In 1559 the odds seemed in favour of reaction, if only its supporters were whole-hearted enough to put aside for the time national rivalries. The Treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis, concluded scarcely a month before Knox reached Scotland (April 1559), had secret clauses which bound the Kings of France and Spain to crush the Protestantism of Europe, in terms which made the young Prince of Orange, when he learned them, vow silently to devote his life to protect his fellow-countrymen and drive the "scum of the Spaniards" out of the Netherlands. Henry II. of France, with his Edict of Chateaubriand and his _Chambre Ardente_, with the Duke of Guise and the Cardinal Lorraine to counsel him, and Diane of Poitiers to keep him up to the mark, was doing his best to exterminate the Protestants of France. Dr. Christopher Mundt kept reporting to Queen Elizabeth and her Minister the symptoms of a general combination against the Protestants of Europe--symptoms ranging from a proposed conquest of Denmark to the Emperor's forbidding members of his Household to attend Protestant services.[309] Throckmorton wrote almost passionately from Paris urging Cecil to support the Scottish Lords of the Congregation; and even Dr. Mundt in Strassburg saw that the struggle in Scotland was the most important fact in the European situation.[310] Yet it was difficult for Cecil to send the aid which Knox and the Scottish Protestants needed sorely. It meant that the sovereign of one country aided men of another country who were _de jure_ rebels against their own sovereign. It seemed a hazardous policy in the case of a Queen like Elizabeth, who was not yet freed from the danger arising from rebellious subjects. There was France, with which England had just made peace. Cecil had difficulties with Elizabeth. She did not like Calvin himself. She had no sympathy with his theology, which, with its mingled sob and hosanna, stirred the hearts of oppressed peoples. There was Knox and his _Blast_, to say nothing of his appealing to the commonalty of his country. "God keep us from such visitations as Knockes hath attempted in Scotland; the people to be orderers of things!" wrote Dr. Parker to Cecil on the 6th of November.[311] Yet Cecil knew--no man better--that if the Lords of the Congregation failed there was little hope for a Protestant England, and that Elizabeth's crown and Dr. Parker's mitre depended on the victory of Knox in Scotland.