Furnished with these two books he proceeds alone, in the dark, to the convent of the Eremites of St. Augustine, and asks to be received. The door opens and closes, and he is separated for ever from his parents, his fellow-students, and the world. This took place on the 17th August 1505, when Luther's age was twenty-one years and nine months. CHAP. III. His Father's Anger--Pardon--Servile Employments--The Bag and the Cell--Courage--St. Augustine--D'Ailly--Occam--Gerson--The Bible--Hebrew and Greek--The Hours--Asceticism--Agony--Luther during Mass--Agony--Useless Observances--Luther in a Faint. At length he was with God. His soul was in safety. This holiness, so earnestly longed for, he was now to find. At the sight of this young doctor, the monks were all admiration, and extolled him for his courage and contempt of the world.[148] Luther, meanwhile, did not forget his friends. He wrote to take leave of them and the world, and the next day despatched these letters, with the clothes he had hitherto worn, and his diploma of Master of Arts, which he returned to the university, that nothing might in future remind him of the world which he had abandoned. [148] "Hujus mundi contemptu, ingressus est repente, multes admirantibus, monasterium." (Cochlœus, i.) From contempt of this world, he, to the wonder of many, suddenly entered a monastery. His friends at Erfurt were thunderstruck. Must so distinguished a genius go and hide himself in this monastic life--more properly, a kind of death?[149] In deep sorrow they hastened to the convent, in the hope of inducing Luther to retrace the distressing step which he had taken; but all was useless. The gates were closed, and a month passed before any one was permitted to see or speak to the new monk. [149] "In vita semi-mortua." (Melch. Adami. V. L. p. 102.) A half-dead life. Luther had hastened to acquaint his parents with the great change which had just occurred in his life. His father was thunderstruck. He trembled for his son,--so Luther himself informs us in his book on Monastic Vows, which he dedicated to his father. His weakness, his youth, the ardour of his passions, everything, in short, made him fear that after the first moment of enthusiasm, the indolence of the cloister would make the youth fall either into despair, or into grievous faults. He knew that this mode of life had proved fatal to many. Besides, the counsellor-miner of Mansfield had other views for his son. He was proposing a rich and honourable marriage for him--and, lo! all his ambitious projects are in one night overthrown by this imprudent action.