THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 
 A 
 
 HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 FROM THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS TO 
 
 THE GREAT REFORMERS 
 
 A. D. 701572 
 
 BY 
 
 EDWIN CHARLES DARGAN, D.D., LL.D. 
 
 PKOFEBSOB OP HOMILETICS IS THE SOOTHES* BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL 
 8KJUXAUT, LOUISVILLE, K.KSTUOKT 
 
 LONDON 
 
 HODDER AND STOUGHTON 
 
 27 PATERNOSTER ROW 
 1905
 
 TO THE 
 
 CHERISHED AND REVERED 
 MEMORY OF 
 
 JOHN ALBERT BROADUS 
 
 A PUPIL'S 
 GRATEFUL OFFERING
 
 BK 
 
 V207 
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 i/.l 
 
 PAGE 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 3 
 
 PERIOD I. A. D. 70-430. 
 
 CHAPTER I. PREACHING DURING THE FIRST THREE CEN- 
 TURIES 29 
 
 CHAPTER II. THE CULMINATION OF ANCIENT PREACHING 
 
 IN THE FOURTH CENTURY 60 
 
 PERIOD II. 430-1095. 
 
 CHAPTER III. THE DECLINE OF PREACHING IN THE FIFTH 
 
 AND SIXTH CENTURIES 105 
 
 CHAPTER IV. THE Low ESTATE OF PREACHING IN THE 
 
 SEVENTH AND EIGHTH CENTURIES 129 
 
 CHAPTER V. VOICES IN THE NIGHT, OR PREACHING DURING 
 
 THE NINTH, TENTH AND ELEVENTH CENTURIES . . 154 
 
 PERIOD III. 1095-136!. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. HERALDS OF THE DAWN IN THE ELEVENTH 
 
 AND TWELFTH CENTURIES ... . . . .174 
 
 CHAPTER VII. THE CULMINATION OF MEDIAEVAL PREACH- 
 ING IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY .... 218 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. DECLINE AND MYSTICISM IN THE THIR- 
 TEENTH AND FOURTEENTH CENTURIES .... 262 
 
 PERIOD IV. 1361-1572. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. THE RENAISSANCE, AND PREACHING IN THE 
 
 FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH CENTURIES . . . 289 
 
 CHAPTER X. PREACHERS OF THE FOURTEENTH AND FIF- 
 TEENTH CENTURIES . . . . . . , . 316 
 
 CHAPTER XI. THE REFORMATION, AND PREACHING IN THE 
 
 SIXTEENTH CENTURY .,,,,.. 358
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAPTER XII. PREACHERS OF THE REFORMATION IN GER- 
 MANY AND GERMAN SWITZERLAND . . . . . 383 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. PREACHERS OF THE REFORMATION m 
 
 FRANCE AND OTHER EUROPEAN LANDS .... 430 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. PREACHERS OF THE REFORMATION IN ENG- 
 LAND AND SCOTLAND 473 
 
 CHAPTER XV. ROMAN CATHOLIC PREACHING AND PREACHERS 
 
 IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY 524 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. PREACHING AT THE THRESHOLD OF THE 
 
 MODERN WORLD 552 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 565 
 
 INDEX 568
 
 PREFACE 
 
 The following work is the fruit of studies pursued and 
 judgments formed during eleven years of service as pro- 
 fessor of Homiletics in the Southern Baptist Theological 
 Seminary, at Louisville, Kentucky. It was the custom of 
 the distinguished and lamented Dr. John A. Broadus, the 
 first incumbent of that chair, to give every year instructive 
 and delightful lectures on the History of Preaching. 
 Under his inspiring teaching my interest as a student 
 was awakened in the subject, and when years after- 
 wards it fell to me first to share his labors of instruction 
 and then to succeed to them, I became more and more 
 deeply interested in the historical part of the course 
 in Homiletics. 
 
 The remarkable lack of treatises on the History of 
 Preaching, especially in English, early impressed me, and 
 aroused a desire to do something, however little, towards 
 supplying the need. The difficulty of the task and the 
 pressure of other and heavy burdens have occasioned 
 many misgivings and delays, and there have been of 
 necessity changes of plan in the execution of the work. 
 As now planned the present volume is the first of three 
 proposed books. It deals with the history up to and 
 including the Reformation, the next will treat of Modern 
 European preaching, and the last will present a History 
 of Preaching in the United States. Some material is 
 in hand for these later works, and should this one be fort- 
 unate enough to find a public, and should life and leisure 
 be granted me, I hope in time to produce them. 
 
 For the completion of the present volume opportunity 
 was kindly afforded by the Trustees of the Seminary in 
 granting me leave of absence for some months to visit 
 Europe. While abroad from June, 1902, to January, 1903, 
 I had time not only to write up much material already 
 gathered, but to visit some of the places made famous 
 in the history of the pulpit, and to read somewhat in a 
 number of the great libraries, including those at Berlin,
 
 2 PREFACE 
 
 Leipzig, Rome, Zurich, Geneva, and Paris. I am in- 
 debted for courtesies to the managers at these and other 
 places. 
 
 In the use of the materials which I had to study, both at 
 home and abroad, three methods have found place: (i) 
 Much of the work done and critical judgments reached 
 is based on personal and independent study of the orig- 
 inal sources; (2) Much more, however, is of that min- 
 gled sort which rests partly and often chiefly on the work 
 of others, and yet has been confirmed, enlarged or modi- 
 fied by contact with the sources; (3) In a few cases, 
 where circumstances warranted or seemed to require it, 
 I have simply adopted information obtained or views 
 expressed by others. I have endeavored, either in the 
 text or footnotes, to give the requisite indications as to 
 which method has been used. But every one who has 
 attempted this kind of writing knows how utterly im- 
 possible it is in all cases to distinguish sharply between 
 what may be properly regarded as the author's own work, 
 and that which he owes to others. I can only say that 
 I have tried to make an honest book, and hereby cheer- 
 fully acknowledge my great indebtedness to many excel- 
 lent workers in this field. I trust the book may find, both 
 among my brethren of the Christian ministry and among 
 others, readers who in their turn may find some pleasure 
 and profit in perusing even so imperfect a presentation 
 of the History of Preaching. 
 
 E. C. D. 
 
 Louisville, Kentucky, December, 1904.
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 i. THE NEED OF A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 The history of preaching has not yet been adequately 
 written. A few works, all of them more or less fragment- 
 ary and incomplete, deal with the subject as a whole; a 
 larger number, some of them remarkably good and satis- 
 factory, treat of particular epochs or phases of the his- 
 tory; some attention, incidental and often superficial, has 
 been given to preaching by writers of general, eccles- 
 iastical, and literary histories ; and this is all. A thorough, 
 comprehensive, well-proportioned and reasonably com- 
 plete account of preaching in all periods and countries 
 does not exist, either as the great work of a single author 
 or as a connected series of studies by different authors. 
 
 This lack of suitable historic treatment has been va- 
 riously noticed by different writers. Thus Van Ooster- 
 zee, 1 in commenting on the lack of historic knowledge 
 among preachers themselves concerning their work, says, 
 "There is still wanting a good history of the art of 
 preaching from the earliest times to the present day ; " 
 and further, " The wish cannot be suppressed that a 
 qualified and vigorous hand might yet be impelled satis- 
 factorily to fill up this gap in the historic-theologic litera- 
 ture." Christlieb, 2 in noticing the failure yet to produce 
 an " all-round, satisfying, comprehensive history," seems 
 to give up the expectation as hopeless, because no one 
 is likely to have the " capacity and leisure " for so vast 
 an undertaking. A recent French Catholic writer, the 
 Abbe Boucher, 3 rather lightly dismisses the matter with 
 the remark that such a work would be unnecessary as it 
 would really be a history of the progress of Christianity. 
 This is too superficial a view; and the suggestion of 
 Christlieb is no more appropriate for the history of 
 
 * Practical Theology (Am. ed.), PP- 67, 68. 
 
 2 Geschichte der Predigt, article in the Herzog-Plitt Real-Ency- 
 filopadie, Bd. 18, S. 466. 
 ?lJfLloyuence de la Chaire, Introduction.
 
 4 INTRODUCTION 
 
 preaching than for other subjects which coyer vast fields, 
 long periods, and practically limitless materials. 
 
 The materials for writing the history of the Christian 
 pulpit are abundant, for some epochs superabundant. 
 Only for a few and comparatively unimportant periods 
 and departments of the subject is there scarcity. These 
 materials consist, first of all, in the innumerable biog- 
 raphies and sketches of preachers of all ages and lands, 
 and in the practically infinite quantity of published ser- 
 mons. Then account must be taken of ecclesiastical his- 
 tories and archaeologies, as these are obviously very 
 closely related to preaching. And then the histories of 
 civilization and of literature contain much that bears on 
 preaching, directly and indirectly; and of course some 
 knowledge, and the more the better, of general history 
 is requisite to understanding that of the pulpit. Besides 
 these sources of information at first hand there is a con- 
 siderable literature which discusses different branches of 
 the general subject, and is indispensable as a help to the 
 historian. There are not a few excellent treatises and 
 monographs which greatly reduce the necessity for re- 
 search in some quarters of the field. Evidently the 
 historian of preaching has at his disposal ample ma- 
 terial for his work. 
 
 In fact the great abundance of the material is one of 
 the chief difficulties in the way of writing the history 
 of preaching. Even allowing for all the helps, and press- 
 ing the principle of selection as far as is admissible, there 
 still remains a vast bulk of literature to go over, a deal 
 of information to accumulate, study, digest, arrange, and 
 finally set forth in writing. On the other hand, another 
 difficulty arises from the lacks and gaps in the literature. 
 Many periods and branches of the subject are still with- 
 out adequate treatment, and there are very few general 
 works to serve as basis, guide, or even warning, in the 
 production of a really complete general history. When 
 we add to these intrinsic difficulties of the task the exact- 
 ing requisites which the modern critical and scientific 
 spirit lays down for the writing of history, 1 we cannot 
 
 1 See, for example, how these are set forth by Langlois and 
 Seignobos, in their valuable Introduction to the Study of History 
 (Eng. trans.).
 
 INTRODUCTION 5 
 
 wonder that so little has yet been accomplished in this 
 department. It is as impossible to reach perfection in 
 writing history as in any other human undertaking, and 
 even to attain to excellence requires a rare combination 
 of aptitude, learning, practice, enthusiasm, patience and 
 leisure which might well appall the most competent. 
 
 On the other hand, it must be remembered that if dif- 
 ficulties of this sort were allowed their full force nobody 
 worth attending to would have the courage to write his- 
 tory at all; for these obstacles are more or less incident 
 to all historical research and writing. There is no more 
 reason why a history of preaching should be given up 
 as hopeless than histories of literature, of philosophy, of 
 art, and the like. 
 
 A very slight glance at what has already been done will 
 justify this conclusion, and at the same time lead to a con- 
 sideration of what remains to be done in this too much 
 neglected field. Foot-notes in the body of this work will 
 give a fuller account of the literature. 1 Here only some 
 brief statements are proposed. The literature naturally 
 falls into the two groups of general and special works. 
 
 Of treatises bearing on the general history of preaching 
 three sorts may be specified. First, there are those some- 
 what fragmentary works which may be called contribu- 
 tions to the history. Here, for example, belongs the old 
 but still serviceable book of Lentz, Geschichte der 
 Homiletik, published in 1839, containing brief biograph- 
 ical and critical notices of some of the more noted 
 preachers of ancient, mediaeval and modern times, with 
 selections from their sermons. Somewhat like this, but 
 with full sermons and proportionately less of biographical 
 and critical matter is the valuable collection by H. C. 
 Fish, Masterpieces of Pulpit Eloquence, published at New 
 York in 1850, and still reprinted. Besides these are sev- 
 eral later works, in various languages, of this general 
 character. 
 
 1 Paniel, Geschichte der Christlichen Beredsamkeit, in the intro- 
 duction ably reviews the earlier literature up to 1831. Christlieb, 
 in his two articles in Herzog-Plitt Geschichte der Predigt and 
 Homiletik also has a good review of the literature to about 1886. 
 Broadus mentions some of the best books in the appendix to his 
 Lectures on the History of Preaching.
 
 6 INTRODUCTION 
 
 A second class of writings dealing with the whole sub- 
 ject are certain sketches, or compendious outlines. One 
 of the best of these is that of J. J. Van Oosterzee in his 
 Practical Theology (translation published at New York 
 about 1879) ; and there are several by German authors 
 on Homiletics, as Th. Harnack, Hering, and others ; also 
 the sketch by Professor Hoppin in his Homiletics is spe- 
 cially noteworthy, as he discusses American preachers 
 neglected by the others. But by far the most comprehen- 
 sive and thorough sketch, so complete indeed that one 
 hesitates to call it a sketch, is the great article by Christ- 
 lieb, Geschichte der Predigt, in the supplement to the 
 eighteenth volume of the Herzog-Plitt Real Encyclo- 
 padie. 1 Even in its present form it is the nearest ap- 
 proach yet made to a complete though necessarily com- 
 pendious history. 
 
 The remaining class of general histories of preaching 
 are those few works which in some measure present a 
 connected view of the whole field. In 1839 a German 
 scholar, Paniel, published the first volume of a proposed 
 general history of preaching under the title Pragmatische 
 Geschichte der Christlichen Beredsamkeit. It was a well- 
 planned work and showed both research and the scien- 
 tific spirit, but unhappily it remains only a fragment, 
 having got no further than Augustine in the fifth cen- 
 tury. It is still valuable for the early centuries. Next 
 should be mentioned the Geschichte der Predigt von den 
 Anfangen bis auf Schleiermacher of Richard Rothe, 
 edited from his manuscript remains by Trumpelmann, 
 and published in 1881. This came nearer being a gen- 
 eral history than any other work that had yet appeared, 
 but it is full of gaps, much of it is mere compilation, 
 and it lacks completeness and finish in many ways. In 
 1876 Dr. John A. Broadus published a small volume 
 of Lectures on the History of Preaching, which had been 
 delivered at Newton Theological Institution, near Bos- 
 ton. The book does not profess to cover the ground as 
 a formal or scientific treatise, but contains some excellent 
 work in the way of historical generalization and com- 
 ment, of discussion of certain periods and men, and of 
 
 1 At the time of this writing the new edition (ed. by Professor 
 Jiauck of Leipzig) has not reached this article.
 
 INTRODUCTION 7 
 
 keen and sympathetic criticism. Similar in method are 
 the Lectures on the History of Preaching (1888), of 
 Dr. John Ker of Scotland, which give a slight account of 
 ancient and mediaeval preaching, but chiefly present in 
 a very pleasing way some of the modern German 
 preachers. There is a spirited and readable course of 
 lectures by the late Fleming James, D.D., The Message 
 and the Messengers (1897), which is not a history, but, 
 as the subtitle correctly describes it, a series of " lessons 
 from the history of preaching." The most recent work 
 is that of the late Professor T. Harwood Pattison, of 
 Rochester Theological Seminary, Rochester, New York, 
 The History of Christian Preaching. The work is much 
 too brief to present adequate consideration of the great 
 mass of material, and it does not claim to be a complete 
 history ; but it gives a series of brilliant short sketches of 
 many of the leading preachers, with some comment on 
 the condition of preaching in all the Christian ages. 
 
 When we come to works which treat of special epochs, 
 countries, sects, or other departments of the history of 
 preaching, a very much better showing can be made for 
 the literature. There are numerous treatises of varying 
 authorship, date, and language. Many of them have been 
 of inestimable service in the preparation of this work, 
 and are mentioned in the foot-notes where appropriate, so 
 that detailed notice is not here needed. 
 
 From this brief general mention we may see that while 
 something has been done, much remains yet to be done 
 in this inviting field of religious history. 
 
 There is, and of course always will be, place for that 
 class of writings called " contributions " to history, that 
 is, accumulations of material in the way of biographical, 
 critical, and other monographs, which will facilitate re- 
 search and study, and sometimes even render them un- 
 necessary where the historian can depend upon a careful 
 and judicious investigator. Some of the special works 
 spoken of in the previous paragraphs are admirable speci- 
 mens of this sort of writing, but there is need for many 
 more of the same sort. 
 
 But the most pressing present need is a general his- 
 tory. Such a work might take one, or indeed all, of three 
 forms: (i) A compendious manual covering the whole
 
 8 INTRODUCTION 
 
 ground, but briefly and clearly; (2) A larger work of 
 several volumes, going more into biographical, critical 
 and general historical detail; (3) A magnum opus of 
 many volumes really covering the subject and remaining 
 a complete and enduring authority. It would be very 
 difficult for any one scholar nowadays to produce a work 
 of the third kind, for it would require a lifetime of leisure 
 and plenty of means to accomplish the task, but it might 
 be done in shorter time by the cooperation under com- 
 petent editorship of a number of scholars who should 
 devote themselves to particular epochs and countries. 
 The books of Broadus, Ker, and especially Pattison, fall 
 under the first head. It is the aim of the author to 
 meet in some modest measure the second of the f oremen- 
 tioned needs. But it will require many works of many 
 laborers and through many years before the place of 
 preaching in human history can be adequately set forth. 
 To some consideration of that great sphere we may now 
 appropriately turn. 
 
 2. THE PLACE OF PREACHING IN HISTORY 
 
 Since Christianity became an active force in human 
 affairs there has been upward and onward movement, 
 and one mighty factor in that progress has been preach- 
 ing. There are a number of ways in which the im- 
 portance of preaching in history may be shown. 
 
 The most remote point of connection should be first 
 noted, that is, the influence of preaching upon the gen- 
 eral course of events. The influence has necessarily 
 been reciprocal preaching has shaped events, and 
 events have affected preaching. More detailed state- 
 ments will make the point clearer. 
 
 The life and progress of nations, the rise and fall of 
 governments have often been closely connected with 
 preaching. This is no extravagant claim, as we shall have 
 some occasion to see in the course of this work. The 
 great names of the Apostle Paul, of John Chrysostom, 
 of Augustine and Ambrose, of Leo and Gregory, of 
 Boniface and Bernard, of Wiclif and Savonarola, of 
 Luther and Calvin and Knox, of Edwards, Whitefield 
 and Wesley, are some of those which suggest how
 
 INTRODUCTION 9 
 
 variously and profoundly the larger life of nations has 
 sometimes been influenced by the preacher. 
 
 In regard to customs and morals, however, the con- 
 tact of preaching with history is more visible and fruit- 
 ful. Preaching has profoundly and for the most part 
 wholesomely influenced the morals and customs of man- 
 kind. And in those few cases where the influence of the 
 pulpit may be justly open to criticism, the injurious 
 effects have been comparatively trivial and not per- 
 manent. On the other hand preaching has, sometimes 
 for the better and sometimes for the worse, received 
 moulding from contemporary customs and standards 
 of ethics. While this sensitiveness to environment has 
 often kept the pulpit from stagnation and given to it 
 greater power to deal with the needs of the times, we 
 must confess that sometimes public sentiment and en- 
 trenched evil, rather than the ostensibly accepted 
 higher authorities, have colored the language of 
 sermons. 
 
 Progress in the arts and sciences has contributed in 
 many ways to preaching. Here it has received more 
 than it has given; but its influence has not been void 
 of good and help even in this direction ; for the pulpit has 
 many a time given intelligent aid and stimulus to material 
 enterprises which had in view the present and permanent 
 good of mankind. So also preaching has availed itself 
 of the advantages of commerce to herald the gospel to 
 other lands and peoples, and used many an improvement 
 and device in the material sphere to make more effective 
 its work at home. 
 
 The connection of preaching with the progress of 
 human culture is real and extensive. Sometimes there 
 has been conflict, sometimes mutual jealousy, but more 
 frequently reciprocal and cordial help. Let us notice 
 some of the particulars. 
 
 As to art it is beyond doubt that music, painting, sculp- 
 ture, architecture, and even the industrial arts, have owed 
 something to preaching, and preaching something to 
 them. But no great amount of reciprocal influence is 
 claimed in this sphere. 
 
 In philosophy, however, the mutual influence has been 
 profound and profoundly important. The effect has not
 
 IO INTRODUCTION 
 
 always been for the best on either party, but it is safe 
 to say that preaching has oftener been hurt by philosophy 
 than philosophy by preaching. But there has also been 
 wholesome and helpful interaction. Theology and ethics 
 are fundamental in pulpit work, and their relations to 
 philosophy are necessarily close. Names of preachers 
 who have been eminent in philosophical work and in- 
 fluence are numerous; a few of the most important are 
 Justin Martyr, Origen, Gregory of Nyssa, Augustine, 
 among the ancients ; Anselm, Aquinas, and others of the 
 great schoolmen of the middle ages ; Eckhart among the 
 mystics; Calvin among the theologians of the Reforma- 
 tion; Edwards among American Puritans. 
 
 In regard to science there has often been full and 
 cordial mutual recognition. Some eminent scientists have 
 not failed in reverence for Christian institutions, the pul- 
 pit included; and some preachers here and there have 
 been skilled scientists in various branches. But on the 
 whole it must be sadly admitted that the relations between 
 science and the pulpit have not been as friendly and 
 mutually profitable as could be wished. If the progress 
 of science has at times suffered from the dogmatism of 
 the pulpit, even so the preaching of a sorely needed 
 gospel has been sometimes hindered or harmed in effect 
 by the dogmatism of science. Preachers have been 
 known to assail science in an unchristian spirit, and 
 scientists have perhaps as often denounced and dis- 
 credited preaching in an unscientific spirit. Pulpit ignor- 
 ance of science has been fairly matched by scientific ig- 
 norance of the aims and realities of the pulpit. Narrow- 
 ness and arrogance on both sides have done their full 
 share of mischief. It is time for a better understanding, 
 for mutual respect, for more cordial united service be- 
 tween these two great agencies for human good. Rever- 
 ent science seeking hidden truth should surely be no foe 
 to earnest preaching proclaiming revealed truth ; and the 
 herald of God's saving grace in Christ should not be the 
 enemy of the searcher after God's wondrous thought in 
 creation. There is room in God's world for both the 
 scientist and the preacher; there should be room in their 
 hearts for each other. 
 
 In the very nature of the preacher's work lies his rela-
 
 INTRODUCTION 1 1 
 
 tion to the study and use of language. The proclama- 
 tion of the gospel, the translation of the Bible, and the 
 creation of a literature of Christian instruction in many 
 languages of the earth have been largely the work of 
 preachers. The impetus thus given to linguistic science 
 has been great and fruitful. Nor must the study and em- 
 ployment of language for the high purposes of discourse 
 be forgotten ; not a few preachers have been masters and 
 models of eloquence. 
 
 In the sphere of literature there has been great and 
 hearty reciprocal service. Preaching has both directly 
 and indirectly contributed much to literature. Yet it must 
 be said that while many a Paul has met with his surprised 
 and admiring Festus, it is also true that too often litera- 
 ture, especially fiction, has done the pulpit injustice by its 
 one-sided presentation of the weaker or extreme types of 
 ministerial character. But on the whole literature and the 
 preacher have through many moons been dear lovers. 
 Illiterate preachers have served to emphasize by con- 
 trast the learning of their more cultured brethren. In- 
 cidentally to their main work numbers of preachers have 
 won enduring laurels in the republic of letters. Often, 
 too, the pen of the writer and the tongue of the preacher 
 have been allied forces in campaigns against ignorance 
 and error. 
 
 As to education no openminded observer can fail to rec- 
 ognize the intimate relations between it and preaching. 
 The debt is reciprocal and large; and it has been so all 
 along the history of the pulpit. There has hardly ever 
 been any really good educational movement which has 
 failed to receive the steadfast and efficient support of the 
 preachers as a class. In turn education has given her 
 choicest treasures and her best discipline to the pulpit. 
 Scientific and literary training have both served the 
 preacher, naturally the latter more; and especially has 
 there been necessarily close affinity between preaching 
 and rhetorical culture. Sometimes this has been unduly 
 neglected, and sometimes unduly magnified. Artistic, 
 not to say artificial, oratory has not seldom been am- 
 bitiously substituted for simple and earnest proclamation 
 of divine truth. On the other hand, the faithful presenta- 
 tion of the gospel has often exemplified the noblest uses
 
 1 2 INTRODUCTION 
 
 of rhetoric, and the work of the pulpit has exhibited not a 
 few specimens of the highest oratory. Thus in many 
 ways is the history of preaching interwoven with that of 
 civilization and culture. 
 
 It remains to consider the largest surface of contact 
 between preaching and history, and this, of course, is its 
 place in the religious life and progress of mankind. 
 Preaching is an essential part and a distinguishing feature 
 of Christianity, and accordingly the larger history of 
 general religious movements includes that of preaching. 
 Here, as before, a reciprocal influence must be reckoned 
 with : the movement has sometimes produced the preach- 
 ing, the preaching sometimes the movement, but most 
 commonly they have each helped the other. Illustrations 
 readily occur. 
 
 The spread of Christianity, both geographically and 
 numerically, has been largely the work of preaching. The 
 preacher as a missionary has always been the advance 
 herald of the gospel. From apostolic days, through the 
 long Middle Ages, and even down to present times this 
 has been true. Moreover, the leavening of the nations 
 already reached by the gospel, the adding to the church 
 daily those who are being saved, is, on the human side 
 and to a great extent, the result of preaching. We must 
 not underestimate the value and effect of personal ex- 
 ample and suasion, but history forbids that we should 
 assign an inferior place to preaching in bringing men to 
 know Christ as Saviour and Lord, and in training them 
 in the Christian life, doctrine and service. For spiritual 
 life, doctrine and service are the very marrow of the 
 gospel, and therefore of the preaching of the gospel. The 
 message of the true preacher in every age has had to do 
 with these fundamental things. On the other hand, 
 Christian life as expressed and exemplified in eccles- 
 iastical institutions, and Christian doctrine as formally 
 stated in creeds, or even when only vaguely underlying 
 accepted beliefs and usages, have in their turn powerfully 
 influenced the character and aims of preaching. Alas! 
 the story is not always a pleasing one; for doctrinal and 
 sectarian polemics have too often been the preacher's 
 chief concern. 
 
 Human progress of every kind is usually not steady
 
 INTRODUCTION 13 
 
 and continuous, but rather goes by waves, like the ris- 
 ing tide. Declension and revival, forward and backward, 
 up and down, these are the common Christian phenomena, 
 individual, local, general. Even the most superficial 
 study reveals the connection, at once causal and resultant, 
 between movements of the kind described and preach- 
 ing. Decline of spiritual life and activity in the churches 
 is commonly accompanied by a lifeless, formal, unfruit- 
 ful preaching, and this partly as cause, partly as effect. 
 On the other hand, the great revivals of Christian his- 
 tory can most usually be traced to the work of the pulpit, 
 and in their progress they have developed and rendered 
 possible a high order of preaching. 
 
 Again and again in the following pages we shall see 
 illustrations of the p<*Sitions taken in this discussion, and 
 the right of preaching to a fair large room in history's 
 many-chambered mansion may easily be vindicated and 
 assured. So it is appropriate at this point of our intro- 
 ductory studies to say something as to the historic origins 
 of preaching. 
 
 3. THE HISTORIC ORIGINS OF PREACHING 
 
 History is a study of origins and developments in 
 human affairs. Strictly speaking the actual beginnings of 
 most human institutions are difficult to discover, and our 
 knowledge of them is chiefly conjectural or inferential. 
 What we call beginnings or causes are themselves effects 
 of previous causes and movements, and what we call 
 effects may be the causes of subsequent events ; and so the 
 ceaseless current of time and change flows on and on. 
 The history of any people or subject, to be complete, must 
 begin as far back as knowledge reaches and come down to 
 present times. But the narrative may confine itself with- 
 in more or less arbitrary limits at the discretion of the 
 historian. The scope of the present volume is to trace 
 the history of preaching from the Apostolic Fathers at 
 the end of the first century to and including the great 
 Reformers of the sixteenth century. But it seems de- 
 sirable to give here at least a summary sketch of the 
 origin and development of preaching before the point at 
 which the more detailed account begins, in order that
 
 14 INTRODUCTION 
 
 the reader may have before him to some extent the story 
 from the beginnings of our knowledge. 
 
 There are three great converging lines of preparation in 
 the way of materials, tendencies and events, which under 
 providential guidance conspired to start, in the age 
 immediately following the Apostles, that series of causes 
 and effects which we are to study under the name of the 
 history of preaching. These three elements of origina- 
 tion, named in the ascending order of their immediacy 
 and importance, are the ancient oratory, the Hebrew 
 prophecy, and the Christian gospel. From this last, as 
 directly resting upon the second, and after a time consid- 
 erably influenced by the first, came preaching as history 
 knows it. Oratory and prophecy were preparatory and 
 contributing forces, the gospel was the real originating 
 cause, which took to itself elements of tendency and power 
 from both the others. 
 
 How soon did men find and use the gift of persuasive 
 speech? How long came oratory after language itself? 
 There is no answer to these questions. It is likely indeed 
 that oratory grew out of conversation, but its use and 
 development do not tell the story of its origin. Passing 
 by any vague theories, whether serious or humorous, of a 
 possible derivation from the chatterings of supposititious 
 simian ancestors, we may hazard some more plausible 
 conjectures as to the rise and use of oratory before we dis- 
 cover certain traces of it in existing records. It is a 
 natural inference that, connected with the desire and 
 capacity of one person to influence another, language 
 should at once have been employed for this purpose, and 
 that from such use in conversation and dialogue it should 
 have come to be employed by one in address to several 
 others, from two or three to a multitude. 
 
 Spencer 1 conjectures that oratory, especially religious 
 oratory, grew out of laudatory harangues at first ad- 
 dressed to heroes on returning from victorious wars, and 
 then made in favor of deified heroes, and so of the gods. 
 He thinks he sees traces of this custom in the acclama- 
 tions of Israel at the Red Sea, and at the victory of David 
 over Goliath, and outside of the Biblical records in some 
 observances of the Fiji Islanders. In the same way arose 
 1 Principles of Sociology, Vol. III., pp. 216 ff.
 
 INTRODUCTION 15 
 
 epic poetry, and the drama. The conjecture seems far- 
 fetched, a pound of inference from a pennyweight of ob- 
 servation. 
 
 If the ethnological theory be accepted that the North 
 American Indians represent in some respects the stage of 
 development reached by man in the so-called Stone Age 
 previous to recorded history, it may be plausibly claimed 
 that the remarkable eloquence sometimes exhibited by 
 these " untutored children of the forest " was a sample of 
 prehistoric oratory, and gives real trace of a very remote 
 origin of the use of persuasive speech for personal or 
 public ends. But leaving these theories, let us come to 
 actual history. 
 
 The three great civilizations of the ancient world 
 Egyptian, Assyrian, Persian have not sent down to us 
 any notable contribution to oratory. It is a commonplace 
 among students of the subject that despotic governments 
 are not favorable to eloquence, and it is probable that 
 oratory was not much cultivated among these great 
 peoples. Yet there are traces of its existence. The coun- 
 cils of war and of state, the royal audiences, petitions, 
 pleas for justice, and the like, of which the records tell 
 us, indicate at least some place and need for oratory as an 
 art. In the Biblical account of Egyptian and Assyrian 
 affairs there are a few traces of the use of public persua- 
 sive speech. The effort of Moses to be excused from 
 going to Egypt to bring up the Israelites, on the ground 
 of his lack of eloquence, 1 is suggestive of his acquaintance 
 with the need of gifts in that direction in order to secure 
 the end sought. In later times the insolent speeches of 
 Rabshakeh, recorded in the eighteenth chapter of Second 
 Kings, afford evidence that the art was not unknown 
 among the Assyrians. Among the Hebrews, besides 
 the work of the prophets to which more detailed attention 
 will be given later, there are notices here and there of 
 an oratory not especially or at all religious. The speech 
 of Lamech 2 to his wives Adah and Zillah has been ad- 
 duced as a specimen of antediluvian oratory, but it more 
 properly belongs to poetry. Professor Sears 3 pertinently 
 inquires as to what kind of oratory the author of the 
 Book of Job must have heard in order to produce such 
 1 Exod. 4 : 10 ff. 2 Gen. 4 : 23. a History of Oratory, p. 28.
 
 1 6 INTRODUCTION 
 
 speeches as those uttered by the interlocutors in that 
 drama. The pathetic and simply beautiful speech of 
 Judah 1 before Joseph in Egypt is justly admired as a 
 choice specimen of unpretentious eloquence. In the ninth 
 chapter of the Book of Judges we have an interesting 
 speech from Jotham, 2 who compared the selection of his 
 murderous half-brother, Abimelech, to be ruler or 
 " king " over a part of Israel, to the choice of the bramble 
 as king by the trees of the forest. Besides, there are a 
 few other traces of a secular, or at least not distinctively 
 religious, oratory in the Old Testament. But on the 
 whole the oratory of the ancient peoples before the 
 Grecian and Roman times was not abundant in quantity 
 nor of the highest quality. Its value as literature and its 
 significance in history alike are slight. 
 
 A widely different state of affairs greets us when we 
 come to study the oratory of the Greeks. Both the literary 
 value and the historic importance of their orations are 
 of the highest sort. Ancient eloquence, on its secular 
 and artistic side, reached its culmination among this 
 gifted and versatile people. The speeches in the Homeric 
 Poems show that in the earliest, semi-mythical times the 
 Greeks employed and prized the gift of eloquence. The 
 growth of political freedom, the early and vigorous devel- 
 opment of dialectic philosophy, the cultivation and excel- 
 lence of art and literature, along with the imaginative and 
 lively intellect and the flexible and powerful language of 
 the Greeks, all contributed to their marvellous and abid- 
 ing attainments in the field of oratory. 3 It was cultivated 
 in all the Greek countries, but reached its highest stage 
 of development at Athens, and its personal acme in 
 Demosthenes. Along with the practice of public speaking 
 cafrne the theory, the reduction to principles and rules, the 
 teaching of rhetoric as an art. It is a notable coincidence 
 that Demosthenes, the greatest orator of ancient times, 
 and Aristotle, the great philosopher, and author of the 
 most original and suggestive treatise on rhetoric in 
 ancient literature, should have lived at the same time and 
 died the same year, 322, B.C. With the passing away of 
 
 1 Gen. 44 : 18. * See Broadus, History of Preaching, p. 8. 
 
 8 See Crete's History of Greece, chaps. 46 and 67; Jebb's Attic 
 Qrators, introd. ; Sears' History of Oratory, chaps. II.- V,
 
 INTRODUCTION 1 7 
 
 these masters, and the political overthrow of ancient 
 Greece, the oratory of the Greeks rapidly degenerated. 
 But its lasting impress had been left on the history of 
 oratory, and of civilization. 
 
 The Latin oratory was not of so excellent quality nor 
 of so long duration as the Greek. Here too theory and 
 practice developed together, but with the difference that 
 the Romans had both the advantage and the disadvantage 
 of possessing the Greek models. In the early days of the 
 Republic, though there was some Greek influence, the 
 Roman oratory was more independent and original, and 
 was giving promise of a development and power of its 
 own. But after the conquest of Greece the influence of 
 the better Greek ideas and achievements in this as in other 
 lines of literature was irresistible, and Latin oratory is, 
 for the comparatively brief period of its development, 
 mostly imitation or adaptation of the Greek. 
 
 The chief representative of Roman oratory is Cicero, 
 who died B.C. 43. But there were a number of others too, 
 and these gave a peculiar Roman stamp to their oratory. 
 The Latin mind was much too vigorous not to be some- 
 thing of a Samson even in the chains of its enthrallment 
 to Greek models. The best Latin treatise on rhetoric, that 
 of Quintilian, was published probably in the latter part 
 of the first Christian century, or the early part of the 
 second. It is one of the very best works of all time on 
 that subject, and has been a storehouse for all subsequent 
 writers on rhetoric. In literary finish, in proportionate 
 treatment of subjects, in fulness of material and com- 
 pleteness of range it excels the more original, suggestive 
 and profound work of Aristotle. 
 
 Among both Greeks and Romans there was ample pro- 
 vision for instruction in the art of oratory. 1 In fact this 
 was the chief element of ancient education. So we find 
 that at the coming of Christianity rhetorical treatises, 
 teachers and schools abounded, many speeches of the 
 
 1 Information is obtainable from the works of Grote and Jebb, 
 previously named ; and from Davidson's Aristotle and the Ancient 
 Educational Ideals, Hatch's Hibbert Lectures for 1888 on The In- 
 fluence of Greek Ideas and Usages upon the Christian Church, and 
 from a very entertaining and instructive article by M. Gaston Bois- 
 sier in the Revue des Deux Mondes for March 15, 1884 (Vol. 
 LXII), p. 316 ff. on Instruction Publique dans I'Empire Romain.
 
 1 8 INTRODUCTION 
 
 greatest Greek and Roman orators were preserved and 
 potent in the culture of the age, and these two languages 
 were dominant in all the social life of the peoples, among 
 whom the new religion was to make its principal advances 
 for centuries to come. 
 
 The Grseco-Roman oratory at its best estate was lack- 
 ing in one great essential to the highest eloquence. It 
 had no religious content, and but incidentally a moral 
 one. The accepted division of oratory into its kinds was 
 threefold: deliberative, or political; forensic, or judicial; 
 and epideictic, or declamatory. The first two are easily 
 enough understood, the last is not so clear. At first it 
 was meant to embrace funeral or memorial orations, or 
 panegyrical discourses upon living persons, or patriotic 
 speeches, or, as Aristotle defines it, was concerned chiefly 
 with praise and blame. But in this classification of ora- 
 tions there is notable omission of the didactic element. 
 There was nothing in ancient oratory corresponding to 
 our lecture platform or pulpit. Lectures by teachers were 
 hardly considered as belonging to oratory at all, and their 
 declamations given as models to their pupils would prob- 
 ably have been classed under the third division, if any- 
 where. Of course, moral teaching could, and to some ex- 
 tent actually did, find place in all three kinds of speeches, 
 but it was incidental to their main purpose in each case. 
 A fourth kind of oratory, not that of the deliberative 
 political assembly, not that of the law courts, not 
 that of the memorial or panegyrical occasion, but 
 that which as its main purpose should convey in- 
 struction with a view to ethical and religious culture 
 and activity, was wanted before the trained gift of 
 eloquence could find its noblest content and its best 
 use. We are now to see how this lack was supplied. 
 When Roman imperialism had conspired with other 
 causes to ruin deliberative eloquence and depress the 
 other two, Christian preaching gradually arose to devote 
 oratory to a new service and fill it with a grander mes- 
 sage. But before we reach the historical confluence of 
 ancient oratory with distinctively Christian eloquence we 
 must trace the separate line of development along which 
 in the order of divine Providence gospel preaching arose. 
 
 In the ancient Hebrew prophecy we have exactly the
 
 INTRODUCTION 19 
 
 counterpart, in respect of moral and religious content and 
 aim, to the Graeco-Roman oratory. Of distinctively poli- 
 tical, judicial, or declamatory speaking the Israelites prob- 
 ably had little or none, but their prophets were an order of 
 orators charged with divine messages and devoted to the 
 moral and spiritual culture of the people. We must 
 beware of thinking exclusively of the predictive element 
 in the work of Israel's prophets. 1 " It was by no means 
 the main business of the prophets to predict the future, 
 as people are now apt to suppose from our modern use 
 of the word prophet, but they spoke of the past and the 
 present, often much more than of the future. The pro- 
 phets reminded the people of their sins, exhorted them 
 to repent, and instructed them in religious and moral, 
 in social and personal duties; and when they predicted 
 the future it was almost always in the way of warning or 
 encouragement, as a motive to forsake their sins and 
 
 serve God The prophets were preachers." 
 
 These words of Dr. Broadus state the case clearly and 
 well. 
 
 In the earliest ages it is said that " Enoch also, the 
 seventh from Adaim, prophesied." 2 And Noah is called 
 " a preacher of righteousness." 3 Thus accepted Hebrew 
 tradition recognized the beginnings of distinctively 
 religious oratory in the most remote patriarchal times. 
 The blessings of Isaac* and of Jacob 5 are examples of 
 formal and solemn religious address in the poetical style. 
 The book of Deuteronomy is a series of addresses repeat- 
 ing and expanding and enforcing in this form much of the 
 legislation of Moses. Later as a sort of supplement we 
 have the two farewell discourses of Joshua, 6 filled with 
 earnest and wholesome counsel and appeal. 7 
 
 From the time of Samuel (B.C. 1050) to that of 
 Jeremiah (B.C 629), was the great prophetic period in 
 Israel's history. Within this time appeared Samuel, 
 Nathan, Gad, Azariah, Elijah, Elisha, Joel, Micah, 
 
 1 See Broadus, History of Preaching, pp. 10-18. 
 
 2 Jude 14. 8 2 Peter 2:5. * Gen. 27 : 27-29. 
 
 6 Gen. 49 : 3-27. * Josh, chaps. 23 and 24. 
 
 7 The poetical prophecies of the singularly gifted Oriental seer 
 Balaam, and the lofty discourses in the drama of Job are beside 
 the direct line of Hebrew prophecy in the proper sense.
 
 20 INTRODUCTION 
 
 Micaiah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and others. 1 These men of 
 God came to people and kings with their certified divine 
 messages, often introducing their great addresses with 
 the formula, " Thus saith the Lord." They pleaded, 
 warned, rebuked, encouraged; they crushed with sov- 
 ereign threatenings and judgments; they built up with 
 glowing divine promises of unspeakable and enduring 
 glory to come. By no means are all the incidents of their 
 careers related, nor is more than a fraction of their ad- 
 dresses preserved, but judging from what is known of 
 their lives and works we surely gather vivid impressions 
 of the greatness of their characters, the strength of their 
 influence, and the lasting value of their discourses. 
 
 The last period of Hebrew prophecy extended from 
 Ezekiel and Daniel to Malachi, from the exile to the 
 restoration and later. In this period of the Jewish na- 
 tional life the character and influence of prophecy did not 
 materially change. It was still the voice of God through 
 chosen men to his chosen people. In form and content it 
 still ministered to the religious life and aims of the people, 
 both by preaching to the present and pointing to the 
 future. But for long years the voice of prophecy was 
 mute, awaiting the coming of the Promised One, the 
 dawn of a new era. 
 
 During this period the worship of the Jews had a very 
 important development, and one specially significant in 
 the history of preaching. This was the hortatory exposi- 
 tion of the Sacred Writings in connection with the ser- 
 vices of the synagogue. While the actual origin of the 
 synagogue has not been definitely fixed, the growth of 
 the institution into an established feature of Jewish 
 religious life occurs during the time now under review. 
 In the eighth chapter of Nehemiah there is record of the 
 great occasion, soon after the return from the exile, when 
 " Ezra the scribe stood upon a pulpit of wood, which they 
 had made for the purpose," and others assisted him, and 
 
 1 For a good treatment of the homiletical value of the preach- 
 ing of the prophets see Stalker's The Preacher and His Models. 
 The matter finds instructive comment in Ker's Lectures on the 
 History of Preaching, and in James' Message and the Messengers. 
 For a discussion from the point of view of the modern critical 
 school see George Adam Smith's Modern Criticism and the 
 Preaching of the Old Testament.
 
 INTRODUCTION 21 
 
 " they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and 
 gave the sense, and caused [the people] to understand 
 the reading." Philo 1 gives testimony to the effect that at 
 the time of the introduction of Christianity the services of 
 the synagogue, " consisted chiefly of oral instruction and 
 of free extended speaking." We find both our Lord and 
 the Apostles availing themselves of this custom to pro- 
 claim the gospel. Thus we see that there was a clearly 
 defined basis for Christian preaching in the sacred speech 
 of that people from whom in the divine ordering of events 
 Christianity sprang. And so in the widely separated 
 lines of development which the sacred and the secular 
 oratory of the ancient world pursued before the coming of 
 our Lord, God was laying the foundation for the use of 
 public speech as a means in the spread and the establish- 
 ment of Christianity. Prophecy was preparation only. 
 The proclaiming of the gospel of the kingdom of God was 
 the actual initial step in the historic progress of Christian 
 preaching. In this proclamation there are three distinct 
 but successive, and therefore not wholly separate stages, 
 namely, the preaching of John the Baptist, of our Lord 
 himself, and of the Apostles and their fellow-workers. 
 
 John was the connecting link between the Old Testa- 
 ment and the New, the last and greatest of the prophets, 
 the first preacher of the new dispensation. The char- 
 acter of the man was marked by great originality (though 
 he was much like Elijah) and power. He was brusque, 
 bold, candid, ready; but modest, devoted and faithful. 
 The great fact that he announced was the immediate com- 
 ing of the promised reign of God, " the Kingdom of 
 Heaven is at hand." The promised Messiah was now 
 about to arrive, and he himself was but a voice preparing 
 the way of the Lord. In the greater work and glory 
 of the Coming One he must be lost to view. Along with 
 announcing this fact he had a great duty to enjoin, that 
 of immediate preparation for the kingdom by a sincere 
 
 1 Quoted by Hoppin, Homiletics, p. 23. On the relation of 
 synagogue worship to preaching see Maybaum, Jiidische Homi- 
 letik, Einleitung. This writer, however, makes the mistake of 
 leaving out of his definition of preaching the prophetic element 
 and confining it to the exposition of Scripture. Something also 
 may be found on the subject in Scherer's (Eng. trans.) Jewish 
 People in the Time of Christ, Vol. II., p. 54.
 
 22 INTRODUCTION 
 
 and fruitful repentance. This he enforced by many an 
 apt illustration and example, many a strong and brave 
 application. His work was fortified and his message of 
 repentance strikingly symbolized in the rite of baptism 
 from which he gets his name. 1 It had not been uncom- 
 mon for the older prophets to employ external things as 
 signs, tokens, illustrations of their messages. John does 
 not seem to have used the synagogues, but to have 
 preached altogether to the crowds in the open air. In 
 both character and work he has received the highest pos- 
 sible endorsement in the encomium of his Lord, " Among 
 them that are born of women there hath not arisen a 
 greater than John the Baptist." 
 
 In the work of Jesus himself, however, lies the main 
 foundation of Christian preaching for all time. 2 It is 
 not within the plan of this volume to give a thorough 
 study of our Lord as a preacher. The theme demands a 
 book to itself. 3 The purpose here is merely to indicate the 
 salient features of Christ's preaching as the basis of sub- 
 sequent historic development. 
 
 In comparing our Lord's preaching with that of John 
 we notice that its burden was the same, but with a dif- 
 ference. Matthew tells us, 4 " From that time Jesus began 
 to preach, and to say, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven 
 is at hand." But as we go on to study the contents of his 
 teaching from the beginning to the close of his ministry 
 we observe more and more that the burden of his message 
 is himself. He proclaims himself as the fulfillment of 
 prophecy, as the Son, and therefore, the revealer of God, 
 and cautiously at first, but with increasing distinctness, 
 as the king of a spiritual realm, and finally throughout 
 his ministry as the Saviour and Deliverer of men, the 
 Way to God, the Good Shepherd who giveth his life for 
 
 1 Cf. Broadus, History of Preaching, pp. 19-21. 
 
 2 For the preaching of our Lord see Broadus, op. cit., pp. 22- 
 36, also his Lectures on Jesus of Nazareth, p. 43 ff. ; Pattison's 
 History of Christian Preaching, p. 14 ff; Stalker's Imago Christi, 
 chaps. XII.-XV. ; Armitage's Lectures on Preaching, Lects. I., II. 
 Of course the subject is touched in most of the numerous works 
 on the Life of Christ. 
 
 8 Such a book has recently appeared in the Jesus und seine Pre- 
 digt of Erich von Schrenck. But his treatment is rather exegetical 
 and theological than homiletical. * Matt. 4 : 17.
 
 INTRODUCTION 23 
 
 the sheep, the Redeemer who would give his life as a 
 ransom for many. He is his own gospel. 
 
 Accordingly the duty which he enjoins is not distinc- 
 tively repentance (though this is understood) as prepara- 
 tion for a coming Lord, but rather faith in the Lord who 
 has now come. He offers himself and his work to the 
 acceptance of his hearers. He is the revelation and em- 
 bodiment of God's gracious ways with men, and as such 
 he is to be received and trusted. His message is, " Come 
 unto me .... and I will give you rest." 1 .... 
 " Believe in God, and believe in me." 2 . . . . " He that 
 believeth on me hath everlasting life." 3 
 
 The occasions and audiences of his preaching varied 
 greatly. He sometimes conversed with individuals, an- 
 nouncing the great truths and distinctive principles of his 
 gospel. Sometimes he talked with small groups, and 
 sometimes he preached to great multitudes. Now we 
 see him in the synagogue on the Sabbath day using the 
 opportunity of worship for the proclamation of his mes- 
 sage, and again we find him by sea or on mountain declar- 
 ing the principles of his kingdom to those whom his 
 teaching or his miracles had attracted. 
 
 The character of his preaching was a wonderful union 
 of power and of charm. Its dominant note was authority, 
 supreme confidence in God, in himself, in his mission and 
 message. He ranged from scathing invective to tender 
 invitation; he employed argument, aphoristic saying, 
 parable, exposition of Scripture, with wonderful skill 
 and effect ; he mingled with all a yearning for men's good 
 and God's honor which abides the ideal motive for all 
 worthy preaching. 
 
 During his ministry our Lord twice 4 sent out bands of 
 his disciples, two and two, to proclaim his kingdom. He 
 gave them both their message and practical instructions 
 for their guidance. It is not impossible that he did more 
 of this work than these two recorded instances. After the 
 Ascension we find the Apostles and others waiting at 
 Jerusalem for the promised enduement of the Holy 
 Spirit. In the book of Acts and in the Epistles we have 
 traces of the Apostles' preaching after Pentecost had 
 
 1 Matt. II : 28. * John 14 : 1. * John 6 : 47 ; et sim. 
 
 * Matt. chap. 10 ; Luke chap. 10.
 
 24 INTRODUCTION 
 
 given them their mission. Adequate treatment of this 
 topic also does not fall within the scope of this treatise, 
 but as the transition from the personal ministry of Jesus 
 to the later history, the preaching of the Apostles and 
 their colaborers claims at least a brief consideration. 1 
 
 The apostolic preaching was accompanied by more im- 
 mediate and consciously felt manifestation and direction 
 of the Holy Spirit than was the case with later preacb- 
 ing. Along with this there were certain supernatural gifts 
 which seem to have been granted for the attestation of 
 the apostolic ministry, and to have continued with declin- 
 ing frequency and clearness a little way into the post- 
 apostolic age. Such were the gifts of tongues, healings, 
 miracles. 
 
 The content of the preaching was fundamentally the 
 same as that of the Lord, with only the important differ- 
 ence made by the great facts of his crucifixion, resurrec- 
 tion and ascension, and the great promise of his second 
 coming. Christ himself was still the central and dominant 
 theme of the gospel message. Both repentance and faith, 
 the union of John's burden with that of his Master, found 
 due emphasis in the apostolic preaching. It proclaims a 
 crucified, risen, reigning and coming Saviour and Lord. 
 It is universal in time, having touch with past, present and 
 future; in extent, reaching out to all men of every race 
 and class in the world ; and in character, holding the one 
 remedy for all sin, the one way of reconciliation with 
 God, the one path to eternal life. 
 
 In regard to method we see in the reported discourses 
 of the Acts, and inferentrally in the style and contents of 
 the Epistles, 2 that the Apostles were greatly influenced 
 by the ancient prophets in their general mode of address. 
 
 1 Cf. the works previously mentioned of Broadus, Pattison, 
 Stalker and Armitage. James does not treat the matter at length. 
 The numerous modern works on the church of the apostolic age 
 pay some attention to the preaching of the times. See, for ex- 
 ample, Lightfoot's notes to his commentaries on Galatians and 
 Philippians; Hort's Ecclesia; Lindsay's Church and Ministry in 
 the Early Centuries; Allen's Christian Institutions; articles in 
 Hastings' Bible Dictionary, and many others. In most works of 
 this nature some caution is requisite in the reading, because of 
 the tendency toward the over-use of inference and conjecture, 
 from confessedly scanty materials, to establish critical or eccle- 
 siastical theories. 8 Cf. Broadus, History of Preaching, p. 36 ff .
 
 INTRODUCTION 25 
 
 Unless Paul's discourse at Athens 1 be an exception, we 
 can detect little if any trace of influence from the ancient 
 classical oratory. The two permanent elements of 
 Christian preaching appear: evangelism and instruction. 
 There is free speaking to men anywhere and everywhere 
 in announcement of the gospel and in urgency of its 
 claims, and there is orderly and authorized public instruc- 
 tion and edification of believers in their assemblies for 
 worship, based upon the ancient Scriptures and the gospel 
 tradition now becoming Scripture. For these ends there 
 are apostles and prophets, elders, pastors and teachers, 
 and evangelists. Thus in all essential respects we find in 
 the apostolic preaching the regulative basis for Christian 
 preaching in all times. The preaching of John was 
 transitional, that of Jesus was unique, that of the Apostles 
 and their fellow workers is our abiding model. 
 
 We are ready now to begin to trace the history of 
 preaching from its origins. In the ancient classical ora- 
 tory we have the artistic and effective use of language, as 
 an instrument for the proclamation and enforcement of 
 truth, brought to its highest degree of power. In the 
 fervid moral and religious addresses of the Old Testa- 
 ment prophets we see exemplified the best possible em- 
 ployment to which oratory can be put. In the Christian 
 gospel as proclaimed by Jesus and his appointed spokes- 
 men we perceive the greatest and best content with which 
 oratory can be charged for all time. On these historic 
 foundations the fabric of preaching has been reared 
 through the Christian centuries. We must give attention 
 to its outlines. 
 
 4. OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 History cannot be forced into arbitrary divisions, for at 
 the borders there is always overlapping. The history of 
 any age is dependent upon the preceding, and contribu- 
 tory to the subsequent ages; the history of any people 
 touches that of other peoples ; and the history of any sub- 
 ject is related to that of kindred subjects. Yet there 
 is manifest propriety, not to say necessity, in having divi- 
 sions of all the sorts indicated. Also the marking of 
 *Acts 17:22-31.
 
 26 INTRODUCTION 
 
 periods in the history of any people or subject is at once a 
 convenience of study and a requirement of the subject- 
 matter; but we must always remember that these bound- 
 aries are only approximate, never exact. It is true that in 
 the course of events there are different facts and phases 
 of life to be dealt with, and certain decisive occurrences or 
 strongly marked changes emphasize their dates as turn- 
 ing points. But while some dates are practically accepted 
 by all historians as suitable turning points, it is evident 
 that particular considerations of people, place, subject, 
 and the like, give rise to unavoidable differences in locat- 
 ing the exact time for recording the change or event. 
 Thus while the division of general history into ancient, 
 mediaeval and'ntodern is generally accepted, the particular 
 dates of the transitions are by no means unanimously 
 agreed upon; and for particular countries and subjects 
 there must of necessity be different periods. The epochs 
 of English history, for example, do not coincide with 
 those of German or French history, nor the dates of the 
 history of philosophy with those of the history of art, of 
 literature, or of preaching ; though at some points there is 
 interesting connection because of some general event or 
 mode of thought influencing all, or because of special 
 relations at various times. Again, the assignment of 
 periods must be largely the prerogative of each historian, 
 according to his conception of his subject-matter, or his 
 practical aim in writing, or other subjective considera- 
 tions. In surveying the history of preaching as a whole 
 we shall find that its course corresponds, as we should 
 naturally expect, in marked degree with that of both 
 general and ecclesiastical history; we shall note longer 
 and shorter seasons of varying character, prosperity and 
 power; and we shall be able to assign with at least ap- 
 proximate accuracy the dates which may be best assumed 
 as turning points. 
 
 After the death of the Apostles and their fellow 
 workers there is a time of decline, until gradually preach- 
 ing rises in power to its ancient culmination in the fourth 
 and early fifth century. Then it falls into a long night of 
 obscurity and weakness, till with the preaching of the 
 Crusades and the rise of Scholasticism it begins to revive, 
 and reaches the height of its mediaeval power in the thir-
 
 INTRODUCTION 2J 
 
 teenth century. Then again there is a general and fear- 
 ful falling off in purity and power ; but the Reformation 
 comes as another high wave gathering force slowly to its 
 crest in the early part of the sixteenth century. After 
 that, the unity of Christendom being forever broken, and 
 other things cooperating, the modern period exhibits so 
 great diversities in the character of preaching in dif- 
 ferent lands that it is not so easy to describe preaching in 
 general terms. For while it flourishes in one country, 
 it is often depressed in another, and while exhibiting one 
 character in one sect or people, it may have another in 
 others. Thus during the ascendency of Puritan doctrinal 
 preaching in England there was the culmination of Cath- 
 olic oratorical preaching in France; and the progress of 
 the Wesleyan revival in England was contemporary with 
 the dry-rot of rationalism in Germany. Yet in a general 
 way, allowing for exceptions of all sorts, it is not inac- 
 curate to describe the period next after the Reformation 
 as one of decline, wherein doctrinal controversies too 
 much occupied the pulpit; and while this was especially 
 true of Germany it also found illustration elsewhere. The 
 later modern period, chiefly in the nineteenth century, is 
 undoubtedly the greatest in the history of the Christian 
 pulpit, leaving out, of course, the originating period 
 which is not included in our scheme, and for many 
 reasons is unique and not to be compared with any sub- 
 sequent one. Both the revival and the missionary im- 
 pulses which have characterized this last period entitle 
 it preeminently to be called the evangelical age. Its 
 close is placed at the end of the nineteenth century only 
 for convenience, for the obvious reason that even if we 
 contemporaries seem to recognize the beginnings of a new 
 epoch in preaching about this time, we cannoj foresee its 
 general character and course with sufficient distinctness 
 to give it limits and a name. But waiving the matter of 
 dates and boundaries as impossible, and looking only at 
 the great tendencies in the religious life of our times, we 
 should not perhaps guess very far amiss if we predict that 
 later historians may have to describe the period of preach- 
 ing on which we have just entered as the humanitarian or 
 social age. 
 
 Bearing in mind the explanations made, we may assume
 
 28 INTRODUCTION 
 
 six fairly well defined periods for the general history of 
 preaching, as follows : 
 
 Period I. A.D. 70-430. The Ancient, or Patristic, 
 Age. From the times of the Apostolic Fathers to the 
 close of the labors of Chrysostom (d. 407) and of 
 Augustine (d. 430). 
 
 Period II. 430-1095. The Early Mediaeval, or Dark, 
 Age. After the times of Chrysostom and Augustine up to 
 the preaching of the first Crusade, by Peter the Hermit 
 and Pope Urban II. 
 
 Period III. 1095-1361. The Central Mediaeval, or 
 Scholastic, Age. From the times of Peter the Hermit and 
 Urban II. to the close of Tauler's (d. 1361) and the 
 beginning of Wiclif's (ordained 1361) ministry. 
 
 Period IV. 1361-1572. The Transitional, or Reforma- 
 tory, Age. From the times of Tauler and Wiclif to the 
 death of John Knox, the la'st of the great Reformers. 
 
 Period V. 1572-1738. The Early Modern, or Dog- 
 matic, Age. After the times of the great Reformers up 
 to the beginning of the English revival under White- 
 field and Wesley. 
 
 Period VI. 1738-1900. The later Modern, or Evan- 
 gelical, Age. From the times of Whitefield and Wesley 
 to the end of the nineteenth century. 
 
 In the present volume it is proposed to treat of only 
 the first four of these periods, tracing the general history 
 of preaching down to the close of the work of the great 
 Reformers. Of these Zwingli died in 1531, Luther in 
 1546, Calvin in 1564, and Knox in 1572. While the work 
 of the Reformation went on in its effects and struggles 
 beyond this time, the preaching of the Reformation 
 reached its culmination in these men and their con- 
 temporaries.
 
 PERIOD I 
 THE ANCIENT, OR PATRISTIC, AGE 
 
 A.D. 70-430 
 
 From the times of the Apostolic Fathers to the death of Chrysostom 
 (407) and of Augustine (430) 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 PREACHING DURING THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES. 
 
 In the introduction some attention has been paid to the 
 origin of preaching in the work of Christ and his 
 Apostles. We begin here to trace its development and 
 progress from this beginning on through the ages down 
 to the close of the work of the great Reformers in the 
 sixteenth century. The first general period laid out for 
 our study extends from the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 
 to the death of the great theologian, bishop and preacher, 
 Augustine, in 430. In this chapter only so much of that 
 period as covers the first three centuries will be brought 
 under review. 
 
 i. GENERAL VIEW OF THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES. 
 
 The fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 marks the end of the 
 Jewish commonwealth, and is in many ways a significant 
 and impressive event in general and church history. It 
 also has a particular bearing on the history of preaching, 
 and in time nearly coincides with the death of the apostles 
 Peter and Paul, who probably suffered under Nero in 68. 
 
 At the end of the third and early in the fourth century 
 Christianity was strong enough to withstand the last
 
 30 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 furious persecution (under Diocletian), and induce Con- 
 stantine to change the attitude of the imperial govern- 
 ment from contempt and opposition to tolerance and 
 patronage. Within these centuries there were many 
 events and forces which had great influence in determin- 
 ing the character and shaping the future of Christianity 
 as an institution, and likewise profoundly affected the 
 development of preaching. And so for a proper under- 
 standing of the course of preaching it is fitting that we 
 first give at least a hurried glance at the general state of 
 the Empire and of Christianity during these centuries. 
 
 Titus, the conqueror of Jerusalem, fell heir to an 
 empire which, extending from Rome and Italy as a 
 centre, reached westward, and included Spain and 
 Portugal ; northwestward it took in France, the Nether- 
 lands and England ; northward it held the German debat- 
 able territories on both sides of the Rhine ; northeastward 
 it claimed sovereignty to the Danube, and sometimes 
 beyond, but could not always make good its claims in this 
 direction; eastward it took in Dalmatia, Thrace, Greece, 
 Asia Minor, and Armenia; southeastward it held the 
 ancient lands of Egypt, Syria, Palestine, and far in to 
 where Parthian and Persian disputed its eager lust of 
 power by the Euphrates and Tigris; southward it em- 
 braced the territories of its ancient rival Carthage, and the 
 provinces of Northern Africa stretching westward to the 
 ocean, where at the Straits of Gibraltar the circuit is com- 
 pleted. 
 
 The varied character of the population of this mighty 
 empire is, of course, evident at a glance, nor was it pos- 
 sible for even so powerful a government as that of Rome 
 to weld these varied nations into a homogeneous people. 
 Yet, with many minute variations, the Graeco-Roman 
 type of civilization was generally prevalent; and the use 
 of both the Greek and Latin languages was widely spread. 
 In the East the extension of Greek ideas and the con- 
 quest of Alexander had prepared the way for the pre- 
 dominance and perpetuation of the Hellenic elements of 
 the dual culture; while in the West the Latinizing of 
 North Africa, Spain and Gaul, partly begun under repub- 
 lican and early achieved under imperial rule, emphasized 
 the Roman elements. The Eastern Empire was essen-
 
 THE ANCIENT, OR PATRISTIC, AGE 31 
 
 tially Greek with infusion of Latin and Oriental ingre- 
 dients; the Western Empire was essentially Roman with 
 infusion of Hellenic and barbarian ingredients. The 
 failure of Rome to conquer and assimilate the Germanic 
 peoples as it had done the Iberian and Keltic races left 
 an open door for barbarian conquest, and hastened, soon 
 after the permanent division, the downfall of the West- 
 ern Empire. The surging and mingling of races, with 
 all accompanying forces of discord and corruption, were 
 fairly under way in Vespasian's time, and went on with 
 marked results throughout our period. 
 
 Building on the foundations of the older Roman rule, 
 the wonderful political genius of Caesar and of Augustus 
 had constructed a fabric which stood the shock of the 
 tyrannies and crimes of their degenerate followers till 
 Vespasian retrieved the fallen glories of imperial rule, 
 and his successors except Domitian, and until Corn- 
 modus governed with great ability. Confusion followed, 
 but Diocletian at the end of the third century again made 
 imperial rule strong and respected. But we should go far 
 astray if we regarded the imperial court and headquarters 
 alone in our study of Roman government. The provinces 
 and cities of the empire were also fields for the display 
 of that marvellous administrative faculty which dis- 
 tinguished the Roman people. It was their settled policy 
 not to interfere with local and popular institutions any 
 further than was necessary to the maintenance of their 
 military supremacy and the management of the imperial 
 revenues. But these items necessarily involved the enact- 
 ment of many laws and the general administration of 
 justice. And thus in various ways, throughout this 
 vast extent of lands and among peoples so diverse, the 
 complicated system of Roman government held for ages 
 its mighty sway over the most active and progressive 
 races of mankind. 
 
 The imperial succession, and the characters and doings 
 of the emperors during this period were all forces of 
 importance in shaping events. The confusion after the 
 wicked and tyrannical Nero was ended by the accession 
 of the able general and ruler Vespasian, whose son Titus, 
 the conqueror of Jerusalem, followed in a short though 
 promising reign, to be himself followed for fifteen years
 
 32 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 by the mad tyrant Domitian. Then followed the " five 
 good emperors " Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus 
 Pius, Marcus Aurelius whose mostly beneficent reigns 
 filled out not quite a century (96-180). After the good 
 emperors came, through a little more than a century 
 (180306), a long succession of short reigns. From Corn- 
 modus to Constantine were more than thirty emperors. 
 Many of them were bad, some unfortunate, a few were 
 able rulers. Diocletian associated others with himself, 
 divided the empire, and thus paved the way for discord 
 and civil wars. Meantime we are more concerned with 
 the rise and growth of another power destined to play 
 even a greater part than Rome in the history of the 
 world, and that is Christianity. 
 
 Already in Paul's lifetime that apostle could write 1 
 of the gospel as being " in all the world bearing fruit and 
 increasing ; " his own extensive labors are familiarly 
 known, and it is reasonable to suppose that even at the 
 commencement of our period the gospel had at least been 
 made known in all parts of the empire. Soon it had 
 reached even beyond those bounds, and by the end of the 
 time we have in view it had adherents in all the world. 
 " From Britain to India the name of Christ was hon- 
 ored." 2 How numerous these adherents were at any 
 given time it is of course impossible to say. They were 
 certainly a minority of the population, but yet a very 
 strong minority, even at the time of Diocletian's perse- 
 cution. 
 
 As Christianity was not a legalized religion till Con- 
 stantine, the imperial policy before that time wavered 
 between toleration and persecution, and this lack of a 
 settled attitude is illustrated among both the bad and 
 the good emperors. Thus Nero, Domitian and Maximin 
 were persecutors, but so were Marcus Aurelius and Dio- 
 cletian. Trajan and Hadrian were tolerant, but so was 
 Caracalla. It was largely as popular feeling or the 
 whim of the emperor pleased. 
 
 Not only in the outward relations of Christianity, but 
 also in its inner development there were noteworthy 
 events and forces. The simple polity and worship of the 
 
 'Col. i: 5, 6. 
 
 8 A. H. Newman, Manual of Church History, Vol. I., p. 291.
 
 THE ANCIENT, OR PATRISTIC, AGE 33 
 
 apostolic churches soon began to develop toward a more 
 complicated organization and a more elaborate ritual. 
 The pastors came to be distinguished as bishops and 
 presbyters, and the deacons were made an order of min- 
 istry. A powerful stimulus was given toward the develop- 
 ments of later times. Centering about the observance of 
 the Lord's Supper, and commemorating sacred seasons, 
 worship became at once enriched and corrupted by cere- 
 monial accretions, and grew into an imposing ritual. 
 
 Nothing in the history of the first three centuries of 
 Christianity is more notable than the defence and gradual 
 formulation of Christian doctrine. Already in apostolic 
 times the Gnostic heresies were beginning to appear. 
 Others followed, and the teachings of the gospel had to 
 be guarded from corrupt forms of professedly Chris- 
 tian faith. Opposition from without called forth the 
 Apologists with their statements, and the natural ten- 
 dency of study and speculation developed the theologians 
 of various schools. 
 
 2. PARTICULAR RELATION OF SOME EVENTS TO 
 PREACHING. 
 
 We shall have frequent occasion to observe that preach- 
 ing, like all other special institutions, is responsive to 
 general influences ; and so it shared, more or less directly, 
 in the whole character and movement of the age as 
 briefly outlined in the preceding section. But besides 
 this general influence of the times there are several mat- 
 ters of great importance which had a more particular 
 influence in shaping the development and character of 
 preaching. These were, the dispersion and final over- 
 throw of the Jews as a nation, the great extension of the 
 Roman empire, and the imperial persecutions of the 
 Christians. 
 
 From the time of the Captivity under the Assyrian 
 and Babylonian kings the Israelites had begun to be scat- 
 tered among the nations of the earth, and this movement 
 was accelerated during the time we are now studying 
 by the great events which then occurred. Already during 
 the labors of the Apostles there were Jewish communities 
 and synagogues in the chief cities which they visited;
 
 34 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 and these influenced preaching partly by the opportunity 
 they offered and the mode they suggested for the procla- 
 mation of the gospel, and partly also by the stimulus of 
 opposition and rejection which turned the Apostles and 
 early preachers more and more to the Gentiles. 
 
 In A. D. 70 the long and dreadful siege of Jerusalem 
 by the Roman armies ended in the capture and destruc- 
 tion of the city. The horrors of that awful event are 
 equaled in impressiveness only by its momentous lessons. 
 Israel had failed to meet the splendid opportunities of the 
 divine election. It now passes as a nation from the his- 
 toric page, leaving written behind it the warning moral of 
 its checkered story. The overthrow of the Holy City and 
 the destruction of the Temple published in tremendous 
 tones what the rejection and crucifixion of Jesus had 
 already made a settled thing, namely, the end of the Jew- 
 ish and the inauguration of the Christian dispensation, 
 as the special channel of God's revelation to men. The 
 first Christians were mostly Jews. After the overthrow 
 of Jerusalem they had no more a Jewish commonwealth 
 to live for they were citizens of the kingdom of heaven. 
 The effect of this change of view in their religious rela- 
 tions had its effect on the preaching of the sub-apostolic 
 age. Prophecy was fulfilled, and a new and impressive 
 message must go with the proclamation of the gospel to 
 all the world. The failure of all attempts to re-establish 
 the Jewish nation only marked finality upon what had 
 been so impressively taught by the fall of Jerusalem. 
 
 Let it be noted just here that the widest extent of the 
 Roman Empire was reached in this age, under the Em- 
 peror Trajan (A. D. 98-117) ; but both before and after 
 this time the vast and varied empire under one strong 
 government was a mighty force in the progress of civil- 
 ization, and thus lent its aid to the development of Chris- 
 tian preaching. The wide extent of Roman influence, 
 the great roads and lines of communication, the preva- 
 lence of the Greek and Latin languages, were all factors 
 of no small importance in that development. 
 
 We must now say a word as to the imperial persecu- 
 tions. Up to the beginning of the fourth century Chris- 
 tianity was an unlawful religion in the Roman Empire. 
 As such it was the object of popular hatred, and received
 
 THE ANCIENT, OR PATRISTIC, AGE 35 
 
 much social persecution. Sometimes also the govern- 
 ment was aroused to violent action against the Christians. 
 These imperial persecutions were rather spasmodic in 
 character, but some of them were very severe while they 
 lasted. Some were local and some more extensive. The 
 worst of them were those under Marcus Aurelius (165), 
 Decius (250), Valerian (258), and Diocletian (303). 
 They did not suppress Christianity, but made Christians 
 more earnest and determined. This deep earnestness 
 no doubt made itself felt in the preaching of the period. 
 Another way in which the persecutions affected preach- 
 ing was more external. They hindered, though they 
 could not prevent, the gathering of large assemblies; 
 and they interfered with and retarded the building of 
 churches. Thus the preaching in large measure lacked 
 these aids to oratorical development, and as a matter of 
 fact it remained rather informal and personal in char- 
 acter throughout this early, epoch. Other causes con- 
 tributed to this, but it is not unlikely that the persecutions 
 had something to do with it. 
 
 3. THE INNER DEVELOPMENT OF PREACHING. 
 
 More important, however, for us is the inner develop- 
 ment of preaching during the second and third centuries. 
 It is an obscure period, and we therefore cannot trace 
 the development with as much accuracy and clearness as 
 is desirable; but there are not wanting some valuable 
 hints and data whereby a tolerably distinct view of the 
 preaching of the age may be presented. That there was 
 great decline in the power of preaching after the death of 
 the Apostles and on to the times of Hippolytus, Origen 
 and Cyprian in the latter part of the second and early part 
 of the third century seems quite certain. For about a 
 hundred years after the death of Peter and Paul (say 
 from 70-170) the traces of preaching are extremely 
 scanty, and do not exhibit any great degree of power. The 
 very meagreness of our information, while it prevents our 
 forming a safe judgment, is in itself an indication of 
 weakness. For had there been a very powerful preach- 
 ing in this era it is hardly conceivable that it would not 
 have left more evidence of itself both in tradition and
 
 36 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 in literature. But toward the end of the second century, 
 with the work of Clement and Origen at Alexandria, 
 and of Irenaeus and Hippolytus in the West there is clear 
 evidence of increased power in the ministry of the word. 
 And this rise of strength prepared the way for the greater 
 oratorical triumphs of the fourth century. But taking in 
 the whole period of about two hundred and thirty years 
 from the close of the apostolic age to the beginning of the 
 fourth century, we may group the characteristics of 
 preaching about the following points : ( i ) the preacher 
 and his audience, (2) the contents of the preaching, (3) 
 the form of the discourse, and (4) the preservation of 
 sermons. 
 
 The essential personal factors in all speaking the 
 speaker and hearer are necessarily to be considered in 
 preaching, and their contribution to the character of the 
 discourse must be duly estimated. Was preaching in this 
 early time confined to an official class, or was it regarded 
 as the privilege and duty of every believing man? It 
 is probable that the regular church preaching, the exhor- 
 tation or teaching addressed to the congregations of be- 
 lievers, was at first quite free, and was done by those who 
 would volunteer for the service. At the same time it 
 appears that even in apostolic times there was, parallel 
 with this freedom and voluntariness, distinct recognition 
 of " teachers " 1 and of " evangelists " also, in addition 
 to the "apostles" and the "prophets," all of whom were in 
 some sense especially charged with the duty of preaching. 
 In regard to heralding, or evangelistic preaching, this 
 would naturally vary from the conversational appeal and 
 teaching, addressed to one or a few, up to the more ex- 
 tended and formal discourse addressed to a crowd or to 
 some orderly assemblage. All this, no doubt, was guided 
 by circumstances in the nature of things preaching 
 cannot be reduced to one type at any time. But it was 
 natural that along with the developments in church or- 
 ganization, and the tendency toward increasing officialism 
 therein displayed, there should also be a growing ten- 
 dency to confine the work of preaching to an official class 
 of duly authorized men. It appears 2 that very soon after 
 
 *i Cor. 12:28 and Eph. 4:11, 12. 
 
 "Paniel's Geschichte der Christlichen Beredsamkeit, S. 73 ff. J 
 Rothe's Geschichte der Predigt, S. 8.
 
 THE ANCIENT, OR PATRISTIC, AGE 37 
 
 apostolic times preaching in the Christian assemblies was 
 confined to the presbyters and bishops. Evangelistic 
 preaching (which was more informal), and personal deal- 
 ing with individuals (or smaller groups than assemblies) 
 were not sharply distinguished and were recognized as 
 the duty of all ; but the exigencies of orderly worship 
 and correct teaching required the appointment and quali- 
 fication of a special class. How far apostolic initiative 
 and sanction were followed in this matter does not clearly 
 appear, but the qualifications required of the bishops in 
 the third chapter of First Timothy, as well as sotne other 
 indications, show that apostolic authority was not wholly 
 lacking. The Didache x mentions travelling " apostles " 
 and " prophets," as well as settled " teachers," who must 
 be supported ; and also notices that the " teachers " at 
 least were elected by the churches. 
 
 In the latter part of our period it is clear that the 
 regular church preaching has now come to be generally 
 recognized as the duty of a special class. Others than 
 presbyters could not formally preach in the churches 
 without especial permission of the bishop, and it seems 
 that the privilege was not granted to the presbyters them- 
 selves when a bishop was present without the request or 
 sanction of the higher officer. The case of Origen, 
 though peculiar, illustrates the point; at first he was 
 permitted and encouraged to expound the Scriptures at 
 Alexandria, but on his being ordained a presbyter at 
 Caesarea in later years his bishop, Demetrius of Alexan- 
 dria, urgently objected. 2 In the less formal evangelistic 
 preaching there does not seem to have been any rigid 
 custom or rule. For Justin Martyr was never ordained a 
 presbyter, but he doubtless preached much. 
 
 In regard to the details of posture and delivery the 
 preacher usually sat, and spoke freely. 3 Eusebius 4 
 quotes Irenaeus as saying that he remembered " the very 
 place where the blessed Polycarp was accustomed to sit 
 
 1 See chaps, n, 12, 13, 15. For travelling preachers of a later 
 time see Eusebius, H. E., III., 27. Cf. Lindsay, The Church and 
 Ministry of the Early Centuries, chap. III. 
 
 2 Euseb., H. E., VI., 8, 23. 
 
 3 This was in accord with Hebrew custom (Matt. 5:1; Luke 
 4:20), but the Greek orators stood. 'H. E., V., 20.
 
 38 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 and discourse." But while the extemporaneous delivery 
 was the rule there is indication in at least one striking 
 relic of the early times the Ancient Homily that the 
 preacher sometimes read his discourse to the worshipping 
 assembly. Broadus remarks, 1 " The apostolical Epistles 
 w^re not in general expected to be read by all or by many 
 of those to whom they were sent, but were written ad- 
 dresses designed to be read 2 out in meeting and listened 
 to." Early Christian teachers, as Clement, Irenaeus and 
 others, followed the apostolic custom and wrote letters to 
 be read to the churches. From this there was a possible 
 transition to the reading of the address by the author 
 himself, and this quite certainly was done by the writer 
 of the ancient homily known as the Second Epistle of 
 Clement, though erroneously assigned to him. If this was 
 done in one instance, why not in others? Still all we can 
 say is that such cases of written and read discourses must 
 have been exceptions to the general rule of the freely 
 spoken address. 
 
 It is impossible to describe in general terms, with 
 any degree of accuracy, the character of the audiences 
 to which the preaching of the early centuries was ad- 
 dressed. The audiences were of course greatly varied 
 according to times, places and circumstances. The 
 two general classes of believers and unbelievers among 
 the hearers must be recognized; but we have to con- 
 sider whether any given audience was composed ex- 
 clusively or predominantly of one class or the other, of 
 whether the two classes were pretty evenly divided. 
 These conditions have always characterized the hearing 
 of Christian preaching, and they are too general to be of 
 any special significance in the age which we are now 
 studying, further than to occasion the remark that this 
 twofold or threefold character of the audiences must 
 already be dealt with, even in the beginnings of the his- 
 tory of preaching. Unbelievers were reached mainly by 
 personal interviews, but there must have been some 
 preaching to groups or crowds. In the apostolic times, 
 as we know from the book of Acts, frequent use was 
 made of the Jewish synagogues for proclaiming the 
 gospel to the unbelieving Jews, and also to the Gentiles 
 1 Hist. Prea., p. 36. a Rev. i : 3.
 
 who might be in attendance. After that time, however, 
 there must have been some falling off in this custom, as 
 the antagonism of the Jews was intensified, and as Chris- 
 tianity became more and more Gentile in its personnel. 
 Further, as the number of Christians grew, notwithstand- 
 ing persecution, there would be increased attendance 
 upon Christian worship by unbelievers, partly as led by 
 curiosity and interest, and partly because of social, do- 
 mestic, or other relations with Christian families. 1 Thus 
 in various ways opportunity would be given and em- 
 ployed for heralding the gospel to unbelievers. 
 
 The regular customary assemblies for Christian wor- 
 ship were, however, the principal audiences for preach- 
 ing. All through this period teaching and exhortation 
 appear as part of the established order of worship in the 
 churches. The custom came from the synagogue, and 
 has been perpetuated through all the centuries. In the 
 order of services, as was natural, the preaching usually 
 followed the reading of the Scriptures, of which it was 
 commonly a sort of exposition or hortatory application. 
 We must also bear in mind the mixed character of the 
 congregations even when properly called Christian. The 
 old and young were there, men and women, the new 
 convert and the tried and ripe believer, the hesitating and 
 the stanch, the half doubter and the loyal, the far-off 
 inquirer and the scoffing visitor, the nearer inquirers, of 
 two kinds, " energumens " and " catechumens." The 
 audiences were thus sufficiently varied in character to 
 require different modes of address as circumstances 
 might demand. 
 
 The material or contents of the early preaching did 
 not in general character present any marked contrast to 
 that which has ever since been the main staple of which 
 sermons are made, but there was, as always, great differ- 
 ence in the details of volume, of grasp, of relative im- 
 portance, and of presentation. The main elements of 
 Christian discourse were three: the apostolic tradition, 
 Scripture, and the personal contribution of the preacher. 
 The last was then and always has been a greatly variable 
 quantity, and the importance assigned to the first two 
 
 1 Paul clearly intimates the possible presence of unbelievers in 
 the assemblies for worship at Corinth in i Cor. 14 : 23.
 
 4O A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 has likewise varied much in different ages and in the 
 minds of different preachers. 
 
 Just after the Apostles, and while the canon of Scrip- 
 ture was forming, it is easy to see that the apostolic tra- 
 dition must justly have had a more prominent and au- 
 thoritative place than it could properly claim in later 
 times. For the Apostles themselves passed on to others 
 what they knew and had received concerning the great 
 facts and doctrines of the Christian faith. 1 Those who 
 le'arned these things from the Apostles and their fellow 
 laborers were the preachers of the early part of our 
 period, and in the next remove those who learned them 
 from the pupils of the apostolic men were the preachers 
 of at latest the middle part of it, while in the latter 
 part of this time the tradition still was comparatively 
 fresh. But in process of time and in passing from one 
 to another the newness became tarnished, accretions were 
 made, distortions occurred, heresies crept in, and trust- 
 worthiness declined. Such deterioration must have 
 soon set in, and later times only too sadly witness to the 
 evil wrought by giving undue authority to untrustworthy 
 legends, and to principles and customs falsely regarded 
 as descending straight from the Apostles. 
 
 But in the good providence of God as the value of 
 tradition declined the authority of Scripture, particularly 
 of the New Testament books, came to be more and more 
 recognized. The Old Testament scriptures had from the 
 first been received by our Lord and his first followers as 
 the sacred revelation of God to his chosen people. To 
 early Jewish-Christians these holy writings were part 
 both of their national heritage and of their new faith. 
 By early Gentile-Christians they were readily accepted as 
 God's word. The synagogue was the depository and 
 the interpreter of the Old Testament, and the church 
 easily and gladly received the sacred trust. Soon too 
 the written Christian tradition as embodied in the Gos- 
 pels and Acts began to correct or confirm the fainter 
 growing oral testimony, while the Letters of the Apostles, 
 carefully preserved, became the precious treasure of 
 doctrine and duty for all the churches. All during the 
 period under review the writings of the New Testament 
 *See Luke 1:1-4; i Cor. 11:2 (R. V.); 2 Tim. 2:2.
 
 THE ANCIENT, OR PATRISTIC, AGE 41 
 
 were coming more and more to be regarded as a part 
 of the inspired revelation of God; and thus the canon 
 of Scripture, substantially as we have it to-day, was 
 practically completed by the end of the third century. 
 Thus as the apostolic tradition became less direct, and 
 what passed for it grew more corrupt, the preachers were 
 furnished with that treasury of divine truth which the 
 true Christian pulpit has ever recognized as the source 
 of its teachings and the authority for its message. We 
 shall see as we go on more in detail how the preaching of 
 the early centuries dealt with the Scriptures in the way 
 of interpretation and application. The treatment was in- 
 adequate and often unwise, but in this first age, as in 
 all following ones, the Bible furnished the main basis 
 and the most valuable element of preaching. 
 
 There is yet to be mentioned the personal element. 
 Judging from the few remains that have come down to 
 us, we can see that what has always been true of preaching 
 since was true of it in the period we are studying. There 
 was more or less individual freedom in handling both 
 the scriptural and the traditional elements ; and the illus- 
 tration, reasoning, exposition, and application were 
 largely the preacher's own work. His personality < 
 thought, feeling, method must mingle with his sources 
 and characterize his product. 
 
 In form the sermons of the early times were unpre- 
 tentious addresses, as their name " homilies " conver- 
 sations, talks sufficiently indicates. They were without 
 much logical order, and give little if any indication of 
 a previously prepared outline. The character of the 
 audience would determine whether the talk should be 
 chiefly didactic or evangelistic, and the circumstances and 
 purpose of the preacher would decide whether it should 
 be principally doctrinal, expository, or hortatory ; or how 
 far any or all of these elements might be combined in one 
 discourse. There was progress both toward a more or- 
 derly structure and a more expository character, and 
 these tendencies were powerfully furthered by the ex- 
 ample and teaching of Origen toward the end of the 
 third century. Before his time Scripture was used in the 
 homilies, but rather by way of quotation and application 
 than as furnishing a text for exposition. But in his
 
 42 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 hands continuous exposition with hortatory application 
 became the rule. 
 
 In regard to the preservation and publication of ser- 
 mons the age, as in many other things, was one of be- 
 ginnings and tendencies. Sermon literature proper be- 
 longs to a later time. There is reason to suppose that in 
 many cases the material used in epistles and other trea- 
 tises had been first employed in oral address, and the 
 apostolic epistles and others, as we have seen, were much 
 of the nature of addresses. For sermons themselves, 
 then as now, there were two ways of preservation : to 
 be written by the preacher himself before or after deliv- 
 ery ; and to be reported by others during or after delivery, 
 with or without the author's revision. The Ancient 
 Homily, which will presently claim fuller notice, is an 
 example of the first method ; the numerous homilies of 
 Origen are an example of the second. 1 Shorthand writ- 
 ing (tachygraphy) was in vogue in those times, and 
 oral discourses were often reported in this way. It has 
 been reasonably conjectured 2 that the recognized supe- 
 riority and value of the expository over the hortatory 
 homilies led to the taking down and preservation of more 
 of the expository kind than of others. It is to this that we 
 owe our possession of comparatively so many more of 
 Origen's expository homilies than of others. We cannot 
 but wish that some of those old reporters had foreseen 
 and benevolently considered the scholarly curiosity of 
 our times. 
 
 4. THE PRINCIPAL PREACHERS OF THE AGE. 
 
 It is common to divide the literature of the first three 
 centuries into three groups: the Apostolic Fathers, the 
 Apologists, and the Ante-Nicene Theologians. While 
 this classification is like all similar ones in not being 
 rigidly accurate, it is very far from being arbitrary, for 
 it is founded in the nature of the material and it cor- 
 responds fairly well with the course of events. It is also 
 quite as convenient for the history of preaching as for 
 that of general Christian literature, and is therefore 
 
 1 Euseb., H. E., VI., 23 ; and L., 6. 
 
 2 Rothe, Gesch. der Pred., S. 13.
 
 43 
 
 adopted here. It will be noticed in the discussion follow- 
 ing that the time limits of the different groups overlap, 
 though there is succession. Thus the Apologists fol- 
 lowed the Apostolic Fathers, but began before their pre- 
 decessors had finished their work; and the Theologians 
 prior to the Nicene council were many of them con- 
 temporary with the later Apologists. 
 
 The literary remains embraced under the title Apostolic 
 Fathers consist of the writings of men who were, or may 
 reasonably be supposed to have been, in direct contact 
 with some of the Apostles themselves. Their age may 
 be considered as extending from the death of the 
 Apostles (68 or 100) to a date just past the middle of 
 the second century, say 160. The literature of the period 
 is scanty in amount and of little intrinsic value, but 
 because it is all that we have its relative importance is 
 beyond estimate. Its homiletical worth is almost nothing, 
 as it contains only one homily properly so-called, and 
 its notices of preaching are not very numerous or clear. 
 We need not discuss these writings, but only notice the 
 three foremost preachers of the time, and give some ac- 
 count of its only remaining sermon. 
 
 Polycarp (69?-! 55), bishop or pastor of the church at 
 Smyrna, was a loving disciple of John the Apostle. He 
 suffered martyrdom under the reign of Antoninus Pius 
 in 155. When asked to renounce his faith in view of the 
 stake he said that he had been serving his Lord for eighty- 
 six years and could not renounce him now. This would 
 put back the date of his birth or baptism to the year 69, 
 according as he meant all his life or all his Christian life. 
 He was a noble and beloved man and pastor. One of his 
 writings, an Epistle to the Philippians (date probably 
 before 150), remains, and indicates his pious character 
 and a warm earnestness which must have marked his 
 preaching. 
 
 Ignatius was bishop at Antioch. He also suffered 
 martyrdom, and the date of his death lies between the 
 years 107 and 115. There remain a number of epistles 
 attributed to him, but their genuineness is much disputed. 
 Allowing that a few, in substance at least, are really his, 
 they exhibit more intellectual power than Polycarp had 
 and a greater vehemence of nature, but less of poise,
 
 44 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 moderation, holiness. Yet he must have been a preacher 
 of considerable force. 
 
 The most important of the three, however, is perhaps 
 Clement of Rome (d. c. 100), whose Epistle to the 
 Corinthians, of date about 97, is the oldest specimen of 
 post-apostolic literature. He may be the Clement of 
 whom Paul speaks in Philippians 4:3, and was one of 
 the first bishops of the Roman church. His letter shows 
 the Roman dignity and capacity for administration. Of 
 his preaching there is no mention nor certain trace, but 
 his force of character and his position render some testi- 
 mony to his power as a teacher of the word. 
 
 But passing the preachers we notice now the only 
 homiletical relic of this earliest age. This is an ancient 
 document which has been commonly called the Second 
 Epistle of Clement. 1 Only a fragment of it was known 
 to modern scholars till a comparatively recent date. But 
 even in this fragmentary form its Clementine authorship 
 was disputed, and its true nature as a homily rather than 
 an epistle was suspected. The discovery of the complete 
 text has confirmed both these opinions, and makes it now 
 clear that Clement of Rome was not its author. From 
 a passage in the writing itself 2 we learn that it was read 
 by the author to the congregation immediately after the 
 reading of the Scriptures in worship, and from this and 
 other indications its homiletical character is established. 
 The authorship must be left in doubt, but Lightfoot's 
 ingenious conjecture may be provisionally accepted, that 
 it is a homily of a bishop or presbyter of the Corinthian 
 church. Its date is probably about 135-140, but it is not 
 certainly fixed. 
 
 The theme of the homily is the duty of living the right 
 sort of Christian life as a recompense to Christ for the 
 gift of salvation. There is no clear-cut division of the 
 matter, but the two leading thoughts are, confession of 
 Christ, and repentance, as necessary to the Christian life. 
 These are repeatedly urged and enforced in a variety of 
 ways and from a variety of motives. The doctrine is 
 not elaborate, the homily being hortatory in character, 
 but the main great teachings of the Christian faith are 
 
 1 Riddle's notes, and the translation of the homily in Ante-Ni- 
 cene Fathers, Vol. VII., p. 372 ff and p. 512 ff. * Chap. 19.
 
 THE ANCIENT, OR PATRISTIC, AGE 45 
 
 implied, and for all that appears to the contrary the treat- 
 ment is orthodox. The morality urged is sound and 
 elevated. The style is natural, simple and appropriate ; 
 but is not marked by special oratorical excellence, is 
 somewhat feeble, and is marred by much repetition. The 
 use of Scripture is reverent. There is no text, but the 
 quotations and allusions are frequent, and derived from 
 both the Old and the New Testament. This is significant 
 for the early recognition of the New Testament writings 
 as authoritative in pulpit use. The interpretation and 
 application are fairly good. There is no wild allegorizing 
 or forcing of Scripture. The tone and spirit are admir- 
 able faith, hope, and love, with humility and sincerity, 
 are apparent throughout. Particularly worthy of note is 
 a passage near the end, where the preacher modestly de- 
 clares that though conscious of imperfection he tries to do 
 what he urges upon others, and begs his hearers to think 
 on these things after they leave the house of worship and 
 go about their affairs. He earnestly exhorts them in view 
 of the future life, and tenderly consoles them in the midst 
 of present trials, concluding with a doxology. 
 
 Next after these Apostolic Fathers we take up the im- 
 portant group of early Christian writers known as the 
 Apologists. The reigns of the so-called, " Five Good 
 Emperors," extending over about eighty years and lying 
 chiefly within the second century, are the golden age of 
 Roman imperial rule. Yet within these reigns Christians 
 were hated and persecuted, though not so severely as in 
 later times. It is a painful fact that Marcus Aurelius, the 
 best of all the Roman emperors, and one of the wisest, 
 most humane and just of all earthly rulers, looked upon 
 Christianity with contempt, and permitted, if he did not 
 encourage, the persecution of its votaries. Before his 
 time the peaceful and energetic administration of 
 Hadrian (117-138) offered a fair occasion for the rise of 
 a notable class of Christian writers, who defended their 
 faith from the attacks of its enemies, and the succeeding 
 reigns were such as to render this kind of work still neces- 
 sary and not hopeless. Hence we have the Christian 
 Apologists of the second century. 1 There was demand 
 
 1 Cf. A. H. Newman, Manual of Ch. Hist., Vol. I., p. 237 ff., 
 and many other authorities, especially also The Ante-Nicene 
 Fathers, Am. ed.
 
 46 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 and response. The persecution and misrepresentation of 
 Christianity called for defence. Its remarkable progress 
 among the people and its growing favor with some among 
 the upper classes of society had called forth not only vio- 
 lent social and ostensibly legal opposition, but also many 
 foul calumnies as a pretext for persecution. There were 
 now among the Christians a number of acute and edu- 
 cated men, philosophers, lawyers and others, who were 
 capable of doing this work, and they did it. 
 
 Besides those whose writings place them among the 
 Apologists, there were, no doubt, many excellent and 
 worthy preachers in this time. One of these was 
 Dionysius, bishop of Corinth, of whom Eusebius x says, 
 " He imparted freely not only to his own people but to 
 others abroad also the blessings of his divine labors." 
 Among the Apologists whose names and works (or 
 notices of thean) have come down to us, some were 
 preachers, though not all. Of these the most important 
 for us were Justin Martyr and Tertullian, who, though 
 his Apologeticus and other writings place him in this 
 group, is more properly reckoned among the Theologians. 
 Others were : Quadratus, who is probably to be identified 
 with a bishop, and therefore a preacher, at Athens in that 
 time; Melito, bishop of Sardis, who was a strong man, 
 and is called a " prophet ;" and Theophilus the sixth 
 bishop of Antioch, - whose apology addressed to one 
 Autolycus is vigorous and written in a good style which 
 suggests his power as a speaker. 
 
 On the whole, while technically no sermons remain 
 from this group of preachers, their writings and those of 
 their lay fellow-laborers reveal traces of a vigorous and 
 fruitful ministry of the Word. The Apologists had as 
 a rule more culture and more intellectual power than the 
 Apostolic Fathers. There is evidence in their writings 
 of wide reading, considerable acquaintance with litera- 
 ture and philosophy, and .no small degree of vigor and 
 grasp of mind. 
 
 Their best representative was Justin (c. 100-165), 
 afterwards called the Martyr. He was a very able and 
 interesting man. He was born probably about the begin- 
 ning of the second century, at Neapolis (the ancient 
 
 *//. E., IV., 23.
 
 THE ANCIENT, OR PATRISTIC, AGE 47 
 
 Sychem) in Samaria, of heathen parents. It is uncertain 
 whether they were of Greek or Roman extraction. Jus- 
 tin was well educated, and seems to have had means suffi- 
 cient to lead a life of travel and study. He sought 
 mental rest in various systems of philosophy, except 
 Epicureanism which he hated, and was about to settle 
 down into Platonism when he was converted to Chris- 
 tianity. He met one day near the seashore a pleasant- 
 faced old man, who engaged him in conversation and 
 made known to him the Christian faith. This led to 
 his conversion, and he found peace of mind. He 
 became an earnest defender of Christianity. He travelled 
 much, retaining his philosopher's cloak, not so much now 
 because it was a badge of distinction, as because it gave 
 him the opportunity to teach, with the authority of cul- 
 ture, the truths of his religion. He was not ordained a 
 presbyter, but found frequent occasion to discourse to the 
 few or many who might be attracted to hear him con- 
 cerning the faith. He awakened the jealousy and opposi- 
 tion of a philosopher named Crescens, at whose instiga- 
 tion probably he was condemned and martyred under 
 Marcus Aurelius, about 165. His three writings the 
 First and Second Apology and the Dialogue with Trypho 
 the Jew are of great value for what they teach as to the 
 doctrines and customs of the Christians of his time. 
 They also give us a fairly good idea of his views, his 
 mental capacity, and his style. He handled the Scriptures 
 quite freely, dealing mainly with the prophecies as ful- 
 filled in Christ. He had some wrong notions, but was 
 deeply in earnest and must have been a preacher of some 
 eloquence and power. 
 
 The third group of early Christian writers is that of 
 the Ante-Nicene Theologians, whose work may be re- 
 garded as covering the time from Irenaeus, say 180, to 
 Arnobius, about 3OO. 1 This was a time of short reigns 
 and great confusion and turmoil in the empire. It was 
 also the period in which occurred the worst persecutions 
 of the Christians; those under Severus (202), Maximin 
 (235-238), Decius (249-251), Valerian (257-258), and 
 Diocletian (303), being very severe. It was too late to 
 
 1 Various editions of their works. For American readers The 
 Ante-Nicene Fathers, as before.
 
 48 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 suppress Christianity by governmental force. In spite 
 of opposition it had only grown stronger. Now with this 
 accession of strength there came men of classical and 
 philosophical culture, to whom it was natural to phil- 
 osophize about the faith and to endeavor to formulate its 
 truths. Parallel with this tendency was the work of the 
 Apologists already noticed, and the development of church 
 unity and organization. And, most influential of all, there 
 had been from earliest times heresies and sects disturbing 
 the clear stream of Christian doctrine. All these things 
 contributed to the rise of the class of theologians who 
 grappled with the great thoughts revealed in Scripture, 
 and sought to develop them into something of a philo- 
 sophic system. Allowing for individual differences, it 
 is fair to say in general terms of these Christian thinkers 
 that for the most part they were men of fine mental gifts, 
 good education, ample learning, deep knowledge of 
 Scripture, elevated morals, and devoted piety. As scholars 
 and theologians, notwithstanding some faults and 
 vagaries, they must ever hold high rank in religious 
 history, and their writings are a priceless source of knowl- 
 edge concerning the men, events, customs, and opinions 
 of Christianity in their time. 
 
 Many of these theologians were notable and useful 
 preachers of the word, yet very few specimens of their 
 homiletic work remain, except in the single case of 
 Origen. We are dependent upon their writings, and 
 upon such scanty notices of their preaching as may be 
 given by others, for our imperfect estimate of their work 
 and power as preachers. During their time and in their 
 hands the informal and familiar homily of previous times 
 made decided advance toward the more oratorical and 
 elaborate address or sermon of the next period. While 
 others contributed to this development, the greatest single 
 personal force in it was the eminent scholar and teacher 
 Origen, of Alexandria and Caesarea. He was one of those 
 leaders of thought whose faculty and privilege it is to 
 perceive, exemplify and guide, if they do not originate, 
 some tendency or tendencies of the age in which they live. 
 A more particular account of him will be given later. It 
 is sufficient to quote here the summary statement of 
 Christlieb ; * " Through Origen the sermon received the 
 
 1 Art. Gesch. der Predigt, Herzog, R. E., 18, supplement.
 
 THE ANCIENT, OR PATRISTIC, AGE 49 
 
 fixed form of an explanation and application of a text." 
 
 For convenience of study we may consider the great 
 theologians as falling into an eastern and a western 
 group, in each of which there are again two clearly dis- 
 tinguished schools, namely, in the East the Alexandrian 
 and Antiochian, and in the West the Grseco-Roman and 
 the North African. We shall notice them in the order 
 just given. 
 
 At Alexandria there was founded in early times, date 
 not known, a school for the instruction of catechumens. 
 It grew into a school for the training of teachers and 
 preachers, and was at various times under the headship 
 of highly distinguished men. Of these the two most 
 important for us are Clement and Origen. 
 
 Clement (c. 160-220) was born probably at Athens near 
 the middle of the second century. He was highly educated, 
 and trained in the Greek philosophy. Seeking light he 
 came to Alexandria, and was brought to Christianity by 
 Pantsenus at that time head of the catechetical school 
 there. About 190 he succeeded Pantaenus as leader in the 
 school, was banished about 202, and probably died not 
 later than 220. Not much can be known of his preaching 
 from his great and valuable theological writings. But 
 among them is an Outline (Hypotyposis) of the Catholic 
 Epistles which is a sort of expository discourse, and in it, 
 as Christlieb says, " the first germs of the homily show 
 themselves." Clement was a many-sided man, theologian, 
 exegete, poet, preacher. His influence on Origen was 
 deep and formative, and through his illustrious pupil he 
 has left a broad mark on preaching and on Christian 
 thought. 
 
 As a point of secondary importance in his relation to 
 preaching it may be noted that for polemical purposes he 
 has preserved in his writings 1 two homilies (fragments) 
 of the famous Gnostic, Valentinus. Of these Broadus 2 
 says that they " are of curious interest but not homileti- 
 cally instructive." But they, at least, show that the form 
 of the " homily " was already coming into vogue, and that 
 heretics as well as the orthodox preached. 
 
 The greatest name among the Alexandrian theologians 
 is that of the learned scholar and eminent Christian, 
 1 Stromat., IV., 13.. * Hist. Prea., p. 45.
 
 50 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 Origen (185-254). He was born at Alexandria, prob- 
 ably about 185, of Christian parents. He was trained 
 in Christian lore from his childhood, and like many 
 another clever boy puzzled his father with precocious 
 and hard questions. When his father suffered mar- 
 tyrdom in 202 Origen exhorted him to courage and 
 himself desired the martyr's crown, boy though he 
 was, but was hindered from giving himself up to the 
 inquisitors by the ingenuity of his mother, who hid 
 all his clothes while he was undressed, and thus kept 
 him at home till the danger or the impulse had passed by. 
 He was from his youth a rigorous ascetic. 1 As a student 
 he became so proficient in the Scriptures that on the ban- 
 ishment of his master Clement he was, though a very 
 young man, appointed to succeed that great teacher in 
 the catechetical school. His expository lectures were so 
 highly valued that they were written or dictated after 
 delivery, and published as commentaries. A wealthy 
 man named Ambrosius was his friend and patron, and 
 furnished the means for employing the amanuenses and 
 copyists. To this man's kind liberality and appreciation 
 of genius we owe our possession of so many of Origen's 
 works. Later, according to Eusebius, 2 when he was sixty 
 years of age, he permitted his extemporaneous discourses 
 to be taken down by shorthand writers. This was after 
 his ordination as a presbyter, and these discourses are his 
 homilies on various books of the Bible. 
 
 So marked was his success as an expounder of Script- 
 ure that on a visit to Palestine he was invited to preach in 
 church. This led to trouble, as he was not yet ordained. 
 Whereupon the bishop of Jerusalem ordained him a 
 presbyter. This gave great offence to his own bishop at 
 Alexandria, by whom in 232 a council was called and 
 Origen was deposed. 3 On this account he permanently 
 left Alexandria and set up a school at Csesarea in Pales- 
 tine. Here he died under persecution in 254. 
 
 His services to the development of preaching were 
 
 1 In an excess of youthful zeal, to avoid temptation, and taking 
 Matt. 19 : 12 literally, he mutilated himself. 
 
 *H. E., L.,6. 
 
 * One of the principal grounds urged for this action was his 
 mutilation. He was also accused of heresy.
 
 THE ANCIENT, OR PATRISTIC, AGE 51 
 
 great. 1 He showed by example the importance of ex- 
 pository preaching. He was a careful scholar, and took 
 great pains to expound the Scriptures and to make the 
 sacred text the real basis of preaching. But with this 
 good service must be reckoned the harm he did by lending 
 the sanction of his great influence to the allegorical 
 method of interpretation. He held and taught a threefold 
 sense of Scripture grammatical, moral, spiritual (or 
 allegorical) and regarded the last as the best. While 
 he was not, strictly speaking, the originator of this 
 method, he is perhaps more responsible than any one 
 else for giving it dignity and enabling it to fasten such 
 a tremendous grip on the pulpit of all ages. 
 
 In regard to Origen's character and his views as a 
 preacher, we have some interesting statements by 
 Eusebius, and some hints here and there in his own writ- 
 ings. Not only did his extraordinary ability attract 
 many to his lectures, both at Alexandria in his youth 
 and at Caesarea in his age, but his warmth of nature, his 
 enthusiasm and his sympathy won men to him. All this 
 stirred up enemies and persecutors. But he bravely and 
 faithfully held on his course. Eusebius 2 tells of all this 
 and quotes as a current saying concerning Origen that 
 " as his doctrine, so was his life ; and as his life, so also 
 was his doctrine." 
 
 Origen left no formal treatise on preaching, but Nebe 3 
 has gathered and put together from his writings a number 
 of items regarding the spirit and method of his work. He 
 believed both in the divine call and qualification of the 
 preacher, and also in the need of human effort to acquire 
 and improve the divine gift of prophecy. He cared 
 little for heathen rhetoric and art in speech, but much for 
 the simple, clear, forcible exposition of God's word. He 
 insisted that the preacher should himself be pure and 
 reverent that he might properly teach his hearers the 
 truth of God. There is a tradition certainly true to the 
 spirit of the man if not actually a fact that once when he 
 was going to preach his eyes chanced to fall on Psalm 
 
 1 See Broadus, Hist. Prea., p. 51 ff. For his qualities as a 
 preacher see Lentz, Christliche Homiletik, Bd. I., S. 33 ff., Paniel, 
 S. 178 ff., and Nebe, Zur Geschichte der Predigt, Bd. I., S. I ff., 
 an especially good discussion. 
 
 *H. E., VI., 3. *Zur Gesch. der Pred., I., S. 8ff.
 
 52 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 50:16, " But unto the wicked God saith, What hast thou 
 to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldest take 
 my covenant in thy mouth ? " and that he was so over- 
 come with emotion he could not go on for his tears. As 
 the source of the sermon must be the word of God, so its 
 supreme end must be the spiritual edification of the 
 hearer, and to this end there must be both instruction and 
 exhortation. So he insists that the teacher should know 
 both the word and the hearts of men. It was this earnest 
 desire to make all the word of God alike spiritually pro- 
 fitable, which led him into the mistake of extreme allegor- 
 ical interpretation. In this he has no consistent principle, 
 and often gives the rein to fancy. His Greek was simple, 
 conversational, chaste. He soared to no oratorical heights, 
 nor did he descend to the colloquial and vulgar. 
 
 Nearly two hundred of his homilies on the Bible remain, 
 chiefly in the free and inaccurate Latin translations of 
 Rufinus and Jerome. In the original Greek there are ex- 
 tant only nineteen, all on the book of Jeremiah. 1 Of these, 
 according to Klostermann, there were originally probably 
 forty-three, but only the nineteen have been preserved. 
 The same scholar thinks that they were probably delivered 
 at Caesarea between the years 242 and 244, and were 
 among those mentioned by Eusebius as having been taken 
 down by shorthand writers as they were delivered. We 
 have the Latin translations of these also, and they show 
 how very free and often inaccurate the translators were. 
 
 As a sample of Origen's manner the following literal 
 translation of the opening paragraph of the sixteenth 
 homily on Jeremiah is offered : 2 Jer. 16:16, "Behold I 
 will send for many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall 
 fish them; and after will I send for many hunters and 
 they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from 
 every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks." 
 
 " It is written in the Gospel according to Matthew 
 that our Saviour came by the Sea of Galilee and saw 
 Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea ; 
 for they were fishers. Then says the Wor.d that the 
 
 1 See Migne, Pat. Gr., torn. 13, col. 255 ss., also Klostermann 
 in Texie und Untersuchungen, neue Folge, I., 3, Die Uberliefer- 
 ung der Jeremia-Homilien dcs Ongcnes. 
 Migne, Pat. Gr., torn. 13, col. 457 ss.
 
 THE ANCIENT, OR PATRISTIC, AGE 53 
 
 Saviour seeing them said, ' Come after me, and I will 
 make you fishers of men; but they, leaving their nets, 
 followed him.' And Jesus made them still to take up 
 fishing. And he found two other brothers, James the son 
 of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with their 
 father mending the nets ; and these he called to the same 
 craft [lit. skill]. He has made them also fishers of men. 
 Now, if any one should consider those who have from 
 God a grace of speech filled as a dragnet, and woven from 
 the holy Scriptures as a cast-net, so that the network 
 should encompass the souls of the hearers; and should 
 also cleverly perceive that this came about according to 
 the skill which Jesus taught ; he will see how not only 
 then, but also now our Saviour sends fishers of men, 
 training them in order that we may be able to come up 
 from the sea and flee its bitter waves. But those fish, 
 the irrational ones, coming up in the seines and in the 
 cast-nets and in the dragnets or on the hooks, die a real 
 death because life does not follow death. But he who is 
 taken by the fishers of Jesus, and comes up from the sea, 
 he also indeed dies, but he dies to the world, he dies to 
 sin, and after dying to the world and to sin, he is made 
 alive by the word of God and takes on another life; as 
 though you could by supposition see the soul of the fish 
 changing, after it had come out of the fishy body, and 
 becoming something better than a fish. I take this as an 
 example. Let no one make objection concerning things 
 he never heard of let him imagine such a thing. Thou 
 hast come up from the sea, falling into the nets of the dis- 
 ciples of Jesus; coming forth thou changest thy soul, thou 
 art no longer a fish, passing thy time in the briny waves 
 of the sea; but at once thy soul changes, and is trans- 
 formed, and becomes something better and diviner than it 
 formerly was. But that it is transformed and changed 
 hear Paul saying, ' But we all with unveiled face gazing 
 as in a mirror upon the glory of the Lord are transformed 
 into the same image from glory to glory, as from the 
 Lord, the Spirit/ And being thus transformed, the fish 
 that is caught by the fishers of Jesus, leaving the haunts 
 of the sea makes his haunts in the mountains, so that 
 he no longer needs the fishers who bring him up from the 
 sea, but those second ones, such as are called hunters, who
 
 54 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 hunt from every mountain and from every hill. Thou, 
 therefore, having come up from the sea, and having been 
 caught in the nets of the disciples of Jesus, change from 
 the sea, forget it, come up upon the mountains, the 
 prophets, and upon the hills, the righteous, and make 
 there thy haunts, in order that after these things, when 
 the time of thy departure is at hand, the many hunters 
 may be sent forth, other than the fishers. But who could 
 these be but those who have been appointed for the pur- 
 pose of receiving the souls that are in the hills, that are 
 no longer lying below? And see if the prophet has not 
 mystically called out saying these things, and offering this 
 thought, when he says, ' Behold I send many fishers, 
 saith the Lord, and they shall fish them ; and afterwards I 
 will send many hunters and they shall hunt them upon 
 every mountain, and upon every hill.' " 
 
 Here we see something of Origen's exuberant fancy 
 in interpretation, but he has much that is more extreme 
 than this. Here too we catch glimpses of his reverent 
 spirit, and observe his engaging, unpretentious, but not 
 lofty or moving style. His lack of orderly method is also 
 apparent. In his work generally there is considerable 
 acuteness of interpretation with much fanciful allegoriz- 
 ing, but there is also earnest appeal and sound practical 
 application. He was not an orator, but a teacher by in- 
 stinct and experience. But take him all in all, both for 
 what he himself did and for what he influenced others to 
 do, he was the most important preacher of the third 
 century. 
 
 A devoted pupil of Origen during his Csesarean min- 
 istry was Gregory, afterward surnamed Thaumaturgus 
 (Wonderworker) in order to distinguish him from others 
 of the name. He was born at Neo-Csesarea in Pontus, 
 about 210. Coming to Palestine on some business he 
 heard of Origen's lectures at Caesarea and came to hear 
 him. This led to his conversion to Christianity and to 
 his lifelong devotion to his great teacher and friend. He 
 studied with Origen eight years, and then took leave of 
 him in a fulsome panegyric which has come down to us. 
 It was in the fashion of the time and decidedly over- 
 done; but it exhibits both a high appreciation of his 
 teacher and a certain rhetorical power.
 
 THE ANCIENT, OR PATRISTIC, AGE 55 
 
 Returning to his home in Pontus, Gregory devoted him- 
 self to religious work among his own people. Soon on 
 account of his piety, ability and zeal he was, much against 
 his will, made bishop. It is said that he found on his 
 return from Palestine only seventeen Christians in his 
 neighborhood; but his earnest and fruitful labors for 
 thirty years spread Christianity through all that region, 
 and hundreds were brought to Christ through him. This 
 great success, perhaps, rather than reputation for miracle- 
 working, earned him his surname of Thaumaturgus. His 
 success speaks more of his power as a preacher than his 
 overwrought Panegyric on Origen, or the few and prob- 
 ably not genuine homilies which have been ascribed to 
 him. 
 
 These three were the most important of the oriental 
 group of preachers among the Theologians, but a word 
 must be said regarding the other school of eastern 
 theologians which had its seat at Antioch. 1 Its most 
 famous representatives belong to a later time. But 
 Lucian and Dorotheus are named as having been in charge 
 of a school at Antioch as early as 280. This is regarded 
 as the beginning of the line of theologians and preachers 
 of the Antiochian school, whose distinction it was to urge 
 and exemplify the literal, historical and grammatical 
 interpretation of Scripture as opposed to the fanciful 
 allegorical method of the Alexandrian school. 
 
 We must now turn our attention to the western group 
 of the Ante-Nicene Theologians, and give brief considera- 
 tion to those among them who are chiefly important as 
 preachers. And here we observe a very important line of 
 distinction. Some of these men used the Greek tongue 
 in their writings, and presumably also in speech. This 
 was in Italy and Gaul. But in North Africa, chiefly 
 though not exclusively, there arose a great line of thinkers 
 who used the Latin, and became the founders of the Latin 
 theology. 
 
 Clement and other early bishops of the Roman church 
 used the Greek language. How long it was before Latin 
 asserted its rightful claim, and became the churchly as 
 it was the vernacular speech of the West, is not known. 
 Most probable is the conjecture 2 that both languages were 
 1 See Cruttwell, Literary History of Christianity, Vol. II., p. 532. 
 
 *Cruttwell, ofy. cit., II., p. 405.
 
 56 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 used for a while in worship and documents. But about 
 the time of bishop Victor (187) there is a decided change 
 toward the dominant use of Latin. Among the leaders 
 who are worthy of mention as preachers two only need 
 claim our notice here. 
 
 Some time before the middle of the second century 
 there was born somewhere in Asia Minor one who was to 
 receive the name of Irenaeus the peaceful one was to be 
 a pupil of the venerable Polycarp, who had sat at the feet 
 of the beloved John, and yet was to be in the far West 
 in mature life the laborious bishop and the stout an- 
 tagonist of " all the heresies." In his youth Irenaeus re- 
 ceived a good education, and was well taught in the 
 Scriptures and in the earlier Christian writings. He be- 
 came a man of great piety and simplicity of character. 
 While he was working as a missionary in Gaul, the 
 bishop of Lyons was martyred (177), and the courageous 
 evangelist succeeded to the dangerous post. Schaff says 
 of him, " He combined vast literary and missionary 
 activity." He is lost to view after 190. A somewhat 
 doubtful tradition tells that he suffered martyrdom under 
 Septimius Severus in 202. His greatest work, Against 
 Heresies, appeared about 185. No sermons remain. His 
 writings are hard and tedious. He modestly disclaims 
 eloquence, and he probably had no high oratorical gifts, 
 but he was an able, wise, earnest, useful pastor and dili- 
 gent preacher. 
 
 Much more notable as a preacher was the great contro- 
 versialist, Hippolytus (170-236), of whom Schaff 1 cleverly 
 says that he has lived three lives: the real one in the 
 third century, a fictitious one as a canonized saint in the 
 Middle Ages, and a literary one in the nineteenth cen- 
 tury since the recovery of his works. Of his real life little 
 is known. His name and his use of Greek indicate 
 Grecian parentage, though not necessarily eastern birth. 
 He is mentioned by Eusebius 2 as a bishop, but without 
 designation of place, and Jerome in his Illustrious Men 
 
 1 Church Hist., Vol. II., p. 758. Cf. also Bunsen, Hippolytus 
 and Callistus; and a supplement (on Hippolytus' relations to 
 Origen) by Trumpelmann in Rothe's Geschichte der Predigt. 
 Further, Cruttwell, op. cit., II., p. 403, and Achelis, in Texte und 
 Untersuchungen,N.F.,I.,4. *H.E., VI., 20, 22.
 
 THE ANCIENT, OR PATRISTIC, AGE 57 
 
 speaks of him as bishop of " some church " (cujusdam 
 ecclesia} ; but his real place remains unknown. Later 
 tradition says he was bishop of Portus near the mouth of 
 the Tiber, while some have conjectured that he was 
 assistant bishop, or rival bishop, of Rome. At any rate he 
 was called a bishop, had a good deal to do with the Roman 
 church, and got into a quarrel with Callistus, the con- 
 temporary Roman bishop, whom he handles very se- 
 verely in one of his writings. It seems that he was ban- 
 ished by the Emperor Maximin, about 235, to the mines 
 of Sardinia, where he soon died. 
 
 In the sixteenth century a sitting statue, supposed to 
 be his, was found. On the back of it a number of writ- 
 ings attributed to him are enumerated. He wrote a large 
 number of controversial works. What of his preaching? 
 Eusebius speaks of him as an " eloquent " man, and 
 Jerome tells how he once delivered a notable sermon on 
 the Praise of the Lord and Saviour, in a church at Rome, 
 in presence of Origen who was visiting there at the time. 
 This sermon has not come down to us, but there is pre- 
 served one on the Holy Theophany 1 at the baptism of 
 Jesus, which with some, probability may be regarded as 
 genuine. 2 It is a baptismal sermon addressed to a can- 
 didate probably a prominent person for baptism, and at 
 the same time to the congregation. It followed the read- 
 ing of the Scripture lesson, on which it is based as a text. 
 There is considerable quotation of Scripture. The doc- 
 trine is not elaborate. It is sound on the Trinity, does 
 not discuss atonement or grace, and teaches, but not 
 baldly, the necessity of baptism to salvation. In the con- 
 clusion the preacher exhorts his hearers to come and be 
 baptized, but only on the basis of a sound repentance and 
 in the exercise of faith. In structure and style the homily 
 is suggestive and eloquent, and secures for its author a 
 place among the true preachers of his age. 
 
 It is a curious fact that the beginnings of Latin theology 
 are found in North Africa rather than in Rome. Of 
 those who were notable among the North African 
 theologians two at least claim notice as preachers. 
 
 1 Translated in Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. V., p. 234. 
 
 2 Questioned by Achelis, op. cit., S. 199 ff., but accepted by 
 Zahn, Lightfoot and others.
 
 5 8 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 One of the most eminent Christian writers of his own 
 or any age was Tertullian (150-220). He was born 
 about the year 150 at Carthage, where his father was a 
 centurion in the Roman army in the service of the pro- 
 consul of the province. Tertullian received a good educa- 
 tion in his youth, and became an advocate, it seems at 
 Rome. After a somewhat wild youth he was converted 
 when about forty years old, and became a very earnest 
 Christian. Later he joined the strict sect of the Mon- 
 tanists. He was at one time a presbyter, probably at 
 Carthage, as we learn from Jerome; but he was not 
 promoted, and, probably on account of his Montanism, 
 never attained distinction as a church officer. His chief 
 title to consideration is in his numerous and variously 
 valuable writings. Apologetic, doctrinal and contro- 
 versial treatises flowed from his hand in rapid succession. 
 Of these Broadus says, 1 " The writings of Tertullian 
 amply show that he was a born orator. His penetrating 
 insight into subjects, his splendid imagination, his over- 
 powering passion, the torrent-like movement of his style, 
 heedless of elegance and of grammatical accuracy, his 
 very exaggerations and his fiery assaults upon his 
 antagonists, all seem to show the man born to be a 
 speaker." His treatises on moral and spiritual subjects, 
 especially the beautiful ones on Patience and on Peni- 
 tence, have decided oratorical character. They read as if 
 they had been written out after first being spoken as 
 hortatory addresses or sermons. 
 
 Like Tertullian, his predecessor and master, Cyprian 
 (c. 200-258) was the son of a Roman officer, and born and 
 bred at Carthage. He was educated for a teacher of 
 rhetoric, but was early converted to Christianity and 
 became one of the most celebrated churchmen and writers 
 of his time. He was greatly indebted to Tertullian, 
 though it does not appear that there was any personal 
 contact. If there was it was when Tertullian was very 
 old and Cyprian very young. On his conversion in 246 
 Cyprian gave both himself and his means to Christianity. 
 His piety, learning and ability, both in letters and affairs 
 were recognized at home, and he was soon made bishop of 
 his native city. During the Decian persecution he pru- 
 1 Hist. of Prea., p. 45 ff.
 
 THE ANCIENT, OR PATRISTIC, AGE 59 
 
 dently retired, but kept the oversight of his flock, and his 
 letters at this period are an interesting and valuable 
 body of literature. Though not dictated by cowardice, 
 his retirement was misunderstood and criticized. So dur- 
 ing the persecution under Valerian he remained at his 
 post and was banished, but on venturing back he was 
 martyred in 258. He met his end with dignity and com- 
 posure. 
 
 He was a theological writer of marked ability and im- 
 portance, and was especially distinguished for his ad- 
 vocacy of church unity and catholicity. He did not, 
 however, as is frequently supposed, admit the papal 
 supremacy of the Roman bishop, though allowing great 
 weight to that see in ecclesiastical affairs. As in case 
 of Tertullian we must judge of Cyprian's preaching from 
 his writings. Those which bear on Scriptural and moral 
 subjects may probably have first served as sermons. His 
 charming exposition of the Lord's Prayer, 1 for example, 
 has many homiletical excellences, and reads much like a 
 reproduced address. In his letter to Donatus 2 he dis- 
 cusses briefly but intelligently the difference between 
 secular and sacred eloquence, and his speech is highly 
 praised by Lactantius, 3 who says : " He had a ready, co- 
 pious and pleasant faculty, and that clearness which is the 
 greatest excellence in a discourse, so that it would be 
 difficult to say whether he was more ornate in stating, 
 or ready in illustrating, or powerful in persuading." 
 
 5. SUMMARY. 
 
 In closing this imperfect survey of preaching during 
 the important, fruitful but disappointingly obscure age 
 that elapsed from the close of the work of the Apostles 
 in the first century to the great council of Nicaea in the 
 early part of the fourth, we may attempt a brief summary 
 of its leading characteristics. 
 
 i. There was profound conviction of the truth of the 
 gospel, and of its power to redeem men from sin. Along 
 with this there was true earnestness in presenting it to 
 the minds and hearts of men, both as a scheme of salva- 
 tion and as a rule of thought and life. 
 
 1 Fish's Masterpieces of Pulpit Eloquence, I., p. 36 ff. 
 
 * Quoted in Ker's History of Preaching, p. 99. * Ibid.
 
 60 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 2. For the most part the preaching of the time teaches 
 a pure and lofty morality, in marked contrast to the 
 principles and practices of the age. 
 
 3. The preaching is firmly based on the authority of the 
 Scriptures, both of the Old and of the New Testament, as 
 a revelation of the thought and will of God; and is in- 
 creasingly occupied with the exposition and application of 
 the Word. 
 
 4. Of doctrinal preaching, as later and now commonly 
 understood, there was little if any. Yet the main great 
 teachings of the Christian system, while not yet formally 
 stated, are with more or less clearness held or implied. 
 The term trinity (in Greek trios) has already appeared, to 
 describe the relations of the three Persons of the God- 
 head; man's sinful nature and need of deliverance by 
 Christ are recognized ; repentance and faith are insisted 
 on, as the proper relation of man toward God, and the 
 means of securing the blessing of salvation; and the 
 ideas of the future life of glory or of punishment are 
 firmly held. Along with this there is a growing concep- 
 tion of church unity and universality, and of the efficacy 
 of the ordinances, particularly of baptismal regeneration. 
 
 On the whole our actual knowledge of the preaching 
 and preachers of that age is confessedly inadequate and 
 scanty. We are left largely to inference and conjecture. 
 But from such specimens, traditions and traces as we 
 have, we certainly know that there were those who planted 
 and those who watered in that obscure early time, to 
 whose labors God gave the increase, for they like Apollos 
 were " mighty in the Scriptures," and their preaching 
 like that of Paul " was in demonstration of the Spirit 
 and of power." 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 THE CULMINATION OF ANCIENT PREACHING IN THE 
 FOURTH CENTURY 
 
 The course of events in empire and church from the 
 accession of Constantine(3o6)to and including the reigns 
 of Arcadius in the East (d. 408) and of Honorius in the 
 West (d. 423) had profound influence upon the history
 
 THE ANCIENT, OR PATRISTIC, AGE 6 1 
 
 of civilization, of Christianity, of preaching. Schaff 1 
 eloquently summarizes the main points of the situation as 
 follows : " The reign of Constantine the Great marks the 
 transition of the Christian religion from under persecu- 
 tion by the secular government to union with the same 
 the beginning of the state-church system. The Grseco- 
 Roman heathenism, the most cultivated and powerful 
 form of idolatry which history knows, surrenders, after 
 three hundred years' struggle, to Christianity, and dies of 
 incurable consumption. . . . The successor of Nero, 
 Domitian, and Diocletian appears in the imperial purple 
 at the council of Nice as protector of the church, and takes 
 his golden throne at the nod of bishops who still bear 
 the marks of persecution. The despised sect, which, like 
 its Founder in the days of his humiliation, had not 
 where to lay its head, is raised to sovereign authority 
 in the state, enters into the prerogatives of the pagan 
 priesthood, grows rich and powerful, builds countless 
 churches out of the stones of idol temples to the honor 
 of Christ and his martyrs, employs the wisdom of Greece 
 and Rome to vindicate the foolishness of the cross, exerts 
 a molding power upon civil legislation, rules the national 
 life, and leads off the history of the world." These are 
 no extravagant words, but a sound, if glowing, statement 
 of the facts. 
 
 The troubled reigns of the sons of Constantine pre- 
 pared the way for the brief and ineffectual reaction 
 toward paganism under their cousin the emperor Julian, 
 commonly known as the Apostate, because he hated Chris- 
 tianity and tried to re-establish the old heathen religion 
 in the empire. This he did not try to do by persecu- 
 tion, however, but by ridicule, social contempt, and 
 various other ways. But the effort to revive heathenism 
 came too late. Julian's successor, Jovian, was a Christian, 
 and in his brief reign restored imperial favor to Christi- 
 anity. This was true of Valentinian also and his succes- 
 sors. Valens, associated with Valentinian, and emperor 
 of the East, favored the Arian party and thus caused 
 much trouble. Theodosius the Great, called to the sov- 
 ereignty of the East on the death of Valens, favored 
 orthodoxy, or the Athanasian party. He was a great and 
 *Hist. of the Christian Church, Vol. III., pp. 4, 5-
 
 62 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 capable ruler, with some serious faults of character, but 
 according to his light a sincere Christian. After him the 
 empire was finally divided, his two weak sons being his 
 successors, Arcadius in the East, Honorius in the West. 
 Under these degenerate princes affairs went sadly 
 enough. The western empire was tottering to its fall, 
 while in the East corruption, luxury, effeminacy and de- 
 cay were rife. And while the Goths without and decay 
 within were hastening the ruin of the old Roman civiliza- 
 tion, fierce controversies were tearing Christianity in 
 twain. It was a strange, fearful, corrupt, uneasy age. 
 Yet in such a time as this lived and spoke the greatest 
 preachers of the ancient Christian world ; for it is precisely 
 in the fourth and the early years of the fifth century that 
 Christian preaching in its ancient development reached 
 its culmination. 
 
 i. CONDITIONS FAVORABLE TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF 
 PREACHING 
 
 We have already observed, and shall have frequent 
 occasion to do so again as we go along, how responsive 
 preaching is to its environment. Like every other great 
 exercise of the spirit of man it is in touch with each suc- 
 cessive age through which it works. Hindering and 
 favoring forces meet it in every period, and it will de- 
 cline or flourish as one set or the other are stronger. 
 When favorable conditions are in the ascendant what 
 would be serious drawbacks often become incitements to 
 higher life and greater activity. Thus a pleasure-loving, 
 corrupt age may be both a hindrance and a stimulus to 
 preaching, and other things must help to decide in each 
 case or time which it shall rather be. Now these condi- 
 tions lie partly in external affairs and partly in preaching 
 itself. 
 
 In the affairs of the empire and the church there came 
 together many things at this time to exercise from with- 
 out a favorable influence upon the oratorical development 
 of preaching. 
 
 During the intervals of persecution, and indeed to some 
 extent stimulated by persecution, there had been great ex- 
 tension of Christian power and influence. The church 
 was also growing in organization and deepening its in-
 
 THE ANCIENT, OR PATRISTIC, AGE 63 
 
 fluence as a great visible power over its own members. 
 At the opening of the fourth century it was distinctly a 
 power in society that had to be reckoned with. Diocle- 
 tian's last and terrible attempt to suppress Christianity by 
 imperial force had clearly failed. Society and government 
 must accept as an established institution this obstinate and 
 irrepressible body of followers of Jesus Christ. So as 
 the church forced itself more and more into social recog- 
 nition, all that concerned it, especially its worship, must 
 acquire respect and dignity. As a part of the worship 
 preaching had its own claim to recognition. And as the 
 worship became more elaborate and attractive, more ob- 
 served and attended, this peculiar feature of it came to 
 be a more formal and stately affair. The development of 
 preaching toward an oratorical form was thus an integral 
 part of the general ecclesiastical movement. 
 
 Whatever we may think of the conversion of Constan- 
 tine, he was at least wise enough to see that as a matter 
 of statecraft it was time to change the policy of many pre- 
 ceding emperors. Christianity was here to stay, it could 
 not be crushed, why not use it? Christians were a nu- 
 merous and a worthy class of citizens, why not give them 
 a better chance ? Was not their friendship and aid better 
 than their hatred and opposition ? At any rate, whatever 
 his motives, Constantine reversed the policy of Diocletian 
 and Galerius, even persuading the latter to join him in 
 the first decree of toleration in 311. Two years later a 
 stronger decree was enacted, and thus in 313 Christianity 
 was the recognized religion of the empire. Ten years 
 more passed, and in 323 Constantine became sole emperor 
 with power to make his wishes respected throughout the 
 Roman world. And in two years more, 325, we find him 
 presiding at the first general church council called by him 
 at the instance of Christian dignitaries to decide the great 
 controversy between Arians and Athanasians as to the 
 divinity of Christ. 
 
 With the exception of Julian, as already noted, Con- 
 stantine's successors followed his general policy, but 
 favored now the Arian and now the orthodox party in the 
 church. The emperor was to all intents and purposes 
 as supreme in the church as in the state. This brought 
 a dangerous gift of political and social prestige to the
 
 64 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 church and inevitably disturbed its spirituality and purity, 
 but at the same time it gave a certain distinction to all 
 the institutions and characteristic actions of the church, 
 including preaching. Attending church and hearing 
 preachers became a social function. As Broadus aptly 
 says, 1 " Fashionable people in Constantinople, Alexandria, 
 Antioch, and hundreds of smaller towns, began to speak 
 (so Chrysostom intimates) almost as enthusiastically 
 about the favorite preacher of the hour as they spoke of 
 the favorite horse in the races, or the reigning actor in 
 the theatre." 
 
 At a far later period the court of Louis XIV. of France 
 smiled on preaching and made it a sort of pastime to hear 
 the great pulpit orators of that age. The natural effect 
 of this sort of stimulus in preaching soon proves un- 
 healthy, but at first considerably, and always to some ex- 
 tent, it gives the really earnest preacher a much desired 
 opportunity for addressing people of the highest con- 
 sideration in society and bringing them to the Saviour, 
 while at the same time it encourages a style of speech 
 adapted to cultured hearers. In both the directions, then, 
 of real eloquence and of artistic oratory the stimulus of 
 social prestige made itself felt in fourth century 
 preaching. 
 
 Back of the special stimulus of imperial patronage and 
 social favor, only brought out and emphasized by these, 
 lay the general taste of the age for oratorical display. 
 The great political oratory of free Greece and Rome had 
 long been crushed by despotism, but the love of it had not 
 died out of the hearts of the descendants of those who 
 had heard Demosthenes and Cicero and their lesser fel- 
 low-countrymen and orators. The pleadings in law 
 courts offered only a partial off-set to the loss of free 
 political oratory, and the harangues of the Senate had 
 woefully degenerated. Occasions for panegyrical orations 
 there still were, and this style of oratory was still in 
 vogue. The public assemblies for worship of a now 
 favored religion came as a welcome addition, with the 
 charm of some novelty, to these older occasions for popu- 
 lar eloquence. The taste of the times required a certain 
 brilliancy and rhetorical finish, and in order to meet this 
 demand preaching must now seek these aids. 
 *Hist. of Prea.,p. 61.
 
 THE ANCIENT, OR PATRISTIC, AGE 6$ 
 
 Along with all that has been mentioned, we must re- 
 member that in the traditional and accepted educational 
 system rhetorical studies occupied the chief place. If 
 educated at all a man was educated in rhetoric. As law- 
 yer, civilist, teacher, or man of letters, one must needs 
 have had training in oratory. So when the schools were 
 open to Christians, without persecution or social disfavor, 
 there was opportunity for them to receive the customary 
 oratorical training from the best teachers. And not a few 
 who had been trained for other service entered the min- 
 istry. The six most notable preachers of the century 1 
 four in the East, and two in the West had all received 
 the best rhetorical culture of the schools ; and there were 
 hosts of others. Nor must we lose sight of the fact that 
 in the audiences which heard the preaching of these times 
 there were many who, as well as the preachers themselves, 
 had been educated in the schools of rhetoric. A few cul- 
 tured and critical hearers make their taste felt more than 
 a multitude of the illiterate. Thus in different ways the 
 education of the times lent its powerful aid to the other 
 influences which combined to produce that pronounced 
 heightening of oratorical power which we see in the 
 preaching of the fourth century. 
 
 Besides these external influences, there had been at work 
 in the preaching of the preceding age certain tendencies 
 in the oratorical direction which came to their full de- 
 velopment under the favorable circumstances of the new 
 era. These only removed obstacles and encouraged and 
 shaped progress. They could not have produced so great 
 a growth and fruitage unless there had been life and 
 movement within the sphere of preaching itself. The line 
 of progress lay in the direction of the elaborate and struc- 
 tural discourse as distinguished from the informal con- 
 versational homily; There was a trend toward the artistic, 
 scientific, oratorical form of address; and this must find 
 its goal. The day for mere expository or hortatory talks 
 as the dominant mode of presenting and urging the great 
 truths of Christianity upon the attention of hearers was 
 passing away. These should always remain as one of the 
 forms of Christian discourse, but a law of internal devel- 
 
 1 Basil, the two Gregories, John Chrysostom, Ambrose, Augus- 
 tine.
 
 66 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 opment was pushing religious oratory on to relatively as 
 high a plane (considering the times) as the secular ora- 
 tions of the best class had occupied. Some of the elements 
 of this tendency claim more specific notice. 
 
 Attention was called in our study of the earlier part of 
 the period 1 to the gradual settling of the canon of Scrip- 
 ture. From the books enumerated by Eusebius as re- 
 ceived by all, and even from those still disputed by some 
 though received by many, we see that early in the fourth 
 century the entire New Testament as we now have it 
 had practically come into acceptance among the churches 
 as being, along with the Old Testament, the inspired and 
 authoritative Word of God. Under the lead of both the 
 Alexandrian and the rising Antiochian schools the inter- 
 pretation and application of Scripture had now become 
 the main element of preaching; and especially under 
 Origen's teaching and example had also become more of 
 an orderly discourse. It was perfectly natural that this 
 growth of homiletical exposition should go on into the 
 great sermons which we have in the discourses of Chrys- 
 ostom and others in the time now under review. 
 
 Another important element in the development of 
 preaching was the fixing of doctrine. The great theolog- 
 ical controversies and councils of the fourth and fifth 
 centuries were symptomatic of a tendency toward doc- 
 trinal definition and uniformity which had been going on 
 for a long time before. SchafP remarks that " in the de- 
 velopment of doctrine the Nicene and Post-Nicene age is 
 second in productiveness and importance only to those of 
 the apostles and the Reformation." So great and close is 
 the connection between preaching and doctrine that the 
 discussion and formulation of the latter must of necessity 
 powerfully influence the former. And so in the times 
 which we are now studying the quickened intellectual in- 
 terest in some of the great fundamental truths of Chris- 
 tianity, the sharp discussions of them, and their final 
 authoritative definition within accepted limits of ortho- 
 doxy, all exerted a mighty influence upon both the con- 
 tent and the form of preaching. And the influence was 
 decidedly in the direction of a more elaborate and formal 
 presentation of truth in discourse. 
 1 Supra, p. 40 f . z Hist, of the Christian Ch., Vol. III., p. 6.
 
 THE ANCIENT, OR PATRISTIC, AGE 67 
 
 Still another factor was the culture of the ministry. We 
 have already observed that in the Apologists and Theo- 
 logians of the Ante-Nicene age a very intellectual and 
 cultivated class of men had begun to come in increasing 
 numbers to the standard of Christianity. The liberal 
 policy of Constantine naturally increased still further 
 this accession from the educated classes, and the pre- 
 viously mentioned facilities for education now held out 
 to Christian teachers and preachers had also their part to 
 play. Along with this the now well-established custom 
 of having a special class of men for preachers must be 
 remembered. So it is easy to see that the existence of 
 a specially trained and well educated order of men from 
 whom, for the most part, preachers were chosen tended to 
 make preaching more and more artistic and oratorical. 
 The more culture in the preachers, the more rhetorical 
 the preaching, as a rule. 
 
 Thus in the providential ordering of events we see that 
 a number of secondary causes combined to produce in the 
 fourth century a remarkable outburst of Christian ora- 
 tory. We cannot be surprised to find at this period one 
 of the great historic culminations in the character and 
 power of preaching. 
 
 2. CHARACTERISTICS OF FOURTH CENTURY PREACHING 
 
 We may now observe in a summary way the lead- 
 ing features of the preaching in this interesting period, 
 though some of them have necessarily been already 
 touched on in discussing the development of the sermon. 
 
 Among the outward features which distinguished the 
 preaching of the fourth century we must take note of 
 church buildings and other appliances for worship. In 
 early times the places of worship were few and simple 
 upper rooms, schools, but sometimes also the synagogues, 
 at least for preaching. In times of persecution the places 
 were retired. The catacombs near Rome were resorted 
 to, and no doubt secret places in other localities, as per- 
 secution might require. But in the intervals between 
 these times of violence and distress church buildings had 
 begun to be erected. 
 
 Under Diocletian's fearful persecution many of the 
 buildings which had been erected in the calm after the
 
 68 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 outburst under Decius were destroyed. So one of the 
 noteworthy things in the era of toleration and patronage 
 was the building of houses of worship. In this work the 
 emperor Constantine himself set the example, and several 
 churches were founded by his mother Helena. The form 
 of structure was somewhat that of the basilica, or Roman 
 court-room a long rectangle with level floor provided 
 with rows of seats. But there were modifications of this, 
 which some think were adapted from the arrangements 
 of private houses in which early worship was so often 
 conducted. Besides the auditorium there were platforms 
 or pulpits, and reading desks, called ambones; so that 
 the material appliances for preaching were fairly well 
 developed in this age. 
 
 Sundays and festival days were the usual times of 
 preaching, but no doubt there were also special occasions 
 of various sorts and frequency. From the earliest times 
 a regular part of the Sunday worship had been the read- 
 ing of the Scriptures with an exhortation following. But 
 with the gradual fixing of the Christian year especially 
 the festivals of Christmas, Easter and Pentecost (Whit- 
 suntide), and with the increasing reverence paid to 
 saints and martyrs on their days, the preaching on these 
 special occasions assumed more and more importance. In 
 later times, as we shall see, many of the series of sermons 
 which were especially prized and preserved were these 
 festival discourses. 
 
 The removal of the necessity of privacy, the building 
 of large churches, the social prestige of Christianity, the 
 fashion of attendance on worship, all contributed toward 
 rendering congregations larger and more miscellaneous 
 than in the former times. For a while heathen and her- 
 etics were kept in the outer court, but the people, pre- 
 sumably and nominally Christian, occupied the nave, i.e., 
 central part of the building, the men and women sep- 
 arated by partitions. As to posture the practice was 
 perhaps not uniform, and may have varied even at the 
 same place according to times and circumstances, but 
 generally it appears that the people stood during preach- 
 ing. The congregations were apparently not very or- 
 derly, for even the eloquent Chrysostom often rebukes 
 them for inattention. They shifted about, sometimes
 
 THE ANCIENT, OR PATRISTIC, AGE 69 
 
 broke out into applause, and sometimes large numbers 
 rushed from the church at the conclusion of the sermon, 
 not waiting for the orderly closing of the service. 
 
 As was to be expected, both from natural development 
 and from the new order of things, the worship in this 
 period became more elaborate and ceremonious. Its 
 contents were enriched, its order assumed greater fixity. 
 The place of preaching was still just after the reading 
 of the Scriptures, with sometimes perhaps a brief prayer 
 between. The selection of the lesson, or portion of Scrip- 
 ture to be read, was not as yet fixed by any general rule 
 for all the churches. The selection seems to have been 
 left to the bishop, 1 but it is not improbable that in some 
 churches there were at least the beginnings of a regular 
 course of selections. The passage read was frequently 
 used as the foundation of the sermon, or was referred to 
 in the discourse; but just what connection there was 
 between the selection of the Scripture and the previous 
 preparation of the sermon that is, as to which influenced 
 the other does not appear. 
 
