.

But, fie upon it, this first fervour and regular observance of discipline
did in process of time grow so lukewarm and feeble, that the outward
framework thereof alone remained, and as for the fruitfulness of the
truly spiritual life, the devil might seem to have said in the words of
Esaias, "and with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of
defence."

A certain aged man and an honoured priest spake in my hearing of this
drouth and failure of devotion, and referring to the time of which I
tell, he said that in the days of his youth and in these parts of the Low
Countries, all things pertaining to devotion and charity were so brought
to nothingness, that if any were touched inwardly by a desire to amend
his life, he would scarce find one single man from whom to ask counsel;
nor scarce one spot where he could put these fledgling desires into a
place of safety, unless it were among the Carthusians; for amongst them
Religious observance and the vigour of spiritual life did flourish at
that time, but scarce amongst any others.

V. _Of the rise of the New Devotion in our land_.

Since, therefore, there was such drouth throughout the whole land (as
hath been said before) that there seemed to be no trace anywhere of the
ancient devotion, the good Lord looked down from Heaven upon the earth
with the eye of His mercy, and made rise a little fount in these failing
days and in our land that was desert, pathless, and unwatered; which
fount grew by little and little to be a river (as is said in the Book of
Esther), and after a while into much water to irrigate not trees that are
corruptible, but souls, which truly are the plants of that garden which
is of the Spirit and faileth not.

VI. _Of Master Gherard Groet_.

Master Gherard Groet was this memorable fount, and not unworthily is he
thus typified, having been small in his lowly esteem and abnegation of
himself, but as his name doth signify, in the sight of God mighty to
overthrow by the sword of this word of the Lord the foes that rise up
against the salvation of His elect, so that he and his beloved sons might
gain the inheritance of Israel. One may say fitly enough of this man
what St. Augustine saith of Paulinus, who from being very rich became for
God's sake very poor and yet with full store of holiness.

Moreover, like Anah, he found the hot springs in the desert, namely, the
sweetness of divine love beyond common measure, together with abundant
zeal