Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 5.djvu/27

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1551.]
EXECUTION OF THE DUKE OF SOMERSET.
7

and at once, that he would have no service used in his dominions which was not allowed by the Church; and if his own ambassador was refused the mass, he should be recalled; 'the cases were not like; the English service was new and naught;' 'the mass was old and approved.'

'Again,' wrote Wotton, 'he went to the Lady Mary, willing me to require your Lordships that she might have her masses still; if not, he would provide for her remedy: and if his ambassador was restrained, he had already given him orders that if the restraint came to-day, he should to-morrow depart, and ours as well.' 'He fell to earnest talk; ' he spoke again of the danger of introducing changes in Edward's infancy, 'who, when he came to his years, would take sharp account of it, and make them know what it was to bring up a king in heresy.' Wotton answered that, 'the Lords of the Council did well understand with what fear and danger they made the alteration; and the greater the peril, the more were they to be praised that would rather venture land, life, and all than not do that that God required at their hands.'[1]

The interview ended stormily. Whether war would follow, the ambassador said he could not tell. He was certain only that the Emperor meant him to believe that there would be war; arid he recommended the council not to press matters to extremity about the Princess for a month or two; 'in that space it should

  1. Wotton to the Council: MS. Germany, bundle 15, State Paper Office.