 The growing tendency of earlier times, to restrict 
 preaching as a public teaching office of the church to 
 bishops and presbyters, may now be regarded as fixed 
 and final custom. Whatever lay preaching continued 
 was personal, informal and outside the regular work and 
 worship of the churches. It is not improbable that her- 
 etics and minor sects retained a greater freedom in this 
 respect; but this is matter of conjecture. The deacons 
 were now regarded as an order of clergy, but their duties 
 in worship were to read the Scriptures when appointed 
 to do so, to assist the bishops in various ways, and to aid 
 in the celebration of the ordinances and in the collection 
 and distribution of the offerings. They were not regularly 
 allowed to preach. 2 This was the special privilege and 
 duty of the bishops, but was shared by the presbyters under 
 episcopal regulation. The presbyters were ordained and 
 appointed to their charges by the bishops, and likewise 
 designated by them as preachers for special occasions. 
 Thus Chrysostom served for several years as deacon at 
 Antioch before he was designated by his bishop as lead- 
 ing preacher in the principal church of the city. 
 
 1 See Schaff, Vol. III., p. 470. 
 
 "But this rule was not always rigidly enforced.
 
 70 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 The contents of the sermon remained substantially 
 what they had been at the close of the preceding age. 
 As the Apostolic tradition had now faded, and the medi- 
 aeval saints' legends had not yet arrived, the traditional 
 is the least considerable element of fourth century preach- 
 ing. The great work of Origen and his school, already 
 so often mentioned, shows itself. Preaching is largely 
 exposition of Scripture, often on a short text, some- 
 times continuous on whole books or parts of books, or 
 on subjects. Doctrine also becomes now increasingly 
 important as homiletical material ; but with it, according 
 to the personality of the preacher, is often mingled some 
 speculation and philosophizing. The preacher's knowl- 
 edge of life, of passing events, of literature, affords 
 abundant illustration ; and in some cases, notably with 
 Basil and Gregory, illustration is derived from nature. 
 The application is often close, direct, personal, and not 
 infrequently very telling. 
 
 Between the structureless homily or exhortation of the 
 early times, and the closely articulated, minutely analyzed 
 sermon of the Scholastics and the Puritans of later ages, 
 we find the fourth century discourse. Retaining the 
 Scriptural motive and tone, and in large degree the famil- 
 iarity, of the homily, and avoiding the tedious division 
 and sub-division of the scholastic sermon, the logos, or 
 oration, of this age is more assimilated to the classic 
 models of oratory. It has form indeed, but its bony 
 structure is not obtrusive. The delivery was extempo- 
 raneous. Some of the extant sermons were written by 
 the preacher before or after delivery more commonly 
 perhaps the latter, but many of them were reported by 
 shorthand writers, with or without revision by the author. 
 Thus Gaudentius, bishop of Brescia, 1 a contemporary and 
 friend of Chrysostom, in one of his letters, speaks of 
 certain sermons as not acknowledged by him as his own 
 because they were hastily taken down by reporters and 
 had not been submitted to him for correction ; but others 
 he had looked over and put into shape. 
 
 Of course the spirit and motive of these fourth century 
 sermons varied with the individual preachers, as is ever 
 the case. ' But even among the best preachers of the time 
 1 See below, p. 97 f.
 
 THE ANCIENT, OR PATRISTIC, AGE 7! 
 
 there is too often apparent the effort to strike and please 
 by rhetorical display and to win applause by popular 
 utterances. The taste of the age called for more orator- 
 ical exuberance than is fitting for the themes of sacred 
 discourse, and the preachers did not rise far above their 
 hearers in this respect. But with these drawbacks frankly 
 noted, we cannot fail to see in many of these homilies the 
 mastering desire of the preacher to glorify his Lord and 
 to win the souls of his fellow men. For the Christian 
 hearer there is constant instruction in the doctrines and 
 duties of his religion, together with most earnest appeals 
 and exhortations, rebukes or consolations, as the case 
 might require. 
 
 That the life and thought of mankind were mightily 
 and permanently influenced by the preaching of the 
 fourth century there can be no doubt. As always, much 
 of this influence is intangible and cannot be expressed 
 in terms, but it was felt, then as now. The blessing of 
 God was upon the now unknown as then unrecognized 
 labors of many obscure men, as well as upon the known 
 and applauded oratory of the great preachers. Souls 
 were saved and edified, society influenced for good, and 
 the better thoughts of men enriched and stimulated by 
 the spoken Word in this impressive era of Christian 
 history. 
 
 3. THE EASTERN PREACHERS 
 
 It is time to give our attention to some of the more 
 important preachers 1 of this great period ; and they natu- 
 rally fall into an eastern and a western group. Among 
 the eastern preachers, though not especially remarkable 
 for his preaching, was the famous church historian, 
 Eusebius (c. 260-340). He was bishop of Caesarea, in 
 Palestine, from 315 to his death in 340. He is chiefly 
 known for his exceedingly valuable Church History and 
 his extravagant eulogy on Constantine. He was prob- 
 ably born in Palestine, and was educated at Antioch 
 and Caesarea. He was a great student and well informed 
 in history and literature. At one time the archbishopric 
 of Antioch was offered him, but he declined the honor. 
 
 1 In the following discussions much help has been derived from 
 the works, already named, of Paniel, Lentz and Rothe.
 
 72 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 In the Arian controversy he tried to hold a middle course 
 and was naturally distrusted by the extreme orthodox 
 party. He accepted the Origenistic doctrine of the 
 eternal generation of the Son, and therefore did not deny 
 the proper deity of Christ, but he signed the Nicene Creed 
 with some reluctance. He enjoyed the esteem of Con- 
 stantine, and more than paid back his imperial patron in 
 a well known and fulsome panegyric. As bishop he 
 was a frequent preacher, but does not hold very high 
 rank in this regard. A number of his homilies remain. 
 They indicate knowledge of Scripture, acquaintance with 
 other literature, a desire to do good, a fair amount of 
 homiletical skill, a rather dry style, though characterized 
 by the excess and over-ornamentation fashionable at the 
 time. 
 
 There is another Eusebius, among the many who bore 
 the name, who is worthy of mention as a preacher. This 
 was the good bishop of Emesa, in Syria (d. c. 360), a 
 friend and pupil of Eusebius of Csesarea. He was a 
 learned and highly esteemed man. Like his teacher he 
 lay under some suspicion of Arian tendency in doctrine, 
 but probably without justice. He also enjoyed the im- 
 perial favor. A number of homilies and some fragments 
 ascribed to him remain, but many of these are of doubt- 
 ful authenticity. From these and the mention of con- 
 temporary or later writers it is inferred that he was a 
 preacher of more than ordinary force and eloquence as 
 well as learning. It is much to his credit that in hand- 
 ling the Scriptures he departed from the extreme alle- 
 gorical interpretation of Origen and his followers and 
 approached nearer to the literal and grammatical exegesis 
 of the Antiochian school. 
 
 The famous presbyter of Alexandria, the stout and 
 successful opponent of Arius, the orthodox Athanasius 
 (296-372), later bishop and often exiled, is one of the 
 most interesting figures in church history. He is so cele- 
 brated as church leader, theologian, and defender of the 
 Trinity against Arianism that his work as preacher at- 
 tracts comparatively little attention. There are extant 
 eighteen so-called homilies attributed to him, but their 
 genuineness is seriously questioned, and their homileti- 
 cal value is inconsiderable, though they show argumenta-
 
 THE ANCIENT, OR PATRISTIC, AGE 73 
 
 tive skill and force. From his standing and reputation, 
 and from his genuine writings, we easily argue that his 
 power as a preacher must have been more than respect- 
 able. Broadus 1 says of him, " His style of writing has 
 directness, simplicity, and native force, a vigorous and 
 manly eloquence, such as one seldom meets with in that 
 age of stilted rhetoric." 
 
 Something over fifty homilies from this age are as- 
 cribed to one Macarius. 2 There were two preachers of this 
 name, an elder and a younger, and it is not certain to 
 which of them the greater part of the homilies belong, 
 nor which to each. The authorities, however, mostly 
 assign them to the elder man, and agree on ascribing 
 them all to one author instead of dividing them between 
 the two. Nor is it apparent whether any relationship 
 existed between the two men. The elder (c. 300-375) 
 was abbot of a convent in Egypt, and the character of 
 the sermons agrees with that fact; for they are mostly 
 sermons to monks inculcating the monastic virtues. Pan- 
 iel 3 thinks that if the author had led an active life among 
 men he would have been a great preacher, for these 
 homilies show warmth, earnestness, and an oratorical 
 nature. Macarius also has an interest for us in being 
 one of the earliest preachers in whom we find traces of 
 that devout mysticism 4 which was to form so prominent 
 a characteristic of mediaeval and later preaching. " His 
 homilies have been appealed to by modern theopathetic 
 mystics as an authority for Quietism. He teaches per- 
 fectionist doctrine." 5 Nebe says that Gottfried Arnold 
 translated Macarius' homilies into German, and they were 
 highly esteemed by the Pietists. But he does not agree 
 with Vaughan that Macarius teaches perfection, absolute 
 sinlessness, on earth. 
 
 A notable preacher of the age was Cyril of Jerusalem 
 ( c - 3 I 5"386). Of the two noted fathers who bore the 
 name of Cyril the earlier and better was born probably 
 at or near Jerusalem about the year 315. When about 
 
 1 Hist. Prea., p. 63. 
 
 2 Besides Paniel and others see especially Nebe, Zur Ge- 
 schichte der Predigt, for a good discussion of Macarius. Bd. I., 
 SS. 84 ff. * Op. cit., S. 398 f. 
 
 4 Vaughan, Hours with the Mystics, Vol. I., p. ill. 
 6 Vaughan, /. c.; and Nebe, op. cit., S. 86, et passim.
 
 74 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 thirty years old he was appointed presbyter at Jerusalem, 
 and was especially charged with the duty of instructing 
 the catechumens in order to prepare them for baptism. 
 An interesting and valuable series of these catechetical 
 lectures remain. They are really homilies, and besides 
 shedding some light on the views and practices of the 
 time and place on the subject of baptism, they afford 
 evidence of the preacher's art and spirit. Besides giving 
 these lectures to candidates for baptism Cyril preached 
 often to the congregation. One of his remaining ser- 
 mons is on the healing of the impotent man at Bethesda. 
 Paniel criticises it as full of digressions, parentheses, 
 allegorizing all indicating a youthful author. In 350 
 Cyril was elected bishop of Jerusalem. Owing to per- 
 sonal and doctrinal controversies he was twice deposed 
 and reinstated. His condemnations were very probably 
 unjust Toward the close of his life he was greatly 
 honored and loved as one who had suffered for the 
 truth's sake. 
 
 Sometime during the fourth century, probably the 
 latter part, there lived and labored at Amasea in Pontus 
 a bishop called Asterius. Little or nothing is certainly 
 known of his life. It is inferred from some allusions 
 in his sermons that he lived in the time of the emperor 
 Julian, but how long before or after that short reign 
 (361-363) does not appear. It seems that he was edu- 
 cated at Antioch, but we cannot say whether he was 
 born there or not. He had a teacher at Antioch, a Scy- 
 thian, or Goth, who had been a slave but was then a 
 freedman. This man was highly gifted and well read, 
 and under his guidance Asterius studied the Greek clas- 
 sics and cultivated his style. He seems, as so many other 
 good preachers have done, to have begun life as a lawyer, 
 but was chosen bishop because of his piety and eloquence. 
 He had the by-name of Philaretus, " the friend of vir- 
 tue." We are fortunate in having ten of his sermons l 
 which are accepted by critics as undoubtedly genuine, 
 besides some fragments, and a larger number of doubtful 
 authenticity. As to his preaching Paniel 2 remarks that 
 
 'Five of these have been well translated by Professor E. J. 
 Goodspeed, of Chicago University, and published in a handy little 
 volume, with an introduction by Dr. Galusha Anderson. 
 
 * Op. cit., S. 567.
 
 THE ANCIENT, OR PATRISTIC, AGE 75 
 
 Chrysostom himself need not have been ashamed of some 
 of these productions ; and Broadus x says, " The subjects 
 are moral and historical ; he has fine descriptive powers ; 
 the style is marked by exquisite richness of expression, 
 and not overwrought. . . . Some of his sermons 
 could be preached in our churches with little alteration, 
 and would be well received." 
 
 An exceedingly engaging personality of the Nicene 
 age is that of the Syrian, Ephraim (c. 300-379), or as he 
 is commonly known in ecclesiastical literature, Ephraem 
 Syrus. He has been described as " the most distin- 
 guished divine orator and poet of the ancient Syrian 
 church." 2 Owing to his hymns he was sometimes called 
 " the Harp of the Holy Spirit." He was born near the 
 beginning of the fourth century, in Mesopotamia, of 
 heathen parents. His father was priest in a heathen 
 temple, and on the youth's showing inclination to become 
 a Christian, drove him from home. The boy went to the 
 bishop of Nisibis, who took him in gladly and gave him 
 Christian training. In company with this bishop he at- 
 tended in his young manhood the great council of Nicaea, 
 and became a thoroughgoing and orthodox Christian. 
 Settling in Edessa in Syria about the year 363 he lived 
 as a hermit in a cave, earnestly studying, and preaching 
 to his fellow monks. Though he was not very well ac- 
 quainted with Greek he managed to have an interview 
 with Basil, the famous bishop and preacher of Caesarea 
 in Cappadocia, whom he visited and by whom he was 
 ordained a deacon. He later evaded being made a bishop 
 by playing David's role at Gath and feigning himself 
 mad. But though he declined ecclesiastical office beyond 
 that of deacon he was a theologian, writer, poet, and also a 
 preacher of great popularity and power. He was faithful 
 in his benevolent ministrations to the sick, and is said 
 to have died as a result of his self-denying labors during 
 the prevalence of the plague. 
 
 In his preaching and writings he used his native Syrian 
 tongue. A large number of his homilies remain, but a 
 
 1 Hist. Prea., p. 66. 
 
 2 Schaff, op. cit., III., p. 953, from whom the account in the 
 text is chiefly derived. See also several of Ephraem's homilies 
 in the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. XIII., p, 305 ff.
 
 76 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 larger number have of course passed away. Photius 
 says that he composed more than a thousand homilies. 
 Some are expository, some controversial. " They evince 
 a considerable degree of popular eloquence ; they are full 
 of pathos, exclamations, apostrophes, antitheses, illustra- 
 tions, severe rebuke, and sweet comfort, according to the 
 subject ; but are also full of exaggerations, bombast, pro- 
 lixity, and the superstitions of his age." a 
 
 Far to the North, a famous contemporary of 
 'Ephraem's, Ulfilas (313-383), the so-called apostle of the 
 Goths, should not be forgotten. 2 It is said that he came 
 of a Cappadocian family who had been captured by the 
 Goths in one of their raids. But he was born among 
 the barbarians and his name is the familiar Teutonic 
 " Wolf." His parents taught him Greek and Christianity 
 from childhood, and thus was he providentially fitted for 
 his mission among his people. In his thirtieth year he 
 was ordained a bishop, and worked with great zeal for 
 the conversion of the Goths beyond the Danube. But 
 persecution drove him and some of his converts south- 
 ward, and he obtained permission from the emperor 
 Constantine in 350 to cross over into the imperial domin- 
 ions. This was twenty-five years ahead of the famous 
 migration permitted by Valens. Here for thirty-three 
 years Ulfilas lived, laboring among the Goths on both 
 sides of the river as far as he could. He was Arian in 
 doctrine, and that accounts for the prevalence of that view 
 among the Goths. 
 
 Ulfilas was a faithful, devoted, earnest man, and a dili- 
 gent bishop. He therefore must have preached much, 
 but we have no sermons from him whereby to judge of 
 his methods and powers as a preacher. Regretting his 
 Arianism, we should yet honor his fidelity and zeal, and 
 never forget his inestimable service of translating the 
 New Testament into Gothic. This is the earliest monu- 
 ment of Teutonic literature, and probably the first trans- 
 lation of the Scriptures made into a barbarous tongue. 
 
 More eminent than those of whom we have been think- 
 ing was a renowned trio of preachers from the highlands 
 of Cappadocia. On the hardy people of this region the 
 Greeks had imprinted deeply and lastingly their civiliza- 
 
 1 Schaff, I. c. a Article in Hersog-Plitt, Bd. 16, S. 146.
 
 THE ANCIENT, OR PATRISTIC, AGE 77 
 
 tion and culture. They are described as a rough and 
 vigorous mountain race, fierce and treacherous ; but they 
 have given to history some important characters, among 
 whom were none more famous than the three great 
 preachers and divines who adorned Cappadocia during 
 the fourth century. In the address of the First Epistle 
 of Peter, Cappadocia is mentioned as one of the countries 
 in which lived the Christians to whom that general letter 
 was written. With this early start it is not unlikely that 
 the Christians greatly multiplied in the region, and that 
 by the fourth century (as seems clearly to be the case) 
 there were great numbers of them. The principal city, 
 Mazaca, renamed Caesarea after the Roman occupation, 
 was at this time the populous and flourishing metropolis 
 of all that region. It was situated on a beautiful stream, 
 with Mt. Argaeus, 13,000 feet, rising sheer and grand 
 near by. 
 
 The period covered by the lives of Basil, his younger 
 brother Gregory, and their friend Gregory of Nazianzus, 
 was one of tumult and unrest in church and state. The 
 Christians of Cappadocia, as indeed in all the East, were 
 torn asunder by the Arian controversy; and there was 
 serious trouble during all this time, no matter which 
 party, according to the fluctuations of imperial favor, 
 might be filling the offices. The bishopric of Caesarea 
 was of metropolitan rank, and on Basil's elevation to it 
 the province contained fifty subordinate bishoprics. 
 
 The two families from which these three men sprang 
 were of high social standing, wealth, and lofty Christian 
 character. The parents of Basil and the younger 
 Gregory were Basil, a rhetorician and lawyer of Neo- 
 Caesarea in Pontus, and Emmelia, a Christian lady of 
 excellent family from Caesarea in Cappadocia. The 
 paternal grandmother, Macrina of Pontus, was a noble 
 Christian woman. The family seem to have lived partly 
 at Pontus and partly at Caesarea in Cappadocia, where 
 Basil (and probably Gregory too) was born. With so 
 pious a grandmother a devoted admirer of Gregory 
 Thaumaturgus, the bishop and saint of Pontus in the pre- 
 ceding generation and mother, it is not strange that this 
 admirable family was eminent for piety. Three bishops, 
 Basil, Gregory of Nyssa, and Peter of Sebaste, came from
 
 78 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 among the sons, and there was also a distinguished lawyer 
 among them. Macrina, the saintly sister, to whom both 
 Basil and Gregory owed so much, never married but led 
 the monastic life, and was highly esteemed as a Christian 
 woman of excellent gifts and lovely character. 
 
 Likewise the family of Gregory Nazianzen was of 
 good social and religious standing. The father had an 
 estate at a little village called Arianzus near to the more 
 important town of Nazianzus from which this Gregory 
 has his surname. Gregory's father was a Christian, but 
 in early life belonged to an obscure sect called the Hyp- 
 sistarians, from which he was brought over to the or- 
 thodox faith by the influence and entreaties of his pious 
 and devoted wife, Nonna. This godly woman, like An- 
 thusa and Monica in her own age, and many a good 
 Christian mother since, consecrated her son to God and 
 brought him up from childhood " in the nurture and ad- 
 monition of the Lord." The father for that was long 
 before celibacy became a rigid rule was bishop of Naz- 
 ianzus for many years, dying at an advanced age in 374. 
 There was also a sister, Gorgonia, and a brother, Caesa- 
 rius, who became a noted physician at Constantinople. 
 
 Turning now to consider in more detail the individuals 
 of this justly famous group we properly begin with 
 Basil (329-379), afterwards called the Great. 1 Born at 
 Caesarea in Cappadocia in 329, his early education was 
 attended to by his father, a well-known rhetorician. 
 During his childhood the family seems to have resided 
 in Pontus, for he came thence in his youth back to 
 Caesarea to go to school. Here he first met Gregory of 
 Nazianzus, who subsequently became his nearest friend 
 through life. After this he went to Constantinople, where 
 he enjoyed the instructions of Libanius, who was later 
 at Anttioch the famous teacher of John Chrysostom. About 
 the year 350 or later Basil went to Athens to complete 
 his education. Here he found Gregory of Nazianzus, 
 who had preceded him. While here the two young men 
 formed an intimate and affectionate friendship which 
 with only one temporary interruption, lasted through life. 
 They were congenial spirits in very many ways, and their 
 
 1 Translations of his works in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 
 Vol. VIII.
 
 THE ANCIENT, OR PATRISTIC, AGE 79 
 
 beautiful and pure attachment is not strange. It is 
 especially worthy of note that amid the temptations and 
 dissipations for which college towns have ever been 
 noted, these two, though not yet committed fully to the 
 Christian life, preserved their purity, and thus honored 
 their Christian nurture. 
 
 With longings already stirred for a deeper Christian 
 experience, and with inclinations toward asceticism, 
 Basil left Athens well educated and prepared for the 
 work of life. About this time his father died and he 
 began the practice of law and the teaching of rhetoric 
 at Csesarea. But though successful and admired, he did 
 not put his whole heart into the work. More and more he 
 was drawn toward the monastic life. He took a journey 
 into Syria, Palestine, and Egypt, studying monastic in- 
 stitutions. On his return he gave up the law, divided 
 his wealth among the poor, and retired to Pontus. His 
 widowed mother and his sister Macrina had already 
 gone thither and were living in a cloister with other 
 women of like mind. Near them Basil found a spot to 
 his liking where he could form with others a monastery. 
 In a letter to Gregory Nazianzen he describes the place 
 and urges his friend to join him in this quiet retreat of 
 piety and study. Gregory came, as we shall see, but 
 did not remain long. 
 
 From this quiet cloister Basil was, much against his 
 inclinations, called forth to active service, and was made 
 a presbyter at Caesarea in Cappadocia in 364. He 
 preached often and with great success. In 370 he was 
 elevated to the metropolitan bishopric of Csesarea. This 
 made him church ruler over a province containing fifty 
 subordinate bishoprics. He strenuously set himself to 
 the work of his charge, and was especially active against 
 Arianism, endeavoring to fill the places with bishops of 
 the orthodox party. To this end he appointed his 
 brother Gregory bishop of Nyssa, and his friend Gregory 
 bishop of Sasima. These were obscure towns, and 
 Sasima was very displeasing to Gregory, who was hurt 
 with his friend for sending him to such a place. The 
 emperor Valens, being Arian in opinions, was minded to 
 depose Basil, but for some reason did not. 
 
 Besides his cares of administration and frequent
 
 80 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 preaching Basil was active in benevolence. It was said 
 of him that " only the poor knew how great were the 
 revenues of his bishopric." He founded a hospital one 
 of the first, if not the very first in Christian history for 
 the care of the indigent sick, chiefly lepers, and often 
 ministered to them in person. A feeble frame, severe 
 asceticism, and arduous labors tell the story of a life 
 prematurely worn out. and he died in 379 in his fiftieth 
 year. He was greatly beloved in life and deeply lamented 
 in death. His funeral was attended by an immense con- 
 course and was a remarkable demonstration of popular 
 regard. 
 
 As a preacher Basil had native oratorical gifts, a very 
 suitable and thorough education, and the inspiring de- 
 mands of place and age. Besides all this he was a truly 
 noble Christian character, earnestly intent on doing good, 
 and constantly in touch with men in administering his 
 great office. His preaching attracted large crowds and 
 pleased as well as helped both the cultured few and the 
 uncultured many. He sometimes preached short ser- 
 mons at the hour of noonday rest, and " artisans, laborers, 
 silk-spinners would crowd into the church to listen to 
 the discourse." Of his much praised He.vaemeron a 
 series of discourses on the six days of creation it has 
 been said, " The simplest could comprehend them, while 
 the wisest admired them." His clear and often elegant 
 style, though marred now and then with the overdone 
 exuberance of the place and time, showed the traces of 
 his education and taste. His knowledge of human nature 
 and power of illustration were great. Schaff has done 
 well to call attention to his good use of illustration and 
 description from nature. This was something new, for 
 even the great classic orators were deficient in this re- 
 spect. Basil's use of Scripture was faulty with the 
 strained allegorizing of the Alexandrian school, but it 
 is reverent and telling. Broadus 1 speaks in especial com- 
 mendation of his treatment of moral subjects and says, 
 " Amid all the admirable temperance literature of our 
 own age, I have seen no more just and vivid exhibition 
 of many of the evils of drunkenness than is given by 
 Basil in his sermon on that subject." Upon the whole 
 1 Hist. Prea., p. 69.
 
 THE ANCIENT, OR PATRISTIC, AGE 8l 
 
 we may say that Basil justly won the respect and repu- 
 tation which he enjoyed in life, and that posterity has 
 accepted and confirmed the verdict of his own age by 
 giving him a secure place among the great preachers 
 of all time. 
 
 Among all the famous Gregories of Church History 
 hardly one better deserves his fame than he of Nazianzus 
 in Cappadocia. 1 Enough has already been told of his 
 parents and of his pious childhood. In youth, up to his 
 thirtieth year when he left Athens, he received the best 
 education his time afforded in schools at Cassarea in Cap- 
 padocia, at Caesarea in Palestine, at Alexandria where 
 he knew and revered the great Athanasius and lastly at 
 Athens, where he remained longer than his friend Basil, 
 and where he was urged, on completing his studies, to 
 remain and set up a school. This, however, he declined 
 to do, and returned home by way of Constantinople, 
 where he visited his brother Caesarius the physician, 
 whom he induced to go on home with him to see their 
 parents. Filial as well as religious interest prompted 
 this action. Caesarius, however, though a Christian, did 
 not receive baptism at this time, but Gregory was bap- 
 tized by his father on this visit home and remained there 
 some time assisting his father in various ways with his 
 theological learning in the church affairs, and with his 
 practical sense in the management of the estate at Arian- 
 zus. His heart, however, was deeply moved toward the 
 monastic life, and on the invitation of Basil he joined his 
 friend at the secluded place in Pontus, as already related. 
 He could not have remained here many months, for in 
 361 on another visit home he was, without his consent, 
 but with the approval and in the presence of the congre- 
 gation, ordained a presbyter by his father. This sudden 
 and unexpected elevation to ecclesiastical office was not 
 to his liking, and he ran away back to Pontus and Basil. 
 But his sense of duty overcame his irritation and his 
 preferences, and after awhile he returned home once 
 more and was his father's assistant (in fact, though per- 
 haps not by regular official appointment) until the old 
 man's death in 374. Once during this time he was again 
 in retirement for a season ; and these fluctuations between 
 l Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. VII.
 
 82 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 the active and retired life were frequent and character- 
 istic. Duty, with perhaps a trace of ambition, drove him 
 to the one, but taste and temper inclined him to the other. 
 He once in his father's presence explained to the con- 
 gregation this conflict in his mind between his love of 
 solitude and his deference to the calls of public duty. 
 
 Within this period of his life also occurred the strain- 
 ing of his friendship with Basil. One way in which that 
 great prelate undertook to drive out Arianism from his 
 province was to appoint his friends to bishoprics, and to 
 make bishoprics even in small places where there was 
 special need. One of these insignificant places was 
 Sasima, a wretched cross-roads town, very undesirable 
 in every way and territorially in dispute between Basil 
 and his rival Arian neighbor, the metropolitan of Tyana. 
 To this miserable place Gregory was appointed by his 
 friend. Whether some desire to assert his authority and 
 to discipline the ambition of Gregory may have weighed 
 with the main motive of Basil in making this unwise 
 and somewhat ungenerous appointment we may not cer- 
 tainly say. Gregory, while perhaps he did not much care 
 for great place in itself, had enough both of pride and 
 affection to be deeply wounded at the slight thus put 
 upon him by his dearest friend ; and while it appears that 
 he allowed himself to be consecrated as bishop it also 
 seems that he never actually took up his official residence 
 at Sasima. He continued to assist his father at Nazian- 
 zus, and on the older man's death in 374 it is probable 
 though the matter is not perfectly clear that he exer- 
 cised the office of bishop there. But whether this rela- 
 tion was official or only tolerated it does not appear to 
 have continued long, for soon Gregory was in retirement 
 again, this time at or near Seleucia in Isauria. Here in 
 379 the news of Basil's death came to him. Long before, 
 no doubt, the temporary breach had been healed and a 
 good understanding resumed between the two. On 
 getting the news Gregory wrote to Gregory of Nyssa a 
 touching and beautiful letter which .remains, and some- 
 time later, upon invitation of the church at Csesarea, he 
 delivered his famous eulogy on Basil. 1 This, though 
 
 1 Translation of portions of it in Fish, Masterpieces of Pulpit 
 Eloquence, I., p. 67 ff.
 
 THE ANCIENT, OR PATRISTIC, AGE 83 
 
 naturally overdone, is an eloquent and feeling tribute, 
 perhaps the best remaining specimen of the orator's 
 genius. 
 
 In this same year, 379, Gregory was called to the care 
 of the little depressed and scattered church of orthodox 
 Christians at Constantinople. Under Valens Arianism 
 had been triumphant at the capital, and orthodoxy had 
 suffered. In some way this little flock turned to the 
 eloquent Nazianzen, and he was urged by many of his 
 brethren to undertake the restoration of orthodoxy at the 
 imperial city. He went, and here within two years did 
 the great work of his life. His success in drawing con- 
 gregations, building up the church, and giving to the 
 Athanasian doctrine once again respectability and power 
 at one of the world's capitals, is one of the most distinct 
 and notable triumphs in the history of preaching. It is 
 true that the. reaction from Arianism under the earnestly 
 orthodox emperor Theodosius aided the restoration, but 
 that enlightened monarch recognized the services of the 
 preacher and appointed him to the great Church of the 
 Apostles, afterwards made famous by the eloquence of 
 Chrysostom. This appointment to the archbishopric was 
 not regular, as Gregory was officially still entangled with 
 his wretched bishopric of Sasima, or his assistant- 
 bishopric of Nazianzus, or both; and so the action of 
 a synod was needed to disentangle the affair and give him 
 the promotion in regular official form. The great Coun- 
 cil of Constantinople in 381, called by the emperor still 
 further to pass on the doctrine of the Person of Christ, 
 gave the needed opportunity. By this council Gregory 
 was formally declared archbishop of Constantinople, and 
 was inaugurated with great pomp. But there was still 
 dissatisfaction and much murmuring, doubtless empha- 
 sized by personal reasons, and Gregory, weary of con- 
 tention and longing once more for retirement, resigned 
 before the year was out. On leaving he preached a 
 notable farewell sermon in which he freed his mind as 
 to the causes of his withdrawal. 
 
 He now returned to his old home at Arianzus, where 
 he busied himself with the care of his estate, his corre- 
 spondence, his writings, and to some extent, as adviser, 
 with the affairs of the church at Nazianzus. Thus oc-
 
 84 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 cupied he spent his last years and died probably about 
 390. 
 
 Gregory Nazianzen holds a high and firm place among 
 the world's great preachers. Small of stature and un- 
 prepossessing in appearance, he had no majestic presence 
 to help out the flash and force of his oratorical genius. 
 He was sensitive, vain, ambitious, yet struggling with 
 these and other infirmities ever toward the better things 
 in character and usefulness. The imaginative, delicate, 
 poetic turn of his mind united with his deep religious 
 feeling and firmness of doctrinal belief, and with his ad- 
 mirable culture, to produce a Christian orator of the first 
 rank. Many specimens of his eloquence remain. They 
 are marred by the weaknesses of the man, the oriental 
 extravagance of his race, the bad taste and tawdry 
 rhetoric of the age; but in spite of all this their excel- 
 lences are marked. Bishop W. Boyd Carpenter 1 says of 
 him : " Well acquainted with the sacred Scriptures, he 
 could reason forcibly and expound clearly, and his 
 lively imagination contributed, with his literary culture, 
 to give a charm and beauty to his sermons." And Ull- 
 man, quoted by Carpenter, speaks of " the fertility of his 
 imagination, his fire and strength, his rapidity and com- 
 pactness of thought, his heartiness and truth of feeling, 
 and his occasional loftiness of flight." 
 
 Younger by some years than his great brother, Basil, 
 and the third son in the family, was Gregory (c. 335-395) 
 afterwards named from his bishopric at Nyssa. 2 Not 
 much is known of his early life and training. He does 
 not seem to have had (perhaps did not desire) such thor- 
 ough education as Basil. Yet it is evident from his works 
 that he too was highly cultivated. No doubt his father 
 instructed him, and he himself speaks in affectionate 
 and grateful terms of his debt for learning as well as 
 other things to his brother Basil and his sister Macrina. 
 He had some inclination toward the ministry of the 
 church, and became in early life an anagnostes, or reader, 
 in the congregation, probably at Caesarea. But he 
 quitted this office and became a rhetorician. This was 
 considered a great lapse, and he was warmly recalled to 
 
 1 Clergyman's Magazine, Vol. I., p. 235. 
 
 2 Translations in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. V.
 
 THE ANCIENT, OR PATRISTIC, AGE 85 
 
 duty by some letters (still extant) from Gregory Naz- 
 ianzen. He gave up his worldly ambitions and though 
 married when is not known went into a retired life 
 for a while. 
 
 After Basil became metropolitan bishop of Caesarea he 
 appointed Gregory to the little bishopric of Nyssa, say- 
 ing that he preferred the place should get fame from his 
 brother rather than his brother from the place. And it 
 was a prophecy, for but for the man the town would 
 long ago have been forgotten. This Gregory did not 
 take his appointment as did the Nazianzen. He was re- 
 luctant to take the office as was the accepted custom 
 but made no objection to the place, and put himself into 
 his work with zeal. His abilities as a speaker and de- 
 bater against Arianism were exactly what Basil wanted 
 at that place and time. He was driven, in 376, from his 
 bishopric by the agents of the imperial government, and 
 an Arian was put in his place. But after two years of 
 retirement, on the death of Valens and the revocation by 
 Gratian of decrees of banishment against Athanasians, he 
 came triumphantly back. Soon afflictions came fast upon 
 him in the death of Basil, of Macrina, and others of his 
 family, and later (c. 384) in that of his good wife, ap- 
 propriately named Theosebia. 
 
 In 381 Gregory attended the Council of Constantinople, 
 and is reasonably supposed to have had great influence in 
 framing the creed adopted by that body. He appears to 
 have made several subsequent visits to Constantinople, 
 and to have visited by official appointment several coun- 
 tries in the interests of peace and orthodoxy. He prob- 
 ably lived till the year 395. 
 
 As a writer and preacher Gregory Nyssen was philo- 
 sophic in mind and of strong speculative bent. He re- 
 minds us strongly of Origen both in this respect and in 
 the excessive allegorizing of his interpretation of Scrip- 
 ture. He was a frequent preacher, and a number of his 
 homilies remain. Paniel 1 thus describes him : " His emi- 
 nent oratorical talent, not put in the shade by Basil, 
 Gregory Nazianzen, and Asterius, would yet be far wor- 
 thier of respect if the Nyssen had held more in check 
 his desire for clever comparisons, his immoderate allege r- 
 1 Op. tit., S. 543.
 
 86 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 X 
 
 izing, his inclination to glittering rhetorical flourishes, 
 his exaggerations, digressions and prolixity." 
 
 These three friends and eminent Christian leaders and 
 thinkers, often called " the Cappadocian Cloverleaf," are 
 an interesting study in the history of the church and of 
 preaching. Basil was the most restrained or rather the 
 least extravagant of the three. His was the better taste, 
 the more orderly arrangement. Gregory Nazianzen was 
 the most impulsive and ardent nervous, petulant, poetic. 
 Gregory Nyssen was the most metaphysical and specu- 
 lative keen and profound in thought. Basil was the 
 man of affairs, the prelate, the manager; Gregory Naz- 
 ianzen was the man of feeling, the poet, the orator; 
 Gregory Nyssen was the man of thought, the philosopher, 
 the logician. All were great preachers, each a striking 
 example of his kind. 
 
 John of Antioch (347-407), later named Chrysostom, 
 the Golden Mouth, was the greatest of the old Greek 
 preachers. 1 He was born at Antioch in 345 or 347, more 
 probably the latter date. His father died while he was 
 yet a little child, leaving his mother a widow at twenty 
 years of age. She was a rare woman young, good look- 
 ing, cultured, of excellent family and standing, and well- 
 to-do. Suitors were many and pressing, and it is hinted 
 that the emperor wished her to be married to one of his 
 officers. But she refused all offers of marriage and de- 
 voted herself to bringing up her boy. She gave him the 
 best educational training that the time and place afforded. 
 At home she taught him the religious life, and for his 
 mental culture she selected the best teachers. At one 
 time he was under the care of the famed Libanius, who 
 had also taught Basil, and that great rhetorician is said to 
 have wished John to be his successor if the Christians 
 had not taken him! Libanius is also reported to have 
 
 1 The literature on Chrysostom is of course very rich in amount 
 and value. Besides all the works on the history hitherto quoted, 
 and others, the admirable Life by W. R. W. Stephens is espe- 
 cially worthy of mention. Of the many editions of his works, 
 original and translations, there is no need here to take account. 
 The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers series contains the most 
 valuable. Of these the volume of the Homilies on Philippians is 
 edited with a very instructive and appreciative introduction by Dr. 
 John A. Broadus. For a good single sermon, see Fish Master- 
 pieces, I., p. 83 ff.
 
 THE ANCIENT, OR PATRISTIC, AGE 87 
 
 remarked, when he heard of Anthusa's devotion to John, 
 "What women these Christians have!" 
 
 John was educated for the law, and actually began the 
 practice of it. A great career seemed to open before him, 
 but for the pure and earnest young man the corruptions 
 of that profession and of the worldly life about him 
 were too bad to be endured. He gave up his business 
 and prospects and was on the point of going into a 
 monastery, but his mother's persuasion induced him to 
 postpone this for a while, as it would leave her lonely. 1 
 He led a very ascetic life at home, and later (presumably 
 after his mother's death) he entered a monastery near 
 Antioch where, under the teaching of Diodorus, he re- 
 mained for several years and carefully studied the Scrip- 
 tures. 
 
 In the year 381 he was called forth from this retreat 
 by his bishop and ordained a deacon at Antioch. For four 
 or five years he exercised this subordinate office, which 
 gave him much contact with the people both rich and 
 poor and acquaintance with practical church affairs. 
 But his great gift of speech deserved recognition and 
 the world needed the exercise of it, so the bishop of An- 
 tioch appointed him in 386 to be presbyter and chief 
 preacher in the leading church of his native city. Here 
 he exercised his brilliant ministry for about twelve years. 
 He soon became the most popular preacher of the city 
 and of the age. His fame spread far and wide. During 
 this time there was a serious sedition at Antioch over the 
 taxes, and the mob in a frenzy mutilated the statues of 
 the emperor, the empress, and their sons. Theodosius, 
 though a Christian, had a fierce temper which sometimes 
 broke all bounds; and the people of Antioch on reflec- 
 tion knew that they had much to fear from the emperor's 
 wrath. They sent a deputation headed by the aged 
 bishop Flavian to Constantinople to apologize for the 
 affront and sue for imperial clemency. In this interval 
 of popular suspense Chrysostom delivered the famous 
 series of twenty-one homilies " On the Statues," which 
 have come down to us. The sermons, so opportune and 
 earnest, had a great effect, and remain as admirable 
 specimens of his genius. 
 
 1 Chrysostom himself gives a feeling account of this interview 
 in his treatise On the Priesthood, Bk. II., Ch. 2.
 
 88 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 Stephens, in his valuable Life of Chrysostom, gives 
 the following vivid account of the occasion : " During 
 the absence of Flavian all the powers of Chrysostom as 
 an orator, a pastor, and a citizen were called forth in 
 attempting to calm the fears and revive the deeply de- 
 jected spirits of the people. Perseveringly did he dis- 
 charge this anxious and laborious task ; almost every day 
 for twenty-two days that small figure was to be seen 
 either sitting in the ambo, from which he sometimes 
 preached on account of his diminutive stature, or stand- 
 ing on the steps of the altar, the preacher's usual place ; 
 and day after day the crowds increased which came to 
 listen to the stream of golden eloquence which he poured 
 forth. With all the versatility of a consummate artist 
 he moved from point to point. Sometimes a picture of 
 the city's agony melted his hearers to tears, and then 
 again he struck the note of encouragement, and revived 
 their spirits by bidding them take comfort from the well- 
 known clemency of the emperor, the probable success of 
 the mission of Flavian, and above all from trust in God." 
 
 A passage from the second homily illustrates the 
 preacher's manner : " The gay and noisy city, where once 
 the busy people hummed like bees around their hive, 
 was petrified by fear into the most dismal silence and 
 desolation; the wealthier inhabitants had fled into the 
 country, those who remained shut themselves up in their 
 houses, as if the town had been in a state of siege. If 
 any one ventured into the market-place, where once the 
 multitude poured along like the stream of a mighty river, 
 the pitiable sight of two or three cowering dejected crea- 
 tures in the midst of solitude soon drove them home 
 again. The sun itself seemed to veil its rays as if in 
 mourning. The words of the prophet were fulfilled. 
 ' Their sun shall go down at noon, and their earth shall 
 be darkened in a clear day' (Amos. 8:9). Now they 
 might cry, ' Send to the mourning women, and let them 
 come, and send for cunning women that they may come ' 
 (Jer. 9:17). Ye hills and mountains! take up a wailing; 
 let us invite all creation to commiserate our woes, for this 
 great city, this capital of Eastern cities, is in danger of 
 being destroyed out of the midst of the earth, and there 
 is no man to help her, for the emperor, who has no equal
 
 THE ANCIENT, OR PATRISTIC, AGE 89 
 
 among men, has been insulted; therefore let us take 
 refuge with the King who is above, and summon him to 
 our aid." 
 
 The homilies, however, were not only eloquent, but 
 most timely and effective, so that thousands were by their 
 means brought to better thoughts. The preacher bore 
 down upon the vices and sins which marred the city; he 
 complained that the people feared the wrath of the em- 
 peror more than the wrath of God, and dreaded death 
 more than sin. Altogether these Statue Homilies are one 
 of the most remarkable series of discourses in the litera- 
 ture of the pulpit. With them Chrysostom's fame and 
 power reached their height in the city of his birth. But 
 he was not to spend his life there. 
 
 After some years the archbishopric of Constantinople 
 fell vacant, and there was a scramble of eager aspirants 
 for the place. Among these was Theophilus, the un- 
 scrupulous and intriguing archbishop of Alexandria. At 
 this time the weak emperor Arcadius, unworthy successor 
 in the East of his great father Theodosius, was under the 
 influence of one of the meanest of his ministers, the in- 
 famous Eutropius. This man determined to disappoint 
 all the schemers and bring from Antioch the eloquent 
 John and make him archbishop at the capital. Knowing 
 that both John and the people of Antioch would resist 
 this move, Eutropius resorted to stratagem and force to 
 accomplish his purpose. The preacher was, innocently 
 on his part, persuaded to come outside the city walls for 
 the ostensible purpose of worshipping at some shrine. He 
 was seized by a band of soldiers in waiting and hurried off 
 to Constantinople, where, with the requisite formalities, 
 he was made archbishop and leading preacher at the 
 great Church of the Apostles ! an office which Gregory 
 Nazianzen had peevishly resigned about eighteen years 
 before this time. 
 
 Here for a little over six years (397-404) the pure and 
 devoted archbishop administered with rare fidelity and 
 courage his great trust, and the eloquent preacher poured 
 forth the intense and lofty oratory which has filled the 
 world with his fame. He lived the life of an ascetic, 
 using the large revenues of his office in alms and other 
 pious works. He disciplined his venal and corrupt in-
 
 90 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 ferior clergy with an unsparing hand, and gave attention 
 without personal ambition to the details of his exacting 
 and responsible office. He concerned himself with 
 benevolences, with missions, with affairs of general in- 
 terest. In his eloquent preaching he was no time-server, 
 but rebuked without fear or favor all classes and condi- 
 tions of men. His plainness of speech gave great offence 
 to the beautiful and imperious Eudoxia, the worldly con- 
 sort of Arcadius. This hatred of the empress and the 
 envy and anger of many of the clergy were the causes 
 of Chrysostom's deposition and banishment. 
 
 Under the lead of the infamous Theophilus of Alex- 
 andria, and no doubt at Eudoxia's instigation, a synod 
 was hastily called at The Oak, a suburb of Chalcedon 
 across the strait, to consider charges against the arch- 
 bishop. A formidable list of charges was made out 
 about forty in number. Many of them were trivial, most 
 of them utterly false, some with just enough show of 
 truth to make them pass with exaggerations and per- 
 versions for the truth. Under such circumstances 
 Chrysostom's condemnation was a foregone conclusion. 
 He was deposed by a regularly convened and therefore 
 formally legal synod of the church, and was turned over 
 to the government for punishment. The empress saw to 
 that, and an imperial decree of banishment was forthwith 
 served upon the bishop by the military arm of the govern- 
 ment. He was escorted across the strait and his enemies 
 seemed successful. But news of his deposition and hasty 
 banishment flew through the city the people were 
 roused 1 they gathered in crowds they shouted, " Give 
 us back our bishop," " We will have our bishop," " Bet- 
 ter let the sun cease to shine than stop that golden 
 mouth ! " In the midst of the popular uproar an earth- 
 quake came. The terrified empress quailed, the emperor 
 gave way, Theophilus took to flight, and orders were 
 given to bring the beloved preacher back. But this could 
 not last. The sentence was not revoked, nor the enmity 
 appeased. Finally, rather than be a source of schism in 
 the church and of tumult in the empire the good and wise 
 man decided to accept voluntarily his condemnation with 
 an appeal to a future general council. (This, it is almost 
 needless to say, was never called.) In order to avoid
 
 THE ANCIENT, OR PATRISTIC, AGE 91 
 
 popular disturbance he left his mule hitched in the usual 
 place near the church, and gave himself up privately 
 through the back way to the guard, who secretly con- 
 veyed him across the Bosphorus. 
 
 From his place of exile Cucusus, in the mountains 
 near the border betwen Cappadocia and Armenia he 
 kept up correspondence with his friends, continued to 
 care for his flock, his benevolences, his missions; and 
 was much sought in counsel. As he thus continued to be 
 too popular and influential for his enemies, the authorities 
 determined to change the place of his banishment to an 
 inaccessible little town on the Black Sea. On the way 
 thither his feeble frame, worn out with lifelong asceticism 
 and these new hardships, gave way. He died in a little 
 church by the roadside near Comana 1 in Pontus, repeat- 
 ing his favorite phrase, " Glory to God for all things." 
 
 Judged by his character, by his sermons as we have 
 them, and by his work and influence, John Chrysostom 
 has been always and with singular agreement among crit- 
 ics esteemed one of the greatest preachers of all time. 
 Even the cold and sneering Gibbon gives a long account 
 of Chrysostom, and though not doing the saint and 
 preacher justice, is compelled by the facts to accord him 
 high praise. Milton in his Areopagitica, speaking of the 
 comedies of Aristophanes, says, " Holy Chrysostom, as 
 is reported, nightly studied so much the same author, 
 and had the art to cleanse a scurrilous vehemence into 
 the style of a rousing sermon." Indeed nearly all refer- 
 ences in history and literature recognize the easy pre- 
 eminence of the man. Some indeed give him, all things 
 considered, the very first place after the Apostles. What 
 were some of the principal elements of his success? 
 
 To begin with he had excellent advantages. God 
 had endowed him with rich natural gifts of mind and 
 heart he had a great intellect, and the germs of a noble 
 nature. Then he had the devoted and intelligent care 
 of a pious and lovely mother. His liberal education and 
 early work at the profession of the law developed his 
 mind and gave him knowledge of the world. His re- 
 tired life of prayer and study strengthened his spiritual 
 
 1 It is an interesting- fact that near this very spot many cen- 
 turies later (1812) died the devoted missionary, Henry Martyn.
 
 92 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 life and made him master of the Scriptures. Then he 
 worked as deacon for four years in the great city of An- 
 tioch, coming in daily contact with the people and with 
 ecclesiastical details. So, when, a man of nearly forty 
 years, he was called to be chief preacher at Antioch he 
 had behind him a wonderfully varied and complete 
 preparation for his work. 
 
 Nor must we lose sight of the things that helped him 
 in the work. He had great places to fill, and inspiring 
 audiences to preach to, both at Antioch and Constantino- 
 ple. He had at his command one of the greatest lan- 
 guages for oratorical purposes that has ever been spoken 
 by man. Nor must we omit the important fact that the 
 largeness of his mind and breadth of his sympathies in 
 other lines of work helped him in the pulpit. His work 
 with and for the people, his benevolent and missionary 
 enterprises, and his administrative labors, so far from 
 hindering His preaching, made it larger in mould, more 
 popular in effect. He was no bookish recluse, but a man 
 of the people. Their life and souls were his to know and 
 direct. 
 
 Chrysostom's faults as a preacher were neither few 
 nor little. As great a man as he will have great faults as 
 well as great excellences. His best work is marred by 
 the oriental intensity and exaggeration, in feeling, in 
 thought, in language. The overmuch was his snare. In 
 theology, while he was true to the Athanasian ortho- 
 doxy, he did not escape the errors of his age and race. 
 He overpraises alms, celibacy, monasticism, as meritori- 
 ous works. His view of sin and its remedy is more moral 
 than evangelical. Strong tendency toward the worship 
 of Mary and the saints appears. Also there is the sacer- 
 dotal view of the ordinances. In brief he did not rise 
 above the doctrinal errors current in his day. In his 
 preaching itself there is often loose and forced interpreta- 
 tion of Scripture. Sometimes he doesn't take a text at 
 all, and almost never confines himself to it. While he 
 does not allegorize after the Origenistic fashion, he does 
 not mind twisting a passage to fit his homiletical needs. 
 In the structure of his discourses he is often loose, fond 
 of digressions and sallies, sometimes getting back to his 
 point and sometimes not. In style he is often too familiar, 
 too prolix and repetitious.
 
 THE ANCIENT, OR PATRISTIC, AGE 93 
 
 But serious as such faults are, they serve in a case like 
 his to set off great virtues, and also to check the undue 
 admiration we may be disposed to indulge. John Chry- 
 sostom had from early childhood a deep, sincere, and 
 pure religious character. Piety, earnestness, sincerity, 
 and self-sacrifice were realities with him. Splendid cour- 
 age, even if it did sometimes approach bravado, was his. 
 He feared not empress, nor people, nor his evil-minded 
 brethren. He spoke the truth no matter whom it might 
 hit. Fidelity to duty as he saw it animated him in all his 
 work. He, too, was one who wore himself out for his 
 Master. 
 
 On the basis of such a character as this the more 
 properly oratorical virtues naturally and safely rested. 
 The nameless oratorical instinct the way to say here 
 and now the thing that ought to be said, the acute readi- 
 ness to turn the hap of the moment to account this 
 was his. Command of language, wealth of material, 
 abundance and fitness of illustration, fine imaginative 
 and descriptive powers these, too, were his. Add to all 
 this a wonderful knowledge of the Bible and of human 
 nature and of the art of applying the teachings of one to 
 the needs of the other, and the splendid equipment of a 
 live and mighty preacher stands confessed. Students 
 of his sermons and of his life unite in a chorus of well 
 deserved praise of his oratory, but none has said a finer 
 thing of him than his pupil and friend, John Cassian : * 
 " He kindled his zeal in the bosom of his Redeemer." 
 
 4. THE WESTERN PREACHERS 
 
 The attractive characters and work of the great Greek 
 preachers of the fourth century have detained us perhaps 
 too long from their lesser but still important Latin con- 
 teimporaries. But these may be more briefly presented, 
 because they are fewer and less worthy of study than the 
 Eastern preachers whom they imitated. The singular 
 dependence of the Latin mind upon the Greek for ideas 
 and for culture is as well illustrated in the history 
 of preaching as in that of other literature. Not even the 
 great Augustine, any more than the great Cicero before 
 
 1 Quoted by W. Boyd Carpenter, Clerg. Mag., Vol. I., p. 97.
 
 94 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 him, was free from this unhealthy dependence ; and if 
 not these greater minds, how much less the smaller ones ! 
 Hence in passing from the blooming time of Greek Chris- 
 tian preaching in the fourth century to the Latin preach- 
 ing of the same period we feel a distinct drop. Yet the 
 native vigor and intense practical turn of the Latin genius 
 asserted themselves, and did not fail to give even to the 
 imitative work of the Western preachers some tinge of 
 original power. This was especially true of Augustine, 
 the only really great preacher among them, but shows 
 itself to some extent in the weaker men who preceded 
 him. Augustine therefore represents the culmination of 
 early Latin preaching, and our present survey will appro- 
 priately close with him. But we must also give some 
 attention to the great bishop of Milan, Ambrose, and 
 before him to a group of the earlier preachers of less 
 fame. 
 
 Among the Latin preachers who come betwen Cyprian 
 and Ambrose one of the most important was Hilary 
 (d. 368), the highly esteemed bishop of Poitiers. 1 He 
 was born toward the end of the third century at the place 
 which his own work has made somewhat known in 
 church annals, but which the famous victory of the Black 
 Prince a thousand years later (1356) has celebrated in 
 the history of England. Pictavium, in Aquitania, a prov- 
 ince of southern Gaul, known in modern times as Poitiers, 
 was the scene of Hilary's birth and labors. He was of 
 good family and apparently well-to-do. His parents may 
 have been Christian, but this is uncertain. He had good 
 educational opportunities, but was a little slow at first in 
 his mental progress. But by hard work he secured good 
 learning. He studied at Rome and in Greece. When he 
 was baptized, or how long before baptism he had been a 
 Christian we do not know; but as delay in baptism was 
 then common, his elevation to the episcopate in his native 
 town shortly after his baptism does not prove a late con- 
 version. His piety and abilities had long been recognized, 
 and somewhere between 350 and 355, because of his 
 learning, his pure life, his zeal, he was called to the 
 bishopric of Poitiers. He had been married, probably in 
 
 1 See Paniel, S. 697 ff., and the biography and works of Hilary 
 in Migne's Latin Patrology, torn. 9, 10.
 
 THE ANCIENT, OR PATRISTIC, AGE 95 
 
 early life, to an excellent woman; but his married state 
 did not hinder his election, as celibacy, though regarded 
 as preferable, was not at this period enforced. He had 
 a daughter Abra, or Apra, to whom he wrote when 
 absent once a curious letter, still preserved, in which he 
 urges her to remain unmarried, advises her on some re- 
 ligious matters, and sends her a morning and an evening 
 hymn. The latter is lost, but the other is the beautiful 
 one beginning Lucis largitor splendide, one of the treas- 
 ures of ancient Christian hymnody. 1 For his zeal against 
 Arianism he suffered banishment (c. 356-361) under the 
 emperor Constantius. During his exile, in Phrygia, he 
 wrote his treatise in twelve books on the Trinity, besides 
 other writings. He was recalled, and then again ban- 
 ished, and seems to have ended his life in retirement 
 about the year 368. 
 
 He was sound in the faith, an honest and bold believer 
 in the scriptural doctrine of the Trinity before it had 
 been formulated in the Nicene creed. He gladly accepted 
 that instrument, and was a lifelong opponent of Arianism. 
 As to baptism he held the view then prevalent that it 
 was necessary to salvation, but on condition of repentance 
 and faith. He believed in a strict church discipline and 
 was diligent in seeking to win men to the faith in Christ. 
 
 In regard to his preaching not much is to be said. The 
 Benedictine editor 2 of his works says that Hilary ex- 
 pounded the Gospel of Matthew to the people, and that 
 he says of himself, " What he believed he preached, 
 through the ministry of the ordained priesthood, to others ; 
 and exercised his calling for the salvation of the people." 
 Jerome speaks favorably of his eloquence, comparing it 
 to the flow of the river Rhone. On this Paniel shrewdly 
 remarks that the Rhone is a rather muddy torrent! No 
 sermons as such remain. But there are a number of 
 treatises, dissertations (tractatus), on the Psalms which 
 seem very clearly to have been originally sermons and 
 afterwards written out in commentary style. A glance 
 at these confirms the judgment of Jerome that while 
 Hilary imitated Origen he added some things of his own. 
 Along with some acuteness there is much of idle specu- 
 lation and allegorizing. There is no eloquence, and the 
 1 Migne, Pat. Lot., torn. 10, col. 551. " Op. cit., torn. 9, col. 165.
 
 96 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 style is not pleasing; but much reverence for Scripture 
 appears and great desire to do good. On the whole 
 Hilary is more important as a churchman and theologian, 
 but deserves respect and consideration as a preacher. 
 
 Another Latin preacher and bishop of this age is Zeno 
 (d. 380) of Verona. 1 His bust, along with those of many 
 other distinguished sons or citizens, is found on the porch 
 of the old town hall at Verona to this day; but it is 
 hardly a likeness ! It appears that he was born in north 
 Africa early in the fourth century, and was chosen bishop 
 of Verona in Italy in 362, filling that office till his death 
 in 380. He was, like Hilary, a strenuous upholder of the 
 Nicene creed and of church discipline. He enjoyed an 
 excellent reputation for character and works. Some ac- 
 counts call him a " martyr," but others only a " con- 
 fessor," i.e., one who suffered but did not die for his 
 faith. 
 
 Of his homiletical productions there remain ninety- 
 three tractates some of them very brief. It has been 
 conjectured that these short addresses are either merely 
 notes of what was expanded in delivery, or else were 
 additional remarks or exhortations given by the bishop 
 after the presbyter had preached. He had some merit 
 as an orator acuteness, fancy, considerable rhetorical 
 culture and skill. He makes frequent perhaps too fre- 
 quent use of illustration and apostrophe. His imita- 
 tion of the Greek preachers is plain; and allegorizing is 
 abundant and arbitrary. 
 
 Our knowledge of Pacianus, bishop of Barcelona 
 (fl. c. 373), is very little. 2 Jerome in his De Viris Illus- 
 tribus makes favorable mention of him as a man of high 
 standing and noted for piety and eloquence. He seems 
 to have been highly esteemed before becoming a Christian 
 and bishop. He was married, and his son Dexter, to 
 whom Jerome's book was dedicated, held high office under 
 the emperor Honorius, after his father's death. Pacianus 
 became bishop of Barcelona in Spain probably about 373, 
 and died in old age in the time of Theodosius, before 392. 
 
 Two sermons of his remain. One is an exhortation 
 to penitence. It is practical rather than doctrinal, and 
 
 1 See Lentz, Gesch. der Christl. Horn., Bd. I., S. 147 ; and Paniel, 
 S. 716 ff. * Paniel, S. 731.
 
 THE ANCIENT, OR PATRISTIC, AGE 97 
 
 contains some passages full of thought and eloquence. 
 The other, on baptism, is not so good. His work shows 
 familiarity with the classics, good knowledge of the Bible, 
 and effective use of illustration. He resembles Cyprian, 
 whom he studied with pleasure. He was evidently a 
 preacher of considerable force, and we can only regret 
 the scantiness of our knowledge of him and his work. 
 
 In Gaudentius of Brescia (d. c. 410) x we have again 
 an interesting but too little known character. Neither 
 his country nor the date of his birth is certainly known. 
 But it is inferred that he was born at or near Brescia 
 before the middle of the fourth century. In his young 
 manhood he went to the East for travel and culture, and 
 spent several years at Caesarea in Cappadocia. While 
 there his friend and teacher, the bishop of Brescia, died, 
 and Gaudentius, at the instance of the older bishops, espe- 
 cially of Ambrose of Milan, was chosen bishop and urged 
 by letters to return. The usual reluctance was expressed, 
 but the eastern bishops were requested by their western 
 brethren to deny to Gaudentius the communion until he 
 should consent ! This brought him home, and he was duly 
 consecrated. He was required by the older bishops pres- 
 ent to preach a sermon on the occasion of his own ordina- 
 tion. This sermon has come down to us and gives the 
 facts just mentioned. 
 
 Among Chrysostom's letters while he was in exile is 
 one addressed to Gaudentius thanking him for his interest 
 in trying to secure for the archbishop a revocation of the 
 decree of banishment. The old man says that Gauden- 
 tius' effort was a comfort to him in his lonely and 
 neglected state, and speaks of Gaudentius as a friend 
 whom neither time nor distance could estrange. It seems 
 that the Italian did not long survive his distinguished 
 friend, dying probably about the year 410 or later. 
 
 Gaudentius was highly honored for his piety and elo- 
 quence. A number of sermons of fairly sure authenticity 
 remain. Among his hearers and friends was a citizen of 
 Brescia who through illness missed a series of sermons 
 that the bishop was giving during the fasting season. 
 He asked Gaudentius to send him the sermons to read, 
 as he could not hear them. The bishop agreed and sent 
 
 1 Paniel, S. 771 ; Migne, Pat. Lat., torn. 20, col. 791.
 
 98 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 him not only the ten fast sermons, but four other short 
 addresses on different chapters of the Gospels, and also 
 a panegyric on the Maccabean brothers, who were es- 
 teemed as martyrs. Of these last he says that he would 
 not be responsible for them, as they had been taken down 
 hastily and he had not looked over them, but the others 
 (presumably the ten fast sermons) he had revised. Be- 
 sides these there is the sermon at his ordination, and 
 several others. In one of these he repeats the tradition 
 that Peter was crucified with his head downward, and 
 Paul was beheaded. As a preacher in point of style, 
 thought and oratory he does not hold very high rank, 
 but is worthy of remembrance. 
 
 From these less known men we turn to the highly 
 renowned bishop of Milan, Ambrose (340-397). l His 
 birth-place was probably Treves in Gaul, where his 
 father was pretorian prefect, i.e., governor with military 
 and civil jurisdiction over several provinces. A pretty 
 story of Ambrose's babyhood is to the effect that bees 
 once alighted on his mouth while he was asleep and the 
 frightened nurse being about to drive them away the 
 father forbade her, saying that it was an omen of future 
 eloquence honeyed speech. On the early death of his 
 father Ambrose and his brother and sister were left to 
 the care of their mother. The family affection was beauti- 
 ful and enduring. None of the three ever was wedded ; 
 they were devoted to each other. In one of his sermons 
 late in life Ambrose pays noble tribute to his brother, 
 who had recently died, and elsewhere speaks tenderly of 
 his sister. 
 
 The family moved to Rome in Ambrose's childhood, 
 and he was educated like Basil and Chrysostom for the 
 legal profession. He met with decided success in civil 
 life. His fine talent for government was soon recognized 
 and he was appointed consular, i.e., civil governor, of 
 Liguria and Aemilia, with headquarters at Milan. The 
 territory was large, embracing in our times, besides Milan, 
 the cities of Genoa, Parma, Modena, and Bologna. Thus 
 the appointment was one of distinction. It is related 
 
 1 Authorities already noted and works of Ambrose in Migne, 
 Pat. Lot., tt. 14-17; translations in Nicene and Post-Nicene 
 Fathers.
 
 THE ANCIENT, OR PATRISTIC, AGE 99 
 
 that on his leaving Rome to take his office one of the high 
 officers of the imperial court remarked that he would 
 fulfil it " like a bishop." This only referred to the fidelity 
 and conscientiousness which the man would carry to his 
 task, but it was unconscious prophecy. 
 
 While Ambrose was governor at Milan, the Arian 
 bishop died, and there was determined effort on the side 
 of the orthodox party to secure the election of a bishop 
 who should represent their views. The Arians were 
 equally determined on their part. On the day of election 
 there was fierce contention, and Ambrose went as gov- 
 ernor to the church to quell the disturbance. While he 
 was pleading for peace and order the voice of a child sud- 
 denly rang out, " Ambrose for bishop ! " The crowd 
 took it up. It was accepted as the voice of God, and 
 both parties united on him, and in spite of his remon- 
 strances elected him on the spot. He was only a catchu- 
 men had not yet been baptized, though long a Christian 
 in heart. He tried to flee, but was overruled, baptized, 
 and in eight days duly consecrated bishop of Milan! 
 
 He took office in a humble but devoted spirit, and feel- 
 ing the deficiency of his theological education, went to 
 work diligently to study the Bible and the Greek theo- 
 logians and preachers especially Origen and Basil. He 
 preached regularly on Sundays and often on other occa- 
 sions. He was much occupied with the cares of his large 
 and exacting diocese, and took great interest in singing 
 and worship. He was very accessible and affable as a 
 pastor and was much beloved by his people. He was a 
 firm disciplinarian and a man of determined courage. 
 The signal instance of this is his refusal to admit the 
 emperor Theodosius to the communion till the choleric 
 monarch had purged himself by penance for the massacre 
 of the populace of Thessalonica. 1 Even the cynical Gib- 
 bon 2 is aroused to admiration of this episode in the life 
 of a Christian prelate, and concludes his account of it by 
 saying, " The example of Theodosius may prove the bene- 
 ficial influence of those principles which could force a 
 
 1 The letter he wrote to the emperor concerning this is a model 
 of fidelity, firmness and courtesy. See Migne, Pat. Lot., torn. 
 1 6, col. 1209. 
 
 "Decline and Fall, Vol. III., p. 118 (Am. reprint of Milman's 
 ed.).
 
 100 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 monarch, exalted above the apprehension of human pun- 
 ishment, to respect the laws and ministers of an invisible 
 Judge." In other ways also did the high-minded bishop 
 show both his great interest in public affairs and the no- 
 bility and elevation of his own character. He was a 
 conscientious and hard worker, and care wore upon him. 
 Likewise the death of his beloved brother Satyrus fell 
 upon him as a serious blow from which he never recov- 
 ered. He died, not old, in his fifty-seventh year, 397. 
 
 Ambrose the man and bishop is greater than Ambrose 
 the preacher. In studying his sermons and orations we 
 cannot help a feeling of disappointment. 1 His principal 
 remains in the way of sermons are his orations on the 
 dead. That (in two parts) on his brother Satyrus is 
 especially good. 2 It is full of love and grief for his 
 brother, but shows the proper feeling of one who is a 
 Christian, a pastor and a teacher, in view of so great an 
 affliction. The oration on Theodosius is also notable. 
 Others of his speeches and sermons were worked out 
 after delivery and lack the fire of actual speech. His 
 expositions of the Psalms are mostly borrowed from 
 Origen, whom, if anything, he outdoes in allegorizing, 
 and his Hexaemeron is an undisguised copy from Basil. 
 This plagiarism was not then considered so great an evil 
 as it really is, and yet it remains a sad subtraction from 
 the fame of a truly great and good man. 
 
 Among the great theologians and preachers of early 
 church history, whether considered in regard to charac- 
 ter, abilities, and work, or in regard to enduring influence 
 and fame, no one stands higher than Aurelius Augustinus 
 (354-430). 3 He was born at Tagaste, in Numidia, north 
 Africa, Nov. 13, 354. Augustine's father Patricius was 
 of good family and a man of some influence in his town, 
 but seems to have had a somewhat crabbed disposition 
 and to have been a trial to his godly wife. Her influence 
 
 1 This view is expressed by other critics as well as by Broadus, 
 Hist. Prca.j p. 80. 2 Migne, Pat. Lot., torn. 16, col. 1346 ff. 
 
 * A great literature deals with Augustine, yet rather as man and 
 theologian than as preacher. Various editions of his works are 
 easily accessible; translations .in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers. 
 Paniel hardly does Augustine justice as a preacher. There are 
 more just and appreciative discussions in Rothe, Lentz, Bromel 
 (Homiletische Charakterbilder) , Nebe, and others.
 
 THE ANCIENT, OR PATRISTIC, AGE IOI 
 
 and prayers had their final reward, and Patricius, long a 
 heathen, became a Christian and was baptized late in life. 
 Among the great Christian mothers of history Monica 
 has a well deserved respect, and her grateful and gifted 
 son has embalmed her memory in beauty and tenderness 
 in the pages of his Confessions. 
 
 Augustine was sent to the best schools at his home and 
 at Carthage. His pious mother had brought him up in 
 the most tender and earnest Christian influences, but as is 
 sadly too often the case, the temptations of the corrupt 
 world about him proved too strong for the vigorous youth 
 and he became wild and dissolute. He tells us in his 
 immortal Confessions the sorrowful story of his downfall 
 and his shames. They need not be repeated here. He 
 ran the hard way of the transgressor and bitterly reaped, 
 in all his after life of remorse and penitence, the fruits of 
 his youthful follies and sins. 
 
 He became a teacher of rhetoric at Carthage. A pas- 
 sage in Cicero's Hortensius stirred in the young man of 
 nineteen a desire to seek after God and to be a philoso- 
 pher, and he gave himself with zest to study. From Car- 
 thage he went to Rome to teach and study, and from 
 Rome to Milan. 
 
 His philosophical studies brought him into contact with 
 the dualism of the Manichaean sect, and for a time he 
 was caught in the meshes of that system. But it proved 
 after long trial unsatisfactory, and he was turning to the 
 Neo-Platonic philosophy in quest of intellectual and moral 
 repose. This was about the time of his removal to Milan, 
 where he began to practise his profession of rhetorical 
 teacher. His patient and faithful mother came to him at 
 Milan probably after the death of her husband. He 
 also had with him his illegitimate son, whom he had 
 named Adeodatus strange name for one who, though 
 tenderly loved, was a perpetual reminder of his early 
 manhood's faults. Here at Milan in his thirty-third year, 
 intellectually dissatisfied and conscience-smitten for his 
 evil youth, he came under the influence of the good and 
 noble Ambrose. He went often to hear Ambrose preach, 
 and by the blessing of God upon his mother's faithful 
 labors and the bishop's good life and preaching, he was 
 led to a full and joyful acceptance of the Christian faith.
 
 102 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 He was baptized, along with his son Adeodatus, by 
 Ambrose in 387. His pious mother lived to see this frui- 
 tion of her hopes and prayers, but died shortly afterwards 
 at Ostia, whence they were soon to depart for their old 
 home in north Africa. Likewise the beloved son of 
 Augustine's youth and error died early. 
 
 On his conversion Augustine quit his teaching, divided 
 his property among the poor, and gave himself up to 
 study, reflection and writing. Several of his theological 
 and philosophical treatises belong to this period. He re- 
 turned home and lived in retirement for a few years near 
 Tagaste, when in 391 he was called to Hippo and made 
 a presbyter by the bishop Valerius. On the death of 
 the prelate in 395 Augustine was made bishop in his 
 place. For thirty-five years he exercised that office, writ- 
 ing much, preaching often, administering with exemplary 
 fidelity his charge, and living a life of true Christian 
 nobility. 
 
 In 430 Hippo was besieged by the Vandals under Gen- 
 seric. The aged bishop lay sick and worn in his plain 
 chamber, the only decoration of the walls being passages 
 from the penitential Psalms ; thus he passed away August 
 28, 430, in his seventy-sixth year. 
 
 Passing by the greatness of Augustine as a theologian, 
 a controversialist, a writer, we are here concerned with 
 his preaching. He was very diligent in this work, often 
 preaching five days in the week and sometimes twice a 
 day. In his treatise, On Christian Teaching, 1 and in his 
 two ordination sermons, he gives us his conception of 
 the preaching office, and it is a high and just one, to 
 which he endeavored to attain himself. He recognizes 
 both the honor and the responsibility of the office, insisting 
 that the preacher must teach by example as well as pre- 
 cept, and that he needs the prayers of his people. Well 
 says Bromel of him : " What he taught that he lived, and 
 what he lived that he taught that was the power of his 
 preaching." 
 
 In his famous and justly admired work, On Christian 
 
 1 See Bromel, Honiiletische Charakterbilder, Bd. I., S. 39 ff., 
 who has a fine analysis and study of the treatise On Christian 
 Teaching. This is well translated by J. F. Shaw in Dods' edition 
 of the Fathers.
 
 THE ANCIENT, OR PATRISTIC, AGE 1 03 
 
 Teaching, Augustine relates an instance of the effect of 
 his preaching. 1 He was addressing the rough Maure- 
 tanians and endeavoring to dissuade them from the feud 
 (caterva), which was very common among them. "I 
 strove with all the vehemence of speech I could command 
 to root out and drive from their hearts and lives an evil 
 so cruel and inveterate ; it was not, however, when I heard 
 their applause, but when I saw their tears, that I thought 
 I had produced an effect. For the applause showed that 
 they were instructed and pleased, but the tears that they 
 were subdued. And when I saw their tears I was con- 
 fident, even before the event proved it, that this horrible 
 and barbarous custom was overthrown ; and immediately 
 that my sermon was finished I called upon them with 
 heart and voice to give praise and thanks to God. And, 
 lo, with the blessing of Christ it is now eight years or 
 more since anything of the sort was attempted there." 
 Modestly as this is told, it shows what a power Augustine 
 must have sometimes had with his audiences. 
 
 In his preaching, as in his Confessions, there was the 
 mystical trace the devotion of a rapt soul, loving com- 
 munion with God ; and in his sermons, as in his theologi- 
 cal and controversial writings, there was stern and fear- 
 less logic. He cared not so much for graces of style as 
 for depth of matter and power of effect. To convince, 
 persuade, instruct and win his auditors was his supreme 
 concern. For pithy and telling sayings he is justly fa- 
 mous. Though he had been a teacher of rhetoric he was 
 not so careful of order and decoration as would have 
 seemed natural, or would indeed have been proper. He 
 perhaps undervalued these in his intense concern to make 
 his preaching effective. He also undervalued immediate 
 preparation, and often came to his pulpit without having 
 carefully thought out beforehand what he would say. 
 Even so full, acute, logical a mind as his could not wholly 
 overcome the consequences of this error, and his sermons 
 taken down by shorthand writers abundantly show 
 the weaknesses of such a method. 
 
 In his treatment of Scripture he follows the fashion of 
 his time as to the allegorical interpretation, and perpe- 
 trates many a foolish and trivial blunder in exegesis. 
 1 De Doctrina Christiana, lib. IV., cap. 24.
 
 104 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 Sometimes he takes a text, sometimes not ; sometimes he 
 sticks to his text, sometimes not. Very many of his ser- 
 mons are expository lectures on books of the Bible, con- 
 tinuous and fairly complete. Bromel considers those on 
 the Gospel of John and on the Pauline Epistles to be the 
 best, but many on the Psalms are of great devotional and 
 spiritual power. His sermons deal very little with illus- 
 tration, but the few illustrations he does employ are apt 
 and telling. The deep earnestness of his nature and the 
 power of his thought are the main elements of strength 
 in his preaching. However mistakenly careless of form 
 and beauty, these instinctively, as it were of themselves, 
 appear in his work. Such a powerful soul as his could 
 not but express itself in his preaching, but he might have 
 been more eloquent, more attractive, and far more im- 
 pressive, then and now, had he been more at pains to 
 adorn his speech. The sermons are of very unequal 
 length, and very unequal merit, as a consequence of his 
 carelessness of preparation. 
 
 But take him all in all Augustine was the greatest 
 Latin preacher. While he lived on into the fifth century 
 for three decades, his work and influence belong really to 
 the fourth, and mark the close of that wonderful and fruit- 
 ful epoch in the history of the Christian pulpit which 
 came to its culmination in Chrysostom and himself. The 
 Greek wave rose first and highest, but soonest ebbed, and 
 never has flowed again. Since Chrysostom there has been 
 no really great Greek preacher. After Augustine also 
 there was a marked decline for two centuries, and a dark 
 period for five more in the West, when again the Latin 
 pulpit, or rather Western preaching under Latin aus- 
 pices, rose into new power for a time.
 
 PERIOD II 
 THE EARLY MEDIAEVAL, OR DARK, AGE 
 
 A.D. 430-1905 
 
 After the times of Chrysostom and Augustine up to the preaching 
 of the First Crusade by Peter the Hermit and Pope Urban II 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 THE DECLINE OF ANCIENT PREACHING IN THE FIFTH 
 AND SIXTH CENTURIES 
 
 We here take up the second general period as outlined 
 for our studies, namely, the long dark age which reaches 
 from the death of Augustine early in the fifth, to the call 
 for the First Crusade at the end of the eleventh century. 
 In the early part of this era the crumbling fragments of 
 decaying ancient civilization were mingling with the crude 
 beginnings of a new and very different stage of progress 
 in human affairs. Vigorous and promising in many ways 
 as these new beginnings really were, the thoughtful men 
 of that gloomy transition could scarcely detect any prom- 
 ise of good in those forces which were accomplishing the 
 overthrow of all that outwardly represented a past of 
 power and glory. Decay was the age-token, and the 
 feeling of hopelessness, the sense of defeat, the conscious- 
 ness of being near the end of things, were only too com- 
 mon. The letters and other writings of Ambrose already 
 sound the lament over a falling state; and Augustine's 
 great work De Civitate Dei found its emphatic thought 
 if not its actual suggestion in the painful yet glorious 
 contrast between dying Rome and the truly eternal City 
 of God. Thus the evening of antiquity closes down in 
 shadows over Europe, and it is a long night of fitful
 
 106 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 sleep, rude alarms, and barbaric orgies that follows, until 
 the clarion call to the Crusades announces the dawn of the 
 mediaeval day. 
 
 Preaching, too, after Augustine, entered on a decline 
 from which it did not recover till the twelfth century, 
 and therefore for these studies as well as for general 
 history the terms of the period are correctly placed. In 
 this chapter we are concerned with the preaching of the 
 fifth and sixth centuries, but it will be well to take a 
 short preliminary glance at the history of the times so as 
 to gain the proper orientation for our more specific study 
 of the pulpit. 
 
 i. GENERAL SKETCH OF THE TIMES 
 
 Upon the death of the great Theodosius in 395 the 
 empire was divided betwen his two weak sons, and there 
 was no more union of the sovereignty in one hand. This 
 division lay deep in the different characters of the people 
 east and west, as well as in governmental convenience 
 and other things ; and it had been maturing for ages. It 
 is true that in the sixth century for a short time the vic- 
 tories of Belisarius and Narses brought Italy and north 
 Africa under the sway of Justinian, and that far later, 
 in 1204, the Crusaders captured Constantinople and estab- 
 lished a fleeting Latin sovereignty there; but these were 
 episodes, and brief ones. The racial and political division 
 was further emphasized by the schism between the 
 churches, which was fast coming on, but in the sixth cen- 
 tury was not yet accomplished. The ancient empire of 
 Rome came to its pitiful end in this time. From without 
 Goths and Vandals, Huns and Lombards, put the finish- 
 ing touch to the age-long inner decay, and the majestic 
 old structure of the Caesars toppled and fell. Men were 
 expecting it ; and though in itself an impressive event to 
 reflection, the scene which closed the tragedy was paltry 
 enough for a farce. In 476 the last petty Roman emperor, 
 a child in years and absurdly named Romulus Augustulus, 
 surrendered his crown to Odoacer the Ostrogoth, who 
 sent what was left of the imperial regalia to the emperor 
 of the East ; and so the great drama ended. 
 
 Not till the middle of the fifteenth century did the Turks 
 do for Constantinople what the Teutons had done for
 
 THE EARLY MEDIAEVAL, OR DARK, AGE 107 
 
 Rome in the fifth. In truth, during the sixth century the 
 remarkable reign of Justinian (527-565) shed some rays 
 of real and lasting glory upon the decadent East. While 
 not himself a man of the first rank in either intellect or 
 character, this emperor was fortunate and wise enough 
 to find and employ men of genius. The military exploits, 
 with the imperfect forces at their command and against 
 powerful odds, of the great generals, Belisarius and 
 Narses, were brilliant, though ineffectual in the end. More 
 lasting was the magnificent work of the great lawyer Tri- 
 bonian and his associates, who codified the confused and 
 voluminous laws of the empire and thus rendered dis- 
 tinguished and lasting service not only to the science of 
 jurisprudence, but through it to the general good of man- 
 kind. Nor must we forget Justinian's services to educa- 
 tion, commerce and art, especially architecture. The 
 world-famous church of St. Sophia was rebuilt in his 
 reign, and so pleased was he with his work that on its 
 completion he is said to have exclaimed, " I have outdone 
 thee, O Solomon ! " 
 
 Out of the chaos of ruin and rapine which marked the 
 barbarian overthrow of Roman sovereignty in Europe 
 something like order slowly emerged in the establishment 
 of powers which eventually became, or contributed toward 
 forming, the leading dukedoms and kingdoms of mediae- 
 val times. In Germany there was turmoil and confusion, 
 but the defeat of the Huns at Chalons in 451 at least 
 averted the menace of their conquest of central Europe. 
 In Italy, first the Goths, and later the Lombards, laid 
 foundations of real political power. In Spain the West 
 Goths built up a kingdom which was a basis for future 
 developments. The Burgundian power along the Rhine 
 was important, both at the time, and as a source of com- 
 ing events of great influence in history. In Gaul the 
 Franks under Clovis, and in Britain the Anglo-Saxons 
 were making the beginnings of France and England. 
 
 Meantime, amid the ruins of the old Roman empire and 
 the confused beginnings of mediaeval monarchies, the re- 
 ligious and secular power of the papacy was firmly estab- 
 lished. Henceforth European history has to deal with a 
 new power emanating from Rome as a centre, and potent 
 still in the affairs of the world. The inner developments
 
 108 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 of church polity, assisted by outer events and forces, had 
 culminated through various grades of bishops in the in- 
 stitution of five great church rulers, called Patriarchs, and 
 located at the cities of Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, 
 Constantinople, and Rome. The leading position among 
 these naturally lay in dispute between the last two, and 
 this became one of the chief elements of schism between 
 the Greek and Latin churches. In addition to the natural 
 and traditional odds in favor of the Roman bishop two 
 circumstances now powerfully assisted in making him 
 supreme : one was that he was the only Patriarch for all 
 the Latin part of the church and world, the rest being 
 all oriental and Greek ; and the other was that the decline 
 and fall of imperial authority and glory in the West en- 
 hanced the position of the Patriarch of Rome. All these 
 advantages were opportunely pressed by the talents and 
 force of character of Leo I. (440-461), who not only 
 asserted his claims, but gave them their enduring Scrip- 
 tural defence by urging in their support the words of 
 Christ to Peter in Matthew 16:18, " Thou art Peter, and 
 on this rock I will build my church," etc. In addition to 
 this Leo exerted great influence at the Council of Chalce- 
 don in 451, and helped by personal pleas to avert or miti- 
 gate the horrors of barbarian attacks on Rome under 
 Attila and Genseric. After Leo, Gregory the Great 
 (590-604) did much to confirm and perpetuate the papal 
 authority. In the hands of these two able men, one near 
 the beginning and the other at the end of the epoch we 
 have under review, we may regard the papacy as defin- 
 itely and finally established. Such were the main influen- 
 tial events in this chaotic but formative era in European 
 history. 
 
 2. THE DECLINE OF PREACHING 
 
 In an age like that of the fifth and sixth centuries it 
 would be vain to expect any particular sphere of human 
 endeavor to manifest tokens of vigor which were lacking 
 in the general life of the times. Everything had gone 
 into a decline, and preaching could not be exempt. But 
 we must beware of being caught in the toils of generaliza- 
 tion and concluding that there was no preaching at all, or 
 that it was wholly bad. Both East and West there was
 
 THE EARLY MEDIEVAL, OR DARK, AGE IOQ 
 
 preaching, and there were some preachers of talent, char- 
 acter, and influence. Yet the general truth holds that 
 it was an age of decay. Let us now take note of some of 
 the general and local causes of this decline, and discuss 
 some of the characteristics of the preaching. 
 
 We shall first notice the general causes which contrib- 
 uted to the decline of preaching in the fifth and sixth cen^- 
 turies, and then pay a little more particular attention to 
 those which prevailed respectively in the East and in the 
 West. 
 
 The general law of reaction is noticeable in the history 
 of preaching, as it is in other histories. Preaching had 
 reached the highest point of its ancient development in 
 Chrysostom and Augustine. Rothe well remarks that it 
 could go no higher than this without the coming in of a 
 new spiritual life and power, and this is precisely what 
 did not occur. The reaction was to be expected, and it 
 came swiftly and sadly enough. This natural ebb-tide 
 was concurrent with a rough sea of storm and turmoil in 
 the world. The times were evil indeed. Barbarism 
 threatened without and corruption sickened within the 
 church as well as the state. The general corruption in 
 morals affected balefully the lives of the clergy as well 
 as the laity. Ambition, place-hunting, selfishness, greed, 
 and even worse things were not unknown among those 
 whose business it was to live as well as preach the gospel. 
 Of course the faulty living of preachers is a too painful 
 experience of every age of preaching, but when clerical 
 unworthiness gains the upper hand the general effect is 
 disastrous beyond measure. In a flourishing age this sore 
 evil is a drawback, in a declining one it is an acceleration. 
 It was so in these mournful times. While there were 
 many godly and true preachers, it must be owned that 
 not a few were only too willing to be both in the world 
 and of it. 
 
 We should not fail also to take account of the growth 
 of liturgy and forms of worship. While these preserved 
 a prominent place for preaching in the services of the 
 church their effect then, as too often since, was to make 
 the spoken word of far less relative value than forms of 
 worship. This tendency, while stronger in later times, 
 was already powerful, and preaching was not vigorous
 
 110 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 and able enough to overcome the trammels of liturgy. 
 More serious than this was the growth of the hierarchical 
 spirit, the conception of the preacher as priest rather than 
 prophet. An acute student of the history of preaching * 
 has remarked : " We find this change, I think, passing 
 over the spirit of preaching after the second or third cen- 
 tury. We shall see it reaching its head in the Dark Ages. 
 But perhaps the worst effect of all was that wrought on 
 the preacher himself, changing him from a messenger of 
 God into a petty mediator and dispenser of God's mercies 
 and punishments! This led to the preaching of church 
 discipline rather than Christian morals, of penance rather 
 than repentance. The heart of the gospel was too often 
 wrapped in the rough and insipid husks of externalism, 
 and it was more than the simple sinner could do to get at 
 the kernel." Along with this perversion of gospel preach- 
 ing went another which also waited for its full develop- 
 ment in the mediseval sermons. This was the worship 
 of Mary and the veneration of the saints. These were 
 beginning to be looked upon as intercessors with God, 
 and their votaries sought their mediation to obtain divine 
 grace and mercies. Already in the fourth century traces 
 of this worship are seen, and the development goes on 
 through the fifth and sixth, to the injury of a pure gospel 
 preaching. 
 
 Besides these general causes, which were operative in 
 East and West alike, there were some which if not wholly 
 absent from either locality, were yet specially active in 
 one or the other. In the East the reaction was apparently 
 more pronounced than in the West. The fall from 
 Chrysostom was very great. It was not a total collapse 
 indeed, but still the fact remains that no preacher of 
 world-wide fame has appeared in the Greek Church since 
 his day. Account for it as we may, and tone down the 
 statement as much as possible, there is no evading the 
 essential truth of the remark. The reaction was sharp 
 and intense it has been a long ebb, and history waits for 
 the flow. The Greek mind seemed to have done its best 
 work in preaching when it flowered in John of Antioch, 
 and it fell back exhausted from that achievement. Imita- 
 tion followed genius. Spontaneity and freshness failed. 
 1 Fleming James, The Message and the Messengers, p. IOI.
 
 THE EARLY MEDIEVAL, OR DARK, AGE III 
 
 The little men of a declining age usually try to live on the 
 brains of the great men who have preceded them. But 
 inexorable history writes it down that the brains of one 
 generation are not sufficient brain-food for the next. 
 Echoes are not living voices only faint and fainter 
 tributes to greatness, admired but departed. If the bad 
 taste of the age reflected itself in the faults of even fourth 
 century preaching, what shall we say of it as a factor in 
 the decline of which we are treating? The exaggeration, 
 the bombast, the inflated oratory which marred the best 
 preaching of the Patristic Age are hideous faults in the 
 worst. There was nothing yet to correct the taste of 
 either hearer or preacher, and this must have contributed 
 greatly to the decay of preaching. It is true that this 
 is partly conjectural, for we have not so many specimens 
 from which to judge ; but what indications there are for- 
 tify the natural inference. 
 
 The fierce doctrinal controversies which distracted the 
 Eastern Church, and troubled the Western, during the 
 fifth century must come in as one of the prominent causes 
 of the decline of preaching. The rise of great contro- 
 versies in doctrine has often stimulated preaching. But 
 the protracting of controversy into barren and fine-spun 
 metaphysics, and the degeneration of manly strife for 
 great truths into personal and partisan polemics, have 
 always had a bad effect. Following the Reformation 
 there was an era of dogmatic discussion which reacted 
 unfavorably on preaching, and this was true in the Greek 
 Church of the fifth and sixth centuries. The great Arian 
 controversy of the fourth century stirred the preachers 
 during that epoch to great exertions. Chrysostom, and 
 before him the Cappadocians, had felt the stimulus of en- 
 dangered truth. But the settlement of the Nicene creed 
 in the Council of Constantinople in 381 had cleared the 
 air after a half century of debate. In the disputes of the 
 following centuries marked by the Councils of Ephesus 
 in 431, of Chalcedon in 451, and of the second Constanti- 
 nople in 553 there was a protracted struggle over fine 
 points of doctrine, and the display of much unseemly vio- 
 lence and partisan selfishness. All this had a most un- 
 wholesome effect both on Christian character in general 
 and on that of the clergy; and thus in many ways these
 
 112 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 struggles tended to lower the tone and the effect of preach- 
 ing. The Greek Church gained the orthodoxy in which 
 she has complacently rested for a millenium and a half 
 at the expense of the very life of her pulpit. 
 
 As already remarked the reaction from excellence was 
 hardly so marked in the West as in the East. This was 
 partly because there was not so much to react from. The 
 oratorical excellence of Ambrose and Augustine is not so 
 striking as that of the Cappadocians and Chrysostom. 
 Ambrose is but an echo of Basil, and Augustine as an 
 orator is as much below Chrysostom as Cicero is below 
 Demosthenes though not in the same ways. Then the 
 followers of the great Latin preachers are not so much 
 behind their models as is the case with the Greeks. Leo 
 and Gregory of Rome are not so distinctly inferior as 
 preachers to Augustine as Cyril of Alexandria and Theo- 
 doret are to Chrysostom. Yet notwithstanding this cau- 
 tionary comparison we still must assign reaction as one 
 cause of decline in the West as well as in the East. Augus- 
 tine's mighty thinking finds no parallel in his immediate 
 followers. Leo comes nearest, but he is a great way off. 
 It is a long journey from Augustine to Bernard, 1 but 
 that is how far we have to travel before we find another 
 very eminent preacher who uses the Latin tongue, and 
 that is on the eve of its displacement by the new lan- 
 guages of Europe. 
 
 The West felt more directly and powerfully than the 
 East the pressure of Barbarian invasion. Alaric sacked 
 . Rome in 410, Attila threatened, but was defeated at Cha- 
 lons in 451, Genseric and his Vandals pillaged the city in 
 455, and the pitiful remnants of empire were surrendered 
 to Odoacer at Ravenna in 476. The fear of plunder, 
 death and disgrace; the despair of preserving anything 
 from the wreck of the social system ; the general sense 
 of helplessness and dread, were not favorable conditions 
 for the cultivation of eloquence, secular or sacred. The 
 weakness and fall of government also were depressing 
 after the patronage of former years. This state of things 
 was somewhat paralleled by that in France after the age 
 of Louis XIV. an era of splendid pulpit eloquence and 
 court patronage, followed by a long decline, 
 'Died 1153.
 
 THE EARLY MEDIEVAL, OR DARK, AGE 113 
 
 Leo I. and Gregory I. are the founders of the papacy. 
 Either one may be considered the first pope, though it 
 rather lies upon Gregory to be so regarded. On the ruins 
 of secular empire came the papacy. The story belongs to 
 general church history, but the thing for us here to notice 
 is that though both Leo and Gregory were preachers of 
 considerable merit, the growth of papal government was 
 not favorable to preaching. Already in Ambrose the gov- 
 erning instinct of the Latin mind had encroached upon 
 pulpit eloquence. And Leo's cares of government, his 
 efforts to aggrandize the Roman see, his bold claim to pre- 
 eminence based on the primacy of Peter, his successful 
 assertion of doctrinal leadership at Chalcedon, and his 
 services in pleading with Attila and Genseric on behalf of 
 Rome, while they showed him the great leader and pre- 
 late, were certainly not distinctive marks of the preacher. 
 So in general the growth of the hierarchy and the 
 strengthening of prelacy were not favorable to the culti- 
 vation of preaching. The rise of the mendicant orders 
 of preachers in the thirteenth century, and the great 
 preaching of the reformers in the sixteenth, were not pre- 
 latical products. 
 
 Along with this we must emphasize what has already 
 been mentioned among the general causes the larger 
 place given to church discipline, penances, and the like. 
 Ecclesiastical duties and almsgiving as a means of grace 
 were beginning to receive more homiletical attention than 
 grace itself. This was markedly true in the West. Under 
 all these circumstances it is no wonder that preaching 
 declined. The wonder is that it survived, and that amid 
 such untoward influences there were found both East and 
 West some preachers of ability who still held forth the 
 word of life. 
 
 A number of the most striking characteristics of 
 preaching in this age have been already indicated in the 
 discussion of the causes which led to its decline. These 
 need not be repeated here, but some additional matters 
 will claim our notice. As with the causes of decline some 
 of these characteristics are general, and some are more 
 notable in the East or in the West. 
 
 The sermon retains its character as an expository dis- 
 course. It varies still from the more extended address
 
 114 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 to the briefer homily. In form and content it remains 
 much what the fourth century developed. Only the de- 
 cline of power is apparent, as has been shown in the pre- 
 ceding discussion. The allegorical interpretation except 
 in Theodoret and a few others of the Antiochian school 
 has the field. The enforcing of churchly duties is a large 
 element in the preaching. The growth of liturgical 
 forms, while depressing to preaching, has yet given to it 
 a recognized and permanent place in the services of the 
 church. It has become what a modern German writer on 
 Homiletics defines it even now to be : " Worship in dis- 
 course, and discourse in worship." 1 
 
 Besides what has been already pointed out, we should 
 observe that in the East the speculative quality of thought 
 is more prominent, and the rhetorical art and effort more 
 apparent, than in the West. Among the Latins there is 
 less of speculation and more of the practical in doctrinal 
 discussion. Strong emphasis is placed on the church and 
 its life and duties, its liturgy and demands. Less atten- 
 tion is paid to oratorical finery, and the sermons are usu- 
 ally briefer than in the East, some so brief as to suggest 
 that they were only expository remarks, or additional ex- 
 hortations made by the bishop after the longer discourse 
 of a presbyter. 
 
 3. THE GREEK PREACHERS 
 
 Among the Greeks there were many preachers, and a 
 few who for various reasons were men of note and influ- 
 ence. Of these we shall select for brief mention five less 
 known and two of greater prominence and fame. 
 
 A very interesting character is Synesius (d. c. 420 ), 2 
 bishop of Ptolemais 'in Cyrene, north Africa. He was 
 of good family and well educated. At one time 'he was 
 among the pupils of the famous woman philosopher, 
 Hypatia, at Alexandria. He had read much and traveled 
 extensively, and was an easy-going man of the world, ,a 
 Neo-Platonist in philosophy. In some way he was 
 brought under Christian influences of a sort and seems 
 
 1 " Ein Cultus-Act der Rede, das ist das bestimmende Moment ; 
 und ein Rede-Act im Cultus, das ist der abhangige." Th. Har- 
 nack, Geschichte und Theorie der Predigt, S. 12. 
 
 "Moller in Herzog; Schaff's History, Vol. III., p. 604 f. There 
 is a clever presentment of Synesius in Kingsley's Hypatia.
 
 THE EARLY MEDLEVAL, OR DARK, AGE 11$ 
 
 to have had, along with much philosophy, some real 
 Christian views and principles. He owned an estate in 
 the country near Ptolemais, and was fond of country life 
 gardening, hunting, and the like. He had much influ- 
 ence and was much respected by his neighbors, and the 
 times being troublous he was urged though married 
 and yet unbaptized to become bishop of Ptolemais. 
 Synesius felt some honorable scruples, and moreover in- 
 sisted upon being allowed to retain his wife and his dogs 
 if he should accept the office! Nevertheless he was per- 
 suaded by Theophilus of Alexandria and others to accept 
 the bishopric, and was baptized and ordained by the arch- 
 bishop himself. Though thus conscientiously reluctant 
 to enter the office he made a faithful bishop in kindly care 
 of his flock. Epistles, treatises and hymns of his remain, 
 but only two homilies, and they of small moment. He 
 had the oratorical gift and training, and though we have 
 no fair samples of his preaching to judge by, we may infer 
 that he was a speaker of more than ordinary force. 
 
 Among the notable theologians and scholars of this age 
 a high place is held by Theodore (d. 428) 1 , bishop of 
 Mopsuestia in Cilicia, the friend of John Chrysostom, the 
 pupil of Diodorus. He was probably born at Antioch, 
 where he was trained in rhetoric by Libanius, and de- 
 signed for the law. But he was persuaded by his friend 
 John to retire with himself from the world and study the 
 Bible under Diodorus. A bright vision of love crossed 
 his path and he was about to go back to the world, when 
 John's eloquent pleadings again prevailed and Theodore 
 finally devoted himself to the religious life. Soon he was 
 made a presbyter, and in 394 bishop of Mopsuestia. In 
 this same year he preached on some occasion in Constanti- 
 nople a sermon which received warm commendation from 
 the emperor Theodosius. Yet it is as theologian and 
 commentator that Theodore is best known. Of his 
 voluminous writings not many remain, and some of these 
 chiefly in Latin translations. Among the fragments 
 Paniel notes only a few, and those unimportant, of a 
 homiletical character. His style was not attractive 
 " neither brilliant nor very clear," according to Photius 
 and he wearies by too much repetition. Yet he enjoyed 
 \M611er in Herzog-Plitt, Bd. 15, 8.^394 ^Paniel, S. 582.
 
 Il6 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 considerable reputation as a preacher, and it is to his 
 lasting credit that he sought to present the historical and 
 grammatical meaning of Scripture rather than the alle- 
 gorical. 
 
 Homiletic interest, or rather curiosity, is awakened 
 toward Nestorius, 1 the famous heretic who was con- 
 demned at Ephesus in 431. The fame of his eloquence 
 had induced the emperor Theodosius II. in 428 to make 
 him archbishop of Constantinople. For a while he en- 
 joyed great popularity as a preacher, but his zeal against 
 heretics made enemies for him ; and his opposition to giv- 
 ing the title " Mother of God " to Mary and his error as 
 to the Person of Christ were used against him, and he 
 was deposed and banished. The Council of Ephesus in 
 431, under the influence of Cyril of Alexandria, made 
 him drink the bitter cup of persecution for heresy which 
 he had himself forced on others. Some fragments and 
 reports of his discourses remain, but as these come from 
 his opponents they cannot be regarded as fair specimens 
 of his work. Rothe, however, conjectures that he must 
 have been a preacher of more than usual abilities. 
 
 We have better means of judging concerning Proclus, 
 who was made archbishop of Constantinople in 434. In 
 his young manhood he had served Chrysostom as secre- 
 tary, and was a careful student of rhetoric. So he had a 
 good chance to learn oratory. He was a presbyter at 
 Constantinople at the time of the Nestorian controversy, 
 and is said to have been the first to attack in a sermon 
 Nestorius' objection to calling Mary the " Mother of 
 God." He enjoyed great popularity as a preacher. 
 Twenty-three of his sermons remain, three on Mary, the 
 rest delivered on feast days and Apostles' days. They 
 are mainly theological and polemical, with little of prac- 
 tical application. He is often declamatory, dealing much 
 in exclamation, antithesis, and other devices for rhetori- 
 cal effect. The sermons show considerable vigor of ex- 
 pression and liveliness of imagination ; they are usually 
 without text, are of unequal length, and commonly have 
 an introduction, and at the conclusion a doxology, after 
 the manner of Chrysostom. Of one of those on Mary 
 Rothe says : " The sixth homily consists almost entirely 
 1 Rothe, S. 127 f.
 
 THE EARLY MEDIAEVAL, OR DARK, AGE II J 
 
 of long dialogues between Mary, Joseph and the angel 
 Gabriel, and Christ himself ; and of a very pathetic mono- 
 logue by Satan ! " 
 
 There was, in this age, a Basil (d. c. 448), who was 
 bishop of Seleucia in Isauria, from whom there remain 
 forty-three sermons. Little is known of his life. He 
 was a warm, even enthusiastic, partisan of the claims of 
 the Virgin Mary as these were then understood, but he 
 seems to have taken rather a wavering position in the 
 Eutychian controversy. As a preacher he is estimated 
 higher than Proclus. He is hot in polemics against here- 
 tics and Jews, given to much empty declamation, and is 
 a far-off imitator of Chrysostom. Yet he has some merits 
 handles his text historically and fairly well, and makes 
 some practical application. 
 
 Two other preachers of this time are of far greater 
 importance than those we have just noticed, both as 
 church leaders and as speakers one representing the 
 Alexandrian, the other the Antiochian school. 
 
 Cyril 1 of Alexandria (d. 444) was nephew of the in- 
 famous Theophilus, the enemy of Chrysostom. He suc- 
 ceeded his evil uncle as patriarch of Alexandria about 
 the year 412, and was an apt pupil of his predecessor in 
 selfishness, intrigue, and even violence. Cyril was a 
 member of the synod which condemned Chrysostom, and 
 afterwards when in a later synod the unrighteous sen- 
 tence against the famous preacher was revoked and tardy 
 justice done his memory long after his death, Cyril voted 
 against the revocation, and compared Chrysostom to 
 Judas! Yet, after all this, it must be "said that under 
 pressure of church authority he did admit Chrysostom's 
 name among those of the saints and martyrs on the 
 memorial tablets of the Alexandrian church. As an in- 
 stance of his violence it is said that soon after taking 
 office as archbishop he closed the churches and seized the 
 church property of the Novatians as being heretics. In 
 415 the Jews in Alexandria, because of his injustice 
 toward them, raised a riot, and Cyril authorized an armed 
 onslaught on their synagogues. Some were killed, many 
 driven away and their property plundered. This high- 
 
 'Lentz, I., S. III.; Schaff, Vol. III., p. 942 ff; Rothe, S. 122; 
 Gibbon, Chap. XLVII. ; Kingsley's Hypatia.
 
 Il8 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 handed assumption of authority brought him into con- 
 flict with the imperial governor Orestes. Some writers 
 hold him responsible for the brutal and atrocious murder 
 ;of Hypatia, the beautiful and accomplished teacher of 
 pagan philosophy in Alexandria. The mob that murdered 
 her was led by Peter the reader, a violent adherent of 
 Cyril, whose sympathies were probably in favor of the 
 proceeding. But there does not seem to be enough evi- 
 dence to prove that he directly ordered or instigated it. 
 Before, at and after the Council of Ephesus (431) Cyril 
 was the able, unscrupulous and violent opponent of Nes- 
 torius and his. teachings. He stuck at no measures of 
 bribery and violence to carry his point. Schaff says that 
 " he exhibits to us a man making theology and orthodoxy 
 the instruments of his passions," and quotes Milman as 
 saying, " Who would not meet the judgment of the divine 
 Redeemer loaded with the errors of Nestorius rather than 
 the barbarities of Cyril ? " The Catholics find it hard to 
 apologize for canonizing him, and the fine historical ro- 
 mance of Kingsley has given him an evil name in litera- 
 ture. 
 
 As a theologian and preacher Cyril is entitled to more 
 consideration than his character would warrant, for he 
 was an able exponent of the Alexandrian school. He 
 posed as the friend of hidden wisdom, and of course 
 pushes very far the allegorical interpretation of Scripture. 
 It was customary for the archbishop of Alexandria to 
 write and send forth at certain seasons an address or 
 circular letter to the churches of his diocese. A number 
 of these appear among the works of Cyril as homilies. 
 Of the twenty-nine remaining, seventeen are said to be 
 concerned with the title of Mary " Mother of God " 
 then so hotly disputed. Besides these there remain 
 thirteen other discourses which deal much with that doc- 
 trinal strife. The most noted was delivered in the Church 
 of Mary at Ephesus before the famous council of the year 
 431, after that body had solemnly decreed that the dis- 
 puted title should be given to the Mother of Jesus. The 
 sermon was deposited among the acts of the council. 
 There is another sermon which treats of the Lord's Sup- 
 per as a " mystical meal," in which " Christ acts as host." 
 Another treats of the future state of the wicked, and de.-
 
 THE EARLY MEDIAEVAL, OR DARK, AGE 119 
 
 scribes with elaborate detail the sufferings of hell. It has 
 many vigorous and striking passages, but it is overdone, 
 and the effect is spoiled by exaggeration. The speaker 
 seemed to take pleasure in picturing the awful fate of the 
 lost. Cyril does not lack fancy and richness of imagery. 
 Some of his sermons show a good deal of logical skill as 
 well as rhetorical effectiveness. But after all Rothe has 
 this to say : " The passionate, violent, angry character 
 of the man impresses itself also on his sermons. His 
 polemic is violent and bitter, and full of passionate per- 
 sonal attacks upon his opponents. Moreover there passes 
 through his addresses a rather consuming than warming 
 glow of feeling and fancy, which, better guided, might 
 have brought forth extraordinary effects." How true it 
 is that the evil traits of a man's character may hinder and 
 even ruin his influence, although he be gifted with un- 
 usual talents ! 
 
 We find a very different sort of man from Cyril in his 
 contemporary and sometimes opponent, Theodoret (d. 
 457) j 1 bishop of Cyrus in Syria. This distinguished his- 
 torian and exegete was born at Antioch about the year 
 390. He, like many another eminent divine, was blessed 
 with an especially good Christian mother, who took pains 
 with his education. He was trained in a monastery, and 
 received the impress though not the personal instructions 
 of the eminent teacher Diodorus, who had taught Chrys- 
 ostom and Theodore of Mopsuestia. This last scholar 
 and prelate had also great, and possibly personal, influ- 
 ence over Theodoret, in whose work is seen the safer his- 
 torical and grammatical interpretation of Scripture pur- 
 sued by the Antiochene scholars as compared with those 
 of Alexandria. After 420 Theodoret appears as bishop 
 of Cyrus, a town of no great importance in Syria. He 
 was opposed to Cyril in his violent dealings with Nesto- 
 rius, though he did not go as far as Nestorius toward 
 teaching the theory of the dual personality in our Lord. 
 He was moderate. Under Cyril's influence he was con- 
 demned at Ephesus in 431 ; and the so-called " Robber 
 Synod " in 449 went so far as actually to depose him from 
 
 'Schaff, Vol. III., p. 88if; Rothe, S. 129 ff; Lentz, I, S. 116 
 ff; Moller in Herzog, Bd. 15, S. 401 ff.
 
 120 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 his bishopric. But the Council of Chalcedon in 451 ac- 
 quitted and restored him on condition of his accepting the 
 condemnation of Nestorius and agreeing to the title 
 " Mother of God " as applied to Mary. These concessions 
 he could make without much compromise, as he was not in 
 full accord with Nestorius in doctrine, though personally 
 opposed to his condemnation, and by no means an admirer 
 of Cyril. As bishop Theodoret led an exemplary life, in 
 fact he had been pious and pure from his childhood, and 
 had served in some of the minor offices of the church with 
 fidelity and success. Even his enemies had to acknowl- 
 edge the goodness of the man, especially his benevolence 
 and charity. " He owned nothing of value save his 
 books, applying the revenues of his diocese to the public 
 good." 
 
 He is especially valuable to posterity as a church his- 
 torian, continuing the narrative of Eusebius down to the 
 year 429. But as an exegete and preacher he has received 
 high praise from scholars who have studied his works. 
 As a preacher he was active and laborious, visiting other 
 towns than his own and working for the conversion of 
 sinners and heretics. He had no sweeping eloquence, but 
 must have been a clear, keen reasoner. His style is simple 
 and straightforward and not overloaded with ornament. 
 There remain from him an interesting series of ten ser- 
 mons delivered ten days apart at Antioch before he was 
 made bishop of Cyrus. They treat of Divine Providence. 
 He proves the providence of God from natural religion, 
 from the guidance of nature and of men, from evidences 
 of design (using in an elaborate way the human hand as 
 an illustration), and from the arrangements of society. 
 The last sermon sets forth the incarnation and saving 
 work of Christ as the highest and crowning token of 
 God's providence. Altogether Theodoret was a preacher 
 of considerable ability and importance. Indeed Rothe 
 says of him that " he is the only classical preacher that the 
 Greek church has after Chrysostom." We may therefore 
 close our survey of Eastern preaching in this epoch with 
 him. The Greek preachers of the sixth century are hardly 
 worth study. The age of Justinian, with its great generals 
 and lawyers, produced no great preacher. 
 
 In the West as in the East we find in this period a
 
 THE EARLY MEDIAEVAL, OR DARK, AGE 121 
 
 number of men whose characters and deeds are of con- 
 siderable interest and importance in Church History, but 
 when we look for any who are exceptionally influential 
 or distinguished as preachers we shall look in vain. 
 Judging from the specimens that have come down to us 
 we can only rate the Latin preaching of the fifth and sixth 
 centuries as mediocre, but it may well be that much of the 
 best work has left no literary remains of itself. Certainly 
 there was no utter dearth of preaching, and we may men- 
 tion a few of the better known or more important preach- 
 ers in each century as representatives of their less known 
 brethren. Of the men of the fifth century four only will, 
 for different reasons, and as representatives of different 
 tendencies, receive notice. 
 
 Among the great missionary preachers of all time, and 
 adorning this obscure age, was the apostle and saint of 
 Ireland, Patricius, better known to us as St. Patrick. 1 
 The legends and myths which, however piously meant, 
 have distorted and marred his real image must not blind 
 us to the fact that he was a historic person, and that he 
 did a great and noble work, whose influence and blessing 
 extended far beyond his own age and people. There re- 
 main no sermons from him, but his " Confessions " are 
 regarded as genuine, and there are also some letters which 
 may be so accepted. From these we learn the main facts 
 of his life and labors. The story is told with great hu- 
 mility, but it reveals in its very simplicity the noble char- 
 acter of the man, and gives some inkling of the power 
 and success of his preaching. He was born in Scotland, 
 the son of a priest or deacon, at Bonaven, now known as 
 Kilpatrick, probably about the year 372. The barbarous 
 Scots from Ireland (then their main habitation) often 
 made forays into Britain, and in one of these they cap- 
 tured the youth and carried him away into slavery. After 
 a time he managed to escape and return to his native 
 land. But the godless condition of the heathen among 
 whom he had lived as a slave preyed on his mind, and he 
 resolved to go back and preach to them the gospel of 
 
 1 C. Schoell in Herzog, Bd. II., S. 292 ff ; F. F. Walrond, Chris- 
 tian Missions before the Reformation, p. 7 ff., a brief, popular, 
 but well-considered and interesting account. The sources and 
 literature are well given in the article by Schoell.
 
 122 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 Christ. No words can tell the story as well as his own : * 
 " Against my wishes I was forced to offend my relations 
 and many of those who wished me well. It was not in my 
 own power, but it was God who conquered in me and with- 
 stood them all ; so that I went to the people of Ireland to 
 preach the gospel, and suffered many insults from un- 
 believers, and many persecutions, even unto bonds, giving 
 up my liberty that I might be made a blessing to others. 
 And if I am found worthy I am willing to give up my 
 life with joy for his name's sake." He would sometimes 
 beat a drum to call the people together in the open air, 
 and then would preach to the crowd. He gathered pupils 
 about him, and they would travel over the country reading 
 and expounding the Gospels. His visits were usually 
 brief, but sometimes he would remain longer in one place ; 
 and there is an interesting account of his work at the capi- 
 tal, Tara, made famous in literature by Moore's song, 
 " The harp that once through Tara's halls." Here he 
 gained many converts, as well as in other places. Glad in- 
 deed should we be if we had any specimens of his ser- 
 mons to study, but if we had they would probably be very 
 inadequate tokens of his real power in preaching. For we 
 should not have had them (nor probably have been able 
 to understand them if we had!) in the native language 
 in which they were spoken ; but only in Latin reports of 
 them made by himself or his scholars. So perhaps we 
 need not much regret the lack. The secret of his power 
 is well expressed in Walrond's words : 2 " In all that he 
 did, and in every moment of every day, he relied upon the 
 constant guidance and support of that God whose word 
 he was engaged in publishing." After years of laborious 
 and successful toil he seems in the evening of his life to 
 have rested somewhat, and to have passed away in peace. 
 We come into a very different atmosphere when we 
 leave this free, live, devoted missionary of the far West, 
 and drop back among the prelatical and more distinctly 
 Latin preachers of decadent Italy. Of these three may be 
 mentioned as representative, but only one of them is 
 worthy of much consideration. 3 
 
 1 Quoted from Walrond, op. cit., p. 16. 2 Op. cit., pp. 23, 24. 
 8 Information chiefly derived from the works of Schaff, Lentz, 
 Rothe, etc.
 
 THE EARLY MEDLEVAL, OR DARK, AGE 123 
 
 Peter (d. 451) was the name of the leading bishop of 
 Ravenna during this falling epoch when the feeble Ro- 
 man imperial court had removed from the Eternal City to 
 that fastness. His appointment at the seat of govern- 
 ment indicates that he was a man of some influence. He 
 filled the office for eighteen years, from 433 till his death. 
 In later times he was surnamed Chrysologus " golden 
 speech " probably from the flowing style of his writings 
 rather than from their eloquence. It is a note of declin- 
 ing taste when so tame a writer receives such an appella- 
 tion. There remain one hundred and seventy-six short 
 sermons attributed to him. They are not strong or sub- 
 lime, and explain the Scriptures after the allegorical 
 method, but in a simple way and with evident desire to 
 benefit his hearers. He has much to say of alms, fasting, 
 and the other accepted churchly virtues. 
 
 From Maximus (d. 465), bishop of Turin, about the 
 middle of the fifth century, there are extant seventy-three 
 brief homilies. He is said to have had a fine faculty for 
 impromptu address, and Rothe keenly remarks that there 
 is sufficient evidence of unpremeditated speech in these 
 sermons ! They are full of allegorical interpretation, and 
 they also contain numerous anecdotes of the saints and 
 like material, giving notice of the rise of that style of ser- 
 mon. They are not of much intrinsic interest or value, 
 but as samples from the times they are instructive. One 
 curious homily discusses an eclipse of the moon, and 
 roundly scolds the people for keeping up the old heathen 
 custom of making a loud outcry, as if that would have 
 any effect in causing the shadow to pass, as if God 
 needed any such help as this in removing the trouble ! 
 
 The most important Latin preacher of the fifth century 
 after Augustine is Leo (d. 461), the famous bishop of 
 Rome, who is sometimes considered the first pope in the 
 proper sense. He was probably born in Rome, though 
 neither the time nor the place of his birth is certainly 
 known. He had filled some of the minor offices of the 
 church in Rome when in 440, during his absence, he was 
 unanimously and cordially elected bishop. He exercised 
 this office in a faithful and distinguished manner during 
 his twenty-one remaining years of life, and is not without 
 reason called " the Great." He held a very exalted opinion 

 
 124 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 of the supremacy of the Roman see, claiming the right of 
 Rome to pass on all matters of doctrine and practice for 
 the whole church. Leo was a strong theologian and 
 took part with intelligence and success in the doctrinal 
 controversies of his age. In 449 he wrote to Flavian, 
 bishop of Constantinople, a letter against the error of 
 Eutyches as to the fusion of the two natures in our Lord's 
 person. This letter was the basis of the decree of the 
 Council of Chalcedon in 451 which defined the two na- 
 tures in the one person of Christ. This gave Leo great 
 doctrinal authority through Christendom. He also took 
 an active interest in secular affairs. He is said to have 
 induced Attila the Hun (in 452) to spare Rome, and also 
 to have moderated somewhat the destructive Vandals 
 under Genseric, when they sacked and pillaged the city 
 in 455. Thus Leo was a many-sided and very able man. 
 His life was without reproach, and he gave great and con- 
 scientious care to his flock. 
 
 As a preacher he has some especial claims to attention. 
 He is the first of the Roman bishops from whom we have 
 sermons remaining. Of these ninety-six are with reason- 
 able probability reckoned genuine. 1 He was a diligent 
 preacher, believing earnestly that this was an indispensa- 
 ble part of his duty as a bishop. The sermons are short 
 as was then customary in the Latin churches. As we 
 have them it is estimated that even the longest would only 
 have occupied twenty minutes in delivery, many of them 
 only half that time. But the reports may be shorter than 
 the actual sermons were. They are occupied largely with 
 festivals, fasts, saints' days, and other occasions. Only a 
 few are expository at all, nor do they much discuss the 
 great doctrines. They urge the churchly virtues of fasts, 
 alms, and penance, and teach that these are meritorious 
 works. In style they are rather ambitious and brilliant, 
 abounding in antitheses and pregnant sayings. Leo is a 
 warning against making more of style than of matter ; for 
 it is a sharp and not wholly unjust criticism of Lentz that 
 if the order of the words be changed, or other words be 
 used to express the thought, the merit would be gone. 
 
 While not particularly profound in thought or specially 
 
 1 Migne, Pat. Lot., torn. 54, col. 141 ; translations in Nicene and 
 Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. XIII.
 
 THE EARLY MEDIAEVAL, OR DARK, AGE 125 
 
 edifying in tone the sermons contain a good deal that is 
 worthy of note. The sixty-first sermon 1 eighth on the 
 Passion discusses the arrest of Jesus, the sinful compli- 
 ance of Pilate, the greater guilt of the Jews, the meaning 
 of Christ's bearing his own cross and of Simon's sharing 
 it, and how we should see the deeper meaning of the cru- 
 cifixion as taught by our Lord's own words. Then in a 
 long apostrophe he speaks of the attractive power of the 
 cross, and concludes as follows : " Let us then, dearly be- 
 loved, confess what the blessed teacher of the nations, the 
 Apostle Paul, confessed, saying, ' Faithful is the saying, 
 and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came 
 into the world to save sinners.' For God's mercy towards 
 us is the more wonderful that Christ died not for the 
 righteous nor for the holy, but for the unrighteous and 
 wicked ; and though the nature of the Godhead could not 
 sustain the sting of death, yet at his birth he took from 
 us that which he might offer for us. For of old he threat- 
 ened our death with the power of his death, saying by 
 the mouth of Hosea, the prophet, ' O death, I will be thy 
 death, and I will be thy destruction, Q hell.' For by 
 dying he underwent the laws of hell, but by rising again 
 he broke them, and so destroyed the continuity of death 
 as to make it temporal instead of eternal. . . . And 
 so, dearly beloved, let that come to pass of which St. Paul 
 speaks, ' that they that live should henceforth not live to 
 themselves but to him who died for all and rose again.' 
 And because the old things have passed away and all 
 things are become new, let none remain in his old carnal 
 life, but let us all be renewed by daily progress and 
 growth in piety. For however much a man be justified, 
 yet so long as he remains in this life he can always be 
 more approved and better. And he that is not advancing 
 is going back, and he that is gaining nothing is losing 
 something. Let us run then, with the steps of faith, by 
 the works of mercy, in the love of righteousness, that 
 keeping the day of our redemption spiritually, ' not in the 
 old leaven of malice and wickedness, but in the unleavened 
 bread of sincerity and truth,' we may deserve to be par- 
 takers of Christ's resurrection, who with the Father and 
 the Holy Ghost liveth and reigneth forever and ever. 
 Amen." ' 
 
 1 Nic. and P.-Nic. Path., Vol. XII., pp. 171 ff.
 
 126 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 In the sixth century only three names need detain us, 
 but these are for different reasons well worthy of mention. 
 Fulgentius (d. 533) was bishop of a town called Ruspe 
 in north Africa. He was born about the year 468 of a sena- 
 torial family in that region. He had in youth good 
 educational advantages, and he improved them. He was 
 blessed with a good Christian mother. An indication of 
 her influence and of his dispostion is found in the fact 
 that on being appointed to some government position, 
 before entering the ministry, he found the exactions for 
 taxes so harsh and distasteful that he gave up the office. 
 He leaned toward the monastic life, but events called him 
 to activity and to suffering. The Arian king of the 
 Vandals persecuted the orthodox Christians, and Fulgen- 
 tius was among those who suffered. Against his will he 
 was made bishop of Ruspe, and soon afterwards was ban- 
 ished, along with other orthodox bishops, to the island of 
 Sardinia. Towards the end of his life he was, under 
 some change of sentiment, recalled to his bishopric. He 
 was an able and clear-headed man, well versed in the 
 Scriptures, in the questions of the day, in the older Chris- 
 tian writers, and especially in the works of Augustine, 
 whom he greatly admired and imitated. Ten sermons 
 among those attributed to him are considered to be proba- 
 bly genuine. 1 Some resemble Augustine in style, but the 
 most of them are imitations of Leo. Thus they possess 
 no particular originality or power. 
 
 (d. 542), for forty years bishop of Aries, in 
 
 Gaul, was born near Chalons, about the year 470. He was 
 at an early age a monk in the cloister at Lerins, then dea- 
 con, then presbyter, then abbot, and finally in 501 was 
 made bishop of Aries. He was a man of great piety and 
 force of character, and is one of the most important men 
 of his time. He was truly evangelical in spirit and de- 
 voted in labors, and was a leader in the Gallican church 
 in his day. He had no easy life. In various ways he was 
 annoyed and even persecuted, on charges of disloyalty and 
 the like, by first one and then another of the barbaric 
 kings Frank, Burgundian, and Goth. But amid all his 
 trials he was a faithful and diligent bishop, and believed 
 much in preaching. He also gave much and fruitful at- 
 1 Migne, Pat. Lai., torn. 65, col. 719.
 
 THE EARLY MEDIEVAL, OR DARK, AGE 127 
 
 tention to singing as a part of worship. A number of 
 sermons ascribed to him remain, but not all are certainly 
 genuine. 1 He was earnest in urging faith and a true con- 
 ception of the work of Christ. In fact he was Augustin- 
 ian in his theology, and his utterances against the merits 
 of mere churchly works are remarkable in that age. He 
 was accustomed to use many illustrations from life in his 
 preaching, trying to reach the common people and earn- 
 estly opposing all sorts of superstitions. His sermons, or 
 those ascribed to him, were much quoted and used 
 throughout the mediaeval period. In this respect he 
 almost takes place beside Augustine and Gregory the 
 Great, the three being inexhaustible sources for later plagi- 
 arism. 
 
 The patristic or ancient period in the history of preach- 
 ing fitly closes with Gregory, 2 called the Great, who was 
 bishop of Rome, or, as we may now say, pope, from 590 
 to 604. He was born at Rome about the year 540 of an 
 ancient and wealthy family of senatorial rank. During 
 the temporary supremacy of the Eastern Empire over 
 Italy in consequence of the decline of the Gothic kingdoms 
 and the victories of Belisarius and Narses, the famous 
 generals of Justinian, Gregory was appointed to a high 
 civil position in Rome. He discharged the duties of his 
 office with fidelity and success; but he had a longing 
 for the monastic life, which found expression for a time 
 in his endowing several monasteries. After his father's 
 death he turned his own house into a cloister, of which 
 he became himself a member, and practiced the strictest 
 asceticism. In 579 he was appointed by Pelagius II., 
 bishop of Rome, a legate or ambassador to the court of 
 Constantinople a position which he filled with ability, as 
 he was skilled in diplomacy and executive management. 
 After several years he returned and was made abbot of 
 his convent. It was about this time that he is said to have 
 noticed the fair and handsome English prisoners in the 
 slave market, who called forth his admiration and sym- 
 pathy, and awakened in him a desire for the conversion 
 of that far-off heathen people. In 590 he was elected 
 
 1 Migne, Pat. Lot., torn. 67, col 1041. 
 
 2 Mostly the same authorities as before ; works in Migne, and 
 translations in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. XII.
 
 128 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 bishop of Rome. While he did not in the matter of the 
 title push the papal claims as far as Leo had done, he 
 held to all the substantial things that his great predecessor 
 had gained, and with much apparent personal humility 
 asserted the supremacy of the Roman see. Schaff well 
 says of him t 1 " He combined great executive ability with 
 untiring industry, and amid all his official cares he never 
 forgot the claims of personal piety. In genius he was 
 surpassed by Leo I., Gregory VII., Innocent III., but as 
 a man and a Christian he ranks with the purest and most 
 useful of the popes." He was very active in all depart- 
 ments of his work, extending his jurisdiction in all the 
 West. He welcomed Spain back from the Arian heresy, 
 the result of Vandal and Gothic influences; he sent the 
 monk Augustine to England to labor for the conversion 
 of the Anglo-Saxons, and performed many other acts of 
 importance as pope. He reformed the liturgy and the 
 music of the Roman church, and gave a start or a fresh 
 impulse to many elements of ecclesiastical life. 
 
 Among Gregory's works is a celebrated treatise on the 
 pastoral (episcopal) office called Liber Regulae Pastoralis, 
 or, more briefly, " Pastoral Rule." It was written in the 
 first year of his pontificate, and addressed to Leander of 
 Seville. It owes something to the similar work of Greg- 
 ory Nazianzen, to which he refers in the prologue to part 
 third, but apparently nothing to Chrysostom's treatise on 
 the Priesthood. 2 The work treats of the responsibilities 
 of the pastoral office, of the character of those who should 
 be pastors, of the kind of teaching appropriate to different 
 classes in the flock, and other such matters. It contains 
 much sound advice suitable for all times, together with 
 much that is trivial and weak. There is very little that 
 bears specifically upon preaching, and nothing in the way 
 of homiletical theory or rules; but the general teaching 
 of the book and a few hints here and there show both 
 just ideas and a high regard for the preacfiing part of 
 the pastor's office. The book enjoyed a great repute in 
 its own and subsequent times, and had the distinction of 
 being translated into Anglo-Saxon by Alfred the Great, 
 
 1 Ch. Hist., Vol. IV., p. 212. 
 
 ' Barmby's Prolegomena to the Pastoral Rule, Nic. and Post- 
 Nic. Fathers, Vol. XII.
 
 THE EARLY MEDIEVAL, OR DARK, AGE I2Q 
 
 and of being especially recommended by enactments of 
 Charlemagne. 
 
 As a preacher Gregory was, like Leo, very diligent. He 
 conscientiously held it to be one of his prime duties to 
 preach and to instruct his people. Sixty-two of his homi- 
 lies remain, twenty-two on Ezekiel, and forty on the 
 Gospels, based on the passages appointed for the day. 
 Some of the sermons were committed to writing by him- 
 self, and others were taken down by reporters and revised 
 by himself. Usually they are brief, but several are of 
 considerable length. As sermons they cannot claim very 
 high rank. The style is often barbarous and inelegant, 
 the arrangement of no special worth, the thought not 
 rich nor deep, and the Scripture interpretation full of the 
 allegorical method and often puerile. The homilies con- 
 sist usually of short paraphrases of the text, and of moral 
 application of it. Two things deserve especial mention: 
 (i) He puts, as was natural from his monastic bent and 
 training, great emphasis upon the contemplative element 
 of the religious life; and (2) he recognizes and assumes, 
 both by precept and example, the important place of 
 preaching in Christian worship. 
 
 The character, the work, the time of Gregory, all uriite 
 to make him the Pharos of the transition betwen ancient 
 and mediaeval church history. He belongs to both 
 epochs. 1 As Christlieb well says : " There meet in him 
 the decline and the new strengthening (though not the 
 new life) of preaching. On the one side his place is here ; 
 on the other he is the beginning point of the Middle 
 Ages." 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE Low ESTATE OF PREACHING IN THE SEVENTH AND 
 EIGHTH CENTURIES 
 
 As the note of the fifth and sixth centuries is decline, 
 so that of the seventh and eighth is chaos. It was a 
 strange, wild time, with everything in confusion. The 
 old East was in its dotage and the new West in its child- 
 hood. The great peoples and governments of mediaeval 
 and modern Europe were making their crude beginnings. 
 1 See Christlieb, in Herzog, Bd. 18, S. 486, 487.
 
 I3O A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 Christianity in all its phases and institutions reflected the 
 character of the times, but even in its corruptions and 
 perversions it was at once the best conservator of the 
 ancient good and the surest guarantee for the future. 
 
 i. A GLANCE AT THE TIMES 
 
 In order that we may the better place ourselves for 
 studying the preaching and preachers of the period, some 
 of the most important events and movements in both po- 
 litical and religious history should be rapidly recalled. 
 
 This epoch witnessed the rise and wonderful early 
 spread of Mohammedanism. The flight of Mohammed 
 occurred in 622, his death ten years later, and in just a 
 century after that, in 732, Charles Mattel defeated the 
 Saracens on the plain between Tours and Poitiers. In 
 these hundred years many of the fairest provinces of the 
 Eastern empire had been forever wrung from Greek con- 
 trol, Constantinople itself seriously threatened, Egypt and 
 north Africa overrun and firmly held, Spain subjected, 
 and all western Europe menaced by the Saracen invasion. 
 
 In the Byzantine empire some glory was shed on decay 
 by the brilliant but futile victories of the emperor Herac- 
 lius, but state and church were torn and weakened by the 
 long and weary strife over the worship of images and by 
 the controversy whether in the Person of Christ there is 
 one will or two. 
 
 In the seething, turbulent West new nations, peoples 
 and languages are forming from chaotic elements. Italy 
 witnesses the downfall of the exarchate of Ravenna and 
 with it the final departure of even the most shadowy po- 
 litical connection with the East; likewise the rise of the 
 Lombard kingdom, the nucleus of the Papal States, and 
 the foretokening of a new Empire soon to be established 
 under the Franco-German kings. Germany is as yet 
 missionary ground where a few toilers are sowing seeds 
 of Christian civilization. France, long feeble under her 
 sluggish Merovingian kings, is beginning to assume some 
 semblance of unity and a degree of real power under the 
 vigorous guidance of the mayors of the palace, who at last 
 take the name as well as the substance of royalty and 
 found the illustrious Carolingian dynasty. In England 
 the struggle between Saxon and Kelt progresses, but
 
 THE EARLY MEDIAEVAL, OR DARK, AGE 131 
 
 the consolidation of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom is still in 
 the future. Latin is still the accepted language in all the 
 West for literary, legal and religious purposes, but the 
 Babel of dialects shows some signs of yielding an out- 
 come in later times of vernacular speech and letters. Es- 
 pecially in England is the work of Caedmon and Bede 
 worthy of remembrance in laying foundations for Anglo- 
 Saxon literature. 
 
 In the social order, or rather disorder, some forces are 
 to be reckoned with. The kings and lords constitute the 
 ruling class, where military success and personal prowess 
 are the main ideals. There seems to have been as yet no 
 mercantile and burgher class to speak of, and yet these 
 must have existed in some forms, though weak and op-' 
 pressed. The lower, or governed, class consisted chiefly 
 of two elements: the barbarian followers of the chiefs 
 and kings, rude, illiterate, rapacious ; and the downtrodden 
 and despoiled native peoples. In such conditions trade and 
 agriculture could only exist as necessary to life, they could 
 not flourish as elements of civilization. Between the gov- 
 erning and the governed classes there was the clergy, 
 recruiting its ranks from both the others and thus 
 forming a sort of cement alas ! often sadly untempered 
 mortar for the social fabric. Morals were in a deplora- 
 ble state, and yet not utterly rotten and hopeless. Roman 
 law lay at the basis of civic life, and yet there was much 
 lawlessness and rapine and some superposition of bar- 
 barian usages and laws. The ordeal and torture were 
 common, and the man who could not defend himself had 
 not much chance 'for " life, liberty and the pursuit of hap- 
 piness." At the bottom was the old social life with both 
 its good customs and its decay and ruin; then there was 
 the alluvial deposit of fresh barbarian soil with its rank 
 weeds of violence and rapacity, and yet with its choice 
 flowers of courage, honor and respect for woman ; and 
 above all was the influence of Christianity which, despite 
 its own corruptions, served to mitigate the ills of the other 
 two elements, and held in germ the hopeful formative 
 forces of the better social order that was to come. The 
 Papacy, now finally independent of the East, establishes 
 its political power in Italy, and by its shrewd alliance with 
 the Prankish kings strengthens itself for its growth and 
 dominance in all the West throughout the Middle Ages.
 
 132 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 2. GENERAL SURVEY OF PREACHING IN THIS TIME 
 
 Preaching, as usual, shared and to some extent reflected 
 the character of the age. There were materials and quali- 
 ties of it common to both sections of the church and world, 
 but at the risk of some repetition it will be better to con- 
 sider the East and West separately. All the old differ- 
 ences ethnic, geographical, political, linguistic, doctrinal 
 remained and were emphasized by the new conditions, 
 while still others were added. The preaching of the East 
 has dropped into its conservative old age, and its general 
 character shows little change for centuries ; while that of 
 the West, though in a sad decay, has in it latent forces 
 destined to wonderful and varied development in the 
 course of time. 
 
 In the Greek Church of this time there was no growth, 
 but there was some ferment. In the seventh century the 
 monothelete heresy the doctrine that the person Christ 
 had only one will though two natures racked the church 
 as had done the more famous controversies of the earlier 
 times ; and in the eighth the zeal of the iconoclastic 
 'image-breaking emperors and their followers tore church 
 and empire in twain over the question of the reverence to 
 be paid to pictures and relics. 
 
 Besides these controversies, which, of course, influenced 
 the clergy and preaching of the times, other conditions 
 affected for evil the sermons addressed to the people. De- 
 generacy and corruption infected both people and priest- 
 hood. Fanaticism was flourishing, superstition abounded. 
 Angels and saints, images and relics received veneration 
 which amounted to worship, while the special emphasis 
 which had long been given to the worship of the Virgin 
 Mother of Jesus becomes excessive. To her are trans- 
 ferred many of the attributes of her divine Son, and some 
 of the events associated with his incarnation and birth are 
 made to do service also in behalf of his mother. Thus 
 her miraculous birth, her presentation in the temple, the 
 doings of her parents are treated as historical and im- 
 portant. Christ is looked upon as the Judge and his 
 glorified mother is appealed to as intercessor and mediator 
 between men and his wrath. Festivals and saints' days 
 abound, many of the sermons that have come down to us
 
 THE EARLY MEDIAEVAL, OR DARK, AGE 133 
 
 are occupied with these, and were doubtless regarded as 
 masterpieces and so preserved. Piety had fallen still 
 further if that were possible into formalism, and 
 Christian virtue into regard for churchly observances and 
 requirements. What sort of preaching was to be expected 
 under these conditions ? 
 
 Theological thinking has almost gone. John of Damas- 
 cus stands out in solitary eminence among the theologians 
 of the age. He has no equal among his contemporaries or 
 successors, and but few that may be compared to him at all. 
 The exposition of Scripture is wretched. Allegory is gone 
 mad. The clergy are ignorant as well as corrupt, the ser- 
 mons show little thought and less learning. Harangues 
 on the saints, the images, the festivals, and chiefest of all 
 on the Virgin, take the place of the exposition of the 
 word of God. Few of the sermons have texts, and the 
 quotation and application of Scripture are often forced. 
 Rothe 1 well sums up the situation thus : " The monkish 
 spirit prevails. The dogmatic addresses almost wholly 
 lack the didactic element. All moved about the idea of the 
 miraculous and the incomprehensible, and the whole aim 
 of the preacher seemed to be to awaken astonishment and 
 admiration. To this end they were not ashamed to get 
 material from the New Testament Apocrypha." As was 
 to be expected, the style bombastic, wordy, overstrained 
 fully corresponds to the content of these decadent homi- 
 lies, and we look almost in vain for specimens of real ora- 
 torical power. 
 
 When we turn to the West we find a different and in 
 some respects more hopeful state of affairs. It is sadly 
 true that preaching is much neglected perhaps even more 
 than in the East and the quality and contents of the 
 preaching are no whit better than among the Greeks of 
 the same period. But there are both circumstances and 
 elements of preaching which are suggestive of better days 
 to come, even though as yet the coming i3 far away. 
 There can be no question that in all its history preaching 
 was at its lowest stage during this period. But though 
 languishing it was not dead, though very inferior in qual- 
 ity it was not wholly bad. 
 
 The chaotic state of European society during the sev- 
 
 *Gesch. d.Pred., S. 158.
 
 134 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 enth and eighth centuries was not favorable to preaching. 
 Rude barbarian kings and lords ruled over church as well 
 as state. The people were oppressed, many of them fear- 
 fully ignorant and corrupt. The clergy were often grossly 
 ignorant, and sometimes immoral. Yet these very things 
 appealed to devout churchmen and to enlightened states- 
 men as well, and earnest efforts were made to improve the 
 state of affairs. About the year 762 Chrodegang, Arch- 
 bishop of Metz, in his Regula Canonicorum (c. 44) en- 
 joins that there must be preaching, presumably in all the 
 churches of his diocese, twice a month at least ; and better 
 yet on every fast day and Lord's day ; and that the preach- 
 ing must be such as the people can understand. In the 
 Capitularia x of Charlemagne and his successors numer- 
 ous regulations are found in regard to the character and 
 duties of the clergy, and preaching comes in for its share 
 of attention. These rules are found as early as the year 
 769. There is much insistence upon the duty of preaching, 
 and even the material of the sermons is prescribed to some 
 extent ; as for example, priests are forbidden " to feign 
 and preach to the people, out of their own understanding 
 and not according to the sacred Scriptures, new or un- 
 canonical things." 2 These efforts in the latter part of the 
 eighth century reveal how greatly preaching had fallen 
 both as to frequency and quality. We shall see later what 
 effect these efforts at reform had upon the preaching of 
 the following times. 
 
 Besides these praiseworthy attempts of the authorities 
 to improve preaching there were earnest endeavors on the 
 part of individual priests and monks here and there to 
 gather the people together and preach to them. These 
 missionary movements, though crude and imperfect, were 
 a note of real life in preaching, and had in them the pledge 
 of a fruitful future. We shall see more of this phase of 
 preaching further on. 
 
 The clergy and preaching of the age have been very 
 properly classified by historians into parochial, cloistral, 
 and missionary. So far as the clergy is concerned the 
 classification, though proper, cannot be rigid or exclusive. 
 For sometimes, though very rarely, a parish priest or even 
 
 1 Migne, Pat. Lat., torn. 97. 
 
 ' Capit. of the year 789 ; Migne, Pat. Lat., torn. 97, col. 182.
 
 THE EARLY MEDI/EVAL, OR DARK, AGE 13$ 
 
 a bishop, might do some missionary work, or be called on 
 to preach in a monastery. But very frequently the monks 
 preached in the parishes, were sometimes made prelates, 
 and were distinctively the missionaries of the age. When 
 it comes to preaching itself, however, the distinction is ap- 
 parent enough. 
 
 Parochial preaching was that of prelates and priests in 
 churches to the people gathered on Sundays, saints' days, 
 festivals and other occasions. Strange as it may seem 
 there was apparently less of this preaching than of the 
 other kinds, and it was of poorer average quality. Many 
 of the bishops and secular priests concerned themselves 
 very little with preaching. Partly this was due to all the 
 elements of decline which affected the preaching of the 
 age, but more distinctively to the encroachment of liturgi- 
 cal worship and the cares of administration, which we 
 have already seen growing ,in the preceding period. 
 
 Cloistral preaching, as the name indicates, was that 
 done in monasteries, and consisted chiefly of instruction 
 and exhortation to monks and nuns. It may be that per- 
 sons from the outside were sometimes invited or permitted 
 to attend some of these services, but the aim and charac- 
 ter of the preaching was monastic. The preacher might 
 be a visiting prelate or brother, or, very frequently, the 
 abbot, or sometimes a brother appointed for the purpose. 
 In case of the nunneries the preachers were usually the 
 prelates under whose jurisdiction the institutions lay, or 
 monks of the related orders deputed for the purpose. In 
 far later days one of the most famous preachers of the 
 Franciscans x began his career as a preacher to the nuns 
 of the associated order. Sometimes these sermons were 
 called " instructions," and sometimes " collations," from 
 the fact that they were not infrequently given while the 
 brethren were at their common meal in the refectory. 
 Naturally the discourses were of a didactic and often of a 
 mystical character. 
 
 In addition to the actual cloistral preaching we must 
 take some account of the influence of monasticism upon 
 preaching generally. For it was great and lasting. In the 
 widest view there was the conceded value of the monas- 
 teries as refuges and preservers of learning in these evil 
 1 Berthold of Regensburg, d. 1272.
 
 136 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 times. The monks were taught in the cloistral schools 
 what learning there was. Some of these schools and 
 their teachers, even in this early age and yet more in later 
 times, became and remain deservedly famous. The mon- 
 astic clergy were commonly far superior both in morals 
 and learning to the parish priests. From the monasteries 
 went forth the best prepared men for the work of the min- 
 istry, and many a monk became a distinguished prelate. 
 This was true of the great Spaniards Leander and Isidore 
 of Seville in the preceding times, and of Ildefonso of To- 
 ledo in the period now under review. 1 Frequently the 
 monks went forth to preach in the churches and also as 
 missionaries, as we shall presently see more fully. In re- 
 gard to the work of the monks in England Montalem- 
 bert 2 gives this interesting account : " It is then to the 
 monks, scattered as missionaries and preachers over the 
 country, or united in the numerous communities of epis- 
 copal cities and other great monastic centres, that must in 
 justice be attributed the initiation of the Anglo-Saxons 
 into the truths of religion They were ex- 
 pressly commanded to teach and explain to their flocks, 
 in the vernacular tongue, the Decalogue, the Lord's 
 Prayer, the Apostles' Creed, and the sacred words which 
 were used in the celebration of the mass and the adminis- 
 tration of baptism ; to expound to them every Sunday, in 
 English, the Epistle and Gospel of the day, and to preach, 
 or instead of preaching to read them something useful to 
 
 their souls From this spring those homilies 
 
 in Anglo-Saxon which are so often to be met with among 
 the manuscripts in our libraries, and which are by several 
 centuries of an earlier date than the earliest religious docu- 
 ments of any other modern language." Since the brilliant 
 Frenchman's time some of these early homilies have 
 been edited and published by English scholars. 3 
 
 Missionary preaching had received its impulse from the 
 work of Patrick and Columba in the preceding period. 
 
