While studying for the priesthood in Rome in early 1904, Benson found several manuscripts which survived the exodus from England to Italy over three centuries earlier. He was drawn to one such manuscript and, being enthralled with the story, undertook its translation resulting in this often lyrical novel of English spiritual life prior to the Reformation. From Benson"s introduction: "It is the story of the life of one of that large body of English hermits who flourished from about the beginning of the fourteenth century to the middle of the sixteenth; and was written, apparently for the sake of the villagers, by his parish-priest."