Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 9.djvu/485

I57I-J THE RTDOLFI CONSPIRACY. 471 fore his grasp after all. He would affront the Catholic world in his own country and beyond it by consenting, and he would gain nothing in return ; ' neither honour, credit, nor safety itself ' could allow him to show Europe that he held so lightly by his creed. Thus on this point of religion sovereigns, ambassa- dors, ministers continued through the spring and sum- mer to argue up and down. The French asked whether the Queen of England ' wished Monsieur to be an atheist that he should abandon his faith at a word for mere worldly advancement.' Elizabeth in her usual 'formulas replied that in England faith and conscience were free ; Monsieur might believe what he pleased ; but the peace of the realm could not be disturbed by a license to use a service forbidden by the law. ' Her son/ Catherine answered, ' would soon be over- come by the Queen's persuasions ; ' the inconvenience at worst would be brief, for the Catholics everywhere felt ' that the match would breed a change of religion throughout Europe.' Elizabeth rejoined that if the case was reversed, if she were going to France to marry Monsieur, and if the exercise of her religion would create trouble there, she would raise no difficulty on any such ground. 1 She hinted that if Monsieur would yield in form she might relieve his conscience by a private permission. La Mothe reminded Catherine that many of the English 1 ' Que si elle avoit a aller en 1'estat do mondict Seigneur et que 1'exercice de sa religion y deust ap- porter du trouble, qu'elle s'en pas- seroit.' La Mothe, May 10 : Di- peches, vol. iv.