¶, The office and duty of an husband, made by the excellent Philosopher Lodovicus vives, and translated into english by Thomas Paynell.  
¶ Imprinted at London in Paul's churchyard, by John Cawood, printer unto the queens highness.  
Cum privilegio ad imprimendum solum.   

To the right worshipful Sir Antony Browne Knight, Thomas Paynell whyssheth health and prosperity.  
IDo perceive, and by daily experience do understand most worshipful Sir: how men do err, and are sore deceived and begi led in the election and choice of their wives: and how uncurtously and ungentlely they do use and entreat them, that of equity and right should be most favourably and pleasantly used and 〈◊〉. For why? what thing should a man love or entreat more amiably or more sweetly, than his own wife, that is to say, his own flesh and blood? the 
Corin. seven.  which no man (except he be very brutish and beastly) can or aught to mislike, hate, or in any manner of wise abhor. But yet how these poor silly women are handled, and of their own husbands misordered, contemned, abhorred, yea, and oftentimes without cause rejected, I report me unto the gentle reader of this book: the which if he have any 〈◊〉 of wit or reason, shall 〈◊〉 conceive this thing to be true, and the undiscrete election and choice of the 〈◊〉 to be the only and original spring and occasion thereof. For in this our time, a time (I say) most tamentable, men choose not their wives for their honesty and virtue, but for their enticing beauty: not for their 〈◊〉 and womanly manners, but for their possessions and riches: not to 〈◊〉 and bring forth children to the praise and laud of God, but for carnal 〈◊〉 and pleasure: not to be well and 〈◊〉, occupied at home, but idly and wanton to spend the time abroad: not to be godly, but wordly: not to be humble and 〈◊〉, but to be proud and 〈◊〉: not to regard their husbands 〈◊〉, household, and profit, but their own lusts and solace. Wherein is the cause then of their wrangeling and gerre, but only in the 〈◊〉 election and choice of their 
1. Cor. 〈◊〉.  wives: and because they do not, when they have them, inform them godly, and virtuously instruct them: for of whom should they be instructed and taught, but of their own husbands? But per adventure ye will say, we are not learned, nor we have not red at any time, how to choose them, and how to teach them, we know not. In asmuch therefore as I now perceive and know, that ye can not for lack of experience and knowledge 〈◊〉 them, & that ignorance is the root of such sinister and 〈◊〉 choice of your wives, and the cause of your so great debate and strife. I have translated this excellent and fine peace of work of Master Uives a Philosopher most famous, the which doth teach men, how to choose their wives, how to love and to entreat them, how and where with to instruct them, how to array and seemly to apparel them, how to chasten and correct them, how in their absence, and in their age to use them: and at their departing unto god, how to leave them. And on the other side, it teacheth your wives how to fear and to honour god, how to love, obey, and serve their husbands, how to bring up and nourter their children, how to have an eye to their husbands honesty and profit, whether they should be learned or no, 〈◊〉 authors they should read, what company they should haunt and avoid, how to keep their houses in good report, and themselves clean and undefiled. O how excellent then, and how profitable a book is this, for the wealth both of man and woman, & most worthy to be red of all christians, and of those, which desire and seek to live quietly in matrimony, & joyfully in this transitory vale and dungen of all misery. Read it therefore at your leisure most worshipful sir, but yet with judgement I pray you: for as it is a work most meet and convenient for all that may marry, so it is for your maistershyppe most fruitful, & considering your present estate and condition, most needful. For who can be ciricumspect enough in the election and choice of her, whom a man cannot elect by god's law, 
Mar. x  till death them depart, nor yet refuse, but for fornication, nor at no time (she being 
Luc. 〈◊〉.  alive) marry any other without the spot and 〈◊〉 of adulteri. Counsel therefore with Master Uives, how to choose a wife, and choose her, that feareth god, and will be obedient and reformable, and such a one, as shall give no occasion of breach, or of divorcement, the which (O lord) is nothing in these our days regarded: for why? to have many wives at once, or to refuse her by some cautel or false interpretation of gods most holy word, that mystyketh, is at this present but (as men call it) a shift of descant. O heaven, O earth: but who am I that goeth about to counsel you so prudent a man, so well learned, so circumspect in all things: and that hath a forehand proved the course and trace of matrimony, how godly & pleasant a thing it is, if the parties be of one accord & mind, and in Christ's true religion of one saith & opinion. But let the noble orator Master Uives be all men's guide and counseyler in this weighty matter. And in such like beware of temerarious hastiness, nor believe not 〈◊〉 young and light counsellor: for after light credence, cometh heavy repentance. Thus god preserve your master ship, most humbly desiring the same, to accept this my rude translation in good part, and as a token and a pledge of my unfeigned and cordial love to you wards.   

¶ Of the office and duty of an husband.  

IT seemed unto the author of nature, when he laid the foundation of the ages and time that was to come, that all such beasts, which were sub iecte unto sicknesses & death, should at one generation and birth bring forth but sea we yongelynges, to th'end their generation might increase, & endure for ever, & that they of a little beginning might multiply and arise unto an in finite multitude, and of mortal things obtain, as it were an immortality. But all other beasts do indifferently (without any order or law) obey nature, and give themselves unto procreation. And this is, as it were an universal law, where unto we do perceive and see, that all manner of beasts do willingly obey, although there be among these, that live in society, and observe the holiness of matrimony so undefiledly, that they may well instruct and teach many thousands of men the chastity, the charity, the faith, the manner, and the quality of matrimony, and in this number are swans, turtle-doves, 
The beginning of matrimony.  crows, and doves. But man being borne to live in company, and in the communion of life, was bound by the author of nature with more exact and straighter laws of matrimony. Nor he would not, that man untemperately should meddle with many women, nor that the woman should submit herself to many men. Therefore he bound them together in lawful marriage, and delivered her unto the man, not only for generations sake, but also for the society and fellowship of life. And this is it, the 
Gene. ij  Moses doth say in Genesis, that the prudent and wise maker of the world said: It is not good, that man should be alone, let us make him a help like unto himself. And how many utilities and profits do spring and issue of matrimony? First as all controversies & debates are removed and do cease among men, when lands be occupied & possessed, 
The uti lities of matrimo nigh.  & by the power of the law granted & established: even so when the woman is lawfully married, all such contentions do cease, which certainly would have grown among men, if women were common. For some would desire those, that were beautiful and fair, & such as were most mighty and most in power, would judged all things to be as a reward of their fortitude and strength, in their power and dominion. And he that assayed her, would as though he had taken possession, strongly resist, and fight for her, as for his own wife, whereupon should arise envy, hatred and debate. And man, the which (if he follow his natural affection and appetite) is a proud, a fierce, and a desi rous beast to be revenged, shall find many ways to accomplish his lust, and to ensue & revenge, that he interpreteth to be an injury, and shall associate and gather many unto him, either for fear, or by some benefit enticed, whereby parttakings & sactions should first arise, and afterwards war, and cruel battle, both at home and abroad, as old auctors do report to have chanced for women ra vished, as for Helen Lacona, Tindarus and Leda's daughter, and for Lucretia and Virginia 
War through women.  Romans. And through Cava julians' daughter, we lost Spain. In England 
King Henry 〈◊〉 second  king Henry that second was driven out of his realm by his son, for after that he had been long in love with Philippes the French kings sister, and that she was sent into England, & married unto him, his father being in love with his fair daughter in law, his son making war in Scot land, deflowered her. The young woman at the first coming home of her husband, opened unto him, what had chanced and being moved therewith, drove out his father, & occupied the kingdom. I let pass those things, that Plutarch doth write in his book of lo vely narrations. Would god there were not so many examples as give occasions to every man to write, both of princes, & private persons, how great contention and debate letcherye hath caused. This was to many a man the way & occasion to overturn king domes & families, & of great and bitter perils and calamities among all nations. But god the inventor of matrimo ny, & most provident father, having pity & compassion upon mankind, hath put a measure to this immoderate luxuriousness, printing the law of matrimony not in paper only, but in every man's heart. In the which matrimony he hath given to all nations (not only to those, the which through humanity & good letters are instructed with rites and civil customs, but also to fierce and barbarous nations, being far from all good education and customs) so great benevolence & charity, that they which are married iduced through love, will not leave nor change their mates & when there is no love, shamefastness doth take place, so the there is no man so far from the understanding of man the is ignorant, that to bea thing moste scelerate, & worthy to be hated & punished, to seek, or to embrace any other, as long as matrimony endureth. And what a commodity is the wife unto the husband, in ordering of his house, & in governing of his family & household? by this cities are edified & builded. And she cometh, even as 
Gen. ij.  god saith, into her husbands house, as an helper like unto himself, & as a sure companion continuing unto the end of her life, a partaker of mirth & heaviness, the mother of their common children, the which keepeth his goods as her own, thinking none other goods to be hers but those, & keepeth them to leave them to her children, the which she loveth as herself. It can not be spoken, from how great a burden, & molestiousnes the mind of man is lightened there by, the which for the worthiness & dignity thereof, should not be molested with such inferior cures. But yet I know not, whether all these 
The edu cation of children  things may be compared with the education & bringing up of children, for surely by certain & true matrimony, they are received & taken for our own children, whereby they be unto us the more dearly beloved. And charity willeth them to be nourished, and fashioned unto all kind of humanity and virtue, not only with diligence and cure, but with all solicitude and anxiety. All other beasts, after that the dame hath nourished them, and that they are once come to a certain bigness, be of nature so instructed & taught that they leave their dame for ever, being sufficient enough of themselves to shift for their living, and to defend their lives, that one naturally 
 not being better nor worse than the other: nor than that young do knowledge that dame no more, nor that dame the young. But as man hath of his maker, & that by a certain singular benefit, most excellent, reason, and figure of mind: even so he hath througe sin corrupted the seed of virtue, & observed the light of his wit & understanding. And if he do stand and follow the ways of his affections, he shall so abase himself, that he shall become servant unto sin now received, & being given there unto, how great a beast of a man (a cruel thing to be spoken) shall he be made then? what obscurity & darkness shall grow in him? how unlike & how far of shall he be then from his original beginning? This obscurity of mind and darkness through doctrine & learning may be cast of, and clarified, and the evil inclination thereof by good manners & customs amended. But this our corrupt & defiled nature hath nead of solicitude, time, labour, & diligence, yea and occasions must be tarried for until it grow, until it may better perceive and understand his admonisher, and until it will hear and be admonished. And now and then we must delay and dissemble such vices & faults & reserve them until another time, that they may be taken a way and removed without any danger or peril. Nor it is not sufficient to warn him once or twice, but often, & now & then he must be reprehended & corrected, & sometimes flattered, mingling the were with the sower. And what end shall there be at last of reforming this beast so evil & so brutish, the which doth so oftentimes (even of itself) return & fall into this silthines? Who would take such endless & daily renuing pains and labours, if he thought not the children to be his own? and yet he taketh these pains with those, the which he trusteth & believeth to be his by lawful marriage, furthermore the love of the parents doth redound unto their children, & augmenteth their love & charity towards them, as hatred doth diminish & extinguish the same, as the fabelles do declare of 
Medea.  Medea, the which, after she perceived, that jason had forsa ken her, being moved with that injury, & provoked with a certain bitter hatred against her husband, murdered her own children. And Euobardus 
Euobar does.  hated his son Nero, the which was Emperor, because he had children by Agrippa, that fierce & cruel woman. And the love of the husband & wife towards theit children, doth fortify & strengthen the love betwixt themselves: for he loveth his equal, as the wife herein is, when she loveth her children, which are dear unto their father, as her husband doth, whence they have a double love, and strength bet wixt themselves, & another bending from their children, for we love those, that love the things, which are dear unto us. Therefore fathers having good affection & mind unto their children, receive them, & after their possibility & riches do nourish them, teach them, draw them from vice repress their affections, and stirreth up the force & strength of their reason & judgement, to th'end they should use it, & that all other powers should principally as unto a queen obey unto it. And yet being thus instructed. they leave them not so nor cast them not of, nor depart not from them, as other beasts do, but defend them, embrace them, & after their pos sibilitie adorn them, nourish them, & help them. Nor this benevolence doth not subsist & rest in them only, but stretcheth for the unto the son & daughter in law, 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉, whereof great 〈◊〉 & reconciliations have oftentimes issued, and cities have had their beginning. This love doth descend unto our neves and cosing, and taketh care for the posterity. And in that nature, which is partet a ker of iminortalitie, doth regard the eternity, the which through generation shall ensue & follow, where unto the 
Famisies  house, the family, that patrimony, & parentage are constituted & made, the name of the kindred, as it were the note & mark of a certain flock remaining: the which family giving itself to idleness and pride, is no other thing, but the beginning of all righteousness & misihiefe, & for the time it so remaineth, shall never be without some mischiefs, cruel, unquiere, and violente oppressor of other men's liberty the which taking only a pride of his name searcheth to excel all other trusting in honest arts & knowledge. So on the other side, it is a thing most beautiful, that the youth of that family or house may have a certain discipline & art of honest living, to be used with laud & praise: that which their parents should deliver unto them from hand to hand with their inheritage & name, as a remembrance of good works, with domestical and fami liar examples, to ensue & follow the same. Who can declare that great commodities of all those things, the which by the gift of god we have obtained to overrun & finish this life withal? We are far gone from the rites and customs of beasts, & humanity hath she wed herself garnished with order, laws, & discipline, the which things should separate & lead us from vice, & place us in the trade & way of all virtue. One Eve was given to 
One man one wife.  one Adam, as one Church to Christ, as the holy Apostle doth interpretate it to be a 
Ephe. v  great mystery, as pertaining to Christ & his church. And one man ought to be the husband of one wife, as nature itself doth say: & as the law of god better, than the law of nature, & the true expositor of the same doth teach us: first by the composition of the bodies, & by the manner of generation, the which by the embracing of two bodies is made perfect, but yet by a more secret mystery, for the love of two is best & without emulation, for when two or more do love one thing, it is not without envy, for very hard it is, that one should love two equally, or show, or else suffer itself to be of them beloved; & he of those two that shall perceau, that he is best beloved, shall wax insolent & proud, as victorious in bat tail, & the other not being so well accepted & beloved, shall burn as overcome with sorrow. & envy his corrivale & fellow in love: for other he would possess the thing seve rally alone, or else be principal in the possession thereof: where out should arise hatred, strife, & trouble in the family, the which thing the fierceness of man with some great tumult & pertur bation of things should cause, or else through the debility, the complaints & importunity of the woman, which hate none other weapons, trouble should increase, & cause a man's life to be intolerable, not only chafing now & then with his fellow in love as with a strumpet, but also with her husband. This thing is not expedient for quietness & pleasant tran quillitie, the which should be at home & in the family, where unto every man defatigated, & with matters of the common wealth private or exterior wetied, do draw themselves as unto some sure port or haven. But if quietness be so vexed & disquieted at home, and all things troubled with hatred, where shall then the mind of man tossed with so many care full tempests repose itself? Truly a man had rather inha bite among the litigious striles of the law, among the tempests & surges of disputations & in the jeopardies of peregri nations, them to return home to such an unsweet, unsavoury, & bitter life. For in the amity and love of many, the one beholdeth & looketh upon the other, & not all upon one, as sir vaunces behold & look upon their Lord and master. For when two or three behold one, that is no 〈◊〉, but rivality, & coutention, or else a dominion of many upon one, in the which kind & estate, there is wont to be envy, hatred, & trouble, when that the favour and love 〈◊〉 all desired, inclineth to one alone. And therefore at the beginning, God gave to one Eve, 
Gen. seven  one Adam, to be her Lord and master. And being minded to drown the world, he caused certain men & their wives to enter into the ark for the conservation & generation of mankind. But the precepts & commandments of god do very well declare the strength & force of nature, the which being in us corrupted by the variety of affectious leading us to divers & contrary things, is by the celestial oracles & precepts restored again unto his integrity. In Genesis Adam (as it were divining) 
Gene. two  said, that two men should be in one flesh, unto the which words the lord our god did add this, the matrimony once consumed & made perfect, they are no more two, but one man that it might evidently appear, 
Note.  that true matrimony can not be between three or four, but between two only. And as oft as god himself speaketh of matrimony, he never saith husbands & wives, but wife and husband. And the Apostle. 
i Cor. seven.  S. Paul to avoid fornication giveth counsel, that every man should have his wife, but he never sayeth his wives. And truly when the lord doth inhibit, that men should not refuse their wives for any cause except it be for fornication, he 
mat nineteen  forbiddeth the multitude of wives, for if he marry another 
Mar. x.  he calleth him an adulterer. Why should he be an adulterer, 
Luc. xvi.  that marrieth another, his first wife being yet alive, if it were lawful for him at one time to have many wives? These he the laws of nature the which in very deed should have sufficed, if our maliciousness had left our nature pure and whole, as it came from the hands of his maker. But being now violated through vice, & inclining unto maliciousness, the age & time that ensued, found remedies for this infirmity, as it were certain bars & doors to repress vice withal, that it creep no farther. For the world in the first increase of man's generation, being yet but young, part of our old & rude elders did dwell in caves, and part when the cities were builded, in houses. And at the begynginning the husband and the wife kept house together, them were children begotten and borne, unto the which there arose an incredible love, kind led with the firebrand of nature. These children being of age, married wives to increase mankind withal, & their children increased, by whose means the love of the father's paste on unto the son and daughter in law, & from thence unto their neves, & all these coupled together by the self same love and charity, remained in one house, being parta kers of one fire, love making allthings common, or to speak more truly one thing only. But consanguinity & affinity crept in a little further. & being many in number, would not departed from that family, because they of youth were brought up together (for there is no sweeter thing, then of children to have been conversant & acquainted) & because they were such persons, whom they loved as themselves, they could not be departed, except they should have been separated & drawn from themselves. And although certain of them were removed & gone, as it were to dwell in another place, yet that notwithstanding they oftentimes returned unto their original house, and were most familiarly conversant together. But such as were wise, and by long expe rience witty, perceiving that chastity through the ferventness and heat of youth was in great danger, judged that such ferventness & motions of youth, aught by some religion & laws to be 〈◊〉 & repressed, for unto nature it appeared truly a thing most abominable to marry other with mother, niece, or daughter, the which thing Adam (nature not 
Gene. 〈◊〉  being yet corrupted) did suf ficiently enough declare, when that he looking upon his wife said: Behold now the bone of my bones, & the flesh of my flesh, for this shall man leave both father and mother, the which he would not have left, if he might have married her. Necessity & scarceness of people coupled brother & sister together. But humanity by a little & little (the world being somewhat more replenished) begun to despise & refuse that kind of marriage, & many nations avoided it by laws, & by religion forbade, that such as were so nigh of consanguinity and kind, should not mary together: for it seemed unto them un meet, that any such should be coupled together, and that all such marriages should be thought incestuous, against all right, & by the authority and will of the superior inhibited, for whether we behold human things, the law, that is the consent of the citizens forbiddeth them, or divine things, & the majesty of god forbiddeth them, so it followeth that chastity should be in safeguard within the walls and houses of those, that are of consanguinity, for it was sufficient enough unto the simplicity and innocency of our elders, to abstain 〈◊〉 the thing not wont to be used, unto whom it was enough in times passed to say, I will not 〈◊〉 Quirites. But in the time & age that followed, they could not be 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 no not 〈◊〉 many 〈◊〉, threatenings, terrors, prisons, nor 〈◊〉 with death, so feeble are we to goodness, and so strong & mighty against modestiousnes, nor we do nothing more courageously, then to dispraise & contemn virtue. And for asmuch as there is no beast, unto whom concord & benevolence is so profis table, or so necessary to join amity, & to amplify love and charity withal, as to man, it is provided (as Cicero & S. Augustine do write most notably) that men should take their wives from other places, and their daughters, their husbands out of their families and houses, whereby great love should arise & increase, & by such bonds of affinity, the one should greatly favour the other, considering the thereby great friendship and kyured should ensue & follow, & that finally both god's law and man's should make and knit up, as it were a knot of piety & faithful love. And so it is come to pass, that charity, which nature had sprinkled throughout all human generation, was restrained through the affections of the iniquity of man unto a few) is now by the means of matrimony spread abroad, not in one or two houses only, but in cities, kindreds, & nations, the which through one sole marriage, have been revoked from sharp dissensions unto loving and swear agreement & concord. But how far it is law full or unlawful to proceed in these things by the civil & canon law defined, it is not to be disputed upon at this time, but hereafter we shall speak thereof, when that we by the help of Christ shall write of the common wealth. But when so great darkness 
Of the great benevolence of God.  was in the soul of man, and in his will so great iniquity, & that corruption was increased in man by the continuance of evil, it seemed good unto god to restore his work, for he sent his son, by whom he made the world, to reconcile us after to great dissension & discord, unto the father, and to be the clarifier of our 〈◊〉, & an ensample of the works and deeds of life. And he putting forth his hand, lifted up mankind lying upon the earth and wallowing in mire, to look up into heaven, and to be partaker of the light thereof. And although he had blown his trumpet, all they that heard that celestial and heavenly voice, contemning and leaving all other things apart, did high them towards so great and so excellent a beatitude for them and for all other prepared. For they perceived and saw that all such things as by human art wisdom, water, or 〈◊〉 might be obtained and gotten, and all such things as were spoken of to the Philosopher's schools, were 〈◊〉 offered and given as it were in to their hands more spededely and more purely than ever before, whereof there arose an incredible heat and ferventness to follow Christ, his blood being as yet even hot, the which in such wise & manner kindled their breasts whom he touched, the the kings & princes of the gentiles stood as they had been amazed, & the captains of great hosts which such as bylong expe rience & use of things were sage and wise, of whom in all grave and weighty matters men asked counsel, & all other learned men the which being set in that height of all human things and next unto god, all other being under them, perceived that all things with great might & power were overcomed by christian men. Every man marveled, from whence such force & strength should come, wherewith so many thousand hearts with one accord should desire and seek for one thing, should confess one Christ, should speak one thing, and obtain and come to one end. They cared neither for money nor yet for their lives, they sought for no superiority, they refused their own houses, families, parents, kinsfolk, yea and their own wives, that nothing might let or hinder their course, on slack the victory over vice, and the unhard reward of virtue. Nor they cared not for any impedi mentes or caredge that doubted not to obtain by this victori such infinite rewards and goods. Nor they had no leisure in such celerity of age to think upon any other thing, being thus occupied and revished with this high thought and cogitation. But this heat of piety flowing unto us from Christ, as it were from some excellent fontaine, is as careful for other, as it is sure & certain of itself, and is beautified & adorned with singular prudency & wisdom. But the more that this heat is kindled, the more this wisdom doth show itself, & for getting of itself, doth profit on her, if that any thing may be lacking in such fervent and abundant charity. But surely she hath situate and set herself in a stedfalte and a sure place, and being full of hope, crieth out, who shall separate us from the charity 
Ro. viii  of Christ? So then he laboureth for other, and not for himself, he sayeth not he liveth, 
Gala. ij.  but not he now, but Christ liveth in him. And so he fulfilleth the commandments of Christ, that liveth in him, and obeyeth unto his will, to aid and provide for those, that Christ would it should be provided for, that is for his flock, for the which he hath not spared to offer up his own life. And therefore when these pietifull masters and coadjutors of Christ, do 
〈◊〉 nineteen.  remember, what the Lord answered when he was demanded of wives, that some did chasten themselves for the kingdom of heaven sake, & that none other could do that, but only they unto whom the father of heaven gave it, Paul (lest that any man through an unwise ferventness of following, or coveting that God hath not given him, should unwisely fall into satins secret snares, the which he layeth at the feet of those, the hast them to the perfection of life) doth exhort them wisely to take heed, & to prepare most effectuous remedy, for that wherein is most yeoperdie, & to fortify the part most strongly, where unto they do perceive their even my most valiantly and most strongly to approach. And yet the self-same Paul (the which with his ensample pro 
i Cor. seven.  voketh us esteeming all other things as vile, being bare and crucified to follow bare Christ and crucified) giveth this counsel, that better it were to mary, then to burn, lest any man should disturb through injury any other man's peace or quietness, or defile himself with filthy thoughts or deeds. And therefore herbs and roots are used to be given unto some as meat & to other some as a medicine so is matrimony, the which at the beginning was invented of god for the procreation of children, & is now unto the luxurious and incontinente person, as a remedy of so great 
What marriage is.  an evil. Let us therefore take this for a very foundation and ground, that matrimony is a lawful contunction of one man and one wife, to live in communion of life together all the days of their lives.   

