all, could be managed better without his irritating presence.
Pole himself had found the Emperor more gracious. Charles professed the greatest anxiety that the Papal authority should be restored. He doubted only if the difficulties could be surmounted. Pole replied that the obstacles were chiefly two—one respecting doctrine, on which no concession could be made at all; the other respecting the lands, on which his Holiness would make every concession. He would ask for nothing, he would exact nothing; he would abandon every shadow of a claim.
If this was the case, the Emperor said, all would go well. Nevertheless, there was the reservation in the brief, and the Pope, however generous he might wish to be, was uncertain of his power. The doctrine was of no consequence. People in England believed one doctrine as little as another;[1] but they hated Rome, they hated the religious orders, they hated cardinals; and as to the lands, could the Church relinquish them?[2] 2 Pole might believe that she could; but the world would be more suspicious, or less easy to convince. At all events, the dispensing powers must be clogged with no reservations; nor could he come to any decision till he heard again from England.
The legate was almost hopeless; yet his time of
