it.* These warnings she repeated in another letter a fortnight later. Pole was hurt as well as discouraged. He observed that now her Majesty put him at the distance of the Latin language, whereas she had written her first letter in English. "Is it," he said, "because you think that I have lost the use of my native speech? Methought indeed I could discern, when I turned to the last page of your letters, that it was your own hand that had written your name there: but, oh, the letters themselves were in Latin!" To the Pope he wrote, "Doubtless it is from the Imperialists that these letters of the Queen proceed for at the very hour when she agreed with my messenger that it would be well for me to advance to Brussels, she said that it would be well to communicate this to the Emperor: and, at that very hour, when my messenger went out, the Emperor's ambassadors came in." He was right in part. Renard, the Imperial ambassador, gave a caution to Mary against receiving him but Gardiner, no less than Renard, saw that the appearance of a legate at that time would have cast the throne of Mary to the ground. Pole paused to consider his position. "I am commissioned," said he, "to the Cæsar and to the Most Christian King. I am the messenger of peace between them. Deferring the business of England, I will make fresh overtures to the Cæsar, though I am denied his court." || The Emperor

* "Adeo enim Delegatio tua publica est suspecta et nostris subditis odiosa, ut maturior accessus, licet desideratissimus, plus prejudicii quam auxilii fuerit allaturus. Fidele testimonium nobis præstat Comitiorum indictorum et inceptorum series et progressus, in quibus plus difficultatis fit circa auctoritatem Sedis Apostolicæ quam circa veræ religionis cultum, adeo falsis suggestionibus sunt alienati subditorum animi a Pontifice." Poli Epist. iv. 119. It is in this letter that she complains of Commendone's patefactions in the Consistory. (Above, p. 102.) It is of October 28. + Nov. 15. Poli Epist. iv. 121.

Dillingen, Dec. 1. Poli Epist. iv. 123.

§ Pole to Julius. Ven. Cal. p. 438.

"An abbot belonging to Cardinal Pole hath declared here that the

coldly rejoined that he was never averse to peace: but that nothing could be done before the mind of the French King were known. "Then I will "Then I will go to France," said Pole. "Go to England," cried the Pope, "go if not as a legate, yet as a private person": * but Pole responded not. He felt however that the delay was rendering him somewhat ridiculous, though it was unavoidable: and he was not unwilling to admonish Mary.

His wound received indeed from Mary the balm of another letter: of a letter written, if not in English, yet not in Latin; for it was written in Italian, and contained expressions of kind affection t; in which she did him the honour of inquiring whether it were to him or to the Pope that she should apply concerning the filling of bishoprics and benefices to be voided by the operation of the recent decree of Parliament against marriage of clergy and she afterwards sent him a list of twelve persons to be presented by him to the Pope for promotion to vacant sees. But there lay between them one subject.

Pope hath made the said Cardinal legate a latere to the Emperor, and to the French King, and having done with them to your Highness. And albeit this abbot speaketh of his master's going into England, yet so far as I can learn, it is after this sort, that when the Cardinal hath done with these two princes, then he will tarry to see whether he shall be admitted and received into England." Wotton to Mary, from France, Oct. 27. Tytler, ii. 249: Turnbull's For. Cal. 19. The abbot was no doubt Parmiglia, of St. Salute.

* "Permittimus et damus veniam ut, quam tibi res id poscere videatur, deposito tantisper legationum, quibus nunc fungeris, nomine atque insignibus, privato tuo nomine in Angliam te conferre possis." Pope Julius to Pole, Dec. 8, in Raynaldus, Annales, 1553, § 15, p. 744.

+ The other letter began "Reverendissime": this one "Most reverend lord and my good cousin," ending, "your most affectionate and most friendly cousin so long as the present life shall last me." Mary to Pole, Jan. 23, 1554. Ven. Cal. 453.

This passage is curious, containing a saving of the rights of the kingdom in the midst of civilities. "Owing to the change of religion many persons who seem to be heretics, as also married priests, are found in the

upon which both were silent: which caused that distance which had pained, that pain which had touched, the minds of Pole and Mary: it was the Spanish marriage, that was beginning to be moved. By way of answering her letters the Cardinal despatched into England one of his familiars, Thomas Goldwell, afterwards Bishop of St. Asaph, with elaborate instructions for a fresh communication to be held with the Queen. "Tell her," said Pole, "for your commission is to answer certain questions that she put to me in letters written in the Latin tongue, that if Parliament, by the signs that she sees, be reluctant that she should renounce the title of Supremacy of the Church in her realm, suspecting that to be an introduction of the Pope's authority, she must attain by prayer the spirit of counsel and strength, and be no less ardent in leaving the title, to maintain her right, than her father was in taking it to the privation of her right. If she should lose both her state and life withal, still it is her duty, by the example of the best men of her realm. But who is to do this thing? When I look on the lords spiritual, I see none but that have by sentence and writing defended