¶ Of the election & choice of a wife.  
OR ever I do speak of the choice of a wife, I must remove from that mind of those which I do instruct & teach that fury, wherewith they choose not their wives, but invade them, they mary them not, but ravish them, and deceive them, & contrary to their wills do take them. If the woman were a certain kind of merchandise, peradventure it should not seem so unsembly by all manner of means & subtlety to obtain her: for how soever she were obtained, she would serve to that use, but consldering that now she shallbe his fellow for ever, if she love him not (be she never so fair, nor never so burr dened with riches, she shallbe continually molestious. And what a madness were it, to be gin such a mystery of love with hatred? Love is gotten by love; by honesty & fidelity, & not by violence. For a tune peradventure thou mayst en joy her goods, her beauty, & her parentage & kindred, but thou shalt never enjoy thy wife. Those things are best, which are most conformable unto nature, Adam did not ravish Eve, 
Gene. 〈◊〉  but received her, delivered unto him by god the father hegave her not unto him per force, but that they should mutual lie love one another, he drew the one out of the other, & gave than like nature & fashion, to th'intent that they or ever they were married, should seem and appear to be one thing, and not two. The judgement of the mind is the governor of man's life, the which if it go not before all our deeds, we shall slide and fall into such great yeoperdies, as we do le daily chance & happen among men. They do well consider, what thing they should eat or drink, but whom they do call unto their friendship, & communion of life (the which are much more hurtful, or profitable then meat) they care not. So they do love preposterously, or ever they know or judge what they do love, the which error doth bring unto the life of man more evil & more misfortune than can be spoken, whereby so many and great frendeshippes through cruel dissension are changed, & love most vituperiously & shamefully broken, the which such men as by nature and custom could not long endure and continued inlove, had craftily begun & unwisely. They should first by nature and with reason have judged, and then embraced that thing with love, or with hatred avoided the same, the which if man ought to do in choosing of friends, how much more diligently ought it to be done in the choice of a wife, the principal of all amity and friendship, whose name among all other in benevolence and love is most dearest. Epictetus' 
The saying of Epictetus.  a philosopher, of the sect of Stoics, doth say, that every thing hath his ear, so that if thou take hold there at, thou mayst use it most handsomely & commodiously. True wisdom is, to know the nature of every thing, and the use thereof. If thou when thou takest a wife, wouldst think upon thy children, and how thou mayest live with thy wife, thou canst not lightly fail in the choice of her, the which (as Zcnophon doth write in his Economica) maketh very much for the felicity or misery of man. For how much the more a thing is united & knit unto man, so much the more it may help him, if it be good, or hinder him, if it be evil. Those damages & hurts (which are inwardly in the body) are worse than those which are without: & those of the soul, than those of the body: & likewise men do judge of those things, which are called good. But peradventure it shall appear unto some that these things are not universally true, for unto some the loss of their goods is more than the loss of their health. But this thing doth not arise or happen of the treasure or money itself, but because they persuade unto themselves, that to lose their treasure is a thing intolerable, & therefore the goods are not of more estimation, then is health, but th'affection doth rule in this thing. And therefore it seemeth less to some to be driven out of his kingdom, then to other some to lose a small portion of his patrimony. Some will revenge a word most cruelly, and some other well buffeted and beaten will not revenge it at al. All these things do pro cede & come of the soul, the which as most inwardly loined knit unto man, hath more power in him, than the body, yea (as Plato thinketh) than man himself. If it be then of so great importance, what manner of friend thou have to live commodiously or ineommodi ously withal the which shall none otherwise dwell nor be in the self same chamber, bed, nor house with thee, but that thou mayest shake him of at thy pleasure how much more than oughtest thou to take heed, when thou choosest thee a wife, the which must continually be conversant with the at thy table, in thy chamber, in bed, in thy secrets, and finally in thy heart and breast. If thou go from home, thou dost commit thy house, thy fami lie, thy goods and thy children of all other things the most pleasant unto her: she is the last, that leaveth the at thy departing, & the first that receiveth thee at thy returning, thou departest from her with sweet embracementes & kisses, and with sweet kisses and embracementes she receiveth thee, unto her thou disclosest thy joy and heaviness. It is an heavenly life to be 
An heaven lie lice.  conversant & in company with those that a man delighteth in and loveth. But it is a 
A calamity infernal,  calamity infernal to be streyghted to see those things, that a man doth hate, or to be in company with those, that a man would not be withal, and yet can not be separated nor departed from them. Of this co meth, as we do see in divers marriages so great ruin, so facinorous and filthy deeds, maims, & murders, committed by such desperate persons, as they are loath to keep & yet can not lawfully refuse nor leave them. Therefore in ma riage there are two ways, the 
Two ways in marriage.  one leadeth a man to misery, the other to felicity. In the beginning of these, thou must diligently deliberate & consult with thyself, as Prodigus the Sophist doth say in the first book of Zeniphons' commentaris, that he caused Hercules to take avysment, whether he should follow vice or virtue. And in asmuch as it is a matter of great weight & importance. let it not be grievous unto that reader to read it, for it shall not grieve me to declare & open the thing more copiously & clearly. And seeing that election 
Election  or choice is nothing else but to take a thing meet & convenient to the end it is prepared for, therefore every one, that must choose, aught to regard the end, & know what thing is convenient for it. It is need full also, that he be prudent and wise, for else he cannot dispose it, nor perceive what is commo dious & meet for that end. Nor wisdom is not obtained nor gotten, but by the knowledge, use, & experience of things, & not by following of the affections the which do diminish man's judgement. Ignorance & the troublesonnes' of the mind is the very cause, that youngmen judge not things so well, as old men do, they know not the business of man's life, and being but new and raw in all things, they are soon deceived: & stirred with affections their minds by so obfuscate and cloudy, that they can not see what is right, nor how things ought to be done and ordered. Therefore the young man 
Young men  should leave the care of this election to his parents, that which have better judgement & are more free from the agitations and motions of all affections, than they are. And inasmuch as they do love their children exceedingly, they would that their children should be none otherwise counseled, them themselves, for the father (as it nath been sundry times by many examples declared) doth in a manner love his child more, than he loveth him self. The young man must take heed that following the light judgement of his own affection & mind, he change not a short delectation & plea sure into a continual repentance. We do learn by great & continual use & experience 
Note.  of things, that the secret contracts of matrimony made between those that be young, are seldom fortunate & lucky, and few to be unlucky that are made, and established by their friends and parents. All the old marriages of the Ie was and gentiles were made after this form and manner. The parents by their own 
The manner of the old marriages.  authority did entreat and finish up the matter among themselves, nor it was not lawful for their children to dissent or to go back from the thing that their parents had accomplished and done. And yet they are to be admonished to have an eye and a diligent regard 〈◊〉 marrying of their children, that it may be to their great qui etnes, and that they (asmuch as may be possible) may live in iocunditye and pleasure. They must not have before their eyes these vain & foolish honours, nor the envious and unsure power, nor the unquiet factions, nor riches the which unto old men are wont to be most acceptable: for that were even to bring unto their children (whilst they fulfil & accomplish their proper will & affections) a mi serable and a wretched life, and a burden intolerable. And if thou prepare for thy son nobility, riches, power and dignity to serve thy commodity withal, what other thing is that, then to use thy child, as an instrument of thy cupidity and pleasure, not doubting to cast thy child into such a devouring evil to satiate and fulfil thy filthy desire withal, that he shall not be able to bear it without cursing thee, both privately & apertly. But if there be any, whether he be old or young, that of himself doth not per ceave, what this thing meaneth, let him counsel with his very friends and other that are prudent & wise. Nor at no time he must consent to the opinion of the common people, & specially in this deliberation choosing of a wife, the which 
The common people.  is the foundation of the whole life of man. Is there any thing more out of tune, more 〈◊〉. or more without shape, than the vulgar and common people, called of those that are wise, a beast of many heads? And whoso followeth the same, must needs be (as it is itself) enwrapped with many evils, & live as it doth a most wretched life. What wisdom can be there, where affections be vehement & ready at the commandments of ignorance? What a thing should it be, that he (the which by choosing of an evil wife is most unfortunateste) should desire me to choose as he did, to what end should this thing come, but that I should intricate myself with like misery, and that he by my complaints should defend his fault through the society & fellowship of my mischance or take some comfort of his misfortune, considering the same to be common with other. But let him choose first, & show me that he liveth a sweet and a pleasant life, and that he repenteth him not of his judge meant, & then let him call me by his ensample to follow the same trade of living. But if he be punished for his evil election & choice, let him show me rather how to flee & avoid the danger. If any thing other by prayer, or by vow should be asked of god, that is commodious & profitable for man's life, a good wife is chiefly to 
A good wife.  be asked: the which shall make that, that is prosperous more 
A good wife.  prosperous, & adversiti more easy. But an evil wife through 
An evil wife.  prosperity waxeth are rogant & proud, & in adversity she looseth her courage, so that both in wealth & woe, she is intolerable. And therefore the French proverb is not without a cause commended, saying that he can not be well borne, that is not well wived. Socrates doth say, that whoso demandeth of God a wife, riches, 
Note.  or power, demandeth as it were licence to play at dice, or to fight a battle, for the end of thosethinges are uncertain. If a man ask a good woman, the success & end thereof is certain, & given of god unto man, as a sin guler great gift, as Solomon beareth witness in his proverbs, saying: House & heri 
Prove. nineteen.  tage may a man have by the inheritance of his elders, but a wise woman is the pro per gift of god. jesus the son of sirach sayeth: A good and 
Eccles. xxvi.  a virtuous woman is a good gift, & shallbe given unto her husband, and to those that fear god for a good portion. But to th'intent that every man may know, what he should look to have of a woman or ever he choose her, I have determined with few words to describe the nature of a woman, to th'end that no man looking to have of her things impossible should be deceived. A man doth consist of two things, the soul and the body.  
In that soul there is as it were 
The nature of man.  two parts: the superior wherein is judgement, counsel and reason, the which is called the mind. The inferior part is, in the which are the motions & perturbations, the which the Greeks call Pathi. The affections do grow of opinions, the which are more in one, than in another after the disposition, the customs & usance of the body, age, health, manner, use of living, time & place: the which dochaunge and move the disposition of the body, & consequently do work in that part of the soul, that is annexed unto the body, the which we call the inferior part, and therefore the affections, as the persuasions of things & opinions be, are common to all ages. But yet some of them are of more power in man, then in woman, & contrariwise 
The nature of women.  in woman, then in man. After that nature hath cast the seed of man into the motherly & natural place, it incorporateth the same, and if it find sufficient heat, it bringeth forth a man child, if not a woman. So that when it wanteth that most excellent, active, & lively quality, the woman remaineth feeble & weak, not only in human generation, but also in all other proportion of her kind, and through such filthiness as increaseth in her (the which that feeble heat that is in her, is not sufficient nor able to cast forth) she is less of stature, & more sickly, than other be, and of this by & by (if she be not great bellied) she fuffreth her menstrua: she is time rous also, for it is heat that encourageth the man, & maketh him bold and hardy, and through fear, she is cove tous, & taught secretly by nature: she knoweth herself to be feeble, and needful of many things, & busy about many trifles, & like unto a ruinous house, that must be underset and upholden with many small props. And through fear she is full of suspicion, con plaints, envious, and troubled with many and diverse thoughts. And for lack of experience of things, of wisdom, and of knowing her own debility, she thinketh continually that she shall be despised, and therefore in this feeble and weak nature. anger, and a desire to be 〈◊〉 doth kindle as it were in flax continually. She loveth also to be 〈◊〉 and well appareled, because she would not be contemned, and as unpotente and subject to all casualties on every side: she doth seek where unto she may lean and stay herself. And thou shalt easily perceive, that certain of them do attribute unto glory things of no estimation, as to have some great man to her 〈◊〉 bower, or that some 〈◊〉 and mighty prince did salute her, or call unto her. I will not speak of these 〈◊〉, the which unto many that would be seen to be most strongest are thought most precious, as of kindred, riches beauty & friends. Of that self same fear doth superstition arise and grow, for as wisdom doth persuade & move a man to religion, so doth vain fear lead a man to so perstition. Many women are full of words, partly through the variety of thoughts and affections, the which as they succeed one another, so they come unto their minds, and from thence unto that mouth: partly by suspicion & fear, lest the by holding their peace, they be not judged 〈◊〉 pable, or that through ignorance they know not, what they say. All these foresaid things are of nature, & not of the women themselves, & therefore they are not only found in women, but also in such men, as other of nature, or else by the first constitution and making of the body, the which can not be changed, are woman like, or become such through age, as children and aged persons, or by some other casualty or chance, as they that are long diseased both in mind and body, nor yet all women have not these faults in like sort & manner, for there hath been, & are yet not a few, which are of a more strong and constant mind than many men be. And many such are spoken of among the gentiles, as Cleobulina, 
constant women.  Hypparchia, Diotima, Lucretia, Cornelia graccorum, Portia, Che lia, and Sulpitia. And among us there are innumerable 〈◊〉, unto the which neither Athenes the talker, nor Rome the conqueror may be compared. Nor Christ would not that even in our time we should be without an example, the which should flow & descend unto our posterity, left and exhibited unto us by Ca 
Catharine queen of England  tharine the Spaniard Queen of England, and wife unto King Henrye the eight of most famous memory, of whom that may be more truly spoken of, then that, that Valerius writeth of Lucrere, that there was in her fe minine body a man's heart by the error and fault of nature. I am ashamed of myself, and of all those that have red so many things. when I behold that woman so strongly to support & suffer so many and divers adversi ties, that there is not one (although he were well worthy to be remembered & spoken of among our elders, that with such constancy of mind hath suffered cruel fortune, or could so have ruled 〈◊〉 felicity, as she did. If such incredible virtue had fortuned then, when honour was the reward of virtue, this woman had 〈◊〉 the brightness of the Heroes, and as a divine thing and a godly sent down from heaven, had been prayed unto in tem bless, although she lack no ten bless, for there can not be erected unto her a more ample or a more magnificent temple then that, the which every man among all nations marveling at her virtues, have in their own hearts builded and erected. But these things, the which are now known unto all men, shall be hereafter worthily & diligently declared. These things before rehearsed were spoken to this intent, to declare that as man can not be changed, nor utterly deli uered of his affections, so let no man hope to change a woe man from her proper & native nature: make her better he may. but he shall never wholly annihilate her assections, for as it is not in him to make of a woman no woman, so it is not in him to make of a man no man. And briefly to say, a man shall be continually a man, that is, a feeble beast, impo 
man..  tent, mutable, subject unto in firmities & affections, inclyninge to evil, the which by learning may be amended, & impaired by evil customs. We must bear with these affections in wonien, as we bear with them in other our friends, except we do intend to avoid all company, & live solitariously in wilderness. And the affections of women ought more reasonably to be supported & borne withal, than the affections of men, the which are fierce, & can hardly be tamed, or ruled, and thorough a false spies of liberty, that which doth teach them, they refuse & disdainfully cast of the bridle. But as women are far more weaker than man, so they are far more meek and humble: therefore thou mayst bring them under, and rule them other by manly power, or by sharpness of wit, by wisdom, or by the long use and experience of things. And it is much more grievous to suffer an evil master then an evil servant. And truly a woman, seeing that she is under the do minion and power of man, aught to be such a one, nor we should not mistrust, but that the divine sapience hath touched all things strongly from one end to another, & 
Sa. viii.  doth order them most loving lie. The works of God are wonderful & worthy to be honoured, no man can reprehend them, for that were abominable, nor no man should so search them, to judge them, 
Note.  for that can not be done with out great temerity, or malicious impiety. We can not comprehend the inscrutable and great reason of god's counsel. But yet we see certayve things (as Paul sayeth) as it 
i Cor. xiii.  were in a glass, the which do suffice to pass over this our peregrination, of the which we may take a 〈◊〉, that man should not, will, nor wish a woman to have any other of fections or conditions, altheughe they might channge them. For if the woman were robust and strong, both of mind & body, how could she suffer to be obedient and subject to him, that were no stronger than herself? would she not wax insolent & proud, having in will to rule both house and household, & to strive peradventure with her husband for that mastery? who could keep such a bold peace at home, but that she would be abroad? if she be prodigal, she will never save that her husband gaineth the which saving is for a man's household, a thing most necessary. If she neglect or little regard small things, how shall she keep the instruments of her house, the which are made of many small pieces? how shall she keep her household stuff, among the which are many vile things worn, destroyed & broken? who would take upon him the office and charges of a house? or the office of a cook? who would nourish & bring up children? what a torment were it for a man to do those things? a man would rather leave all, & dwell in a desert, then to dwell in such misery and bondage. The loquacity of the woman so it be with measure, is now 
The loquacity of women  & then a pleasure unto a man wearied with public and private matters, for them also she learneth her children to speak, & other things convenient for that age, to the which the nobility of man would not incline. Furthermore she prepareth and seeth, that all things 
Cleanliness,  be clean and neat, the which thing is not only commodious for the life of man & profitable to refresh his spirits withal, but also for his health, the which is more (than can be well expressed) offended, and noyed with unclendlynes, nor that wit doth not appear to me to be clean, that is nourished among filthiness. The envy and emulation that is among women (so that it exceed not) doth so sharpen their manifold virtues and qualities, and the domestical diligence and custody of their behaviour, that they neither speak nor do, whereby they may be blamed or suspected. Nor superstition in a woman is not intolerable, so that it be not so anxius that true religion be therewith extingui shed. Nor I do not commend that woman, the which doth not of a great carefulness she hath unto religion incline to superstition, except she be one of the absolute and perfect sort of matrons. These be the inclinations of women, the which may be bowed unto that, that is good, as the inclinations of men may, as hereafter shall be declared. In the mean space there are none in this nature to be refused, except thou wilt none, and had deste rather live alone without any company at all. The end of matrimony is to have children, and to 
The end of matrimony.  live together, and many do err most 〈◊〉 in both. Some there be, that force not, of what sort of women they get their children, when that they the which other by fortune, or by the gifts of nature are more excellent than other, should diligently take heed. that 
Note.  they cast not so noble seed into evil ground, & that it be not corrupted with some evil & naughty quality. For we see that diligent husbandmen do diligently take heed to choose out that ground which is most apt and convenient for their seed, lest they lose (if the ground being evil and noughts bring for the evil corn) both cost and labour, and so much the more they do sorrow the thing, how much the goodness of the sede did put them in good hope & comfort. To this is joined, that the more tenderly the father loveth his child, the more it grieveth him, that he should take any incurable vice of the mother, the which thing coming by her, should grave him not a little. Again of what freare importance is it to live together? Nor there is nothing more tedious nor more grievous unto man, then by the way to be in come pany with an evil and a foolish companion. And it were a great deal better to live alone, then with an evil man: and to play with a whelp, then to reason with a focle. O what a madness were it then, not to think it to make any thing at all to the matter, of what nature & qualities she be, with whom thou must both live & die, if perchance she be molestious, or otherwise unto thee, than thoughts? As touching the child two things are to be weighed 
The child.  and considered, the body and the mind of the woman, and that her body be not to far out of fashion. The magistrates of the Lacedæmonians called Ephori, condemned king 
Ephori  Archidamus, because he had married a wife of a low stature, whose children should not sufficiently enough represent the person and dignity of a king, although this thing be not of such importance, that a man should therefore refuse his wife, so that she have sufficiently enough all other qualities. For we do see, that such short and deformed women bring forth most beautiful and goodly children. We should rather take heed, that she be not infected with some infirmity or strange disease and sickness, that which the physicians do call hereditary, and do proceed from the parents unto their children, of the which some there be most filthy, letting the duty and office of life. These are more diligently to be eschewed then those which are not so horrible and filthy. And if thou thyself be infected with any such infirmity. I would thou shouldest dispose thyself to live chaste without sin, for as it is a thing most sweet and delectable to have children, so it is very sharp and a uncomfortable thing to see them oppressed with grievous infyrmityes and diseases, the which (if it were possible) we would rather desire to have and to suffer our selves, then with our so great pain and heaviness to see them in our children. And therefore we ought to consider & take heed, that our minds be sound, and that our contagiousness nor vice, neither by nature nor by custom do infect our children. I say the self same by the man, for this is the office and duty of a good man, to be content with his misfortune and chance, & not to let it creep forth to infect other. If we use such love & charity unto our friends, that they in no wise, nor manner be not infected with our infirmytyes, how much more should we be studious towards our own children? And fathers thus counseled do use to marry their children 
Note ye young men  for young men will hear no such counsel, for the more madder they be, the more wiser they think themselves. And that is the chiefest point of all madness, to think himself wise. Unto these things add this, the thy child's mind be not through education & manners contaminated, for that thing is very hurtful for thy son, and pestiferous for thy daughter, the which being nourished and brought up with their mothers, obey unto their counsels and study in word and deed to ensue & follow the same. And as for the stock and kindred, there needeth not in this consultation of children to be any great solicitude or care, for the children do follow thee; and not the woman. Thus much we have spoken of children. Let us now speak of the communion of life, wherein must be considered things both good & evil, profitable and unprofitable. Love whereof amity 
love.  doth take her name, doth grow of this opinion, that the thing is good and fair: and this is the knot of amity, the which once taken away, amity faileth. And therefore true and durable love, is only among 
True love where  those that are good, among whom there is but one constant rule and manner of living. But the evil united and coupled together with an evil intent and desire are no longer friends, than that desire endureth, for if that vanish away and fail, the force and strength of their love and amity doth decay, for the knot that knit fast it together is removed. And therefore we must consider both the goodness of the mind and of the body, and whether such things as chance and happen unto man of the exterior things, be good after the mind of the Peripatikes, are evil or commodious or incommodious after the mind of the Stoics, but I labour not greatly in these things. In the soul are these, sharpness & dullness, swiftness & slothfulness, subtlety 
The things of that soul and body.  & simplicity, malignity & goodness, health & infirmity, inclination to vice and virtue variably, and such things which are gotten by use, as arts, knowledge, rudines, wisdom foolishness, and all virtues & vice contrary unto these. In the body are these, age, health, stature, for me, strength, and beauty. The exterior things are these, kindred, fame, riches, dignity, grace, and condition. I have reckoned up even sufficiently enough these qualities for this my treatise, because I have no place here to entreat of them more largely. These things of the body may be easily perceived and known. But that that is inwardly in man so manifoldely enwrapped & covered is obscure & dark to be understanded, the which can not be learned nor perceived more or less, but by the exterior acts, as some certain deeds and works are manifest tokens of the passions of the mind, and foam other obscure and confuse. I will not speak of the tokens & signs of Philnomi, but I will speak more properly and more aptly as touching nature and that common wisdom of man. The going, sitting, resting, the countenance and eyes, the motion of the whole body and the sound of man's voice are but light & feeble sig nifications of a man's mind? The more certain tokens are man's manners and customs, among the which his speech 
How the affections may be known.  and communication is the principal, declaring not only man's nature, but also his affections, as things proceeding from them both. The proverb doth say, look what the man is, such are his words & communication. And Socrates when that a certain young man was brought unto him by his father for to learn, said unto him, speak that I may know thee. For a wise man shall more clearly know the mind of a young man by his communication & speech, then by that outward gestures, or proportion and making of the body. By the speech we perceive the quick sentences, which proceed of the wit, and the use of a man's communication, as it were a certain education, and how chaste, how shamefast, how grave, how sober, how modest, how benign, or else how dishonest, how unshamfull, how light, how insolent, how arrogant, and how tardious he is, for such is the fountain from whence this river runneth and is derived. In all other actions of the life, some eftsoons and incontinently do show even to those that are most rudest and dullest their intentes and minds, for the disdainful is often angry, the conten tious taketh occasion to say against the obstinate will give no place, but with bitter and feigned laughter, or with evil and disdainful silence stand in his own conceit and opinion. But she that among strangers can not refrain nor bridle her affections, doth declare herself to be unruly and of mind dissolute, and that she will not be governed, nor have no respect to those, that see her, or that do speak of her. Those signs that proceed of love or hatred, are somewhat obscure and uncertain, as those be, that delight or displease. Every man delighteth in that he willingly doth, and desireth to have it familiarly with him, & hateth those things that he coveteth to be far from him. Plato most nobly & most wisely would that the makers of the laws, should give 
Makers of laws.  and apply all their study, that the citizens might accustom themselves to delight in good things, and hate that is evil. For if they might once obtain this, a few laws would serve the city. For every ma might then carry about him a most just law, that is a moderate mind & a well instituted. The delectations do show themselves with the senses & feelings of the body, & other by experience and practice do show and declare the end of them to be in the mind of each one. It must be considered, what every man doth desire to he are, see, touch, smell and taste, what communication doth delight him? what books? what company? what congressions? what pastimes and plays? what mights? what raiment? what ornaments? Nature doth desire nothing so much as that, that doth resemble it, nor abhorreth, nor yet avoideth nothing so much, as that, that is unlike it. And so we may well perceive, that such is the inward mind, as the exterior & outward things be, wherein man delighteth. Of this do love, hatred, amity, conversation, enmity, & to flee avoid & some men's company arise, & are confirmed. But first and most principally men's minds are united & knit together by a certain secret consent & similitude of nature, other for the respect of profit, or by some casual temerity, as when men meet together in one school, or in one wagen or ship, some other by the way, or in warfare, or in one office, or at one banquet, or by some other necessity. The first of these or the most part are stable & continual friends, the other as long as there is any profit to be gotten. The third do cleave best together, if they be given to one manner of study, or if they find in each other, wherein they may have delight & pleasure. For if they be given to divers and contrary studies, nor find not in themselves that doth delight and please them, they do soon forsake one another. By these things we may somewhat behold & see that blind ambages & circuits of our hearts. For every man calleth unto him, & greed lie doth retain & hold that, that is most likest unto him, or else through a certain contagiousness, or some familiar conversation he becometh like unto it. For we do read in the holy Psal mes, that with that holy thou shalt be holy, & with the innocent & the elect, thou shalt be elect & innocent, and with the perverse thou wait be perverted. Therefore we ought to regard and take good heed, what company she doth use which whom we do intend to mary, and how long she hath haunted their company, & whether 
Company  that by the instinct of nature, or by any other impulsion she associated herself unto them, for such a one through conversation will be like unto them. And the maid se ruauntes 
Maidens.  do oftentimes open & declare the qualities & conditions of their maistresses, as the old saying is: such masters such maidens. And as Plato saith, such are that whelps. For it is very like that she, in whose hand it is to call, whom she lusteth, will call her, the which is most agreeable & conformable unto her conditions & nature. And being long conversant together, their vices or virtues, or else their conditions & fashions will creep unto them, the which thing is the more easily to be done, as every one doth conform himself unto his nature, whom he doth intend to please. And therefore those maidens ought not to be considered, that do often change & depart or ever their minds can be known, or with their evil manners do infect other. Nor they are not to be weighed that dwell far from their maistresses, but they only that have long continued with them, whose labour & service about some businesses they have used, & although they be not vicious, yet they may hurt the good name of those, that be honest. Other there be that are vicious the which must be diversly con sidered, for it may be, that she knoweth no such vice, or that she knoweth it. Or it must be searched out whether she may know it, and if she know it, men must inquire how profitable the use thereof is, & whether it may commodiously be left or no, or whether that any other man can do the same, & whether she had rather, that he as of necessity should do it, & again whether she be familiar with him. All these things will soon declare what will follow, what she looketh for, what she would, & what she delighteth in. That woman which doth gladly haunt the company of fat & well liking men, but ignorant and unskilful of any honest art appear teyning unto women, or that doth gladly talk with such invitinge him to her table, what should a man believe or say that she looketh for, but to do evil? Men by the life that 
The life that is paste.  is paste, do take acknowledge of the life that is to come, for the force & strength of a custom is great, and how she hath used herself with young men, with maidens, with sir vaunts, & how she hath supported both good & evil fortune, if ever she proved them that is prosperity meekly & equally, or fiercely & impotently adversity strongly & moderately, or desperately and ab iectly. Piety and religion is a secret & a hidden thing, & 
Piety.  known of God only, unto whom it pertaineth both to reward & to punish, and it is no man's part to judge thereof nor Christ's will they should, as a thing unto his judgement only reserved. But yet his judgement is not light judgement unto those, that do gladly speak of God and his holy word, & hear it without any arrogancy or ostentation 
How the word of god should be read.  of wit, or to be honoured of other, but with reverence & submission, that through the precepts & commandments thereof, both she and other might learn to live well and virtuously. Nor to speak or comen of exterior things, pertaining to the acts and deeds of the body do in such wise open religion, as to speak and reason of the inward things, & of those that do elevate and exalt the mind unto god. The first be, as to dispute and reason upon fastings, & the 
Fasting.  number of prayers, of vows and of holy peregrinations. And notwithstanding that fasting and prayer are very good things, & that good & devout women should oftentimes practise and use them, yet in asmuch as the evil may like wise use them, they do not clearly show and setforth the true & sincere religion. But to speak of him that is judge both of the quick & the dead, & of him that beholdeth the acts and deeds of men, & of the fugacitie of life, of the va nitie of those things, which men desire, of the contempt of honour, riches & dignity, of the care that God hath to defend us, sustain us, and to keep us, of the love of Christ towards us, of our mutual love and charity, of our aid and help unto the poor, of our love & honour unto our husbands, of the rule and bringing up of our children & servants, of death, of the pains of the sinful, of the eternal felicity, and of those that are virtuous and good, are more evident promises and witnesses thereof. And of these things we have compendiously entreated & spoken 
Dissimulation.  of. Dissimulation in all these things is soon speied & perceived, or else it endureth but for a season, and often times even suddenly it openeth itself. For why? a man's mind being set and disposed to dissemble, doth easily even of itself return to his proper nature. Let us therefore now return unto our purpose, and speak of all those things the which we have set in the soul, in the body, and in the exterior and outward things, for whose cause we have somewhat digressed unto the things that we hitherto have spoken of. Piety is the head of all things. She that is pitiful doth never evil, nor any thing that may be iusiely rebuked. This is the true and native justice, of the which the old proverb doth say, that it embraceth all virtue. But the wicked woman at no time doth any thing well, but when she judgeth it to be for her own ut ilite and profit. So my precepts shall have an eye, and regard those which are not wicked nor perfectly pitiful, for there is not one that is perfectly pitiful. For Paul doth say, that he doth run and labour, 
i Co. ix.  if by any means he may obtain and comprehend. But a great and a well grown pity is accepted and counted for an absolute and 
Unchasle women.  perfect pity. Unchaste women are intolerable, what wise man can suffer any such, except he be witless? Solomon sayeth: he that expelleth a 
Prove. xviij.  good woman, expelleth a good thing, and he that keepeth an harlot is a fool, and unwise. What love can a man have to such a woman? For the Lord sayeth, that she hath violated the mystery of matrimony. And yet they that amend & return from their enyll life, ought not to be numbered among the evil, in asmuch as they have turned their evil life into a better. She is not much unlike a shameless woman, that being naturally inclined to evil doth not give her diligence to erect it, but following her natural pleasure and desire, doth by an use and custom keep it under, and by soft and gentle entreating, nourishing of the same, doth augment and increase it. And so it chanceth that day by day, she taketh more pleasure & more in it, when that it were far more convenient to repress it, and by good motions and exercises to wind & turn it to better. Of the which ovid not without a cause doth speak, saying. She that for fear committeth not the fault, is an advoutres, in asmuch as she desireth it. And this woman is much worse, than she that declareth herself to be an open harlot: for among these there may be found that give themselves to honesty, the which perchance were led to dishonesty not by necessity (for there can be no necessity to do evil) but by some appearance or spice of necessity, without the which many might live more honestly. Nor no man can live pleasantly with her that is evil spoken of, nor have amity or any concord with her, that is not naturally and steadfastly witted. And what thing is more intolerable or more grievous to a wise man, then to support or to suffer a foolish companion? And in asmuch as to live together, doth not only consist in confabulation and words, but in all other things that pertain to the life of man. Therefore it is to be considered and weighed, who it is that will be married, and whether he be sharp or dull 
What things are to be considered in him the will be married.  witted, what his customs and manners be, whether he be peaceable or angry, vehement or soft, impetuous, fearful, a drunkard or an abstayner from wine, a niggard or prodigal, a widow man, or whether he hath been married or no, having children, or without children, how and by what occupation he liveth, upon his lands or by other gain, whether he be an occupiour or a crafts man, learned or unlearned, a magistrate or a pri vate person, of what age, of what health, and strength of body of and what stature.  
With these things the come modities & incommodities of the woman must be conferred. For why a dull wife is nothing meet nor convenient for a dull husband, nor an unwise woman for a wise man. Who shall rule the family? Who should nourish and bring up the children? Yea, what children should these two bring forth?  
Very asheades, or if they be proper and goodly, they shall for lack of good education become dull and astonished. And yet there shallbe a better agreement among these, then between a wise man, and a dull or a foolish woman. If thou mary a foolish woman, as many men do, because she is fair and beautiful, what matter made it, whether thou hadst a fair image of Phioia, or such a wife? For after that thou hast once satisfied thy filthy desire, thou shalt find thyself in misery. For who shall govern thy house? With whom shalt thou have communication? Who shall look unto thee when thou art diseased? Who shall comfort thee with words in thine anguish and pain? What company shalt thou have in adversity? Who shall rejoice with thee in thy prosperity? And through the dullness of the mind, they come to vile thoughts unmeet for the reasonable soul, and drawing their husbands to their proper affections and costumes, they utterly do blind them. We read in the holy Bible, that the children of God perceiving the daughters 
Gen. vi  of men (before noah's flood) to be beautiful & fair, took them to their wives, the which thing moved God to drown man kind. God did punish this thing because that wise men, and through virtue the children of God, did not choose them wives confirmable to their virtue, but took the fleashlye daughters of men, the which did draw the celestial spirit to earthly and vile thoughts, turning the spirit to flesh, and from quietness to the motions of the affections. And therefore 
Gen. vi  God doth say: my spirit shall not continue in them for ever, for they are but flesh. And if thou mary for her riches, or for kindred sake. 
A rich wife.  The foolisher, or the more without judgement she be, the more insolent and the more intolerable she will be. She that is crafty and subtle, 
A crafty wife.  doth cumber him very sore that unadvisedly doth entreat her, and doth not a little trouble him that is wise. The poor man hath 
The poor man's wife  need of such a wife as doth bring competent riches with her, or some sufficient occupation where with she may sustain and uphold herself with all. But to him that hath sufficiently enough to maintain his family, she that is apt to learn sufficeth, the which he may easily infourwe and fashion to his own manners and customs. Pride, the very mon 
Pride.  star & enemy of quietness, is among all other vices of the mind, most to be eschewed and avoided. It breaketh love & benevolence, with all conjunction & concord, mingling the sweetness which should be principally in matrimony with all bitter sowrnes. The vices which do yshue out of pride are these, arrogancy, fierceness, wrath, fastidiousness, & contempt, the which to be borne or suffered are most grievous tyrants. But every man (except he look wisely about him) may easily be intrapte in the signification of this vice. Some women there be, the which being fierce un to strangers, are unto their own most gentle, and such aught most dearly to be desis red and beloved. Such were those noble women, Penelope, Lucretia, Cornelia, and Portia, the which unto their husbands behaved themselves as handmaidens, & towards all other kept their estate and dignity, and their chastity most strongly: being prompt and ready to wash away from that, were it never so little a spot or blemish, even with their own blood. But if she should use such pride towards her husband, there should ensue great unquietness and trouble. Such a woman may be thus known, when that through the zeal of chastity she is unto all other intractable, nothing regarding her progeny, her beautifulness, or riches, and this shall be the good wife that we seek for, and the best keeper of womanly honesty. But if she thorough the foresaid things, wax arrogant and proud, she shall be intolerable. But 
Note ye women.  she that hath an eye unto ver tue, doth flee and avoid the company of men, nor will not gladly comen with them, fearing none otherwise to bespotte the beautyfulnesse of her chastity, than the Armelyne (as it is said) doth avoid miry and dirty places. This woman doth eschew noble and ignoble, fair and foul, rich & poor, & all other men, and shall be as touching all other, except unto her own husband, a white line (as men say) in a white stone. But if the vanity of those vain & worldly things do vainly inspire her, she shall despise those, which enjoy not the trifles that she is proud of, and show herself most benign & affable unto those that fortune doth favour. She that is cruel and sharp, will be as it were a fierce mother in law, brawling, cruel, and contentious. An obstinate woman should not be married unto him that is 〈◊〉, for that were to put tow unto fire, and what other thing should he do at home then, but burn, and she but to lay on wood to kindle the fire withal? A prince ought not 
A liberal woman.  to refuse her that is liberal, no nor yet her that is munificent 
liberality.  or prodigal, for there is no virtue that more beseemeth a prince, nor that winneth more the favour of the people, or that more stablyssheth high and great dignities than liberality, so that it be not mixed with rapacity, nor with the desire to inryche some (as were red of Sylla,) with other men's goods and substance. He that hath children, and doth intend to mary, must avoid her that is a ravener, and specially a prince, and a governor of a cite, for by such means the evil are wont to creep in, and to corrupt the integrity of men. And we read that there hath been many rulers of countries condemned, not for their own theft and robbery, but for the theft and robberies of their wives. And for this 
Note.  cause it was ordained in the senate of Rome, Tiberius being Emperor, that all such as was sent forth to rule and govern the provinces and countries, should not carry their wives with them.  
The negligent woman is unprofitable for him that can not be at home with his own family and household. A niggard is not 
A niggard.  only profitable for him that is poor, but also for him that in his goods and substance doth sustain and bear the mutabilytye and chances of fortune. Nor I speak not this, because she hath no power in all those things which are called things of fortune, but I speak of those things which fortune is wont with great varyetye of chaunches to be meddling with all. For why? the patrimony and goods of merchants are much more subject, and sooner do feel and taste the instabylytye of fortune, then the patrimony of husband men, or of great princes, or of those that live upon their lands and rents. He therefore that is set under the variety & mutability of fortune, must choose and mary such a wife, as is wont in such chances to be content with a little, & can order that little both wisely & strongly. Such are they that are profitable, sober, and borne of a good stock & kindred, nourished & brought up under honest parents, & taught to fear shame and so to hide their necessity that it come not abroad, rea die to eat brown bread, and to drink water, to cover their poverty withal. But she that is poorly and basely borne, but dilicatelye and wantonly brought up, after that she hath once assayed of those delights & pleasures, doth prefer her belie above all honour, & good name and fame. She that is eloquent and well framed to 
An eloquent wife  speak, is a pleasure to him that is heavy spirited, so that she be pleasant and not bitter of words, nor to pleasant unto other, the which thing unto him that is suspicious and jealous, is a very torment. She that is full of words (unto him that goeth about things which are secret, and cannot be disclosed without danger) is very hurtful, as unto secre tarries of Princes, and emperors chauncelonrs. The occasion of Fabius Maximus death was, because he declared unto Linia his wife, that Posthumus Agrippa was cited by his grandfather Augustus. It is great wisdom for a man to be circumspect, & to take heed of himself, as it were of deceits, what he speaketh familiarly at the ta 
Note this.  ble, or when he embraceth his wife, nor to discover any thing by gesture or countenance, nor to remove all manner of writings from her, whereby she may come to the knowledge and understanding thereof, that should be opened with so great danger and peril. beautifulness, riches, & kindred, cause men to be insolent & proud, for ovid doth say: that pride doth fail beauty. And Juvenal doth say: that there is nothing more intolerable than a rich woman. And martial sayeth merely as he is wont: ye ask me why I will not mary a rich woman. Because I will not marry myself to my wife. And Plaute in Asinaria, doth say: I have taken money, and with the dowry I sold mine authority. The poor that marrieth a rich wife, doth not so much live in trouble, because his wife is molestlous and grievous unto him, as he continually doth suspect that she will despise and little regard him.  
And of kindred Juvenal doth say: I had rather have Venusina, then thee Cornelia the mother of Graccis, if which thy many virtues thou brig much pride, and 〈◊〉 for thy dowry the great triumphs of thy kindred.  
And yet all this most commonly doth consist in the education and bringing up of the woman. There be that are poor, without favour, 
Is it not so?  and basely borne, the which are often times more arrogant and proud, than they which are noble. Marcus Caro the Censor and chiefest of the common wealth, did choose the daughter of Solonius his client to his wife, the which Solonius believed that he did but guessed with him and wondered that so noble a man would be joined in affinity with him. But 
Marcus Caro.  what, the old Caro took the young maiden, the rich, the poor, the noble, the ignoble, the Prince, a vile and a base borne unto his wife.  
And yet S. Jerome doth say, that she used herself very contemptuously and proudly unto her husband, and was daily less and less obeydient unto him, so that he (whose words, whether he spoke them in the senate, or to the people, or in the judgement haule, were taken for an oracle) the which was esteemed for the most prudent and wisest man of so noble a city, unto whom there was no man at that time, neither at home, nor yet abroad, nor in war, nor in peace, nor in quietness, nor yet in business able to be compared, had not so much authority at home, as upon a rude, a foolish, a poor, an ignoble, & an object wench, and yet she was in a manner taken for the chiefest of all other matrons, and for her husbands sake had in great estimation and honour. I heard often times at lovayne of a certain host of mine, borne in Phrise land, that there was in his city a certain rich gentle man, the which purposing to live merely & quietly, took unto his wife a woman far under his degree, that is, a poor woman basely borne and of no great beauty, and yet most commonly in that country there are exceeding fair women. But being rudely brought up under her parents, she refused to do the things pertaining unto his house, and disdained once to touch, or to look upon her husbands shirts. This woe man being now dead and departed, and he mnche wearied with her rude & filthy education, married a noble, a rich, a fair, and a woman meet for his degree, the which did serve him although she had been his bondmaid, not as compelled, nor yet feignedly but willingly and faith fully. She put on, and took of his 
Note'y e women.  clothes, and his shoes, and made them clean, and having a great family, would suffer none other but herself to do any thyuge that belonged unto her husbands body, she mended his garments, washed them, pleated them, laid them up, and did all other things most promptly, the which her maidens now and then would have been grieved to have done. And therefore these exterior things are even as every man's mind is instituted & accustomed.  
Nor I will not deny but that a woman, if she be of a perverse nature, will arrogantly through her kindred, riches and beauty (if these things be left her) extol herself, as doth the flame of fire in a dry and a light matter. A young man asked Pirtacus one of the seven wise 
Pittacus answer.  men of Grece, whether he should marry one that was above his degree or no, he made him this answer: marry her that is equal with thee. Of the which thing there is an old Epigram of Celimachus, recited by Laercius. For in times passed the old authors wrote of beauty as it were with certain arguments.  
If thou mary her that is fair, thou shalt have her common: if she be foul, and evil favoured, she shallbe molestious and grievous, but yet she shallbe thine own.  
If she be fair, thou shalt have a pleasure in her. And this. It is a grievous thing to suffer her that is foul, and a hard thing to keep her that is fair. And therefore they counseled men to take those, which were neither to fair nor yet to foul: And to choose those that were of the mean sort. For doubtless, they that are excellent fair, wax insolent and proud, for when they see & perceive that men behold and gaze upon them, and that they be as it were in admiration to all men, they believe that there is some rare thing in them above all other, not with standing that with their own eyes they do see as in a glass how good a thing that beauty is, and do soon forget it.  
But consider with the eye of the mind and understanding, making a conjecture of themselves by other, how unstable a thing that be auty is. And besides all this, that that thing is hardly kept that many do desire. And 
Note  therefore a certain poet doth say: that there is a great strife, where beauty and honesty are joined together. And that often times under fair faces are hidden filthy minds. But she that is very deform and foul, not withstanding 
deformity.  she be most tender lie beloved, yet she believeth it not, thinking herself unworthy worth ye: and is jealous of all those, that her husband doth other behold or speak unto. Among the which there are some, in whom this sentence may be well applied and verified. The foul & evil favoured are oft chaste, although there lack no will, but the adulterer only. But yet in this thing, after as the quality of the man is: there are certain commodities that the luxurious & fastidious man may have to satiate and fulfil his will with all, & he that is suspicious and in gelosye may be in surety.  
All these things are not catholic, and yet it is wont to chance thus. All things be in man, as the mind of is, but specially, after as it is informed of youth, and established by virtuous customs and manners. His wife that with his hands doth 
The labo rers wife  labour for his living, aught to be robust and strong, so that she may help and labour with him, as in plowing and harrowing of his land. The wife that is sickly is very molest and grievous, if it let her to bear children, or to do such things as of necessity must be done at home. Hesiodus, Plato, and Aristotle, will that the man be three and thirty years 
The years of ma riage.  of age, and the woman eighteen or ever they do marry. For the man being under those years is not of sufficient strength to get children, and the children are but feeble, nor increase not as they should do, neither in stature nor in strength. And he being inexpert, doth not rule his family & household as he should do, where he beareth because of his youth, but little authority, nor his children do not reverence him, the which doth appear unto them, not as a father, but a brother. And if he be very old, he can not help his young children, nor they him, but have need of other men's aid & help, and doth departed, or ever he make any provision for them. And women before they be eighteen yearrs of age, are not meet to bear children, & do travel of child with great parel and danger. Nor it is not expedient to accustom her being so tender & young to venerial copulation, for lechery is there by inflamed, and the body can not have his due increase, Nor such a young thing can not rule her family being inexpert of all things, and coming to a more perfect age, she will not be ruled by her husband, for her conditions and manners are so grown and rooted in her, that they can not be changed.  
finally, the foresaid ages do well agree, and are convenient, both for them to live together in matrimony, and also to eugender and bring forth children, for their whole power and strength, shall fail them at one time and season, & their marriage should have little joy or pleasure, if the one were fruitful, and the other feeble for age. All this have I said after the mind and opinion of the Philosophers, but specially of Aristotle in his book of the common wealth. But yet in these things the causes why they did so define the thing, are more to be considered and looked upon, than the definition. Or else when soever any other like causes, or the self same (the which certes are very good) do persuade it. Let us perceive & understand that all ready nature vath defined it, the which having respect to the time and place, doth with secret qualities alter man's body. But first we must consider reason and pity, the only goodness of the mind. And for the time that we live chaste & unmarried, we must use such a waner and measure of living that before the just age of procre ation, we be not much pricked nor stirred with the flesh. Caesar 
Note thlo custom.  doth commend the custom of the old almains, the which he praiseth, because they went long without any skins, or raiment upon them, the which thing after the mind & opinion of some, did stablish their stature, their force & sinnose. And also their women were greatly esteemed, the which before they were twenty yea res of age, would company nor lie with no man. But if we cannot live chaste, let us esteem religion above all things, and follow the precept of Paul, the 
1. Cor. 〈◊〉.  it is better to marry then to burn. Let us elevate our eyes to the everlasting country, and care little for this life, that which is but for a time. And our Lord, that is the voice of the divine and godly wisdom doth say, that it pro 
Luc. ix.  fiteth a man nothing to win all the world with the loss of his soul. If she that is aged doth marry, she must be void from all natural vices, and of all such as she was nourished and brought up withal, for being endured and hardened with such evil vices, when shall she be reform? But she that is young may even as it were wax be fashioned & form, to what soever a man will fashion her unto. In parentage and kindred let us remember the old proverb, that of a good mother cometh a good daughter. My country men pronounce that with two senses, thus. Of a good vine take a good branch, & to thy wife take the daughter of a good mother. And wandering about the city, first inquire thou of the mother, and then of the daughter. But yet it importeth very much with whom and where 〈◊〉 was nourished & brought up, for it is seen often times, that such as be borne of evil parents wax good even as they be that nourish them. And borne of good & virtuous parents to wax 〈◊〉 tie and evil, for youth doth most aptly & expressly ensue and follow that evil is. The woman's friends must be weighed and considered, whether they be to mighty, or to grievous for the or no. Nor I can not say, whether thou shalt have her sufficiently enough under thy power & dominion; that trusteth much in the mighty strength of her kindred. Tiberius Caesar married julia Augustus' 
Tiberius.  daughter, a shameless woman, and of a very evil name: but when that he could no there chasten her, nor yet chase her the daughter of so mighty a father out of his house, nor durst not accuse her unto him of adultery, being uncertain how he would take it, & to keep her, & still to continue in her company was most grievous of all, under a colour to live quietly he went to the Rhodes, where at his first coming he lived a life most ignominious, & after that in great danger for there were that called him a banished man, & for Caesar's pleasure his stepsone did threaten to 〈◊〉 him. I know a certain man that married one far above his degree but after that the days of micth and pastime were passed, he cursed the day as to him most unfortunatest, when she was first named unto him. For if he had married one of equal and like degree unto himself, he having so great abundance of riches, should have been the most fortunatest & luckieste of all other, nor he should not have repent himself of his kindred, nor at home have suffered so great molestiousnes, the which could not have been en deed but by his death or hers. Furthermore men must consider, of what conditions the woman's kinsfolk be of, and what their manner & fashion of living is, whether they be spitifull, sharp, untractable, litigious, brawling, or fierce: for with such thou shouldest be continually in trouble. And again whether they be sedi tious, or factious, and special lie in those parties, where that 
As 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  men whether they will or will not are wont to be entangled with partetakinges, for they shallbe unquiet. For who can avoid trouble that familiar lie doth haunt and frequent their company, which are troublous? Furthermore it must be considered, whether they be poor, great cravers, shamels, or without modestiousnes: for there be, that can not suffer, ne bear no such, but to avoid all such grief, are content to go & inhabit other pla ces. It is a grievous thing to suffer her that is rich, or to now rish or entertain her that is poor Let every man look upon his own substance, whether 
How notable a thing it is to marry a poor woman.  he be able to support himself & his or no, for there is nothing more acceptable unto God, nor more commended of man, then to marry a poor & a well conditioned woman. It is a spice of almose to help the poor, & thou hast her not only as a wife, but as a servant the which can not lay unto thy charge, that she brought thee any thing, but in prosperity shall use with thee that is thine, & kuowledge thee to be master of all, & that all her wealth cometh of thee, & in adversity shall patiently bear & suffer envious and unfriendly fortune, remembering how little she brought with her, and shall not pity herself that came poorly unto thee, but thyself that art spoiled of all thy goods. But yet I put thee in remembrance again, that I speak of those that are well and mannerly brought up, for poor men's daughters sluttyshely & wanton brought up and nourtered, are as touching their estate, both in prosperity and poverty intolerable. But if thy goods suffice not to entertain thy wife with all, take thou such a one as can somewhat help thee. But if thou take her that is rich, to live & spend her goods ydely & pleasantly, thou breakest the law & ordinance of god, the which would 
Gen. 〈◊〉.  that man should live of his troth well & labour, furthermore, it should break love & concord. And how long thinkest thou that she would suffer & support thee, which as one that is un profitable & idle dost consume & devour up her goods & substance? But such a ruffler the which as she supposed should have been unto her sweet and pleasant, shall want no pain, that is, no strif, no crabbed words, no mutual hatred in this life. And that bread the which he did eat without pain or labour, shall bring with it most bitter and sour meat. How much better had it been then to have eaten brown bread with v●le & unsavoury meat in tranquillity & peace, then in such a bitter life to have devoured & eaten all other delicates following the counsel of the wise man, saying: that better is a dry morsel of bread 
Prou. xvij.  with joy & gladness, than a house full of fat offering with strife and contention. Of the which pleasant and sweet life gotten with labonre & pains Virgil doth say, that there was an old husband man at Tarent, the which not withstanding 
●arens is a noble city of Calabria.  he was but poor & needy, yet in mind he was equal with princes that which returning home towards night, furnished his Table without any cost or charge at all.  
Marcus Antonius the Philosopher married Fustina, the dou ghter of Antonius Pius, and trusting that there by he should inherit the Empire, durst not for her manifest & open adultery refuse her. lest that any controversy or trouble should be made for her dowry. I would a great deal sooner counsel the woman to marry with her better, than the man to marry her that is of moor power, than he himself. For why? the mind of man is noble, & will not abase itself, to be compared to the woman. But many women for their defence when they brawl and chide, do use this armour, for incontinently thou shalt hear the comparison of their nobility and riches. After all this, thou must mark their qualities, that is, whether she be a widow or unmarried, a virgin or corrupt, wont to be loved or no. In a widow, her age must be considered. In a young woman it maketh no great matter whether she be a virgin or no, although it seem no small thing to have had the flower of her age, and as Uirgil doth say, to have had th' first love. Nor it is not of naught that my country men proverbiallye do say: that the beginning, as well in love as in ●otage is most pleasant. In her that was long with her husband, that thing, the which of wise men is commanded to be weighed in friends, must be considered, that is, how she behaved herself to her first husband and what manner of man her husband was. For if she (he being an honest man) loved him not, nor could not broke him, way then with thyself, what she will be unto thee: but if he were evil and importune, and yet she moderately did suffer him, thou must ever hope and trust the same. But if he were evil & flagitious, than thou must take good heed whether he have not alured her unto his own manners, and how those manners do please the. Make also a comparison betwixt him and thyself, for if he were more virtuous than thyself, she considering the good things past & those that are present, shallbe heavy and grievous unto thee, and so much the more, because that the time present seemeth to be worse, then that, that is paste, for the 
Time.  time doth continually turn & incline to the worse. But if she be better borne, richer, and of more power than thou thyself, she as one that was some times married to such an husband unto whom thou art not to be compared, shall fastidiously contemn thee, & the more bitterly hate thee. how much her first husband than thou, did more commodiously and gently use her. But she that shall come laden to the with children, shall rob thee, & gather to enrich her own withal. She will not love thy children, nor yet equally those, which are common between you, but shall have compassion upon the fatherless being destitute of all fatherly help and come fort. In her that was corrupt men must consider the life that is paste, for of these there are two periculous kinds, for thou shalt heardlye persuade her that was common, or her that hath haunted the company of great men, or her the which they have loved to be continente: for it would be heard for her that was wont and accustomed to be a masters over great men, to serve him that is so far under those which were her servants. And how soever she shall find thee, she will not believe that all other would have been as thou art, but shall lament that so unluckedly she came & was married unto the. I would not counsel that to marry 
Excellent good counsel.  her, with whom thou hast been in amours withal, whom thou flatterdest, whom thou didst serve, whom thou called'st thy heart, thy life, thy masters, thy light, thy eyes, with other such words as foolish love doth persuade, using impiety against god, which is that end of all desire & goodness. This submission is & should be the cause, that she doth not regard that, but disdaineth to serve thee, whose lady she was as she esteemed, & whom she found more obedient unto her, even with that peril & danger of life, them any other slave that was bought for money. Thus it appeareth it is not convenient the the servant should rule the maistres, for after that love, hatred, reverence, contempt, & fear hath once occupied the mind of man they leave certain continual marks, the which the Greeks call Hexis, & the Latins Habitus. Great & noble men do always honour their pedagoges & masters, & that for the revence they bore them of youth & do fear them, notwithstanding they be their subjects, & have the authority & power in their hand both of life and death. And the proverb doth say, that whoso marrieth for love, doth live in sorrow. I would that the flame which was kindled & did burn before they were married, & after they were married, waxed cold again might be renewed, perpetual, pure, & lively. Thou seest now, how great prudency & wisdom is necessary to discern & judge these things, and how necessary it is to counsel with him, whose motions of the mind are quiet, that they beguile thee not. Let no man trust to obtain a wife, that shall have no incommodity nor fault, but yet the fewer that she hath, shall be in stead & place of her many fold & great virtues. But he that is wise, will learn & take counsel by such things as be present. And forasmuch as those things which be mean, are almost infinite, there can be no universal form nor rule genen of them, & therefore wisdom is present at hand, the which is not given, but with precepts aided & helped: & to admonish men of the same, I have as for an example written the things & matters aforesaid. In the deliberation of matrimony, this must be inviolably 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  observed, that we follow not the judgement of our own senses, nor eyes the which are soon ravished and deceived with beauty, nor of the ears the which take pleasure in elo quence, nor of the motions of the mind, wherewith men are led other to kindred, or else to money or riches, the which all through their instability, abundance or sacietye, do bring with them swift & sudden repentance. And therefore all things are to be revoked & called to that supreme and exact judgement of the mind. Thou shalt take heed, that on thy part the woe man neither in body nor in sub stance be not deceived, for thou shalt never use her coninodiously, and as thou wouldst thyself, whom thou fraudulent lie & deceitfully didst entice & wind unto thee, for natural lie we hate him as an enemy, that doth beguile us, nor nothing doth displease a man more, then to lack the thing he looked for. It were better to disclose unto her thy vices & infirmities, the mediocrity and means of thy goods & substance with the peril of the loss of her, then to obtain her with fraud & sure discord. Sergius 
Sergius Gal ba,  Galba his father that was Empe rour played (as it is written) the part of a wise & of an honest man, for when Livia Occel la that beautiful & rich woman was in love with him, he put of his clothes, & secretly did show her that he was broken backte, the which simple generosity did so content & please her, that she regarded not the blemish of his body, but loved and honoured him more, than ever she did before. Many men are wont to say, that they will rule their wives, whatsoever they be, or howsoever they came by them, and that it is in the hand and power of the husband, what and of what conditions she shall be. Certes a great part of this doth rest & lie in the husband, so that he as he ought to do, do understand that ma 
Matrimony.  trimonye is the supreme and most excellent part of all amity, and that it far differreth from tyranny, the which doth compel men to obey. Truly it compelleth the body, but not the will, in the which all love and amity do the only consist, the which if it be drawn doth resist, and bow like a palm tree (as natural 
The nature of a palm tree.  Philosophers do write) to the contrary part. Nor thou shalt not believe, that there can be any marriage or concord, where they agree not in wyil and mind, the which two are the beginning & seat of all amity & friendship. And they that do advance & think them selves able to rule their wives, by that time they have proceeded 
〈◊〉.  and gone a little further, they shall feel & perceive themselves beguiled, & find that thing to be most hard & intractable, the which to be done they esteemed most light and easy. Some there be, that through evil and rough handling and in threatening of their wives, have them not as wives, but as servants.  
And yet surely they are but very fools, that judge matri money to be a dominion. And such as would be feared, do afterwards lament & complain that they find no love in them, whose love & amity through their own importu nitie they turned into hatred. And at the beginning glorifying & craking thus cruelly to be their wives masters, they purchase unto themselves a most miserable & alamentble life in time to come, being now that all love & pleasure is cast a side, environed with fear & suspicion, hatred, & so row. Truly if a man (as nature, 
Eph. v.  reason, & holy scripture, do say unto us) be the head of the woman, and Christ the father, there ought to be between them such society & fellowship, as is between the father and the son, and not such as is between the master and the servant.   

