before the hour of Prime, died Herder Stael,
a very honest man, and a fellow citizen with us at Zwolle, being seventy-
four years old. He was a special and faithful friend to our House for
many years. As was his wife also particularly in the troubled times of
Bishop Rudolph, when our Brothers were constrained to leave the monastery
and to go to the House belonging to our Order in Lunenkerc. At that time
this good man bought our crops as they stood in the fields near the
monastery, and out of an honest purpose bade his servants to reap and
harvest the same. Afterward he sent the fruits of the ground, and the
provender that had been gathered, to our Brothers in Lunenkerc by little
and little, for they had been sent thither as it were to a place of
exile. This same Herder Stael lived with us for nearly a year before his
death, being moved so to do by a deep desire, and having a holy and firm
purpose to serve God. He died as aforesaid in holy peace and in an
honoured old age, and his body was laid in the broad cloister; his
friends from Zwolle being present at his burial.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

Of the ancient Reliquary of St. Agnes, and how it was gotten.

In the same year 1461, George, the venerable Father of our House, asked
and obtained from the Canons of the great church at Utrecht the ancient
Reliquary of the most holy Agnes, Virgin and Martyr, and the beloved
Patron of our House, but her relics were not therein contained. It was
in her honour that our church was consecrated in the year of the Lord
1412, and on the Friday in Easter week, as is set forth more fully above
in the chapter entitled "Of the Consecration of our Church."

Two of our Brothers that were ordained to be Priests, namely, Brother
Henry, son of Bruno, and Brother Theodoric Wanninck, brought back this
holy Reliquary with them, journeying from Utrecht by way of Holland, and
across the sea, not without danger and fear, for the sea was turbulent.
Yet through the help of God, and the merits of St. Agnes the Virgin, they
were protected from these perils and reached an haven of safety. A few
days afterward, on the eve of the Feast of St. Scholastica the Virgin,
they brought the Reliquary to Mount St. Agnes, and our Brothers, with all
the Laics of our household, hearing this, did rejoice exceedingly.

The Reliquary was borne into the church with all devotion and reverence
and placed in the sanctuary of the choir near the High Altar and beneath
the arc