The Chronicle of the Canons Regular of Mount St. AgnesThomas, à Kempis
Religion
The Chronicle of the Canons Regular of Mount St. Agnes
Thomas, à Kempis
Augustinian Canons
In the same year of the Lord 1398, on the 26th day of the month of
August, two days before the Festival of our Holy Father Augustine, did
that most kindly Lord Frederic, by the grace of God, Bishop of Utrecht,
issue a further licence. He did ever most faithfully promote the
interests of our House, and was our special patron, and he had compassion
upon the Brothers who were invested a short time before at Westerhof, in
that they were ill-content with the place, and ill-provided for there, by
reason of divers hindrances and impediments that were not agreeable to
the religious life. The Bishop therefore, hearing of these hindrances
and the true causes thereof, gave them licence to transfer themselves and
all their goods from the aforesaid place to Mount St. Agnes, so soon as
might be convenient, and to retain the same rights and privileges as he
had before conferred upon them. Thus for the second time they obtained
his full and gracious consent to their desires, and Conrad Hengel, then
Vice-Curate of Zwolle, likewise assented 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
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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