The Booke of Thenseygnementes and Techynge that the Knyght of the Towre made to his Doughters/Chapter 57
HOW MEN OUGHTE TO SETTE AND PUT THEYR CHILDREN TO SCOLE.
SHAL telle you another ensample of a good woma whiche had a doughter that was named Delbora, the whiche she dyd put to the scole of wysedome and of sapyence. This delbora lerned so wel that she wyst and knewe al the hooly scrypture and wrytynge, & vsed of so good & holy lyf that she knewe of the secretis of god, and spak of many thynges that were to come. And by cause of her grete wysedome and wytte euery body cam to aske her counceylle of his affayres. Her lord was euylle and cruell, but by her wytte & by her fayr speche she couthe reule hym wel, for she toke away his frenesye and yre and made hym to be peasyble & juste to his peple. Therfore is here a good ensample how men ough to put her children to scole for to lerne clergye & holy scrypture, for by the knowyng of it they shalle better see theyr sauement and shall knowe & discerne the good fro the euyll, as dyd the good lady Delbora, & as dyde saynt katheryn, whiche thurgh her wysedome and by her clergye, with the grace of the holy ghoost, surmounted and vaynquysshed the wysest men of al grece, and by her hooly clergye and sure feythe god gaf her the vyctorye of her martirdome, & made her body to be borne by his angels viiii dayes Iourney fro the place where as she suffred her martirdome vnto the Mount of Synay, & her holy body rendrid holy oyle. And the begynnyng and fundament of the knowlege of god she had thurgh the clergye where as she knewe the trouthe & the sauement of her self. Yet shalle I telle yow an ensample of a child of the age of nyne yere, whiche had be four yere at the scole, & thorugh the grace of god he disputed & argued of the faythe ageynst the paynyms, and vaynquysshed them alle in so moche that they were so wrothe with hym that ones they spyed hym secretely and hurled at hym with stones, & whanne they supposed to haue hold hym in subiection they saide to hym that yf he wolde not forsake his god, they shold slee hym, but for ony torment that they made hym to suffre he had euer his trust & feythe in God. They asked hym where God was, and he ansuerd, "In heuen & withid myn herte.” And thenne for despyte they slewe hym, and opened the syde of hym to see yf he sayd trouthe that god sholde be in his herte, whiche they toke and made two pyeces of it. And as they dyd cutte it they sawe a whyte douue that yssued oute of hit, wherfor some of them by this ensample were conuertyd to the feythe of god. And therfor after this ensample it is good to put his children to scole whanne they be yonge, and make them to lerne the bookes of sapyence, that is to saye the bookes of good techynge and enseygnementes, where as men see the sauement of bothe the body and sowle, and not putte them to lerne in the bookes of the fallaces and vanytees of the world. For better thyng is and more noble to here speke of the good enseygnementes and techynges that may prouffyte bothe to the body and sowle, than rede and studye the fables and lesynges wherof no good ne prouffyte may come. And by cause somme folke sayen that they wold not that theyr wyues ne also theyr doughters wyst ony thynge of clergye ne of wrytynge, therfor I say, answerynge to them, that as for wrytyng, it is no force yf a woman can nought of it; but as for redynge, I saye that good and prouffytable is to al wymen, for a woman that can rede may better, knowe the peryls of the sowle and her sauement than she that can nought of it, for it hath be preued.