“It is no small grief to me to perceive that they whom the King’s Majesty my father (whose soul God pardon) made in this world of nothing, in respect of that they be come to now, and at this last end, put in trust to see his will performed, whereunto they were all sworn upon a book (it grieveth me I say) for that love I bear to them, to see both how they break his will, what usurped power they take upon them, in making (as they call it) laws, clean contrary to his proceedings and will, and also against the custom of all Christendom, and in my conscience, against the law of God and his Church, which passeth all the rest. But though you among you have forgotten the King my father, yet both God’s commandment and nature will not suffer me to do so, wherefore with God’s help, I will remain an obedient child to his laws as he left them, till such time as the King’s Majesty, my brother shall have perfect years of discretion, to order the power that God hath sent him, to be a judge in these matters himself, and I doubt not, he shall then accept my so doing better than theirs, who have taken a piece of his power upon them in his minority.”[267] On the 22nd June 1549, she was admonished to send her chaplain and comptroller of her household before the Council, but she replied haughtily that she could not spare her comptroller, and that her chaplain had been sick, that the law made by Parliament was not worth the name of a law, that King Henry’s executors were sworn to his statutes, that her house was her flock, and that she deferred in obedience to King Edward’s laws, till his Majesty were of sufficient years, all of which of course gave great offence. Nevertheless, Edward, in a letter dated August 1549, merely marvelled at his sister’s refusal to conform to the order of Common Prayer lately set forth, and gave a dispensation to the Princess and her household to have private service in her own chamber.[268] The secret of this forbearance lay in the fact that Mary had appealed to the Emperor, who had threatened war if she were molested, and as the country was already entangled in hostilities with France, Edward’s Council thought it prudent to allow her temporarily to practise the old religion. But as soon as peace was signed, and friendship with the Emperor was less important, messengers were again sent to her, and letters from the King, offering to supply her with teachers, who would instruct her ignorance and refute her errors. The permission to have Mass, granted at the point of the sword, was declared to have been limited to a few months only, and to have included none of her servants. She was again warned “to be conformable and obedient to the observation of his Majesty’s laws, to give order that the Mass should be no more used in her house, and that she would embrace and cause to be celebrated in her said house, the communion and other divine services set forth by his Majesty”.[269] On the 3rd February 1551, Mary thus wrote to the King:—