 At the age of ten, De Bono began working with a silk merchant, but soon realized that his vocation was religious and began to study Latin while continuing to work to support his family.About 1545, he was admitted as a candidate to the Dominican Order, but, just as he was about to enter their novitiate, he was talked out of this by a brother-in-law, after which he returned home.At age twenty, De Bono joined the army of the Emperor Charles V, in search of fortune.