fin que pour faire s'il
est possible tomber le gouvernement absolu de ce
royaulme entre les mains de ce roy.--Noailles to
the King of France, October 21: _Ambassades_, vol.
v.]

As the opening of the session approached, Elizabeth was sent again
from the court to be out of sight and out of reach of intrigue; and
Mary had the mortification of knowing that her sister's passage
through London was a triumphal procession. The public enthusiasm
became so marked at last that the princess was obliged to ride forward
with a few servants, leaving the gentlemen who were her escort to keep
back the people. Fresh alarms, too, had risen on the side of the
papacy. Cardinal Caraffa, Paul IV. as he was now named, on assuming
the tiara, had put out a bull among his first acts, reasserting the
decision of the canons on the sanctity of the estates of the church,
and threatening laymen who presumed to withhold such property from its
lawful owners with anathemas. In a conversation with Lord Montague,
the English ambassador at Rome, he had used language far from
reassuring on the concessions of his predecessor; and some violent
demonstration would undoubtedly have been made in parliament, had not
Paul been persuaded to except England especially from the general
edict.

Even then the irritation was not allayed, and a whole train of sorrows
was in store for Mary from the violent character of Caraffa. Political
popes have always been a disturbing element in the European system.
Paul IV., elected by French influence, showed his gratitude by
plunging into the quarrel between France and the Empire. He imprisoned
Imperialist cardinals in St. Angelo; he persecuted the Colonnas on
account of their Imperialist tendencies, levelled their fortresses,
and seized their lands. The Cardinal of Lorraine hastened to Rome to
conclude an alliance offensive and defensive on behalf of France; and
the queen, distracted between her religion and her duty as a wife, saw
Philip on the point of being drawn into parricidal hostility {p.237}
with his and her spiritual father. Nay, she herself might be involved
in the same calamity; for so bitter was the English humour that the
liberal party in the council were inclined to take part in the war, if
they would have the pope for an enemy; and Philip would be too happy
in their support to look too curiously to the motives of it.[510]