wded round them, full of questions and congratulations
and pleasant laughter. For three days they were lodged in the
guest-chambers, and then the Prior asked them whether they stood firm
in their wish to enter the Order. On their assent he expounded to them
the severities of the life, the self-abnegation that would be required
of them, bidding them consider whether they could face it; at the same
time instructing them in all the customs and practices of the house.
The dress was put upon them, they were led into the convent and cells
allotted to them; and told that till St. Benedict's Day (21 March)
they would be on probation. Before the day came Peter's spirit
faltered, and he went. But his weakness was not for long. He repented
and found his peace in a Cistercian house near Worms; and Butzbach's
sympathy went with him, back to the Upper Germany which both loved.

The time of probation was hard to Butzbach; not because of the life,
which the good Prior tempered to his tenderness, but through the
temptations of the Devil, who seemed ever present with him. He was
specially tormented with the thought of Johannisberg, and the feeling
that he had deserted it. But the wise heads in charge of him gave
comfort and stablishment; and he persevered. On the Founder's Day,
1501, he entered upon the novitiate, which was followed a year later
by his profession; and in 1503 he was sent to Treves and ordained
priest.

In the course of his numerous writings Butzbach gives sketches of
many of the inmates of Laach. The senior brother at the time of his
arrival was Jacob of Breden in Westphalia, a man of strong character
and force of will. As a boy, when at school at Cleves, he was laughed
at for his provincial accent; and therefore determined henceforward to
speak nothing but Latin, with the result that he acquired a complete
mastery of it. He had at first joined the Brethren of the Common Life
at Zwolle, then became a Benedictine in St. Martin's at Cologne, and
came to Laach to introduce the Bursfeld reforms. So tender-hearted was
he that he would not kill even the insects which worried him, but
would catch them and throw them out of window. John of Andernach is
mentioned as having appeared to the brethren after his death; and he
and Godfrey of Cologne are praised for their skill in astronomy. We
hear of various activities among the monks. One is good at writing,
another at dictating and correcting, another has taste in painting
flowers