He was the first chosen of all the Evangelists,
but he is for all that the fourth, because he wrote the fourth book,
after that the others were set in order
and were widely written throughout the world.
He was in Asia when he wrote the book,
and he lived long in life after Christ,
until the other apostles had ended their lives,
and had gone, victorious, to the true life.
These four Evangelists are chosen of God,
and they enlightened all the world by their lore,
even as the four rivers which run from Paradise
together water all this orb;
and these four Evangelists God revealed of old,
in the Old Law, to the prophet Ezekiel.
He saw in his vision four beasts such as these;
one of the four beasts was seen as it were the appearance of a Man,
the second was like a Lion's form,
and the third stood like a Stirk (Calf),
and the fourth was like a variously coloured Eagle.
The Man's likeness belongeth to Matthew,
because he began his Gospel about Christ's humanity.
The Lion belongeth, as the orthodox say,
to Mark's likeness, because he cried with a loud sound,
even as the lion roareth greedily in the desert,
Vox clamantis in deserto, parate viam domini, rectas facile semitas eius;
A voice crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye God's ways, make His paths straight.'
The Calf's likeness belongeth to Luke,
because he began his Gospel, even as God directed him,
