Lactantius, answered from the texts and cited to the page.
Religion is the one matter in which freedom has taken up its dwelling. It is voluntary above all others, and no necessity can be laid on any man to worship what he does not wish to worship.1 Nothing is so much a matter of free will as religion: if the mind of the worshipper is disinclined, religion is at once taken away and ceases to exist.2 So the freedom is owed to every man because it belongs to the nature of the thing.
Force reaches the body and never the will. Some, overcome by tortures, have assented to detestable sacrifices, but they did not do voluntarily what they did from necessity, and when liberty was restored they went back to God with prayers and tears, repenting not of a will they never had but of the necessity they endured. What then does he accomplish who pollutes the body, since he cannot change the will?1
The persecutor condemns himself by his own reckoning. If the offering is made to the gods, it is no worship, nor an acceptable sacrifice, when it is extorted by injury and enforced by pain. If it is made to benefit the man compelled, it is no benefit, since he would rather die than receive it. If it is a good to which you call me, why do you invite me with evil, with blows and not with words, by tortures and not by argument?3
Let them undertake the defence of their gods by reason, then. Let their priests come into the midst and teach, and confirm what they say by divine testimonies and not by their own assertion. There is no occasion for violence, for religion cannot be imposed by force; the matter must be carried on by words rather than by blows, that the will may be affected.4
We do not entice, as they say; we teach, we prove, we show. No one is detained by us against his will, and yet no one departs, since the truth itself detains him.4 Religion is to be defended, therefore, not by putting to death but by dying, not by cruelty but by patient endurance, not by guilt but by good faith. If you defend it by bloodshed it is no longer defended but polluted and profaned.2
Now for the chronicle of the persecutors, and I will not hide from it. What I wrote is that we have confidence in God, from whom we expect retribution hereafter, and that we have heard in some cases and seen in others the miserable ends of those who dared this crime. He who would not learn by word has learned by his own punishment who is the true God.5
That is a judgment on those who raged against the righteous, and the Omnipotent will repay the wicked with a severity proportioned to its tardiness; for as He is a most indulgent Father to the godly, so is He a most upright Judge against the ungodly.6 Here lies the difference. The Christian is forbidden to avenge himself and forbidden to defend religion with the sword, so he leaves the reckoning to God, and I record that God made it.
I put no sword into any man's hand. That the Lord does not leave torturers unpunished takes nothing from the doctrine that no man is to be forced to worship. As for Constantine, I honour him as the first of the Roman princes to repudiate errors and to acknowledge the one true God, who restored justice which had been overthrown and expiated the shameful deed of others.6
What I asked of such a prince is what the argument itself requires: justice restored, and the worshippers of God free to worship. The praise is for the restoring, not for any sword drawn for religion. The same book that praises him says that truth cannot be united with violence, nor justice with cruelty.2 I would say the same to the emperor's face, and in these pages I have.
Nothing is so much a matter of free will as religion. Worship forced on an unwilling mind is no worship; it is gone the moment the will withdraws. So religion is to be defended by dying, not by killing; by patience, not cruelty; by good faith, not crime; and the magistrates who tortured men to make them sacrifice defiled the very rites they claimed to defend.7
Vengeance belongs to God, who delays and then repays: the persecutors died as the narrative shows, and God raised up an emperor to restore justice and give his worshippers their liberty.891011
it is religion alone in which freedom has placed its dwelling. For it is a matter which is voluntary above all others, nor can necessity be imposed upon any, so as to worship that which he does not wish to worship.The Epitome of the Divine Institutes
For religion is to be defended, not by putting to death, but by dying; not by cruelty, but by patient endurance; not by guilt, but by good faith... For nothing is so much a matter of free-will as religion; in which, if the mind of the worshipper is disinclined to it, religion is at once taken away, and ceases to exist.The Divine Institutes, Book V, Of Justice
If it is a good to which you call me, why do you invite me with evil? why with blows, and not with words? why not by argument, but by bodily tortures?The Epitome of the Divine Institutes
There is no occasion for violence and injury, for religion cannot be imposed by force; the matter must be carried on by words rather than by blows, that the will may be affected.The Divine Institutes, Book V, Of Justice
we have in some cases heard, and in other cases seen, the miserable ends of all those who have dared to commit this crime... he who has been unwilling to learn by word has learned by his own punishment who is the true God.The Epitome of the Divine Institutes
who were the first of the Roman princes to repudiate errors, and to acknowledge and honour the majesty of the one and only true God... restoring justice which had been overthrown and taken awayThe Divine Institutes, Book I, Of the False Worship of the Gods
Torture and piety are widely different; nor is it possible for truth to be united with violence, or justice with cruelty. But with good reason they do not venture to teach anything concerning divine things, lest they should both be derided by our people and be deserted by their own.The Divine Institutes, Book V, Of Justice
At last Maximian obtained leave that the manner of his death should be at his own choice, and he strangled himself. Thus that mightiest sovereign of Rome--who ruled so long with exceeding glory, and who celebrated his twentieth anniversary--thus that most haughty man had his neck broken, and ended his detestable life by a death base and ignominious. Chap. XXXI.Of the Manner in Which the Persecutors Died
Not many days after the victory, Licinius, having received part of the soldiers of Daia into his service, and properly distributed them, transported his army into Bithynia, and having made his entry into Nicomedia, he returned thanks to God, through whose aid he had overcome; and on the ides of June, while he and Constantine were consuls for the third time, he commanded the following edict for the restoration of the…Of the Manner in Which the Persecutors Died
Do you wish me to worship your gods, which I consider deadly to myself? If it is a good, I do not envy it. Enjoy your good by yourself. There is no reason why you should wish to succour my error, which I have undertaken by my judgment and inclination. If it is evil, why do you drag me to a participation in evil? Use your own fortune. I prefer to die in the practice of that which is good, than to live in evil. Chap.The Epitome of the Divine Institutes
Therefore, lest they should be as much corrupted by ease as their fathers had been by indulgence, it was His will that they should be oppressed by those in whose power He placed them, that He may both confirm them when wavering, and renew them to fortitude when corrupted, and try and prove them when faithful. For how can a general prove the valour of his soldiers, unless he shall have an enemy?The Divine Institutes, Book V, Of Justice
His most admired argument and the one most often turned against him: the pleader for liberty also wrote an exultant chronicle of his persecutors' deaths and became the panegyrist of the first Christian emperor.