"As the gospels made clear"? No, I subscribe to a historical-critical approach to the New Testament and Christian history, so I don't take what the gospels say at face value. In the context of the Jewish-Roman Wars, the gospels were meant to scapegoat Jews, to separate the budding Jesus movement from that ostracized religion. So the blame for Jesus's crucifixion was shifted from Rome to the NT's gross caricature of the Pharisees.

If there's any historical fact at all recorded in the NT, it's that Jesus was a spiritual Jewish teacher who was crucified, and crucifixion was reserved for political rebels against Rome. The NT ties itself into knots to explain how the Jews were behind a grandiose plot to force Rome to execute Jesus on religious grounds. But no one interested in real history needs to take that Christian propaganda at face value.