¶ Of the access and going unto Marriage.  
AFter that thou hast the with thyself to marry, & hast done all diligence thereto required, thou must desire of God, good & prosperous success, in whose hand & power it is to geue it, & doubtless will give it most abundantly, if thou above all other things have an hope & a respect unto him, For if thou, after the thou hast satisfied thine appetite, resort unto him, desiring him that thou mayst obtain the thing that thou most desirest, it should appear that thou wouldst make him a minister of thy voluptuous desieres and pleasures, and so doing thy vows & prayers should appear most manifest blasphemy A man should not come unto 
Note  marriage as unto a profane thing, with a solute and an uncareful mind, but with a quiet & a well purged mind, as to a thing most sacrate & holy. Nor matrimony doth not only consist in the conjunction of the body, nor yet in dancing nor banqueting, proceeding & brought unto us with many other things from the gentiles, when that it should rather beseem us most studiously to pray unto almighty God, that so weighty a thing as matrimony is, might have good and prosperous success.  
Matrimony as a thing sanctified of God, the which willeth the matrimonial embracementes 
He, xiii  to be chaste, the bed to be undefiled, and their pro ginie unbespotted. And it is after the mind of S. Paul, a sign of that great mystery, wherewith Christ doth indisolubly unite himself unto that 
Eph. v.  church. Therefore thou oughtest as much as shall lie in the to lift up thy mind, and to remember how great & how worthy an image thou dost represent, and that thy wife is unto thee, as the church, and thou unto her as Christ: And therefore thou shouldest show thyself unto her as Christ showed himself unto his church. The charity and love of Christ unto the church is incredible, and thy love towards thy wife ought to be most effectuous. Societe and to live together is the most effectuous and sum rest knot to knitre and join amity and love among men and all other beasts. What greater society or company can there be, then is between a man and his wife? Whose house, whose chamber, whose bed is common, their children are common, and they themselves partakers of all good & evil success and fortune, the which society and fellowship were sufficient to stir and pro voke him that loveth not his wife, to love and benevolence. And what company or love shall a man look to have of him that loveth not his wife? There are that in love and amity look for gain as that vile Epicures do, unworthy to be beloved, men which love themselves & not their friends. And if we have a respect unto commodity and profit, there is nothing that giveth so much as doth a wife, no not horses, oxen, farmers nor proctors. For a man's wife is the fellow and comforter of all cares & thoughts, and doth more diligent and good service, than other maid or servant, the which do serve men for fear or else for wages, but thy wife is led only by love, & therefore, she doth every thing better then all other. And God doth declare it, saying: let us 
Gen. ij.  make Adam a helper like unto himself, by the helper is signified the utility and profit of the service, & by the similitude & likeness is signified love. For a servant and he that is hired, are far unlike the master, and are taken well nigh for no men. A servant in the stead and place of an horse or of an ox, the which must be beaten & enforced to their work doth serve his master. A hired servant is in the place of an hired horse, for when the hire is paid, the society & fellowship dissolveth. The child is part of the father, & through a natural pity they love each other, but yet the wife is more annexed & joined to her husband. The father doth labour and taketh pain for his children, but seldom the children for their fathers, and often times they are sent to inhabit & dwell in other men's houses whereby in a manner it appeareth that their straight & fast society doth dissolve & break. But the wife clean contrary doth incontinently take pains for her husband, nor may (as long as she liveth) neither change house nor bed. If come moditie & profit be looked for, what commodity excelleth this if thou love thy wife thou shalt live most pleasantly, if thou love her not, most miserably & wretchedly. For there is nohing so sharp nor so bitter, as to hate the thing that doth favour & love thee, nor nothing more happy as to love him that hateth thee. What doth other men's been volence & amity help or comfort me, if inwardly I consume myself with hatred? or what doth other men's envy & hatred hurt me, when my mind is occupied with sweet & pleasant love? The fountain of felicity & misery is inwardly, for outward things do little or nothing to the jocundity or misery of man's life. Some there be, that hate angels, the which that notwithstanding are through love most happy & fortunate. Some other love Satan, the which through envy and hatred are most unfortunate & wretched. How shall it be possible then, that thou which dost love shalt not be loved, the proverb being true and saying: Love that thou mayst be loved. Thou shalt then lead a celestial & a heavenly life, when there is such correspondente & mutual love between you. as there is among the angels and those blessed fowls, which have left their dodies, and are clothed with the divine and godly light. The law of matrimony and 
The law of love is matrimony.  nature, which Idam or God rather by Adam did pronunce, doth declare how great the love of marriage should be, for when Eve after that sweet slumber was brought unto him to be his wife & companion behold (quoth) Adam this bone is of my bones, and this flesh 
Gene. 〈◊〉.  of my flesh, for this shall man for sake father and mother, & cleave unto his wife, and they shall be two in one flesh. This is the sum and end of all love & amity, to be so joined with the thing that thou dost love that thou mayst become one thing with it. The poets declare, that Vulcanus the God of smiths found two together, the which showed one to another great tokens of love, and taking a pleasure in this their charity & love, a thing unto god most acceptable, he asked them whether there were any thing, where in he might do them pleasure. O Vulcan qd they, we desire that with those thy divine instruments 
Note  wouldst break us in pieces, cast us new again, and make of us two but one.  
This is the end of all our desires, & for this doth love study, & shall obtain that it desireth, if it may bring that thing to pass, the which at length shall be in that heavenly love and charity, when we being spoiled of this flesh of sin, and renewed by Christ, shallbe made one thing with God, & among ourselves, as Christ doth teach us. What other thing is it, that man must leave father & mother for and cleave 
Gene. ij  unto his wife, but only that charity overcometh all love, yea & that also which doth elapse the father & the child together, that ought to be most greatest. being a man taught only by nature doth say, as Homer writeth, that Troy in time to come should be destroyed by that Greeks, and that he doth not care nor sorrow so much for himself, his father, his mother, or for his brethren, as he sorroweth for his dearly beloved wife. The stout & manly mind of man hath continually his reward: for why? the flame pierceth the woman's heart, the which loveth her husband most fervently. And so did Andromica love Hector above all other. Zenophon doth show, that when Tygrave the king of Armenia's son & his wife were Cyrus' prisoners, he promised to redeem her with his own life. And afterwards when they asked her what she thought of Cyrus, she said that she never beheld nor saw him. And when her husband said, what thing hast thou seen then, if thou never didst see him? she answered, what thing should I behold or see, but him only, that said he would redeem me out of servitute & bondage with his own life? so greatly the love of her husband had inflamed her. But what manner of love should be in matrimony? & with what other precepts should it be fashioned, then with those, that which the Lord our God doth give by his Apostle Paul in the epistle to the Ephesians where he sayeth: 
Cap. v.  That man is the head of the woman, as Christ is the 
1. Cor. iij.  head of the church, and god the head of Christ. He proponeth no vile thing, nor of earth lie wisdom, that doth corrupt, and is foolishness before God, and oftentimes in this world doth decay, & yet doth elevate and extol itself to the similitude and image of the eternal wisdom, by the which the almighty god created & made the world. And that head of the church said so seriously, that he was the salvation of his body, that he doubted not to give himself for it. The Apostle calleth upon his, to ensue and follow this love, that 
Ephe. v  is, that as CHRIST hath sprinkled and shed his blood to save his church so shouldest thou not fear, nor that for thine or thy wife's affections, but for the health and salute of her soul, to die most strongly. What thing can 
Love geneth courage.  make the courageous, if love make the not? the which giveth courage & audacity to hearts, hares, & other timorous and fearful beasts. In this word salute is comprised, life, health, virtue & honesty. But as for riches, ornaments, deliciousness, vain glory & voluptuousness are ta ken for foolishness. He himself despised all these things, & taught his, that they should 
Note this  come unto him, if they lightly regarded them. Christ did not to enrich his church with gold and silver, or that it should be of solace or pleasure, but he was crucified to sanctify his church with by the word, that it might be glorious without any wrynkle or sport, holy and faulteles, and so ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. The Lord doth 
Eph. v.  daily sanctify the church by his death, that being purged with the most purest blood of her spouse, she may be adorned with all virtue, and by putting away old Adam with all his deeds, she may be clothed with Christ her spouse, the which was made of God after the similitude and likeness of the first Adam, I say, the heavenly, not after the image of the earthly. There appear outwardly such wonderful and excellent virtues, whereof the glory of the church doth arise, that by them they may come to the fountain of all goodness, that do marvel at those springs, and doth honour them. And therefore we are commanded to be in 
two. co. ij  every place a good odour and savour, but namely unto the lord. And it is the will of our master that our good works 
Mat. v.  should be known to all men to the intent our heaven lie father of whom we received them, might be glorified.  
The queen did stand upon the right hand of her spouse, in a 
Psalm xliiij.  vesture of gold wrought about which divers colours, but yet her glory was not in her apparel, nor in those things which men do behold & see, but in those that she seeth in spirit, & that her spouse doth approve for whose love she doth adorn & apparel herself: who then can esteem matrimony to be vile, considering it is that image of so high and so divine things? And therefore the woman's life, virtue, & good name & fame, ought to be unto her husband more dearer than his own life, as christ put his own life to great & incredible pains & torments to save, sanctify, & to honour his church, Nor thou must not behold how fair, of what kindred, how rich, or of what health she is of, nor yet how greatly she doth love thee: for whatsoever she be the thou haste married, thou must none other wise, nor with no less affection love her, than Christ loved his church, the which refused not to suffer great pains for the wicked, and his enemies, drawing them unto him as membres unto the head, to furnish and to make up his church with all, he doth daily teach her, sustaineth, clarifieth, mundifieth, and with great patience & gentleness doth chasten her, and whatsoever she be, he embraceth her with great love, although she be unkind, and coldly doth recompense his fervent love and charity, to her wards. She is thy wife, and ye both are now but one thing, therefore thou oughtest to love her as thyself. It is written that Epaminudas enemies appointed him a certain vile office, the which he accepted most beninglye and thankesully, saying that he would so use it, that in time to come it should be reputed among the people a very honest office, and so he did Can this man in so great a dissension of the city and among so many envious persons and enemies. cause a vile office to be had in estimation, and canst not thou even of thyself bring to pass, that thou d●…pise not thine own flesh, yeathy self? when that ●●ule doth 
Eph. v.  say, he that loveth himself loveth his wif. Nor there was never man that hated his own flesh, but doth nourish & cherish it, as the lord doth cherish his church, Aristotle following the pythagorians doth define a friend that he is the self same thing 
A friend  with another. And god doth say, that the wife with her husband 
Gene. ij  is all one thing. And Cicero to confirm & keep amity giveth this counsel, that the inferior should ascend & the superior descend, for so that things may be brought to equality. But in matrimony this needeth not, for it is sufficient both for that man & the wife, to perceive & understand, that they are part each of others body. And therefore to be fair or foul, rich or poor, noble or ignoble, whole or sick, wise or foolish, is now through the operation and work of God, the which hath made them both one, common unto them both. Nor there shall never be true and continual love, except it be stablished upon those things that remain after death.  
For beauty, riches, kindred, & such other have their time, some appointed by nature, & some by fortune, & other humane chances. They have also their satiety, & in time and place they are forgotten. For we can not at all times and seasons remember the Fabians, the Cornelians, and that we received a great dowry. The affection with the time doth wax feeble & cold, and the plentifulness and use of that, that a man did greedily first desire doth cause him to loath it. All these things do diminish love, & certain of them do utterly extinguish it, the which if it had been in the mind & in virtue, should 
Virtue.  have continued for ever. For virtue is ever at hand, never idle, never unprofitable nor void, but always working. Nor that soul of man by the death of the body doth not die, so that we may believe that they which be departed do love all such, as in this world were dear unto them: and that they which loved the Souls of those which be departed and delivered from the body, do love them not as dead, but as they love their friends, that which are absent & far from them. And therefore we do see many women that keep their faith & love unto their first husbands, as did Demotions the Ariopagites daughter, of the which S. Jerome doth write against Jovinian, the which after that her spouse Leostenes was dead, would 
Note. this ye women.  marry with none other, saying that she should marry an adulterer & no husband, for although he were departed, yet he was alive unto her. And so said that woman of Rome. And how sharply & wittily doth Lucan bring in Cornelia, Scipio Metellus daughter, and Pompeus last wife, taking and esteeming herself but as an harlot as touching julia his first wife, as though the knot and band of matrimony and love did yet endure bet wixte the living and dead. And naturally every man desireth to be loved and doth search for the favour of other men, and studieth to keep & to increase those things, that cause him to be in favour. If thy wife do perceive, that thou art ravished and taken with her beauty, and would that thou shouldest love her, she will do all her diligence to increase & augment it, if with her communication. she will never cease prattling, if with her virtue, she will daily labour how in all honest & virtuous deeds she may be better. By as one of the seven wise & sage men of Grece, gave this one precept 
By as precept.  & rule of love. Love so saith By as, that thou mayst hate, and hate that thou mayst love. I can not say, whether this wise man doth more follow the figure of words, then that truth of the sentence, inasmuch as he doth teach, that no man should be to other, neither faith full friend nor enemy. And therefore Cicero doth say full truly, that all amity and friendship should decay, if a man should love so, that he may hate. What should he trust then? what should he believe, or to whom should he open his mind? or how should he love him true lie and with all his heart, when he may coniectute and think that in time to come he will be or may by his enemy? surely he will draw back, and provide against such things, as may fortune & chance. And therefore this sentence may thus more conveniently both for the use of nature & of this life be turned. Love never to hate, but hate to love when time shall be. Every man should love his friend simply, but specially his wife. And forasmuch as love & other affects are named of the Philosophers Habitus, the which are conserved and kept in us through time, operation, and labour, we must even at the beginning give our diligence, that all injuries and offences may be avoided: for as Plutarch doth say, tender & soft love is soon broken. Therefore 
The beginning of matrimonial love.  that new love & conjunction of the mind, must be nourished with benign, sweet & gentle conversation, until it be so increased & fastened, that no great storm be able to dissolve or break it. And all suspicion must be at all times, but specially at the beginning of matrimony avoided, lest thou first begin to hate, or ever thou begin to love. And beware thou feign it not, nor conceive it of no light occasions & conjectures, for unto such thou shouldst give no ear, although there were great appearance & liklyhode. There is no man so well fashioned and brought up, that can satisfy all men, and he that was able to avoid the fault, was not able to avoid suspicion, for the judgements of men are free and licentious, & they do interpret, that they see and hear, not after the truth, but after their affections, and the conjecture that they do feign & rejoice in, unto the which some do give more credit, than some. Pansanias in platose Simpose doth put two Venus & 
〈◊〉. loves.  two loves, a heavenly and an earthly. The earthly is blind abject, vile, fyithye, and occupied about vile and filthy things, never looking up to things of more worthiness. But that celestial and heavenvly love doth see most clear lie, following virtue & those things, which are most beautiful, and most like unto heavenly things. Those husbands that love the beauty, or the riches of their wives, are blind and subject to that earthly love, not perceiving the reason nor yet the measure thereof. But they which are true husbands, 
True husbands.  love the soul and virtue, and have a judgement in love, and being inspired with the strength and spirit of that celestial love, do love wisely: for pure and holy love doth not vyolentlye compel them, as that doth which is earthly, but prudentelye doth guide, and conduct them gently persuaded to the place they should go unto. The wise husband doth love his wife fervently, but yet as the father loveth his son, the head, the body, the soul, the flesh, and as Christ doth love his church, & thus must the husband & the wife love each other. Nature it self doth teach us this, & they likewise that are learned in divine letters do tell us the same. Adam was first created like 
Gene. ij iij.  unto the image & similitude of his maker. But when he perceived that it was not convenient nor meet, that he should live alone, a help like unto himself was given him, and taken even out of his own side, insomuch that Adam is to Eve, as the father is unto his son. And it was said to Eve, thou shalt be under the power of man, & he shall rule thee. Nor it is not thus only in man, but in all kinds & sorts of beasts, that the female is under the power & dominion of the male, and therefore the male is more stronger both in mind & body, than the female. And the instruments to rule withal, are more excellent and more perfect in man, then in woman, as the sharpness of wit, diligence, wisdom, strength, audacity, generosity, and that excellency of the mind. And therefore that Romans following nature, did never take the whole authority of man from women. Livius using the words of Cato, doth say thus. Our forefathers would not, that women should do any thing without the authority of man, submitting them selves to their fathers, to their brothers & to their husbands. matrimony is called a conjunction and a comparison, but yet they are not like, as Martial doth say merely, except the woman be unlike the man. O sext (saith Martial) let the woman be under her husband, and so they shallbe like.  
It is sufficient, that the husband love his wife with a sightiye love, but the wife is bound unto her husband in two things, that is to love him, & to do him reverence, the which 
Love & reverence  affections can not be constrained, but yet they may be obned of her by gentleness. But this thing can not be done with words, but as he sayeth: Mark, if thou wilt be loved, love. They which are learned do think, that this thing doth not happen by chance meddle, but by the secret artifice of the world. The Philosopher Plato doth say, that the whole world is so compact and bound together by God the artificer, as it were with certain knots, for if thou draw or take one of them, the other by a certain secret conjunction, as it were the links of a chain do follow, but yet he sayeth, that those things, which are like & most conformable one to the other, are most specially joined together, & that benevolence doth grow of the similitude & likeness of nature and custom, and that they which love, are loved again. And this love must be pure and sincere, or else it shall have no strength nor none effect. Fire painted upon a wall doth not burn, nor a false adamant draweth no iron. Many men do maruayl, why they are not loved, seeing they do show so many tokens & signs of love. The signs & tokens of love are not love, & therefore they cause not the effect of love, but provoke & cause hatred, when it is perceived, that they loved not, but feigned so many tokens and diverse signs of love. Love also doth grow of the opinion of honesty, for as Cicero doth say, there is nothing more amiable, nor that draweth the mind of man more to love then virtue. All 
What love is.  love is a certain affection to that thing, that is goodly & fair, there is nothing more goodly than virtue, the which if a man might behold & see with his bodily eyes, would stir up great love unto itself, but it is seen with the inward eye of the mind, and draweth those that beholdeth it to benevolence, & to embrace and love it. The opinion of excellency, the which is situate & set other in the power of the body, or of thou soul, doth bring forth, & engender veneration, 
Ueneration.  and reverence. Strength, riches, friends, clientes, servants, ministers, subjects favour, grace, and dignity, be long unto the body. In the soul are judgement, wisdom, the sharpness of wit, sagacity, watch, fortitude, & audacity, whereby men do take upon them great acts & enterprises. Of these things 
Maiestre  doth majesty proceed & arise, by the which all things upon earth are ruled & governed. And with this, kings and magistrates govern and defend great nations and king domes, and through this, great multitudes and number of people do obey unto the will of one alone: with this captains & Emperors do conduct, whether soever they will great companies & hosts of men. Of this the master hath need for his servant, the father for his son, and the husband for his wife, to th'end she may love and obey him that is wise, for prudeneye and wisdom without honesty and goodness is formidable, and goodness without wisdom is loved, but not obeyed. In this majesty doth consist the force & strength of justice both to reward & to punish. It shallbe sufficient for an husband to have of these things so much as shall suffice to rule his wife & his family withal. Other men have need of power, & also of majesty to rule a city, in the which are so many houses & households. The foundation of all things is faith, the which 
faith.  is most certainly obtained & gotten by science. The next unto faith is, to be had in good estimation. Marcus Cato 
Note  (as Sallust doth write) did labour rather to be good, then to appear good: & therefore the less he sought for glory, the more he obtained it. Those opinions are wont to be most surest and fast, that which 
●ayth  do occupy the young & tender mind, as we do see by those things, that children do first learn and commend to memory. Nor wool doth never lose his first colour, nor that cloth the which (as it is commonly spoken) is died in wool. And therefore, we ought not only to labour and study to bring in good affections, but we must so dispose and order the whole state of our life, that it may be the more easy to be borne, and through conversation wax more sweet and pleasant. Thou must also consider thine own wit and qualities, and likewise thy wives, and thy riches and substance, and provide that it may prosper, not only for the time and state present, but also for the time that is to come. And thus considering the casualties of man, thou must dispose the thing in such wise, that not great change or chance may trouble the soft & delitate mind of the woman, notwithstanding 
i. pe. v.  that chances are infinite, & that no provision can be found to withstand them, and that many of them must be referred unto God, the which taketh care for us all, & would that we should not care for the things that are to come, the which pertain to him only, nor no man can make provision against them. But now to return to our purpose, when thou goest a wowing, thou must beware and take heed (that thou whether the woman be promised thee, or now brought home unto thee) give not thyself to those unmeet & voluptuous love & lusts, by the which men are compelled to say & to do many things which are filthy and childish. And of this love the proverb doth say, that it is scarcely granted to God, to love & to be wise: love & wine are in thy power or ever thou drink, but after that thou haste drunken, thou shalt be their subject & servant. And of this she shall judge the to be vain, light, unapt, and foolish. Nor thou canst not keep thy majesty in such filthy love: for ovid doth say, that majesty & love doth not agree, nor remain nor tarry not in one place. But the poet doth speak of this earthly and blind love, for cordial and wise love doth not diminish majesty.  
Nor a woman can not suffer nor take him for her master, that was some time her servant. And the weaker a woe man is in mind, the more she desireth to be in power, and if she had once domination and rule, she taketh it as an injury, if she rule not still. Nor there is no rule moor 
Note  violente or moor grievous, then theirs, that by all reason ought to be subjects, as the rule of servants, artificers children and women. But as we would that the man when he loveth should remember his majesty, so we would that when he ruleth he forget not his love, nor to temper it with majesty. And when he doth think himself to be the head and the soul, and the woman as it were the flesh & the body. He ought in like manner to remember, that she is his fellow & compa nion of his goods & labours, and that their children be common between them, bone of bones, and flesh of the flesh of man. And thus there shallbe in wedlock a certain sweet and pleasant conversation, without the which it is no marriage but a prison, a hatred & a perpetual torment of the mind. Let thy wife per ceive and know that for the good opinion that thou haste of her, that dost love her simply and faithfully, and not for any utility or pleasure. For who so doth not perceive that he is beloved for his own sake, will not lightly do the same to another, for the thing that is loved, loveth again. If money or nobility could perceive and understand that they were beloved, they would if they had any feeling at all of love, requite it with love: but when the soul is loved, inasmuch as it may love, it giveth love for love, and loveth again. The Breaker of horses that doth use to ride and to place them, doth handle the rough and sturdy colt with all craft & fierceness that may be, but with it that is more tractable, he taketh not so great pain. A 
A sharp wife.  sharp wife must be pleased and mitigated with love, and ruled with Mayest ye: & the more gently thou dost use & show thyself unto her that is meek and honest, themore benign and meek thou shalt find her. But she that is noble and of a stout mind and stomach, the less thou dost look to be honoured, the more she will honour thee. But yet the wise husband shall never set himself so far in love, that he forget that he is a man, the ruler of the house, and of his wife, and that he is set as it were in a Station to watch, and delygentlye to take heed, what is done in his house, and to see who goeth out and in.  
A shepherd had need to be industrious and diligent, but he much more that hath the ordering & keeping of man, the which is so variable a beast, & so intractable. If so be that the husband have obtained that his wife doth truly and heartily love him, there shall need neither precepts nor laws, for love shall teach her more things and more effectuously, than the precepts of all the Philosophers. And for 
〈◊〉.  asmuch as the law is made to moderate the affections withal, they shallbe better refrained by love, the most pusant of all other affections, then by any law, how elegantly, or wisely, how imperiously or threatynglye so ever it be made.  
There is made no law for him that loveth, for to what intent should they make any law, when that love even na turallye doth move a man to love? There is no law made for the father against that child, but well for the child against the father, for the father doth continually love the child, but the child doth now & then leave of to love the father. If the wife love her husband, he is to her a father, mothcr, brethren, true riches, & all that she will desire. Fortunate and 
O fortunate hoarse.  happy is that house, the which is knit with that, wherewith the world, the heavens, and the celestial spirits are united & bound together, that is with charity. And what thing is there in this life that may be compared with one day of so blessed & so heavenly a life? Galenus was married with Sulpitia, the which among 
Sulpitia.  all the Matrons of Rome, was most chaste and best learned: of the which marriage Martial doth write in this wise & manner. O Galene how pleasannt were those. xv. years, that the Lord did give thee with Sulpitia thy wife? O note it, and now note it well with a white stone, in the which all thy age & years are comprised: And if Parca had given thee such another day, thou wouldst have counted thyself much more happy, then to have lived as long, as Pilius Nestor. And finally there should be such concord between man & wife, as god hath made between heaven & earth, by the which so great a variety and multitude of beasts & trees is produced & engendered. And therefore it must be weighed & considered, whether the woman do love simply and faithfully, for as fire doth kindle fire, so doth love provoke love, & one flame augmenteth another. This thing saith Seneca, hath in itself great joy & reward: for what can be so joyful or pleasant, as to be so loving unto thy wife, that thereby thou mayst love thy self the better? If there be any thing among these things of fortune, that the trusteth unto, or loveth so well, that she despiseth and little regardeth her husband, because she hath it not, or preferreth herself above him, because she hath it, that thing must be laid apart & contemned, as a thing rather accepted & esteemed by the foolish opinion of man, then of it one proper & natural goodness. Beauty is a frail gift and a slipperous, and more profitable 
Beauty  to those that behold it, them to those that have it: nor he can take no great pleasure in it, but a little as it were in a glass, and yet incontinent he doth forget that he beheld and saw, and it is to them both a provocation to evil. He that is fair waxeth proud, and he that doth behold it, becometh subject unto filthy love. In the mind (the which is judged to be the man) do consist the true lineaments of fairness, the which entice and provoke celestial love, being mixed with nothing that is shame full other to be done or spoken, & therefore there is no man so far without wit, that rather would not have her which is foul & honest, then her which is fair and unhonest. Thou mayst soon declare, that thou dost not greatly esteem riches, if thou be content with that thou hast having wherewith all to get thy living, & being content to support poverty with a little, for why? the end of riches, is to satisfy nature, the which is content with 
Riches.  a little. I would not that thou shul dost commend her that is eloquent 
Eloquice  & full of words, when that ta citurnitie & silence is more sitting & comely for her: nor a woman can not be to soft of speech. And as touching her 
Kindred.  kindred, whatsoever it be, yet that husband ought evermore to be esteemed more noble than that wife. Nor she must not consider what his father was, but what her husband is, of whom both she & her child take their nobility & ignobility, for no man should trust, or have any confidence in any other man's virtue. For we all are of that self same elemenres, & god is father unto us all: & therefore it should be a very wicked thing, that christian men which have laid away old Adam, & are baptized with the blood of Christ, & by his death made new creatures, should regard their bodily & fleshly kindred: for they should now live in spirit, named christians, & resto red by Christ to their native nobility, from the which all hu main generation was fallen through sin. In this nobility, the which is ours only, the Greeks do not glory of their wits, nor the jew of the earthly promise of Canaan, nor of their circumcision, nor the romans of their triumphs and conquest of all the world, but the christian, which is the spiritual and the celesti all man only. And therefore if it be a filthy and an inconueniente thing for man to seek glory of his kindred, how much more filthy & inconueniente is it for the woman, the which glory now a days is not gotten by virtue, 
How no bilitie & glory is gotten.  but by the heaping up of riches, or else in war by murder, theft, & cruelness, as the Goats thoro wout all Spain, the which things in man are abominable, & so much the less convenient for women unto whom even of nature war & armour are denied. Many things might copiously be spoken of beauty, riches, eloquence, and of kindred, the which I have briefly comprised, because I would not be onerous in things that may be easily found unto the reader Use thyself so unto thy wives friends & parents, that they may have asmuch come moditie and honour by thee, as thou mayst have by them. There are that will say, that thou art not able to sustain and uphold thy family and household without their help and succour, use thou the come fort and help of no such, although thou have need of them, for it is better (after the mind and the counsel of the wise man) at home to 
Prou. xvij.  eat brown bread with salt meat, then to be fed most delicately & daintily with brawling & bitter words. Nor they (if they be wise men) shall not show thy wife, that they so little regard and esteem thee, lest that they breed some dissension and discord betwixt thee and their kinsmen. And in all thy troubles & dissensions which thy wife, they ought (as it is meet they should) to suppoort and favour thee, for if they do not, they shall show themselves unwise, and that thou haste no need of no such friends. Therefore seek help and comfort of other in thy affairs and businesses. And finally suffer thou rather all incommodity, then that thou shouldest use any such evil benefit or hurtful pleasure of thine affines and kinsmen.   

