Let he with ears hear?

"Dr. Bastwick spake first, and (among other things) said, had he a thousand lives he would give them all up for this cause. Mr. Prynne... showed the disparity between the times of Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, and the times then (of King Charles), and how far more dangerous it was now to write against a bishop or two than against a King or Queen: there at the most there was but six months imprisonment in ordinary prisons, and the delinquent might redeem his ears for �200, and had two months' time for payment, but no fine; here they are fined �5,000 a piece, to be perpetually imprisoned in the remotest castles, where no friends must be permitted to see them, and to lose their ears without redemption. There no stigmatizing, here he must be
branded on both cheeks... He challenged the prelates to a fair dispute. He said, if the people but knew into what times they were cast, and what changes of laws, religion and ceremonies had been made of late by one man [Archbishop Laud], they would look about them. They might see that no degree or profession was exempted from the prelates' malice; here is a divine for the soul, a physician for the body, and a lawyer for the estates, and the next to be censured in Star Chamber is likely to be a bishop... The Archbishop of Canterbury, being informed by his spies what Mr. Prynne said, moved the Lords then sitting in the Star Chamber that he might be gagged and have some
further censure to be presently executed on him; but that motion did not succeed. Mr. Burton... spake much while in the pillory to the people. The executioner cut off his ears deep and close, in a cruel manner, with much effusion of blood, an artery being cut, as there was likewise of Dr. Bastwick. Then Mr. Prynne's cheeks were searedwith an iron made exceeding hot; which done, the executioner cut off one of his ears and a piece of his cheek with it; then hacking the other ear almost off, he left it hanging and went down; but being called up again he cut it quite off."

[The Sentence on Prynne, Burton and Bastwicke, (1637)]