It would be much safer to resign everything and submit to his mercy"; thus spake Hilary, of Chichester, and his fellow-bishops all urged resignation or submission.
Two days later the Archbishop came into the Council in full robes with the Cross in his hand.

Earl Robert, of Leicester, rose to pass sentence upon him and at once the Archbishop refused to hear him.

"Neither law nor reason permit children to pass sentence on their father," he declared.

"I will not hear this sentence of the King, or any judgment of yours.

For, under God, I will be judged by the Pope alone, to whom before you all here I appeal, placing the Church of Canterbury under God's protection and the protection of the Pope." There were shouts of anger at these words, and some tore rushes from the floor and flung at him, but no one dared to stop the Archbishop's passage as he passed from the hall.