r
John was devout, and is worthy of remembrance, for that going on day by
day he reached forward continually to the things that are before, being a
notable lover of poverty, one that kept lowliness and loved sobriety. He
was the very beauty of purity, a pattern of simplicity, a strong upholder
of discipline, an enemy of sin, a light of virtue, an ensample of
devotion, strong in faith, long suffering in hope, prodigal in charity,
and one that did convert many from the vanity of the world. A few things
concerning him are written in the beginning of this book.

So being wearied by his many years, when the day of his release from
captivity was nigh, and he was dwelling in the house of the Sisters at
Almelo, he fell sick; and having fulfilled seventy years of life, he fell
asleep in the Lord and was buried in the chapel of the Sisterhood there.
After his happy departure, John of Resa, a devout priest, was chosen as
the second minister of the House of St. John, and he sought and obtained
for that House certain privileges that were needful, and also the
consecration of the burial-ground, which things were granted by the
Venerable Frederic, Lord Bishop of Utrecht. After him Christian, a
native of Zeeland, and one that had made his profession, was chosen as
priest to that House, and was the third to administer and rule the same.

CHAPTER XVI.

Of the pestilence that afflicted mankind, and how some of our Brothers
died in this plague.

In the year 1421 there was a notable pestilence in Deventer, Zwolle,
Kampen, and the neighbouring towns, and during the three months of summer
much people of the land were slain thereby. In the same year, after the
Feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, the Cross was preached
against the heretics of Prague, who stirred up a grievous persecution
against Holy Church, the clergy, and the Christian people; and led away
many faithful persons by threatenings and deceits: likewise they
destroyed monasteries and churches, and put many persons to a cruel
death. In the same year in the month of September the disease laid hold
on certain of our household, for the pestilence did mightily increase,
and on the Octave of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, after High Mass, a
Lay Brother named Nicholas died. He was born in Drenthe, and had been
our miller, a man of good reputation and life, and well beloved by all
that were in the House.

On the Feast of St. Lambert, Bishop and Martyr, and about th