October 1554
Messire Simon Renard, Lieutenant of Amont, ambassador of Emperor Charles V at the court of Queen Mary and King Philip of England, for the time in Brussels, to King Philip in London; October 1554.
“. . . I have but this hour left the house of the cardinallegate, to whom I communicated all that your Majesty empowered me to say to him and from whom I received, upon the whole, replies that should satisfy both your Majesty and the parliament of England when it shall meet. I allowed the said cardinal (as your Majesty instructed me) to suppose that it was the ardour of his last letter to your Majesty imploring permission to enter England that had brought me to Brussels; thus he began by setting forth yet again his reasons against the further delay of his arrival in England, but expressed himself happy to recognise your Majesty’s wish that he should now be given leave to depart from here and to resume his journey as soon as may be possible. He consented to enter England as an Englishman by birth, and as the ambassador of a great prince (the pope), but without the emblems and ceremonies of a legate, should such an entry be deemed expedient, and he further agreed that he would not attempt to use in England his legatine powers without the will and consent of your Majesty and the queen. As to the third matter, the enlargement of his powers so that he might, without reference to Rome, be able to remit the obligation of those who have obtained lands of the Church to return the same, he appears to be willing to seek such enlargement from the pope, but still somewhat evaded the question, saying that he would by no means have it appear that obedience to the Church should be, as it were, purchased by the offer of the Church’s property. So that I shall return to this matter tomorrow, in order to have made your Majesty’s conditions for his coming into England entirely clear to him.
“In conclusion I must add that I found in Monsignor Pole, who received me with the utmost dignity and courtesy, none of that silent obstinacy of which the emperor your father and the bishop of Arras have of late had cause to complain, but rather a noble simplicity which in my opinion cannot fail to call forth admiration in his countrymen (from whom he has these twenty years and more been separated) and must work greatly to your Majesty’s advantage when at last he comes to England, as your Majesty’s friend and servant, which he now warmly professes himself to be.”