Series 1 > Papal negotiations with Mary Queen of Scots during her reign in Scotland, 1561-1567

INTRODUCTION
CXXX1X
I was disappointed in not finding more at Besamjon. There
are numerous letters there addressed to Cardinal Granvelle
by Anne of Lorraine, Duchess of Aerschot, Mary’s grand¬
aunt and constant correspondent. I do not doubt that they
contain much interesting information about Scotland, but
unfortunately the handwriting is so bad that a passing
traveller has not the time to master it. There was no difference
between A, d, f, g, s, v, nor between i, p, x, and final n;
there was no fixity of grammar or of spelling. Such passages
as I did laboriously decipher indicated that interesting matter
could not be very far off, but I was reluctantly obliged to
leave further research to resident scholars. I noticed, how¬
ever, that M. Weiss, in his Papiers d'fitat du Cardinal Gran¬
velle, only printed such of her letters as the cardinal himself
had had recopied, in order to read them at leisure.
The Archives of the Society of Jesus have suffered greatly
during the various revolutions and troubles of the last hundred
years. Part is now in the Archivio di Stato at Rome (p. 510),
part has been taken away by the dispersed Fathers. Descrip¬
tions of these latter volumes will be found in the periodical
publication entitled Monumenta Historica Societatis Jesu,
Madrid, 1894, etc. The codices used in this volume are
catalogued in Fasciculus lv. (pp. Ixii., Ixiv.), which forms the
Introduction to the Epistoloe P. Nadal. Minute descriptions
of the codices relating to the German Jesuits in particular
will be found in the Introductions by Father O. Braunsberger,
S. J., to his Epistulce et Acta B. P. Canisii,1 Freiburg im
Breisgau, 1896, etc.
Suffice it here to say that the letters which concern us are
chiefly taken from the correspondence of the generals. Their
1 The recently published third volume of this work (1901) gives at p. 525 a
note on the literature connected with de Gouda’s mission. I notice that Father
Braunsberger now prefers ‘ Florissen ’ as de Gouda’s family name. He identifies
the ‘third’ Scot mentioned, p. 479, No. 1 infra, v/ith George Hay, a name
which seems to occur in the registers of the German College at Rome.