Note (Back to Main Text) — Chapter III · RECONCILIATION WITH ROME.

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;[378] but they hated Rome, they hated the religious orders, they hated cardinals; and, as to the lands, could the church relinquish them?[379] 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.