 1 See Montalembert, Monks of the West, I., pp. 414-427. 
 
 * Op. cit., Vol. II., p. 608. 
 
 8 See Cutts, Parish Priests and Their People in the Middle Ages 
 in England, chaps. II., III,. V., XIV., and especially p. 223 for 
 remarks on the Saxon homilies, which, however, belong to a 
 later date than the eighth century. We shall have occasion later 
 to deal with the Old English Homilies, edited by Morris.
 
 THE EARLY MEDIEVAL, OR DARK, AGE 137 
 
 In this time it found noble expression in the labors of 
 Columban, Gall, Wilibrord, Winfred (Boniface), and 
 others. It appears that the parochial clergy did little or 
 nothing of this sort of preaching, though the good work 
 of Eligius of Noyon, who was never a monk, is a brilliant 
 exception to this rule. The missionaries were principally 
 monks. 
 
 As already intimated the character and quality of West- 
 ern preaching in the seventh and eighth centuries must 
 be rated lower than at any previous time. After the fall 
 from Ambrose and Augustine to Gregory I. and Caesarius 
 of Aries, further decay would seem well nigh impossible. 
 But still it is a fact. The bishops preached but little, the 
 common parochial clergy even less ; what preaching there 
 was came mostly from monks and missionaries. The ser- 
 mons are largely imitations, adaptations, compilations, and 
 in not a few cases direct copies of the older discourses. 
 The faults of other days are perpetuated in weak repro- 
 ductions, no new note is heard, little power is shown ; 
 preaching is merely holding on to its traditions with a 
 feeble grasp and waiting for better days. 
 
 In form the sermons are still the structureless hortatory 
 homilies of other days. They are usually very short. The 
 style is not uniform ; quotations and imitations from older 
 models preserve the manner of the later Latin fathers to 
 some extent ; and of course individuals differ in their use 
 of the current church Latin; but the general inference 
 from all this is in accord with the facts there is no style 
 to speak of at all, no strength, life, beauty, or eloquence. 
 
 In contents the Latin sermons are no better than the 
 Greek. The Scriptural exposition is forced and allegori- 
 cal, often helplessly puerile. Of deep and powerful think- 
 ing there are scanty if any specimens. Saints' tales and 
 marvels, extravagant laudation of the Virgin and of relics 
 are largely in evidence. Some gospel is preached, how- 
 ever, and the moral teaching is for the most part correct 
 and earnest. The monastic and churchly virtues receive 
 too great emphasis relatively to other things. We should 
 remember, however, that accounts of the effect of preach- 
 ing at times upon its auditors give us a better impression 
 of its actual power than we are able to gather from the 
 tame Latin reports of sermons which have come down to
 
 138 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 us. There was doubtless both better and worse preaching 
 than the preserved discourses exhibit. 
 
 Latin was the prevalent language of preaching. All 
 the discourses of this time are preserved only in that 
 tongue; the Anglo-Saxon homilies mentioned before be- 
 long to a later date, and there are none as early as those 
 in any other of the nascent languages of modern times. 
 But still, even in this early time the seventh and eighth 
 centuries there are traces that at least some of the popu- 
 lar preaching was done in the vernacular dialects. Thus 
 Bede 1 tells how King Oswald of Northumbria interpreted 
 Aidan's preaching to his court, and how " Paulinus 
 preached all day long to the people," presumably either 
 directly or by an interpreter, and how Cuthbert " was 
 wont chiefly to visit the villages .... to allure 
 the rustic people by his eloquent preaching to heavenly 
 employments." In France, or Flanders, Eligius of Noyon, 
 who will be noticed later, distinctly says in one of his ser- 
 mons : " Therefore we address you in rustic speech 
 (rustico sermone) ;" and in another, " Therefore we turn 
 to you using a simple and rustic speech (eloquio}J' z This 
 is not perfectly conclusive, since it may refer to the bad 
 Latin and harsh prounciation of the common people as 
 distinguished from the more cultured, but it is at least an 
 indication of the use of vernacular speech in the Frankish 
 countries in the seventh century. In Switzerland, as we 
 shall see, there is reason to believe that Gall early in the 
 seventh century made some use of the native dialects in 
 his preaching. This interesting and somewhat difficult 
 question of the extent of the use of the rising modern 
 languages in the preaching of the Middle Ages will come 
 up again and again as we proceed to follow the history, but 
 this much concerning the earliest traces of such use it is 
 proper to state here. 
 
 From this general account of the preaching of the two 
 centuries under review we must proceed to give brief no- 
 tices of some of the more important preachers of the age 
 in both the Eastern and Western churches. 
 
 1 See Cutts, Parish Priests, etc., pp. 21-24. 
 
 s Quoted by Cruel, Geschichte der Dcutschen Predigt des Mittel- 
 atlers, S. 9, who says : " The Latin language therefore belongs 
 here, as in all similar cases, only to the written report, and not to 
 the public delivery." This seems an allowable inference, but it 
 should not be pressed too far for reasons mentioned in the text.
 
 THE EARLY MEDIAEVAL, OR DARK, AGE 139 
 
 3. PREACHERS OF THE GREEK CnuRCH. 1 
 
 There is no occasion for a classification of the Greek 
 preachers of the epoch ; but a few of the better known 
 will be mentioned in their chronological order. Very 
 little is known of Sophronius except that he was orig- 
 inally a Sophist, then a monk, and became patriarch of 
 Jerusalem about the year 634. He was early and late a 
 strong opponent of the Monothelete doctrine. Four ser- 
 mons are ascribed to him, their subjects being as follows : 
 (i) On the Birth of Christ; (2) Panegyric on the 
 Angels; (3) and (4) On the Adoration of the Cross. 
 They are declamatory in style and excessively panegyrical 
 in tone. For example, the cross is apostrophized and 
 called on in a long prayer to show forth its manifold 
 power. 
 
 A certain George of Pisidia comes into view about the 
 year 640 as archbishop of Nicomedia, having previously 
 been known as a deacon and librarian at Constantinople. 
 From him we have some poetical and historical writings 
 and nine sermons. They treat of the conception of Mary 
 and of her mother ; of the birth of Mary, and her presen- 
 tation in the Temple; and of her being at the cross and 
 the tomb of the Lord. They show the prevalent tendency 
 to give to Mary not only some of the attributes and offices 
 of her Son, but even to ascribe parallel facts to her birth 
 and infancy. Some of the tales are taken from the Apo- 
 cryphal writings. Besides these discourses on Mary there 
 is a panegyrical sermon on the saints Cosmas and Damian. 
 Of the whole collection Rothe says : " All these addresses 
 are empty declamations without content and without 
 thought, overloaded with picturings, exclamations, rhe- 
 torical figures, and emphasis. They could only tickle 
 spoiled ears, but not teach or edify hearts." 
 
 A man of more note is Andrew, who, toward the end 
 of his life, early in the eighth century, was archbishop of 
 Crete. He was born in Damascus, where his early educa- 
 tion was received. About the year 635 he became a monk 
 at Jerusalem, and must have lived there a long time, for 
 
 1 For the following discussion the author is chiefly indebted to 
 Rothe's Geschichte der Predigt, sections 57-63 ; though something 
 has been derived from other authorities, and something also from 
 the original sources as given in Migne's Greek Patrology.
 
 140 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 at the council of 680, which condemned Monotheletism, he 
 was the representative of the patriarch of Jerusalem. After 
 the council he was kept at Constantinople, ordained a 
 deacon, and put in charge of an orphanage, and later 
 was made archbishop of the island of Crete. He was a 
 man of considerable talent, being something of a commen- 
 tator and also a hymn-writer. One of his hymns has be- 
 come somewhat familiar to modern singers in Neale's 
 vigorous adaptation rather than translation : 
 
 " Christian, dost thou see them 
 
 On the holy ground, 
 How the powers of evil 
 
 Rage thy steps around ? 
 Christian, up and smite them, 
 
 Counting gain but loss, 
 Smite them by the merit 
 
 Of the holy cross." 
 
 As a preacher Andrew has perhaps better claim to 
 notice than any of his contemporaries. Seventeen homilies 
 are ascribed to him, but at least one and possibly others are 
 of doubtful genuineness. They are characteristic of the 
 times, being mostly concerned with Mary and the saints. 
 One of these whom he eulogizes is naturally enough his 
 first predecessor as bishop of Crete Titus ! One of the 
 sermons treats of the Transfiguration, one of the raising 
 of Lazarus, two of the exaltation of the holy cross. His 
 veneration of the Virgin is of the most extreme sort. Ac- 
 cording to Rothe " he calls her the diadem of beauty, the 
 queen of our race, the holy temple of Christ, the rod of 
 Aaron, the root of Jesse, the sceptre of David, the media- 
 trix of law and grace, the seal of the Old and the New 
 Testament, the expected salvation of the heathen, the 
 common refuge of all Christians, the restoration from the 
 first fall, the bringing back of the fallen race to freedom 
 from suffering, and much of the same sort." But with 
 all these faults there is a certain elevation of thought and 
 expression, and certainly some oratorical power. He ex- 
 hibits one peculiarity of the preaching of all this time, 
 that is, putting extensive imaginary speeches into the 
 mouths of Bible characters, the angels, and even God.
 
 THE EARLY MEDIEVAL, OR DARK, AGE 141 
 
 There meets us in this time the name of a certain Ger- 
 manus, who is said to have lived about a hundred years 
 (634-0. 734). He first appears as bishop of Cyzicus, then 
 about 715 as patriarch of Constantinople. From this office 
 he was driven into exile by the iconoclastic emperor Leo 
 about the year 730, and died soon after. He was a zealous 
 partisan of the image-worship, and is highly esteemed by 
 the Greek church as one who suffered for his convictions. 
 There remain from him a few religious poems and some 
 other writings. Among these are a number of sermons, 
 many of which are devoted to extravagant praise of the 
 Virgin. In one of them is a long conversation between 
 the angel Gabriel, the Virgin Mary, and Joseph, in which 
 Joseph makes accusations against Mary and she defends 
 herself. In another he declares that Mary soon after her 
 death was raised again and taken bodily to heaven. The 
 style is much like that of Andrew of Crete, and there is 
 evidence of real oratorical talent. 
 
 By far the most important and interesting man of the 
 mediaeval Greek church is John of Damascus (d. c. 754, 
 or later), 1 sometimes called by his Arabian name of Man- 
 sur, or Momsur. It is rather as a man, a theologian, a 
 writer, than as a preacher that he is justly famous. Judged 
 by his sermons alone he could not be reckoned among the 
 great preachers of history, nor very far above his con- 
 temporaries, yet his greatness in the other respects men- 
 tioned makes him altogether the most notable Greek 
 preacher after Chrysostom. His admirers have vainly 
 sought to place him alongside the great Antiochene by 
 surnaming him Chrysorrhoas, " the golden current." 
 
 The story of his life, as accepted after his own times, 
 contains miraculous and fabulous elements which throw 
 some doubt upon that part of the narrative which is not 
 of itself improbable. The accounts say that he was born 
 in Damascus the latter part of the seventh century, the 
 son of a Christian named Sergius, who served the Arab 
 caliph as treasurer and stood high in the ruler's favor. 
 John's education was received from one Cosmas, a pious 
 and learned Italian monk, who had been captured by the 
 
 1 The date lies between 754 and 787. His latest writing is of the 
 earlier date, and his death is noted by the second Nicene Council 
 in 787. Article in Herzog.
 
 142 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 Arabs in a foray and sold as a slave at Damascus. Sergius 
 ransomed the saintly man and set him to educate his own 
 son John and also an adopted son called Cosmas, proba- 
 bly after the teacher. Both pupils did well, and John 
 especially distinguished himself, learning grammar, 
 philosophy, mathematics and theology. His father having 
 died, John was appointed by the Caliph to high office. 
 Now comes a highly wrought story from which it is hard 
 to get the kernel of truth which probably lies within it. 
 On account of his defence of the image worship, the 
 emperor of Constantinople falsely, by use of a forged let- 
 ter, informs the Caliph that John is a traitor ; whereupon 
 the Caliph has John arrested and causes his right hand 
 to be cut off. John begs that the hand be left with him in 
 the prison, and in answer to prayer the Virgin joins the 
 hand back to the wrist during the night. The Caliph is 
 overcome by this miracle, pardons John and wants to re- 
 store him to his office ; but John refuses and leaves Damas- 
 cus. 
 
 Whatever the cause may have been, John did leave his 
 native city and the service of the Caliph and entered as a 
 novice the famous monastery of St. Sabas near Jerusalem. 
 Here it is related that the brethren had so profound an 
 impression of his learning that none would undertake to 
 be his teacher, until at last upon certain conditions an old 
 and austere monk agreed to receive him into his cell as a 
 pupil. We need not follow the details of his severe train- 
 ing in self-abasement. Finally, it is said, the Holy Virgin 
 appeared in a dream to the old monk and bade him remove 
 the restriction he had placed upon John's writing, as she 
 had need of his talents in her service and that of the 
 church. Henceforth his literary labors are great ; his 
 numerous writings show diligent activity. He was or- 
 dained a presbyter by the patriarch of Jerusalem, and was 
 frequently called upon to teach and preach in the city. 
 It is probable also that he preached upon occasion in 
 other places. Thus with his writings and his preaching 
 he spent the remainder of his days at St. Sabas, where 
 he died about the middle of the eighth century. 
 
 His extensive writings embrace works on the image 
 controversy, and on theology, some hymns, and some ora- 
 tions and sermons. His greatest theological work, " The
 
 THE EARLY MEDIEVAL, OR DARK, AGE 143 
 
 Fount of Knowledge," is a useful epitome of the Greek 
 theology and is still an authority in the Greek Church. 
 He used the Aristotelian logic, and is thus in some sense 
 the pioneer of the great Latin schoolmen of a later age, 
 who are much indebted to him. He wrote a number of 
 hymns, still prized in the Eastern church; and it is a 
 matter of interest that his adoptive brother and fellow 
 pupil Cosmas was his companion and colaborer in this 
 work. 1 Neale has put us in his debt by admirable repro- 
 ductions of several of these, " The Day of Resurrection " 
 being the best known. 
 
 John's sermons are not free from the errors of his time 
 forced allegorical interpretation, excessive veneration 
 of the Virgin, highly wrought panegyrics on the saints. 
 There is little of theological or moral teaching in them ; 
 they are unnecessarily prolix, but they are clear and 
 forcible in expression and show the logical, scholastic bent 
 of his mind. Such as they are, they served as models 
 for later Greek preachers and found many imitators. An 
 extract from his sermon on the withered fig tree may give 
 a hint of his method. After a stilted introduction dealing 
 with the incarnation he proceeds to say : " Wherefore then 
 as he was partaker and sharer of the [divine] nature (for 
 the nature of the Father and of the Son is one), so, as 
 it were, he serves the will of the household and becomes 
 man and is obedient to the Father even to death, and that 
 the death of the cross, all for the purpose of healing my 
 disobedience ! He comes, then, hastening to suffer and 
 hurrying to drink the cup of death, whence is the salva- 
 tion of all the world. He comes hungering for the 
 salvation of humanity, and finds not fruit in it for this is 
 what the fig tree, as in a parable, obscurely teaches." 
 Then he goes on to develop this thought, repudiating the 
 literal interpretation. 
 
 Theodore Studites (759-826) was born at Constanti- 
 nople about the middle of the eighth century, and came 
 of a good family. He had an uncle, Plato, who was 
 abbot of a monastery and induced Theodore and other 
 members of the family to take up the monastic life. 
 Theodore became very ascetic and was highly esteemed 
 by his brother monks. Against his wishes he was or~ 
 
 1 Schaff, Ch. Hist., Vol. IV., p. 406,
 
 144 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 dained a presbyter in 784. He had trouble with the em- 
 perors both on moral subjects and in regard to the ven- 
 eration of the images. He was several times banished, 
 and often cruelly treated. From 797 to 802 he was in 
 favor at court, and at the request of the empress Irene 
 the zealous champion of the holy icons he became head 
 of the famous monastery of the Studium at Constanti- 
 nople. He reorganized this and made it the most re- 
 nowned of all the Greek cloisters of the age. Hence 
 comes his surname. 
 
 There remains from him a collection of a hundred and 
 thirty-five short addresses to the monks, which are with- 
 out text, mostly hortatory, and inculcating the monastic 
 virtues. These discourses were very highly esteemed and 
 were for a long time read in some of the churches in 
 connection with public worship. Besides these homilies 
 there are also sermons of all sorts on the much-used 
 subjects of the day, the Virgin and the saints, the exal- 
 tation of the cross, and the like. They are wholly in the 
 taste and manner of the age, full of superstitions, saints' 
 legends, forced figures and empty declamation. However 
 admired in their own times, they bring no good message 
 to ours. 
 
 4. PREACHERS AMONG THE ROMAN CLERGY 
 
 Turning our attention now to the West we shall find 
 it both proper and convenient to use the classification of 
 parochial, cloistral, and missionary, although as already 
 stated the distinction in case of the preachers is not so 
 clear as in the preaching. Only a few of each group can 
 be noticed. 
 
 Of those who represent the parochial clergy one of 
 the best was the Spaniard Ildefonso (607-667), who was 
 born at Toledo of parents of noble birth and rank. In his 
 youth he was taught by the famous Isidore of Seville. 
 Against his father's will he entered the monastery of 
 Agali, which was the most noted one of that age in Spain, 
 and was the seat of learning and culture. Here Ildefonso 
 was for a long time resident, first as monk and then as 
 abbot. He took prominent part in several synods, and 
 was distinguished for the purity of his own character 
 and for severe discipline of others. In 657 he was, re- 
 luctantly on his own part, made archbishop of Toledo.
 
 THE EARLY MEDIEVAL, OR DARK, AGE 145 
 
 He was a faithful bishop, but was sorely harassed by 
 many trials and conflicts in that age of turmoil. Arian- 
 ism and the hostility of the king were not the least of 
 his troubles. He filled his high office for a little more 
 than nine years, and died greatly esteemed by the Spanish 
 Catholics. 
 
 His best known work is a treatise against three un- 
 believers concerning the virginity of Mary. 1 He was a 
 most ardent upholder of all the exaggerated Catholic 
 doctrines concerning the mother of our Lord. The 
 treatise is highly rhetorical, not to say bombastic, in style, 
 and gives us no doubt a better idea of Ildefonso's preach- 
 ing than the doubtful sermons which are ascribed to him. 
 His reputation as a preacher was considerable, and he 
 must have had a fervid temperament and the oratorical 
 fire ; but if the writing on Mary is a fair specimen of his 
 work he did not fall below many of the oriental preachers 
 of the time in the excess of his adulation of the Virgin. 
 
 Decidedly one of the most engaging characters of this 
 age was the Frenchman Eligius ( 588-658 ) 2 , long a cour- 
 tier of several of the early Merovingian kings, and in his 
 later life bishop of Noyon in Picardy. He was born near 
 Limoges of a pious family, and was well brought up from 
 childhood. Apprenticed to a goldsmith, who had charge 
 of the royal mint at Limoges, Eligius greatly distin- 
 guished himself by his fidelity and skill in his calling. 
 Meantime he was constant in his religious duties, and a 
 truly remarkable thing for a layman in that age a care- 
 ful student of the Scriptures. After a while he left 
 Limoges and went to Paris, then the capital of the Neus- 
 trian Franks. Because of his skill as a goldsmith, his 
 honesty and excellent character, he became a great fa- 
 vorite with King Clotaire II. Eligius was not corrupted 
 by royal favor nor by the accumulation of wealth. In 
 outward things, such as dress and manners, he con- 
 formed for a time to the world about him. But this was 
 for policy rather than liking, for in his heart he was 
 unworldly, even ascetic. As soon as he could do so with 
 prudence he began to show his real feelings in these mat- 
 ters, laying aside his costly clothing and dressing with 
 exceeding plainness. He gave much to the poor; he 
 
 1 Given in Migne's Latin Patrology. 
 
 "Vita, in Migne, Pat. Lot., torn. 87, col. 47833.
 
 146 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 labored for the spread of Christian knowledge, and on 
 his journeys frequently spoke and gave instruction in the 
 Bible as a sort of lay evangelist; he founded cloisters 
 based on the strictest discipline. Thus in various ways 
 he used his influence at court, his personal wealth, and 
 his own time and efforts to advance the cause of religion 
 as he understood it. 
 
 When Dagobert succeeded Clotaire as king he retained 
 his father's affection for Eligius and reposed so much 
 confidence in the pious goldsmith as frequently to con- 
 sult him on affairs of state. This was naturally not 
 agreeable to the more worldly courtiers, and least of all 
 to the ambitious mayors of the palace, who were already 
 rising to the power which later resulted in their usurpa- 
 tion of royal prerogatives and finally of the royal title. 
 The next king, Louis II., was more under the influence 
 of his mayor of the palace, and the removal of the good 
 goldsmith from the court was the next thing in order. To 
 the credit of all concerned let it be said that instead of 
 murder or false accusation the happy expedient was hit 
 upon of making Eligius a bishop and giving him a fron- 
 tier diocese! So the good man was duly consecrated a 
 bishop and assigned to a region in the northeastern part 
 of France bordering on the Belgic provinces, later known 
 as Picardy, with the town of Noyon as its chief city and 
 the residence of the bishop. 
 
 Thus inducted into office the bishop of Noyon proved 
 to be a capable and faithful prelate, discharging the du- 
 ties of his higher trust with all the fidelity and diligence 
 which had distinguished him in his active business life. 
 Now also his former Bible studies and lay preaching 
 stood him in good stead as a preacher, and his relations 
 to the monasteries he had founded helped him in the 
 administration of affairs in his diocese. He had need 
 of his previous experience, for the difficulties and oppo- 
 sition encountered in his work taxed all his resources 
 and courage. Sixteen sermons of somewhat dubious au- 
 thenticity are ascribed to him. 1 They exhibit no origi- 
 nality of thought, but have a certain warmth and earnest- 
 ness. The account of his life indicates that he preached 
 much and believed in it. He sometimes used the " rustic 
 speech," and preached to heathen as well as to his flock. 
 
 1 Migne, Pat. Lat., torn. 87, col. 594 ss., adduced by Rothe.
 
 THE EARLY MEDIEVAL, OR DARK, AGE 147 
 
 Among those who preached chiefly to the monks, or 
 whose remaining sermons at least are chiefly cloistral, the 
 preeminent name in this period is that of the saintly 
 Saxon monk Bede (672-735), or Bseda, whom history 
 delights to honor with the title of Venerable. He was 
 born in the north of England at or near Yarrow. In 
 early childhood he was put into the monastery of St. 
 Peter at Wearmouth, and later transferred to that of St. 
 Paul at Yarrow. These monasteries and their neighbor- 
 hood were the scene of his life and labors. His teacher, 
 Benedict Biscop, was a wealthy nobleman who had turned 
 monk and supplied the monastery with books. Bede was 
 an apt and diligent scholar and became well versed in the 
 Scriptures, in the Latin Fathers, and in other branches 
 of current learning. When he was nineteen years old, 
 though under canonical age, he was made a deacon, and 
 at thirty was ordained priest. He was invited to go to 
 Rome to study and be in line for preferment, he was 
 offered the abbacy of his convent ; but he declined both 
 of these flattering offers and devoted himself to learning 
 and to the work of a teacher and preacher. He was a 
 great and much beloved teacher, and a voluminous author. 
 His best known and most valuable work is his Ecclesi- 
 astical History of the Saxons, which has been for ages 
 one of the most prized sources for the history of the 
 early Saxon period in England. 
 
 As a preacher Bede was active and faithful, preaching 
 mostly in the cloister, but also to the people. Of the ex- 
 tant sermons ascribed to him there are a great number, 1 
 but probably many of them are spurious. Being chiefly 
 reports of sermons to the monks, they cannot be regarded 
 as a fair specimen of his popular power. They are monk- 
 ish and dry, and full of extracts from the Fathers, espe- 
 cially Gregory the Great. The Scripture exposition is, of 
 course, allegorical, but in other respects fairly good. The 
 style is clear and usually easy, with some warmth but not 
 much power. 2 
 
 1 Migne, Pat. Lot., torn. 94, col. 9 ss. ; and some translations in 
 Neale's Mediaval Preaching, p. 2 ff. 
 
 2 Here is a striking saying from his sermon on the Baptism of 
 Jesus, where discussing John's unwillingness to baptize his Lord, 
 he says : " Sed quia vera humilitas ipsa est quam obedientia 
 comes non deserit, quod prius officium expavit humiliter explevit.'' 
 Migne, Pat. Lot., torn. 94, col. 59.
 
 148 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 In Migne's Patrology * are given a brief account and 
 some sermons of Ambrosius Autpertus (d. c. 779). The 
 sermons are not certainly genuine, but they have some 
 real homiletic merits, though afflicted with the usual 
 faults of that age. Little is given as to Aubert's life. He 
 was born in Gaul, but became a monk in the monastery 
 of St. Vincent in Volturno, Italy. It is related that he 
 suffered from an impediment in his speech, which was 
 miraculously removed in answer to prayer, and that he 
 became a fluent and eloquent speaker. He was made 
 abbot of St. Vincent, and was evidently held in high 
 esteem both as man and preacher. One of the sermons 
 considered to be his is a rather striking discussion of cu- 
 pidity. The preacher shows (on the basis of I. Tim. 6 :io) 
 that avarice is the root of all evil, hard to eradicate, the 
 source of pride, idolatry, envy, oppression, robbery, and 
 other sins ; and yet the effort must be made to tear this 
 evil root out of the life. He makes effective warning in 
 conclusion, and exhorts to almsgiving. 
 
 There were a number of monkish missionary preachers 
 in the age we are studying, but only the most famous 
 three will receive notice in our necessarily brief discus- 
 sion Columban, Gall, Boniface. 2 
 
 Columban (c. 540-c. 615), so called to distinguish him 
 from the first Columba, who founded the famous monas- 
 tery at the isle of lona, on the Scotch coast, is also known 
 as Columba the Younger, or Columba of Luxeuil, from 
 the abbey he founded in France. The name means in 
 Latin " a dove," and was probably given to or adopted 
 by the first Columba as a distinctive surname, and came 
 to the second from the first, most usually in the form Co- 
 lumban. He was born in the Leinster district of Ireland, 
 was a fine, studious lad, and early entered the famous 
 abbey of Bangor, where he studied till he was thirty 
 years old. At that age he felt his call to go forth as a 
 missionary and founder of cloisters to be centers of 
 evangelistic labors among the rude and half-heathen 
 
 1 Tom. 89, col. 1265 ss. 
 
 "Besides other authorities, and the sources, the author has 
 used with great profit the able and satisfactory work of R. Cruel, 
 Geschichte der Deutschen Predigt im Mittelalter, and the brilliant 
 and scholarly but withal somewhat onesided and tendential work 
 of F. R. Albert, Geschichte der Predigt in Deutschland bis Luther.
 
 THE EARLY MEDIAEVAL, OR DARK, AGE 149 
 
 people of central Europe. About the year 590 he took 
 with him twelve pupils as companions and went forth to 
 labor in the mountain region of France and in Switzer- 
 land. He first established a monastery in the Vosges 
 mountains at Anegratis. It was a wild and desolate 
 country, and there was a struggle to maintain life. But 
 after the first trials the abbey throve and became so full 
 of monks and pupils that Columban decided to move on 
 and establish another at Luxuvium, the modern Luxeuil. 
 Later still another was founded at Fontaines. All these 
 were in the territories of the Burgundian kingdom. 
 
 From these cloisters as centers Columban and his pu- 
 pils went forth to labor among the people for their con- 
 version and spiritual training. After more than twenty 
 years of earnest labors, having incurred the enmity of the 
 famous Burgundian queen Brunhilda, of the king, her 
 grandson, and of certain bishops, he was banished from 
 Burgundy and went into Switzerland. Here he labored 
 for some years under the protection of the Austrasian 
 king Theodebert ; but on the latter's overthrow by an- 
 other branch of the Franks he went to Italy. Here, amid 
 the Apennines, he founded his last monastery, that of 
 Bobbio, the refuge of his last year of life and the scene 
 of his death in 615. 
 
 None of Columban's sermons to the people have come 
 down to us, but there have been preserved in Latin fifteen 
 or sixteen addresses, mostly to the monks, called the 
 Instructions of St. Columban. 1 Thus . while he was 
 a noted and laborious missionary, these sermons, or 
 rather brief reports of sermons, belong to the cloistral 
 class. They deal chiefly with the moral and saintly vir- 
 tues. The first treats of the Trinity, the second of morti- 
 fying vices and attaining virtues, the third of hating the 
 world, and of love for heavenly things, the fourth holds 
 that a man must labor in this life in order to rest in the 
 life to come, the fifth that life is not properly a life (vita), 
 but only a way (via), the sixth that this life is like a 
 shadow, and so on. There are in them some great moral 
 truths and Scriptural ideas, many striking expressions, 
 but of course there is much that is forced, allegorical, 
 monkish, and unscriptural. The piety and earnestness of 
 the man are manifest in his work. 
 
 1 Migne, Pat. Lot., torn. 80, col. 229 ss.
 
 150 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 The most famous of the twelve pupils who accom- 
 panied Columban from Ireland was Gallus (c. 550-640), 
 or Gallun, whom we know best by his abbreviated name, 
 Gall. He was of good Irish family and had been for 
 some time a student of Columban's at Bangor before 
 they together went to Burgundy. He was active with 
 Columban in all his labors, and was most useful to him 
 as an assistant. Gall was gifted in language and had 
 learned while in Burgundy the so-called " Alemanic " 
 tongue, the dialect of an influential branch of the Teu- 
 tonic folk. It is probable that this language was under- 
 stood quite generally in Switzerland, much of which was 
 then known as Alemania. 1 When Columban was ban- 
 ished from Burgundy Gall went with him into Alemania, 
 and was very active in labors among the people. The 
 story goes that after the missionaries had settled at Bre- 
 genz on Lake Constance Gall one day preached a power- 
 ful sermon to the people in their own tongue, and while 
 they were still moved by the discourse he broke in pieces 
 and threw into the lake three idols that had long been 
 objects of worship. It was a bold stroke and produced a 
 lasting impression. 
 
 When persecution forced Columban into Italy Gall 
 was prevented by illness from going with him. The elder 
 man regarded the illness as feigned, or at least exag- 
 gerated, and was quite angry at leaving his favorite pupil 
 and helper behind, so that he forbade Gall to conduct the 
 services of the mass as long as he himself should live! 
 However, Gall remained behind sick, but managed to 
 reach in a boat Arbon, on Lake Constance, where he had 
 friends who received him and nursed him back to health. 
 On getting well he desired to resume his missionary and 
 monastic life. So pushing on with a guide into the wild 
 country, he established his cell at the place which to this 
 day bears his name St. Gall. Others gathered about 
 him, and a flourishing monastery was founded. From 
 this station he kept up his mission work till his death in 
 640. 
 
 In the year 615 Gall was invited to accept a bishopric 
 at Constance, but declined, pleading the prohibition of 
 
 1 As is well known the French name for Germany is still 
 Allemagne, and for the German language allemand.
 
 THE EARLY MEDIAEVAL, OR DARK, AGE 151 
 
 old Columban, his master, against his saying mass! But 
 he recommended for the place his pupil, John, a native 
 of the country. On the consecration of John as bishop 
 Gall preached a notable sermon in Latin, which John 
 interpreted into the language of the people. It seems 
 clear from the affair at Bregenz that Gall could preach 
 very effectively in the tongue of the people, and his 
 long sojourn in the country and labors among the natives 
 make it incredible that he was not sufficiently acquainted 
 with the vernacular to use it had he so desired. The ex- 
 planation of the singular circumstance is perhaps rather 
 to be sought in the considerations that as it was a formal 
 occasion and Latin was the ecclesiastical language it was 
 fitting that the churchly tongue should be employed, 
 while to accommodate those who could not understand it, 
 and at the same time to demonstrate his fitness for his 
 high office, John turned the sermon into the vernacular. 1 
 The sermon is still preserved, its genuineness generally 
 accepted by critics. 2 It is a decidedly interesting per- 
 formance. Beginning with the fall of the angels and of 
 man the preacher sketches the Bible history from Genesis 
 to Acts, giving emphasis to the work of our Lord and 
 making spiritual application throughout. The special 
 lesson is that men should forsake their sins and heathen 
 follies, and serve the true God. In the conclusion he 
 " calls upon Christians now to live in accordance with 
 their baptismal vow, to avoid sin, to do good, and to care 
 for their own souls in view of the future judgment." 3 
 
 Winfrid (680-755), whom we know best by his Latin 
 name of Boniface, was born in Devonshire, England, of 
 well-to-do parents. He was educated at Exeter and at 
 an abbey called Nhutscelle, which by some has been iden- 
 tified with Netley. 4 It is thought that he adopted his 
 new name of Boniface on becoming a monk. He showed 
 both diligence in study and aptitude for affairs. A long- 
 ing for missionary life on the Continent seized him. So, 
 
 1 See Albert, Gesch. der Pred., Bd. I., SS. 52, 53. But he seems 
 to me to infer more than is just against the use of the vernacular 
 in Gall's ordinary preaching and in that of others. 
 
 2 Migne, Pat. Lot., torn. 87, col. 13 ss. 
 8 Albert, op. cit., Bd. I., S. 57. 
 
 * F. F. Walrond, Christian Missions before the Reformation, p. 
 81.
 
 1 52 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 with the reluctant consent of his abbot, he went to Fries- 
 land to help his countryman Willibrord, who was labor- 
 ing there as missionary bishop of Trajectum, now known 
 as Utrecht. Winfrid found on arrival that the Frisians 
 were engaged in a fierce war with Charles Martel, the 
 famous Frankish mayor of the palace and " Hammer of 
 the Saracens." As there was little prospect for mission- 
 ary work for some time to come the enterprising young 
 monk returned home. The abbot of Nhutscelle had just 
 died, and Winfrid was urged to accept the vacant post, 
 but declined, and sought to carry on his missionary work 
 in another way. He went to Rome and obtained a com- 
 mission from the Pope as general missionary among the 
 Germans. Now his real life work begins, in 719. 
 
 After working for a while in southern Germany (prin- 
 cipally Thuringia) Boniface came to the conclusion that 
 he could do better if he had the protection of the secular 
 powers. Having previously secured a letter from the 
 Pope to Charles Martel the real ruler of the Franks in 
 the name of the feeble Merovingian king he proceeded 
 to court to seek the protection of the powerful Frank. 
 Charles readily granted his request, much to Boniface's 
 joy. While at the Frankish court he had heard of the 
 death of old Radbod, king of the Frisians, and armed 
 with Charles' letter of protection he again went to the 
 aid of his old friend Willibrord among the Frisians. He 
 remained about three years in that country and then re- 
 turned to resume his labors among the Germans in Thu- 
 ringia and Hesse. After a fruitful year's work he made 
 another visit to Rome, and was created bishop of Ger- 
 many without fixed headquarters. Once more he sought 
 and obtained the protection of Charles Martel, and from 
 now on labored for some years among the Thuringians 
 and Hessians, calling helpers from England, founding 
 monasteries, preaching and working for the half-heathen 
 people. It was during this time that he cut down with 
 his own hands at Geismar a huge oak that had long been 
 regarded with awe as sacred to Thor (or Woden, as 
 some have it), one of the heathen divinities. In 732 
 the very year in which his mighty Frankish protector im- 
 mortalized himself by defeating the Saracens on the 
 plains of Tours Boniface was made archbishop and pri-
 
 THE EARLY MEDIEVAL, OR DARK, AGE 153 
 
 mate of all Germany. His hands were now full with 
 establishing churches and bishoprics, selecting men for 
 offices, and generally settling ecclesiastical affairs in his 
 vast territory. In 745 he was assigned to the archbish- 
 opric of Mainz, that his labors and responsibilities might 
 be somewhat lessened in his old age. But after a time 
 the old man turned over his affairs to another, and with 
 the old dreams of his youth he turned once more to the 
 heathen Frisians. In that wild country he received at 
 the hands of a horde of the heathen his martyr's crown, 
 being slain by a party of fierce men to whom he had come 
 with the gospel of peace. Thus Boniface ended his labors 
 in the year 755, though some authorities place it a year 
 earlier. 
 
 Historians are not unanimous as to the merits of Boni- 
 face's work, nor as to the superior excellence of his char- 
 acter. The Catholic view is expressed in his well-known 
 title of " Apostle of Germany." Extreme Protestants 
 discredit his work, and in some degree his character. 
 They make him bigoted, worldly, bent on subduing the 
 Germans to the papal yoke, preparing the way for Can- 
 ossa and necessitating the Reformation. As is usually 
 the case in such matters, the truth probably lies between 
 extremes. 
 
 There remain fifteen short, probably genuine, sermons 
 from Boniface. 1 They are not missionarv discourses, 
 but are addressed to nominal Christians. Thus they 
 seem, as has been well remarked, 2 to belong not to the 
 first half of his life, when he was doing pioneer work, 
 but to his later career of organization and discipline. 
 It is hard to say exactly to what class of hearers they 
 were given, or certainly in what language they were 
 spoken, though of course we have them in Latin. They 
 are without text, but often relate to the Scriptural lesson 
 for the day. They use Scripture freely, but of course in 
 the prevalent allegorical way. They borrow much from 
 the older sources, and deal with baptismal vows, the 
 Creed and Lord's prayer, the churchly virtues, and the 
 like. As sermons and of themselves they are not of 
 much value ; but they deserve study as specimens of their 
 
 1 Found in Migne's Latin Patrology, and discussed by Cruel, 
 Albert, et. al. * Cruel, op. cit., S. 23.
 
 154 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 kind, and as the remains of a very interesting and im- 
 portant man. 1 
 
 Our survey of the conditions and character of Chris- 
 tian preaching and of the lives and labors of a few of the 
 best preachers during the seventh and eighth centuries 
 justifies the title of this chapter. Preaching was in- 
 deed at a low estate. But still it was not gone from the 
 earth, and, though depressed, it was not dead. The 
 sketch we have made does not exhaust the subject. Be- 
 sides those mentioned, there were many other brave and 
 faithful men who, with imperfect equipment and in trying 
 times, preached the gospel as they understood it to the 
 people of their own days. 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 VOICES IN THE NIGHT; OR, PREACHING DURING THE 
 NINTH, TENTH AND ELEVENTH CENTURIES 
 
 i. SKETCH OF THE AGE 
 
 The epoch included in this chapter runs from the death 
 of Charlemagne in 814 to the beginning of the first Cru- 
 sade in 1095. I n the East there were not many events of 
 general historical interest, but the old empire held to- 
 gether still. The accession of the empress Irene in 780 
 had been a turning point in the image controversy, and 
 the second Nicene Council in 787 had declared in favor 
 of the images. But after Irene some of the emperors 
 had been iconoclasts, and it remained for another em- 
 press, Theodora, in 842, finally to settle the long strife 
 in favor of the icons. The monks and the women gained 
 the day at last. From 867 to 1057 a ^ ne f Macedonian 
 emperors, including, besides others, Phocas, Zimisces, 
 and Basil II., governed with some real ability and suc- 
 
 1 In Serm. I., De Fide Recta, speaking of pastors he says : 
 " Quomodo docet quis quod non didicit? vel qualiter pastor esse 
 poterit si pane vitae gregem sibi commissum pascere ignorat? 
 Non erubescat nesciens discere quod ignorat, nee sciens tardus sit 
 docere quod novit." That last sentence has a suspiciously Augus- 
 tinian ring, but let us hope it is original ! At any rate the passage 
 well expresses a very important principle.
 
 THE EARLY MEDIEVAL, OR DARK, AGE 155 
 
 cess. Then the family of the Comneni Isaac and 
 Alexis reigned with a show of splendor, but in real 
 weakness, toward the end of the eleventh century. The 
 revival of the Roman empire in the West under Charle- 
 magne was a final stroke to the pretensions of Constanti- 
 nople in that direction though any real sovereignty had 
 long ago passed away. On the northeast there were 
 struggles with the rising power of Bulgarians and Rus- 
 sians ; and on the southeast the decay of the caliphs was 
 offset by the rise of the Turks, and so the storm that was 
 to bring destruction was already brewing. 
 
 In the West events pregnant with influence on subse- 
 quent history occur. The death of Charlemagne in 814, 
 the division of his empire among his descendants, and 
 the great settlement of the treaty of Verdun in 843, 
 really founded France and Germany as separate mon- 
 archies and left Burgundy as an age-long apple of dis- 
 cord between them. Another step of great importance 
 was the renewal of the empire under strictly German 
 leadership in 962 by the able Otto I. This period also 
 witnesses the incursions of the Northmen in different 
 parts of Europe, especially important being the settle- 
 ment of the Normans in France and of the Danes in 
 England. The struggles of Alfred, the Danish suprem- 
 acy, and at last, in 1066, the Norman conquest give to 
 English history a memorable interest. The general ex- 
 pectation in Europe that the world would come to an 
 end with the year 1000 produced both unrest and lethargy 
 in the tenth century. But the relief from that foreboding 
 and the agitation preceding the Crusades awakened the 
 eleventh century, and a new era was about to dawn. 
 
 In ecclesiastical affairs the final schism between the 
 Roman and Greek churches is accomplished within this 
 period. The three decisive steps may be mentioned with- 
 out discussion : ( I ) The establishment of the Western 
 Empire by the Pope and Charlemagne gave to the pa- 
 pacy prestige and power ; ( 2 ) The quarrel between 
 Nicholas of Rome and Photius, the ambitious patriarch 
 of Constantinople, resulted in their excommunicating 
 each other about the middle of the ninth century j 1 
 (3) The final dispute between Leo IX. of Rome and 
 1 Schaff, Ch. Hist., IV., p. 275.
 
 156 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 Michael Cerularius of Constantinople involved the dif- 
 fering points of doctrine and ritual, and also claims to 
 jurisdiction over recent converts in eastern Europe, and 
 resulted in the mutual excommunication of the churches 
 in 1054.* This schism, however, was an affair of ages; 
 the events mentioned only sharply emphasized what was 
 already a fact. The conversion of Russia to the Greek 
 church in the tenth century was an event of world-wide 
 importance. 2 . Count Vladimir, after some hesitation, ac- 
 cepted the Greek faith, married a Byzantine princess, 
 and was baptized along with many of his people in 988. 
 The story of the papacy during this epoch is full of 
 shame and glory. Early in the tenth century began the 
 so-called pornocracy, the reign of the harlots, when the 
 see of Rome fell under the blighting influence of corrupt 
 and ambitious women. Much confusion and turmoil 
 went on all through the century till the election of Ger- 
 bert as Sylvester II. in 999 brought some little relief; 
 but still riot and confusion disturbed the church, and at 
 one time as many as three popes at once claimed the 
 throne. Finally the emperor deposed them all, and in 
 1046 Clement II. inaugurates a better day. In 1049 tne 
 monk Hildebrand becomes chief adviser to Leo IX., and 
 from then on till his own elevation as Gregory VII. in 
 1073, and his death in 1085, he brought the papacy to 
 the height of its power and glory. It was a wonderful 
 thing how the institution was brought up from its abyss 
 of shame and made so great a power. 
 
 To trace the history of preaching through these dark 
 ages is the task before us, and as the conditions East and 
 West were so different it will be necessary, as before, to 
 treat separately the Greek and Roman churches. 
 
 2. THE EASTERN CHURCH 
 
 Only a few general remarks are needed to put before 
 us a view of the Greek preaching of the age, for there 
 was no marked change from that of the preceding time 
 none for the better certainly, and it hardly could be for the 
 worse. 
 
 1 Schaff, op. cit., p. 318. 
 
 2 Stanley gives an interesting account of it in his Lectures on 
 the Eastern Church, p. 284 ff (Scribners' pop. ed.)
 
 THE EARLY MEDIEVAL, OR DARK, AGE 157 
 
 In form the sermon is still rather the stately and pre- 
 tentious oration. It treats of great occasions, and easily 
 retains the exaggeration and bombast of previous ages 
 of decline. It commonly has no text, but the usual 
 themes for laudation. There are a few homilies of less 
 pretentious character, but of no special merit. 
 
 In contents there is much sameness. Praises of Mary 
 and the saints on their festivals are the chief material. 
 Little or no doctrine, and only a little good moral ex- 
 hortation occur. There is a dearth of strong thinking, 
 of grappling with great themes. Grasp of fundamental 
 Christian truth is traditional and feeble, and the applica- 
 tion of truth to life is scant and weak. The disciplinary 
 virtues find place, but large and live handling of moral 
 issues is not prominent. The use of Scripture strikes 
 one as more sparing than in former days, and of course 
 the forced and allegorical interpretation is still dominant. 
 
 There is much dependence on the past, as the following 
 quotation from Lentz x will show : " The free address 
 came more and more into decay ; men stuck to what was 
 already at hand and chose especially the homilies of Basil 
 the Great and St. Chrysostom for readings a custom 
 which lasted long. This was due to watchfulness for 
 purity of doctrine which the church was careful to guard. 
 Accordingly, as early as the Trullan Council, in the year 
 692, order was made that the bishops should daily, and 
 especially on Sundays, teach religion to the clergy and 
 laity through collections of sound doctrines of Holy 
 Scripture, and that they should not pass the fast-set 
 bounds and doctrinal prescriptions of the godly fathers. 
 When any controversy arose as to the Scripture they 
 must explain according to the ' lights and teachers ' of 
 the church, and thus they would win more applause than 
 if they gave their own views." 
 
 There was continuous decline in the frequency of 
 preaching. 2 The two chief causes were the ever increas- 
 ing regard for the mass as being the essential thing in 
 worship, and the growing ignorance of the clergy. More 
 and more these deteriorated, and many were utterly in- 
 capable of preaching an original discourse. Such was 
 the fallen condition of preaching among the people who 
 
 1 Christl. Horn., I., S. 132. * Rothe, S. 202.
 
 158 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 in this degenerate age still spoke the language and pro- 
 fessed to revere the examples of Basil and Chrysostom ! 
 
 A few of the best among the preachers from whom ser- 
 mons have come down to us may be mentioned as samples. 
 Of these the first is a certain Gregory (d. c. 817), who 
 was born in the Isaurian Decapolis probably about 731, 
 and served as bishop in that region. There remains 
 under his name a curious and all but worthless address 2 
 known as " a historical sermon on a certain Saracen who 
 had a vision, was converted, and afterwards suffered 
 martyrdom." The address was a great favorite, and was 
 much used as a declamation in the monasteries. A con- 
 densation of it may not be devoid of interest. 
 
 It tells how a Saracen officer on a journey with his 
 retinue came to a temple consecrated to St. George and 
 ordered his servants to drive the twelve camels into the 
 temple and feed them. The horror-stricken monks pro- 
 tested in vain. But on entering the sacred precincts the 
 camels all fell dead. The terrified Saracen had the car- 
 casses speedily dragged away and then remained himself 
 to witness the worship. When the mass was celebrated 
 the man saw with astonishment and loathing that the offi- 
 ciating priest took a fair child and cut him into four 
 parts, putting each part into a plate and pouring the blood 
 into a cup. The assembled Christians all partook of this 
 gruesome feast without apparent horror, but as though 
 accustomed to it. At the conclusion, when the priest and 
 others had eaten the consecrated bread that was left over 
 from the distribution, the celebrant took off his robes 
 and, coming to the Saracen, hospitably offered him some 
 beautiful bread. This, the man learned, was the bread 
 from which the consecrated loaf had been selected, 
 whereupon he broke out into fierce words, calling the 
 priest a murderer, a monster, and the like. The pious 
 man was greatly shocked, but when the Saracen explained 
 why he used the opprobrious names the priest's surprise 
 became astonishment, and he said : " You surely must be 
 some great one, for I and my comrades being only poor 
 ordinary sinners see nothing in these elements but bread 
 and wine, as types of the broken body and shed blood 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ.. Nor have the holy lights and 
 
 8 Migne, Pat. Gr., torn. 100, col. 1201 ss.
 
 THE EARLY MEDIEVAL, OR DARK, AGE 159 
 
 teachers of the church, even such as the saints Basil and 
 Chrysostom and Gregory, seen anything more than this." 
 Whereupon the Saracen was converted on the spot and 
 straightway demanded baptism, but the cautipus priest, 
 after telling him what was involved in the Christian 
 faith, referred him to the archbishop, who dwelt far away 
 at Sinai. The Saracen went to the archbishop, was duly 
 instructed and baptized, and began the life of a monk. 
 One day he asked the archbishop how he might see Jesus. 
 The old prelate could not tell him, and the Saracen be- 
 thought him of the holy priest in the temple of St. George, 
 and repaired thither. From his old acquaintance he 
 learned that the way to see Jesus was to go back to his 
 kindred, publicly renounce Mahomet, and proclaim Jesus 
 as his Lord and Saviour. The Saracen gladly obeyed 
 these instructions, was promptly put to death for his 
 boldness, and thus obtained the martyr's crown and the 
 beatific vision. 
 
 The story is elaborated with considerable prolixity, and 
 while utterly valueless in itself and as a sermon, yet 
 throws a curious light on the taste and customs of the 
 age with regard to some points of interest. It would be 
 pleasing to dwell on these somewhat if space permitted, 
 but the statement that even the " lights and teachers of 
 the church " saw only the bread and wine as types, shows 
 that this man at least had not gone very far in developing 
 the doctrine of the Real Presence. 
 
 There was a Christopher (d. c. 836) who was patriarch 
 of Alexandria in the first third of the ninth century. Lit- 
 tle is related of his life. He joined with two other pre- 
 lates in a letter to the reigning iconoclastic emperor in 
 favor of image worship. He was long a sufferer from 
 paralysis, and the active duties of his office were de- 
 volved upon an assistant. His interest for us lies in the 
 fact that there remains from him a homily x which, in 
 spite of its defects, is really worth preserving, and would 
 be worth translating here entire, excepting its stilted in- 
 troduction and needless, not to say foolish, digressions. 
 But for these faults its literary excellence is considerable, 
 the language being simple, and the interest sustained to 
 the climax, while the moral lesson it conveys is of peren- 
 *Pat. Gr., torn, 100, col. 121553.
 
 160 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 nial importance. Space forbids more than a brief pre- 
 sentation of its course of thought. 
 
 The homily is without text, but has this title : " A Soul- 
 Profiting Exhortation Showing to What This Life Is 
 Like, and unto What End It Comes." It is a sort of para- 
 ble, with applicatory interruptions and other digressions, 
 and runs thus: A man once took up his abode in a fine 
 house, bringing his wife, his only son, his servant, and his 
 other belongings. He was warned that in the house 
 (this life) there dwelt a deadly snake (the demon of 
 avarice), and he was urged at once to hunt out the reptile 
 and kill it, which he was fully resolved to do. But when 
 he came to kill the snake he found that it had left for him 
 a piece of gold of the finest mintage. The man reasoned, 
 " Surely this snake does not wish us any harm, or he 
 would not have left us this piece of gold." So he let the 
 snake alone, and day after day it brought the gold piece. 
 After a while it bit the man's horse, and the animal died. 
 The neighbors urged the man to kill the snake before he 
 should do worse damage. He was about to do so, when 
 the fatal coin again caught his eye and caused him to 
 reason that with the fast accumulating gold he could buy 
 another horse and still have much money left. So it went 
 on as before, until the servant was bitten and died ; then 
 the son; then the wife; the man vowing vengeance, 
 cursing the house, bewailing his lot that he ever came 
 into it, in each case ; but every time the bright, pure gold 
 piece salved the sore, and plausible reasonings let the 
 snake live on. By and by the man becomes a miser and 
 gloats over his wealth, but suddenly one day the snake 
 bites him and he falls very ill. No physician can cure 
 him, but he prays to God and vows he will mend his life 
 and kill that snake if only he be spared. His prayers 
 are heard and he recovers, but when he goes to kill the 
 snake he finds instead of the usual coin a magnificent 
 pearl. Fatal sight! the fool hesitates, declares he will 
 take better care and not let the snake bite him again. 
 Once more, after many" pearls are his, he is bitten ; once 
 more prays and vows; once more is spared; till at last 
 God's patience is exhausted, the third bite of the snake 
 is allowed to have its effect, and the wretch dies pleading 
 in vain, condemned by the wise, justly getting the due
 
 THE EARLY MEDIEVAL, OR DARK, AGE l6l 
 
 meed of his folly and sin. The homily concludes with 
 suitable application of the lesson and with earnest exhor- 
 tation to repentance. It is in refreshing contrast to the 
 stock sermons of the age. 
 
 A certain George (d. 880), who was for a while keeper 
 of archives in the great church at Constantinople, and 
 later was bishop of Nicomedia, and a friend of the patri- 
 arch Photius, has bequeathed to us nine or ten worthless 
 discourses in the bombastic style of the age. Some of the 
 titles are here quoted from Rothe as illustrating the kind 
 of thing which generally prevailed in his time: The 
 Prophecy concerning the Conception of the Mother of 
 God; Encomium on the Conception of St. Anna, the 
 Mother of the Most Holy Mother of God; Oration on 
 the Conception and Nativity of our Most Holy Lady, 
 Mother of God and Perpetual Virgin, Mary. There are 
 several more sermons on Mary and one on the saints 
 Cosmas and Damian. They are full of exaggeration and 
 padding of all sorts, and are destitute of any merit. Yet 
 no doubt they were highly esteemed in their time. 
 
 The learned Photius (d. 886), patriarch of Constanti- 
 nople near the middle of the ninth century and later, is 
 chiefly celebrated for his quarrel with Nicholas of Rome, 1 
 which was one of the steps in the great schism. But he 
 was also an author of repute in several fields, 2 and some 
 of his works are of considerable value. He enjoyed a 
 good reputation as a preacher. Of his sermons there are 
 published in Migne's Greek Patrology 3 two entire ones 
 in Greek and two Latin fragments or abridgements. Oth- 
 ers besides these are mentioned by scholars as existing in 
 manuscript, but they seem never to have been printed 
 probably to nobody's loss ! Of the two complete sermons 
 one is on the birthday of Mary, in which the preacher 
 remarks : " To-day is the Virgin Mother born of a barren 
 mother, and thus the home for the Lord's sojourning is 
 made ready." This was accepted tradition as to the 
 mother of Mary, whose birth also had to be extraordinary. 
 The other sermon is likewise devoted to the Virgin, hav- 
 ing been preached at the dedication of a church built in 
 her honor. They are of the customary sort, loose in con- 
 
 a Schaff, Ch. Hist., IV., p. 312 ff. 
 'Id., p. 636 ff. 'Tom. 102.
 
 1 62 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 tents and treatment, full of digressions and padded with 
 fables and the like. 
 
 All three of the preceding preachers belonged to the 
 ninth century. Rothe declares that in the tenth century 
 no Greek preacher is worth naming, and we may as well 
 accept his judgment and pass on to the eleventh century, 
 which may be dismissed with brief mention of two only. 
 
 Theophanes Cerameus (d. 1052) was archbishop of 
 Taorminia in Sicily, and died about the middle of the 
 eleventh century. From him have come down sixty-two 
 homilies, which are said to be rather above the common 
 run of mediaeval Greek sermons. In fact Rothe * praises 
 them as being simple in style and free from tawdry 
 declamation, interpreting and applying the text with some 
 skill. 
 
 The noted commentator Theophylact (d. c. 1107), who 
 was quite a scholar and a teacher of one of the young 
 emperors, has left us several sermons or addresses, but 
 they follow the fashion of the age and in themselves are 
 said to be unworthy of mention. The sun of Greek pulpit 
 eloquence has long set. 
 
 3. THE WESTERN CHURCH 
 
 In the countries which owed ecclesiastical allegiance to 
 Rome the history of preaching up to the end of the 
 eleventh century went on upon the lines developed in 
 the epoch last studied. Notwithstanding the earnest 
 efforts of Charlemagne and his successors to improve 
 preaching by legal enactments, there was no great im- 
 provement. These efforts themselves reveal a bad state 
 of affairs, for laws on morals are usually in advance of 
 attainment. That the laws continued to be made shows 
 that the evils were not remedied, but still that interest in 
 the reform persevered. No doubt all this gave impulse 
 toward a better state of things, but from the nature of the 
 case the evils could hardly be mended by law. There was 
 needed a new spiritual impulse, a reform from within, 
 and this did not come. Then the decay and division of 
 the empire contributed to the failure of these well-meant 
 reforms, and preaching continued to be much neglected 
 
 1 Gesch. der Pred. S. 204; and this judgment is endorsed or 
 adopted by Christlieb in Herzog, supplement to Bd. 18.
 
 THE EARLY MEDIEVAL, OR DARK, AGE l6j 
 
 and of poor quality. On the other hand, however, we 
 must remember that the neglect was not total, any more 
 than in former times. Parochial, cloistral and missionary 
 preaching still went on, and remaining sermons as well 
 as narratives of events still teach us something of the 
 character of the work done. 
 
 The missionary work of this age was considerable. In 
 the East, as we have already seen, Russia was attached 
 to the Greek church; and before that, in the ninth cen- 
 tury, Cyrill and Methodius, two brothers, had done an 
 excellent work among the Slavs in Moravia. Though 
 Greeks themselves, their converts became connected with 
 the Roman church, but in a somewhat independent way. 
 The missionaries had learned the native language, 
 preached in it, translated some of the Scriptures into it, 
 and secured permission for it instead of Latin to be used 
 in worship. But through political and ecclesiastical rival- 
 ries and divisions this good work did not endure, though 
 some fruit came of it. In the West proper much activity 
 went on among the half-Christian population in the lands 
 that had already been brought nominally into the fold, 
 and, in addition, Norway and Sweden, Denmark, the 
 Baltic provinces, Poland, Bohemia, Hungary, all in some 
 measure received the Romish form of Christianity during 
 this period. It was the " dark ages," but the gospel light 
 though burning low was not quenched. 
 
 Coming to consider more particularly the preaching 
 itself in these dark centuries we shall find it convenient 
 to discuss in order the clergy, the people, the language 
 used, and the character and contents of the sermons dur- 
 ing that age. 
 
 The Roman hierarchy was considerably developed. In 
 1059 the Roman cardinals a designation which origi- 
 nally included " all the clergy attached to one particular 
 church " 1 were created a college of electors to choose 
 the pope, and the term " cardinal " is henceforth re- 
 stricted to these, though after the thirteenth century the 
 Roman cardinals were appointed from other countries as 
 well as from Italy. Archbishops, bishops, priests, dea- 
 cons, constituted the stated orders of clergy, but there 
 were numerous other officers and titles. Monasticism 
 
 1 Kurtz' Church History (Am. ed.), Vol. II., p. 59.
 
 164 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 had powerfully influenced the clergy. Some of the abbots 
 had episcopal rank and authority and were called " mitred 
 abbots." Many monks were ordained deacons and priests 
 and were called " regulars," because they lived by monas- 
 tic rule (regida), while the ordinary parochical clergy 
 were called " seculars," as living out in the world (scecu- 
 lum). Other monks were novices, pupils, lay workers. 
 There was much of rivalry and bad blood between the 
 " regulars," who claimed superiority in character and 
 learning, and the " seculars," many of whom no doubt 
 were shamefully ignorant and loose. 
 
 Of course there were learned and good men among the 
 clergy of all orders, but the average character was discred- 
 itably low. The superior clergy had a good degree of eccle- 
 siastical, social, and even political influence, and many of 
 them fell victims to the vices of avarice and luxury. In 
 fact the whole class was more or less infected with vice ; 
 simony, gluttony, avarice, sensuality, flourished among 
 them. While the monks may have been in most cases 
 better than the " seculars " there is painfully abundant 
 evidence that they, too, were often corrupt and vile. Be- 
 sides moral degradation there was among the clergy 
 much gross and inexcusable ignorance and superstition. 
 
 The nobles, the clergy, the common people, were then 
 as long afterwards the three classes of society. The 
 middle class, strictly speaking, had not yet arisen. The 
 clergy, still as in former times, being recruited from both 
 the other classes, for social as well as official reasons made 
 a sort of connecting link between the upper and lower 
 orders of people. Among all classes there was much 
 superstition, immorality, ignorance, violence; and yet the 
 finer virtues of humanity and the noble ideals of the 
 Christian faith were held in honor, and there was much 
 piety of a sort. As to the arts and comforts of life not 
 much can be said ; there were feasting and luxury in the 
 upper walks of society, but the exactions of the clergy 
 and the rapacity of the nobles left little more than bare 
 living to the common man. Under such conditions there 
 was evident and sore need of preaching, but it had much 
 to do if it would attain and keep a tolerably decent average 
 of excellence, and even this, alas ! it failed to achieve. 
 
 Scholars are somewhat divided in opinion as to whether
 
 THE EARLY MEDIEVAL, OR DARK, AGE 165 
 
 before the twelfth century there was, properly speaking, 
 any preaching in the vernacular languages of continental 
 Europe. 1 It is generally agreed that although there 
 are evidences of Anglo-Saxon preaching long before this 
 time, the rule certainly in cloistral and prevailingly in 
 parochial preaching, was to use the Latin as the churchly 
 and universal tongue ; that no sermons earlier than the 
 twelfth century (except in Anglo-Saxon) are preserved 
 to us in any other language than Latin ; and that the use 
 of Latin in worship and preaching was persistently preva- 
 lent into even later times. 
 
 But in favor of there having been at least some preach- 
 ing in the vernacular the following considerations are 
 urged : ( I ) That the fact of preservation in Latin does 
 not prove that many of the sermons were not delivered 
 in the language of the people, for Latin was the language 
 of literature, and especially theology, and all writings 
 would naturally be in that tongue. (2) Missionary 
 preaching must have been largely if not altogether in the 
 vernacular, either directly or by an interpreter ; and there 
 are positive statements and other indications which estab- 
 lish this view. 2 (3) There are laws and regulations from 
 Charlemagne's time and onward which plainly prescribe 
 that at least some preaching must be given to the people 
 in their own tongue. The clearest case is that of a canon 
 passed by the Synod of Tours in 813 which distinctly 
 says: "And that each [preacher] shall strive to trans- 
 late the same homilies [written in Latin] plainly into 
 
 1 The point, as regards Germany, is ably discussed by Rothe, 
 Cruel, Albert, in the works so often cited, and by scholars to 
 whom they refer. For French preaching the admirable work 
 of M. Lecoy de la Marche, La Chaire Francaise au Moyen Age, 
 considers the question more especially in reference to the thir- 
 teenth century, but the learned author shows that there are 
 indications of vernacular preaching in French before that time. 
 He notes, however, the variant opinions of French scholars, and 
 confesses the difficulty of the question. 
 
 2 For the cases of Eligius of Noyon and of Gall, see pp. 146, 
 150, 151 and Lecoy de la Marche, p. 237, who quotes the following 
 epitaph on Notker, d. 998: 
 
 Vulgari plebem, clerum sermone Latino 
 Erudit, et satiat magni dulcedine verbi. 
 
 Magni is probably misprint for magna. Here we see the con- 
 trast distinctly made between the language used for the people 
 and that for the clergy.
 
 l66 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 the rustic Romance or German tongue, in order that all 
 may the more easily understand the things which are 
 said." x 
 
 On the other hand some seek to break the force of 
 these weighty considerations by urging, ( I ) that the non- 
 existence of dialect sermons cannot be overcome; (2) that 
 the indications from " preaching " to the people in the 
 vernacular are inconclusive because the word often meant 
 only reciting the creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the like; 
 
 (3) that the seeming exceptions only prove the rule; and 
 
 (4) that the laws and canons show the lack of vernacular 
 preaching and vainly sought to institute it. But this looks 
 too much like special pleading in the interest of a theory. 
 The truth probably lies between extreme positions either 
 way ; and there was probably some missionary and popu- 
 lar preaching in the vernacular, though as a rule, always 
 in the cloisters and generally in the churches, the preach- 
 ing was in Latin. 
 
 As to the character and contents of the sermons that 
 have come down to us from that age little needs to be said. 
 The preaching was much as in former times; the best 
 part of it was borrowed from the older preachers, and it 
 was filled with legends, with discussions of the churchly 
 virtues, and the like, to the obscuration of the simple 
 gospel. As a consequence it could not have had much 
 influence on the life of the people. Church services con- 
 sisted largely of the liturgy, especially that connected with 
 the celebration of the mass, and very little of direct appeal 
 to conscience and thought. After the deep darkness of 
 the tenth century there were some tokens of a better time. 
 The rise of scholasticism about the middle of the eleventh 
 century and the preaching of the first Crusade toward its 
 close were both tokens and causes of a coming revival 
 which was to show itself in the twelfth century, and to 
 reach its height in the truly wonderful preaching of the 
 thirteenth. 
 
 As we have seen, the classification of preachers as 
 missionary, parochial and cloistral still holds. The age 
 had no distinguished preachers, though there were not 
 
 1 Et ut easdem homilias quisque aperte transferre studeat in 
 rusticam Romanam linguam aut Theotiscam, quo facilius cuncti 
 possint intelligere quae dicuntur. Quoted by Rothe (S. 184) 
 and others.
 
 THE EARLY MEDIAEVAL, OR DARK, AGE 167 
 
 wanting in all the classes earnest workers, capable 
 prelates, and learned divines. Some of the best and best 
 known will be selected for brief sketches, 
 
 The most distinguished missionary preacher of the age 
 was Ansgar (801-865), who was born of Prankish 
 parents near Amiens and educated at the famous mon- 
 astery of Corbie. After teaching a while at the twin 
 German cloister of the same name (usually written 
 Corvey) he acepted a call to go to Denmark as mission- 
 ary. He established a mission in Schleswig in 827. He 
 was especially kind to the poor and needy, and his zeal 
 as teacher and preacher was marked. But the king, who 
 had patronized the good missionary, became unpopular, 
 and was forced to leave the country. Upon this Ansgar 
 also found it best to retire; but a way was opened for 
 him to enter Sweden, where he spent two years in teach- 
 ing and preaching. In 831 a bishopric was established at 
 Hamburg for all the northern country, and Ansgar was 
 made the first incumbent of the see. The king of Den- 
 mark captured Hamburg, plundered the city and burned 
 the church. It seemed as if Ansgar's work was all 
 ruined ; but he did not forsake the field, and better times 
 came. Bremen and Hamburg were united, and he was 
 made archbishop of the enlarged diocese. From Bremen 
 as a basis he gradually resumed work both in Denmark 
 and Sweden, and at last met with larger success. He 
 worked on, a saintly and faithful man, to the end of his 
 life in 865. It is known that he preached much and 
 effectively to the people, but no sermons of his have come 
 down to us, and particular estimate of his preaching is 
 therefore impossible. 
 
 Among the preaching prelates of the age none stands 
 higher than the renowned teacher and leader Rabanus, 
 surnamed Maurus (c. 776-856). He, too, was of good 
 French family, was born at Mainz and carefully educated 
 at the renowned abbey of Fulda. For a time he was sent 
 to Tours to be taught by the famous Alcuin, but returned 
 to Fulda and became teacher there. He was ordained 
 deacon in 801, priest 814, elected abbot of Fulda 822, re- 
 signed 842, consecrated archbishop of Mainz 847, and re- 
 tained the office till his death in 856. He was eminent 
 as teacher, scholar, author; was a diligent bishop, and
 
 1 68 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 withal an active and popular preacher. He both preached 
 much himself and encouraged others to preach. 
 
 While at Fulda he wrote at the request of Aistulph, 
 archbishop of Mainz, a collection of homilies. They were 
 to be used in private reading and also by the priests who 
 should read or reproduce them in preaching. Some ex- 
 tracts from his introduction follow :* " In obedience to 
 your commands I have composed a book of sermons to 
 be preached to the people on all subjects which I con- 
 sider necessary for them. . . . But since I could not, 
 through the variety of my occupations, publish all these 
 at one time, but as opportunity allowed sent them sepa- 
 rately to you, I now request you to have them collected 
 into one volume. . . . And this I would principally 
 request as my recompense, that whenever you give this 
 work to pious persons either to read or to preach you 
 would desire them to assist my frailty by their prayers to 
 the most righteous Judge, that I may by His grace for 
 a long time run the course of the present life, and may 
 merit to attain happily to future blessedness." The ser- 
 mons are not remarkable either in thought or style. They 
 are greatly wanting in originality, being largely borrowed 
 from the fathers and earlier preachers. In one he in- 
 veighs against the still surviving superstitious custom of 
 raising a great noise during a lunar eclipse, and inserts in 
 the midst of his own remarks a paragraph, without alter- 
 ing a word, from a sermon by Maximus of Turin 2 on 
 the same subject! This collection contains seventy ser- 
 mons, and there is a later one which has a hundred and 
 sixty-three discourses. This is thought 3 to have been 
 more especially designed for private reading. The earlier 
 one is the more important. The discourses deal with the 
 fasts and feasts, but also in a striking way with the sins 
 and errors of the times. 
 
 A fellow-student of Rabanus both at Fulda and Tours 
 was Haymo (c. 778-853), who also taught awhile at 
 Fulda. Later he was abbot at Hirschfeld, and from 841 
 to his death bishop of Halberstadt. There goes under 
 his name a collection of a hundred and fifty-four homilies. 
 Most of them consist of extracts and compilations from 
 
 1 Quoted from Neale's Medi&val Preaching, p. 30. 
 
 2 See ante, p. 123. '. Cruel, op. cit., SS. 57, 58.
 
 THE EARLY MEDIAEVAL, OR DARK, AGE 169 
 
 the older church writers. Albert * considers them rather 
 as pious extracts designed for private reading than as 
 actually delivered homilies. There is no originality. The 
 collection is a compound of quotations, ridiculous allegor- 
 izing of Scripture, exhortations to the churchly virtues, 
 treatises on fasts, saints' days, and so on. They are of 
 no value except as illustrating the taste and habit of the 
 age in preaching. 
 
 A like man, of later date, was Fulbert (d. 1029), born 
 probably at Chartres about the middle of the tenth century. 
 Bishop Odo took him up when a boy and trained him for 
 a churchman. He was put to school at Rheims, where 
 he was taught by the celebrated Gerbert, afterwards Pope 
 Sylvester II. Recalled to Chartres Fulbert taught various 
 subjects grammar, music, dialectic, medicine and had 
 among his pupils the subsequently famous Berengar of 
 Tours. He was a notable teacher and was sometimes 
 called the " Socrates of the Franks." In his writings he 
 defends already the view of the real presence of Christ 
 in the eucharist, which long afterwards received the name 
 of "transubstantiation," and in the method of his theologi- 
 cal treatises there are suggestions of the coming scholastic- 
 ism. Fulbert was never a monk, and was made bishop 
 of Chartres in 1007. Here he had no bed of roses, but 
 was involved in the troubles of his times. He was a dili- 
 gent bishop, and enjoyed a good repute as a preacher; 
 but, in the judgment of critics, the sermons that we have 
 from him do not sustain his reputation. They are, as 
 usual, largely compilations filled with allegorizing and 
 excessive veneration of the Virgin in the style of the 
 Greek preachers. For example, he emphasizes the widely 
 spread view that Christ is to be regarded rather as Judge, 
 and therefore the intercession of his human mother is 
 needed by penitents. 
 
 The name ^Elfric belongs to several Anglo-Saxon 
 churchmen of this period, but especially three are worthy 
 of note: (i) an archbishop of Canterbury (996-1006); 
 (2) an archbishop of York (1023-1051) ; (3) a certain 
 learned Benedictine monk of contemporary date known 
 as the " Grammarian." Whether the last is a third man 
 or is to be identified with one of the archbishops is a 
 
 1 0p. cit., II., S. 116.
 
 170 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 question. 1 Probabilities seem rather to favor his identifi- 
 cation with the archbishop of York. He was a very 
 learned teacher and greatly beloved man. In addition to 
 his own work as preacher he translated many Latin homi- 
 lies into Anglo-Saxon, and thus was not only a leader 
 and founder of English preaching, but was also one of 
 the fathers of English prose. As homilies these dis- 
 courses hardly rise above the level of their age, but, as 
 Schoell remarks, they are " a pure model of the beautiful 
 Saxon mother tongue, and on that account alone are of 
 the highest significance." 
 
 We may fitly close these sketches by the mention of 
 two distinguished monks and prelates of the eleventh cen- 
 tury who have left us cloistral sermons. 
 
 Peter, called Damiani (1007-1072), was born at Ra- 
 venna, the youngest of a large family. His education was 
 provided for by his elder brother, Damian, whose name 
 in grateful recognition of this generosity Peter ever after- 
 wards attached to his own. He early became a monk, and 
 in that very corrupt age was notable for his piety. He 
 boldly denounced the current abuses and in various ways, 
 by precept, regulation and example, sought to reform the 
 morals of the clergy. He was a steadfast friend and ally 
 of Hildebrand in this sorely needed work. He was made 
 a cardinal, then papal legate at Milan, charged to correct 
 disorders in that ever somewhat independent diocese. 
 This post he soon resigned, worn out by conflict and 
 worry. An address which he made to the angry clergy 
 and people when papal legate at Milan is preserved and 
 shows both boldness and eloquence. 2 He lived more 
 quietly after this, writing and working in the monasteries, 
 and died peacefully of a fever at Faenza in 1072, the year 
 before his friend Hildebrand was made pope. 
 
 Of his sermons seventy-two remain. 3 They have the 
 faults with which we are already familiar as characteristic 
 of the time copying, allegory, excessive veneration of 
 Mary but they show some real oratorical talent and 
 much sweetness of spirit and piety, without much origi- 
 
 1 Schoell, in Herzog, I., S. 185. 
 
 2 There is an English translation in The World's Greatest Ora- 
 tors, Vol. III. (G. P. Putnam's Sons) ; also some discourses 
 in Neale's Mediaeval Preaching. 
 
 "Migne, Pat. Lot., discussed by Rothe and others.
 
 THE EARLY MEDIAEVAL, OR DARK, AGE 171 
 
 nality or profundity of thought. Neale 1 rates them very 
 highly, thinking them the best of the age until we come 
 to Bernard ; but Rothe's judgment is not so favorable and 
 is nearer the truth. 
 
 The great theologian Anselm (1033-1109) was born 
 in northern Italy, the son of parents of some rank. The 
 father was a harsh man, with little sympathy for the boy's 
 predilections toward piety and the church, but the devout 
 mother, Ermenburga worthy to be named with Nonna, 
 Anthusa, and Monica brought up her son with studious 
 care ; and though he early lost her, he never lost the im- 
 press of her teachings and character. After her death the 
 lad found his home intolerable and left it, making his 
 way over the mountains to the monastery of Bee in Nor- 
 mandy, where his famous countryman, Lanfranc, the 
 scholar, was abbot. Lanfranc was high in the favor and 
 councils of William of Normandy, and was appointed by 
 the Conqueror archbishop of Canterbury. Anselm's life 
 singularly followed that of his master, for in process of 
 time he, too, became abbot of Bee, and later, under Will- 
 iam Rufus, archbishop of Canterbury. In this office he so 
 stoutly maintained the church's privileges against the 
 arrogance and greed of the king that he was banished, 
 though afterwards recalled. He lived till 1 109. 
 
 It was during his banishment that he wrote his immor- 
 tal treatise on the incarnation and atonement of our Lord, 
 called Cur Dens Homo Why God-Man? His greatest 
 distinction is as a theologian, both on account of this 
 treatise and two others, the Proslogion and Monologion; 
 and he is rightly regarded as the most potent force in 
 beginning the scholastic theology, though Lanfranc and 
 Fulbert of Chartres had previously given it some im- 
 pulse. Anselm was a great thinker, and a pure and sim- 
 ple-hearted man. His resistance to William Rufus, 
 though on the wrong side as we now see it, was not 
 prompted by pride or ambition, but was the fruit of con- 
 viction; for he held the strengthening views as to the 
 papal prerogatives. 
 
 As a preacher Anselm did not rise above his times. It 
 is disappointing to find his sermons so distinctly inferior 
 to his great theological works. Sixteen of his homilies 
 
 l Mediceval Preaching, p. 54.
 
 172 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 have come down to us. They seem to be mostly if not 
 entirely addresses to the monks. They are in the nature 
 of running comment old-fashioned homilies indeed 
 upon the Scripture for the day. They show no special 
 eloquence, nor much originality or profundity of thought. 
 Allegory, of course, prevails as the mode of Scripture in- 
 terpretation, and there is a trace of scholastic method here 
 and there. The opening paragraph of his homily on Our 
 Lord Walking on the Sea gives a specimen of his method : l 
 "And straightway Jesus constrained his disciples to get 
 into a ship, and to go before him to the other side, while 
 he sent the multitude away. In this lection, according to 
 its mystical interpretation, we have a summary descrip- 
 tion of the state of the Church from the coming of the 
 Saviour to the end of the world. For the Lord con- 
 strained his disciples to get into a ship when he com- 
 mitted the church to the government of the apostles and 
 their followers; and thus to go on before him unto the 
 other side, that is, to bear onward towards the haven of 
 the celestial country, before he himself should entirely 
 depart from this world. For with his elect, and on ac- 
 count of his elect, he ever remains here until the con- 
 summation of all things ; and he is preceded to the other 
 side of the sea of this world by those who daily pass 
 hence to the land of the living. And when he shall 
 have sent all that are his to that place, then, leaving the 
 multitude of the reprobate, and no longer warning them 
 to be converted, but giving them over to perdition, he 
 will depart hence that he may be with his elect alone in 
 the kingdom. Whence it is added, while he sent the multi- 
 tude away; for in the end of the world he will send away 
 the multitude of his enemies, that they may then be hur- 
 ried by the devil to everlasting damnation." Thus he 
 proceeds verse by verse, giving special attention to the 
 walking on the sea and the sinking and rescue of Peter. 
 
 Our survey of preaching, both in the Eastern and West- 
 ern churches, during these three dark centuries leaves us 
 with a feeling of depression. It was mostly weak imita- 
 tion or straightout copying from the past ; it had in the 
 West very little and feeble use of the vernacular ; in both 
 sections of the world it dealt largely in fables of the 
 
 1 Quoted from Neale's Medieval Preaching, p. 80.
 
 THE EARLY MEDIEVAL, OR DARK, AGE 173 
 
 saints, in extravagant and utterly unscriptural laudation 
 of Mary as almost the equal of her divine Son; it laid 
 more stress on the monastic and churchly than on the real 
 Christian virtues; it emphasized the merit of penance 
 and other works, and failed to make prominent the aton- 
 ing work of the Saviour. Altogether the preaching of the 
 gospel was at its lowest stage during the dark ages that 
 extended from the death of Gregory the Great in 604 to 
 the beginning of the Crusades in 1095. Yet some of the 
 sermons preserved from that time show us that though 
 weak and neglected, preaching still had some power in 
 the world for good, and was able both to preserve and to 
 perpetuate itself, notwithstanding the most serious ex- 
 ternal hindrances and internal decay. The beginning of 
 the scholastic theology, the sweep of religious feeling 
 aroused through Europe against the infidel desolators of 
 the Holy Land, the yet unexhausted missionary impulse 
 that had been one of the chief redeeming features of the 
 ages of darkness, the reaction from the extreme depres- 
 sion of the tenth century, and the rise of the living lan- 
 guages of Europe as means of literary and religious ex- 
 pression, all are the faint gray streaks of a coming dawn. 
 " The darkest time is just before day."
 
 PERIOD III 
 
 THE CENTRAL MEDIAEVAL, OR 
 SCHOLASTIC, AGE 
 
 1095-1361 
 
 From the times of Peter the Hermit and Pope Urban II. to the close of 
 Tauler's (d. 1361) and the beginning of Wiclif's (ord. 1361) Preaching 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 HERALDS OF THE DAWN IN THE ELEVENTH AND TWELFTH 
 CENTURIES 
 
 The hints given at the close of the last chapter indicate 
 the beginning of a new era in the history of civilization, 
 of Christianity, of preaching. Towards the end of the 
 eleventh century the forces of this new stage of human 
 progress are gathering strength, they gain in power dur- 
 ing the twelfth century, urge the movement to its height 
 in the thirteenth, while in the latter part of that and first 
 half of the fourteenth century the wave recedes to make 
 way for another of different character and results. The 
 period, then, on which we enter in this chapter (1095- 
 1361) may be called the core or center of the Middle 
 Ages ; and while its limits are assigned from the point of 
 view of the history of preaching, they yet include events 
 and movements of vast significance in general history. 
 This coincidence is not accidental ; it only means that the 
 total life of any great epoch must contain and influence 
 each separate manifestation of that life, and that preach- 
 ing has shared with other elements of European civiliza- 
 tion the quickening impulses and gathered results of this 
 momentous age. 
 
 Of the whole period the present chapter takes in only 
 a fraction of the eleventh century and all of the twelfth.
 
 THE CENTRAL MEDIEVAL, OR SCHOLASTIC, AGE 175 
 
 A few observations on the general history of this time will 
 somewhat prepare the way for a study of its preaching 
 and preachers. 
 
 i. GENERAL SURVEY OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY 
 
 The division of Charlemagne's dominions, and the es- 
 tablishment of the territorial power of the pope in Italy, 
 had shattered the ideal of having one great Western Em- 
 pire, and left the struggling germs of three great nations 
 to come slowly toward their separate organic lives. These 
 were Italy, Germany, and France. The only one to reach 
 a real national unity in this period was France. In the 
 eleventh century the forces working toward the separate 
 nationality of these different peoples were more or less 
 active. The languages were different. Italian and 
 French were forming themselves on the basis of the 
 Latin, but the rough German preferred its forest ancestry 
 and repudiated the softening touch of the classic speech. 
 The peoples, too, were at bottom different. Frank upon 
 Gaul was a different cross from Lombard upon Italian, 
 and Teuton was not crossed save with itself. 
 
 In Britain, which was never under the New Empire, 
 but with the departure of the Roman eagles had pursued 
 her own course, there was even a more distinct develop- 
 ment. The Briton had gone down before the conquering 
 Saxon, and now, in the eleventh century (1066), the 
 Saxon must accept the Norman conqueror, and a new 
 turn is given to the language and institutions of England. 
 Such was the national outlook in the end of the eleventh 
 century. 
 
 In this time the political aspect of Italy was simply 
 chaotic. In the eleventh century the Normans had estab- 
 lished themselves in Sicily, and for ages that island and 
 the southern end of the peninsula constituted dukedoms 
 and kingdoms under various dynasties and nations. In 
 the north the Lombard kingdom gave way to city repub- 
 lics, and these to family governments. Besides these the 
 great cities of Genoa and Venice rose through commerce 
 to wealth and independence, and were fierce .rivals in trade. 
 In central Italy fair Florence advanced step by step to 
 power and renown. None of these discordant states could 
 offer to the Italian people a strong centre of attraction.
 
 I? A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 The brilliant attempt of Arnold of Brescia to establish 
 a republic at Rome ended in failure and the death of the 
 premature patriot. 
 
 With abundant differences of detail and of national 
 character the political affairs of the German people present 
 a singular parallel to those of Italy, not only in the special 
 period under our present study, but for a longer time. 
 The revival of the empire under Otto the Great in the 
 tenth century gave some hope of national and imperial 
 unity; but while France was now politically separate 
 from the empire, distracted Italy offered constant tempta- 
 tion to conquest, and the shadowy phantom of universal 
 European empire still beguiled the fancy of the German 
 kings. Thus Italy and Germany mingle their own dis- 
 cords into a larger din of utter confusion, and the patient 
 ear of history waited long before hearing the first full 
 notes of harmony. But when we turn our attention to the 
 other two nations we shall find a very different state of 
 affairs. 
 
 After the division of Charlemagne's dominions France, 
 as a country, nation, and government, pursued its own 
 line of development. The keynote of its political progress 
 for centuries, including the central mediaeval period, was 
 the struggle for royal power. There was a king in name, 
 but he was only the weak, nominal overlord of powerful 
 vassals, several of whom singly were richer and stronger 
 than he, and over whom as a whole his authority amounted 
 to nothing. In the twelfth century Philip Augustus 
 made substantial progress in reducing the power of the 
 great feudal lords and extending his own. After his re- 
 turn from Palestine in 1191 he pressed this policy to the 
 end of his life in 1223, gaining much territory from the 
 English possessions in France and in various ways weak- 
 ening the nobles. With him the monarchy in France 
 became rich. 
 
 Very different from that of her continental neighbors 
 was the political history of England during this great 
 epoch. Like France, she developed a strong national life 
 and government, but her monarchy tended to limitation 
 and not to despotism. The Norman Conquest in 1066 
 made the king and his nobles the governing class in the 
 country. But the Saxon love of liberty was to be reck-
 
 THE CENTRAL MEDIAEVAL, OR SCHOLASTIC, AGE 177 
 
 oned with always, and the hot Norman blood of the 
 barons was not to be too hastily stirred by royal tyran- 
 nies. By these three forces the political development of 
 the English people was mainly guided. The first Norman 
 kings were tyrants in character, but could not always be 
 in fact, and many of the Plantagenets were very able and 
 wise rulers, who knew how far they dared go in the asser- 
 tion of kingly power. 
 
 Among all these peoples, alike in many respects while 
 so unlike in others, there grew during the eleventh cen- 
 tury a firmer grasp on life, less dependence on a decayed 
 past and more assertion of conscious strength, reaction 
 from the depression and darkness of the tenth century, 
 more hopefulness and vigor in all the lines of human 
 effort. In the sphere of thought the work of Lanfranc, 
 of his distinguished follower Anselm, and of others of 
 like mind, was laying fast and solid the foundation of 
 that mighty fabric of theological and philosophical dialec- 
 tics which trained and exercised for three hundred years 
 the best human intellects scholasticism. In religion the 
 reformatory work of Hildebrand, beginning about the 
 middle of the eleventh century and pursued with ardor 
 all his strenuous life, had awakened the active sympathy 
 of men like Peter Damiani and was bringing forth fruit 
 meet for repentance in the lives of priests and people. 
 Along with this there was among the masses of these 
 nations a nascent sense of power; and at the same time 
 in all classes a consciousness of moral and spiritual low- 
 ness and need. 
 
 On this gathered fuel fell the spark of eloquence which 
 kindled a wondrous flame of partly religious, partly su- 
 perstitious, partly political, and wholly adventurous en- 
 thusiasm which, in spite of repeated dampers, flared up 
 at intervals during nearly two hundred years, and only 
 flickered out at last from sheer exhaustion. In 1095 at 
 a great council at Piacenza ambassadors appeared from 
 Alexis Comnenus, emperor of the East, calling attention 
 to the menacing and destructive attitude of the Saracens, 
 and begging for help against these violators of the Holy 
 Land. Pope Urban II. heard with sympathy, and the 
 council favored giving the help. But there was not quite 
 enough enthusiasm about it, and Urban, himself a French-
 
 178 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 man, adjourned the council and called another at Cler- 
 mont, in France, later in the same year. Here his elo- 
 quent appeal stirred the audience to a frenzy of enthusi- 
 asm. The people, too, were aroused by the preaching of 
 Peter the Hermit and others sent out by Urban, and after 
 a while the first Crusade was started. This is not the 
 the place to follow the long and checkered story of these 
 expeditions. It took two centuries of costly failure to 
 teach the West its lesson. 
 
 But during this time Europe was undergoing great 
 changes and getting ready for the beginning of her mod- 
 ern course of development in civilization, which was to 
 come by way of the Renaissance and Reformation several 
 centuries later. The mighty though misdirected efforts 
 of the Crusades had stirred the minds of all classes of the 
 people, from kings and nobles to burghers and peasants. 
 All elements of life were touched with a new breath, and 
 so we shall find that with the Crusades, preaching, too, 
 entered a new phase. 
 
 Yet it is, of course, in the realm of church and religion 
 that we find the largest area of contact between the gen- 
 eral life of the period and preaching. Some knowledge 
 of general religious conditions as then existing is there- 
 fore essential to a good understanding of the preaching 
 of the time ; but as the discussion of the pulpit will bring 
 out many of the details of religious life, it will be neces- 
 sary here only to notice a few of the salient features of 
 the history. 
 
 The death of Gregory VII. in 1085 closed a remarkable 
 career and a most important era. The reforms he had 
 carried within the church, and the claims he had asserted 
 for it, left the papacy jtt the highest point it had yet 
 reached in power and influence. The eloquent champion- 
 ship of the first crusade by Urban II. was another step 
 in realizing and exhibiting the power of the pope in Eu- 
 rope, and also was an addition to papal prestige in that 
 the principal part in the early crusades was borne by the 
 Latin nations, friendly to the papacy, and not by Ger- 
 many, its rival. Other things that helped on the ascen- 
 dency of papal power were : the great extension of canon 
 law, that is, of the jurisdiction of the church in causes 
 of various sorts; the rise and extension of orders of 
 monks more directly amenable to the pope than to the
 
 THE CENTRAL MEDIEVAL, OR SCHOLASTIC, AGE 179 
 
 bishops ; and the great influence of men like Bernard and 
 others who were its devoted adherents. 
 
 The Concordat of Worms in 1122 was a compromise 
 between emperor and pope on the long-standing contro- 
 versy over investiture, that is, whether the prelates in any 
 country should be appointed to office by the pope or the 
 national sovereign. It was against the interest of the civil 
 government that officebearers of so great influence as 
 bishops and higher prelates should hold directly from a 
 foreign power; it was against the interest of the church 
 that its highest functionaries in any land should hold 
 office by appointment of the temporal power. The ques- 
 tion was vital; the only real settlement of it could be in 
 the supremacy of one or the other authority. A com- 
 promise could only prolong the real feud under seeming 
 peace, or veil the actual power of one of the parties by 
 apparent concessions to the other. The Concordat was 
 such a compromise ; it gave to the pope investiture by ring 
 and staff the symbols of spiritual leadership, to the king 
 appointment by the sceptre, the token of royal authority. 
 The incumbent could not be fully in office without both 
 acts, and thus if (as was usually the case) the royal 
 appointment followed the papal, the king held a veto on 
 the pope's appointments. This and other things left the 
 way open for endless disputes. Yet the Concordat did 
 give something of a breathing spell. But soon the strug- 
 gle between pope and emperor broke out again, and this 
 time it was the death struggle. The Guelf party, favor- 
 ing the pope, and the Ghibelline, favoring the emperor, 
 kept Italy and Germany in turmoil for many years. The 
 hard-headed Adrian IV. the only Englishman ever made 
 pope offered a firm and successful resistance to the 
 great emperor Frederick Barbarossa. At the turn of the 
 centuries (1198-1216) the greatest of all the popes Inno- 
 cent III. was in the chair. In him the papal power 
 reached its zenith. 
 
 In the life and character of the clergy, the moral and 
 religious state of the people, and some other matters vi- 
 tally affecting preaching, the conditions were so much 
 the same as those which more distinctly and fully charac- 
 terized the thirteenth century that detailed consideration 
 of these points is deferred to the next chapter. It is quite 
 time for us to come to the preaching of the twelfth cen- 
 tury.
 
 l8o A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 2. PREACHING IN THE TWELFTH CENTURY 
 
 Although the Crusades put the old Eastern Empire and 
 the Greek church more in contact with the West than had 
 been the case for ages, we do not find that this contact 
 (or anything else!) galvanized the corpse of Greek 
 preaching. We may as well here, once for all, dismiss the 
 consideration of it for the time included between the end 
 of the eleventh century and the Reformation. In all this 
 time there was of course preaching; and some sermons 
 and the names of some of the more important preachers 
 have come down to us. But the sermons many of them 
 yet unprinted and accessible only in manuscript in certain 
 libraries have nothing remarkable to offer. They are 
 of the conventional type of decayed Greek preaching. 
 Some of the preachers, as John Caleca, Gregory Palamas, 
 George Scholarius, and others are more or less known to 
 historical and theological scholars, but scarcely beyond 
 those limits. 
 
 In the West, however, a very different state of things 
 meets us. 1 Here there is at the end of the eleventh cen- 
 tury and through the twelfth a distinct improvement in 
 the power and effect of preaching, though as yet not very 
 much in contents. It will be well to pay attention to the 
 signs and causes of this revival. 
 
 As France was the leading country in Western Europe 
 during this age it is natural that we should find there 
 
 1 The works winch have been principally used in the preparation 
 of the following pages are : La Chaire Franfaise au Xllme Siecle, 
 par M. 1'Abbe L. Bourgain ; La Chaire Franfaise au Moyen Age, 
 par M. Lecoy de la Marche; Geschichte der Predigt in Deutsch- 
 land bis Luther (especially Bd. II., Die Bliitezeit der Deutschen 
 Pred. im M.-A.), von F. R. Albert; Der Heilige Bernhard und 
 sein Zeitalter, von A. Neander ; Geschichte der Deutschen Predigt 
 im Mittelalter, von R .Cruel ; Geschichte der Predigt in Deutsch- 
 land von Karl dent Grossen bis sum Anfang dcs i$ten Jahr- 
 hunderts, von A. Linsenmayer (Catholic) ; L'Oratoria Sacra I tali- 
 ana net Media Evo, da Luigi Marenco ; Old English Homilies of 
 the Twelfth Century (Vol. II. of these in Publications of the Early 
 English Text Society}, edited, etc., by R. Morris. These will be 
 referred to simply by the name of the author in each case. Many 
 other works, including, as far as was practicable, the sources, 
 have of course been consulted, and general reading has left its 
 impressions in many cases where minute acknowledgment is 
 impossible.
 
 THE CENTRAL MEDIEVAL, OR SCHOLASTIC, AGE l8l 
 
 more than elsewhere the evidences of a revived interest in 
 preaching. In other lands, too, there is heightened inter- 
 est, and indeed throughout the Western European coun- 
 tries there can be no doubt that the darkest ages of preach- 
 ing are now in the past. 
 
 Speaking summarily, we may say that the leading to- 
 kens of the revival are two : ( I ) There is a greater regard 
 for preaching on the part of the clergy themselves. The 
 shameful neglect of the past centuries begins to be re- 
 dressed, and the mediaeval Christian Israel suffers no 
 longer so great a dearth of " teaching priests." Much re- 
 mains to be done, many faults to be corrected, but there is 
 hope of better things, yea, better things have already 
 begun to be, when the preachers themselves magnify their 
 office. (2) The other token of revival is the converse of 
 this ; it is that the people of all classes begin to show more 
 respect for the real preacher and more interest in his 
 message. It is true that scant respect is due, and scant 
 respect is shown, to the still too numerous preaching offi- 
 cials who deserve not the name of preacher. But where 
 a man like Bernard, or Fulco of Neuilly, or, among the 
 so-called heretics, one like Henry of Lausanne, appears, 
 the admiration and love of the people are abundantly in 
 evidence. The very opposition occasionally roused by the 
 preacher showed how great was the power of his word. 
 The bad priests sometimes endeavored to stop the good 
 ones, even using personal violence; and the loose and 
 wicked among the people once in a while raised perse- 
 cution against the brave men who denounced their sins. 
 Bourgain well says l that the popular and worthy 
 preacher was thus exposed to the double peril of persecu- 
 tion by his enemies and overpraise by his friends. Alas ! 
 it is one of the perennial perils of a fearless and able 
 ministry. But the fact shows that preaching was no 
 longer to be despised. Moreover the greater crowds 
 which now began to attend popular preaching show this 
 quickening of general interest in the work. 
 
 When we attempt to find and state the causes which led 
 to this revival of interest in preaching we are met by the 
 difficulties natural to such inquiries, and yet we may not 
 decline the task. From the point of view of the Chris- 
 
 *Pp. 8, 9.
 
 1 82 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 tian faith the one great cause lies hidden in the unre- 
 vealed designs and movements of Divine Providence, and 
 in the mysterious and gracious workings of that blessed 
 Power of whom the highest authority declares i 1 " The 
 Spirit breathes where he will, and you hear his voice, but 
 know not whence he comes and whither he goes; so is 
 everyone that is born of the Spirit." From the point of 
 view of history and philosophy the deeper cause lies be- 
 yond ken in that mighty law of ebb and flow, action and 
 reaction, which directs, yet with no perceived regularity, 
 the course of human affairs. The rhythmic action of this 
 great law is detected in all those larger and nobler activi- 
 ties of man which for lack of a more accurate designa- 
 tion we may call spiritual : the realms of literature 2 and 
 art, of science and philosophy, of statecraft and commerce, 
 of manners and morals, of religion. Even when we admit 
 the mystery of this great law of up and down, of forward 
 and backward, and attempt only to detect and name what 
 we are pleased to call " proximate causes," we cannot al- 
 ways be sure of our ground. For sometimes we call 
 causes what are in fact effects, accompaniments, symp- 
 toms. 
 
 Yet, bearing in mind these greater and deeper causes, 
 we may go on to present those more evident events and 
 movements which seem to account for the marked revival 
 of interest and power which we observe in the preaching 
 of the twelfth century. In general it may be said that 
 this revival was one element or part of that quickening 
 of life which was felt throughout Europe in this age. 
 And more especially we may distinguish and emphasize 
 the following five things : ( I ) The reforms instituted by 
 Gregory VII. among the clergy must have had weight. 
 To be sure there was much yet to be done ; but a more 
 earnest spirit of devotion, a better life, and a higher re- 
 gard for preaching as a part of their work seem to char- 
 acterize the clergy at the beginning of this time. Always 
 when the preachers themselves have a proper conception 
 of their work, and live more nearly up to the standard 
 which their exalted office requires, preaching will be more 
 
 1 John 3: 8 perhaps the most probable meaning. 
 
 * For an interesting discussion of how this law has worked 
 in German literature see W. Scherer, Gesch. der Deutschen 
 ^iteratur, SS. ip, 20,
 
 THE CENTRAL MEDIEVAL, OR SCHOLASTIC, AGE 183 
 
 earnest and more fruitful. (2) Along with this spiritual 
 quickening among the clergy must be reckoned also the 
 intellectual revival which expressed itself in that form 
 of philosophical thinking in theology to which the name 
 of scholasticism is given. The rise of this mode of thought, 
 especially among the clergy, has already been noticed, and 
 will be more fully discussed later on ; 1 but it must here 
 be reckoned, with all its shortcomings, as one of the most 
 potent causes and accompaniments of the revived preach- 
 ing of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. When the 
 preachers even the few, the leaders think profoundly 
 on religious themes there must be a heightened tone in 
 preaching. (3) Another potent cause, noticed by both 
 Catholic and Protestant writers, 2 was the work of the so- 
 called heretics. Many of these in the twelfth century 
 were thinkers of no mean order, and one of the ways 
 they took to disseminate their views was by preaching 
 among the people. This stirred the Catholics to use simi- 
 lar means to meet what they considered dangerous errors. 
 All through this century and the next, preaching for and 
 against heresy is very common. Scholasticism repre- 
 sented religious thinking in the schools, heresy among the 
 masses. Both stimulated and influenced preaching. 
 (4) We must repeat that the crusades were a powerful 
 factor in stimulating preaching. This they did not only 
 by the general stir they produced, and not only by the 
 partially religious character of the enthusiasm they awak- 
 ened, but more especially and directly by the use they 
 made of popular preaching. The oral address, whether 
 by an Urban before the princes at Clermont, or by a 
 Peter the Hermit, or a Raoul the Ardent among the 
 people, was the means employed to arouse the masses. 
 After these first preachers came Bernard and others to 
 preach the later crusades. It was not exactly preaching 
 in the proper sense of the word but it was the urging 
 of men to immediate self-sacrificing devotion to what was 
 believed to be a religious cause. It appealed to religious 
 motives at least in part and thus it revealed and util- 
 ized the power of religious eloquence over the masses of 
 men. So, while we well might wish that the object had 
 
 1 See below p. 231 ff. 
 
 * Linsenmayer, Bourgain, Broadus, and others.
 
 184 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 been more truly Christian, the motives purer, and the 
 methods more enlightened, it is yet true that the procla- 
 mation of the crusades was a mighty and a permanent 
 step forward in the development of popular preaching. 
 (5) Another notable cause in making the preaching of 
 the age powerful was the increased and more effective use 
 of the language of the people. We have already seen * 
 that in the preceding age the national languages were 
 forming, and were coming into competition with the Latin 
 as means of preaching. Now, just when the proclama- 
 tion of the crusades called for effective popular address, 
 this tendency shows marked advance, so as to make this 
 epoch the transition period to the general use of these 
 languages in the sermons of Europe till in the sixteenth 
 century the triumph of the vernaculars is complete. But 
 this important matter, besides being a cause of revival, re- 
 quires fuller notice as marking one of the most interest- 
 ing features of the age. 
 
 Whatever differences of opinion may divide scholars 
 as to the use of the popular tongues in the preaching be- 
 fore this time, it is generally admitted that in the twelfth 
 century these languages were widely if not generally 
 employed in the sermons addressed to the people. 2 Lecoy 
 de la Marche has shown that in the thirteenth century the 
 French tongue was chiefly used in preaching to the people 
 in France ; and that this usage rests upon a custom grow- 
 ing faster and firmer from preceding times. Other writers 
 have followed the same kinds of investigation for other 
 countries and have reached assured conclusions. The 
 twelfth century therefore witnesses the widespread and 
 firmly fixed, though not yet universal and exclusive, use 
 of the native and living languages of Europe in the pulpit. 
 But granting this, there are several related questions 
 which require to be noticed. 
 
 Have we any sermons now remaining in the twelfth 
 century forms of modern European languages ? In Italian 
 
 1 See above, p. 165 f. 
 
 2 So for France, Bourgain and Lecoy de la Marche ; for Ger- 
 many Cruel, Linsenmayer, and for the twelfth century, Albert; 
 for Italy Marenco and Zanotto (Storia della Predicazione nei 
 Secoli della Letteratura Italiana) ; and for England The Old 
 English Homilies.
 
 THE CENTRAL MEDIEVAL, OR SCHOLASTIC, AGE 185 
 
 there seem to be none. 1 In German there are a great 
 number. 2 In French there seem not to be many published 
 collections, but Lecoy de la Marche and Bourgain have 
 studied and reported a large number in manuscript which 
 they found in libraries and collections. In English the 
 Publications of the Early English Text Society contain 
 volumes edited by Dr. Morris of Old English Homilies, 
 dating from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. These 
 sermons in themselves, as we shall see, are of little value, 
 but to the students of language, literature, and theology 
 they are relics of inestimable importance. 
 
 Another question chiefly of literary and philological 
 interest relates to the state of the languages themselves 
 as compared with their modern descendants. It is only 
 necessary to remark on this point that by the twelfth cen- 
 tury the native tongues had already acquired distinctive 
 character and a considerable degree of firmness. There 
 are various literary remains from this age which are 
 highly prized by students and lovers of literature. It is 
 for us a matter of no little interest to find that in that 
 nascent literature of Europe preaching had a place of its 
 own, and has sent on to modern times specimens of its 
 contribution to the general sum. The preacher, as well 
 as the poet and historian, had his place in guiding and 
 fixing the linguistic development of European literature. 
 
 The remaining question to be considered is, What was 
 the relation between the Latin and the vernacular lan- 
 guages in the uses of the pulpit? It is rather a com- 
 plicated question. We must bear in mind several facts. 
 One is that the Latin was actually used in spoken sermons 
 not only in the twelfth century, but much later, along 
 with the growing use of the national tongues. On this 
 point it is of course impossible to determine and express 
 with any precision the exact proportion of use ; but it is 
 quite evident that as the employment of the other lan- 
 guages increased that of the Latin declined. 
 
 Another fact is that by far the larger proportion of all 
 
 1 Marenco, cap. I., says that there is one Italian sermon which 
 may date from the twelfth century, but as the first one he is 
 sure of belongs to the fourteenth, the point is not settled. 
 
 a Linsenmayer, S. 245 ff. ; Cruel, S. 146 ff. ; Albert, I., sec. I ; 
 all of whom refer to a number of collections made by other 
 German scholars.
 
 1 86 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 the sermons that have come down to us, not only from 
 the twelfth century, but from the entire Middle Ages, are 
 in Latin. Some of the earlier writers on the history of 
 preaching, as well as some later critics, have been led by 
 this fact to suppose that most of the sermons of the middle 
 centuries were actually delivered in Latin. But the ex- 
 cellent work of Lecoy de la Marche and others has shown 
 that the fact can be easily explained. The explanation is 
 that many of the sermons which were delivered in the 
 common tongues were written in Latin. This was some- 
 times done by the preachers themselves, either before de- 
 livery as sketches or notes, or after preaching as abbrevi- 
 ated reproductions. Sometimes the sermons were repro- 
 duced by hearers from notes taken on the spot or from 
 memory. They were written in Latin because that was 
 still the language of writing, of publication, of culture, the 
 common medium of European scholarship. A man would 
 have more hearers when he used the common tongue, but 
 more readers when he used the Latin. The educated dis- 
 regarded the common tongue as unsuited to writing. It 
 is recalled that Dante, even in the thirteenth century, was 
 minded to write his great epic, as he had written his 
 great treatise on government, in Latin, but for some 
 reason did use the Italian. As for the common people, 
 few if any could read either language. 
 
 The next matter of importance for us to consider is 
 the preservation of sermons. And here several items 
 claim attention. First of all we have to make the obvious 
 remark that the most of them have not been preserved 
 at all ! This is true of every age, and was no less so of 
 the twelfth century. Many of the preachers of these 
 sermons are now unknown, some have left a reputation 
 for eloquence, but no specimens; while some have left 
 specimens, but, unhappily, no eloquence. Nor is this be- 
 yond explanation. For even to-day many of our most 
 effective preachers never get their sermons printed, and 
 the printed sermons of many others are not fair speci- 
 mens of their power before an audience. Our criticism 
 of any age, as of our own, must on this account be cau- 
 tious; and it is no wonder that the homiletic remains of 
 the twelfth century hardly convey to us a just idea of the 
 actual and effective preaching of that stirring time.
 
 THE CENTRAL MEDIEVAL, OR SCHOLASTIC, AGE 187 
 
 Another item of interest already briefly noticed in an- 
 other connection is that we have from this age numer- 
 ous collections of anonymous sermons some in Latin, 
 some in German, in French, and in English. One of the 
 peculiarities of mediaeval preaching from the time of 
 Charlemagne onward was the preparation and employ- 
 ment of homiliaries or collections of sermons for the use 
 of the clergy. They might use them as models and 
 guides, or might commit and recite them, or, in extreme 
 cases, might read them. This plagiarism was not consid- 
 ered a fault it found early and authoritative justification 
 in something that the great Augustine had written ! Both 
 Rabanus Maurus and Paul the Deacon in the preceding 
 times had made these collections, and the work went on 
 for ages. 
 
 The striking thing about the sermons found in these 
 collections is their strong family likeness, their lack of 
 individuality, of originality. When we compare the Latin 
 and English sermons with the criticisms of the scholars 
 who are familiar with those found in the German and 
 French collections we see that these homilies have much 
 the same character in all. The reason lies chiefly in the 
 fact that they are mostly compilations and reproductions 
 of older authors. Among these the prime favorites x 
 seem to have been Augustine (or what was reported to be 
 his work), Caesarius of Aries, Gregory the Great, and 
 Bede the last-named, as we have seen, 2 being largely a 
 compiler himself. 
 
 These collections, then, give us a saddening view of 
 the dependence and tameness of the twelfth century 
 preaching, but we must qualify this judgment by remem- 
 bering what has just been said about the many unwritten 
 sermons that stirred the age, and also by taking note of 
 what is now to be said about those whose authors are 
 known to us. 
 
 For we have also from the twelfth century a large 
 number of authentic sermons. Many of these have the 
 faults of the anonymous ones, but they show, as is natu- 
 ral, more individuality, more original force, more fresh- 
 ness. These sermons exist, for reasons given above, 
 mostly in Latin; but there are some in French, and one 
 
 1 Linsenmayer, SS. 193, 194. " See above, p. 147.
 
 1 88 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 of the German collections is ascribed to a certain Conrad 
 the Priest, of whom Albert 1 says, " To the priest Conrad 
 belongs the honor of having left the most important col- 
 lection of sermons [in German] before Berthold of Re- 
 gensburg." We shall see more of these later on. 
 
 The form and contents of twelfth century sermons 
 offer a curious and not unprofitable subject of study, 
 which has received suitable attention at the hands of the 
 scholars whose excellent leadership we have been follow- 
 ing. These sermons did not reach the excellence of an- 
 cient times nor that of the following centuries, but they 
 begin to show improvement upon the immediate past. The 
 old form of the simple expository and hortatory homily 
 was retained. There was not so much attention to ar- 
 rangement and division as we shall find in the sermons 
 of the thirteenth century, but already this tendency to a 
 more logical structure and penetrating analysis begins to 
 show itself. This appears in the sermons of Bernard, 
 who sometimes announces his plan of treatment in ad- 
 vance of discussion. He is considered by some to have 
 introduced, or at least to have improved and popularized, 
 the analytic method, and thus to have set the fashion for 
 all following times. Others, as Broadus, 2 assign a pre- 
 eminence in this direction to Antony of Padua in the 
 thirteenth century. Both these great popular preachers 
 only used, developed and set going a tendency which 
 was native to the time, which we shall hereafter more 
 fully notice, as it came to its height in the next century 
 that is, the scholastic method. And it naturally finds a 
 more complete application in the hands of Antony than 
 of Bernard, who was influenced by its beginnings and not 
 its full growth. 
 
 Along with this growing fondness in the contemporary 
 mental attitude for logical analysis we must notice the 
 fact that the teaching of homiletics was not neglected in 
 this age. Not only was there probably oral teaching on 
 the subject in the schools for clerical education, 3 but there 
 were numerous homiletical helps provided. These, as 
 we have seen, were partly in the way of sermons or homi- 
 lies already prepared, and thus were injurious rather than 
 
 1 Bd. I, S. 9. * Hist. Prea., p. 103. 
 
 "Mentioned by both Cruel and Linsenmayer.
 
 THE CENTRAL MEDIEVAL, OR SCHOLASTIC, AGE 189 
 
 helpful. But along with this there were numerous treat- 
 ises which taught the art of preaching. 1 It is true that 
 these treatises themselves show little originality or power, 
 but the use of them was at least favorable to a better 
 rhetorical practice. And this practice so far shows itself 
 in many of the sermons that Bourgain 2 is led to a too 
 enthusiastic estimate of the rhetorical facility of the 
 preachers of the time, saying that many of them " seem to 
 have known Fenelon 3 in advance." 
 
 As to other matters of rhetoric, style did not so much 
 differ with individuals as is common. This is accounted 
 for by the use of homilies, imitation, copying and the like. 
 The style of these homilies is usually tame, but unpreten- 
 tious and clear. With vigorous men like Raoul the 
 Ardent and Bernard there is of course less of the com- 
 monplace and a more pronounced individuality in the style. 
 In some of the sermons there is a turgidity and laboring 
 after effect which reminds us of the later Greek preach- 
 ers. In others plays upon words, and rhymed prose, or 
 assonance, are much sought after. The use of illustration, 
 especially legend and anecdote, was frequent, but not 
 always very clever. Albert * calls this whole time the 
 " narrative period " in preaching, from the liberal use 
 of narrative as compared with argument, exposition, and 
 doctrine. Yet he says that it is impossible to declare any 
 one method to have been dominant. As the material was 
 gathered from many sources so were the forms of dis- 
 course. 
 
 The use of Scripture in the sermons is much as we 
 found it in the preceding ages. How could there be im- 
 provement upon the past with such wholesale borrowing 
 from the past ? The pericope, or reading for the day, often 
 furnishes the basis for the sermon. Sometimes another 
 text is taken and the pericope is handled in the discourse ; 
 sometimes no text is taken; and sometimes sayings of 
 the Fathers, or even passages from the liturgy, are used 
 as texts. In the sermons there lis much quotation of Scrip- 
 ture, but it is often inexact, and oftener still misinterpreted 
 
 1 For full and critical discussions of these see Cruel, S. 244 ff., 
 and Linsenmayer, S. 85 ff. 2 Op. cit., chap. II. 
 
 8 1. e., his famous Dialogues on Eloquence, rjth century. 
 4 Bd. II., sec. I, 2.
 
 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 and misapplied. The interpretation is of course still alle- 
 gorical, if possible even more absurd than in former 
 times. Centuries must pass before the pulpit could be 
 delivered and even yet is not wholly delivered ! from 
 bondage to this ancient and intrenched abuse of Scripture. 
 This was to be expected in the traditional homilies, but 
 even original and powerful men like Bernard are not free 
 from it. Ambrose and Augustine had got it from the 
 Greek Alexandrian school, and the Roman clergy for 
 centuries followed and carried to extremes the methods 
 of these and other revered teachers of the ancient church. 
 For example, Samson, who rose in the night and carried 
 off the gates of Gaza, was a type of our Lord, who rose 
 from the grave and triumphed over death. Gideon's fleece 
 was a prefiguration of the Virgin Mary. Thus : The fleece 
 was wet, and all the earth was dry ; before our Lord's birth 
 and during his infancy Mary alone had the treasure and 
 all the earth had him not : then the fleece was dry and all 
 the earth was wet; in his manhood and death Mary was 
 bereft, but all the earth had the Saviour. 1 One of the 
 preachers went so far as to say that " he who does not 
 understand the Holy Scripture and the deep sense of it 
 otherwise than according to the words which are there 
 written, to him it tastes no better than if he chews and 
 eats unthreshed and unground corn." 2 
 
 On the whole, with regard to the use of Scripture, the 
 Catholic critics, 3 while admitting faults of interpretation, 
 are far more lenient toward the mediaeval use, or rather 
 misuse; of Scripture than are the Protestant writers. For 
 the latter point of view Albert 4 very well sums up the 
 case as follows : Theoretically the Bible was recognized 
 as the source and foundation of preaching. But the fol- 
 lowing great errors show that in reality it had less influ- 
 ence than in appearance : ( I ) The use of extra-biblical 
 material as Biblical, that is, the Fathers of the church and 
 legends; (2) Gross and wilful errors of interpretation 
 and application; (3) Extreme use of allegory, even to 
 the point of teaching things contrary to Scripture; (4) 
 Frequent lack of any text at all. 
 
 In general the doctrinal and moral teachings of the 
 
 1 Albert, sec. 3. *Id., sec. 4. 
 
 * As Linsenmayer and Bourgain. * Op. cit., sec. 4.
 
 THE CENTRAL MEDIEVAL, OR SCHOLASTIC, AGE 19 1 
 
 twelfth century preachers were, from the Catholic stand- 
 point, Christian and sound ; and with much of the teach- 
 ing Protestants find themselves gladly in accord. But, 
 on the other hand, there is, of course, much, both in prin- 
 ciple and detail, which from a true Biblical standpoint 
 must be regarded as erroneous and hurtful. 
 
 We have just seen that ostensibly the Bible was ac- 
 cepted as the source of teaching, but that in many ways it 
 was departed from or misapplied. Also the great central 
 Christian doctrines were proclaimed and urged, but in 
 many points they were misunderstood, obscured, per- 
 verted. Thus the doctrine of the Trinity was accepted, 
 but often there was little if any distinction made between 
 the Persons of the Godhead. 1 Christ is presented as truly 
 divine, and as the only and all-sufficient Saviour; but 
 often his glory is obscured by dwelling on that of Mary 
 and the saints, and his atoning work is overshadowed by 
 wrong teaching as to the merit of works and the interces- 
 sion of human and glorified mediators. The sinfulness of 
 man and his need of repentance and faith in order to be 
 saved were insisted upon, but repentance too easily be- 
 came outward penances, and faith a mere acceptance 
 of the church creed. The future life was taught in both 
 its phases of punishment and bliss, but this was mingled 
 with unscriptural teachings as to purgatory, and with 
 other more or less harmful errors. One of the curious 
 teachings, which came indeed probably from a hint of 
 Augustine's, but was much insisted on and used in this 
 time, was that God's purpose in the creation and then in 
 the redemption of man was to fill up the gap which had 
 been made in the heavenly hosts by the fall of the angels. 
 Much attention is paid to the angels, and also to the 
 reality of Satan and his aids. Perhaps the greatest error, 
 which the Catholic writers praise as a glorious truth, em- 
 phasized by these sermons, is the adoration of the Virgin. 
 The extravagances of the preceding period 2 had become 
 the settled doctrines of the twelfth century. In one of 
 these homilies Mary is represented as the fishing line and 
 Christ as the hook and the bait. The hook represents the 
 divinity whereby he strangles the devil, the bait represents 
 the humanity whereby he attracts and saves us! Such 
 stuff as this is, alas ! only too common. 
 
 1 Albert, ib., sec. 5. * See above.
 
 IQ2 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 Excepting the errors as to penance and merits and re- 
 lated details, the moral teaching of the sermons is usually 
 satisfactory Biblical, Christian, strong. Sins and vir- 
 tues are strongly depicted and vividly portrayed in their 
 contrasted natures, effects and recompenses. Vice is not 
 glozed over nor weakly denounced, wherever found in 
 nobility, clergy, or people. And so, making all necessary 
 allowances and subtractions for errors, perversions and 
 faults of every kind, the sum of our findings as to the doc- 
 trinal contents of these sermons would be that, upon the 
 whole, the great essentials of Christian faith and life are 
 presented in them; and that he who would intelligently 
 and sincerely take their teachings to heart would find the 
 Lord Christ as his Saviour, and heaven as his eternal 
 home. 
 
 As to the times and subjects of preaching, the latter 
 were often determined by the former, so that sermons 
 on the regular days of the church year Sundays and 
 feast days were called sermones de temporibus; and 
 those in commemoration of the saints were called ser- 
 mones de sanctis. Besides these there were special occa- 
 sions, such as dedications, meetings, funerals, and the like. 
 Within these general limits, of course, the particular sub- 
 jects of the sermons would be determined by the nature 
 of the occasion, the lesson for the day, the choice of the 
 preacher, and so on. The hour by preference was early 
 in the forenoon apparently sometimes preceding, some- 
 times following the celebration of the mass. But other 
 hours were also sometimes used, according to circum- 
 stances. The place of preaching was of course generally 
 the church or the cloister chapelj but the popular preach- 
 ers often addressed the crowds in the open air in town 
 and country. The audiences varied both in character and 
 size with circumstances whether in church or monastery 
 whether a special or ordinary occasion whether a 
 popular or dull preacher as always! Audiences were 
 not always very orderly. Preachers complain of inatten- 
 tion, going out, sleepiness and the like, in well understood 
 fashion. Bourgain tells of one preacher who seems to 
 have had a drowsy audience, and he quietly remarks, 
 " That sleeping man over there in the corner is going to 
 miss the great secret I have to tell, if he doesn't wake up."
 
 THE CENTRAL MEDIEVAL, OR SCHOLASTIC, AGE 193 
 
 It had the desired effect. Men and women usually sat 
 apart. There seems to have been difference of custom in 
 regard to posture. Some of the references in the sermons 
 plainly indicate that the people were standing up, others 
 (as in the case of sleepiness and other indications) quite 
 as plainly show that the people were sitting or reclining. 
 So that there was no uniformity in this matter, it probably 
 varied with time, place and circumstances. The audiences 
 were more free and easy than now, more like a popular 
 assembly. They often expressed approval or disapproval. 
 Even so mighty a man as Bernard alludes in one of his 
 sermons perhaps more to this, saying in effect, " I 
 see by the way you shake your heads and whisper that 
 what I am saying does not please you ; but it is true," and 
 so on. The preacher was often confidential and conver- 
 sational with his audience, introducing dialogue, homely 
 illustration, humor, and sometimes even undignified, not 
 to say irreverent drollery. The fresh popular preaching 
 of the twelfth century had not yet got on stilts. Of course 
 there were differences between individuals in this as in 
 other regards. The mode of delivery of sermons was 
 usually that of free speech after more or less of prepara- 
 tion; sometimes the homilies were learned by heart and 
 recited ; and there are some indications that sermons were 
 occasionally read from manuscript possibly not always 
 the preacher's own ! 1 
 
 Before concluding our survey of the preaching of the 
 twelfth century it may be well to give a specimen in illus- 
 tration of some of the points hitherto presented. It is 
 taken from Morris' Old English Homilies of the Twelfth 
 Century 2 as translated by him from the Saxon, the sub- 
 ject being the Nativity of Our Lord, and runs thus: 
 " Natus est nobis hodie Salvator qui est Christus in 
 civitate David. 3 Good tidings and pleasant to hear the lord 
 St. Luke tells us in the holy gospel, and saith that an holy 
 messenger brought them from heaven to the land of 
 Jerusalem, and told them to the shepherds who were 
 
 de la Marche, Pars II., chap. V. "P. 30. 
 
 1 It was usual in the yarnacular sermons to retain the Latin 
 in announcing the text, in quoting Scripture and other sayings, 
 though nearly always the Latin was either translated or para- 
 phrased.
 
 1 94 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 watching over their cattle beside the city of Bethlehem. 
 Listen now and attend how he told the tidings word by 
 word. . . ." The author goes on to explain how great 
 the joy was, and proceeds : " These words the angel 
 said because that man should fill up the angels' seat 
 (which had been forfeited when Lucifer and his company 
 fell out thereof), and not on account of angels' sickness, 
 who have eternal health ; but for man's sickness, who are 
 all sick, and have all been so since affliction came upon 
 our first father Adam, as our Lord saith in the holy 
 gospel : Homo quid-am descendebat ab Jerusalem in 
 Jericho et incidit in latrones, etc. Our Lord Jesus Christ 
 saith that a man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho 
 and came upon thieves, and they spoiled him of all his 
 rich garments and wounded him very sorely, and left him 
 scarcely alive. This is said of Adam, Qui descendit a 
 beatitudine caeli in defectus hujus mundi. 1 It was Adam 
 that went out from the perfect bliss of paradise into the 
 wretched state of this world, and led after him then nigh 
 all his offspring." The preacher proceeds to explain that 
 the thieves were the devils who robbed man of the three 
 garments of grace, immortality and innocence, and in- 
 flicted on him wounds, that is manifold sins. So God 
 punished him for these sins, and sent many sorrows 
 upon all. Then he goes on : " And in such sickness they 
 longed eagerly for our Saviour ; and he came, thanked be 
 he, to heal them of their sin wounds and to clothe them in 
 those honorable garments which the devil had taken from 
 our forefather Adam." He sent messengers to announce 
 his coming patriarchs, prophets, angels, and now this 
 angel. Not to the great of earth, but to these shepherds. 
 " Therefore I will tell you (take heed thereto and under- 
 stand it) what the herdsmen, and what the nightwatches, 
 and what the cattle betoken ; and first of all what the wild 
 beast denotes." Quotes Peter's saying about our adver- 
 sary the devil, comments on it, and proceeds. " The 
 flocks which this beast worrieth are sheep, and oxen, and 
 goats, and swine." Shows how men fall into each of these 
 classes, and goes on. " Some men lead a pure life and 
 neither do nor say anything unpleasant to their fellowmen, 
 but love God and go each day to church as sheep to the 
 1 Probably the words of the Latin homily or of a church writer^
 
 THE CENTRAL MEDIEVAL, OR SCHOLASTIC, AGE 19$ 
 
 fold, and do gladly their duty to the church and give alms 
 to poor men, and are called sheepish men." The oxen 
 likewise signify the good " who will do nothing wrong, 
 but labor with the earth and till much for other men's 
 behoof, and these are called oxish [or neatish] men. Of 
 these sheepish and oxish men speaketh the prophet thus, 
 Subjecisti sub pedibus ejus oves et boves, that is to say 
 the sheepish and the neatish men are in bondage to 
 Christ." x The goatish men, our preacher at some length 
 explains, are the lascivious who live in their evil ways, 
 reek of their sins, and will be punished in hell. The 
 swinish men are those who " pass their lives in eating and 
 drinking as swine, which foul themselves and root up and 
 sniff ever foully and much enjoy foul things, and when 
 they are full they go to the foul mire and therein wallow 
 
 , and therefore they are called swinish men. And 
 
 in them the devil dwelleth by the leave of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, as the holy gospel saith." Quotes the passage in 
 Latin and goes on, " Our Lord drove many devils to- 
 gether out of a man who was out of his wits, and thus 
 healed him, and the devils entreated our Lord Jesus Christ 
 to send them into a flock of swine, and he did so; and 
 the swine ran, as the devils drove them, into the sea and 
 drowned themselves. So giveth our Lord leave to the 
 devil to be in the swinish men of whom I have before 
 spoken, and to dwell in them and to drown them and to 
 bring them out of their wits and to drive them from one 
 wrong to another, from a little vice to a great one, from 
 sin to sin, from evil to evil, and lastly he drowneth 
 them in shameful death and leadeth them with him to 
 hell." 
 
 The shepherds, of course, represent " the teachers of 
 holy church which pasture their flocks on sweet pastures 
 which are the good words of Holy Book." The preacher 
 describes and condemns the bad shepherds, and then 
 speaks of the good. These keep watch during the night, 
 that is this life. " And this life in which we live is com- 
 pared to night because it is so dark through our horrible 
 sins. In this night there are four night-watches: before 
 evening, which belongeth to children; midnight, which 
 belongeth to youth ; cockcrow, which belongeth to grown 
 1 Literally, "are in thrallship to Christ,"
 
 196 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 men ; morning-time to old men. These herdsmen that are 
 teachers, as bishops and priests, watch before evening; 
 then are the children well brought up. At midnight he 
 watcheth, when he taketh away the vices of youth and 
 teacheth them the good. At cockcrow he watcheth, when 
 he turneth the full-grown men to God's service. In the 
 morning he watcheth, when he turneth old men to the bliss 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ." Then with an application to 
 his hearers, and a reference to baptism and the Lord's 
 Supper the homily concludes. 
 
 3. PREACHERS OF THE TWELFTH CENTURY 
 
 The number of preachers in the twelfth century seems 
 to have been relatively greater than ever before. Besides 
 all the orders of clergy there were many unauthorized 
 preachers especially among the so-called heretics. All 
 these men of course differed widely among themselves in 
 character, all the way from the earnest and sincere down 
 to the false and vicious ; in talents and culture, from the 
 few of exceptional ability down to the mediocre and the 
 strangely ignorant ; in modes of thought and life, from the 
 great prelate busy with worldly affairs to the ascetic 
 hermit who had fled the world ; from the absorbed scholar 
 to the rough and ready popular preacher. Classification 
 of so varied a body of men is difficult, no matter what 
 basis we take. The grouping adopted for the last period 
 will still be found serviceable parochial, cloistral, and 
 missionary or popular. In the thirteenth century we shall 
 find it possible to classify the preachers with some degree 
 of accuracy according to their mode of thinking and 
 working, into scholastic, popular, and mystic ; and tokens 
 of this distinction are already at hand in the twelfth 
 century. Thus, for example, Peter Lombard is scholastic, 
 Fulco of Neuilly is popular, and Hugo of St. Victor is 
 mystic; while Bernard of Clairvaux combined in himself 
 the mystic and popular elements, with traces of the schol- 
 astic. If we group the preachers simply by nationality 
 our difficulties are not removed; for in many cases it is 
 hard to say to what nation a man properly belongs. Often 
 he was born in one country, was educated in another, 
 worked and died in a third. As for languages all the 
 educated knew and used Latin, and several of them spoke
 
 THE CENTRAL MEDIEVAL, OR SCHOLASTIC, AGE 197 
 
 more than one of the dialects. Yet, without being very 
 exact, we may consider them according to countries ; and 
 since we find that of the four leading countries of Europe 
 France was very far in advance in the number and quality 
 of her preachers, we shall briefly discuss the others first, 
 reserving the French preachers for more extended notice. 
 
 In Italy, as in the other European countries, the num- 
 ber of preachers in this period was large, and many 
 sermons have come down to us in the Latin language. 1 
 There was also no doubt preaching in Italian, as both 
 Marenco and Zanotto, independently of each other, show. 2 
 The latter scholar 3 describes the period as one " in which 
 the new art [i.e., new mode of preaching] grew up, 
 rough and without monuments of high value, developing 
 itself under the dominion of the scholastic method and the 
 Latin language." There are few Italian preachers of this 
 age whom it would be profitable to study; but there are 
 three who for different reasons stand apart from the 
 commonplace crowd, and though few, if any, homiletical 
 remains are preserved from them, they yet influenced the 
 course of thought and of preaching in such ways as to 
 claim some notice here. 
 
 Near the end of the eleventh century, in a little town 
 of Lombardy, was born, of what parentage is unknown, 
 a boy who was named Peter, 4 and later called from his 
 native region, the " Lombard." His talents gained the 
 notice of a benefactor who provided for his education at 
 Bologna. Thence he went to France, with a letter of 
 recommendation to the great Bernard, who aided him in 
 attending school first at Rheims, and then at Paris in the 
 famous abbey of St. Victor. His progress was great, 
 and he was made bishop of Paris in 1159, but resigned 
 the next year. He was the greatest teacher and repre- 
 sentative of the Scholastic philosophy in his time. His 
 famous treatise, " Sentences," exercised a profound in- 
 fluence on his own and subsequent times. Bourgain 
 briefly criticises him as " celebrated theologian, mediocre 
 
 1 See Marenco, op. cit., cap. I. ; and F. Zanotto, Storia della 
 Predicazione nei Secoli della Letteratura Italiana, cap. I. 
 
 2 Ibb. s P. 7. 
 
 * Works in Migne, Pat. Lot., it. 191, 192; and notices of his 
 life in various authorities, especially Wetzer und Welte, Kirchen- 
 lexicon, Bd. 9, S. 1916 ff.
 
 198 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 preacher." But his influence on thought and on preach- 
 ing entitles him at least to this short notice. 
 
 Also from northern Italy and contemporary with Peter, 
 was Arnold of Brescia (d. H55). 1 He, too, as a young 
 man, was attracted to Paris by the fame of its teachers; 
 and there he became an admirer and friend of Abelard, 
 who influenced him profoundly. Returning to Brescia, 
 and being now a priest and preacher, he attacked the cor- 
 ruptions of the church, and maintained that it should 
 free itself from political and other worldly entanglements. 
 Banished from home he spent some years in France, 
 Switzerland and Bohemia. Later he was allowed to be at 
 Rome, but attracting followers, and encouraging a revolt 
 with the idea of establishing a republic, he was taken and 
 executed in 1155. No sermons remain, but his powerful 
 eloquence is admitted by foes and admired by friends; 
 and its monument is in its effects and in the fact that even 
 to this day in Italy his name is dear to lovers of liberty. 
 Apart from his political influence his preaching against 
 Romish evils was moving and powerful. 
 
 A very notable man in his day, and still more in his 
 subsequent influence, was Joachim (Gioacchino) (d. 
 1202), abbot of Floris in Calabria. 2 He was born in 
 Sicily not earlier than 1130. After a pilgrimage to the 
 Holy Land he became head of a monastery of the Cister- 
 cian order in Italy, and later was permitted to establish 
 a new abbey at Floris (Fiore), regulated by very strict 
 principles and earnestly devoted to flight from the world 
 and to study. He enjoyed the favor of the emperor Henry 
 VI., and of the empress Constance, and was during his 
 life to all appearance on good terms with the popes, 
 though later some of his writings were condemned. He 
 was a man of great personal influence and probably of 
 eloquence. He does not seem to have preached or taught 
 
 1 The church histories and encyclopedias usually give good 
 accounts of Arnold. The German historian, Giesebrecht, has in 
 modern times given him great fame, and there is a long account 
 of his controversy with Bernard in Neander's Heilige Bernhard, 
 S. 222 ff. 
 
 2 Besides the church histories, etc., Sabatier's Life of St. Francis 
 of Assisi, p. 46 ff (Am. ed.) ; and a critical article by E. Schott 
 in Brieger und Bess, Zeitsphrift fur Kirchcngcschichte, Jahrgang 
 1901, S. 343 ff.
 
 THE CENTRAL MEDIEVAL, OR SCHOLASTIC, AGE IQQ 
 
 much outside of his cloister, but through his monks and 
 his writings he came to have decisive influence upon the 
 course of thought and of preaching. His significance 
 (dimly foreshadowing Savonarola three centuries later) 
 was that of prophet and reformer. Schott 1 thinks that 
 his prophetic scheme was tampered with by his pupils, 
 and we cannot be sure that all which purports to be his is 
 authentic. " The Everlasting Gospel " is the phrase 
 chosen to designate his scheme, which divides history 
 into three great eras corresponding to the Persons of the 
 Trinity and to the three greatest apostles: That of the 
 Father, represented by Peter, the introduction of Chris- 
 tianity; that of the Son, represented by Paul, the early 
 history of Christianity ; and that of the Spirit, represented 
 by John, the contemporary age, toward the end of the 
 world. While he believed in the Catholic Church he at- 
 tacked sharply its corruptions. He mightily stirred the 
 better spirits of his age and place, and the effects of his 
 work were among the influences which shaped the pur- 
 poses and character of the young Francis of Assisi. 2 
 
 Germany, too, was not without its representatives. 
 We have seen that the collections of homilies among the 
 Germans, whether in Latin or the vernacular, are almost 
 entirely anonymous. Yet in some cases the name of the 
 author, or compiler rather, is given ; and of these three 
 two in Latin and one in German deserve notice. 
 
 One of these goes under the name of Honorius 
 Scholasticus (d. c. 1150), sometimes also called Augusto- 
 dunensis. It is not perfectly clear that Honorius was a 
 German, as he lived long in France, but the probabilities 
 are that he was. 3 His life is wrapped in obscurity. But 
 he seems to have been born in Germany near the begin- 
 ning of the twelfth century and to have lived and taught 
 long in an abbey at Autun (Augustodunum) in France, 
 whence he returned to another cloister in his native land, 
 and died near the middle of the century. He was a very 
 prolific writer on a number of theological subjects, 4 and 
 his writings were highly prized especially in south Ger- 
 many. 5 It is, however, as a preacher and compiler of 
 sermons that he concerns us. 
 
 1 Op. cit. 2 Sabatier, ad loc. 
 
 * Linsenmayer, S. 194, and note ; Cruel, S. 129 ff. 
 
 4 Migne, Pat. Lot., torn. 172. 6 Linsenmayer, ad. loc.
 
 200 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 His collection * is called Speculum Ecclesicc, " Mirror 
 of the Church ; " and the story of its origin and purposes 
 is given in the preface. According to this the brethren 
 of his order addressed to him an urgent request to pub- 
 lish for the benefit of a larger circle the discourses which 
 he had, so greatly to their profit, delivered in the convent. 
 Honorius replies that (l the most skillful painters, Am- 
 brose, Augustine, Jerome, Gregory, and very many others, 
 had beautifully decorated the house with a wonderful, 
 heavenly and varied painting ; " but as they were perhaps 
 in some measure beyond comprehension, or extracts from 
 them had become through frequent use somewhat trite, 
 he would respond to the request of his brethren and put 
 forth this little " tablet " which he had painted, unworthy 
 indeed to be compared with the great works of the 
 masters, but nevertheless new and likely to be of some help 
 to those who should use it. He calls it the " Mirror of 
 the Church," which " all priests may hang up before the 
 eyes of the church, that the Bride of Christ by it may see 
 what in her still is displeasing to her Bridegroom, and 
 may conform her ways and acts to his image." Then 
 he gives a set of instructions for conducting worship, and 
 says, " Having then by the grace of the Holy Spirit re- 
 ceived inwardly the word of God in his name thus 
 humbly begin : " Then follows the first sermon, on the 
 Nativity of our Lord. Near the end, having made a good 
 stopping place, he gives this hint to the preacher : " Here 
 make an end if you wish; but if time permits add the 
 following " and gives some more. Instructions like this 
 abound throughout the sermons. In one he says that 
 if it is very cold, or very hot, " or any other impediment 
 hinders," the preacher may omit certain parts, otherwise 
 he may add so and so. In another he says, " In all the 
 sermons you ought first to pronounce the verse in the 
 Latin tongue, and then explain in the common tongue 
 (patria lingua)." As to the merits of the sermons 
 themselves the general criticism on all similar collections 
 is applicable except that these have a certain freshness 
 in the compilation and show a trace of originality here 
 and there in handling the materials. There is a good 
 deal of striving after effect, particularly in the use of the 
 1 Migne, of. cit., col. 813 ss.
 
 THE CENTRAL MEDIEVAL, OR SCHOLASTIC, AGE 2OI 
 
 rhymed prose, or assonance, then so popular. It is prob- 
 able that this was done in some measure to aid the 
 memory of the preacher as well as for rhetorical effect. 
 The Speculum was much used, and became a mine from 
 which other compilers and translators liberally helped 
 themselves. 
 
 Early in the century, but after Honorius, a certain 
 Werner (d. 1126), of Ellerbach, 1 abbot of St. Blasius 
 in the Black Forest, published a collection of sermons 
 which he called Deflorationes Patrum, which, being inter- 
 preted, signifies " Flowers Plucked from the Fathers." 
 Not only from many others but very freely from the 
 Speculum of Honorius does our worthy Werner gather 
 his flowers without being at all concerned to tell where 
 he had been on his plucking expeditions. Thus in his 
 introduction he states that his purpose was to offer a 
 new collection of discourses for the use of preachers, as 
 the old ones had become somewhat stale, and the people 
 (the poor dear people!) needed a fresh supply. And 
 even this idea was borrowed from Honorius ! Of course 
 it goes without saying that the " Gathered Flowers " are 
 somewhat faded and dried up. But, as Cruel remarks, 
 these sermons, as well as those of the " Mirror " were 
 for several reasons above the reach of the less instructed 
 clergy, particularly as they had to be turned into the 
 vernacular when given to the people; and so there was 
 evident need of some collections in the native tongue and 
 of simpler style. This want was met by the production 
 of those numerous collections in German which have al- 
 ready been mentioned. These were partly done directly 
 from the older sources and partly were translations and 
 adaptations from the Latin collections. 2 It is worth 
 while to notice here only that one which bears the name 
 of its author, Conrad the Priest. 
 
 In the last decades of the twelfth century a certain 
 priest named Conrad 3 lived and worked in the neigh- 
 borhood of Lake Constance. He published a collection 
 of sermons in the old German dialect, with a Latin intro- 
 duction in which he states the purpose of the book. He 
 like the widow with her mites offers his little con- 
 
 1 Cruel, S. 144 ff. * Linsenmayer, S. 246. 
 
 8 Linsenmayer, SS. 247, 285 ff. ; Albert Bd. II., S. 9, et passim.
 
 202 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 tribution for the service of the priests of the Lord, " who 
 love Christ, who preach Christ and not themselves, 
 especially the plebeian and popular priests and those to 
 whom perchance abundance of books is wanting, and 
 who more often with blessed Martha have been anxious 
 and occupied with external things, and on this account 
 have the more rarely been able to sit with blessed Mary 
 at the Lord's feet, that is, to give attention to sacred 
 reading." The work contains a full set of sermons for 
 the church year and a number for saints' days, all in the 
 approved style. In all there are a hundred and fifty-four 
 of these sermons, not very different from others in most 
 respects, but easier in style and showing the author's 
 gift of adapting his speech to the common people. 
 
 Passing by France for the present and coming over 
 to the England * of the twelfth century we find there a 
 state of things in regard to preaching quite like that 
 which prevailed in Germany a number of collections of 
 homilies in the vernacular, but few preachers of note. 
 We have seen 2 that as far back as the tenth or early 
 eleventh century Aelfric had translated homilies into the 
 Saxon English of the time. There were also other col- 
 lections 3 earlier than the twelfth century ; and when we 
 reach this date the collections become abundant. Un- 
 happily the homilies are both dateless and nameless, but 
 they are shown to belong to the twelfth and thirteenth 
 centuries. Of these Morris says : 4 " None of them 
 seem to be copied from Aelfric's treatises. Most of 
 them perhaps were originally translated from Latin homi- 
 lies, though some few have the appearance of original 
 compositions. Omitting a few allusions to the gluttony 
 and drunkenness of the -period, and to the profligacy of 
 the clergy, and the rapacity of the rich, there is nothing 
 that throws any light upon the social condition of the 
 twelfth century. 5 The religious instruction given in 
 
 1 See Morris, Old English Homilies; and Cutts, Parish Priests 
 and their People in the Middle Ages in England, especially chaps. 
 VI. and XIV. 2 Above, p. 170. 
 
 * Cutts, p. 223; Morris, Vol. I., Preface, p. xi, and Vol. II., Intro- 
 duction, p. VII. 
 
 * Vol. II. (Twelfth century), Int. pp. ix, x. 
 
 *In this respect they are quite different from the French col- 
 lections, as Bourgain and Lecoy de la Marche have shown.
 
 THE CENTRAL MEDIEVAL, OR SCHOLASTIC, AGE 203 
 
 these homilies is of a very simple character; and all the 
 discourses, while not without interest, possess much 
 quaintness in the mode in which the Scriptures were 
 popularly expounded." In general tone, doctrine, and 
 method the English homilies are very like those in use 
 elsewhere in Europe. As Cutts has pointed out 1 the 
 Norman conquerors did not disturb the parish priests, 
 and yet the Conquest opened the way to a larger influence 
 from the Continent. 
 
 Among the English preachers of the century was a 
 certain Ailred (or Ethelred), of Revesby (c. 1 109-1 166). 2 
 He was born of good family, near Durham, about 1109, 
 and as a child was most promising in mind and character. 
 He " spent his youth in the court of David, King of 
 Scotland, as one of the attendants of his son Henry, and 
 while there gave a remarkable instance of his sweetness 
 of character by forgiving one of his enemies who had 
 slandered him. David was much attached to him, and 
 would have made him a bishop; but he preferred to be- 
 come a monk, and entered the Cistercian abbey of 
 Rievaulx in the North Riding of Yorkshire." 3 Later 
 he was abbot of Revesby, and afterwards of Rievaulx. 
 He was highly esteemed by King Henry II., and by his 
 contemporaries generally. He did some successful mis- 
 sionary work among the rude Picts of Scotland, was a 
 historical writer of some importance, and took active 
 interest in the affairs of his time. He suffered from ill 
 health toward the close of his life, but bore his sufferings 
 meekly, and kept at his work to the end. Altogether 
 he appears to have been an amiable, earnest, active man. 
 He died and was buried at Rievaulx in 1166. 
 
