[The Chronicle of the Canons Regular of Mount St. Agnes by Thomas a Kempis]@TWC D-Link bookThe Chronicle of the Canons Regular of Mount St. Agnes CHAPTER XIV 31/79
Hearing these things the elder Brothers spake with the members of the Chapter, and thinking to show mercy toward their beloved Father who had long served them to the best of his power, they gave a kindly hearing and assent to his petition.
Wherefore the three eldest amongst them, on behalf of the other Brothers and at their request, came to the Visitors, for they were sitting in a private room to hear the opinion of each one of the Brothers, and on bended knees with their hands clasped they besought them instantly, and with all their hearts, to grant absolution to this Father for that he was infirm and aged; this they said was the time to show him pity, and this was what he desired as he had told to certain of them privately. The Visitors therefore heard the opinions of all, and finding that the more part of them that were gathered together demanded this thing of set purpose, did piously admonish the Prior that he might yield to the petition of the Brothers and resign his office out of consideration for his own weakness of body.
The good Father hearing this prostrated himself humbly before the Chapter, and returning thanks to the Brothers said that he was ready to resign into the hands of the Prior of the Superior House the burden of that office which he had long borne. But since the duty of holding visitations at certain other houses had been laid upon them, the Priors of Windesem and Zwolle besought our Brothers that such visitations might be held by the known and former Prior as the Chapter had ordained, and when these were done, then at a convenient season the desire of the Brothers concerning the absolution of the Prior should be fulfilled. So when the matter of the visitation was finished, the Priors of Amsterdam and of Hoern returned, and coming to our monastery did a second time examine the opinion of the Brothers in private, and they found that the more part were still of one heart, and constant to their opinion that the Prior should be absolved, though some few of the younger Brothers dissented from the rest. Hearing this the Visitors, by the authority to them committed, absolved the Prior on the day after the Dispersion of the Apostles, thinking thereby to provide for the peace and usefulness of the House.
Then in accordance with the statutes of the Chapter they bade the Brothers to keep fast for three days for the election of a new Prior; then they returned toward Holland to their houses, since their own needs compelled them so to do, but they besought the venerable Prior of Windesem to deign to be present in person at the election when the Brothers should choose their Prior.
And this was done, the grace of God providing for us, so that the petition of the brothers, which they had made long since, came to a good issue in the election of a new Prior, for which election they did invoke the Holy Ghost and poured out prayers to God instantly both in public and in private. CHAPTER XXVI. How Brother Henry of Deventer was chosen to be the fourth Prior of the House of Mount St.Agnes. In the year of the Lord 1448, on the 20th day of June (July), when the three days' fast was ended, the Brothers came together to sing the Mass of the Holy Spirit on the day before the Feast of St.Praxedes the Virgin; but the Mass of the Blessed Virgin had been said in private because it was the Sabbath.
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