educated. As for social and economic levels of the family, education at home will “deal with a middle- of-the-road type of education, considering that the majority of people will live in the city and belong to the middle class”.98
Secondly, concerning the exercise of responsibility in education, which is like a second birth and should be shared by father and mother who, in turn, should be in perfect agreement on it, the author adds the following suggestions: “Generally speaking, the mother more appropriately takes care of the girls, since they share the same gender. As for the boys in their early infancy and early childhood, mothers should take care of them, most of all in their home education. However, when the boys get bigger and more capable of handling orders, are more mature and ready to get out of the house more often, it should be the father’s role to instruct them and watch over them”. 99
Chronologically, the mother is the chief person for the early stages of the child’s education, which by nature is preventiveand which belongs to the family.100The woman seems to incarnate all the best ingredients for such an education: “she is inclined to be pious and religious; add to that her tenderness, her gentle ways of correcting, her greater perseverance and patience, which perhaps are not ordinarily the features of a father”.101
Beyond the levels and conditions of Christian education, its goal is an essential point of reference: all people, no matter what circumstances they are in, are obliged to know and love God and obey his holy Commandments”. 102 “I am a Christian: at my Baptism, I have vowed and assumed the noble profession of fighting under the banner of Christ crucified and being faithful, with his holy grace, to the observance of his most holy law”.103 Therefore the first task of a good Christian father is “to instill, impress on the child’s mind a great reverence for the law of God, and a holy fear of God together with the resolution never to transgress”.104
The methodto be used is the method of love and fear. “Just like a good father, sometimes with love and reward as the carrot, sometimes with fear and punishment as the stick, will motivate the child’s tender mind and thus form him and impress on him some very useful Christian principles for all his life, both for avoiding evil and being encouraged to do good”.105The two terms 'love-fear', 'strictness and gentleness' are also repeated in reference to obeying human laws, being submissive to one's parents, as do the two terms 'virtue-idleness'.
A child shouldget used to respecting and keeping human laws, not so much out of fear of
being punished but out of love for virtue, convinced that Princes and the Superiors here on
98 ibid, book I,Ch. 44, sheet 26v-27r.
99 ibid, book I, Ch. 45, sheet 27r-v.
100 See further on in reference to infancy and childhood
101 ibid, book I, Ch. 46, sheet 122v
102ibid, book I, Ch. 44, sheet 27r.
103 ibid, book I, Ch. 3, sheet 2r.
104 ibid, book 2, Ch. 29, sheet 49r. “it is necessary to rein in these wild horses with the reins of reason and the yoke of fear
of God, and the loving, perfect Christian law” (Ibid. book II, CH. 78, sheet 78r-v).
105ibid, book 2, Ch. 29, sheet 49v; Cf. book I, Ch. 50: Che nell’istruire I fanciulli conviene accommodarsi alla capacità
loro di tempo in tempo; book 2, Ch. I, Che i fanciulli devono essere ammaestrati delle cose della santa fede; Ch. 2.
Delle schuole della dottrina cristiana, et della predicatione; Ch. 11 Della Santa Chiesa Catholica Romana; Ch. 12
Come il padre deve ammaestrare il figliuolo ad essere obediente a santa Chiesa; Ch.. 14 Delle quattro cose ultime; Ch.
22 Della santissima Eucharistia, et come il padre deve procurare che il figliuolo ne sia devoto; Ch. 23 Di alcuni che
non approvano il communicarsi spesso; Ch 24 Della penitenza overo confessione; Ch 25 Come i fanciulli si devono
avvezzare all’abborrimento del peccato, et alla confessione; Ch 26 Di quanto importanza sia un buon confessore, et
padre spirituale; Ch. 28 Del Decalogo, overo de i dieci precetti della legge; Ch. 29 Come si devono avvezzar i fanciulli
ad essere ossrevatori della divina legge; Ch 31. Del primo precetto. Non havrai Dei alieni: “ it is up to a goof father,
then, to remind his child at all times ofthe holy fear and love of God” (sheet 50r).