Your most assured constant Friend,

CHARLES R.”

Warner, 374.

If after the perusal of these documents any doubt can remain of the authenticity of Glamorgan’s commission, it must be done away by the following passage from Clarendon’s correspondence with secretary Nicholas.  Speaking of his intended history, he says, “I must tell you, I care not how little I say in that business of Ireland, since those strange powers and instructions given to your favourite Glamorgan, which appears to me so inexcusable to justice, piety, and prudence.  And I fear there is very much in that transaction of Ireland, both before and since, that you and I were never thought wise enough to be advised with in.  Oh, Mr. Secretary, those stratagems have given me more sad hours than all the misfortunes in war which have befallen the king, and look like the effects of God’s anger towards us.”—­Clarendon Papers, ii. 337.

It appears that the king, even after he had been delivered by the Scots to the parliament, still hoped to derive benefit from the exertions of Glamorgan.  About the beginning of June, 1647, Sir John Somerset, the brother of that nobleman, arrived in Rome with a letter from Charles to Innocent X. The letter is not probably in existence; but the answer of the pontiff shows that the king had solicited pecuniary assistance, and, as an inducement, had held out some hint of a disposition on his part to admit the papal supremacy and the Catholic creed.  Less than this cannot be inferred from the language of Innocent.  Literae illae praecipuam tuam alacritatem ac propensionem ad obediendum Deo in nobis, qui ejus vices gerimus, luculenter declarant ... a majestate tua enixe poscimus, ut quod velle coepit, mox et facto perficiat ... ut aliquo id aggrediaris argumento, quo te te ad Catholicam fidem recepisse intelligamus.  Undoubtedly Charles was making the same experiment with the pontiff which he had just made with his Presbyterian subjects; and as, to propitiate them, he had undertaken to study the Presbyterian doctrines, so he hoped to draw money from Innocent by professing an inclination in favour of the Catholic creed.  But the attempt failed.  The answer was, indeed, complimentary:  it expressed the joy of the pontiff at the perusal of his letter, and exhorted him to persevere in the inquiry till he should come to the discovery of the truth; but it disposed of his request, as Urban had previously disposed of a similar request, by stating that it was inconsistent with the duty of the pope to spend the treasures of his church in the support of any but Catholic princes.  This answer is dated 29th June, 1647.

NOTE B, p. 136.