I dowte notte in no wyse Mars thi fadyr.
Thow shalt folowe hyme in heuery matyr;
For thy hy and nobil condycion
Draweth therto thyne inclynacion.
The Twysday is named after Mars; and that metalle that we |f. 16.| callen iren is youen to hym. Mars is a planete that yifeth influence of werris and batayles; therefore euery knyght that loveth and schewyth armes and dedes of knyghthod and hathe a grete name off worthines may be callyd the sone of Mars. And therfor Othea named Hector so, notwythstondyng he was sone to Knyng Pryant, and seyde he wolde well folowe hys fadir in as moche as a goode knyght ought to doo. And a wyse man seith that by the dedes of a man men may knowe his inclynacions.
Mars the god of bateyle may wele be called the Sone of God, the whiche bateilled victoriously in this worlde, by example; [and the good sperit shulde] folow[[190]] his Fadere Jhesu Cryst and fyght ayens vicis. Seynte Ambrose seyth in the fryst booke off Offices that how so will be Godes frend, he must be the fendes enemy, whoo so will haue pees wyth Jhesu Cryst, he most haue werre withe vices. And even as in veyne men maketh werre in the felde wyth foreyne enemys there where the cete is full of homely spyes, on the same wyse non may ouercome the eveles outewarde that wyll not were strongly wyth the synnes of there sowlys; ffor it is the most gloryous victorie that may be, for a man to ouercome hyme selphe. And tho this purpose seyth Seynt Poule the postyle, [“Non est vobis colluctatio adversus carnem et sanguinem sed adversus principes et potestates,” etc.].[[191]]
XII.
Of thi faucon[[192]] be thou bolde and pleyne,
And of thi worde bothe clene and certeyne.
Mercurye schall teche the that, holde[[193]] and sounde,