God's help, I have already completed seven books, in which I have, in addition, given accounts of the death of King William, of his three sons, of the crusade to Jerusalem, and of various events which have occurred in my own times. The Omnipotent Creator, as he did from the beginning, still wonderfully directs the course of time, and instructs the docile minds of the inhabitants of the earth, calling them off from the dangerous pursuit of worthless objects, and rousing them to better desires, by the display of memorable deeds. For mankind receives continual lessons from the fall of the proud and the exaltation of the humble, the damnation of the reprobate and the salvation of the just, that it may not lapse into impiety by an execrable warfare against God, but may constantly fear his judgments and love his commands, avoiding the fault of disobedience and offering perpetually faithful service to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, One God, the King of ages, and Lord of the universe, who liveth and reigneth for ever and ever. Amen.
- ↑ Although these verses appear in the manuscript of St. Evroult, they are evidently a subsequent addition, and it appears plain that they are not the author's composition.
- ↑ Instead of these verses, the MS. of St. Evroult has the following words in a hand of the thirteenth century: Explicit quarta pars Vitalis, "here ends the fourth part of Vitalis." Although now the sixth, it was the fourth book in the author's first arrangement.
