_Epist._ Reg. Pol. vol. v.]

And the legate; but the legate has described his emotions in his own
inimitable manner. Pole went back to Lambeth, not to rest, but to pour
out his soul to the Holy Father.

In his last letter he said "he had told his holiness that he had hoped
that England would be recovered to the fold at last; yet he had then
some fears remaining, so far estranged were the minds of the people
from the Holy See, lest at the last moment some compromise might ruin
all."

But the godly forwardness of the king and queen had overcome every
difficulty; and on that evening, the day of St. Andrew--of Andrew who
first brought his brother Peter to Christ--the realm of England had
been brought back to its obedience to Peter's See, and through Peter
to Christ. The great act had been accomplished, accomplished by the
virtue and the labour of the inestimable sovereigns with whom God had
blessed the world.

"And oh," he said, "how many things, how great things, may the church
our mother, the bride of Christ, promise herself from these her
children? Oh piety! oh antient faith! Whoever looks on them will
repeat the words of the prophet of the church's early offspring; 'This
is the seed which the Lord hath blessed.' How earnestly, how lovingly,
did your holiness favour their marriage; a marriage formed after the
very pattern of that of our Most High King, who, being Heir of the
world, was sent down by his Father from his royal throne, to be at
once the Spouse and the Son of the Virgin Mary, and be made the
Comforter and the Saviour of mankind: and, in like manner, the
greatest {p.175} of all the princes upon earth, the heir of his
father's kingdom, departed from his own broad and happy realms, that
he might come hither into this land of trouble, he, too, to be spouse
and son of this virgin; for, indeed, though spouse he be, he so bears
himself towards her as if he were her son, to aid in the
reconciliation of this people to Christ and the church.[398]

[Footnote 398: This amazing comparison (for one
cannot forget what Philip had been, was, and was to
be) must be given in the original words of the
legate:

"Quam sancte sanctitas vestra omni auctoritate
studioque huic matrimonio favit; quod sane videtur
prae se ferre magnam summi illius regis
similitudinem, qui mundi h