Note 160 — CHAP. IV.

This Bernardino had for some time preached with uncommon applause to crowded audiences in the churches of Florence. The talents of a popular orator generally procure their possessor as many enemies as friends. Several ecclesiastics, who were envious of the reputation of Bernardino, took advantage of a daring flight of rhetoric, into which he was betrayed by the enthusiasm of his zeal, to endeavour to accomplish his ruin. In order to enforce his eloquence, in describing some impressive scene, (probably the sufferings of Christ) he exhibited to the people a picture, in which the transaction to which he alluded was delineated. Of this exhibition his detractors complained to the pope, as a kind of profanation of the rites of the church; and Bernardino was obliged to repair to Rome to vindicate his cause. Though the pontifical court was inflamed with prejudice against him by the artifices of his accusers, so captivating was his eloquence, that when he was permitted to preach in Rome, the ecclesiastics of the highest eminence, as well as the populace, being attracted by his fame to hear his discourses, listened to him with enthusiastic admiration. Martin V. commanded him to abstain for the future from the exhibition of pictures; he readily complied with this injunction, and by his prompt obedience obtained the favour of the pontiff, who during the remainder of his life treated him with distinguished kindness.—Ambrosii Traversarii Epist. lib. ii. ep. xl. xli.