476 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. JCH. 45 they would perhaps reconsider the situation and troubles might ensue, of which I, as the minister of your Majesty who so ardently desired her well-being, could not but give her honest warning. ' She went into the subject at some length. She said that those who were engaged upon it had given her to understand that it was for her own good, and had pro- mised every one of them to stand by her and defend her against all her enemies. ' I told her she could not but see that these new re- ligionists were only frightening her in order that they might bring her to declare more decisively for them and against the Catholics. They pretended that if she se- parated herself from them if she did not yield in all points to what they wished she would be in danger on account of the sentence which had been given at Rome in favour of Queen Catherine. I could assure her that she had but to express a desire to that effect and the Pope would immediately remove the difficulty ; I knew, in fact, that he was extremely anxious to remove it. Being her father's daughter, born in his house, having been named by him with consent of Parliament to suc- ceed after her sister, and being Queen in possession, she had nothing really to fear she would find powerful friends everywhere. ' It was true, she admitted, that the Pope had of- fered to reverse the sentence, but he had made it a con- dition that she should submit to him absolutely and unreservedly. ' If his Holiness had done this, I said, he was not
