Acts 25:5

“Let those who are influential among you coming down prefer charges, if there is anything criminal in the man.” In a few days Festus returns to Caesarea and the high priest, accompanied by his cohort of ecclesiastical notables, comes down from Jerusalem and stands up in prosecution of Paul, as on former occasions, utterly incompetent to bring against him a solitary charge, criminal in Roman law, but simply allegations of disharmony with the ecclesiasticism of which the Romans knew nothing and cared less. Pursuant to the persistent and vociferous clamors of the Jews, when Festus asked Paul if he was willing to go up to Jerusalem and be tried by him there, he then appeals to Caesar, claiming his right as a Roman citizen to stand at the highest tribunal of the empire, protesting that no one shall take his life merely to gratify the Jews, whom he has in no way injured.