist, s. [Eng. lax, a.; -ist.] Church Hist. ( pl .): A school of theologians in the Roman Church, who held that even slightly probable opinions might be followed. They were condemned by Pope Innocent XII., and no longer exist as an avowed school; but their teaching is still maintained to some extent by the Equiprobabilists and Moderate Probabilists. [PROBABILISM.] "Liguori sides with the laxists ."-Encyc. Brit . (ed. 9th), xiv. 638.