THE NEXT CHAPPYTRE SHEWETH HOW BE IT THAT A WOMAN HAUE AN EUYLLE AND FELON HUSBOND, NEUERTHELES SHE OUGHT NOT THERBY TO LEUE THE SERUYSE OF GOD.
aFTER this ensample I shalle telle yow another of ii good wymen, wyues of two paynyms. The one was wyf to the seneschall of Herode. This good woman serued our lord at y time that he preched, & administred & made his mete and drynke the best wyse they couthe. Here is good ensample how euery good woman, al be it so that she haue neuer so peruers and euylle husbond, yet this notwithstondyng she ne oughte to leue the seruyse of god and be obeysshynge to hym, or els atte leste she ought to be more humble and deuoute for to Impetre and gete the grace of god for her and for her husbond. For the good that she dothe appeaseth the yre of god and is cause of the sauement of theyre temporall rychesse and goodes. For the good that she dothe supporteth the euylle and mysdedes of her husbond, as it is reherced in the lyf of the Auncyent faders, where as he speketh of an euylle man and a tyraunt, the whiche was thre tymes saued fro euylle dethe for goodnes and bounte of his wyf, wher, fore hit befelle whanne she was dede, and that he had no body more that prayd for hym, he was for his grete synnes & mysdedes brought in to a shamefull dethe by the kyng of that lond. And therfor it is good and necessary to an euyl man to haue a good wyf and of holy lyf, and the more that the good wyf knoweth her husbond more felon and cruel, and grete synnar, the more she ought to make gretter abstynences and good dedes for the loue of god. And yf the one suffre not the other, that is to vnderstonde, yf the good dyd suffre & supported not the euylle, all shold go to perdicion. And yet I saye that the obeyssaunce and drede of god was stablysshed before maryage, for men ought
