we must have all these for the instruction of others and to
defend the truth, so that if any might not believe me yet they may assent
to the authority of the saints." Many other good things also Master
Gerard did in his life, as certain worthy records of him tell us, so that
from the small band of his disciples there grew at length a great company
of devout persons.

CHAPTER IV.

_Of the great eulogy passed upon Gerard by a certain doctor_.

Master Gerard of holy memory, he who was called "The Great," has passed
happily to the Lord. Truly he was "The Great," for in his knowledge of
all the liberal sciences, both natural and moral, of civil law, canon
law, and of theology, he was second to no one in the world, and all these
branches of learning were united in him.

He was a man of such saintliness and gave so good an example in his
mortification of the flesh, his refusal of temporal advantages, his
contempt for the world, his brotherly love for all, his zeal for the
salvation of souls, his effectual preaching, his reprobation and hatred
of wickedness, his withstanding of heretics, his enforcement of the canon
law against those that broke the vow of chastity, his conversion to the
spiritual life of divers men and women who had formerly lived according
to the world, and his loyalty to our Lord Urban the Sixth--in all those
things I say he gave so good an example, that many thousands of men
testify to the belief that is in them that he was not less great in these
virtues than he was in the aforesaid sciences. Master William of
Salvarvilla, Cantor at Paris, Archdeacon of Brabant in the Church of
Liege, an eminent doctor in theology, compiled the above eulogy from that
which he heard from the lips of men worthy of credit, and from his own
knowledge of Master Gerard, and he believed beyond all doubt that it was
true.

CHAPTER V.

_How, after his death, the number of the Devout and the Order of Regulars
did increase_.

After the death of the venerable Master Gerard Groote, the devotion of
faithful persons in Deventer, Zwolle, Kampen and the neighbouring towns
began to grow mightily in the Lord, so that in a short time there arose
many congregations of men and women that served God, dwelling together in
common and in chastity of life after the manner of the primitive Church
and that laudable custom of the holy Fathers that was introduced by the
Apostles.

Some of these who could ill abide the concourse