 He left numerous historical and theological writings, 
 among which are a number of sermons. 4 They are not 
 remarkable, being in the fashion of the age such as has 
 been sufficiently pointed out. He was so taken with the 
 allegorical method of interpretation and so fertile in find- 
 ing the spiritual meanings of Scripture that he could 
 spin out a number of them from one word as a text. 5 
 
 1 Op. cit., p. 84 ft. 
 
 2 Rothe, Gesch. der Pred., S. 218 f; Dictionary of National Biog- 
 raphy, Vol. XVIII, p. 33 f ; Migne, Pat. Lat., torn. 195. 
 
 8 Diet. Nat. Biog., ad loc. 
 
 * Migne, Pat. Lat., torn. 195 ; Rothe, S. 219. B Rothe, ad. loc.
 
 204 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 A very different man from Ailred was Peter of Blois 
 (d. c. 1200), who was a Frenchman, but claims notice 
 among the English preachers of the time, for reasons 
 that will appear. Born at or near Blois, he was educated 
 at Tours, at Bologna (where he studied law), and at 
 Paris. He lived several years in Sicily, where he was 
 tutor to a royal prince. He did not like Sicily, and 
 though offered ecclesiastical honors there, returned to 
 France, where he taught for a while and held various 
 church appointments. Some time during this period he 
 entered the service of the English king, Henry II., and 
 under his patronage came later to England, where he 
 filled different posts in the church. He was never ap- 
 pointed to high office, and seems to have been a self- 
 seeking, quarrelsome sort of man, with a plenty of self- 
 conceit, but possessed of learning and talents that made 
 him useful. His letters, full of vanity as they are, have 
 some value among historical sources for the period ; and 
 his other writings show considerable ability, but not of a 
 very high order. His sermons receive commendation 
 from Bourgain, 1 but Rothe 2 says that the six short ser- 
 mons remaining from him offer nothing of interest, 
 except that they were delivered in Saxon English and 
 were afterwards written out in Latin by the author him- 
 self, who confesses that they were " quite crudely and 
 insipidly written." Thus they hardly represent the ser- 
 mons as delivered, and it is worth noting that this 
 Anglicized Frenchman preached in the English of his 
 time. The sermons, as we have them, are lacking in good 
 arrangement, and are full of digressions. Altogether the 
 English pulpit has but a mediocre rank in the twelfth 
 century. 
 
 As in other respects, so in preaching, the leading place 
 among the European peoples of the twelfth century was 
 held by France. We are greatly indebted to the labors 
 of Lecoy de la Marche and Bourgain for a vivid por- 
 traiture of the preaching of the period. These scholars 
 have not confined themselves to the printed sources, but 
 have given the world the benefit of their studies of many 
 old French manuscripts of that age. 
 
 It will be convenient to consider in one group the three 
 1 P. 63. S. 219.
 
 THE CENTRAL MEDIEVAL, OR SCHOLASTIC, AGE 205 
 
 most important preachers of the first crusade. Pope 
 Urban II. (d. 1099) was a Frenchman, Odo by name, 
 and was born of knightly family in Chatillon sur Marne, 
 probably early in the eleventh century. While still young 
 he became a monk at Clugny, where he soon adopted the 
 strenuous ideas of Gregory VII. as to the papacy. His 
 worth and talents attracted attention and he was rapidly 
 promoted. In 1078 he was made a cardinal by Gregory 
 VII., and on the death of Gregory's immediate successor 
 Odo was made pope, taking the name of Urban II., in 
 March, 1088. In 1095, it will be remembered, he assem- 
 bled a council at Clermont, on the soil of his native 
 France, to consider the undertaking of the first crusade. 
 Here a great assembly of prelates and nobles was gath- 
 ered, and Urban addressed them several times upon the 
 theme that lay upon his heart. One day, in the open air 
 (for no building could accommodate the throng), he 
 poured forth his soul in one of the most effective ad- 
 dresses of history. There is, of course, no exact repro- 
 duction of this famous speech. Several reports of it 
 were made x and have been preserved. These are quite 
 unlike in form, but much the same in contents. The 
 substance of the report of it by William of Malmesbury 2 
 is this: Christian people should be ashamed to let un- 
 believers possess two-thirds of the whole world, includ- 
 ing the Holy Land, which they were desolating. He 
 promised full absolution to all who would undertake a 
 holy war to deliver the sacred places from their grasp. 
 If those who went died in the attempt they would be sure 
 of heaven, if they succeeded they would see the sepulchre 
 of the Lord. Why should they fear to die? Let them 
 go forth as soldiers of the cross ! The speech awakened 
 wild enthusiasm; men waved their swords and shouted, 
 " God wills it ! " Thus the crusades were begun under 
 the spell of a timely and powerful eloquence. Of Urban's 
 sermons, properly speaking, there are no remains ; 3 but 
 he was an active preacher and the tradition of his elo- 
 quence is well sustained. 
 
 1 Migne, Pat. Lot., torn. 151. * Op. cit., col. 571 ss. 
 
 8 Migne, op. cit., col. 563 ss, gives an address at the dedication 
 of a church, and another at the ordination of Ivo as bishop of 
 Chartres.
 
 206 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 Peter the Hermit (d. IH5), 1 according to the more 
 recent opinions, was probably sent out by Urban II. soon 
 after the Council of Clermont to arouse the people in 
 behalf of the crusade. It is now doubted whether he was 
 in Palestine at all before he went with the crusaders. 
 But it appears that he claimed to have been there and 
 to have seen a vision ; or this may have been a later in- 
 vention to embellish the stories of his eloquence. Accord- 
 ing to the usual accounts Peter was born at or near 
 Amiens early in the eleventh century. The surname, the 
 Hermit, was given him by his contemporaries and indi- 
 cates that he lived in retirement. But Guibert of Nogent's 
 description of his eloquence 2 leads us to infer that he was 
 a popular and useful preacher coming from his retire- 
 ment to preach to the people before he began the cru- 
 sade preaching. Guibert says that he never knew a man 
 to be held in such high esteem, that he composed quarrels, 
 made peace, rescued fallen women, was loaded with pres- 
 ents, and regarded as a saint whose word was an oracle. 
 When he took up the crusade preaching his work had a 
 tremendous effect. He stirred the people of all classes, 
 gathered multitudes to his own standard, and without 
 waiting for the princes and military leaders led the hap- 
 less crowd. He was unfitted for leadership and could not 
 control his followers. But that part of his story does 
 not belong here. He preached and performed priestly 
 duties for the crusaders, but returned to France (prob- 
 ably after the capture of Jerusalem) and became monk 
 and prior of an abbey at Huy, where he died in 1115. 
 
 Along with Urban and Peter should be named Raoul 
 the Ardent (Radulphus Ardens, d. noi), 3 who was 
 born (date uncertain) near Poitiers, and was known as 
 a parish priest in that region. It appears that he went 
 with one of the expeditions of the first crusade, under 
 William of Poitiers and Aquitaine, and that he died in 
 Palestine about noi. This is about all that has come 
 down to us concerning his life ; but in his case we have 
 a group of more than thirty sermons remaining. They 
 
 1 See Broadus, Hist. Pre., p. 95 f, for a brief notice of Peter's 
 popular eloquence, and for critical accounts see the articles in 
 Herzog and in Wetzer und Welte, Kirchenlexicon (Catholic). 
 
 * Migne, Pat. Lot., torn. 156, col. 704-5. 
 
 'Bourgain, p. 55; Migne, Pat. Lot., torn. 155.
 
 THE CENTRAL MEDIEVAL, OR SCHOLASTIC, AGE 207 
 
 show that he deserved his surname of Ardent; for they 
 are earnest, with a note of conviction and of concern 
 for the spiritual welfare of his hearers. In denouncing 
 sin he spares none whether princes, clergy, or people 
 and yet he mingles with his warnings a tenderness and 
 charity which show forth a true soul. In style he is often 
 rough and in bad taste, but vigor is not wanting ; and he 
 exhibits an originality in refreshing contrast to most of 
 the sermons of the age. He espoused the crusade with 
 all his ardor, and like Peter practised what he preached 
 by going himself. 
 
 A notable prelate in the early twelfth century was Ivo, 
 bishop of Chartres (d. 1116). He was a man of dis- 
 tinction and influence in his day, and was quite diligent 
 as a preacher. Twenty-four short sermons remain from 
 him. 1 They were highly esteemed, and one of them is 
 preserved even to this day in the Roman Breviary. 
 Bourgain says of him, " Without being eloquent he joined 
 to knowledge a vivid imagination ; his method is neat ; 
 he does not embarrass with an enumeration of texts, 
 eschews subtle divisions, slowness and lifeless dialect." 
 
 Another famous prelate of the early part of the cen- 
 tury was Hildebert (d. 1134), at first bishop of Mars, 
 and later archbishop of Tours. He was the contemporary 
 and the equal of great men ; but does not seem to have 
 been especially great as a preacher if we judge by his 
 few remaining sermons; 2 but the man enjoyed a better 
 reputation than these sermons indicate; and yet in them 
 are some traces of real worth, as the critic already quoted 
 says that they are " dignified, elevated, paternal, tempered 
 by the sweet authority of the pontiff." 
 
 Here we must mention the celebrated theologian, Peter 
 Abelard (d. 1142). For Abelard, too, is among the 
 prophets, though by a slender title. Famous as the un- 
 happy lover of Eloise he has awakened in all times the 
 interest of the romantic; favored with the heresy-hating 
 hostility of Bernard he has claimed the sympathy of the 
 liberal minded ; brilliant as a lecturer, he had the admira- 
 tion of hundreds of students, and his fame endures ; acute 
 as a thinker, he has a secure place among the scholastic- 
 
 1 Migne, Pat. Lot., torn. 162, and Bourgain, pp. 32, 276, 296. 
 "Pat. Lot., torn. 171; Bourgain, p. 37 et suiv.
 
 208 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 theologians of his era; but all in all the man does not 
 rank among the highest, by virtue either of character or 
 work. As a preacher he is remembered by thirty-four 
 sermons, 1 preached probably after he retired to the 
 cloister, and, it seems, written out at the request of Eloise. 
 They are not great as sermons, but only claim mention 
 because of the author's fame in other directions. 
 
 By all odds the most prominent figure among the 
 French preachers of the twelfth century is that of the 
 famous Cistercian monk, theologian, mystic, man of af- 
 fairs, partisan, crusade evangelist, and popular preacher, 
 Bernard (1091-1153), abbot of Clairvaux, and saint not 
 only by canon but by general consent. 2 Bernard was 
 born at Fontaines near Dijon, third son of the brave 
 knight Tecelin and Aleth, a pious lady of excellent family. 
 Though she died while Bernard was yet a boy her in- 
 fluence over him was holy and permanent, and so she 
 takes a worthy place among those noble mothers to whom 
 in all the Christian ages some distinguished preachers 
 have owed the best that was in them. The lad was of 
 weakly frame and unfit for military duty, so he was 
 early destined for the church and educated with that in 
 view. For a short time during his school days he seems 
 to have tasted a bit of the worldly life about him ; but 
 the memories of his mother, and the influence of a lonely 
 and thoughtful journey speedily recalled him to higher 
 things, and with characteristic firmness and devotion he 
 turned his back upon the world. It is quite like him 
 that he induced a goodly number of others to join him 
 in this renunciation, his lifelong trait of personal in- 
 fluence thus early exhibiting itself. After leading a re- 
 tired life for a while he and his companions entered the 
 famous monastery of Citeaux, which had given name to 
 the Cistercian order of monks. The abbey was just then 
 
 1 Pat. Lat., torn. 178, col. 379 ss. 
 
 3 Sources and authorities for Bernard are of course numerous. 
 His works and letters are given in Migne, Pat. Lat., tt. 182-185, 
 with much valuable editorial matter by Mabillon and others. He 
 receives ample treatment at the hands of Bourgain, and notice 
 from all the other historians and critics of the preaching of the 
 period. The great monograph of Neander is still valuable, and 
 the late Dr. R. S. Stprrs has done American readers and litera- 
 ture a noble service in his Bernard of Clairvaux,
 
 THE CENTRAL MEDIEVAL, OR SCHOLASTIC, AGE 209 
 
 not very flourishing, but the entrance of this fine body 
 of about thirty young men under the lead of such a 
 spirit as Bernard gave it new life. Soon its growth was 
 so rapid as to require division and colonization. One 
 of these colonies was established at Clairvaux (clara 
 vallis, vale of light), and Bernard was chosen to be its 
 abbot. This was his heart's home through all his busy 
 life, and with it his name is forever associated. He had 
 later in his career frequent invitations to other places 
 and higher preferment, but he put them all aside and 
 remained simply abbot of Clairvaux. 
 
 He practised a rigid asceticism, disciplined his monks 
 with a strict but loving care, taught them and preached 
 to them with all fidelity, received with sweet cordiality 
 the visitors who sought him for help and counsel in the 
 spiritual life, and was in all essentials according to the 
 demands of the age a model monk and abbot. 
 
 But a man of his powers could not be hid in a mon- 
 astery. Soon his wonderful preaching began to attract 
 crowds to Clairvaux, and his capacity for affairs marked 
 him as fitted for severer tasks than the peaceful direction 
 of a cloister. He soon became the most notable man in 
 the church in France, and from thence his influence and 
 activities spread through Italy and Germany. He was 
 especially successful in healing disputes, and was the 
 able defender of Catholic orthodoxy alike against the 
 scholastic subtleties of Abelard and the popular evan- 
 gelical views of Peter of Bruys and Henry of Lausanne. 
 He favored and helped to shape the foundation of the 
 order of Knights of the Temple. Though refusing to be 
 the head of his own order, he was the most active man 
 in promoting its rapid and wide spread. 
 
 On the death of Pope Honorius II. in 1130 the car- 
 dinals were divided and chose different men for the 
 papacy. Innocent II. , the choice of the minority, had the 
 weaker title, but he was the fitter man. Fearing his 
 rival's stronger party he fled to France and sought pro- 
 tection from King Louis VI. The monarch referred the 
 matter to the bishops of the realm, and they held an 
 assembly to decide which pope they should recognize. 
 Bernard, though not a bishop, was called in and asked 
 to present his views, and he took so decided ground in
 
 210 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 favor of Innocent and urged his cause with such eloquent 
 persuasiveness that the assembly unanimously decided 
 to recognize Innocent as pope. Bernard visited some 
 of the principal cities of Italy in the interest of his man, 
 and by 1138 his efforts were so successful that he saw 
 Innocent generally recognized and the schism healed. 
 Now he turned back to his beloved Clairvaux to rest and 
 teach his monks. But new labors and burdens were in 
 store for him. Soon came his strife with the acute and 
 philosophic Abelard, whose clever lectures were unsettling 
 the orthodox faith, and none could be found to answer 
 the heretic and force him to retract so well as Bernard. 
 Then came the troubles at Rome about Arnold of Brescia, 
 and Bernard bore an active part on the papal side in 
 this controversy. To Bernard too fell the duty of oppos- 
 ing the work of the evangelical heretics, Peter and Henry, 
 in the south of France. He preached among the people 
 there with great acceptance, but the work of those men 
 was too well done to be overcome even by the eloquence 
 of a Bernard. Finally, in 1146, he was charged by the 
 pope with the duty of preaching the second crusade, and 
 he went through France, Italy and Germany on this 
 mission. 
 
 In Germany, though he had to preach by an interpreter, 
 the people were moved to tears and enthusiasm by his 
 voice and manner, while he spoke himself, before the 
 interpreter could translate his words. Thousands were 
 induced to take the cross. He did not accompany the 
 crusaders perhaps because he was physically unfit to 
 contend with the hardships of the camp, perhaps because 
 the authorities needed him at home and the failures and 
 disasters which befell the enterprise bore heavily upon his 
 spirits. Yet he went on preaching and teaching all he 
 could at Clairvaux, but being often called upon for those 
 outer tasks from which he shrank, though so well per- 
 forming them, and ever coming back to refresh his soul 
 among his brother monks in studying and expounding 
 the word of God. At last, worn out with toil, he died 
 and was buried at Clairvaux, August 20, 1153. 
 
 It is hard to put into a few words a fair estimate of 
 this great and many-sided man. The faculties of his 
 singularly rich nature were held in admirable poise. The
 
 THE CENTRAL MEDIEVAL, OR SCHOLASTIC, AGE 211 
 
 strong and vigorous intellect and the abounding energy 
 of purpose and act were a wholesome offset to the soft 
 and spiritual mellowness of his piety, while this last, like 
 the gentle warmth of an autumn day, suffused the other 
 two, keeping thought from barren and cold speculation, 
 and restraining splendid leadership from ambition and 
 arrogance. The English writer, Vaughan, in his Hours 
 with the Mystics, 1 has admirably put the matter thus: 
 " Against the self-indulgence which would sacrifice every 
 active external obligation to a life of contemplative sloth, 
 he protested all his days by word and example. He knew 
 the world and men ; he stood with his fellows in the 
 breach, and the shock of conflict spoiled him for a 
 dreamer. The distractions over which he expended so 
 much complaint were his best friends. They made him 
 the worse monk, and by so much the better man." He 
 has been compared by many to Augustine; and Bour- 
 gain 2 draws a fine parallel between Bernard and Pascal. 
 He was not equal to either of these in depth of intellect, 
 but the mystical trace was common to all, and the neat 
 and terse way of expressing bright and soulful things. 
 
 Bernard was an excellent preacher. He is one of the 
 comparatively few whose published sermons sustain 
 traditional reputation. The stories of his eloquence and 
 its wonderful power over all sorts and conditions of men 
 do not strike us as overstrained when we read, with all 
 just allowances, the discourses which remain from him. 
 Doubtless many other critics would agree with Broadus 3 
 in saying, " I think that beyond any other mediaeval 
 preacher, he will repay the student of the present day." 
 A large number of his discourses are preserved to us.* 
 The first given in Migne's edition are seven on the Ad- 
 vent, and these are perhaps most often read. They are 
 characteristic ; clear in thought and language, sweet and 
 pious in spirit; full of the current Catholic adoration of 
 the Virgin, but not to the obscuration of the Lord whom 
 he praises and loves. They have many a well-turned and 
 happy phrase, which seems to come with perfect ease and 
 naturalness without the least straining. While not 
 severely analytical the sermons usually have clearly 
 
 1 P. 143. 2 Pp. 92 et suiv. 
 
 3 Hist. Prea., p. 100. * Pat. Lot., torn. 183.
 
 212 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 marked divisions. In the first sermon he thus indicates 
 his plan : " Do you therefore, brethren, to whom as unto 
 babes God reveals things that are hidden from the wise 
 and prudent consider with sedulous thought, and dili- 
 gently weigh the reason of this Advent, seeking, namely, 
 who it is that comes, whence, whither, for what purpose, 
 and in what way." He discusses these points in the order 
 indicated, but when he comes to the last, " in what way," 
 he postpones that for next time as being " worthy of a 
 special sermon, especially since to-day's sermon has gone 
 on at length." Following the sermons on the Advent are 
 a number on the holy seasons (de temporibus}, and then 
 a course of 125 on various subjects (de diversis), and the 
 collection concludes with eighty-six on the Song of Solo- 
 mon. These, according to the editor in Migne's collec- 
 tion, were begun in 1135 and were cut short by the 
 author's lamented death in 1153. He was thus eighteen 
 years (of course at intervals) working at the series, and 
 it reaches only to the first verse of the third chapter. 
 The first sermon treats of the title why Song of All 
 Songs? because it is an allegory of the love between 
 Christ and his Bride, the Church. Then come seven dif- 
 ferent sermons on the first verse, " Let him kiss me with 
 the kisses of his mouth." The minute allegorical treat- 
 ment of every phase of meaning suggested to the pious 
 mystic by these words is curious, but a trifle tedious. Of 
 course the interpretation is not now generally accepted, 
 and the long drawn series is somewhat wearisome ; but 
 as specimens of preaching these discourses have the 
 merits of brevity, clearness, adaptation, and a devout and 
 gracious spirit. To feel their full force we must imagine 
 ourselves among that rapt group of monks at Clairvaux 
 listening while the revered master opens his heart in these 
 loving sermons that breathe out his yearnings for com- 
 munion with his Lord. We shall then warm toward the 
 preacher and appreciate both his devout feeling and his 
 perfect taste as he says in his opening paragraph : * 
 
 1 Pat. Lot., torn. 183, col. 787. The exquisite original defies 
 translation and is as follows : " Revera pauper et inops pulso ad 
 eum qui aperit et nemo claudit super sermonis hujus profundis- 
 simo sacramento. Oculi omnium in te sperant, Domine. Parvuli 
 petierunt panem ; non est qui frangat eis ; speratur id a benigni- 
 tate tua. O piissime, frange esurientibus panem tuum, meis qui- 
 dcm, si dignaris, manibus, sed tuis viribus,"
 
 THE CENTRAL MEDIEVAL, OR SCHOLASTIC, AGE 213 
 
 " Truly poor and needy I knock unto him who openeth 
 and no man shutteth, in regard to the most profound sub- 
 ject of this discourse. The eyes of all look in hope to 
 thee, O Lord. These little ones have asked for bread; 
 there is none to break it to them ; that is hoped for from 
 thy dear grace. Break thou thy bread, O kindest One, 
 to those who hunger, by my hands it may be, if so thou 
 deignest, but by thy power." 
 
 Resembling Bernard in some respects was Norbert, 1 
 founder of the Augustinian order of Praemonstrants (d. 
 1154). Though reckoned with propriety among the 
 French preachers he was born on German soil in Cleves, 
 of good family. After brilliant studies he became a cleric. 
 But he lived easily, sometimes at the court of the arch- 
 bishop of Cologne, sometimes at that of the emperor 
 Henry. He was loved and flattered by many because of 
 his fortune, his social rank, his fine personal qualities. 
 But from an easy-going and not spotless worldly life he 
 was recalled. Out riding one day he was caught in a 
 storm and stunned by a flash of lightning. On coming 
 to himself he asked, " Lord, what wilt thou have me to 
 do ? " and seemed to hear a voice which said, " Forsake 
 evil, do good, seek peace and pursue it." He passed the 
 next days in prayer, and soon begged to be ordained. On 
 being invited by a dean to occupy his pulpit he consented. 
 He enlarged on the vanity of life and lashed the faults 
 of the worldly clergy. The discourse created a com- 
 motion. Next day he fell to it again with such effect 
 that one of the priests, whose conscience was smitten, 
 struck him in the face. All this advertised his preaching, 
 and the crowds came. He had found his work. He met 
 much opposition, but also some encouragement from the 
 church authorities, and was very laborious and successful 
 in his work as a travelling preacher. Norbert, like Ber- 
 nard, was especially gifted and successful as a preacher 
 of peace and reconciler of disputes. He was offered 
 the church of St. Martin, diocese of Rheims, but the 
 canons objected he was too much of a reformer. Soon 
 afterwards he founded at Premontre a monastery and 
 order of Augustinian monks, called from the place, 
 Prsemonstrants. They were devoted to preaching, and 
 1 Bourgain, p. 128 et suiv.
 
 214 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 Norbert was thus in some degree a precursor of Dominic 
 and Francis in the next century. He was finally made 
 archbishop of Magdeburg, in which office he died in 1154. 
 
 While at Magdeburg he put in order a collection of his 
 sermons to the people, but, unfortunately, only a few 
 fragments survive. But the tradition of his powerful 
 and reformatory popular eloquence remains. He was un- 
 doubtedly one of the foremost preachers of the time. 
 
 Later, living to almost the end of the century (1196), 
 was Maurice of Sully, 1 the famous bishop of Paris, and 
 founder of the church of Notre Dame. He saw a bishop- 
 ric afar off when yet a poor boy, and refused an alms 
 which was offered to him on the condition that he should 
 give up his ambition to be a bishop. His parents were 
 poor, but somehow the boy managed to get an education, 
 and made the best use of his opportunities. He entered 
 an abbey and was rapidly promoted. He made an excel- 
 lent parish priest, and was advanced to the office of arch- 
 deacon. On the death of Peter Lombard the bishopric 
 of Paris became vacant, and there was some difficulty in 
 finding a successor, though there was no lack of aspirants. 
 There are two stories of how Maurice received the cov- 
 eted appointment. One is that the electors could not 
 agree in the embarrassment of their riches and left it 
 to three of their number to nominate the man, Maurice 
 being a member of the committee. These could not 
 agree, and left it to Maurice ; whereupon he named him- 
 self, being conscientiously and solemnly of the opinion 
 that he would best perform the duties of the office ! The 
 other story is more creditable to him. It is that the elec- 
 tors being at sea asked advice of King Louis VII., and 
 the monarch inquired who was the best pastor and 
 preacher among them all. The answer was that Maurice 
 was the best pastor and preacher, but Peter Comestor 2 
 was the most learned in the Scriptures. The king gave a 
 wise answer : " Choose Maurice for bishop, and let Peter 
 be a teacher of the monks." So he became bishop of Paris 
 in 1160; and soon afterwards it fell to him to christen the 
 
 1 Biographic Universelle, s. v. ; Lecoy de la Marche, p. 42 et 
 suiv. ; Bourgain, p. 48 et suiv. 
 
 "The Eater; so called not for his gluttony, but for his greed 
 of learning.
 
 THE CENTRAL MEDIEVAL, OR SCHOLASTIC, AGE 215 
 
 royal infant who was later celebrated as Philip Augustus. 
 He is also famous as having begun the building of the 
 great and historic cathedral of Notre Dame, of which the 
 cornerstone was laid by Pope Alexander III. in 1165. 
 The work was of course not finished in Maurice's time, 
 but he carried it well on and got a great deal of money 
 for the building. 
 
 There is a pretty story that while he was bishop of 
 Paris his old mother paid him a visit clad in the simple 
 garb of the poor ; but that the attendants would not admit 
 her, and the ladies took her away and dressed her up 
 properly to be presented to the great man. But when 
 she was brought to him he said, " I do not know this 
 lady ; my mother was never dressed like this, but only in 
 the simple clothing of the poor; I should recognize her 
 in that." Taking the hint the ladies removed the old 
 woman and changed back her clothes, whereupon the 
 bishop received her with all love and reverence as his 
 mother; the rebuke not being meant for her, but for the 
 attendants. Later in life Maurice retired to the abbey of 
 St. Victor, where he died in 1196. 
 
 A number of his sermons remain in manuscript, some 
 in Latin and some in the old French of the twelfth cen- 
 tury. These last are highly prized by French scholars 
 on linguistic and literary grounds. As they have not been 
 published, we are dependent on the judgment of the 
 critics who have read them for an estimate of their 
 worth. Both Lecoy de la Marche and Bourgain speak 
 highly of them, but Daunou, a literary critic in the His- 
 toire Litteraire de la France, takes a less favorable view 
 of their value. Maurice enjoyed, however, great reputa- 
 tion as a preacher, and wrote a book of instructions on the 
 art of preaching. 
 
 Toward the end of the twelfth century there appeared 
 in the neighborhood of Paris a priest of the parish of 
 Neuilly, who attracted great attention by the pungency 
 and power of his sermons. His name was Foulques, or, 
 in its Latin form, Fulco. 1 He was of very humble ex- 
 traction and uneducated. On his first appearance he was 
 laughed at for his ignorance, but he remedied that defect 
 
 1 Lecoy de la Marche, p. 75 et suiv. ; and for his life the article 
 in Wetzer und Welte, Kirchenlexicon.
 
 2l6 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 by earnest study, and it was not long before he had the 
 great as well as the lowly crowding to hear him preach. 
 He was sometimes almost suffocated by the throngs of 
 people, and men literally tore away pieces of his clothing 
 for souvenirs. He rebuked the great and helped the 
 fallen. He was especially successful in the reclamation 
 of fallen women, for whom he built and maintained a 
 home. The story goes that he once said plainly to Rich- 
 ard the Lion Heart of England that the king had three 
 daughters hanging to his neck from whose embrace he 
 must disentangle himself if he would be saved. Richard 
 said it was a lie, he had no daughters; whereupon the 
 priest named them for him Superbia, Cupiditas and 
 Luxuria. 1 Instead of punishing the bold preacher Rich- 
 ard replied with bitterness that he would bequeath Su- 
 perbia to the Templars, Cupiditas to the Cistercians, and 
 Luxuria to the prelates. In 1198 Foulques was selected 
 by Innocent III. as one of the preachers of the fourth 
 crusade. His success was wonderful, reviving the tra- 
 ditions of Peter and of Bernard. Thousands were led to 
 take the cross, and Foulques himself was enrolled among 
 them. But he did not live to see the perversion and fail- 
 ure of the crusade, having died in 1202. No sermons re- 
 main from him, but the traditions of his eloquence and 
 success are well founded. 
 
 The abbey of St. Victor at Paris was founded by Will- 
 iam of Champeaux in 1108, and became famous for a 
 number of distinguished men who studied and taught in 
 its walls. The teaching office, especially as exercised in 
 preaching to the monks, was one of the specialties at St. 
 Victor, and Bourgain 2 tells how the brethren magnified 
 the office by magnifying its difficulty and burden as the 
 turn of each one came to preach. Among the most cele- 
 brated of these preachers were Hugo 3 (d. 1141) and 
 Richard 4 (d. 1173). Neither of them was French by 
 birth, Hugo being most probably a Saxon, while Richard 
 was a Scotchman. Both were mystics and Richard was 
 the pupil and successor of Hugo in the priory. 
 
 1 Pride, Greed, and Luxury. *0p. cit., pp. 117, 118. 
 
 "Life and works in Migne, Pat. Lot., torn. 175, with editorial 
 matter by the Abbe Hugonin. 
 *Pat. Lot., torn. 196, ed. Hugonin.
 
 THE CENTRAL MEDIAEVAL, OR SCHOLASTIC, AGE 217 
 
 Hugo had been brought up in his Saxon home, very 
 largely under the advice of an uncle, who was an eccle- 
 siastic. He early became a monk, adopting the Augus- 
 tinian rule. Troubles and civil war drove the uncle and 
 nephew from home, and after passing some time in the 
 Netherlands they sought and found refuge in the abbey 
 of St. Victor in Paris. Here the talents and acquirements 
 of Hugo were highly valued, and in course of time he 
 was made prior. He spent the rest of his life in teaching 
 and preaching in his abbey. 
 
 Hugo was one of the most notable of the mediaeval 
 mystics. 1 That trait had been in Bernard combined with 
 active popular preaching, in Hugo and Richard it was 
 allied with scholasticism. Hugo taught that in the men- 
 tal attitude to divine things there are three stages : cogi- 
 tation, meditation, contemplation. By cogitation he 
 meant thinking, the application of the purely intellectual 
 processes to religious truth ; by meditation he understood 
 reflection, or brooding over the truth ; by contemplation he 
 intended tO set forth the highest effort of the soul, imme- 
 diate or intuitive insight into truth. In this he distin- 
 guished a lower and a higher stage, and this latter was 
 the summit of attainment. 2 In the way of sermons Hugo 
 left, first of all, nineteen homilies on the book of Ecclesi- 
 astes, which receive some praise from Bourgain, 3 but 
 are criticised as diffuse and overloaded with digression 
 and allegory. Besides these are other sermons, which 
 have warmth of feeling and ease of expression, but with 
 the faults just mentioned. 
 
 Richard of St. Victor, succeeding Hugo as prior, was 
 a Scotchman of hard thinking and energetic character. 
 He was zealous for reform and discipline, but he was at 
 the same time more of a scholastic than Hugo. He was 
 an adept in the hair-splitting subtleties of logical analysis, 
 and also in the most finespun and exaggerated allegorical 
 interpretation of Scripture. This naturally falls in with 
 the spirit of mysticism, and it finds striking exemplifica- 
 tion in both the Victorines. Richard subdivides Hugo's 
 
 1 Mysticism and its place in the preaching of the Middle Ages 
 will receive fuller notice further on. See p. 266 ff. 
 * See Vaughan, Hours with the Mystics, p. 157. 
 *Op. 'f., P- 118.
 
 2l8 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 three stages of the acquisition of truth and life into two 
 each, making thus six steps in the process of finding God. 
 The last and highest is above (and seems to be beyond!) 
 reason, and is reached not so much by thought as by peni- 
 tence and tears, being a sort of religious ecstasy. Richard 
 left a number of treatises among his works, which had 
 doubtless been given to the monks first as sermons' or 
 lectures. They show considerable sprightliness of thought 
 and expression, but with the mystical and scholastic ex- 
 aggerations already noticed. 
 
 The contemporary writings give much attention to the 
 so-called heretics, especially in the south of France. 
 Among them were several leaders and preachers of dis- 
 tinction. Of these especially important were Tanchelm 
 (d. 1123), Peter of Bruys (d. c. 1124), his disciple Henry 
 of Lausanne (d. c. 1148), and Peter Waldo, who about 
 1170 was sending out his " poor men of Lyons " as col- 
 porters and preachers. Sermons from these men are not 
 preserved, but even the testimony of their Catholic ene- 
 mies and persecutors declares their eloquence, their power 
 over the people, and their enduring success in establishing 
 their opinions in the hearts of their followers. The failure 
 of Bernard to overcome their work we have already no- 
 ticed, the effort of Dominic to counteract it will be men- 
 tioned later. All these things, and many others, indicate 
 that these so-called heretics were men of conviction, of 
 earnestness, of rare persuasive gifts. 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE CULMINATION OF MEDIAEVAL PREACHING IN THE 
 THIRTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 The thirteenth century is in many respects the focus 
 of the whole period (1095-1361) which we are now study- 
 ing. In this great century mediaeval preaching reached 
 its acme of power. And, as usual, this result was due in 
 large degree to events and characteristics of the times, to 
 which we must give brief notice. 
 
 i. EUROPE IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 The four great peoples of England, France, Germany 
 and Italy were they whose political and other national
 
 THE CENTRAL MEDIEVAL, OR SCHOLASTIC, AGE 219 
 
 affairs give to the thirteenth century its chief historic 
 significance. 
 
 In England the era is noted for constitutional history. 
 In 1215 the barons at Runnymede wrested Magna Charta 
 from the weak hands of John ; and though that famous 
 instrument was not a concession to popular rights in our 
 modern sense of that phrase, it yet was a bar to kingly 
 tyranny and to the concentration of power in the royal 
 hands. Later, however, the people found a tribune in 
 Simon de Montfort, by whose efforts there was called in 
 1265 a representative parliament in which there sat for 
 the first time knights of the shires and burghers from 
 some of the towns. Thirty years later (1295) decisive 
 turn was given to all of England's future political history 
 by the assembling of the " model parliament " of Edward 
 I. This was a really representative body ; England's con- 
 stitution of " king, lords and commons " is fixed for gen- 
 erations to come ; the people have at last won a place in 
 directing the affairs of government. 
 
 In France affairs took quite a different turn, and the 
 development toward a consolidated and strengthened 
 monarchy went on. The reign of Philip Augustus ex- 
 tended nearly a quarter of a century into the new era, and 
 under him, as we have seen, 1 the monarchical principle 
 made substantial gains. Philip II., who began to reign 
 in 1223, pursued his father's policy, but died young, leav- 
 ing his son Louis IX. a minor. But the queen-mother, 
 Blanche of Castile, was a woman of character and ability, 
 and as regent she held the reins of government with a 
 firm hand. The preceding kings made the monarchy 
 strong, " Saint Louis " now made it beloved and re- 
 spected, bequeathing it in 1270 to his son Philip III. (the 
 Hardy), who in turn soon left it to his son Philip IV. 
 (the Fair) in 1285. This acute, unscrupulous, but able 
 monarch holds his own against papal assumptions, and in 
 other ways brings a vigorous and powerful reign over 
 into the fourteenth century. Throughout the thirteenth 
 century, therefore, France is the strongest political power 
 in Europe. 
 
 In Germany the tangle continued. The great emperor, 
 Frederick Barbarossa, had died in 1189. His son, Henry 
 1 Ante f p. 176.
 
 220 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 VI., married Constance, the heiress of the Norman king- 
 dom of Naples and Sicily, and from this marriage came 
 the brilliant and unfortunate Frederick II. (1215-1250). 
 His long, eventful and turbulent reign was signalized by 
 the final effort to subjugate Italy, by the death struggle 
 with the papacy, and at last by the fall of his house. The 
 murder of his son Conradin, or Conrad IV., in 1254, 
 ended the long and splendid struggle of the Hohenstau- 
 fen against the papacy, and for political supremacy in 
 Italy. After that, for about twenty years, was the Great 
 Interregnum, with its anarchy and confusion, till in 1273 
 the choice of the electors at last fell upon Rudolf of Haps- 
 burg, the founder of the imperial Austrian line. Rudolf 
 gave up the struggle for Italy, and devoted himself to 
 building up the wasted empire in its proper German char- 
 acter, and with him a new era in German history begins. 
 
 In Italy during this fateful century all the discordant 
 elements of her mediaeval politics were in seething chaos. 
 In the north the faintly republican constitutions of the 
 Lombard cities were giving way to those family tyrannies 
 which characterized Italian civic history for centuries. 
 In Piedmont the House of Savoy was already lay- 
 ing the basis of its future power. In the north- 
 west Genoa, republican in government, was mistress 
 of the seas and of commerce on that side; while 
 her great rival in the northeast, Venice, was queen 
 of the Adriatic, and under her doges was at the 
 pinnacle of her greatness and wealth. In central 
 Italy fair Florence, with her quasi-democratic govern- 
 ment, was a prey to fierce internal discords, and toward 
 the end of this century distinguished herself by sending 
 into exile her illustrious son Dante. Across the peninsula 
 further south stretched the fatal Papal States, the divisive 
 wedge, destined to be the last stronghold of Italy's politi- 
 cal dismemberment. In the south Naples and Sicily, the 
 heritage and snare of Frederick II., came after Conrad's 
 death into the hands of Charles of Anjou, but the unpopu- 
 lar French sovereignty fell by the massacre known as the 
 " Sicilian Vespers," in 1282, and the end of the century 
 finds southern Italy under Spanish rule. 
 
 Such was the state of European politics during this 
 wonderful century: In Italy and Germany, confusion;
 
 THE CENTRAL MEDIEVAL, OR SCHOLASTIC, AGE 221 
 
 in France, decay of feudalism and tendency to absolute 
 monarchy; in England, growth of parliamentary power 
 and strengthening of constitutional monarchy. 
 
 From political events to social affairs in Europe the 
 transition is easy, and we shall here find a more immediate 
 and influential connection with the pulpit. 
 
 The mighty impulse of the crusades was felt in every 
 part of the social order of Europe during the twelfth and 
 thirteenth centuries, and with this were united many other 
 forces which contributed to the activity and progress of 
 men during that stirring era. 
 
 The crusaders and their followers came in contact with 
 many wares and luxuries hitherto unknown or little 
 known in the West, and they brought home with them a 
 taste for these things. All this stimulated trade, and the 
 merchants became a wealthier and more considerable class 
 of society. Venice and Genoa especially attained to great 
 power and renown, but other Italian cities shared the new 
 prosperity with them. Nor was the new trading impulse 
 confined to Italy. Inland and international trade also 
 was marvellously stimulated, and the cities of Germany, 
 France, the Netherlands, and even England, felt the 
 quickening touch of business. Fairs were held for ex- 
 change of wares between the merchants, and these occa- 
 sions were important not only to the merchants them- 
 selves, but to all others. The robber baron, as well as the 
 petty thief, was there ; the fine dame, and the shameless 
 courtesan; the gay youth in search of pleasure, and the 
 wondering peasant gazing at the sights; the preacher, 
 too, was on hand, and used his chance to rebuke sin and 
 say a word for Our Lady and the saints. Along with the 
 merchant, the banker and the usurer grew rich. Lending 
 money at interest was esteemed a sin, and the usurer and 
 the Jew, together with the heretic, receive special atten- 
 tion from the preachers. This commercial activity stimu- 
 lated others, as is ever the case, and thus the whole realm 
 of trade, finance, and labor received in this age an impulse 
 which has endured through all the following centuries 
 of western commerce. 
 
 The king and nobles were at the top of the social order 
 and the clergy mingled freely with them, receiving and 
 giving influences both for good and ill. The serving
 
 222 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 classes house-servants and tillers of the soil themselves 
 divided into various orders, which we need not stop to de- 
 scribe, were at the bottom of the social pyramid. But 
 now between these a new order rises, or, more exactly, 
 an old but hitherto little regarded order grows into wealth 
 and power. The decay of feudalism and the growth of 
 the cities by trade give now to the citizen merchant or 
 banker a new importance and power in the social order. 
 In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries we see that great 
 power in its formative stage, in its crude yet vigorous 
 youth ; but even thus the young giant gives promise of his 
 coming power, when he shall be the regnant chief in 
 western civilization. The burghers, or men of the middle 
 class, must be henceforth recognized and dealt with as a 
 power in all social life. Their wealth makes them the 
 envy of the lower class, the spoil of the upper ; and their 
 struggle to secure their rights, personal and civic, as 
 against the buttressed power of kings and lords, is in large 
 measure the history of social and political progress for 
 ages to come. 
 
 It is needless to say that the intellectual life of the 
 European peoples received a powerful uplift and showed 
 marvellous development in this period. There is a more 
 general diffusion of knowledge. Monks and theologian^ 
 not only hold their places of leadership, but they go far 
 beyond the heights of former days. As before noticed, 
 their ranks are recruited from all classes, so that culture, 
 like religion, is less affected by caste than the political 
 and social spheres. But now the wealth and leisure of 
 the burgher class afford their sons the means of higher 
 culture, and many of them are found among the earnest 
 students of the time. Nor is even the ruling class un- 
 touched by the new zeal for learning. Kings and nobles 
 are not only patrons, but in some cases also the pursuers, 
 and possessors of culture. Frederick II., the brilliant 
 and ill-fated emperor, was a man of letters, and is said 
 to have preferred Italy to Germany as a residence, be- 
 cause he could better gratify his scholarly tastes in the 
 southern land. 
 
 The universities of Europe arose in this age, they were 
 crowded with students, and they greatly extended the 
 range of studies pursued before. To the seven liberal
 
 THE CENTRAL MEDIEVAL, OR SCHOLASTIC, AGE 223 
 
 arts the trivium and quadrivium there were added 
 now the pursuit of law and medicine, and above all of the- 
 ology. This last was the scientia scientiarum of the 
 times. The older schools, perhaps especially those of 
 Charlemagne, had prepared the way for the universities. 
 In this period we find them in Italy, Spain, France, and 
 England. Not till the fourteenth century did they begin 
 their wonderful history in Germany with the foundation 
 of the University of Prague in 1348. About 1250 Rob- 
 ert of Sorbon founded (but upon preceding institutions) 
 the famous school for theology at the University of Paris, 
 which, as the " Sorbonne/'has perpetuated the name of his 
 birthplace. That university was already distinguished 
 for the teaching of theology, but this foundation added 
 greatly to its power and fame. Medicine was especially 
 cultivated at Salerno, and law at Bologna. Oxford and 
 Cambridge also attracted students in the various schools. 
 The number of students reached grand proportions. 
 This was especially true at Paris, where, it is said 
 though it seems an evident exaggeration that on one oc- 
 casion the University supplied 20,000 persons to march 
 in the funeral procession of some noted man. The life 
 of the students was marked by many of the characteristics 
 which in all ages have been recognized as the students' 
 own. Many were studious and lived hard for learning's 
 sake, many were idle and spendthrift, coming only for the 
 name of the thing and on pleasure bent ; many were dis- 
 orderly and hard to manage, so that the perennial feud 
 of " town and gown " was a feature of the age, and all 
 were affected with the class spirit, the student way, to- 
 ward faculty, town, each other and the world in general. 
 
 But academic learning was by no means the only intel- 
 lectual sign of the times. Literature and art likewise 
 had their place of influence. In England the promising 
 and comparatively early development of Saxon literature 
 had received a check and turn by the Norman invasion, 
 but the seed and soil were both ready, and in the four- 
 teenth century Chaucer leads in the founding of English 
 literature properly speaking. In France the troubadours 
 and other poets in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries 
 are founding modern French literature, and in Germany 
 the minnesingers are doing like service, while the great
 
 224 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 national epic of the Nibelungen probably receives in the 
 thirteenth century the form in which we now have it. 
 In Italy the close of that same century is immortalized 
 by the genius of Dante, and the way is prepared for Pe- 
 trarch and Boccaccio in the fourteenth. In the sphere 
 of art, sculpture and painting are yet crude, waiting for 
 the kindling of the Renaissance; and music, though one 
 of the seven academic arts, must wait yet longer for its 
 thoroughly artistic development ; but architecture achieves 
 great triumphs in the castles, and especially the cathedrals, 
 of that prolific age monuments alike to the growth of 
 art and to the revival, power and permanence of the re- 
 ligious feeling. 
 
 This brings us now to pay some attention to the affairs 
 of the papacy, the clergy, and the general interests of re- 
 ligion in Europe during this age. 
 
 At the turn of the century (1198-1216) there sat Upon 
 the papal throne the greatest of all the popes Innocent 
 III. As the vicegerent of Christ and the successor of 
 Peter he claimed sovereignty over all the nations of the 
 earth. He reduced John of England to abject submission, 
 and carried it with a high hand toward Germany, but 
 encountered a serious and tough resistance at the hands 
 of Philip Augustus of France. After him the brilliant 
 emperor Frederick II. grandson of Barbarossa con- 
 ducted the struggle against several popes in succession. 
 He failed. At his death in 1250 the issue lay on the papal 
 side, but both parties were exhausted, and the papacy, 
 weakened from its long struggle, and in the hands of less 
 able and vigorous pontiffs, entered a period of decay. It 
 is true that Boniface VIII. (1294-1303) powerfully re- 
 asserted and even extended the claims of Innocent, but 
 Philip the Fair of France was more than a match for the 
 astute Cajetan. After Boniface the papacy was for a long 
 time subservient to France. 
 
 In regard to the lower clergy the period offers a num- 
 ber of interesting points. The distinction of secular 
 (those who lived in the world) and regular (those who 
 lived under monastic rule) not only continues, but re- 
 ceives emphasis during this time. The regulars acquire 
 a greater relative importance for three reasons : ( I ) The 
 reforms in discipline instituted toward the close of the 
 eleventh century were not wholly fruitless; the study
 
 THE CENTRAL MEDIEVAL, OR SCHOLASTIC, AGE 225 
 
 of scholasticism and the contemplation of mysticism, to- 
 gether with other influences, combined to make the regu- 
 lar clergy as a rule superior in character and attainments 
 to the seculars. (2) The example, the personal magnet- 
 ism and eloquence, the indomitable energy, the wide- 
 spread influence of Bernard of Clairvaux in the twelfth 
 century gave to monasticism a new and long-abiding im- 
 pulse. Old orders were quickened and new ones created, 
 and monasteries were founded in all lands. (3) The 
 founding of the two great preaching orders of Francis 
 and Dominic in the thirteenth century, their early en- 
 thusiasm and comparative purity, gave a fresh turn to 
 monastic life and influence. We shall see later the more 
 particular relation of these orders to preaching. Among 
 the different orders, and between the seculars and regu- 
 lars as classes, there was great rivalry. The seculars and 
 regulars accused each other of all sorts of evils. Some 
 allowance must be made for partisan dislike, but no doubt 
 there was ground enough for serious charges. 
 
 Some of the secular priests and prelates were men 
 of high character and gifts, true to their calling and 
 earnest for all that was good as they saw it. Others were 
 ambitious, selfish, avaricious, luxurious and corrupt. 
 Among the monks there were not wanting men of holy 
 character, of high intellectual worth and culture, of in- 
 tense and unselfish devotion. Yet among these too the 
 monastic vices found place. There were the lazy, the gar- 
 rulous, the grasping, and even those who were unfaith- 
 ful in spirit and letter to the stern vows of their order. 
 On the whole, in this period, the balance of character and 
 influence lies in favor of the regulars. Their decline 
 comes later. 
 
 Such a clergy as this, marked by both personal and arti- 
 ficial distinctions, it was to whom were confided the re- 
 ligious interests of Western Europe, so far as those 
 interests were included and represented in the dominant 
 Catholic church. The heretics had teachers and leaders 
 of their own ; but the generally accepted religious guides 
 of the people in the centuries under our review were the 
 Catholic clergy. These performed in great city cathe- 
 dral or little village church the offices of the Christian 
 worship as it was then conducted; they read the Scrip- 
 tures, preached, prayed, sang, said masses, and heard
 
 226 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 confessions; they performed funerals and marriages and 
 baptisms ; they instructed the ignorant, comforted the 
 sorrowing, visited the sick, cheered the dying, helped the 
 penitent, succored the poor; sometimes they rebuked the 
 sins of the great, and sometimes, alas! they imitated 
 them ; they moved among all classes of society, an influ- 
 ence for good, though often tainted with acknowledged 
 evil ; and such as they were, frail and faulty at best, they 
 stood as the moral and spiritual teachers of the people, 
 the ofttimes erring, but often also the sincere and humble 
 representatives of the kingdom of God among men. 
 
 We come now to consider the state of religion among 
 the people during this period, and only very general terms 
 can be employed in undertaking to describe it; for in so 
 long a time, in so many different places, there was neces- 
 sarily a great variety of phases and phenomena. Yet the 
 mediaeval life was so slow as compared with that of our 
 times, and the unity of the Catholic church was so little 
 broken as compared with sectarian developments since 
 the Reformation, that there was more of sameness in the 
 general type of religious life in all Europe than would on 
 first view seem likely. 
 
 The religious life of mankind has ever been character- 
 ized by ebbs and flows of feeling ; and this was true within 
 the period we have in view. About the time of the first 
 crusade there was a great wave of religious enthusiasm, 
 which found expression in that great movement. This 
 movement was not confined to the clergy it took hold of 
 king and lord and vassal and serf, and even of the chil- 
 dren. In the twelfth century this revival had its ups and 
 downs, but was on the whole fairly well sustained ; early 
 in the thirteenth the great preaching orders started an- 
 other and a different kind of religious enthusiasm gath- 
 ering great crowds to hear the preaching of the more 
 popular friars. Toward the end of that century and in 
 the fourteenth and fifteenth there is marked decline. 
 
 For the rest the attitude of men to religion and morals 
 was not so strikingly different from that of all the Chris- 
 tian ages as to challenge attention. The works of Bour- 
 gain * and of Lecoy de la Marche 2 give striking pic- 
 
 1 La Chaire Franfaise au XHme Siede. 
 
 8 La Chaire Franfaise au Moyen Age, principalement au XHIme 
 Siede.
 
 THE CENTRAL MEDIEVAL, OR SCHOLASTIC, AGE 227 
 
 tures of society as portrayed in the sermons of the twelfth 
 and thirteenth centuries; and from many other sources 
 also we may be able to construct an outline view of the 
 part played by religion in the life of those far-off times. 
 
 There were, first of all, among the people as among the 
 clergy, the sincerely pious and devout, who loved God, 
 made little of worldly things, and tried to live according 
 to the teachings of the church. They had their repre- 
 sentatives in all classes, from the saintly Louis IX. of 
 France down to the humble peasant. As among the 
 priests so among the people there was the grand army 
 of the half-way religious with all grades of half-way- 
 ness. Nominally religious, connected with the church, 
 sometimes penitent, often errant, and always worldly, 
 they were the terror and the burden of the truly holy 
 in the earth. In the clergy they might be worldly pre- 
 lates, living in wealth and luxury, or doubters like Abe- 
 lard, outwardly conforming to the church, but secretly 
 doubting and expressing as much as they dared without 
 losing their places; among the rulers they might be of 
 the type of Frederick II., ambitious, selfish, bent on glory 
 and power, regarded as a heretic, anathematized by re- 
 ligious authority, and yet with an outward, nominal, occa- 
 sional sort of regard for religion. There was the jolly 
 burgher, who loved his ducats and his wine, but went to 
 church and communicated perhaps once a year ; there was 
 the gay worldling on pleasure bent, and his dame or mis- 
 tress, with passion for dress and finery, who yet upon 
 occasion could be very pious in talk or passing emotion. 
 And, of course, the utterly irreligious, " who feared not 
 God, neither regarded man," were to be found in all the 
 walks of life. There were the superstitious and the" 
 credulous, fearing all things and preyed upon by designers 
 of every sort. And there, too, are the so-called " here- 
 tics," refusing the supremacy of the Roman church, some 
 of them no doubt all wild with disorder and rebellion, 
 some half-crazy with fanaticism and follies, but not a few 
 also who yearned for and sought to exemplify and estab- 
 lish a pure New Testament religion over against the pre- 
 tensions and corruptions of Rome. 
 
 After discussing with great clearness and interest the 
 state of society, as presented in the sermons of the thir-
 
 228 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 teenth century, Lecoy de la Marche concludes his admira- 
 ble book with this striking paragraph : " Our guides have 
 complacently pointed out to us the weaknesses of the pre- 
 lates and monks, the abuses of power by the princes, the 
 robberies of the lords and their retainers, the ambitions 
 of the burghers, the ruses of the merchants and usurers, 
 the coarseness of the sailors, of the laborers, of the ser- 
 vants, the artifices and coquetry of the women, the pecca- 
 dilloes of the students. They have given us in a rapid 
 view the state of knowledge, the received ideas in the 
 matter of government, of commerce, of education, the de- 
 velopment given to each branch of the human sciences. 
 And by the light of their torch that vast panorama has 
 appeared to us under a darker color than the reality. 
 By an optical illusion common to the moralists of all 
 ages they have judged their contemporaries to be the 
 worst of the generations. ' We are the dregs of the cen- 
 turies,' says Jacques de Vitry in so many words Nos 
 sumns in quos faeces saeculorum devenerunt. But at the 
 bottom it is the same interests, the same passions, the 
 same struggles which fill all the pages of the great book 
 of history, and at any moment that it is studied the human 
 heart is found to be such as it has been, is, and will be. 
 There is only diversity in the remedies applied to the 
 plagues, and it is when those remedies are furnished by 
 religion that the cure is least distant. The harshness of 
 the criticisms of the pulpit carries indeed its own correc- 
 tive in itself: so much ardor to combat evil proves that 
 perfection was sought; so much animosity against vice 
 shows what value was attached to virtue." 
 
 2. GENERAL VIEW OF PREACHING IN THE CENTURY 
 
 Passing on to take a view of preaching itself at this 
 great epoch in European history, we find that the revival 
 which distinguished the twelfth century went on with 
 great power and with some new features into its successor ; 
 and it was not until late in the thirteenth century that the 
 inevitable reaction began to appear. One of the evidences 
 or elements of this continued revival was the enormous 
 crowds which are reported to have gatherd to hear the 
 popular preachers. Even when we make allowances for 
 over-estimates and subsequent exaggerations it still re-
 
 THE CENTRAL MEDIEVAL, OR SCHOLASTIC, AGE 22Q 
 
 mains probably true that the largest audiences ever gath- 
 ered to hear preaching were characteristic of this period. 
 It seems that Berthold and Antony had larger crowds 
 than Whitefield in the eighteenth or Moody in the nine- 
 teenth century. The effects of preaching on life and con- 
 duct were also immediate and profound. Conversion and 
 its fruits are abundantly reported in the contemporary ac- 
 counts. The martial and adventurous excitement of the 
 crusades had given place to a more spiritual and moral 
 movement, or, to speak more accurately, these gained 
 comparatively on the other. 
 
 The most important and significant movement in the 
 first part of the century was the founding and early work 
 of the two great preaching orders of monks, the Francis- 
 cans and Dominicans. The primary object of these in- 
 stitutions was to preach. The spur to the establishment 
 of the Dominicans was found in the failure of the pope's 
 emissaries to overcome heresy in the south of France, 
 and Dominic conceived it would be best to meet the sec- 
 taries in their own way by sending forth preachers among 
 the people who should live plainly and be diligent in 
 preaching. The Franciscans came into being in response 
 to the example and call of Francis of Assisi, who saw 
 the people in need of the word of God, and went forth 
 in lowly poverty to bring them the message of grace and 
 love. These orders spread very rapidly in the first half 
 of the century, and the friars went everywhere preaching 
 the word. They even went on foreign missions to Africa 
 and Asia. While the primary idea of Dominic was to 
 meet heresy, and so the order was chiefly devoted to teach- 
 ing, it yet became assimilated to the evangelistic character 
 of the Franciscans, and they in turn, through rivalry, at 
 a later period, paid more attention to learning. In the 
 beginning these orders were comparatively pure, and were 
 fired with the zeal and spirit of their founders. As they 
 grew in numbers, learning and influence they became 
 more worldly, and their power for good decreased. But 
 through this century, or to very near its close, they were 
 in the flourishing period of their character and power. 
 
 But though there was much and very effective preach- 
 ing in this century, and though it attracted great multi- 
 tudes of hearers, yet in quality and character it did not
 
 230 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 escape the faults inherited from the long ages of depart- 
 ure from a true Biblical standard. When we compare 
 the preaching of the thirteenth century with that of the 
 two other culminating periods the fourth and the six- 
 teenth which preceded and followed it, we shall find 
 that in respect of real Biblical content and sound evan- 
 gelical character it falls immeasurably below them. It 
 was a sadly distorted gospel which was preached 
 in the thirteenth century. It had suffered from muti- 
 lation, perversion, and accretion. The use of Scrip- 
 ture was often only sad misuse it was either 
 neglected wholly or served merely as a pretext for 
 wholly unscriptural or even antiscriptural teachings. 
 Wild allegorizing, puerile fancies, forced meanings and 
 applications, gross misunderstanding, and sometimes 
 positive irreverence, were only too common in the hand- 
 ling of the word of God. The best preachers were not 
 free from some of these faults, and those of lower grade 
 were of course worse still. The merit of works, the sav- 
 ing value of ordinances, penances, and the like, were 
 presented, to the detriment of gospel truth and sound 
 Christian morals. The glory of the Virgin, the legends 
 of saints and martyrs crowded, and sometimes crowded 
 out, the history and doctrine of Scripture. Scholastic 
 and mystic subtleties often passed beyond the comprehen- 
 sion of the hearers and left the hungry sheep looking up 
 unfed. Yet amid all this failure and perversion the main 
 distinctive truths of Christianity were ably and sincerely 
 presented, and by many earnest voices the saving power 
 of Christ was told, and thousands were brought to his 
 cross. Sin was searchingly analyzed and boldly de- 
 nounced, and to the ever-present springs of human action 
 appeal was constantly made. 
 
 The preachers of the century may be grouped now on 
 a new principle, according to the tendencies of thought 
 and life which actuated them. These tendencies, or 
 modes of thought and life, were the scholastic, the popu- 
 lar, and the mystic. They flowed freely through all the 
 preaching of the age in greater or less volume, and some- 
 times the same man would combine in his preaching two, 
 or even all three, of these elements. The scholastic mag- 
 nified the intellectual, the popular the practical, and the
 
 THE CENTRAL MEDIEVAL, OR SCHOLASTIC, AGE 231 
 
 mystic the deeper spiritual aspects of the religious life. 
 In this chapter we shall consider the first two. 
 
 3. SCHOLASTIC PREACHING AND PREACHERS 
 
 Scholasticism did not begin nor end in the thirteenth 
 century, but it reached its strongest influence and had its 
 greatest representatives in that time ; and this is therefore 
 the most appropriate place to note its influence on preach- 
 ing. Every great movement in philosophy and theology 
 naturally influences the preaching of the age in which it 
 has vogue, and finds defenders and opponents in the pulpit 
 as well as those who are more or less directly moulded by 
 it. Illustrations are numerous, and those of our own 
 time are ready to hand. But our concern here is with 
 scholasticism and its influence upon the preaching of this 
 great thirteenth century. 
 
 What is scholasticism? The words scholastic and 
 schoolmen sufficiently indicate the fact that what is called 
 scholasticism was primarily and chiefly an affair of the 
 schools. Anselm in the eleventh century and Abelard in 
 the twelfth are very great names among scholastic preach- 
 ers of former times, and they were both great teachers, 
 one representing the rigidly orthodox, the other the freer 
 mode of thinking in theology. Scholasticism is the com- 
 bination of theology and philosophy. It is the applica- 
 tion of the Aristotelian logic to the interpretation of 
 Scripture and the deductions of theology. It is the effort 
 and method whereby the speculations of the intellect on 
 the data furnished by church dogmas may be by logical 
 processes harmonized with those dogmas. It was the 
 serious attempt of acute and minute reasoning to give 
 itself the freest possible exercise and largest possible scope 
 within the trammels imposed by ecclesiastical authority 
 and by accepted beliefs regarded as fundamental and 
 final. Scholasticism was a giant in bonds. Perhaps 
 never has the human intellect more strikingly exhibited 
 three of its greatest powers : speculation, analysis, ratio- 
 cination. In regard to it the question is not as to the in- 
 tellectual power involved, but as to data and ends as to 
 the soundness of the premises, the breadth of the induc- 
 tions, and the value of the conclusions, rather than as to 
 the ability to perceive, deduce, and classify the material
 
 232 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 of thought. In penetration and acuteness of insight, in 
 luminous and exhaustive arrangement of matter, and in 
 logical severity and conclusiveness, those old schoolmen 
 were very great thinkers. As a method scholasticism 
 was sure to need and to receive modification ; as a philoso- 
 phy it could no more be final than those held by the old 
 Greeks, or by the more recent German and English 
 thinkers ; but as the occupation of the purest and highest 
 intellects of the thirteenth and contiguous centuries it at 
 least deserves respectful consideration at the hands of the 
 philosopher and the historian. 
 
 As we shall see, some of the great scholastics were 
 preachers, but the influence of scholasticism upon preach- 
 ing is not represented in these alone. A vigorous and pre- 
 valent method of treating intellectual problems in any age 
 always affects many who cannot be classed with the 
 philosophers, and thus the general mental habits of an 
 age are colored by the dominant philosophy, whether it 
 be accepted or denied, understood or misconceived. The 
 contribution of scholasticism to preaching had regard 
 to both matter and form. In respect to the first the meta- 
 physical subtleties, hairsplitting distinctions, attenuated 
 reasonings, the dogmas, fancies, speculations about things 
 of no particular consequence then or now, all became in 
 some measure the possession of the pulpit. Men of less 
 ability than the great doctors would be sure to pick up 
 the phrases and methods of the leaders of thought with- 
 out always knowing what they were about. 
 
 In the matter of form the contribution of scholasticism 
 to preaching is more important and enduring. The rage 
 for minute analysis was carried too far, but it made the 
 sermon henceforth a more orderly and logical address 
 than it ever had been even in the hands of Chrysostom 
 and Augustine, not to mention the invertebrate homilies 
 of the ages of decline. From now on the sermon must 
 include among the elements of its ideal completeness clear 
 distinction and logical treatment of its material. The 
 tendency will go too far, degenerate, become tedious, 
 ridiculous even-^but it will stay. And so at least one of 
 the prime essentials ol effective pulpit discourse owes a 
 debt to the scholastic method. 
 
 Owing to the rise of the preaching orders of monks
 
 THE CENTRAL MEDIEVAL, OR SCHOLASTIC, AGE 233 
 
 and to other causes, the popular phase of preaching was 
 prominent earlier in the century than the scholastic; and 
 it was not until these orders themselves fell under the in- 
 fluence of the schools and produced great scholars that 
 we find the scholastic method very pronounced and pow- 
 erful in the pulpit. Still in the early part of the century 
 there are a few notable men, distinguished prelates, who, 
 because of their learning and general position, belong 
 among the scholastic rather than among the popular 
 preachers. Among them are two celebrated English 
 bishops who claim brief notice as preachers. 
 
 Stephen Langton (d. 1228) was born in Yorkshire 
 about the middle of the twelfth century, but was edu- 
 cated chiefly at Paris, where he made a warm friendship 
 with the gifted Italian, Lothario, better known as the 
 greatest pope Innocent III. In 1198 Innocent promptly 
 made his friend a member of the papal household, and in 
 1206 appointed him a cardinal. The next year, through 
 the influence of the pope, he was chosen by the canons 
 archbishop of Canterbury. But he was not acceptable to 
 King John, and over his investiture there arose the fa- 
 mous controversy between pope and king in which John 
 was at last forced to yield, and in 1213 Langton took 
 charge of his office. He stood firmly for the country's 
 liberty and bore no mean part in framing and securing 
 Magna Charta. He remained in peaceful possession of 
 his diocese till his death in 1228. 
 
 There are numbers of unpublished sermons of his cited 
 by Oudin, 1 and Lecoy de la Marche has found and studied 
 thirty-five of these, somewhat jumbled in one collection, 
 and besides a complete and homogeneous series in a 
 manuscript at Ste. Genevieve. They show some real 
 oratorical talent, and as the learned critic observes, " pass 
 completely beyond the coldness and banality only too 
 common in the productions of the time." We are much 
 indebted to the French scholar for having thus shown 
 that this famous English prelate and patriot was also a 
 preacher of no ordinary force. 
 
 1 See Lecoy de la Marche, Pars I., chap. IV., from whom the 
 account in the text is chiefly derived. He discusses Langton 
 among the French preachers because of his education and lectur- 
 ing at Paris and his long sojourn in France.
 
 234 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 The renowned bishop of Lincoln, Robert Greathead 
 (better known in its old French form, Grosseteste; d. 
 1253), also belongs here. He is called 1 "in some re- 
 spects the most distinguished of all the English mediaeval 
 prelates as regards his personal influence both over the 
 men of his time and its literature." Born of humble par- 
 ents, he yet obtained education at Oxford and at Paris, 
 and became one of the most learned men of the day. He 
 held several subordinate places in the English church, 
 and was finally made bishop of Lincoln in 1235. He was 
 a diligent bishop, strict in discipline and vigorous in 
 administration of affairs. Though a sincere and duty- 
 loving man, he was hasty in temper and somewhat harsh 
 in manner, and so he made enemies and had many a 
 quarrel on his hands. He did not fail to include among 
 his opponents several of the popes, who desired to put 
 into office men whom the honest and sturdy Englishman 
 deemed unfit. He also stood by Magna Charta, and was 
 a friend of Simon de Montfort. But amid all these offi- 
 cial cares he was a diligent preacher, and reports of about 
 forty of his sermons remain. The writer quoted above 
 remarks, " Of those who speak of him, one is especially 
 struck by his courage, another by his universal knowl- 
 edge, a third by his subtlety in interpreting Scripture, 
 and a fourth by his frequent preaching." 
 
 Elinand, 2 or Helinand (d.c. 1225), was born in France, 
 but of Flemish parents who had fled thither. He was as 
 a youth devoted to learning, but before his conversion 
 was much given to the pleasures of the world. After that 
 he became very pious and joined the Cistercian order of 
 monks at Froidmont. His learning was ample and accu- 
 rate. He had the classic and ecclesiastical writers at his 
 fingers' ends, quoting from them with ease, frequency 
 and effect in his sermons. In one of these 3 he quotes 
 Horace, Virgil, Cicero, Ovid, Statius, Lucan, Terence, 
 Quintilian, Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, Leo I., and 
 alludes to Bernard, Dunstan, and others. He was him- 
 self a writer of repute, his historical work being still one 
 of the important sources of information for his period. 
 
 1 Article in Ency. Brit. 
 
 * Works and notice of his life in Migne, Pat. Lot., torn. 112, col. 
 481 ss. 8 Sermon XV., on the Ascension ; Migne, /. c.
 
 THE CENTRAL MEDIAEVAL, OR SCHOLASTIC, AGE 235 
 
 As a preacher he was a trifle pedantic, and did not rise 
 above the manner and matter of his age; but he shows 
 warmth of feeling and does not fail to warn his hearers 
 against the sins of the time. In the very sermon in which 
 he displays so much learning he warns the monks, to 
 whom the sermon was addressed, against seeking for it- 
 self the learning of this world. He says, " Everywhere 
 knowledge is sought, nowhere life; without which not 
 only is nothing profitable, but even knowledge is nothing. 
 For this reason not even knowledge itself is found, be- 
 cause it is not sought where it is, that is, in the book of 
 life, which also is the book of knowledge, namely, in 
 him who is the Wisdom of God, in whom all the treas- 
 ures of wisdom and knowledge are hid." 
 
 Among the famous prelates and scholars and preachers 
 of the early thirteenth century a good place belongs to 
 Jacques de Vitry (Jacobus de Vitriaco; d. 1240), priest 
 in France, bishop in Palestine, cardinal in Italy. 1 Born 
 probably at Vitry (some say Argenteuil) about 1180, he 
 was early attracted to Oigny by the fame and piety of 
 the noted Beguine, Mary of Oigny, who took a motherly 
 interest in her friend as long as she lived. He studied 
 at Paris and was ordained to the priesthood, and, re- 
 turning to Oigny, he soon became known for his learn- 
 ing and his oratorical talent. About 1213 he was com- 
 missioned by Innocent III. to preach in Belgium the 
 crusade against the Albigenses in the south of France. 
 He had great success and went with the crusaders, 
 preaching both to them and to the heretics, but naturally 
 without much success in case of the latter. Soon after 
 this he was charged by the same pope to preach a new 
 crusade to the Holy Land, and met with much success. 
 Meantime he was chosen by the canons of Acre to be 
 their bishop. On the way to Rome to be set apart to his 
 far-off charge he found at Perugia the lifeless body of 
 the great pope who had suddenly died there in June, 
 1216 lying shamefully neglected in the church of St. 
 Laurence. The crowd of attendants had hurried to Rome 
 to the new election ! Struck by this evidence of the empti- 
 ness of earthly glory, he went on to Rome, where he was 
 
 1 Lecoy de la Marche, p. 53 et suiv. ; and the article in Wetzer 
 und Welte.
 
 236 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 kindly received by the newly elected pope, Honorius III., 
 one of whose first official acts was to consecrate Jacques 
 as bishop of Acre in Palestine. He discharged the oner- 
 ous duties of his diocese with faithfulness and ability for 
 some years, and then begged that his resignation be ac- 
 cepted. This was reluctantly granted, and he returned 
 to his beloved Oigny for a short rest. Thence he was 
 called by his friend Pope Gregory IX. and made cardinal 
 bishop of Tusculum (or Frascati), and took up his resi- 
 dence in Rome till his death in 1240. 
 
 Jacques de Vitry was in many ways a very remarkable 
 man. Celebrated as a writer, especially of history, his ac- 
 count of affairs in Europe and the East during his life- 
 time is of great value to historians. As a preacher he 
 was known in many countries, but especially in France. 
 A contemporary, quoted by Lecoy de la Marche, says, 
 " His word moved France as it had not been moved 
 within the memory of man." During his residence at 
 Rome he made a collection of his sermons which remains 
 (partly in manuscript), and is said to be unusual for inde- 
 pendence and originality. The first part x contains ser- 
 mons of different lengths, style, etc., suited to different 
 audiences, on the usual subjects of the feasts, the saints, 
 and the like. The second part, yet unpublished, consists 
 of seventy-four sermons addressed to " prelates and 
 priests; canons and regular clergy; scholars; judges and 
 lawyers; theologians and preachers; black and white 
 monks ; sisters, gray, white, and Cistercian ; regular can- 
 ons; hermits and recluses; friars Minorites; brothers of 
 the order of the Temple ; brothers Hospitallers, and guar- 
 dians of the sick; lepers and infirm; poor and afflicted, 
 people in sorrow ; crusaders ; pilgrims ; nobles and 
 knights; citizens; merchants and bankers; laborers and 
 vine-dressers ; artisans ; sailors ; servants and domestics ; 
 married people ; widows and celibates ; young girls ; chil- 
 dren and youth." In the prologue he says : " The greatest 
 prudence and the greatest discernment are necessary in 
 preaching. The same specific does not suit everybody. 
 The physician who would cure all eyes with the same 
 salve is a fool; and that which the eye needs the foot 
 does not." He has great variety in his preaching, and is 
 happy and fruitful in the use of illustration. 
 
 1 Adduced by Lecoy de la Marche, op. cit.
 
 THE CENTRAL MEDIEVAL, OR SCHOLASTIC, AGE 237 
 
 At least mention should be made here of the celebrated 
 founder of the theological college the Sorbonne of the 
 University of Paris, Robert (d. 1274), who was born at 
 Sorbon near Rheims, was canon at Cambrai, later at 
 Paris, and chaplain to the pious king Louis IX. He was 
 not greatly learned, but a respectable scholar. Some dis- 
 courses, 1 besides other writings, remain from him. " They 
 contain few passages of an elevated eloquence, but they 
 are rich in moral traits, in examples of all sorts, and in 
 vestiges of the French language, though written in 
 Latin." 
 
 Preeminently representative of the dominant scholastic 
 mode of thought were two : Albert, called the Great, and 
 his greater pupil, Thomas Aquinas. 
 
 Albert 2 (d. 1280), to whom was given the epithet 
 Magnus, was born in southern Germany, entered the Do- 
 minican order at Padua, was highly educated in the 
 learning of the time, became one of the most famous 
 and influential teachers of his age, and prior of the Do- 
 minican abbey and school at Cologne. Here he did most 
 of his work as professor and preacher, but also lectured 
 for a time at the University of Paris, whence he returned 
 to Cologne for the remainder of his life, and died there 
 in 1280. He was called " Doctor Universalis." 
 
 Several sets of sermons are attributed to him, but 
 many of these are certainly spurious, 3 and perhaps not 
 all the others can be confidently accepted as genuine. But 
 the very fact that so many sermons were put forth under 
 his great name is evidence of his power as a preacher 
 and his influence upon preaching. Those sermons which 
 may be most probably accounted genuine are in the schol- 
 astic method, and were very influential in giving vogue 
 and authority to it. There is a set on the festivals and 
 saints' days of which Christlieb 4 says : " By thematic 
 form, through practical use of the text, and simple popu- 
 larity they are distinguished above many." But his chief 
 fame as preacher rests on another set on the Sacraments. 
 Among them is a series on one text : Prov. 9 :5, " Come, 
 eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have 
 
 1 Lecoy de la M., op. cit. 
 
 * Most of the authorities previously noted. 
 
 'Cruel discusses them under the title, "Pseudo-Albert." 
 
 *Art. in Herzog, Bd. 18, supplement.
 
 238 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 mingled." Albert takes these words of the personified 
 wisdom as being those of the Lord Jesus Christ, and a 
 prophecy of the Lord's Supper. On the basis of this 
 interpretation he proceeds through a number of sermons 
 to discuss in the characteristic way of divisions, sub- 
 divisions and distinctions the institution, the form, the 
 miracle, the participation, and so on, of the Lord's Supper. 
 Almost certainly not his, but called his, and illustrative 
 of his and the scholastic method in general, is a greatly 
 used and prized so-called Mariale, that is, a series of ser- 
 mons or sketches on the Virgin. The text, Luke I '.26, 27 
 the mission of Gabriel to Mary at Nazareth was used 
 to suggest a set of two hundred and thirty questions in 
 regard to Mary. Here by the sophistical dialectics of 
 scholasticism there is attributed to the Virgin all sorts 
 of knowledge, as of grammar, rhetoric, law, and other 
 things. 
 
 Albert's great fame is merged into and surpassed by 
 that of his renowned pupil, Thomas Aquinas (1227- 
 1274). x This greatest representative of the scholastic the- 
 ology was born of noble parents at Aquino, near Naples, 
 in the year after the death of Francis of Assisi. At five 
 years of age he was sent to be educated at the well-known 
 Benedictine monastery of Monte Cassino, then under the 
 care of an uncle of Thomas. He was a quiet and thought- 
 ful boy, and already, like Origen of old, surprised his 
 teachers by his precocious questions on profound subjects 
 of theology. At this time Italy was rent by the quarrel 
 between the papacy and the emperor Frederick II. the 
 Guelf and Ghibelline factions. When Thomas was 
 twelve years old the monastery was burned by the sol- 
 diers of Frederick, and the boy returned to his home. 
 Soon he was sent to the University of Naples, where after 
 a time he fell under the influence of the Dominicans, and 
 while still a youth joined that order. This step was 
 greatly against the pride and the tastes of his family, who 
 could not abide the thought that their well-born and 
 gifted Thomas should be a mendicant monk, strolling 
 about the country barefoot and preaching. He was fitted 
 for higher things in the church than this. The Domini- 
 
 1 Works in the great Paris ed. of Drioux; Life, by Vaughan; 
 notices and accounts in many authorities.
 
 THE CENTRAL MEDIEVAL, OR SCHOLASTIC, AGE 239 
 
 cans tried to smuggle him off to France, but he was cap- 
 tured by his brothers, who were officers in the imperial 
 army, and, with his mother's consent, was made a pris- 
 oner in his own father's castle. This lasted for two years, 
 during which time it is said that by his father's instigation 
 he was subjected to temptation in order to corrupt him. 
 But this was resisted, and his enforced leisure was de- 
 voted to higher things. Three books were the companions 
 of his captivity the Bible, some works of Aristotle, and 
 the Sentences of Peter Lombard, one of the fathers of 
 scholasticism. These he mastered thoroughly, and his sub- 
 sequent life and labors show also how thoroughly they had 
 mastered him. After two years his family so far relented 
 that he was set at liberty, and later his mother gave up 
 her opposition to his being a Dominican. Thomas was 
 then sent to Cologne to study under Albert the Great. The 
 young man was of heavy build, reserved and shy. His 
 companions nicknamed him bos mutus the " dumb ox." 
 But one day Albert set him to defend a thesis, and he did 
 it with such marked ability that the great teacher said, 
 " You call him the dumb ox, but some day his lowing will 
 fill the world." When in 1245 Albert was sent to the 
 University of Paris to lecture for awhile Thomas accom- 
 panied him and enjoyed a first acquaintance with that re- 
 nowned seat of learning. On Albert's return to Cologne 
 Thomas was for four years his beloved master's assistant 
 teacher, and then was sent back to Paris to study for his 
 degrees. After several years more he was made a doctor 
 the same day with his beloved friend Bonaventura of the 
 Franciscan order. What a long period of studious prepa- 
 ration before he took up in earnest the work of his life ! 
 
 Ready now for that work the young doctor Thomas 
 Aquinas found his hands full as soon as he took hold. 
 One of his first successes was won in a controversy with 
 the brilliant William of St. Amour, who, in a treatise, had 
 attacked the preaching orders. Thomas was called to 
 Italy by the pope to defend the friars, and he achieved 
 a brilliant success. He became very popular as preacher 
 and lecturer, and was sent by the authorities of his order 
 to many different places to teach and preach. Paris, 
 Bologna, Naples, Rome itself, were the scenes of his tri- 
 umphs in pulpit and chair. It was thus that the " dumb
 
 240 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 ox " of former days became changed into the " angel of 
 the schools," the doctor angelicus to admiring hearers 
 and readers. But the years of his activity were not to 
 be very many, though prodigiously fruitful. In the early 
 spring of 1274 a council was called at Lyons to consider 
 what might be done to reunite the Greek and Latin 
 churches. Pope Gregory X. sent Thomas, who was then 
 in Rome, to attend the council and advise on points of 
 doctrine. He was taken sick on the way, and died at 
 Fossa Nuova, in north Italy, March, 1274, in the forty- 
 eighth year of his age. 
 
 As a theologian, his vast and comprehensive work, the 
 Summa Theologies, witnesses to his industry, his wonder- 
 ful acquirements, his logical power, his depth and acute- 
 ness of thought, his Catholic orthodoxy. As a teacher 
 and disputant, his title of " angelic doctor " and his 
 numerous treatises reveal something of his popularity and 
 power. As a man and Christian, the story of his life tells 
 of his purity, his gentleness, his patience, his diligence; 
 the respect and admiration of his own and later times 
 testify to the nobility of his character ; his love for Albert 
 his master, and Bonaventura his friend, shows the heart 
 of the man ; and his humble piety toward his God is illus- 
 trated in the tradition of later days, which tells that once 
 while he was praying before a crucifix, the Saviour said 
 to him, " Thomas, thou hast written well of me ; what 
 reward wilt thou have for thy labor ? " And the sainf 
 replied, " Lord, none but thee." 1 
 
 But it is in his quality and work as a preacher that we 
 are here concerned with the great theologian, Aquinas. 
 On his journeys and during his residences at various 
 places as professor and lecturer he was, sometimes to 
 monks and pupils, sometimes on great ecclesiastical occa- 
 sions, and often too to the common people, a preacher of 
 great acceptance and power. He must have preached 
 without manuscript and in the language of the people, 
 but the brief Latin sketches and outlines of his sermons 
 which remain can give us no just conception of his power 
 before an audience. The current Catholic orthodoxy, as 
 
 *Acta Sanctorum, Mart., die VII., 34: "Thoma, de me bene 
 scripsisti: quam recipies a me pro tuo labore mercedem? Qui 
 respondit, Domine, non nisi te."
 
 THE CENTRAL MEDIEVAL, OR SCHOLASTIC, AGE 241 
 
 he has himself interpreted it in his great books, formed 
 the doctrinal content of his preaching; and there can be 
 little doubt that the scholastic analysis and the argumenta- 
 tive method characterized even his popular sermons ; but 
 it is a comfort to know that the people delighted to hear 
 him. Broadus x says of him : " Amid the immense and 
 amazing mass of his works are many brief discourses, and 
 treatises which were originally discourses, marked by 
 clearness, simplicity and practical point. He is not highly 
 imaginative, nor flowing in expression ; the sentences are 
 short, and everything runs into division and subdivision, 
 usually by threes. But while there is no ornament, and 
 no swelling passion, he uses many homely and lively com- 
 parisons, for explanation as well as for argument." It 
 goes without saying that as a child of his time and heir 
 of his past he does not escape the allegorizing and forcing 
 of Scripture which we have come to recognize as inevi- 
 table in all mediaeval preaching. The following outlines 
 will serve as illustrations of his method. 2 
 
 Outline of a sermon on the 
 
 Coming of the King. Matt. 21 :5- First Sunday in 
 Advent. 
 
 I. The Dignity of Him Who Comes, (i) A merciful 
 King in sparing. Isa. 16:5. (2) A just King in 
 judging. Isa. 34; 16:5. (3) A good King in reward- 
 ing. (4) A wise King in governing. Ps. 73:1. (5) 
 A terrible King. Jer. 23:5. (6) An omnipotent King. 
 Est. [Apoc.] 13:9. (7) An eternal King. Jer. 10:10; 
 Luke i :33. 
 
 II. The Utility of His Coming. Sevenfold: (i) 
 For the illumination of the world. Jno. 8:12; 1:9. (2) 
 For the spoliation of hell. Hos. 13:14; Zech. 9:11. (3) 
 For the reparation of heaven. Eph. I :io. (4) For the 
 destruction of sin. Heb. 2:14, 15. (5) For the vanquish- 
 ment of the devil. Rom. 6:6. (6) For the reconciliation 
 of man with God. Rom. 5 :io. (7) For the beatification 
 of man. Jno. 3 :i6. 
 
 1 Hist. Prea., p. 106 f. 
 
 2 One of the outlines is taken from the Drioux ed. of the Works, 
 the other two from an English translation of some of his ser- 
 mons : The Homilies of S. Thomas Aquinas upon the Epistles and 
 Gospels for the Sundays of the Christian Year; translated by 
 John M. Ashley, Lond., 1873.
 
 
 
 242 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 III. The Manner of His Coming. In meekness, for 
 four reasons: (i) That he might more easily correct 
 the wicked. Psl. 89:10 [Vulg.]. (2) That he might 
 show to all his lowliness. Ecclus. [Apoc.] 3:19. (3) 
 That he might draw the sheep to himself, and multiply 
 to himself a people. 2 Sam. 22:36. [And a quotation 
 from Bernard]. (4) That he might teach meekness. 
 Matt. 1 1 :29. So four things should commend meekness 
 to us: (a) Delivers from evil; (b) Perfects grace, 
 Prov. 3:34; (c) Preserves the soul, Ecclus. [Apoc.] 
 12:31 ; (d) Deserves the land of the living, Matt. 5:5. 
 
 The Mystical Ship. Matt. 8 :23. 
 
 Four things are to be considered in this gospel: (i) 
 The entering of Christ and his disciples into a ship. (2) 
 The great tempest in the sea. (3) The prayer of the 
 disciples. (4) The obedience of the storm to the com- 
 mand of Christ. Morally we are taught four things: 
 (i) To enter into holiness of life. (2) That temptations 
 rage after we have entered. (3) In these temptations to 
 cry unto the Lord. (4) To look for a calm according 
 to his will. 
 
 The next sermon continues the same subject and shows 
 Tiow a ship symbolizes holiness: 
 
 I. The Material. ( i ) The wood represents righteous- 
 ness. (2) The iron, strength. (3) The oakum, by which 
 leaks are stopped, temperance. (4) The pitch, charity. 
 
 II. The Form. ( i ) Smallness at the beginning repre- 
 sents grief for sin. (2) Breadth of the middle, hope of 
 eternal joy. (3) Height of stern, fear of eternal punish- 
 ment. (4) Narrowness of keel, humility. 
 
 III. The Uses, (i) To carry men over seas; in holi- 
 ness we go to heaven. (2) To carry merchandise; in 
 holiness we carry good works. (3 To make war; in 
 holiness we fight against the demons. 
 
 4. POPULAR PREACHERS AND PREACHING 
 
 We have already had occasion to observe that the dis- 
 tinctive and emphatic thing in the preaching of the early 
 thirteenth century was the missionary or popular element. 
 Vast crowds, popular enthusiasm, some fanaticism and 
 extremes, but likewise conversion to God and amendment 
 of life were some of its features and fruits.
 
 THE CENTRAL MEDIEVAL, OR SCHOLASTIC, AGE 243 
 
 Under the providence of God a number of cooperating 
 causes may be traced as producing at this time so notable 
 an extension in the power and effect of popular preaching. 
 In a general way greater consideration was now given 
 to the people themselves. Along with the decay of 
 feudalism, the rise of the burgher class, the growth of 
 cities, the acquisition of some political significance by the 
 middle class, the general stir and heightened interest in 
 life, whch have been elsewhere noted, there came greater 
 longing among the people for larger intellectual and 
 spiritual life. This reached and appealed to the minds 
 and hearts of many of the devout. For a century and 
 more Western Christendom had been trying at intervals 
 to wrest by mighty armed hosts the holy places at Jeru- 
 salem from the hands of the infidels, but what was doing 
 to deliver the souls of the masses in Europe and elsewhere 
 from the bondage of sin, of unbelief, of moral decay? 
 The people needed, and Christian men must give them, 
 the gospel of Christ. And the Catholic leaders saw too 
 that many who did not hold the Catholic faith in the 
 traditional and authoritative ways were seeing this need 
 of the people and were spreading heresy among them. 
 So the two motives of a real concern for the people and 
 a jealousy for the Catholic faith were working together 
 to stir up more zeal for preaching in the hearts of some. 
 And these two leading motives became incarnated in two 
 great leaders who now appeared on the scene. Dominic 
 saw that heresy could be more wisely and safely met by 
 preaching the Catholic faith after the manner of the 
 heretics themselves than by persecution or mere churchly 
 teaching; and more devout Francis saw the neglected 
 spiritual condition of the people and heard his call to 
 preach the gospel to the poor. Hence arose the two great 
 orders of preaching monks in whose ranks we find the 
 great popular preachers of the century, and from whom 
 went forth missionaries in many lands at home and 
 abroad. Besides their direct work the example of these 
 preachers had effect on other preachers not of their own 
 companies. 
 
 In character and contents the popular preaching was 
 such as has been described as generally prevalent in the 
 age the current Roman Catholic faith of the Middle
 
 244 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 Ages, the traditional allegorical interpretation and other 
 misuses of Scripture, the excessive employment of legends 
 of the saints and other unscriptural material as authorita- 
 tive, the doctrines of penance, purgatory, and confession, 
 the veneration amounting to worship of the Virgin all 
 these and other overgrowths upon the gospel we have 
 learned to recognize as characteristics of the mediaeval 
 preaching, and they need here be only thus briefly re- 
 called. But we must not forget that along with these 
 things the work of Christ as the Saviour, and the only 
 Saviour, was vividly presented, and the duty of repent- 
 ance and faith strongly urged together with the practice 
 of the Christian virtues as the fruits and evidences of a 
 real Christian experience. Moreover, the fearful sins of 
 the age in clergy, nobles, and people received brave 
 and keen rebuke. These old preachers knew human 
 nature, and they did not hesitate to expose and denounce 
 and try to correct its perennial foibles. Change the lan- 
 guage, the allusion to current events, some of the illus- 
 trations from prevalent customs and manners, and the 
 main material of their treatment of sin and its remedy 
 would apply to the men and women of to-day as well as 
 Jo those of the thirteenth century. 
 
 In form, the sermons of the popular preachers were 
 largely influenced by the scholastic passion for analysis 
 and minute subdivision. In regard to language they were 
 of course mostly, if not entirely, preached in the vernacu- 
 lar dialects. 1 For illustration and argument there was 
 effective use of every sort of majerial legends and tales, 
 fables old and new, the habits (real and imaginary) of 
 animals, the forces of nature (of course oftentimes ab- 
 surdly misunderstood), the customs of the time, and many 
 other sources, were open books to these prophets of the 
 day. Sometimes queer methods for advertising and effect 
 were res'orted to. " Sensational preaching " was by no 
 means unknown. There was many a prototype of the 
 modern Sam Jones variety of " popular " preacher. Tricks 
 and surprises, catchy and coarse illustrations were not 
 infrequent. The humorous was freely employed, and 
 this often degenerated into the burlesque and irreverent. 2 
 
 1 See Lecoy de la Marche, as above, p. 184. 
 
 2 Friar Cuthbert in Longfellow's Golden Legend is not over- 
 drawn.
 
 THE CENTRAL MEDIAEVAL, OR SCHOLASTIC, AGE 245 
 
 The marvellous was a mighty help in that age of credulity, 
 and it was worked too hard even by the best of the 
 preachers. But the sermons were also popular in the best 
 sense they found the people, held them, helped them. 
 Vivid allegory and picturing appealed to the imagination, 
 lively dialogue and sharp home-thrust kept the attention, 
 and warm and tender appeals to the better feelings of men 
 were not without effect. Past masters in the art of popu- 
 lar speech, and of handling great crowds in its use, were 
 Antony and Berthold ; but though preeminent, they were 
 not alone. 
 
 When we name a few of the more notable men who 
 distinguished the annals of popular preaching in the thir- 
 teenth century we must not forget the great army of less 
 known and even of now forgotten preachers who in the 
 spirit of these leaders, and in use of the methods which 
 the leaders exemplify, went among the people preaching 
 the word. Contemporary accounts and the considerable 
 number of sermons many of them anonymous which 
 have come down from that age, show us that the promi- 
 nent and well-known names represent a mighty activity, 
 of which they are only the most notable examples. 
 
 The first place in our discussion naturally belongs to 
 the two great men who in the early part of this thir- 
 teenth century founded the famous orders of preaching 
 friars the Dominicans and Franciscans. 
 
 Dominic 1 (d. 1221), whose real name has been lost 
 sight of in his assumed and canonized one, was born in 
 1170, of high family, at Calaruega, in Old Castile, Spain. 
 In early childhood he found his pleasure in going to 
 church, in prayers, in self-denial. He was well educated 
 in youth by an uncle, and at the age of fourteen was 
 sent to the University of Valencia, where he studied hard 
 the required general course, and afterwards made a spe- 
 cialty of theology. During his career as a student he was 
 distinguished above all his comrades for diligence and 
 learning, and still more for his piety. He had a tender 
 
 1 The chief authority is the Ada Sanctorum, August, Vol. I., p. 
 359 ss. Also, Vie de Saint Dominique, by the famous modern 
 Dominican, Lacordaire; Francis and Dominic, by J. Herkless, a 
 brief popular account; articles in Wetzer und Welte, and Her- 
 zog. Dominic did not leave many writings, and of those ascribed 
 to him the larger part are considered spurious.
 
 246 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 heart, and was ever ready to sacrifice himself to duty. 
 Thus early, too, he was deeply concerned for the salva- 
 tion of men and the conversion of heretics. At the age 
 of twenty-four he was called by bishop Diego of Osma 
 to be canon of his cathedral ; and in this office he displayed 
 great zeal and preached very often. 
 
 Toward the end of 1203 Alfonso VIII. , king of Old 
 Castile, sent bishop Diego on an embassy to Denmark to 
 seek a bride for his son. The bishop chose Dominic for 
 his travelling companion. The mission was successful, 
 and the bishop came back to report, but on the return of 
 the messengers the following year to bring the princess 
 to Spain it was found that she had in the meantime died. 
 From this second journey the bishop and Dominic did 
 not directly return, but having communicated their sad 
 intelligence to the king they crossed the Alps and paid 
 a visit to Rome. All these experiences were helpful in 
 the development of the young priest, but now on this 
 return journey from Rome occurred the turning point 
 in his life. 
 
 On their way through the south of France the com- 
 panions stopped a while at Montpelier, where they found 
 three papal legates living in some style and making futile 
 official attempts to bring back the heretical Albigenses 
 to the Catholic faith. Diego and Dominic saw that these 
 methods were useless, and advised the priests to adopt 
 a simple mode of life, go among the people with humble 
 sincerity and use the methods of preaching and personal 
 persuasion which the heretics themselves employed. The 
 counsellors set the example themselves, and thus in 1205 
 Dominic began to preach among the Albigenses of Lan- 
 guedoc. About the same time he started in a small way a 
 home of refuge for young women to save them from 
 heresy, and this later came to be the female order of 
 Dominicans, as well as being a sort of beginning for the 
 order proper. This soon came into being. For Dominic's 
 zeal and example won others to his side. He took no 
 active part in the crusade against the Albigenses, but 
 at its close, in 1215, he set about the establishing of his 
 order of preachers. One of his friends, Peter Cellani, 
 gave him a house for the gathering company, the bishop 
 of Toulouse favored and helped the enterprise, and so
 
 THE CENTRAL MEDIEVAL, OR SCHOLASTIC, AGE 247 
 
 did Simon de Montfort. With this good start Dominic 
 went to Rome to gain the pope's consent. As in case 
 of Francis, Innocent III. was very reluctant. He died, 
 however, before the matter was finally disposed of, and 
 his successor, Honorius III., in December, 1216, gave the 
 requisite authorization, and the order of Fratres Pr&di- 
 catores, or Preaching Friars (Brothers), was fairly 
 established. 
 
 Dominic was active in spreading, developing, guiding 
 his order during the rest of his life. He died compara- 
 tively young at Bologna in August, 1221. Dominic was 
 himself a preacher of decided ability, and was heard with 
 admiration both by the people and the more cultured audi- 
 ences of Rome and other places. It is to be regretted 
 that no specimens of his eloquence survive. 
 
 Francis (d. 1226), the founder of the order of Fratres 
 Minores ("Little Brothers of the Poor"), was born at 
 Assisi in Umbria, central Italy, in H82. 1 His father, 
 Pietro Bernadone, was a wealthy merchant, worldly, am- 
 bitious, and of an evil disposition. He wished his fine 
 and handsome son to figure in society, and was quite 
 willing to supply the requisite means to that end. Francis 
 was of an accommodating spirit in that regard as most 
 young men would be and sowed his wild oats pretty 
 freely; dressed well, enjoyed life, and did nothing. But 
 all the while he was secretly dissatisfied at times; the 
 dormant conscience was not dead, the beckoning future 
 forbade rest in an idle and luxurious present. The youth 
 was of a free and generous disposition, kind-hearted, lov- 
 able, and popular. With a view to social elevation he 
 enlisted as a soldier in one of the petty Italian wars of 
 the time and was furnished by his father with a fine 
 equipment. He started with his companions on an expe- 
 dition, but his heart failed him it is said that he saw a 
 vision and he returned. Certainly this was not for lack 
 of courage, but because he had no taste for the business. 
 
 1 There is a great literature on Francis. For many reasons he 
 has appealed to sentiment as well as to historic and religious in- 
 terest. I have found particularly valuable the brilliant work of 
 Sabatier, Francis of Assisi, Eng. transl. ; a critical study by Walter 
 Goetz in Brieger und Bess Ztschrft. fur Kirchengesch., 1901, SS. 
 362, 525; and for the traditions and atmosphere the Fioretti di 
 San Francesco.
 
 248 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 Here began his troubles with his father. Filled with 
 strange conflicts, he went to Rome in search of peace. 
 Here he was much impressed by the beggars, and counted 
 it one of the beginnings of his conversion that he was 
 moved to tender sympathy toward the lepers, for whom, in 
 his fastidious days, he had entertained a sickening aver- 
 sion. It is said that he embraced one of these outcasts 
 and gave him his cloak. The turning point soon came. 
 It was in 1206 while he was praying before a crucifix 
 in the church of St. Damian, near Assisi, that his soul 
 found peace in his Saviour, and his resolution to break 
 with the world and devote himself to the service of his 
 Lord was taken. 
 
 A stormy scene with his father followed. Pietro ap- 
 peared with his son before some ecclesiastical or civil 
 tribunal and made complaint of his disobedience. Francis 
 declared he could no longer walk in the ways his father 
 had planned for him, that all he now had belonging to 
 his father was the clothing he had on. Stripping him- 
 self of all, he gave the clothes to Pietro, and ran out; 
 some one kindly threw a cloak about the naked youth as 
 he left, and with this only garment he went to the church 
 of St. Damian to pray and consider his future course. 
 For clothing and food the erstwhile dainty and luxurious 
 Francis was now for the rest of his life dependent upon 
 charity, and this dependence became one of the principles 
 of the Franciscan order. It is a pathetic and beautiful 
 thing that, not knowing what he should now do for his 
 Lord, he noticed that the church of St. Damian, which 
 was his soul's birthplace and his refuge when homeless, 
 was out of repair; and humbly taking hold of the first 
 work that came in view, he set about repairing the edifice 
 with his own hands and with such other help as he could 
 get. This done, he turned to do a similar work at another 
 church nearby, Portiuncula; and there, while attending 
 mass one day, he heard the priest read the tenth chapter 
 of Matthew. It came to him as a message from his Lord, 
 showing him his mission and calling him to it. Now his 
 lifework was found; it was to be poor and to preach. 
 " No purse no scrip as ye go, preach " this was the 
 key to his future. His soul had found its burden and its 
 joy.
 
 THE CENTRAL MEDIEVAL, OR SCHOLASTIC, AGE 249 
 
 Francis immediately went to Assisi, up the hill from the 
 church, and preached to the people with power, accepting 
 as before only his necessities from the hands of the 
 charitable. His words and example produced an effect. 
 Soon several other men joined him, and so almost before 
 he knew it, and without previous intention, he was becom- 
 ing the head of a band of preachers. But they were act- 
 ing without church authority, only talking from their 
 hearts without clerical ordination, and working together 
 without organization This was in the spring of 1209. 
 So Francis went to Rome to get permission to found a 
 regular order of preachers within the fold of the church. 
 Innocent III., who was then pope, was opposed to the 
 multiplication of orders, and only reluctantly yielded to 
 the persuasion of Francis and the representations of 
 others, and finally gave consent in 1210 to the establish- 
 ment of the order, on the conditions that it should be 
 wholly subordinated to the church and under a responsible 
 head. Francis joyfully accepted the conditions, and so 
 his " Little Brothers of the Poor " came into being as an 
 organization of preachers who should live by charity and 
 preach the gospel to the people. 
 
 It is not surprising that the saintly zeal of Francis 
 should have impressed women as well as men, and that 
 so there should have arisen alongside of the Brothers the 
 auxiliary order of " Little Sisters of the Poor," devoted 
 to charity and to the aid and encouragement of the preach- 
 ing brothers. This order came into being under the lead 
 of Clara, the pure and tender-hearted friend of Francis, 
 and was in many ways a help to him and his brethren 
 in their work. 
 
 Francis was ordained a deacon, and on his return from 
 Rome set up a sort of convent near Assisi. This was at 
 the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli, otherwise known 
 as Portiuncula. In the great modern church which now 
 occupies the site the original little low-vaulted sanctuary 
 is preserved under the dome, as the central object. An in- 
 scription tells that this was the cradle of the Franciscan 
 order. Nearby is preserved also inside the church the 
 room in which the saint died. Volunteers came in crowds. 
 Their missionary activity was great. Cloisters were estab- 
 lished in various places as headquarters with the rapid
 
 250 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 spread of the order in many lands. Preachers went forth 
 during the lifetime of Francis into Syria, Morocco, Hun- 
 gary, Germany, Spain, France, England. Francis himself 
 went with a crusade to Egypt and afterwards to the East. 
 But as the order grew it developed tendencies which he 
 could not control and were not wholly in harmony with 
 his ideas. A progressive party, under the lead of Brother 
 Elias, of Crotona, was in favor of making more use of 
 education and learning, and these ideas, as we shall see, 
 at last gained the day. Francis and his more intimate 
 associates were in favor of holding by the simpler prin- 
 ciples of the first Rule of the order. These troubles within 
 the ranks and the incessant labors of his active life wore 
 upon the founder's mind and strength. He resigned the 
 headship of the order ; suffered much from mental anxiety 
 and bodily weakness, but enjoyed abiding peace of soul 
 and joy in God. He died at Portiuncula, in 1226, only 
 forty-four years old. 
 
 Of the extant works attributed to Francis * a large 
 proportion are certainly spurious, but a number are 
 reckoned by the critics to be as certainly genuine, while 
 others are in dispute. Among the genuine writings are 
 no sermons, properly speaking, but from several of them 
 we may infer something as to the preacher's thought and 
 style. There is a brief but interesting letter to Antony of 
 Padua, 2 which shows Francis' uneasiness over the com- 
 ing in of learning as an aid to the preachers, and at the 
 same time illustrates one of his main principles the in- 
 sistence upon prayer. Application had been made to ad- 
 mit the brilliant and learned young brother Antony among 
 the authorized preachers of the order, and it is thus that 
 Francis gives his consent : 
 
 " To my dearest brother Antony, brother Francis in 
 Christ, greeting. It meets my approval that thou shouldest 
 interpret to the brethren the writings of the Holy The- 
 ology; in such way, however, that neither in thee nor 
 in the others (which I vehemently desire) should be ex- 
 
 1 The only edition of the Works of Francis to which I have had 
 access is an old one (1641) by John de la Haye, containing the 
 works of Francis and of Antony of Padua. But the critical 
 studies by Sabatier and by Goetz, referred to in previous note, 
 have of course been regarded in the citations made. 
 
 "Ed. of de la Haye, p. 4.
 
 THE CENTRAL MEDIEVAL, OR SCHOLASTIC, AGE 251 
 
 tinguished the spirit of holy prayer, according to the Rule 
 which we profess. Farewell." The Letter to All Chris- 
 tians is not certainly genuine, and even if so in the main, 
 has probably been retouched by later hands. 2 But as it 
 has much in favor of its genuineness we may quote it in 
 illustration of the doctrine and manner of Francis. The 
 opening address is as follows : " Since I am the servant 
 of all, I am bound to serve all and to administer to all 
 the fragrant words of my Lord. Whence considering in 
 mind that I cannot in person, because of the infirmity and 
 weakness of my body, visit each one, I have proposed in 
 the present letter sent forth to offer to you the words 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Word of the Father, 
 and [also] the words of the Holy Spirit, which are spirit 
 and life." After stating the doctrine concerning Christ, 
 and speaking of his birth, his mission, his institution of 
 the Supper, and his prayer in Gethsemane, he goes on : 
 " Nevertheless he placed his will within the will of the 
 Father, saying, ' Father, thy will be done ; not as I will, 
 but as thou wilt.' Of that Father the will was such that his 
 blessed and glorious Son whom he gave for us, and who 
 was born for us, should offer himself, through his own 
 blood, a sacrifice and victim on the altar of the cross, 
 not for himself, by whom all things were made, but for 
 our sins, leaving us an example that we should follow his 
 steps. And he wishes that we all should be saved by him, 
 and should receive him with a pure heart and a chaste 
 body. But there are few who wish to receive him and be 
 saved by him, although his yoke is easy and his burden 
 light." Upon this good gospel foundation, however, he 
 proceeds to erect a superstructure partly of the " gold, 
 silver, precious stones " of divine truth and partly of the 
 " wood, hay, stubble " of traditional error. For example, 
 concerning almsgiving, he says, " Let us therefore have 
 charity and humility and do alms, because these wash our 
 souls from the filth of sins; for men lose all the things 
 which they leave in this world, but carry with them the 
 wages of charity and the alms which they did, for which 
 they shall obtain from the Lord a prize and a worthy 
 reward." And so in other places there is noteworthy 
 mingling of truth and error. But is not this ever true? 
 
 1 Goetz, op. cit.
 
 252 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 And must we not remember the times in which this godly 
 man lived and what he was taught and received for 
 truth? 
 
 Francis of Assisi was a truly wonderful man. By 
 natural disposition he was gentle, loving, delicate, and 
 these traits had been mellowed by grace into a rare beauty 
 of character. That he had some fanaticism with his de- 
 votion, and was (as many others in his days and since) 
 a strange compound of superstition and piety, may be 
 granted. But he was a loving and lovable man. He 
 loved nature, men, and God. The mystical trace in him 
 was combined, as in Bernard and others, with intense 
 desire and active effort for the good of his fellowmen. 
 His preaching was based on his experience, and enforced 
 by his life. It was simple, winsome, tender, persuasive. 
 He preached in the language of the people and to their 
 hearts. He held up Christ as Saviour and Lord. He 
 spoke against pride and every sin, and in favor of all the 
 virtues, exhorting to penitence, faith, humility, chastity, 
 and love. His style was not ornate and learned, but 
 simple, practical, and effective. Sabatier has well sum- 
 marized one of the secrets of his wonderful power over 
 men in saying, " He was of the people, and the people 
 recognized themselves in him." 
 
 While many popular preachers of this age belonged 
 to no order, or to the Dominican or other orders, it is yet 
 not surprising that the two who are most distinguished 
 for power and success in drawing and dealing with great 
 audiences were both Franciscans Antony of Padua and 
 Berthold of Regensburg. 
 
 The little country of Portugal has given birth to at 
 least two of the greatest preachers of the Catholic church : 
 Antony of Padua (c. 1195-1231), and Antonio Vieyra, 
 who lived in the seventeenth century. While Padua in 
 Italy was the scene of Antony's principal labors and the 
 resting place of his bones, it was at Lisbon that the famous 
 Franciscan preacher first saw the light, and received his 
 education and start in life. Ferdinand, 1 for this was 
 
 J De la Haye's ed. of the works of Francis and Antony, before 
 mentioned; article by E. Lempp, in Herzog; and a critical article 
 by the same scholar in Brieger und Bess, Ztschft. ftir Kirchen- 
 gesch., Bde. 11, 12, 13.
 
 THE CENTRAL MEDIEVAL, OR SCHOLASTIC, AGE 2$3 
 
 Antony's baptismal name, was born in Lisbon, of noble 
 or knightly family, and most probably in the year 1195. 
 His parents died while he was young, but the boy was 
 well brought up, and received the current higher educa- 
 tion, as his writings abundantly show. He early joined 
 the Augustinian monks while a student at the University 
 of Coimbra. But during this period also occurred the 
 event which decided him to join the followers of Francis. 
 The remains of two Franciscan missionaries who had 
 suffered martyrdom in Morocco were brought to Coimbra 
 for interment. Their fate took hold of the fervid imagi- 
 nation of young Ferdinand and fired him with an ambi- 
 tion to win like them the martyr's crown. This was in 
 1 220. He left the Augustinians, and against the wishes 
 of his friends and amid the jeers of his companions, he 
 became a Franciscan missionary and set out to North 
 Africa in search of martyrdom. He assumed the name 
 of Antony in honor of St. Antony, the renowned old 
 Egyptian monk, leaving his name, his former life, and 
 his native place behind him forever. 
 
 In Africa, however, instead of martyrdom at the hands 
 of heathen, he found a sick bed and a long and weary 
 illness from fever. Under this providence he wisely con- 
 cluded that God desired not so much his death as his life, 
 and embarked for Italy to come in closer touch with his 
 new order, and become perhaps one of its preachers. But 
 his faith and humility were destined to further trials. 
 The vessel in which he sailed was wrecked on the coast 
 of Sicily, but he found brethren of his order and with 
 them attended the General Chapter, which met in 1221 at 
 Assisi. Here he seems to have been unnoticed and ne- 
 glected, but on his humble request was at last received 
 by one of the elder brethren, who took him with himself 
 to a hermitage in the Campagna. Here he remained for 
 a while learning humility and practising asceticism, till 
 at last he with several others came up for ordination to 
 the priesthood. As they were at the town of Forli for 
 this purpose 'the prior or leader requested one after 
 another of the younger brethren to preach or lecture to 
 the rest ; all declined till brother Antony's turn came ; he 
 modestly consented, and discharged the duty in such a 
 way as to reveal to his superiors his wonderful oratorical
 
 254 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 talent. Request was made that he should be appointed 
 one of the travelling preachers, and to this, as we have 
 seen, Francis gave his consent. 
 
 Brother Antony was now fully launched on his wonder- 
 ful though short career as a preacher. From now (prob- 
 ably about 1222) to his early death, some ten years later, 
 his labors in preaching were continuous and heavy. Not 
 very much is certainly known of the first years of his 
 work. He preached in Italy and in many places in 
 France, where he had a marvellous effect on the people. 
 His facility in language must have been remarkable, as 
 he seems to have had no difficulty either in France or Italy 
 in making eloquent sermons to the masses. He took 
 part in leading questions and debates of the day and was 
 especially active and successful in restoring heretics to 
 the faith. At last he was made provincial of his order for 
 northeast Italy, and took up his residence in Padua in 
 1229. But the labors of office too much hindered his 
 preaching, and he was released from the one that he 
 might give his whole attention to the other. But his 
 time was short. 
 
 The Franciscans had a residence given to them in 
 Padua, and another just outside the walls called the Little 
 Ark. In these places Antony lived and worked during the 
 two remaining years of his life. Great crowds thronged 
 to hear him thirty thousand people, it is said and of 
 course no building could accommodate them. He preached 
 chiefly in the open air and with wonderful power and 
 success. The region near Padua was at that time given 
 over to many sins. He describes it as a "field thirsting 
 for rain ; " and he handles its sins with faithfulness and 
 effect. Great was his success ; but he was suffering from 
 dropsy and his labors had exhausted his strength. He 
 kept on as long as he could, but finally gave up and took 
 up his residence not very far from Padua in a great tree, 
 in which a little hut was built for him among the branches. 
 Whether his idea in this was hygienic, or superstitious, 
 or merely whimsical, does not appear. But here in his 
 nest he worked at putting his sermons into shape for 
 publication, until at last he was persuaded, when near 
 the end, to come back to the Little Ark at Padua, where 
 he died June 13, 1231, about thirty-eight years old.
 
 THE CENTRAL MEDIEVAL, OR SCHOLASTIC, AGE 255 
 
 There is, as usual, much difference among critics as 
 to the genuine writings of Antony, but amid the many 
 sketches of sermons in Latin which pass under his name, 
 no doubt some are his, and in form and thought at least 
 represent his method ; but they do not and cannot convey 
 to us any suggestion of the language, the expression, 
 and still less the power and moving warmth with which 
 he spoke. From among the so-called Dominical (Sun- 
 day) Sermons x a specimen or two may serve as illus- 
 tration of his manner. Thus: Luke 21 125. There shall 
 be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and 
 upon the earth distress of nations. Here four things are 
 noted according to which there are four advents [of 
 Christ] , namely, in the flesh, in the mind, at death, and at 
 the final judgment. I say, first, an advent in the flesh 
 and that is the assumption of human flesh is noted here : 
 There shall be signs in the sun. For the sun is the Son 
 of God. The second is in the mind, spiritually ; and this 
 is the purifying of our mind, either a protection against 
 sin, or a conferring of virtues, in this: In the moon. 
 The third in death, which is the separation of body and 
 soul, in this: In the stars. For the stars will fall from 
 heaven, etc. The fourth in the end of all things (ultimo 
 fine), in which there will be apportionment of merits and 
 punishment of wrongs, in this : And in the earth distress 
 of nations, etc. On this basis he proceeds to enlarge his 
 points with all sorts of plays upon words, allegorical 
 extravagances and the like. 
 
 In another sermon he discusses the message of John 
 the Baptist from the prison, and founds his treatment 
 upon the signification of the persons involved. Thus: 
 Herod represents the world; Herodias the flesh; John in 
 chains the spirit of man in bondage to pleasure ; and the 
 two disciples of John stand for hope and fear. But it is 
 really unfair to judge Antony by such imperfect speci- 
 mens of the mere outlines of his sermons, and those not 
 certainly genuine. 
 
 The traditions of his preaching contain much of the 
 
 marvellous, both as to the astonishing crowds it drew 
 
 and as to the effects produced by it. But making due 
 
 allowance for extravagance in these stories, and for later 
 
 1 Ed. of de la Haye.
 
 256 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 additions to them, there is sober basis in fact for Antony's 
 great reputation. In his use of Scripture he followed to 
 the most absurd extreme the fanciful allegorical method ; 
 but in his division he used sensibly and well, without un- 
 due detail, the theological analysis of the scholastics, and 
 did a service to preaching in popularizing a better struc- 
 ture of discourse than that of the homily. In his numer- 
 ous and telling illustrations he drew freshly and power- 
 fully from the everyday life about him, from nature, from 
 human nature; in earnestness, fervor, and effect his 
 strength is unquestioned; and in drawing power he has 
 never been surpassed, rivalled only by his fellow Francis- 
 can Berthold, later in the century, and by Whitefield, per- 
 haps Moody, and a few others, in modern times. 
 
 One of the most remarkable preachers of that age, or 
 indeed of any age, was the Franciscan evangelist Ber- 
 thold (c. 1220-1272), of Regensburg (Ratisbon), in 
 Bavaria. 1 Not much is known of his life, which, except 
 for his wonderful preaching, was probably uneventful. 
 The man is known almost solely in his work. He was 
 born probably at or near Regensburg in the first quarter 
 of the thirteenth century, most likely not earlier than 
 1 220 nor later than 1225. Nothing is known of his family 
 or family name. He is simply known as " Brother Ber- 
 thold," in the various forms in which the name is given. 
 At an early age he was taken into the Franciscan abbey 
 at Regensburg, and there educated. Henceforth his 
 name is always associated with this place, which was his 
 home or headquarters during life and his resting-place at 
 death. Here he fell under the tutelage of the pious and 
 devoted mystic, David of Augsburg, who long taught at 
 Regensburg, and was himself a preacher of no mean abili- 
 ties. 2 The friendship and encouragement of this good 
 man had much to do with Berthold's after success. It is 
 
 1 All the German historians of preaching in the Middle Ages, 
 both Catholic and Protestant, and with pardonable pride, pay 
 much attention to Berthold. There are good discussions in the 
 works of Linsenmayer, Cruel, Albert, Nebe; and an account by 
 Gobel prefixed to his valuable translation of the sermons of Ber- 
 thold into modern German. Editions in the old dialect have also 
 appeared, and there are copious extracts in some of the writers 
 above named and in the lively sketch of C. W. Stromberger, Ber- 
 thold von Regensburg. a See below, p. 281.
 
 THE CENTRAL MEDIAEVAL, OR SCHOLASTIC, AGE 257 
 
 related that during his preaching Brother David would 
 sometimes accompany him, help him with suggestion and 
 cheer, and sometimes sit behind him and encourage him 
 as he preached. Sweet, indeed, is it for the loneliness 
 of genius to be cheered by the intelligent sympathy 
 of a real friend! 
 
 Berthold's sermons show acquaintance with the church 
 fathers and other theological literature, but no high de- 
 gree of learning, nor any marked depth or subtlety of 
 thought. He could not be called either scholastic or 
 mystic, but distinctively a powerful popular preacher in 
 whom the clear arrangement of scholasticism and the 
 warm piety of mysticism showed traces but not ascend- 
 ency. In his convent sermons he used Latin, and in his 
 other sermons shows familiar and easy acquaintance with 
 that tongue, but his great work was done in the rude 
 old German of his time. 
 
 The first mention of Brother Berthofd is in 1246, when 
 he was sent to one of the nunneries of his order to lecture 
 and preach. About 1250 he appears as a travelling 
 preacher, creating unwonted enthusiasm, attracting great 
 multitudes which no church could hold, overflowing 
 sometimes even the squares of the towns. He preached 
 on the hillsides from a lofty wooden tower, and it is said 
 even from trees, where a sort of scaffolding would be 
 erected for him. He must have had a very powerful or 
 very penetrating voice, and would take the direction of 
 the wind with a feather and speak " down the wind." 
 During ten years he went through Bavaria, Suabia, Al- 
 sace, Switzerland, stopping longer in some places than in 
 others, and sometimes repeating his visits. About 1260 
 he turned toward eastern Germany and traversed Aus- 
 tria, Bohemia, Hungary, taking in Franconia and Thur- 
 ingia on the return trip. In some of these lands he could 
 not speak the language and preached by an interpreter. 
 These are the scanty details of a life filled with incessant 
 activity and phenomenal success in preaching the word of 
 God to the people during a trying and fearful time in 
 Germany. 
 
 It will be remembered that the years of Berthold's 
 ministry (1250-1272) coincided almost exactly with the 
 period known in German history as the Great Inter reg-
 
 258 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 num, when for about twenty years after the fall of the 
 Hohenstaufen emperors there was no king in Germany, 
 and the reins of authority were loosed. Petty sovereigns 
 and lords were without an overlord, and the political, 
 social, and moral disorders of the times were great. In 
 such a time as this the voice of this man came as that of 
 a prophet of old, sent of God to rebuke the wicked and 
 comfort those who waited for better days. In 1272 Ber- 
 thold died and was buried at Regensburg, where his tomb 
 was long regarded and visited as that of a saint, and his 
 memory held in grateful affection by the people. 
 
 There remain some of his Latin sermons, probably only 
 sketches, chiefly of his convent sermons, and perhaps 
 written by himself. These would be valuable if we had 
 nothing else, but fortunately in his case a number some 
 seventy or eighty of his German sermons have been 
 preserved in the reports of hearers. Early in the nine- 
 teenth century one of the brothers Grimm called the 
 attention of scholars and literary men to these manu- 
 script sermons as choice specimens of early German 
 prose. Since then they have been published in various 
 partial or complete editions, and a Catholic scholar. 
 Gobel, has done good service by turning them into mod- 
 ern German. The sermons are now therefore accessible 
 to those acquainted with the German of to-day, and will 
 repay study. 
 
 From these and the traditional accounts we see that 
 Berthold was, above all things, a mighty preacher to the 
 people. He had true piety, conviction, and a sincere 
 desire to save and teach men. He preached not for his 
 own fame or reward, but for the glory of his Lord and 
 the help of his fellowmen. Repentance was his principal 
 theme. Like another John the Baptist he thundered 
 against sin, and called the people to conversion. He pow- 
 erfully and unflinchingly attacked the sins of all classes. 
 He told the lords plainly that they were like rapacious 
 eagles preying upon the sheep, he rated in no soft tones 
 the judges who rendered unjust decisions for hire, he 
 satirized and denounced the sinful follies of polite society 
 and the baser vices of all orders, he paid special attention 
 to the false and worldly clergy, and before Luther was 
 dreamed of denounced the " penny preachers " who
 
 THE CENTRAL MEDIEVAL, OR SCHOLASTIC, AGE 259 
 
 traded in spiritual things ; he scored the cheats and fakirs, 
 the dicers and dancers, the lazy, the gluttonous in fact, 
 sinners of every hue. But his special pet object of at- 
 tack was the avaricious man, the " geiziger," who stands 
 out with unenviable distinctness in his vivid pictures. 
 Like Antony and other moral preachers of the time he 
 condemned usury with reiterated emphasis. Heresy, too, 
 claimed his attention and he faithfully warned against 
 what he believed to be errors. On the other hand he 
 painted in glowing colors the beauty of the Christian vir- 
 tues and the present and eternal rewards of the Christian 
 life. Nor was it a mere external morality that he 
 preached ; he showed the worthlessness of works without 
 faith, even if he did lay too much merit to the works of 
 faith. He exalted Christ as the only Saviour from an 
 eternal and agonizing hell, the only Guide to the lasting 
 and blessed kingdom of God. Of course, with all this, 
 the characteristic doctrinal and other errors and perver- 
 sions common to his age fully appear. It was no pure 
 Scriptural gospel that he preached, but mediaeval Roman- 
 ism, yet at its best. He was wonderfully gifted in the 
 art of fresh, vivid, moving popular address. Invective, 
 warning, appeal, exhortation, all were at his command. 
 Imagery and illustration abounded, often homely, some- 
 times coarse. Vivid dialogues and shrewd hits enlivened 
 discourse ; but through all these rhetorical devices shines 
 full and clear the lofty purpose of the speaker to quicken 
 and guide the spiritual life of his hearers. The following 
 outline of one of his most characteristic sermons will 
 give at least a hint of his manner: 
 
 On Seven Very Great Sins. 
 
 Text (misquoted, and no book and chapter given, 
 probably intended for John 15:11) : "I rejoice in thee, 
 and my joy is perfected in thee." Three kinds of peo- 
 ple make God glad each gladder than the other in 
 succession ; namely, those who keep from mortal sins, 
 those who are habitually good, and those who die in 
 the practice of goodness. Correspondingly, three kinds 
 of people make the devil glad; namely, those who oc- 
 casionally fall into sin, those who live in sin, and those 
 who die in sin. But seven kinds of people not only 
 make the devil glad but put a crown on him (see Rev.
 
 260 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 12:3). The seven crowns of the dragon are the seven 
 chief sins, and they bring people to the bottom of hell 
 just as the seven princes of Egypt went to the bot- 
 tom of the Red Sea. Here they are: i. Those who 
 are damned for the multitude of their sins. 2. Those 
 for the greatness of their sins such as perjurers, adul- 
 terers, excommunicates, etc. 3. The devil's hunters 
 (male and female), such as harlots, procurers, and the 
 penny preachers. 4. Heretics. 5. [Left blank. The 
 editor supposes it was the unpardonable sin, about which 
 Berthold elsewhere manifests unwillingness to speak 
 plainly.] 6. Bad masters and unjust judges. 7. The 
 avaricious. In " enlarging on his points " he does not 
 mince matters at all, but strikes out right and left without 
 fear or favor. 
 
 Besides the great men who have been discussed there 
 were a number of less distinguished preachers to the 
 people who worked in the spirit and methods of the 
 leaders. The names of some have come down to us, and 
 there are besides numerous anonymous sermons which 
 have been preserved from that age, and exhibit the popu- 
 lar character. 1 
 
 Among the French preachers may be named Stephen 
 (Fvtienne) of Bourbon (d. 1261), who preached much, 
 travelled much, and came in contact with many persons 
 of distinction, secular and religious. He wrote a book 
 for preachers containing extracts and examples of ser- 
 mons, and divided into seven parts representing the seven 
 gifts of the Holy Spirit. There was also William of 
 Auvergne, who was bishop of Paris from 1228 to his 
 death in 1249, and was very influential in church and 
 state. He had popular gifts as a preacher, and excelled, 
 sometimes exceeded, in the use of figures and illustrations. 
 
 Of the Germans, besides David of Augsburg, who will 
 be noticed among the mystics, there was a Caesarius of 
 Heisterbach (d. c. 1240), whose sermons show good skill 
 in construction, variety, and power of oratory. There 
 were also a certain Peregrinus, from whom we have a 
 collection of sketches ; and an anonymous preacher in the 
 neighborhood of Black Forest, whose lively and vigor- 
 
 1 For the French and German preachers, the authorities so often 
 cited; and for those of Italy, Zanotto, Storia della Predicazione.
 
 THE CENTRAL MEDIEVAL, OR SCHOLASTIC, AGE 26 1 
 
 ous sermons show alike the influence of Berthold and of 
 Jacob of Voragine. But perhaps the most interesting of 
 these Germans was Conrad of Brundelsheim (d. 1321), 
 who was abbot of the Cistercian monastery at Heilsbronn. 
 A collection of his sermons, or sketches, in Latin, bears 
 the curious title of Sermones Fratris Socci, i.e., " The 
 Sermons of Brother Sock." Why he was called " Sock " 
 does not appear. One humorous suggestion, mentioned 
 by Linsenmayer, is to the effect that perhaps he carried 
 his notes in his ample socks; but Cruel offers the more 
 rational guess that it was a nickname given him from 
 some personal habit or occurrence and had nothing to do 
 with his preaching. At any rate, " Brother Sock " gave 
 to his brethren in these rather scholastic Latin sketches a 
 set of sermons to modify and use which show that he 
 was himself no mean preacher to the people; and there 
 is no doubt that his brethren made abundant use of his 
 liberality and often turned them to account. 
 
 There was among the Italians a well-known preacher 
 called John of Vicenza (Giovanni da Vicenza, or da 
 Schio), who was renowned as a peacemaker in many 
 parts of Italy, and by whose eloquent persuasions foes 
 and feuds were reconciled. But more important for us 
 than he was Jacob de Voragine (1230-1298), who was 
 a Dominican, and probably had experience in early life as 
 a travelling preacher, but was, when he died, a prelate 
 at Genoa. He thus represents both the parochial and 
 the popular preaching of the time. Not much is known 
 of him, but the traditional accounts represe'nt him as a 
 greatly beloved and admired preacher to the people. His 
 interest for us lies chiefly in the fact that he was the 
 compiler of the stories of the saints in the collection called 
 Legenda Aurea, commonly known to us in the singular 
 number as the " Golden Legend." There were, of course, 
 later editions of this book, and it is not possible to deter- 
 mine how much of the work is due to his editorial care 
 and was worked over by him. In the collection are many 
 sermons, mostly on the saints and the Virgin Mary. 
 Christlieb l says the book gives us " a deep insight into 
 the etymological fooleries (interpreting allegorically the 
 names of Biblical characters, etc.), the crass superstitions 
 1 Art. in Herzog, Bd. 18, supplement. 

 
 262 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 and the incredibly tasteless love of miracles of that age. 
 Also its numerous sermons show not only the unfruit- 
 fulness for real edification of scholastic pedantic trifling 
 and legendary picturing, but they helped much to corrupt 
 taste in preaching." But the sermons are given in a 
 warm, even fiery manner, and are often lively and pic- 
 turesque in style and imagery, and so very well suited 
 to popular use. Longfellow's Golden Legend gives many 
 a hint as to the contents of the book, though by him the 
 best parts were selected, hung on the thread of a pleasing 
 story, and softened and beautified by the spirit of poetry 
 and the gentle sentiment of our poet of the fireside. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 DECLINE AND MYSTICISM IN THE THIRTEENTH AND 
 FOURTEENTH CENTURIES 
 
 In the present chapter we have to do with the latter 
 part of the thirteenth and a little more than the first half 
 of the fourteenth century, that is, as far as the death of 
 John Tauler, the great mystic preacher, in 1361. 
 
 Europe was a troubled world in the fourteenth century. 
 The Hundred Years' War between England and France 
 was begun by Edward III. of England early in the cen- 
 tury, and was taxing the strength and resources of both 
 nations. Germany was in awful confusion with a dis- 
 puted imperial succession between Louis of Bavaria and 
 Frederick of Austria ; division, civil wars, and other trials 
 desolated the land. Conditions in Italy were no better 
 than formerly endless squabbles and no hope of unity 
 and strength. After the conflict of Boniface VIII. with 
 Philip the Fair the papacy became a tool of France, and 
 for seventy years (1309-1378) the residence of the popes 
 was at Avignon in southern France, instead of at Rome. 
 Corruption accompanied decay. The papal court by its 
 luxury and turpitude was a stench in the nostrils of man- 
 kind, and there seemed no remedy for the desperate case. 
 In such a time preaching fared but ill. We have to note 
 a sad decline in the scholastic and popular types of 
 preaching, but at the same time to describe the growth 
 and power of the mystic type which stamps a somewhat 
 redeeming character of its own upon the age.
 
 THE CENTRAL MEDIEVAL, OR SCHOLASTIC, AGE 263 
 
 i. DECLINE OF SCHOLASTIC AND POPULAR PREACHING 
 
 The great preachers of the Dominican and Franciscan 
 orders had passed away, and the day of the second-rate 
 man had come. Albert and Thomas, Antony and Ber- 
 thold are memories and models, but no longer living 
 forces. Along with this, popular interest in preaching 
 and popular regard for the preacher sensibly diminished. 
 We do not now hear of so great crowds and so great 
 effects. Furthermore, the quality of sermons which 
 have come down to us from the scholastic and popular 
 preachers after Aquinas and Berthold gives abundant 
 evidence of a falling off in power. 
 
 In undertaking to discover and state the causes of this 
 decay we have to fall back upon that mysterious law of 
 reaction which we have so frequent occasion to observe 
 and apply. The two great movements in preaching to 
 which the names scholastic and popular have been given 
 had reached their height and must recede. At high tide 
 there is strength, repose, beauty; but when the waters 
 recede they leave trash and slime behind them to augment 
 the ugly and unclean things which they had covered but 
 not washed away. So the inherent, inevitable, faults and 
 weaknesses which are connected with every great for- 
 ward movement whether in the movement itself, as in 
 the wave, or fixed in habit and custom, as on the shore 
 appear in all their ugliness when the reaction comes. In 
 the scholastic sermons, the over-speculation, the hair- 
 splitting distinctions, the tedious detail of analysis, the 
 frequent sophistries and useless conclusions were at all 
 times ugly faults; but now that the vigor of youth and 
 the freshness of genius were departed this manner of 
 preaching became barren indeed. And still worse was it 
 that the religious spirit which had counteracted and even 
 utilized so much that was weak in scholasticism had itself 
 lost intensity and fervor. In popular preaching, the 
 seeking after effect, the misuse of Scripture, the coarse 
 humor, that could hardly be tolerated even when accom- 
 panied by real devotion and spiritual power, became now 
 in their emptiness almost a hideous mockery of preaching. 
 Further, as to both these modes of preaching, we see 
 what is well exemplified in many other spheres, namely,
 
 N 
 
 264 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 that methods which are rods of power in the hands of 
 masters are rotten reeds in those of feeble imitators. 
 Little Thomases and little Bertholds multiplied, and made 
 odious the things which had done good service in a 
 former generation. 
 
 And in addition to these inward causes of decay the 
 standing external hindrances were to be reckoned with. 
 The world, the flesh, and the devil, always and every- 
 where, are leagued in lively cooperation against good 
 gospel preaching; and these evil allies were as present 
 and as potent in the times which we are discussing as 
 they are in our own. Corruption in society and church, 
 in laity and clergy, was bad enough and getting worse. 
 And, finally, we must notice that growth of power, popu- 
 larity, and even earthly possessions, had corrupted and 
 weakened the spiritual and fruitful work of the two great 
 preaching orders. Except for the mystics among the 
 Dominicans we have to record a falling off in character, 
 and therefore in the best influence, for both the orders of 
 preachers. Yet we must not think that the decay was 
 total or even more rapid than it really was. History is 
 not best written in antitheses. We may err to distortion 
 by emphasizing contrast. In human affairs evil and 
 good are always present, sometimes one is more evident, 
 sometimes the other. 
 
 In order to preserve the continuity of our narrative 
 there is needed a brief mention of some of the more im- 
 portant preachers of the scholastic and popular tendencies 
 during the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. 
 But only a few of the best from the different countries 
 need be named. 
 
 In Italy there was a certain Jordan (Giordano) of Pisa, 
 or Rivalto (d. 1311), who is mentioned favorably by 
 Italian writers as a preacher of power in the popular 
 tongue, who was also distinguished both for his piety 
 and his scholarship. He was learned in the languages, 
 and his knowledge of the Scriptures is praised as re- 
 markable. 
 
 In Germany there are several preachers worthy of 
 being remembered. One was Nicholas of Landau, who 
 was quite a scholastic, pushing the method of that 
 school to considerable extremes. Another was Henry of
 
 THE CENTRAL MEDIAEVAL, OR SCHOLASTIC, AGE 265 
 
 Frimar (d. 1340), who taught in Paris for a while, and 
 then in Prague. From him a number of very scholastic 
 sermons remain. Like him was Jordan of Quedlinburg, 
 who enjoyed a good reputation in his day and left behind 
 him a number of sermons in Latin, which are marked 
 like the others by excess of scholasticism. 
 
 In France there were a number of preachers, but none 
 very distinguished in comparison with those of earlier 
 and later times. Famous as a scholar and commentator, 
 though not especially for his preaching, was Nicholas 
 of Lyra (d. 1340), a Franciscan, and teacher at Paris 
 and other places. His commentary on the whole Bible 
 had the name of " postils," or brief homilies, and sug- 
 gests that a good deal of it was used in preaching. Be- 
 sides there are some sermons remaining. But Lyra's 
 chief distinction is that in interpreting the Bible he 
 somewhat broke away from the traditional and absurd 
 allegorical method and did something toward bringing 
 in a sounder exegesis of Scripture. Besides, there were 
 two distinguished prelates and canonists (interpreters 
 of canon, i.e., ecclesiastical as distinguished from civil, 
 law) who botse the name of William Durand, the elder 
 the uncle (d. 1296), and the younger (d. 1328), from 
 whom some sermons and a good name remain. 
 
 England was not fertile of strong preachers during 
 any part of this period. She was waiting for Wiclif and 
 the Reformation. But of course there were preaching 
 and preachers in England all this while, and two dis- 
 tinguished prelates who belonged to the Dominican 
 order may be named as lights of the period. These were 
 William of Macclesfield, and Walter of Winterbourne 
 (d. 1305). The latter was in the evening of his life a 
 learned canonist and cardinal, and of his earlier days 
 Fuller l says, " in his youth he was a good poet and an 
 orator." From this we may perhaps sadly infer that 
 learning and law and office had dried up the springs of 
 his fancy and had left him less effective in speech during 
 his later years. At any rate such and such things have 
 been known to happen to Englishmen and to others. 
 From this declining scholasticism let us turn to the rising 
 power of mystic preaching. 
 
 1 Quoted in Diet. Nat. Biog., article on Walter of Winterbourne.
 
 266 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 2. RISE AND POWER OF MYSTIC PREACHING 
 
 Mysticism l has appeared in many ages and nations, in 
 philosophy and life, as well as in theology and religion 
 and preaching. It has also more or less affected the 
 preaching of every age ; but as some of the most notable 
 preachers of the period we have under notice were 
 mystics, this is perhaps the best place to give to mysticism 
 such brief consideration as our space permits, before dis- 
 cussing its leading representatives in the pulpit of the 
 time. 
 
 When we ask what is mysticism? the very associa- 
 tions of the word suggest the extreme difficulty of 
 definition. Like all terms used to describe mental 
 phenomena and tendencies of thought, which have large 
 general import and many shades of particular application, 
 mysticism is hard to define. That is, it is difficult to 
 frame a statement general enough to include all that is 
 meant by the term and brief enough to be put into a 
 sentence and easily remembered. But brief descriptive 
 statements of the essential character of mysticism may 
 be made sufficiently exact to give a good working knowl- 
 edge of it in lack of accurate scientific definition. Thus 
 Vaughan 2 says : " Philosophers and monks alike employ 
 the word mysticism and its cognate terms as involving 
 the idea not merely of initiation into something hidden, 3 
 but beyond this of an internal manifestation of the Divine 
 to the intuition, or in the feeling, of the secluded soul." 
 Clarke, 4 greatly influenced by Vaughan, puts the matter 
 rather more simply thus : " The belief that man can 
 come into union with the Infinite Being by means of a 
 wholly passive self surrender to divine influence." And 
 Preger 5 has it : " The characteristic of mysticism is 
 
 1 For Mysticism I have derived most help from the following 
 works : R. Vaughan's Hours with the Mystics; Ueberweg's His- 
 tory of Philosophy; James Freeman Clarke's Events and Epochs 
 in Religious History; Preger's Geschichte der Deutschen Mystik 
 im Mittelalter. The authorities on the history of preaching for 
 the period also give much that is helpful. 
 
 'Hours with the Mystics, p. 21. 
 
 "The etymological meaning of the word. 
 
 * Events and Epochs of Rel. Hist., p. 276. 
 
 6 Geschichte der Mystik, Bd. I., S. 8. " Das Character! stiche der 
 Mystik ist, dass sie ein unmittelbares Erleben und Schauen des 
 Gottlichen anstrebt."
 
 THE CENTRAL MEDIEVAL, OR SCHOLASTIC, AGE 267 
 
 that it strives after an immediate experience and vision 
 of the Divine." In mysticism three forms, more or 
 less allied to each other, are to be distinguished. Vaughan 
 calls them " theopathetic, theosophic, and theurgic ; " and 
 Clarke, " religious, philosophic, and thaumaturgic." 
 More simply, these distinctions, which cannot be exact, 
 indicate that the central position of mysticism has three 
 ways of expressing itself: (i) an immediate intuition of 
 truth philosophic or speculative mysticism; (2) an im- 
 mediate dealing of the soul with God religious mysti- 
 cism; (3) by virtue of these, the ability to perform 
 miraculous or at least extraordinary works wonder- 
 working mysticism. The philosophic or speculative 
 mystic sees truth not by logical processes but by direct 
 vision, in some ecstasy of high and intense thinking; 
 the religious mystic knows and realizes God not by in- 
 vestigation and reasoning, and not by external means of 
 any sort, but by rapt contemplation, by complete sur- 
 render of self to divine influence; the wonder-working 
 mystic claims, by virtue of this supernatural indwelling of 
 truth or of God, the power to exert extraordinary in- 
 fluences upon the minds and even the bodies of others. 
 The last phase has perhaps fewer representatives, and is 
 more commonly regarded as extreme, fanatical, and vul- 
 gar; but in its less extreme and objectionable forms is 
 allied sometimes to the philosophic but more naturally 
 and commonly to the religious sort of mysticism. The 
 philosophic and religious types easily pass into each 
 other; what particular form mysticism takes simply de- 
 pends on whether the mystic is himself rather a philoso- 
 pher or a religionist. Thus Fichte and Emerson are 
 philosophic mystics; Tauler and George Fox religious 
 ones; while in Eckhart and Behmen the two strains are 
 fused. Let us repeat then, that in religious mysticism 
 the essential thing is the avowed consciousness of an 
 immediate dealing of the soul with God; a surrender of 
 self, a possession by God; a complete union with God, 
 or fullness of God. 
 
 What has been said shows how perilous it is either to 
 deny wholly or to accept without qualification the central 
 position of mysticism. That it contains truth is just 
 as clear as that it is not all or solely truth. To deny
 
 268 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 it wholly is to blind the soul to one of its highest 
 privileges, to accept it solely is to fall into fatal error. 
 For in some phase or degree mysticism may be con- 
 nected with the holiest piety, or with the grossest sins; 
 with the best and most fruitful religious activities, or 
 with the idlest and most insane speculations; with en- 
 during and beneficent labors and services in the kingdom 
 of God, or with lasting injuries to the cause of true 
 religion; with reverent acceptance of the Bible as au- 
 thoritative revelation from God, or with a qualified 
 acceptance of it admitting of correction by the inner 
 light, or even at last to utter rejection of it as a divine 
 message, and the substitution of the vagaries of an 
 unbalanced mind. 
 
 The errors and exaggerations of the mystical tendency 
 in the religious life may well make us wary of its one- 
 sided and extreme phases, but the element of truth in 
 it keeps it alive. Both those who hail its extremes as 
 new truth and those who dread them as new error need 
 the historic perspective. For in all centuries Christian- 
 ity in general, and preaching in particular, have profited 
 by the good and suffered by the evil of mysticism. 
 
 It may be a question whether mysticism has had its 
 chief seat of power in the cloister, the school, or the 
 pulpit; but it unquestionably powerfully influenced the 
 last through the other two. 
 
 The mystical yearning both led to the cloister and 
 was strengthened and encouraged there. The contem- 
 plative life, the study of Scripture, the prayers and other 
 influences of convent life were favorable to its develop- 
 ment. Hence we are not surprised to find that most 
 of the mystic preaching was given in the monasteries, 
 and that most of the mystical preachers were trained in 
 them. From early times the monastic life had thus laid 
 its moulding hand on the pulpit, and the powerful im- 
 pulse given to monasticism by Bernard in the twelfth 
 century and by Francis and Dominic in the thirteenth, 
 and the high place held by all three of these men in the 
 pulpit, had great effect in enlarging the influence of 
 monastic mysticism upon the preaching of the thirteenth 
 and fourteenth centuries. Nor must the influence of the 
 other monastic orders be forgotten. Benedictines, Au-
 
 THE CENTRAL MEDIEVAL, OR SCHOLASTIC, AGE 269 
 
 gustinians, Praemonstrants, and others had something to 
 do with the extension of mysticism. 
 
 And here we must notice another important and help- 
 ful force in developing and spreading mystical views, 
 that is, the nunneries, and the pious women both within 
 and without these institutions. Mysticism has large 
 affinities with the feminine nature, and it is not at all 
 surprising to find that some of its most distinguished 
 representatives and teachers in all its phases and during 
 all its history have been women. It does not fall within 
 the scope of this treatise to discuss this interesting phase 
 of the subject at any length. But Preger * has shown 
 that in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries along the 
 Rhine and in the Netherlands not to speak of other lo- 
 calities in the cloisters and out of them numbers of 
 mystical women lived and worked. Hildegard of Bingen, 
 Elizabeth of Schonau; the Beguines, Mary of Oigny, 
 Matilda of Magdeburg; the nun Gertrude, and others 
 are mentioned as influential in one way and another in 
 promoting the spread of mysticism. Ecstasies and 
 prophecies, nervous faints, excess of feeling, profuse 
 weeping and various other such phenomena, were fre- 
 quent characteristics of the feminine religious life of the 
 period. All this prepared the audiences to listen with 
 sympathy and appreciation to the sermons of the mys- 
 tic preachers. In fact, many of the sermons of this 
 tendency, both Eckhart's and Tauler's, were actually 
 preached in the nunneries, and we owe their preservation 
 to the insight, sympathy, and skill of the pious women 
 who reported and wrote them out. 
 
