Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 5.djvu/439

1554.] The defence was elaborate, and, on the whole, may have been tolerably true. The Pope would not take the trouble to read it, or even to hear it read; but the substance, as related to him by Morone, convinced him that the Emperor's accusations were exaggerated: to recall a legate at the instance of a secular sovereign was an undesirable precedent; and the commission was allowed to stand. Julius wrote to Charles, assuring him that he was mistaken in the legate's feelings, leaving the Emperor at the same time, however, full power to keep him in Flanders or to send him to England at his own discretion.

Pole was to continue the instrument of the reconciliation; the conditions under which the reconciliation could take place were less easy to settle. The Popes, whose powers are unlimited where the exercise of them is convenient for the interests of the Holy See, have uniformly fallen back upon their inability where they have been called on to make sacrifices. The canons of the Church forbade, under any pretext, the alienation of ecclesiastical property; and until Julius could relinquish ex animo all intention of disturbing the lay holders of the English abbey lands, there was not a chance that the question of his supremacy would