second witness. Lord Chief Justice Jeffreys (whose conduct of the trial caused much criticism, then and later) ruled: "Scribere est agere" ("to write is to act"). Heneage Finch, the Solicitor General, described the Discourses as "An argument for the people to rise up in arms against the King". In response, Sidney said that it was easy to condemn him by quoting his words out of context: "If you take the scripture to pieces you will make all the penmen of the scripture blasphemous; you may accuse David of saying there is no God and of the Apostles that they were drunk." He argued that he was entitled to write what he chose, as long as he did not publish it. Jeffreys replied that no man has a right to curse the King, in public or in private. Sidney was found guilty of treason and sentenced to death on 26 November. Jeffreys, ill-tempered as ever, said that he hoped God would put Sidney into a proper state to enter the next world "for I see you are not fit for this one". In The Apology of Algernon Sydney, in the Day of his Death, Sidney wrote that his life's work was to: He petitioned the King for mercy on the grounds of Jeffreys' unprofessional conduct, and friends and relatives added their pleas: but the King was as implacable as he had been in the case of William Russell, Lord Russell. Sidney now resigned himself to death, remarking coarsely that for all he cared "the King can make a snuffbox from my arse". On the scaffold, Sidney argued that his conviction was unlawful, disputing the quality of the evidence against him and pointing out various deviations from proper legal procedure at his trial. He also reiterated his objections to absolute monarchy in Discourses Concerning Government, arguing that these did not constitute treason. Still, he observed that he was abstaining from tackling truly "great matters" in this last speech of his, because "We live in an age that makes truth pass for treason". He concluded by declaring that he was dying for the Good Old Cause. He was beheaded on 7 December 1683, and his remains were buried at Penshurst. Discourses Concerning Government For Sidney absolute monarchy was a great political evil. His Discourses Concerning Government (the text for which Sidney lost his life) was written during the Exclusion Crisis, as a response