 In the schools as well as the cloisters mysticism had 
 a place of power from which it greatly and permanently 
 influenced the pulpit. Many of these schools were 
 cloister schools, and the most distinguished teachers were 
 members of some one of the orders. It is scarcely a dis- 
 tinction therefore to separate the school from the cloister, 
 except that it gives us occasion to note the specifically 
 scholastic and speculative bent which was given to the 
 mystic trend of thought in the hands of professors. 
 Among these the names of Hugo and Richard come up 
 for mention again, as these distinguished lecturers ex- 
 
 1 Op. cit., SS. 13-141.
 
 270 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 pounded their systems at the abbey of St. Victor at Paris 
 in the twelfth century. In the thirteenth the renowned 
 teacher, Albert the Great, at Cologne and Paris, paid 
 much attention to the mystic element in religious thought, 
 and through his widespread influence many preachers 
 of the Dominican order became devoted to this way of 
 thinking. The greatest of the scholastics, Thomas 
 Aquinas, also incidentally gave some teaching in this 
 direction. In life, and probably in preaching, the mystic 
 element was more decided than in his rigorously logical 
 theological system; but even there it was not wholly 
 wanting, though not emphasized or largely developed. 
 
 After the mystics of the twelfth century we do not 
 find any distinctly great preacher of this tendency until 
 we come to Bonaventura in the thirteenth ; but all along 
 there were those whose preaching kept up the continuity 
 of mystic thought. There was lull but no cessation of 
 mystic preaching between Richard of St. Victor . and 
 Bonaventura. With the latter, however, there is a re- 
 vival of mysticism under the scholastic guidance, and 
 after him the work of Master Eckhart gave the start to 
 the developments which followed and reached their 
 height in those who were taught or influenced by that 
 powerful teacher. 
 
 Nor was it only in the preachers of the church and 
 its orders that mysticism was found. There were various 
 heretical sects among whom the teachings flourished, 
 and these were represented by preachers as well as writ- 
 ers whose influence among the people was considerable. 1 
 Of these, Amalric of Bena, early in the thirteenth century 
 was largely influenced by Joachim of Floris, and had 
 in France a rather large following. Later, a certain 
 David of Dinant is mentioned as a teacher of influence, 
 and a sort of society known as " Brothers of the Free 
 Spirit " became very notable in the late thirteenth and 
 early fourteenth centuries. Thus in many ways and from 
 many sources, mystic teaching impresses itself upon the 
 preaching of the time, and becomes, though not to the 
 exclusion of other tendencies, the characteristic feature 
 of the pulpit of the period. 
 
 It is important at this point to consider how widely 
 1 See Preger, Buch II., Kap. II., for full discussion.
 
 THE CENTRAL MEDIEVAL, OR SCHOLASTIC, AGE 271 
 
 extended this mystic preaching was, and what was in 
 a general way its character. 1 
 
 In regard to extent it should be observed that the 
 range of the really powerful mystic preaching was com- 
 paratively limited. The locality of it was chiefly along 
 the Rhine, on both sides, and in the Netherlands. Of 
 course it was not confined to this region, but here it was 
 more in evidence and reached its greatest influence. As 
 to following, too, it is from the nature of the case clear 
 that mystic preaching can never be so widely and in- 
 fluentially popular as that which is less distinctively 
 marked by the peculiar tenets of mysticism. Partly the 
 lofty religious life which it requires in its better forms, 
 partly the fanatical or at least overwrought phases of 
 it in its less balanced forms, and partly the difficulty of 
 comprehending it in all its forms, make mysticism always 
 the profession of the few, rather than of the many. In 
 comparison then with the mighty scholastic and popular 
 preachers of the age the mystics had smaller audiences, 
 more select, most usually those already Christian, and a 
 far less extensive range of influence. 
 
 The particular teachings of the different mystic 
 preachers can be better exhibited in discussing the men 
 themselves, but before that a remark on the general char- 
 acter of mystic preaching is requisite. Its one distinctive 
 common trait was the doctrine of a union of the soul with 
 God. This was the goal of all mystic preaching. The 
 steps by which this fusion of the divine and human were 
 to be attained might be differently described and named, 
 the very nature of the things in question might be dif- 
 ferently stated, and the results of the union differently 
 set forth, but this one great idea of immediate intercourse 
 of the Christian soul with God underlies all the mystic 
 preaching. It was this noble aim which gave and still 
 gives to mystic teaching its power; and if this general 
 statement were all, it might well be left unchallenged. 
 But when we come to details we see how in enforcing 
 its greatest thought the mystic preaching became im- 
 
 1 Besides the books on Mysticism in general, those of Linsen- 
 mayer, Cruel, and Albert discuss its particular relation to preach- 
 ing Linsenmayer of course from the Catholic point of view. 
 The Protestant writers, including Preger, find in this mystic 
 preaching an important preparation for the Reformation.
 
 272 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 perilled and fell into grievous errors. For example, the 
 doctrine of the relation between God and man in the 
 hands of Eckhart and his followers came so near to 
 pantheism that the students of his system, then and still, 
 have been divided in opinion as to whether it was or 
 was not really pantheistic teaching. Again, the emphasis 
 upon personal experience and individual dealing directly 
 with God led (and still leads) to undervaluing of the 
 Bible as the one authoritative revelation of the mind and 
 will of God in regard to salvation ; and naturally this led 
 to erroneous treatment of many of the most important 
 doctrines of the Scripture, especially those relating to 
 sin and redemption. Again, a peril of the mystic preach- 
 ing which was not always successfully avoided lay in such 
 insistence upon passivity, as the condition of the mystic 
 union with God as to end in sloth. Not in Bernard, nor in 
 Tauler, nor in those like them, do we find this mistake; 
 but in others there are traces of laying stress upon the 
 contemplative life to the injury of the active. 
 
 The differences which prevailed among the mystics 
 themselves in regard to the details of their general 
 system have already been foreshadowed and lead to a 
 clear though not sharply defined classification. Those 
 who adhered to the church theology and the scholastic 
 method, like the Victorines, Albert and Bonaventura, are 
 properly called scholastic mystics. Those who followed 
 the powerful lead of Eckhart in using the church doc- 
 trines and the Bible itself only as starting points for pro- 
 found speculations, growing chiefly out of personal ex- 
 perience, are rightly named speculative mystics. And 
 those who, like Bernard, Francis, and Tauler, combined, 
 both in theory and life, lofty mystical aspirations with 
 active earnest work for the souls of men, are suitably 
 described as practical mystics. But to get a more definite 
 and concrete view of the mystic preaching of the period 
 we must consider it as set forth in the lives and works 
 of its representative men. 
 
 3. LEADING PREACHERS OF THE MYSTIC SCHOOL 
 
 Following the grouping just indicated we notice first 
 those who were more distinctly influenced by scholastic 
 training and modes of thought.
 
 THE CENTRAL MEDIAEVAL, OR SCHOLASTIC, AGE 273 
 
 We have seen that in Hugh and Richard of St. Victor, 
 and later in Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas, there 
 was a mingling of mysticism and scholasticism, with this 
 difference: that in the first two the mystic element pre- 
 dominated over the scholastic, while in the other two, 
 the scholastic was supreme, the mystic incidental. But 
 there was one great preacher of the age of whom it has 
 been said that he was " the greatest scholastic among the 
 mystics and the greatest mystic among the scholastics." 
 This was none other than John Fidanza, better known by 
 his acquired and canonized name of Bonaventura (1221- 
 1274). x The future "doctor seraphicus," scholastic, 
 mystic, cardinal and saint, was born at Bagnorea in Tus- 
 cany in the year 1221. His parents were respectable 
 people, though not distinguished. The boy received his 
 father's name of John, but his famous nickname, as he 
 himself relates, came to him in the following fashion: 
 When he was three years old he fell ill, and his pious 
 mother sought in his behalf the prayers of the saintly 
 Francis of Assisi, who was at that time in the neighbor- 
 hood. After the child's recovery he was shown by the 
 grateful woman to the holy man, who exclaimed : " O 
 buona Ventura" which may be familiarly rendered, " O 
 good luck." Henceforth, as in other instances, the nick- 
 name has usurped the place of the baptismal one, and 
 history knows the child of St. Francis' answered prayers 
 as Bonaventura. 
 
 The boy grew up pure and pious, and, as was natural, 
 early entered the Franciscan order. He loved learning 
 as well as religion, and made excellent progress in his 
 studies. He was sent to Paris and studied under the re- 
 nowned English scholastic, the " irrefragable doctor," 
 Alexander Hales, who is said to have remarked concern- 
 ing his pupil, " In Brother Bonaventura Adam seems not 
 to have sinned." Here at the University of Paris he met 
 the promising young Dominican, his fellow countryman, 
 Thomas of Aquino, and the two, though of different 
 orders, formed a lasting and beautiful friendship. Their 
 lives were remarkably parallel. Both became distin- 
 
 1 Besides the authorities already named, Ada Sanctorum, July, 
 Vol. III., p. 770 ss; Guillen's Bibliothtque des Peres de I'Eglise, 
 torn. 25; Cardinal Fanna's Ratio Nova Collections Op. S, Bona- 
 venturce a critical discussion, not an edition of his works.
 
 274 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 guished scholars and theologians, they took the doctor's 
 degree the same day, they died the same year, Aquinas 
 in March, Bonaventura in July, 1274; Aquinas on the 
 way to, and Bonaventura at, the Council of Lyons. 
 
 Bonaventura was at an early age made general of his 
 order, and filled various church offices with success and 
 distinction. It is said that he was once offered the arch- 
 bishopric of York, but declined. He was honored as a 
 friend by the pious king Louis IX. of France, hailed by 
 admiring pupils as the " seraphic doctor," and not long 
 before his death was made a cardinal. 
 
 Numerous writings of Bonaventura remain, among 
 them very many sketches of sermons. The critics, of 
 course, reject some of these, but enough of them may 
 be accepted as genuine x to give such a basis of judg- 
 ment as we have in other cases. No preacher, as we 
 have often to observe, can be fairly judged by the mere 
 notes and outlines of his sermons, and yet they give some 
 notion of his methods and ideas. From the other works 
 of Bonaventura, however, we may gather his opinions 
 on theology, and infer something as to his manner of 
 preaching. The scholastic method and the mystic spirit 
 are clearly seen. He developed the mystic teachings of 
 Bernard and the Victorines. Like Richard, he held to 
 six stages in the ascent of the soul to the perfection of 
 union with God, but he tried to improve on Richard by 
 further distinctions and different statements. In some 
 of his writings he represents three stages in the Chris- 
 tian life: (i) Fulfilling the requirements of the law; 
 (2) Following the spiritual teachings of the gospel; (3) 
 Attaining to blessedness by the six steps of contempla- 
 tion. It would take us too far afield to go minutely into 
 these subtleties. His general position is summed up by 
 Vaughan 2 thus : " Bonaventura resolves all science into 
 union with God. The successive attainment of various 
 kinds of knowledge is in his system an approximation, 
 stage by stage, to God a scaling of the heights of illu- 
 mination, as we are more closely united with the divine 
 Word, the repertory of ideas." He is thus rather 
 Platonic than Aristotelian. 3 The Christian elements of 
 
 1 See Fanna, Ratio Nova; Collect., etc. 
 a Hours with the Mystics, p. 149 f. 
 
 8 Cf. Ueberweg, Hist. Philos., pp. 433, 453 f. ; and Preger, Bd. 
 I., S. 251 ff.
 
 THE CENTRAL MEDIEVAL, OR SCHOLASTIC, AGE 275 
 
 his system appear in many ways; for example, the ulti- 
 mate goal, the sixth stage in contemplation of the divine, 
 is the loving and reverential apprehension of the being of 
 God as revealed in the blessed Trinity. In speaking of 
 the corresponding powers by which man makes the steps 
 necessary to reach the goal of union with God, he says, 1 
 " But these powers are corrupted by sin ; they must be 
 restored by grace, purified by righteousness, exercised 
 by knowledge and perfected by wisdom. Christ both is 
 and works this fourfold help, which may be also de- 
 scribed as twofold : grace and truth." 
 
 Leaving Bonaventura's mysticism to the theologian 
 and philosopher we come to his preaching. The con- 
 temporary accounts of his eloquence are numerous and 
 decisive. He is praised both as sermocinator ad clerum 
 et pradicator ad populum sermonizer to the clergy and 
 preacher to the people. He was fluent, ardent, persuasive. 
 The outlines of his sermons are bare, and they illustrate 
 the scholastic and allegorical methods of his time. One 
 example will be enough to show his manner. The text 
 is Isa. 52:13, "Behold my servant shall deal prudently 
 (Lat. intelligent, shall understand) ; he shall be exalted 
 and extolled, and be very high." He takes the text as 
 a prophecy and commendation, not of Christ, but arbi- 
 trarily of John the Evangelist. The outline is as follows : 
 John is here commended: I. For the holiness of an ex- 
 cellent life, in the words, " My servant." 2. For the 
 clearness of his knowledge " Shall understand." 3. 
 For the excellency of his doctrine " Shall be exalted 
 and extolled, and be very high." Now on the basis of 
 his threefold intelligence he was raised to a threefold 
 dignity: I. Apostolic rank, because he knew useful 
 things; 2. Prophecy, because he knew hidden things; 3. 
 Gospel teaching (evangelist), because he knew high 
 things. Hence he has left us three sets of works: I. 
 The Epistles, as a preacher; 2. The Apocalypse, as a 
 prophet ; 3. The Gospel, as a scribe. 
 
 So much for the scholastic ; the mystic is revealed in 
 the following quotation 2 from a sermon on the Passion 
 of our Lord : " O death, O passion of my Saviour, 
 
 1 Preger, op. cit., S. 254. 
 
 2 Guillon, Bibl. des Peres, torn. 25, p. 83.
 
 276 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 source of all good things. Here it is death that gives 
 life, it is wounds that heal; the blood bathes and puri- 
 fies ; the opening of the side unites hearts. O wonderful 
 death which makes all my joy, all my happiness, which 
 crowns all my wishes ! No ; I will no longer be separated 
 from my Jesus; there is no felicity but in being with 
 him. I will prepare myself three retreats; one in the 
 wounds of his hands, another in that of his feet, the third 
 (Ah! this will be the one where I shall fix my abode) 
 will be in his side. There I will speak to his heart ; there 
 I shall obtain the accomplishment of all my desires. So, 
 more and more, will I imitate his most holy mother, 
 whose soul was torn by the sword of the passion of her 
 Son. O wounds of Jesus my Saviour ! O dwelling full 
 of charms! With what delights, think you, should be 
 flooded the soul which by these sacred doors enters into 
 the heart of Jesus Christ? which attaches, closely unites 
 itself, unchangeably, to that divine heart? Nay; I cannot 
 express it ! Make you trial of it ! That is the only means 
 of knowing it ! " 
 
 The older school of churchly scholastic mysticism, 
 adhering stanchly to the Catholic traditional orthodoxy, 
 and developing its views in the dialectic method of the 
 schools, reached its height and its end in Bonaventura. 
 Toward the end of the thirteenth century we find a pow- 
 erful mind, a thinker of a new order, who is less careful 
 of dialectic distinction and logical form and minute 
 analysis, and is less concerned to use these in order to 
 harmonize his views either with the established dogmas 
 of the church or with the real meaning of the Scriptures. 
 The experience of the individual soul in its dealing with 
 God comes to the fore as a source and criterion of truth 
 and knowledge, and henceforth we have to deal with a 
 new tendency in the philosophy and theology of Europe. 
 This tendency is represented in those whom we have 
 called speculative mystics. 
 
 The leader of these was the celebrated Master Eck- 
 hart (c. I2(5o-c. I327). 1 What is known and inferred 
 as to his life can be told in few words. There is some 
 uncertainty as to the exact dates of his birth and death, 
 
 1 For studies of Eckhart see Vaughan, Preger and the historians 
 of German preaching before cited.
 
 THE CENTRAL MEDIAEVAL, OR SCHOLASTIC, AGE 277 
 
 but it is inferred that he was born about 1260. He was 
 a native of Thuringia in the neighborhood of Strasburg. 
 He early joined the Dominicans and went to the famous 
 school at Cologne for his education. Preger thinks it 
 unlikely that Albert the Great was still living, but the 
 spirit and methods of that great teacher were still domi- 
 nant there, for if he had died before Eckhart came it 
 was shortly before. 
 
 Eckhart also studied and lectured for awhile at Paris, 
 where he got his degree of Master about 1302, it seems 
 by some special influence of Boniface VIII. In 1304 he 
 was made provincial of his order for Saxony, and three 
 years later vicar-general for Bohemia, and was clothed 
 with authority to institute needed reforms in the con- 
 vents of that region. He lectured and preached with 
 great power in different parts of Germany, and made a 
 second stay in Paris. Later he was prior at Frankfort 
 on the Main, and provincial at Cologne, where he taught 
 in the famous Dominican school and had many pupils. 
 
 He was much loved and admired by his pupils, and 
 his moral influence over them was great and salutary. 
 He was very devout, and pure beyond suspicion or blame. 
 He says once that he " baptized himself seven times a 
 day in the blood of Christ," and gives the prayer he was 
 accustomed to repeat. It is full of humility, confession of 
 sin and pleading for cleansing. He mentions as one of 
 the most precious gifts of grace to him that he had been 
 freed from carnal desires. The enemies who resented 
 his discipline, and later attacked his teachings, could 
 bring no charge against the uprightness and purity of his 
 conduct. But many of his teachings were very strange, 
 hard to understand, and often utterly out of harmony 
 with received opinions. Moreover there were mystic 
 teachers of heresy in the neighborhood, and Eckhart 
 seemed to be in sympathy with them both personally and 
 in his teaching. So it came about that charges of heresy 
 were made against him at the instance of his bishop. 
 Nicholas of Strasburg, a brother Dominican and himself 
 a mystic, was appointed by the pope to look into the mat- 
 ter. As was natural, Eckhart was acquitted. But the 
 bishop was not satisfied and renewed the charge, so that 
 a new process was instituted in 1327. Eckhart made an
 
 278 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 explanation, saying that he had not meant to teach 
 contrary to the doctrines of the church, that he was 
 misunderstood on some points and misrepresented on 
 others, and was open to conviction if he could be proved 
 wrong. The bishop had therefore to refer the case to 
 the pope, and while it was pending before the papal curia 
 Eckhart died, probably in 1327 or 1328. 
 
 After his death, in the year 1329, a papal bull was 
 published condemning seventeen propositions from Eck- 
 hart's writings and laying eleven more under suspicion 
 of heresy. Eckhart's explanatory and conditional state- 
 ment was interpreted to be an unconditional retraction 
 of these specified teachings. So the Catholic writers 
 declared that he recanted his errors and died in full or- 
 thodoxy; but Preger and other Protestant writers hold 
 that he never did recant the essential teachings of his 
 books, but only professed a willingness to be convinced of 
 his error. 
 
 The essence of Eckhart's system was the " mystical 
 union " with God. This he represented in such terms 
 as practically amount to an identification of the soul with 
 God. Thus he says : * " He who standeth at all times 
 in a present Now, in him doth God the Father bring 
 forth his Son without ceasing." " In every man who 
 hath utterly abandoned self God must communicate him- 
 self according to all his power, so completely that he 
 retains nothing in his life, in his essence, in his nature, 
 in his Godhead." In other words, God is humanized in 
 the mystic, and so the mystic becomes divine. Further: 
 " God and I are one in knowing. God's essence is his 
 knowing, and God's knowing makes me to know him. 
 Therefore is his knowing my knowing. The eye whereby 
 I see God is the same eye whereby he seeth me. My eye 
 and the eye of God are one eye, one vision, one knowl- 
 edge, and one love." These daring and obscure utter- 
 ances can be matched with many similar ones. It is true 
 that on the other hand many noble sayings and true 
 thoughts are to be found, for example : " Good works 
 do not make holiness; it is holiness that makes good 
 works." Yet it does not seem possible to acquit him of 
 pantheistic speculations, of extreme and misleading 
 1 Quotations are from Vaughan.
 
 THE CENTRAL MEDIEVAL, OR SCHOLASTIC, AGE 279 
 
 statements, and of exalting too much the individual ex- 
 perience as authority. Along with this, his use of Scrip- 
 ture is even more free and sophistical than that of the 
 scholastics. It must mean what he says. And his con- 
 ception of the fundamental doctrines of grace is essen- 
 tially defective. Sin, repentance, faith unto salvation, 
 find little place in his system. He preached mostly to 
 monks and nuns urging those who are already converted 
 to attain to fullness of union with God. 
 
 One of the most notable pupils of Eckhart was Henry 
 Suso, or Seuse (1295-1366). He was born near Con- 
 stance toward the end of the thirteenth century. His 
 father was a knight and worldly, his mother a pious 
 woman of the sentimental type. The union was incon- 
 gruous and unhappy; and the boy was like his mother 
 and much influenced both by her nature and training. 
 He was placed quite young in the Dominican cloister at 
 Constance, after his father had given up all hopes of 
 making a knight of him. Here for years he went through 
 a series of mental sufferings and self-imposed bodily 
 tortures, seeking peace. Meantime his studies went on, 
 some of Eckhart's writings came into his hands, and he 
 was after a while sent to Cologne, where he enjoyed 
 immediate instruction from the celebrated Master. He 
 became thoroughly imbued with Eckhart's teachings, and 
 secretly carried on much of the asceticism that he had 
 practised in his cloister. It was not until his fortieth 
 year that he abandoned this extreme rigidity of asceti- 
 cism, and then because in an illness he came to see that 
 it was endangering his life. Yet he did not regret hav- 
 ing thus broken himself in. 
 
 He filled various positions in his order at different 
 places, suffered some persecution for supposed heretical 
 views, and was accused of other things unjustly and 
 made to suffer much. The trouble between pope and 
 emperor, and the laying of the land under interdict was 
 a sore trial to the cause of religion. Suso was of those 
 who sympathized with the pope, and owing to the em- 
 peror's threats the monastery at Constance, where he 
 was teaching, was virtually broken up, the monks driven 
 away. During his exile he was frequently travelling and 
 preaching in those parts of Germany where he could
 
 280 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 safely do so. In 1346 some relaxation in the persecu- 
 tion made it possible to reopen the convent at Constance, 
 and Suso returned, only after a while to be hurt in soul 
 and reputation by a false accusation of improper rela- 
 tions with an evil woman. But he lived down the slander, 
 and was, in 1348, sent by his superiors to Ulm, where 
 he spent the rest of his life. 
 
 In his teachings he made no advance on Eckhart as 
 to substance of thought. His views and methods were 
 substantially the same as his master's. But he was a 
 more popular preacher than Eckhart. While his soft 
 and sentimental nature made him the idol of the nun- 
 neries and of the devout women in all ranks, he was yet 
 an acceptable and moving preacher before the people. 
 Not many of his sermons have come down to us, but they 
 show the same doctrine as his more extended writings 
 and exhibit traces which sustain his traditional reputation 
 for eloquence. 
 
 Among the numerous followers of Eckhart's teaching 
 we find the name of a certain John of Sterngassen. This 
 latter designation was taken from a street or quarter 
 of Strasburg, from which it would appear that he was 
 born or lived in that city. He was a preacher of con- 
 siderable power and was lector, or teacher, in Stras- 
 burg about 1318 to 1323. He was a thoroughgoing dis- 
 ciple of Eckhart, and went even further than he * in 
 using Scripture merely as a starting point for mystical 
 and experimental speculations. One of his sayings, 
 quoted from Preger, 2 may give a taste of his mystical 
 quality: "What in God is a working [or doing], that 
 must be in me a feeling [i.e., a passive feeling, Leiden] ; 
 what in God is a speaking, that must be in me a hearing ; 
 what in God is a picturing [Bilden], that must be in 
 me a beholding. All that God can do, that can the 
 soul feel." 
 
 Bernard, Francis, Bonaventura even, have shown us 
 how the mystical type of thought and life could be held 
 along with active and fruitful effort for the salvation of 
 men ; and how popular preaching might be when colored 
 by mystic thought. This is no unusual phenomenon in the 
 history of mystic views, and finds excellent illustration 
 * Albert, op. cit., sec. 21. * Op. cit., S. 245.
 
 THE CENTRAL MEDIAEVAL, OR SCHOLASTIC, AGE 281 
 
 in the lives and works of the preachers we have now 
 to consider, the practical mystics. 
 
 We have already met with David of Augsburg as the 
 teacher, friend, and companion of Berthold of Regens- 
 burg. 1 But he was also something on his own account. 
 He was a preacher to the people; and as Albert had 
 through his pupils given mysticism a great impulse in 
 Germany, so David by his writings, preaching, and in- 
 fluence did very much to make the German language the 
 instrument of communicating religious instruction. His 
 treatises are regarded as among the best specimens of 
 early German prose. Little is known of his life, but the 
 fact of his being called after Augsburg indicates that 
 that city was his birthplace, or for a time his residence. 
 He lived a longer time at Regensburg in the Franciscan 
 monastery, where he was teacher of the novices, and as 
 such instructed Berthold. After this he was again in 
 Augsburg, where he ended his days. A contemporary 
 writer 2 says, " In addressing sermons to the people he 
 was of an excellent genius." But in his gentler and 
 easier nature he lacked the fire and power of his more 
 famous pupil Berthold. No specimens of his German 
 sermons have yet come to light, but his Latin sketches 
 and German writings indicate in his mystic teachings 
 the influence of Augustine, Bernard, Hugo and Richard 
 of St. Victor. It is not unlikely that he was also in- 
 fluenced by the prevalent mysticism among the devout 
 women of his region, for he explains the nervous and 
 overwrought feelings which were common, as indications 
 that a sense of the presence of God may be too much for 
 the bodily nature to stand. He clearly teaches the " mys- 
 tic union " with God as the goal of the soul's endeavor. 
 Preger gives the following verse of a poem, not David's 
 but current in his time, as expressive of the mystic feel- 
 ing toward God : 
 
 Flieh ich von dir, Flee I from thee, 
 
 Du kommst zu mir. Comest thou to me. 
 
 Verlass ich mich, Losing myself, 
 
 So find ich dich, I find thyself, 
 
 O uberwesentliches Gut ! O superessential Good ! 
 
 Contemporary with Eckhart was a certain Nicholas 
 
 1 See ante, p. 256 f. ; and Preger, op. cit., S. 268 ff. 
 
 2 Quoted by Preger, /. c.
 
 282 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 of Strasburg. He it was who, being charged by the 
 pope with the first trial of Eckhart, acquitted him. He 
 is also called " Brother Nicholas who was lector at 
 Cologne," but when and how long does not appear. 
 Involved with Eckhart, he, too, was under process for 
 heresy at Eckhart's second trial, but must have been 
 leniently dealt with, probably for reasons of policy. 
 Thirteen of his sermons and sketches have been printed, 
 and there are more in manuscript. He is mystical, but 
 by no means so scholastic as Bonaventura nor so deep 
 and speculative as Eckhart. His aim is practical, his 
 audiences popular, his style lively and picturesque. Of 
 course he handles the Bible in the current arbitrary fash- 
 ion; but, like other popular and practical preachers, he 
 teaches the worthlessness of works as a means of 
 salvation, preaches .repentance, and holds up Christ as 
 the only Saviour. The following story, quoted in several 
 of the books from one of his sermons, illustrates not 
 only his individual method, but a style of popular presen- 
 tation of divine things which was current in his time and 
 later. After having dwelt earnestly on the value of the 
 sufferings of Christ on our behalf, he suddenly takes this 
 turn : " Now we must learn to climb up on the cross of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ. And who are the right sort of 
 tree climbers? It is they who place their love and de- 
 sires nowhere else, and seek their joy and their comfort 
 nowhere else than in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ 
 and in his precious worthy passion. I will give you an 
 illustration. Once a cat and a fox were taking a walk 
 together in a field. The fox said, ' Mrs. Cat, what can 
 you do ? ' The cat said, ' I can climb trees.' ' Oho ! ' said 
 the fox, ' what a fine art is that.' Then said the cat, ' Mr. 
 Fox, what can you do ? ' ' To be sure,' said he, ' I can 
 do great things, and have a whole sack full of arts; if 
 once I untie it nobody can equal me.' While they were 
 thus talking there came greyhounds that were about to 
 catch the fox. The cat ran up a tree, and said, ' Now, 
 Mr. Fox, untie your sack ! It's time ! ' ' Ah, Mrs. Cat/ 
 said the fox, ' I lightly esteemed your art, but now it 
 were dearer to me than all the wisdom that ever I 
 learned.' " 
 
 The application is made to the worldly wise folks who 
 know all manner of arts and schemes which belong to
 
 THE CENTRAL MEDIEVAL, OR SCHOLASTIC, AGE 283 
 
 this world, yet when death comes know not where to 
 run for refuge, but the " good people " run to the tree 
 of Christ's cross and passion. 
 
 But the greatest preacher among the mystics of this 
 age was the Strasburg Dominican, John Tauler (c. 
 1 290- 1 36 1 )* In order, however, better to appreciate 
 him and his preaching we must take some knowledge of 
 his times. In 1314 there was a double election of em- 
 peror, and the allegiance of the Germans was divided be- 
 tween Frederick of Austria and Louis of Bavaria. The 
 papacy became involved in the quarrel because of the 
 appointments to church offices within the German lands. 
 In the course of the quarrel Louis went so far as to set 
 up a rival pope in his own interest, and John XXII. re- 
 torted by declaring the subjects of Louis free of their 
 allegiance, and by laying the imperial lands under the 
 terrible interdict the suspension of all religious func- 
 tions. The sympathies of the German people were di- 
 vided, and the religious orders were also of divergent 
 sentiments. The Dominicans outside of Germany were 
 strongly for the pope, and a general chapter of the order 
 had enjoined the members to respect the interdict. Still 
 there were some who obeyed the emperor rather than the 
 pope, and there were others who felt obliged by the em- 
 peror's threats to leave their homes and find refuge in 
 places where his authority did not reach, or where the 
 interdict was not so strictly enforced. 
 
 In addition to these political and religious disorders 
 there were great distresses and disasters earthquakes, 
 floods, destruction of crops by grasshoppers, and worst 
 of all, the plague, which appeared in 1348 and carried 
 off thousands of the population. Along with all this 
 there was frightful moral corruption. Hardened and en- 
 couraged by the dreadful disorders, criminals of every 
 sort abounded and vices were unrestrained. Amid these 
 evils the strange fanatical sect of the Flagellants arose. 
 Companies of people made pilgrimages through the 
 country praying and lashing themselves on the bare back 
 till the blood ran down. As among the people so among 
 
 1 Very much the same authorities for Tauler as for Eckhart 
 and the other mystics. There are numerous German and several 
 English and American editions of Tauler's sermons. Cf. Broadus, 
 H. P., p. no ff., Ker's Hist, of Preaching, p. 125 f. ? Pattison's Hist, 
 of Christian Preaching, p. 112 f.
 
 284 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 the clergy there were, on the one hand, the corrupt and 
 hardened, who seemed to be plunged only the deeper into 
 evil by the terrors of the time; and there were also the 
 pious and thoughtful, who found in these things only a 
 louder call to mysticism, the devout and contemplative 
 life, separation from the world, hiding in God. 
 
 It was in this time that the saintly and faithful John 
 Tauler lived and worked. He was born of respectable 
 parents at Strasburg, somewhere between 1290 and 
 1300. Piously inclined from youth, John early entered 
 the Dominican order and pursued at Strasburg and 
 Cologne the regular studies required for advancement. 
 At his home city he no doubt heard both Eckhart and 
 John of Sterngassen preach, and at Cologne he was most 
 probably a pupil of the great master of mysticism. Here 
 he took the regular three years' course of theological 
 study and added an extra one as candidate for the grade 
 of lector, or teacher. It was probably in his twenty-fifth 
 year that he was ordained and began to preach and per- 
 form other priestly functions at Strasburg. The city 
 of Strasburg took the emperor's side in the controversy 
 with the popes, 1 and lay under interdict from May, 1329, 
 to about 1353, though there were relaxations toward the 
 last of the time; and, in fact, all along the absolute 
 cessation of all religious functions could not be enforced, 
 because many priests disobeyed. In 1328 more rigid 
 commands came to enforce the interdict, and on the other 
 hand the emperor declared that the priests should cele- 
 brate the mass or quit the country. Tauler was among 
 those who felt in duty bound to obey the pope and the 
 superiors of his order, though it is not improbable that 
 his sympathies lay the other way. The city of Basel 
 also sympathized with Louis the Bavarian, but did not 
 go so far as Strasburg in forcing the clergy to obey 
 the emperor and carry on the services. Hence many 
 found a refuge at Basel, where teaching in the convents 
 and possibly some other duties were allowed. At any 
 rate we find Tauler at Basel for a part of this time, 
 lecturing and preaching in the Dominican school. Here 
 he met friends of his order Henry of Nordlingen, Suso, 
 and others who were mystics like himself, and also came 
 
 1 Though John XXII. died in 1324 the fight was continued by his 
 successors.
 
 THE CENTRAL MEDIEVAL, OR SCHOLASTIC, AGE 285 
 
 in contact with the " Friends of God," a body, hardly an 
 order, of mystics. Among others there was a pious 
 woman, Margaret Ebner, whose influence and sympathy 
 were promotive of the mystical trend in Tauler's life. It 
 was during this time that he established his reputation 
 as a preacher. The sermons of this period are rather 
 of the scholastic sort, with much Latin, and directed 
 chiefly to monks and nuns. But they have earnestness 
 and warmth, and attacked the faults of the monks and 
 clergy in such downright fashion as already to awaken 
 hostility. 
 
 Probably in 1348 Tauler returned to Strasburg, 
 whether as teacher in the Dominican school, or convent 
 preacher, or as " general preacher " in the order, is not 
 certain. But there was evidently some relaxation in en- 
 forcing the interdict, and at Strasburg the last and 
 most fruitful period of his work was accomplished. His 
 preaching attracted large attendance and was doing much 
 good in the stricken city. 
 
 Now comes the curious story of his " conversion " 
 or " second blessing," as it would now be called. The 
 story has been attacked by Catholic scholars on various 
 grounds, and is now generally discredited by them ; 1 but 
 Preger and other Protestants hold that this is interested 
 criticism, and that the story is substantially true. It is 
 to this effect : A certain pious layman from the " Ober- 
 land," probably near Basel, who was one of the " Friends 
 of God," and a mystic, came to Strasburg to hear Tauler, 
 being attracted by his great fame as a preacher. After 
 hearing him several times he sought an interview with the 
 preacher, and told him that he was, though preaching to 
 others, not yet himself fully enlightened. He persuaded 
 Tauler that he needed a real experience of things divine, 
 a true losing of himself in God, and the like. Tauler was 
 so unsettled by this that under the advice and help of this 
 " Friend " he gave up preaching, sought retirement, and 
 by fastings, penitence, and prayers tried to find this 
 " higher life." His course was much censured by his 
 friends as fanatical, and derided by his opponents as 
 folly; but he continued it for about two years, when he 
 reached the rest he sought, and found a new or at least 
 a more vivid spiritual life. He now offered to preach 
 
 1 Linsenmayer after Denifle ; art. in Wetzer und Welte, etc.
 
 286 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 again and was permitted to do so in the cloister chapel. 
 A great crowd assembled. But the long trial had worn 
 his strength and weakened his nerves, so that in standing 
 before the people he broke into weeping, and could not 
 preach. After some days a second opportunity came, and 
 this time his word was with such power that men and 
 women groaned, wept, and fainted away in intense con- 
 cern and fervor. From now on a new Tauler preached. 
 Sometimes at Cologne where he was sent by the authori- 
 ties of his order but chiefly at Strasburg, in these fear- 
 ful times of corruption, disorder, disaster, and gloom, the 
 powerful, pleading voice of this faithful witness was 
 heard. He spared nobody's sins, he felt for everybody's 
 distresses, a faithful prophet, a sympathizing priest. He 
 pointed one and all to the Saviour, whom he himself found 
 the only refuge from his own sins and from the awful 
 evils of the times. In such labors and preaching Tauler's 
 last years were spent. When his mortal sickness came 
 he received tender care at the hands of his own sister, 
 who Was prioress of a convent at Strasburg, and in a 
 house in the garden of her establishment he entered into 
 rest, June 16, 1361. 
 
 A considerable number of sermons attributed to Tauler 
 have been printed in various editions. Some are un- 
 doubtedly spurious, and all are reported by other hands 
 than his, largely as in Eckhart's case by the nuns of the 
 convents where he preached. But enough can be counted 
 really his own to enable us to find in these sermons strong 
 support of the unanimous and cordial traditional testi- 
 mony as to the power and character of Tauler's pulpit 
 work. The sermons are thoroughly pervaded by the mys- 
 tic ideas and spirit. They are chiefly devoted to awaken- 
 ing the hearers to a truer and purer Christian life, a real 
 union of the soul with God. Incidentally they powerfully 
 attack sin and call to repentance and faith, but their main 
 purpose is to promote the true life in God. In use of 
 Scripture they are allegorical and free, as was only too 
 common, but they are more Scriptural than Eckhart's, 
 and far more practical. They depreciate dependence upon 
 works, and insist upon faith in Christ as the only way 
 of salvation. In arrangement they are not at all careful 
 of the scholastic forms, and are more like the loosely 
 constructed homilies of former times. In style they are
 
 THE CENTRAL MEDIAEVAL, OR SCHOLASTIC, AGE 287 
 
 lively and popular, full of illustration and imagery, fresh, 
 piquant, sometimes too coarse for the taste of our times, 
 but impressive and acceptable in that age. 
 
 In tone and spirit Tauler was evangelical, sincere, lofty, 
 and pure, appealing out of his own experience of grace 
 for a holier life and a more real union with God on the 
 part of his hearers. All the books quote Luther's words 
 in a letter to Spalatin, in which he warmly praises the ser- 
 mons of Tauler and declares that in no German nor Latin 
 books on theology had he found so great help as in these! 
 Altogether, making allowance for mystical onesidedness, 
 Roman Catholic errors, and traditional misuse of Scrip- 
 ture, and finding him less deeply immersed in any and all 
 of these than most of his predecessors and contempo- 
 raries, we must consider Tauler one of the most evangeli- 
 cal, devout, effective preachers of the age ; and one of the 
 most worthy to be remembered with affection and respect 
 by all ages. 
 
 4. RETROSPECT AND LESSONS OF THE PERIOD 
 
 With Tauler we may fitly close our study of this cen- 
 tral mediaeval period. After him the mystical type of 
 preaching is still found, as we shall see, but the same year 
 in which he died, 1361, a new voice is heard in far away 
 England, and the newly ordained young priest, John 
 Wiclif, sounds the first note of a revolt from papacy 
 which is to shake the world and also make a new era in 
 the history of preaching. 
 
 As we look back over this period and endeavor to 
 gather up some of its lessons for our own days we shall 
 find them abundant and instructive. The three great lines 
 of thought and life which we have traced and studied 
 are in some form essential and perpetual. Thinking, act- 
 ing, feeling; reasoning, doing, brooding; arguing, per- 
 suading, meditating ; are necessary elements of the work 
 of preaching in all times, and for the age we have been 
 studying we have learned to call them respectively scho- 
 lastic, popular, and mystic preaching. Scholasticism was 
 the effort to reach ultimate truth by reasoning from di- 
 vinely revealed doctrines and from ecclesiastically author- 
 ized dogmas thence derived. Its data were insufficient, 
 its method dry and monotonous, its processes subtle and 
 often sophistical, and its results unsatisfactory; but its
 
 288 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 grand aim was to bring, by the highest and most intense 
 effort of the spiritually enlightened reasoning powers, all 
 truth into systematic relation and then declare the beauti- 
 ful harmony to the world. The failure of scholasticism 
 and the fault of the preaching which it formed, show us 
 the futility of supposing that all truth can be derived 
 from a segment of it, and that life of any sort can be 
 identified with a mode of thought. No philosophy is as 
 large as truth, and no process of thinking is the whole 
 of man's spiritual life. 
 
 The great popular preachers of the period likewise 
 bring us a lesson. And it is, though partly both, rather 
 encouragement than warning. The misuse of Scripture, 
 the over use of legendary material, and the grotesque and 
 often coarse methods employed, are the chief faults of 
 this preaching, and they are serious ones. But its power 
 to attract crowds of hearers, and to bring home to them, 
 with an effectiveness rarely equalled and never surpassed, 
 the things which the preacher himself believed, may well 
 excite our admiration and encourage our efforts. 
 
 The mystics also teach us that avoiding the extremes 
 of supposing ourselves one with God, and therefore either 
 the infallible media of his mind and will, or the sinless 
 temples of his indwelling, there is yet a higher height of 
 communion with God than we perchance have reached, 
 and a fuller fulness of truth than we have yet experi- 
 enced. Perhaps, too, by their very errors they may lead 
 us yet to learn that in the true surrender of self to 
 Christ there lie raptures not yet enjoyed, and preaching 
 power not yet attained. 
 
 And so as we look back through the thickening haze 
 of centuries upon the colossal figure of this mediaeval 
 preaching, we see, in softened outlines and mellowed 
 smoothness, the blending of elements that must be con- 
 stant in the effort of the human soul to see and to preach 
 the truth as it is in Jesus. The all but perfect preacher 
 shall be he who will combine in consummate synthesis 
 intellectual power, popular eloquence, and personal holi- 
 ness he in whom logic controls zeal and tempers piety, 
 zeal respects logic and loves piety, and piety glorifies 
 logic and sanctifies zeal. This message the thirteenth 
 century brings to the twentieth, and alike by its successes 
 and failures bids the preachers of to-day lay it well to heart.
 
 PERIOD IV 
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, 
 
 AGE 
 1361-1*72 
 
 From the times of Tauler and Wiclif to the death of John Knox. 
 the last of the great reformers 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE RENAISSANCE, AND PREACHING IN THE FOURTEENTH 
 AND FIFTEENTH CENTURIES 
 
 The new period on which we enter in this chapter ex- 
 tends from the death of Tauler, the greatest of the 
 mediaeval mystic preachers, to the death of John Knox, 
 the last of the great reformers. The characteristics of 
 preaching with which we have grown familiar in our 
 study of the preceding period continued to display them- 
 selves, but with a falling off both of acceptability and of 
 power. Already, as we have seen, the scholastic and 
 popular types had begun to fall into decay, and marked 
 evidences of weakness in the mystic type were also ap- 
 parent. Yet the mystic preaching showed more life than 
 the other two sorts, and gave, especially in the Nether- 
 lands and Germany, some help to the rising power of 
 reformatory preaching. So that along with the decline 
 which we have to observe in the general power of the pul- 
 pit we shall have to trace the rise of that wave of mighty 
 reformatory preaching which began with Wiclif in the 
 latter part of the fourteenth century, increased in volume 
 with Savonarola near the close of the fifteenth, and 
 reached its crest in Luther and his fellow reformers in 
 the first half of the sixteenth. Meantime the mediaeval 
 traditions and methods were continued, but with some 
 correction of more glaring faults, in the Catholic preach-
 
 2QO A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 ing of the age. This period (1361-1572) of about two 
 hundred years may be appropriately styled in the history 
 of preaching the transitional or reformatory age, for it 
 marks the passage from the traditional mediaeval method 
 and spirit in the pulpit to those of modern times. 
 
 For our studies, however, it will be desirable to divide 
 the period into two great epochs : that of the fourteenth 
 and fifteenth centuries, when the forces of decay and re- 
 form struggled side by side in church and pulpit ; and that 
 of the sixteenth century, when in the Protestant Reforma- 
 tion preaching reached its third great historic culmina- 
 tion the first two being in the fourth and in the thir- 
 teenth centuries respectively. In the earlier part of the 
 general period, that is, during the fourteenth and fifteenth 
 centuries, the great artistic and literary revival which is 
 called the Renaissance lent its influence to the develop- 
 ment of preaching ; in the later epoch, the sixteenth cen- 
 tury, the Reformation was the guiding force. In this 
 chapter and the next we study the earlier epoch. 
 
 i. EUROPE IN THE FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH 
 CENTURIES 
 
 It will be well to recall some of the more important 
 events in the general history of Europe before discussing 
 the social and religious conditions which had a more 
 direct bearing upon the pulpit of the age. 
 
 We should remember that in England this was the age 
 of the Edwards and Henrys, of the struggle with Scot- 
 land, of the Hundred Years' War with France, of the 
 desolating Wars of the Roses and their close in the reign 
 of Henry VII. In Scotland the romantic age of Wallace 
 and Bruce was followed by the fatal accession of the 
 house of Stuart, of which the fourth James was reigning 
 when the fifteenth century ended. In France the strug- 
 gle with England absorbed the attention and strength of 
 the nation for a century, but under Charles VII. (1422- 
 1461), the menace of subjection to a foreign power was at 
 last removed, and France entered on a new career of 
 power and influence in European affairs. The monarchy 
 was strengthened by the arts and policy of the cruel and 
 false but sagacious Louis XL, whose two next successors 
 became possessed with the dream of establishing French
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 29 1 
 
 power in Italy a fatal inheritance to Francis I. in the 
 next period. In Germany the emperor Charles IV. 
 sought to alleviate the confusion and turmoil by pro- 
 viding for a more orderly and satisfactory election of the 
 emperor. This he did by putting forth in 1356 the famous 
 Golden Bull which vested the choice in seven electors, 
 four temporal and three spiritual lords. This arrange- 
 ment had great effect on all the subsequent history of 
 Germany. The next important emperor after Charles was 
 Sigismund, who began to reign 1410, and took hold of 
 affairs with vigor and ability. Under him the famous 
 council of Constance was called, which deposed the rival 
 popes and thereby ended the long schism in the papacy, 
 but alas, also condemned to death the noble reformer, 
 John Huss, in 1414. The following emperors were not 
 able to accomplish much in settling the distracted regions 
 over which they held the nominal sovereignty. The in- 
 terests and jealousies of the various principalities and 
 cities were too great a difficulty for the statesmanship 
 of that age to overcome. Germany must wait generations 
 yet for her political unity. And the political chaos was 
 enhanced by the religious dissensions which were about 
 to bring in the Reformation. In the meantime we must 
 not forget that in the latter part of the fourteenth cen- 
 tury the Swiss threw off the imperial yoke and founded 
 their sturdy little republic. 
 
 The affairs of Italy and the papacy during this period 
 were sad enough. The political situation of Italy main- 
 tained its old confusion. Naples and Sicily constituted 
 for a time an independent kingdom striven for by France 
 and Spain, and eventually falling to the latter. Rome and 
 the Papal States were in a fearful condition during the 
 sojourn of the popes at Avignon (1305-1377). The two 
 noble houses of Colonna (Ghibelline) and Orsini (Guelf) 
 kept up a constant feud. In this time the visionary Rienzi 
 tried to restore the ancient Roman republic (1347-1354), 
 but his attempt failed. The turbulent city of Florence 
 attained high renown in arts and letters, but was a prey 
 to many mutations in government. Likewise the cities of 
 Venice, Genoa, Milan, and other smaller principalities, 
 shared in the political unrest and disunion. Not yet for 
 Italy was there a gleam of national hope.
 
 292 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 The papacy, too, was during all this time in a wretched 
 state. It will be remembered that under French influence 
 in 1305 the residence of the popes was transferred from 
 Rome to Avignon in France, where it remained for 
 seventy-two years the so-called " Babylonian Captivity." 
 Public opinion finally induced the pope to return to Rome 
 in 1377. But at the very next election there was a split. 
 The Italian cardinals were determined, though in the 
 minority, to have an Italian pope, and elected Urban VI. 
 The French cardinals fled to Avignon and elected Clem- 
 ent VII., who resumed residence there. And now for a 
 generation the world is favored with the spectacle of a 
 divided and corrupt papacy. France favored Avignon, 
 and Italy Rome; Spain followed France, and England 
 Italy ; Germany was divided. Efforts to heal the schism 
 were in vain until the Council of Constance finally de- 
 posed all there were now three of the claimants, and 
 declared Martin V. the rightful pope in 1417. But the 
 end of the schism brought no moral reform. The popes 
 that followed were by no means reformers. Pius II. 
 (yEneas Silvius Piccolomini) was a man of letters; In- 
 nocent VIII. was given over to vices, and in his time the 
 papal court was a sty of corruption; Alexander VI. 
 (Borgia) was the most infamous of them all, the Nero 
 of the papacy ; Julius II. was a statesman and a warrior, 
 by mischance a pope, and he made the states of the church 
 a political power which endured until modern times ; Leo 
 X. (John of Medici) was a patron of arts and letters, 
 free and easy, fond of money and luxury, supposed to be 
 a freethinker, and certainly a very unsuitable man for the 
 great crisis that was now at hand. 
 
 Long had Spain, with the south under Moorish rule 
 and the north divided against itself, been of little moment 
 in European politics. But in the latter part of the fif- 
 teenth century things took a turn. A statesman and 
 patriot appeared in the person of Cardinal Ximenes, and 
 to his farsighted political talents the country owed much, 
 though his religious bigotry inflicted lasting evils upon it. 
 In 1479 the crowns of Castile and Arragon were united 
 by the marriage of the two heirs, Ferdinand and Isabella ; 
 in 1492 the Moors were driven out of their stronghold at 
 Granada ; and in the same notable year Columbus, under
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 293 
 
 Spanish patronage, discovered the New World and 
 gave to Spain a prestige and wealth that lasted for 
 generations. 
 
 This brief glance at the political situation in Europe 
 during the two centuries we are studying reminds us that 
 it was a time of war, ambition, oppression, cruelty, in- 
 trigue, corruption, and yet of far reaching significance in 
 national affairs. Nor was this all, for amid the political 
 and military strife, there was progress in other things. 
 
 The arts of peace also flourished and grew. Trade and 
 industry, the art of wealth-production, received impor- 
 tant stimulus and development. There was waste and 
 extravagance, but there was also thrift. The merchant 
 and banker became pillars in the state. Commerce grew 
 with the discovery and opening of new lands. As the 
 invention of gunpowder revolutionized warfare and 
 changed the face of the world, so the invention of print- 
 ing revolutionized literature and set the pace for a new 
 era in the world of letters. The great discoverers and 
 navigators, Vasco de Gama, Columbus, Magellan, and 
 others, filled the world with wonder, and widened the out- 
 look of humanity upon itself and its home. In the fif- 
 teenth century new interest was developed in the study 
 of the exact sciences and of the great forces of nature, 
 and this great department of human thought received 
 some of the impulse which has given it so much ascend- 
 ency in modern times. 
 
 In the fine arts, particularly during the latter part of 
 the time, there was great progress. Both instrumental 
 and vocal, both secular and religious music were culti- 
 vated, and took on important developments. In archi- 
 tecture the noble movements of the former period went 
 on with power. Churches, towers, castles, palaces, public 
 buildings, bridges, and private residences, all show the 
 great growth of the building art. In sculpture and paint- 
 ing the effort was made, as in music and architecture, to 
 cultivate and impress religious ideas. The decoration of 
 cathedrals and churches was one of the principal aims 
 of later mediaeval art ; but when in the fifteenth century 
 the revived interest in antiquity made itself felt, a new 
 breath came to art also. The purely artistic art for art's 
 sake the beautiful the sensuous now goes hand in
 
 294 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 hand with the religious aims of the preceding age. One 
 need only take a superficial glance at the walls of an art 
 gallery to see how the devoutly religious and the sensu- 
 ously beautiful struggle side by side for expression in the 
 art of that wonderful age. The earlier Italian work of 
 Giotto and others prepared the way for the wonderful 
 developments of the Renaissance. 
 
 We have seen how already in the preceding period the 
 languages of modern Europe were settling into shape, 
 and the national literatures were beginning. That ten- 
 dency goes on in this period with accelerated power, re- 
 ceives a great impulse from the invention of printing, and 
 in the fifteenth century gets a new life and a new direc- 
 tion by the revival of learning. The strong foundations 
 of Italian literature had already been laid by Dante (d. 
 1321), Petrarch (d. 1374), and Boccaccio (d. 1375). In 
 other lands also fair beginnings had been made before 
 the new learning came with its breath of power and life. 
 In Germany poetry passed from the knightly and gallant 
 kind of the Minnesingers to the more burgherly and di- 
 dactic sort of the Meistersingers. German thought found 
 expression also in some prose writings, though these were 
 of no great or world-wide influence. In France, while 
 the poetic strain of the early troubadours was not wholly 
 lost, prose writing found admirable representatives in 
 the naive and charming Froissart (d. after 1400) and in 
 his followers, especially Philip de Comines (1445-1509), 
 whose narrative of the events of his time is highly 
 valued. In England poetry had its great representative 
 in Chaucer (1328-1400), and prose in the marvellous 
 traveller's tales of Sir John Mandeville (d. 1372). 
 
 All these earlier developments prepared the ground for 
 the seed of the new learning which fell richly upon it 
 about the middle of the fifteenth century. All depart- 
 ments of human thought philosophy and religion as well 
 as art and literature were powerfully affected by this 
 great movement, which is variously described as the 
 Renaissance, the Revival of Learning, or of Letters, and 
 Humanism that is, the study of the Greek and Latin 
 classics. Broadly speaking, it was a fresh, intense and 
 naturally one-sided and extreme devotion to the art and 
 literature of ancient Greece and Rome. Like every other
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 295 
 
 literary cult it had its sound and its corrupt elements, its 
 serious aims and its laughable follies, its good and its 
 bad results. 
 
 The movement, as was natural, began in Italy, and 
 spread through Europe. Petrarch and Boccaccio were 
 both good Greek and Latin scholars, and their work and 
 example encouraged a taste for classical studies among 
 their admirers and followers. 
 
 In 1453 the fall of Constantinople sent many Greek 
 scholars westward, and these found welcome and profit 
 in many of the Italian cities. Notably did the wealthy, 
 cultured, and powerful Medici at Florence encourage this 
 tendency of literature and art; and under the rule of 
 Lorenzo the Magnificent, that fair city became a flourish- 
 ing center of the new culture. Able and distinguished 
 scholars as well as famed artists added luster to that " city 
 of flowers and flower of cities," as it was proudly called. 
 Here the study of Plato was a reigning fad. Here lived 
 Politian, Marsilius Ficinus and Pico di Mirandola, that 
 wonder of knighthood and culture. And here in their 
 time, as we shall see, preached the stern and eloquent 
 prophet of the age, Savonarola, In other parts of Italy 
 the new learning also had brilliant representatives, such 
 as the Cardinal Bembo and Laurentius Valla, and last 
 but by no means least the popes, Nicholas V., Pius II. 
 who, as yEneas Silvius Piccolomini, was known to fame 
 as an eminent Humanist before he became pope, and 
 Leo X., the son of Lorenzo dei Medici, who was on the 
 papal throne and devoted to literature and art when 
 Luther began what the easy-going pontiff was pleased to 
 regard as a " quarrel of monks," but history calls the 
 Reformation. 
 
 From Italy the movement spread into other lands. 
 Passing Germany for the present let us recall that in 
 England the new love of learning came with power and 
 laid enduring foundations. John Colet (d. 1519), dean of 
 St. Paul's, and a preacher of force, was an admirable 
 Greek scholar who had studied in Italy and taught with 
 enthusiasm at Oxford. In France the scholarly work of 
 Faber Stapulensis (as the Latinized form has the name) 
 and others belong to this period. 
 
 In the Netherlands learning was in touch with piety.
 
 296 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 The mystics had not lost influence there. The Brethren 
 of the Common Life, a society founded by the pious and 
 popular preacher Gerhard Groot, gave special attention 
 to the education of the young. Among them in their 
 earlier days studied the gentle Thomas a Kempis; and 
 later, when their greatest leaders were gone and their 
 teaching somewhat deteriorated, came first John Wessel 
 and afterwards Erasmus to get a start in learning in 
 the schools of the Brethren. The names of these two men 
 bring us to the new learning in Germany and its relation 
 to the Reformation. 
 
 John Wessel 1 (c. 1420-1489) was born of honest mid- 
 dle-class people at Groningen, and received his early 
 education in the school of the Brethren of the Common 
 Life at Zwoll. It is probable that he at this time came 
 also under the influence of Thomas a Kempis, who lived 
 in the cloister at Agnesberg nearby. The youth was both 
 pious and in love with learning. He pursued his studies 
 at Cologne, Lyons, Paris, Basel, and in Italy. He taught 
 and lectured at many of these places, and was specially 
 influential at Heidelberg in building up the university, on 
 which he left a deep impress. Here after his time some 
 of the leading lights of the Reformation Melanchthon, 
 Brentz, Butzer studied, and no doubt felt the .influence 
 which Wessel had left behind him. In Italy he came in 
 contact with many of the earlier scholars, and later he 
 was associated with Reuchlin. Along with his learning 
 his pious life and evangelical views prepared the minds 
 of many of his pupils for the coming religious upheaval. 
 
 Vast and important as are the interests of nations and 
 of culture during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, 
 the affairs of religion are also passing through one of the 
 most tremendous crises of history and approaching the 
 great revolution of the sixteenth century. Catholic writ- 
 ers love to speak of the mediaeval centuries especially 
 the thirteenth as the " ages of faith." But even at its 
 best the sway of the papacy was not, and could not be, 
 complete. Much less so in the years of darkness and 
 corruption. Even as far as Rome taught Christian truth 
 and correctly represented the Christian spirit, it still 
 
 1 Ullmann's Reformers before the Reformation, Vol. II. (Eng. 
 transl.), gives an elaborate account of Wessel.
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 297 
 
 had to meet the perennial opposition of evil, enmity with- 
 out and corruption within. Nor was the church ever 
 without the questioning presence inside its fold of those 
 who were more or less discontented with many of its doc- 
 trines and practices. And further, there were the so- 
 called heretics who declared from the outside that the 
 Scriptures taught a simpler and purer form of faith and 
 practice than was found in the Roman system. And 
 lastly, there were then, as always, extremists and vision- 
 aries of every sort. The awful moral degradation into 
 which the papacy fell during this time made it utterly 
 unfit to contend against the forces of decay on the one 
 hand and of reform on the other, and it is the conflict 
 of these two sets of forces that constitutes the religious 
 history of this great period. 
 
 It is well known that the state of religion in this time 
 was very low. Corruption in doctrine and life was gen- 
 eral and extreme. The plain annals of the age relate facts 
 that make us blush for our race ; the satirists expose and 
 denounce with unsparing hand the vices and follies that 
 prevailed ; and the preachers describe, lament and attack 
 sin in many forms and places. The picture of the corrupt 
 age is painted in glaring colors by those who could look 
 directly upon the things of which they tell. Yet, bad as 
 it was, the darkness was relieved by some rays of light. 
 The pure and pious were found even in those evil days ; 
 quiet mystics sought God in retirement, and noble spirits, 
 both among clergy and people, were found who lived in 
 this evil world the life of faith and virtue. And not only 
 in the way of satire, but also of heart-breaking sorrow and 
 earnest rebuke, reformers thundered against sins from 
 which they themselves firmly abstained. Nor were there 
 utterly wanting, both among faithful men and excellent 
 women, those who visited the fatherless and widows in 
 their affliction and kept themselves unspotted from the 
 world. In simple justice to the things that make for 
 righteousness we should bear these facts in mind when 
 we come to look more narrowly upon the evil features of 
 the time. One of the worst of these the corruption of 
 the clergy we come now to consider. 
 
 Adequately to describe the character of the Catholic 
 clergy from the days of Wiclif to those of Luther would
 
 298 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 tax the picturing powers of a Dante or a Burke. Yet the 
 facts themselves, stated as briefly and as simply as possi- 
 ble, carry their own sad and awful impression without aid 
 from the genius of poet or orator. There was a mediaeval 
 proverb x to the effect that if a man would enjoy himself 
 for a little while let him kill a chicken, if for a year let 
 him marry a pretty wife, if for life let him become a priest. 
 The easy and envied life of a priest, however, was only 
 the lot of the more favored. Many of them were poor 
 and had to contend with hardships. But there were 
 among the prelates and those who had the better places 
 luxury and easy living that almost baffle belief. Along 
 with these there was a worldliness, a carelessness, a 
 moral obliquity that are only too well attested. Even 
 when we make all necessary deductions for the exag- 
 gerated lampoons of the satirists, the idle tales of the 
 people, and the overstatements of aroused and indignant 
 reformers, the real facts at bottom are hideous enough. 
 Ignorance and incompetence were small faults in com- 
 parison with the moral unfitness which disgraced the 
 clergy of the age. Avarice and luxury, greed and ambi- 
 tion, simony and extortion, went together. And, worse 
 than these, open concubinage and general looseness of 
 life are well-known sins of the secular clergy. The monks 
 were no better, and even the nunneries did not escape 
 censure. The papacy set the example. Petrarch said 
 that the court of the popes at Avignon was a place where 
 the hope of heaven and the fear of hell were regarded as 
 old fables, where virtue was esteemed an affair for peas- 
 ants, and sin was regarded as a sign of manly indepen- 
 dence. Such moral degradation excited the scorn of the 
 world, aroused the conscience of the upright, drew the 
 tears of the godly, and call on all in tones of thunder for 
 a " reformation of the church in head and members." 
 But little was that call heeded by popes and councils. 
 The answer to it was to come in another way. 
 
 In the upper classes of society the princes and rulers 
 and gentry there was a moral laxity which shows itself 
 only too plainly in the annals of the age and its other liter- 
 ature. The ties of morality and religion sat very lightly 
 indeed upon the seared consciences of many who esteemed 
 1 Quoted by Hase in his Church History somewhere.
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 2QQ 
 
 themselves the nobility of earth. Cruelty, violence, op- 
 pression, fraud, lying and shameless vice stained the pow- 
 erful and wealthy. The extravagance, luxury, dissolute- 
 ness of many fashionable women were only equalled by 
 the corresponding and further-going vices of the men. 
 As for religious belief, it was the exception, and the ex- 
 ception itself was marred by superstition and corruptions 
 of doctrine. But not all of the nobility were bad, there 
 were some illustrious exceptions. 
 
 Among the people generally, with such examples of 
 evil as the clergy and upper classes set, the corruption of 
 morals and the degradation of religion were fearful. We 
 may spare ourselves the description of details. Murder, 
 robbery, theft, fraud, unchastity, abounded. No wonder 
 men thought the end of the world must soon come and 
 sweep away a people so sunken in iniquity. In what 
 passed for the Christian religion fearful abuses in prac- 
 tice and wretched corruptions of doctrine went hand in 
 hand with superstitions that well might seem incredible, 
 did not eye-witnesses attest them, and their remnants still 
 prove them to have been sober facts. Magic, miracle, 
 witchcraft and deviltry were all believed in and practised ! 
 Relics of the saints were worshipped, and, of course, the 
 saints themselves. Ecstasies and visions, prophecies and 
 miracles were accepted as real divine interpositions by 
 even the pious, while absurd and wicked impostures were 
 freely practised and apparently believed, not only by the 
 innocent people, but even, to some extent, by the cheats 
 themselves ! The sale of indulgences, the laxity of dis- 
 cipline, the externalism that corroded the religious life, 
 added to the moral disorders. 
 
 Truly it was a time for reform. The better spirits of 
 the age felt this deeply, and there was a deep and grow- 
 ing conviction among all classes that things should and 
 must be changed. In many a quiet home pious parents 
 taught their children virtue and the fear of God ; the art 
 of printing spread Bibles and good books among the 
 people ; the Brethren of the Common Life in the Nether- 
 lands, and similar organizations elsewhere, cultivated and 
 spread piety ; in many of the cloisters there were devout 
 mystics who called upon God in prayer; and here and 
 there some brave reformer lifted up his voice and spared 
 not to show this decayed house of Israel its sins.
 
 30O A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 2. THE PREACHING OF THE TIMES 
 
 The state of the Catholic pulpit during the fourteenth 
 and fifteenth centuries may be comprehensively and accu- 
 rately described as one of decay. The mighty forward 
 movement of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries had 
 reached its limit, and the inevitable reaction followed. 
 Yet, of course, preaching did not suddenly change either 
 its inner character or its external forms and methods, and 
 among these were many elements of permanent value. 
 Besides this conservation of many good features there 
 was the rising protest of the reformatory element, which 
 was more and more making itself felt, till it accomplished 
 a revolution early in the sixteenth century. And so, both 
 the conservative (in a measure) and the reformatory 
 forces of preaching maintained, in the time we are now 
 considering, a struggle against the forces of decline. But 
 these, upon the whole, were in the ascendant. 
 
 Let us first pay attention to some of those acquired 
 and preserved characteristics of preaching, which still 
 meet us in the pulpit of the fourteenth and fifteenth cen- 
 turies. Some of these were good, and some evil, and 
 some mixed. It is not necessary to make this discrimi- 
 nation formally, as it will speak for itself in the discus- 
 sion, but it should be borne in mind throughout. 
 
 The three modes of thought and method which pre- 
 vailed in the preceding epoch are still found, but all 
 with distinct loss of power the scholastic, popular and 
 mystic. 
 
 Toward the close of the thirteenth century the great 
 masters of the scholastic type of preaching had passed 
 away. Small imitators of the great men now abounded 
 and made the method ridiculous. The wearisome divis- 
 ions, the tedious refinements, the useless distinctions and 
 vapid subtleties made up only a galvanized corpse, or a 
 dancing skeleton as in some puppet show, instead of a 
 live and vigorous body. The description of the degen- 
 erate scholastics of the age given by Erasmus in his 
 Praise of Folly has been often cited. He tells how, in 
 the first place, they would begin with an invocation bor- 
 rowed from the poets ; then they would have an exordium 
 of some far-fetched and extravagant nature drawn from
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 301 
 
 the river Nile, or Bel and the Dragon, or the signs of the 
 zodiac, or squaring the circle, or from the elements of 
 grammar, or forced etymologies and the forms of 
 words, all artificial and pedantic to a degree. The third 
 stage would be what in the old rhetoric is called the " nar- 
 ration," or " statement of the case," and here the text of 
 Scripture would be given or slightly alluded to. The 
 fourth part the main body of the discourse would in- 
 troduce almost a new person, for here our scholastic be- 
 comes a mighty theologian, and propounds the most won- 
 derful theological subtleties, touching on things found in 
 neither heaven nor earth; and to tickle the ears of the 
 hearers he would adduce the great doctors, the " subtle," 
 the " irrefragable," the " seraphic," and the like ; and 
 then would come syllogisms and corollaries, and all sorts 
 of scholastic fooleries. Finally, there would be the " fifth 
 act," in which the preachers show the greatest art by 
 bringing in as application and illustration some fable or 
 legend the more marvellous and absurd the better 
 which they proceed to interpret " allegorically, tropologi- 
 cally, and anagogically." Thus these declaimers would 
 produce their " chimeras," more ungainly than the fa- 
 mous one satirized by Horace in the Ars Poetica, where 
 the literary painter is said to portray a human head, with 
 a horse's neck, the feathered body of a bird, and the tail 
 of a fish. The pen of the erudite Dutchman was dipped in 
 gall, but there are many witnesses to the essential truth 
 of his caustic description. Truly scholastic preaching 
 was in the sere and yellow leaf ! 
 
 Yet, as a slight offset to the sad decay, Rothe approv- 
 ingly mentions the very thing which Erasmus criticises 
 in the application, or fifth part, of the scholastic sermon, 
 namely, the use of fables, legends and other illustra- 
 tions. This came as a relief from the abstruse and 
 severely doctrinal and analytical character of the strict 
 scholastic method, and was an approach to the freer and 
 more effective popular style. 
 
 In the popular preaching of the age traces of all the 
 other types scholastic, mystic, and reformatory are 
 found in various degrees. Yet it is proper to retain this 
 class of preachers for separate consideration because it is 
 important to remember that in this age appeal to the mul-
 
 302 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 titude was still effectively made by preachers of popular 
 gifts. 
 
 As is ever the case in this kind of preaching the preach- 
 ers fall into three sorts : ( i ) Those who draw and impress 
 the people by sincere and earnest effort to do good, by 
 good example, by heart-to-heart appeal, by what is meant 
 to be sound evangelical teaching; (2) Those who are 
 chiefly indeed bent on good, but allow themselves large 
 liberty in the use of devices to attract and catch the 
 crowd, such as sensational oddities, humor, and even 
 worse things; (3) Those who see in these devices ends 
 rather than means, and seem to be more intent on mak- 
 ing a sensation and raising a laugh than on anything else. 
 Rothe * says : " These droll preachers are by no means 
 particular in the choice of their entertaining material; 
 and, along with some real sparks of wit, they heap to- 
 gether the worst platitudes, the most trivial jests, and not 
 seldom downright vulgarities and indecencies. Gabriel 
 Barletta, Olivier Maillard, and Michel Menot all scho- 
 lastic preachers are the leaders of this sort of thing. 
 And precisely in such cases as they do we see that even 
 earnest preachers did not consider this drollery beneath 
 their dignity." 
 
 Throughout the whole mediaeval period, as we have 
 seen, there are traces of the burlesque and sensational in 
 preaching. But in the fifteenth century, and especially in 
 Italy and France, this always questionable and often thor- 
 oughly evil tendency found frequent and exaggerated 
 expression. 2 It is almost incredible to what a degree of 
 irreverence, absurdity, and even indecency this sort of 
 thing was carried. Some of the stories and gibes found 
 in sermons of that age are almost as bad as anything re- 
 lated by Boccaccio. An Italian saying in commendation 
 of any spicy and not too delicate joke was that " it was 
 good enough for a sermon." 
 
 Even some of the better preachers, men with really seri- 
 ous aims and personally of excellent character, were not 
 free from this fault, and in the hands of less able and seri- 
 
 1 Gesch. der Pred., S. 261. 
 
 * Marenco, L'Oratoria Sacra Italiana, cap. IV. ; A. Meray, Les 
 Libres Pr/cheurs devanciers de Luther et de Rabelais; Rothe, 
 Gesch. der Pred., SS. 261 ff., 290 ff.
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 303 
 
 ous men it became a shame and disgrace which no amount 
 of special pleading can justify, and the bad taste of the 
 age can only partially palliate. One of the better sort of 
 the Italian preachers * himself by no means above re- 
 proach writes : " Preachers ought to abstain from levity 
 and not speak idle words and stories to provoke a 
 laugh. Even if sometimes it is necessary to make the 
 people attentive by some modest pleasantry, let it be done 
 moderately and rarely." But of this sage counsellor of 
 moderation to his brethren the following story is told : 2 
 He had a female admirer who objected to his monk's habit 
 as unbecoming, and said she would like to see him clad 
 in knightly array. He told her to come to hear him preach 
 next day and she should see him and hear him address 
 the people clothed in full panoply. He dressed himself 
 in all the flashy garb of a knight and covered it all with 
 his monastic gown. Thus he began to preach, and took 
 occasion in his sermon to urge the princes and knights to 
 go a-crusading against the Saracens and Turks. He 
 lamented the unwillingness of the rulers to engage once 
 more in this holy warfare, and declared if nobody else 
 would lead he was ready to lay aside his Franciscan gown 
 and put himself at the head of an expedition. Upon 
 this he put off his gown, and stood, a flashing knight with 
 drawn sword ; and in this costume he proceeded with his 
 discourse. Even if, in justice to the man, we discredit 
 the alleged motive of vanity that was back of this per- 
 formance, it was a useless bit of sensationalism and insin- 
 cerity. Nobody was going on a crusade then, and he was 
 sharp enough to know it. 
 
 In an Easter sermon Gabriel Barletta of whom more 
 will be said later discoursed thus : 3 " After his resurrec- 
 tion the Lord was looking for a messenger to carry the 
 glad news to his mother. A number offered themselves. 
 Adam said, Let me go, because I was the cause of evil. 
 No, you won't do, because you are too fond of figs and 
 might stop in the road. Abel said, Let me go. No ; you 
 
 1 Robert of Lecce, quoted by Marenco, /. c. 
 
 2 By Rothe, S. 262, on the authority of Henry Stephens. Ma- 
 renco also tells the story, only he leaves out the incident of the 
 sweetheart. 
 
 3 Rothe, S. 264. Used by Longfellow in Friar Cuthbert's ser- 
 mon in The Golden Legend.
 
 304 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 might meet Cain, and he would kill you. Then Noah 
 would undertake the business. No ; you drink too freely. 
 John the Baptist couldn't go, because he wore hairy 
 clothes; and the penitent robber was rejected because his 
 legs were broken. Finally an angel was sent, who raised 
 the song, Regina coeli, laetare! Alleluia! Resurrexit 
 sicut dixit! Alleluia!" What trifling and irreverence! 
 and that by a man of real talent, and of generally serious 
 aims ! Barletta also, in one of his sermons, 1 tells a story 
 which some readers may recognize as having been related 
 of a much respected minister of recent times in Virginia. 2 
 A certain priest, in celebrating the mass, observed a 
 woman who seemed much touched, and freely wept as 
 he intoned the service. After it was over he spoke to the 
 woman and asked the cause of her emotion, and she told 
 him it was his voice, which reminded her tenderly of her 
 recently deceased ass ! 
 
 Marenco 3 says that the excess of this way of preach- 
 ing became such a scandal that the Lateran Council of 
 1512 was led to pass its rule forbidding it, and that pro- 
 vincial councils, and later the Council of Trent, acted in 
 the same direction. It is worthy of note that the abuse 
 was so great as to call for this high authoritative repres- 
 sion. 
 
 Meantime the mystic type of preaching had also some 
 representatives in this age. Along the Rhine, and espe- 
 cially in the Netherlands, as well as to some extent in 
 France and other countries, we find them. Some of 
 these preachers will claim notice later; here it is suffi- 
 cient to remark that the mystic preaching of this time 
 was chiefly derived from the masters of the past and 
 did not offer, either in its representatives or its teach- 
 ings, much of independence. 4 
 
 In regard to the composition and delivery of sermons, 
 there is not much new to tell, as the customs of preceding 
 times were still much in vogue. But several points of 
 homiletic interest require notice. 
 
 Besides homiletic helps in the way of collections of 
 
 1 Told by Meray, op. cit. 
 
 2 1 am glad to run down this foolish story and show that it is 
 as old as it is silly. 
 * Op. cit., beginning of cap. V. 4 Rothe, S. 267.
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 305 
 
 material there were put forth in this time a few books 
 which taught the art of discourse. Early in the fifteenth 
 century Nicholas of Clemanges * (a pupil of Gerson), in 
 his general work, De Studio Theologico, had given some 
 excellent precepts about preaching. Near the same time 
 two Germans published works which, though somewhat 
 crude, made real advance in homiletical theory. 2 Later, 
 probably early in the sixteenth century, two more Ger- 
 man works appeared. 3 The first bore the title Tractatus 
 de Modo Dicendi et Docendi ad Populum Sacra, seu de 
 Modo Prcedicandi, and had for its author one Jerome of 
 Dungersheim. Cruel gives an outline of the work and 
 speaks favorably of it. The other was the Manuals Cu- 
 ratorum of Ulrich Surgant, which treats of such subjects, 
 as, What is preaching, Who should preach, How one 
 should preach, Different kinds of preaching, Subjects of 
 preaching, Memorizing, Delivery, and the like. Thus we 
 see that, while the theory of preaching was not wholly 
 neglected, and many practical teachings were given in 
 various ways, there were no really great or important 
 works on Homiletics during this time. 4 
 
 From these books and from the sermons themselves 
 we may gather something as to the contents and form of 
 the discourses of the period. The two matters may be 
 briefly treated together. With differences in detail ac- 
 cording to persons, subjects and circumstances, the pre- 
 vailing method of discourse was about as follows : First, 
 there would be an invocation or brief prayer for divine 
 guidance, then an exordium, or prothema, an introduc- 
 tion to awaken interest or pleasure in the hearers. This 
 was not at all or only remotely connected with the sub- 
 ject, and sometimes was far-fetched and bombastic. Then 
 would come the thenia, that is, the text or passage of 
 Scripture, read in Latin, sometimes translated into the 
 vernacular, and sometimes briefly explained word for 
 word. This, if extended at all, was called postulating? 
 
 ^d., 8.269. 2 Cruel, S. 596 ff. "Id., 8.599 ff. 
 
 * Those of Reuchlin, Erasmus and Melanchthon of course be- 
 long to a later date. 
 
 B The name postil for sermon has this origin : In the worship 
 the sermon followed immediately upon the reading of the Scrip- 
 tures, and the preacher was accustomed to introduce his com- 
 ment by saying, " After these words of the text," etc. (Post ilia
 
 306 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 and was like the ancient homily. Sometimes, if the postil 
 was of much length, it might take the whole time and 
 become the sermon, with only the conclusion added. But 
 more commonly the theme, or announcement and brief 
 explanation of the text, was a subordinate affair, and 
 then came the dispositio, or arrangement, the division and 
 statement of the plan of discourse. With the scholastics 
 this was very elaborate; with others it was subordinate 
 and brief. Next came the argument or proof, or discus- 
 sion and elaboration, with quotations from the teachers 
 of the church. Here, too, was room for scholastic abuses, 
 but the popular sermons would rather here be more po- 
 lemic in tone and perhaps briefer. Last would come the 
 anecdotes, fables, stories, comparisons, drawn from na- 
 ture, from habits of animals and all sorts of things, by 
 way of illustration and impression. Finally would be 
 the admonitio or conclusio, with a brief closing prayer. 
 
 Such were the general form and contents of the preach- 
 ing of these centuries. We see how little place the ex- 
 planation and real enforcement of the Word of God was 
 likely to have, and in most cases did have, in sermons of 
 this construction. Scholastic subtleties with the more 
 learned and their imitators, examples and tales with the 
 more popular and easy going, were the main contents. 
 As to the doctrine and morals the case continued as in 
 the former times. The prevailing theology of mediaeval 
 Romanism was the staple of dogma. The morals of 
 Christianity were usually clearly taught, but with admix- 
 ture of external churchly regulations and the evils of the 
 teaching concerning penance and indulgences. Among 
 preachers of the reformatory tendency, the attack upon 
 sin and corruption was the main thing in preaching, 
 and many of these men were fearless and able in their 
 polemic, assailing all classes of men and all species of sin 
 without fear or favor. 
 
 The Latin still held some place as the language of 
 
 verba textus, etc.)- So the homily came to be called the postilla, 
 from whence a verb postillare was made, and a noun postillatio 
 to describe the action. The word occurs in Wiclif's writings and 
 other old English literature, but is now obsolete in English, though 
 not entirely so in other languages. Readers of Luther will re- 
 member that his Home-Talks are called Hauspostillen. See Cruel, 
 S. 123.
 
 37 
 
 spoken sermons. These were mostly, as formerly, those 
 given before universities, church assemblies, in cloisters, 
 and the like; but still some were delivered to the people 
 in Latin, and very many, as in the past, were written out 
 and published in that tongue. But naturally the use of 
 the vernacular gained ground, and, especially among re- 
 formers and popular preachers, tended entirely to dis- 
 place Latin as the language of the pulpit. 
 
 As to the delivery of sermons, there is not much to 
 add to what has been said of prevalent customs in the 
 Middle Ages. 1 Places, hours, congregations, length of 
 sermons, occasions, remained as described. The three 
 methods of preparation were employed : some men memor- 
 ized, some extemporized, some preached from notes. In 
 regard to this Cruel says : 2 "As regards the delivery of 
 the sermon itself, manifold division and subdivision of 
 scholastic sermons, and the multitude of learned citations 
 makes it in many cases scarcely conceivable how such 
 a discourse could be committed and recited from mem- 
 ory. But for that it was customary to use the help of 
 short memory cards, or even the sketch itself, which 
 would be taken into the pulpit. Surgant says on this 
 point : ' He who has naturally a weak memory and can- 
 not remedy it by art must lay before himself a paper with 
 the main and subordinate divisions written on it, or, if he 
 can, the whole sermon, not to read it word for word, but 
 only from time to time to glance at it.' " Bare reading, 
 then, seems not to have been practised, but only memoriter 
 or extemporaneous preaching, frequently with the help 
 of more or less full notes. Doubtless the individual dif- 
 ferences of delivery were as marked as among us. Erasmus 
 satirizes the extravagant and ridiculous gestures and in- 
 flections of the showy preachers, and the sensational men 
 no doubt resorted to many tricks of delivery for effect. 
 One amusing thing is noticed by Cruel. 3 Sometimes the 
 preachers, when they got to a new division, would say, 
 " Now clear your throats, for this matter is important 
 and must be heard," or, " Clear your throats now, I will 
 soon let you go," or, " This ends the first division, if any 
 one has to cough or clear his throat, this is the place." 
 Sometimes this was done as a device to rouse the congre- 
 *Ante, p. 192 f. * Op. cit. } S. 633 f. 3 S. 634.
 
 308 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 gation, and sometimes for this purpose the preacher would 
 put in some lively and not always respectable anecdote. 
 So much for the sermon and its delivery; we must now 
 turn our attention to other matters. (Meantime the weary 
 reader may clear his throat or otherwise refresh himself 
 for a new phase of the subject!) 
 
 Enough has already been said to show that, except 
 for the note of reform which is heard in some of the 
 preaching of the time, the sermons of the later fourteenth 
 and all the fifteenth century give evidence of marked de- 
 generation. Yet we must dwell longer on the painful 
 topic and point out more in detail what has thus far been 
 only incidentally discussed. 
 
 We have already had occasion to speak of the low char- 
 acter of the clergy during this epoch. 1 Much ignorance, 
 immorality, luxury and ambition, laziness, avarice, and 
 other evil things have to be charged to their account. 
 And this of course was at once both cause and evidence 
 of decay in the pulpit. For in all times the character 
 of the preacher either enforces or enfeebles his preaching. 
 And where the average of character is bad, no matter 
 how noble the exceptions may be, the average of preach- 
 ing will necessarily be low. Where there is lack of true 
 piety and conviction in the preacher the pulpit work 
 tends to become empty, formal, frigid and without moving 
 effect. And this is the character of much of the preaching 
 of that age. 
 
 Always one of the signs of degenerate preaching as 
 of any literary production is a slavish dependence upon 
 others, past or present, a want of independence, original- 
 ity, freshness. Copyists and imitators are found in every 
 age, it is true, but when the masters belong chiefly to a 
 former generation and the small followers mostly abound, 
 the fall is great. 
 
 So was it now. We have seen how in all the Middle 
 Ages, from the days of Gregory the Great, and notably 
 in the age of Charlemagne and after, the preachers freely 
 appropriated material from the past and present. In fact 
 the best of them did it without scruple, and the less capa- 
 ble were encouraged to use without stint collections of 
 sermons and other prepared material. This plagiarism 
 * Ante, p. 297 f.
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 309 
 
 and dependence were not regarded as morally wrong, nor 
 does the fatal effect upon preaching seem to ha,ve been 
 appreciated. In the decadent age of which we now treat 
 this wretched practice had full swing and was one of the 
 worst symptoms of the prevalent decline. 1 
 
 All sorts of homiletical helps abounded. Some might 
 have been legitimate and useful if wisely handled, but 
 generally they were a temptation to the weak and a snare 
 to the lazy. There were books of outlines, collections of 
 various sorts of material, from so-called " flowers " de- 
 rived from Scripture and other sources, to fables, tales, 
 illustrations gathered from nature and elsewhere. The 
 invention of printing made it possible to multiply these 
 books, and many of them had great vogue. In addition 
 to these helps, which required at least some effort on the 
 part of the preacher to use in his work, there were collec- 
 tions of ready-made sermons at the disposal of the breth- 
 ren. One of these actually bore the title of Parati Ser- 
 mones, prepared sermons. 2 The author is unknown, but 
 the book was one of the most popular of the kind, having 
 passed through seventeen editions. The discourses are 
 presented in a simple and clear arrangement and in a 
 style " easily memorized," and were especially popular 
 because they gave so many examples and illustrations. 
 But another collection surpassed even this in popularity, 
 having gone through twenty-five editions. This was the 
 work of a certain John of Werdena and bore the whim- 
 sical but significant title of Sermones Dormi Secure, that 
 is, " Sleep Well Sermons." 3 The title is explained in a 
 brief introduction, which is couched in these terms: 
 " Here happily begin the Sunday Sermons with exposi- 
 tions of the Gospels through the year, quite well known 
 and useful to all priests, pastors and chaplains, which 
 are also called by the other title of Sleep Well, or, Sleep 
 without Care, for this reason, that without much study 
 they may be appropriated and preached to the people." 
 A few of the sermons are themselves borrowed from 
 other sources, but they are mostly the author's own, who 
 
 1 Noted in all the authorities, but especially well in Cruel, S. 
 451 if. 2 Cruel, S. 474 ff. 
 
 8 Op. cit., S. 478 ff. ; and Broadus, Preparation and Delivery of 
 Sermons, p. 141 (new ed.).
 
 310 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 was spoken of by Trithemius as a " very celebrated de- 
 claimer of popular sermons in his time." 
 
 One outline may suffice as a specimen of his art. The 
 text is Mark 6 148, " The wind was contrary to them ; " 
 and this is the statement of the plan : " There are four 
 spiritual winds which are contrary to us and move the 
 sea of this world : I. The east wind blows when a man re- 
 flects on the sorrowful condition in which he entered this 
 life. 2. The west wind, when he reflects on bitter death. 
 3. The south wind, when he thinks of the joys of eter- 
 nity. 4. The north wind, when he thinks of the terrors 
 of the last judgment." 
 
 Besides this weak dependence and wholesale plagiarism 
 the preaching of the age showed all the accumulated 
 faults of the past with which our studies have made us 
 familiar. There is no need to repeat them here ; but only 
 to remind the reader that doctrine was corrupt, Scripture 
 interpretation allegorical and strained and otherwise 
 faulty, morality often dubious, legends and tales super- 
 abundant, and scholastic refinements and excesses unduly 
 prevalent. But degenerate as preaching generally was, we 
 must not forget that there were also indications of the 
 saving presence of a noble life and power. It was not all 
 bad, and to the rise and growth of this better kind of 
 preaching, its nature and effects, we must now give at- 
 tention. 
 
 Beginning with Wiclif, in the second half of the four- 
 teenth century, a new note is heard in preaching. This 
 does not mean that none before him had preached reform 
 by attacking evils and appealing to Scripture as authority 
 against churchly corruptions in doctrine and practice; 
 but it does mean that in lifting up his mighty voice in this 
 way he spoke differently from the most of his contempo- 
 raries, and he spoke not wholly in vain. The spirit of 
 the true reformer is not that of the satirist who sees evil 
 and derides it, nor that of the pessimist who sees it only to 
 despair ; nor that of the pious mystic, who flees before it 
 to the withdrawn and introspective life; but that of the 
 leader of men, who combines whatever is good in all 
 these ways of regarding evil and adds to them the courage 
 to attack and the hope to overcome, or, at least, to abate 
 the ills of his time.
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 31! 
 
 Was there demand for this new spirit and this new 
 method in preaching? Surely. All those crying abuses 
 which we have reviewed as evils existing in the social and 
 religious life of the times, and as marks of degeneracy 
 in the pulpit, blended into a loud and imperative call for 
 preaching of a sort different from that which prevailed 
 in the two centuries just preceding the Reformation. The 
 wretched and sinful state of society loudly demanded 
 men who should, like John of old, speak in the spirit and 
 power of Elias. And while this is true of every age, 
 from that of Noah to our own, the call came with an em- 
 phasis of its own in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries 
 of European history. If ever the world needed the 
 preaching of a pure gospel it was then ; if anything could 
 put a saving leaven into that mass of evil it must be a re- 
 newal of real Christianity. 
 
 And yet at this very crisis, nay, as a part of the crisis, 
 it was true that the great body or hierarchy claiming to 
 be the representative of God and the authorized inter- 
 preter of God's will on earth, was itself marred by un- 
 speakable corruptions in life and doctrine. The religious 
 guides of the people were many of them shamefully and 
 hopelessly corrupt. If men were to be saved by preach- 
 ing, it must be through preachers different from these. 
 And in doctrine the lapse was equally grave and more 
 widely diffused, for even the good preachers held a very 
 badly mixed theology. It may well be that among some 
 of the so-called heretics of this time there could be found 
 a purer type of doctrine than that which prevailed among 
 the Catholic clergy, but no sermons of theirs have come 
 down to tell us what they preached. The current Roman 
 Catholic doctrine, with all its unscriptural and anti-scrip- 
 tural accretions, was the staple of the sermons that have 
 survived. Surely it was time for a new note to be heard. 
 What more emphatic call for a true gospel preaching can 
 there be than is found in the co-existence of a depraved 
 ministry and a corrupted theology ? 
 
 With all these things there was a widespread awaken- 
 ing of conscience in regard to the fearful evils and cor- 
 ruptions of the times. The better spirits of the age looked 
 on these things with grief and shame, and came more 
 and more to feel that upon them rested some responsibility
 
 312 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 to improve the condition of the world. Among the weak 
 and sinful, too, there was a growing feeling of penitence 
 and desire for better things. Such a feeling as this in a 
 former age preceded and helped to produce the crusades 
 and the great preaching which distinguished the twelfth 
 and thirteenth centuries ; in this era it preceded and 
 helped to produce the Reformation and the great Protest- 
 ant preaching of the sixteenth century. Ullmann well 
 says : * " The religious and moral preparation for the 
 Reformation consisted in this, that the Christian spirit 
 found in the members of the Church a new and mighty 
 revival, both in the way that more inward interest of 
 the understanding toward Christian truth was aroused, 
 and that the moral feeling was awakened and sharpened ; 
 led back from the outwardness of works to the inwardness 
 of feeling and will." 
 
 This awakening of conscience showed itself in many 
 different ways, and was found in many different places. 
 Rulers, statesmen, men of affairs, scholars and literary 
 men, as well as preachers, and pious mystics of both sexes, 
 felt and expressed the need for a renovation of Christian 
 life and teaching, and for a " reformation of the church 
 in head and members." Did all the blended tones of this 
 call go unheeded? 
 
 In the preaching of the age there was found with more 
 or less of distinctness and power some response to these 
 earnest demands for reform. In some sense it is gen- 
 erally true that the sermons that have come down to us 
 contain traces of the reformatory tendency, but in many 
 of them it is only a trace. Yet even that is worth some- 
 thing as an indication that the pulpit, decadent as it was 
 in many respects, was not wholly deaf to the call for a 
 better teaching and enforcement of Christian truth. 
 
 The most widespread, conspicuous, and, at the same 
 time, easiest part of reform preaching was found in its 
 attack on the corruptions which disgraced the age and 
 compelled the attention of men. This is the necessary 
 commonplace of all reformatory movements, and is 
 greatly in evidence in the sermons of this time. The 
 preacher shared this critical attitude with the philosopher, 
 the historian, the literary man ; and these might be mere 
 1 Reformatoren vor der Reformation, Bd. II., S. 4.
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 313 
 
 cynics and satirists, showing and denouncing corruption, 
 but not helping much to remove the evils of which they 
 complained. No doubt some of the preaching of the age 
 as is true of all ages went no further than this, nor 
 are there wanting indications to support this reasonable 
 inference. The preacher might even thunder in the pulpit 
 against the sins of which he was himself guilty in private. 
 Judas might condemn avarice and treachery, and Simon 
 Magus inveigh with holy horror against the sale and pur- 
 chase of so-called spiritual dignities, at least of churchly 
 offices. Alas ! sometimes the most loud-mouthed assailer 
 of evils is not by any means a reformer. 
 
 But a degree better than this cheap and perfunctory at- 
 tack upon sin was the work of men who, like Barletta, 
 Geiler and Maillard, were good in life and serious in pur- 
 pose, and yet fell short of being real reformers because 
 they lacked the best spirit and the best method. They 
 scolded and ridiculed, and used plain language, and feared 
 nobody ; but they brought no thorough reformation. No- 
 thing is wanting to the completeness of their diagnosis and 
 the painful thoroughness of their probing; but the balm 
 of Gilead is not found in their hands, nor is the health 
 of the daughter of their people recovered. A still further 
 advance is found in the weeping prophet, who sees with 
 grief unto tears, and denounces with a sorrowful despair, 
 the evils for which he perceives no remedy. But the true 
 reformer cannot stop with these. He may combine all 
 these elements righteous wrath, sharp denunciation, 
 heartbreaking grief, and manifest sympathy for his sin- 
 ning people but he must be more and do more than all 
 that is here implied, or he cannot lead and ensure the 
 reformation for which he prays. 
 
 That completing element lies in the assumption of lead- 
 ership and its summons for a following. Some brave, 
 even if hitherto obscure, and modest Gideon must blow 
 his trumpet and summon a following of his brethren. He 
 must say that this task can be done, must be done, and we 
 are the men and this the hour to do it. Here is the con- 
 fident call of leadership in a righteous cause, a cause be- 
 lieved in, a cause whose ultimate triumph is really hoped 
 for, a cause in which the leaders are willing not only to 
 dare but to do, and not only to do, but, if need be, to die.
 
 314 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 Partiotism and philanthropy have furnished many illus- 
 trious examples of this spirit, but it is not claiming too 
 much for the Christian ministry to say that in its ranks 
 in all ages reformers of the true and noblest type are to be 
 found. In the age of which we now treat lived Wiclif, 
 Huss and Savonarola. These were no gay satirists of 
 follies which they blithely shared, no blatant censors of 
 sins which they indulged, no sharp antagonists of evils 
 which they fought only with pen and tongue, no gloomy 
 prophets of calamities against which they lifted warning 
 voices merely, not helping hands. Nor were these im- 
 mortal three alone. Brethren and followers they had, 
 even if comparatively few ; and, though the work was too 
 great for them, it was nobly begun and found a larger 
 accomplishment in after times. 
 
 In their call to the consciences of men that residue of 
 moral force which even decay and darkness cannot ut- 
 terly smother in human society these reforming preach- 
 ers had a mighty engine of power and a perpetual in- 
 centive to hope. But for the Christian preacher this was 
 not, and never is, enough. He must be more than the 
 moral reformer, while he always must be that. There is 
 for him a higher appeal than to the awakened conscience 
 and the earnest cooperation of men of like mind with 
 himself. The chief element, nay, the real essence, of a 
 religious reformation is its appeal to God. This was 
 the distinctive thing in the work of the great reformers 
 of the sixteenth century, and of those few brave spirits 
 who preceded them in the dark fourteenth and fifteenth. 
 
 By what higher warrant than that of human conscience 
 and law may men assail existing evils and call on other 
 men to aid in attacking and overcoming them? Some 
 might say that no higher warrant is needed; but the 
 Christian reformer does not so speak, and history justifies 
 his resort to an authority supreme over these. But what 
 shall be the character of his appeal to God? That leads 
 us to a deeper question. How is the divine authority ex- 
 pressed for men? To what visible and accessible mani- 
 festations of the divine will shall resort be made? The 
 question is put in this speculative form only to make 
 clearer the facts with which we are dealing. In its his- 
 torical form it is simply this : How did the reform preach-
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 315 
 
 ers of the corrupt age which we are studying make their 
 appeal to God? 
 
 The three ways in which God is believed among Chris- 
 tians to indicate his will were all more or less clearly in- 
 voked in the reformatory struggles of our period. To 
 some God spoke most distinctly in the consciousness and 
 conscience of the pious and enlightened soul. The deal- 
 ings of the divine Spirit with devout individuals in their 
 sought and practised communings with God were accepted 
 and utilized as revelations of his mind and will. The 
 real element of truth and strength that is here involved 
 should be frankly recognized. But we see that this mystic 
 strain lapsed only too easily into a belief of direct per- 
 sonal inspiration, and even in so noble a soul as Savon- 
 arola went perilously near to fanaticism and ended in 
 comparative failure. This mode of appeal needed, as it 
 ever does, the correction and regulation of something ex- 
 ternal, stable and definite. 
 
 To others God spoke in the church and all its institu- 
 tions, as the historic and visible manifestation of his 
 presence among men. And while in its human develop- 
 ments there might arise errors in life and doctrine, it is 
 for the church to purify itself in head and members. The 
 appeal must be from the church corrupted to the church 
 aroused to its fallen state. Again, whatever force must 
 be allowed to the idea of common consent in doctrine, as 
 tending to orthodoxy, and to general agreement in morals, 
 as tending to righteousness, shall here also be freely con- 
 ceded. But varying standards, both theoretically and his- 
 torically, tend to confusion ; and, as a matter of fact, the 
 Catholic Church failed to effect its own reformation. 
 Partly because the real advocates of reform were in a 
 minority and not even then unanimous, and partly because 
 the church and its theology contained many errors that 
 could not be removed without what was tantamount to 
 abdication of some of its strongest claims, thorough re- 
 form in this direction was hopeless. Constance and Basel 
 glaringly record this failure, and Trent later emphasized 
 and perpetuated it. 
 
 Something more was needed. Accordingly, others 
 sought and found the finally authoritative voice of God 
 in the Holy Scriptures. If the individual Christian ex-
 
 316 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 perience and the churchly life and doctrine conformed to 
 the Bible they might always with caution and open to 
 revision and correction be accepted as subsidiary aids 
 in reaching right conclusions and effecting needed re- 
 forms; but evermore and finally the revealed Word of 
 God in Holy Scripture must be supreme authority. Here 
 Wiclif and others laid down the gage of battle ; it was on 
 this field they fought and fell, that later reformers might 
 here also fight and triumph. 
 
 Historic justice, however, requires that two remarks 
 should here be made as to the use of Scripture by the 
 early reform preachers. One is that they were not abso- 
 lutely alone in their appeal to the Bible and in their use 
 of it. Others also recognized the Scriptures as authority, 
 but not with the emphasis and finality that make this the 
 distinctive and triumphant thing in reformatory preach- 
 ing. The other remark is that so deeply seated and 
 universally accepted were false principles of interpre- 
 tation and application in the pulpit use of Scripture, that 
 even the reformers themselves were by no means clear 
 of them. But it is their glory that here also they made 
 a notable advance and prepared the way for better 
 things. 
 
 In the old Teutonic stories the hero, Siegfried, had 
 to take the rusted fragments of his inherited sword and 
 by file and fire and hammer make it over again before 
 it became in his strong hand the ever-victorious weapon 
 of assault upon dragons and all other foes. So the 
 Siegfried of reform must forge anew the sword of the 
 Spirit that out of the rust and breakage of centuries of 
 misuse it might come forth a keen and gleaming blade, 
 ready to hand in every fight for the truth. To some of 
 the heroes thus armed and active, thought not, alas! 
 immediately victorious, we shall give our attention in the 
 next chapter. 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 PREACHERS OF THE FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH 
 CENTURIES 
 
 Having discussed in the preceding chapter the times 
 and the preaching that characterized them, we must now
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 317 
 
 consider some of the representative preachers of the 
 various tendencies of thought and methods of work. 
 The older types remained and the preachers of reform 
 advance heralds of the Reformation deserve and will 
 receive special study. 
 
 i. PREACHERS OF THE OLDER TYPES 
 
 Italy was specially rich in scholastic and popular 
 preachers in the fifteenth century ; x but only a few of the 
 best can be noticed here. John (Giovanni) of Capistrano 
 (1385-1456) was a Franciscan of the stricter sort. He 
 was a man of some learning and highly regarded in his 
 native land as a preacher. He so distinguished himself 
 by his zeal against heretics that the pope sent him on a 
 mission to Germany, where he had great crowds. 
 Though he preached in Italian and through an inter- 
 preter, his lively gesticulation and theatrical manners 
 produced a great effect on his hearers. He likewise 
 preached in Bohemia against the Hussites. 2 
 
 Of far greater importance was Bernardino of Siena 
 (1380-1444), likewise a Franciscan, and soon after his 
 death enrolled among the saints. He came of good 
 family in Etruria and enjoyed good instruction, studying 
 canon law. But soon he divided his wealth among the 
 poor and entered the Franciscan order. He was much 
 grieved over the decay in that famous body, and made 
 efforts at reform among them. As an officer of the 
 order he made a journey to Jerusalem, which he turned 
 to good account in his studies. He developed great tal- 
 ent as a speaker and was very popular. Siena was the 
 principal scene of his labors. He was very diligent in 
 preaching, attracted large crowds, and produced wonder- 
 ful effects. He was especially successful in attacking 
 gambling, many players being induced to forsake the evil 
 and burn their dice and cups. The story goes that a 
 painter complained to Bernardino that his living was 
 
 1 1 have had excellent help in the following pages from the 
 works of Marenco and Zanotto, and from Rothe ; also from the 
 old but still valuable work of Ammon, Geschichte der Homiletik, 
 which treats especially of the period between Huss and Luther. 
 Rothe borrowed very freely from this work. 
 
 a See Hering, Geschichte der Predigt, S. 80.
 
 318 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 taken away because he earned his bread by painting dice, 
 and that the preacher told him to paint instead a disc 
 representing the sun with the name of Jesus in the cen- 
 ter. The painter did as he was told, and the demand for 
 these tokens grew so great by Bernardino's influence 
 that the painter got rich. The explanation lies in the 
 fact that in preaching Bernardino would sometimes use 
 one of these pictures to illustrate his sermon and 
 heighten the effect. Thus we see a bit of sensationalism 
 and a tincture of superstition in his work. He carried it 
 so far that the pope put a stop to it as approaching idol- 
 atry. The sermons of Bernardino are decidedly of the 
 scholastic type long, exhaustive, with subtle and numer- 
 ous divisions and distinctions and one wonders at their 
 popularity. But he had the oratorical talent imagina- 
 tion and capacity for kindling emotion and he power- 
 fully moved the people. He treated moral subjects with 
 good effect, and was far superior to most of his contem- 
 poraries. 
 
 Even more scholastic than he was Leonardo of Utino 
 (d. 1470), who about the year 1444 was a renowned 
 professor at Bologna and preacher also at the court of 
 Pope Eugenius IV. He was a Dominican and enjoyed 
 great reputation as preacher in many cities of Italy. The 
 sermons which remain from him are remarkable, besides 
 their generally scholastic type, especially for two things : 
 their marvellous learning, and the rigid monotony of 
 their structure. In regard to the first Ammon says, 1 
 " Every one of these sermons is overloaded with an im- 
 mense mass of sayings and citations from authors of 
 ancient and more recent times. The very first one, on 
 gluttony, contains whole passages from Gregory the 
 Great, Augustine, Seneca, Cicero, Boethins, Vegetius, 
 Lucan, Ennodius, Gaufred, Valencio, Maximus, Hugo, 
 Isidore, Jerome and Ambrose." In regard to structure 
 it is curious that every discourse is built on the same 
 plan, as monotonously as the chapters of the Summa of 
 Aquinas, by which it was evidently influenced. The in- 
 troduction describes a soul intent on instruction coming 
 to hear the teaching of the Gospel or Epistle, which is 
 stated in the theme, but has to be proved because the 
 1 Op. cit., S. 92.
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 319 
 
 devil would overthrow it. After the introduction and 
 statement of the theme the plan is to unfold the subject 
 under two general divisions represented respectively by 
 Moses and Thomas Aquinas. Each of these general 
 heads is subdivided into four parts. Under the teach- 
 ing of Moses the subject is tested by, i, Natural law; 
 2, divine law; 3, prophetic law; 4, human law. Under 
 the teaching of Aquinas it is tested by, i, Natural law; 
 2, evangelical law; 3, canon law; 4, ecclesiastical law. 
 With ingenious subtlety, native to a scholastic, he makes 
 all of these prove his point, and concludes his sermon 
 with the sentence : " Then the fully instructed soul gave 
 thanks to God for what it heard from its teachers and 
 went home in peace. Amen." In all the more than 
 eighty sermons this same plan appears. The further 
 subdivisions under the topics of the various kinds of law 
 are very numerous preferably forty ! and this is where 
 scholastic ingenuity and wealth of learned quotation 
 especially appear. Such a method might well seem de- 
 structive of all oratorical effect, but the energy, the 
 earnestness, the natural oratorical talent of the preacher 
 overbore his scholastic pedantry and give him power 
 over his hearers, who could but admire his learning and 
 thoroughness while they felt the force of his native elo- 
 quence. 
 
 The scholastic method did not lack notable repre- 
 sentatives in Germany also. 1 Among these we may first 
 mention John Gritsch (d. c. 1430), of whom little is 
 known save that as a preacher of the Franciscan order 
 he was very celebrated at Basel in the time of the famous 
 council there. An interesting collection of his sermons 
 remains. Like those of Leonardo, they are uniform in 
 plan (though of course not Leonardo's plan), and are 
 loaded with citations from the authorities. 2 While the 
 structure is too uniform and artificial, it has the virtues 
 of clearness and neatness. Like many other preachers 
 
 1 Besides Ammon and Rothe, the great work of Cruel, which be- 
 comes here in its closing sections extremely valuable. It is a 
 pleasure to make parting acknowledgment to a treatise charac- 
 terized by so great scholarly research and soundness of judgment. 
 
 * Tke following plan, quoted from Ammpn, gives a good speci- 
 men of Gritsch's manner. The subject is the Transfiguration,
 
 320 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 of his time Gritsch makes much use of the classic fa- 
 bles, and is especially fond of Ovid's Metamorphoses. 
 
 His method of treating these may be illustrated by an 
 example quoted from Cruel : " When Jupiter, the god of 
 heaven, was informed of the corruption of the whole hu- 
 man race he took counsel with all the gods and deter- 
 mined to destroy all men by a flood. Beforehand, how- 
 ever, he decided to go down to earth in another form and 
 learn by personal observation whether the complaints 
 against men were well grounded. In human form he 
 visited the wicked tyrant Lycaon, who prepared him a 
 bed in his house, but secretly sought to slay him. For 
 this he was changed into a wolf, who now ranges howl- 
 ing in the forests. The truth of the matter is really this : 
 that Jupiter was a king of Crete, who, by his magic arts 
 made his subjects believe that he was a god, and as such 
 he received worship. Now, when many had bound 
 themselves to war with him, he disguised himself, in 
 order to spy out the force of the enemy, and so he came 
 to Arcadia to Lycaon, who received him treacherously 
 and in the night tried to kill him. By stratagem he es- 
 caped this danger and drove Lycaon as a punishment 
 from his possessions, so that he was compelled to flee 
 to the woods and live by robbery and plundering, so it 
 could be justly said that he was changed into a wolf. 
 In truth, beloved, now do the godless people of the 
 Jews appear as such a wolf Lycaon. For we know that 
 the supreme Jupiter, the Son of God, by his incarnation, 
 came down personally to visit the Jewish people. The 
 Jews, however, sought in wolfish fashion ever treacher- 
 ously to slay him. But Christ, who knew all things 
 
 Matt. 17:1 ff, and the outline is as follows: 
 
 I. Mundi utilitas renuntianda : habet enim, 
 
 1. Infidelitatem in acquirendo; 
 
 2. Instabilitatem in retinendo; 
 
 3. Anxietatem in relinquendo. 
 
 II. Humana fragilitas releyanda : 
 
 1. Per secretam inspirationem ; 
 
 2. Per uberem largitionem ; 
 
 3. Per severam indignationem. 
 
 III. Beatitudinis dignitas desideranda : 
 
 1. In subjectione contra mundi praesumtionem ; 
 
 2. In dilectione contra mundi dissensionem ; 
 
 3. In duratione contra mundi correptionem.
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 321 
 
 even their corrupt hearts could not be deceived, that is, 
 he knew that he by the resurrection would escape the 
 death prepared for him, but that the Jews, on the con- 
 trary, for punishment would be scattered, and, like hun- 
 gry wolves, would range over the earth." We see here 
 familiarity with classical literature, a rationalizing way 
 of treating the myths so as to prevent their being any 
 more believed as true, an allegorizing way of making 
 them serviceable in Christian teaching, and clear trace 
 of that mediaeval hatred of the Jew which was only too 
 much encouraged by the Church and often broke out in 
 shameful persecutions. 
 
 The most renowned of these German scholastics was 
 Gabriel Biel (d. 1495), who for a number of years, under 
 the patronage of duke Eberhard of Wurtemburg, filled 
 with distinction the chair of philosophy and theology at 
 the University of Tubingen. In his last years he retired 
 to a home of the Brethren of the Common Life at 
 Schonau, where he died. Though a busy professor in 
 two departments, Biel was also a diligent preacher. After 
 his death several collections of his sermons were pub- 
 lished. They exhibit the extreme of scholastic method, 
 but also deal earnestly and practically with moral and 
 devotional subjects. 
 
 Toward the last of the fifteenth century there preached 
 at Leipzig a notable man, George Morgenstern, who at- 
 tacked in unsparing terms the widespread evils of the 
 age in all classes. He used the dry scholastic method of 
 arrangement, though no doubt with more sap and vigor 
 in actual delivery than appears in the sermons. 
 
 After Morgenstern, and early in the sixteenth century, 
 there was one Pelbart, in Hungary, who enjoyed a great 
 reputation among his contemporaries as a preacher of 
 unusual merit. In addition to the scholastic method 
 which characterizes his work there is evidence of some 
 imagination and poetic faculty in his sermons which show 
 therefore traces of real oratorical power. 
 
 The popular preachers of the time show a mingling 
 of all the other elements in their discourses. Some join 
 with the scholastic method popular gifts and esteem ; 
 some exhibit marked traces of mysticism ; and nearly all 
 are given to lamenting or denouncing the current evils
 
 322 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 and abuses, and are therefore akin to those who, because 
 of their evangelical method and spirit, are more properly 
 called reformers. We need not, however, complicate our 
 discussion by attending to these distinctions, but simply 
 group by their countries the few selected for treatment. 
 
 At least one notable preacher of this popular type came 
 originally from Spain, though he labored chiefly in 
 France, where he died and was buried. He was Vincent 
 Ferrar (1357-1419), born of a respectable and pious 
 family at Valencia in Arragon, pious from childhood, 
 a Dominican in 1374, and soon distinguished as teacher 
 and preacher. From a boy he was in love with preaching 
 and had the natural gifts of an orator. At his earliest 
 appearance during the years of his monastic life, his 
 eloquence attracted wide admiration, and crowds gath- 
 ered to hear him wherever he went. 
 
 Later when he went on his journeys, especially at the 
 head of a band of Flagellants, his following was enor- 
 mous, and he preached daily. His preaching is said to 
 have produced amazing results, and miraculous powers 
 were attributed to him, as in case of Francis and Antony 
 before him. Like them he was canonized soon after his 
 death. He must have had in a large degree the power 
 of moving discourse, but his published sermons do not 
 bear out his extraordinary reputation, being in the dry 
 scholastic style and deeply imbued with the thought and 
 method of Thomas Aquinas. 
 
 In the Italian preachers of the fifteenth century the 
 scholastic tendency was especially marked, but along with 
 this not a few of them displayed unusual powers of popu- 
 lar oratory. Among these, three are specially worthy of 
 mention. 
 
 Bernardino of Busti (d. c. 1500) was a Franciscan 
 from Milan and was esteemed by his contemporaries as 
 a preacher of extraordinary merit. Ammon relates that 
 whenever on fast days and special occasions the people 
 of the towns in northern Italy desired a preacher of un- 
 usual power they petitioned the Franciscan authorities to 
 send them Fra Bernardino. In scholastic character his 
 discourses resemble, without equalling, those of Leonardo 
 of Utino, and many of them are without any oratorical 
 quality. But, as we have so often had to notice, this
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 323 
 
 does not disprove the real oratorical power and fervor 
 of the actually delivered sermons. 
 
 Contemporary with Bernardino was his fellow Fran- 
 ciscan, Robert Caracciolo of Lecce, who labored mostly 
 in the vicinity of Naples. He was regarded by his con- 
 temporaries as a " second Paul," and had the art of 
 moving to tears. That he was not free from sensational 
 methods we have already seen, 1 but he too was capable 
 of serious work along with his scholastic methods and 
 his popular arts. But by far the most famous Italian 
 preacher of this century, next to Savonarola, was the 
 renowned Gabriel Barletta (fl. c. 1470), of whom it was 
 said by way of proverb, Qui nescit Barlettare, nescit 
 pradicare if one does'nt know how to preach like Bar- 
 letta he doesn't know how to preach at all. He was born 
 at Barletta near Naples, and took his name from his 
 birthplace. As a preacher of the Dominican order he 
 preached in many different places in Italy, but very little 
 is recorded of his life. A curious collection of sermons, 
 or reports of sermons, has come down from him. He 
 undoubtedly must have preached in Italian, but these 
 sermons are reported in barbarous Latin, with frequent 
 interlarding of Italian words and whole phrases. Dis- 
 courses of this kind are called " maccaroni sermons." 
 They are not infrequent in the French mediaeval collec- 
 tions, as Lecoy de la Marche and others tell us, but 
 Barletta's are the only real specimens in Italian. Ma- 
 renco 2 thinks that the sermons were certainly delivered 
 in Italian, but that the half-learned reporter gave them 
 in Latin as best he could, but where the Latin was not 
 at hand for phrases or words, he simply gave the Italian. 
 As they stand, therefore, the sermons are curious speci- 
 mens of reporting and of diction. But beneath their bar- 
 barous jargon their method and matter are worthy of 
 note. Scholasticism was in them, to be sure, but the 
 popular note is predominant. The preacher deals in 
 legend and anecdote to a remarkable degree, often de- 
 scending to the burlesque, the comic, and even the inane 
 and silly. He is a preacher to the crowd, the unenlight- 
 ened mass that loves entertainment and spice, and is not 
 too particular as to the quality of it either as regards taste 
 *Ante, p. 303. "Cap. I.
 
 324 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 or good sense. The vulgar and coarse, as well as the 
 ridiculous and irreverent, are here, but we should do 
 Barletta injustice to suppose that this was all or the 
 main thing in his work. He was an earnest man and 
 used these trifles rather as means than as ends. He spoke 
 with courage and effect against the evils of the time, 
 and did not descend so low with the light and sensational 
 methods as did many of his contemporaries. He knew 
 how to treat with more than usual delicacy and good 
 sense such themes as conjugal love and the dance. 1 Other 
 moral subjects engaged his attention also, and he had the 
 art of speaking to the point, and at the same time to the 
 hearts of his hearers. 
 
 There were in France during this epoch a number of 
 preachers of the popular sort, among whom the most 
 notable were Maillard and Menot. Olivier Maillard 
 (fl. c. 1500) was born in Brittany in the fifteenth century 
 and died early in the sixteenth, exact dates being uncer- 
 tain. He was a Franciscan, a doctor of the Sorbonne, 
 and celebrated as a preacher, especially at the church of 
 St. Jean en Grave at Paris. He also served as court 
 preacher at times both for Louis XL of France and for 
 the duke of Burgundy. Pope Innocent VIIL, King 
 Charles VIIL of France, and Ferdinand of Castile all 
 honored him with commissions of importance, which he 
 discharged with fidelity and skill. In 1501 he was 
 charged by the pope with the hard and thankless task 
 of reforming the Franciscan order in France. He bravely 
 undertook to do what he was told, but was resisted and 
 even chased from one of the monasteries as a false 
 brother. He paid back this debt, however, very richly 
 in his sermons, where he depicted and excoriated the 
 corruptions of his brethren in no sweet fashion. 
 
 His reputation is founded principally on a series of 
 sermons which he preached in Paris probably between 
 1494 and 1508. They were a holy terror. They spared 
 no class, nor person. King, nobles, priests, ladies, and 
 the people generally were attacked with a boldness that is 
 commendable indeed, but with a bitterness of spirit that 
 could not have been edifying, and a coarseness of lan- 
 guage that is without excuse even in that age of license. 
 1 Examples given in Ammon, S. 131 ff.
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 325 
 
 The preacher borrowed the language of the lowest the 
 slang of the streets and the vulgarities of the dissolute. 1 
 Once the king, Louis XL, was so plainly attacked that 
 on Maillard's language being reported to him he natu- 
 rally took offence and sent the preacher word that if he 
 went on in that style he should be put into a sack and 
 drowned. Maillard replied, " Go, tell your master that I 
 shall then reach paradise sooner by water than he can 
 with his post-horses." This was an allusion to the fact 
 that Louis XL had recently introduced post-horses in 
 France. It does not appear either that Maillard changed 
 his course or that Louis executed his threat. No doubt 
 there was exaggeration and excess of invective in Mail- 
 lard as well as lack of poise and taste, but he meant well, 
 and his boldness and fidelity should not be forgotten, even 
 though his spirit and style cannot be excused. 
 
 Contemporary and like-minded with Maillard was his 
 brother Franciscan, Michel Menot (d. 1518), the place 
 and date of whose birth are unknown. He lived in the 
 reigns of Louis XL, Charles VIII., Louis XII., and 
 Francis I. For a long time he taught theology in the 
 Franciscan school at Paris, and died there in 1518. He 
 enjoyed so great a reputation as preacher that he was 
 called Langue d'Or, the Golden Tongue. His sermons 
 were taken down by hearers, reported in the barbarous 
 maccaroni style of mingled French and (alleged) Latin, 
 printed in many editions. They must, therefore, be taken 
 with some allowances, but as we have them they exceed 
 those of Barletta and Maillard in coarseness and buffoon- 
 ery. They portray a terrible state of affairs in French 
 society at that time, and are themselves, in spite of good 
 purposes and a courageous spirit, a mournful comment 
 on the religion and taste of the age. 
 
 The greatest German preacher of the popular type in 
 this time was John Geiler of Kaisersberg 2 (1445-1510), 
 who passed most of his active life as preacher in Stras- 
 burg. He was born at Schaffhausen, early lost his 
 father and was brought up by his grandparents at 
 
 1 Meray, op. cit., and an art. in the Nouvelle Biographie Univer- 
 selle. 
 
 2 All the German authorities on the period devote considerable 
 attention to him, but the discussion of Cruel, S. 538 ff, is particu- 
 larly good, and is mainly followed here.
 
 326 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 Kaisersberg, whence his surname. He pursued his stud- 
 ies at Freiburg and became a professor of philosophy 
 there; but soon turned his attention to theology and to 
 preaching. He found his work in the pulpit, and in 1478 
 accepted a call to Strasburg, where, in the Minster, a 
 preaching office had been endowed without the cares of 
 the priesthood. This suited Geiler exactly, and here he 
 did the most of his work, though at the request of the 
 bishop of Augsburg he spent some time there during 
 1488-89 ; and in Strasburg and vicinity he often preached 
 in other churches and in the cloisters. At the cathedral 
 during the summer and festival seasons he was accus- 
 tomed to preach at six o'clock in the morning, at other 
 churches and in the cloister at three in the afternoon. 
 
 Geiler's sermons have come down in various German 
 editions, and as they stand are but imperfect reports of 
 his actual utterances. He wrote out and published none 
 himself, but from his Latin sketches and the notes of 
 hearers these sermons have been worked out. But even 
 thus they show the characteristics of the man and reveal 
 a preacher of no ordinary popular gifts and power. Like 
 his Italian and French contemporaries he descended to 
 the coarse and comic to a considerable degree, and far 
 beyond the bounds of good taste even in that age; like 
 them, also, he attacked with sharp invective and reckless 
 daring the sins of all classes people, clergy, and rulers. 
 His course made him enemies, who resorted to a number 
 of petty persecutions to spite him such as employing the 
 choir boys to mock during the service, the writing of 
 abusive and indecent letters, following him with derisive 
 calls and mimicries as he went on the streets, and other 
 annoyances of the sort. But he went on his way un- 
 moved, and he won great favor, attracted large crowds, 
 and secured the friendship and confidence of many men 
 of influence, including the emperor Maximilian, who 
 " wrote to him frequently, received visits from him, heard 
 him preach, and received with kindness and interest cer- 
 tain moral counsels which Geiler gave him to restore 
 peace, to do equal justice to all, and to put an end to the 
 plunderings that had then gained the upper hand." 1 
 
 Though free with his tongue, and not averse to wine 
 
 1 Ammon, S. 219.
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 327 
 
 and rough jokes, Geiler was otherwise above reproach in 
 his life and earnest and faithful in the discharge of his 
 duties. As a man he was of kindly, frank, accessible 
 disposition ; conscious of personal rectitude without pride, 
 and bold in attacking sin without personal grudge or un- 
 sympathetic harshness toward the penitent. He was a 
 close observer and had a thorough acquaintance with 
 human nature, and with all the details of life in his time. 
 His illustrations, like those of Beecher 'and Spurgeon 
 in modern times, are drawn from many sources. Like- 
 wise he was a wide reader and well educated, and his 
 sermons show excellent labor put on his preparation. If 
 he lacked the higher degree of originality he at least 
 knew how to make good and individual use of what he 
 learned from others. So there appear in his sermons 
 traces of both scholastic learning and mystic contempla- 
 tion; but he was above all and chiefly a preacher to the 
 people. 
 
 A curious specimen of his work is the series of seven 
 sermons on " The Hare in the Pepper," that is, the 
 seasoned, or spiced, hare. There are two texts for all 
 seven: Lev. 11:6, and (chiefly) Prov. 30:26: "The 
 conies are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses 
 in the rocks." He compares the Christian to a hare 
 under fourteen points, derived from the habits and fate 
 of that animal, treating one or several of the lessons in 
 each discourse, thus: " I. The hare is timid, so the 
 Christian lives in the fear of God. 2. It is swift in run- 
 ning, so is the spiritual person swift in good things and 
 finds nothing too hard. 3. It runs quicker up than down 
 the mountain, so the Christian up the mountain of God. 
 
 4. Dogs are set upon the hare, so the evil spirits upon us. 
 
 5. It rests its safety upon flight, so must we flee before 
 evil assaults. 6. It continually moves its lips and mum- 
 bles, so should we continually fear God. 7. It has long 
 ears, so also should the Christian have long ears, in 
 order to hear with diligence and eagerness the word of 
 God. 8. It makes its resting place in the rocks, that is, 
 for us, Christ. 9. The skin of the hare must be removed, 
 so must we lay off a threefold skin : temporal good, our 
 own will, outward works. 10. It is roasted in the fire, 
 so we in sufferings and adversities, n. It is basted, so
 
 328 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 must we baste ourselves with the sauce of God's grace, 
 with devotion and divine love. 12. It must be tested, 
 whether it is well roasted or not, so must we test our- 
 selves. 13. It must be put in the pepper, that is the 
 cloister * and all therein which nips and burns our 
 human nature like pepper. So also must persons out 
 in the world lay on themselves many self-denials and 
 penances. 14. The hare is brought on golden plates to 
 the table, so shall we also some time be set before God 
 as a pleasant savor in the heavenly kingdom and be by 
 him consumed and incorporated with himself." 
 
 This last thought is worked out thus : " The hare is put 
 into two golden plates and set on the table before the 
 king, where it is received with pleasure and eaten and 
 incorporated with the king and made one with him. So 
 also the believing Christian, when he has been prepared 
 in the way before described, is borne by the hands of 
 the holy angels on the two golden plates of glory body 
 and soul into everlasting bliss before the face of the 
 heavenly King. And as the hare is eaten by the king, 
 so thou, through an unspeakable benevolence, love and 
 joy, art sunken in God and made one with him. Not 
 essentially, as the heretic Amalrich said, 2 but heartily 
 through clear knowledge, love and joy. There is man 
 again in his source, there has he first peace, rest, and bliss, 
 there has the little hare first rightly reached its resting 
 place in the rocks, there its fear has disappeared, its heart 
 flutters no more, it dreads not, for it is safe and knows 
 it is safe. There it experiences what was promised, that 
 God will dry all tears and henceforth there will be neither 
 weeping nor pain. There will come true what the Lord 
 has said, that the humble shall be exalted. The little 
 hare that ran despised here in the vale of tears, was 
 hunted by hellish dogs, flayed and roasted, comes now 
 to great honor." 
 
 This gentler strain was not, however, the most char- 
 acteristic thing in Geiler's work. His " Ship of Fools " 
 and other collections of sermons give forth the sterner, 
 coarser, and less pleasing, but also more vigorous and 
 effective parts of his method. Altogether he is a de- 
 
 1 The sermons were preached in a nunnery. 
 
 * Amalrich of Bena, a mystic of the extreme Eckhart school.
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 329 
 
 cidedly important character in his age, and did something 
 to arouse the German mind preparatory to the Reforma- 
 tion. 
 
 Coming to the Netherlands we must go back to an 
 earlier date and place ourselves in the second half of 
 the fourteenth century. Here we find among the popular 
 preachers a man remarkable for his personal piety, his 
 excellent success in preaching, and his abiding influence 
 on the best religious life of the age. It is Gerhard Groot x 
 (1349-1384), the noble preacher and the founder of the 
 Brethren of the Common Life. Groot was born of 
 wealthy and excellent family at Deventer, the only son 
 of his parents. He was weakly in body but eager in 
 mind, and received a good education at home, at Paris, at 
 Cologne. Returning home well prepared in culture for 
 the work of a priest, he had no difficulty in finding places 
 for beginning his work, and accepted a subordinate posi- 
 tion at Utrecht. Well off and cultured, with a taste for 
 luxury and pleasure, it looked as if he must go the way 
 of the worldly clergy. But soon a deeper life was awak- 
 ened within him by the influence and pleading of a pious 
 friend whom he had won at Paris, and who visited him 
 at Utrecht, and dealt lovingly and faithfully with him. 
 It is a beautiful incident, creditable alike to both the 
 men. Gerhard changed his course, burnt his costly books 
 on magic, gave up his income, put off his fine clothes for 
 a coarse gray garment, and withdrew for ascetic prac- 
 tices, devotion, and further study to a Carthusian mon- 
 astery at Gueldres. Here he spent three years, when his 
 active nature drove him forth to live and work among 
 his fellowmen. He shrank from the responsibilities of 
 the priesthood, but was ordained a deacon, and this gave 
 him the right of public instruction by preaching. 
 
 In this humble spirit Groot began his wonderful career 
 as a travelling popular preacher. He had pronounced 
 success from the start ; for back of his admirable prepara- 
 tion, there lay both the natural talent for public speech 
 and the earnestness of a soul bent on serving God and 
 doing good to men. Thomas a Kempis said of Groot that 
 he worked in the spirit of John the Baptist. People of 
 all classes thronged to hear him, wherever he came, and 
 
 1 Ullmann, Reformatoren vor der Ref., Bd. II., S. 54 ff.
 
 33 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 he called them to repentance and faith. It was not only 
 his eloquence and earnestness of speech that drew them, 
 but men saw and felt the power of his blameless and con- 
 secrated life. He refused pay for his services, and sought 
 no ecclesiastical preferment. It was said of him prec- 
 ious eulogium upon a preacher Fecit quod dixit; sicut 
 docuit, quoque vixit. He sought to know the experiences 
 of the people and to adapt his preaching to their needs, 
 and he preached in the popular tongue. His zeal was 
 unwearied, the fruits of his labors rich in conversions 
 and real amendment of life. 
 
 But his success and his rebukes made him enemies 
 among the worldly clergy, whose vices he knew and de- 
 nounced, and by their representations he was deprived of 
 his permission to preach. Friends laid the case before 
 the pope, but the appeal was in vain. Groot submitted to 
 the authority of his ecclesiastical superiors and gave up 
 preaching, but turned his attention to teaching unofficially 
 and quietly among the people. Here also his success was 
 great. A visit to the aged mystic, John Ruysbroek, at 
 his abbey near Brussels, impressed Groot not only with 
 the beauty of the mystical life, but also with the orderly 
 and peaceful way in which the monks lived together. 
 He came away with the idea in his mind that pious men 
 without monastic vows might live in common to learn 
 and teach. His views found acceptance with friends, 
 and so arose the Brethren of the Common Life, a sort of 
 pious society for mutual edification, which speedily con- 
 cerned itself with the education of the poor. The brother- 
 hood grew and extended, and many a poor scholar 
 Erasmus among them, and John Wessel afterwards re- 
 ceived instruction in early life in the schools of this 
 society. Busied with his order, and his teaching, Groot 
 died in the midst of his years and his usefulness having 
 caught the plague from visiting a sick friend when only 
 thirty-four years of age. His sermons do not seem to 
 have been reported and preserved, but the influence of his 
 life and of his brotherhood was great in producing other 
 preachers of evangelical tendency and in preparing the 
 way for the Reformation. 
 
 In England as in the Netherlands and generally in Ger- 
 many, the popular preaching was characterized by a more
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 331 
 
 seriously reformatory spirit than was the case in Italy 
 and France. Wiclif and his preachers, and afterwards 
 the Lollards, did the most of this work; but they come 
 more naturally under the reformatory preachers. 
 
 The mystic preachers of the period are naturally fewer 
 in number than those of the other types, but some of them 
 were very notable and influential men. The geographical 
 happens here to be also the chronological order, and we 
 have to do with only three countries the Netherlands, 
 France, Germany. 
 
 The earliest important representative of mysticism in 
 the Netherlands was John of Ruysbroek 1 (1293-1381), 
 who was born at a village from which he took his sur- 
 name, near Brussels, late in the thirteenth century. He 
 lived to a great age, reaching over to the latter part of 
 the fourteenth century. He was much influenced by 
 Tauler. At eleven years of age he was put to school at 
 Brussels, where he studied four years. Nothing is re- 
 corded of any further schooling, and through life he was 
 more devoted to piety than to learning. At twenty-four 
 years of age he was ordained a priest and appointed to 
 a church in Brussels. He was often seen sunk in deep 
 meditation in the streets, not noticing the crowd. But 
 in his teaching he warned against mere ecstatic mysti- 
 cism and contended for a deep inward piety. Up to his 
 sixtieth year he exercised the priest's office in Brussels 
 with fidelity, but not much is known of the character 
 and effect of his preaching. But the attractiveness of the 
 contemplative life so grew upon him that he retired about 
 1363 to a newly founded Augustinian cloister near Brus- 
 sels, where he spent the remainder of his long and peace- 
 ful life. Here he gave himself to meditation and writing 
 and to instructing the many who came to learn from the 
 pious old man the life of self-denial and love to God. 
 Among these visitors, as we have seen, was Gerhard 
 Groot. Ruysbroek's writings reveal a mysticism less pro- 
 found than Eckhart's, less practical than Tauler's, but 
 he had some affinities with both, without being so great 
 as either. In preaching and teaching as well as by per- 
 sonal character, he made his mysticism profoundly and 
 fruitfully influential upon others, and his work was one 
 
 1 Ullmann gives also a good account of Ruysbroek.
 
 332 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 of those far-off but important steps which led to the re- 
 form preaching and life in later years. 
 
 Gerhard Groot has already been noticed among the 
 popular preachers, but he belongs here also, as he had 
 decidedly mystical traits ; and he also claims mention here 
 as a necessary connecting link between Ruysbroek and the 
 other great Netherlands mystic who has filled the Chris- 
 tian world with the odor of sanctity in his famous writ- 
 ing The Imitation of Christ. 
 
 Thomas a Kempis (1380-1471) was born of humble 
 and hard-working parents at a little Dutch village not 
 very far from Cologne, called Kempen, from which his 
 surname is taken. The family name was Hamerken, but 
 the other is so well established that it has usurped the 
 place of a surname. The boy early showed both intelli- 
 gence and piety and was glad to avail himself of the 
 free education offered to poor children by the Brethren 
 of the Common Life. After having been aided for a time 
 by their funds he entered their house at Deventer. Here 
 a congenial friend, and the excellent head of the school, 
 Florentius, successor to Groot, both had great influence 
 on the youth, and he was drawn to the life of contempla- 
 tive piety. After several years he was advised by Floren- 
 tius that if he desired to lead the contemplative life he 
 should enter a monastery. This delighted Thomas, and 
 he soon entered the Augustinian convent of St. Agnes 
 near Zwoll. For five years he remained a novice, then 
 was made priest, and later superior. Here his life flowed 
 quietly on to its end at the age of more than ninety years. 
 Exercises of devotion, writing and copying, reading, 
 preaching, and exhorting the novices, the brethren and 
 many visitors who came to hear him, occupied his time. 
 Many of his sermons remain, and they exhibit the sweet 
 restfulness, the purity, the love, the quiet devoutness that 
 we would expect from the author of the Imitation of 
 Christ. 1 Thomas a Kempis was a thoroughgoing Catho- 
 lic and monk, and his views are not by any means all 
 
 1 The question of the authorship of this gem of devotional liter- 
 ature cannot be regarded as settled beyond doubt, but the better 
 opinion among critics seems to be that which I heard Prof. 
 Hauck of Leipzig express in a lecture, namely, that the claims of 
 Thomas are the best, and that if not his, the work must be re- 
 garded as anonymous.
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 333 
 
 sound or evangelical, but he was mystical, pious, devoted. 
 His influence was all in favor of purity and reform within 
 the church, and the total effect of his life and work has 
 been sweet and helpful. 
 
 In France we find a practical mystic in the famous 
 chancellor of the University of Paris, Jean Charlier 
 (1363 1429), who was born at a little place called Ger- 
 son, near Rheims, and, like so many others, is called from 
 his birthplace rather than by his family name. He was 
 educated at the University of Paris, and in 1408 was 
 pastor of one of the leading churches there. His view 
 of preaching is set forth in a passage x from one of his 
 sermons : " Many believe that sermons should be de- 
 livered only that the people may learn and know some- 
 thing that they did not know before. Hence their scorn- 
 ful saying, ' What is preaching to me ? I already know 
 more good than I am willing to do.' But these people 
 are in error ; for sermons are not delivered for this reason 
 only, that one may learn something, but also for this 
 reason, to move the heart and inclination so that they shall 
 love, desire, and accomplish that which is good. There- 
 fore the apostle desires not so much that one should learn 
 what is in Christ as that he should be likemirided with 
 him. They, however, who attend sermons only to learn 
 something new are like those of whom the apostle writes 
 that they are ever learning and yet know nothing." In 
 his preaching Gerson boldly and decidedly attacked 
 abuses and degeneracy, especially in the ignorant, worldly, 
 and greedy clergy. He had accurate knowledge of human 
 nature, a keen observation, and much experience of men 
 and things. A Catholic critic z says of him that he had 
 " quickness of comprehension, penetration of judgment, 
 rich experience and blooming fancy, extensive reading 
 in ancient classics, solid rhetorical structure, fundamental 
 knowledge of philosophy and theology. Further he had 
 an admirable familiarity with the Holy Scripture." This 
 is high praise, but it has to be discounted by the fact 
 that Gerson did not rise above the scholastic and allego- 
 rizing methods current in his day. And the moral 
 quality of his work, high as it undoubtedly is, must also 
 
 1 Quoted by Rothe, S. 300. 
 
 * Art. in Wezter und Welte's Kirchenlexicon.
 
 334 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 be painfully discounted by the pettiness and casuistry 
 he displays in treating certain questions. 1 
 
 Gerson was active at the Council of Constance, and 
 boldly sided with the progressive party there in holding 
 that the council was superior to the pope and had the 
 right to depose the three claimants and elect a new pope. 
 Having denounced the murder of the Duke of Orleans, 
 he became unacceptable to the court in France and could 
 not return there. He first found a refuge in Austria, but 
 later went to Lyons and lived there in a convent of 
 which his brother was prior, occupying himself in his 
 later years in teaching little children. He was among 
 the most influential ecclesiastics and preachers of his 
 time, and his own life was above reproach. 
 
 It would be strange if in Germany no trace of mysti- 
 cism should be found among the preachers of this epoch, 
 and doubtless there was more of it than comes to the 
 surface or renders itself conspicuous. For, as a matter 
 of fact, no specially distinguished mystical preacher ap- 
 pears among the Germans of the time. There are two 
 men, however, who though not of the highest rank as 
 either preachers or thinkers claim at least brief notice. 
 
 John Veghe 2 (d. 1504) was the son of a citizen of 
 Munster, and is mentioned in 1451 as a member of the 
 Miinster house of the Brethren of the Common Life. 
 He was advanced to the position of rector, and in 1481 
 was made rector of the Sisters' house at Niesink. His 
 " collations," in the low German dialect, have been pub- 
 lished and favorably noticed by several German critics. 
 From these notices it is gathered that Veghe did not 
 adhere closely to the scholastic form in preaching, though 
 he was fond of making a series of "points." He made 
 a rather practical use of some of Eckhart's ideas, and in 
 one place there is a clear and bold utterance against the 
 abuse of indulgences. The sermons have the Catholic 
 contents, leaning much on Augustine, but with a practical 
 mysticism, which though below the measure of Thomas 
 a Kempis, is yet rather in his vein. They show also 
 
 1 Quite a list and a very unedifying one is given by Ammon, 
 S. 70 ff. Among other things he defends the not uncommon but 
 no less astounding theory that a monk's vow of chastity would 
 be broken by marriage, but not by occasional sensual indulgence. 
 
 * Hering, Gesch. der Pred., S. 83.
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 335 
 
 warmth, devotion, elevation, and purity of spirit char- 
 acteristic of the better type of mystical preaching. 
 
 The other representative mystic is the better known and 
 highly esteemed John Staupitz (d. 1524), who, though 
 not very strong as a preacher, yet by his piety, his per- 
 sonal influence, and most of all by his relations to Luther, 
 occupies an important place in the early history of the 
 Reformation. The place and date of his birth are un- 
 known, and nothing definite of his parentage is recorded, 
 except that he was of good family in Meissen. He was 
 educated at Leipzig and Tubingen, where he received his 
 doctor's degree, and was prior of an Augustinian mon- 
 astery. Later he was made vicar-general of this order, 
 and was appointed by Frederick the Wise professor in the 
 newly founded university at Wittenberg. On a visit to 
 Erfurt he met the young Martin Luther, then much 
 troubled with doubts and fears, and took a warm interest 
 in the young monk. He pointed Luther to Christ alone 
 as the ground of hope, interested himself in his promo- 
 tion to Wittenberg, and was at first warmly sympathetic 
 with his attack upon the abuses in the church. But 
 Luther went too fast and too far for Staupitz, who never 
 gave up his Catholic views or connection, though he was 
 favorable to reform within the church. Later Staupitz 
 transferred from the Augustinian to the Benedictine 
 order and spent his latter years chiefly in southern Ger- 
 many, where he died in 1524. 
 
 As a preacher Staupitz had no preeminence of talent,' 
 but was heard with interest and profit. He held the mys- 
 tical doctrine of the union with Christ by losing self in 
 him through contemplation. He was not at all an orig- 
 inal thinker in any line. But he is chiefly memorable 
 to Protestants because of his helpful friendship to Luther 
 in the early formative stage of the great reformer's 
 career, and is more notable for the purity and piety of 
 his life than for high intellectual achievements of any 
 kind. 
 
 In general, these mystics are an important link in the 
 chain of influences connecting the Reformation with the 
 more evangelical types of life which existed and per- 
 sisted through the dark times of the fourteenth and fif- 
 teenth centuries.
 
 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 2. THE PREACHERS OF REFORM 
 
 The history of preaching has already often shown us 
 that in the times of its highest prosperity the things that 
 make for decline are ever present and active, and that 
 in the times of its lowest depression the forces of reform 
 and purification are never wholly absent. In these two 
 centuries of comparative decline which intervened be- 
 tween the great Catholic revival of preaching in the thir- 
 teenth century, and the greater Protestant revival which 
 glorified the first half of the sixteenth, the better ele- 
 ments of preaching were not entirely lacking, and the 
 forces were slowly gathering which out of the corrupted 
 mass of mediaeval decay were to produce the great evan- 
 gelical preaching of the Reformation. So we study some 
 of the reform preachers, beginning with those in the 
 far West. 
 
 Up to this time England has played no great part in 
 the history of preaching. She has had preachers among 
 her priests and monks, but none of extraordinary merit 
 or wide reputation. But now she furnishes to the world 
 the " Morning Star of the Reformation," and with the 
 beginning of that tendency enters upon a glorious career 
 in this as in other departments of history. From now on 
 her preachers rank with the first in respect of character, 
 power, and enduring fame. 
 
 The great preacher and reform leader, John Wiclif * 
 ( 1320-1384), was born about the year 1320 of good family 
 near Richmond in Yorkshire. The social standing of his 
 people was excellent, and they probably had some means. 
 The boy received good education and was early sent to 
 Oxford, where he distinguished himself successively as 
 student, scholar, teacher, and preacher. Oxford was hence- 
 forth the center and principal scene of his life and work. 
 Wiclif's career as a preacher began in 1361, when he was 
 ordained to the priesthood. Immediately his preaching 
 and writings began to attract attention, for his word was 
 with power. He held various places as a preacher while 
 residing, studying, lecturing, and writing at Oxford. 
 
 In 1374 the king appointed him to the parish of Lutter- 
 
 1 The surname seems to be local, as was so often the case, and 
 to denote a cliff of the river Wye Wye-cliff shortened to Wiclif. 
 Among the variety of spellings the simplest one is adopted in the 
 text.
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 337 
 
 worth, and he held this place to his death. With it his 
 name is inseparably associated, for here he did the most 
 of his work, as priest and preacher, though living chiefly 
 at Oxford. 
 
 Besides his regular parochial work at Lutterworth 
 Wiclif often preached in other places, and his preaching 
 was very acceptable to the people wherever he went. In 
 London he was heard with great admiration by court and 
 people, but naturally not by the clergy, whose worldliness 
 and unfitness he was already attacking with power. Be- 
 cause of political sympathies he enjoyed the favor of the 
 powerful statesman, John of Gaunt, whose protection was 
 worth much to the reformer in his bold attacks on the 
 clergy and the papacy. 
 
 Notwithstanding Wiclif s favor with the court and the 
 people, his clerical enemies finally plucked up courage to 
 call the bold preacher to account for his caustic utter- 
 ances. In 1377 charges of heresy and other things were 
 brought against him before the Bishop of London. But 
 the trial was broken up by a brawl between his protectors 
 and the bishop's following, and nothing came of it. His 
 enemies then got the pope (Gregory XI.) to issue bulls 
 condemning certain teachings of Wiclif as heretical. The 
 bulls also called for the institution of processes against 
 the reformer. But partly because of the sympathy of the 
 University of Oxford, and partly because the bishops 
 themselves were somewhat jealous of having a papal 
 tribunal to deal with accused persons in England, this 
 effort to crush Wiclif was not successful. Once more, 
 in 1378, he appeared before the prelates in London to 
 answer charges, and again through the sympathy of 
 powerful protectors (John of Gaunt and the Princess of 
 Wales among them) the trial came to little, only a mild 
 reproof being administered to the preacher. 
 
