Almost from Mary’s accession Cardinal Pole had been held back from his mission by the action of the Emperor, thanks mainly to the complaisancy of the new Pope Julius III. The great difficulty was the question of the restitution of the Church property which had been confiscated in the previous reigns. There were few noble courtly families in England which had not indeed been enriched from this source; and the Emperor expressed his opinion to Pole that the English people cared neither for one form of faith or the other, so long as they could keep their property.[73] “Pole,” said the Venetian ambassador at Brussels, “might beg for permission to go to England for ten thousand years without avail, unless he went with the briefs confirming the alienation of the Church properties: for if the Church insists upon reclaiming them disorder will prevail throughout the country.” At last the Cardinal had to accept the inevitable, not without some bitterness of heart,[74] and steps were taken in the Parliament, which met at Westminster early in November, to reverse the act of attainder against him. His coming was regarded in some sense by the country as that of a restraining force upon the dreaded Spanish influence in the English Councils. He was known to be single-minded in his attachment both to the Church and to England. He was not ambitious, and had nothing to gain by serving as a tool for anti-English forces, whilst his rank, his ability, and his good repute promised that his authority would be great, even if necessary, against the foreign King-Consort. On the 5th November, 1554, a deputation was despatched by Mary, consisting of Lords Paget and Hastings and Sir William Cecil, to invite Pole to England, not ostensibly as Legate, but as Cardinal and ambassador, on condition that the Pope would consent to the present owners of the ecclesiastical lands being left unmolested. Renard had already been sent over to Flanders to persuade Pole of the need for this proviso, and had returned successful. The Cardinal was ready, and rejoiced greatly when Sir John Mason, the English ambassador, told him the news; though, “Marry, quoth he, you know I am at this present, as it were, in another’s ward [keeping].—I must depart when it please the Emperor, who is not at all times to be spoken withal. I have already one sent to M. d’Arras (_i.e._, Granvelle) to be my mean to have access to his Majesty to take my leave.... Marry, the truth is that they have had as yet no news out of England of the Queen’s determination.”[75] Mason assured the Cardinal that it was all settled and that the embassy named had been despatched to fetch him.