persisted

Then they read the law to him, but he persisted in intruding, exclaiming that he ought to be allowed. He said, “Even if they were deprived of this honor, I shouldn’t be.”

Saturninus the proconsul read out the decree from the tablet: Speratus, Nartzalus, Cittinus, Donata, Vestia, Secunda and the rest having confessed that they live according to the Christian rite, since after opportunity offered them of returning to the custom of the Romans they have obstinately persisted, it is determined that they be put to the sword.

And when he persisted in this statement, Pentephris said: Let the youth be brought.

And I beheld and lo! that vine opened its mouth and spoke and said to that cedar: Art you not that cedar which was left of the forest of wickedness, and by whose means wickedness persisted, and was wrought all those years, and goodness never.