Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 5.djvu/442

422 This language was not even ambiguous; Pole was desired to wait till an answer could be received from England; and the Emperor wrote to Renard, desiring him to lay the circumstances before the Queen and his son. He could believe, he said, that the legate himself meant well, but he had not the same confidence in those who were urging him forward, and the Pope had given no authority for haste or precipitate movements.

The Emperor's letter was laid before a Council of State at Windsor, on the 6th of August; and the council agreed with Charles that the legate's anxieties could not for the present be gratified. He was himself attainted, and Parliament had shown no anxiety that the attainder should be removed. The re-imposition of the Pope's authority was a far more ticklish matter than the restoration of orthodoxy, and the temper of the people was uncertain. The Cardinal had, perhaps, intelligence with persons in England of a suspicious and dangerous kind, and the execution of his commission must depend on the pleasure of the next Parliament. He was not to suppose that he might introduce changes in the constitution of the country by