He studied at Padua, receiving there the habit of the recently founded Order from the hands of St. Dominic himself, at about the age of twenty.
According to Friar Leander, author of his earliest biography, he was made Master of the Sacred Palace in 1235, during the pontificate of Pope Gregory IX—but there is no mention of this event in his Last Testament, where Bartholomew listed the important offices he had held.
King Louis desired him to make a visit to France, promising rich relics for his church, should he comply with the request.
Two years later, in order to ensure the presence of so distinguished a prelate at his own court, Pope Alexander IV made him Bishop of Vicenza, his native city.
During his tenure of that see, Bartholomew was subject to the hostility of the local ruler Ezzelino III, a Ghibelline who was noted for the brutality of his rule and who was a strong opponent of Papal power.