Pliny 10.97

Actum quem debuisti, mi Secunde, in excutiendis causis eorum qui Christiani ad te delati fuerant, secutus es.

You followed the procedure which you ought to have, my dear Pliny in examining the cases of those who were Christians and were brought to you.

Neque enim in universum aliquid, quod quasi certam formam habeat, constitui potest.

Nor indeed generally, can anything be determined because it may have a certain shape (future less vivid).

Conquirendi non sunt; si deferantur et arguantur, puniendi sunt, ita tamen ut qui negaverit se Christianum esse idque re ipsa manifestum fecerit, id est supplicando dis nostris, quamvis suspectus in praeteritum, veniam ex paenitentia impetret.

They ought not not be sought out; if they are brought to you and they are proven in court then they should be punished; nevertheless, with the result that, one that denies that he was a Christian, and who made this manifest in this same manner mainly by supplicating to our gods even if he was suspected in the past he ought to request leniency from penitence.

Sine auctore vero propositi libelli in nullo crimine locum habere debent.

For without a true author the published lists ought to have a place in no charge.

Nam et pessimi exempli nec nostri saeculi est.

For it is a rather bad precedent nor is it of our policy.