Note 187 — Chapter VIII

That the Germans, at the time under discussion, regarded learning as having an effeminating effect on men is well illustrated by the following characteristic anecdote: "when Amasvintha, a very learned woman who was a daughter of the Ostrogoth King, Theodoric, selected three masters for the instruction of her son, the people became indignant. 'Theodoric,' they exclaimed, 'never sent the children of the Goths to school, learning making a woman of a man and rendering him timorous. The saber and the lance are sufficient for him.'" Procopius, De Bello Gothico, I, 2, Leipsic, 1905.

If we may judge by a letter from Pace to Dean Colet, the noted classical scholar and founder of St. Paul's school in London, such views found acceptance in England as late as the time of More and Erasmus. For we are told of a British parent who expressed his opinion on the education of men in these words: "I swear by God's body I'd rather that my son should hang than study letters. The study of letters should be left to rustics."