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"... More than a millennium before Locke, Lucius Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius (ca. 250 – ca. 325 AD) had already articulated a clearer and more coherent rejection of religious coercion. Writing in the early fourth century, during the final phase of Roman persecution and on the cusp of Christianity’s legalization, Lactantius was a rhetorician steeped in classical philosophy. With the support of Emperor Diocletian, he became a professor of rhetoric in Nicomedia, which also facilitated his entrance into the orbit of the imperial elite. We do not know precisely when Lactantius became a Christian, but his conversion almost certainly preceded Diocletian’s persecution of the Church. His career suffered as a result. Saint Jerome, who later praised his literary abilities, attests that Lactantius lived in poverty for years. However, his fortunes reversed when he came to the attention of Constantine, who appointed Lactantius as tutor to his son Crispus. He likely enjoyed imperial favor until the end of his life.
Lactantius draws a sharp contrast between two fundamentally different modes of engagement. Violence belongs to the realm of brute compulsion, whereas religion belongs to the realm of reasoned assent.
Lactantius’s major work, Divine Institutes, is a bold defense of Christian truth addressed to the Roman elite. He likely began writing it after losing his teaching post in Nicomedia. Although it does not reveal deep knowledge of Holy Scripture or particularly original theology, Divine Institutes was regarded by later Christian writers as a masterwork of Latin style. More importantly, it reveals a broad familiarity with Christian apologetics up to the point of Lactantius in history. What matters for us specifically is his argument for religious freedom.
Lactantius is widely regarded as having developed the first principled argument for liberty in matters of conscience. Given his later associations with Constantine, it is likely these ideas influenced the climate of opinion leading up to the Edict of Milan (313), which established toleration for Christianity. Ultimately, Lactantius’s condemnation of coercion in Divine Institutes is both more striking and philosophically serious than Locke’s.
Lactantius argues that coercion is inherently opposed to the nature of religion and to the dignity of the human person. “Religion cannot be imposed by force; the matter must be carried on by words rather than by blows.” But he goes even further. Coercion is not merely ineffective; it is irrational and degrading. “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.” ..."
Lactantius
Fourth-century mural possibly depicting Lactantius (or possibly Apuleius)
Beginning of Lactantius' Divinae institutiones in a Renaissance manuscript written in Florence ca. 1420–1430 by Guglielmino Tanaglia
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