On the following Sunday Barnes preached. The lord-mayor and Gardiner, side by side, and many other _reporters_, says the Chronicle, were present at the service. The preacher vigorously defended the doctrine attacked by the bishop; but unfortunately, he indulged, like him, in attempts at wit, and even in a play upon his name, complaining of the _gardener_ who would not take away the tares from the garden of the Lord. This punning would anywhere have been offensive; it was doubly offensive in the pulpit in the presence of the bishop himself. 'Punning,' says one, 'the poorest kind of would-be wit.' Barnes, however, appears to have been conscious of his fault; for before he closed his discourse he humbly begged Gardiner, in the presence of all his hearers, to lift up his hand, if he forgave him. Gardiner lifted up only a finger. Garret preached energetically the next Sunday; but he studiously avoided offending any one. Lastly, Jerome preached, and taking up the passage relating to Sarah and Hagar in the epistle of St. Paul to the Galatians, maintained that all those who are born of Sarah, the lawful wife, that is, who have been regenerated by faith, are fully and positively justified.[324] Bishop Gardiner and his friends lost no time in complaining to the king of the 'intolerable arrogance of Barnes.' 'A prelate of the kingdom to be thus insulted at Paul's Cross!' said the former ambassador to France. Henry sent for the culprit to his cabinet. Barnes confessed that he had forgotten himself, and promised to be on his guard against such rash speeches in future. Jerome and Garret likewise were reprimanded; and the king commanded the three evangelists to read in public on the following Sunday, at the solemn Easter service celebrated in the church of St. Mary's Hospital, a retractation which was delivered to them in writing. They felt bound to submit unreservedly to the commands of the king. Barnes, therefore, when the 4th of April was come, ascended the pulpit and read word for word the official paper which he had received. After this, turning to the bishop of Winchester, who was present by order of the king, he earnestly and respectfully begged his pardon. Having thus discharged, as he believed, his duty, first as a subject, then as a Christian, he felt bound to discharge also that of a minister of God. He therefore preached powerfully the doctrine of salvation by grace, the very doctrine for which he was persecuted. The lord-mayor, who was sitting by Gardiner's side, turned to the bishop and asked him whether he should send him from the pulpit to ward for that his bold preaching contrary to his retractation.[325] Garret and Jerome having followed the example of Barnes, the king gave orders that the three evangelists should be taken and confined in the Tower. 'Three of our best ministers,' wrote Butler to Bullinger, 'are confined in the Tower of London. You may judge from this of our misfortunes.'[326] [Sidenote: EDITIONS OF THE BIBLE.]