All the rest were condemned. A great fire was kindled at the top of the market-place;[624] a long procession was marshalled, and these unfortunate men were led out, each bearing a fagot. When they came near the fire, they were compelled to throw into it the heretical books that had been found in their rooms, after which they were taken back to their noisome prison. There seemed to be a barbarous pleasure in treating these young and generous men so vilely. In other countries also, Rome was preparing to stifle in the flames the noblest geniuses of France, Spain, and Italy. Such was the reception letters and the Gospel met with from popery in the sixteenth century. [624] There was made a great fire upon the top of Carfax. Foxe, v. p. 428. Every plant of God's must be beaten by the wind, even at the risk of its being uprooted; if it receives only the gentle rays of the sun, there is reason to fear that it will dry up and wither before it produces fruit. _Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone._ There was to arise one day a real church in England, for the persecution had begun. We have to contemplate still further trials. CHAPTER III. Persecution at Cambridge--Barnes arrested--A grand Search--Barnes at Wolsey's Palace--Interrogated by the Cardinal--Conversation between Wolsey and Barnes--Barnes threatened with the Stake--His Fall and public Penance--Richard Bayfield--His Faith and Imprisonment--Visits Cambridge--Joins Tyndale--The Confessors in the Cellar at Oxford--Four of them die--The rest liberated. [Sidenote: SUPREMACY OF SELF IN ROMANISM.]