Bullinger in Burnet (ed. Pocock, vi., 194, 195).]

These proceedings created as much satisfaction among the Lutherans of
Germany as they did disgust at Rome, and an alliance between Henry and
the Protestant princes seemed to be dictated by a community of religious,
as well as of political, interests. The friendship between Francis and
Charles threatened both English and German liberties, and it behoved
the two countries to combine against their common foe. Henry's manifesto
against the authority of the Pope to summon a General Council had been
received with rapture in Germany; at least three German editions were
printed, and the Elector of Saxony and the Landgrave of Hesse urged on
him the adoption of a common policy.[1062] English envoys were (p. 382)
sent to Germany with this purpose in the spring of 1538, and German
divines journeyed to England to lay the foundation of a theological
union.[1063] They remained five months, but failed to effect an
agreement.[1064] To the three points on which they desired further
reform in England, the Communion in both kinds, the abolition of
private masses and of the enforced celibacy of the clergy, Henry
himself wrote a long reply,[1065] maintaining in each case the
Catholic faith. But the conference showed that Henry was for the time
anxious to be conciliatory in religious matters, while from a political
point of view the need for an alliance grew more urgent than ever. All
Henry's efforts to break the amity between Francis and Charles had
failed; his proposals of marriage to imperial and French princesses
had come to nothing; and, in the spring of 1539, it was rumoured that
the Emperor would further demonstrate the indissolubility of his
intimacy with the French King by passing through France from Spain to
Germany, instead of going, as he had always hitherto done, by sea, or
through Italy and Austria. Cromwell seized the opportunity and
persuaded Henry to strengthen his union with the Protestant princes by
seeking a wife from a German house.

[Footnote 1062: Gairdner, _Church History_, p. 195;
_L. and P._, XII., i., 1310; ii. 1088-89.]

[Footnote 1063: _L. and P._, XIII., i., 352, 353,
367, 645, 648-50, 1102, 1166, 1295, 1305, 1437.]

[Footnote 1064: _Ibid._, XIII., ii., 741; Cranmer,
_Works_, ii., 397; Burnet, i., 408; Strype, _Eccl.
Mem._,