Bede the Venerable — as excerpted in the Catena Aurea on Luke 23:13-25

“As if he said, I will subject Him to all the scourgings and mockings you desire, but do not thirst after the innocent blood. It follows, For of necessity he must release one unto them, &c. an obligation not imposed by a decree of the imperial law, but binding by the annual custom of the nation, whom in such things he was glad to please.”