Among men renowned for devotion, King Louis sent into Calabria for one Friar Robert[98], who, for the holiness and purity of his life, was called the “Holy Man;” and in honour to whom our present King erected a monastery at Plessis-du-Parc, in compensation for the chapel near Plessis at the end of the bridge.[99] This hermit, at the age of twelve years, was put into a hole in a rock, where he lived until the age of three and forty years and upwards, when the King sent for him by a steward of his household[100], in the company of the Prince of Tarento, the son of the King of Naples. For this hermit would not stir without leave from his Holiness, and from his king, which was great discretion in a man so inexperienced in the affairs of the world, though he had built two churches in the place where he lived; and he never had eaten flesh, fish, eggs, milk, or any thing that was fat[101], since he undertook that austerity of life, nor has he yet; and truly I never saw any man living so holy, nor out of whose mouth the Holy Ghost did more manifestly speak; for he was not illiterate, though he had never been taught; only his Italian tongue was a great assistance to him. This hermit passed through Naples, where he was respected, and visited (with as much pomp and ceremony, as if he had been the Pope’s Legate) both by the King of Naples and his children, with whom he conversed as if he had been all the days of his life a courtier. From thence he went to Rome, where he was visited by all the cardinals, had audience three times of the Pope, and was every time alone with him three or four hours, sitting beside him in a rich chair (which was great honour for a person of his low condition), and answering so discreetly to everything that was asked him, that everybody was astonished at it, and his Holiness gave him leave to institute a new order, called the Hermits of St. Francis. From Rome he came to our king[102], who paid him the same honour as he would have done to the Pope himself, falling down upon his knees before him, and begging him to prolong his life: to which he replied as a prudent man ought. I have heard him often in discourse with the present king, in the presence of all the nobility of the kingdom, and that not above two months ago; and it seemed to me that whatever he said or remonstrated, was suggested by inspiration, or else it would have been impossible for him to have spoken of some things that he discoursed of. He is still living, and may grow either better or worse, and therefore I will say nothing. There were some of the courtiers that made a jest of the king’s sending for this hermit, and called him the Holy Man, by way of banter; but they knew not the thoughts of that wise king, and had not seen what it was that induced him to do it.