The xixth Chapitre.
SIBILLA ERITHREA WAS a muche noble woman, and ther was ten of thies Sibills, as the moste parte wryteth, and they gyue to eche one of theym sundry names. And for because they were all prophettes, they were sumamede Sibills, for this worde ‘ Sios’ in the Greke signifyeth ‘God’ and in the Laten ‘God’, and ‘Bilos’, as it were, ‘the mynde of God’, or ‘berynge Gode in their myndes’. Of which ten Sibills this aboue all other was the moste venerable. And hir beynge was in Babilone, sumwhat afore the battell of Troy, albeit that ther be sum that weene that it was she that prophesy de, whew Romulus was Kynge of the Romaynes. The name of thys womaw, as I haue say de, was Erithrea, and it is thought that she was so called, because that she longe dwellyd in an ile called Erithrea, wher were founde diuers of hyr prophecyse. Ther was in thys woman so muche wytte and so muche deuocyone towardes God that not withoute a speciall grace of God she deseruyde, if it be true, the which is written of hyr, with so greate clerenesse to declare the thynges to cum that it semyde better the Gospell then a prophecy. And when the Grekes demaundyd of hyr how they shulde prospere goynge to besege Troy, she tolde the course of it so planely that it coulde not be no better telde. So dyd she of the empyre of Rome with fewe versys tell their chauncys so planely that the declarynge semyde a thynge past, rather then that for to cum. And that which by my iudgement is muche more, the secrete, dyuyne thynges inuoluyde in the prophetes of the Incamatione of Christe, by the grace of the Holy Gooste, she planely declarede it all. The lyfe of the Son of God and His wowrkes and how He was betrayede, mockede and scornede, and suffrede death, and after rose agayne — all thies mysteries were by hyr openede and tolde; by which merytes I thynke vereyly that God louede hyr, and for that she oughte to be aboue all the gentyles laudyd and to be credyde. And ther be that affyrme that she lyuyde a perpetuall virgyne, whiche I beleue right well, for asmuche as it was not possible so muche holynes to remayne but onely in a chaste breste, nor so muche lyghte therto. But in what houre or when she decessyd, it is oute of mynde.