In St. Thomas Aquinas, G. K. Chesterton describes the early life of the brilliant medieval theologian. Thomas was born into a wealthy, aristocratic family, part of the "central governing class of Europe." His father, Count Landulf of Aquino, raised Thomas and his seven brothers in Dry Rock Castle in the Italian mountains.

But Thomas didn't fit the family's noble and military ambitions; he was "a large and heavy and quiet boy, and phenomenally silent." He barely talked, though one day he did suddenly ask his schoolmaster, "What is God?" Landulf didn't know what to do with the quiet, plodding son, so he finally arranged that Thomas would become a monk, with the hope that one day he would rise to become abbot of the respectable nearby monastery of Monte Cassino.

Thomas again disappointed his father. Chesterton says, "...the young Thomas Aquinas walked into his father's castle one day and calmly announced that he had become one of the Begging Friars," a poor and radical Dominican. This hit the wealthy family with a shock as great as if Thomas had announced he had "married a gypsy."

"His family flew at him like wild beasts." His brothers chased him down the road and half tore his friar's cloak off his body. They finally captured him and locked him in the castle tower, as if he were a lunatic.

But spending time alone didn't bother someone who was destined to become a great philosopher, so then Thomas's brothers thought up a vile trick. They put into his room a beautiful prostitute, knowing Thomas couldn't help but succumb to the temptation; the scandal would ruin his hopes of a career in the church.

Again, Thomas disappointed them: "He sprang from his seat and snatched a brand out of the fire, and stood brandishing it like a flaming sword. The woman...shrieked and fled, which was all that he wanted." All Thomas did "was to stride after her to the door and bang and bar it behind her; and then,...he rammed the burning brand into the door, blackening and blistering it with one big black sign of the cross."

The family finally gave up on their black sheep, who went on to become a poor, begging friar—and one of the greatest philosophers in history.