While at the university Luther was seized with a severe illness and he thought he was about to die. An old priest came to see him and comforted him with these words: "My dear bachelor, be of good cheer. You will not die of this illness. God will yet make a great man of you, who will comfort many people. For whom God loveth and whom He would make a blessing to his fellow men, upon him He early lays the cross; for in the school of affliction patient people learn much." Luther, however, soon forgot this comfort. Not long after this, while on a journey to his home with a companion, and not far from Erfurt, he accidentally ran his rapier, which after the custom of the students hung at his side, into his leg, severing the main artery. His friend hurried back to call a physician. In the mean time Luther endeavored to stanch the flow of blood lying on his back, compressing the wound. But the limb swelled frightfully, and Luther, beset with mortal fear, cried out, "Mary, help me!" In the following night the wound began to bleed afresh, and again he called upon Mary only. Later in life he said: "At that time, I would have died trusting in Mary." Not long after, death suddenly robbed him of a good friend, and this also tended to increase his melancholy. In such periods of depression he would often exclaim, "Oh, when wilt thou become really pious and atone for thy sins, and obtain the grace of God?" With increasing power he then heard a voice within him saying: Over there rise the peaceful walls of the Augustinian cloister; they are beckoning you and saying, Come to us! Here, separated from the noise of the world, your trembling soul will find rest and peace. What was he to do?--For the sake of recreation Luther, in 1505, paid a visit to his parents. Upon his return, in the vicinity of Erfurt, a terrible storm suddenly broke upon him. The lightning, followed by a fearful crash of thunder, struck close beside him, and, overcome and stunned, he fell to the ground, crying out, "Help, dear St. Ann, I will immediately become a monk!" For it was only in this manner that he hoped to appease God and to find peace and rest for his soul. CHAPTER VIII. Luther in the Cloister.