On that day Fra Giovanni had left the Monastery at early dawn, the hour
when the birds awake and begin singing. He was on his way to the city
and he thought within himself: "I am going to the city to beg my bread
and to give bread to other beggars; I shall give away what I receive,
and take back what I have given. For it is good to ask and to receive
for the love of God. And he who receives is the brother of him who
gives. And we should not consider too curiously which of the twain
brothers we are, because truly the gift is naught, but everything is in
the gracious giving.

"He that receives, if he have gracious charity, is the equal of him that
gives. But he who sells is the enemy of him who buys, and the seller
constrains the buyer to be his foe. Herein lies the root of the curse
that poisons cities, as the venom of the serpent is in his tail. And it
must needs be a Lady set her foot on the serpent's tail, and that Lady
is Poverty. Already hath she visited King Louis of France in his Tower;
but never yet entered among the Florentines, because she is chaste and
will not put foot in a place of ill repute. Now the money-changer's shop
is an ill place, for it is there Bankers and Changers commit the most
heinous of sins. Harlots sin in the brothels; but their sin is not so
great as is that of the Bankers, and whosoever grows rich by banking and
money-dealing.

"Verily I say unto you, Bankers and Money-changers shall not enter into
the Kingdom of Heaven, nor yet bakers, nor dealers in drugs, nor such as
practise the trade of wool, which is the boast of the City of the Lily.
Forasmuch as they give a price to gold, and make a profit out of
exchange, they are setting up idols in the face of men. And when they
declare 'Gold has a value,' they tell a lie. For Gold is more vile than