 In this same year (1378) Wiclif organized his com- 
 panies of " poor priests," or " simple priests," as they 
 were called, to go about England preaching; and at the 
 same time he set on foot his translation of the Bible into 
 the English tongue. The far-reaching importance of 
 these two measures cannot be overestimated. The " poor 
 priests " were not an ecclesiastical order Wiclif had a 
 poor enough opinion of the decayed orders but were
 
 338 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 simply evangelists and colporters of a more scriptural 
 pattern, who went about among the people preaching in 
 English a simple gospel, teaching, and perhaps distribu- 
 ting copies of the Scriptures done into the native lan- 
 guage, together with some of Wiclif's writings. Men of 
 character and education were engaged in this work, and 
 the contrast between their voluntary and devoted labors 
 and the pampered and worldly officialism of the endowed 
 clergy, whether secular or regular, was impressive. No 
 wonder the common people heard them gladly ; no wonder 
 the pharisaic priests hated the work and its founder. 
 History repeats itself. Good work was done, and in the 
 hearts of the English folk as in a rich soil, seeds were 
 sown that in after years were to bring a great harvest 
 but alas, only after the harrow had done its work. 
 
 Reform principles made progress in Wiclif's own mind. 
 At first he had attacked the papal claims to authority in 
 secular matters, and in other ways. Then he fell upon 
 the evil clergy and spared not their sins and other unfit- 
 nesses for their work. At last he comes to assail some of 
 the Roman doctrines, especially that of transubstantiation. 
 His study of Scripture and his acceptance of it as the 
 supreme authority in matters of faith were coming to 
 make of him a reformer indeed. In 1381 he put forth 
 theses against the doctrine of transubstantiation, embody- 
 ing much the same ideas as those subsequently held by 
 Luther. A treatise called " Wiclif's Little Wicket," which 
 was a tract, but much in sermon form, and no doubt with 
 many ideas and expressions used in his discourses, is 
 given in Fish's Masterpieces of Pulpit Eloquence, 1 and 
 is a good specimen of the spirit and method of the re- 
 former. It is vigorous in style, bold in expression, and 
 acute in reasoning, and makes a sharp assault on the 
 doctrine of transubstantiation. 
 
 This latest phase of his development attacking cer- 
 tain doctrines of the church mightily stirred up the al- 
 ready angered clergy, and frightened some of Wiclif's 
 friends. John of Gaunt tried to get him to stop. The 
 trouble was emphasized by the rise of a sedition under 
 John Ball, a popular leader and agitator for the rights 
 of the common people, who claimed to have got his ideas 
 
 *VolI.,p. ii8ff.
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 339 
 
 of freedom and popular rights from Wiclif. So a council 
 was called in 1382 to take measures against Wiclif and 
 his followers. Some of these were punished, but Wiclif 
 himself was still left at liberty, though articles from his 
 writings were formally condemned. He had the people 
 on his side, and it was hard to bring him to judgment. 
 Yet he and his friends thought it most prudent for him to 
 retire from Oxford to the more quiet retreat of Lutter- 
 worth. Here he pursued his parochial duties and busied 
 himself with his writings for his few years more of life. 
 His health, never strong, was now declining, and he died 
 of a paralytic stroke on the last day of December, 1384. 
 Apart from his vast importance as a reformer, Wiclif 
 would claim attention alone by his eminent merits as a 
 preacher. Sermons from him have come down to us 
 partly in Latin and partly in English. 1 The sermons are 
 based on Scripture, are not wholly free from scholasti- 
 cism, nor from the current allegorical method of inter- 
 pretation, nor from some Roman Catholic errors; but 
 they are in the right direction, for they show at least a 
 better interpretation and use of Scripture than was com- 
 mon, and a far more evangelical doctrine. They are vig- 
 orous in attack, clever in appeal, and give suggestions 
 of an eloquence which the spoken discourses must have 
 had. For they are but sketches of sermons and were no 
 doubt amplified in delivery. Not only did the author 
 himself amplify them, but the curious directions at the 
 end of many of the short discourses indicate that he in- 
 tended his " poore preestis " to make free use of the ser- 
 mons. Thus at the end of the first sermon on the Rich 
 Man and Lazarus, we find the following : " In this Gos- 
 pel may preestis telle of fals pride of riche men, and 
 of lustful lyf of mighty men of this worlde, and of longe 
 peynes of helle, and joyful blis of hevene, and thus 
 lengthe ther sermoun as the tyme axith." In sermon five 
 we have a good principle of Scripture interpretation thus 
 set forth : " It is noo nede to depe us in this stori more 
 than the gospel tellith, as it is no nede to bisie us what 
 hight Tobies hound. Hold we us apaied on the mesure 
 
 1 The admirable edition by Dr. Thos. Arnold leaves nothing to 
 be desired : Select English Works of John Wyclif; edited fry Thos. 
 Arnold, Oxford, 1869.
 
 34 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 that God hath govun us, and dreeme we not aboute newe 
 pointes that the gospel leveth, for this is a synne of curi- 
 ouste that harmeth more than profiteth." 
 
 A longer extract from the third sermon, founded on 
 Luke 15, will give us an idea of Wiclif's method. The 
 spelling is given in our modern way, though thereby 
 much of the quaint flavor of the original is lost. " In this 
 gospel telleth Christ two parables of comfort, how his 
 people shall be saved allif [although] priests grudge 
 thereagainst, both prelates and religious [i.e., monks], for 
 their pride and covetousness. The story of this gospel 
 telleth how publicans and sinful men were coming to 
 Jesus to hear his lore [teaching] ; and he treated them 
 graciously as a good Lord, but scribes and Pharisees 
 grudged against this and blasphemed against Christ, and 
 said he ate with them unlawfully. And this deed may 
 figure things that fall now, sith [since] prelates as 
 scribes and religious [monks] as Pharisees grudge 
 against true priests, members of Christ, that commune 
 with commons, as publicans, and secular lords as sinful 
 men, and say it falleth not to them to know God's law. 
 For they say it so high, so subtle, and so holy that all- 
 only scribes and Pharisees should speak of this law. And 
 these secular prelates may well be cleped [called] scribes, 
 for they, both more or less, write * [i.e., keep account of] 
 the money that they pile [pillage] of the people more 
 busily than they print in their souls the knowing of God's 
 law. And these religious [monks] be Pharisees, for they 
 be divided 2 from the common manner of living by their 
 rotten rites, as Pharisees were. Three causes there be 
 why this heavenly leech [physician] received freely these 
 sinful men and ate with them : first, for he would convert 
 them, to the confusion of proud prelates that letted 
 [hindered] the freedom of God's laws to have their 
 course. By this should they meekly know that highness 
 of state maketh not a man evermore better to God. The 
 second cause is that Christ would give his priests in time 
 of grace lore [teaching] and example to do wisely so, 
 and to stand for the freedom of God's law. The third 
 
 1 Play on the word " scribe " from scribere, to write. 
 
 2 Play on the original meaning of the word Pharisee, a separa- 
 tist.
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 341 
 
 cause is, for Christ would show his general lordship and 
 saving not only of Jews but of heathen men in divers 
 states. These prelates would fain that all God's law were 
 hanging on them for to spoil [rob] the people ; for then 
 would they tell this law and put them to false understand- 
 ing as [that] they might have more winning [gain] of 
 the people." 
 
 These were bold words, and they are a fair sample of 
 Wiclif's fearless assault on monks and seculars. The rest 
 of the sermon proceeds on the view that Christ is the 
 shepherd, the angels are the ninety and nine, mankind is 
 the lost sheep. Christ is " the woman " the wisdom of 
 God the ten pieces are God's " reasonable creatures," the 
 tenth and lost piece is man. " The lantern that was 
 lighted is the manhood [incarnation] of Christ, the turn- 
 ing up of the house is changing of states that be made in 
 this 'world by the manhood of Christ." 
 
 We know that Wiclif had many sympathizers and fol- 
 lowers not only among the common people but also among 
 the influential and the cultivated. Yet among them is no 
 preacher of special renown whose name stands out pre- 
 eminent like that of the leader himself. To persons of the 
 reform tendency the name of Lollard was applied, prob- 
 ably as a term of reproach, signifying babblers, or 
 praters. It was a custom of these Lollards to expound 
 the Word of God and teach the people the truth of Scrip- 
 ture. That they opposed the papal errors and sought 
 for a better establishment and a greater enlargement of 
 the rights of the people is certainly true, and so far they 
 must have our sympathy and respect; but there is no 
 reason to doubt that with their good there was mingled 
 the ill of extremes, fanaticism, and perhaps sedition. At 
 any rate the Lollards found themselves under the ban 
 of both church and state, and they were persecuted most 
 cruelly. For ten years after Wiclif's death his followers 
 went on preaching among the people, and sowing the 
 seeds of his evangelical doctrine. But the attitude 
 and enactments of the so-called reforming Council of 
 Constance strengthened the enemies of Wiclif, and active 
 measures of persecution were taken against the Lollards. 
 They were repressed, but their opinions were not extir- 
 pated. Like those of the " Friends of God " and other
 
 342 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 parties on the Continent these teachings had root among 
 the people and waited in good soil for sunshiny weather. 
 
 Something more than a hundred years after Wiclif, and 
 on the eve of the great Protestant revolution, there ap- 
 peared at Oxford another remarkable man, a scholar and 
 preacher, who held and advocated reformatory views. 
 This was John Colet 1 (1466-1519), celebrated as lec- 
 turer at Oxford and as dean of St. Paul's cathedral in 
 London. 
 
 Colet was born in London in 1466, the eldest son of 
 Sir Henry Colet, a man of wealth and influence. John 
 received his early education at London, but was soon sent 
 to Oxford, where he remained seven years and took his 
 degree. The love of learning was deep within him, and 
 he went abroad to catch the new spirit of learning and 
 to study the Latin and Greek classics. He visited Paris 
 and Italy, got acquainted with Erasmus and other Hu- 
 manists, and returned to England in 1497 saturated with 
 the Revival of Letters, and an enthusiast for classical 
 culture. But Colet was also a Christian and desired the 
 work of a priest. He was ordained soon after his return 
 to England, settled at Oxford, where he gave without 
 fee a course of expository lectures on the Epistles of 
 Paul, using the Greek text and expounding from that. 
 Not only the novelty but the merit and power of these 
 discourses attracted enthusiastic and cultured audiences. 
 Colet's fame as a preacher spread, he held various 
 charges, with Oxford as a center, and in course of time 
 was made dean of St. Paul's and a doctor of divinity. 
 At St. Paul's he instituted a course of expository sermons 
 which attracted great attention. He also established a 
 divinity lectureship there for week days, and was the 
 founder of the famous classical school connected with 
 St. Paul's. 
 
 Colet held decidedly reformatory views. He disap- 
 proved of confession and other Romish practices. On 
 this account he was not acceptable to the clergy, was ac- 
 cused of heresy and brought to trial before Bishop War- 
 ham, but was acquitted. He pleaded for a reform within 
 
 1 There is an excellent article on Colet in the Diet, of National 
 Biog., based on the more elaborate work of Seebohm, The Oxford 
 Reformers.
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 343 
 
 the church on the basis of the New Testament and of the 
 practices of the early Christian centuries, but he was not 
 as thoroughgoing as Luther, nor did he have the dash 
 and vigor of Wiclif. His was the temperament of the 
 scholar rather than that of the general. But his influ- 
 ence and his writings, and especially his work in open- 
 ing the Word of God, give him a sure place among the 
 early reformers. He was a man of piety and wrote books 
 of devotion, as well as some commentaries and other 
 theological works. His sermons were given, some in 
 Latin and some in English. His ease and effectiveness, 
 clearness and warmth in speech, are attested by those 
 who heard him, but his remaining sermons as is so 
 often true do not exhibit the real oratorical power of 
 the man. One of his sermons, delivered before Convo- 
 cation in February, 1512, is particularly commended as 
 a bold and powerful plea for reform within the church. 
 Colet died just as the Reformation was beginning, in 
 
 In France, as we have seen, the reform movement took 
 the form of satire and invective in such preachers as 
 Maillard and Menot. The position of Gerson was not 
 satisfactory, for though an excellent preacher of mystical 
 opinions and himself a pious man, his reformatory views 
 went no further than in the direction of healing the papal 
 schism. He was the leading man at the Council of 
 Constance which condemned Huss, and he cannot be 
 fairly reckoned among the fore-reformers. Leaving out 
 these three, who have before been noticed, we may men- 
 tion one man who lived a little before their time. This 
 was Nicole d' Oresme (Nicholas Oresmus, d. 1382), who 
 is celebrated for at least one bold sermon in the direction 
 of reform. He was a man of great learning and probity, 
 who enjoyed the confidence of several kings and held 
 high office in the French church. He was sent on an 
 embassy to the papal court at Avignon in 1363 or 1364, 
 and took occasion, when invited to preach, to deliver a 
 respectful but vigorous message in regard to the evils in 
 the church. He compared the overthrow of Israel to 
 the impending overthrow of the church because of its 
 corruptions. The sermon does not spare the clergy and 
 was a brave and able testimony. But it does not seem
 
 344 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 to have produced any good result, and Oresme certainly 
 did not start or lead any reform in France. 
 
 In Germany we find two distinct groups of reform 
 preachers whose work very decidedly influenced opinion 
 in their country and helped to prepare the way for the 
 great Reformation. 
 
 The more notable of these were the Bohemian re- 
 formers, among whom were several preachers of power 
 whose names are worthy of grateful remembrance. First 
 among them was one Conrad of Waldhausen * (d. 1369), 
 who flourished about the middle of the fourteenth cen- 
 tury. He was an Austrian by birth and lived in several 
 different places before he finally settled at Prague. Here 
 he had great influence through his powerful and Scrip- 
 tural reform preaching. He blazed the path for his 
 followers by asailing fearlessly the moral corruption of 
 the clergy, their empty and formal conduct of worship, 
 and their wordy and fruitless disputes. 
 
 A very interesting character is John Milicz, or 
 Militsch (d. 1374), who was a contemporary and follower 
 of Conrad. He was of Moravian birth, but received his 
 education at Prague and settled there. He studied both 
 law and theology and was appointed archdeacon and 
 preacher. He attacked vigorously the want of discipline 
 among the clergy, and also lifted up his voice in opposi- 
 tion to the Roman practice of withholding the cup from 
 the laity at the celebration of the Lord's Supper. This, 
 as is well known, became one of the leading questions 
 with Huss and his followers in Bohemia. When Milicz 
 saw that his views were unacceptable to his superiors he 
 resigned his archdeaconry and accepted a ministerial office 
 about the church. Not officially, but in a simple conver- 
 sational way, he continued to teach and preach. He used 
 the native Bohemian tongue and talked in simple heart- 
 felt fashion to the people, and his influence grew fast. 
 He lived on the voluntary offerings of the people, preach- 
 ing three or four times a day probably on the streets and 
 squares. He learned the German language so as to ad- 
 dress himself to that portion of the population. He was 
 skilled in the Scripture and handled it with effect in his 
 discourses. 
 
 'Rothe, S. 252; Cruel, S. 615.
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 345 
 
 After a while he ceased preaching for a season of rest, 
 and meantime determined to go to Rome and deliver at 
 headquarters a message against corruption. He put up 
 a notice on St. Peter's church that he would preach. His 
 audacity could not be tolerated, and he was put in jail 
 for his pains, and on being asked what he intended to 
 preach he called for his Bible, which had been taken 
 away from him, and said that was his sermon. He soon 
 got his release, however, and returned to Prague, where 
 he took up his preaching again with great zeal and effect. 
 He taught young preachers, rescued fallen women, and 
 had great influence among the people. On the death of 
 Conrad, Milicz was appointed preacher in his place, and 
 thus resumed his official ministry. But he did not cease 
 to attack the vices of the clergy and the corruptions of 
 the church in his daily preaching. He was accused of 
 heresy, but was acquitted, and kept on preaching till his 
 death, in 1374. Some of his sermons have come down 
 in Latin sketches, but these of course convey no adequate 
 conception of his power as a preacher in the common 
 tongue. 
 
 Another of these early Bohemian reformers was Mat- 
 thias of Janow (d. 1394), who was born at Prague, but 
 educated at Paris, where he took his degree. On return- 
 ing to his native city and being ordained he began to 
 preach against the current evils, and to urge that the 
 cup should be administered to laymen as well as priests. 
 In fact, he went so far as actually to dispense the wine 
 to the communicants; but he was forced by authority to 
 desist from this. He was rather quiet in his preaching 
 and did more by personal influence and by his writings. 
 Still he was a preacher of no small ability. One of his 
 best contributions to the cause of reform was that he in- 
 duced a wealthy layman to build at Prague the Bethle- 
 hem Church, where the gospel should be preached to the 
 people in their own tongue. We shall see that this church 
 and this wise provision figured largely in the career of 
 the great reformer whom we come now to discuss. 
 
 John Huss 1 (1373-1415) was born of humble parent- 
 age at Hussinetz, in Bohemia, in the year 1373, shortly 
 before the death of his strongest precursor, Milicz. He 
 1 A11 the German authorities, especially Ammon, S. 51 ff.
 
 346 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 received only an imperfect education in youth, and his 
 scholarship always showed the defect of his early train- 
 ing. As a young man, however, he attended the univer- 
 sity at Prague and took his degrees of bachelor and 
 master in the regular course. He was a vigorous thinker 
 and early won and ever maintained high rank as a theo- 
 logian. He also developed power as a preacher and was 
 soon chosen to succeed a very estimable man as chief 
 preacher at that Bethlehem Church which had been built 
 for the very purpose of having the word preached in the 
 Bohemian tongue. As yet he did not espouse the cause 
 of reform, but preached with such acceptance that he 
 drew large crowds, won the favor of all, including that 
 of the queen, and thus firmly established himself in the 
 confidence and affections of the people. Meantime he 
 continued his connection with the university as lecturer 
 on theology. The University of Prague was the first to 
 be established in the German countries, and, though in 
 Bohemia, was largely attended by German students and 
 chiefly officered and governed by Germans. Huss was a 
 patriot and jealous for his native land. He secured a 
 better representation of Bohemians in the government of 
 the university. This blow to their supremacy angered the 
 Germans, and multitudes of them left professors and 
 students and founded, upon invitation of the elector of 
 Saxony, the first genuinely German university at Leipzig 
 in 1409. 
 
 But there were not only German students at Prague. 
 Other nationalities were also considerably represented, 
 and among the crowd of foreign students were some Eng- 
 lishmen, attracted in part, as others, by the fame and 
 standing of the university, and in part by the fact that 
 intercourse between the two countries was stimulated at 
 this time by a matrimonial alliance between the royal 
 houses. 1 
 
 Some of these English students had come under Wic- 
 lif's influence at home, and by their means the views and 
 writings of the great English reformer became known at 
 Prague. Thus some of Wiclif's writings came into the 
 hands of Huss. At first he opposed the English heretic 
 
 1 Richard II. of England had married a Bohemian princess in 
 1382.
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 347 
 
 even with bitterness but as he read to controvert he 
 was convinced, and soon became a pronounced advocate 
 of Wiclif's opinions. 
 
 Huss now began by tongue and pen to attack the 
 papacy and the corruptions of the church. His course 
 astonished his friends and aroused enemies. But once 
 embarked upon it there was no going back, and he be- 
 came both in courage and ability a worthy follower of his 
 great English master and a worthy predecessor of Luther. 
 His place at least is assured in the ranks of real re- 
 formers, for he made the Scriptures the basis of his 
 opposition to the papal perversions and he wavered not, 
 but sealed his testimony at the stake. 
 
 The attacks of Huss aroused the church authorities and 
 he was called to account by the archbishop of Prague, 
 who ordered many of his and Wiclif's writings to be 
 burned. Huss justly characterized this as folly, boldly 
 appealed to the pope, and went on his way. But the at- 
 tention of the pope had already been called to Huss, and 
 he was summoned to appear before the papal court at 
 Rome and answer charges of heresy. This showed him 
 that his appeal was useless and his personal safety would 
 not be secure, so he declined to go. Upon this refusal 
 he was, in 1410, declared a heretic and excommunicated. 
 But he had his following at Prague and kept on his 
 preaching, as both Savonarola and Luther, under simi- 
 lar circumstances, did after him. The new archbishop, 
 however, resorted to stronger measures than his prede- 
 cessor, and forbade the conduct of all religious services 
 in Prague as long as Huss remained there. This action 
 decided Huss to leave Prague, and he retired to his child- 
 hood home at Hussinetz, but still continued to preach, 
 there and at other places as opportunity offered. 
 
 In 1414 the emperor Sigismund assembled at Con- 
 stance the famous council which was to restore peace to 
 the distracted church, rent by schism, disturbed by heresy, 
 denied by corruption. On the first two points action was 
 taken, the last slightly touched and fatally postponed. In 
 dealing with heresy the council soon proceeded to sum- 
 mon the arch-heretic Huss to appear before it and answer 
 charges as a disturber of the peace of the church. Armed 
 with a letter of protection from the emperor he came.
 
 348 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 The sad and disgraceful story is soon told. Huss ap- 
 peared before the council, explained his views, refused to 
 retract what he held to be the truth, and was condemned 
 to prison and to execution. In open council he exhibited 
 his letter of protection and called on the emperor to 
 acknowledge his signature and seal. Sigismund turned 
 pale and then blushed with shame, but the imperial word 
 was broken on the casuistical plea that it was right to 
 break faith with a heretic. 1 After further imprisonment 
 Huss was led to the stake and bravely died in the flames 
 in the year 1415, just about a century before Luther 
 nailed his famous theses on the palace church at Witten- 
 berg and began the Reformation. 
 
 But though dead Huss lived on in his influence and 
 writings. It belongs to general church history to trace 
 the further progress of the Bohemian reformation, its 
 unhappy divisions, its wars and persecutions and defeat. 
 Numerous works of Huss remained, among them some 
 sketches of sermons chiefly in Latin. But these cannot 
 properly convey a satisfactory impression of his manner 
 or power as a preacher before the people. They are poor 
 in all rhetorical respects, bad Latin, dry, too sharply 
 polemic. The probability is that Huss did not have espe- 
 cially oratorical gifts, but in his preaching he carried 
 more weight by the nature of his utterances and by the 
 strength and sincerity of his convictions than by those 
 more pleasing and impressive talents which we call elo- 
 quence. But the people loved to hear him, and the his- 
 tory of religion in Bohemia after him is a tribute to 
 his power with men more striking than the imperfect 
 specimens of his sermons that have come down to us. 
 
 Mention at least should be made of the noble friend of 
 Huss, Jerome of Prague (d. 1416). He was a knight 
 at the court of the King of Bohemia, a well educated, 
 much travelled, and highly eloquent man. Though not 
 a priest he sometimes informally preached, teaching the 
 views of Wiclif and Huss. Though dissuaded, he ac- 
 companied Huss to Constance; but his courage was at 
 
 1 More than a hundred years later, when Luther was arraigned 
 before the diet at Worms, and Charles V. was urged on similar 
 grounds to recall his safe-conduct, that emperor is said to have 
 emphatically refused, saying, " Non erubescam cum Sigismundo 
 antecessore meo."
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 349 
 
 first not quite equal to the strain put upon it. He tried 
 to get away, but was captured and imprisoned; under 
 stress he renounced the views of the condemned reform- 
 ers, but ashamed of his weakness he asked for another 
 hearing. In an eloquent address, which has been pre- 
 served in a report made by some one who heard it, he 
 renounced his weak renunciation, boldly and ably de- 
 fended his real sentiments, and met his fate like a man. 
 In 1416 he was burned on the same spot where Huss 
 had died the year before. 
 
 Besides Bohemians there were among the Germans 
 themselves some notable preachers of the reformatory 
 order, who helped to prepare the hearts and minds of 
 many of the German people for the great work of Luther 
 and his colaborers. Among these were Jacob of Jiiter- 
 bogk, John of Goch, Krafft, and others, 1 who not only 
 opposed the general corruptions of the time, but it is 
 interesting to observe especially assailed the abuse of 
 indulgences as these had been proclaimed by Capistrano 
 and other papal missionaries in Germany. 
 
 Perhaps the most important of these early German 
 opponents of indulgences and the other errors was John 
 Richsrath (d. 1481), commonly called John of Wesel, 
 from his birthplace. He must not be confused with John 
 Wessel, the famous teacher, mystic, and reformer of this 
 time. Of Wesel's parents and early education little or 
 nothing seems to be known, but it is clear that he was 
 an educated man. He came to the University of Erfurt 
 probably about 1440. Later he was made lecturer at 
 Erfurt, and then doctor. He distinguished himself both 
 as professor and preacher, and about 1450 he published a 
 treatise against the reigning theory of indulgences. After 
 this the pope sent Cardinal Cuso to Erfurt to preach and 
 sell indulgences, and still later came the redoubtable 
 Capistrano 2 on a similar mission. Wesel did not hesitate 
 to oppose them in much the same way that Luther after- 
 wards attacked Tetzel. 
 
 After some twenty years' service at Erfurt Wesel 
 was for a short time at Mainz, going later to Worms, 
 where for seventeen years he lived and preached. As a 
 
 gives, in his well-known work, a full account of all 
 these. * Above, p. 317.
 
 35 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 preacher he took decided ground against all the more 
 glaring corruptions of the times, and based his opposition 
 on the Scriptures and the Augustinian theology. He is 
 thus in many respects clearly a predecessor of Luther. 
 In his preaching he was more brilliant and fierce than 
 prudent, and as a consequence made enemies and pro- 
 voked persecution. He was accused of heresy, and pro- 
 ceedings were instituted against him in 1479. The trial 
 went against him and he was put in prison, where, in 
 consequence of hardships too severe for his age, he died 
 in 1481. There can be no question that traces of his work 
 and influence at Erfurt and Worms were helpful in the 
 struggle that was now soon to begin in Germany. 
 
 In Italy the voice of reform was not wholly still in the 
 early and middle part of the fifteenth century. Here and 
 there preachers of a more serious turn than the generality 
 of priests lifted up their voices against the manifest and 
 fearful demoralization of the times, and men like Ber- 
 nardino of Siena and Gabriel Barletta spared not in 
 their denunciations of evil present and ruin to come. But 
 all smaller figures are dwarfed by the eminent greatness 
 of one who, toward the close of the fifteenth century, did 
 a work and made for himself a name as preacher that 
 shall endure through time. 
 
 Girolamo (Jerome) Savonarola * was born at Ferrara 
 in north Italy, September 21, 1452. His family were re- 
 spectable and cultivated people. The boy was of a 
 thoughtful, melancholy temperament, and while yet a 
 youth began to think and brood upon the evils of the age. 
 A bright vision of love crossed his path, but the maiden 
 he sought rejected his addresses, and this disappoint- 
 ment increased his melancholy. Like John Chrysostom, 
 he was repelled instead of attracted by the dissolute life of 
 the world in which he lived, and kept himself through life 
 austerely pure. 
 
 1 The standard work on Savonarola is Prof. P. Villari's admira- 
 ble Life and Times of Savonarola, well translated into English 
 by the author's wife. It contains numerous selections from Sa- 
 vonarola's sermons. An edition of these by Baccini has been 
 found useful. There are interesting studies of Savonarola in Mrs. 
 Oliphant's Makers of Florence, Mr. W. D. Howells' Tuscan Cities, 
 and in George Eliot's Romola, which also gives a very vivid sketch 
 of the times.
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 351 
 
 In his twenty-second year he heard a sermon on the 
 evils of the times and the need of escaping them. This 
 chimed in with his own mood, and he determined to em- 
 brace the monastic life. But his entrance into the cloister 
 was not managed in a way wholly to his credit. One 
 day while the rest of the family had gone off to a festival 
 Girolamo left his home, and, going to Bologna, entered 
 the Dominican monastery there. He wrote back to his 
 father an affectionate letter and explained that he had 
 taken that course to avoid the discussion of the matter 
 in the family, as he feared their pleadings might hinder 
 the accomplishment of his resolution. 
 
 As a novice and student in the Order of Preachers 
 Savonarola showed great earnestness and diligence both 
 in study and in pious exercises. For seven years the 
 young monk pursued his studies and his self-discipline 
 at Bologna, and then the authorities sent him forth to 
 begin his career as a preacher. 
 
 He began at his native Ferrara, but not with much 
 success. He was then sent in the same year, 1481 to 
 Florence to teach in the famous convent of San Marco 
 and to fill an appointment as preacher in the old church 
 of San Lorenzo. 1 The church was, and even yet remains, 
 an important one in Florence, and the appointment meant 
 recognition of Savonarola's powers. But the series of 
 sermons was a failure. The Florentines did not take 
 kindly at first to the young monk's matter or style, and 
 the audience dwindled to twenty-five perfunctory hear- 
 ers. A few years were to work a mighty change. 
 
 After this Savonarola was sent to other places to 
 preach. During one of his tours in north Italy, preaching 
 much at Brescia, he grew in power before the people. 
 Already he had found the keynote of his future deliver- 
 ances, the three famous prophecies that henceforth con- 
 stituted the burden of his message: (i) The church 
 
 *It is, said to be the most ancient church in Florence, having 
 been built in 390, and consecrated by Ambrose of Milan in 393. 
 In Savonarola's time it had been already twice rebuilt, but on the 
 same site and no doubt with some parts of the walls and perhaps 
 other material remaining. Two old pulpits apparently not now 
 in use decorated with fine bronze reliefs by Donatello still stand 
 in the church, but whether they were used by Savonarola or not 
 I do not know.
 
 352 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 will be scourged; (2) it will be renewed; (3) all will 
 come quickly. His preaching made a great sensation, and 
 the country began to ring with his name and his prophe- 
 cies. Meantime a chapter of the Dominican order had 
 been held at Reggio, and at this meeting Savonarola had 
 delivered a powerful discourse on his favorite theme. 
 Among the hearers of this speech was that youthful 
 prodigy of learning and piety, John Pico, Count of Miran- 
 dola. His admiration for Savonarola became warm 
 friendship. On his return to Florence he had much to 
 tell Lorenzo concerning the eloquence of Savonarola; 
 and the worldly tyrant, who, with all his vices, wished the 
 city to have the best of everything, requested the Domini- 
 can authorities to send Fra Girolamo to Florence. 
 
 Accordingly, in 1487, Savonarola comes back to the 
 scene of his early failure; but he comes now with a 
 consciousness of power derived from an assured convic- 
 tion of his mission and from success in other fields, and 
 moreover with such prestige as the admiration of Pico 
 and the patronage of Lorenzo the Magnificent could give. 
 As prior of the convent of San Marco, and preacher in 
 the church attached to the cloister, the austere Dominican 
 finds his work. His attitude toward Lorenzo was un- 
 compromising from the first. He refused to flatter the 
 brilliant and dissolute master of Florence, or in anywise 
 to court or value his patronage. He did not mince his 
 words when speaking of the evils in the city, and he was 
 from first to last the friend of popular government and 
 the foe of the Medicean tyranny. Savonarola's audi- 
 ences soon overflowed the little church of San Marco, 
 and in the Lent season of 1491 the preacher gave his 
 sermons in the magnificent church of Santa Maria del 
 Fiore (St. Mary of the Flower), otherwise known as 
 the Duomo, or Cathedral, of Florence. In this spacious 
 building thronging multitudes pressed together and stood 
 to hear the powerful eloquence of this Dominican friar. 
 One wonders how he could have made himself heard, but 
 the testimony of witnesses is decisive of the fact. 
 
 On the death of Lorenzo the Magnificent, inspired to 
 patriotism by Savonarola's preaching, Florence expelled 
 his son Piero and reestablished the republic. The new 
 constitution, modelled after that of Venice, was largely
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 353 
 
 formed and adopted by Savonarola's advice and influence. 
 But he was far from being a scheming politician. He 
 bravely and conscientiously sought by his preaching and 
 his personal influence to reform the morals as well as 
 the government of Florence. Personally pure, but in- 
 clined to austerity and melancholy, he was too extreme 
 and impracticable in some of his proposed measures. But 
 for a while it looked as if Florence would purge herself 
 from worldly folly and be what the patriot preacher 
 wished a city where Christ reigned. 
 
 As always in republican governments, factions were 
 formed in the city and party spirit ran high. There was, 
 first, the party that favored Savonarola's ideas of gov- 
 ernment and reform; next, the opposite party, who vio- 
 lently strove against reform ; and lastly, a less pronounced 
 party of opposition to the rigorism of Savonarola, who 
 might easily be made to work with the extremists upon 
 occasion. Along with these was a small party of older 
 citizens, friends of the Medici, who desired the return 
 of that family, and bided their time, working with any 
 of the others as suited their views. This political maga- 
 zine only needed a spark to explode it. The spark fell. 
 Piero di Medici made an attempt to get back into Flor- 
 ence. It failed, but some prominent citizens suspected 
 of favoring his designs were burned to death by the re- 
 form party then in power, and this awakened the fierce 
 enmities of the opposition. This was one step toward 
 Savonarola's fall. 
 
 We must also take account of the enemies he had in 
 the church. Since the main element of Savonarola's 
 preaching was that which dealt with the existing decay 
 in church and world, it was inevitable that his attack on 
 evil should expose him to the hatred of the corrupt 
 clergy. And two particular circumstances emphasized 
 this general state of affairs. These were the rivalry of 
 the Franciscan order, who were jealous of the pre- 
 eminence of a Dominican ; and the character of the man 
 who from 1492 to 1503 occupied and disgraced the papal 
 chair. This man was the infamous Roderigo Borgia, 
 who reigned as Pope Alexander VI. It was not to be 
 expected that a pope whose own life was an epitome of 
 the worst vices of the age should look with satisfaction
 
 354 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 upon any effort to reform the clergy, or hear with pa- 
 tience the unflinching exposure and predicted scourging 
 of the evils which afflicted the church. Some of Savon- 
 arola's utterances were reported to the pope, perhaps 
 exaggerated and perverted though they did not re- 
 quire such editing in order to excite the wrath of his 
 unholiness and he determined to silence the bold 
 preacher. Various means were resorted to without 
 avail. Once the pope invited Savonarola to Rome to 
 confer on these matters, but Fra Girolamo was quite too 
 wise to accept the invitation. Another time, it is said, 
 Alexander offered the monk a cardinal's hat if he would 
 change his course, and Savonarola replied that the only 
 red hat he expected to wear was that of martyrdom. 
 This may or may not be strictly true, but it is at least 
 characteristic. Then the pope resorted to sterner meas- 
 ures. He commanded silence ; but the Florentine govern- 
 ment, being then in the hands of Savonarola's party, sus- 
 tained the preacher. The pope then threatened the 
 Florentine merchants in Rome with confiscation of goods. 
 The Seignory felt the force of this argument and coun- 
 selled the friar to cease preaching for a while. He 
 obeyed; but could not for many reasons long remain 
 silent, and in 1496 ascended the pulpit of St. Mark's 
 once more, and in a series of bold sermons went on his 
 way. This introduced the final scene. The pope ex- 
 communicated Savonarola and commanded all the clergy 
 and good Catholics to sustain the penalty. At first the 
 government braved the pope and still permitted Savona- 
 rola to preach, but it was an unequal fight, and as the 
 friar's enemies in the city constantly gained ground the 
 end was coming into view. This clerical and papal hos- 
 tility was the second step toward the catastrophe. 
 
 The third and fatal cause which cooperated all along 
 and finally precipitated Savonarola's downfall was the 
 indiscretion of himself and his friends. Savonarola was 
 not a man of the same make with Wiclif, Huss or 
 Luther. In both strength of character and soundness 
 of judgment he stands below all of these. And he made 
 the fatal error, which these did not make, of basing 
 his reformatory efforts on the general appeal to con- 
 science and on his own commission as a prophet, rather
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 355 
 
 than upon the Word of God. That, at moments of high 
 ecstasy, and especially when borne along by the torrent 
 of his own oratorical feeling, Savonarola believed he was 
 preeminently inspired of God is no doubt true. That, in 
 moments of depression, he doubted this, is perhaps equally 
 true. As to the people, there were partisans of his who 
 believed in his inspiration more fully perhaps than he 
 did himself, and there were enemies who believed him 
 a cheat. Between them, and of all grades, was the 
 changeable crowd who could be led either way, according 
 to circumstances. And thus came the end. 
 
 Among Savonarola's partisans was a certain Fra Do- 
 menico, who during the time that Savonarola was not 
 preaching delivered a series of sermons, in which he went 
 to great lengths in attacking the clergy and in asserting 
 his prior's prophetic claims. He declared again and 
 again that he was prepared to test the truth of those 
 claims by the ordeal of fire. That is, he was willing to 
 walk through fire along with one who opposed the claims 
 in the belief that by a miracle he would come safely 
 through while the opponent would perish. This bravado 
 was finally taken up by the Franciscans, and one of their 
 lay brethren was found who said he would accept the 
 challenge and walk through the fire with Fra Domenico. 
 He expected to be burned, but declared he was willing 
 to suffer if he could thereby expose the false pretensions 
 of Savonarola and his party. Alas! for the weaknesses 
 of the great and good; it is the one serious blot on 
 Savonarola that he consented to this wretched business. 
 His compliance can doubtless be psychologically ex- 
 plained, but it cannot be ethically excused. It is to the 
 shame of the city authorities that they permitted the trial 
 to be attempted, and ordered the necessary preparations 
 to be made in the famous square of the Seignory. Here the 
 fuel was laid and the fires even lighted on the appointed 
 day, in the presence of a great mixed and expectant 
 crowd. When the champions and their partisans, in- 
 cluding Savonarola himself, appeared, there was discus- 
 sion first as to whether the men should go through with 
 their clothes on; and, secondly, whether Fra Domenico 
 should be allowed to carry a crucifix in his hand. These 
 arguments occupied nearly the whole day, and in the
 
 3S 6 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 evening a shower of rain came and put out the fire. At 
 last the Seignory asserted the authority they ought to 
 have used at first and forbade the trial, ordering Savona- 
 rola and his monks home. Thus the whole thing ended 
 in a fiasco. The people, disappointed, weary, deceived, 
 turned like hounds upon Savonarola and his friends. The 
 mob raged through the city, and only under protection 
 could Savonarola reach San Marco in safety as he re- 
 tired from the square. 
 
 In the following weeks the tragedy ended. The gov- 
 ernment was now in the hands of the faction opposed to 
 Savonarola, the pope and clergy were bent on his de- 
 struction, and the fatal mistake of the ordeal, and its 
 failure, had discredited his highest claims. In vain did 
 the preacher try to explain and justify the recent events. 
 His last sermon was preached in San Marco in March, 
 1498, and in it he pathetically expressed his willingness 
 to die for his faults. A mob assailed the convent of San 
 Marco, which was vigorously defended by the monks, 
 and the preacher was held responsible for the riot. 
 Savonarola, Fra Domenico and another of his more zeal- 
 ous partisans were arrested and tried before a tribunal 
 partly civil and partly ecclesiastical. The charges against 
 them were really not worthy of serious consideration 
 charges of sedition in the city, deceiving the people, and 
 heresy. But their destruction was a foregone conclusion, 
 and what with torture and perversion, and even falsifi- 
 cation of testimony, the case was made out, and the 
 three men sentenced to be hanged and burned on the 
 very spot in the Piazza della Seignoria where the fires 
 had been lit for the ordeal. Here, on the 23d of May, 
 1498, the abominable sentence was executed. The old 
 palace of the Seignory still looks down grimly on the 
 scene, and the spot is now marked by a bronze plate, 
 which represents the well-known features of the reformer 
 in his monk's cowl, with a palm leaf, and an inscription 
 which tells that after four hundred years Florence placed 
 this memorial tablet in honor of the prophet and preacher 
 who had there suffered for his work's sake. 
 
 As a man Savonarola was pure and pious from child- 
 hood and through life. Not even his bitterest enemies 
 could attack him here. His disposition inclined to mel-
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 357 
 
 ancholy and austerity a part of the hair shirt he wore 
 next his flesh is still shown in his cell at San Marco. 
 But he was kind and affectionate in nature, made and 
 kept warm friends, and by his personal influence as well 
 as his preaching did much to help and mould the charac- 
 ters of others. His unselfish devotion to his work is be- 
 yond all cavil, and his patriotism and love of liberty, 
 without a trace of ambition for personal distinction or 
 other gain for himself, are clearly written in the story of 
 his life. His courage was great, even to death, and yet 
 under torture he flinched and wavered. This, however, 
 was due more to the extreme sensitiveness of his con- 
 stitution than to lack of moral courage. As some one 
 said, " He had the heart, but not the fibre, of a martyr." 
 The difficult point in his character is that in regard to his 
 prophetic claims. It is impossible to believe that he was 
 a deliberate cheat. It is equally impossible to deny that 
 he went beyond the bounds of sober reason in claiming 
 the gift of prophecy and the immediate inspiration of 
 God, and his consent to have his claims tested by the 
 ordeal of fire and in the person of another is not to be 
 defended. The difficulty is most probably and charitably 
 to be met by the view that Savonarola was sincere in his 
 belief of his prophetic mission, and yet could not feel 
 always sure of it. There was a border land of fanati- 
 cism which he did not wholly escape. 
 
 As a preacher Savonarola stands among the most emi- 
 nent in history. His natural gift of oratory was unques- 
 tionable. He had that nameless something which throws 
 the spell over hearers and captures them while it lasts. 
 Crowds flocked to hear him, and multitudes were both 
 transiently and permanently moved and moulded by his 
 preaching. His figure was slight but erect and firm, his 
 complexion dark but refined, his nose aquiline, his lips 
 full and mobile, his eye keen and flashing, his hands thin 
 and delicate, his gestures graceful and appropriate; and 
 his voice, at first somewhat harsh, soon was mellowed by 
 use, and became rich, sonorous, full and distinct. In 
 mind he was well endowed with both the reasoning and 
 the imaginative faculty. Scholastic subtlety and acute- 
 ness are found in his sermons, as well as cleverness of 
 speculation and sweep of fancy. His training was thor-
 
 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 ough in the Dominican curriculum, and he was ever a 
 student and thinker. His theology was in accord with 
 the Catholic orthodoxy of his age, having been chiefly 
 formed by Aquinas. But his knowledge of Scripture 
 and his reforming soul encouraged the entrance of many 
 evangelical opinions into his sermons. Yet he was in 
 this regard by no means the peer of the other great re- 
 formers. The Catholic elements of thought predominate 
 in his preaching. Besides the scholastic traces, and in 
 spite of the struggle of his better knowledge of Scrip- 
 ture, the allegorical method of interpretation too much 
 prevails and mars the force of his sermons. These would 
 not measure up to the standard set by the later reformers, 
 but they show the resources and power of the man, and 
 as far as reported and printed sermons can they sustain 
 the traditional reputation of the preacher. Their lan- 
 guage is clear, simple and pleasing, their thought and 
 feeling elevated and strong. 
 
 With Savonarola ends the line of fore-reformers. When 
 he was executed at Florence Luther was a fourteen-year- 
 old lad in school at Eisenach, and helping to earn his 
 scanty living by singing in the streets, and filling one stage 
 of his preparation for his mighty work. Among Luther's 
 predecessors the preeminent names are those of Wiclif, 
 Huss and Savonarola, and the greatest of these in leader- 
 ship was the first, the greatest in preaching the last. All 
 were persecuted, two suffered martyrdom ; but their work 
 was not in vain, and their lives have counted for much 
 among the forces for good in the world. On an old ban- 
 ner, painted by Fra Angelico, carried by Savonarola to 
 call the people to worship, and preserved yet in his cell 
 at San Marco, we read : Nos pr&dicamus Christum cruci- 
 fixum. 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE REFORMATION, AND PREACHING IN THE SIXTEENTH 
 CENTURY 
 
 With the beginning of the great Protestant revolt from 
 the Roman Catholic Church in the sixteenth century a 
 new era dawns upon the world. The gathering forces 
 of new learning, of discovery and scientific progress,
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 359 
 
 and of reformatory movement within the church, which 
 had marked the fifteenth century, all contributed their 
 various kinds of power toward that momentous revolu- 
 tion. 
 
 In preaching the new note which had sounded out 
 in the fore-reformers, but had seemed to be stifled by 
 persecution and martyrdom, found a clearer resonance 
 in the work of the great reformers of the sixteenth cen- 
 tury. The voice of Savonarola had not long been hushed 
 at Florence before the little university town of Witten- 
 berg, in Saxony, was ringing with the bold challenge of 
 a young monk and professor who was soon to shake the 
 world with a power mightier than that of the eloquent 
 Italian. And the notes were reverberated throughout all 
 Western Europe, even on toward the end of the century, 
 when, in 1572, the last of these strenuous reformers 
 passed away in the sturdy Scotchman, John Knox. The 
 voice of religious reform mingled with all other sounds 
 of movement in this great century, and it is not easy 
 to keep distinct the separate tones. Or, to drop the fig- 
 ure, all other affairs were inextricably mixed with those 
 of religion, and the history of the Reformation is during 
 its progress almost the history of Europe. This makes it 
 desirable that we should give a little attention to general 
 affairs in Western Christendom in this time. 
 
 i. EUROPE IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY 
 
 At the end of the fifteenth century Spain, united, rich, 
 and arrogant, assumes a great role in European history. 
 And this leading place is greatly enhanced during the 
 first half of the sixteenth century by the accession of the 
 young king (1519) to the empire as Charles V. After 
 him his narrow and bigoted son, Philip II., in his wars 
 with the Netherlands and England, contrives to lower 
 Spanish prestige in European affairs. 
 
 In Italy the old confusion still continues. The papal 
 states, rescued by the military genius of Pope Julius II., 
 were impoverished by the extravagance of Leo X. They 
 played no important part as political forces in this time. 
 Naples was a bone of contention between Spain and 
 France, but it was held by the former. Francis I. of
 
 360 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 France tried hard to gain possessions in northern Italy 
 also, but, though victorious at Marignano in 1515, he 
 was defeated at Pavia in 1525, and his attempt was un- 
 successful. Still there was no sign of political unity or 
 power for Italy as a whole. 
 
 In Germany the opening of the sixteenth century 
 found Maximilian I. on the imperial throne, but he was 
 no great ruler and his grasp of power was feeble. To 
 this shadowy phantom of empire came by choice of the 
 electors in 1519 the young Charles, King of Spain, as 
 grandson of Ferdinand and Isabella, Duke of Burgundy 
 and ruler of the Netherlands by virtue of descent from 
 Charles the Bold, and heir in direct line to the Hapsburg 
 dominions of Austria and its connections in Germany. To 
 this was added the Spanish sovereignty over Naples and 
 Sicily and the newly discovered countries of America. 
 It was a strange combination of circumstances which 
 made this young ruler heir to so great possessions, but 
 the empire added little or nothing to his real authority 
 and much to his burdens. He was a man of courage, 
 wisdom, patience; but the task of regulating so many 
 peoples of different tongues and interests, and just in the 
 throes of the greatest religious revolution of history, was 
 too much even for his talents as a statesman and skill as 
 a warrior. Tired with the struggle he abdicated in 1555, 
 leaving the Austrian possessions with the imperial dignity 
 to his brother Ferdinand, and his other dominions to his 
 son Philip II. of Spain. Ferdinand was not formally 
 elected till 1558, and reigned only a few years, being suc- 
 ceeded by Maximilian II. The political significance of 
 the empire was in nowise enhanced under their reigns. 
 
 For the first fifteen years of the new century Louis XII., 
 a man of some ability, was king of France, but bequeathed 
 to his dashing son, Francis I., the fatal policy of aggres- 
 sion in Italy. Francis was by no means the least able of 
 the three brilliant sovereigns Charles V., the emperor, 
 and Henry VIII. of England being the other two whose 
 reigns distinguished the age. History has much to tell of 
 his relations with his brother monarchs, of his persecu- 
 tions of his Protestant subjects, and something of his 
 efforts to promote culture among his people. The brief 
 reign of Henry II. was somewhat promising, but his un-
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 361 
 
 timely death left confusion and trouble in France. His 
 three sons Francis II. (husband of Mary Stuart), 
 Charles IX. and Henry III. followed in rapid succes- 
 sion, with the shadows and shames that marked their rule. 
 Charles IX. was on the throne when our period closes 
 (1572) and Bartholomew's Night had not long occurred 
 August 24th. 
 
 In England Henry VII. , sagacious and economical, 
 built up the weakened royal power and accumulated a 
 considerable treasure, so that his clever, able, un- 
 principled and tyrannical son, Henry VIII. (1509-1547), 
 found a strong kingdom when he came to the throne. 
 Under him and his children, Edward VI. (1547), Mary 
 ( I 553)> an d Elizabeth (1558), with painful fluctuations, 
 and under storm and stress, the modern England as a 
 Protestant nation had its birth. 
 
 Turbulent and unhappy Scotland suffered its mournful 
 defeat at Flodden under James IV. in 1513. James V. 
 followed with a disastrous reign, and in turn left the dis- 
 tracted kingdom to his beautiful but ill-fated daughter, 
 Mary Stuart (1542-1587). Long regencies and many 
 conspiracies and tumults marked these unfortunate reigns. 
 
 Turning from political to social affairs, we remark that 
 the life and customs of the various European peoples va- 
 ried, of course, in different lands ; but there were matters 
 of general interest in which all were more or less con- 
 cerned that give to the sixteenth century a place of high 
 importance in the history of civilization. Yet in this 
 sphere the distinctive feature still was the religious, other 
 matters chiefly continued the impulses and conditions 
 brought over from the fifteenth century. 
 
 The classes remained as before, but the progress of re- 
 ligion and culture, the upheavals and wars, the final de- 
 cay of feudalism and chivalry, as understood in the Mid- 
 dle Ages, marked the transition to modern civilization. 
 The great religious and political questions of the age oc- 
 cupied all minds, and there was much debate and change 
 of attitude among the people. Yet the strife did not pro- 
 duce always the sweet flowers of piety ; and moral condi- 
 tions were not so profoundly changed as would seem true 
 on first thought. Catholic writers sneer at the word "re- 
 formation " as a misnomer, and adduce sayings of Luther
 
 362 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 and other reformers in criticism of moral conditions to 
 show that there was no real improvement under Pro- 
 testant auspices. It is true that fearful evils continued to 
 mar the face of European society, but there can be no 
 doubt that moral reform was upon the whole advanced. 
 
 The now established use of gunpowder had revolutionized 
 warfare, and that dreadful curse of humanity was made 
 even more terrible and destructive than ever before. Its 
 waste and demoralization were sad features in the life of 
 the reforming century. Yet, in spite of wars and changes, 
 trade and commerce increased, for the discovery of Amer- 
 ica and the enlargement of men's knowledge of other 
 lands and contact with them stimulated industry. There 
 were many wild financial schemes and much unrest, and 
 yet the production and power of wealth went on. The 
 general character of the century was one of alertness in 
 all departments of life. The dead past was left to bury 
 its dead, and men were busy in the living present and 
 looking to a grander future. 
 
 In science, art and literature the age was full of activ- 
 ity. The discoveries of the fifteenth century had pro- 
 duced a wonderful interest in physical and mathematical 
 science. Copernicus (d. 1543) propounded his theory of 
 the solar system. Tycho Brahe pushed on astronomical 
 science. Paracelsus (d. 1541) made great additions to 
 knowledge in chemistry and medicine, and Francis Bacon, 
 a bright boy of ten years of age at the end of this period, 
 was already beginning to think and giving promise of 
 power to come. The great artists of the Renaissance 
 brought their lives and works over into the new cen- 
 tury. Michel Angelo Buonarotti lived and worked on till 
 1563. Da Vinci (1519) and Raphael (1520) died just 
 as the Reformation began, but Correggio (d. 1553) and 
 Titian (d. 1576) lived through it. In the Netherlands 
 the Van Eycks and Holbein were opening the way for 
 their more brilliant successors, while Albert Durer 
 (d. 1548) and Lucas Cranach (d. 1555) were laying the 
 foundation of modern German art. 
 
 In literature the impulse from the Revival of Letters 
 went on with power. Learning was the delight of the 
 age, and none of the principal lands of Europe were with- 
 out distinguished representatives in the republic of let-
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 363 
 
 ters. Spain and Italy furnished in Lope de Vega, Calde- 
 ron, Cervantes, Ariosto, Tasso, and others, great names 
 to the history of literature, while scholars in more pro- 
 found fields, like Bembo, Sadolet, Bellarmine, and others, 
 held high place. In England good old Roger Ascham, 
 the teacher of the Princess Elizabeth, must not be for- 
 gotten, nor the famous literary men of that well-known 
 circle which adorned her reign. But in the earlier time 
 the leading humanist in England was the brilliant and 
 unfortunate Sir Thomas More, the author of " Utopia," 
 friend of Erasmus, and victim of Henry VIII. In France 
 the scholarly work of Faber Stapulensis (Le Fevre 
 d'Etaples) belongs to this early period. But the leading 
 literary genius of the time was the satirist Frangois Rabe- 
 lais (1483-1553). He was a priest upon whom his vows 
 sat lightly, and a monk of two different orders succes- 
 sively without being an ornament to either. But he was 
 a diligent student and a master of several languages, in- 
 cluding Hebrew and Greek. His famous satire, Gargan- 
 tua and Pantagruel, scored the evils of the time, sparing 
 neither clergy nor pope. 
 
 The greatest of the humanists was the world-famous 
 Desiderius Erasmus (1468-1536), born at Rotterdam, 
 educated in his early years among the Brethren of the 
 Common Life, but owing most of his learning to his own 
 efforts, spurred by an indomitable thirst for knowledge 
 and led by a clear and vigorous intellect. He travelled 
 and studied the classics in France, England, Italy, Ger- 
 many and Switzerland. Born a Dutchman he was a citi- 
 zen of the world. One of his greatest services to culture 
 and religion was the editing and publishing of the Greek 
 New Testament. He also wrote a book on the Art of 
 Preaching, and numerous other works, one of the most 
 famous and influential of which was the satire, Encomium 
 Moriae (Laus Stultitiae, " Praise of Folly"), written in 
 elegant Latin, and dedicated to Sir Thomas More in play- 
 ful punning upon his name and the Greek title. In the 
 book Folly praises herself as one of the great powers of 
 the world, and thus holds up to ridicule the sins and 
 weaknesses of the age. Prelates and preachers are un- 
 sparingly handled, and thus the author served the reform 
 spirit by attacking the grosser evils of the day. But
 
 364 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 Luther well said of him that he showed the evil without 
 the remedy. 1 
 
 Along with Erasmus should be named the great Ger- 
 man humanist, John Reuchlin (1455-1522), the famous 
 scholar and jurist, the uncle and helper of Philip Mel- 
 anchthon, the fine Hebrew student and teacher, the friend 
 and maker of scholars, the author of many books. Nor 
 must we forget the knightly friend of Luther, Ulrich von 
 Hutten (1480-1523), scholar, poet, satirist and letter 
 writer, whose trenchant pen and cultured mind were keen 
 blades in the fight against churchly corruption. 
 
 2. COURSE AND EFFECTS OF THE REFORMATION 
 
 The particular events of the Reformation can for our 
 purposes be better considered in connection with the de- 
 velopments in preaching and the lives of preachers. Here 
 it will suffice merely to glance at the general course and 
 effects of the movement. 
 
 Those loud calls for reform in doctrine and morals 
 which had sounded out in the two preceding centuries 
 grew in volume, and had to be heard even by the unwill- 
 ing in the sixteenth century. The storm center was Ger- 
 many; the occasion well known. In the year 1517 a 
 Dominican friar of considerable talent as a popular 
 preacher, John Tetzel by name, was appointed by supe- 
 rior ecclesiastical authorities to preach and sell in- 
 dulgences in Saxony. He made a hawking peddler's 
 affair of it, and is said to have declared that as soon as 
 the coin jingled in his box a soul would fly out of pur- 
 gatory. 
 
 Tetzel's conduct aroused the young Martin Luther, 
 Augustinian monk and professor in the Saxon university 
 of Wittenberg, and induced him to attack the practice of 
 dispensing indulgences. This he did by posting a series 
 of ninety-five theses, or propositions, on the door of the 
 castle church at Wittenberg as a public challenge to dis- 
 putation on the points involved. The theses were read 
 far and wide and created a mighty stir. With this be- 
 ginning events moved on. Efforts were made by the 
 pope and his partisans to stop Luther from going further, 
 
 1 "Satisfecit quod malum ostendit; at bonum ostendere et in 
 terram promissionis ducere non potuit." Words often quoted.
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 365 
 
 but to no purpose. Debate only widened and intensified 
 the breach. Luther soon had a following all over Ger- 
 many. The great events of the Reformation followed 
 fast, and soon involved all Europe. In Switzerland, first 
 at Zurich and later at Geneva, reforming doctrines spread. 
 Even Italy and Spain were somewhat touched by the 
 movement, and in northern and eastern Europe the leaven 
 worked. France was deeply moved, but the persecuting 
 policy of Francis and his successors made the reformers 
 mostly exiles. In England and Scotland, also, the doc- 
 trines of the Reformation found acceptance, and wrought 
 out their well-known historic fruits. The effects pro- 
 duced by the Reformation upon the life, the thought and 
 the subsequent history of the world were far-reaching 
 and permanent, especially in the religious sphere. 
 
 Looking over the whole field we see that thenceforth the 
 western world has two leading forms of the Christian 
 faith, with many variations on the Protestant side. A 
 new time has come for Christianity. No more is it Rome 
 and heretics, but now it is Rome and Protestantism. In 
 some lands one, in some the other, is in the ascendant; 
 but the history of preaching, as well as of all the other 
 institutions of Christianity, must henceforth be written 
 from two different points of view. 
 
 The characteristic of Protestantism was its revolt from 
 a corrupted church on the basis of the supreme authority 
 of the Word of God. This character it has preserved 
 in the main, and from this fundamental principle there 
 have flowed important consequences. One of these has 
 been the great variations among the Protestants them- 
 selves. This came from asserting the rights of private 
 judgment in the interpretation of Scripture and of free- 
 dom to choose one's belief. Thus what has been lost to 
 unity has been gained to liberty, though only slowly and 
 by degrees has true religious freedom gained a sure and 
 permanent place in even Protestant countries. Another 
 important result has been the parallel march of reverence 
 and criticism in handling the Bible. In some cases rever- 
 ence has lapsed into literalism, in others criticism has 
 passed into rejection; but the sound mean of an intelli- 
 gent acceptance of the Bible properly interpreted as the 
 norm of religious belief and practice has held its own and
 
 366 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 produced splendid results in the spread and maintenance 
 of Christian truth. The far-reaching effect of this prin- 
 ciple on preaching we shall see later. 
 
 The effect of the Reformation on the Roman Catholic 
 Church has been the seemingly paradoxical one of both 
 weakening and strengthening it. The rivals of Rome's 
 exclusive claim to be the church of God on earth had 
 hitherto been the old and decrepit East and the scatter- 
 ing sects of so-called heretics who had arisen here and 
 there to protest, to suffer, to decline. But now that claim 
 was challenged by representatives of the highest culture 
 and noblest piety in every land of Europe. The move- 
 ment was too general to be put down as merely a heresy, 
 and too vigorous to be ignored or cajoled. 
 
 On the other hand the forces of reform within the 
 church gained power. The corruption of morals which 
 had been one of the prime causes of the Protestant revolt 
 was greatly checked. There has been no Borgia among 
 the popes since the Reformation. Also the pious ele- 
 ments within the old church asserted themselves, and 
 both charitable and missionary enterprises received great 
 stimulus. And finally the great Council of Trent, which 
 was called to deal with all the questions raised by Pro- 
 testantism, reassured good Catholics everywhere by re- 
 moving some crying abuses and by putting forth in re- 
 markably clear form the essential doctrines of the Cath- 
 olic faith. That council, forced by Luther's revolution, 
 is rightly regarded as one of the mightiest bulwarks of 
 the Roman church, giving it a new and stronger lease on 
 life. 
 
 3. RELATION OF THE REFORMATION TO PREACHING 
 
 We come now to consider the more particular relation 
 of the Reformation to preaching. It is at once apparent 
 how close that relation is. The great events and achieve- 
 ments of that mighty revolution were largely the work of 
 preachers and preaching ; for it was by the Word of God 
 through the ministry of earnest men who believed, loved 
 and taught it, that the best and most enduring work of 
 the Reformation was done. And, conversely, the events 
 and principles of the movement powerfully reacted on 
 preaching itself, giving it new spirit, new power, new
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 367 
 
 forms. So that the relation between the Reformation and 
 preaching may be succinctly described as one of mutual 
 dependence, aid and guidance. 
 
 This applies chiefly, of course, to Protestant preaching, 
 but the Catholic pulpit also was in some degree stimu- 
 lated and otherwise wholesomely affected by the 
 movement. And thus, in the most general view, a dis- 
 tinctly new epoch in the history of preaching meets us 
 now, and the greatest and most fruitful one since the 
 fourth century. Great as was the Catholic preaching of 
 the twelfth and thirteenth centuries it is not to be com- 
 pared with that of the sixteenth century reformers either 
 in its character or in its enduring results. Well does 
 Christlieb 1 say : " The age of the Reformation makes the 
 deepest cleft, the sharpest turning-point in the historical 
 development of Christian preaching, as to contents and 
 form, spirit and character." This new character of preach- 
 ing is commonly recognized by Protestant writers, and 
 its causes and elements assigned with substantial unanim- 
 ity of judgment. The points are well summarized by 
 Broadus 2 as being : ( I ) a revival of preaching, (2) a 
 revival of Biblical preaching, (3) a revival of controversial 
 preaching, and (4) a revival of preaching upon the doc- 
 trines of grace. Catholic writers also recognize a new era 
 in preaching, but naturally give both the character and 
 causes a different statement from that of Protestants. 
 We shall see more of this when we come to study the 
 Catholic preaching of the age, 3 but here it is proper to 
 take the Protestant point of view. 
 
 Discussion of the personality and preaching of individ- 
 uals among the reformers will be given in the sketches 
 that are to follow; but in viewing the general character 
 of Reformation preaching it will be well to keep clearly 
 before us the following points : ( I ) The debt of Reforma- 
 tion preaching to the new age; (2) The new emphasis 
 given to preaching as a vital element of Christian wor- 
 ship and life; (3) The influence of their conflict with 
 error upon the preaching of the reformers; (4) The 
 place and use of Scripture in their sermons; (5) The 
 homiletical methods of the time as shown in some of the 
 leading reformers. 
 
 1 Art. in Herzog, Bd. 18, supplement. 
 
 'Hist. Prea., p. 113 ff. * Below, Chap. XV.
 
 368 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 (l.) The Reformation was a part, and a very large 
 part, of that general forward movement in Western 
 Christian civilization which is the glory of the fifteenth 
 and sixteenth centuries. Now the Christian world was 
 emerging from medievalism, as just a thousand years be- 
 fore it had passed out of antiquity. But how different 
 were the conditions into which these two momentous 
 turning points led ! Then it was a fall, now it was a rise ; 
 then it was a passage from decay to chaos, now from a 
 lower to a higher civilization; the fifth and sixth cen- 
 turies trembled with despair, the fifteenth and sixteenth 
 quivered with hope. Preaching felt the throb. 
 
 The discoveries of science and navigation enlarged the 
 thoughts of men, the new methods of warfare made great 
 political changes, the art of printing introduced a new 
 age in literature, the revival of classical learning and 
 the new birth of art gave culture a higher tone and all, 
 as we have seen, quickened the mental energies of man- 
 kind. Now, as preaching is in large part and essentially 
 an intellectual exercise and one of the forces of culture, 
 it was inevitable that it should respond to this new breath 
 of life in the world of thought. And it did. There is 
 a new intellectual vigor in preaching, a fresh and strong 
 grasp of mind, which is in notable contrast with the pul- 
 pit work of the times immediately preceding. And it is 
 natural that this should be especially true of Protestant 
 preaching, because Protestantism was the party of pro- 
 gress in the religious world. 
 
 Also in the sphere of general social and political life 
 the tokens of a new time were not wanting. Feudalism 
 had run its course, the burgher class had come to power, 
 and now, too, though but little as yet and slowly, the 
 great common people must be reckoned with as a force 
 in human affairs. In various ways the right of the com- 
 mon man to be heard and considered is gaining recogni- 
 tion. The Peasants' War, with its mainly just and rea- 
 sonable demands for popular rights, is one of the many 
 indications in this direction. Popular preaching and the 
 translation of the Bible into the speech of the people show 
 that this recognition of the great masses of humanity 
 was germane to the religious revolution of the time. 
 Luther was himself a peasant's son, and, though he did
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 369 
 
 not approve of the Peasants' War, he never lost his sym- 
 pathy for the class from which he sprang. In every age 
 the pulpit has had distinguished representatives who 
 stood with and for the people in their aspirations for an 
 enlargement of rights and privileges in social and politi- 
 cal life, and this sympathy has not failed to impart vigor 
 and strength to preaching. It was so during the Re- 
 formation. 
 
 (2.) And now, also, there was laid a new and mighty 
 emphasis on preaching. Not for long centuries had the 
 office been held in such high regard as it won during the 
 Reformation. There were several ways in which this 
 renewed interest found expression. 
 
 We have seen how, in the ages of decline, preaching was 
 neglected by the clergy. The preaching orders of monks 
 were long a protest against this neglect, but now they, 
 too, had fallen into decay. Wiclif's " poor priests " were 
 also a rebuke to the negligent clergy, but the Lollards 
 had been put down. The neglect was general, and there 
 were many complaints, but the diligence of the reformers 
 in preaching is something marvellous. Both Luther and 
 Calvin were indefatigable preachers, and their example 
 was contagious. 
 
 It is true that the reformers used other means to pro- 
 mote their cause. They invoked and employed the aid 
 of the civil powers in the different ways appropriate to 
 the different countries in which they labored. Thus Lu- 
 ther leaned on the Elector of Saxony, and made his fa- 
 mous appeal to the princes and nobles of Germany; 
 Zwingli, Calvin and the other Swiss reformers sought 
 and secured the cooperation of the councils of the cities ; 
 in England, through all the vicissitudes of the reform 
 movement, the prelates and preachers were much mixed 
 up with the court and government ; and in Scotland Knox 
 was in constant touch with the Lords of the Congre- 
 gation and in continual conflict with Mary Stuart. The 
 reformers also made diligent and efficient use of the press 
 and of correspondence, both public and private. Nor 
 did they fail to employ teaching, personal influence, dis- 
 cussion and debate. In fact, every legitimate means of 
 advancing their cause seems to have been used, but none 
 the less it remains true that their chief instrument was
 
 370 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 the preaching of the Word of God, and that the most of 
 them were exceedingly diligent in the work. A few ex- 
 amples will abundantly illustrate this point. 
 
 As is well known, 1 Luther was reluctant to enter on 
 the work of preaching, and only did so at the request 
 of his ecclesiastical superiors while still a monk, in 1515. 
 At once, however, he began to realize the value of preach- 
 ing, and the orator's instinct within him was awakened, 
 so that he sometimes preached as many as four times a 
 day. After his work as a reformer was fully under way 
 his diligence in preaching was one of his distinguishing 
 marks. During 1529, it is recorded, 2 he preached three 
 or four times a week; in 1541, often four times on a 
 Sunday and two or three times in the week; on holidays 
 commonly twice. His theory grew out of his own prac- 
 tice. In his Table Talk, 3 speaking of the urgency of his 
 friends about his preaching, he says : " I am now aged, 
 and have had much labor and pains. Nothing causes 
 Osiander's pride more than his idle life ; for he preaches 
 but twice a week, yet has a yearly stipend of four hundred 
 guilders." With such teaching and example before them, 
 it is no wonder to find that Luther's friends and fellow- 
 laborers were likewise zealous preachers and magnified 
 their office by much use. 
 
 Calvin's astonishing diligence is also matter of his- 
 tory. Well does Broadus * say : " The extent of his 
 preaching looks to us wonderful. While lecturing at 
 Geneva to many hundreds of students (sometimes eight 
 hundred), while practically a ruler of Geneva and con- 
 stant adviser of the Reformed in all Switzerland, France 
 and the Netherlands, England and Scotland, and while 
 composing his so extensive and elaborate works, he would 
 often preach every day. For example, I notice that the 
 two hundred sermons on Deuteronomy, which are dated, 
 were all delivered on week days in the course of little 
 more than a year, and sometimes on four or five days in 
 succession." 
 
 The Zurich reformers were no less busy. Zwingli had 
 set the example of frequent preaching. Leo Jud wore 
 
 1 Nebe, Zur Geschichte der Predigt, Bd. II., S. i. 
 
 * Nebe, op. cit., S. 5. 
 
 'Hazlitt's ed., Bohn's Lib., p. 188. 'Hist. Prea., p. 121 f.
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 371 
 
 himself out at it. Bullinger often preached six or seven 
 times a week, till, in his later years, the council, warned 
 by Jud's breakdown, interposed, gave him an assistant, 
 and forbade his preaching more than twice a week. 1 
 
 In England the " unpreaching prelates " were the ob- 
 ject of fierce attack by the reformers, who took good 
 care that their own example should enforce their polemic. 
 In his famous Sermon of the Plough 2 sturdy old Latimer 
 pays his respects to " unpreaching prelates, lording loiter- 
 ers, and idle ministers " in these terms : " But this much I 
 dare say, that since lording and loitering hath come up, 
 preaching hath come down, contrary to the Apostles' 
 time; for they preached and lorded not, and now they 
 lord and preach not. For they that are lords will go ill 
 to plough ; it is no meet office for them ; it is not seeming 
 for their estate. Thus came up lording loiterers; thus 
 crept in unpreaching prelates, and so have they long con- 
 tinued." Further on he continues : " And now I would 
 ask a strange question: Who is the most diligent bishop 
 and prelate in all England, that passes all the rest in doing 
 his office ? I can tell, for I know who it is ; I know him 
 well. But now I think I see you listening and hearkening 
 that I should name him. There is one that passes all the 
 others, and is the most diligent prelate and preacher in all 
 England. And will ye know who it is? I will tell you 
 it is the Devil. He is the most diligent preacher of all 
 others ; he is never out of his diocese ; he is never from 
 his cure; you shall never find him unoccupied; he is 
 ever in his parish ; he keeps residence at all times ; you 
 shall never find him out of the way ; call for him when 
 you will he is ever at home. He is the most diligent 
 preacher in all the realm ; he is ever at his plough ; no 
 lording or loitering can hinder him ; he is ever applying 
 his business; you shall never find him idle, I warrant 
 you." Of Latimer himself, Hooper, 3 Coverdale, Jewel,* 
 and many others there are records and statements to the 
 effect of their faithful attention to the preaching part of 
 their work. The same is true also of Knox and his fel- 
 low-workers in Scotland. 
 
 1 For further particulars see below, pp. 408, 411, 415. 
 
 * Fish, Masterpieces, I., p. 134. 
 
 "Below, p. 497. * Below, p. 508.
 
 372 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 Among the reformers preaching resumes its proper 
 place in worship. The elaborate ritual of the Catholic 
 service had made the sermon but a small affair ; the cele- 
 bration of the mass had become the center of worship, 
 and around that much ceremonial had gathered, so that 
 but little stress was placed upon the reading and exposi- 
 tion of the divine Word. But in the reformed services 
 the mass is abolished, and the exposition of Scripture be- 
 comes the main thing. The Lord's Supper is observed 
 periodically, but not at every service. Thus preaching 
 becomes more prominent in worship than it had been 
 perhaps since the fourth century. 
 
 Nebe 1 mentions the oft-quoted remark of Luther, that 
 preaching is the most important part of the worship, and 
 illustrates Luther's high regard for preaching by a num- 
 ber of quotations from his sermons, in which he speaks 
 of preaching as " the power and strength of Christen- 
 dom," and as being the office of teaching all the virtues 
 and duties of Christianity, of converting and edifying 
 souls, and the like. But in all this we must remember 
 that Luther was looking upon preaching as the exposition 
 of the Word of God, and by no means as a man's oratori- 
 cal performance. Thus in his Table Talk he says : 2 " I 
 am sure and certain, when I go up to the pulpit to preach 
 or read, that it is not my word I speak, but that my tongue 
 is the pen of a ready writer, as the Psalmist has it. God 
 speaks in the prophets and men of God, as St. Peter in 
 his epistle says : The holy men of God spake as they were 
 moved by the Holy Ghost. Therefore we must not sepa- 
 rate or part God and man, according to our natural reason 
 or understanding. In like manner every hearer must 
 say: I hear not St. Paul, St. Peter, or a man speak, but 
 God himself." So in exalting preaching he was not lift- 
 ing up the preacher, but the message that he brings from 
 God to the people. This high view of preaching was 
 shared by the other reformers, and became one of the dis- 
 tinctive notes of the Reformation. 
 
 There is no doubt that in Protestant worship espe- 
 cially in the Reformed churches this tendency went too 
 far, and in course of time the sermon too much en- 
 croached upon the other parts of the service. But 
 1 0p. /., S. 6 ff. . 2 P. 16.
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 373 
 
 even in those Protestant churches, as the Lutheran and 
 English, which retained much of the historic liturgy ren- 
 dered into the language of the people, the sermon ac- 
 quired a greater place in the order of worship than it had 
 for ages enjoyed. This naturally tended to dignify the 
 preaching office in the minds both of the preacher himself 
 and of his hearers, and with increased respect came in- 
 creased power. 
 
 Along with this higher estimation of preaching it was 
 natural that there should be required a better prepara- 
 tion, both intellectual and spiritual, in the preachers. The 
 mental and moral unfitness of very many of the clergy 
 under the old conditions was one of the main objects of at- 
 tack and of reform. The reformers were bound by every 
 reason to see that in this respect there should be great 
 and manifest improvement. And they were very careful 
 of it. Certainly some unfit men ill-educated and ill- 
 regulated got into the Protestant ministry; but this 
 was the exception. All the reformers insisted on a high 
 standard of religious and educational preparation for the 
 pulpit. It is well known that the leading reformers were 
 themselves men of liberal culture. On Luther's learn- 
 ing admitted by all Bromel x well remarks that he was 
 a " universally trained " man, all the elements of the cul- 
 ture of his time appear in his sermons : the Latin classics, 
 philosophy, dialectic, natural history as far as under- 
 stood in his days history, the church fathers and other 
 ecclesiastical writers. At twenty- four years of age young 
 John Calvin was one of the most accomplished scholars 
 of the time, and through life a hard-working student. 
 Law, languages, theology, philosophy, history, to say 
 nothing of all Biblical lore, were at his finger's ends. 
 Zwingli was full of the Humanist culture of the age, and 
 his chief impulse as a reformer came from this side. 
 CEcolampadius, Butzer, Capito, Pellican, Jud, Myconius, 
 Bullinger, were all lights of learning as well as of reform. 
 In England Latimer, Cranmer, Ridley, Hooper, Cover- 
 dale, Parker, Jewel, and many others were highly edu- 
 cated and learned men. Knox, also, though not so great 
 in this direction as in others, and by no means the peer 
 of Luther or Calvin, was not deficient in such education as 
 1 Homiletische Charakterbilder, S. 93 if.
 
 374 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 could be had in his time and country, diligently improved 
 his opportunities to study with Calvin while an exile at 
 Geneva, and took up late in life the study of Hebrew and 
 Greek. 1 
 
 Nor were the reformers content to be men of large 
 culture themselves alone, and simply set the example of 
 diligence in study; they were concerned to teach the 
 young men who labored with them and should come after 
 them. Wittenberg and Geneva were seats of Protestant 
 learning, and they were thronged with students from all 
 over Europe. Cranmer was careful to provide for the 
 training of the future leaders of the English church, and 
 brought to Oxford and Cambridge such men as Peter 
 Martyr Vermigli, Martin Butzer, John a Lasco and oth- 
 ers. While in the Table Talk Luther again and again in- 
 sists that the preacher should be simple in speech, so that 
 the people could understand him, he by no means under- 
 values learning, as the following passages show : 2 " A 
 preacher should be a logician and a rhetorician, that is, 
 he must be able to teach and to admonish. When he 
 preaches touching an article he must, first, distinguish it. 
 Secondly, he must define, describe and show what it is. 
 Thirdly, he must produce sentences out of Scriptures, 
 therewith to prove and strengthen it. Fourthly, he must 
 with examples explain and declare it. Fifthly, he must 
 adorn it with similitudes; and, lastly, he must admonish 
 and rouse up the lazy, earnestly reprove all the disobedi- 
 ent, all false doctrine, and the authors thereof." Again, 
 " Young divines ought to study Hebrew, to the end they 
 may be able to compare Greek and Hebrew words to- 
 gether, and discern their properties, natures and strength." 
 
 This culture was required not only by the evident pro- 
 prieties in the case, and by the very nature of the preach- 
 ing office, but was emphasized by the peculiar circum- 
 stances in which the reformers found themselves. 
 
 (3.) The stern conflict which the reformers had to 
 wage with error demanded abilities and training of no 
 mean order. The task of Protestantism was not easy. 
 Centuries had hardened into fixed custom the abuses 
 against which the reformers fought; their opponents 
 were often men of keen dialectical skill, and the early 
 \Broadus, Hist. Prea., p. 194 f. *Pp. 188, 193.
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 375 
 
 N\ 
 
 successes of Protestantism stirred the defenders of the 
 old order to unusual exertions and better training. On 
 the other side, the very character of the errors which 
 they had to oppose served to quicken and render more 
 earnest the preaching of the reformers. 
 
 The scandalous corruption among the clergy, and, in 
 fact everywhere, greatly aroused earnest souls who felt 
 that this condition of affairs should and could be amended. 
 Preaching must always amount to something when it has 
 definite evils to attack and specific warnings to give. And 
 the awakening of the general conscience, which has al- 
 ready been adduced as one of the causes of the Reforma- 
 tion, powerfully fortified to the hearers the appeals and 
 warnings and denunciations of the preachers. The con- 
 sciousness of a high and holy mission to uplift and purify 
 the characters of men by the preaching of the Word of 
 God had a large and fruitful place in the minds and 
 hearts of the reformers. 
 
 Necessarily, also, the preaching of these men was much 
 occupied with errors of belief, and was therefore largely 
 polemical and doctrinal. Luther says ; 1 " Wickliffe and 
 Huss assailed the immoral conduct of the papists; but 
 I chiefly oppose and resist their doctrine ; I affirm roundly 
 and plainly that they preach not the truth. To this I am 
 called ; I take the goose by the neck and set the knife to 
 its throat. When I can show that the papists' doctrine is 
 false, as I have shown, then I can easily prove that their 
 manner of life is evil. For when the word remains pure, 
 the manner of life, though something therein be amiss, 
 will be pure also." Externalism had obscured the truth 
 and hidden away the heart of the gospel. The true nature 
 of Christ's work for men and of the means whereby its 
 blessed fruits were available to them must be freshly and 
 more clearly explained. And so the great core of reform 
 preaching is justification by faith that gracious act of 
 a sovereign but loving God whereby the repentant and 
 believing sinner is for Christ's sake pardoned and ac- 
 quitted. Penances and purgatory, the almost divine medi- 
 ation of the Virgin and the saints, the whole theory of 
 merits and indulgences, every form of human satisfaction 
 for sin, must give way before the true doctrine of salva- 
 tion by grace through faith in an all-sufficient Saviour. 
 1 Table Talk, p. 186.
 
 376 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 " Christ and him Crucified," in a clearer light and a fuller 
 tone, is the burden of the preaching; "justification by 
 faith without the works of the law " is the keystone of 
 the doctrine. " Protestantism was born of the doctrines of 
 grace, and in the proclamation of these the Reformation 
 preaching found its truest and highest power." 1 
 
 (4.) But the glory of Reformation preaching that 
 great principle in which all others are necessarily in- 
 volved was its use of Scripture. In the hands of the 
 reformers the Word of God again comes into its heritage 
 and rules the pulpit. 
 
 In the first place the Bible is recognized as the supreme 
 authority in matters of faith and practice credenda et 
 agenda. The great reformers held fast this principle, 
 which has already been dwelt on as the characteristic ele- 
 ment of a true reform in Christian doctrine, worship and 
 life. 2 They naturally respected much the feelings, con- 
 victions and reasonings of the Christian mind, believing 
 that the Holy Spirit enlightens and leads those who truly 
 trust in God and seek to know and do his will. But these 
 were secondary and subordinate means; if these judg- 
 ments were in accord with the Word of God they could 
 be accepted, but that Word must be the decisive test, the 
 ultimate appeal. Further, the reformers, though revolu- 
 tionary, were not disposed to break wholly with the past. 
 Tradition was allowed some place, and many beliefs and 
 practices, more or less modified to suit the new order of 
 things, were retained which might better have been 
 spared. Luther was rather more conservative than 
 Zwingli and Calvin, and the English reformers decidedly 
 more so than Knox. None were ready to go with the 
 extremists of their party, and still less were any disposed 
 to favor the fanatical schemes of those who under cover 
 of reformation would introduce anarchy. This cautious 
 temper is responsible for the retention in some Protestant 
 bodies of some practices as infant baptism which had 
 been sanctioned and established by the Catholic Church, 
 but without Scripture authority. But notwithstanding 
 these deficiencies the main contention of the reformers as 
 to the authority of the Bible was clearly and bravely main- 
 tained. Tradition and " the Christian consciousness " 
 *Broadus, Hist. Prea., p. 117. * Ante, p. 315!
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 377 
 
 to use a modern expression were firmly held subordinate 
 to Scripture. 
 
 This fundamental attitude of the reformers appears 
 constantly in their writings and sermons, and is one of 
 the commonplaces of the history of the Reformation in 
 all lands. A few illustrations, however, may not be 
 superfluous. 
 
 Bromel 1 speaks of this use of Scripture by the re- 
 formers as " one of the levers by which they removed the 
 rubbish in the old church and brought out to light again 
 the everlasting light of the gospel." Besides Luther he 
 instances Urbanus Regius, Brentz, Ccelius, Corvinus, 
 Dietrich, Mathesius, and others among the pupils and 
 friends of the great leader, who " all not only preached 
 the Word of God, but they so preached it that the Word 
 was quite the main thing, the art of preaching the sub- 
 sidiary thing." In Luther's Table Talk, 2 among many 
 others, are found these characteristic utterances : "A 
 theologian should be thoroughly in possession of the 
 basis and source of faith that is to say, the Holy Scrip- 
 tures. Armed with this knowledge it was that I con- 
 founded and silenced all my adversaries; for they seek 
 not to fathom and understand the Scriptures; they run 
 over them negligently and drowsily; they speak, they 
 write, they teach, according to the suggestion of their 
 heedless imaginations. My counsel is, that we draw 
 water from the true source and fountain, that is, that we 
 diligently search the Scriptures. He who wholly pos- 
 sesses the text of the Bible is a consummate divine." 
 Again, " Let us not lose the Bible, but with diligence 
 and in fear and invocation of God, read and preach it. 
 While that remains and flourishes, all prospers with the 
 state; it is head and empress of all arts and faculties." 
 
 Calvin, of course, repeatedly expresses the same pro- 
 found conviction, and in a sermon on 2 Tim. 3:16, 17, 
 " All Scripture is given by inspiration of God," etc., he 
 unfolds in detail the supreme authority and sufficiency of 
 the written Word. The first three of the sermons in 
 Bullinger's Decades 3 are devoted to the Word of God, 
 
 1 Op. cit., S. 98. 2 P. 3- 
 
 * The Decades of Henry Bullinger, that is, Fifty Sermons Di- 
 vided into Five Decades; Parker Soc., ed. Thos. Harding. This 
 is a reprint of an English translation published in 1577 an d
 
 378 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 and the nature and use of Scripture are at length un- 
 folded. Among many strong sayings the following oc- 
 curs toward the end of the second sermon as a summary r 1 
 " Dearly beloved, this hour ye have heard our bountiful 
 Lord and God, ' who would have all men saved and to 
 come to the knowledge of the truth/ how he hath re- 
 vealed his word to all men throughout the whole world, 
 to the intent that all men in all places, of what kind, age, 
 or degree soever they be, may know the truth and be 
 instructed in the true salvation; and may learn a perfect 
 way to live rightly, well and holily, so that the man of 
 God may be perfect, instructed to all good works. For 
 the Lord in the word of truth hath delivered to his church 
 all that is requisite to true godliness and salvation. 
 Whatsoever things are necesary to be known touching 
 God, the works, judgments, will and commandments of 
 God, touching Christ, our faith in Christ, and the duties 
 of an holy life! all those things, I say, are fully taught 
 in the Word of God. Neither needeth the church to crave 
 of any other, or else with men's supplies to patch up that 
 which seemeth to be wanting in the Word of the Lord." 
 The English reformers are equally emphatic. In 1534 
 a set of instructions was drawn up (probably by Cran- 
 mer himself) 2 and sent to all the bishops for the guidance 
 of the clergy. One of the items is as follows : " That 
 from henceforth all preachers shall purely, sincerely, and 
 justly preach the Scripture and Word of Christ, and not 
 mix them up with man's institutions, nor make them 
 believe that the force of God's law and man's law is like ; 
 nor that any man is able or hath power to dispense with 
 God's law." Latimer, in his third sermon on the Lord's 
 Prayer, 3 thus speaks : " And because the Word of God 
 is the instrument and fountain of all good things, we pray 
 to God for the continuance of his word; that he will 
 send godly and well learned men amongst us, which may 
 be able to declare us his will and pleasure; so that we 
 may glorify him in the hour of our visitation, when God 
 shall visit us, and reward every one according unto his 
 desert." 
 
 1 Decades, Vol. I., p. 69. 
 
 " Works of Abp. Cranmer, Parker Society, ed. J. E. Cox, p. 461. 
 
 "Sermons of Bp. Latimer, Parker Soc., p. 354.
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 379 
 
 It follows from what has been said that the reformers 
 gave to Scripture a better interpretation than that which 
 had prevailed before. The petty and often ridiculous 
 allegorizing which marred even the best mediaeval preach- 
 ing finds little or no place in the sermons of the reform- 
 ers, save a trace here and there in Luther and some of 
 his followers. It is refreshing indeed to pass from the 
 wild and baseless spiritualizing of the mediaeval preach- 
 ers to the sober, clear, grammatical, and instructive ex- 
 positions of Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, and others of their 
 schools. Calvin's commentaries on the Bible are still very 
 valuable, and have scarcely ever been surpassed for power 
 to seize surely and express strongly the exact meaning of 
 the sacred Word. In giving this new direction to preach- 
 ing and basing it thus securely upon a sensible and 
 reasoned interpretation of the Bible the reformers made 
 one of the greatest possible contributions to Christian 
 life and progress. 
 
 Again, it naturally follows that among the materials 
 of reformatory preaching the Scriptures held the post of 
 honor and power. Tales of the saints and other stories 
 are banished. The petty fables and impossible adventures 
 which had formed so large an element of mediaeval Catho- 
 lic preaching do not appear in the sermons of the Protes- 
 tant reformers. Nor do we find in so large a degree the 
 refinements of scholasticism, though this still shows traces 
 of itself and leaves both in the structure and contents of 
 sermons permanent impression. In Luther's earlier ser- 
 mons there is more of it than in his later, and the dog- 
 matic bent both of his and Calvin's followers is a well 
 known affair of theological history. But all fair allow- 
 ances and subtractions duly made, it stands out clearly 
 and impressively true that the warp and filling of Refor- 
 mation preaching was the Word of God. 
 
 Nor is it mere citation of texts, more or less apposite 
 as proof of doctrine,, that makes the bulk of this Scriptural 
 content. There had been much of this sort of employ- 
 ment of Scripture in the mediaeval preachers. But now 
 the pulpit deals more in the exact application of Biblical 
 passages to matters of doctrine ; and above all, as we 
 shall presently see, in exposition of the Word as the homi- 
 letical form of preaching. All three of the great reform-
 
 30 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 ers delighted in expository preaching, and this was one 
 of the most valuable and fruitful and enduring results 
 of their labors. To this day the Lutheran and Presby- 
 terian preachers have had among them many able and 
 distinguished expounders of the Word. 
 
 (5.) The homiletical methods of the reformers of 
 course varied with individuals among them. Yet in a 
 general way it may be said that their exposition of Scrip- 
 ture naturally led them back toward the ancient homily 
 as the prevailing sermon form. This tendency was in- 
 creased by the reaction against scholasticism with its 
 minute distinctions and subdivisions. There is less of 
 logical analysis and of oratorical movement in the ser- 
 mons of the reformers than in those of many of their 
 predecessors and followers. But still there is no com- 
 plete recurrence to the old loose homily, no entire renun- 
 ciation of the more compact homiletical structure which 
 was largely the gift of scholasticism to the pulpit. But 
 this matter of method can best be presented by examples 
 from some of the leading preachers. 
 
 Luther cannot be said to have had a rigid and unvarying 
 homiletical method. 1 In his earlier work the traces of 
 his Catholic training appear in the stiffer scholastic form 
 than is to be found in his later sermons. In the House- 
 Postils, as reported by Dietrich and others, the other 
 extreme of free and easy conversational comment ap- 
 pears. In the few sermons (some of the Church-Postils) 
 which he prepared by writing while at the Wartburg, 
 there is naturally more attention to form and expression 
 than he could bestow in his subsequent strenuous life; 
 and it is said that he himself regarded these as his best 
 sermons. But in the larger number of his discourses, as 
 reported by Cruciger and others, we have his most char- 
 acteristic method of verse by verse comment on the Gos- 
 pel or Epistle for the day, or on some extended passage 
 of his own selection. Luther's views of preaching, as 
 being properly an exposition of the Word of God, are un- 
 folded in many places in his sermons and his Table Talk. 
 He bent to his work all the faculties of his nature and the 
 
 1 See the excellent discussions in the works of Bromel and Nebe, 
 which, however, have been tested by a measure of independent 
 study.
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 381 
 
 culture of his mind. His exposition is usually marked 
 by sobriety of judgment, but sometimes drops too easily 
 into allegorizing and into polemics. But both these im- 
 perfections are easily understood when his training and 
 nature, his circumstances and incitements are taken into 
 account. All subtractions duly made, it remains that 
 Luther was a mighty expounder of the Scriptures, and he 
 left this method of preaching as a rich legacy to his 
 followers. 
 
 Calvin began his career as an expository preacher 
 while yet a young law student at Bruges, when, in an 
 informal way, at the earnest request of the people, he 
 taught the Scriptures to small gatherings. It became 
 the delight and the established method of his life. His 
 preaching differed from Luther's as the men themselves 
 differed. 1 It has less of fancy, less of warmth, less of 
 popular appeal, but more of steadiness, of logical con- 
 nection, of severely exact interpretation. While he also 
 commonly employed the verse by verse comment, both 
 unity of theme and logical connection of thought are 
 much in evidence. The notable series of sermons on the 
 Divinity and Glory of Christ 2 are chiefly expository dis- 
 courses on passages from the First Epistle to Timothy, 
 with some from other Scriptures. While Calvin preached 
 without notes, his delivery was deliberate enough to 
 permit a reporter to get his exact language, and thus a 
 large number of his sermons have come down. 3 They 
 are prevailingly expository. The structure is no more 
 than what was natural to a very orderly mind which had 
 no need to exert itself to produce connected thinking. 
 The sermon published in Fish's Masterpieces of Pulpit 
 Eloquence * is on bearing afflictions. The two thoughts 
 that trials are a necessary part of Christian experience, 
 and that under them we have the best of consolations, 
 are the ever-recurring theme, and under a variety of ex- 
 pository comment and illustration, they pervade the en- 
 tire discourse. 
 
 1 There is a striking parallel in Broadus, Hist. Prea., p. 118 ff. 
 Hering also, Gesch. der Pred., S. no ff has some good observa- 
 tions on Calvin as compared with Luther. 
 
 2 1 used an old French edition of these while in Geneva, and 
 there is also an old American edition of many of them in a volume 
 of translated discourses of both Luther and Calvin, which has been 
 found serviceable. * See Hering, /. c. * Vol. II., p. 12.
 
 382 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 Of the Zurich reformers Zwingli was also prevailingly 
 expository in method, but, strictly speaking, no speci- 
 mens of his sermons survive. Bullinger 1 left a very 
 large number of discourses, some in the crude old Swiss- 
 German tongue, but many also carefully done into Latin 
 by himself, most likely after preaching. Of these the 
 famous Decades, a series of fifty discourses divided into 
 five tens, are a treatise on theology in the form of ser- 
 mons. They are without text and are topical, but they 
 afford example of the preacher's careful interpretation 
 of Scripture, 'and suggest the pains and clearness which 
 must have characterized his more strictly expository ad- 
 dresses. In their English dress they were translated dur- 
 ing the reign of Edward VI., and became one of the 
 training books for the Anglican clergy. The style is 
 clear, the tone spiritual and devout, the arrangement and 
 division logical and perspicuous. He usually gives at 
 the end a brief and clear summary of the thought. They 
 naturally lack some of the life and vigor of spoken 
 discourse. 
 
 The preachers of the English Reformation are not so 
 predominantly expository in method as their brethren 
 on the Continent, inclining more to the topical manner, 
 and even when interpretative comment is followed, the 
 adherence to text is perhaps less marked. Lesson and 
 application are rather to the fore than exegesis. Yet 
 there are instructive examples of pulpit exposition among 
 the remains of the great English divines of the period. 
 Even Latimer 2 has a vigorous and suggestive series on 
 the Lord's Prayer, which were delivered in 1552 before 
 the Duchess of Suffolk, at Grimsthorpe Castle, Lincoln- 
 shire. He often strays off, as is his manner, but there 
 is many a shrewd and luminous unfolding of the mean- 
 ing of the Word. Among the few sermons that have 
 come down from Bishop Hooper 8 is a striking series 
 on the prophet Jonah, delivered before Edward VI. and 
 his council in the year 1550. He thus states 4 his rea- 
 sons for taking this book as his theme : " This prophet 
 
 1 Bullinger's Decades, Parker Soc., four vols. 
 "Sermons of Latimer, Parker Soc. 
 
 "Early Writings of Bishop Hooper, Parker Soc., ed. Samuel 
 Carr. * Op. cit., p. 445.
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 383 
 
 have I taken to interpretate for two causes. The one, 
 to declare unto the king's majesty and his most honor- 
 able council, that the doctrine we preach unto his 
 majesty's subjects is one and the same with the 
 prophets' and apostles', and as old as the doctrine of 
 them both, and not as new as these papists, and new 
 learned men of papistry would bear the people in hand. 
 The second cause is to declare which way the sinful 
 world may be reconciled unto God. And for the better 
 understanding of the prophet I will divide him into four 
 parts. The first containeth into what danger Jonas fell 
 by disobeying of God's commandment. The second part 
 containeth how Jonas used himself in the fish's belly. 
 The third part containeth the amendment and conver- 
 sion of the Ninivites at the preaching of Jonas. The 
 fourth part containeth an objurgation and rebuke of God 
 because Jonas lamented the salvation of the people and 
 city." Besides this general division each discourse is 
 again divided into appropriate parts. While there is 
 much of historical comment and lesson, the application to 
 existing conditions in England is evidently the main 
 thing in the preacher's mind. From Bishop Jewel there 
 remains among other sermons a series on the Epistles to 
 the Thessalonians. 1 These were his last discourses to 
 his flock at Salisbury, and were published from his notes 
 after his death, by his friend John Garbrand. They are 
 replete with Jewel's learning and earnestness, but hardly 
 take very high rank as expository discourses. 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 PREACHERS OF THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY AND 
 GERMAN SWITZERLAND 
 
 From our sketch of the Reformation and its effects 
 it is fitting that we now come to a more particular study 
 of the leading preachers of the great movement in the 
 lands affected by it; and the natural thing is to begin 
 with Germany and the great leader there. 
 
 1 Works of Bishop Jew?l, Parker Society's edition.
 
 384 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 i. MARTIN LUTHER (1483-1546). 
 
 Martin Luther, 1 the son of peasant parents, was born 
 at the little village of Eisleben, in Saxony, November 10, 
 1483. His father and mother were persons of vigorous 
 mould and strong character, and they brought up their 
 children with rigid severity and yet with parental affec- 
 tion, and nourished them in the simple Catholic piety 
 common among the German peasantry at that time. 
 
 The Luthers were poor, but by one means and another 
 Martin was sent to school at different places. When 
 about fifteen years old he is at Eisenach, where he adds 
 to his scanty means by singing before the houses of the 
 wealthier folk and attracts the notice of good Frau 
 Ursula Cotta, who gives him his board. In 1501 he 
 is sent to the high school at Erfurt, where he distin- 
 guishes himself by hard study and good progress in learn- 
 ing. The father is ambitious that Martin shall be learned 
 and a lawyer. It is at Erfurt, when twenty years of 
 age, that Luther first has in his hands a complete copy 
 of the Bible. He found the Latin Vulgate in the library 
 one day, and was delighted with his discovery. Now he 
 began to give to the sacred Word that loving interest and 
 those lifelong studies which were to work such a revo- 
 lution in the world. At Erfurt the young man, though 
 full of life and spirits and fond of company, preserved 
 his purity unsullied and was much given to prayer and 
 devout meditation. Scholasticism and theology attracted 
 him, and he neglected his legal studies for these. He 
 also heard some reformatory principles taught and 
 preached at Erfurt during his school days, but they seem 
 not at the time to have made much impression on his 
 mind. He took his degrees in the regular course at the 
 University of Erfurt and was graduated Master of Arts 
 
 1 There is a vast literature on Luther. I have found service- 
 able for this study, besides works on church history, the great 
 Life in German by Julius Kostlin, which is now also available for 
 American readers in the shorter form; Scribners, New York; C. 
 G. Schmidt, Geschichte der Predigt; Wm. Beste's Die bedeu- 
 tendste Kanzelrcdner der Lutherischen Kirche des Reformations- 
 zeitalters; and the fine discussion of Luther as preacher by Nebe, 
 Zur Gesch. der Pred., Bd. II., SS. 1-92. An old edition of trans- 
 lations of sermons by Luther and Calvin, the Hauspostillen, and 
 some other sermons have also been consulted.
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 385 
 
 in 1505, second in a class of seventeen. He began his 
 law studies again, to please his parents, but his heart 
 was not in these. Full of internal struggles as to religion, 
 he went to visit a friend, and found him dead murdered 
 in his bed. Shocked by this scene he went out into the 
 open; a flash of lightning startled him. In the awe and 
 dread of these experiences he vowed he would become a 
 monk. The current of his life entered a new channel. 
 
 This decision greatly displeased Luther's parents, and 
 he himself afterwards regretted it, but he adhered to 
 his vow and entered the Augustinian monastery at Er- 
 furt in July, 1505, carrying copies of Virgil and Plautus 
 under his arm. He was fond of study, and was also 
 a rigid and correct monk. He studied the Bible earnestly 
 and prayed much. But all his exercises failed to bring 
 the peace and satisfaction for which his spirit yearned. 
 In this time of conflict and unrest he received help from 
 the pious John Staupitz, vicar-general of the Augustinian 
 order, who in one of his visits to the monastery at Erfurt 
 became deeply interested in the bright and struggling 
 young man. Staupitz told Martin to look to Christ alone, 
 and not to his own works of devotion, as the source of 
 peace. An old monk in the cloister gave him similar 
 advice; and so by his studies of the Bible, by his own 
 struggles, and by the help of those friends, Luther was 
 gradually led on till he found satisfaction and assurance 
 of pardon by trusting Christ alone for salvation. 
 
 In 1510 Luther was made professor at the University 
 of Wittenberg, where he was to spend the rest of his 
 life. It was during his early days at Wittenberg that 
 at the earnest request of Staupitz, but with a genuine 
 reluctance and self-distrust on his own part, Luther be- 
 gan to preach; at first in the little cloister chapel, and 
 then, on the sickness of the pastor, in the town church. 
 It is food for reflection that he thus modestly and falter- 
 ingly took up what was to be the best and principal work 
 of his variously busy life. But as he kept on the reluc- 
 tance wore away, and he came to love the work of preach- 
 ing with a devotion that never gave out. About this time, 
 too (1511), occurred Luther's memorable visit to Rome, 
 whither he was sent on business for his order. While 
 in Rome he ascended the " Holy Stairway " on his knees,
 
 386 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 like many another Catholic devotee; but yet it is true 
 that the worldliness, corruption, and emptiness which 
 he saw among the clergy in Rome, made a lasting im- 
 pression on his mind, and that the words, " The just shall 
 live by faith," kept ringing in his ears. He came back 
 to his work at Wittenberg, was made a doctor in 1512, 
 lectured on the Psalms, Romans, Galatians, and Hebrews, 
 and became more and more convinced of evangelical 
 views. The theology of Augustine seized his mind, and 
 the mysticism of Bernard and Tauler penetrated his soul. 
 His love for preaching grew, and he began to teach that 
 the preachers should give more diligent attention to their 
 work and should preach less of penance and works, and 
 more of repentance and faith. 
 
 In 1517 John Tetzel came preaching his indulgences, 
 and on October 3ist of that historic year, Luther put 
 up his theses, and before he knew it the Reformation 
 had begun. The bold deed of the young theologian at 
 Wittenberg came like the notes of Gideon's trumpet to 
 the discouraged in Israel, and called forth a deal of ap- 
 proval and discussion throughout all the land. In two 
 weeks the theses were read all over Germany, and from 
 now on the name of Martin Luther is a household word 
 in German history. The events of his life after this are 
 the events of the Reformation up to his death in 1546. 
 
 The story is too long, too full of incident, too impor- 
 tant to be fully told here. But it may be well to recall 
 the more important events of that stirring and influential 
 life. Various unsuccessful attempts were made to hold 
 Luther to the Catholic faith, but the pope excommuni- 
 cated the bold monk, and he retorted by burning the bull 
 of excommunication in 1520. Summoned to the imperial 
 diet at Worms to answer before Charles V. and the as- 
 sembled magnates, he bravely refused to recant. Then 
 comes his retirement in the Wartburg castle, where he 
 worked at his translation of the New Testament. Called 
 from his retreat by the indiscretion of some of his fol-; 
 lowers he came back to Wittenberg, where he gave prompt 
 and signal token both of his influence as a leader and of 
 his power as a preacher, when in a series of eight ser- 
 mons he resumed control of the movement, assuaged 
 the tumult of the extremists and steadied the minds of
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 387 
 
 his friends. Sorely tried in 1525 by the Peasants' War, 
 and by the death of the wise Elector of Saxony (Fred- 
 erick), he found consolation in his marriage with Katha- 
 rine von Bora, a former nun. In the family relation he 
 was both good and happy. His home was a comfort to 
 him and a joy to his friends for the rest of his days. 
 
 The year 1529 is marked by several memorable events 
 in Luther's life and work: (i) His visitation of the 
 Saxon churches, in which much was done in the settle- 
 ment of their order and worship, and the unifying of their 
 organization. (2) The issuance of his famous catechisms, 
 which are among the bulwarks of the Lutheran theology. 
 (3) His sad dispute with the Swiss reformer Zwingli over 
 the Lord's Supper. (4) The famous diet of Spires at 
 which the German nobles in sympathy with Luther made, 
 against the unfairness of the papal and imperial side, 
 the Protest which gave an immortal name to the move- 
 ment. In the next year at Augsburg was presented to 
 the diet the great Confession which defined the Protestant 
 faith. Luther was, for prudential reasons, not permitted 
 to be at Augsburg, but from Coburg, within the Elector's 
 dominions and in easy reach, he kept in touch with the 
 theologians and princes who were at the diet. In this 
 and many other ways he was busy and burdened. Writ- 
 ing, corresponding, teaching, advising, and preaching, 
 he had his heart and hands full of work. 
 
 Amid all his labors we must not forget his services to 
 sacred song. He wrote many hymns and tunes, but his 
 immortal paraphrase of the forty-sixth Psalm contains 
 the very essence of his faith and his work : " A mighty 
 fortress is our God." 
 
 Luther was far from being satisfied either with himself 
 or his work, and the inevitable drawbacks and disap- 
 pointments that retarded and damaged the cause of the 
 Reformation were clearly seen and keenly felt. It was 
 natural that he should be weary of life; and his end 
 was fortunate for him, occurring not many months before 
 the disastrous issue of the Smalcald War brought 
 Protestantism to sad straits in Germany. 
 
 The story of Luther's end is brief and sweet. In 
 January, 1546, he was invited to Eisleben, his birthplace, 
 to aid in settling a dispute which had arisen Between, the
 
 388 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 counts of Mansfeld. He was successful in this mission, 
 and on a Sunday of his stay there, February I4th, he 
 preached his last sermon. His health had not been very 
 robust for some time, though there was no special illness 
 now upon him. He seems to have caught cold, for the 
 next day after preaching he complained of an oppression 
 about his chest, took his bed and in a few days February 
 18, 1546 passed to his reward. It is noteworthy that he 
 should have died away from Wittenberg, and at the little 
 place where, sixty-three years before, he had been born. 
 Friends were with him at the closing scene and tenderly 
 ministered to him. One of these, Justus Jonas, asked him 
 of his faith, and the tried veteran expressed his full trust 
 in Christ as his only hope. And so having quoted the Mas- 
 ter's own dying words, " Lord, into thy hands I commit 
 my spirit," he passed peacefully into rest. His body 
 was taken to Wittenberg for burial, and there his body 
 awaits the resurrection, near the chancel of that old 
 castle church, several time's damaged and renewed, close 
 to the spot where in his brave youth he had posted his 
 theses and begun the mighty work of his life. 
 
 Luther's was by no means a perfect character, but it 
 was a very robust and essentially sound one. The natu- 
 ral man was strong and brave, but somewhat rude and 
 coarse, as his peasant blood and early training would 
 lead us to expect. Yet he was kind-hearted and full of 
 the joy of life. His was that typical German nature in 
 which tender sentiment love, poetry, music, aesthetic 
 taste is strangely allied with a coarseness and violence 
 never excusable and sometimes shocking. But this ruder 
 element was not in Luther allied with self-seeking. Over- 
 bearing he might be, but he was not selfish. Much that 
 is unpleasant in manner and speech can be forgiven to a 
 man of rugged honesty of purpose and sincerity of con- 
 viction. In Luther the regenerate man was not wholly 
 released from the trammels of his clay, but he was truly 
 converted and ever on the way to better things. He was 
 full of the faith he preached ; and of love, with a notice- 
 able trace of mysticism; he was mighty in prayer, and 
 even in his busiest and most exacting days did not omit 
 communion with his God. One of his favorite sayings 
 was Bene orasse est bene studuisse to have prayed well
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 389 
 
 is to have studied well. He was regardful of his friends, 
 and honored them, though observant of their faults and 
 not always very considerate in his criticisms. He was 
 devoted to his people and to his God, and unfaltering 
 in his heroic defence of the truth as he saw it. The tried 
 man stood the test of many a tough encounter. He was 
 often lonely, sad, and disappointed. Though in many 
 minor matters he is far from being beyond criticism, he 
 stood the severest tests of character at every essential 
 point, and towers colossal among the heroes of Chris- 
 tian history. Unbiased judgment will not gainsay the 
 dictum of Carlyle : " I will call this Luther a true great 
 man great in intellect, in courage, affection, and integ- 
 rity; one of our most lovable and precious men." 
 
 As a preacher Luther stands in the first rank of those 
 who by the ministry of God's Word have moulded the 
 characters and destinies of men. Among all his other 
 offices and achievements as scholar, theologian, author, 
 and leader we must not forget that, first of all and 
 chiefly, he was a preacher. At first he could hardly be 
 persuaded to preach, but when he once got at it nothing 
 could stop him. 
 
 Like many other great preachers he was great not 
 in any one preeminent thing but in a cluster of excellent 
 qualities. Remember the stages of his development as 
 a preacher: first, his monastic and scholastic preparation 
 up to the time of the theses, during which he was dili- 
 gently studying the Bible and gradually and unconsciously 
 becoming mentally and spiritually saturated with the 
 doctrines of grace; then his break with Rome and the 
 sharp discovery to himself and the world that he had 
 struck out a new path and was burdened with a message 
 that he must deliver; then the enforced months of Bible 
 study and reflection in the Wartburg; and, finally, the 
 mature closing years, beginning with the triumph at 
 Wittenberg when, in a few powerful sermons, he saved 
 the Reformation from wreck by excess. Add to this 
 discipline of events his natural gifts and character; his 
 strong intellect, his fine imagination, his sympathy with 
 the people, his genial disposition, his courage and hon- 
 esty ; add further his learning, his knowledge of the Bible 
 and theology, his keen insight into men and affairs, his
 
 390 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 facility of speech and power of statement ; and add above 
 all his experience of grace and his overwhelming earnest- 
 ness of conviction that he had and must proclaim the 
 truth of God in matters vital to the souls of his fellow- 
 men and there is presented a sum of elements which 
 could not fail to make him one of the greatest preachers 
 of all time. 
 
 When we read Luther's sermons and note the contents 
 of his preaching, in order to do him justice we must read 
 not from our times back to him, but forward from the 
 times preceding up to him. Thus only can we justly 
 appreciate the immense difference between his work and 
 that of the best mediaeval preachers, and estimate aright 
 the value of the service which he rendered to the preach- 
 ing of the gospel. Compare Luther's sermons with those 
 of Bernard, of Antony, of Berthold, of Tauler, and even 
 of Savonarola, the greatest of his mediaeval predecessors, 
 and what a difference strikes us! The earlier sermons, 
 before he finally broke with Rome, naturally have more 
 in common with the past. But even in these the grasp 
 and exposition of Scripture are an important element, 
 and traces of the coming evangelical development are dis- 
 cernible. And so in his maturer sermons we are prepared 
 to find the three distinctive qualities of his discourse : 
 
 (1) Right interpretation and application of Scripture; 
 
 (2) Christ alone the Saviour; (3) Union with him by 
 faith the only way of salvation. Everything is built on 
 this foundation. The exposition of the Word is some- 
 times general and sometimes detailed, but not often alle- 
 gorical or strained. The context is regarded and the real 
 intent and meaning of the Scripture writers is sought 
 and respected. The saints and the Virgin receive their 
 proper place, and Jesus Christ alone is exalted as Saviour, 
 Intercessor and Lord. Works and penances are rightly 
 judged, and faith in Christ is made the central means in 
 salvation. With these essentials firmly laid as a founda- 
 tion the structure of argument, illustration, attack and 
 defence, elaboration by story, experience, appeal, pro- 
 ceeds. There is no show of learning, and no effort to 
 strike, but everywhere the evident purpose by all sub- 
 ordinate means of speech to bring God's truth home to 
 the hearts and minds of his hearers,
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 391 
 
 As to the manner and style of Luther's preaching, not 
 much needs to be said. His outlines show no slavery to 
 the analytical method and are often homiletically faulty ; 
 he pays but little attention to introduction and conclusion, 
 the body of discourse is the main thing. He often di- 
 gresses, but usually has a well-defined theme, though not 
 always clearly stated. Sometimes there is a short text 
 and textual division, sometimes the old homily style of 
 verse by verse comment, and sometimes the more ana- 
 lytical treatment of a longer passage as a whole. In rich 
 and racy vernacular speech Luther was a master. He 
 thought with the learned, but he also thought and talked 
 with the people. Often there is lack of elegance, and 
 sometimes downright coarseness, but on the whole his 
 style of speech was clear to the people, warm with life 
 and sentiment, and vigorous with the robust nature of 
 the man himself. He had a free impressive delivery with- 
 out affectation or violence. He carefully thought out 
 his sermons ; indeed was full of thought all the time, and 
 spoke freely without manuscript as the occasion and the 
 circumstances demanded. 
 
 The tone and spirit of Luther's preaching were what 
 his character and views would lead us to expect. He 
 believed and therefore he spoke out of his experience 
 and convictions out of his sense of duty out of love 
 to God and men, and without the fear of man before his 
 eyes. 
 
 2. FRIENDS AND FOLLOWERS OF LUTHER 
 
 In all parts of Germany there were friends and fol- 
 lowers of Luther who deserve honorable mention in a 
 history of preaching. 1 Some of these were preachers of 
 a high order of merit themselves, and though they owed 
 much to their great leader were by no means his slavish 
 imitators. 
 
 Though Philip Melanchthon (d. 1560) was not a 
 preacher, yet as the intimate friend of Luther, the theo- 
 logian of the Reformation and the teacher of many 
 preachers, he claims notice here. He wrote two not very 
 important works on preaching. Even Luther could not 
 prevail on him to preach; and it is said that once after 
 
 1 The works of Beste and Schmidt, mentioned in previous note, 
 have been of special use in studying the friends of Luther.
 
 392 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 examining two candidates for the ministry he wept and 
 said, " O poor me ! who in writing with the pen am not 
 afraid to express my views before the whole empire, yet 
 dare not do what to these is a little thing, speak before 
 even a small congregation of hearers." Yet he lectured 
 with effect to large classes of students, and even com- 
 posed lecture sermons (postils) for them, which show 
 good powers of composition. But it was as he said : " If 
 preaching were an art merely, I too could preach." He 
 lacked not the powers, but the call. 
 
 Decidedly one of the most notable preachers of the 
 Reformation was the beloved pastor at Wittenberg, John 
 Bugenhagen (1485-1558). He received the customary 
 rudiments of education at his native place, Wollin in 
 Pomerania, and his university training at Greifswald, 
 where he stood high and was graduated young. He be- 
 came a teacher at Treptow, and in 1512 was made a 
 priest and a lecturer in a school of preachers. His exe- 
 getical lectures rivalled his sermons in power and popu- 
 larity. 
 
 By the writings of Erasmus and other things he was 
 kept in deep sadness over the decay in doctrine and 
 morals. A little later Luther's tract on the Babylonish 
 Captivity fell into his hands, and though he spoke against 
 it at first, a more careful reading convinced him that 
 Luther was right, and he gave in his adhesion to the 
 reformer. He was attracted to Wittenberg, where he 
 could study the new doctrines at the feet of the leader ; 
 but soon after his arrival there Luther went to Worms 
 and the Wartburg. During Luther's absence Bugen- 
 hagen stood with Melanchthon in opposing the extremes 
 of Carlstadt and others. He also began to lecture on 
 the Psalms to a few of his fellow Pomeranians in his 
 house, but so great was his success that the house would 
 not hold those who came to hear, and he was induced to 
 give his lectures to a wider public. 
 
 In 1522 he married Eva Rorer, who proved a good and 
 true helper to him all his life long. In the same year 
 he was appointed pastor and preacher of the town church 
 at Wittenberg. The interesting old building is still there, 
 and near it the homely house which bears an inscription 
 signifying that there John Bugenhagen lived and labored
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 393 
 
 as pastor for many years. One of his most important 
 works as pastor was to introduce the new order of wor- 
 ship an event which is recorded on a memorial tablet 
 in the old church near the pulpit where Luther, Bugen- 
 hagen, and others of the preachers often stood. Bugen- 
 hagen was an excellent pastor and organizer, and in the 
 latter capacity he was frequently called on to visit other 
 places and introduce the new order of worship and church 
 polity. Perhaps no other man not even Luther, who 
 was not gifted in organization did as much for the 
 Reformation in this way as Bugenhagen. During these 
 absences Luther preached for him very often and also 
 looked after the pastoral work. He was Luther's con- 
 fidant, and often cheered and encouraged the reformer 
 in his spells of depression. Being milder and more com- 
 posed in temper than Luther, and not timid like Melanch- 
 thon, he was a very necessary third in that great trium- 
 virate. His views of truth and principles of action were 
 heartily in accord with Luther's, and their cordial mutual 
 esteem and appreciation were never broken. 
 
 The organizing genius of Bugenhagen were note- 
 worthy successes in establishing Lutheranism in Bruns- 
 wick, and in Hamburg and Liibeck. From the last place 
 he was sent back home highly honored, and, as a mark 
 of appreciation, in a coach and accompanied by an escort. 
 On the way a young fellow of the escort, one of those 
 refreshingly stupid and meddlesome persons who serve 
 to break the monotony of life, asked Bugenhagen if he 
 thought the Apostle Peter would have been willing to 
 travel in so much style. The answer is worthy of record : 
 " My son, if the Apostle Peter had visited such kind, 
 good people as your masters in Liibeck he would doubt- 
 less have permitted himself to be sent away with respect 
 and comfort ; but if he had come upon mean fellows like 
 you he would have gone home afoot." 
 
 After these visits Bugenhagen for a considerable time 
 went on with his regular work at Wittenberg, preaching, 
 looking after his flock, and giving lectures at the univer- 
 sity. In 1533 he was made a doctor. Later, to his great 
 joy, he was invited by the duke to come to his beloved 
 native Pomerania and confirm the Lutheran order in the 
 churches. After this King Christian III. of Denmark
 
 394 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 summoned him to Copenhagen to preside over the re- 
 ligious services at his coronation and then organize the 
 churches after the Lutheran order. After these notable 
 labors Bugenhagen returned to Wittenberg and took up 
 his usual work. But soon the shadows began to gather. 
 Luther died; Protestantism was defeated in the field; 
 Wittenberg itself was captured by the imperial forces 
 and passed under the dominion of Maurice of Saxony. 
 Bugenhagen took the position that the new ruler must 
 be accepted and the best possible be made of the un- 
 toward change. For this, as well as on some minor 
 theological points, he was sharply criticized by the more 
 extreme Lutherans; ill health and weariness befell him; 
 but in all his trials his brave and patient spirit did not 
 fail. Unterrified by danger, untempted by ambition, he 
 lived his good and active life to the end, and passed away 
 in peace at Wittenberg, in April, 1558. 
 
 An able German writer x has said : " In the city from 
 which the reformation of the German church was to go 
 forth there were drawn together three men: the first 
 gifted as prophet, the second as teacher, the third as pas- 
 tor ; Luther for Saxony, Melanchthon for Swabia, Bugen- 
 hagen for Pomerania." " Dr. Pommer," as Luther some- 
 times called him, was an excellent scholar, praised by 
 Melanchthon as a grammaticus, and was also a sound 
 and popular expounder of the Word of God. As a 
 preacher he was not distinctly great in an oratorical way, 
 falling below Luther, Jonas and others, and even below 
 himself in other respects ; yet even here he stood above 
 the common. His preaching was distinguished for its 
 honoring of Christ, its power of exposition, its devout 
 spirit. He loved to preach, and sometimes, in Luther's 
 no doubt just opinion, he kept on too long. Strange that 
 the only remains of his preaching are his funeral dis- 
 course at Luther's death, and a sermon in the Pomera- 
 nian dialect. Of his other writings there are quite a num- 
 ber. In the printed edition of the funeral sermon for 
 Luther the substance is given, but the personal references 
 are wanting. It is no eulogy, but a strong and sensible 
 discourse of comfort to sorrowing Christians on the no- 
 ble passage in I Thess. 4:13-18, beginning with the 
 
 1 Vogt, quoted by Beste, S. 175.
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 395 
 
 words, " But I would not have you to be ignorant, breth- 
 ren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow 
 not even as others which have no hope." Fitting words 
 from the right man on a momentous occasion, and the dis- 
 course is not unworthy of them all. 
 
 Next, and very close to the immortal three just men- 
 tioned, stood the lovable and eloquent Justus Jonas 
 (d. 1555). He was the son of a burgomaster of Nord- 
 hausen, received his early schooling at home, and then 
 studied with distinction at Erfurt and Wittenberg. At 
 first he devoted himself to law, then to theology, and be- 
 came professor of Holy Scripture and Canon Law at 
 Wittenberg, soon exchanging for the chair of Theology. 
 He was in cordial sympathy with Luther from the first, 
 and stood so close to him in the exciting days at the be- 
 ginning of the Reformation as to be called " Luther's 
 Jonathan." He accompanied the reformer on his famous 
 journey to Worms, and shared the perils and the triumphs 
 of that great occasion. He was also present at the Mar- 
 burg colloquy with Zwingli, and in the next year was an 
 influential figure at the Augsburg diet, where the Confes- 
 sion of Faith was put forth. In 1539 Jonas, with Luther 
 and others, at the invitation of Duke Henry, organized 
 the Lutheran church in the duchy of Saxony at that 
 time, as often before and since, distinct from the elec- 
 torate. Two years later he was called to Halle to be 
 pastor, not having yet been ordained as preacher, and 
 there, in the old Marienkirche, which still stands in medi- 
 aeval grandeur, one of the most conspicuous buildings of 
 the town, Jonas preached his first sermon. He was 
 granted leave of absence from his chair at Wittenberg 
 for four years, and these he so successfully filled with la- 
 bors as pastor and preacher that at the expiration of his 
 leave his flock protested against his departure and he 
 was allowed to remain, being probably released from his 
 professorship. Luther often visited him at Halle, and 
 coming by on that last journey to Eisleben was accom- 
 panied by his tried friend to what proved to be his death 
 scene. It was Jonas who stood by the dying hero, asked 
 him if he would die by the principles he had taught, and 
 received his emphatic " Yes." He conducted the first 
 funeral services over Luther at Eisleben, and afterwards
 
 396 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 delivered a memorial discourse at Halle. The fatal Smal- 
 cald War brought great trials to Jonas. Halle was taken 
 by the emperor's army, and a Spanish soldier was in- 
 structed to kill the preacher, but the man's heart failed 
 him, and the faithful pastor escaped. He fled and under- 
 went many vicissitudes. In his last years he was Super- 
 intendent of the Lutheran churches in the principality 
 of Coburg and died at Eisfeld in 1555. 
 
 In comparing him with others Melanchthon said, " Bu- 
 genhagen is a grammarian (scholar), I a logician, Jonas 
 an orator, and Luther is all in all." Only a few of his 
 sermons remain in print, but they are worth reading. 
 While not so impressive a speaker as Luther, he was a 
 preacher of excellent merit. His sermons exhibit forcible 
 argumentation, accurate knowledge and interpretation of 
 Scripture, a sound gospel, with a warm nature, good 
 imagination and a lively and vigorous style. 
 
 Caspar Aquila (Adler, d. 1560) was one of the younger 
 friends and pupils of Luther. He was of a vehement, 
 though not inconstant nature. He not only filled several 
 pastorates with distinction, but was at Wittenberg one 
 of the scholars who lent valuable service in the transla- 
 tion of the Scriptures. Like others he suffered for his 
 zeal and courage when the issue of the Smalcald War 
 went against the reformers. Charles V. is said to have 
 offered a reward for the bold and fiery man. 
 
 As we should expect from his character, Aquila was a 
 warm, soulful preacher. Thoroughly grounded in the 
 Scriptures and filled with Luther's doctrine, he preached 
 with glowing Zealand some indiscretion against the papacy 
 and the Romish errors, but he also knew how to speak 
 words of tenderness to needy souls and set forth the truth 
 of the gospel in clear and forcible expression. In the 
 rhetorical matter of division and order he is more exact 
 and careful than Luther and Jonas, while his style, like 
 theirs, is picturesque and popular. 
 
 In South Germany one of the noblest leaders in the 
 Reformation cause was the judicious and faithful John 
 Brentz (1499-1570), who came of respectable and pious 
 parents in a small town of the modern Wiirttemberg, 
 then Swabia. As a student from early years he showed 
 both intellect and diligence. At the University of Heidel-
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 397 
 
 berg CEcolampadius was one of his teachers, and among 
 his fellow-students were Martin Butzer and Philip Mel- 
 anchthon. His sympathies were with Luther from the 
 start, and when he began to teach at Heidelberg, though 
 not a priest or preacher, he could not keep off the the- 
 ological questions of the time and began to lecture on 
 Matthew. Objection was made, and he was ordained 
 priest, but with undisguised evangelical views. Soon he 
 received a call to be pastor at Hall, an important Swabian 
 town to the northeast of Stuttgart. Here for a long 
 time he worked as a pastor, beloved and strong. He 
 gradually, and with great wisdom and moderation, led 
 his people into reformation views and order, doing away 
 with the mass in 1525. He earnestly opposed the Peas- 
 ants' War, but was moderate in actions against it. He 
 agreed with Luther as against Zwingli and CEcolampa- 
 dius as to the Lord's Supper, was at the Marburg Confer- 
 ence, and also at Augsburg when the Confession was 
 published. At the request of the duke of the country 
 Brentz helped to reform the University of Tubingen in 
 a Lutheran sense. The defeat of the Protestant rulers 
 in the Smalcald War brought suffering to Brentz and 
 others. He had to hide, and so near were the imperial 
 troops to finding him once that their lances nearly pierced 
 him as they were thrusting about in the straw or brush 
 which concealed him. It is also told of him as of some 
 others in similar circumstances that he was kept from 
 starvation by the good offices of a hen who laid an egg 
 near him every day. He escaped, however, to safer 
 places ; and when better times came back he was called 
 to be the leading Lutheran preacher at Stuttgart, where 
 he fulfilled an able and blessed ministry for many years, 
 though not without many trials and sorrows, and died in 
 September, 1570, outliving many of his old companions. 
 
 The preaching of Brentz was full of Scripture. He 
 made exposition the principal thing, and in a time of so 
 much theological controversy, in which he bore no little 
 or unworthy part, he yet preached much upon Christian 
 duty and morals. For this he was warmly praised by 
 Luther. As a man he was distinguished for his purity, 
 courage, moderation and fidelity, while his admirable 
 modesty and unselfish desire for the good of his people 
 won for him the confidence and love of men.
 
 398 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 Among the younger men who were gathered about 
 Luther a place of honor belongs to Veit (Vitus) Dietrich 
 (1506-1549). He was of humble origin, being the son 
 of a poor shoemaker at Nuremberg. But his promise was 
 observed by friends, and he came to Wittenberg to study, 
 supported by the council of his native town. His atten- 
 tion to study was notable, as well as his amiability and 
 cheerfulness. He was an inmate of Luther's own home, 
 and was brought into admiring intimacy with both 
 Luther and Melanchthon. 
 
 While Luther was at Coburg in 1530 watching the 
 proceedings of the famous diet of Augsburg, Dietrich 
 was his tried and helpful companion. In those anxious 
 days the ready cheerfulness and busy and tactful service 
 of his young friend were a great comfort to the heavily 
 burdened reformer. Dietrich's letters to Melanchthon 
 and to Luther's wife present a valuable picture of the 
 great man's fortitude and prayerfulness during the men- 
 tal and bodily strain of that trying time. 
 
 After teaching awhile at Wittenberg Dietrich became 
 pastor of a church at his native town of Nuremberg. The 
 elder Osiander was pastor of the leading church here. 
 He was involved in some controversies, and was, though 
 an able preacher, not a very lovable man. His preaching 
 was rather of the ambitious sort and soared over the 
 heads of the people. Dietrich's more simple nature and 
 his easy, popular style, addressing itself to the children 
 and the poor, were a strong contrast to those of the older 
 man. The consequences are easily surmised the crowd 
 followed Dietrich, and the jealousy of Osiander was 
 aroused. He made it in various ways unpleasant for Die- 
 trich, but Melanchthon bears emphatic testimony to the 
 admirable patience and humility of his friend under these 
 trials. 
 
 Dietrich's sermons are clear, simple, and sweet. The 
 analysis is plain, the language easy, and the spirit devout. 
 Besides his own work he has laid posterity under obliga- 
 tions by his report of Luther's Hauspostillen, or " Home 
 Talks," and as these differ considerably from the re- 
 ports of another auditor it is reasonable to suppose that 
 they reflect a good deal of Dietrich as well as of Luther. 
 Specially worthy of mention is his loving effort to reach
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 399 
 
 the children in his sermons, and well does Beste say of 
 him : * " His sermons are the testimonies of a witness 
 who had turned the doctrines of the Reformers into sap 
 and blood, and for that very reason could speak in the 
 most childlike simplicity. They accordingly deserve in 
 the fullest sense the name of children's sermons. With- 
 out Luther's fiery spirit they are yet alive with Luther's 
 light and warmth." 
 
 There were many other Lutheran preachers of this 
 early period who spread the principles of the Reforma- 
 tion in various parts of Germany. There was the polemic 
 and lofty Andrew Osiander at Nuremberg, the poetic, 
 warm-hearted John Spangenberg, who in several differ- 
 ent pastorates gave his clear and popular sermons ; Nich- 
 olas von Amsdorf, highly esteemed as man and preacher 
 by both Luther and Melanchthon, though somewhat ex- 
 treme and imprudent ; Anton Corvinus, whose short, vig- 
 orous sermons won Luther's warm praise, and whose 
 sufferings and toils for the truth were equal to those of 
 any of his brethren; John Mathesius, the modest, retir- 
 ing teacher and beloved pastor at Joachimsthal, in Bo- 
 hemia, whose eulogy upon Luther is one of the best 
 sources for the life of the great man ; and George Major, 
 who as a boy at Wittenberg enjoyed the love and confi- 
 dence of the older leaders, heard their discourses, profited 
 by their instructions, and became one of the leading 
 preachers of the Reformation in several different places, 
 notably in that old castle church at Wittenberg, where 
 the theses were posted, and where are the tombs of Lu- 
 ther and Melanchthon. 
 
 3. CONDITIONS PREPARATORY TO THE REFORMATION IN 
 SWITZERLAND 
 
 In the latter part of the fiftenth century there existed 
 in Switzerland conditions which had an important bear- 
 ing on the course of the Reformation and the character 
 of preaching in that country. The pride and independence 
 of the Swiss had been greatly increased by their recent 
 notable military achievements in Italy and against Aus- 
 tria. But the demoralization of the country was sadly 
 aided by the system of hiring out the brave Swiss soldiers 
 1 Op cit., S. 293.
 
 400 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 to fight the battles of other lands than their own. The 
 church and clergy in Switzerland were as corrupt as else- 
 where, and offered little or no help against this national 
 deterioration. Yet there were some faithful priests and 
 other pious persons who warned against the state of 
 things. Among these was the famous Felix Hemmerlin 
 of Zurich, one of the canons at the Grossmiinster, who 
 wrote against many of the existing evils, and his works 
 had considerable circulation. The political independence 
 of the Swiss made them restive if too much pressure was 
 brought to bear on them by church authorities. The 
 failure of the church to institute needed reforms caused 
 the authorities, municipal or aristocratic, as the case 
 might be, to take hold of some of the worst evils and 
 make regulations in the interests of religion and morality. 
 There was a tendency also toward municipal control of 
 church revenues, and in other ways toward giving to the 
 civil authorities a large share in the direction of ecclesi- 
 astical affairs. When we add to all this that, through 
 Erasmus and others, the Humanistic movement, with its 
 criticisms of the church, was more or less prevalent in 
 Switzerland, we trace many of the causes which gave 
 encouragement and stimulus to the great work of Zwingli 
 and the rest. 
 
 4. ZWINGLI AND His FRIENDS AT ZURICH 
 
 All these preparatory influences were more or less ap- 
 parent in Zurich, the important and vigorous town which 
 was to become the main center of reformatory activity in 
 Switzerland. Here, in the yet standing Grossmiinster, 
 in January, 1519, the great Swiss reformer began his 
 work. 
 
 Huldreich [Ulrich] Zwingli 1 was born on New Year's 
 Day, 1484, at Wildhaus, in the mountainous and lofty 
 district of Toggenburg. His parents belonged to an old 
 and respectable family of plain, honest people. Huld- 
 reich was the third among ten children. The talents and 
 promise of the boy early attracted notice, and his father 
 
 1 Authorities chiefly used : Rudolf Stahelin, Huldreich Zwingli, 
 sein Leben und Wirken; the same author's article in Herzog; 
 article by Prof. Egli of Zvirich in Allgemeine Deutsche Biogra- 
 phic; Zwingli's IVerke, Bde. I. & II., by Schuler and Schultess. 
 I have also consulted S. M. Jackson's valuable Huldreich Zwingli.
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 40 1 
 
 designed him for the church. It was well for the lad 
 that his excellent uncle, Bartholomew Zwingli, was parish 
 priest in a neighboring community. By his advice 
 Huldreich was sent to a good school at Basel, where he 
 remained three years, and thence went to Bern. Like 
 Luther, Zwingli was not only a diligent and brilliant 
 student, but was also a musician, played and sang well, 
 and greatly delighted in the art. Having completed his 
 preparatory studies, the young scholar was advised to go 
 to the University of Vienna, which was then much under 
 the Humanistic influence. Here he studied for awhile, 
 but returned to Basel to take his degrees in regular 
 course, where, along with his university studies, he also 
 taught in a school. Here he formed his enduring friend- 
 ship with Leo Jud, who shared both his scholarly and his 
 musical tastes. 
 
 An event of importance to both these young men was 
 the coming of Thomas Wyttenbach to teach and preach 
 at Basel, in 1505. This man exerted a deep and lasting 
 influence on Zwingli. He was an excellent teacher, and, 
 along with his zeal for culture, he also held religious 
 views which lay in the direction of reform. The main 
 thing was that he emphasize'd the Word of God as the 
 chief authority in matters of faith. He also exposed the 
 abuse of indulgences, and possibly attacked other errors. 
 
 In 1506, having completed his university course, 
 Zwingli was ready for his life-work and was called to be 
 parish priest at Glarus, a town of considerable importance. 
 Before going to his charge he preached his first sermon 
 at Rapperswyl, a place on the shores of Lake Zurich, 
 and read his first mass in his native village. At Glarus 
 Zwingli lived and worked for ten years. He felt from 
 the first the responsibilities of his position, and conscien- 
 tiously labored to meet them. Though not yet deeply 
 spiritual he gradually made progress, both in the life of 
 piety and in reformatory views of Christian truth. He 
 was no scholastic recluse on the one hand, fond as he 
 was of books and learning ; nor, on the other, did he allow 
 the social and administrative functions of his office to 
 divert his attention from his studies. He accumulated 
 books and worked hard upon them. But the crown and 
 core of all his studies was the Bible. In 1513, without
 
 402 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 a teacher, he began the study of Greek * in order to get 
 his knowledge of the New Testament directly from the 
 original. As a natural result of his study of the Scrip- 
 tures he already began to give them the chief place in his 
 preaching, though not as yet were the scholastic and tra- 
 ditional Catholic elements put aside. 
 
 On the social and pastoral side of his life Zwingli was 
 equally active. By nature he was jovial and sociable, 
 made friends easily and kept them. He moved freely 
 among the people, was interested in their life both as 
 pastor and man, and learned their ways of thought and 
 speech. Zwingli loved his country and shared the war- 
 like spirit of his race. But he was, like other thoughtful 
 patriots, opposed both on moral and patriotic grounds to 
 the practice of mercenary warfare. But though opposed 
 to it, yet, as a Catholic and patriot, he accompanied, in 
 the capacity of chaplain, the Swiss troops who fought 
 for the pope against Francis I. of France in 1515. He 
 witnessed the bloody battle of Marignano, where some 
 Swiss fought on both sides, and where the papal army 
 was defeated. More than ever disgusted with mercenary 
 warfare, and having now larger knowledge of life and 
 men, including some insight into papal affairs, the young 
 priest came home to Glarus to resume his pastoral work. 
 But in the summer of 1516 he left Glarus and accepted a 
 call to Einsiedeln. 
 
 During his two years' work at Einsiedeln Zwingli made 
 important progress in his development as a reformer. 
 Then, as now, the place was a noted shrine for pilgrim- 
 ages, because of the possession of an ancient image of 
 the Virgin, which was said to work miracles. Thus the 
 place was a center for Romish superstition and for the 
 Catholic teaching as to merits, indulgences and the like. 
 The hollowness of it all was deeply impressed upon the 
 young preacher's mind. He was prudent enough not to 
 attack these things directly, but he opposed to them the 
 preaching of the gospel of grace and redemption in 
 Christ alone. Not only in his own mind did the evangeli- 
 cal sentiments grow, but he was enabled to impress them 
 upon the many pilgrims who came to Einsiedeln. His 
 
 *It seems strange that neither at Basel nor Vienna as late as 
 Zwingli's time was Greek a part of the curriculum for the aca- 
 demic degrees.
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 403 
 
 power in the pulpit was unquestionable, and his name, and 
 to some extent his teachings, were made known in many 
 parts of the country by those who had heard him at 
 Einsiedeln. 
 
 In the spiritual life his case was a peculiar one. He 
 had no clearly defined conversion like Augustine's, no 
 such heart struggles as Luther, and never had the spir- 
 itual and mystical tone which marked both those great 
 men. Zwingli's was rather a gradual growth in spiritual 
 and moral power, chiefly led by the intellectual apprehen- 
 sion of the evangelical doctrines. Thus we cannot date 
 his actual conversion. Before going to Zurich he had 
 not been wholly free from certain lapses from virtue only 
 too common among the priests of his time. But with 
 shame and genuine contrition he mourned his few falls, 
 fought his weakness, and at length, through grace, over- 
 came. He had no sophistical excuses to make, but a 
 manly determination to conquer. 
 
 The appearance of Erasmus' edition of the Greek Tes- 
 tament in the spring of 1516 was a great event for Zwingli 
 as for the world. He got a copy just before leaving 
 Glarus, and at Einsiedeln he made a loving and earnest 
 study of it. Among other methods of study he copied 
 out in Greek the epistles of Paul, in order to impress the 
 language more on his mind. As a preacher he grew in 
 power steadily with his theological and spiritual growth. 
 And so, at the end of two years and a few months at 
 Einsiedeln, he was ready for his life work at Zurich. 
 
 In a political sense the city of Zurich was at the time 
 practically free and self-governed. It had control over 
 the canton of the same name, and by having joined in 
 1351 the four forest cantons Uri, Schwytz, Underwal- 
 den, and Lucerne it had become an influential member 
 of the Swiss Confederation, in some respects the most 
 important. It was thus fitted to be the center of the 
 Reformation for German Switzerland. In ecclesiastical 
 matters there was also considerable freedom. The two 
 leading churches, the Grossmunster and the Frauenmun- 
 ster both dating from the ninth century were the seats 
 of ecclesiastical foundations that had acquired a great de- 
 gree of independence in the management of their own 
 affairs.
 
 404 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 The city also had gradually gained considerable power 
 in regulating the churches, both in regard to the selec- 
 tion of the canons and the disposal of funds. But, 
 while these conditions were just such as a true leader 
 could make the most of for introducing reformatory 
 principles, the moral and religious state of Zurich was 
 a fearful drawback. Hemmerlin had lifted up his voice 
 against the demoralization of people and clergy, but he 
 had been sorely persecuted for his fidelity and put in 
 jail. The people were outwardly attached to the old 
 faith and to the pope, and there was little real spiritual 
 or moral basis, either in clergy or people, on which to 
 build a true reformation in religion. Yet there was some. 
 The devout and pious were found in Zurich also, and 
 some who felt on humanistic grounds a hearty disgust 
 with the disgraceful corruptions of the time. 
 
 On Saturday, January i, 1519, his birthday, Huldreich 
 Zwingli began his eventful work as " popular priest," or 
 pastor, of the Grossmiinster church at Zurich. It was an 
 event for history. He announced to the assembled can- 
 ons on that day that he would begin his preaching the 
 next day with a course of expository sermons on the 
 Gospel of Matthew, taking the book straight through 
 without regard to the appointed lessons of the church ser- 
 vice. This announcement created a stir, but the congre- 
 gation gathered on Sunday with heightened interest to 
 hear the new preacher and the new method. Success 
 was assured from the start. The people came in un- 
 wonted numbers, and the preacher's hold upon the minds 
 and hearts of his hearers was immediate and firm. Dis- 
 tinctly thus the Swiss Reformation began with the 
 preaching of the Word of God. Zwingli afterwards ex- 
 plained the reason for his course in his letter of self- 
 defence, addressed to the bishop of Constance, in 1522. 
 He said he began with Matthew in order to make his 
 people acquainted directly with the work and teaching of 
 Jesus. He then expounded the Acts in a similar way to 
 show how the early church was established on Christ's 
 foundations. Next he took the Epistles to the Galatians 
 and to Timothy to set forth Paul's views of fundamental 
 doctrine and church order; and then those of Peter to 
 show how that apostle agreed with Paul. At the time
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 405 
 
 of writing his defence he was expounding the Epistle to 
 -the Hebrews that the congregation "might be led to 
 Christ as the true High Priest and only Mediator between 
 God and men, and might be still clearly taught concern- 
 ing his saving work and glory." 
 
 In the course of this year, 1519, the plague visited 
 Zurich, and its ravages were fearful. Zwingli was away 
 when the epidemic broke out, but promptly returned to 
 his post and faithfully performed his arduous pastoral 
 duties in that struggle with death. The loss of friends, 
 of his younger brother Andrew, who lived with him, and 
 his own serious illness, made a deep impression on the 
 spiritual life of Zwingli, and his brave devotion to his 
 duties in that time of trial made him more than ever dear 
 to the people. 
 
 In this same eventful year the work of Luther began 
 to influence Zwingli. Hitherto his development and work 
 as a reformer had been independent of the great Saxon. 
 Luther's Leipzig disputation with Eck in the summer 
 of 1519 gave Zwingli great joy and encouragement. And 
 when, in the next year, the papal bull against Luther 
 was issued Zwingli prevented its publication in Zurich. 
 He unhesitatingly stood with Luther and applauded his 
 course, though he foresaw that this decisive- step meant, 
 not only for Luther himself, but for his sympathizers 
 everywhere, separation from Rome. He went on with 
 his preaching, and without much outward opposition at- 
 tacked yet more clearly and earnestly both the bad moral 
 condition of the church and also many of its doctrines, 
 as purgatory, the intercession of saints, the legends of 
 the saints, the authority of the pope, and especially monas- 
 ticism. 
 
 An event, considered by many as the decisive point in 
 the severance of Zwingli's relations to Rome, befell in 
 the year 1522. Some of his people exercised their Chris- 
 tian liberty by eating meat on a fast day. Zwingli felt 
 that they were somewhat precipitate, but when they were 
 called to account before the authorities for their breach 
 of discipline he defended their course, and this led to his 
 preaching and publishing, in March, 1522, a sermon on 
 Christian liberty in matters of detail. In this he not only 
 questioned the whole matter of fasts as being without
 
 406 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 Scriptural foundation, but showed the worthlessness of 
 external works in general. 
 
