centuries, derive their pedigree from a certain Lombard prince.
They were allied to the kings of Sicily and Aragon, to St. Lewis of
France, and many other sovereign houses of Europe. Our saint's
grandfather having married the sister of the emperor Frederick I., he
was himself grand nephew to that prince, and second cousin to the
emperor Henry VI., and in the third degree to Frederick II.[1] His
father, Landulph, was count of Aquino, and lord of Loretto and
Belcastro: his mother Theodora was daughter to the count of Theate. The
saint was born towards the end of the year 1226. St. Austin observes,[2]
that the most tender age is subject to various passions, {524} as of
impatience, choler, jealousy, spite, and the like, which appear to
children: no such thing was seen in Thomas. The serenity of his
countenance, the constant evenness of his temper, his modesty and
sweetness, were sensible marks that God prevented him with his early
graces. The count of Aquino conducted him to the abbey of Mount Cassino,
when he was but five years old, to be instructed by those good monks in
the first principles of religion and learning; and his tutors soon saw
with joy the rapidity of his progress, his great talents, and his happy
dispositions to virtue. He was but ten years of age when the abbot told
his father that it was time to send him to some university. The count,
before he sent him to Naples, took him for some months to see his mother
at his seat at Loretto, the place which, about the end of that century,
grew famous for devotion to our Lady. Thomas was the admiration of the
whole family. Amidst so much company, and so many servants, he appeared
always as much recollected, and occupied on God, as he had been in the
monastery; he spoke little, and always to the purpose: and he employed
all his time in prayer, or serious and profitable exercises. His great
delight seemed to be to intercede for, and to distribute, his parents'
plentiful alms among the poor at the gate, whom he studied by a hundred
ingenious contrivances to relieve. He robbed himself of his own victuals
for that purpose; which his father having discovered, he gave him leave
to distribute things at discretion, which liberty he made good use of
for the little time he stayed. The countess, apprehensive of the dangers
her son's innocence might be exposed to in an academy, desired that he
should perform his studies with a private preceptor under her own eyes;
but the father, k