C.

Auctorites I haue written to the

An .c.; late theyme be take agre,[[588]]

For a woman lerned Augustus

To be worchipped and taught hym thus.

Cesar Augustus was Emperoure off the Romayns and off all |f. 75.| the worlde, and because thet in th[e] tyme of his reygne pes was in all þe world and that he reyngned pesibily, lewed pepill and misse-beleueres thought that the pes was becawse of his goodnes; but it was notte, for it was Crist Jhesu, the which was borne off the Virgine Mary and was that tyme on þe erth, and as long as he was on erth, it was pes ouer all the worlde. So they wold haue worchippede Cesar as God; but thanne Sebille bad hym to be well ware that he made hyme note to be worchipped, and that ther was no God but on alone, þe which had made all thynges. And thanne she lede hyme to an hy mounteyn withowte the cete and in the sone by the will of owre Lord aperyd a Vergine holdyng a Childe.[[589]] Sibille shewed it to hym and seyd to hyme that ther was very God, the which shuld be worchipped, and than Cesar worchippede hym. And becaus that Ceesar Augustus, the [which] was prince off all the wor[l]de, lerned to knowe God and the Beleve off a woman, to the purpose may be seide the auctorite that Hermes seith, “Be not ashamed to here trowth and good techyngges of whom that euer seith it, for trouth noblyth hym þat pronounceth it.”

There where Othea seith that she hath wreten to hym an .c. |f. 75b.| auctorites and that Augustus lerned of a woman, it is to vndirstond that good wordes and good techynges is to prayse of what persone þat seith it.[[590]] Howe[[591]] de Seint Victor spekyth hereof in a boke called Didascalicon, that a wyse man gladdely herith all maner of techynges; he dispisyth not the Scriptur, he dispyseth not the person, he dispiseth not the doctrine; he sekyth indifferently ouer all, and all that euer he seth the which he hath defaute; he considerith notte what he is that spekyth, but [what] that is the which he seith[[592]]; he taketh no hede how myche he can hymme selfe, but how mech he cannot. To this purpose þe wyse man seith, [“Auris bona audiet cum omni concupiscentia sapientiam”].[[593]]

GLOSSARY.

INDEX.