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.
Page:The booke of thenseygnementes and techynge that the Knyght of the Towre made to his doughters - 1902.pdf/142
