XIV. Quod duo de filiis in religione nutrirentur

XIV. Quod duo de filiis in religione nutrirentur

Moreover, it should not be overlooked, for the praise of the said king, that when he was first still on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land across the sea, and even after he had returned to France, as we believe led by the Spirit of God, he arranged and wished it to be written in his will that two sons who had been born to him across the sea, namely Lord John and Lord Peter, when they reached the age of discretion, should be raised within the confines of religious life; one in the house of the Friars Preachers in Paris, and the other in the house of the Friars Minor, in places prepared for this purpose at the king's expense, so that they might be instructed in sacred teachings and letters and be healthily led to the love of religion; desiring with all his heart that, informed by salutary documents, inspired by the Lord, they would enter those religious orders at the right time and place. Similarly, his firstborn daughter, who later became queen of Navarre, while she was still abroad, sent special letters written by her own hand, in which she effectively and devoutly urged her to despise the world and to embrace the love of religion and enter into it. Moreover, out of her devotion, she offered her daughter Blanch to God in the abbey of the nuns near Pontissara, where the body of her pious mother is buried, so that she might be raised there in a religious manner and be formed in the love of religion through salutary words and the examples of the nuns. However, although the one whose providence does not fail in its disposition wished to arrange otherwise regarding the aforementioned children, because perhaps it was better for their good and for the benefit of God's Church that they should engage in the world and in marriage rather than enter into religion, we have written the above to show the devotion of the pious king, his faith, and the fervor of his holy desire, by which he aspired to the peak of perfection both in himself and in his children. I don't think that the affection of a person should lack reward and a crown, even if their good intention doesn't achieve its desired outcome. Moreover, I deemed it fitting to mention at the end of this chapter how a Catholic father, knowing in advance about his own death as if revealed by the Lord, wrote in French with his own hand salutary documents and Catholic teachings before his final illness, which he left to his firstborn son and, in him, to the other children as if it were a testament. I had a copy of these documents written by his own hand after his death, and as best and briefly as I could, I translated them from French into Latin; these are the documents.