Nevertheless, he was not believed, and Melancthon complained, that in England the pious doctrine was again oppressed and adversaries triumphed, and that some suspected it was owing to the deliberations for the marriage of the Emperor with the King of England’s daughter. The French ambassador in Rome said that the Pope was in dread, lest Charles should ally himself with the great enemy of the Church. Reginald Pole, then in Rome, wrote to Cardinal Contarini; “They say it is in treaty to give the Princess to the Emperor. May God do what is best.” There was certainly some excuse for these surmises in the Catholic reaction taking place in England, a reaction however that had as little real bearing on an alliance with the Empire as it had, according to some, on a possible reconciliation with the Pope. Those who had opposed the King on the subject of his first divorce, and who still maintained the validity of his marriage with Katharine of Arragon, were as much in danger as ever, none of his subsequent matrimonial complications effacing the resentments which the first had inspired. He was never less inclined, however much he might persecute heretics, to make up his quarrel with Rome, and Cromwell was still the powerful enemy of the Catholic party, in spite of his having been thwarted by the King in his championship of the German reformers. He could still strike with the other side of his two-edged sword, and the terror of his name was great; for although Henry and his chief secretary were at variance on the subject of sacraments, there was a perfect understanding between them in the matter of the royal supremacy, and headship, and as to the coercive measures necessary to enforce them. The principal object of their vengeance at this time was Reginald Pole, not merely on account of the book he had written _On the Unity of the Church_, but more especially because he had appealed to the Emperor to execute the Bull of Deposition fulminated by the Pope against Henry. All attempts to lure him back to England had failed, but he was not therefore to remain entirely unpunished. As it was not possible to strike him directly, he must suffer through the helpless and innocent members of his family, who were still in Henry’s power. In default of the son, there was nothing to prevent reprisals on the mother, and a parliamentary roll, dated 28th April 1539, records the arrest and attainder of Margaret Plantagenet, Countess of Salisbury, of Lord Montague her eldest son, and of several others. The only crimes imputed to them were their correspondence with Reginald Pole and their having “named and promulged that venemous serpent the Bishop of Rome to be supreme head of the Church of England”. A letter from John Worth to Lord Lisle, after Lady Salisbury’s arrest, contains a curious allusion to the old project of betrothing the Princess Mary to her kinsman.