Page:The religious life of King Henry VI.djvu/49

Rh and learned priests who were already known as scholars and teachers. For this reason he said to the agent he was employing on this matter: "We would rather tolerate those who were weak in music than in their knowledge of the scripture." In regard to the boys and youths who were proposed to him as scholars, the first thing required by the King was that they should be trained in virtue, as well as in book learning. And so, from time to time, when he would meet, at the castle of Windsor, any of these youths who had come to see some of the royal household whom they knew, Henry, on recognizing that they were his boys, would urge them to follow along the path of virtue, and, giving them money, would say: "Be good boys, mild, docile, and servants of the Lord." If he found any of these youths visiting servants of his house, he would punish them and forbid them to do such a thing again. He feared that his lambs might learn bad practices and morals from his servants, or at least lose their own good practices in part or altogether from the contact, like the lambs and sheep which are pastured among thorns and briars and which tear their wool and often leave it entirely torn off.