The man who was later to revolt against monasticism became a monk for exactly the same reason as thousands of others, namely, in order to save his soul. The immediate occasion of his resolve to enter the cloister was the unexpected encounter with death on that sultry July day in 1505. He was then twenty-one and a student at the University of Erfurt as he returned to school after a visit with his parents, sudden lightning struck him to earth. In that single flash he saw the denouement of the drama of