had been speaking merely
his own opinion; he had no authority and, therefore, could not enter into
details; if there was to be a reconciliation, he repeated that the Emperor
must make the advances.

The Emperor, Chapuys rejoined, would probably make four conditions: the
King must be reconciled to the Church as well as to himself; the Princess
must be restored to her rank and be declared legitimate; the King must
assist in the war with the Turks, and the league must be offensive as well
as defensive.

Cromwell's answer was more encouraging than Chapuys perhaps desired. The
fourth article, he said, would be accepted at once, and on the third the
King would do what he could; no great objection would be made to the
second; the door was open. Reconciliation with Rome would be difficult,
but even that was not impossible. If the Emperor would write under his own
hand to the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk, and to the Duke of Richmond, who
in mind and body singularly resembled his father, much might be done.

A confidential Minister would not have ventured so far without knowing
Henry's private views, and such large concessions were a measure of the
decline of Anne Boleyn's influence. As regarded the Princess Mary, Chapuys
had found that there was a real disposition to be more kind to her, for
the King had sent her a crucifix which had belonged to her mother,
containing a piece of the true cross, which Catherine had desired that
she should have,[383] and had otherwise showed signs of a father's
affection.

The Emperor himself now appears upon the scene, and the eagerness which he
displayed for a reconciliation showed how little he had really seen to
blame in Henry's conduct. So long as Catherine lived he was bound in
honour to insist on her acknowledgment as queen; but she was gone, and he
was willing to say no more about her. He saw that the intellect and energy
of England were running upon the German lines. Chapuys, and perhaps other
correspondents more trustworthy, had assured him that, if things went on
as they were going, the hold of the Catholic Church on the English people
would soon be lost. The King himself, if he wished it, might not be able
to check the torrent, and the opinion of his vassals and his own imperious
disposition might carry him to the extreme lengths of Luther. The Emperor
was eager to rescue Henry before it was too late from the influences under
which his quarrel with the Pope had plunged him. He prais