¶ Of the discipline and instruction of women.  
THe laws after my mind ought to be such, that the citizens may be well manerd and have wholesome doctrine. For if that city be well instituted & governed, it shallbe no labour nor pain at all to command them nor to forbid them, nor it shall not greatly need to fear them with pains, nor which rewards to provokethen to live well: our flesh being infected & corrupted with sin, & continually & inseparably united unto the mind, doth first of all & principally offer unto itself the perverse & evil opinions of all things, & then as much as it may doth fasten such things unto it as be hurtful aswell to the one sect as to the other. And to extirpate and weed out such sinister opinions and judgement, we have need of displine the which with the knowledge of good letters may easily be obtained and gotten. But it is now in question, whether it be expedient 
Whether it be necessary that a woe man be ●erned.  for a woman to be learned or no. Some there be that do plainly deny it. But of this matter I have even with few words sufficiently enough disputed in my first book of a christian woman. And therefore I will only say here that shall be sufficient to confute that opinion the which I do not allow, and reprove those that of one sort of letters give judgement by another.  
And in declaring of that doctrine wherewith I would that the woman should be instructed & taught, I think there be but few that will repine against my mnid & sayings. There be some kind of letters & writings that pertayve only to adorn & increase eloquence withal. Some to delight and please. Some that make a man subtle and crafty. Some to know natural things, and to instruct and inform the mind of man withal. The works of poets, the Fables of Milesij, as that of the golden ass, and in a manner all Lucianes works, and many other which are written in the vulgar tongue, as of Trystram, Launcelote, Ogier, Amasus and of Artur the which were written and made by such as were idle & knew nothing. These books do hurt both man & woman, for they make them wily & crafty, they kindle and stir up covetousness, inflame anger, & all beastly and filthy desire. So much knowledge of natural things as sufficeth to rule & govern this life withal, is sufficient for a woman. But all such works as are meet & apt to make them better, are necessary as well for the one as for the other. A man of himself is neither good nor evil, but yet through the first fault he is more inclined & prone to evil and cometh unto it by examples of many, the which have conspired together to sin and to do mischief, for a man can turn his eye to no place, but he shall see the evil that he may ensue and follow.  
first he is provoked by their exhortations that seem to counsel him well, as poets, for such things as they indite and make, are received and song without respect of things. And scolemaysters the which do teach and instruct youth, are not far from the opinion of the common people, for with them they praise nobility, riches, honour, veniaunce, and to these things they exhort and instruct youth. Fathers and other parents 
Is it not so?  esteem the name of virtue as vain, and accustom their children to those things that flatter and delight the sen ses, and not to rigorous and hard honest, as men that look to creep no higher, but to live with the vulgar and rude sort, and yet would be an ex ample of living to all other. There are in like manner parents which are grave men and well learned, and yet abhor that virtue should associate and accompany their children, the which persuade them to follow pleasure, love and solace, in asmuch that Quinciliane saying that honesty and virtue is so convenient and meet for our nature, doth marvel, that there are so few good men, but he should rather have marveled, that there are any good at all, considering their institution and bringing up to be so evil. But if by natural inclination, and by the comfort and authority of great and learned men we be enforced to evil, nor drawn from it by some good doctrine, what hope is there of any goodness? all shall come to mischief, and through the custom of sin, we shall hate all honesty, and learn to contemn the goodness of the mind, and to hate virtue. We should stir up the figure & strength of reason, & receive the love of virtue, and give the precepts of wisdom against the corruption of false opinions, and by assue faction and use resist our natural proofs, and inclination to vice, continually to the utmost of our power, striving with the same. The woman is even as man is, a reasonable creature, and hath a flexible wit both to good and evil, the which with use and counsel may be altered and turned. And although there be some evil and lewd women, yet that doth no more prove the malice of their nature, then of men, and therefore the more ridiculous & foolish are they, that have invied against thou whole sect for a few evil: & have not with like fury vituperated all mankind, because that part of them be thieves, & part enchanters. And what a madness were it to judge, or to think that the ignorance of good things should cause a man to be the better? although that in the mind of manwere not great & thick darkness, letting him to behold & see that good is. for that evil is, doth abound & is plentiful, and needeth no teacher, nor doth not continued as it entered, but by little & little, & so buddeth forth, that it offendeth all other. If to read that good is help not, it shall not help to hear it or to see it: for men do not strive for the form and fi gures of the letters, but for the sense and understanding in them included. Shall thy wife or thy daughter learn, how to come her here, adorn and paint herself, perfume her gloves, to go pomposely, and with what words she shall use to set forth her wantonness, and her pride withal, & shall not hear now she may flee and contemn such trifles, adorn her mind, and please Christ? Art thou, o thou Christian of that mind? then thou dost affirm, that no fond nor foolish gentile would at any time have believed. Shall the woman then be excluded from the knowledge of all that is good and the more ignorant she is, be counted better? Some there be so rude and dull, the which esteem those to be best that are most ignorant. I would counsel all such rather to beget asses then men, or to give their diligence & labour to extinguish the figure and force that God hath given them to know good & worthy things withal, and to make them liker beasts, than men, for so they shallbe even such as they would have them. If erudition and learning be noyful unto honesty and goodness. and hurtful to be brought up among those, that be learned, than it shallbe better & most convenience to nourish & to bring them up in the country then in the city, & much better in a forest, then in a village among men. But experience doth declare the contrary & that children should be brought up among those that be best learned, & have best experience. But to return and to speak of women 
Learned women are better than unlearned.  as I began, I by experience have seen & known the contrary, & that all lewd & evil women are unlearned, & that they which be learned are most desirous of honesty, nor I can not remember, that ever I saw any woman of learning, or of knowledge dishonest. Shall not the subtle & crafty lover sooner persuade that pleaseth him the ignorant, then to her that is fortified with wit & learning? And this is the only cause, why all women for the most part are hard to please, studious and most diligent to adorn & deck themselves, marvelling at trifles, in prosperity proud & insolent, in adversity abject & feeble, and for lack of good learning, they love & hate that on lie, the which they learned of their unlearned mothers, & examples of the evil, leaning to that part only, that the ponderous and heavy body is in clined and given unto. Nor men should not be far different from beasts, if they were left unto their own nature corrupted with the spot of sin. What beast would be 
How greatly learning doth help man.  more cruel, or so far from the nature and condition of man, as man himself, if he were not learned. Socrates, that is (as sayeth Valerius) un earthly oracle of human wisdom, in Symposio of Zenophon doth say, ye may by many other things & by this all so that ye see this maid do, understand, that the woman's wit is no less apt to all things, than the man's is: she wanteth but counsel & strength, therefore I exhort you husbands to teach your wives those things that ye would they should do. And Seneca doth say, It maketh no matter how rich, or how honourable the women be, for she is a very impudent creature, and without erudition unchaste. And to his mother Albina. ●old to god, that my father being a very good man, leaving the customs of his elders had instructed and taught thee the precepts of wisdom, for than thou shouldest not now have needed to prepare any help against fortune, but he regarding those that misused their learning, would not suffer thee to give thyself to learning. But we have no need of any authorities, for asmuch as we may hear the voice of nature, against the which (although that all the Philosophers would conjure in one) they should assoon obtenebrate and darken the sun, as to prevail against it. Also we have annexed unto nature a celestial testimony. The Lord doth admit women to the mystery of his religigion in respect of which all other wisdom is but foolishness, and he doth declare that they were created to know high matters, & to come as well as men unto the beatitude, and therefore they ought & should be instructed & taught as we men be. And that they are no better, it is our fault, inasmuch 
It is the man's part to teach the woman.  as we do not our duties to teach them. If the husband be the woman's head, the mind, the father, & Christ, he ought to execute the office to such a man belonging, & to teach the woman: for Christ is not only a saviour and a restorour of his church, but also a Master. The father ought to nourish and to teach his children. And what need is it to reason of the mind and of the head? In the mind is wit, coun sell, and reason. In the head are all the senses wherewith we do guide and rule this life, and therefore he doth not his duty, that doth not instruct and teach his wife. And the self same Socrates doth say, that men should be ruled by Pnblyke and common laws, and women by their own hnsbandes. And Paul 
i Cor. xiv.  forbidding women to speak in the Congregation and commanding that they, if they doubted of any thing, should ask their husbands at hooine, doth bind them to teach their wives. To what effect 
The husband must teach the wife.  or purpose should she ask her husband, that he neither will nor can teach her?  
O how great wars hath there been made for women? We take great pain and labour to see, that they lack nothing, and that our daughters may have a convenient dowry, and yet we flee and avoid the easy works, by the which they may be the better, for if they were so, their flagitiousnes should not cause us to war, nor they being content with a little, should need nothing, but allure many to love them with the beautifulness of their virtue. A woman after my judgement ought to know herself, of what beginning 
What things women should learn.  she was made of, and to what end, what the order and use of things be, and specially what Christ's religion is, without the which nothing can be well done nor justly. But yet it must be religion & no superstition, to the end she may know what difference there is between them. Religion doth make them very simple and good, and superstition very hypocrites & molestious. And thus shall she perceive and understand in what things true religion doth consist, & how they should honour God & love their neighbour, and thereby know how she ought to love and honour her husband, whom she should take as a divine and a holy thing, & obey his will as the law of God. Her house shall be unto her as a common wealth, and she must learn what her duty & office is at home, & what is her husbands. There are two principal virtues of a woman, the religion of nature, & chastity, although that religion do comprehend all virtues. But we will seperatlye and exactly give precepts of chastity, for it must be the chastity of the wise virgins, & not of the foolish. She must know that shamefastness is coupled with chastity, & take heed to her good name & fame, that in all places she may be unto the lord a good savour to that example & quietness of her husband, and how prompt & ready the common sort of people be to judge evil, and with what diligence they do nourish & teach their children, She must learn also to contemn worldly chances, that is, she must be somewhat manly & strong, moderately to bear & suffer both good & evil, lest that she being unmeet to suffer adversity, be constrained other to do, or to think wickedly. If she can not read these things nor yet by Nature learn them (for there be also such men) her husband must so familierlye and plainly teach her, that she may remember them, and use them when need shall require.  
Let her hear those that do read, and speak of such things, if she can read, let her have no books of poetry, nor such trifling books as we have spoken of before, for nature is enough inclined to naughtiness, although we put not fire to tow. And Seneca doth say, that the time is short, although it be all spent in well doing. Such virtuous and holy books as 
What books women should read.  may learn her to be wise, & inflame her to live virtuously must be delivered unto her, wherein yet, a certain judgement and prudency must be used, that is, that they deliver her no vain, no chyldyshe, no barbarous, 
Note.  nor no superstitious books. Likewise she shall not be meddling with those curious and deep questions of divinity, that which thing beseemeth not a woman. And as concerning moral Philosophy, those religious & virtuous books do suffice, for virtue doth teach us all good fashions and manners. But yet if we will or in tend privately to teach them any customs, let them be such as shall stir & provoke them to live well & virtuously, and such as be far from all contention & altercation, where unto women are but to much of themselves inclined. Let her read many things to subdue & bring under the affections & to appease and pacify the ten pests & unquietnesses of the mind. A woman hath very great need of this moral part of philosophi, in that which these auctors are excellent. Plato Cicero, Seneca, and plutarch. And in this thing those writers do help, that declare the notable examples of virtue, worthy to be ensued & followed, as Valerius Maximus, Sabellicus, and in like manner the lau dabble works of the holy and virtuous men of our religion, and likewise of those, that have followed the worldly wis doom. Aristotle and Zenophon do write, how men should rule & govern their house and fa mily, & of the education & bringing up of children plutarch, & lately Paulus Vergerius, & Francis Philelphe. There are annexed unto these things certain precepts and rules of a quotidian & a daily life, & of simple medicines for the light infirmity of young children, that which have no need to hire any physicians. I do remember, that I have already in other places written of these things, & yet it shall not be without a cause here to write somewhat of them again, for it pertaineth to the husband to see, that these things be done. And I do think, that with this the woman be sufficiently enough instructed to live commodiously & religiously. But if she delight to read verses, prepare her these thristen poets, Prudentius, Aratus, Sedulius & Iwencus other in 
What 〈◊〉 tes 〈◊〉 should read  Latin, or else in their vulgar native language. And as for the knowledge of grammar, logic, histories, the rule and governance of the common wealth, & the art mathematical, they shalleave it unto men. Eloquence is not convenient nor fit for women, although the Cornelians of the Graccis, the Mutians, the Lelians, and the Hortentians be much commended, nor that because they spoke many things eloquently, but because they spoke a few things purely & incorruptlye, nor they never learned that art, but received it by that familiar custom of their fathers without any pain or labour. But now a days they call her eloquent, that with long & vain confabulation can entertain one, and what should a man think that she being unlearned, should talk with a young man little wiser than herself, but that, that is either foolish or filthy? And this they call the gentle entertainment of the court, 
courtly doctrine.  that is to say, of that school, where they learn other like arts of their master the devil. See no we where unto the manners and customs of men be come, and how all things do turn, for now it is esteemed as vile, that a woman should hold her peace: that is, that her most fairest virtue should 
Silence is convenient and meet for women.  seem to be deform and filthy. How great labour shall we conjecture, that Satan took to persuade man to believe this? But thou shalt number silence among other thy wives virtues, that which is a great ornament of that hole feminine sex. And when she speaketh, let her communication be simple, not affectate nor ornate, for that declareth the vanity of that mind. And all such as were praised of our elders for their eloquence, were most extolled & lauded, forasmuch as they kept the language of their forefathers sincere and clean, as Cicero declareth in his book of an Orator. And Juvenal even crabbedly and not without a cause doth say, Let not thy wife be overmuch eloquent, nor full of her short and quick arguments, nor have the knowledge of all histories, nor understand many things, which are written, she pleaseth not me that giveth herself to poetry, and observing the art & manner of the old eloquence, doth study to speak facundiously. This holy and sincere institution shall increase through 
The husbands ex ample.  the good example of the husband, the which to inform and fashion the woman's life, and his family withal, is of no less valour and force, than the example of a prince to inform the public manners & customs of a city, for every man is a king in his own house, and therefore as it beseemeth a king to excel the common people in judgement, and in example of life, and in the execution & 
Note.  performance of the thing, that he commandeth, so he that doth marry, must east of all childishness, & remember the saying of the Poet, This age requireth another manner of life, & other manners, and so to take unto himself the counsel and mind of him that is aged to maintain the duty and office of an husband, declaring a good life not in words & precepts only, but also in life and deed. The which two things to rule man withal 
Two necessary things,  are very necessary, that is wisdom and example, and that thou thyself fulfil the thing that thou cammaundest to be done. The life whether it he good or evil, doth not only (as Fabius sayeth) persuade, but also constrain and enforce. We do see how mighty that this exhortation is in war and in battle. O my soldiers do that ye shall see me do, the which contempt of death in the captain doth so creep thorough the whole host, that there is not one, be he never so feeble and weak hearted, that doth esteem his life for the which he perceiveth that his captain careth so little for. Thus did Christ with his Apostles and Martyrs draw the world unto the faith, for as they lived so they spoke, and as they spoke, so they lived. Now shall thy wife obey thee, commanding her to be sober & temperate, if she see thee distempered? and likewise of continence & chastity, if thou be an avow terer, and a follower of other men's wives. For Claudian doth say, if thou command any thing to be done, look thou be the first that shall do it, and so shall other obey thy law & commandment, nor shall not ●eny to do the thing that they see him do that commanded it. Furthermore he must rehearse unto his wife the good examples of other women, for that shall seem and appear more easy to be done, that hath been done already. And if the mind be courageous and noble it can not be well expressed, no nor scantly believed, how it shall be provoked and stirred up with the laud and praise of other. Themistocles 
Themistocles.  was wont to say that Mylciades triumphs did excite and quicken him. Nor thou shalt not only rehearse unto her old and ancient names, as Sara, Rebecca, 
The names of ●●ble women  Penelope, Androinacha, Lu cretia, Colebolina Hipparchia, Portia, Sulpitia, Cornelia, and of our saints, as Agnes, Catherine, Margaret, Barbara, Monica & Apolonia, but also those that more fresher, as Catherine queen of england, Clara, Ceruerta, the wife of Uallearus, and Blanca Maroa, albet I do fear to be reproved, that I do thus commend my mother, giving myself to much to love and pity, the which truly doth take much place in me, but yet the truth much more. There can not lack in every nation and city ho nest and devonte Matrons, by whose examples they may 
Familiar examples  be stirred and provoked, but yet the familiar examples, as of the mother, the beldame, the aunt, the sister, the cousin, or of some other kinswoman or friend, should be of more force and value. For why? such examples as we do fee, do much more move us, and better we follow them then any other. And in like manner the acts and deeds of evil and wicked women, do teach us what we should flee and avoid, being certain that such things can not be hidden, and that the reward there of is at hand, at least wise the public ignominy and shame of all the city, that better it were to die, then to live so. Familiar communication doth both 
Familiar communication.  instruct them, and also confirm their manners: but yet let it be simple, as with her that is thy most friend, and most familiar, not using her in thy words more reave rentlye then is convenient, nor suffering her to honour thee more than it beseemeth, the which as at some times they do increase reverence, so they do diminish love & charity, that which in matrimony should be most true & servant. And as concerning venerati 
●eneration  on & reverence, they cause the mind rather to dissemble, than to be simple and open as it ought to be. No man giveth faithful honour or reverence to him that is arrogant and vain, or that of right doth look to have it: for honour may well be drawn, but not extorted. Call thy wise by a name that pretendeth a love. & that 
Phil. 〈◊〉. as some do expound it.  may stir her to love thee, as daughter, or sister as Paul did call his. And she shall call thee by some name of honour 
i. pe. iij.  as Sara called Abraham lord. Ye must often times common together of virtue, of manners, of that error of the common people, of the use of things, of the conversation & governing of the house & household, of the arts & occupations that ye must get your living with all, of the holy institution and education of your children, if ye have any, & how thou mayst bring them, I say not to riches and worship, but to honesty & virtue, we must remember that women are so feeble & weak of nature, that they neither in mind nor yet which the body can sustain nor bear that is heavy and grenous. And therefore we should oft-times use merry communication without curiosity or offence of any man, to lighten our hearts with all, of such things as have chanced to our friends or neighbours, taking good heed that we curiously 
Avoid curiosity.  search not out other men's acts and deeds, for so shall other men likewise search and inquire of ours, a thing much contrary to conserve amity, or to live well and quietly withal. The mind of man doth rejoice and desire to know all things, for knowledge is a food most sweetest, and women in asmuch as they are kept close within the house, do rejoice and covet to hear such things as are done abroad, so that they be no such as may corrupt good manners, for being thus used, they will covet the less to wander and range abroad. Some times they must be merry and talk, but not filthy, nor yet very often of light matters, for that doth so weaken their minds, that afterwards they can not bear ne suffer the things which are serious, & of great importance, for that continual talk of such light and trifling things doth make them light and feeble minded. The servitute & bondage of egypt that was under Pharaoh, was in straw and mire, and to slay the male 
Exo. 〈◊〉  children, and to keep the females. The mystery of this bondage may be aptly declared by the words of Eusebius, the which in his sermon of 
The bondage of egypt.  Easter, doth say thus. What other thing doth that hard and tyrannical servitute of Egypt signify, then that the devil doch practice the dominion of sin upon mankind? And what other thing meant those horrible & vile commandments in mire and straw, but the abominable & detestable contagiousness of devilish vice and sin? for the unfruitful and void works of this life, are straw, a very meet & a convenient thing for fire. And the commandment of Pharaoh, that the male children of the hebrews should be slain & the females reserved, kept, & nourished, doth open the nature of Satan that very enemy of the spirit, the friend of that flesh, & the hater of all virtue: the which consenting to vice & voluptuousness, choked up fortitude, & nourished concupiscence, thus sayeth Eusebius the bishop of Emyse, Thou 
Unclean imports & plays.  shalt not only abstain from unclean sports, but also from plays, & filthy touchinges, lest thou show thyself rather to be a lover then a husband. Zistus doth say, that the fervent lover of his own wife, is an adulterer. For a wife is (as that prince of Rome said) a name of dignity, and not of pleasure. Be not thou that desireste to have a chaste wife (for what is he that coveteth not that, although he be foolish) that first that shall inflame her to lechery, and to think evil. What a madness were it to defile and corrupt that thing, the which if thou shouldest not enjoy it pure and whole, should be unto thee a thing most molestious & grievous? Never kindle thou that fire, the which thou canst not quench again. We are made all of tow, & to what part soever that fire approacheth we burn & letcherye is throughout all the body dispersed. The wise physicians do astonish all such members, as can not be healed. First let us study to be whole & secondarily to feel no pain. We do see, that wise men continue ally do study, that no occasions be given to evil thoughts. There were in times past certain 
Religions of chastisye.  religions of chastity, that which avoided with all diligence as well words, as all o their things that might solicit them to lechery, nor the only in holy religion, but also among those monks, the which inhabited one of the Cyclades, & kept in another of them such beasts, as were necessary for their sustenance & living, because they would not see them engender carnally together. At Rome in the sacrifices of the good gods, it was not lawful to behold or look upon a painted man. And in Lacedaemon, and the island of Delo, it was a thing most detestable, that any dog should enter into the temple, inasmuch as it is a very luxurious beast, and therefore the priest of Delo was inhibited once to name or to speak of a dog. Augustus did forbid women to be present at the plays of those, that played and were naked. And for the time of that olimpical strives & pastimes the women departed from Pisa. If we be corrupted by the ears, as Minander doth say, no marvel if we be corrupted by the eyes, by the which, corruption semblablement doth descend unto the soul. Stu die as much as shall lie in thee, that thy house be clean from all filthiness. Chastity is kept with shamefastness, nor the one can not be without the other, for shamefastness is it the keepeth the woman, insomuch that I 
Shamefastness.  would wish, that the young woman after she be deflowered, should be kept close for a certain days, as we read of Eli zabeth Zacharias wife, inasmuch 
Luc. i.  as she being strooken in age, had companted with her husband. They that did so institute & ordain matrimony, that they, 
Thecause of betrothementes  which were handfasted should not incontmently lie together had a regard unto shamefastness, to th'intent she should not be familiar, nor so speedily intermeddle which him, whom perthaunce she never saw before, thou which thing can not be done with out that great loss of shamefastness & chastity, in the which doth consist a great part of all good manners, & public quietness a 'mong all nations. Some there be betrothed that can not tarry ne abstain, the which do both hurt themselves & eke their spouses. jacob was many years in the self same pastures with Rachel whom he loved, that which 
Genesis xxix.  was also promised him, & called his wife: and yet he uced her most holy. Such a man having two wives is esteemed far above the chastity of many, as S. Augustine doth affirm of Abraham jacob's grandfather, and he loved Rachel even unto death: and held her for his wife with all honesty. If thy wife other by nature or by custom be shamefast, increase thou the same by use and doctrine, if she be lascivious and wanton, refrain it so with severe discipline and correction, that thou forget not to live merely and sweetly with her, and in chastity, purity and cleanness. Paul doth command, 
Hc. xiii  that matrimony should be honourable among all men, and the bed undefiled. And to the Thessalonians he sayeth. 
i. th'. iiij.  Let every man use his own vessel in sanctification and holiness. The which sentence whether we understand it of our own bodies, or of our wives, it pertaineth to refrain the immoderate pleasure and voluptuousness of the body. matrimony is a sacrament and (as Paul 
Ephe. v  sayeth) a mystery of great things, & therefore it ought not to be defiled nor spotted. The devil killed seven of Saras husbands, the which moved with her beauty, began their marriage with car nal lust & pleasure: but Toby was preserved, the which being advised & counseled by the angel, began his marriage with prayer. It shall be meet & convenient to rehearse the words of the angel saying: I will show thee upon whom that Satan hath power & dominion. They that cast god 
Tob. vi  from them, and marry to content and satisfy bodily lust, as doth the horse and mule, which have no vuderstanding, may soon be overthrown by the devil: but after thou hast married thy wife, go thy way into thy chamber, and abstaining three days from her, give thyself to prayer with her, and in the first night thou shalt burn the liver of the fish, and the devil shallbe driven away. The second night thou shalt be admitted unto the company of saints. The third night shalt thou obtain the blessing of God, so that whole children shallbe borne of you. And after the third night be past, take thy wife unto thee in that fear of god, and moor for the desire of children, then bodily lust, that in the seed of Abraham thou mayst obtain the blessing in children, This did Raphel say unto Toby.  
Therefore if thou have married a wife to have children, give thy mind to that only, and not to luxuriousness, following the steps of those old and holy fathers, the which did marry for that thing only: and therefore when they were great with child, they used them 
●eastes are less Auxnrious than men.  no more. And in this thing beasts do excel men, the which at certain times appoynted do give them selves to carnal copulation, and afterwards do abstain.  
But if thou after the counsel of the Apostle do use matrimony 
〈◊〉. co. seven  as a remedy against fornication, thou shouldest not stir up infirinitie and sickness, to the intent thou mightest use Physic, the which doth greatly hurt and displease men, except it be taken when necessity requireth.  
And who would receive or take a medicine for any delight or pleasure? We should custom the body from Physic, except that necessity constrain it, or that the maliciousness thereof, if we lacked it, should overcome us. And 
〈◊〉.  plutarch doth say, that the rare use of bodily pleasure doth commend it, and make it more pleasant and delectable. And sooner thou shalt be helped & healed with one medicine, then with a thousand. And if thou accustom thyself to do justice, thou must leave of and refuse some things that are granted by the law. And learn thou to abstain from other men's goods, by abstaining from thine own. Thou must learn also what the apostle sayeth. Thou haste no power (sayeth he) upon thine own body, but thy wife, & likewise the woman is under the power and yoke of her husband, so that neither of them is at his liberty without the assent of the other. She doth greatly offend thee, if she communicate her body to any other, & thou in like manner dost offend her: & ye both do offend god, as surety to you both for each other. I do not search and inquire what is lawful by man's law, nor what men have usurped, but certes god will punish that ●…iurye who soever doth it, whose divinity and godhead in that matrimony is violated, with whom there is no difference 
Rom. 〈◊〉.  ofsexe nor kindred, of natiou or of person. The solaces & pleasures of those which are mar ryed, must be rare & sober, remembering that they are men, 
Married mens sola ces & pleasures.  and naturally strong of mind to seek out laud & renown by labour, and that they have passed that age, unto the which it seemeth that some solace & pleasure might have been granted & per mitted. Likewise he must remember that he is set to rule & govern that family, that is, to give good precepts, & to live accordingly, for else he should tres pace through a very evil example, & so doing should not keep that mayest ye that is needful and necessary for a governor. And finally he ought to remember that he is a chri sten man, and that he hath forsaken the world, and the pleasures of the same, and therefore in matrimony must be moderate pleasure and pastimes, as though they went about to seek a refreshing only of their cares and labours, and not a maintaining and a continuunnce of their cupidities and bodily pleasures. And the women in semblable manner must be at these pastimes, that as she is partaker of the travel and pain, she may likewise rejoice in their recreations, that being therewith refreshed, she may be the more able to sustain and bear the burden. Of what will and mind shall we think that woman to be, that seeth herself a companion & fellow in heavy & grievous things, and in all solaces & pleasures an outcast and abjected. This thing would displease a man, and much more a tender & an impotent woman: and specially when they see and perceive that they are excluded from those delectations, sports & pleasures, that which of nature should be common betwixt the wise and that husband. What should I say of those husban des. the which with unlawful pleasures provoke their wives, and cause them in a manner to be mad: Of the which Isocrates in Simachio doth say thus. Nicocles the king of Salamina doth speak. I have condemned besides and above all these things, the flagitiousnes of those that have married wives to live a common life with them, and not being with them contented, have through their own carnal pleasures injuried them, but if they by them should suffer, yea were it never so little, any like thing they would bitterly disdain thereat: and being to all other good and gentle, would show themselves to their wives most sharp and ungentle, to whom they should use themselves most peacesably and be ningly, in asmuch as they are most familiar among the secrets of their life, and partakers of the best of their goods and substance, & thus the ignorant do nourish sedition, & behind them do leave dissension, Thus saith Isocrates: but if they give good counsel that exhort them to be humble, which are by fortune exalted, to that end they should be less envied, how much better should it be for that husband, to give his wife no cause nor occasion to be gealous, whereof ariseth great evil & mischief, for why the mind being travailed & grieved with such a passion doth not fear to destroy itself, so it may bring to an end that it desireth. Some do believe that they do but gest & play, but such play for the most part and most commonly doth turn unto madness.  
And therefore we should take the better heed to observe the avisementes and precepts of holy scripture above any other rule or precept of philosophy, and consider the saying of the holy Apostle.  
Beguile not your wives, except 
i. co seven  it be by a common consent to give yourselves to fastyng or prayer, & that done, come speedily together again, lest that Satan through your incontinency do tempt you. A christian ought even very often to erect himself in spirit, and believe that he should not pass over & consume his days in carnal & fleshly thoughts, for if he live not in spirit, as a christian should do, he neither satisfieth his name, nor yet his proffession, nor they shall not obtain that promised felicity, but with a spiritual and a ghostly life, wherewith they must be united and coupled unto god, and to that most purest spirit, unto the which no man can approach nor come, but by the purity and cleanness of spirite, the which is so much the more made perfect, how much it doth study to separate and divide itself from the contagiousness & infection of the flesh. As long as by the commandment of the celestial god, we are included in this mortal body, we must provide that the spirit may live, and that the body may labour & serve that spirit, as we do perceive & see in a horse, for if he be scarcely fed, he cannot bear the burden, & if he be delicately fed, he will be stuburne, But as oil must at certain times be powered into that lamp that it may burn, so are the times, in the which we do infunde & power oil both into that body & soul, These two have their time to be restored, although at no time, for our time being, we should fuffer them to perish, taking good heed that by the restoring of that one, the other be not extinguished, nor that by serving of that one, the other wax slack & feeble. Therefore, when which fasting & prayer we do water the spirit with oil, Paul 
〈◊〉. co. seven  willeth us to refrain from those works that resist, & as it were, do water the oil, that doth bathe the spirit. Fasting doth 
Fasting.  keep under the body, & subdueth it, that it let not the spirite, of this the flaming and burning spirit doth elevate and lift up itself in prayer, the 
Prayer.  which is a meditation of high things, not of one hour, but of many days, for to accustom that mind to those works, that which after it be dissolved & loused from that body, it must perform & do. The lord when we 
Mat. vi  pray willeth us to speak few 
Luce. xviij.  words, & to be long in meditation, and therefore he admonisheth us to pray continually. And Paul's mind is, that we being given to this meditation, 
i. co. seven  should abstain from car nal copulation, lest that the pond rous flesh draw us from it, inasmuch 
Carnal copulation  as that carnal copulation of itself is a beastly thing twining the mind from his high contemplation. And the wise man, when it was asked him when that a man should 
〈◊〉  use that carnal & fleshly act, answered, that when he would be equal with a beast. All the life of a christian man should be a continual fast, & no day should escape which out prayer, & sometimes of the year christian men 
Note.  ought to live chaste & abstain from their wives, & give themselves to abstinence & prayer, and for that time they must not only abstain from their embracementes, and from lying one with the other, but also from such pleasures and delights, as may provoke the body, & obscure the light of the mind & soul. And then they must be think them, what they are, what life is, what that use of things is, whither they shall, how they were taken and bought of sin, how they were redeemed by Christ, and of other things, the which a christian should both know, and understand. But that Apostle doth teach us, that such separation must be done by 
i. co. seven  both their consents, to keep unity and concord, and the love of Christ, giving their minds to please God without any offence or hurt of their neighbour. It pleaseth me well to write the mind of Fulgen●ius in this matter. When ye come and resort together sayeth he, do all things honestly, giving such place in that carnal act to infirmity, that the flesh serve not to luxuriousness, but that the virtue of the soul and mind helped by GOD, may refrain the concupiscence of the body. And they which are married, must so honestly give themselves to the generation of children, that the faithful man preparing and giving himself to that act, may by the help of GOD in that be modestious. And in another place he sayeth: Let those which are married principally remember, that they give themselves to almose deeds, and to prayer, and not continually to continue and stand in the infirmity & weakness of the flesh, but to study to as cende to a better life, that the mind may come to continency, & that carnal lust may every day more & more be bridled & refrained, that after we have passed over that state & degree wherein the infirmity of man requireth pardon & forgiveness, we may obtain the reward of a better life, for the which we do tarry and look. And this as touching that spirit Also they must abstain, when they are sick & diseased, lest that they which are whole & sound chance to be infected. A woe man well brought up, is fruitful and profitable unto her husband, for so shall his 
The fruits of a well instructed woman.  house be wisely governed, his children virtuously instructed, the affections less ensued & followed, so that they shall live in tranquillity and pleasure. Nor thou shalt not have her as a servant, or as a come panion of thy prosperity and welfare only, but also as a most faithful secretary of thy cares & thoughts, & in doubt full matters a wise & a hearty counselor. This is the true so cietie & fellowship of man, not 
True society.  only to participate with him our pains & traveles, but also the affections and cares of our mind, the which do no less trouble the body, then to plough, to dig, to delve, or to bear any heavy or weighty burden, for if their full & burning hearts should not disclose and open themselves, ●hey would none otherwise break, than a vessel replenished with fire that hath no vent, for carefulness & thoughts are fire, that doth inflame & consume the heart. And therefore we see certain men, the which (as though they were with child through care & commotions of the mind) do seek for some one, upon whom they may discharge them of their burr den, as Terence saith. O Jupiter, how happeneth this, that I meet with no curious fellow, the which would instant lie ask me, wherefore I am thus merry, whether I go, from whence I come? etc. We do read, that many have died suddenly, of sudden mirth, fear & heaviness. What riches may be compared to that friend, unto 
Nothing can be compared to a friend.  whom a man may commit not only such things, which are common, but also the secrets of his heart, & open most surely great matters and small, good and evil, and disburden his mind, and to whom (as saith Ennius) thou mayst come municate both privily and apertly all thy joy and pleasure. And of such a friend, when the mind is so obfuscated with perturbations and thoughts, that it can not discern, what is best, or most expedient to be done, let us ask coum sell. There is in this life no such sauce, nor no like sweetness among these businesses. If there be then so great goodness among friends, the which at some times are so far divided one from the other, how much more should there be among those, that dwell in one house, in one chamber, and in the self same bed? A woe man well taught and instructed, as a faithful womaune shall keep close thy secrets, & as wife and learned shall give thee good counsel, & shall counsel thee, as she would counsel herself, considering that she loveth the no less, than she lo veth herself, the which thing is as well comprised in the Christian, as in the matronale Philosophy. In come mitting of our secrets one to another, two things are to be considered, Love, the which 
Commit thy secrets tohim that is loving and wise.  will keep that thing secret & close, that is perillours to be opened: & wisdom the which with knowledge can hold in and keep silence, having prudency for his guide & ruler. Tell not that to the unwise, or to a babbler, that thou will deste not have published or known. A foolish woman may soon be known by her words & manners, all such are busy and curious to know that is secret, nor doth never cease, until they come to the knowledge thereof. Such are known with many, and they know many, the which thing they should never have obtained, but that they know the secrets of many, and had discovered them to many, they whisper with many, and when they are idle and occupied about evil, they seem to be best occupied. There be other that are void and far from all good arts and knowledge, the which being given to futility and vain come munication, do sound as it were a little bell, being void of all other things saving of the clapper. Some other do take themselves as women without civility and good manners, unless they disclose 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  the secrets and privities 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  of their houses (the which should be kept most secret) to their friends and parents, thinking by that to win their love & favour. There be that rejoice to be taken for the inventors of great & covel rumours, as there be like wise among men, esteeming themselves to be had in great admiration, if the things that they do tell be marvelous. And they go about to declare of what authority and credence they be of with all other, for asmuch as they know other men's secrets. And because there be for lack of knowledge many such, that ancient wise fathers did forbid that no man should 
Why we should not show our secrets to women.  disclose his secrets neither to mother, sister, nor yet to his wife. Portius Latro doth say, that a woman can keep that thing secret and close, that she knoweth not, Of this I have seen many examples that confirm those old sayings. As this: other amend, or else beware. But it shallbe best to give thy diligence to make her better, for so with little labour and pain thou shalt gather great commodity 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  and profit. And among 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  all other things thou must beware of this, that thou give not that rope to him, that shall make an halter to hang thee with all. What thing can be more hurtful than that, whereof the wise man speaketh in holy scripture. 
Ec, ix.   
give not the power of thy life unto a woman, least she come in thy strength, and so thou be confounded.  
Men say that Policides was 
Policides.  so subtle a thief, that it avay led not to shut the coffers, but that it was necessary to feign that there was nothing in them, and to leave them open, for all things were as open unto him. And it is said, that a certain wolf having 
A fable of a certain wolf.  a great and a rich family, was often times monished by her children of such things, which were profitable to be done at home: but she being old and by long experience wily, named her right ear wisdom, and her left ear memory: when her children spoke to her on the left side, she considered what they said, and agreed unto them. But when they were on her right side, she seldom agreed unto them, although they brought home the lefse, so that it were not to great a loss and hindrance unto her. And when they accused her because she lightly regarded their counsel, nor took not the pray that she was wont to take, she made them this answer: O my children I have brought home quietness, a more delicate thing than is the pray, the which I keep by the aid and help of Majesty. But when they counseled her unwisely, she meekly declared unto them their ignorance. And thus when they were to importune she put them back, and when they were deceived she taught them, so that by this means they had her in more veneration & reverence. But when they kept plainly their wolvish nature, and used her as it became them to do, she received their counsel, not as it were any new thing unto her, but perceiving the wolvish qualities to be in them, she commended it, accepting and taking them for her own children, so that they would learn that craftiness of the wolf, and be modestious. And furthermore to give than to understand that they had to do with her that was old, she showed them the thing, that in counsel they might better and with more effect have considered & thought upon.   

