194 LaCitadeSancta
Pisa to purchase material for making combs, the locals tried to cheat the
naive Sienese bumpkin with defective merchandise. He paid their price but
tossed the worthless horn into the Arno, thus showing he was not deceived.^91
Pietro’s reputation for honesty did help sales. On Saturdays, when he sold
in the Piazza del Campo, people came from the whole district to buy, and
no other combmaker got any business. Mortified, since he respected the
business of his fellow combmakers, Pietro took down his stand and reopened
only after Vespers, when the other vendors had closed for the day.^92 Moderns
would have called the saint a good union man. But Pietro made no claim to
moral superiority. Youths once accosted him in the street and posed a sordid
question: ‘‘Tell us, Pietro, if by chance you found yourself in a locked room
with a beautiful woman and no one would ever know, what would you do?’’
The saint replied, ‘‘If I were in that position, I know what I should do, but I
do not know what I would do; I tell you, I guard myself from sins when no
one knows, just as if the whole world were watching.’’ The boys took off,
disarmed by Pietro’s honesty.^93 The key to holiness was to live a good life at
work and home, avoid sin, and not seek worldly attention and honor.^94
Communal holiness flourished in community; it was social. Even a re-
cluse, like Umiliana dei Cerchi of Florence, lived surrounded by friends and
neighbors. So important were they to her life that her hagiographer had to
include their names: her companion Gisla, Donna Luciana di Ranieri from
the parish of San Procolo, Donna Dialta di Ugalotto from the parish of
Santa Margherita, and Donna Bene di Ricco from the parish of San Lo-
renzo.^95 Not even an anchoress could find holiness in isolation. Siena once
levied a tax to reduce a brigand’s stronghold in the contado. When Pietro
heard the news, he immediately asked the rate, gathered the money, and
paid it. No pacifist he, but a good citizen. The commune refused his money
and asked only that he pray for victory. Pietro insisted on paying: ‘‘My
dearest governors, I always desire to walk in peace, but this money belongs
to my commune. I will not take it away, since it is the commune’s, not
mine.’’ He left the cash on the tax counter and departed.^96 The communal
saint was a model of civic rectitude. Returning late one night from prayers,
Lester K. Little, ‘‘Pride Goes Before Avarice: Social Change and the Vices in Latin Christendom,’’
American Historical Review 76 ( 1971 ): 16 – 49.
91. Pietro of Monterone,Vita del beato Pietro Pettinajo, 1 , pp. 6 – 8.
92. Ibid., 1 ,p. 8.
93. Ibid., 6 ,p. 72 : ‘‘Dıa noi o Pietro se per caso tu ti trovassi in una camera riserrato solo con una bellissima donna e nessuno ne allora, nemai il sapesse: or che faresti tu?... Se io fossi posto in tal caso so ben quello che dovrei fare, ma non so quel che fecessi: questo ben vi dico che cosımi guarderai dal
peccato se nessuno il sapesse: come se tutto il mondo apertamente mi vedesse.’’
94. Pietro warned his fellow Sienese, the Dominican Ambrogio Sansedoni, to turn down a bishopric:
ibid., 9 , pp. 95 – 97.
95. On Umiliana’s friends, see Benvenuti Papi, ‘‘Una santa vedova,’’ 93 – 95.
96. Pietro of Monterone,Vita del beato Pietro Pettinajo, 8 , pp. 82 – 83 : ‘‘Carissimi miei Maggiori sempre
desidero andare nella pace di Dio, ma pure questa pecunia quale edel mio Comune non la portero,
imperciocheesua, e non mia, e lassatala, prestamente si partı`.’’