legate yet. The emperor held that Mary ought to be married to his son Philip before the relations of England to the see of Rome could be satisfactorily adjusted, and deemed it prudent to keep Pole out of the way til that marriage was accomplished. In England it was suggested that Pole should come to England and marry the queen himself. Pole had no such aspirations, and wrote to the emperor of the great importance of immediately reconciling England with Eome. But the more worldly-minded pope, Julius III perceived that postponement was inevitable and, in order to preserve Pole's mission from an appearance of undignified inactivity, made over to him the unpromising task of endeavouring to make peace between the emperor and Henry II. With this further mission imposed on him, Pole decided to visit the emperor at Brussels, and on his way arrived on 1 Oct. at Trent. Thence, in a second letter to Mary, he protested against the delay of the religious settlement. Passing through the Tyrol, he stayed some days with the cardinal-bishop of Augsburg, at Dillingen, on the Danube, where he received Mary's reply to his first note, stating that she could not restore papal authority offhand. The messenger, Henry Penning, also brought secret messages bidding Pole travel slowly towards Brussels, where he would receive letters from her again. His nephew, Thomas Stafford, visited him at Dillingen, and spoke sharply against Mary's proposed union with Philip. Pole rebuked his presumption. A few days later, when three leagues from Dillingen, he was met by Don Juan de Mendoza, who told him that the emperor thought both his missions untimely, and wished him to come no further till a more favourable opportunity. Pole remonstrated, but returned to Dillingen to await the pope's commands.
That Pole when he went to England would at once have the first place in Mary s confidence was generally anticipated. Accordingly the emperor stopped even his messengers going over to her, and the agents of the English government did the same (cf. Négoc. de Noailles, ii. 224; Cal. State Papers, For., Mary, p. 34). Mary now wrote to him, in official Latin, that his immediate coming would be inexpedient, and subsequently that his coming as legate would be extremely dangerous. The pope endeavoured to meet the difficulty by granting Pole permission, if he found it expedient, to go to England as a private person, resuming the legatine capacity when he could do so with prudence. Pole, however, found a new envoy to plead his cause with the emperor in the person of Friar Peter Soto, once his majesty's confessor, now professor of divinity in the university of Dillingen, whom he sent to Brussels in November. Soto's persuasions seem to have been effective, or Charles himself felt that Pole could no longer do much harm at Brussels. On 22 Dec. the emperor invited him thither, and in January 1554 he gave him a magnificent reception.
Mary's marriage was practically concluded. Pole, who had kept silence on the subject, declared, when asked his private opinion by Soto, that he thought the queen would do well not to marry at all. Wyatt's rebellion in January justified at once such an opinion and the emperor's argument that England was not 'mature' for a legate. Pole was driven to occupy himself with his second mission for peace between the emperor and France. And as the emperor's ministers affirmed that the obstacles to an honourable peace did not proceed from him, he in February left Brussels for Paris. On his way he drew up a very able address to both princes, full of arguments, alike from past experience and from policy, against the continuance of the war. He arrived at St. Denis on 12 March ; the French king received him at Fontamebleau on the 29th. He remained there till 5 April, and made a public entry into Paris on the 8th. He met with a very gratifying reception in France. Personally he produced a most favourable impression on Henry II ; but the conferences, though encouraging, held out slender hopes of peace.
On his return to Brussels he was very coolly received by the emperor (21 April), owing to growing rumours of his dislike of Mary's marriage. Pole vindicated the reticence he had maintained in the first instance, and declared that he cordially accepted the queen's decision when announced to him, believing that it was taken with a view to reform religion, and, if possible, secure the succession. Pole soon found, however, that the emperor wished him to be recalled. Pole referred the matter to the pope, but in the meantime remained at Brussels, while Philip went to England and was married. On 11 July Pole sent Philip a letter of congratulation.
Pole had already been consulted by Mary in spiritual matters, and had rendered himself indispensable. Neither the church nor the realm of England had yet been reconciled to Rome. But numerous bishops and married clergy had already been deprived, and as their places could only be filled by recourse either to the papal legate or to the pope, the queen had presented twelve bishops to Pole, of whom six were consecrated on 1 April. The position of affairs rendered Pole's presence in England absolutely necessary, and the pope urged the emperor not to keep Pole away