¶ Of the house.  
THey that are married aught inwardly in mind to be such among themselves. Now we will speak of exterior and outward things, in the which the husband which hath not purposed to live miserably and wretchedly, must not follow the common voice of the people, the which are without reason. That city is not by and by well ruled, that doth conform itself to other cities, nor that house that followeth the example of the house that is next unto it, nor never a one of us all, that will live as other men do live.  
This is an execrable error, to be drawn and led by the example of other, having no will to do that ought to be done, but that, that is accustomed to be done. What madness is it to will unto thyself that is evil, because thy neighbour hath the same, or to do the self same without any consideration of the success or end thereof: or so high lie to esteem the consent of the sinful, that thou hadst rather suffer a certain and a present misery, then to be separated, or to go from them. We in taking of deliberation how we should live, are very obfuscate and blind, nor we know not what ways to take, nor how to settle ourselves, and therefore we have need of light, and of a good guide. God is the clear light in all reason and ways of living, the which is only wise, and that only hath eyes, and light, and that knoweth by what ways every man should entre, not men only, but angels and every other creature. Xenophon in the first book of his commentaries 
A noble saying.  of Socrates, doth say: that who soever despiseth the precepts and come mandments of God, and followeth man, doth leave him that knoweth the way, and followeth him that is ignorant and blind. And in like manner he doth reprehend those that have a respect unto man's judgements, & refuseth gods. There 
The know wledge of that law of God.  is nothing 〈◊〉 profitable not only to obtain the eternal life, but also to inform & fashi on every man's life withal, as the law of God, whose inferior part is higher, then that hieste part or top of all human & worldly wisdom. Look diligently upon this law, cause it to be observed & kept in thy house, as a most direct & righteous rule of all thy acts and deeds. They are next unto it (although they be far fronit) the with wit, wisdom, & virtue as much as lieth in them, do en sue & follow God, leading in this mortality a godly life, as they that are devout, & given to the study of wisdom, of that which there were many among the gentiles. Some peradventure will say: It were a great enterprise, for one to which stand as it were a furious water a great multitude. But I do say, that virtue doth consist & vest in things, which are hard to be accomplished & done. Nor thou shalt not be alone, for as many a man hath followed that, that is evil & noughts, so some will follow that, the which is good and virtuous. Nor let us not despair of mankind, for as virtue is not without profit, so vice is not which out loss & damage. We may see in that governance & rule of an household, wherein is labour, sparing. and frugality, what commodities it bringeth to the life of man: and how many and great virtues, as tempetaunce, continence, chastity, and fidelity, for the vices con trary to these virtues, come of vouthfulnes, waste expenses, and poverty. We have the examples of those, the which despising and for saking the folythenes of the common people, have reduced themselves & theirs, to judgement, to reason, to honesty, and laud, and were commended and praised of those the which the contemned, and many followed them, Thus doth virtue reward itself, yea god, the head and father of all virtue. Shall he that is wicked and corrupted with evil affections and manners be so bold as to stir up reproved and naughty customs, and thou a wise and a sober man shalt not be so bold as to bring in a good custom? Shall more things be granted to those that be evil & perverse, then to those that be good and virtuous? And shall liberty granted to evil things be in 〈◊〉 assurance and 〈◊〉, then that, that is good and for a common wealth? The fool doth divide and laugh the wise man to scorn, and the wise man the fool, of whom hadst thou rather be laughed to scorn? He said I esteem Plato above all the people of Athens, and I regard a wise man, more than althe caught of artificers, or of those that have no experience. hadst thou not rather stand with god and wisdom; then with the contrary part? Nor yet I say not this, because thou shouldest so avoid the common custom, that thou shouldest fall wholly to the contrary, as if one should cloth himself with silk or gold, that thou, because thou will dost not be like him, shouldest clothe thyself with white canvas or if he wear a ring of gold with a precious jewel, that thou shouldest wear a ring of iron, or of tin with a flint stone, or if he were fed with capons & partritches, that thou shouldest eat bread made of bran, or any other unhelth full or evil meat. There are in all the actions and works of our life certain lunittes & measures, among the which virtue doth consist, and the man that is wise doth know them. Horace doth say, that the foolish, exchuing of vice, do fall into the contrary vices. My meaning is not, that civility, and good manners should be taken from eities, but that all such things, as be fallen in rheum & the my, might as much as were possible, be erected & restored again. And asin acitie there is nothing more unequal, that every man should be like equal, so it is not convenient that in one house every man should be like and equal together.  
There is no equality in that city. where the prtuate man is equal with the magistrate, the people with the Senate, but rather a confusion of all offices. The husband and the wife are lords of the house, unto whom the lord 
Gene. i.  said, be ye lords over the fish of the sea; the fowls of the air, and over the beasts that move upon the earth. And the self same 
Gen. two  creator said unto the woman, that she should be a help unto the man. Therefore the husband without any exception is master over all the 
The authority of the man and wife.  house, and hath as touching his family, moor authority than a king in his kingdom. The wife is ruler of all other things, but yet under her husband. There are certain things in the house that only do pertain to the authority of the husband, wherewith it were a reproof for the wife without the consent of her husband to meddle withal: as to receive strangers, or to marry her daughter. There are other things in the which the husband giveth over his right unto the woman, as to rule & govern her maidens, to see to those things that belong unto the kitchen, & to the most part of the household stuff: other mean things, as to buy and sell certain necessary things, may be ordered after the wit & fidelity of the woman. There be women, of whom I would take counsel, & suffer them to do great matters, even after their own industry & judgement. Unto other because of their improbity and foolishness, I would scarcely commit things of small importance, and valuere. Again divers countries have divers fashions 
divers countrics divers manners.  & manners: for Mela the cosmographer doth say: that the women of Egypt do all out ward businesses, and that the men do spin & govern the house at home: & that the women bear their burdens upon their shoulders, & men upon their heads. In holland women do exercise merchandise, & the men do give themselves to quafting, the which customs & manners I allow not, for they agree not with 
The thinges given by nature to man & woman.  nature, the which hath given unto man a noble, a high, & a diligent mind to be busy and occupied abroad, to gain & to bring home to their wives & family, to rule them & their children, & also all their household. And to the woman nature hath given a fearful, a covetous, & an humble mind to be subject unto man, & to keep that he doth gain. husbands must remember that they are men, and therefore they ought to be strongly minded, and far above all thoughts and cares. Nature doth invite and call man to such offices, & maketh him ready and free from bearing & bringing up of children, the which things women do at home, but yet with so great heaviness and weight both of body and mind, that scantly they can move themselves. And what pain is it for a lusty man to get & prepare those things abroad, that shallbe necessary & meet for his wife and family? let him therefore be waking, & exercise all good and honest ways both of wit and of body, that there lack nothing neither for wife nor family, for so shall every one do their duty. Who is so cru el or so ungentle, that will not see and provide that his wife lack nothing? nor he doth not his duty, that will not provide for his wife even with his own blood. And who perceiveth not how vile minded they be, that do rob or take any thing from their wives to devour & consume it? nor it was never seen in any beast, that ever the male took any thing that should nourish her from the female, and there fore such men as do so, are worse than beasts, & in nothing but only in face are unlike them. In the old time there was in Grece an habitation for men only, another for woe men, & the third for virgins, the rest were common. But we have no such differences, although that the kitchen be more apt and convenient for the woman than for the man, where that she in a manner doth reign all alone, 
The wife hath the rule of the Kitchen.  but yet in such wise & ma ner, that she put to her hand to dress her husbands meat, and not to command it to be dressed being absent. She must often times over look her house & household stuff, and repair all such things as be worn and broken, and if there lack any thing, she in time must show her husband thereof, and be much conversant with her children, & with her maidens, but seldom with her servants, nor thou with her maidens. Nor thou shalt not suffer her to be idle, for when a woman (as Publius Sirus doth sai) doth think alone, she thinketh evil. Let her be doing not that, that is delicious and pleasant, but that is pro fitable, although thou be rich, for there is nothing more 
Fortune.  changeable than fortune, notwithstanding she appeareth to thee to be steadfast & stable. And profitable things do keep close the mind & thought of her that worketh, nor lightly doth not suffer it to wander & vage about other things. And when it is thy mind & plea sure that she be occupied about some business or some labour, thou must have a respect unto the health & the state of her body. Thou must not leave her idle norso overcharge her which labour that we fall sick, namely if she be troubled with the infitmities of nature, as with menstrua, with bearing of children & with labouring of child She must not be given to 
Play.  play, for upon what goodness can she think when she playeth? and a woman is much inclined to pleasure. The house shallbe unto her in steed and place of a great & a large city, & she must go so seldom forth, 
To go forth.  that when she setteth her foot over the threshold, she must think that she goth a pilgrimage. She must go only to necessary places, seeking no occa sion to viset mother, parents or any other friends, Paul doth blame those widows that as 
〈◊〉. tim. v  idle people do wander about other men's houses, whereof cometh curiosity, & garrulite with many other vices, for all such virtues as be keeping the house were maintained & kept, do by decay. And Paul willeth 
i Ti. v.  us to avoid the company of such widows. Let devotion be looked upon in the church, and not the pomp & the multitude of the people, for through devout prayer many of our sins are remitted. I would wish that this custom of Flanders 
The custom of flanders  were every where used, that women when they go forth were so covered, thatno man might know them, & that they looking right forth, might see all men. Nor it is not expe dient, that she go forth alone, nor that she be accompanied with many, & that as well to avoid great costs & charges, as to eschew pomp & pride, for being so accompanied, she will covet & desire to be seen. Let her company be of such honesty, that neither her conditions and manners, nor yet the dignity of matrimony be blemished, or with any spot infected.   

