Chapter XV. Of the devout communities and monasteries which arose through… Saxony, for God prospered them, and the sweet savour of their good reputation reached even to the Apostolic See.
Now the venerable Master Gerard, being filled with the Holy Ghost, and perceiving that by little and little the number of his disciples was increasing, and that they were burning with zeal for heavenly warfare, took due care and forethought that the devout might come together from time to time into one house for mutual exhortation, and that they might deal faithfully with one another of the things pertaining to God and to the keeping of the law of 45
Charity: and he ordained that if any should wish to abide continually together, they should earn their own living by the labour of their hands, and, as far as might be, live in common under the discipline of the Church. He allowed none to beg in the public ways unless compelled by evident necessity, nor toilsomely to go round from house to house to obtain alms, but rather he ordered them to remain at home, and, as St. Paul taught, to be diligent in the labour of their hands, but not to engage in any business which might hinder their devotion in the hope of greater gain, lest at the instigation of the Devil there might be given to the weak some occasion of falling back into their former naughty ways.
(3) He had it in mind to build a Monastery for Clerks of the order of Regular Canons, for he wished to move some of those Clerks who followed him and were fitted for such a life, to take the Religious habit in order that they might serve as an example to other devout persons, and show the way of holiness to any clerks or lay folk that came from elsewhere.
He was moved to institute this religious order chiefly by the especial love and reverence he had for that venerable John Ruysbroek, the first prior of Grünthal, and for the other brethren in the same place, who lived the Religious life and were without reproach. These were they whom he had visited in person in Brabant; in them he observed and from them derived, a mode of life greatly tending to edification by reason of their deep humility and the wearing of a simple garb.
But although he busied himself with all diligence to find a place and a monastery fitted 46 for the Religious Life, he could not accomplish the end which he desired, for death was beforehand with him; yet in the sight of God the King immortal, invisible, the Founder of all things, the intention was counted as if it were the fulfilment of his design, and he bequeathed his desire to build a religious house to those most beloved disciples whom he had converted, exhorting them not to let so great a purpose fall into forgetfulness when he was dead, but to unite in lending their aid and counsel in carrying it out so as to further the Glory of God.
Some of these disciples were they who dwelt in the Monastery of Windesheim, and also they who with the help of God first founded the house of Agnietenburg near Zwolle.