French envoy, but there was no use disguising the fact that Francis had the upper hand[574]. The King finally sent Gardiner to Paris to answer the French claims; the instructions which the ambassador received reveal a much more conciliatory attitude than Henry had yet adopted towards France[575]. The gravity of the situation was further confirmed by the seizure and detention at Bordeaux of several English ships, for the recovery of which Cromwell kept writing urgent letters to the Bishop of Winchester[576]. It was at this juncture that the King and his minister made a feeble effort to reap some reward from the mission of Heath and Mont to the Lutherans in the preceding year. Attempts were made to bring the reformer Melancthon to England, or at least to prevent his going to Francis, who had sent for him in order to obtain the support of his followers against Charles[577]. The latter effort was superfluous; the former failed. Melancthon had no intention of going to France, but the King and Cromwell could not persuade him to come to England either. Henry’s agent, Dr. Barnes, however, informed the Lutherans that the King would not refuse to join in an alliance with them for the defence of the Gospel, provided they would support him against the Pope, and he promised them that another ambassador, the Bishop of Hereford, would come and talk further with them[578]. At the close of the year the envoy was received in Germany. Long negotiations followed, at first with some hope of success. A request by the English ambassador that the Germans would unite with his master in a refusal to recognize a General Council convoked by the Pope, was favourably received; and the plenipotentiaries of the Lutherans drew up a response in which they expressed themselves as entirely in accord with Henry in regard to the See of Rome, and offered the King of England the proud title of Defender and Protector of their league. As long as the Bishop of Hereford restricted himself to theological discussion and abuse of the Pope all went well, but when he made the more practical demand for aid to his master in money and ships in case of an invasion, the Germans drew back: they were not prepared to go as far as this until a more complete agreement had been reached in matters of religion. Trouble arose also over the question of the King’s divorce: the Lutherans acknowledged that marriage with a brother’s widow was wrong, but they refused to admit, if such a union had taken place, that it was right to break it[579]. The news of the executions of More and Fisher, moreover, had caused great consternation in Germany, where every effort was being made to introduce the new doctrines without bloodshed; and the Bishop of Hereford was finally sent away empty-handed, the negotiations having resulted in a failure which plainly foreshadowed the events of 1538 and 1539. Taken as a whole, the year 1535 had simply been occupied in playing over again the game of 1534.