doth arise upon that contumacy;
they have likewise considered of the notoriety of the fact
charged upon this Prisoner, and upon the whole matter they are
resolved, and have agreed upon a Sentence to be now pronounced
against this Prisoner; but in respect he doth desire to be
heard, before the Sentence be read and pronounced, the Court
hath resolved that they will hear him. Yet, Sir, thus much I
must tell you beforehand, which you have been minded of at other
courts, that if that you have to say be to offer any debate
concerning jurisdiction, you are not to be heard in it; you have
offered it formerly, and you have indeed struck at the root,
that is, the power and supreme authority of the Commons of
England, which this Court will not admit a debate of; and which
indeed is an irrational thing in them to do, being a court that
acts upon authority derived from them, that they should presume
to judge upon their superior, from whom there is no appeal. But,
sir, if you have anything to say in defence of yourself
concerning the matter charged, the Court hath given me in
command to let you know they will hear you.

KING--Since that I see that you will not hear anything of
debate concerning that which I confess I thought most material
for the Peace of the Kingdom, and for the Liberty of the
Subject, I shall wave it; I shall speak nothing to it, but only
I must tell you, that this many a day all things have been taken
away from me, but that, that I call more dear to me than my
life, which is my conscience and my honour: and if I had respect
to my life more than the Peace of the Kingdom, the Liberty of
the Subject, certainly I should have made a particular Defence
for myself; for by that at leastwise I might have delayed an
ugly Sentence, which I believe will pass upon me. Therefore
certainly, Sir, as a man that hath some understanding, some
knowledge of the world, if that my true zeal to my country had
not overborne the care that I have of my own preservation, I
should have gone another way to work than that I have done. Now,
Sir, I conceive, that an hasty Sentence once passed, may sooner
be repented than recalled; and truly, the self-same desire that
I have for the Peace of the Kingdom, and the Liberty of the
subject more than my own particular, does make me now at last
desire,