This first visit was the beginning of most cordial relations between Ruysbroeck and Gerard Groote. The latter returned several times to Groenendael and resided there for months together. He also corresponded frequently with the holy Prior and the Canons and translated some of our Saint's works into Latin. He read over his MSS. before publication, and begged him at times to change or modify expressions which might give a handle to the hostile or scandal to the weak. The writings of Ruysbroeck were likewise among those which were the most frequently transcribed and multiplied by the copyists of the _Devout Brothers of the Common Life_. A few years later one of the most diligent and skilled of these scribes was the future author of the _Imitation of Christ_. X Ruysbroeck and Windesheim In fact, widespread as was the influence of Blessed John Ruysbroeck on his contemporaries and incalculable as was the fruit of his writings in the many cloisters, through which they were rapidly diffused, the means by which Divine Providence chose chiefly to preserve and propagate his power was precisely this friendship with Gerard Groote. Gerard continually strove to imbue his own disciples with the spirit which he had imbibed from the Prior of Groenendael. For himself and for his followers he took as a rule of life the motto of Ruysbroeck, _to make it a chief study to meditate upon the life of Jesus Christ_. "Let the fountain-head of thy study and thy mirror of life be first the Gospel of Christ, for there is the life of Christ." The Scriptures should be read rather than the Fathers, and the New Testament more than the Old, _for there is the life of Christ_. And herein again what is profitable for a devout and spiritual life is to be sought rather than the subtleties of theology and the schools. When a friend of Gerard's, Reinalt Minnenvosch, projected the founding of a monastery, Groote advised him to establish a Priory of Canons Regular on the model of Groenendael. The Canonry of St. Saviour's at Emstein was the result. At Groote's request, a professed priest came from Groenendael to initiate the new Religious into the Canonical Life; and later it was at Emstein that the first members of Gerard's own Congregation of Windesheim made their noviciate preparatory to Profession.