¶ Of the exterior and outward things.  
FOr why? in the society & company of men, one doth infect the other, as in fruit & beasts. And this contagious infection & corruption doth penetrate all our senses, the words by the ears, & the deeds by the eyes. And therefore David 
Psalm. xvij.  doth say, that we should use the company of good and innocent men, & avoid those, that be wicked & evil. He in the fable doth marvel, & wonder at the nature of the young man, that being so long in company with the evil, he was not infected: but yet incontinently after the thing itself did manifestly declare, that he was not untouched nor unbespotted. Therefore if it may be, thou must choose to dwell in a well instituted & ordered city, in the which be few corrupt, few evil manners, & few corrupters of the same. But if thou canst find no such city, choose thou such places, as are about thee.  
The strangers and gests, the which that thou dost receive into thy house, do oftentimes become thy enemies, & through a certain benevolence do cause much wickedness. Thou must therefore consider the company, and 
Avoid evil come pany.  search what manner of men they be, lest they convey any flagitious person into thy house, they which may bring it into an evil name and fame. Such a one was Sergius Catilina, as sayeth Cicero, the which left the house that he entered in at, defamed, although he come mitted there no fault at all. Nor this saying of Pitagoras, that among friends all things should be common, taketh no place in this thing. I do speak of this vulgar & come mon amity, for that perfect love & amity is seldom seen: for if it might be found, we would no more holily regard our own mother, than we would regard our friends wife, and such correspondent love, should be able to save chastity & all other virtues: for what amity is that, when one man calleth another his friend? The customs also & manners of thy wives parents must be weighed & considered. Also her ears must be kept pure & clean. For Hiero the Siracusane con 
Note.  demned a certain poet in a great sum of money, because he had rehearsed unclean & unchaste verses, his wife being present. There be that do talk filthy & uncleanly communication for civility, & him to be rude & rustical, that taketh not a pleasure in the same. And to this they do all this common proverb. All things are helthye to those, that be whole.  
But Paul alleging Menander's verse unto the 
i. co, xv  Corinthians to let and withstand the sinister opinion of some, doth say, Let no man deceive you, for evil communication doth corrupt good manners. We are infected with filthy words, the which by the ears do descend unto the soul, & with filthy pictures, the which by the eyes do so provoke the mind, that of right Aristotle did ordain & appoint 
Note.  a public pain for those, that did set forth any such pictures, whereby lechery kindled enough of itself, might be in flamed. What a madness is it then to buy such pictures, and to set them up in chambers? They are also worthy to be blamed, that before their wives and their daughters do speak dishonestly, disclosing their lightness & madness, and that they in stead and place of the heart, have an impostume, whereout floweth such corrupt matter. Thou shalt not admit nor call no young men unto thy house, for of that come these dances, plays, banquets, & other things, 
youngmen.  that hurt & waste men's substance, nothing profitable for their honour and worship, the enemies of quietness, the very pestilence of chastity, and unto GOD, the which is principally to be regarded most odious. Thou shalt not bring these things into thy house, nor commend them in none other man's, nor lead thy wife nor thy daughter thither, for the were to put fire & tow together. And therefore we do say, as we have said, that shamefastness of the which proceedeth chastity, must specially be nourished & maintained in women, and chief to be had and showed there, where we fear of those to be reprcheded, unto whom we bear most reverence, as of our fathers, our friends, & familiars, & of those, whose con pany we have used of children, if they be good and honest. Learn her to set by her good 
Fame.  name & fame, and to fear the contrary. There is none suffi ciently chaste enough, sayeth the declamator, whose honesty is searched and asked for. And another of the self same school doth say, he that doth not fear the opinion & infamy of adultery, doth not fear to be an adulterer. The most valiant way for a man to be noble of mind, is to keep himself in good estimation, for he that is vile & abject, esteemeth his fame but little, nor yet what men say by him. For he dareth not once breath unto that, that he despereth to come unto, nor with laud goth not about any noble feats, and if perchance he find them, he as with a reward doth content himself with them. But he that is of a noble nature & courage doth take & draw strength unto him, as fire in the air, & how much the more he thinketh to be better, so much the more he doth study other by the desire of laud & praise or by the absolute mind & example of virtue to be so. Thou must therefore now & then blow this fire, other with thine own breath, or with some other man's, to th'end it may kindle and burn as it ought to do. It shallbe profitable to know the manner and fashion of Eubolus, 
Eubolus.  the master of exercise and defence, the which going into the school of the young man Accetes, did by and by frame himself to follow the gesture of Asbites the Crotoniate, the which exercised himself in the five arts of plays, and had won the game of the circle. Those in whom he saw a fault other in running or in wrestling, or that had won the price by any fraud or disteyte, he blamed, and that to fear the young man from following & ensuing them, and to the intent he should perceive and know, that such deeds were not commended there, nor should not be cloaked, but that they which broke the order and ru les of the school, should be rebu lied. Eubolus commended all those, that frequented the same school, and that to encourage the young man to have a desire to be in like manner commended, and to be ashamed in the presence of so many noble & valiant men, to be rebuked. Hercules doth speak well and naturally in Nevio, saying: O my father, I do rejoice to be lauded and praised of thee, which art praise worthy. Nor Themistocles the Atheniane could not step, when he mused upon the triumphs of My Isiades, Nor Achilles should not so greatly have esteemed the glory of the war, if Thersites had only beheld & looked upon his noble acts, but the Aiaces, the Diomedi, the Vlissi, the Nestori, the Children of Atreus, and Hector his enemy did prick them forwards, the which would not have been slack to have wounded him, if his courage or force had failed him. Nor this was no dull spur, nor no small provocation. O my companions and fellows with how great 
Disclose not the secrets of matrimony.  sorrow shall Grece mourn to departed from hence, & how joyful shall Priamus & his people be? Thou must circumspectly & wisely speak to other men of thy wife, for the secrets of matrimony are as were it mysteries, where unto thou shouldest admit no man: for if thou do, thou shalt be taken as unwise and foolish, the which thing Candales the king of Lydia hath taught us. Holy scripture in the commendation of women saith thus: And her husband shall commend her, that is, 
pro. xiii  she shall be praised with the affections of her husband.  
What greater laud or praise can chance or be given unto the woman? the which thing is unto her as a Theatre full of her commendation. It is a very dangerous thing for a man to praise his wife, for 
Praise not thy wife to much.  men shall say, that he intendeth to sell her, and suspect him of lightness seeing that he so highly commendeth her: or else the gifts & virtues (among the which gelosye hath no place) that should rather extinguish evil cupidities than provoke than, should very often through perverse minds be kynled to corruption, as Lucrece virtues played with Tarqvinius: for there are some so importune in lechery, that they love & desire the thing that they should abstain from, and the more they are removed by reason & equity, the more the flame of their desire and love increaseth. And therefore they considered the thing most wisely which said, that the most surest way was not to know a woman, and that all occasions of sin and wickedness ought to be removed. For the LORD doth exhort both man and woman to desire the celestial and heavenly father with diligent prayer, not 
Mat. vi  to be led into temptation.   

