S. BERNARDINO OF SIENA.*
THIS is a new and beautifully illustrated edition of the admirable English translation of the French Life of S. Ber- nardino written some years ago by M. Paul Thureau-Dangin, the Academician, and known as one of the best modern. authorities for the history of that characteristic saint. The follower of S. Francis, the reformer of the Franciscan Order, the missionary preacher whose fame and popularity in his own day were only surpassed by those of Savonarola„ was born in Sienese territory in the same year, 1380, in which S. Catherine of.Siena died. He grew up in the height of the Italian Renaissance, and, however valuable to the world that great revival of art and letters may have been, its dark side, as painted by M. Thureau-Dangin in strong and vivid colours, was only too real. In these days it is difficult to believe in a world ruled by mere classical learning such as that in which the Humanists, none of whose writings are now remembered, but whose criticism was then law, reigned supreme. Religion and morals fell at the feet of these men: the liberty they preached led to the self-indulgence of the strongest, which soon came to mean an unbearable tyranny. There had been violence enough in the Middle Ages, but tyrants then were checked by the terrors of conscience and by faith in a hereafter. No such antiquated scruples troubled the men of Bernardino's day. In his Italy peace was unknown, right and wrong were hardly recognized, cruel passions raged. Enjoyment was " the aim of Italian existence " ; but the pleasures of the few meant, to a greater degree perhaps than_ at any other time, the suffering of the many.
It was in the year 1417 that Bernardino left his convent and began his missionary journeys through Northern Italy, in the course of which he preached in Milan, Florence, Bologna, Venice, Ferrara, Brescia, his own Siena, and many smaller
• no Life of S. Bernardino of Siena. Translated from the French of Pant Thureau.Damein by the Baroness von angel. With Illustrations after the Old masters selected and annotated by Q. F. Hill. London : Philip Loa Warner. ties. 6d. net.]
tcwns in Lombardy and Tuscany. "Possessed by the comic spirit," says Mr. Langton Douglas in his History of Siena, '' and yet deeply in earnest ; full of religious emotion, but nevertheless a virile personality and pre-eminently rational; a saint certainly, but nevertheless intensely human, this man moved whole cities by his strange, unconventional eloquence." Some of these wonderful sermons were written down by the preacher himself, others were recorded as he preached them by one of his audience, and these, according to M. Thureau- Dangin, who devotes a whole chapter of eighty-six pages to the subject of S. Bernardino's sermons, are by far the most lively and original. The saint was nothing if not plain. spoken ; and never, perhaps, except by Savonnrola, were sermons preached which attacked with such uncompromising frankness the sins, the factions, the vanities of the day. As a contrast to the private coats-of-arms which rival families flaunted on the public, buildings of the cities, Ber- nardino carried with him everywhere a painting of the sacred trigram "I.H.S." encircled by rays of gold. By this sign he is generally, not quite always, known in art. Visitors to Siena are familiar with Sano di Pietro's pictures ; but the worn face and figure of the saint—preaching, praying, performing miracles, standing as the guardian of his people—is, of course, to be met with in various Lombard and Tuscan cities, as well as in most of the art galleries of the world.
We may add that Mr. Hill's notes on the paintings, illumi- nations, engravings, and medals so admirably reproduced in this book form by no means its least valuable and interesting pages.
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