A fourth culprit at length appeared before the council. He was a poor man, simple-minded, and of mean appearance. Some loose sheets of a book lay upon the table in front of the bishop of Winchester. 'Marbeck,' said the bishop, 'dost thou know wherefore thou art sent for?' 'No, my lord,' he replied. The bishop, taking up some of the sheets, said to him: 'Understandest thou the Latin tongue?' 'No, my lord,' he answered, 'but simply.' Gardiner then stated to the council that the book he held in his hand was a Concordance, and that it was translated word for word from the original compiled for the use of preachers. He asserted 'that if such a book should go forth in English, it would destroy the Latin tongue.' Two days later Gardiner again sent for Marbeck. 'Marbeck,' said the bishop, 'what a devil made thee to meddle with the Scriptures?[424] Thy vocation was another way ... why the devil didst thou not hold thee there?... What helpers hadst thou in setting forth thy book?' 'Forsooth, my lord,' answered Marbeck, 'none.' 'It is not possible that thou should'st do it without help,' exclaimed the bishop. Then addressing one of his chaplains: 'Here is a marvellous thing; this fellow hath taken upon him to set out the Concordance in English, which book, when it was set out in Latin, was not done without the help and diligence of a dozen learned men at least, and yet will he bear me in hand that he hath done it alone.' Then, addressing Marbeck, he said: 'Say what thou wilt, except God himself would come down from heaven and tell me so, I will not believe it.' Marbeck was taken back to prison, and was placed in close confinement, with irons on his hands and feet. He was five times examined; and on the fifth occasion a new charge was brought against him;--he had written out with his own hand a letter of John Calvin.[425] This was worse than spending his time over the Bible. Gardiner exerted himself to the utmost to secure the condemnation of this man to death, in company with Testwood, Filmer, and Peerson. The queen was now hardly on the throne. These three Christians were burnt alive; and they met death with so much humility, patience, and devotion to Jesus, their only refuge, that some of the bystanders declared that they would willingly have died with them and like them.[426] But the persecutors failed in their attempt with respect to Marbeck. Cranmer was able to convince the king that the making of a Concordance to the Bible ought not to be visited with death. It is well known that Henry VIII. attached much importance to the Holy Scriptures, which he considered the most powerful weapon against the pope. Marbeck, therefore, was spared. [Sidenote: WAR WITH FRANCE.]