ted to their pious wishes.

Therefore on the eve of the day of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross they
returned to the place that they had long possessed and where the greater
number of their friends still continued to dwell, with blind John of
Ummen; they left, however, some few Lay Brothers at Westerhof to arrange
their affairs.

Moreover the Bishop of Utrecht had given them a licence for the
consecration of a burial-ground for the use of the monastery that they
should found on Mount St. Agnes. But when Hubert, the Bishop Suffragan,
came for this purpose and entered into Zwolle, he was not allowed to
continue his journey to the Mount until the Magistrates had first spoken
with the Lord Bishop of Utrecht, for they thought to dissuade him from
his opinion. From this cause the consecration of the burial-ground was
delayed for the space of a year, until the return of the Bishop of
Utrecht, for the said Bishop during the year had gone to the Curia at
Rome, and he ordered that the cause of both parties should be put off and
await his coming and presence on his return. But when he had come back
from Rome and entered his own country in safety, certain of our Brothers
came to him and asked him once more to give permission for the
consecration of the burial-ground, and he, yielding to the importunity of
his friends, did freely grant their petition. So he issued his commands
again and ordered the consecration of this place, for he loved it and
paid no heed to the complaints of the adversaries, since he preferred the
honour of God and the progress of religion rather than the unjust words
of worldlings, who, as is well-known, do often oppose the desires of good
folk. From that time forward he showed special love to the House on the
Mount, and extended to it yet fuller patronage, so that one day when he
was riding round the mountain on his way to Zwolle, he asked one of his
companions, saying: "What is this place, and what manner of men dwell
here?" and his Vicar answered him: "Beloved Lord, dost thou not yet know
that place? This is thy monastery, this is Mount St. Agnes, and the
Brothers of the Mount dwell there." And the Bishop made answer: "It is
well--may God preserve them."

It came to pass in this same year, 1398, in the month of September, when
the Plague was still amongst us that a well-disposed Lay Brother named
John, son of Faber, who was smitten with the pestilence, came from Zwolle
to the mountain, and sought ho