¶ Of apparel and raiment.  
GOd at the beginning 
Gen. iij  did cloth Adam and Eve to hide and to cover their secret parts withal. The other parts of the body were covered for divers necessities, after the quality and disposition of the air, some where to with stand cold, and other where to repel and withstand heat, And therefore in all cities certain apparel for very neces sitie to satisfy the eye of man withal was invented and appointed. But the evil and corrupt nature of man hath desired and searched for honour & ornaments in all things, in good, in evil, in sorrow, in shame, turning and winning that to honour & glory, the which at the begin ning was given & appointed to shame and necessity. And thus there is no end of superfluous raiment, & special lie among those that study to honour their garments more than themselves, as for the most part all women do, and many men also. That Philosopher (whosoever he were) said gravely unto him, that took a pride in his apparel, go to qd he, & leave not of to glorify in the goodness & virtue of a sheep. Aristotle maketh a magistrate named Gineconomon, whose office was to take heed, 
O how necessary were he in these our days  that women should use no inconvenient excess in their apparel, & that it were mere and agreeable for their age & condition.  
And the Romans had their laws, both for the excess of meat, and of raiment, wherewith they withstood this evil. But now there is neither law nor magistrate, for now so much as is lawful to every man, how much as doth please him: or to say more truly, so much doth please him, how much is lawful, not by the law, but by his substance & riches. And therefore every man may be in his own house, both a law and a magistrate, as well for the common utility. as for the common example. The husband must consider, that the woman ought to adorn and deck herself for his eyes and pleasure only. 
Note ye women.  And the proverb doth say, for whose sake and pleasure doth the blind man's wife trim and deck herself? And the maker of the Lace demonians laws commanded full well, that maidens and virgins should go forth uncovered, because they sought to have husbands, & married women covered, because they had found them already. He is very simple & foolish, whom his wife cannot please, except she be pricked up and trimmed. Man should be in love with virtue, and not with the apparel, with jewels, nor with the fair native skin, how much less than with that, that is painted & filthy? And if thou delight in these things, thou shalt when thou dost behold her natural face & visage both loath it & abhor it. Be thou so affectioned to thy concubine, but not to thy wife: for thou seekest to be provoked to lust & carnal pleasure by the senses, and not by any interior or inward love. If thy wife howsoever she be appareled, do content thee & please thee (for she is one mind & body with thee) to what purpose are these anxious, molestious, perilous, & hurtful or namentes sought for & desired? Such gorgeous & trimly 
The dangers that come of gay apparel.  decked wives are greedy & desirous to wander abroad, & to be seen, and that is the fruit of all that cost and charge, & they that behold them so gorgi ously appareled, are thereby the more enticed & provoked: for such array & ornaments do set them forth, & much commend them. Take diligent heed that thou suffer not thy wife to be an inventor of new or of unwontful things, lest that thereby shen be known, and be come acquainted in the city, for usual & customable things are less noted & regarded. At home they will lay their hands to nothing, that is needful to be done, they keep themselves a loof from the kitchen, & other such unclean places, & keep than in one place for filing of their apparel, or troubling of any of those things so artificiously compounded & made. Her maidens forget thing & leaving all other things undone, are all the day long occupied about trimming & decking of her. What shall I say, how great is their arrogancy and pride? For inasmuch as they are better and more preciously be seen then other, they despise and disdain all other. Whereof springeth the envy & hatred of the poorer sort, & kindleth the city with hatred, whereout doth spring & arise very often great factions, as in the time of our elders in Barcinni de Lelitanes in Spain, when that the merchants wives (the course of merchandise from Alexandria florisshing there) far exceedeth the pompose and costly raiment of the noble women, provoking and increasing therewith fond cupidity, or gnawing envy, & so one thing doth grow of another. Precious garments require convenient hems and borders, girdelles, jewels, chains, and bracelets: the which places being so appareled and adorned, will not suffer the hands to be bare, nor to be covered with all sorts of gloves, but with perfumed gloves, and wrought with buttons of gold, here unto come earrings, and other jewels of pure gold, and then the worckemanshyppe that excelleth the matter, and thus men's riches & substance, which they set forth & show in this wise & manner, decay & come to ruin. It fareth by the apparel, as it doth by writings & instruments made of contracts & bargains: in that which, because they made them simple, having only a respect to equity and good faith, few words sufficed: 
And is it not so now?  but after that cavillations were found out, there appeared a thousand crevices, the which 
☞  no wit nor words was sufficient or able to stop. So the simple & mean garment doth consist, & is of itself, but the curious hath neither end nor measure. The rich citizens that suffer their wives to have, whatsoever they will do much harm, for they bring 
Example and emulation.  in that custom and fashion, the which even she that hath little or nothing, will not doubt to follow, & doth esteem it as filthy and a thing most inconue nient, to be over gone in luxurious excess & raiment, but not in faith, diligence, & chaste, for they consider not, what they are able to do, but what other have done. And therefore in certain towns and cities evil instituted and ordered, many women through a desire to be wantoulye and gaily appareled & beseen, are content to be other men's concubines. But when the rich perceive, that the poor go about to be equal with them, they to exceed them, deck and apparel themselves more costly and richly, and thus contending they come both to ruin, and that strength at the last (as it is in the comedy) falleth down headlong. There are certain words in Livi where he persuading for the law Oppia, that make for this purpose, and are attributed and ascribed unto the authority and person of Cato, the which for the gravity of the sentence are worthy hear to be recited. I (sayeth he) can not find the cause nor the reason of certain appetites. For why? to be lawful full for some men to do certain things. and not for thee, may come of shame, or else of disdain.  
So is the apparel and raiment of all men if it be like, for every man will have and coveteth that he seeth in another.  
That shame to be counted or taken for covetous or for poor, is the worst and most haynoust of all other. But the law taketh both from you, saying ye have not the thing that is lawful for you to have.  
But she that is rich, doth say, equality doth not please me, for why should I not be seen in gold and purple? And why is the poverty of other cloaked under the colour of this law? Whereby it appeareth that they regard the law and not poverty. O ye Quirites will ye give your wives such a battle, that they being contented to be taken & esteemed for rich, should do that other cannot do, and that the poor should extend themselves above their ability, because they would not be despised? For so where no need is, they should be ashamed, & where need is, they would not, and what she might prepare of her own, she would, and that she could not, she should desire and pray her husband to do. Wretched is that husband, the which whether he consent or no, shall see his wife have that thing of another, the which he gave her not. This doth Cato say. And in what a miserable necessity are they in that to uphold such charges do search divers & painful ways full of envy, dangerous, scelerate, and unjust? These men do abuse their wives, the which thing Paul doth forbid, yet that not withstanding they love their husbands even as a master loveth his diligent & faithful steward, of whom he perceiveth his goods to be truly and faith fully used & augmented. And so doth the costly & sumptuous wife love her husband, not for his own sake, but for her own utility and profit: by whose industrious labour she liveth ydlye and arrogantly, having great abundance of all things. But if fortune do turn, and the knot of love be removed and taken away, that love will soon be loused and diminished, or else wax very faint & feeble. But being wise, thou shalt take ano there way with thee, for thou shalt call to thy remembrance, that thou waste not borne for the woman, but the woman for thee: & therefore thou must accustom her to serve thee, & so to apply her mind, that she may understand and know that she is a helper and a partaker of thy travel & labour. and not an idle mistress. Thou shalt take and refer all authority to thyself, & not to her, taking diligent heed to her honour and chastity, as thou wouldst to thine own proper life, for in this ye are but one. As for those delights, pleasures and ornaments, thou shalt deride and laugh to scorn, nor no more esteem them, than the ridiculous and foolish desires of children. And so thou shalt obey the counsel of the Apostle, commanding us so to have our wives, although 
i. co. 〈◊〉  we had them not, and so to use them, that we abuse them not. Thou shalt so apparel and array thyself and thy wife, that Nature may sufficiently be satisfied & thy dignity kept and conserved. And yet in this thing ye must differ, for thou oughtest to be clothed more like a man, that is, more simply and soberly, and the woman more exactly and cleanly. And as great costly array doth neither become man nor woman, so doth clean and honest apparel become the woman. This is the force and strength of nature that can not be altered. This femine sex doth set much store by goodly and precious raiment, the immoderate and unsatiable desire thereof may be bridled and refrained, but not clean taken away and disannulled. It shall be sufficient, if she be thus well instructed & taught that in adjourning & decking of herself, she do not so much regard the price and newness of the thing, as to avoid the uncleanness thereof, and so to behave herself, that she be not loathed and reproved. The mean & moderate use of ornaments & garments with gravity and cleanliness is of all men much more commended, then is that delicate & sumptuous raiment & apparel. He that doth array himself very sumptuously & gorgiou sly, of some shallbe counted & taken for rich, & of other for a vain waster. But he doth show himself wise, that meanly doth apparel him self, and as necessity shall require. That curious & exqui site decking of the woman doth declare her to be vain and light, nor the existimation or fame of her beauty, whose universal grace is assigned unto her apparel & ornaments, doth therefore increase or augment the more. Nor a married woman should not care now to be counted and retkened fair unto other men's eyes. O how great a sign & token of chastity & of 
A woman's true ornaments and apparel  a pure and a clean heart is that simple and mean apparel, the which do then appear most manifestly, when all men do know, that she had rather adorn herself with wisdom gravity and faith, with governing of her family & household, & instructing and teaching of her children, then with gold, silck. or precious stones. Nor there is no man, that doth not much more honour one such matron, than a number of those, that glister in their pre tious & sumptuous ornaments & apparel. Who did not more honour Cornelia the mother of the Graccis being poor & without gold or precious stones, than her hosts of Campania having all those things most plenteously? Therefore let no man hereafter say unto me, the eye of him that looketh must somewhat be satisfied & contended, for to that we give to great attendance. That simple, pure, modest, & grave ornament doth declare the house to be 
The come modity of simple a●●ye.  holy & uncorrupt, & comen death poverty, the which by teaching and instructing one what modesty is, doth cause him to know himself. Every man doth blame the poor woman, if she be sumptuously arrayed, for they know full well in cities, what every man's substance is, & what he may do. And therefore such a poor woman is reckoned & taken as proud & insolent, and her husband as fond, that doth consent to her foolishness and madness. The rich are commended, if they be modest & temperate in the usage & use of their riches, as they be, which through their riches & great substance are not arrogant nor stately. Thus doth virtue adorn the raiment, & man is adorned of himself, & not of his vain clothing & apparel. Merchants, whose riches is in the hands of fortune, are in more creditie, and the nobility within more favour with the people, when they abase & somewhat apply themselves to their qualities & customs. And it is a christi ans duty & office, to divide 
The duty of a christian man.  that among the poor, that is wont to be consumed in such vanities, & not to have & lay up such a number of gowns & raiment, as would content & serve many a poor woman, when that the master of all wisdom doth say: He that 
Luc. 〈◊〉.  hath two coats, or two gowns should give him one that hath none. But if there be any so weak & feeble spirited that neither secretly nor apertly will part with nothing, yet let him not waste & consume his money in bieing of such soft & costly apparel, the which doth soon corrupt & consume, or if he do intend to sell them, yet they shall lack a great part of that they cost him, as jewels, gold, and silver artificiously wrought & made with more cost and charge, than the thing itself is worth. Let thy gold and thy silver be meanly wrought, and let the woman believe rather, that she hath it in her keeeping, then in her possession, as to help & aid her with all if need reqnire. These things (if thou have no need of them) do adorn and garnish thee without envy or hatred, and do set forth thy riches, and acquire credence. At home let thy wife be homely and simply arrayed, to th'end that she may be expedyte and ready to all domestical and familiar busi nesses.   

¶ Of the husbands absence.  
Whosoever doth intend to marry, must so dispose & orders his matters, that he depart & be absent from home as little as may be, for it is an old saying that the eye of the master doth make the horse fat, & the ground fertile. In like manner all things, the master being present, are well & truly done. For why? the forehead (as Cato saith) is before the hinder part of the head. But inasmuch as we can not foresee the things, that be to come, when thou art absent do thy diligence, that thou be not long absent. It shallbe a help and for thy profit, to have some faithful & trusty man, that may send the word of all such things as be done at home. And if thou have no such man, remember to prepare the one. Leave no such at home, and specially when thou art absent, that shall disdain and defile thy honour, keep no such in thy house that fear not god, for 
Note.  he that doth neither fear, nor worship god, other for a present reward, or else for the hope of the same, shall do and commit all mischief: when thou art absent leave few men at home, but yet such as be faithful, but no idle persons, no vagabonds, no trim and well decked per sons, nor no musicians: for the laws are weaker and of less force and strength, when the magistrate and judge is absent. And of idleness grow evil thoughts. Let no young man of an evil name and fame be in thy house, nor no such as be greatly acquainted in the city.  
Take good heed to those that frequent and haunt thy house, and be sure that thou know them thoroughly. Commit thy house to some nigh kynsmanne or acquaintance of thine, whether he be man or woman, whose fidelytye is not unknown unto thee. And see that they be of some authority, for so shall thy family and thy wife regard them, and have a respect unto them.   

¶ Of reprehension and castigation.  
THe vice and fautle of a man's wife must (as sayeth Varro) other be suffered and borne with all, or else clean taken away, the which thing chanceth but seldom, but yfit can not, it must then needs be borne with all. Yet let him not mistrust, but with all means and ways study how to amend it, least that thing do chance, that the Poet doth say: By bearing and suffering of thy Friends faults, thou shalt make them thine own.  
For the master and ruler of the house must know and understand that he is set as it were in an high tower, to behold and see who cometh into the house, & to withstand all such things as may hurt the emoluments and commodities of the same, or the good name and report of his wife. Y et I would not that he should feign any false drea mes of the goodness & honesty of her, moving vain tragides and noises, as certain bandogs do that be kept to watch, the which being troubled and feared in their sleep, do bark in such wise & manner that they cause the house to be searched, and afterwards are sore beaten for their vain warning. And therefore, thou shalt not trouble nor vex thyself with any such bitter cares and thoughts, of thine own invention, lest thou be scorned of other, and taken for light & cruel. A husband asmuch as shall lie in him to do, must beware that his wife trespass not, and be diligent to know such things as he yet perfectly knoweth not. But gelosye doth 
Gelosye.  only trouble the mind, and causeth it to be subject to most bitter torments.  
Dost thou not take diligent heed to a peace or a cup made of glass? and dost thou not nourish and bring up thy child without any jealousy? Why dost thou not the same unto thy wife? Believe not lightly the evil willed, nor the suspicious in great and weighty matters, nor the malign interpreter of things, although they be thy parents or friends, but yet to curious & to light of credence.  
There was a noble man in Ualence called Carrosus, the which had a very chaste 
A notable history.  woman unto his wife, but yet of no good name nor fame, and of this her friends did often times accuse her unto her husband. This man at the fyr●te neglected not the thing, but gave good ear unto it.  
But after that he had found these suspicions to be vain and false, and that they for all that ceased not calumniously to accuse her, enforcing him as it were to punish her, he defending the Chastity of his wife, told them, what he had sought for, and what he had found. But perceiving that they were not contented with his words, he bought him a horse of a good kind, and prayed them to go with him, and to see his horse run, in the place between the palace and the Trinity church there unto appointed. And when he had made three or four curses, he asked them that saw him, what they thought by his horse, some of them praised him highly, and some in certain points does praised him.  
Then he drew out his sword, saying: I swear unto you by Christ, that I will kill him, who soever he be, that shall speak evil other of my horse, or of my wife.  
And thus at that time he put them to silence. And after that the thing was manifest, and her innocency proved and known to all men, he was counted and taken for a wise man, and a man of great courage. Reprehension, and correction must be done for amendment, or for the example of other.  
For other wise it is vengeance, or else a spice of Crudelytye, the which some do use against those that they do hate: yea, and do kill them, and yet do say that they do but chasten them. A goodly manner of correction in deed to kill one. Seneca doth say, that no wise man doth punish for the faults committed, but to th'end, that hereafter they should trespass no more, for the thing once done can not be revoked, but yet it may be so reprehended & avoided, that it shall be done no more. There be three kinds of sins & trespasses in wedlock, 
The tres passes of matrimo nigh.  & three ways to amend them. The first and most grievous is adultery, the which doth separate the man and the woman, & doth so break the 
mat. nineteen.  band of matrimonial love & charity, that even by the lords own words & sentence he may refuse her, although his will be, that she infected or infamed with any other vice, be kept & retained. In this thing men do use the castigation by the law permitted. A wise surgeon doth not burn nor cut any man, except very necessity constrain him, or that there be none other remedy. And yet or ever he begin, he considereth his instruments, his audacity, & his knowledge, & then if he perceive, that he be not able to do it, he will not meddle withal. There are other like faults, & likewise other that are mean between than both, the which by reprehension & correction may soon be amended. And after that thou hast chosen thy wife, think with thyself that it can not be comprised with few words, that with long experience can not be opened nor known. Nor thou must not believe, that she is perfect, for afterwards knowing the contrary, thou shalt pecceave, that thouwast beguiled. Think therefore to find a great deal less of those things in her, than appeared at the beginning, that thou, if thou find any more, mayst be a gainer. Furthermore 
The miserable estate of women.  thou must consider, that women be sickly, and feeble of body, troubled with many diseases, and in mind sore vexed with divers tempests & motions. And what grief doth she suffer monthly in purging of herself? what fastidiousness being with child, & after that she is delivered? And how is she rend & broken at her uprising? & to how many perils and dangers is she subject? wonder it is, that any of them do escape death. And what other thing do they all their life time but serve us? the daughter serveth her father, the wife her husband, the mother her children. Of mind they are not so strong as man, their judgement, their erudition, & their experience is far under man's. Who is so cruel then, that 'twill not pity this their miserable estate & condition? And therefore we ought to wink at many of their faults and as the stronger, suffer and bear with the weaker. Paul saith, ye that are strong ought to bear with the feeble. 
Ro. xv  And if that wise greek, because he would not be grievously offended with his friends misdoings, was wont to say thus with himself. And this is a man also, a mutable creature, apt to fall, & to be deceived: how much more reasonably should the self same be thought of a woman? And nature doth teach us, that youth should give place to age the strong to the feeble, & the right to the lame. And if the wiseshuld not bear with the foolish, he should not sufficiently answer, & satisfy the excellency of his name. And besides all this, civil education and manners, reason, and the sentences of the wise, do persuade this, and likewise peace and domestical quietness do move us unto the same. What pain and labour will dost thou take, both by water and by land to gather a little money, wherewith thou mightest live quietly and joy fully at home? Why shouldest thou not then suffer a little in commodity at home to have qnietnes, without the which riches are nothing profitable, nor life itself sweet nor pleasant. What amity or friendship canst thou find, wherein thou must not suffer and dissemble many things? Thou shouldest in like manner way and consider, whether the thing that displeaseth thee, was done of weakness, or of malice, for so doing, thou mayst moderately correct it. But inasmuch as correction is one of those bitter medicines which heal not that body without loathing & ahhorring the thing: it should not be ministered, except necessity required it. Nor there is nothing the causeth reprehension to be so well esteemed & accepted, as when he that is wise & benevolent doth 
〈◊〉.  use it, & that th'example of his life be agreeable unto his precepts and sayings. Nor the evil can be with nothing so well rebuked, as with the life of those that are good, as it is above declared.  
If thou secretly do show them way of vice, & vicious living, why should est thou complain, if they of thy own house do as thou dost learn them? he would answer him, that should rebuke him, as the child Asotus answered, and said unto his luxurious father, that reproved him, as it is red in Cestius Pius declamations. And we must know and perceive, that often reprehension ●iminisheth the authority 
Au●th●●●tie  thereof, and leaseth his source & strength, for he that is accustomed to be reprehended & rebuked, doth little esteem it. It shallbe best therefore to dissemble & wink at small faults, and reserve the authority of reprehension to amend that is more grievous, the which thing we do see that these crafty marchaun tes, and subtle courtiers do use, the which do prove their credence, and how their prince doth favour them in great and ieoperdious matters only, leaving all other small and light businesses untouched. There are other faults, the which must be pretermitted & not meddled withal, when there is any hope of amendment, other for honour sake, or if any other vice or fault, if they were detected should spring and arise of the same. Some there be, that willing lie do amend, if they think not themselves to be taken as evil and reproved persons. Gneus Pompeius in the the war against Sertorius did burn the whole host looking upon him, the letters which were found in Sertorius chest, to the intent that the Citizyns, perceiving their secrets to be disclosed, should not be taken for enemies. Cesar did even the same after that he had overthrown Pompey at Pharsalia, and likewise in Africa, when Metellus Scipio was overcomed. There be certain small faults, the which are natural both to man & woman, & aught to be suffered & borne withal in the woman, in asmuch as she doth keep her chastity, & specially when she with oft reprehension will not amend, for then by thy patient suffering of her, thou shalt have great profile & find her veri benign & gentle & using thyself to suffer & to forbear her, she will be unto thee most pleasant, for familiar conversation causeth all bitter things to be sweet & savoury. Thou must not reprehend her furiously, but which judgement, nor fervently, but coldly & discreetly, for that reprehension which is annexed with gravity & temperam 
Approved repre hention.  cie of mind, is most approved & most effectuous as when thou she west thy self to be moved with the greatness of the fault, & not for any disdain, nor to satisfy and content thine affections, but to amend her whom thou rebukest. Thou must observe both time and place, least that through ferventness of reprehension thou bespot thy wife, and cause thy chances to be openly known to strangers, and other thy familiars, whereby in time to come thy wife shall continually hate thee. Be not long angry, least that thy desperate wife fall headlong into vice and naughtiness. The apostle 
Col. iij.  saith, ye husbands love your wives, and be not bitter unto them. And if the lord forbid us to be angry with our brother, how 
Mat. v.  much the less ought we to be angry with our wives, the which exceed all brotherly love and benevolence, as we have told you before, and it is meat it be often times repeated. And if man be the head of the woman, & Christ 
Eph. v.  the head of the man, he must use himself unto the woman, as Christ doth use himself unto us, that is, beniglye and friendly. And the self same Apostle doth call the woman the body 
Eph. v.  of the man, as the church is the body of Christ. And not withstanding we sustain and suffer many incommodities of the body, yet we hate it not, but suffereth it, nourisheth it, and governeth it. The husbands reprehension must be short, for if it should continue, hatred would ensue, the which would cowl matrimonial love, kindle disdain, and change the sweetness of their conversation into bitterness. Furthermore, thou must allege the reason and cause that moveth thee to rebuke her, that both now and in time to come, she may be admonished. The force and strength of reason hath great power in the mind of 
Reason.  man, nor there is nothing that so cleaveth unto it, nor less penetreth the same, as this sentence: Thus I will, and thus I command.  
Thou must so rebuke her, that she may perceive it to proceed & come of good love, to make her better, and to be without vice or fault, that the love which is between you may be the more fervent, and without any quarrel or complaint at al. Therefore assoon as thou hast chastened & corrected her, and that she, other by word, honest shamefastness, or silence doth declare that she will obey thee, give her then fair words again, and a gentle countenance as thou waste wont to do. There are in noble women as there is among men, certain excellent motions of the mind: the which to those that be not wise, and do mark the thing but slenderly, seem to come of arrogancy and pride. Nor these ought not utterly to be kept under, and clean extinguished, for without them they can not approach nor come to that high and memorable ornament, that exciteth and moveth man to marvel and to praise & extol them. Such affections of the mind are apt & meet to conserve and keep the honesty & chastity of women. Such noble women should not be grievously or sharply reprehended or rebuked, but drawn from vice, other by the example or virtue of such women as be gone already, or of those that they were acquainted with all, or else by putting them in remembrance of their old virtue and godly living. To some woman a beck of her husband is sufficient to declare, that there is somewhat amiss, that displeaseth him, and specially if she bear her husband any reverence. An honest matron hath no need of any greater staff, but of one word or one sour countenance of her husband. But where that this can not help, but that 
Note ye husbands.  brawling & staves acre must needs be used, I give no precepts nor rules, for there they use violence, but yet by mine advice the husband shall never come to that extremity, for if thy wife be often rebuked & will not bow, but waxeth more stiff & crooked: yet inasmuch as she keepeth herself pure & chaste, she must be supported and borne withal. Nor the bow must not be broken with to much bending thereof. Thus did Socrates forbear his wife Xantippa, whom we should follow, if we were so wuse as to think that our patience by reason of the woman is exercised & proved, to the augmentation & increase of virtue, as job & Toby did to their great profit, and to 
job. 〈◊〉.  the woman's rebuke & shame, 
Tob. 〈◊〉  as that lord whensoever it shall be, will declare & judge aswell of the one as of the other. Also he must think that she fell unto him by lot, as his kindred, his country, his body, his soul, and his wit did: wherewith every man ought to hold him content, thinking with himself, that the omnipotent and everlasting God doth dispense and order all thing most wisely, and most justly. finally, it is meet and convenient that the authority of God, which coupled them together, should set them at one if they were out, & agree them. And what man durst be so bold to break the peace that the king hath made? Or who would reject him that by some noble man was commanded & delivered unto him? if in this thing the reverence that we have and bear unto those which are of great power be of such force and strength., or else love itself, how much should it be towards god? for who is so mighty, or so loving unto, us as he? him we should reave rinse & love above all other things. Also he ought to remember what Paul sayeth, the the wife & the husband are all 
Ephe. v  one flesh. Of the body do come continually many incommodities, but yet no man doth hate it, but to his power doth nourish it, & if at any time he be miscontent there with by and by he pleaseth it again. Such like love should every man bear his wise, and this after the mind of the Apostle.   

