Deck the Dutch with boughs of holly?

The religious divisions of 17th-century Europe could lead to a potential for conflict at the doors of the embassies of Europe. Since embassies were then, as now, tiny islands of a foreign realm within another country, religious practices that were not tolerated outside the embassy - indeed might be violently repressed - could happen behind the embassy doors.

Such an occurrence happened in 1623, when the pope complained to the Venetian ambassador to Rome that, while he did not object to the inhabitants of the Dutch embassy practicing their (protestant) worship in the embassy, he did object to them doing so while their doors were open, so that the ringing of their bells could be heard by the (Catholic) faithful in the street.

The pope went on to describe an event that had happened when he was a nuncio in France. There, the English had objected to the French citizens wanting to decorate their embassy for the feast of Corpus Christi, probably also for religious reasons. After the personal intervention of the English king, the king of France had accepted that the French did not have the right to decorate the English embassy.

But that was not the end of it. The French king instead decided to arrange a deliberately insulting display of the very best Corpus Christi decorations that could be found, carefully placed in front of the English embassy, but not touching it, and thereby he 'received the blessing and applause of his people'.