Half Mandrill, Half Mandela

From the time when Christianity, that great civilizing influence, brought enlightenment to Rome, it was no longer a matter of a centurion who would come from the tyrant and announce: Caesar wishes you to die. Now it was a legate a latere who arrived, with a smile on his lips, brining the message from the Pope: His Holiness wishes you to dine with him.

- Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo (Buss translation, p. 180)