 Zwingli soon determined on a bold stroke. At his 
 suggestion the council of the city issued a call for a 
 great public disputation, to be held at Zurich on the 29th 
 of January, 1523, to consider all the questions in dispute 
 between the reformers and their opponents. The invita- 
 tion was made very general, but only a few from beyond 
 Zurich and vicinity came. Faber was there, with a small 
 following, representing the bishop of Constance, but the 
 friends of Zwingli were numerously present. He him- 
 self appeared with sixty-seven propositions which he had 
 published and proposed to defend. There was really no 
 discussion to speak of. Zwingli had it all his own way. 
 Faber contented himself with denying the right of the 
 city council of Zurich to pass on such questions, asserting 
 the supremacy of the church and the pope, and making 
 other such shifts. The disputation came to an end by 
 noon ; and in the afternoon the council passed and re- 
 corded a minute to the effect that as Zwingli had not 
 been shown to be in error, he should go on unmolested in 
 his preaching of the Word of God as he had been doing ; 
 and, further, that other preachers in the region should 
 preach only what could be proved by Scripture, and that 
 the term heretic should cease to be applied to those who 
 pursued this course. 
 
 Reforms in the order of worship took place. One by 
 one the Catholic ceremonies disappeared, making place 
 for the simpler rites of the reformed service. Finally 
 the mass was abolished, and the simpler celebration of 
 the Lord's Supper in the Reformed manner, and accord- 
 ing to the New Testament design, was substituted at 
 Easter, 1525. This date and event may be taken as the 
 culmination of Zwingli's work as a reformer, but the 
 strifes and trials of his closing years must be at least 
 briefly recalled that the story of his life may not be in- 
 complete. 
 
 Among the followers of Zwingli was a group of men 
 some of them men of culture who, though agreeing 
 with him in his opposition to Rome, felt that his reforms 
 did not go far enough, or sufficiently reproduce the doc- 
 trines and practices of the apostolic churches. They be-
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 407 
 
 lieved that the State-Church system was wrong, and 
 came to disbelieve in infant baptism. This led to the 
 view that persons who had received that rite in infancy 
 should, on professing faith in their maturer years, receive 
 baptism. Hence they were called Anabaptists, or re- 
 baptizers. In regard to the separation of church and 
 state, Zwingli was unalterably opposed to their views. 
 But on the question of infant baptism he was at first dis- 
 posed to agree with them, only counselling moderation 
 and patience. But the Anabaptists would not keep still, 
 and being, no doubt, somewhat rash, they were put in 
 the attitude of disturbers of the peace and opponents 
 of the lawful authorities. So at last they were put under 
 the ban, and some of them were condemned and exe- 
 cuted. This persecution remains a sad blot on Zwingli's 
 career; but we must remember that these men seemed 
 to him and the Zurich authorities dangerous agitators 
 as well as heretics. 
 
 The suppression of the Anabaptists showed Zwingli's 
 power in Zurich and his firm adherence to his principles 
 of a State-Church, but it cost him much trial and sorrow, 
 and neither the extreme measures employed nor the re- 
 pression of liberty of conscience can be justified. Along 
 with this controversy came the peasant uprising, which 
 affected Switzerland as well as Germany. Zwingli sym- 
 pathized in part with the peasants, urging the granting 
 of some of their claims, counselled moderation both to 
 them and the civil authorities, and thus secured the ending 
 of the trouble in Switzerland without bloodshed. 
 
 Parallel with these troubles was the painful and un- 
 fortunate difference between Zwingli and Luther over 
 the Lord's Supper. The controversy began in 1524 and 
 was carried on for some time by writings. Zwingli was 
 firmly persuaded of the soundness of his own views, but 
 was ready to tolerate differences in others if they could 
 hold together in common opposition to Rome. The dis- 
 cussion showed that agreement was impossible; but 
 Zwingli tearfully offered the hand of brotherly love, 
 hoping that they might agree to disagree on this theo- 
 logically important but practically secondary matter while 
 they were at one in their acceptance of Scripture and re- 
 jection of Catholicism. But Luther looked upon such
 
 408 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 compromise as a betrayal of truth, and declined Zwingli's 
 generous overtures. This was a most unfortunate epi- 
 sode, but in it Zwingli shows to better advantage than 
 Luther. 
 
 The third and fatal strife in which Zwingli was in- 
 volved was of a political as well as religious nature. The 
 five Swiss cantons of Uri, Schwytz, Unterwalden, Lu- 
 cerne and Zug the first four being the famous heart of 
 the old Swiss Confederacy remained firmly Catholic, 
 while Bern, Glarus, and others followed the lead of 
 Zurich and became Reformed. The five Catholic can- 
 tons, though weaker than the others in wealth and popu- 
 lation, had a preponderating influence in the Swiss diet, 
 and used their advantage against the Reformed views. 
 The matter finally came to blows. The Reformed cantons 
 were somehow unprepared to act in concert, and the delay 
 was promptly utilized by the Catholics. Zurich saw the 
 attacking army almost at her doors and hastily sent an 
 inadequate force into the field. Zwingli foresaw the in- 
 evitable defeat, but he bravely accompanied the troops 
 and encouraged them. The fight occurred at Cappel, a 
 town lying between Zurich and Zug, Nov. n, 1531. The 
 Ziirichers were outnumbered and defeated, and Zwingli 
 fell on the field, sword in hand. 
 
 The character of Zwingli and the nature of his work 
 of reform were in many respects quite different from 
 those of the other great reformers. His religious life 
 was not so deep or pure as that of either Luther or Cal- 
 vin, yet it was sincere and strong. His conscientious de- 
 votion to duty was marked from the first, and as his 
 knowledge of the gospel grew and strengthened his per- 
 sonal experience of its saving power likewise increased. 
 With him the humanistic, moral, intellectual side of re- 
 form was in the lead; and the political bent of his mind 
 was stamped on his measures both by his ardent patri- 
 otism and by the character of the place, institutions and 
 people with which he had to deal. 
 
 As a preacher Zwingli must occupy a high place in 
 history. Preaching with him, as with Luther, was the 
 main thing, and by it chiefly he gained and kept his hold 
 upon the people and carried out his work of reform. 
 He made it his aim from his first work in Glarus to
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 409 
 
 bring the Word of God home to the people by preaching, 
 and this early resolve only grew with his growth and be- 
 came the central thing in his life and work. 
 
 In form and method of preaching Zwingli was little 
 influenced by scholasticism, and accordingly did not much 
 value analysis. The order of thought was more like that 
 of the classic discourse showing the influence of his hu- 
 manistic studies. In language his preaching was popu- 
 lar, clear, and moving. He had less imagination and 
 feeling than Luther, perhaps more than Calvin. But it is 
 not so easy to judge of Zwingli as of the others, because 
 few of his sermons have come down to us. He preached 
 without notes, rarely wrote out for publication, and his 
 sermons were not reported. But the traditional accounts 
 "of his methods and power all testify to his wonderful 
 ability in the pulpit. He had a tall, strong figure, a pleas- 
 ing face and manner, but no great voice. Yet he had 
 that magnetic influence which is ever characteristic of 
 the true orator people loved to hear him, and were pro- 
 foundly influenced by what he said. He himself was gen- 
 uinely surprised by his large congregations, and his 
 friends marvelled at the notable reformation accom- 
 plished by his preaching in Zurich. The composite nature 
 of his character and work are fitly set forth in the noble 
 bronze statue back of the old Wasserkirche in Zurich, 
 which represents him standing with upturned face and 
 holding a sword in one hand, a Bible in the other. 
 
 Among the assistants and followers of Zwingli at 
 Zurich we notice briefly only the two most important ones 
 Jud and Bullinger. 
 
 Leo Jud, 1 or Judae (d. 1542), was born at a small town 
 of Alsace in 1482. He was the son of the parish priest, 
 who, like some others, in defiance of the rule of celibacy, 
 lived in an acknowledged relation that was really, though 
 not lawfully, marriage with a woman of respectable 
 family. The name Jud, or Juda, indicates descent (which 
 was remote) from the stock of Israel. The boy Leo was 
 sent to school and enjoyed excellent instruction, not only 
 in the classics, but in morals, from a teacher of character 
 
 1 Good account of Jud in the excellent series, Leben und ausge- 
 wahlte Schriften der Voter und Grander der Reformirten Kirche. 
 The sketch of Jud is by Carl Pestalozzi, nephew of the great edu- 
 cator.
 
 410 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 and talents. Among his school friends was Martin But- 
 zer, who was to be the famous Strasburg reformer of 
 later days. Leo inclined to the study of medicine, and 
 took employment with an apothecary in Basel, at the 
 same time attending lectures at the university. But the 
 humanistic and theological bent of his tastes triumphed 
 over the medical, and he took the regular degrees in 
 course. It was at Basel, as we have seen, that he formed 
 with Zwingli the friendship so important to the lives of 
 both. During the latter part of his course Jud was made 
 a deacon of St. Theodore's church in Basel, and later was 
 ordained parish priest at St. Hippolyte, in his native Al- 
 sace. Here he did faithful service for a number of years, 
 preparing both himself and his people for the new life 
 that was so soon to come in the religious world. He 
 and Zwingli kept up correspondence and mutual affec- 
 tion, and so we are not surprised that when Zwingli went, 
 in 1519, to Zurich he should have recommended Leo as 
 his successor at Einsiedeln. Here accordingly Jud next 
 lived, and for four years followed in his friend's foot- 
 steps, progressing in learning and grace while preaching 
 much and boldly the new doctrines. 
 
 It was a great joy to Zwingli when, a vacancy occur- 
 ring at St. Peter's Church in Zurich, he could again use 
 his influence and secure his friend's election to the pas- 
 torate there. So Jud came to take charge of his new and 
 what proved to be his lifelong office in February, 1523. 
 At Zurich he stood manfully by Zwingli in all the work 
 and trials incident to introducing the Reformation. Nor 
 was he simply an echo of his friend. He had courage and 
 views of his own, was a faithful pastor, an attractive and 
 instructive preacher, a lovable and pious man, a diligent 
 and laborious scholar. One of his greatest services was 
 his translations, especially of the Bible. He and others 
 labored at this, using, but not exactly reproducing, Lu- 
 ther's work. Indeed before Luther had finished the Old 
 Testament, Jud had translated some of the books, and 
 the first copy of the entire Bible in German was printed 
 at Zurich, ahead of the Wittenberg version. 
 
 The death of Zwingli was not only a deep personal 
 affliction to Jud, but he saw in that catastrophe the seri- 
 ous peril of the great work of the Reformation. Fear,
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 41! 
 
 reaction, the opposition at Ziirich and elsewhere, made a 
 combination of circumstances that well might appall the 
 stoutest heart. Sadly but bravely Leo stood by his post 
 in that mournful crisis ; suffered and endured much, and 
 helped no little to rescue and establish on enduring foun- 
 dations the imperilled work. He was deeply concerned 
 that a suitable successor to Zwingli should be found. He 
 favored the call to CEcolampadius, who declined ; with 
 excellent good sense and modesty he refused to be con- 
 sidered for the vacant place himself; and earnestly ad- 
 vised the Zurich council to elect the young and promising 
 Henry Bullinger. This was done, and when Bullinger 
 came Jud gave to the younger leader cordial support and 
 deference, as he had done to Zwingli. 
 
 Struggling with opposition, with poverty, with bodily 
 weakness, the heroic little man toiled on to the end, and 
 died, greatly beloved and mourned by his friends, June 
 19, 1542. 
 
 Many writings, but few sermons, survived him. He 
 preached extempore, expounded ably, warned faithfully, 
 but lovingly; attacked boldly, but not violently; spoke 
 with ease and clearness, and, while not a preacher of pre- 
 eminent gifts, was heard with interest and profit. Zwingli 
 said of him in a letter to Myconius on Jud's election to 
 St. Peter's : " Soon will be there the lion with the mighty 
 voice and the heart thirsting for righteousness ; small in- 
 deed of person, but full of heroic courage." And his son, 
 gathering some accounts of his life, said of his preach- 
 ing : " His sermons were buttered and salted. Yet often 
 he complained that when he had with great earnestness 
 attacked great vices and weighty sins, he had not met 
 with success. The cause might well lie in this, that he 
 was by nature so kind, mild and friendly a man. I have 
 also understood from excellent citizens that no sermons 
 succeeded with him better than those on Christian love." 
 
 The accomplished, able and highly successful follower 
 of Zwingli in carrying out the work of reformation at 
 Zurich was Henry Bullinger 1 (1504-1575). He was 
 born at Bremgarten, near Zurich, July i8th, 1504, the son 
 of a priest who, like Leo Jud's father and others, lived 
 in otherwise honorable, though ecclesiastically forbidden, 
 1 V liter und Grander, u. s. w. His lif& also by Pestalozzi.
 
 412 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 wedlock. In fact many congregations in Switzerland, 
 and perhaps elsewhere, preferred to tolerate this breach 
 of church rules rather than endure worse evils in a celi- 
 bate priesthood. And so this married priest was beloved 
 by his congregation, and was a good husband and father. 
 Of the other sons there is no need here to speak. Henry 
 showed early promise, both in mind and character, and 
 was carefully taught by his parents and his grandmother 
 and in the local schools. At twelve years of age he was 
 sent to Emmerich, in Germany, to a good school, and later 
 he attended the famous old High School at Cologne. 
 Here, about 1520, Bullinger began the study of theology, 
 just at the time when the strife over Luther's reformatory 
 work at Wittenberg was at its height. What with his 
 reading of the early church fathers, Luther's and Mel- 
 anchthon's writings, and most of all the Bible, Bullinger 
 soon became satisfied that Luther was right. But he did 
 not pass from the old faith to the new without regret 
 and struggle. Coming home from Cologne, he spent a 
 quiet year at his father's house in Bremgarten, deepening 
 his knowledge and his convictions. Then he was school- 
 master at Cappel for six years. He did not become a 
 priest in the old church, for he could not conscientiously 
 celebrate mass. But he attended church for the prayers 
 and the sermon; and both privately and in his school 
 taught reform doctrines. Bullinger attended the disputa- 
 tions at Zurich in January and in October, 1527. Later 
 he heard Zwingli preach and made his personal acquain- 
 tance. Soon Bullinger's work began to tell at Cappel, and 
 before a great while the church and abbey there were re- 
 formed. The mass having been done away with and a 
 synod of Reformed ministers established, the way was 
 open for Bullinger to take up the work of preaching, 
 which he did along with his school duties. Meantime he 
 became engaged to a sensible and lovely young lady at 
 Zurich. His letter to her proposing marriage is pre- 
 served, and does credit to his sense, candor and tender- 
 ness. After a long betrothal they were married, and the 
 union was a happy one for life. 
 
 In 1529 the elder Bullinger at Bremgarten declared in 
 favor of the Reformed opinions, and after a sharp strug- 
 gle the adherents of Rome gained the day and he had to
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 413 
 
 give up his charge. But the Reformed element recovered 
 strength, gained the majority and called the son to be 
 pastor in his father's place. Here he labored for two 
 years; but the war which ended so disastrously for 
 Zurich at Cappel drove Bullinger from home and he 
 received hospitable entertainment at the house of a friend 
 in Zurich. He was there when the defeat of the Ziirich- 
 ers and the death of Zwingli threw the city into con- 
 sternation and the work of reform into danger. 
 
 The great question of a suitable successor to Zwingli 
 was seriously agitating the council and the people. 
 CEcolampadius declined to leave Basel, Leo Jud wisely 
 rejected the overtures made to him, and urged the coun- 
 cil to choose Bullinger. He was invited to preach, and 
 his sermons made a deep impression. His election fol- 
 lowed, in December, 1531. 
 
 In announcing Bullinger's election to the ministers as- 
 sembled before it, the council took occasion to define their 
 duties, and among items to which no reasonable exception 
 could be taken made some conditions which were a dis- 
 tinct repression of the " freedom of prophesying." They 
 bade the ministers in their rebuke of sin not to use harsh 
 words, and, further, to keep off the ground of civil 
 affairs; in other words, to refrain from criticising the 
 government. Bullinger arose in the painful silence with 
 which the preachers heard this restriction proclaimed, 
 thanked the council in fitting terms for the great honor 
 conferred upon him, agreed cordially with most of what 
 had been laid down as to the duties of the clergy, but said 
 he could not accept the great place offered him without 
 a clearer understanding of exactly what was meant by 
 that fourth article in the council's ordinance as to preach- 
 ing. He asked for time to consult with his brethren and 
 give his answer at a future meeting. It was granted, 
 the consultation showed the unanimous and proper feel- 
 ing of the preachers that they could not work under such 
 restriction upon their freedom, and Bullinger, at the 
 proper time, laid the matter before the council in an able 
 speech, in which he showed that the regulation was con- 
 trary to Scripture and to sound policy ; and distinctly de- 
 clared he could not accept the place of leader unless the 
 objectionable clauses were modified. Nothing could have
 
 414 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 shown more clearly Bullinger's fitness for leadership than 
 the promptness, wisdom, firmness and moderation with 
 which he met this first and severe test. The council 
 was seriously divided; the debate was long and anxious, 
 but the majority came to see that to insist on their course 
 would be, not only to lose Bullinger, but Jud and others, 
 and that this meant, at that terrible crisis of reaction and 
 despondency, nothing less than the ruin of the cause of 
 reformation. To their credit they receded, contenting 
 themselves with advice instead of regulation on the points 
 involved. Bullinger then accepted the office of preacher 
 at the Grossmiinster and leader of the Reformed churches 
 in Zurich. 
 
 He thus began his difficult and enormous labors with 
 a victory for the cause of truth, and all his after conduct 
 was of a piece with this. Wise, patient, courageous, but 
 not fiery and rash, he was the very man to follow the more 
 strong and impetuous Zwingli, and build slowly and 
 surely on the foundations which that splendid leader had 
 laid. Long and arduous were his labors. There was 
 much in Zwingli's work at Zurich that needed comple- 
 tion, and somewhat that needed improvement; and the 
 general interests required great wisdom and exacting la- 
 bors. But Henry Bullinger was the man for the occasion. 
 His correspondence with Protestant leaders all over Eu- 
 rope, his oversight and counsel more especially toward 
 the Swiss churches, his administration of the difficult 
 affairs in Zurich, his numerous writings and continued 
 studies, his faithfully performed pastoral and pulpit du- 
 ties, and no less thoughtful and tender concern for his 
 home and his friends, filled and burdened a long and noble 
 life. He suffered great pains in his last and long illness, 
 but bore them with Christian fortitude, till God gave him 
 release on September 17, 1575. 
 
 As a preacher Bullinger deserves more than passing no- 
 tice. Tall of form, with a flowing beard, a benevolent and 
 intellectual expression, a pleasing voice, a dignified yet 
 animated bearing, he had good external qualifications for 
 public speech. His preaching, like that of the other re- 
 formers, was chiefly expository. In the first year of his 
 pastorate he preached series of discourses on Hebrews, 
 the Epistle of Peter, and the Gospel of John ; and in the
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 415 
 
 first ten years he had gone through nearly all the books 
 of the Bible. His diligence and fruitfulness, especially 
 when his other labors are remembered, were simply 
 amazing. He often preached six, and sometimes seven 
 and eight, times a week. When Leo Jud broke down 
 under similar labors the council became alarmed for Bui- 
 linger also, gave him an assistant, and requested him to 
 preach only twice a week. His biographer enumerates 
 as having come down from the eighteen years following 
 1549 one hundred sermons on the book of Revelation, 
 sixty-six on Daniel, one hundred and seventy on Jere- 
 miah, one hundred and ninety on Isaiah, twenty-four fast 
 sermons, and a great number of single discourses. Be- 
 sides these and other published sermons there were, of 
 course, a great many more. Many of his sermons were 
 published in Latin for preachers beyond the home land, 
 and others in the queer old Swiss German of the time. 
 Some of them were translated into other tongues. He 
 preached in the simple language of the people, without 
 oratorical effort, but with warmth and earnestness, with 
 sincere effort to bring God's truth home to the under- 
 standings and the hearts of his hearers. Thus for many 
 years he held a firm grasp on his congregation and was 
 listened to with interest, respect and reverence to the end 
 of his laborious and faithful ministry. God be praised 
 for the lives and works of such men as Henry Bullinger ! 
 There were other preachers at Zurich and vicinity be- 
 sides the leaders who have been named, but we must 
 turn to the two other important centers of reform influ- 
 ence in German Switzerland and give brief account of 
 the leading preachers. 
 
 5. REFORMERS AT BASEL AND BERN 
 
 Basel (French Bale) is an important city on the Rhine 
 and near the French border. Noted as a fortress in the 
 time of the Roman empire, it received its name, " The 
 Royal." During the Middle Ages it had a checkered his- 
 tory as an imperial city. It was devastated by plague and 
 earthquake, but survived and grew strong. Here, in the 
 sad fourteenth century, the noisy Flagellants wept and 
 beat themselves, and here, too, pious mystics like Nicho- 
 las and other " Friends of God " found home and influ-
 
 41 6 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 ence. Here also during the fifteenth century one of the 
 famous so-called Reforming Councils held its long and 
 mostly futile sessions. The revival of learning found 
 welcome in Basel in the circles that gathered first about 
 Reuchlin and later about Erasmus, and some noted 
 printers and publishers fostered this literary distinction. 
 In 1501 Basel took the memorable and decisive step of 
 joining the Swiss Federation ; this brought and confirmed 
 larger freedom in both civil and ecclesiastical affairs, 
 making it possible for the city government, as at Zurich, 
 to have large share in shaping the course of events in re- 
 ligious history. In 1513 the great scholar Erasmus made 
 his first visit to Basel to see the publisher Froben (Fro- 
 benius) in regard to publishing one of his works, and 
 hither, off and on, he came for the rest of his wandering 
 life, till he died and was buried here in 1536. The great 
 event for Erasmus, Froben, Basel, and the world, was 
 the publication of the first complete printed edition of the 
 Greek Testament in 1516. In Basel, too, in those stirring 
 early years of the sixteenth century, Thomas Wyttenbach 
 taught, and Zwingli, Leo Jud, Pellican, Glarean, Capito, 
 Grynaeus,and other scholars noted in Reformation history, 
 spent busy and fruitful school days. Thus at Basel, along 
 with the usual hindrances, were various lines of influ- 
 ence that might be gathered and used for the Reforma- 
 tion if the right man came on the scene as leader. And 
 he did, in the person of John CEcolampadius (1482-1531). 
 
 In the little town of Weinsberg, in the present King- 
 dom of Wiirttemberg, lived a good and respectable citizen 
 and merchant named Hiissgen, some say Hausschein. To 
 him and his pious and sensible wife sons were born, but 
 only one survived. The boy received in baptism the name 
 of John, but in after days, according to the absurd hu- 
 manistic fashion then so affected, translated or perverted 
 his German family name into the high-sounding Greek 
 CEcolampadius, by which he is known in history. 1 
 
 Born in 1482, he was nearly a year older than Luther, 
 who was about two months older than Zwingli. The 
 delicate but precocious and promising boy owed it to the 
 influence of his pious and intelligent mother that, in- 
 stead of being brought up to his father's business, he re- 
 1 Life by Hagenbach, in Valer und Griinder, u. s. w.
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 417 
 
 ceived a scholar's education. After early instruction at 
 home, John had the advantage of an excellent school at 
 Heilbronn, and later of the University of Heidelberg. 
 The vigorous mind of CEcolampadius ranged beyond his 
 required studies, and he read widely in the church fathers 
 and other writers. Still thirsting for knowledge and 
 further preparation before becoming a priest and preacher, 
 he went for a time to the University of Tubingen, where, 
 among others, he found a congenial friend in the much 
 younger but already remarkable scholar, Philip Melanch- 
 thon. Reuchlin was then in Stuttgart, not far away, and 
 CEcolampadius took a course in Hebrew with that famous 
 teacher, and pursued the study further at Tubingen, along 
 with Capito and John Brentz, under a converted Jew. 
 
 In accordance with a custom then sometimes permitted 
 there had been founded for CEcolampadius by the liberal- 
 ity of his parents a chapel, or preaching place, in his na- 
 tive village, and before going to Tubingen he seems to 
 have spent a few months there. Now he returns to this 
 his first charge and takes up his work more regularly. 
 He made preaching the first thing, and while his sermons 
 yet retained many of the Catholic habits and methods, 
 they were both more evangelical and more expository 
 than the old sort, and they made a great impression on 
 his people. His first publication was a series of sermons 
 on the seven last sayings of our Lord on the cross. 
 
 Between the time of this first work as preacher at 
 Weinsberg and his final settlement at Basel for the work 
 of his life CEcolampadius had a strangely checkered 
 career. Interesting as the details are in themselves and 
 significant in his preparations for becoming the chief re- 
 former at Basel, they cannot here be discussed at any 
 length. We find him for a short time at Basel, then at 
 Augsburg, then, strangely enough, for a few months 
 in a monastery ; then a little while chaplain to the reform- 
 ing knight, Francis of Sickingen. Here he made pro- 
 gress in reforming principles and introduced some 
 changes in worship. 
 
 But soon CEcolampadius gave up this place also and 
 accepted an invitation from his friend Kratander, the 
 publisher at Basel, to pay a visit of indefinite duration at 
 his house and wait till a professorship or some place suit-
 
 41 8 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 able for him should open. It was under these circum- 
 stances that he took up what was to be his lifelong resi- 
 dence in Basel, Nov. i/th, 1522. 
 
 In a few weeks, the pastor of St. Martin's church being 
 in poor health, a place as vicar was offered GEcolampa- 
 dius there ; and he began his fruitful ministry in that 
 church. At first his duties were not very arduous, and he 
 had time for his much loved studies. About this time, 
 without personal acquaintance, he began a correspondence 
 with Zwingli. He also corresponded with other reform- 
 ers. Besides his expository and increasingly evangelical 
 sermons at St. Martin's, CEcolampadius began to give 
 presumably at the university, though by what arrange- 
 ment does not appear a course of lectures, expounding, 
 first, the prophecy of Isaiah, and then the Epistle to the 
 Romans. These, as well as his more popular sermons on 
 the first Epistle of John, were afterwards published, and 
 gave great satisfaction to the friends of the Reformation 
 in many quarters. Though CEcolampadius was doubtful 
 of the value of public debates, and deprecated their evils, 
 he yet was led to propose a public discussion of four 
 propositions on the questions of the age. The discussion 
 occurred in August, 1523, in the college chapel, was well 
 attended, and produced good results. 
 
 Later came William Farel, the hot-headed, but elo- 
 quent, French reformer. He was welcomed by CEcolam- 
 padius and encouraged to hold a public discussion, which 
 was attended with interest and did good. But CEcolam- 
 padius did not really care much for these public debates. 
 His main work was preaching, and in this he was not 
 only eminently successful in drawing the people, but in 
 greatly instructing and profoundly moving them. He 
 began to preach on week days as well as Sundays, and 
 the people came in eager and large congregations. Thus 
 the seeds of evangelical views of truth were richly sown 
 in the hearts of many of the best and most influential 
 people of the city, and the results were soon seen in many 
 ways. The secular authorities of the city, as at Zurich 
 and Bern, began to take action favoring the Reformation. 
 One of their first acts (in 1525) was to give CEcolampa- 
 dius the position of leading preacher at St. Martin's, for 
 up to this time he had still been only vicar. This in-
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 419 
 
 creased his dignity and influence, but it also added to his 
 labors and cares. 
 
 From now on for four years the reformation in Basel 
 proceeded in rapid order till, early in 1529, the doing 
 away of the mass and the images in the churches marked 
 its final establishment. During these years of strife and 
 progress CEcolampadius was a busy and laborious man, 
 but he stood his ground and did his work nobly. 
 
 The few remaining years of his life were abundantly 
 occupied in preaching, writing, confirming the Reforma- 
 tion at home and lending wise counsel and good influence 
 to the cause elsewhere. The catastrophe at Cappel was 
 a shock from which CEcolampadius never recovered. His 
 own end was near. An illness that proved to be fatal 
 attacked his always feeble and much overwrought frame, 
 and in November, 1531, he joined his fellow- worker and 
 friend where strifes are no more. And so they went 
 those two great brave souls one from the battlefield, 
 calm and ready amid strife, carnage and defeat ; the other 
 from the Christian's dying bed, hopeful, victorious, and in 
 perfect peace. 
 
 CEcolampadius was an active and successful preacher, 
 without the highest oratorical genius. He had no im- 
 pressive external gifts, being small and feeble of frame, 
 and having a weak though not unpleasant voice. But 
 his vigorous intelligence, sincerity and depth of feeling, 
 ample learning, aptness and power in exposition, clear- 
 ness and ease of expression, more than made up for lack 
 of the externals. So we do not wonder, when we read his 
 sermons, and remember the traits of his character and the 
 facts of his life, that he should have attracted and held 
 large and eager congregations, and should have accom- 
 plished the work he was set to do chiefly by the ministry 
 of the Word. 
 
 The successor of CEcolampadius at Basel was Zwingli's 
 warm friend, the eminent teacher Oswald Myconius * 
 (1488-1552). Born at Lucerne in 1488, the son of a 
 miller named Geisshussler, he later acquired in some way 
 the Greek name of Myconius probably a nickname given 
 to him by Erasmus. With others, eager like himself for 
 learning, he studied and then became a teacher at Basel, 
 1 Hagenbach again in the series last mentioned.
 
 420 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 where, also, he married. While at Basel he was on in- 
 timate terms with Erasmus, and there, too, he met 
 Zwingli and Leo Jud. In 1516 he came to Zurich to 
 teach in the school connected with the Grossmiinster, and 
 while there deepened his friendship with Zwingli, who 
 was then at Einsiedeln. He was largely instrumental in 
 having Zwingli come to Zurich; but did not himself re- 
 main long there, having accepted an invitation to return 
 to his native Lucerne and teach. He espoused warmly 
 the reformatory views, which were unpopular at Lucerne, 
 and was called a " Lutheran heretic." At last the people 
 became so enraged against him that he had to leave, and 
 Leo Jud secured a temporary place for him at Einsiedeln, 
 in 1522. As soon as a vacancy occurred in the school at 
 Frauenmunster, in Zurich, his friends there secured it 
 for him. It was truly a comfort to Zwingli to have the 
 two tried friends Jud and Myconius with him in Zu- 
 rich, one as preacher at St. Peter's, the other as teacher 
 at the Frauenmunster. Here Myconius remained till 
 Zwingli's death. He had in his home an admiring pupil, 
 who relates that when Myconius heard the news of 
 Zwingli's death, he said, " I can no longer stay here ! " 
 While not an ordained preacher, he had, at the request 
 of the council, combined oral Scripture exposition, which 
 was really preaching, with his work as teacher, and thus 
 gradually took up the ministry of the Word. His pupil 
 and young friend, Plater, having gone to Basel to teach, 
 and knowing of Myconius' desire to leave Zurich, spoke 
 of his old teacher so warmly to friends that he was au- 
 thorized to go back to Zurich and conduct Myconius to 
 Basel, where he could visit and preach at the church of 
 St. Albans, where there was a vacancy in the pulpit. His 
 trial sermon was so pronounced a success that he was 
 called to the post in December, 1531. When he began his 
 work at St. Albans, Basel was mourning the recent death 
 of CEcolampadius, and the council was much exercised 
 to find a suitable follower to that remarkable and beloved 
 man and leader. But Myconius' success at St. Albans 
 was so immediate and decided that after a few months 
 the council decided to promote him to the cathedral as the 
 successor to the recently deceased leader. 
 
 No one was more surprised at this turn of affairs than
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 421 
 
 the modest Myconius himself. He thus wrote of it to a 
 friend : "I am named as successor to the sainted GEco- 
 lampadius. Great God, what disparity! But God has so 
 ordained. . . . Unexpected and strange is it all to 
 me. Earnestly do I pray God that sooner he would re- 
 move me from the earth than that his glory should be 
 lessened by my induction into office." In such a spirit 
 the mild-mannered teacher entered on his new and re- 
 sponsible position, but on the express understanding that 
 he should hold the place only till a more suitable person 
 could be found. None was found. He held the place 
 twenty years, till his death in 1552. 
 
 Myconius was a fine teacher and an able expounder of 
 the Word of God. His preaching was simple, clear and 
 eminently Scriptural in matter and tone. He was not 
 fond of display nor endowed with oratorical gifts, but he 
 was heard with great acceptance and profit, for he 
 preached with force and unction. One thing he says 
 of his preaching will doubtless be well understood by 
 many another faithful preacher : "I have been preaching 
 the gospel ten years, and yet I cannot say that in attack- 
 ing sin I am satisfied with myself. Sometimes I go be- 
 yond bounds, sometimes I do too little. I dare not be 
 silent, and yet I cannot strike the right measure, which 
 often not a little disturbs me." Faithful soul ! perplexed 
 to find the just combination of the pastor's and the proph- 
 et's functions ! Yet this modest, amiable, faithful man 
 preached in what was virtually his only charge for twenty 
 years, carried on the work of a greater man than him- 
 self, and exerted a wide and lasting influence for the 
 cause he so much loved. 
 
 The city of Bern, now the capital of the Swiss Federa- 
 tion, lies in a beautiful situation in the heart of pictur- 
 esque Switzerland. Founded by the Duke of Zahringen 
 in the end of the twelfth century, it was not so old as 
 some other Swiss cities, but was from the first character- 
 ized by the bravery and independence of its people. It 
 joined the Swiss Federation in 1353, having previously 
 won its independence, and at once assumed and ever held 
 a leading place in the affairs of the republic. Like other 
 cities Bern had, through its council, considerable influ- 
 ence and control in ecclesiastical affairs. But here, as
 
 422 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 elsewhere, the sad demoralization of the people through 
 the practice of mercenary warfare, and of the clergy 
 through the evils so common everywhere, made the re- 
 ligious outlook discouraging in the extreme. There was 
 not so much culture as in other places, and the super- 
 stition of many of the people made them easy victims of 
 the indulgence-seller Samson, who rivalled Tetzel in 
 Saxony. Yet there were not wanting among the people 
 and in the council men who were heartily ashamed of the 
 evil state of affairs, and were willing to be led in a better 
 way when the time and the leader appointed of God 
 should arrive. The time was the great reform movement 
 in the sixteenth century, the leader Berthold Haller. 1 
 
 In the memorable year of 1492 the future Bernese re- 
 former was born in the Swabian village of Aldingen. 
 The lad was of delicate constitution, but of quick intelli- 
 gence and amiable character. He had an excellent teacher 
 at Rottweil, and later studied at Pforzheim under Gerard 
 Simler, afterwards professor at Tubingen. Among his 
 schoolmates was Simon Grynaeus, later the noted human- 
 istic teacher at Basel, and the young Philip Melanchthon. 
 Haller then spent two years at Cologne studying the dry 
 bones of the degenerate scholastic theology, which no 
 more satisfied him than it had CEcolampadius before him. 
 He longed for further and more extensive studies, but 
 accepted a place for a while as teacher at Rottweil, and 
 was just about to go to Freiburg for further education 
 when, in 1513, a call came to go to Bern as assistant 
 teacher in a flourishing school. He knew not what was 
 before him when he accepted this place and took up his 
 residence as teacher, with apparently some preaching du- 
 ties attached to his office, in the city that he was so pro- 
 foundly to influence for all time. 
 
 Haller quickly made /riends by his kindly sociable 
 nature, having attracted notice by his eloquence and force 
 of speech. He was elected chaplain of one of the guilds 
 of citizens, and from 1517 held some official position in 
 the church. His duties were varied and exacting from 
 the start, and he never had the leisure for those studies 
 that he so longed to pursue. He never became so great 
 a scholar as many of the other reformers, and regretted 
 
 *Life by Pestalozzi in Vater und Grtinder, u. s. w.
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 423 
 
 often the course of affairs that hindered his development 
 in that direction. He was early attracted by the evan- 
 gelical views, and his devotion to these was largely stimu- 
 lated and confirmed by the presence at this time in Bern 
 as canon and preacher at the Miinster of that very 
 Thomas Wyttenbach who at Basel had so profoundly 
 influenced Zwingli and Leo Jud. Haller served as dea- 
 con under Wyttenbach, and lived with him till his retire- 
 ment from Bern in 1520. Already in the preceding year 
 a decisive turn had come in Haller's life by his appoint- 
 ment as canon and one of the chief preachers at the 
 Miinster. His place had come to him, and he was ready 
 for his work. 
 
 Haller began at the great cathedral a very imposing 
 building still in a very simple way. He took the ap- 
 pointed lessons as the basis of his sermons and expounded 
 these carefully and with decided evangelical views. Later 
 he added a series of discourses on the Ten Command- 
 ments, using Luther's exposition as a guide. His preach- 
 ing was popular, and his congregations grew large and 
 remained so. In 1521 he visited Zwingli at Zurich and 
 received hearty commendation and help in his work. The 
 friendship was warm and lasting, and there was frequent 
 correspondence between the two till Zwingli's death. 
 About this time the eloquent French Franciscan, Lam- 
 bert, came to Bern on his way to Germany on a preach- 
 ing tour. Though yet a monk Lambert was full of re- 
 formation ideas. Not knowing German, he preached in 
 Latin to the priests and others, and his attacks on exist- 
 ing evils made a great stir. Some of the clergy were fu- 
 rious and tried to have the council restrain the fiery 
 Frenchman. But that body, on the contrary, upheld him, 
 and took occasion to declare in favor of a larger liberty ,to 
 the preachers. 
 
 Soon Haller began a series of expository sermons on 
 Matthew, influenced no doubt by Zwingli's experiment 
 at Zurich, and his preaching was even more sought after 
 by the people who were thirsting for the gospel truth, and 
 his earnest teaching was having great influence. In 1523 
 the Bern council passed an ordinance similar to that of 
 Zurich, instructing the preachers to preach the " pure 
 Word of God freely, openly and without restraint." With
 
 424 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 this good beginning the government became more and 
 more pronounced in favor of the new order of things; 
 and progress, not without friction, setbacks, and various 
 trials, was continually made. The Anabaptist controversy 
 also made its appearance at Bern, and caused much trial 
 to Haller and the rest. In- 1527 the Bernese council 
 called for a great conference and debate on all the ques- 
 tions between the Catholic and Reforming parties. It 
 began in January, 1528, and lasted for nineteen days. 
 Zwingli was present, also GEcolampadius, Bullinger, But- 
 zer, Farel, and other leading reformers, besides a fair 
 representation of Catholics. It was a triumph for Re- 
 formed opinions and greatly strengthened the cause 
 throughout all Switzerland and beyond. Before the dis- 
 putants had left the council took action and did away 
 with the mass and the images in the churches. This 
 marked the victory. 
 
 It now remained for Haller and his associates to settle 
 and organize the new ecclesiastical constitution and con- 
 firm what had been done. The death of Zwingli and the 
 peril that followed the defeat at Cappel were serious 
 wounds to the cause; but the work went on. Haller's 
 long and hard labors had worn him down; he fe'll an 
 easy prey to disease, and passed to his reward in 1536, 
 only forty-four years old. As a scholar he does not rank 
 as high as the other leaders in the Reformation, but in 
 fidelity and wisdom, in moderation combined with cour- 
 age and patience, he falls behind none. His preaching 
 bore the character marks of the reform movement in 
 contents and method ; in style it was simple and unambi- 
 tious, but clear, forcible and winning. Its best praise is 
 that it pleased, instructed and moulded the people to 
 whom it was directed. 
 
 6. THE STRASBURG REFORMERS 
 
 This seems the best place to consider the preachers of 
 the Reformation at Strasburg, for though it was a Ger- 
 man and not a Swiss city, the leaders there occupied a 
 mediating position between the Lutheran and Zwinghan 
 views, and, on the whole, inclined more to the latter. 
 
 Strasburg was one of the ancient free cities of the 
 German empire. It had acquired self-government in
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 425 
 
 1333, and in 1482 had adopted a new and very liberal 
 popular constitution. Under this the city government 
 had secured a very large control in ecclesiastical as well 
 as civil affairs, and had so limited the authority of the 
 bishop and reduced his importance that he preferred to 
 live elsewhere and be represented at Strasburg by a 
 vicar. The state of the clergy was bad, as usual. But 
 among the best citizens were not a few who detested the 
 existing state of things and were ready for a change. 
 Perhaps the influence of that old mediaeval mysticism 
 and the work of Tauler were not wholly gone, and cer- 
 tainly the long and powerful ministry (1478-1510) of 
 John Geiler of Kaisersberg was fresh in the minds of 
 many when the Reformation began. We must also 
 reckon among preparatory tendencies the entrance of 
 Humanism under the auspices of Erasmus, Wimpheling 
 and others. So when Luther began his attack on the pa- 
 pal abuses in 1517 there were many in Strasburg who 
 hailed his bold strokes as the beginning of a real and 
 long-hoped-for reform. Among these was a preacher 
 and priest named Matthew Zell, who was already doing 
 some effective reformatory preaching when, in 1523, the 
 two men came who were to be the leaders in establishing 
 the Reformation in Strasburg; these were Wolfgang 
 Capito and Martin Bucer, or Butzer. 1 
 
 At the then somewhat considerable town of Hague- 
 nau, in Alsace, there lived toward the end of the fifteenth 
 century a German family named Kopfel, signifying " lit- 
 tle head." Among the sons of the family, born in 1478, 
 was one who received the name of Wolfgang and after- 
 ward Latinized his surname into Capito. In after years 
 he remembered to have heard as a lad considerable talk 
 of Huss and Jerome of Prague ; of good John of Wes- 
 sel, who had been imprisoned and died in jail because at 
 Augsburg he had dared to preach that the Bible was 
 above the pope ; and of the great " Dr. Kaisersberg," as 
 Geiler was familiarly called, who was preaching with 
 such power at Strasburg. The eager and intelligent 
 boy was educated with a view to medicine as a profes- 
 
 1 An admirable double biography is that of W. Baum in the 
 V ater und Gr under series ; and a well written article based on this 
 work is found in the (English) Diet. Nat. Biog., on account of 
 Butzer's work in England.
 
 426 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 sion, and after preliminary schooling got his degree in 
 medicine at the University of Freiburg. But his heart 
 was not in that branch of study; and his father's death 
 soon after he received his degree made him feel the im- 
 potence of his profession, and also left him free to leave 
 it. As he had means to pursue his studies where and as 
 he liked, he turned to law, and then theology, studying 
 at Freiburg, Basel, and Ingolstadt, as suited his pleasure. 
 Thus he was graduated in the three departments of 
 medicine, law, and theology, taking his degree in the last 
 from Ingolstadt. Besides the regular course he read 
 widely, and became one of the most accomplished schol- 
 ars of his age, being a peer in that brilliant coterie of 
 Humanists that centered in Basel around Erasmus. He 
 was made, in the fall of 1511, dean of the faculty of 
 liberal arts at Freiburg and licentiate that is, lecturer 
 in theology. But he desired to preach, and was glad to 
 accept a call to Bruchsal, an inconsiderable pastorate in 
 the diocese of Spires, where he spent several years. 
 
 Capito's next appointment was much more to his taste 
 in 1515 he was made one of the cathedral preachers at 
 Basel. Here for some years he labored with much suc- 
 cess, preaching with great acceptance and growing all 
 the time in evangelical convictions. He was one of those 
 men whom insight, breadth and charity prevent from 
 being partisans ; who can always see both sides of a quar- 
 rel and have sympathy for whatever is good in both. This 
 amiable characteristic often gives rise to suspicions of in- 
 sincerity, wavering, and doubleness. But Capito was not 
 open to such charges. He agreed with Luther, but dis- 
 liked his coarseness ; he did not hold with Erasmus, but 
 he admired his good points and valued his friendship. 
 Hence he tried in vain to hinder or heal the breach be- 
 tween these men, and to some extent suffered in the esti- 
 mation of both. He did not believe in rash revolutionary 
 measures, but favored the progress of reformation prin- 
 ciples by the slower method of indoctrination and influ- 
 ence. The strifes at Basel became too fierce for his peace- 
 ful nature, and he was glad to accept a position not a 
 very well defined one as preacher and secretary to that 
 curious jumble of politician and ecclesiastic, petty prince 
 and electoral archbishop, Albert of Brandenburg, at
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 427 
 
 Mainz. As counsellor of that dignitary he attended the 
 famous Diet at Worms, in 1521, where Luther made his 
 brave stand. More and more Capito was satisfied of the 
 truth of the Reformation doctrines, and his position at 
 Mainz was becoming intolerable. It was a welcome call, 
 therefore, that came to him from the authorities lat 
 Strasburg in 1523 to become chief preacher at the 
 church of St. Thomas in that city. 
 
 This was a decisive point and the opening of the last 
 stage in Capito's life. On coming to Strasburg he found 
 Matthew Zell at work, and later in the same year (1523) 
 came Martin Butzer. The three worked together in great 
 harmony, according to their different characters ; and by 
 their preaching, the intelligent aid of the council, and 
 the providential drift of the age, the Reformation was 
 finally established at Strasburg in 1529. On February 
 20 of that year the popular assembly by a vote of 184 to 
 94 ordered the discontinuance of the mass in the churches. 
 Of course there were trials in all this time. Capito had 
 been promoted to the pastorate at St. Peter's Church, 
 and his congregations and influence had increased. He 
 felt the justice of many of the demands of the peasants, 
 but counselled moderation ; he saw much that was Scrip- 
 tural in the Anabaptist contentions, and though deplor- 
 ing their excesses, he judged them much less harshly 
 than did his colleagues ; he sympathized with Zwingli's 
 views on the Lord's Supper, but would take no part in 
 the Marburg conference. He had much to do in draw- 
 ing up the so-called Tetrapolitan Confession represent- 
 ing the theologians of the four cities of Strasburg, Lin- 
 dau, Constance and Memmingen which emphasized the 
 mediating position of the Strasburg leaders. In 1541 
 the plague visited the city, and among its numerous vic- 
 tims was the venerable and beloved Capito. 
 
 Enough has been said of his great learning, his notable 
 moderation and breadth of sympathy. As a preacher he 
 was not preeminent, but Scriptural, clear, winsome. His 
 scholarly expositions, earnestness of feeling, and ac- 
 ceptability of manner, drew always good congregations, 
 who loved to wait on his ministry ; and, as in the case of 
 others who stand in the second rank as preachers, the 
 best witness to the power of his preaching is not the tra-
 
 428 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 dition of remarkable eloquence, but the enduring good 
 accomplished. 
 
 One of the most interesting characters in the history 
 of the Reformation was Capito's colleague at Strasburg, 
 Martin Butzer, or Bucer, as the name is more commonly 
 but less correctly written. His father, a well esteemed 
 man, was a cooper by trade, and lived first at Schlestadt, 
 where Martin was born, in 1491, and later removed to 
 Strasburg, where he became in time a respected member 
 of the council. The story of Martin Butzer's life and 
 work is full of vicissitudes and interest, but as he was 
 more of a theologian and lecturer than preacher, he can 
 claim only summary notice here. For the sake of educa- 
 tion he joined the Dominicans, and for a while, in their 
 monastery at Heidelberg, enjoyed university privileges. 
 Released from his vows at last because of growing re- 
 formatory principles, he held an assistant's place in a 
 church at Weissenberg. Like a true reformer, he had 
 defied the law of celibacy and married an excellent wife. 
 His reform preaching aroused opposition, and both he 
 and his superior were driven out of Weissenberg. 
 
 It was thus that Martin Butzer, in the early spring of 
 1523, came to his father's house in Strasburg, homeless, 
 without means, with a young wife, soon to be a mother, 
 and accompanied by a friend similarly situated. 
 
 Capito and Zell welcomed Butzer as an able recruit 
 in their reforming campaign, but though many in Stras- 
 burg sympathized with the new views, and the authori- 
 ties were leaning that way, it still was not so easy to find 
 a place for a married priest. People had not yet become 
 accustomed to that part of the reform! Still the son of 
 good citizen Butzer was not to be discredited, and the 
 friend of Capito could not be ignored. Soon some place 
 was found for him to teach, expound the Scriptures, and 
 thus really preach ; and later, upon the foundation of the 
 university, he was appointed a professor, and with the 
 progress of the reformation there came to him full recog- 
 nition as preacher and places to preach with authority. 
 
 The main significance of Martin Butzer in the history 
 of the Reformation lies in the laborious, earnest, faith- 
 ful, but ineffectual, efforts he made to harmonize the 
 Lutheran and Zwinglian parties in their unhappy division
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 429 
 
 over the Lord's Supper. It was the problem and the 
 effort of his life, and it brought him much trial and little 
 success. His realization of the beatitude of the peace- 
 makers was reserved for the heavenly life. 
 
 When the result of the Smalcald War left Charles V. 
 free to oppress the Protestants, Butzer opposed with all 
 earnestness the emperor's so-called Interim, or effort to 
 enforce a religious truce by compromise. But Strasburg 
 was made to accept the Interim, and Butzer in 1548 left 
 the city and country. At that time, under Edward VI. 
 and Cranmer, Protestantism was in the ascendant in 
 England, and by Cranmer's influence Butzer was offered 
 a professorship of theology at Cambridge. He was glad 
 to accept the place, and so ended his interesting and use- 
 ful life as professor in one of England's great universi- 
 ties. He was diligent in lecturing and writing while at 
 Cambridge, but his failing health hindered and shortened 
 his activity, and in 1551 he died. It is shameful that 
 under Bloody Mary his body was disinterred and burned ; 
 but in the reign of Elizabeth honor was done to his mem- 
 ory. 
 
 Butzer had ample scholarship, and held his own with 
 the lights of his time in theological learning. He left 
 numerous writings on many subjects, mostly in Latin. 
 His style was diffuse and obscure, so much so that Calvin 
 once said in speaking of some writing of a like mind, 
 " Butzer himself has nothing so obscure, ambiguous, 
 tortuous." Of his sermons, strictly speaking, there seem 
 to be no important remains. If his spoken discourse 
 was like his writing he must have been hard to follow; 
 but he had a good voice and presence, and his long and 
 successful service in the pulpit shows that, notwith- 
 standing faults of style, and some lack of clearness in 
 thought, he must have been more than an ordinary 
 preacher. 
 
 We must not forget that besides these great leaders 
 who have been singled out for notice, there were a great 
 many others, more or less known, who caught the spirit 
 and methods of these and exemplified the peculiar type 
 of Reformation preaching all over German Switzerland. 
 Some would be well worthy of study, both for their char- 
 acters and methods ; but those whom we have had under
 
 43 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 review are enough to indicate both the general course 
 of the Swiss Reformation and the kind of preaching 
 which characterized it. Nor must we forget the Ana- 
 baptists, for whom the gentle Capito had a kindly feel- 
 ing, the other leaders only opposition and persecution ; 
 but it seems best to tell what little is known of them and 
 their preaching in connection with their brethren in other 
 countries. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 PREACHERS OF THE REFORMATION IN FRANCE AND OTHER 
 EUROPEAN LANDS 
 
 It was an unhappy thing for France that the character 
 of her monarch and the condition of her affairs in the 
 early sixteenth century forced into exile or obscurity 
 or subserviency the men who would have been her re- 
 formers. To those who were too great to be obscure and 
 too true to be subservient exile was the only resource, 
 and hence the center of French reform is not Paris or 
 Lyons, but Geneva. Yet the beginnings were in France. 
 
 i. THE PARTIAL AND EARLY REFORMERS 
 
 As in other lands, the movement started in France 
 among the churchmen with no thought of separation, 
 but of purification in both doctrine and morals. And 
 though many of those who started the movement re- 
 mained still in the old church, they are worthy of re- 
 membrance for what they began and left to more con- 
 sistent men to carry on.. Several of these deserve notice. 
 
 Jacques Le Fevre d'Etaples, or Jacobus Faber Stapu- 
 lensis, in the Latin form of his name, was not a preacher, 
 but an eminent humanist scholar, and the beloved and in- 
 fluential teacher of many preachers. He was a man re- 
 markable for sweetness of character, and for all sorts 
 of learning. When he gave his attention to Biblical 
 and theological subjects he touched them with the hand 
 of a master. His views were decidedly in the direction 
 of reform, but, like Erasmus though very unlike him 
 in many respects he stopped short when it came to 
 leaving the Catholic church. William Briqonnet, bishop 
 of Meaux, and by special permission also abbot of St.
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 431 
 
 Germain des Pres at Paris, was a pupil of Le Fevre, and 
 at one time had decided leanings toward reform, though 
 he, too, naturally drew back when separation from the 
 Catholic church became a logical necessity. When Bri- 
 qonnet became abbot of St. Germain des Pres in 1507 
 he gave Le Fevre an appointment as teacher in his abbey, 
 and here for a number of years the pious scholar taught 
 the Scriptures. He published versions of the Bible and 
 a number of long useful commentaries, and he had 
 among his pupils at different times both Farel and Cal- 
 vin, besides a number of others who in one way or an- 
 other took part in the religious movements of the age. 
 Le Fevre's commentaries show that he taught a much 
 purer Christianity than the current Romanism, and it is 
 no wonder that numbers of his pupils became Reformers. 
 Brigonnet, too, after his manner, gave decided impulse 
 to the new movement, for among other things he encour- 
 aged in his diocese of Meaux a number of men to preach 
 and expound the Scriptures in the new way. But this 
 work was broken up when the church authorities per- 
 ceived its drift, and Briqonnet returned to a closer con- 
 formity to the old religion. 
 
 One who came much nearer at one time to being an 
 active reformer than either Le Fevre or Brigonnet was 
 Gerard Roussel (1480-1550), who came from near 
 Amiens, and was a pupil of Le Fevre. He gave sympathy 
 and applause to Luther's first steps in beginning the Re- 
 formation. He was one of those who at Briqonnet's in- 
 vitation preached the evangelical doctrines in his diocese, 
 but was required to cease when the authorities withdrew 
 the permission. In 1525 he fled to Strasburg to escape 
 arrest, but was recalled at the instance of Queen Mar- 
 garet of Navarre, the sister of Francis I., who favored 
 the reformers and helped them all she could. Later 
 Roussel became her confessor, and later still, through 
 her influence, was made a bishop. His reaction toward 
 the old faith and virtual abandonment of the reformed 
 cause afterwards called forth a strong letter from Calvin 
 rebuking him for his course. He was an eloquent and 
 forcible preacher, and though he did not leave the Cath- 
 olic church he was really one of the pioneer preachers of 
 reform in France.
 
 432 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 Coming to those who in the early years followed con- 
 science and logic, and thus came out of the old estab- 
 lishment into new and untried ways, we meet almost first 
 the honored name of Francois Lambert (d. 1530). He 
 was born at Avignon in 1486. At fifteen years of age 
 he joined the Franciscan order, and soon so distinguished 
 himself by his study of the Scriptures and by his elo- 
 quence that he was made a travelling preacher. Like 
 Luther he had great spiritual struggles, and even wished 
 to go into a more strict order of monks for discipline, 
 but this was refused him. About 1520 he read the early 
 writings of Luther and became at once and decidedly 
 convinced that the reformer was right. He was not a 
 man to keep silent, and naturally fell under suspicion 
 of heresy. Notwithstanding this, however, it may be at 
 his own request, he was sent on a preaching tour into 
 Germany in 1522. Going by way of Geneva and Lau- 
 sanne, he came to Bern, where he met Haller, and was 
 encouraged by him to hold a public disputation on the 
 points involved in the current controversy. Thus he and 
 Haller gave each other help and encouragement, and 
 Lambert went on his way strengthened in his views. At 
 Zurich his remaining doubts were resolved and he de- 
 cisively committed himself to the Reformation, though 
 this meant severance from his order and exile from his 
 native land. Perhaps he did not regret the first of these 
 results, but the second was always a grief to him. His 
 life henceforth belongs to Germany rather than to France. 
 
 He went to Wittenberg in 1523, and there forever 
 renounced Catholicism, married and took a course in the- 
 ology with Luther, Melanchthon and the rest. It was 
 impossible for him now to return to France, though he 
 tried to get a place at Metz, and then at Strasburg, where 
 he might be near enough to help the cause of his native 
 land. But he failed to become established at either place. 
 At last he came under the notice of Philip of Hesse, who 
 protected him and got him to draw up a plan of organi- 
 zation for the Protestant churches in Hesse. Though 
 his plan had to be modified in many particulars it was the 
 basis of the Hessian church system. In 1527 he was 
 made a professor in the newly constituted university at 
 Marburg, but did not live long to fill this place, being car-
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 433 
 
 ried oft" by the plague in 1530. His reformatory views 
 were rather Zwinglian than Lutheran. He was an elo- 
 quent and impressive speaker, after the Keltic type, and 
 was often too vehement in action and in word. But he 
 was a true and noble man, and would gladly have given 
 his life to France if he had been permitted. 
 
 2. FAREL AND His ASSOCIATES 
 
 The leading place among the early French and Swiss 
 Reformers belongs to Farel and the two younger men 
 associated with him, Froment and Viret. 1 
 
 The leader of this group, William Farel (d. 1565), 
 was born at Gap in 1489. He was one of a large family, 
 early showed a fondness for study and religion, and, after 
 making good progress in the neighborhood schools, he 
 was sent to the University of Paris for further study. But 
 the quality of instruction had so declined in those days 
 that the ardent mind of Farel was not satisfied by it, and 
 he turned to Le Fevre for teaching in philosophy. 
 Le Fevre, it will be remembered, was also teaching the 
 Bible and theology. The study of the Scriptures under 
 that great teacher was an increasing delight to the young 
 man, and it led him to see clearly that there was a woful 
 difference between the Bible and the doctrines and prac- 
 tices of the Catholic church. There was the inevitable 
 struggle between the traditional beliefs and his new- 
 found faith. When he laid his case before Le Fevre the 
 good teacher said, " My friend, listen well to this : I read 
 the signs of the times and here is my thought God is 
 going to renew the face of the religious world, and you 
 will be a witness of it." Then and there the young man 
 felt that he must not only witness but take part in the 
 coming change. He gladly availed himself of Bric.on- 
 net's plan of campaign, and after remaining awhile 
 longer at Paris, he was found at Meaux in 1521 with that 
 group of ardent young souls preaching and expounding 
 the Scriptures among the people. A stop was soon put 
 to the good bishop's innovation, and the movement was 
 
 1 Besides various encyclopaedia articles, accounts in the church 
 histories, and incidental notices in Beza's and Bungener's lives of 
 Calvin, I have found profit and pleasure in reading a bright sketch 
 by Charles Cheneviere, Farel, Froment et Viret, Geneva, 1855.
 
 434 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 suppressed. As Farel had been very zealous and pro- 
 nounced, he thought it best to go into hiding for awhile, 
 hoping that the storm would cease and he would in time 
 have some opening in France to preach the reform doc- 
 trines. But after about a year of inactivity, as the pros- 
 pects seemed no better, he sadly turned away from France 
 and came, in 1523, to Basel. 
 
 Here the excellent CEcolampadius received and en- 
 couraged him. It will be recalled that they held a public 
 disputation on the questions between the Catholics and 
 Reformers. Farel put up his theses in Latin and de- 
 fended them in the same tongue, CEcolampadius interpret- 
 ing. The result was favorable to reform and encourag- 
 ing to the Reformers. But it aroused the ire of Erasmus, 
 and he used his influence to have Farel sent away. 
 
 After visiting Zurich, and later Strasburg, Farel 
 turned, though not without fear and trembling at first, 
 to French Switzerland. It is pleasant to know that his 
 chief human encouragement in beginning the distinctive 
 work of his life came from the wise and gentle CEcolam- 
 padius, who not only urged him to the task, but gave him 
 salutary and needed cautions against the vehemence and 
 excess which were Farel's main fault. He had a suc- 
 cessful evangelistic career in the towns of French Swit- 
 zerland. In some he remained longer than in others, in 
 all he preached the gospel with an eloquence born of 
 conviction, and with all the fire of his race. He did not 
 always keep the good counsel of CEcolampadius he was 
 a Frenchman and Farel! Once he snatched the wafer 
 out of the hand of a priest who was going to administer 
 extreme unction to a dying man. This was perhaps the 
 most extreme of his many extravagant actions, and was 
 indefensible on any grounds. It is needless to say that 
 his usefulness in that place was at an end. 
 
 Often he was mobbed, insulted, sometimes beaten, but 
 never subdued. When he succeeded in establishing a re- 
 formed church in a place he would leave it in the hands 
 of a pastor or pastors. At Orbe, in 1531, he was very 
 roughly treated, but his visit there is memorable for 
 having brought out and started on his way the later asso- 
 ciate of himself and Calvin at Geneva, the useful and elo- 
 quent Viret.
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 435 
 
 In 1532 Farel attended the synod at Bern, and then 
 went, at great risk, into Piedmont to a synod of the 
 Waldenses and helped them conform their churches 
 more closely to the divine Word. He saw that they 
 needed leaders and a version of the Bible, and he prom- 
 ised to send them four men who should help them. He 
 was as good as his word, and later sent them the men, 
 among whom was Robert Olivetan, a kinsman and friend 
 of John Calvin, who had helped that young man in his 
 early struggles toward the truth, an admirable teacher 
 who had aided in giving the Reformation a start at 
 Geneva, and a pious scholar whose version of the Scrip- 
 tures for these Waldensians was one of the earliest trans- 
 lations of the Bible into French. 
 
 On his return from Piedmont, accompanied by Sau- 
 nier, another useful helper and preacher, Farel came to 
 Geneva in September, 1532. Olivetan was then teaching 
 there, and he told Farel that a beginning had been made 
 toward reform, and that some people in Geneva were 
 hungering for the truth. Farel needed no further hint, 
 and decided to remain and preach the reform. He held 
 frequent conversations with those who would come to 
 his lodgings, and as a result fifteen citizens were con- 
 verted. The news spread, and soon the lodgings would 
 not hold the crowds who came to hear the gospel. This, 
 of course, roused the anger of the Catholics, and there 
 was much excitement. But the city authorities proposed 
 that Farel should meet his opponents in a public discus- 
 sion of the points in controversy, and that the debate 
 should be held before the council. Nothing suited Farel 
 better, and he and his friends came joyfully before the 
 council on the day appointed. But the priests wanted no 
 fair debate ; there was no prospect of victory for them in 
 that. Instead of arguments they resorted to clubs, and 
 made a tumult, breaking up the meeting with violence. 
 Farel and Saunier were beaten almost to death, but 
 finally the authorities succeeded in getting them out of 
 the city. Thus in disorder and violence Protestantism 
 made its beginning in Geneva, but it had come to stay ; 
 and this seeming defeat was not the last of Farel. At 
 Granson the two companions, wounded and sore, but not 
 discouraged, recounted their experiences to sympathizers,
 
 436 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 and among these was Antoine Froment, who was filled 
 with a desire to go to Geneva and find ways to hold to- 
 gether the disciples who had been gathered there, and 
 carry on the work. He went, in this fall of 1532. In 
 the next year, encouraged and in a measure protected by 
 the Bernese authorities, who had strong and growing 
 political influence at Geneva, Farel returned, accom- 
 panied this time by Viret. They joined Froment in car- 
 rying forward the work. The details of their trials and 
 successes we have to pass over. Suffice it to say that 
 the Reformation constantly gained upon the old faith, 
 both among the people and with their official heads, but 
 there was constant and formidable opposition. 
 
 In 1535 the long contest was decided, and by formal 
 vote of the council Protestantism was recognized and es- 
 tablished as the religion of Geneva. But much remained 
 to be done both in settling the new order of things and in 
 keeping up the fight with the remaining and vigorous op- 
 position. 
 
 In the early summer of 1536, the young John Calvin 
 was passing through Geneva with his brother and sister, 
 seeking in this roundabout way a refuge in Strasburg 
 or Basel. Farel saw in Calvin the qualifications needed 
 just then in a leader for Geneva, and so wrought upon 
 him that Calvin heeded the call as from God and con- 
 sented to remain and work with the three pioneers in 
 further establishing and strengthening the cause of re- 
 form in Geneva. 
 
 For a time the four reformers worked on together, but 
 soon Viret went to Lausanne, and in 1538 the party hostile 
 to the disciplinary measures of the reform gained the 
 upper hand, and banished Calvin, Farel and Froment. 
 After awhile Farel became pastor at Neuchatel, which 
 remained his place of residence and the main scene of his 
 labors until his death, in 1565, a few months after Cal- 
 vin's. The remainder of his long and useful life was full 
 of activity and of successful work. Neuchatel formally 
 adopted the Reformation in 1542, and other signal suc- 
 cesses were achieved by the veteran. But his life had 
 reached its culmination in that dramatic and splendid 
 scene when he laid on the heart and mind of John Calvin 
 the cause of reform at Geneva, and resigned into abler
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 437 
 
 hands than his own the direction and consummation of 
 a work that his courage, eloquence and self-sacrifice had 
 so nobly begun. 
 
 Farel was not without serious faults of character, 
 chief of which were his rashness and excess. He could 
 not be prudent, and was sometimes vehement to the point 
 of violence and rudeness. But he was sincere, self-sacri- 
 ficing, devoted and brave. He left some writings, but 
 they are of no great importance. He had studied well 
 in his youth, and was well versed in the Scriptures, but 
 he was a man of action rather than of the pen. He was 
 not a deep but a quick and ready thinker, and a good de- 
 bater. No sermons remain as specimens of his preach- 
 ing, and if they did they could not in printed form ex- 
 press the man. But the results of his work and the 
 accounts of his preaching tell us more plainly than writ- 
 ten discourses could that he was a man of mighty and 
 moving speech. He had good presence and voice, his 
 words came like a torrent, and his own fiery nature and 
 powerful convictions kindled a glow in those who heard. 
 Sharp and bitter in attack, he could also be tender and 
 persuasive in appeal. Before the multitude, in the popu- 
 lar eloquence that takes hold of the crowd and stirs them 
 profoundly, whether for opposition or consent, there was 
 among the early reformers no superior to William Farel. 
 
 Antoine Froment (1509-1581) was born in Dauphine, 
 and was early converted there under the influence of one 
 of the evangelical preachers of Brigonnet's company at 
 Meaux. He began to preach, but persecution soon drove 
 him to find a refuge in Switzerland, where he met with 
 Farel and took some share in his work. On the expul- 
 sion of Farel and Saunier from Geneva in 1532, Froment 
 was working at Granson, and the story of their success 
 and sufferings so worked on him that, with Farel's en- 
 couragement, he determined to go to Geneva, and, if 
 possible, find some means to continue the work which 
 they had begun and had been so rudely forced to leave. 
 Arriving in Geneva he opened a school for teaching 
 French, and along with that taught the new doctrines in 
 religion. The pupils told their parents, many of them 
 were interested, others gathered, and Froment's school 
 soon became a place of worship. The opposition was
 
 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 alert and active, and Froment thought he would have to 
 leave. In fact, he did start away, but had not gone far 
 before he began to feel that he was not playing the man, 
 and he determined to retrace his steps and, braving all 
 danger, take up his work again. Later he was joined by 
 Farel and Viret, as we have seen, and the three worked 
 on together till Calvin came, in 1536, and gave a new im- 
 petus and direction to the work, till all were forced to 
 retire for awhile in 1538. 
 
 The later life of Froment was, unhappily, not credita- 
 ble. He fell into serious faults. In 1549 he left the 
 ministry, and in various ways made his living. Among 
 other things he was at one time secretary to Bonivard, 
 the famous Genevese patriot and " prisoner of Chillon," 
 at whose request Froment wrote an account of the early 
 days of the Reformation in Geneva. It is believed that 
 Froment sincerely repented of his errors of conduct. The 
 lapse of his later years has been forgotten in apprecia- 
 tion of his earlier services, and his name is inscribed, along 
 with those of Farel, Viret, and Calvin, on the memorial 
 tablet in the temple of St. Pierre at Geneva as one of the 
 honored reformers of the city. 
 
 As a preacher Froment had something of the popular 
 eloquence, the rough and ready speech of Farel, but he 
 was not so great a man either in mind or character. 
 
 A worthier and abler man than Froment was Pierre 
 Viret (1511-1571), a native of Orbe, in the canton of 
 Vaud, and, therefore, a Swiss by birth. His father was 
 a tailor, who, however, perceived and appreciated the 
 talent and promise of his son, designed him for the 
 church, and in 1527 sent him to Paris to be educated for 
 the priesthood. Here for three years he studied under 
 Le Fevre, whose teaching planted deeply in his mind the 
 seeds of evangelical truth. But, properly speaking, his 
 conversion to Protestantism and his entrance into the 
 ministry were, under God, the work of Farel. In 1531 
 that intense reformer was preaching at Orbe, and, as 
 usual, met with opposition and ill-treatment. Viret was 
 roused to sympathy by the indignities put upon the 
 preacher, as well as strengthened in his reformed con- 
 victions by the preaching. Farel invited him to share 
 his work and his sufferings, and to begin by preaching
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 439 
 
 then and there, in his own town, the doctrines that he 
 held. Viret consented, and preached his first sermon as 
 a reformer under those circumstances. He was with 
 Farel a good deal in his travels, but also did much inde- 
 pendent work. He preached at many places in Switzer- 
 land and in southern France, and had his share of inter- 
 esting and perilous adventures. Once his life was at- 
 tempted by an angry priest, who wounded him with a 
 sword, and once a fanatical servant girl poisoned his 
 food and he with difficulty recovered. These injuries 
 seriously impaired his health for life. His work at Neu- 
 chatel and Lausanne was greatly blessed, and, as we have 
 seen, he worked with Farel and Froment in getting the 
 Reformation established in Geneva in 1535. Two years 
 later, and before the retirement of the reformers from 
 Geneva, Viret accepted a call to Lausanne, where he did 
 excellent and lasting service to the cause of reform, not 
 only as pastor, but also by the establishment of a school, 
 the germ of that noble university which has had so 
 honorable a record in Protestant history. 
 
 When Geneva, tired of anarchy in religion and unbri- 
 dled license in manners, concluded to recall the reform- 
 ers, Viret was invited to come back from Lausanne, and 
 he returned to Geneva before Calvin. It was greatly 
 to Calvin's delight that he had on his return the help of 
 this true and tried fellow-laborer. But the climate of 
 Geneva proved rather severe for Viret's health, and he 
 sought the south of France. He preached with great 
 success in a number of cities in southern France, and at 
 last, as Cheneviere says, " felt himself strong enough to 
 confront the fogs of the Rhone, and respond to a call of 
 the Reformed at Lyons." Here he labored for nearly a 
 year with such wonderful favor that several thousand 
 persons were converted, a strong church was formed, and 
 there was prospect of making Lyons a sort of center for 
 Protestantism in France. But the Catholics were alarmed 
 and procured an edict from Charles IX. that only native- 
 born Frenchmen be allowed to preach in the Protestant 
 churches in France. As Viret was of Swiss birth, he was 
 forced to leave. Geneva tried again to get him, but he 
 preferred a milder climate, and after teaching school for 
 a while at Orange he made his way to Orthez in the little
 
 440 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 kingdom of Beam, or Navarre, where the celebrated 
 Jeanne d'Albret, the Protestant princess and mother of 
 the future Henry IV. of France, was holding her court. 
 Protected and honored by the queen, Viret passed his re- 
 maining days as preacher and theological teacher at Or- 
 thez, and at his death his remains were honored with 
 burial in the royal vault. 
 
 In winsomeness, amiability, attractiveness, Viret was 
 superior to Farel and Froment and to Calvin, too; as a 
 preacher he was superior to Froment, and very different 
 from both of the others. While not deficient in learning 
 and culture, he, of course, was far below Calvin, though 
 above Farel. His eloquence had not the thoughtful 
 power of Calvin's, nor the vehement energy of Farel's ; it 
 was gentle, persuasive, flowing. His voice was sweet, but 
 weak, and crowds almost held their breath to hear him. 
 There was a charm and persuasiveness that drew and 
 won, while yet, under sense of wrong and against arro- 
 gant sin, the delicate lips could quiver with indignation 
 and utter the sharpest sarcasms. In writing Viret was 
 too diffuse, and probably this fault affected his sermons 
 also, though of these no printed specimens remain. 
 
 3. CALVIN AND BEZA 
 
 Great in many ways and wonderfully useful as were 
 these early promoters of the Reformation in France and 
 French Switzerland, they all come far below the com- 
 manding genius and extended influence of one who built 
 upon their foundations indeed, but such a structure as it 
 was not given to them to raise John Calvin 1 (1509- 
 
 In the early years of the sixteenth century there lived 
 in the town of Noyon, in Picardy, a worthy citizen whose 
 name was Gerard Cauvin, or Chauvin. The name was 
 Latinized later into Calvinus, and then abbreviated into 
 Calvin. 
 
 His wife, Jeanne Lefranc, was a woman of excellent 
 
 1 For Calvin, besides many general authorities too numerous to 
 mention in detail, I have found specially helpful the following: 
 The brief rtsumi of his life prefixed to Calvin's commentary on 
 the Psalms; Vie de Calvin, par Theodore de Beze; Jean Calvin, 
 sa Vie, son (Euvre, et ses Ecrits, par Felix Bungener, Paris 1862 ; 
 and some sermons in both the orginal and translations.
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 441 
 
 gifts and piety, who taught the best Catholic religion 
 of her times to her children. Among these one named 
 for his mother, Jean (John), was born in 1509. A deli- 
 cate child he was, but marvellously bright, with his keen 
 eyes, clear head, and prodigious memory. His parents 
 early destined him for the church the mother with the 
 yearnings of piety, the father with those of ambition. 
 Seeing bishoprics or a cardinalate ahead, Gerard worked 
 hard to secure for the gifted youth a suitable education. 
 But as the cost was very great, Cauvin, who had influ- 
 ence with the ecclesiastical authorities, used it to secure 
 for the studious and pure lad an appointment as chaplain 
 in a small church in the neighborhood, that the little sal- 
 ary attached to the place might help defray the expenses 
 of education. 
 
 At first the boy John seems not to have been required 
 to discharge any of the duties of his office. Later his 
 father obtained the privilege that he should not even be 
 required to reside near his church, but should be per- 
 mitted to pursue his studies " when and where he would." 
 And so, in 1523, at the age of fourteen, we find him at 
 Paris, where he studied at various schools and greatly 
 distinguished himself in all departments, but especially 
 in logic and related subjects. His morals were absolutely 
 pure, and his grave rebukes of his companions obtained 
 for him, more in pleasantry than bitterness, the nick- 
 name of " The Accusative." Meantime the busy Gerard 
 has secured an additional appointment for the youth, 
 which enables him to go on with his studies. So John 
 Calvin, before he is twenty years old, is chaplain at two 
 places Noyon and Pont T Eveque, not very far away. 
 He did not, however, receive ordination as a priest; but 
 had some nominal functions to perform, and seems to 
 have visited his appointments and occasionally to have 
 preached. The arrangement certainly was not a proper 
 one, from any point of view, but it must be remembered 
 that such things were often tolerated, and this was done 
 openly and by regular authority of the bishop of Noyon ; 
 that Calvin held these offices with the expectation of fully 
 discharging their duties when he had completed his 
 studies, or of giving himself to the service of the church 
 in other ways; and finally, that when his views changed
 
 442 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 and he felt compelled to leave the church he voluntarily 
 resigned both offices. 
 
 And now Gerard's ambition takes a new turn, and he 
 decides that under the general permission to pursue his 
 studies at his pleasure John may undertake the study of 
 law, and devote himself to that lucrative profession if he 
 should hereafter find it desirable ! Under this liberal con- 
 struction of privilege we find the obedient son not from 
 his own inclination next engaged in the mastery of the 
 science of law. He pursued this study with notable suc- 
 cess under distinguished teachers at Orleans and Bruges. 
 This training was an important element in his after ca- 
 reer. 
 
 While at Paris Calvin had been much under the in- 
 fluence of his excellent kinsman, Robert Olivetan, whom 
 he had heard boldly preach the evangelical doctrines. 
 His own earnest study of theology, of the stirring ques- 
 tions raised by the reformers, and, most of all, of the 
 Bible, had been slowly but surely turning his mind to- 
 ward Protestantism. While studying law at Bruges he 
 forsook neither his Bible studies nor his religious activi- 
 ties. He took up the study of Greek with Alleman (or 
 Walmer, the eminent Swabian humanist, who later also 
 taught Theodore Beza), and in a short time mastered 
 the language and studied the Greek Testament with de- 
 light and to good purpose. Meantime the people in the 
 neighborhood, hungering for religious instruction, urged 
 him to lecture and preach. By permission of the authori- 
 ties he thus informally and often preached and expounded 
 Scripture at the little town of Berri near by. In this way 
 he began his work as a preacher, and thus early was 
 fixed the character of his preaching, as clear and popular 
 exposition of Scripture. 
 
 It was during this time, too, that his final hesitations 
 were dismissed, and he found mental and spiritual rest 
 in the full acceptance of the distinctive reformed doc- 
 trines and of Christ as the only Saviour. His own account 
 of the great crisis that he then passed is given with 
 characteristic force and terseness in his beautiful Latin 
 in the preface to his commentary on the Psalms, and sets 
 forth the fact that, after he had long been obstinately de- 
 voted to the errors of the papacy, God, by his grace, had
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 443 
 
 " reduced his hardened mind to docility by a sudden con- 
 version." 1 He does not go into details, as the more 
 genial Luther did, and we can only conjecture the spirit- 
 ual struggle which culminated thus. Now, too, the death 
 of Gerard Cauvin left the son free to abandon the law 
 and required his attention to the family affairs at Noyon. 
 Later Calvin is sojourning at Paris and publishing his 
 first book, a commentary on Seneca's De dementia,. At 
 twenty-four years of age he is already accomplished in 
 classical, legal and theological training, and walks with 
 firm tread among the scholars of his time. During this 
 sojourn in Paris, not yet having left the Catholic church, 
 possibly hoping still for reformation within it, and wait- 
 ing for the drift of things, he is not idle, but studying 
 and in various ways teaching the reformed views. 
 
 At this time Nicholas Cop was rector of the University 
 of Paris, and being required to deliver a sermon upon 
 some important academic occasion, he asked Calvin to 
 assist him in preparing the discourse. When it was de- 
 livered its pronounced Protestantism created a storm. 
 Cop was compelled to flee, and the real author being sus- 
 pected and hunted, Calvin also was forced to leave Paris. 
 He retired first to Saintonge, where, in various ways, 
 teaching and preaching, he aided the little Protestant 
 flock gathered there ; and later went to Nerac to see the 
 aged Le Fevre, who was living there under protection of 
 Margaret of Navarre. This princess, who in so many 
 ways showed her care for the persecuted Protestants, 
 finally persuaded the king, her brother, to let the Cop 
 affair drop, and Calvin was allowed to return to Paris. 
 
 In the year 1534 Calvin went to Noyon and formally 
 resigned the two church offices that he held. He had 
 come to see that reformation within the church was not 
 to be hoped for, and that he must in conscience take his 
 place with the Protestants on the outside. In the fall 
 of that year Francis I., under clerical influences, came 
 out strongly in favor of the old faith, and began a vigor- 
 ous persecution of the Protestants. This practically 
 
 1 " Deus tamen arcano proyidentiae suae f reno cursum meum 
 alio tandem reflexit. Ac primo quidem, quum superstitionibus 
 papatus magis pertinaciter addictus essem, quam ut facile esset e 
 tarn profundo luto me extrahi, animum meum, qui pro aetate 
 nimis obduerat, subita conversione ad docilitatem subegit."
 
 444 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 drove the Protestants out of the kingdom. Like others, 
 Calvin sadly left his native land and retired to Switzer- 
 land. At Strasburg he was joyfully welcomed by Capito 
 and Butzer, and later went to Basel, where Myconius 
 and others likewise gave him a cordial reception. During 
 this time, with the help of Capito and Simon Grynaeus, 
 he learned Hebrew, and was now ready to study all the 
 Bible in the original languages. But the crowning event 
 of his sojourn at Basel was the writing and publishing, 
 in Latin, of his famous Institutes of Christianity. This 
 immortal and epoch-making work was one of the princi- 
 pal labors of Calvin's life, and passed through many edi- 
 tions and revisions before it reached its final form in 
 I 559 a f ew years before the author's death. 
 
 The occasion for writing and publishing the work 
 was that, for political reasons, in his quarrel with Charles 
 V., Francis had caused it to be given out that his oppres- 
 sion of the Protestants in France was directed against 
 seditious sectaries like the Anabaptists and others. Calvin 
 determined that a brief and clear statement of what the 
 Reformed commonly believed was called for. The pre- 
 face, written in French, was a brave and manly appeal to 
 the French king to consider what his Protestant subjects 
 really believed, and not allow himself to be misled by the 
 calumnies of their enemies. The treatise in six chapters 
 was a compendious and lucid statement of the principal 
 points held by the generality of Protestants as against 
 Rome. It was hailed by Reformers everywhere as a 
 clear and powerful expression of the things they held 
 in common; though (if a remark in the preface to the 
 Psalms is correctly understood) it appeared anonymously, 
 the author soon became known, and his name was on 
 every Protestant tongue. From now on John Calvin 
 takes his place with Zwingli and Luther as one of the 
 three greatest reformers of the sixteenth century. 
 
 After the publication of his book Calvin made a visit 
 to Italy to consult the Duchess of Ferrara, a princess of 
 France who, under the influence of Margaret of Valois, 
 had embraced Reformed views and favored the Protest- 
 ants as much as she dared. But her plans were thwarted 
 by the vigilant and determined Catholics, and, both on 
 her own account and that of her guests, it became unsafe
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 44$ 
 
 for them to remain long at Ferrara. By some force of 
 necessity, or during some lull in the watchfulness of the 
 persecutors, Calvin paid a last visit to his old home at 
 Noyon in the summer of 1536. Here he finally settled 
 his affairs, and, taking with him his brother Antony and 
 a sister, he proposed to find a home in Strasburg or 
 Basel. The direct way through Lorraine was then 
 closed by the war between Francis I. and Charles V., and 
 Calvin came around by way of Geneva, where he arrived 
 in August, 1536. 
 
 Farel learned of Calvin's presence in the city and vis- 
 ited him at his lodgings. What first impressions may 
 have been made on the veteran reformer by the pale, 
 thin, feeble-looking student we do not know; but as the 
 interview proceeded Farel began to urge Calvin to stay 
 at Geneva and take hold of the work He eloquently set 
 forth its need of a capable leader, a man qualified by edu- 
 cation to carry on the work in a way that he and his 
 associates could not. But Calvin was reluctant; he 
 pleaded his youth, his unfitness, and chiefly his love for 
 study, rather than the untried responsibilities of a life of 
 active leadership in difficult affairs. Finally, under a 
 sudden and irresistible impulse, Farel rose and, extending 
 his hand over Calvin, said :* " You have no other pretext 
 for refusing me than the attachment which you declare you 
 have for your studies. But I tell you, in the name of God Al- 
 mighty, that if you do not share with me the holy work 
 in which I am engaged he will not bless your plans, be- 
 cause you prefer your repose to Jesus Christ ! " Calvin 
 himself said that this " terrible adjuration " came to him 
 as the voice of God, and that he yielded, believing that it 
 was the divine will for him to take hold of the work at 
 Geneva. So now, with one brief and sharp interruption, 
 that city becomes his home, and, it may almost be said, 
 his kingdom, for the rest of his life. 
 
 Politically Geneva was at this time in a state of transi- 
 tion. Practically it was a republic all to itself, for it had 
 recently become free from the control of both the Cath- 
 olic bishops and the dukes of Savoy, who had quarrelled 
 over it for generations, and it had not yet joined the 
 Swiss Confederation. There were two popular assem- 
 1 Beza's Life (old French ed.), p. 22.
 
 446 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 blies, the Grand Council and a smaller body; and four 
 Syndics constituted the executive arm of the government. 
 
 As we have seen in our sketch of Farel, the council 
 had taken charge of both civil and religious affairs, and 
 had established the Reformed faith as the religion of 
 Geneva in 1535. Just one year later Calvin comes on the 
 scene. But things were really in quite a chaotic state, 
 and the new conditions required greater capacity for 
 organization and direction than any of the earlier re- 
 formers possessed. Farel was not mistaken in his man. 
 
 At the instance of Farel Calvin was appointed by the 
 council a preacher and teacher of theology. The hand of 
 the born leader soon appeared. Not only did preaching 
 and teaching occupy his time, but he drew up a catechism 
 and a confession of faith, and also laid his strong hand 
 to the reformation of morals by rigid church discipline. 
 Geneva was hardly ready for this, and the measures of 
 the reformers provoked such opposition as to lead at last 
 to a revulsion of feeling that ended in the election to office 
 of men who disliked the reformers, and finally secured, 
 in 1538, their deposition and banishment. Farel settled 
 at Neuchatel, Calvin at Strasburg, where Butzer and 
 Capito arranged that he should be pastor of a small 
 church of French refugees. 
 
 During the years at Strasburg (1538-1541) Calvin 
 was busy as preacher and pastor, but also much occupied 
 in theological writing, and in various ways helping on the 
 cause of the Reformation. Here he met and married 
 Idelette de Bure, the widow of a former Anabaptist 
 preacher, and she proved through her life a tender and 
 faithful spouse. But affairs at Geneva deeply concerned 
 him, and his influence was greatly felt. Moral, religious, 
 and political disorder reigned in the city, till, finally, feel- 
 ing again turned, and first Viret, and then Calvin himself, 
 was called to return and carry on the work of reform. 
 
 So in 1541 Calvin is again called as chief preacher and 
 teacher of theology at Geneva.- For more than twenty 
 years he filled that post and did a masterly work. We 
 are concerned with him chiefly as a preacher, and it does 
 not fall to this discussion to trace his career as a re- 
 former, as virtual civil guide, if not ruler, of his city, and 
 as theologian and counsellor of the Reformation in many
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 447 
 
 lands. After Luther's death he was the leading figure 
 among the Protestants, and his influence throughout Eu- 
 rope was immense. The one sad blot upon his great ca- 
 reer is the persecuting temper which he shared with many 
 others of his time, and which led (though he was not 
 alone to blame) to the execution of the erratic and surely 
 not admirable Servetus at Geneva. While that execution 
 cannot be justified, at least it should be remembered to 
 Calvin's credit that he tried to keep Servetus from coming 
 to Geneva and sought to mitigate the sentence of burning 
 at the stake which was imposed by the city council. To 
 Calvin himself it was a sad and bitter trial. 
 
 Sickness and death came to his people and to his fam- 
 ily. One after another his three babes died, and after 
 them the true and faithful wife. His own feeble frame, 
 naturally delicate, and worn down by severe study and 
 overwork, was racked with painful disorders. Yet this 
 man of high conscience and inflexible purpose worked on, 
 preaching in each alternate week every day, besides the 
 usual Sunday services, lecturing nearly every day on the- 
 ology, attending the meetings of the consistory on the 
 days appointed and guiding its deliberations, visiting the 
 sick of his flock, entertaining visitors, conducting a large 
 and taxing correspondence, and, as if these official duties 
 were not enough, writing his commentaries, revising and 
 republishing his Institutes and some other works, and re- 
 futing heretics ! It is simply marvellous how any one man 
 could have done all he did, and the wonder is intensified 
 when we remember that he was a feeble man, always ail- 
 ing and often ill. His wonderful memory, his power of 
 concentration, his capacity for affairs, his quick and pene- 
 trating intellect, his few hours of sleep, and, above all, 
 the driving wheel of his tremendous will help to explain 
 how he could attend to so much, but even this combina- 
 tion of gifts is itself a marvel. 
 
 Labors, sorrows, ill-health, overwork and crushing care 
 must have their victory at last over the frail body that 
 contained a mind and soul so great, and Calvin's end 
 was rapidly approaching. Repeated attacks of illness 
 prostrated him, and in February, 1564, he preached his 
 last sermon. His sickness was long and lingering. The 
 venerable Farel came from Neuchatel to see him, and
 
 448 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 their last interview must have been full of tender feeling 
 for both. One day Calvin assembled the councillors of 
 the city about his bed and gave them a parting address 
 and a solemn leave-taking. In the course of his talk to 
 them he said : x " I protest before God that not rashly, and 
 not without being persuaded of the truth, have I taught 
 you the doctrine which you have heard from me; but I 
 have preached to you purely and with sincerity the Word 
 of God according to the charge which he gave me con- 
 cerning it." 
 
 The next day he assembled the " company of pastors," 
 and, after solemnly charging them as to their duties, he 
 likewise bade them farewell. On the twenty-seventh day 
 of May, 1564, he was released from his long and painful 
 struggle and entered into the eternal peace. In accord- 
 ance with his wishes his funeral services, though largely 
 attended, were without pomp, and no inscription was 
 placed upon his grave. His unmarked tomb has long 
 been lost, but his name is enduringly written in the works 
 that live after him and in the abiding influences of his 
 life and mind. 
 
 Calvin had some serious faults of character along with 
 great and masterful virtues. He was irritable, and his 
 anger was often fierce and lasting. But he was conscious 
 and penitent of this and other faults. Pure and austere 
 in morals himself, he was a rigid disciplinarian and lack- 
 ing in sympathy for the weak and erring. Grave and 
 serious from childhood, he was deficient in geniality, in 
 humor, in gentleness. He seems to have practised reserve 
 and self- repression, but the tenderer sides of his nature 
 would sometimes, though rarely, appear. 
 
 Beza somewhere naively remarks that if Farel's fire and 
 Viret's winsomeness had been added to Calvin's qualities 
 the combination would have made a well-nigh perfect 
 preacher. As it was, the defects of Calvin's character 
 showed themselves in his work as a preacher. There is 
 lack of sympathy and charm, deficiency of imagination, 
 sparing use of illustration, no poetic turn, no moving 
 appeal, no soaring eloquence. But, on the other hand, the 
 virtues of the man and the endowments of the intellect 
 were great and telling. Courage, candor, love of truth, 
 1 Quoted in Beza's Life of Calvin.
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 449 
 
 devotion to duty, fidelity to principle and to friends, 
 earnestness of purpose, consecration to God and absorp- 
 tion in his work these and other splendid traits make 
 us almost forget the defects that have been mentioned. 
 And his marvellous intellect capacious, penetrating, pro- 
 found so wins admiration that we have to remember 
 that in him sympathy and imagination were not equal to 
 reason and insight. 
 
 In Calvin's preaching the expository method of the 
 Reformation preachers finds emphasis. His commen- 
 taries were the fruits of his preaching and lecturing, and 
 his sermons were commentaries extended and applied. 
 Mostly in the homily form of verse by verse comment, 
 there is yet in them a march of thought, a logical se- 
 quence that simply did not choose to express itself in the 
 scholastic analysis. In truth, this lack of analysis and 
 clearly defined connection is remarkable in a man of Cal- 
 vin's logical power. It shows how the commentator got 
 the better of the preacher. Yet his sermons are not 
 mere commentaries. There is a quickness of perception, 
 a sureness of touch, a power of expression that unite to 
 make the thought of Scripture stand out and produce its 
 own impression without the aid of the orator's art. The 
 style was clear, vigorous and pointed, without ornament, 
 but chastely and severely elegant; without warmth, but 
 intense and vigorous. We do not wonder that Bossuet, 
 Catholic and orator, should find Calvin's style " triste '' 
 (sad, gloomy) ; but Beza, who knew the effect of his 
 preaching, said of him that " every word weighed a 
 pound tot verba tot pondera." * Calvin had no striking 
 presence, nor rich and sonorous voice, but he had a com- 
 manding will that needed no physical strength to supple- 
 ment it, and a sustained intensity of conviction that could 
 spare the help of a flowing eloquence. 
 
 And so, though the highest qualities of oratory found 
 no place in Calvin's preaching, the power of his thought, 
 the force of his will, the excellence of his style, and, 
 above all, the earnestness with which he made the truth 
 of God shine forth in his words, made him a great 
 preacher and deeply impressed on his hearers the great 
 verities of the Christian faith. 
 
 1 Broadus, Hist. Prea., p. 120.
 
 450 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 There were associates and friends of Calvin at Geneva, 
 fellow-laborers in other parts of Switzerland, and, as far 
 as persecution permitted, in France. These noble and 
 useful men preached the Reformed doctrines and cared 
 for the churches of that faith, but none of them attained 
 any marked eminence, except Theodore Beza (d. I6O5), 1 
 the admirer, friend, associate, and successor of Calvin at 
 Geneva, whom Christlieb describes as " the many-sided 
 professor, church leader and tireless preacher." Born 
 of gentle parents at Vezelay, in old Burgundy, Beza was 
 educated at Paris and Orleans. He was designed for the 
 bar, but preferred literature, and was a poet in Latin and 
 French while yet a youth in the gay Parisian world. An 
 illness turned his thoughts to God and the Reformed 
 faith, and upon his conversion he went to Calvin at 
 Geneva. He was gladly welcomed, and soon a place wa.s 
 found for him with Viret at Lausanne, where he taught 
 Greek, expounded the Scriptures, and carried on Marot's 
 translation of the Psalter. He was active in efforts to 
 help the Reformation by writings and conferences, in 
 which his birth and breeding helped the cause. In 1559 
 he was called to Geneva to teach Greek and help Calvin. 
 He was also installed as one of the pastors, and his 
 preaching was frequent and effective. 
 
 His learning and eloquence gave him great influence, 
 and in 1561 he was summoned to take part for the Hu- 
 guenots in a famous colloquy called by Catherine de Med- 
 ici, the queen mother, to be held at Poissy, near Paris. 
 Beza achieved notable success in his oration and con- 
 duct, but, of course, the Catholics took care that nothing 
 should come of the colloquy in favor of the Protestants. 
 Beza remained in France many months, laboring for his 
 brethren, but at last returned to Geneva, where he was 
 soon called to succeed Calvin as leader. His long and 
 busy life as preacher, theologian, scholar, disputant, con- 
 tinued over into the seventeenth century. 
 
 We have little means of judging of his powers as a 
 preacher, for few of his sermons remain, and these are 
 not important. But his labors in the pulpit were great 
 and fruitful. Baird 2 says of his speaking that even his 
 
 Article by Heppe in Herzog; Schaff, Ch. Hist., Vol. VII., p. 
 846 ff ; Baird's Rise of the Huguenots, passim. 
 * Rise of the Huguenots, I., p. 523 ff.
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 451 
 
 enemies " could not help admitting that he had a fine 
 presence, a ready wit, and keen intellect, and that his 
 excellent choice of language and ready utterance entitled 
 him to the credit of eloquence." 
 
 Besides the great leaders of the Reformation and their 
 more immediate associates in those lands where the re- 
 form movement had its origin and chief strength, there 
 were in other parts of the Continent of Europe and among 
 the sects in various lands some notable preachers who 
 claim notice at our hands. We begin with those of Spain 
 and Italy. 
 
 4. REFORMATION PREACHERS IN SOUTHERN EUROPE. 
 
 Under the pious Catholic Queen Isabella and the 
 learned Cardinal Ximenes there was serious attempt to 
 reform the Catholic church itself in Spain, and this effort 
 naturally included the suppression of heresy as well as the 
 correction of abuses. If the one side of the work sat- 
 isfied many who wished to see a reformation, so the other 
 discouraged, and by the horrors of the Inquisition perse- 
 cuted and destroyed those who would have a reformation 
 in any other than a strict Catholic sense. Yet, notwith- 
 standing these fearful odds there were some, even in 
 Spain, who preached the evangelical doctrines. 1 
 
 The pious and devoted Juan de Avila, called the " Apos- 
 tle of Andalusia," though not a Protestant, preached a 
 much purer gospel than most of his Catholic brethren, and 
 among other things urged upon the people the study of 
 the Bible. But a more pronounced reformatory impulse 
 came from Rodrigo Valer of Seville. He was a wealthy, 
 handsome, popular young man of the world, who suddenly 
 for some reason withdrew from social life and devoted 
 himself to the study of the Scriptures. He became con- 
 vinced of the evangelical doctrines, and began boldly to 
 teach them both in personal interviews and by addressing 
 the people as he could in public. He also sought personal 
 acquaintance with the clergy, and influenced them toward 
 reformed opinions. His activity, for he ,was very bold, 
 
 1 In addition to the church histories, encyclopaedias, etc., I have 
 found help in Stoughton's Spanish Reformers, Lond., 1883 ; Jules 
 Lassalle's La Re forme en Espagne, Paris, 1883 ; and in an anony- 
 mous French work on the same subject published in 1827.
 
 452 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 soon attracted the notice of the Catholic authorities, and 
 he was imprisoned, but he was strong and defiant in his 
 views and would not recant nor modify them. He was 
 punished in various ways besides imprisonment. One 
 penalty was that he had to wear a sanbenito, or garb of a 
 condemned prisoner, attend mass and hear sermons. But 
 on one occasion he broke in upon the preacher and dis- 
 puted his doctrine, and after that he was more closely con- 
 fined. He died in prison when about fifty years old. 
 
 Profoundly influenced by Valer was Juan Gil, better 
 known as Dr. Egidio, who was born in Arragon, had 
 greatly distinguished himself as a student at the Univer- 
 sity of Alcala and had become canon of the cathedral at 
 Seville about 1537. Here he was already attracting notice 
 as a skilled theologian and a speaker of unusual gifts, but 
 was discouraged as to the fruits of his preaching. Valer 
 and he got together somehow, and the intrepid lay evan- 
 gelist told Gil that his preaching lacked the true gospel 
 element. Egidio began to study the Bible more, and soon 
 his preaching took on a new character. It became warm, 
 evangelical, truly eloquent; and crowds attended his ser- 
 mons. His eloquence attracted the favorable notice of the 
 emperor Charles V., who proposed to make him bishop of 
 Tortosa. Then the opposition broke out. It was recalled 
 that Egidio had visited his friend Valer in prison and had 
 written an earnest apology and plea for that heretic; it 
 was declared that his so popular sermons were charged 
 with the Lutheran heresy, and that he was misleading the 
 people. He was tried, but though nothing was certainly 
 proved against him he was condemned as a suspect, de- 
 posed and imprisoned for a year. Some say he recanted, 
 but he spent his imprisonment in writing some commen- 
 taries and other works, and the story of his public recan- 
 tation is probably a perversion of the facts. He seems to 
 have been set at liberty several years before his death and 
 to have preached a little in retired places ; but his public 
 ministry was cut short by his condemnation. He died in 
 
 1556. 
 
 There were two successors of Egidio at Seville who 
 likewise, with more or less clearness, preached the doc- 
 trines of reform. Ponce de la Fuente was learned, elo- 
 quent and cautious, avoiding open attack upon the Roman
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 453 
 
 errors but preaching the evangelical doctrines. A writing 
 of his, which he frankly acknowledged, was found; and 
 it contained such plain teaching of Protestant views that 
 he was condemned and imprisoned. After two years of 
 confinement he died. After him came Gregorio Ruiz, who 
 also preached evangelical views; but warned by the fate 
 of his predecessors he was less open and pronounced about 
 it, and managed to escape the Inquisition. Sad was the 
 fate of Carranza, archbishop of Toledo, who had taken 
 a prominent part in the Council of Trent, but was later 
 accused of Lutheranism, and after seventeen years of 
 humiliations, trials and imprisonments died at Rome in 
 1576. Along with him should be mentioned Augustino 
 Cazalla (1510-1559) who was long a pupil under Car- 
 ranza, then studied with distinction at Alcala. He was 
 endowed with oratorical gifts and was made court 
 preacher to Charles V. in 1542. He passed nine years 
 with the emperor in Germany and imbibed Protestant 
 views. On his return to Spain he was preacher at Valla- 
 dolid and undertook to introduce the new views there. 
 But he was not the man for a genuine reformer, and 
 though he gained some converts and preached with zeal 
 for awhile, he was induced under torture to renounce his 
 Protestantism. After death his remains were exhumed 
 and burnt by the Inquisition. With him were associated 
 some others at Valladolid. But in all Spain the officers 
 of the Inquisition were alert, and the persecution of those 
 who dared to teach the Lutheran heresy was vigorous and 
 severe. Reform preaching could not flourish there. 
 
 A few words, however, must be said concerning the 
 Spanish exiles who taught and preached in other places 
 the doctrines that were so cruelly suppressed at home. 
 Earliest among these was the celebrated Juan Valdez (c. 
 1490-1541), whose work at Naples was notably influen- 
 tial in promoting the Reformation in Italy. He and his 
 twin brother Alfonso were of excellent Spanish family 
 at Cuenca, where they were born in the latter part of 
 the fifteenth century. They had good instruction, ex- 
 hibited great love of learning and were among the most 
 distinguished Spanish humanists. Alfonso held impor- 
 tant official positions in the court of Charles V., was often 
 with the emperor in Germany, but had no sympathy for
 
 454 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 Luther and his work. Juan, on the other hand, though 
 a very decided humanist and a real friend of Erasmus, 
 advanced very far beyond the Erasmian ideas of reform, 
 and was almost a Protestant. He was not a preacher, but 
 his religious activity, his theological works, and his in- 
 fluence upon preachers and others in Italy were so great 
 that he claims notice here. Some time between 1530 and 
 1535 he left Spain and took up his residence at Naples, 
 where he does not seem to have had any official or business 
 relations, but to have lived on his income and studied and 
 taught at his pleasure. He was a sort of mystic as well as 
 reformer. He put his Hebrew learning to use by translat- 
 ing the Psalms into Spanish, and his Greek by translating 
 Paul's Epistles and the Gospel of Matthew. He was a 
 man of lovely character, and attracted a large number 
 of friends, especially of pious and learned persons of 
 both sexes. He did not hesitate to teach the evangelical 
 views of Christianity, and his influence on several notable 
 Italian preachers we shall have occasion to recall later. 
 
 Juan Diaz was a brilliant and promising young re- 
 former who early came to Germany. He was welcomed 
 and beloved by Butzer at Strasburg, and much was 
 hoped from him in the way of influencing his country- 
 men, but he was followed by his brother, a fanatical 
 Catholic, who, failing in his effort to bring him back to 
 the old faith, betrayed him and led him to his death at 
 the hands of an assassin. There were also two brothers 
 Enzinas (called also Dryander), who, in Holland and 
 Germany, were distinguished as upholders of reform 
 views. Later was Juan Perez, who had been associated 
 with Egidio and others at Seville, but left Spain in 1551, 
 and came to Geneva, where he was pastor of the Spanish 
 Protestant refugees, afterwards was pastor at Blois, in 
 France, and later still was chaplain of the now widowed 
 Duchess of Ferrara at Montargis. Useful in many ways 
 his most distinguished service was his translation of the 
 Bible into Spanish. 
 
 The last to be mentioned is the fruitful and learned 
 author, Cipriano de Valera, who was born at Seville 
 about 1532, early fell under the influence of Egidio, fled 
 to Geneva in 1557, thence went to other parts of Switzer- 
 land, to England, and to Holland. He was for three
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 455 
 
 years pastor of the Spanish refugees in London, and 
 tried by writings to spread reformed opinions in Spain. 
 
 In Italy the Reformation had a similar course to that in 
 Spain; a humanistic impulse, a reform party within the 
 church, and a persecuted and exiled little band of true 
 reformers. 1 Several of these are worthy of a longer 
 account than can here be given to them. Paolo Ver- 
 gerio was a lawyer of ability at Capo d' Istria, but, los- 
 ing his wife, he came to Rome and entered the service 
 of the church. In 1532 he was papal nuncio in Germany 
 and had interviews with Luther, without yet becoming 
 a Protestant. Returning to Italy he preached awhile at 
 Naples and was made bishop of his native town. In 
 1540 he was in France with Cardinal Este, and was sent 
 by Francis I. to the diet at Worms, where he met Mel- 
 anchthon and Butzer, and probably Calvin also. He was 
 now much in accord with the reformers, but did not as 
 yet openly avow his opinions. He returned to his dio- 
 cese and preached them among his people. Called to 
 account, he appealed to the Council of Trent, but was 
 denied a hearing and his case was remanded to the court 
 of the Patriarch of Venice. Vergerio refused to appear 
 before that tribunal, and after awhile, being more and 
 more hunted, he left Italy and w r ent to the south of 
 France, where he preached his views more boldly and 
 became very bitter against Rome. In 1553 he was in- 
 vited by the Duke of Wurttemburg to Tubingen. He 
 travelled in other parts of Germany at intervals, and died 
 at Tubingen in 1565. He was rather intemperate in his 
 preaching after he left Italy, and during his earlier career 
 was perhaps not wholly free from dissembling his views 
 for personal safety. 
 
 Another reformer was Pietro Carnesecchi, of noble 
 Florentine family, and the friend of Cosimo and Catha- 
 rine dei Medici. He was honored with various church 
 
 'Besides numerous general authorities of various sorts, I have 
 had opportunity to consult Tiraboschi's accounts of Vermigli and 
 Ochino in his famous Storia della Letteratura Italiana, Vol. X. 
 (Milan ed.). Karl Benrath's satisfactory monograph, Bernardino 
 Ochino von Siena (of which there is also an Engl. translation) 
 is the standard work on Ochino. Their sojourn in England gives 
 occasion for fine articles in the Diet. Nat. Biog. on both Vermigli 
 and Ochino.
 
 456 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 offices, and was prothonotary under Clement VII. But, 
 disgusted with the corruptions of the papal court, he left 
 Rome and travelled in various parts of Italy, teaching 
 and preaching. He was a man of kindly bearing and 
 manners, and was cordially received everywhere. He 
 came to Naples, and was among those who received in- 
 struction and help from Juan Valdez, the pious Spanish 
 scholar, but was not yet ready to break with Rome. He 
 was a friend of Cardinal Pole, and perhaps was hopeful 
 of seeing reforms carried out in the church. He paid 
 two visits to France, and from the second, having become 
 more pronounced, he returned to Italy and remained for 
 awhile at Venice. Finally he came once more to Flor- 
 ence, where the Medici tried to shield and save him, but 
 having at last openly avowed Protestant principles, he 
 fell under the sentence of the Inquisition and was exe- 
 cuted. 
 
 More important than either of these was Pietro Mar- 
 tire Vermigli, who was born of good parents at Florence 
 in 1500. His father was an admirer of Savonarola, and 
 named his son for St. Peter the Martyr, honored among 
 Dominicans. At the age of sixteen Pietro entered the 
 Dominican order and distinguished himself for diligence 
 in study, piety and eloquence. He was early appointed to 
 teach and preach. While preaching with great acceptance 
 at Naples, he came under the influence of Juan Valdez, 
 and adopted decidedly evangelical sentiments. At Lucca 
 he began openly to preach his new views, and with such 
 success that he soon fell under the ban of the Inquisition, 
 and was a marked man. Being at Florence in 1542, he 
 foresaw what would befall him, and decided to escape. 
 He fled with a companion to Switzerland, and was first 
 at Zurich, then at Basel, and was finally at Strasburg 
 with Butzer. Capito's death had left a vacancy there, 
 and Vermigli for several years filled the post of lec- 
 turer in theology at Strasburg. In 1547 he was invited 
 by Cranmer, along with Ochino, to become professor of 
 theology at Oxford, a position which he filled with credit 
 till the Catholic reaction under Mary forced him to leave 
 England. 
 
 Vermigli then returned to Strasburg, and later went 
 to Zurich, where he died in 1562. Vermigli was a man
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 457 
 
 of pure character, fine learning", and of good gifts as a 
 speaker. His enemies could find fault only with his doc- 
 trine. Even Tiraboschi, who writes as a Catholic, admits 
 that he was a pious and learned man, far removed 
 from the " arrogance and fury of Luther," whose chief 
 fault was that he " undertook to defend and sustain the 
 worse cause." 
 
 The most powerful preacher among the Italian reform- 
 ers was the celebrated Bernardino Ochino (c. 1487- 
 1564), who was born at Siena, and named for the fa- 
 mous preaching saint of a former age. Ochino was not 
 his family name, but how he got his surname and rts sig- 
 nificance are matters of dispute. Not much is known of 
 his childhood and youth. He early joined the Francis- 
 can order in the branch of Observants, and later passed 
 into the more strict ascetic branch of the Capuchins. He 
 was twice elected general of his order, the second time 
 much against his will. Ochino, following his natural 
 bent as well as conviction, interpreted strictly the prin- 
 ciple of his order in regard to preaching, and early and 
 continuously devoted himself to that work. He preached 
 with power and acceptance in many of the cities of Italy, 
 and his services were in great demand for the special 
 church seasons. His strict life and fervid zeal also won 
 for him the reputation of sanctity. After he went over to 
 Protestantism the Catholics (even Tiraboschi) have rep- 
 resented his early piety as hypocrisy, but though he was 
 a man of strong impulses and perhaps of some incon- 
 stancy, there is no sufficient reason to doubt his sincerity 
 and earnestness. In 1538 he came for the first time to 
 Venice, where he made a deep impression, not only on 
 the crowds of people who came to his sermons, but on the 
 upper and learned classes also. The 'eminent humanist, 
 Cardinal Bembo, testified in many extant letters to the 
 wonderful ability of Ochino as a preacher, and had him 
 to come back to Venice the next year and after. Among 
 other things Bembo is quoted as saying, 1 " I confess that 
 I have never heard anyone preach more usefully and 
 more savingly than he. . . He reasons very differently 
 and in a much more Christian way than all others who 
 have ascended the pulpit in my days, with more of living 
 1 Tiraboschi, Vol. X., p. 539 seg.
 
 458 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 grace and love, and with better and more acceptable 
 topics." 
 
 Another Catholic contemporary, quoted by Benrath, 
 declares that Ochino " left out the wordy war of the 
 Scholastics, which others brought into the pulpit, and 
 preached with spirit and warmth ; " and an enthusiastic 
 hearer said, " He might even move stones to tears." 
 Other such testimonials sustain the judgment of Benrath 
 that Italy had had no such preacher since Savonarola. 
 Nine of these early sermons were published at Venice in 
 1539, and, judging from the extended extracts given by 
 Benrath, and his good discussion of them, and making 
 the necessary allowances for the difference between print- 
 ing and delivery, they sustain Ochino's reputation. They 
 are not unlike contemporary sermons in form, have a 
 good deal of Scripture quotation, well handled, and are 
 given in a plain, popular style, with fervor, practical 
 point, and a spiritual aim. 
 
 Ochino's conversion to Protestantism was not surpris- 
 ing. Already his preaching sounded out the evangelical 
 note of repentance and faith, as opposed both to the 
 moral decay and the work-righteousness of the time. 
 During his several preaching engagements at Naples, 
 along from 1536 to 1540, he was much associated with 
 Valdez and Vermigli, as with kindred spirits, and doubt- 
 less received decided influence from them. His preach- 
 ing after this began to show more and more of the re- 
 formatory element. At Venice, early in 1542, he es- 
 poused the cause of a preacher who had been punished 
 for proclaiming evangelical opinions, and in the Lent 
 of that year Ochino himself more distinctly and power- 
 fully set forth the main truths of the Reformation. This 
 led the Catholic authorities to action. He was sum- 
 moned to Rome " on matters of importance." He hesi- 
 tated, but decided to go, delaying first at Bologna and 
 then at Florence. It became more and more evident to 
 him and his friends that if he went to Rome he must 
 either renounce his convictions or be put to death. At 
 Florence he met Vermigli, who had already determined 
 to leave Italy. Ochino, after a final struggle, decided to do 
 likewise, and in a few days after Vermigli he too fled. 
 
 The rest of his life was full of vicissitude, and its close
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 459 
 
 pathetic in the extreme, but we can only give here a very 
 brief summary of the remainder of his days. Ochino 
 came to Geneva, where, favored by Calvin and the coun- 
 cil, he preached to the Italian refugees, wrote some books, 
 and published some sermons for distribution in Italy. 
 They naturally show now, along with his accustomed fire, 
 more of polemic against Rome and more firmness in the 
 reformed doctrines. After about two years in Geneva 
 Ochino came, after stopping a little at Basel and Stras- 
 burg, to Augsburg, where, in 1545, he became pastor of 
 the Italian refugees, and labored as pastor, author and 
 preacher till, in 1547, he and Vermigli, both at Cranmer's 
 invitation, came to Oxford as professors. The reaction 
 under Mary drove them both away, and Ochino came 
 back, first to Basel and then to Zurich. He was now 
 quite old, and in his later writings and teachings had 
 broached opinions on the person of Christ and on the 
 Trinity that were somewhat doubtful, though it is not 
 proved that he held, as accused, decided Socinian views 
 on these subjects. Further, though after his flight from 
 Italy he had married, and there never was any just im- 
 putation upon his own life, he had in conversation and 
 in a published dialogue on marriage let fall some expres- 
 sions that seemed to admit in a speculative way the ad- 
 missibility of polygamy in certain cases. These views, 
 exaggerated no doubt and largely misunderstood, even 
 by such men as Beza and Bullinger, brought Ochino into 
 suspicion and disfavor with the Protestant leaders. The 
 Zurich council finally denied him a place as preacher and 
 advised him to leave. In his old age, thus discredited, 
 and cumbered with his family, he turned to friends that 
 he had among the Italian fugitives in Poland, and went 
 thither, hoping to find refuge and a place to work on for 
 his few years more of life. His old Catholic enemies in 
 Italy rejoiced over Ochino's dismissal from Zurich as 
 evidence of his thorough apostasy and untrustworthiness, 
 and as corroboration of their many slanders against him. 
 Nor did their enmity stop here, but they procured the 
 enactment of an ordinance by the King of Poland forbid- 
 ding anti-Catholics of foreign birth to settle and teach in 
 his dominions. And thus once more the poor old man 
 was a fugitive. Some obscurity rests over the fate of his
 
 460 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 family and over the details of his own closing days, but 
 it appears that he died alone at Schlackau, in Moravia, 
 toward the end of the year 1564. It was a sad ending 
 to what was in many ways a brilliant and noble career. 
 Faults, no doubt, Ochino had, and it would be unsafe to 
 say that the judgment of his critics was utterly without 
 foundation; but there is no doubt as to the devotion of 
 his life to his views of truth, as to the earnestness and 
 sincerity of his labors, and as to his distinguished ability 
 as a preacher. 
 
 5. REFORMATORY PREACHERS IN EASTERN EUROPE. 
 
 In the parts of Europe which lay immediately to the 
 east of the centers of the Reformation there were not 
 wanting preachers of character and ability, who set forth 
 the Word of God in the spirit and methods peculiar to 
 the reformers. Few, if any, however, were distinguished 
 by commanding powers in the pulpit, or have as preach- 
 ers secured a world-wide and lasting fame. We may 
 mention a few of the better known men in connection 
 with their countries. 
 
 In Bohemia the followers of Huss became divided, but 
 those who remained nearest to his aims and spirit seem 
 to have been among the Bohemian brethren in the later 
 fifteenth century. Among these Rokytsana and Chelchit- 
 sky were leaders and preachers, and after them Matthias 
 of Kunewald. Among their successors the doctrines of 
 Luther received recognition, but no great preachers were 
 developed. We must not forget, however, the excellent 
 German preacher at Jaoachimsthal, John Mathesius 
 (1504-1565), the pupil and friend of Luther, who spent 
 all his working life in this pastorate. He was a much 
 loved pastor and a studious, earnest and instructive 
 preacher. Though a learned scholar, he knew how to 
 speak to the people and give them in lively images, com- 
 parisons, proverbs and for the most part, in simple style, 
 sound instruction from his pulpit. His seventeen bio- 
 graphical sermons on Luther are unique in their way, 
 and are among the most valued sources for the life of the 
 great reformer. 
 
 Two Austrians, Primus Truber and Hans Steinberger, 
 are mentioned as having preached with some success the
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 461 
 
 doctrines of the Reformation in their own country and 
 in Hungary. But the leading place among Hungarian 
 reformers is held by Matthias Biro Devay (died c. 1547), 
 who is called the " Hungarian Luther." Devay was born 
 of good Hungarian family at Siebenburgen toward the 
 end of the fifteenth century. After childhood he studied 
 at Cracow, and was a monk and priest in the Roman 
 church till as late as 1527. Meantime, in spite of severe 
 repression, the reformed views had been making some 
 headway in Hungary. At Ofen, now Buda-Pest, the fa- 
 mous Protestant scholar and teacher, Simon Grynaeus, 
 later settled at Basel, had taught for awhile, but had been 
 forced out because of his religious views. Here, also, 
 Paul Speratus, who had been driven from Vienna, had 
 preached. Devay became much inclined to the Lutheran 
 opinions, and in 1529 went to Wittenberg to study with 
 Luther and Melanchthon. After two years he returned 
 to Ofen, but his activity was so great that the Catholics 
 used their power to have him sent away. He labored 
 in several places, suffered several imprisonments, and, 
 finally, went on another visit to Germany and extended 
 it to Switzerland, where he became more inclined to the 
 Swiss ideas of the Lord's Supper than to Luther's. Re- 
 turning to Hungary, he labored in various ways and 
 places till his death, about 1547. No sermons of Devay 
 have come down, but he was diligent in preaching, and 
 doubtless preached with power. 
 
 In Poland there were Italian refugees, Vergerio among 
 them, who preached the Reformation; and, besides the 
 orthodox, there were also followers of the Socini. But 
 the best-known native reformer was the famous scholar 
 and theologian, John a Lasco (1499-1560), who came of 
 excellent family at Warsaw, was well educated, and for 
 a time served as priest in his native land. About 1539 
 he became a Protestant, and, having to leave Poland, he 
 labored for about ten years as pastor at Emden, in Fries- 
 land. Thence he came in 1549 to England, where he was 
 pastor of a church of refugee Protestants of various na- 
 tionalities in London. While in England he was much 
 engaged in literary work for the Reformation, and was 
 associated both with the English Protestants and with 
 Butzer, Vermigli and other foreign reformers, till these
 
 462 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 were forced to leave by the change of policy on the acces- 
 sion of Queen Mary. A Lasco came to Denmark, then 
 to his old home at Emden, and lastly to Poland, where, 
 as Superintendent of the Reformed churches, he was per- 
 mitted to labor to the end of his days in his native land. 
 He was more of a writer, scholar, commentator and 
 church organizer than preacher, and no sermons remain 
 to give a fair notion of his pulpit powers. But as pas- 
 tor and reformer he was active in preaching, and his 
 other work shows that he was a thinker and expounder of 
 excellent ability. 
 
 Albert of Brandenberg, who held Prussia for the Teu- 
 tonic Knights, on becoming Protestant, made the prov- 
 ince a dukedom, married and founded a family. Bishop 
 George of Polentz aided Albert in introducing the 'Re- 
 formation. From him several sermons, of no special 
 importance, remain. But Luther sent several preachers 
 to aid in the work, the principal one of whom was 
 John Briessmann (1488-1549), who did much by word 
 and work to establish the Reformation in Prussia. After 
 him came the contentious Osiander, from Nuremburg, 
 but his polemical nature and preaching were not of the 
 highest value to the cause. 
 
 More influential and notable as a preacher was Paul 
 Spretter, Latinized into Speratus (1484-1551). He was 
 a native of Swabia, was educated in Italy and at Paris, 
 and early embraced the Protestant doctrines. He preached 
 at various places in southern Germany with good effect, 
 and as early as 1521 was found at Vienna, where in reply 
 to a monk who had defended celibacy Speratus preached 
 a powerful sermon, in which he not only showed that the 
 Catholic practice was contrary to Scripture, but also took 
 occasion to attack the whole system of vows as held in 
 the Roman church. His boldness stirred up the Catholic 
 authorities, and he was summoned to answer charges of 
 heresy, but instead of appearing for trial he left Vienna 
 and was promptly excommunicated. He was called to 
 Ofen (Buda-Pest), but the opposition prevented his set- 
 tling there, so he turned about and, as he passed through 
 Moravia, going to Germany, he stopped at Iglau, where 
 he was persuaded to remain and preach. This he did 
 so well that he bound the Iglau congregation to him
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 463 
 
 with an enduring affection, but also roused the deter- 
 mined opposition of the Catholic party. This led the 
 authorities after several years to send him away, but he 
 held the love of his flock, and they had a mutual com- 
 pact that he should serve them again if better times per- 
 mitted. So, in 1523, Speratus came to Wittenberg, where 
 in various ways he aided Luther and the others till in the 
 next year he was called to Konigsberg, in Prussia. Go- 
 ing by Iglau he was released by his old flock there and 
 took up his residence as court preacher in the ancient 
 capital of the duchy of Prussia. For six years he was 
 court preacher there, and then was appointed by Albert 
 bishop (or superintendent) of Pomerania. Altogether 
 he labored for twenty-seven years in Prussia, and did a 
 great work as organizer of the churches, hymn-writer 
 and popular and beloved preacher. The Protestant cause 
 in Prussia owed much to the wise, patient and faithful 
 labors of Paul Speratus. 
 
 6. REFORMATORY PREACHERS IN NORTHERN EUROPE 
 
 In the countries to the north of the centers of Protes- 
 tantism there was progress in the spread of reformatory 
 opinions, and there were preachers to proclaim and teach 
 them. These preachers labored in the spirit and methods 
 of the German and Swiss reformers, those in the Nether- 
 lands, at first Lutheran, becoming at last Calvinistic. 
 
 Among the preachers of the Low Countries mere men- 
 tion * may be made of Jan Arends, Peter Gabriel, Nicho- 
 las Scheltius, and of Peter Datheen, who is specially 
 noted by Van Oosterzee and Christlieb as a popular 
 preacher of excellent gifts and wide influence. There 
 was also at Oudenarde a man of special merit, Herman 
 Modet (c. 1566), who preached on one occasion in a 
 great assembly near Ghent, where in their hunger for the 
 Word of God the crowded people listened to him for 
 hours at a time. The pastor at Utrecht, Guibert Duis- 
 huis, was also a man of influence, and in his doctrinal 
 views was a forerunner of the later Remonstrants. 
 
 But in those dreadful days of persecution and trial, 
 which marked the early history of the Reformation in 
 
 Christlieb in Herzog, as before; Van Oosterzee in the his- 
 torical sketch prefixed to his Practical Theology.
 
 464 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 the Netherlands, there was little opportunity for the de- 
 velopment of distinctive pulpit eloquence. The martyrs 
 were the best preachers. The story of one of the earliest 
 of these will serve as a pathetic illustration of the class. 1 
 Thus runs the account of old Gerard Brandt, the his- 
 torian of the Dutch Reformation : " John of Backer, who 
 was not yet twenty-seven years old, was tied to a stake, 
 strangled, and reduced to ashes, in the month of August, 
 1525. He suffered death for having preached in spite of 
 the prohibitions, and because he was married. His ex- 
 aminers had several conferences with him during his im- 
 prisonment. They undertook to prove that a man should 
 submit to all the decrees and traditions of the Romish 
 Church, that heretics should be repressed and extermi- 
 nated by the sword, and that priests should not marry. 
 The preacher answered that he did not recognize any 
 other rule of faith than Holy Scripture, and that it was 
 not necessary to use other language than that of Scrip- 
 ture itself in order to interpret it ; that a man should not 
 rashly violate the decrees and canons, but should observe 
 them when they were in accord with the Word of God; 
 that violence should not be employed in religion, but 
 rather gentleness and force of arguments. He complained 
 that there was too much indulgence for the unchastity of 
 priests, while chaste and honorable marriage, such as 
 God approved, would not be tolerated. . . . On the 
 fifteenth of September the prisoner was degraded from 
 his rank [stripped of his priest's garments] on a scaffold 
 and clothed with a yellow garment and hat of the same 
 color, and then led to execution. In passing before the 
 prison where a number of persons were confined for the 
 faith he cried, in a loud voice, ' See, my brethren, I am 
 ready to suffer martyrdom. Have courage as faithful 
 soldiers of Jesus Christ, and, encouraged by my example, 
 defend the truths of the gospel against all injustice.' The 
 prisoners had no sooner heard these words than they 
 clapped their hands and made great shouts of triumph, 
 and to honor the martyrdom of their friend they sang 
 the Te Deum, the Certamen Martyrum, the hymn O 
 Bcata Martyrum Solemnia, and their songs did not cease 
 
 1 From the abridged French edition of Gerard Brandt's His- 
 tory of the Reformation in the Netherlands, Vol. I., p. 27 ff.
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 465 
 
 till the martyr had expired. When he was tied to the 
 stake he cried, ' O death, where is thy sting ? O grave, 
 where is thy victory? Death is swallowed up in the vic- 
 tory of Jesus Christ.' At last the martyr died, after hav- 
 ing pronounced these words, ' Lord Jesus, forgive them, 
 for they know not what they do. O son of God, save 
 me ! Have mercy on me ! ' Such was the end of John 
 of Backer. He was the first who suffered martyrdom 
 in Holland for the doctrine of Luther." We do not 
 know how much or how well this young man may have 
 preached before this, but certainly this was a sermon of 
 supreme eloquence; and the bloody work of persecution 
 in the Netherlands gave only too frequent and sad occa- 
 sions for many such sermons. 
 
 In Denmark the Reformation early gained a footing, 
 and John Bugenhagen was called by King Christian to 
 regulate the Lutheran churches there. Among the na- 
 tive preachers are mentioned Hans Tausen (d. I56I), 1 
 bishop of Ripen, who was noted for his " fresh, clear and 
 edifying expositions of the Scriptures in forcible speech." 
 His contemporary, Peter Palladius (d. 1560), bishop of 
 Seeland, is also named as a preacher of popular power. 
 Thus the distinctive type of Reformation preaching did 
 not lack in Denmark its able representatives. t 
 
 In Sweden also this was true, and, besides others, there 
 were the brothers Olaf and Laurent Petri, who have 
 been called " the Luther and Melanchthon of Sweden." 2 
 Olaf Petri (1497-1552) was born at Erebro, the son of 
 a blacksmith, was educated among the Carmelite friars, 
 but later went with his younger brother, Laurent, to Wit- 
 tenberg, where they were taught by Luther and the other 
 reformers, and came back to labor for the Reformation 
 in their own country. Olaf became rector of a school at 
 Strengnas in 1523, and combined preaching with his 
 work. Here he gained a helper and able reformer in Lau- 
 rent Andrse. Later Olaf was appointed preacher at Stock- 
 holm, from whence as a center his principal work was 
 done. He was a fiery and sometimes rash and imprudent 
 man, bringing upon himself and his cause the usual oppo- 
 sition and evils resulting from that temper and method. 
 
 1 Christlieb, op. cit. 
 
 2 Christlieb, op. cit., and several encyclopaedia articles.
 
 466 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 But he was brave and true, and a preacher both of learn* 
 ing and popular power. There remain from him both 
 sermons and expository homilies which are said to indi- 
 cate ability of no mean order in the pulpit. 
 
 Of a different stamp was the younger brother, Laurent 
 Petri (1499-1573), who was also educated at Witten- 
 berg, was rather more of a scholar than Olaf, and de- 
 cidedly of a milder and more moderate nature. Gustavus 
 Vasa appointed him preacher at Upsala, and in 1531 made 
 him archbishop there. He was very useful, both as 
 preacher and prelate, and did especially valuable service 
 by his Bible translations. He was benevolent and con- 
 ciliatory. From him, as from his brother, there remain 
 both sermons and postils, or expository homilies, those on 
 the Gospels being mentioned as of considerable excel- 
 lence. 
 
 7. THE ANABAPTISTS AND OTHER SECTS IN VARIOUS 
 COUNTRIES 
 
 Besides the better known and more widely influential 
 preachers who represent one or other of the three lead- 
 ing phases Lutheran, Zwinglian, Calvinistic of the Re- 
 formation in Europe, there were numerous others, be- 
 longing to smaller sects, or representing only themselves 
 and their following, who should be remembered. Natu- 
 rally, these were very various in character, doctrines and 
 abilities, and were found in different countries; but they 
 may better be considered in a brief treatment together, and 
 thus our survey of the reformation preaching on the 
 Continent of Europe may be concluded. 
 
 Amid many persecutions both before and after the 
 time of the Reformation the ancient Waldensian churches 
 maintained themselves in their Piedmont valleys. We 
 have seen how Farel and Saunier paid their synod a help- 
 ful visit in 1532 and encouraged them. Other reformers 
 also took an interest in them, but it appears that not until 
 they were permitted to build churches, about 1555, did 
 preaching among them begin to assume a more dignified 
 form than the simple hortatory homilies of their devo- 
 tional meetings. In later times they have had several 
 preachers of note. 
 
 It was not surprising that the Reformation should have
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 467 
 
 given encouragement by its revolt from Rome to many 
 fanatics and extremists of various sorts. Among these 
 were some men of decided abilities as preachers and popu- 
 lar leaders, but their faults and excesses hindered their 
 own success, and also, to some extent, compromised and 
 greatly embarrassed the leaders of the Reformation. 
 Among the more extreme may be named, without discus- 
 sion, the imprudent Carlstadt, whose actions were a great 
 annoyance to Luther and the rest; the so-called Zwickau 
 prophets, who believed in an immediate inspiration; and 
 the ill-fated Thomas Miinzer, who, along with many 
 hurtful errors, held also some important truths and led 
 the peasants' uprising to disastrous defeat. Later than 
 these were the so-called " Mad Men of Minister," who 
 disgraced the Anabaptist name and cause by their wild 
 excesses, and who carried with them reluctantly as it 
 seems in most things at least one preacher of no little 
 eloquence and influence, Bernard Rothmann. Others who 
 were more or less associated with the Anabaptists and 
 had some talent as popular preachers were Melchior 
 Hoffman, who led a very unsettled life, and was not a 
 man of much culture, but yet knew how to reach and in- 
 fluence people; and the erratic David Joris of Holland, 
 who likewise was a wanderer, but an attractive person- 
 ality and a sensational and bold speaker. 
 
 The name Anabaptist has been applied with little dis- 
 crimination to a variety of sectaries in the sixteenth cen- 
 tury. It was not a name of their own choosing, but was 
 bestowed by their enemies to indicate that they were the 
 rebaptizers, those who insisted that all who had received 
 baptism in infancy should, on conversion, be baptized 
 again. But both the name, and the conception involved 
 in it, does an injustice. These men insisted that infant 
 baptism was unscriptural and therefore no baptism at all, 
 that only repentant and believing persons should be bap- 
 tized upon profession of faith. But of those who adopted 
 this principle not all held the same views in other respects. 
 Especially is it necessary to distinguish the fanatical and 
 revolutionary element from the more conservative. It is 
 not just to charge all with the errors and excesses of 
 some, and it is only historically fair to recognize that 
 there was no general and well defined body of Anabap-
 
 468 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 tists, but that the name was loosely applied to many dif- 
 ferent varieties. But partisanry is not discriminating, and 
 so it is true that many deserving men have been called 
 by this name of reproach and accused of crimes which 
 they reprobated. 
 
 The Swiss Anabaptists were not of the revolutionary 
 character of Miinzer and the men of Miinster, but they 
 were stout in their opposition to infant baptism and to 
 the union of church and state, and so they were perse- 
 cuted and repressed by the civil authorities under the ad- 
 vice of Zwingli and other reformers. 
 
 In regard to preaching, there was among them a cus- 
 tom of mission, itinerant preaching a view that ordina- 
 tion was not vitally necessary, and that lay preaching, 
 even by those who had no learning, was permissible. 1 
 Hence we find among the Swiss Anabaptists some who 
 were not highly educated, but yet were effective preach- 
 ers, as Blaurock and others. But, on the other hand, 
 Reublin, Grebel and Mantz were cultivated and able men 
 and strong preachers. In Moravia, Friesland and Hol- 
 land, also, there were not a few preachers of good learn- 
 ing and popular power among these persecuted people. 
 We may select two of the most eminent for a somewhat 
 more extended notice Hubmaier and Menno. 
 
 Prominently identified with both the Swiss and the 
 Moravian Anabaptists was the scholarly and eloquent 
 Balthasar Hiibmaier (d. 1528), who was born at Fried- 
 berg, near Augsburg, about 1480. He studied at Frei- 
 burg under John Eck, taught school at Schaffhausen for 
 awhile to help pay expenses at the university, and in 1512 
 followed Eck to Ingolstadt, where he was for a time 
 pastor of the town church and professor in the university. 
 His preaching power was already recognized and he was 
 called in January, 1516, to be cathedral preacher at Re- 
 gensburg, where he worked for some years. One token 
 of his power over men by speech was the fact that his 
 preaching against the Jews led to their being banished 
 from the town; their synagogue was destroyed, and on 
 the site a chapel was built to the Virgin. But this led to 
 
 1 My colleague, Dr. W. J. McGlothlin, has brought out some in- 
 teresting facts, including this, in his thesis on the Bernese Ana- 
 baptists presented with success to the University of Berlin for 
 the Doctorate in 1902,
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 469 
 
 pilgrimages and other superstitious excesses, and Hiib- 
 maier began to oppose these things. Thus he was mak- 
 ing a slight beginning toward the reformatory doctrines. 
 Some opposition developed and he was led to accept a 
 preaching appointment at Waldshut in 1521. His study 
 of the Bible and of Luther's writings accelerated his con- 
 version to the principles of the Reformation. He re- 
 turned to Regensburg for a few months, but his preach- 
 ing was now so decidedly reformatory that he could not 
 remain there, and came back again to Waldshut. This 
 town was under the Austrian dominion, but was near the 
 Swiss border and not far from important places in Ger- 
 many. During this second and more extended pastorate 
 at Waldshut Hubmaier's character and convictions as a 
 reformer became settled. His reformatory zeal and his 
 powerful preaching began to tell, and his work resulted 
 in the adoption of the Reformation by the church and 
 people of Waldshut in 1524. 
 
 Up to this point Hiibmaier was in sympathy with 
 Zwingli, and the Waldshut reform was effected in 
 the Swiss mode. But about now the question of in- 
 fant baptism began to agitate the Swiss reformers. 
 Zwingli himself entertained for a while serious doubts 
 as to the rightfulness of the practice. QEcolampadius, 
 too, was not wholly convinced. Leo Jud long wavered, 
 and the gentle Capito could always see that there were 
 two sides to the Anabaptist controversy. The ques- 
 tion was never decided on its merits, but imprudences 
 on the part of the Anabaptists, and their stubborn oppo- 
 sition to authority, complicated the situation and made it 
 largely a semi-political and partisan strife, wherein men's 
 passions were aroused to punish and resist, and thus dis- 
 astrous results followed. Hiibmaier early became con- 
 vinced that infant baptism was contrary to Scripture, and 
 began so to teach. In 1525 he received baptism at the 
 hands of William Reublin, and led the majority of the 
 Waldshut church to adopt the Anabaptist view of the 
 Reformation. Meantime he ably held his own with 
 Zwingli, CEcolampadius and others in discussing the 
 question, both orally and in writings. But the issue went 
 against the Anabaptists ; they were compromised with the 
 Peasants' War, and its disastrous and bloody ending hurt
 
 47 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 their cause. Waldshut lacked now the sympathy of 
 Zurich, fell into the hands of the princes, and, being 
 under Austrian control, was forcibly subjected to the 
 Catholic party. Thus ended the Reformation there, and 
 Hiibmaier was forced to flee. Now comes a dark place 
 in his career, which it is difficult to comprehend and ex- 
 plain. 
 
 Hiibmaier came to Zurich, where he was secretly re- 
 ceived by friends, but was discovered by the authorities 
 and put on some kind of trial. It is said that he asked 
 the privilege of making a public recantation of his Ana- 
 baptist views, and, on being permitted to preach for this 
 purpose at the Grossmiinster, he played false, and, in- 
 stead of renouncing his views, proceeded to defend them 
 with his wonted eloquence and cogency. Afterwards, 
 on being reproached for his breach of promise and of 
 propriety, he is reported to have said that it must have 
 been the suggestion of the devil that made him do so. 
 All the time he was arguing the case with Zwingli and 
 others, and finally it is claimed that he did renounce his 
 Anabaptist views, satisfied the Zurich authorities, and 
 with permission, and perhaps pressure, to depart, re- 
 ceived from them money for his journey, and left the 
 city. If the statements of his opponents are to be taken 
 without allowance, Hiibmaier certainly does not appear 
 well in this affair. But his side of the controversy has 
 not been written, and from a statement that he boasted at 
 Constance of having come off victor over Zwingli in the 
 arguments, we may infer that his alleged recantation at 
 Zurich was more apparent than real. At the same tims 
 it seems impossible to acquit him of some insincerity and 
 diplomacy in the trying and perilous situation in which 
 he was placed. As to the provision of his travelling ex- 
 penses from Zurich, it is easy to suppose that the authori- 
 ties may not have been wholly disinterested in helping 
 the redoubtable champion of Anabaptism to get away. 
 
 After brief stops at Constance and other places, Hiib- 
 maier came at last, in July, 1526, to Nikolsburg, in Mo- 
 ravia, where the Anabaptists had some strength. Here 
 he received protection from a nobleman, who sympathized 
 with the Anabaptists, and was enabled to set up a print- 
 ing press and publish his writings. Here, also, he was
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 471 
 
 pastor of the congregation, and speedily, by his rare 
 qualities of speech and persuasion, brought great num- 
 bers to accept his views. The Anabaptist cause became 
 very strong throughout all that region. But, unhappily, 
 some rash spirits troubled the prosperity of the move- 
 ment, and at this juncture Moravia passed from Bavarian 
 to Austrian rule, and persecution began. Hubmaier was 
 promptly called to account. No doubt the Catholic op- 
 position was at the bottom, and it was a religious perse- 
 cution, but Hiibmaier's work at Waldshut gave pretext 
 for accusing him of having occasioned the revolt of that 
 city and of complicity in the peasant uprising of 1525. 
 He was imprisoned, and after various ineffectual efforts 
 to get release, but bravely and immovably refusing to re- 
 tract his religious convictions, he was condemned. , So 
 on a public square in Vienna he was burned, March 10, 
 1528, his faithful wife encouraging him. He met his end 
 with a martyr's steadfastness; and his noble wife a few 
 days later was drowned in the Danube. 
 
 All the accounts agree that Hubmaier was a forcible 
 and eloquent preacher. CEcolampadius, Vadian, even 
 Bullinger, bear emphatic testimony to this effect, and the 
 results of his work at every place where he served as pas- 
 tor show that he had unusual power of influencing men 
 to action by his preaching. Among his writings it does 
 not appear that any sermons remain, but of one of his 
 works Broadus says, 1 " I find a really beautiful address 
 (A.D. 1525) to the three churches of Regensburg, Ingol- 
 stadt and Freiburg, entitled The Sum of a Truly Chris- 
 tian Life, to be of the nature of a sermon. The arrange- 
 ment is good and the divisions distinctly stated. He is 
 decidedly vigorous and acute in argument, making very 
 sharp points. The style is clear and lively; when he 
 has begun you feel drawn along, and want to follow 
 him." 
 
 Another man of great popular power and influence, 
 commonly reckoned with the Anabaptists, was Menno 
 Simons (1492-1559), whose work was chiefly in Fries- 
 land, Holstein and the adjoining regions, reaching also 
 into Holland. He was the founder of the sect called 
 Mennonites, who have maintained a vigorous life to this 
 1 Hist. Prea., p. 131.
 
 472 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 day, and have a considerable following in the United 
 States. Menno was born in Friesland, educated, and be- 
 came a priest and a preacher of considerable force in the 
 Catholic church. In 1531 he became parish priest in his 
 native town of Witmarsum, and his development in evan- 
 gelical opinions soon afterwards began. About this time 
 the execution of a man for holding Anabaptist views 
 made a profound impression on Menno, and led him to 
 investigate the question of infant baptism. But it was 
 only after several years that he became sufficiently con- 
 vinced to teach these views publicly. He had no sym- 
 pathy with the Miinster fanatics, nor with all who bore 
 the Anabaptist name. Carefully and earnestly he worked 
 out his own position and devoted his life to teaching and 
 spreading the views which he believed to be taught by 
 the Word of God. As his convictions were nearest to 
 those held by the larger number of Anabaptists, there 
 was no impropriety in his taking charge of an Anabap- 
 tist church at Groningen in 1537, where he labored for a 
 number of years, not only in his own congregation, but, 
 by visits and numerous writings, in the adjoining re- 
 gions, and even beyond them. At one time he had a 
 discussion with the eminent theologian John a Lasco, 
 then working at Emden, in Friesland. The debate was 
 characterized by both ability and charity, a combination 
 not always visible in religious disputes then or since. 
 Later, because of persecution, Menno removed to Wismar, 
 and finally settled in Holstein, where he spent the last 
 twelve years of his active life, dying in 1559. 
 
 Menno wrote in the Low-German (plattdeutsch) dia- 
 lect, but his writings were done into Dutch and other 
 languages. He was a prolific author, and many of his 
 writings remain. There do not appear to be sermons, 
 strictly speaking, among them, but doubtless many are the 
 outgrowth of his pulpit work. As a preacher he had the 
 character of a mild but well-convinced and firm defender 
 of his views, a faithful and diligent worker, and a man 
 of eloquence and persuasive power over people. 
 
