And the virtue of this prince, continued with
that of his predecessor, made the name of Antoninus so sacred in the
world, that though it were extremely dishonoured in Commodus,
Caracalla, and Heliogabalus, who all bare the name, yet, when
Alexander Severus refused the name because he was a stranger to the
family, the Senate with one acclamation said, Quomodo Augustus, sic
et Antoninus. In such renown and veneration was the name of these
two princes in those days, that they would have had it as a
perpetual addition in all the emperors' style. In this emperor's
time also the Church for the most part was in peace; so as in this
sequence of six princes we do see the blessed effects of learning in
sovereignty, painted forth in the greatest table of the world.
(9) But for a tablet or picture of smaller volume (not presuming to
speak of your Majesty that liveth), in my judgment the most
excellent is that of Queen Elizabeth, your immediate predecessor in
this part of Britain; a prince that, if Plutarch were now alive to
write lives by parallels, would trouble him, I think, to find for
her a parallel amongst women.
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