enjoyment of the principal ecclesiastical benefices of the realm: among whom are certain prelates, both archbishops and bishops, who have been deprived and dismissed their sees by the last decree of Parliament: the Queen not wishing to attempt anything against the authority of the Pope and the Apostolic See, nor against the privileges and ancient customs enjoyed and observed by the kings of England her predecessors, before this evil modern religion was introduced into the realm, has thought well to give Pole notice of this that she may learn how without scruple of conscience to provide for the said churches until the obedience of the Catholic and Apostolic Church be again established in England: and she requests him to inform her if by virtue of his faculty he has authority to confirm the collation to these benefices, or whether the Pope has reserved this to himself." Ib. About a month afterwards she sent him a list, which is not preserved, of twelve bishops for presentation to the Pope, to be "confirmed and inducted in these churches according to the mode employed before the introduction of the schism." She requests him to send them to his Holiness, so that she may have the presentations, and the Pope may confirm and institute them. Ib. p. 471.

the contrary cause: among the lords temporal and the commons I see none that are not enjoying the goods of the Church through denying the authority of the Church. I see but one person only that is able to propose this matter. That person is herself! Tell her to go and do it in both Houses. Jointly with that she may entreat of the Pope's Legate in my person, that the law of my exile may be abolished, and I restored in name and blood. If this way be not followed, I may be recalled to Italy; for the College of Cardinals may think that his Holiness has been too bountiful in sending me, when they hear of my staying without their consent. Some of them at the beginning would have had him not send his Legate until he should have been required: they will now think that he should be revoked, having been sent and not accepted. And her Grace and her whole realm standing still in peril by reason of the schism yet remaining! My fear is for the future in that case. If I had been accepted as promptly as I was sent, I should have been of more comfort to her highness than any stranger: but if I return to Rome unaccepted, I shall be a greater proof of the obstinacy of the schism than another would have been. This may happen: for his Holiness and the College of Cardinals will not suffer the indignity of my staying long. Inform her of the peril.

"The Queen has written to me," continued Pole, "concerning those persons whom she intended to make bishops: how that they might be provided for, without derogation to the authority of the See Apostolic: not designing further to extend the power of the Crown regal than was in use before the schism entered.

As to that,

I sent it to

you know and may declare my sentence. you in a former letter, and here I repeat it; this it is: that on the one hand no one who has fallen into the schism may assume any ecclesiastical cure until he be

reconciled: but that, if on the other hand, before the return of the whole realm to the obedience of the Holy See be determined by Parliament, single persons should request absolution for themselves, this may be granted : and the contrary counsel is poisonous and dangerous: so that her Majesty may in this way fill the sees of which she has the nomination.* Her Majesty complains that Commendone told secrets in the Consistory. If she knew what he said, and how much she was extolled, she would be pleased, not angry. She sends me two Acts passed by her Parliament; the one to affirm legitimate the matrimony between her father and mother; the other concerning the Sacraments of the Church, that they are to be used under the manner that they were in the last year of her father. Both are defective: the one in omitting the principal matter, and making no mention of the Pope's dispensation: the other in that it opens the gate to the use of the Sacraments to those who are not yet entered into the unity of the Church, whereas it is never approved by the Church that persons remaining in schism should have the right use of the Sacraments, but rather to interdict the use of them. This Act declares how they should be ministered! And it refers to the time

* I have interpolated all this about a former letter containing Pole's opinion about filling the vacant sees from a letter which Pole addressed "to his Agent in England." Ven. Cal. p. 495: judging that it was this that he referred to when he said, "you know my sentence." The Pope had given Pole the business to settle for afterwards, in 1555, when several of the English sees were provided for by Paul IV., that pontiff observed that his predecessor Julius had granted Pole full faculty for filling vacant sees, in accordance with the supplication of Queen Mary. Consistorial Acts in Poli Epist. v. 133, or Raynaldus, Annals, p. 522. The principle of proceeding individually pending the general reconciliation, which Pole announced, is to be noticed. His vigour in denouncing as poisonous the contrary counsel was levelled against the Imperialist or Spanish party, with the Emperor at their head, who were not anxious to suggest concessions. Pole had several conversations with the Emperor in Brussels at this time, in which this tendency was shown.