purs and belt in the
cathedral. This, as it appears from a record of the year 1326,
actually took place in the great marble pulpit carved by the Pisani;
and the most illustrious knights of his acquaintance were summoned
by the squire to act as sponsors for his fealty.

It is said that young Bernardo Tolomei's head was turned to vanity
by these honours showered upon him in his earliest manhood. Yet,
after a short period of aberration, he rejoined his confraternity
and mortified his flesh by discipline and strict attendance on the
poor. The time had come, however, when he should choose a career
suitable to his high rank. He devoted himself to jurisprudence, and
began to lecture publicly on law. Already at the age of twenty-five
his fellow-citizens admitted him to the highest political offices,
and in the legend of his life it is written, not without
exaggeration doubtless, that he ruled the State. There is, however,
no reason to suppose that he did not play an important part in its
government. Though a just and virtuous statesman, Bernardo now
forgot the special service of God, and gave himself with heart and
soul to mundane interests. At the age of forty, supported by the
wealth, alliances, and reputation of his semi-princely house, he had
become one of the most considerable party-leaders in that age of
faction. If we may trust his monastic biographer, he was aiming at
nothing less than the tyranny of Siena. But in that year, when he
was forty, a change, which can only be described as conversion, came
over him. He had advertised a public disputation, in which he
proposed before all comers to solve the most arduous problems of
scholastic science. The concourse was great, the assembly brilliant;
but the hero of the day, who had designed it for his glory, was
stricken with sudden blindness. In one moment he comprehended the
internal void he had created for his soul, and the blindness of the
body was illumination to the spirit. The pride, power, and splendour
of this world seemed to him a smoke that passes. God, penitence,
eternity appeared in all the awful clarity of an authentic vision.
He fell upon his knees and prayed to Mary that he might receive his
sight again. This boon was granted; but the revelation which had
come to him in blindness was not withdrawn. Meanwhile the hall of
disputation was crowded with an expectant audience. Bernardo rose
from his knees, made his entry, and ascended the chair; but instead
of the