In 1402, at the age of twenty-two, Colette bade farewell to nature, to her friends, to all of life that was most lovely, and enclosed herself in an anchorite's cell, built against the walls of the church of Corbie. These voluntary recluses were common in the Middle Ages. Those who desired to live this life of seclusion, entered living into these tombs, which were built up, leaving only a window open, through which they were fed and communicated. Throughout all Picardy the fame of the austerities of Colette spread, and many sought her counsel and prayers. Fearing that her humility would suffer, for three years she maintained a complete silence, only opening her window to receive the Holy Sacrament. At length the call came, which it was impossible for her to resist. Henry de la Balm, her confessor, saw in a dream a vine full of leaves, but fruitless; then came Colette and pruned the vine, and it began to yield abundantly. Shortly after this Colette saw, in vision, a great tree growing in her cell, laden with golden fruit, and numerous saplings springing up about its roots. Fearing a deception of Satan, she tore up the young plants, but there appeared more in their place. Then she thought God summoned her to reform the Order of the Poor Clares. But she still hesitated; whereupon she was struck blind for three days, and after that for three days dumb. She hesitated no longer, but came forth ready, in God's name, to undertake her mission. She left her cell with regret; turning at the door, and kissing the threshold, she sobbed forth, "Oh, dear little home, farewell! farewell my joy and repose! Oh, if men knew how much happiness I have enjoyed in thee, they would desert palaces to inhabit thy narrow walls." It was the close of autumn in 1406. The vines were heavy with grapes, the trees had put on their many-coloured autumnal tints, and the last shocks of yellow harvest were being gathered in. For four years, in her seclusion, she had seen nothing of all this, only the golden light playing on the wall of her chamber, sometimes pale, and sometimes burning as flame, and the blue sky and the drifting clouds, now dark grey with winter rains, and then white and fleecy in summer light. Colette had written all that she had deemed expedient for the reformation of the Franciscan Order; she placed her writings in a pouch attached to her girdle, and on foot she started for Nice, where Benedict XIII. resided, on account of the schism. The pope received Colette with honour; she made profession of the rule of S. Clare at his feet, and he appointed her superior-general of the whole order; naming Henry de la Balm, her confessor, as assistant for the reformation of the Friars of S. Francis.