G.K. Chesterton relates the story of "a large and heavy and quiet boy, and phenomenally silent" who one day surprised his tutor by suddenly asking "in an explosive manner": "What is God?" The schoolmaster was probably as much surprised by the animation displayed in this unobtrusive sluggard as by the precociousness of the inquiry, but the boy's family were well used to young Tommy's excitement about such questions.
The d'Aquino family had long known that their seventh son was unsuited to government or fighting. For Neapolitan nobility, the only other live option was for him to enter the Church and hopefully rise to great heights, even to Abbot of Monte Cassino. It was, therefore, a shock to the system when he declared he wanted to join one of the brand new orders of beggar-friars. So appalled were they by this "waste" that Chesterton records the family kidnapped him for an extended period and even introduced a temptress to his cell!
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