The three hurdles reached Smithfield. Two and two, the prisoners were unbound, and the three evangelicals were conducted to the stake. No trial having been allowed them by the court, these upright and pious men felt it their duty to supply its place at the foot of the scaffold. The day of their death thus became for them the day of hearing. The tribunal was sitting and the assembly was large. Barnes was the first speaker. He said: 'I am come hither to be burned as a heretic.... God I take to record, I never (to my knowledge) taught any erroneous doctrine ... and I neither moved nor gave occasion of any insurrection.... I believe in the Holy and Blessed Trinity; ... and that this blessed Trinity sent down the second person, Jesus Christ, into the womb of the most blessed and purest Virgin Mary.... I believe that through his death he overcame sin, death and hell; and that there is none other satisfaction to the Father, but this his death and passion only.' At these words Barnes, deeply moved, raised his hands to heaven, and prayed God to forgive him his sins. This profession of faith did not satisfy the sheriff. Then some one asked him what he thought of praying to the saints. 'I believe,' answered Barnes, 'that they are worthy of all the honor that Scripture willeth them to have. But, I say, throughout all Scripture we are not commanded to pray to any saints.... If saints do pray for us, then I trust to pray for you within the next half-hour.' He was silent, and the sheriff said to him: 'Well, have you any thing more to say?' He answered: 'Have ye any articles against me for the which I am condemned?' The sheriff answered: 'No.' Barnes then put the question to the people whether any knew wherefore he died. No one answered. Then he resumed: 'They that have been the occasion of it I pray God forgive them, as I would be forgiven myself. And Doctor Stephen, bishop of Winchester that now is, if he have sought or wrought this my death, either by word or deed, I pray God forgive him.... I pray that God may give [the king] prosperity, and that he may long reign among you; and after him that godly prince Edward may so reign that he may finish those things that his father hath begun.'[358] Then collecting himself, Barnes addressed three requests to the sheriff, the prayer of a dying man. The first was that the king might employ the wealth of the abbeys which had been poured into the treasury in relieving his poor subjects who were in great need of it. The second was that marriage might be respected, and that men might not live in uncleanness. The third, that the name of God might not be taken in vain in abominable oaths. These prayers of a dying man, who was sent to the scaffold by Henry himself, ought to have produced some impression on the heart of the king. Jerome and Garret likewise addressed affecting exhortations to the people. After this, these three Christians uttered together their last prayer, shook hands with and embraced each other,