¶ Of the proceeding and going forwards in matrimony.  
AFter the thou haste had experience of thy wife, thou oughtest to love her more tenderly. And nature doth induce a man to that, that which doth make sweet, familiar, and customable things, be they never so sharp or grievous, for the use & continual company doth so establish and confirm love & benevolence, that we upon that occasion, do love dogs, cats, horses, & other brute beasts, and do mourn & sorrow their death and absence. And what thing is less convenient for a wise & a well nourtred man, than not to love his wife, whose con pany he hath so long & so familiarly used? Meleager Oeneus son being both angry with himself & all his sat him down in his chamber: The Curetes, which made war against the Calidonians assailed the city, & molested them so sort, that there was no hope neither in man nor woman. The elders 
Meleager's love towards his wife  of that city came unto Me leaguer the only save guard of all the country, desiring him to put on his harness, and to defend them. yea, the priests with their ceremonies were present, & promised a great reward, but he despised all this. Then came Oneus his father, a man worthy of great veneration, & kneeled down before his obstinate son, His mother also, whose anger was now changed into humble prayer and petition came unto him, his sisters and his most pleasant companions, with whom he had lived most iocundly the best part of all his time, prayed him not to forsake them now in this their extreme peril, & jeopardy. But that fierce mind of his was nothing moved, but denied the help that all they with exhortation, prayer, and promise desired. In the mean while the enemies entered the city, and serting it a fire in divers and many places, murdered and loore vexed the people. His wife Cloopatra being sore afraid, came unto him, saying: Help us O my husband, for if thou help us not, we are all but dead, for our enemies have and posesse all. That implacable and fierce heart, moved with the only voice and peril of his wife, armed himself, and driving his enemies out, delivered the city from extreme danger and peril. That noble man had written in his heart, that precept of nature, the which he never read nor heard, by the which he knew that his wife and he were all one, and that all other (notwithstanding they were knit unto him by great love and amity) were without him, and that a man's wife is so united & with such a conjunction and knot bound unto her husband, that he doth many things for her the which he would not do for himself. Doth that noble and most worthy boron in Homer cry this alone, doth Agamemnon & Menelaus only love their wives? For so doth every honest man that hath any point of judgement: as I loved most heartelye Loryseis, although I took her in war. That king 
Masuissa king of Numidi●  (as Sallust writeth) lying now a dying, exhorted his children to concord after this sort and manner. Who is more friendly than one brother to another? Or who shalt thou find to be thy friend, if thou be enemy to thine own? Who can think that thou lovest him, that perceiveth thou lovest not thy wife, being good and honest? And if thou offended which certain her vices dost hate her, it shall cause thy friends to forsake thee, to the which it is not unknown, that no man liveth without fault, and do trust that through use and time they shall wax tolerable: but saying thou (the which haste been so long acquainted & conversant with thy wife) canst not bear her, what other thing can he hope or trust, but that the more straightly and familiarly thou art conversant with him, and the better that thou knowest him, the less friendly thou shalt be unto him? Can there be any vice (I speak of these common vices) so far from the nature of any man, as the nature and manners of beasts be? And yet conversation doth so work, that they live pleasantly under one roof, and that man doth play and sport himself with the Lion, and the nature and deeds of each of them doth so please & content the other, that being absent they seek each other: for familiarity is of such vehemency and force, that it coupleth those things, which are of contrary natures, and that because malice is far of for if it were mixed the rewith, it could not claps nor fasten those things, which are most like each other, so great 
Malice.  a poison is malice unto concord & good agreement. Nor this herb called mint, doth not (as the natural Philosophers 
The property of the mint.  do say) so much let milk to be turned into cheese, as the malice of the heart, doth let venevolence to increase and grow. And in matrimonial debate and discord, the man is more blamed than is the woman, because that he being the chief ruler and head, doth not (as sayeth Uarro) purge her of that vice, the which engendered that discord, or else patiently bear and suffer the same, for the blame of all discord is most commonly laid unto him that is best: because he would not moderate nor let the thing to come to such a strife and discord, or else because he was not able to do it: In the first there appeareth manifest ma louse, in the second impatience and weakness, the which ought to be far from him, that is esteemed to be most worthiest, & appointed to rule & govern other. And thus he cometh into hatred, for asmuch as he hath beguiled us & left of to do his duty and office when it needed not.  
That love unto thy wife, after thou haste enjoyed her, for a season doth wax feeble and cold, is a thing most meet and convenient for those that are kindled with bodily lust and lechery, the which are very beasts and no men, having no reason, but are drawn to those deeds through the motions of their senses, the which after that the heat be a little paste, shall clean change their opinion. Also there are other occasions that should cause this benevolence and love, in case he be not duller than a stone: 
The causes why the husband should love his wife.  As that his wife hath suffered so great travel and labour, that she hath brought him for the children the heirs of his name and substance, and the upholders of his family: and that she hath forsaken her father's goods and riches to follow him, and to suffer with him both good & evil, and that she setting her whole mind now upon him, knoweth neither father, nor yet any of all her kin. What one thing then shall suffice to knit them in love, if many things can not do it? who so will then obey nature, humanity, and wisdom, shall every day love his wife more and more: And the better he knoweth her, the more he will trust her, and to open & disclose his love, shall show her greater signs & tokens of benevolence, manifesting that to be borne and nourished through the expience of her virtue, & through hope to be continued & kept, that in time to come she may be like herself, and (as Plato writeth) strive to overcome herself with virtue. Thou shalt only love thy wife thus tender lie, but from her, as from a fountain ta'en, yu must extend it unto 
The husband must love his wives kinsfolk.  her parents & kinsfolk, to th'end that they may well know & perceive, how greatly their cousin doth aid and help them, & that she in like manner may understand that thy benevolence & love to her is such, that it red undeth among her friends and parents, and of this thou shalt receive no little profit at home. And if we will that her kinsmen be loved for her sake, how much more ought we than to love her children, the which if thou love their mother, can not be but most dearly beloved, & most acceptable unto thee: & she in like case shall love thine, ill thou have any: & they seeing this mutual love between us, shall knit & couple themselves in good love & charity. In matrimony 
Chances  there chance many casualties, as poverty, infamy, enprisonment, banishment, & sicknesses, the which are roninon to all men, and yet may touch only the one of them, which are married, & not offend the other: as ill thy father in law (of whom thou lookedst to have had a great inhe ritaunce) had lost all his goods and were defamed, wherewith his daughter also were somewhat bespotted, & falsely convicted of some crime, & imprisoned, or banished the city, or fallen into some disease or sickness. But as concerning this thing, I will only say, as nature doth prescribe & determine it: for god doth command us, to bear such good 
Luc. vi  will and mind unto other, as we would & desire they should bear unto us, nor that only in this great conjunction of soul and body, but also universally unto all men. Support and suffer thou thy wives mischances, as she ought to suffer thine, for matrimonial love should have every thing so mixed and mingled, that they should not say, this is mine and this thine, but that all thing, as profit and disprofyte, good and bad should be common.  
And if ye be one and not two, then can not she be sick and diseased, but that thou must needs be sick with her, nor she poor, and thou rich: The which thing can not chance among friends, how shall it happen then where is so great and so fast a knot and conjunction both of mind and of love?  
A sure and a true friend sayeth Ennius, is in a thing uncertain.  
Her sickness and afflictions shall declare how well thou didst love her when she was in health. And following the instinct of Nature, and the commandment of God, thou shouldest judge her to be even one thing with thy 
〈◊〉. 〈◊〉.  self, and her body consumed with sickness to be thy body, as when it was most flourishing & most pleasant unto thine eye, and thou shouldest serve and keep it with no less diligence. than thou keepest thine own. And as charity through mer cy should grow & increase towards thyself & thy children, so should love teach thee to do towards thy wife, true lie loving her as thyself, and as thine own proper children: whereby she being diseased or troubled by fortune, shallbe unto thee more dearly beloved, then ever she was in her most flourishing estate and condition, women have their certain small debates & envy, and their divers disdaynefulnesses and hatreds the which of very light occasions and causes do spring and rise suddenly, as of such whose judgements are weak and feeble, but with such matters men of gravity ought not to meddle. They have like wise their proper ambition and pride both in word and place, and whether they sit or go. But yet the husband shall not increase these things, nor show himself a minister nor a revenger of her complaints and sorrows, be cause she was not honoured nor taken after her will and pleasure, but rather to laugh at them and contemn than: calling most diligently upon her to see to other things of moor importance & profit. For such as do meddle or trouble themselves with such light & foolish matters are more meet to wear women's apparel & garments, & to spin, then to wear a beard, or to be esteemed or taken for a man. Make such men rulers of cities, seeing they are so unapt to rule & govern their own family, and household. What thing is there more unmeet for a man then to move or to trouble himself with the light appitites & fond lusts of women.   

¶ What utilities and profits the mutual love of those which are married doth bring.  
IT can not be well rehearsed nor told, how many utilites and profits this concord doth bring to great things both at home & abroad, nor how many losses & incommodities do grow of the dissension and discord that is between the good man and his wife. The household when their master and their mistress are at debate can no otherwise be in quiet and at rest, than a city whose rulers agree not, but when it seeth them in concord and quietness, than it rejoiceth, trusting that they will be even so unto them as it perceiveth them to be among themselves, wherein surely they are not deceived, for if that man & his wife do benigly & gently support & entreat one another, they learn not to disdain, or for every light fault to be angry with their servants, or yet for any house hold words to be vexed or angry with each other, but to set a side all hasty and cruel words & correction with all other things that proceed of a disdainful & a furious mind. And the servants are not only merry therefore, but also they do their service the more obediently & gladly, showing reverence unto the majesty that proceedeth & increaseth of quietness and concord. For the husband doth defend his wives majesty with love and benevolence, and the wife her husbands with honour & obedience. What shall I need to say that concord causeth them to be esteemed wise and honest. And they must needs be good, saying they have loved so long together. Nor there can be no 
Note.  long amity or friendship but between those, that are good, the which do suffer and devour up those things, for the which other men leave & forsake amity, and break of charity. Nor there groweth of none other thing so great reverence & majesty, as of the opinion and estimation of ano their man's goodness & wisdom, the which reverence is not only honoured within the doors, but also shineth and extendeth itself into the city, so that he is taken for an honest man, and borne to be loving and gentle, seeing that he loveth so constantly, and for a wise man, considering the he so moderately can handle so difficult and hard matters, and worthy to rule a common wealth, that with such wisdom and judgement doth rule his own house, and that he may easily conserve and keep his citezyns in peace and concord, that hath so well stablished the same in his own house and family. And on the other side, who thinkest thou will believe, that thou art able to be ruler or to keep peace and quietness in the city, saying thou canst not live peacesably in thine own house, where thou art not only a Ruler, but a King and Lord of all?  
Leontinus Gorgias (the 
Leontinus.  which was the syrste that among the Greeks was commended for his eloquence) exhorting the Greeks with many words at the plays of Olympe unto peace and concord, certain men (as it is said) cried out, saying. Let him first be at concord with his wife and his maid, and then come to persuade & counsel us to peace. There is no man, but will trust to obtain (& that easily) the amity and friendship of so noble & so gentle a person, whose benelovence & gentleness can not be equinalled with all worldly riches. How magnificent a thing is it, to be taken for good and faithful in another man's house? as it is written of Crates Thebanus, 
Crates.  unto whom for his singular goodness, and love that he bore unto his wife Hypparchia, was granted, to entre not only into the gate, but into the chambers and most secret places of all the city, and there fore the Greeks called him Thirepanictes, that is a man that might entre and go into other men's houses. For no man doth mistrust or fear that he will defile any other man's bed, that agreeth so well with his own wife, & with so sweet and so sure a knot is fastened unto her. All the whole family do their duties, when the wife doth gladly and willingly help her husband, and the husband his wife moved by the only love and concord that is between them: for he that is not moved nor stirred with the furiousness and commotions of the mind, may easily retain and cause them to do their duties, so that he leave not of, nor faileth not to do his own duty. Thus they may with diligence govern their goods and substance, so that neither of them be alienate & far from their domestical & familiar cares and businesses, and in their family do rule & temperal things with love. He is far deceived that doth think, that fear, reward, or any other like thing shall so quicken or provoke a man to do his duty, as charity and love shall do. men perchance will not greatly marvel if their own children be sweet & most acceptable unto them, the which if they were but the children of one of them, yet love might so work, that they should be unto each other most accep table & pleasant: how much more than must the flame needs burn, unto the which they both, as it were put torches under? But this peradventure shall seem more marvelous (the which unto those that have the knowledge of natural things is most plain & sure) that the children of those which be married & love one another, shallbe meek peaceable, modest, amiable, and apt to all kind of benignity and gentleness. For why? the qualities and affections of the father & the mother 
Note.  (the which do occupy the inward parts of man) are most commonly transfuded into the bodies and souls of their children, and of their parents they learn placability & meekness. To live thus at home in tranquillity & concord, is much like the celestial and heavenly life: whereof (as sayeth that wise man in Homer) great joy and cheerfulness redoundeth unto their friends, and to their enemies great sorrow & heaviness: and as the other rejoice, these do lament when they see or hear that we be other in hatred or in any discord: for the evil and wicked man doth desire that is evil, & exchueth virtue, as a most pernicious poison. But all that I have said hitherto (although as ye do see, they are of great importance) yet they can not be compared to this one thing, that I will now say. At home we learn charity, the which we may use and show towards other that being in tranquillity, & pleased with the suavity and sweetness of mutual and correspondent love, we may the ease liar give ourselves to religion, to contemplation, to love, & to give reverence to that am nipotent & divine nature. And our hearts being thus touched with matrimonial love, and with the holy & celestial fire we shall by little and little, be so kindled therewith, that it shall conceive & bring forth great flames. And what greater or more excellent gift may be desired or granted of god unto mankind, then that we may be made true and faithful lovers of that his divine beauti fullness.   

¶ Of those that have no children.  
Unto some the lord now and then giveth no children, or else he taketh them again, when he hath given them, & that by his secret & incomprehensible judgement yea with a fatherly indulgence and pity: For he seeth it to be for our profit, that it should be so, lest that we should refer all things to fortune & natural causes, the which thing no wise man, nor no christian man should do. And let us take it for no small benefit that we have not proved of that sweet gall, for after that we have swallowed it, we shall say, that there is put unto one drop of honey, six hundred drops of gall: And he did even reasonably reckon it amongye felicities of man, to live without children. And August through his daughter & his nice was constrained co rehearse even which aloud voice these words of Homer. Would god I had ne ver bene married, for than I should have had no children. I willet pass Cicero complaints to Atticus. Nor I will not dispute here of the privation of children, but only monish & exhort those that be married, that they (because the fruit of children is so uncertain, & that oftenti mes they do bring unto their parents more calamity than profit or pleasure) seek not to have children by any flagitiousnes, that is, with one certain evil, one uncertain calamity. Be not sharp nor bitter to your barren wives, for that chanceth very often without any fault other of the one or of the other, or of them both. And ye shall understand & know that the wife desireth more to have children, then the husband, as the wall that is falling, desireth to have shores to uphold it with al. Anne that wife of Helcana that Ephraite was barren, & how did her husband comfort her. Am not I 
i Re. i.  qd he better to thee then ten children? It was very meet & convenient that Samuel that prophet should be gotten of a man. If god do send the children, receive them as the gift of god joyfully, & instruct them well, that their goodness & honesty may profit themselves & the to, not on lie for thy solace & good name, but also to augment the merits 
The merits of this life.  of this life, by that which the immortal reward of the eternal life is obtained & gotten.   

¶ Of her that is in age.  
AFter that an honest & a well nourtured woe man waxeth old, we must do as men use to do to all faithful & diligent servants, we lose & unbind our old horse and ox, & suffer them to wander and to feed where they will themselves, and put them to less labour: we make our bondmen free, and we assign to old soldiers certain possessions and fields to live upon, we make our free minister and servant, after that he hath well & faithfully served us, equal as it were unto us, and call him to our affinity. Now much more oughtest thou then honorificently to entreat thy wife being aged and old, the which is no brute beast, no bondmaid nor of no worse condition than thou thyself, nor thy hired servant, but equal with thee, and assigned by GOD to be thy fellow, and with such love coupled unto thee, as far passeth and exceedeth all other. And reason it is, that she which hath been so long obedient and subject to her husband, be now even like and equal with him, for now those agitations & troubles of the mind (the which by the majesty, and as it were by the kingdom of the husband should be refrained) are now through use and time pacified and cooled, so that now it shall not need that he rule his wife or study to observe and retain his majesty any more: for it can not now dimynyshe, saying that all such things, as required a just and a moderate empire and rule, are dyspached and taken away.  
And therefore GOD commanded 
Gc. xxi  Abraam to obey his old Sara, not as to his wife & flesh, but as some what elevated unto the nature of man and condition and quality of the spirit. Nor from hence forth she must not be handled nor entreated like a young woman, in asmuch as she is feeble & her bodily heat suaged & couled. And her travail and pains by the aid & help of servants must now be lightened, for the infirmities of her mind that blinded so her judgement, that she could not perceive the truth, are now healed & herself made better, more cir cunspect, & wiser than she was before. Begin now therefore to make her equal with thyself, & counsel with her about thy matters whether they be great or small, for so shall she receive the fruit & reward of her obedience, to be a mistress, the which was so long thy servant. Nor she shall not be now intolerable or insolent or a stately mistress, that so long a time before hath learned to be obedient. Thus by little & little ye shall learn to discern the sexes, & begin to prepare you unto that celestial life, in the which there is no sex as touching carnal use. For there (as saith the son of god) they neither marry, nor are married, but live as the angels 
Math. xxij.  of God, pure & incorruptible spirits, among the which no man is borne, nor no man perisheth, so that there needeth no reparation of man kind by generation. This love not fastened in caduke and mortal things, but in the soul, shall follow her being dead, for albe it she be departed, buried and lamented, yet nevertheless 
The remembrance of the wife.  charity shall live, & the remem branch of such a woman shall be pleasant unto her husband: & therefore his children shallbe the dearer unto him, inasmuch as they be his, & begotten and borne of such a woman, & he shall pity them the more, seeing that they be deprived of the fruit of such a mother and take her children by another husband in stead & place of his own as borne of her, the which with him was one thing, both by the sacrament of matrimony, and by the nature of love. Also thou shalt cause the memory and remembrance of her, which is now dead, to be no less profitable unto her kinsfolk, than it was she being yet alive, for not withstanding she be departed and dead, yet that knot of love the which coupled her kindred to thee, as thine own. is not extinguished: and the communion of blood and chance of birth is a more weaker & a more feebler band to couple men together in amity, then is the band of benevolence and love. If thou die before her, leave such a testimony unto her and all other, not only of thy benevolence but also of thy judgement to herwardes, goe ving her such thanks for her fidelity & concord to the wards, that all other may understand 
Note ye husbamndes.  what manner of wife she was, and that she herself may perceive that her will and works were well allowed, and being yet alive, may receive the fruits of her honesty and goodness, the which in that blessed life she shall receive and take for the greatest and most truest. And therefore, it shall be thy part for the gentleness and love thou hadst unto her (seeing that thou the very stay of the house and goods shalt be now taken from her, and that she being fearful and feeble shall be destituted of thee yet only 〈◊〉 and help) to leave her to the comfort & relief of her widdowhed, such a portion of thy goods, as may sustain her: lest that funestious and bitter day, the which took thee from her, should some to bring all misery & evils unto her, but yet this must be ordered after every man's nature and custom. To some woman whose fidielitie, fruga litie, & wisdom thou knowest thou mayst leave all that ever thou haste. And to some it is not for their utility and profit to be left 〈◊〉, unto whom money should be 〈◊〉 instrument and an occasion of lechery and bodily pleasure. Some be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, & through avarice & covetousness, very cruel unto their own children. No man ought to know her better than her own husband, the which hath been secretly both in spor tes & serious matters so long acquainted with her, that except he be a very trunk or a block, he might 〈◊〉 ought to have 〈◊〉 ed out & known all her senses & qualities. And therefore giving judgement of those things, that he by the works & life of his wife death know, he may do, that shall some unto him 〈◊〉 meet & convenient to be done, but so yet, that love may temper the sentence of judgement, & judgement the excess of love. But yet of what, sort soever she be, thou oughtest not as far forth as thy goods will stretch, to leave her in poverty. And if thou shouldest fault in any of these two things, I had rather thou shouldeste leave her exceeding rich then that she should lack any thing pertaining to her living, for there is a moor danger in poverty, then in wealth or riches. And forasmuch as by death he goeth to a better place, let him not care for such things as he leaveth here, but commit them unto such, as presently shall have the use of them, nor desire that his wife should so remember 
A fond 〈◊〉 quest of many husbands.  him to continued his widow still to her great incommodity, & the peril of pity. Let him therefore leave her free, and in her own hand & judgement of her friends, to do that she shall think most convenient for her honesty, & the quietness of her own will & mind.