This was going too far: proceedings were commenced against those who had thus braved the king's articles. Jerome appeared before Henry VIII. at Westminster. The poor fellow, intimidated by the royal majesty, tremblingly acknowledged that the sacraments were necessary for salvation; but he was burnt five years after in the cause of the Gospel. Gale and others were accused of heresy and treason before the criminal court. The books were not spared. There were some, indeed, that went beyond all bounds. One, entitled _The little garden of the soul_,[416] contained a passage, in which the beheading of John the Baptist and of Anne Boleyn were ascribed to the same motive—the reproach of a criminal love uttered against two princes: one by Anne, and the other by John. Henry compared to Herod! Anne Boleyn to Saint John the Baptist! Tonstall denounced this audacious publication to Cromwell. The crown-officers were to see that the doctrines of the pope were taught everywhere; but, without the pope and his authority, this system has no solid foundation. The Holy Scriptures, to which evangelical Christians appeal, is a firm foundation. The authority of the pope—a vicious principle—at least puts those who admit it in a position to know what they believe. But catholicism with Romish doctrine and without the pope, has no ground to stand on. Non-Roman-catholicism has but a treacherous support. Another system had already, in the sixteenth century, set up reason as the supreme rule; but it presents a thousand different opinions, and no absolute truth. There is but one real foundation: _Thy word is truth_, says Jesus Christ. [393] Wilkins, _Concilia_, iii. p. 817. [394] Wilkins, _Concilia_, iii. p. 818. [395] Bossuet, _Histoire des Variations_, liv. vii. § 30. [396] Wilkins, _Annals_, iii. p. 819. [397] Bossuet, _Histoire des Variations_, liv. vii. § 26. [398] _Ibid._ § 25. [399] Council of Trent, sixth session, canons 9 & 11. [400] Bossuet, _Variations_, liv. vii. § 26. [401] _Ibid._ [402] _Ibid._ § 27. [403] Wilkins, _Concilia_, iii. p. 822. [404] Bossuet, _Variations_, liv. vii. § 28. [405] Lord Herbert of Cherbury, p. 470. [406] Heylin, _Ecclesia vindicata_, p. 15. Anderson, _Annals of the English Bible_, i. p. 507. [407] Wilkins, _Concilia_, iii. pp. 823, 827. [408] 'Nullius Synodi finem vidi bonum.'—_Ibid._ p. 808. [409] Wilkins, _Concilia_, iii. p. 814. [410] _State Papers_, i. p. 383. Coverdale's _Remains_, p. 490. The letter is dated the 1st of May, but has no year: it appears to me to be 1530. [411] Such copies may be found at the British Museum, and in the libraries at Lambeth and Sion College. [412] Strype, i. p. 442. [413] _Ibid._ i. p. 443. [414] Foxe, _Acts_, v. p. 429. [415] 'Two cobblers and weavers, in company, elected in the name of God, there was the true Church of God.'—Strype, _Records_, i. p. 443. [416] _Hortulus animæ._—Strype, i. p. 444.