the fact that my Treasury is so utterly exhausted as to be unable to meet the most pressing ordinary expenditure, much less new and onerous burdens: bearing in mind these and many other difficulties no less grave, ... I nevertheless cannot lose sight of the enormous importance of such a match to Christianity and the preservation of religion, which has been restored in England by the help of God. Seeing the importance that the country should not relapse into its former errors, which would cause to our neighbouring dominions serious dangers and difficulties, I have decided to put aside all other considerations which might be urged against it, and am resolved to render this service to God, and offer to marry the Queen of England; and I will use every possible effort to effect this, if it can be done on the conditions that will be explained to you. The first and most important is that you should satisfy yourself that the Queen will profess the same religion that I do, the same that I ever shall hold, and that she will persevere in the same and uphold it in the country, doing with that end all that may appear necessary to me. She will have to obtain secret absolution from the Pope and the necessary dispensation, so that when I marry her she will be a Catholic, which she has not hitherto been. In this way it is evident and manifest that I am serving the Lord in marrying her, and that she has been converted by my act. You will not propose any conditions until you see how the Queen is disposed towards the matter itself; and mark well that you must first broach the subject alone, as she has already opened the door to such an approach.”[138] Later Philip mentions that the clause in his marriage treaty with Mary granting Flanders to the issue of the marriage could not be conceded in the case of Elizabeth.