as benevolent and
thankful wise as their highnesses have done, and that you will give an
attent and inclinable ear to him."

The legate then left his chair and came forward. He was now fifty-four
years old, and he had passed but little of his life in England; yet
his features had not wholly lost their English character. He had the
arched eye-brow, and the delicately-cut cheek, and prominent eye of
the beautiful Plantagenet face; a long, brown, curling beard flowed
down upon his chest, which it almost covered; the mouth was weak and
slightly open, the lips were full and pouting, the expression
difficult to read. In a low voice, audible only to those who were near
him, he spoke as follows:--"My Lords all, and you that are the Commons
of this present parliament assembled, as the cause of my repair hither
hath been wisely and gravely declared by my Lord Chancellor, so,
before I enter into the particulars of my commission, I have to say
somewhat touching myself, and to give most humble and hearty thanks to
the king's and queen's majesties, and after them to you all--which of
a man exiled and banished from this commonwealth, have restored me to
be a member of the same, and of a man having no place either here or
elsewhere within this realm, have admitted me to a place where to
speak and where to be heard. This I protest unto you all, that though
I was exiled my native country, without just cause, as God knoweth,
yet the ingratitude could not pull from me the affection and desire
that I had to your profit and to do you good.

"But, leaving the rehearsal hereof, and coming more near to the matter
of my commission, I signify unto you all, that my principal travail is
for the restitution of this noble realm to the antient nobility, and
to declare unto you that the See Apostolic, from whence I come, hath a
special respect to this realm above all others; and not without cause,
seeing that God himself, as it were, by providence hath given to this
realm prerogative of nobility above others, which, to make plain unto
you, it is to be considered that this island first of all islands
received the light of Christ's religion."

Going into history for a proof of this singular proposition, the
legate said that the Britons had been converted by the See Apostolic,
"not one by one, as in other countries, as clocks increase the hours
by distinction of times," "but altogether, at once, as it were, in a
moment." The Saxons had brought back he