None of Edward’s ministers had been so violently opposed to the old religion, so active in the advancement of the Reformation as Somerset. Calvin wrote to him from Geneva, a letter in which he praised the spiritual work done by the Protector in England, and gave him sundry advice as to the disposal of matters in the Church, thanking him for having presented his works to the young King, and for having taken into his service a boy whom he had recommended.[283] It was not likely that a man whose doings were singled out for approval by Calvin would ever tolerate Mary’s attitude towards Popery, and therefore his fall may be considered a factor in the liberty granted to her. Henceforth, to the end of the reign, she was on good terms with her brother’s ministers, and her name only occurs in the minutes of the Privy Council Registers in reference to warrants for payments to her comptroller, Mr. Rochester, for the maintenance of her household, or for the repairing of her lands “damaged by the rage of the water this last year”. One entry mentions the committal of a man “for stealing the Lady Mary’s hawks”. An account of a visit paid to her at Hunsdon, in September 1552 by Bishop Ridley shows the complete religious freedom which she then enjoyed. She received him courteously, and talked with him very pleasantly for a quarter of an hour, reminding him that she knew him at court, when he was chaplain to her father; and she mentioned a sermon which he had preached at a certain wedding. Then she dismissed him to dine with her household. After dinner, he offered to preach to her in the church, on which she replied, that he might preach, but that neither she nor any of hers would listen. “Madam,” he expostulated, “I trust you will not refuse God’s Word.” “I cannot tell what ye call God’s Word,” answered Mary. “That is not God’s Word now which was God’s Word in my father’s days.” “God’s Word is all one in all times, but is better understood and practised in some ages than in others,” replied Ridley. [Illustration: THE PRINCESS MARY. From the original portrait in the possession of the Marquis of Exeter.] “You durst not for your ears have avouched that for God’s Word in my father’s days that now do you,” she retorted, “and as for your new books, I thank God I never read any of them; I never did nor ever will do.” In dismissing him she said, “My lord, for your gentleness to come and see me, I thank you; but for your offering to preach before me I thank you never a whit”. Before leaving, he drank according to custom a stoup of wine with Mary’s steward, but suddenly felt a qualm of conscience, and exclaimed, “I have done amiss. I have drunk in that place where God’s Word offered hath been refused. I ought, if I had done my duty, to have departed immediately, and to have shaken the dust off my shoes for a testimony against this house.”[284]