 Upon the whole, the preaching of the sectaries, with 
 all its varieties, was true to the fundamental principle of 
 the Reformation the sole authority of the Word of God 
 as the basis of preaching and of life in the churches. It
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 473 
 
 also exemplified a noble care for the religious needs of 
 the common people, and displayed a popular power at 
 least not less striking than that of the better known re- 
 formers. Altogether those critical years of reform in Eu- 
 rope were strenuous in conflict and in toil, and through 
 their preachers the Word of God came to the people with 
 power. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 PREACHERS OF THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND AND 
 SCOTLAND 
 
 Both the causes and character of the Reformation in 
 Great Britain differed in many important respects from 
 those of the movement on the Continent, and yet there 
 was necessarily very close connection and sympathy be- 
 tween these movements. In both cases the relation 
 between the Reformation and preaching was close and 
 vital. Except Wiclif, there was in England no great 
 preacher before the Reformation; since that time there 
 have been no preachers in all the world who, in the essen- 
 tials of true pulpit eloquence, have surpassed the Eng- 
 lish Protestant divines. And, whatever may be the explan- 
 ation of the singular fact, it is true that no English Catho- 
 lic preacher has ever occupied corresponding rank with 
 his great Protestant contemporaries in his own land or 
 with his more noted Romanist brethren in others. Cardi- 
 nal Newman is no exception, because his best pulpit work 
 belongs, not to his Catholic, but to his Anglican days. In 
 Scotland the case is exactly parallel; no great preacher 
 before the Reformation, since then, in the Protestant 
 bodies, a multitude. It is idle to conjecture what might 
 have been the influence on preaching if a purified Roman- 
 ism had been the modern type of British Christianity, but 
 the fact is that the Reformation produced the modern 
 British pulpit. 
 
 i. THE ENGLISH REFORMATION AND ITS PREACHING 
 
 No doubt the character of Henry VIII. and his suit 
 for divorce from Katharine of Arragon were very in- 
 fluential in bringing on and shaping the English Re- 
 formation; no doubt also the patriotic desire for hide-
 
 474 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 pendence of papal authority in England had very much to 
 do with it ; no doubt, further, that many churchmen in the 
 country sympathized with both these elements of the situ- 
 ation ; but back of all these things there lay in the minds 
 of the great English people a deep discontent with exist- 
 ing religious conditions, and a readiness to be led in 
 mending them. This readiness settled more and more 
 into a fixed and mighty purpose through the troubled 
 reigns of Henry, Edward, and Mary, until it reached 
 its accomplishment under Elizabeth. Not sovereigns, 
 statesmen nor prelates could have wrought out the Eng- 
 lish Reformation unless there had been among the people 
 themselves an intelligent, vigorous and religiously earnest 
 party of reform, which, though at first not in the major- 
 ity, yet knew how to make its influence felt. Preaching, 
 as we have seen in our account of Wiclif 1 and his work, 
 had much to do with creating and manifesting this senti- 
 ment; and we shall from now on have to consider the 
 great part it played in the powerful movement of the age. 2 
 Well says Mr. W. H. Beckett, 3 " In an age which was 
 eminently a hearing and not a reading one, the influence 
 of such able and zealous preachers as Latimer, Knox, 
 Ridley, Hooper, Bradford, can scarcely be overestimated. 
 In its preachers rather than its rulers was the strength 
 of the Reformation movement." 
 
 The work of Wiclif and the Lollards had by no means 
 spent its force. Beckett shows how the Lollard preach- 
 ing was most influential in those very regions (mostly 
 in the south and east) where the strength of the Ref- 
 ormation was greatest. He also points out that the lack 
 of records of Lollard persecutions for a long time before 
 the Tudors came to the throne does not, as commonly 
 supposed, indicate that the Lollards had been suppressed ; 
 but the cessation of persecution was due to the unsettled 
 state of the country during the Wars of the Roses. As 
 Fuller puts it, " The very storm was their shelter." The 
 revival of persecution under both the Tudor Henrys 
 shows that the Lollards were still in evidence. In their 
 
 1 Ante, p. 336 ff. 
 
 2 1 have found great pleasure and help in the brief and popular, 
 but at the same time able and scholarly work of the Rev. W. H. 
 Beckett, The English Reformation of the Sixteenth Century. 
 
 * Chap. XX.
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 475 
 
 preaching they denounced the Romanist doctrines with 
 mighty earnestness and exalted the Scriptures as the suf- 
 ficient guide to doctrine and duty. This Lollard influence 
 not only disposed the people to desire and hear gladly the 
 evangelical preaching, but also was of force in forming 
 the preachers themselves. 
 
 Another highly important sign of the coming change 
 was the reformatory sentiment that found place in both 
 the universities. At Oxford Colet's 1 work was finished 
 on the eve of the Reformation, and his name and influ- 
 ence were by no means forgotten. Cardinal Wolsey had 
 some projects for instituting reforms in the church dis- 
 ciplinary rather than doctrinal and it was among his 
 plans to found at Oxford, from the proceeds of certain 
 suppressed monasteries, a new college which should af- 
 ford a better culture for priests. His career was suddenly 
 cut short, and we do not know what sort of reforms might 
 have come under his guidance. At Oxford Erasmus 
 taught, as well as at Cambridge, during his stay in Eng- 
 land. In 1510 his famous satire, The Praise of Folly, 
 appeared, with its dedication to Sir Thomas More, and it 
 was much read in England. In 1516, from Basel, his 
 Greek Testament appeared, and had a great influence 
 at both the universities and among the better clergy else- 
 where. At Cambridge there was in the early years of the 
 sixteenth century, before the distinctively reformatory 
 events began, a decided tendency in that direction. Sev- 
 eral of the most distinguished preachers of the Reforma- 
 tion, as well as others who helped it other ways, were 
 at this time studying and working at Cambridge. Thus, 
 with Lollard sentiments among the people and the new 
 ideas of learning and theology working at both the edu- 
 cational centers of the nation, there were preparatory in- 
 fluences of the first importance for the preaching of the 
 Reformation. That preaching did not begin in any sudden 
 or particularly impressive way, but gradually grew up and 
 gained power by its own momentum, and by the help of 
 other influences as it went on. 
 
 We have already had frequent occasion to observe the 
 natural sympathetic relation of preaching to the age in 
 which it finds its exercise; and both in a general way 
 1 Ante, p. 342.
 
 476 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 and in many important particulars this was manifest in 
 the English reformation preaching. That widespread 
 stimulus of thought which came from the discovery of 
 America, the invention of printing, the revival of learn- 
 ing, all in the fifteenth century, left its traces upon the 
 English mind and the English preaching as it did else- 
 where, and it may be dismissed with this brief reminder. 
 More immediate was the effect of the course of events 
 in England itself. 
 
 The reigns of the four Tudor sovereigns under whom 
 the Reformation occurred afford convenient as well as 
 historically appropriate waymarks to denote its progress 
 and its influence upon preaching. During the reign of 
 Henry VIII. (1509-1547) the personal character of the 
 monarch counted for something in regard to preaching as 
 well as the general progress of the Reformation, for the 
 king was disposed to manage everything in sight, preach- 
 ing included. But his partiality for Cranmer and respect 
 for Latimer were strong indirect encouragements of the 
 Reformation, though Henry was in doctrine always far 
 more of a Catholic than a reformer. The great reform 
 parliament (1529-1536) was literally the power behind 
 the throne in his reign, and its reformatory acts, especially 
 those suppressing the monasteries, were of profound im- 
 portance to preaching. But the Six Articles (1539) were 
 decidedly reactionary in doctrine, and made it very dan- 
 gerous to preach Protestant views. The reign of the 
 boy king, Edward VI. really a regency or protectorate 
 (1547-1553) was most favorable to the preaching of the 
 Reformation. The statesmen who guided the policy of 
 England during this time sympathized with the Reforma- 
 tion, and Cranmer was the leading spirit in ecclesiastical 
 affairs. The Six Articles were repealed, Protestant di- 
 vines from abroad (Butzer, Peter Martyr Vermigli, 
 Ochino, John a Lasco) were invited to England and put 
 in places of influence, and important acts were passed 
 regarding the supply of preachers for the parishes. But 
 there was no unrestricted liberty to preach; license was 
 required before a preacher was permitted to exercise his 
 ministry, and the requirement seems to have been pretty 
 well enforced. Under Mary (1553-1558) two things vir- 
 tually put a stop to Protestant preaching in England for a
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 477 
 
 while: (i) the reestablishment of the Catholic worship; 
 and (2) the martyrdom, imprisonment or banishment of 
 the leading Protestant preachers. But in these dark days 
 the nation was being tested for better times, and the effect 
 of the persecution was to aid rather than hinder the es- 
 tablishment of Protestantism in the next reign. 
 
 Under Elizabeth, who began to reign in 1558, the res- 
 toration of Protestantism was at first compromisingly 
 cautious and slow. Its final establishment occurred in 
 the latter part of her reign. But yet, in her early days, 
 something was gradually done for the rehabilitation of 
 reformatory preaching. The need was indeed great, for 
 the dearth of preachers during the first years of Eliza- 
 beth's reign was fearful. At first, to avoid controversies, 
 preaching was forbidden for a while, 1 the church services 
 being confined to the reading in English of the Gospel 
 and Epistles for the day, the Ten Commandments, the 
 Apostles' Creed, and the Litany. At St. Paul's Cross 
 the famous scene of so much preaching in better days 
 there was no sermon from Christmas to Easter. It is 
 true this prohibition of preaching was only temporary, 
 but it aggravated the trouble occasioned by the general 
 disorganization of worship, the unsettled state of the 
 country, and the paucity of Protestant preachers. Thomas 
 Lever 2 wrote to Bullinger at Zurich in the second year of 
 Elizabeth's reign : " Many of our parishes have no clergy ; 
 and out of that very small number who administer the 
 sacrament throughout this great country there is hardly 
 one in a hundred who is both able and willing to preach 
 the Word of God." This lack of preachers and preaching 
 continued for a long time. Fourteen years after Eliza- 
 beth's accession it is said that as many as thirty-four 
 parishes even in the diocese of Canterbury were vacant. 
 In many churches there was only occasional preaching 
 during the year. 
 
 Yet some effort was made to repair the dreadful breach 
 caused in the ranks of the clergy by the persecution under 
 Mary. In December, 1559, Parker was made archbishop 
 of Canterbury. The death of Cardinal Pole, who was 
 appointed to succeed Cranmer, spared Protestantism the 
 necessity of deposing him, and perhaps the shame of re- 
 
 1 Beckett, op. cit., p. 264. * Beckett, p. 274.
 
 478 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 taliation for Cranmers wrongs. The appointment of 
 other prelates and clergy followed rapidly. Grindal, who 
 had been much associated with Ridley, and was a fine 
 preacher, was made bishop of London. Sandys, who 
 was also a preacher of some force, was assigned to the 
 see of Worcester ; and Jewel, perhaps the ablest preacher 
 of them all, was created bishop of Salisbury. Both 
 Sandys and Jewel had imbibed the German and Swiss 
 ideas of reform, and were thorough-going Protestants. 
 There were many ordinations ai\d appointments of the 
 lower clergy, and to meet the pressing need a tempo- 
 rary order of readers was instituted to read the services 
 and the homilies without administering the sacraments. 
 Thus slowly and with difficulty did Protestant preaching 
 recover strength in England after the sharp check of 
 those five blighting years of Mary's reign. 
 
 Recurring now to the earlier days, we must consider 
 another powerful influence upon the history of reform 
 preaching. Most important service was rendered to the 
 progress of the English Reformation and to its preach- 
 ing by the translation and dissemination of the Bible, and 
 the production of Protestant literature. The English 
 Bible was one of the Reformation's most precious gifts 
 to the world. The work of translation went on from 
 the days of Wiclif to the publication of the King James 
 Version in 1611 ; and that crowning achievement, as its 
 familiar title page reminds us, was based on the earliest 
 versions " With former translations diligently compared 
 and revised." Most of these " former translations " ap- 
 peared within the time we are now studying, 1 and it is 
 impossible to over-emphasize their importance in the de- 
 velopment of Pr.otestant preaching, both as regards the 
 quickening of intelligent spiritual interest in the hearers 
 and the more thorough furnishing of the preachers. 
 
 Besides the circulation of the Bible, the production and 
 publication of Protestant literature greatly helped the 
 preaching of the reformed doctrines. Erasmus' Para- 
 
 ^indale's New Testament, 1525-1529; Coverdale's Bible (en- 
 tire), 1535; "Matthew's" (probably Rogers' publication of trans- 
 lations left by Tindale and supplemented by portions from Cover- 
 dale) soon after; then the "Great Bible," and Cranmer's Bible 
 all before 1550.
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 479 
 
 phrase of the New Testament was translated into Eng- 
 lish and appointed to be read in the churches. Frith's 
 sharp Disputation of Purgatory appeared in 1531, and 
 called forth a vigorous defence of the doctrine by Sir 
 Thomas More. Tindale's able statement of the doctrine 
 of justification by faith in his exposition of the Parable of 
 the Wicked Mammon, and his more important treatise 
 on the Obedience of a Christian Man, were powerful con- 
 tributions to the Protestant cause, and supplied many a 
 preacher with arguments and reinforcements. The two 
 fundamental principles of the English Reformation 
 the supremacy of the king in the external government of 
 the church, and the sole authority of Scripture in doc- 
 trine were clearly and strongly set forth in the treatise. 
 In 1537 there was drawn up by a committee of bishops and 
 published a work called The Institution of a Christian 
 Man. It contained an exposition of the Apostles' Creed, 
 the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments, very 
 largely with a Protestant coloring; though modifications 
 in a later edition under Gardiner's influence made it more 
 Catholic in tone. The book was intended chiefly to in- 
 struct the clergy, and was familiarly known as the " Bish- 
 op's Book." In its first form it undoubtedly helped the 
 preachers to set forth the evangelical doctrines. The 
 development of the Prayer Book in successive editions 
 and modifications through the reigns of Henry, Edward 
 and Elizabeth, likewise had a relation to preaching in that 
 its being in English helped to popularize worship, and it 
 also recognized the place of preaching in the service. 
 
 More directly connected with preaching, however, was 
 the preparation long apart of the two books of Homi- 
 lies. The first of these was published in the time of 
 King Edward " for the staying of such errors as were 
 then sparkled among the people." The idea was much 
 like that which lay back of the old Homilies of ^Elfric 
 and the later ones of Wiclif; to aid the less cultured 
 preachers in what they should say, or, in the absence 
 of ability, to use the material for fresh sermons, to be 
 read as they were. Three of the twelve are said to 
 have been written by Cranmer; others were contributed 
 by Ridley, Latimer, Butzer, and perhaps others. They 
 set out the principal doctrines of the Reformation very
 
 480 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 distinctly. The later book was published after the res- 
 toration of Protestantism under Elizabeth, being sanc- 
 tioned by the Convocation of 1562. The work was done 
 by the prelates of that later date, has a larger number 
 of homilies, and is even more distinctly Protestant in tone. 
 In one way these Homilies helped preaching, that is, by 
 affording material to the uninstructed clergy ; in another 
 they injured it, by encouraging dependence upon such 
 helps. 
 
 Reformatory preaching in England was characterized 
 by the traits common to that movement in all the Euro- 
 pean countries, but modified by the language and habits 
 of thought of the people, and by the circumstances at- 
 tending the origin and development of the English Re- 
 formation. The first sermon of the Book of Homilies? 
 printed in 1548, is entitled " A Fruitful Exhortacion to the 
 Readynge of Holye Scripture," and declares both the suf- 
 ficiency of the Bible as a rule of faith and the necessity 
 for studying and reading it to the humble as well as to 
 the learned. Thus the cardinal principle of the Reforma- 
 tion is here distinctly laid down, and no doubt was equally 
 emphasized in the sermons by individual preachers. The 
 sermon on Salvation, ascribed to Cranmer, affirms and re- 
 iterates the doctrine of justification by faith alone; and 
 the relation of faith and works is thus set forth : " In 
 our justification is not only God's mercye and grace, but 
 also his justice, whiche the Apostle calleth the justice 
 [righteousness] of God; and it consisteth in paiynge our 
 raunsome and fulfillynge of the lawe; and so the grace 
 of God doth not exclude the justice of God in our justifi- 
 cation, but onely excludeth the justice [righteousness] of 
 man, that is to saie, the justice of our woorkes as to be 
 merites of deservyng our justification. And, therefore, 
 sainct Paule declareth here nothynge upon the behalf of 
 man concerning his justification, but onely a true and 
 lively faith, which nevertheless is the gift of God and 
 not mannes onely work without God. And yet that faythe 
 
 *I had the pleasure of using (in the Bibliotheque Nationale, 
 Paris) an ancient edition of the Book of Homilies " imprinted at 
 London the XXI daye of lune in the seconde yere of the reigne 
 of our souvereigne lord kyng Edward the VI ; by Rychard Graf- 
 ton printer to his moste royall maiestie; in the yere of our Lord 
 MDXLVIII."
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 481 
 
 doeth not exclude repentaunce, hope, love, dread and the 
 feare of God to be joyned with faith in every man that is 
 justified, but it excludeth them from the office of justify- 
 inge. So that, although they be all presente together in 
 him that is justified, yet they justify not altogether." The 
 sermons on faith and good works carry out this idea 
 further, and those on Christian morals are satisfactory. 
 
 Of course the Homilies, as well as the sermons of Lati- 
 mer, Bradford and the rest, bring out fully that our sole 
 dependence for salvation is on Christ, and they oppose 
 all externalism. The Romanist doctrines of the mass, 
 transubstantiation, penances, purgatory, papal supremacy, 
 and the like are attacked with the customary Protestant 
 arguments. While the Scriptures are exalted as the rule 
 of faith and are always quoted, and usually, very appo- 
 sitely, there is less of distinctive exposition than in the 
 Lutheran and Reformed sermons. Commentaries could 
 not be constructed from the sermons of the English re- 
 formers as they could from those of Luther and Calvin. 
 And the number of preserved sermons is comparatively 
 very small. There are a good many from Latimer, for he 
 had a Swiss friend and secretary who was at pains to 
 write out a large number of them, but from the rest only 
 a very few remain. 
 
 Criticisms of individuals will be reserved for the bio- 
 graphical notices, but it may be remarked that from the 
 contemporary accounts, as well as from the remaining 
 specimens of sermons, we see that the English reform 
 preachers held the evangelical doctrine, and they preached 
 it with simplicity and with power. Their courage, con- 
 stancy, fidelity to truth and duty, and their power to 
 move, win and hold their countrymen, are all apparent 
 in their sermons. To a study of some of these noble 
 men we must now turn. 
 
 2. PREACHERS OF THE ENGLISH REFORMATION 
 
 At any time in the history of preaching there are dis- 
 tinguished preachers who are not specially distinguished 
 as preachers; their pulpit gifts are not commensurate 
 with their services in other directions. The era of the 
 Reformation in England affords abundant illustration of
 
 482 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 this fact, and a few of the preachers of this class must be 
 noticed. 1 
 
 We naturally think first of the famous arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury under Henry VIII. and Edward 
 VI., Thomas Cranmer (1489-1556). The future leader 
 of the English Reformation came of good old family in 
 Nottinghamshire. His mother was left a widow while 
 Thomas was still young, but she cared for his education, 
 sending him to Cambridge at the age of fourteen. Here 
 he remained for eight years, taking the regular degrees in 
 course and being made a fellow of Jesus College. This 
 fellowship he lost through marriage, in accordance with 
 the custom, but was reflected to it on the early death of 
 his wife. He was thus in residence at Cambridge for a 
 number of years, was made a doctor of divinity and gave 
 lectures on that subject; but when he was ordained a 
 priest and what preaching places he filled in his early 
 career are not mentioned in the accounts of his life. 
 
 As is well known, his rapid promotion to high ecclesi- 
 astical positions was due to the favor of Henry VIII. be- 
 cause of Cranmer's no doubt sincere convictions as to 
 the rightfulness of the king's divorce, and as to the 
 means by which it might be secured. In 1533 Cranmer 
 was made archbishop of Canterbury, and soon thereafter 
 the famous cause was tried before him as Primate of 
 England, and the divorce was granted. Faithful, some- 
 times indeed subservient, to Henry all his life, Cranmer 
 never lost the favor of his royal patron; and through 
 the reign of the boy king, Edward, he retained and faith- 
 fully administered his great office. 
 
 Though Cranmer was far from rash or very decided 
 in his reformatory progress, there is no reason to doubt 
 that he was sincere in his growing adhesion to the Prot- 
 estant views. He was disposed to follow rather than 
 lead in matters of opinion, and he especially deferred 
 much to the wise and learned Ridley. Though not a 
 strong preacher himself, he did occasionally preach. He 
 wrote some of the Homilies; and he gave generous and 
 effective encouragement to such powerful preachers as 
 Latimer, Ridley, Bradford, Grindal and others. 
 
 On the accession of Mary, Cranmer was degraded from 
 
 1 In preparing the sketches that follow I have found, the articles 
 in the Diet. Nat. Biog. of especially good service.
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 483 
 
 his high offices and imprisoned along with Latimer, Rid- 
 ley and others. From his prison window he was a mourn- 
 ful witness of the martyrdom of his two faithful com- 
 panions, and in a few months followed in their way. The 
 timidity and weakness which led him to sign a series of 
 recantations of his Protestant views were only atoned for 
 by the brave and pathetic way in which he came to his 
 true self at the end, renounced his weak and insincere re- 
 cantations, reasserted his real views, and cheerfully died 
 for them. It is easy to criticise the obvious weaknesses 
 of Cranmer his over-caution, his vacillation, his subser- 
 viency but his virtues should not be forgotten his kind- 
 ness, generosity, forgiving disposition; and his great 
 services to the cause of Protestantism in England in the 
 trying days of his life should be fully recognized. 
 
 The chief significance of William Tindale (d. 1536) is 
 as a Bible translator and author, but he was also a 
 preacher of promise, and doubtless would easily have at- 
 tained eminence in that regard had his life-work not 
 been directed in another and extremely useful channel. 
 He was born in the west of England, near the Welsh bor- 
 der, in the ninth decade of the fifteenth century, and after 
 preliminary training studied with marked diligence and 
 success at both Oxford and Cambridge. After taking 
 his degrees he was ordained priest, and taught for a while 
 in the family of a gentleman in Gloucestershire, and 
 preached at various places nearby, including out-of-door 
 services on the College Green at Bristol. His preaching 
 was effective, and as his views were already verging to- 
 ward reform, the clergy was aroused and had the bold 
 preacher called to account before the bishop. Tindale 
 defended himself with ability and was released. He is 
 said to have remarked to one of his opponents, " If God 
 spare my life ere many years I will cause a boy that di- 
 recteth a plow shall know more of the Scripture than 
 thou dost." This shows that already he had formed the 
 purpose of translating the Bible into English. 
 
 With this great project in his mind he came to London 
 hoping to receive aid and encouragement from the schol- 
 arly bishop Tunstall. This was the very Tunstall who 
 a few years later was to buy up and burn a quantity of 
 Tindale's Testaments. Naturally Tindale got no help 
 in that quarter, but having in some way secured a preach-
 
 484 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 ing place in one of the London parishes, his sermons at- 
 tracted notice and won him the fast and helpful friend- 
 ship of a certain Humphrey Monmouth, who aided him 
 with sympathy and in practical ways. Coming to the con- 
 clusion that he could not safely or successfully accom- 
 plish his great design in England, Tindale left the coun- 
 try. The first edition of his translation of the New Testa- 
 ment was published at Worms, in Germany, in 1525 or 
 1526. Later Tindale moved to Antwerp, where a second 
 edition was published in 1529. Meantime his two great 
 Protestant treatises the exposition of the Wicked Mam- 
 mon, and the Obedience of a Christian Man had ap- 
 peared, and gave great help to the cause of reform in 
 England. These writings involved him in a vigorous 
 controversy with the accomplished Thomas More, in 
 which Tindale amply sustained himself against that mas- 
 ter of dialectic and style. 
 
 While residing at Antwerp and working at his trans- 
 lation of the Old Testament, Tindale met and influenced 
 John Rogers, in whose hands he left his uncompleted 
 work. For, in 1535, Tindale was in some way betrayed 
 into leaving the protection of the so-called " English 
 House " at Antwerp, and was captured by the imperial 
 authorities. It was not to the taste of Charles V. or his 
 agents in the Netherlands to have this arch-heretic busily 
 at work at Antwerp. After a period of imprisonment at 
 Vilvorde, and on the refusal of Henry VIII. to interfere 
 in his behalf, Tindale was executed as a heretic in 1536. 
 At the stake he is said to have prayed, " Lord, open the 
 King of England's eyes." Tindale was a competent 
 scholar, and much of his interpretation and diction has 
 been retained in all subsequent English versions of the 
 Bible. 
 
 Next to Tindale should be named his friend John 
 Rogers (d. 1555), who was born near Birmingham about 
 the beginning of the sixteenth century. He was edu- 
 cated at Cambridge and began his ministry as priest in a 
 small London parish, but on going to Antwerp to serve 
 the English congregation there he came under Tindale's 
 influence, and probably was thus led to embrace Protest- 
 ant views. He married, went to Germany, where at Wit- 
 tenberg he came in touch with the Reformers and put
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 485 
 
 forth the version of the Bible known as " Matthew's 
 Bible," consisting of Tindale's published and unpublished 
 work, with some parts filled in from Coverdale's version. 
 In 1548, Edward now reigning, Rogers returned to Eng- 
 land, and was appointed successively to several different 
 preaching places, the most important being one con- 
 nected with St. Paul's Cathedral, to which he was as- 
 signed by Bishop Ridley. 
 
 In his preaching Rogers did not spare the corrupt 
 courtiers about Edward VI., and he thus made some 
 enemies, and was called before the council to answer for 
 some of his utterances. But without cringing or retrac- 
 tion he made so frank and manly a justification of his 
 course that he remained unpunished. In July, 1553, dur- 
 ing the brief interval between Edward and Mary, when 
 the unfortunate Lady Jane Grey was acknowledged queen 
 by a small following, Rogers, by order of her council, 
 preached at St. Paul's Cross, but he did not at that time 
 touch upon the political situation. A few weeks later, 
 however, after Mary had been acknowledged queen, he 
 preached again, and this time was not so prudent. Ac- 
 cording to Foxe, 1 " he made a godly and vehement ser- 
 mon at St. Paul's Cross, confirming such true doctrine as 
 he and others had taught there in King Edward's days, 
 exhorting the people constantly to remain in the same 
 and to beware of all pestilent popery, idolatry and super- 
 stition." It was not wise, perhaps, but it was brave unto 
 daring and faithful unto death the stake was its earthly, 
 the crown its heavenly, reward. It was Rogers' last ser- 
 mon. Summoned before the royal council to answer for 
 his conduct, he pleaded that he had only preached the re- 
 ligion established by law; and this was true, for there 
 had not been time to change the reformatory statutes of 
 Edward's reign. But this shrewd plea only embarrassed 
 the persecutors for a time. Rogers was summoned again, 
 confined in his own house, then deprived of his offices 
 as preacher, then imprisoned, several times examined, 
 condemned as a heretic, and after more than a year of 
 trials and imprisonments was finally brought to the stake 
 in February, 1555, the first of that " noble army of mar- 
 tyrs " who suffered under Mary's reign. His wife and 
 1 Quoted by Beckett, p. 211.
 
 486 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 children spoke to him as he passed to the place of suffer- 
 ing and encouraged him to steadfastness ; and De Noailles, 
 the French ambassador, who witnessed the scene, wrote 
 in his report that Rogers " went to his death as though it 
 had been his wedding." 
 
 No sermons remain from Rogers to give us an insight 
 into his manner of preaching, but he was held in highest 
 esteem as a preacher by Ridley and other excellent 
 judges; and his courage, fidelity and effectiveness in the 
 pulpit were shown on more than one trying occasion. 
 
 A man of very different stamp was Miles Coverdale 
 (1488-1568), also one of the venerated pioneers in Eng- 
 lish Bible translation, and a preacher of merit and in- 
 fluence. Coverdale was a native of Yorkshire, a graduate 
 of Cambridge, and as early as 1514 an ordained priest. 
 He joined the Augustinian friars and came under the 
 early reformatory influence of Barnes, prior to the abbey 
 of that order at Cambridge. After a time he left the 
 convent and devoted himself to an itinerant evangelizing 
 ministry in different parts of the country. From about 
 1526 for a year or two there are traces of his activity and 
 success in this work, and then for a long time he dis- 
 appears from view till the publication of his translation 
 the first complete one of the Bible in 1535, just ten years 
 after Tindale's New Testament. During this time Cover- 
 dale was probably for the most part abroad and hard at 
 work on his translation. It was published out of Eng- 
 land, but the place has been disputed ; probably Antwerp 
 has the honor. Coverdale returned to England for a 
 short time about 1538 and got married, but on the fall of 
 Cromwell and the punishment of Barnes, his friends, he 
 prudently left the country and spent a term of years as 
 pastor of a Lutheran church and as schoolmaster at Berg- 
 zabern, in the province of Zweibriicken (Deux Fonts), in 
 Germany. Doubtless during his long sojourn abroad, 
 while translating the Bible, he had learned the languages 
 and made the connections which rendered this arrange- 
 ment possible. The accession of Edward VI., and the 
 now dominant influence of Cranmer and other reformers, 
 gave Coverdale opportunity to come back to England in 
 1548. 
 
 He was received with marked and deserved favor, and
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 487 
 
 after filling with acceptance several lower places was 
 made bishop of Exeter in 1551. Of his work in that dio- 
 cese an old chronicler is quoted as saying : " He most 
 worthilie did performe the office committed unto him ; he 
 preached continuallie on everi holie day, and did read 
 most commonly twise in the weeke in some church or 
 other in this citie." On the accession of Mary, Cover- 
 dale was put out of his bishopric and a Catholic put in, 
 but through various influences he was allowed to leave 
 England instead of being sent to the stake. Stopping 
 for a while with English friends in Denmark and then in 
 Westphalia, he finally made his way back to his old place 
 at Bergzabern, a second time his refuge. 
 
 Once more and lastly this good man of long life and 
 many mutations came back to his native land; this was 
 when the death of Mary ended the persecutions and gave 
 distressed and wasted Protestantism a chance to recover 
 itself under Elizabeth. Coverdale had become more Puri- 
 tan in his views, and now declined reappointment as 
 bishop, though as titular bishop of Exeter he took part 
 in the consecration of Parker as Archbishop of Canter- 
 bury. The rest of his life was devoted to preaching in 
 different places, and he was much sought after. Though 
 not so strong a character as some others of the prominent 
 reformers, and though escaping extreme punishment, 
 Coverdale was never recreant to his principles, and 
 through all his long and troubled life was an eminently 
 good and useful man. The general testimony of his con- 
 temporaries represents him as a preacher of more than 
 average popularity and influence. 
 
 Useful in the pulpit as were all these men, particu- 
 larly Rogers and Coverdale, there is a group of reform- 
 ers whose services and fame lay chiefly in their preach- 
 ing; and the best known and greatest of these was the 
 eminent bishop and martyr, Hugh Latimer * (d. 1555). 
 
 About the year 1490, or perhaps even earlier, in the 
 county of Leicester, there was born to a well-to-do yeo- 
 man farmer the babe who, in course of stressful years, 
 was to become the most powerful and popular preacher 
 
 1 Sermons and Remains of Bp. Latimer, with biographical 
 sketches compiled from Foxe and other sources edited for the 
 Parker Society by the Rev. G. E. Corrie, Cambridge, 1844-5.
 
 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 of the Reformation in England, and to be in his old age 
 a martyr for the cause he loved. This was Hugh Lati- 
 mer, an only son, but with several sisters. Do these two 
 facts help to account for that naive and refreshingly in- 
 offensive egotism which we find in his sermons? After 
 education in the schools near his home the wide-awake lad 
 was sent very young to Cambridge, where he resided and 
 studied a number of years as undergraduate, resident 
 graduate and preacher. He took his degrees in the regu- 
 lar course ; his conduct at college was irreproachable, and 
 he was highly esteemed by his mates. 
 
 At first a very decided papist, he fell under the influ- 
 ence of Thomas Bilney and others, and became converted 
 to the reformed doctrines. Many years later (in 1552), 
 when now an old man, in his first sermon on the Lord's 
 Prayer, he thus recalls the memory of that time : " Here 
 I have occasion to tell you a story which happened at 
 Cambridge. Master Bilney, or, rather, Saint Bilney, that 
 suffered death for God's word sake the same Bilney was 
 the instrument whereby God called me to knowledge ; for 
 I may thank him, next to God, for that knowledge that 
 I have in the Word of God. For I was as obstinate a 
 papist as any was in England, insomuch that when I 
 should be made bachelor of divinity my whole oration 
 went against Philip Melanchthon and against his opin- 
 ions. Bilney heard me at that time and perceived that I was 
 zealous without knowledge, and he came to me after- 
 wards in my study and desired me for God's sake to hear 
 his confession. I did so; and to say the truth, by his 
 confession I learned more than before in many years. 
 So that from that time forward I began to smell the Word 
 of God and forsook the school doctors and such fool- 
 eries." This was the start, but there were other influ- 
 ences that helped, and Latimer was fairly entered on the 
 way of the Reformation. 
 
 At what time he was ordained a priest we do not 
 know, but his preaching began at Cambridge, and his 
 talent in that direction was not hid. A hearer of his 
 early sermons at Cambridge said, " None except the stiff- 
 necked and uncircumcised in heart went away from his 
 preaching without being affected with high detestation of 
 sin and moved unto all godliness and virtue." His ser-
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 489 
 
 mons also quickened among his hearers a great desire for 
 reading the Scriptures and for hearing a more evangelical 
 preaching. 
 
 This work at the university went on for about two 
 years, but Latimer's zeal and advancing reformatory 
 views awakened opposition. As old Foxe quaintly puts 
 it : " How be it as Satan never sleepeth when he seeth his 
 kingdom begin to decay, so likewise now, seeing that 
 this worthy member of Christ would be a shrewd shaker 
 thereof, he raised up his children to molest and trouble 
 him." So much noise was made that the bishop of Ely, 
 in whose diocese Cambridge lay, determined to hear for 
 himself how Latimer preached, and, without giving no- 
 tice, came one day, taking pains to arrive after the ser- 
 mon was begun. Latimer's quick wit, however, was 
 equal to the occasion, and he stopped until the bishop 
 and his retinue were properly seated. Then, remarking 
 that since the bishop had come to hear him, it would be 
 proper to preach what would be appropriate to the occa- 
 sion, he cleverly changed his text and preached a sermon 
 on the priesthood of Christ as an example to bishops, 
 and unfolded with no less force than tact the high duties 
 of the episcopal office. As his language was respectful 
 and his doctrine scriptural the bishop could take no visi- 
 ble exception to the sermon, but commended it after 
 service as a good exposition of a bishop's duty ; but he 
 asked Latimer to agree to preach there soon a sermon in 
 condemnation of the doctrines of Luther. Latimer re- 
 plied that as Luther's writings had long been prohibited 
 to be read at Cambridge he was not acquainted with his 
 doctrine, but added, " I have preached before you to-day 
 no man's doctrine, but only the doctrine of God out of the 
 Scriptures ; and if Luther do none other than I have done 
 there needeth no confutation of his doctrine. Otherwise, 
 when I understand that he doth teach against the Scrip- 
 ture, I will be ready with all my heart to confound his 
 doctrine as much as lieth in me." This answer, rather 
 more shrewd than frank, naturally nettled the bishop, and 
 he replied, " Well, well, Mr. Latimer, I perceive that you 
 somewhat smell of the pan ; you will repent this gear one 
 day." The bishop's threat was not idle; for, on further 
 complaint, he forbade Latimer's preaching in any of the
 
 49 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 churches belonging to the university. On this Robert 
 Barnes, prior of the Augustinian abbey, and himself 
 strongly inclined to reformed views, opened to Latimer 
 the chapel of that institution, it being not under the 
 bishop's control. So Latimer went on with his preaching, 
 and did not lack a congregation. 
 
 Soon, however, complaint was made to Wolsey, and 
 Latimer was called to London to explain himself before 
 the great Cardinal. This he did with such characteristic 
 boldness, combined with tact, that Wolsey not only dis- 
 missed the charges, but gave the unproved heretic a gen- 
 eral license to preach anywhere in England he would ! 
 Latimer was not the man either to keep his victory to 
 himself or slight the opportunities of further preaching 
 thus afforded him. 
 
 Meantime the attention of Henry VIII. had been called 
 to Latimer, and he had a curiosity to hear the bold 
 preacher. So Latimer was called to preach before the 
 court, acquitted himself well, was liberally paid for his 
 services, and made so good an impression that in 1530 
 he was appointed one of the royal chaplains. So that 
 now for a while he had at intervals the dangerous and irk- 
 some honor of preaching at the court of Henry VIII. In 
 what spirit he discharged that duty we may gather not 
 only from the character of the man and from the reports 
 of contemporaries, but also from several allusions and 
 reminiscences which are found in his later sermons, when, 
 as an old man, he was court preacher again this time 
 to Edward VI. One of these passages is as follows : " In 
 the king's days that dead is a many of us were called to- 
 gether before him to say our minds in certain matters. In 
 the end one kneeleth me down and accuseth me of ,sedi- 
 tion, that I had preached seditious doctrine. An heavy 
 salutation, and a hard point of such a man's doing as if 
 I should name him ye would not think it. The king 
 turned to me and said, ' What say you to that, sir ? ' Then 
 I kneeled down and turned me first to mine accuser and 
 required him, ' Sir, what form of preaching would you 
 appoint me to preach before a king? Would you have 
 me for to preach nothing as concerning a king in the 
 king's sermon? Have you any commission to appoint me 
 what I shall preach ? ' Besides this, I asked him divers
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 491 
 
 other questions, and he would make me no answer to 
 none of them all ; he had nothing to say. Then I turned 
 me to the king and submitted myself to his grace and 
 said, ' I never thought myself worthy nor I never sued 
 to be a preacher before your Grace, but I was called to it, 
 and would be willing, if you mislike me, to give place to 
 my betters ; for I grant that there be a great many more 
 worthy of the room than I am, and if it be your Grace's 
 pleasure so to allow them for preachers, I could be con- 
 tent to bear their books after them. But if your Grace 
 allow me for a preacher I would desire your Grace to give 
 me leave to discharge my conscience; give me leave to 
 frame my doctrine according to mine audience; I had 
 been a very dolt to have preached so at the borders of 
 your realm as I preach before your Grace/ And I thank 
 Almighty God, which hath always been my remedy, that 
 my sayings were well accepted of the king, for like a gra- 
 cious lord he turned into another communication." But, 
 though brave and faithful in his perilous position, Lati- 
 mer wearied of it, he wished to breathe a freer air and 
 speak his mind without being accused of sedition when 
 he framed his doctrine to suit the needs and sins of his 
 audience. 
 
 So in 1531, at the request of friends, Latimer was ap- 
 pointed by the king to a benefice at West Kingston, in 
 Wiltshire. In this parish for several years he exercised 
 a diligent and faithful ministry. He carried out his 
 principle of adapting his discourse to his hearers, and 
 preached the very marrow of the gospel in that racy, 
 homely, clear and vigorous style which renders even his 
 reported and printed sermons so charming. His influence 
 extended far beyond his own parish, and he was accused 
 of meddling; but he had his license to preach anywhere 
 he would, and seems to have used his privilege. 
 
 Still the opponents of reform and his enemies would 
 give him no rest from attacks and annoyance. The gos- 
 pel quality of his preaching was the real trouble, but there 
 were not wanting various pretexts for hindering and try- 
 ing to silence him. Once he was summoned to London, 
 and detained there for several months from his work, 
 confined, and, it seems, for a time, even excommunicated, 
 because he would not subscribe to certain things re-
 
 492 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 quired by the bishops in the Catholic interest. But the 
 king finally interfered, and seems to have secured from 
 Latimer some sort of submission or promise to be on his 
 good behavior, and so released him and sent him back to 
 his charge. Latimer still had his share of persecution, 
 and at one time seems to have somewhat compromised his 
 principles, but, if so, it was only a temporary weakness. 
 
 Under Cranmer's influence Latimer was once again in- 
 vited to preach a series of sermons before the king, and 
 in 1535 was made bishop of Worcester. In the follow- 
 ing year Cranmer appointed him to preach the sermon 
 before Convocation, and Latimer powerfully attacked in 
 true reformer's style the abuses and corruptions in the 
 church, and more than hinted that the prelates before 
 him had not lived up to their duty in reforming evils. In 
 accordance with custom the sermon was in Latin, but 
 it was translated into English and published, and made a 
 great stir, bringing on the preacher not a little criticism 
 and annoyance ; but he went on with his work in his dio- 
 cese, and was as faithful a bishop as he had been pastor. 
 Latimer's bishopric, however, was not of very long dura- 
 tion; for in 1539, under royal pressure, the famous Six 
 Articles were adopted which reasserted many of the es- 
 sential Romanist doctrines, including transubstantiation. 
 Latimer could not sign the articles, and resigned his 
 bishopric. For awhile he was placed in custody, but was 
 subsequently released, and for six years was practically 
 lost from view ; how he occupied himself being unknown. 
 But his enemies were not satisfied, and in 1547 he was 
 apprehended on some sort of charges and sent to the 
 Tower, where he was confined for the remaining few 
 months of Henry's reign. 
 
 On the accession of Edward VI., in 1547, Latimer was 
 promptly released from prison, and in January, 1548, after 
 eight years of silence, he preached again at St. Paul's 
 Cross. On a week day he gave his famous Sermon on the 
 Plough, 1 in which he paid his respects to lazy prelates, 
 as well as to some other subjects that needed attention. 
 He was offered again his bishopric at Worcester, but de- 
 clined, and devoted himself to labors among the people 
 in London and elsewhere, living for the most part with 
 1 Fish, Masterpieces of Pulpit Eloq., Vol. I., p. 129.
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 493 
 
 Archbishop Cranmer at Lambeth. He was by no means 
 idle, but preached much in different places. Among the 
 sermons of this period are the notable ones he delivered 
 before the young king on several occasions. Nearly every 
 Sunday he was preaching somewhere, besides doing much 
 other work for the Protestant cause. 
 
 When Mary came to the throne, in 1553, Latimer was 
 from the first a marked man. Opportunity was given him 
 to escape from England, but he declined to leave, and in 
 September, 1553, he was again confined in the Tower. 
 Along with Cranmer and Ridley he was later taken to 
 Oxford for trial, and was imprisoned there for two years, 
 till in September, 1555, a new trial was ordered and he 
 and Ridley were condemned to the stake. The execution 
 took place on the i6th of October, and is thus described 
 by one of the old chroniclers : " When Master Latimer 
 stood at the stake and the tormentors were about to set 
 fire upon him and that most reverend father Doctor Rid- 
 ley, he lifted up his eyes to heaven with a most amiable 
 and comfortable countenance, saying these words : ' God 
 is faithful who does not suffer us to be tempted above our 
 strength.' And, addressing himself to Master Ridley, he 
 said, ' Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the 
 man ; we shall this day light such a candle by God's grace 
 in England as I trust shall never be put out.' " 
 
 As a preacher Latimer ranks among the best of his 
 time. The contemporary accounts of his preaching bear 
 most emphatic testimony to its charm, its power, and its 
 practical results. And though he spoke freely, without 
 written preparation, we are fortunate in having excellent 
 reports of a large number of his sermons by the hand 
 of Augustine Bernher, a Swiss, who for some years 
 served Latimer faithfully and affectionately as a secre- 
 tary and helper. These published sermons confirm the 
 traditions of Latimer's excellence as a preacher. They 
 bear in many traits, both of thought and style, the stamp 
 of a marked individuality. Courage combined with 
 shrewdness and tact, strong convictions and deep feeling 
 joined to a lively wit and quaint humor, clear and firm 
 grasp of truth along with an easy familiarity of manner, 
 indifference to exact analysis and division, yet an orderly 
 presentation and vigorous movement of thought, are some
 
 494 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 of the things that show themselves to the reader of his 
 sermons. They do not deal so much in exposition as in 
 application of Scripture, but they exalt the authority and 
 reverence the truth of God's Word. " His utterances are 
 as fresh as morning air, or the morning song of the birds. 
 He grasps truth with vigor, handles it with ease, holds it 
 up before you with startling reality." * And, it may be 
 added, he fortified his doctrine by his life. 
 
 Latimer's companion in martyrdom, Nicholas Ridley 
 (d. 1555) came of an ancient and respected family in 
 Northumberland, where he was born about the begin- 
 ning of the sixteenth century. He had an uncle, Robert, 
 who was an influential priest and preacher, and never left 
 the Catholic faith. Nicholas was educated at Cambridge 
 and made a fine reputation as a scholar, especially dis- 
 tiguishing himself in Greek. He later pursued his studies 
 at the Sorbonne in Paris, and at the university of Lou- 
 vain. Not till after the death of his uncle Robert, and 
 then only gradually, did Ridley become a convert to the 
 Protestant faith. He discussed the living questions much 
 with Peter Martyr Vermigli and with Cranmer, the latter 
 of whom leaned much through life on Ridley's learning 
 and judgment. In the latter part of King Henry's reign 
 Ridley was advanced to a good many church honors, was 
 a royal chaplain, a canon of Canterbury, and also of 
 Westminster. During this time he was preaching much, 
 and his reformed opinions were growing and strengthen- 
 ing into vital convictions. During the reign of King Ed- 
 ward his conversion to Protestantism became complete, 
 further honors came to him, and his preaching and writ- 
 ing were a powerful advocacy of the Reformation. He 
 was first made bishop of Rochester and in 1550 promoted 
 to the see of London, instead of Bonner. Ridley showed 
 great consideration to the deposed prelate's mother and 
 sister, whom he permitted still to live in the episcopal resi- 
 dence. He was a staunch friend and patron of Rogers 
 and Bradford, whose preaching gifts he recognized and 
 used by appointing them to places of influence. He was 
 also in close touch with Cranmer and with Hooper, 
 though Hooper's pronounced puritanism and objections 
 to vestments, and other details of remnants from Cath- 
 1 Broadus Hist. Prea., p. 192.
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 495 
 
 olicism, involved the two men in disagreeable contro- 
 versies. In 1553 Ridley preached before the young king 
 a sermon in behalf of the London poor, and so effective 
 was the plea that Edward sought an interview with the 
 preacher, and the outcome was the establishment of three 
 hospitals in the city. In his court preaching he did not 
 spare the men who, taking advantage of the king's youth 
 and ill-health, were guilty of shameless greed and cor- 
 ruptions. 
 
 On the death of Edward VI. Ridley was induced by 
 the Earl of Northumberland to declare in favor of Lady 
 Jane Grey, and in a sermon at Paul's Cross before the 
 Mayor and Corporation of London, on the Sunday after 
 the young king died, the bishop took strong ground 
 against the legitimacy of both Mary and Elizabeth, and 
 denounced in vigorous terms Mary's Romanism as a 
 menace to England. The speedy collapse of Lady Jane 
 Grey's little reign and the proclamation of Mary as 
 queen were, of course, fatal to Ridley. He threw him- 
 self on the queen's mercy a pitiful refuge truly! but 
 could not renounce his convictions. He was promptly 
 committed to the Tower, then sent with Cranmer and 
 Latimer, as we have seen, to Oxford. During his long 
 imprisonment he wrote letters and some able treatises in 
 defence of the Protestant faith, and toward the last gave 
 out two farewell addresses, full of courage and eloquence, 
 exhorting his brethren to steadfastness and trust. In 
 company with Latimer the two encouraging each other 
 and with Cranmer from the prison window sadly look- 
 ing on, he was burned at the stake October 16, 1555. 
 
 Ridley was a profound scholar and an able theologian, 
 perhaps the strongest in this early group of reformers. 
 Parker and Jewel among the latter ones were probably 
 his equals in learning, but his position among the leaders 
 of his own time is indicated in the remark of Bonner or 
 Gardiner : 1 " Latimer leaneth to Cranmer, Cranmer lean- 
 eth to Ridley, and Ridley leaneth to his own singular wit." 
 As to his preaching, Foxe 2 says : " Every holiday and 
 Sunday he preached in some place or other, unless hin- 
 dered by weighty business. The people resorted to his 
 sermons, swarming about him like bees, and coveting the 
 1 Beckett, p. 2ip, *Id., p. 211,
 
 49 6 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 sweet flowers and wholesome juice of the fruitful doc- 
 trine which he did not only preach, but showed the same 
 by his life." The literary remains from Ridley are dis- 
 appointingly little, though of excellent quality. 1 He 
 either did not care to publish or did not take time, and 
 there was no one to report and hand down his sermons 
 as Latimer's friend did. The treatise on the Lord's Sup- 
 per is an able and clear presentation of the Protestant 
 criticism of transubstantiation, and defends the Swiss, 
 rather Calvin's than Zwingli's, view of the ordinance. 
 The Lamentation for the Change in Religion, like the 
 former treatise given out from his prison, deplores the 
 bringing in again of Romanism under Mary, and is a 
 weighty defence of the Reformation. The two farewell 
 addresses already mentioned abound in Scripture quota- 
 tions, breathe a noble courage and trust, glow with love, 
 and are couched in the lofty eloquence of a great soul 
 that was looking death in the face and was not afraid. 
 
 After Ridley and Latimer should be named their 
 fellow-laborer and fellow-sufferer, John Hooper 
 (d. 1555), who was martyred in the same year, but some 
 eight months before they were. Hooper came of a well- 
 to-do family in Somerset, where he was born toward the 
 end of the fifteenth century. He was educated at Ox- 
 ford, and is said to have entered the Cistercian monastery 
 at Gloucester when he was ordained a priest. On the 
 suppression of the monastery he went to London, where 
 he seems to have lived about the court in rather a worldly 
 way for a time. Getting hold of the writings of Zwingli 
 and Bullinger, he became impressed with their views and 
 went back to Oxford with the intention of teaching his 
 new opinions there. But he attracted the notice of the 
 sharp Catholic professor, Richard Smith, who was about 
 to try him for heresy when he left Oxford and became 
 steward for Sir Thomas Arundel. He, as a good Cath- 
 olic, was much concerned because of Hooper's heresies, 
 and sent him to have a conference with the famous 
 Bishop Gardiner, in hope of curing him. Instead of that 
 the effect of the discussion was but to confirm Hooper 
 in his views. To avoid trial Hooper now left England 
 and spent some time abroad, then came back, then went 
 l Life and Writings of Bf>. Ridley, Rd. Tract. Soc,
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 497 
 
 away again, this time to Switzerland. At Strasburg he 
 met with Butzer, and at Zurich with Bullinger. 
 
 In 1549, on the establishment of Protestantism, he re- 
 turned to England, and was at once recognized as a leader 
 among the reformers. He was appointed chaplain to the 
 Protector, the Duke of Somerset, and had frequent op- 
 portunities for preaching in London. This he did almost 
 daily, and his sermons attracted crowded congregations. 
 He sympathized with the Swiss theologians, was not 
 much in favor of episcopacy, and decidedly opposed to the 
 use of clerical vestments and other matters of cere- 
 monial retained from the old church. In fact he was 
 of the tendency of thought that under Elizabeth and the 
 Stuarts came to be stigmatized as Puritan. This in- 
 volved him in controversies with Cranmer and Ridley, 
 who did not agree with these views ; but Hooper was 
 very highly esteemed by the young king, who admired 
 his preaching. In a series of sermons before the king on 
 the prophet Jonah he attacked some of the Romish prac- 
 tices that were allowed to remain in the Church of Eng- 
 land ; but, notwithstanding his Puritan views and his com- 
 bativeness, Hooper was nominated to the bishopric of 
 Gloucester and urged by the king and others to accept. 
 He had many scruples on matters of detail, such as the 
 form of the oath, the vestments and so on, but finally, 
 some compromises being made on both sides, he yielded 
 and was made bishop of Gloucester in 1550. 
 
 As bishop Hooper was devoted and active not only 
 in affairs of administration, but especially in introducing 
 reforms and in preaching. In respect to the last his 
 anxious wife wrote to their good friend Bullinger at 
 Zurich that he should " recommend Master Hooper to 
 be more moderate in his labor, for he preaches four or at 
 least three times every day, and I am afraid lest these 
 over-abundant exertions should cause a premature de- 
 cay." x 
 
 Later the diocese of Gloucester was merged into that 
 of Worcester, and Hooper was called by the latter title. 
 He was not so successful in introducing reforms at Wor- 
 cester as at Gloucester, but worked hard and made earn- 
 est friends and stout opponents at both places. He 
 1 Beckett, p. 209.
 
 498 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 was a man of much gravity, not to say severity, of temper 
 and manner, not so genial as Latimer nor so gentle as 
 Ridley. He once rebuked for his vices a man of high 
 social standing, and so severely that he was assaulted for 
 it; but later, when Hooper was in jail and expecting to 
 be executed, this gentleman came to see him, apologized 
 for the assault, thanked the bishop for helping him mend 
 his life, and urged him to escape martyrdom by recant- 
 ing. 
 
 Though somewhat austere, Hooper was a good and 
 true man, kind and liberal to the poor, upright and de- 
 voted in his office, and he made many friends in Glouces- 
 ter. He was opposed to the claims of Lady Jane Grey and 
 favored on legal grounds the accession of Mary ; but this 
 did not save him from arrest and trial for heresy ; he had 
 been much too active and successful to escape that. He 
 was imprisoned, examined, condemned, and sent to 
 Gloucester to be burned at the stake that his martyrdom 
 might strike terror to his followers there. In view of 
 his popularity, he was forbidden to speak to the people. 
 His execution was awkwardly managed and his suffer- 
 ings intense, but he bore them heroically. His martyrdom 
 occurred in February, 1555, a short time after that of 
 Rogers. 
 
 Not so famous or so highly placed as the three last 
 mentioned, but scarcely inferior to any of them unless 
 it was Latimer in preaching power, was the pious and 
 eloquent John Bradford 1 (d. 1555). He was a native of 
 Manchester, received a good school education and showed 
 decided aptitude for business. This talent got him a 
 position with Sir John Harrington, treasurer and pay- 
 master of the English forces in France. There were 
 some frauds in this office, and Bradford resigned. While 
 probably not deeply involved in the irregularities, he 
 seems to have felt somewhat responsible, and under Lati- 
 mer's preaching in London he was moved, at great per- 
 sonal sacrifice, to make restitution of a large amount of 
 conscience money to the royal treasury. He engaged in 
 the study of law in London, but soon his mind and heart 
 turned toward preaching, though with hesitation and self- 
 distrust, and he went to Cambridge to study. 
 
 1 Writings of John Bradford, Rel. Tract Soc.
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 499 
 
 This was in King Edward's time, while Martin Butzer 
 was professor of theology there. Bradford's zeal in study, 
 his amiable character and unaffected piety won general 
 esteem. Butzer urged him to begin preaching, but Brad- 
 ford hesitated and feared, and Butzer said to him, " If 
 thou have not fine manchet bread then give the poor 
 people barley bread." Soon he was ordained a deacon 
 by Ridley at London, and then priest. Ridley saw his 
 value and appointed him a prebendary (salaried preacher) 
 at St. Paul's. Besides the duties of this office there were 
 frequent occasions for his preaching at other places, and 
 he was one of the six preachers appointed under Edward 
 VI. as a sort of itinerant ministry, or general evangelists, 
 in all parts of the kingdom. Thus the three years of 
 Bradford's work as a preacher were abundant in labors. 
 Foxe is quoted as speaking of his work in these terms: 
 " Sharply he opened and reproved sin, sweetly he preached 
 Christ crucified, pithily he impugned heresies and errors, 
 earnestly he persuaded to godly life." 
 
 He was a man of deep piety and was often engaged in 
 penitential meditations and in prayer. One of his say- 
 ings, sometimes attributed to Bunyan and others, is often 
 quoted. When he saw a criminal on the way to execu- 
 tion he remarked, " But for the grace of God there goes 
 John Bradford." His zeal and success aroused the oppo- 
 sition of the Catholics, and soon after Mary's accession 
 to the throne occasion was sought and found to have him 
 tried and condemned. A certain Catholic preacher 
 Bradford and Rogers being present took occasion at St. 
 Paul's Cross to speak disparagingly of the late King 
 Edward and in the highest terms of the bigoted Bishop 
 Bonner. This so enraged the crowd that they were about 
 to mob the preacher, and he appealed to Bradford for 
 protection. Bradford reproved the crowd for their dis- 
 order, and he and Rogers, at some risk, protected the 
 man from violence. But the affair was perverted, and it 
 was made to appear that Bradford had really stirred up 
 the people to disorder. So he was arrested and sent to 
 the Tower along with Cranmer, Ridley and Latimer. At 
 one time the four were confined in one room and they 
 employed their time in Bible study and mutual help. 
 
 Bradford's imprisonment was long, but honorable to
 
 500 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 him. He worked for God among his fellow-prisoners of 
 every sort, endeavoring to lead them to Christ and com- 
 fort them in Christ. So trustworthy was he that one of 
 his keepers allowed him sometimes to leave the prison in 
 order to visit the sick and needy outside, and Bradford al- 
 ways returned punctually at the hour appointed, or even 
 before. Nor was this all the good man did, but from his 
 prison he wrote many letters to friends outside, encour- 
 aging them to hold on to their Protestant faith amid the 
 trying years, and thus he worked for his convictions by 
 his pen when he could no longer preach. These letters 
 were widely circulated, and had a great influence. Even 
 after his condemnation, in January, 1555, Bradford re- 
 mained many months in prison, but was at last brought 
 to the stake in June of that year. Fuller, describing his 
 death, says, " He endured the flame as a fresh gale of 
 wind in a hot summer's day, without any reluctancy; 
 confirming by his death the truth of that doctrine which 
 he had so diligently and powerfully preached during his 
 life." 
 
 Of Bradford's preaching several valuable specimens 
 remain, and they confirm fully the contemporary accounts 
 of his excellent gifts. His letters and a few treatises set 
 forth in clear thinking, plain style and with warmth the 
 fundamental doctrines and principles of the Reformation ; 
 and there are two notable sermons. One of these is 
 rather polemical in tone, being on the Lord's Supper, and 
 attacking the Catholic doctrines, but it, as well as the 
 other, breathes the spirit of the gospel. Bradford is less 
 expository than the Germans, less general and gossipy 
 than Latimer, and at the same time less powerful and 
 fresh. But his grasp of Scripture is accurate and firm, 
 and his manner of presenting the truth, both in arrange- 
 ment and language, is singularly clear, fervent and win- 
 ning. During one of his evangelizing tours, early in 
 1553, Bradford preached a notable sermon on repentance, 
 which he was induced afterwards to write out, and it 
 was published only a short time before the death of the 
 young king. In the preface he tells how he came to pub- 
 lish it. After speaking of the great need of repentance 
 among all classes, he says : " This to the end that for my 
 part I might help, I have now put forth this Sermon on
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 501 
 
 Repentance, which has lain by me half a year at least 
 as to the most part of it. For the last winter I was 
 abroad preaching in the country, my chance was to make 
 a sermon on repentance, which was earnestly by divers 
 desired of me that I should give it to them written, or 
 else put it forth in print. I, for the satisfying of my 
 promise and profiting of the simple, ignorant and rude, 
 have now caused this sermon to be printed ; which I be- 
 seech God, for his Christ's sake, to use as a mean whereby 
 of his mercy it may please him to work in me and many 
 others hearty repentance for our sins to the glory of his 
 name. Thus fare thou well in the Lord. This I2th 
 day of July, 1553." It is difficult to speak in too high 
 terms of the sermon itself; for it is the very meat and 
 marrow of the gospel, simply and clearly divided and ar- 
 ranged, put in vigorous, plain yet dignified and noble 
 style, with many felicities of thought and phrase, and 
 charged through and through with the spirit of piety, 
 earnestness and devotion. The text is our Lord's procla- 
 mation in Matt. 4:17, "Repent, for the kingdom of 
 heaven is at hand." The introduction is natural and 
 simple, the explanation of the text is correct. He makes 
 repentance to consist of three elements : a genuine sorrow 
 in view of sin, some persuasion or hope of God's willing- 
 ness to pardon sin for Christ's sake, and a purpose to 
 amend and turn to God, though the actual conversion is 
 rather a fruit of repentance than repentance itself. On 
 this plan his discourse proceeds, with appropriate sub- 
 divisions, in which he holds up the motives to sorrow for 
 sin, the tokens of God's willingness to forgive, and the re- 
 sults of a true purpose to amend. In dwelling on God's 
 willingness to forgive, he adduces the death of Christ 
 as the supreme token of the divine mercy in these words : 
 " This death of Christ therefore look on as the very 
 pledge of God's love towards thee, whosoever thou art, 
 how deeply soever thou hast sinned. See, God's hands 
 are nailed, they cannot strike thee ; his feet also, he can- 
 not run from thee; his arms are wide open to embrace 
 thee ; his head hangs down to kiss thee ; his very heart 
 is open, so that therein see, look, spy, behold, and thou 
 shalt see nothing therein but love, love, love to thee. 
 Hide thee, therefore ; lay thy head there with the evangel-
 
 502 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 ist." The careful reader of this sermon will not wonder 
 at Ridley's emphatic testimony of Bradford : " He was a 
 man by whom God hath and doth work wonders in set- 
 ting forth his word." 
 
 Among the group of England's greatest preachers at 
 this time must be mentioned the famous Scotch reformer, 
 John Knox. His life and work belong principally, of 
 course, to Scotland, and will be treated more fully later ; 
 but he spent, during Edward's reign, five fruitful years 
 in England, and left an influence behind him that en- 
 dured for generations. There is no doubt that the power- 
 ful Puritan sentiment in the Church of England was 
 largely due to Knox as well as to Hooper and others. 1 
 On his release from the French galleys, most likely at 
 King Edward's intervention, Knox came to England in 
 1549, and was appointed preacher first at Berwick, where 
 he attracted large congregations and introduced reforms. 
 His activity brought him into conflict with Tunstall, 
 bishop of Durham, but Knox had the best of the con- 
 troversy, and was let alone. Later he was assigned to 
 Newcastle as preacher, was appointed a royal chaplain, 
 and offered the bishopric of Rochester. More resolute 
 than Hooper, he declined the office, for he could not ac- 
 cept episcopacy and other Anglican arrangements as 
 scriptural. When called before the Council to confer 
 on the matter he was told that they were " sorry he was 
 of a contrary mind to the common order," and he replied 
 that he was even more sorry that " the common order " 
 was contrary to the institution of Christ. When it came 
 his turn to preach as royal chaplain before the court, on 
 one occasion he was bold to daring in denouncing the 
 notorious corruptions of some of the high officials about 
 the young king. He is reported to have said, 2 " What 
 wonder is it that a young and innocent king be deceived by 
 crafty, covetous, wicked and ungodly councillors? I am 
 greatly afraid that Ahithopel is councillor, that Judas bears 
 the purse, and that Shebnah is scribe, controller and treas- 
 urer." Yet afterwards the preacher reproached himself 
 that he had not been a " true soldier " nor " so fervent in 
 rebuking manifest iniquity " as he ought to have been ! 
 
 1 See Prof. Lorimer's book on Knox in England, referred to by 
 Broadus, Hist, Prea., p. 194. a Beckett, p. 213.
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 503 
 
 Worthy of mention here was another Scotchman who, 
 after a period of activity in his own country, came to 
 England in 1547. This was John Rough (d. 1557), who 
 had acquired a fair education in Scotland, had also done 
 some effective work as a preacher of reform doctrines, 
 but, escaping to England before the fall of St. Andrews, 
 received appointment as preacher at Carlisle, and later 
 at Berwick, Newcastle and Hull. He did efficient service 
 at all these places till Mary's accession drove him out of 
 England, and he retired to Friesland, where he and his 
 wife supported themselves by knitting garments. He 
 ventured to London on business where he was induced 
 to become pastor of a secret Protestant church. The 
 congregation was betrayed by one of its own mem- 
 bers and Rough was captured, tried before Bonner, and 
 sent to the stake in December, 1557. No sermons of his 
 remain, but Knox and others bear emphatic testimony to 
 the power of his preaching. 
 
 A very useful man in Edward's days, and still more so 
 in the early years of Elizabeth, was Thomas Lever (1521- 
 I 577)> w ho was born in Lancashire, educated at Cam- 
 bridge and then converted to Protestantism. In Febru- 
 ary, 1550, he preached with great acceptance at the 
 Shrouds, in St. Paul's churchyard, London, and was in- 
 vited to preach before the king in the following Lent. 
 In December of that same year he did some notable 
 preaching at St. Paul's Cross, and powerfully denounced 
 existing evils. Some later sermons before the king called 
 forth warm approval from Knox and others. During the 
 days of persecution under Mary he was in Europe in 
 touch with the exiles and other reformers, but returned at 
 Elizabeth's accession and was busily engaged in preach- 
 ing to the end of his useful life. He was Puritan in his 
 convictions and did not escape controversy and trials in 
 his dealings with the leaders of the Anglican party. It 
 is said of him : * " Preaching was his talent. His sermons 
 resembled Latimer's in their bluntness and boldness, and 
 his reputation was made by his sharp rebukes of the 
 courtiers when preaching before Edward VI." 
 
 One of the most attractive and interesting figures 
 among the English Reformation preachers is that of 
 1 Article in Diet. Nat. Biog.
 
 504 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 Bernard Gilpin (1517-1583), who was called the "Apos- 
 tle of the North." He came of excellent family in West- 
 moreland, was a nephew of the celebrated bishop Tunstall, 
 and had other high connections. He was educated at 
 Oxford, was a fine student, and only very slowly came to 
 Protestant views. When he was ordained a priest in 1549 
 he scrupled at the oath which recognized the king's su- 
 premacy, and only accepted it with a condition; and he 
 disputed ably with Hooper in defence of the Catholic 
 faith. Later he was set to dispute with Peter Martyr 
 Vermigli, then professor at Oxford, but his studies in 
 preparation for this proposed contest upset his mind as 
 to some of the Romanist positions. This was the entering 
 wedge, and gradually he became satisfied of the sound- 
 ness of the reform views. His uncle Tunstall tried to 
 help him, appointed him to various positions in his diocese 
 of Durham and would not suffer him to be molested, 
 even though Gilpin advanced rapidly in Protestant views 
 and preached them boldly. But even Tunstall's influence 
 could not always shield the outspoken preacher from the 
 relentless Catholics of Mary's time, and in the last year 
 of her reign Gilpin was summoned to London to answer 
 for his heresies. On the way he had a fall and broke his 
 leg, and his prosecution fell through, the queen having 
 died before he got well. 
 
 Gilpin was strongly Puritan in his leanings, so that he 
 declined a bishopric and also a professorship at Oxford, 
 because he was not satisfied with the remains of " popery" 
 left in the Anglican settlement under Elizabeth and her 
 prelates. With some trials and controversies growing out 
 of these differences he continued his useful ministry to 
 the end of his life. One only sermon remains from him, 
 but his reputation as a preacher and pastor was very great 
 among his contemporaries, not only for learning, piety 
 and eloquence, but for unusual graces of character. 
 
 The last of the Reformation preachers in England to be 
 noticed is that group of distinguished prelates who in the 
 early years of Queen Elizabeth settled the Anglican 
 church system in the forms which haye continued to be 
 characteristic of it. None among them had commanding 
 pulpit gifts, but a few at least of the well-known leaders 
 cannot be omitted in a history of preaching. 
 
 The scholarly and able archbishop of Canterbury,
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 505 
 
 Matthew Parker (1504-1575) was noted rather as the 
 wise and conciliatory prelate who successfully guided 
 the Anglican establishment between the Romanist ten- 
 dencies of the queen and others on the one side, and the 
 extreme Puritanism of the more radical Protestants on 
 the other. Among his numerous writings no sermons are 
 mentioned. The slight merit of the authorship of the 
 homily on Matrimony in the sensible but sapless second 
 Book of Homilies is deemed to be his ; but concerning 
 his earlier years it is said that " to his acquirements as a 
 theologian he united a popular style of pulpit oratory 
 which induced Cranmer in 1533 to license him to preach 
 throughout the southern province." But the fame of 
 Parker is that of an educator, scholar and prelate" 
 rather than preacher. 
 
 More of a preacher but less of a prelate than Parker 
 was his successor in the see of Canterbury, Edmund 
 Grindal (d. 1583), who in his earlier years had been 
 recognized as a preacher of no little ability, and had held 
 pulpits of prominence in Edward's time under Ridley, 
 bishop of London. Like so many others an exile in 
 Mary's reign, he returned under Elizabeth to take up 
 the heavy work of restoring wasted Protestantism in 
 England. He was far more Puritan than Parker, never- 
 theless accepted the bishopric of London and gave Parker 
 and the queen, no less than himself, considerable trouble 
 in his scruples as to many of the proposed Anglican in- 
 stitutions. To get him out of the way he was appointed 
 to the archbishopric of York, and on Parker's death 
 because for the moment it suited the queen's shifting 
 policy, he was made archbishop of Canterbury. As he 
 was a peace-loving man and not wholly in accord with 
 the drift of things, his bishoprics were a continual trial 
 to him, and he doubtless would have been happier, and 
 more useful too, had he remained simply a preacher in 
 some place suitable to his learning and talents. A me- 
 morial discourse on the death of the emperor Ferdinand, 
 and the fourth homily in the Second Book, on Good 
 Works, especially Fasting, seem to be all of his sermons 
 that survive, and these would not make a man famous. 
 The homily, however, presents clearly the Protestant 
 doctrine as to good works and treats the matter of fast- 
 ing with good sense and clearness.
 
 506 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 The successor of Grindal as archbishop of York, Edwin 
 Sandys (d. 1588), was like that prelate in his ecclesiasti- 
 cal principles, but very unlike him in character. He was 
 educated at Cambridge, and was a friend of Martin But- 
 zer while that theologian was professor there. On Ed- 
 ward's death he supported Lady Jane Grey and preached 
 a sermon upholding her cause which is said to have 
 "pulled many tears out of the eyes of the biggest of them," 
 presumably the leading men of the time. Naturally he 
 was arrested by Mary's partisans and put into the Tower, 
 but through somebody's favor he managed to get away 
 to the Continent, where he remained till Elizabeth's acces- 
 sion. He also was more Puritan than Parker, and his 
 views on church polity and some other questions kept him 
 in continual controversies. But his abilities and staunch 
 Protestantism made him too useful to be overlooked in 
 restoring the cause, and he was first made bishop of 
 Worcester, and then, on Grindal's promotion to Canter- 
 bury, archbishop of York. During these years some- 
 thing is said of his preaching, and a good deal of his quar- 
 rels. Some of his sermons were printed in 1585 and re- 
 printed in several later editions. They are not held to be 
 of very great value. 
 
 The best preacher among these Elizabethan prelates 
 was John Jewel (d. 1571), bishop of Salisbury. 1 Born 
 in Devonshire in 1522, he was educated at several pre- 
 liminary schools and studied in two collges at Oxford. 
 Here one of his fruitful tasks was the making of a critical 
 comparison between the Bible versions of Tindale and 
 Coverdale. Jewel was a laborious student, and worked 
 so hard as permanently to injure his health. On getting 
 his degree he was appointed to lecture for a while on 
 Latin and Rhetoric, and his lectures were well attended. 
 In 1547 Peter Martyr Vermigli came as professor to 
 Oxford, and during his work there he exercised a pro- 
 found influence upon Jewel. When and where Jewel 
 was ordained is not known, but he appears as a licensed 
 preacher in 1551, became vicar at a small village near 
 
 1 Works of Bishop Jewel, with Featley's abridgment of Hum- 
 phrey's Life prefixed, printed at London in 1640 ; art. in Diet. Nat. 
 ^iog., etc. The famous " Challenge Sermon " is reprinted in Fish, 
 Masterpieces, etc., Vol. I., p. 146 ff.
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 507 
 
 Oxford, and got his degree of Bachelor of Divinity in 
 1552, preaching on the occasion an excellent discourse in 
 Latin, of which we shall see see more later. On the ac- 
 cession of Mary, Jewel was deprived of his places, and, 
 though he sacrificed his convictions and signed certain 
 articles, he was still suspected and found it necessary to 
 leave England. At Frankfort, where were Knox and a 
 number of English exiles, Jewel was coldly received till 
 he made public acknowledgment of his weakness and 
 error in recanting, and reaffirmed his real views. Later 
 he was with his friend Vermigli at Strasburg and Zurich. 
 
 In 1559 Jewel gladly returned to England, and became 
 active in helping to restore the Protestant cause. At first 
 strongly inclined to Puritanism, he quickly acquiesced in 
 the Anglican compromises, and became one of the clear- 
 est and strongest expounders and defenders of the Eng- 
 lish church system. Like others, he soon saw that, with 
 the temper of the queen and of a large element of the 
 people, it would be impossible to establish either the 
 Puritan extreme or its opposite. In doctrine, however, he 
 always held with the Reformed confessions and wrote to 
 Vermigli, " As to matters of doctrine, we do not differ 
 from you by a nail's breadth." He displayed much activ- 
 ity in preaching and other work about London. In a 
 sermon at St. Paul's Cross in 1559 he made his famous 
 challenge to the papists, and it was repeated in a sermon 
 delivered before the court in March, 1560, and again at 
 St. Paul's Cross later in the same month. The challenge 
 was to the effect that if any one could prove the essential 
 Romanist doctrines as to the papacy, purgatory, masses, 
 transubstantiation, and so on, by Scripture or by any 
 church teacher for six hundred years after Christ, he, 
 Jewel, would subscribe to it and renounce Protestantism. 
 These sermons were not written before delivery, but the 
 last of them was soon written out and published 
 " shortly set forth as near as the author could call it to 
 remembrance, without any alteration or addition." The 
 challenge was taken up by two Catholics, and Jewel was 
 led into a controversy which went on for some time. 
 
 In 1560, while this debate was on, Jewel was made 
 bishop of Salisbury, and went to his diocese. He found 
 much to do, and was very diligent, not only in visiting and
 
 508 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 administration, but in preaching, because of the great 
 dearth of preachers. In April, 1561, he filled another 
 preaching engagement at St. Paul's Cross, and in the fol- 
 lowing year appeared his great and famous Apology for 
 the Church of England. This was the first elaborate 
 statement of the Anglican position in a work of first-rate 
 importance, and it was immediately accepted as a clear 
 and powerful exposition of that view. It remains one of 
 the classic treatises of the Anglican ecclesiology. The 
 Apology provoked a fresh attack from the Catholics. 
 What with these writings and controversies, the cares of 
 the diocese, activity in the general work of the church, and 
 assiduous preaching, Jewel's never very strong health 
 gave way. In 1571 he came home from Parliament much 
 exhausted, but immediately undertook a visitation of his 
 diocese. To the remonstrance of a friend he answered, 
 " A bishop had best die preaching," and it was not long 
 before the end came, in September, 1571. 
 
 In Daniel Featley's abridgment of Dr. Humphrey's 
 life of Jewel, prefixed to an early edition of his works, 
 occurs a quaint but striking eulogy, a part of which runs 
 thus : " And surely, if ever to any, then unto him his 
 bishoprike was a continuall worke of ruling and govern- 
 ing, not only by the pastorall staffe of his jurisdiction in 
 his consistory, but also in the court of men's consciences 
 by the golden sceptre of God's word preached. The 
 memorie of his assiduitie in preaching, carefulnesse in 
 providing pastours, resolutenesse in reforming abuses, 
 bountie in relieving the poore, wisdome in composing liti- 
 gious strifes, equitie in judging spirituall causes, faith- 
 fulnesse in keeping and sinceritie in bestowing church 
 goods, is as an ointment powred out and blowen abroad 
 thorow the diocesse of Sarum by the breath of everie 
 man's commendation." 
 
 Jewel was a sound scholar, with a clear head and a 
 good memory, logical and correct. His writings show 
 the confidence of one who is conscious of accurate learn- 
 ing. His sermons lack warmth, but not conviction ; fer- 
 vor, but not strength ; imagination and passion, but not 
 logic and clearness. The Latin sermon delivered at Ox- 
 ford for his degree in divinity, and done into English 
 by Dr. Humphrey, expresses with force his own views of
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 509 
 
 the preaching office, early formed, but never abandoned. 
 From the text, I Peter 4:11, "If any man speak let him 
 talk as the words of God," he deduces the simple theme 
 and division: (i) That the preacher should preach; 
 (2) What he should preach; (3) How he should preach. 
 In urging the importance of preaching, he says : " It is 
 not enough to know I wot not what learning. The devils, 
 perhaps, know more than any of us all. It belongeth unto 
 a pastor not so much to have learned many things as to 
 have taught much." Speaking of people's unwillingness 
 to hear as an incentive rather than a discouragement to 
 diligence, he says, " Let us bring forth the light, and 
 God will open their eyes; let us beat at their ears, and 
 God will give them a heart of flesh ; let us give the word, 
 and God will give the Spirit ; let us plant and water, and 
 God in due time will give the increase." The famous 
 challenge sermon is naturally rather polemical in tone, 
 and is somewhat overloaded with learned quotation, but 
 it is logical and vigorous and not devoid of occasional 
 passages of feeling and power. In general. Jewel's ser- 
 mons lack the breeziness of Latimer's and the devout 
 glow of Bradford's, but they are strong, clear and sensible 
 presentations of the doctrines and principles dear to all the 
 reformers. 
 
 3. THE SCOTCH REFORMATION 
 
 The religious situation in Scotland before the Reforma- 
 tion was dark and deplorable in the extreme. A turbulent 
 and violent nobility ; a wealthy, luxurious, corrupt and ra- 
 pacious clergy ; a people sunken in ignorance and super- 
 stition; these are the sombre outlines of a picture whose 
 details may be left to the imagination. Yet some begin- 
 nings of better things were made early in the sixteenth 
 century. Some influences of the revival of learning had 
 entered the schools, and the writings of Luther and other 
 reformers, though forbidden, were not wholly unknown. 
 By the time Knox began his early reformatory work, in 
 1542, the principles of the Reformation had made con- 
 siderable progress, not only among the common people, 
 but also among the nobility and gentry, and there were 
 not a few who were ready to fight and die, if need be, 
 for the faith.
 
 510 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 4. PREDECESSORS OF KNOX 
 
 Besides the influence of teachers, of Reformation litera- 
 ture, of private conference, there were a few preachers 1 
 before Knox who dared, at great peril from the dominant 
 Romanist clergy, with Beaton at their head, to lift up 
 their voices in favor of reform. Among these three are 
 deserving of special mention. 
 
 Patrick Hamilton (c. 1504-1528), the young and noble 
 martyr for the truth, came of a family of rank and dis- 
 tinction, and was born near Glasgow, probably in 1504. 
 He was designed for the priesthood, and after receiving 
 preliminary education in the schools he went to Paris 
 where he got his master's degree in 1520 and probably 
 to Louvain also. Returning to Scotland, he studied a 
 while at St. Andrews. About 1525 he began to show de- 
 cided sympathy for the reformed views and to teach them. 
 Falling under suspicion, and being in danger of prose- 
 cution, he retired from Scotland and went to Germany, 
 where, at Wittenberg, he studied with Luther and Mel- 
 anchthon; and at Marburg with the French exile and 
 professor, Francois Lambert. But the state of his own 
 country bore on his mind and gave him no rest, so that, 
 against the earnest remonstrance of Lambert, he deter- 
 mined to return to Scotland and do what he could to in- 
 troduce the Reformation. He came back in 1527, mar- 
 ried, and began to preach the Protestant doctrines. It is 
 not certain that he had ever been ordained a priest, at 
 any rate, he held no clerical charge, and his preaching 
 was, therefore, irregular, and that fact, as well as his doc- 
 trine and his zeal, aroused speedy and fatal opposition. 
 He was summoned before Archbishop Beaton at St. An- 
 drews to answer charges of heresy. He foresaw his fate, 
 but bravely went to meet it. With show of consideration 
 he was granted time to consider and recant, but used his 
 respite instead to proclaim his doctrines as much as he 
 could. He was condemned and executed as a heretic in 
 1528. His youth, rank, earnestness, and sad death cre- 
 ated profound impressions, led many to investigate the 
 
 1 McCrie's Life of Knox; Brown's Life of Knox; notices by 
 Blaikie in his Preachers of Scotland, and by Taylor in his Scot- 
 tish Pulpit.
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE $11 
 
 causes of his condemnation, and thus resulted in further- 
 ing rather than suppressing the progress of the new 
 views. His eloquence and zeal gave promise of a noble 
 career as preacher had he been spared to pursue his re- 
 forming course. 
 
 Another preacher and martyr was George Wishart 
 (d. 1546), who died for his convictions nearly twenty 
 years after Hamilton; having suffered under the second 
 Archbishop Beaton, who was also a cardinal. Wishart 
 came of a family near Montrose, but details as to his 
 early life are wanting. There are traditions and traces 
 of his education and of his good knowledge of Greek 
 unusual among his countrymen then. About 1538 he, or 
 a person of similar name, appears in certain records in 
 England as under trial for heresy; and about this time 
 it seems that he studied for a while in Germany. Later, 
 in Scotland, he translated the Helvetic Confession and 
 spread it abroad. In 1543 he is found, living in great 
 simplicity and piety, and studying very hard, at Cam- 
 bridge, in England. The next year he returned to Scot- 
 land and took up his reformatory ministry in earnest. 
 
 The younger Beaton, the cardinal, was now at the 
 head of the Catholics in Scotland, and was as relentless 
 as his uncle had been in persecution of the reformers. 
 Wishart was to go the way of Hamilton, but he went his 
 course with courage and devotion. A part of McCrie's 
 brief but eloquent account of Wishart in his Life of 
 Knox 1 may be better transcribed than condensed : " Sel- 
 dom do we meet in ecclesiastical history with a character 
 so amiable and interesting as that of George Wishart. 
 Excelling all his countrymen at that period in learning, 
 of the most persuasive eloquence, irreproachable life, 
 courteous and affable in manners, his fervent piety, zeal 
 and courage in the cause of truth were tempered with 
 uncommon meekness, modesty, patience, prudence and 
 charity. In his tour of preaching through Scotland he 
 was usually accompanied by some of the principal gentry ; 
 and the people, who flocked to hear him, were ravished 
 with his discourses." 
 
 He had a great influence over Knox, who often accom- 
 panied him in his preaching journeys. When Wishart
 
 512 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 was arrested to be taken before Cardinal Beaton for trial 
 Knox wished to go with him, but Wishart said, " Nay, re- 
 turn to your bairns [his pupils] ; ane is sufficient for a 
 sacrifice." Thus he clearly foresaw what was coming. 
 And so, early in 1546, this preacher also suffered at the 
 stake ; but left a name and work behind him. His death 
 was speedily and terribly avenged. A strong party, com- 
 posed of those who had various and sore grievances 
 against the harsh and tyrannous cardinal, captured the 
 castle of St. Andrews and put the cruel prelate to death. 
 Though this murder was occasioned largely by other 
 things than religious animosities, there is probably no 
 doubt that many of the reformers were in sympathy 
 with the conspirators. Even Knox, though he seems not 
 to have been chargeable with any direct share in it, after- 
 wards sought in some degree to justify the act as the de- 
 served execution of one who could not be reached by the 
 processes of law. The conspirators retained possession 
 of the castle of St. Andrews and became the nucleus of 
 the Reformed party in Scotland. 
 
 Mention has already been made of the ministry and 
 fate of John Rough (d. 1557) in England, but his earlier 
 work in Scotland claims brief notice here. Far less cul- 
 tured than Hamilton, Wishart or Knox, Rough had a 
 glowing zeal for the cause of reform and a ready popular 
 eloquence that acquired for him great reputation as a 
 preacher. He had been a monk, but on the Earl of Ar- 
 ran's request had been released from the cloister and 
 made a chaplain to that nobleman. When Arran relin- 
 quished the reformed faith and became regent, Rough re- 
 tired for a while ; but after the murder of Cardinal 
 Beaton, and upon invitation of the conspirators, now in 
 possession of St. Andrews, he became a minister to the 
 congregation there. When Knox came to St. Andrews 
 Rough urgently pressed upon him the duty of preaching, 
 as we shall see, but shortly afterwards went to England, 
 where his work has already been described. 
 
 5. JOHN KNOX AND His WORK 
 
 As is well known, the preeminent name among the 
 preachers of the Reformation in Scotland is that of John
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 513 
 
 Knox * (1505-1572). Not so original or great as Luther, 
 Zwingli or Calvin, he yet occupies toward the establish- 
 ment of Protestantism in his own country a position simi- 
 lar to theirs relative to the movements associated with 
 their names. 
 
 John Knox was born in the county of East Lothian, 
 near Haddington, of respectable parents of the middle 
 class, in the year 1505. His father had means enough to 
 give the boy a good education, and after preparatory 
 schooling he entered Glasgow University, where he 
 studied under John Major, and formed a lasting friend- 
 ship with the gifted George Buchanan, poet and man of 
 letters. 
 
 About 1530 Knox was ordained a priest, but soon after- 
 ward began to study the Fathers, with the effect that 
 Jerome led him to the Scriptures and Augustine to a 
 more evangelical theology. Knox lectured at Glasgow 
 and also at St. Andrews, and at the latter place he not 
 only began to teach a better theology, but to denounce cor- 
 ruptions in the church. By the year 1542 he had become 
 fully committed to the reformed faith. 
 
 Beaton's attention being directed to Knox, he found 
 it prudent to leave St. Andrews, and soon after found a 
 place of protection as tutor in the family of Hugh Doug- 
 las of Langniddrie, a nobleman who sympathized with 
 the reformed views. The son of another gentleman, John 
 Cockburn of Ormiston, was also placed under his care; 
 and Knox's distinctive work as a reformer may now be 
 said in this modest way to have begun. For he not only 
 taught his pupils the rudiments of learning, but the ten- 
 ets of the gospel ; and others besides his scholars were 
 admitted at times to his Bible lectures and catechism. 
 These more public instructions were given in a chapel 
 on his patron's estate. This went on for several years, 
 and Knox attached himself with ardor to Wishart on 
 some of that preacher's expeditions. 
 
 After the assassination of Beaton, his successor, Hamil- 
 ton, pursued the reformers with unremitting vigor, and 
 Knox was seriously thinking of leaving the country. But 
 
 x The works of McCrie, Brown, Lorimer, and others previously 
 referred to, Knox's History of the Reformation in Scotland, and 
 numerous other sources.
 
 514 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 his friends and patrons were loath to lose his services as a 
 teacher, and persuaded him to go with his pupils to the 
 congregation of the reformers, who were maintaining 
 themselves still at the castle of St. Andrews. Rough, as 
 we have seen, was already installed there as minister, and 
 he welcomed Knox as an able recruit. Knox continued 
 the kind of instructions he had been giving at Langnid- 
 drie, and his expositions of the Scripture and power of 
 speech immediately attracted attention. The result was 
 that, by the unanimous vote of the congregation, and at 
 Rough's solemn and earnest request, Knox was also called 
 as a preacher to the reformers at St. Andrews. It was 
 altogether an interesting, not to say anomalous, situation. 
 Here was an unorganized assembly of reformers, not 
 formally out of the old church, gathered about a nucleus 
 of armed men, who had upon them the guilt of Beaton's 
 assassination, and were maintaining themselves by force 
 against the government; and they had called as their 
 preachers an ex-monk, John Rough, and an ex-priest, 
 John Knox ! But irregularities were not of much weight 
 to men who felt sure of the truth they held, and believed 
 they were doing God's will. This first ministry of Knox 
 was powerful, but brief. Rough saw how the matter 
 must end, and retired to England ; but Knox held on till 
 the garrison at St. Andrews were defeated by French aid 
 and made captives, in 1547. 
 
 The terms of surrender were violated by the victors, 
 and Knox and others were made prisoners in the French 
 galleys. In 1549 he was released and came to England, 
 where, as we have seen, he spent five years. After the 
 accession of Mary he remained in England as long as he 
 could, and longer than was prudent, but finally, in Janu- 
 ary, 1554, fled to the Continent. 
 
 During the five years of his sojourn abroad, interrupted 
 by a long and fruitful visit to Scotland, Knox was vari- 
 ously busy. Part of the time he was at Geneva, where 
 he formed a fast friendship with Calvin. Here he studied 
 with great diligence, and, though nearly fifty years old, 
 took up the study of Hebrew to improve his knowledge of 
 Scripture. The congregation of English exiles called 
 him to Frankfort as their minister, and he accepted and 
 faithfully served them till, in their dissensions over the
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 51$ 
 
 liturgy, the party favoring the Anglican ritual got the ma- 
 jority and forced Knox out, and he went back to Geneva. 
 Meantime he got news from Scotland that the queen- 
 regent (Mary of Guise, mother of Mary Stuart) was 
 disposed for the moment to be lenient towards the Protes- 
 tants. This favorable turn of affairs and other circum- 
 stances decided Knox to make a visit to Scotland and see 
 what could be done for the cause. Leaving Geneva in 
 August, 1555, Knox came first to Berwick and spent some 
 time with his wife and her good mother, and then se- 
 cretly proceeded to Edinburgh, intending to return soon 
 to Berwick. But he found much to do in Scotland. At 
 Edinburgh and other places he found the friends of re- 
 form eager to learn from him, and in private houses he 
 preached and taught diligently, confirming and building 
 up the Protestants and winning not a few converts. 
 
 After nearly a year of this labor he received a call 
 from the English congregation at Geneva to become their 
 pastor, and thought it best, on the whole, to accede to 
 their request. So he returned to that city with his family 
 and had a quiet and helpful pastorate there for several 
 years. But his heart was in Scotland, and he joyfully 
 listened to proposals from some of the leaders there to 
 return and carry out the work of reform. The good re- 
 sults of Knox's visit had been shown, and it was felt that 
 he was the man to carry on the work. He did not need 
 any urging, and so, after some disappointments and de- 
 lays, he left Geneva to take up his mighty labors, in the 
 evening of his days, in Scotland, and landed at Leith in 
 May, 1559. With this date the last and greatest stage 
 of Knox's career as a reformer begins. On arriving in 
 Scotland he found that circumstances had altered the 
 queen-regent's policy, and instead of tolerating the re- 
 formers she was now joining hands with Archbishop 
 Hamilton to suppress them. These measures of persecu- 
 tion awakened sympathy for the reformers, but meantime 
 the Protestant cause was somewhat hurt by the indiscre- 
 tion of a crowd at Perth, who, after a sermon from Knox, 
 provoked by the attempt of a priest to celebrate mass in 
 the church after the reformed services were concluded, 
 rushed upon the church, destroyed the altar and images, 
 and, proceeding further, when once aroused, sacked the 
 monasteries in the town.
 
 516 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 These events led to a state of civil warfare. The gov- 
 ernment sent troops to Perth, the Protestants gathered 
 forces to defend themselves, and thus the lines were 
 sharply drawn. For Romanism in Scotland it was the 
 beginning of the end ; but for Protestantism there was a 
 long and often apparently doubtful conflict before the 
 final victory. Knox's share in that struggle and victory 
 was very great, but, of course, he was not alone. The 
 preachers of less prominence, who had toiled during his 
 absence and helped to maintain the cause, stood by him 
 in his gladly welcomed leadership, and their ranks were 
 continually strengthened by accessions from those who 
 had been less decided, but now came out clearly for the 
 new order. About this time the general body of Prot- 
 estants had come to be known as " The Congregation," 
 and those nobles who, in accordance with the Scottish 
 feudal habits, took the direction of affairs for the general 
 body, were called " Lords of the Congregation." Thus, in 
 Scotland, as elsewhere, but in consonance with the pe- 
 culiar institutions of the country, the secular rulers had 
 large share in shaping the course of the Reformation. 
 
 Not very long after the affair at Perth the Lords of 
 the Congregation invited Knox to preach on a certain 
 day at St. Andrews, with a view of instituting reforms 
 there. Knox was delighted at the prospect of revisiting 
 the scene of his early ministry and of former defeat and 
 captivity, and of thus fulfilling the prediction he had 
 made while a prisoner in the galleys, that he would one 
 day preach at St. Andrews again. But the archbishop 
 naturally resented the intrusion, and threatened to send 
 a force and have Knox shot if he entered the pulpit. As 
 the Lords had only a few men on the ground, the leaders 
 hesitated, and advised Knox to give up the attempt for 
 the present. But Knox's blood was up, and he insisted 
 on filling the appointment, among other things saying : * 
 " As for fear of danger that may come to me, let no man 
 be solicitous, for my life is in the custody of him whose 
 glory I seek. I desire the hand nor weapon of no man to 
 defend me. I only crave audience, which, if it be denied 
 me at this time, I must seek where I may have it." He 
 was allowed to have his way, and on the next day 
 1 McCrie, p. 131.
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 517 
 
 preached without hindrance to a great congregation, the 
 archbishop being afraid to execute his threat. He 
 preached powerfully on our Lord's driving out the traders 
 from the Temple, making the obvious application to the 
 need of reforming Christian worship there and then. Sev- 
 eral other sermons followed, and in consequence, not by a 
 mob, but by orderly authority of the rulers of the town, 
 the Catholic worship was abolished, the images and pic- 
 tures removed from the church, and the monasteries de- 
 stroyed. This was in June, 1559, and the example set by 
 St. Andrews was followed by a number of other towns. 
 
 In July the people of Edinburgh, in a public assembly, 
 called Knox to be their minister, and he accepted, and 
 began his work at St Giles church. But the regent's 
 forces captured the city from the Lords of the Congrega- 
 tion, and, though Knox desired to remain, he was this 
 time persuaded to prudence, left the congregation (pro- 
 tected by treaty) in the hands of a less obnoxious man, 
 and retired. He now went on an arduous and highly 
 successful preaching tour, visiting in two months many 
 of the most important places in the kingdom. He then 
 settled for a time at St. Andrews, till circumstances 
 should admit of his resuming his position at Edinburgh. 
 During the interval he was of course active in the events 
 which marked the progress of affairs in church and state 
 in Scotland. He preached much, wrote much, and in 
 many ways encouraged and animated the ever-strength- 
 ening Protestant cause. The alliance with England and 
 the deposition of the queen-regent by the Lords of the 
 Congregation were followed by the death of the regent. 
 A parliament was called to settle the civil and ecclesiasti- 
 cal affairs of the distracted nation. It met in Edinburgh 
 in the summer of 1560, abolished the Catholic religion, 
 and adopted a reformed confession of faith drawn up 
 by Knox and other ministers. 
 
 In April, 1560, Knox had come back to Edinburgh as 
 chief pastor, and for the remaining twelve years of his 
 life that city is the principal scene of his labors. In addi- 
 tion to his preaching and administration of church af- 
 fairs, and complicated, of course, with both, the main 
 point of interest in his later career is his conflict with 
 Queen Mary Stuart in her effort to reinstate the Catholic
 
 518 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 religion. The romantic history of that misguided and 
 unhappy lady lies apart from our narrative, but it is 
 necessary to recall that the early death of her father, 
 James V., had left her an infant queen, that her kingdom 
 had been under the regency of Arran, and then of her 
 mother, while she was a minor, absent in France, and mar- 
 ried, while yet a girl, to the heir-apparent, afterwards 
 for a very brief reign Francis II. After the death of her 
 mother and then of her husband, the fair but unsuitably 
 trained queen was invited by the Scottish nobles to come 
 and take her kingdom. She arrived in Scotland in August 
 1561, and it was not long before the troubles of ber un- 
 fortunate reign began. Though the Protestants were in 
 power and had invited her return, Mary soon showed 
 her fixed purpose to do all that she could to restore the 
 old worship. Her mistake was natural, considering both 
 her faults and her training, but it brought no end of 
 trouble both on herself and her subjects. One of her first 
 acts was to order a solemn mass to be said in Holyrood 
 chapel in honor of her return. The leaders prevented the 
 people from making a riot, and Knox himself counselled 
 patience, but showed his feeling on the subject by saying 
 at the end of his sermon that Sunday : * " That one mass 
 was more fearful unto him than if ten thousand armed 
 enemies were landed in any part of the realm of purpose 
 to suppress the whole religion." Extravagant as this 
 language seems, it shows that Knox was alive to the 
 dangers which threatened the Protestant cause from the 
 side of the queen, and events soon showed how just were 
 his fears. But Knox was firm, unyielding, even severe, 
 and in his sermons denounced the papacy and papal prac- 
 tices with no less vigor than formerly. McCrie gives a 
 vivid presentation of the reformer's several famous inter- 
 views with the queen during these years. She tried the 
 effect of argument, of flattery, of tears, of imperious 
 anger, all in vain. If the bold preacher was too harsh 
 and unfeeling, he was always faithful to his convictions, 
 and if plain almost to rudeness, he was at least not dis- 
 respectful. He ever maintained his right to speak his 
 conscience in his pulpit. Once Knox took occasion in a 
 sermon seriously to object to the queen's marriage to any 
 
 1 McCrie, p. 175.
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 519 
 
 papist. Mary was deeply offended, called the preacher to 
 an interview, and in the course of it burst into passionate 
 tears, and vowed she would be revenged. But Knox 
 said l that " her grace and he had at different times been 
 engaged in controversy, and he had never before per- 
 ceived her offended with him. When it should please God 
 to deliver her from the bondage of error in which she 
 had been trained np, through want of instruction in the 
 truth, he trusted that her majesty would not find the 
 liberty of his tongue offensive. Out of the pulpit, he 
 believed few had occasion to complain of him ; but there 
 he was not his own master, but was bound to obey Him 
 who commanded him to speak plainly, and to flatter no 
 flesh on the face of the earth." Strange contrast be- 
 tween these two so brought into contact, with unutterable 
 disharmony of character and of principles both inflexible 
 in their several ways the queen lovely even in her faults 
 and weaknesses, the reformer unlovely in his virtues 
 and strength. The crowning effort of Mary was to se- 
 cure Knox's condemnation on a charge of treason, be- 
 cause of certain expressions in a letter he had written in 
 defence of some of his Protestant brethren, who had per- 
 haps acted imprudently in opposing the Catholic worship 
 at Holyrood during the queen's absence. He was tried 
 before the Lords in her presence, she herself taking the 
 part of accuser in a lively way; but the Lords, to their 
 credit, be it said, were not to be browbeaten nor cajoled, 
 and Knox's firm and candid defence secured his acquittal. 
 This was in 1563. 
 
 The queen's marriage with Darnley was in nowise 
 pleasing to Knox, and the royal pair found means to annoy 
 the free-spoken preacher. The murder of Darnley and 
 the queen's flight and indecent marriage to Bothwell ex- 
 cited Knox's horror. He, of course, approved of her 
 deposition, and preached the sermon at Stirling on the 
 occasion of the crowning of her infant son as James VI. 
 Knox greatly rejoiced in the appointment of Murray to 
 the regency, and was filled with satisfaction at the wise 
 administration of that able and incorruptible patriot. The 
 assassination of Murray filled him with grief, and when 
 the queen's party took possession of Edinburgh he was 
 1 McCrie, p. 206 f.
 
 520 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 forced again to retire for a while to St. Andrews. Soon, 
 however, the civil strife was abated, and he was once 
 more allowed to return, and this time to end his days, 
 among his beloved flock. His health rapidly declined, and 
 in 1572, just as the elevation of Morton to the regency 
 promised better days, the old hero reached the end of his 
 journey. For some time he had been longing to depart, 
 and his last days were filled with peace and serenity in 
 view of his speedy release. He died November 24, 1572. 
 As friends stood about his grave the newly elected regent, 
 the Earl of Morton, expressed the thought of the time 
 and the judgment of posterity in the brief but merited 
 eulogy : " There lies he who never feared the face of 
 man." 
 
 The character of Knox was an eminently vigorous one. 
 The strong individuality of the man and his real great- 
 ness lie on the surface. He could and did receive in- 
 fluential impressions from others, as from Wishart and 
 Rough, in his early years, and from Calvin during his so- 
 journ in Europe, but he was ever his own man. If, as 
 McCrie concedes, 1 he falls below the three great continen- 
 tal reformers, he is at least to be placed next below them. 
 Inferior to them all as theologian and scholar, he also 
 lacked the geniality and popular power of Luther and 
 Zwingli, and did not approach Calvin in constructive 
 genius nor in fine balance of judgment. In his austerity 
 of morals and censure of evil he was more like Calvin, 
 with whom in views of truth and duty he most nearly 
 agreed. Knox's faults were those of a strong and vehe- 
 ment nature. He was severe in his judgments, fearless 
 and tactless in expressing his opinions, and often un- 
 necessarily sharp and extreme in his language. But he 
 does not seem to have indulged in coarseness such as 
 marred the language of Luther and Zwingli; and, not- 
 withstanding his severity, there seems to have been more 
 exercise, as well as expression of tenderness, than with 
 Calvin. He made and kept warm attachments, and in his 
 personal and domestic relations gave and received affec- 
 tion. His moral fibre was of the toughest sort, and yet 
 once, at least, in the negotiations with the English court, 
 he counselled a crooked policy; and while he did not 
 
 1 P. 290 f.
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE $21 
 
 advise he did in a measure defend the murders of Cardi- 
 nal Beaton and of David Rizzio. In his personal life he 
 was pure from taint and absolutely free from corruption. 
 Various slanders assailed him by the malice of his foes, 
 but they fell fruitless to the ground. His one absorbing 
 aim in life was to establish the Reformation in Scotland, 
 and to this purpose he brought a disinterestedness, a 
 courage, a hopefulness, a diligence and a faith in God 
 and truth which keep his name safe amid the truly great 
 of history. 
 
 Little can be said as to the preaching of Knox beyond 
 what has already been mentioned or suggested in the ac- 
 count of his life and character. The reason is apparent in 
 the following statement of McCrie 1 : " Of the many ser- 
 mons preached by him during his ministry he published 
 but one, which was extorted from him by peculiar circum- 
 stances. It affords a very favorable specimen of his 
 talents, and shows that if he had applied himself to writ- 
 ing he was qualified for excelling in that department. He 
 had a ready command of language, and expressed him- 
 self with great perspicuity, animation and force." The 
 occasion referred to by McCrie was this : Soon after his 
 marriage to the queen, Darnley, for appearances' sake, 
 went to hear Knox preach, and took violent exceptions to 
 certain allusions in the sermon. On account of it Knox 
 was inhibited from preaching for a while, and, it seems, 
 at the request of the privy council, or to vindicate himself, 
 wrote out as nearly as he could the sermon that he had 
 preached. 2 One other sermon is mentioned in the list of 
 his writings, and there are some expositions of various 
 Scriptures and devotional or hortatory tracts, which show 
 that the common report of his power in unfolding and 
 applying Scripture is justified. The accounts of his elo- 
 quence and the effects of his work in the pulpit are his 
 title to rank among the great preachers. His power over 
 men was wonderful. Small of stature and frail in body, 
 like Calvin, he was far more vehement and excitable than 
 the reserved Frenchman. His eye gleamed and his frame 
 worked with the inward power of his convictions, and his 
 mastery of his audience was that of the born speaker. 
 The first sermon at St. Andrews, when he attacked the 
 1 P. 298. " Fish, Masterpieces, etc., Vol. II., p. 207 ff.
 
 522 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 papacy, showed his coming power, and the far later one 
 in the same place, when he defied Archbishop Hamilton's 
 threats and put aside the warnings of his friends to urge 
 the immediate reformation of worship, was a triumph of 
 brave and powerful preaching. 
 
 6. CONTEMPORARIES OF KNOX 
 
 We must not allow the preeminence of Knox to blind 
 us to the fact that in his time there were a number of 
 other faithful and able preachers of the Reformation in 
 Scotland. One of his own noblest traits of character was 
 the cordial recognition which he gave to the worth and 
 services of his brethren; and in their relations to each 
 other there was nothing arrogant on his part nor subser- 
 vient on theirs. It will suffice, however, to mention 
 briefly a few of the more prominent of these men, for 
 none of them attained to any distinguished rank as 
 preachers, nor do their sermons remain to exhibit their 
 individual characteristics. 1 
 
 One of the humble and faithful ones who labored amid 
 discouragement and peril in Scotland during Knox's exile 
 was William Harlow. He was not a man of much educa- 
 tion, but was well grounded in the Scriptures. He had 
 been a tailor at Edinburgh, but, becoming a Protestant, 
 went to England in the time of Edward VI., and was em- 
 ployed there as a preacher in some humble capacity. He 
 afterwards returned to Scotland and preached " with 
 great fervor and diligence " in different places, to the end 
 of his life. 
 
 The man who stood next to Knox in pulpit power and 
 extent of influence was John Willock (d. 1585), a native 
 of Ayrshire. He pursued his studies at Glasgow Uni- 
 versity, and was for some time a monk at Ayr, but early 
 became reformer and forsook the monastery. He, like 
 Harlow, went to England, but was there in Henry VIII. 's 
 reign, and suffered persecution when the Six Articles 
 were being enforced. Afterwards he was appointed a 
 chaplain to the Duke of Suffolk under Edward, but left 
 England under the next reign and practised medicine 
 
 1 Mention in McCrie's Life of Knox, and articles in Diet. Nat. 
 Biog.
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 523 
 
 at Emden, in Friesland. Here he got in favor with the 
 Duchess of Friesland, and was by her sent on an ostensi- 
 bly commercial and political mission to Scotland in 1555. 
 He used his opportunity to encourage and spread the re- 
 form movement. Later we find him settled as preacher at 
 Ayr, where he did good work, and made such strong 
 friends that, though tried for heresy and outlawed, the 
 sentence against him could not be executed. He joined 
 Knox on his arrival at Edinburgh, and he it was who 
 stayed and preached there while the city was in possession 
 of the queen-regent and Knox had to retire for a while. 
 Willock was as firm as Knox, but a great deal more tact- 
 ful and prudent, and his services at that crisis were par- 
 ticularly valuable. The queen-regent tried to have the 
 Catholic worship restored at St. Giles' church, but Wil- 
 lock's decided, though respectful, resistance triumphed. 
 He gave his opinion, when asked by the nobles, in favor 
 of the queen-regent's deposition, but, nevertheless, visited 
 her in her last illness. He filled various pulpits and other 
 positions of prominence and influence in Scotland, but 
 later, for some reason, went to England, where he died 
 as rector of a church in Leicestejshire, in 1585. The 
 friendship between him and Knox was close and cordial, 
 and his services to the Reformation were important and 
 lasting. McCrie says of him, " Willock was not inferior 
 to Knox in learning, and though he did not equal him in 
 eloquence and intrepidity, surpassed him in affability, in 
 moderation, and in address; qualities which enabled him 
 sometimes to maintain his station and to accomplish his 
 purposes when his colleague could not act with safety or 
 with success." 
 
 Another of Knox's very close friends was Christopher 
 Goodman (d. 1603), who was born and educated in Eng- 
 land, and was one of those Frankfort exiles who objected 
 to the use of the English liturgy there and retired to Ge- 
 neva. He and Knox were joint ministers to the English 
 church at Geneva, and after Knox came back to Scotland 
 he earnestly urged his beloved and faithful colleague to 
 join and help him in establishing the Reformation. Good- 
 man heeded the request, and, coming to Scotland with 
 Knox's family, he rendered valuable help to the cause. 
 He was for a time pastor at Ayr and also at St. Andrews.
 
 524 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 He was highly esteemed as a preacher, but, like his greater 
 friend and colleague, he had a sharp tongue and a vehe- 
 ment spirit that often hurt more than they helped. After 
 a while he left Scotland and returned to England, where 
 he had trouble with Elizabeth's prelates on account of his 
 nonconforming views, and died, a very old man, in 1603. 
 
 The youngest of this group, who came into influence 
 chiefly after Knox's death, is James Lawson (d. 1584). 
 He claims mention for two things. One is that he was 
 the first man to teach Hebrew in Scotland ; having been 
 appointed to a professorship by the regent Murray at St. 
 Andrews. The other is that from this post he was ur- 
 gently besought by Knox to come to his help and relief in 
 the pastorship at St. Giles' church, in Edinburgh, when 
 the old reformer felt that his days were few. Knox's last 
 public service was at the installation of Lawson as his 
 colleague and successor in the pastorate. 
 
 Besides those who have been mentioned there were 
 others also who preached and toiled for the establishing 
 and confirming of the Reformation in Scotland. The 
 value of their labors and the solidity of their work appear 
 in the subsequent history of Protestant Scotland, and in 
 the power and influence of English-speaking Presbyter- 
 ianism throughout the world. Many of the greatest di- 
 vines and noblest preachers whose lives have blessed 
 mankind have traced their religious lineage from Knox 
 and his co-laborers in Scotland. 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 ROMAN CATHOLIC PREACHING AND PREACHERS IN THE 
 SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 
 
 Inasmuch as the Reformation introduced and estab- 
 lished a new epoch in preaching, it has seemed best to 
 follow that tendency among the reformers themselves, 
 and show how in the lands chiefly affected by Protestant- 
 ism there flourished numbers of notable preachers. But 
 we must not lose sight of the preaching within the Roman 
 Catholic church during this epoch. For centuries we 
 followed the course of development in preaching within
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 525 
 
 that body, and that development received important modi- 
 fication from forces both within and without the church 
 itself during the sixteenth century. Neither the Catholic 
 church as a whole, nor its preaching in particular, was 
 the same after the Reformation as before it, nor what 
 they would have been without that great movement. It 
 is incumbent upon us, therefore, to consider carefully 
 what was the relation of the Reformation to Catholic 
 preaching ; and after that we may profitably give some at- 
 tention to the leading Catholic preachers of the age. 
 
 i. THE REFORMATION AND CATHOLIC PREACHING 
 
 It is fair to say in the outset that Catholic and Protest- 
 ant writers are not likely to agree, and as a matter of 
 fact do not agree, as to the reality, the extent and the 
 character of the influence which the Reformation had 
 upon Catholic preaching. Thus Zanotto 1 depreciates the 
 effect of the Reformation by emphasizing the fact that 
 there was until the Council of Trent no marked improve- 
 ment in Catholic preaching, but, rather, a fall after Sav- 
 onarola, giving as two causes for this decline the polemi- 
 cal spirit engendered by the dispute with Protestantism, 
 and the remnant of merely paganizing influences from the 
 Renaissance. This would imply that all the improvement 
 in the Catholic preaching in the sixteenth century came 
 much later than the Protestant outbreak, and was due to 
 the reformatory measures of the Council of Trent. Now 
 there is truth in all this; but it is not the whole truth. 
 Naturally the Protestant preaching itself showed first the 
 heightened tone of the reformatory impulse, and the 
 Council of Trent did work some reforms. But what 
 made that body pass laws for the improvement of preach- 
 ing, as well as other measures of reform? It is idle to 
 intimate that the Reformation did not influence it. An- 
 other Catholic writer on the history of preaching, the 
 Abbe Boucher, 2 goes even further and says, " The church 
 itself, by its councils, by its most illustrious pontiffs and 
 its most holy doctors, recalled the preachers to hard 
 studies, to the gravity of the priesthood, to the simplicity 
 
 l Storia della Predicasione, p. 147 e seg. 
 
 2 L' 'Eloquence de la Chaire, ou Histoire litteraire de la Prtdi- 
 cation, p. 271.
 
 526 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 of Christian speech. But this reform could only be ac- 
 complished slowly, and took a century to show itself. It 
 was during the sixteenth century that Protestantism came 
 and robbed the church of a large part of Europe. It dried 
 up at the same time the fountain of pulpit eloquence in 
 those unhappy lands. There is talking in the pulpit, but 
 no more preaching." The absurd and extreme one-sided- 
 ness and inaccuracy of this representation are apparent, 
 but it is an illustration of how Catholics wish to ignore 
 any possible help which the Reformation may have ren- 
 dered to preaching, either out of or within the Cath- 
 olic church. On the other hand, Protestant writers 
 especially the Germans * may be inclined to depreciate 
 any improvement in Catholic preaching, or, if they see it, 
 to assign the whole of it to the influence of the Reforma- 
 tion ; forgetting that the Reformation itself was primarily 
 a Catholic movement, and that not all who desired to pro- 
 mote reforms left the church, so that there was pro- 
 gressive movement within as well as helpful stimulus 
 from without. On one point, however, both sides prac- 
 tically agree, and that is that the improved tone of Catho- 
 lic preaching whatever its cause was not very prompt 
 in displaying itself in the sixteenth century. The imme- 
 diate and direct influence of Protestantism on Catholic 
 preaching was, for reasons already hinted and more 
 clearly to be shown, not a distinct improvement; for the 
 loss of so many of the best preachers, who went out from 
 the church, and the sharpening of the polemic spirit, were 
 injurious to the Catholic pulpit. Yet there were some ele- 
 ments of improvement at work, and these came to fuller 
 power later in the century, and produced still better 
 fruit in the next. 
 
 We must recall here something of the state of Catholic 
 preaching in the early part of the sixteenth century. Ro- 
 manist writers recognize and concede many of the faults 
 
 1 Thus Christlieb says of the Catholic preaching of the sixteenth 
 century that it " shows itself wholly governed by polemic against 
 the reformatory doctrines. In the everywhere threatened revolt 
 from Rome there is defence of that which exists, and only too 
 often the extirpation of heresy is its ground-theme. The conflict 
 with Protestantism, strong in preaching (most commonly only 
 that!), drives also the Catholic Church to more diligence in the 
 homiletical sphere." Gesch. der Pred., in Herzog.
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 527 
 
 which Protestants charge against the Catholic preaching 
 of the time. It had suffered from the arid speculation of 
 scholasticism, from the puerile exaggerations of the alle- 
 gorical method of interpreting Scripture, from the cool- 
 ing influence of the Renaissance, and from the general 
 deterioration in clerical character and pulpit power. If 
 the reformers magnified these faults and ignored the bet- 
 ter elements which remained in Romanist preaching, and 
 if the Catholics only partially realized and confessed the 
 evil and sought to break the force of criticism by charg- 
 ing similar and worse defects upon the Protestant pulpit, 
 why, that is only the way of debate when there are wide 
 differences and strong feelings between parties. 
 
 We have seen how the reformers gradually withdrew 
 from the old church; and they carried their preaching 
 with them. But there were left behind in the Catholic 
 church reformers of at least three different varieties: 
 (i) There were scholars both of the cool, satirical sort, 
 like Erasmus, and of the devout and earnest sort, like Le 
 Fevre. (2) There were the pious and mystical, some 
 who came very near being reformers, like Staupitz, and 
 others, who were unshaken in their allegiance to Rome, 
 like Luiz of Granada. (3) There were the thorough- 
 going Romanists, who combined with a real desire for the 
 reform of the church, the equally strong one of putting 
 down or refuting the Protestant heresy. These, too, had 
 their different representatives, such as'Caraffa, the pre- 
 late, and Peter Canisius, the Jesuit and preacher. Now 
 the forces for reform, represented by such men as these 
 and their followers, were by no means inactive. In Italy 
 especially there was a strong movement for improved con- 
 ditions in preaching. The order of Theatines, founded 
 by Gaetano, Caraffa and others, had preaching in mind 
 as well as other reforms ; and the Capuchin monks of the 
 order of St. Francis were started to revive both the 
 stricter asceticism and the preaching traditions of the 
 earlier history of the order. The eminent prelate and 
 later saint, Carlo Borromeo of Milan, earnestly sought, 
 by precept and example, to bring about a better type of 
 preaching. From Spain the order of Jesuits came forth 
 to labor for the ascendancy of Rome in all departments, 
 and not the least in preaching ; and in their ranks earlier
 
 528 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 and later were found some of the most powerful Catholic 
 preachers. Treatises on preaching and helps for preach- 
 ers appeared. Valerio, in Italy, and Luiz of Granada, in 
 Spain, put forth works of considerable merit on the art 
 of preaching, and some collections of sermons were made 
 for the benefit of the needy in that direction. Among 
 these was one from the famous John Eck, who disputed 
 with Carlstadt and Luther at Leipzig. Finally, the Coun- 
 cil of Trent took the matter in hand, and, among other 
 reformatory measures, passed canons which had the im- 
 provement of preaching directly in view. One of these x 
 made it the duty of bishops and pastors to see that there 
 should be preaching in the churches at least on Sundays, 
 feast days and fast days; and during Advent and Lent 
 every day. 
 
 The facts mentioned show that inside the Catholic 
 church there was during the Reformation epoch a decided 
 movement for the reform of preaching; but there were 
 also stimulative influences from without, which, if they 
 did not produce, at least powerfully cooperated with, 
 these inner tendencies. While the Romanist pulpit did 
 not so much as the Protestant preaching respond to those 
 general external influences which have been pointed out 
 before, it was by no means unmoved by them. These, it 
 will be recalled, were the large, progressive spirit of the 
 new age, the impulse from the revival in arts and letters, 
 the effect of criticism upon abuses, and the like. Tradi- 
 tional and conservative as it was in its mediaevalism, the 
 Romanist pulpit could not turn a wholly deaf ear to the 
 world's demand for better things. 
 
 More particularly, however, the stimulative influence 
 of the Protestant revolt itself is to be considered. The 
 reformers, as we know, did not content themselves with 
 merely criticising or bewailing the defects and decay of 
 the preaching of the age. Their polemic and their ex- 
 ample alike served to emphasize the evil conditions which 
 marred the Catholic pulpit. Men do not like to have their 
 faults pointed out by their opponents, but they sometimes 
 profit by the unfriendly criticism, notwithstanding their 
 resentment and denials. Traces of this influence appear 
 
 1 S?ss. XXIV., de Ref., cap. 4; referred to by Rothe, Gesch. der. 
 Pred., S. 385.
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 529 
 
 in many of the Catholic sermons of the time. John Wild, 
 as we shall see, confessed to having received help from 
 the " innovators ; " and in others, where not confessed, the 
 service rendered is at least apparent. Besides this we 
 must consider the effect of rivalry. It was not in human 
 nature for the Catholic preachers to see the Protestants 
 winning such victories by preaching and not be moved to 
 greater and better exertions on their own side. Natu- 
 rally this effect is more distinctly apparent in Germany, 
 where the conflict was dubious, than in those lands where 
 one or the other party had the advantage. And, finally, 
 the effect of the Catholic polemic against Protestantism 
 must also be considered. Not only in receiving attack 
 and in emulation of their rivals, but in their own sharp 
 and determined attack upon the Protestant position, did 
 the Catholics find stimulus towards the exercise and 
 strengthening, at least in one direction, of their preach- 
 ing. The injurious effect of controversy on the preach- 
 ing of both parties must be admitted, so far as the re- 
 ligious spirit is concerned, but both frequency and vigor 
 in the work were promoted thereby. 
 
 We may now pertinently ask, Did these forces for im- 
 provement really accomplish anything? Do we find as a 
 consequence of these tendencies and influences that Cath- 
 olic preaching in the sixteenth century was decidedly 
 better than in the fifteenth? The answer cannot be an 
 emphatic affirmative, neither can it be a negative. There 
 was some improvement, but not as much as might have 
 been expected. But forces were set in motion that did 
 alter for the better the general character of Catholic 
 preaching, though, as Catholics themselves show, these 
 improvements were not fully apparent till a later period. 
 
 A distinct gain was made in the regard for preaching. 
 Perhaps that regard has never become so high as it was 
 in the thirteenth century, and yet there has been increased 
 respect, as compared with the neglect of the two following 
 centuries. And it is likely that not in any age since the 
 Reformation unless a part of the eighteenth century be 
 an exception has the pulpit been as little esteemed among 
 Catholics as it was in the fifteenth century. 
 
 A very notable gain has been in the improved charac- 
 ter of the Catholic clergy as a whole since the Reforma-
 
 530 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 tion. This has regard to both morals and culture. The 
 proportion of unfit men in the ministry was appreciably 
 reduced by the reforms of the sixteenth century. This 
 statement does not mean that there were only bad men 
 before or only good men since the Reformation in the 
 Catholic ministry; but it does mean that there has been 
 a great improvement. Ignorance and vice have not been 
 wholly banished from among either Catholics or Protest- 
 ants, but some things which were tolerated in the fifteenth 
 century have been under the ban ever since that time. 
 
 Relatively to the irreverent and often absurd misuse of 
 Scripture, which was only too common in the mediaeval 
 times, there has been a notable improvement in Catholic 
 preaching. There is much to be desired in the post- 
 reformation sermons in this regard, but we do not find 
 in modern Catholic preaching anything like as much of 
 that wild allegorizing and unworthy distortion of Scrip- 
 ture as existed before the Reformation. It is worthy of 
 remark that the sermons of John Wild and of Peter Cani- 
 sius, both of whom labored in Germany in near conflict 
 with the reformers, especially show traces of a better in- 
 terpretation and application of Scripture, and also of a 
 tendency to emphasize the importance of scripture ex- 
 position as compared with other modes of preaching. 
 The only homiletical remains from Canisius are a series 
 of Notes on the Gospels and Epistles that is sketches of 
 homilies on the lessons appointed for the sacred days 
 of the year; and among the far more voluminous works 
 of Wild both expository homilies and commentaries oc- 
 cupy a large place. The quality of the exposition in both 
 leaves much to be desired, but it is by no means so forced 
 and so allegorical as in former times was the fashion. 
 
 While the Catholic pulpit has never reached the power 
 over the people that it had in the central Middle Ages 
 particularly the thirteenth century it at least recovered 
 much of the ground that it lost in the fifteenth century. 
 This rise in popular power was due to all the foregoing 
 considerations, and was particularly enhanced by the now 
 confirmed use of the vernacular languages as the medium 
 of pulpit address. We saw how this tendency was grow- 
 ing through the Middle Ages ; but the Latin sermon has 
 become a thing of the past since the Reformation. On
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 531 
 
 some academic and ecclesiastical occasions, when the au- 
 dience made it tolerable, the sermon was given in Latin ; 
 and for the sake of securing a wider circle of readers 
 many of those spoken in the native tongues were trans- 
 lated and published in Latin, and we have many in that 
 form only, the originals having perished. But the ordi- 
 nary use of Latin in preaching had ceased before the 
 Reformation, and this happy change received emphatic 
 endorsement and perpetuation at that epoch. 
 
 Although some changes and improvements were 
 effected in the general character of Catholic preaching 
 by the purifying forces of the Reformation, yet the char- 
 acteristics acquired through centuries of development re- 
 mained essentially unchanged. Among these of course 
 are many features which abide in all preaching and are 
 not distinctively Catholic; but Christian, historic, per- 
 manent. These are not here under consideration. But 
 if we speak of some matters distinctively Catholic we 
 enter at once the realm of dispute, for these will seem ex- 
 cellencies to the Romanist and faults to the Protestant. 
 
 The place of the sermon in worship remained as it was. 
 The Reformation did not rescue it from its subordination 
 to liturgy. If the Reformed churches went too far in 
 making the sermon supreme, and the Anglican church 
 did not go far enough, the Catholic church allowed it to 
 remain relatively insignificant in comparison with the 
 mass and other ceremonies. The priest in the worship 
 continued to be rather the celebrant of mysteries than 
 the preacher of truth. Ritual to strike the senses and 
 the sentiments, rather than the exposition of divine truth 
 to enlighten the mind and mould the character, 'remained 
 too much the character of Catholic worship. Under such 
 conditions there was an inevitable depreciation and weak- 
 ening of preaching. 
 
 The Reformation mitigated but did not wholly cure 
 certain faults of method in the Catholic preaching of the 
 times. The scholastic tendency was still too much in 
 evidence, along with the multiplied and pedantic quota- 
 tion from the Fathers and church Doctors. The best 
 preachers of the age are not wholly free from this 
 as Musso, Villanova, Canisius although they do show 
 considerable improvement. But in the hands of those
 
 532 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 who were not so much affected by the new spirit this de- 
 fect was still more apparent. 
 
 The coarseness and irreverence which found place in 
 many of the mediaeval Catholic sermons were not entirely 
 banished from those of the Reformation period. It is 
 not denied that here some reformers were equally guilty 
 with their opponents, but that fact does not excuse either 
 party. Still it must be gladly recognized that in this 
 there was improvement over former times, though not 
 complete amendment. And the same remark, as we have 
 already seen, may be made in regard to the use of the 
 Scripture in the Catholic sermons of the age. Many of 
 them indicate a better practice, but still there is too 
 much of the allegorical interpretation, and of forced ap- 
 plication. Besides this the use of extra-biblical material 
 continues. The Council of Trent placed the Apocryphal 
 books on a footing with the genuine Scriptures, and they 
 are quoted and used as such. Tradition and legend still 
 supply sermon material. Tales and eulogies of saints and 
 martyrs exceed the legitimate uses of illustration. The 
 authority of the Fathers and Doctors is too highly 
 esteemed in comparison with that of Scripture. 
 
 But the most serious Protestant criticism upon the 
 Catholic preaching of the sixteenth century is that which 
 lies against its doctrinal content. It was this that forced 
 the split; the other matters could have been mended in- 
 side the church. But naturally at this point the Catholic 
 refuses to confess judgment, though as to other matters 
 he may be willing to admit the existence of some faults. 
 Those great fundamental Christian verities upon which 
 Catholics and Protestants agree are of course not here 
 in question ; and it is not denied that in the Romanist 
 preaching of the sixteenth century, controversial as it 
 was, much essential truth upon both doctrine and morals 
 was proclaimed. At the same time the proclamation and 
 defence of those unscriptural accretions and perversions 
 which characterize the Roman theology are the prom- 
 inent features of Catholic preaching at the period we 
 have in hand. The mass and transubstantiation ; penance 
 with its three elements of contrition, confession and sat- 
 isfaction ; good works and merits, and the nature of faith 
 and justification; the adoration of Mary and the saints;
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 533 
 
 purgatory and prayers for the dead; all these were 
 preached, not indeed to the total neglect, but yet to the 
 great obscuration of pure gospel truth. 
 
 We have already had more than one occasion to ob- 
 serve how large a place controversy had in the preaching 
 of the Reformation period. The reason for this is suffi- 
 ciently obvious, and its effect in stimulating the preach- 
 ing of the reformers has been previously noticed. Its 
 place and influence in Catholic preaching are now to be 
 further considered. As a general truth it must be borne 
 in mind that controversy has both good and evil effects 
 in preaching. Its good is seen in the spur to diligence, 
 the clarifying of points at issue, the intellectual quick- 
 ening, the strengthening of conviction and earnestness, 
 which are its usual accompaniments. Its evil appears in 
 the angry passions, the distortions of truth, the personal 
 animosities, the intemperate expressions, which only too 
 often mar its own legitimate working. Fairness demands 
 the statement that both the good and evil of controversy 
 appear in both the great parties to the religious strife 
 of the sixteenth century, and the preaching of both re- 
 formers and Catholics exhibits the corresponding effects. 
 Yet it is also fair to say that in some respects the advan- 
 tage lay with the Protestants, and their preaching shows 
 on the whole more of the good and less of the evil of 
 polemics than is the case with their Romanist adversaries. 
 This was due to a number of things, a few of which 
 may be instanced : The reformers were the attacking 
 party and many of the things which they attacked were 
 notoriously evil and had to be so admitted, while others 
 which were defended were yet placed in question in the 
 minds of multitudes of thoughtful and devout Chris- 
 tians ; they were the ones who made the most sacrifices 
 for conscience' sake, and with whom accordingly the 
 weight of moral power lay ; they had a simpler task, for 
 their one great authority was the Scripture, complicated 
 with fewer traditions and dissociated from many his- 
 toric abuses ; they made preaching their main instrument 
 of warfare and more unreservedly and warmly devoted 
 themselves to it. Such considerations as these serve to 
 explain why the evil effects of controversy, though un- 
 happily bad enough, were not so manifest in the Protes-
 
 534 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 tant as in the Catholic preaching of the Reformation age. 
 But even if the comparison be not admitted, the fact that 
 polemic against Protestantism was hurtfully prominent 
 in that preaching cannot be denied. Rothe x asserts that 
 it was the principal element, and Christlieb 2 has the same 
 opinion. These Protestant judgments are confirmed by 
 Catholic writers also, though they naturally take a very 
 different view of the character of the defence made by 
 the Romanists. 3 Thus Leroux 4 says : " The Reformation 
 met in its way vigorous champions to combat it; the 
 church had its defenders. The preachers took pains to 
 warn the faithful against the perils to their faith, and to 
 refute the new belief which threatened to destroy it; in 
 the pulpit especially the greatest zeal was displayed." The 
 same writer contends that the Catholic preachers were 
 more dignified and less bitter than the Protestants, and 
 far less rude and coarse. Yet he admits 5 that they some- 
 times descended to ridicule and satire. He instances as 
 an especially keen and effective controversialist the 
 Franciscan archbishop of Brixen, John Nas, and makes 
 several quotations from a sermon of his in reply to a cer- 
 tain Miiller which may be a fictitious name, as there 
 was no prominent Protestant preacher of that name at the 
 time. As Leroux quotes these paragraphs with approval, 
 we may transcribe them as fair specimens of Catholic pul- 
 pit polemic against Lutheranism. Thus Bishop Nas : " All 
 the popes opposed the heretics; also the heretics always 
 treated the popes as anti-Christ. That is true, and is so 
 to-day, to the great honor of the pope; for the heretics 
 preach a false Christ, who does not require either obedi- 
 ence to the will of God, nor observance of the divine law, 8 
 and who does not prescribe either love or penitence, con- 
 tenting himself simply with faith without works. Now 
 the pope anathematizes and condemns this Christ, he is 
 his enemy, the enemy of all his members and of all his 
 sect. So, then, the pope is rightly called an anti-Christ. 
 He is the enemy of all the false Christs, and condemns 
 them. So this fool Miiller does not know what he is say- 
 
 *S. 385. 2 Ante, p. 526, note. 
 
 * See references to Zanotto and Boucher, ante, p. 526. 
 
 * Les Pridicateurs cSlebres de I'Allemagne, pp. 211, 213. 
 6 Op. cit., p. 219 et suiv. * Calvin, for instance !
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 535 
 
 ing, he vomits hot and cold without knowing it ; there is 
 just as much relation in the analogy which he pretends 
 to establish as there is between the fist and the eye." He 
 speaks of Luther's tract on the Babylonian Captivity as 
 " thought and written by the devil." Reverting to his 
 opponent, he says : " This crazy Miiller is as consistent in 
 his talk as an empty flour sack. To-day he brags on the 
 Wittenbergers as better than all the rest of the world, he 
 makes them out saints, then all of a sudden, as a con- 
 clusion to the discourse, he reproaches their vices and 
 threatens them with coming ruin if they do not like his 
 preaching and put it into practice." 
 
 This has a certain vigor and liveliness, to be sure, but 
 what else has it? Doubtless there was better polemical 
 preaching than this represents, doubtless, also, there 
 was worse; but, on the whole, the controversial element 
 of the Catholic preaching of this age cannot be regarded 
 as greatly to its credit, either for depth or dignity. 
 
 2. THE LEADING CATHOLIC PREACHERS 
 
 As compared with the preceding and following times, 
 and as compared with the Protestants of their own times, 
 the number of really great Catholic preachers in the six- 
 tenth century was very small. These were found chiefly 
 in Italy and Spain, with a few in Germany, in the other 
 lands scarcely any that demand serious notice. In Eng- 
 land the famous Catholic prelates of the time Wolsey, 
 Gardiner, Tunstall, Bonner and Pole were distinguished 
 for other things than preaching. In France a few are 
 mentioned by writers on the history of preaching, 1 as 
 Vigor of Narbonne, Charles de Lorraine, Jean Boucher, 
 Pierre Divole, Edmond Auger, and others. But it is 
 significant that Boucher, in his so-called " Literary His- 
 tory of Preaching," 2 himself a Frenchman, should say 
 of this period in France that " the sixteenth century per- 
 mits us to make the excursion across foreign literatures ; 
 we shall return to France for the preachers of the League 
 and of the reign of Henry IV." In other words, even to 
 a French Catholic writer, the preachers of his church 
 and country in the early sixteenth century do not seem 
 
 1 As Zanotto and Christlieb, op. cit. 
 * L' Eloquence de la Chair e, etc., p. 274.
 
 536 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 worth mentioning in comparison with those of other 
 lands. In the countries of northern and eastern Europe 
 a few are mentioned by Zanotto, evidently to fill up, but 
 there were none of distinction. So we may confine our 
 view to the preachers of Germany, Italy and Spain. 
 
 In Germany, John Eck, the clever opponent of Luther, 
 was a man of learning and influence, but was not specially 
 significant as a preacher, though he contributed a col- 
 lection of sketches, or short expository sermons, on the 
 Gospels, in aid of the clergy. A similar service was per- 
 formed by Martin Eisengrein, also not otherwise signifi- 
 cant. There is also a volume of sermons from John 
 Witzel, who was a milder polemic than some and sought 
 a more conciliatory way of meeting Protestantism than 
 was common. More sharp in controversy, as we have 
 had occasion to see, was John Nas, who was an Alsatian 
 by birth, first joined the Franciscans as a lay brother, 
 and was afterwards, because of his readiness in speech, 
 made a preacher, and became one of the cleverest and 
 most noted opponents of the Reformation. But by all 
 odds the most important Romanist preachers in Ger- 
 many at this period were Wild and Canisius, and they are 
 entitled to more extended notice than the rest. 
 
 ,A man of decided talent and merit was the celebrated 
 Cathedral preacher at Mainz, John Wild (d. 1554), or, in 
 the Latin form, Johannes Ferus. 1 A veil of obscurity 
 covers the birthplace, parentage and early years of John 
 Wild. It appears that he was of German birth, and that 
 about 1520 he joined the Franciscans, no doubt from mo- 
 tives of piety and devotion to the Catholic church. In 
 1528 he was appointed by the elector of Mainz to the 
 post of afternoon preacher at the Cathedral in that city, 
 and was soon afterwards made guardian of his order for 
 the region about Mainz. Here he was diligent and popu- 
 lar in preaching for many years. His learning, piety and 
 eloquence gave him wide influence ; and his amiable spirit 
 and aversion to polemics were remarkable in that tem- 
 
 1 Leroux, Les PrGdicateurs celebres de I'Allemagne; various 
 cyclopaedia articles; and a Latin Dissertatio de Johanne Fero, 
 monacho et concionatore Moguntino, teste veritatis evangelicae, 
 by E. G. Dieterich, presented for his degree at Altdorf in 1723. 
 Also a Latin translation of Wild's sermons, published in 1559.
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE $37 
 
 pestuous age. By 1545 he had become widely known as 
 one of the most important preachers of the times, and 
 he drew large congregations. In 1552 Albert of Bran- 
 denburg, also electoral archbishop of Mainz, having be- 
 come Protestant, found it necessary to reduce the city 
 to his authority by force, and captured it. He greatly 
 respected Wild', and tried to win him to Protestantism 
 by asking him to abandon his Franciscan gown ; but Wild 
 answered, " This habit has been with me these many 
 years and has never harmed me; why should I leave it 
 now ? " Probably Albert would not have removed him 
 from his place as preacher had he renounced his order; 
 as it was, he was displaced by a Protestant preacher 
 for a while, but on Albert's death he was restored to his 
 pulpit at the Cathedral. He did not, however, live very 
 long after this, but died in 1554. 
 
 Wild made and filled his own place among the preach- 
 ers of his time. In learning he was abreast of the age, 
 being acquainted with Hebrew and Greek, and well read 
 in history and theology, patristic and mediaeval. In char- 
 acter he was above all reproach for piety and justly es- 
 teemed by Catholics and Protestants alike for his amiabil- 
 ity, moderation and earnestness. His theological position 
 was a mediating one. 1 He learned much from the re- 
 formers, and approached them in many particulars both 
 of doctrine and method. He said that " from the error 
 of the moderns he had here and there dug out a pearl," 
 but he qualified this by saying further that if he had 
 borrowed from the innovators he believed it was only 
 such things as were in accord with the church doctrines. 
 He proclaimed his independence by saying, " I flatter no 
 one, but purely announce to you the gospel in such a way 
 as I shall answer for it to the Supreme Judge." As a 
 consequence, his writings and sermons were admired and 
 quoted by some Protestants, and Dieterich has shown that 
 it is possible to cull from his works many clear and strik- 
 ing statements dear to the reformers. For example, as to 
 Scripture, in rebuking those who would allege obscurity 
 of the Bible as an excuse for not obeying its precepts, he 
 teaches that the Scripture should be read by all, that it 
 
 1 This point is well discussed and illustrated by quotations in 
 the Dissertation of Dieterich.
 
 538 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 can be understood by the common man, and that it 
 should be explained by its own light. In one place he 
 roundly says, " Sola scriptura regida est veritatis." And 
 so, while not discarding the Catholic traditions and 
 usages, he puts them below Scripture. One of his utter- 
 ances is well worth quoting as an example both of his 
 manner and his thought. He says : " In the gospel 
 Christ has touched upon many things which now exist 
 among us Christians, who, after the manner of the Phari- 
 sees, are taken up, not only with fasts, but also with all 
 the church regulations ; who, as Christ himself said, strain 
 out the gnat and swallow the camel. Yea, there are many 
 things (if, indeed, I must acknowledge the truth and 
 judge of it) in which our Christianity has become no- 
 thing else than an empty pharisaism outward show, in 
 which one finds many ceremonies but little righteous- 
 ness, much song and little devotion, much appearance 
 and little truth, much word and little spirit, the breaking 
 off from certain kinds of food, but no breaking off from 
 sins. On the former there is insistence, the latter is for- 
 gotten. When we hold fast the church regulation it is a 
 great thing, when we despise God's commandment, yea, 
 daily sin against it, no harm is done." This earnest re- 
 buke is only too sadly appropriate to all times and 
 churches, but it is gratifying to find a Catholic of emi- 
 nence who dared so to express himself in those days. 
 
 As a preacher Wild had the talents and spirit that al- 
 ways attract and command attention. During his long 
 service as Cathedral preacher at Mainz his audiences 
 were large and his influence great. His published ser- 
 mons are numerous. He spoke in German and some of 
 his discourses are preserved in that tongue, but a very 
 large number in Latin translations also. They once had 
 large circulation among both Protestants and Catholics. 
 As he said, they were not intended for the learned alone, 
 but for the common people. In addition to their doc- 
 trinal import, already considered, the sermons are marked 
 by their prevailing expository character. They are chiefly 
 homilies on the Scripture books, and easily pass into 
 commentaries, of which he also wrote a number. And so 
 we may sum up by saying that for his emphasis on Scrip- 
 ture, for his grasp of evangelical truth, for his inde-
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 539 
 
 pendence and yet moderation, for his earnest piety and 
 amiable character, and for his sustained power in the pul- 
 pit, John Wild must be ranked with the very best of the 
 few who attained distinction as preachers among the 
 Catholics of his age. 
 
 A very different man, but no less eminent in his diverse 
 way, was the famous Jesuit preacher and polemic Peter 
 Canisius (1521-1 597).* Born in 1521, of excellent fam- 
 ily, at Nimeguen, in the province of Gueldres, he was 
 educated carefully in preparatory schools and at the Uni- 
 versity of Cologne, where he took the regular degrees in 
 course and was especially devoted to theology. He was 
 the first German of any importance to join the newly 
 founded Society of Jesus, and his accession was hailed 
 with pleasure and proved to be distinguished. In 1543 
 Faber came to Germany to establish the order there, 
 and Canisius, then twenty-two years old, and already a 
 very promising scholar and preacher, was won. He was 
 sent by his archbishop, at the age of twenty-six, to take 
 part in the deliberations of the Council of Trent, and 
 rendered good service for the short time that he was 
 there. Later he was sent to Rome, where for several 
 years he studied and worked under the immediate super- 
 vision of Loyola himself, and also served a year as 
 teacher and preacher at Messina. 
 
 After all these preparatory years he was at last sent 
 back to his life work in Germany. At first he taught 
 and preached at Ingolstadt with great applause, and his 
 services were much sought after in many places. At the 
 earnest request of Ferdinand of Austria he was sent to 
 Vienna, where for a number of years he did effective 
 work in the interests of his order and of the Catholic 
 church. During this time he prepared and published a 
 Catechism which has ranked among the works of that 
 character most highly esteemed by Catholics. His 
 preaching also drew great crowds, and did much to give 
 to the Romanist cause its abiding strength in Vienna and 
 throughout Austria. Canisius was offered a bishopric, 
 but steadily refused. Afterwards he labored with great 
 
 Authorities before noted, but especially the art. in Wetzer 
 und Welte; Canisius' Notae Evangelicae , in an edition published 
 at Freiburg, 1591.
 
 540 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 effect in Bavaria, and then in other parts of Germany. 
 He not only put new life and courage into his Catholic 
 brethren everywhere, but is said to have been very suc- 
 cessful also in winning- back many Protestants to the Ro- 
 manist faith. So highly were his abilities regarded as a 
 disputant against Protestantism that he was especially 
 deputed by the pope to write a reply to the famous Mag- 
 deburg Centuries, the church history written from the 
 Protestant point of view. Many engagements and labors 
 hindered the production of Canisius' reply, but when it 
 at last appeared it was considered very satisfactory to his 
 side. Thus variously and strenuously occupied in many 
 places in Germany, Canisius yet lived to old age, not dying 
 till 1597. In his lifetime and since, he has been regarded 
 as the ablest defender of Romanism in Germany during 
 the time in which he lived, his name is held in veneration, 
 not only among Jesuits, but among Catholics generally, 
 and in 1864 Pius IX. pronounced him " blessed " the 
 degree next below sainthood. 
 
 Besides the history and catechism already mentioned, 
 Canisius wrote and published a number of theological 
 and exegetical works. The latter are particularly signi- 
 ficant because they show the effect of the Protestant ex- 
 egesis in forcing this foremost Catholic disputant in 
 Germany also to employ that weapon. The Romanist esti- 
 mate of Canisius will appear from the following passage 
 from the article in Wetzer and Welte's Kirchenlexicon: 
 " Unpublished manuscript expressions of his, still pre- 
 served, show how clearly and profoundly he understood 
 the essence of Protestantism. Far more impressive than 
 harnessed defence appeared to him the positive teaching 
 and strengthening of the Catholics; and, therefore, this 
 element dominates in all his writings. Luther's coarse 
 popular wit, passion, agitator's rhetoric, are wholly 
 lacking in him. Instead there appears in his (mostly 
 Latin) works the closest familiarity with Holy Scripture, 
 extensive acquaintance with the Fathers and with the 
 positive and scholastic theology, an earnest humanistic 
 culture, great reading of the works of the Protestant 
 theologians, a dignified polemical readiness to strike, 
 piety, decision, and the mildness of a generally apostolic 
 man." From the prodigious activity of Canisius as a
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 541 
 
 preacher the literary remains are slight only a volume 
 of expository sketches in Latin, called Evangelical Notes, 
 and consisting of comments, in the homily style, on the 
 Scripture lessons appointed for the sacred days of the 
 ecclesiastical year. It is of course not fair to judge his 
 powers by these alone, but, making due allowances for 
 their imperfect form, they hardly sustain the high esti- 
 mate which Catholics place upon Canisius either as ex- 
 egete or preacher. Waiving the question of doctrines, the 
 adoration of Mary and the saints, and other distinctively 
 Catholic features, we do not find the depth of thought, 
 accuracy of interpretation, or power of expression which 
 we should expect. Yet the style and spirit are worthy of 
 commendation, and the exegesis marks a notable advance 
 upon the scholastic and allegorical method of former 
 times. 
 
 We should naturally expect to find a larger number of 
 great Catholic preachers during this time in Italy rather 
 than elsewhere, and though there is no multitude, the 
 facts justify that expectation. 1 We can, however, from 
 the number of those mentioned by the authorities select 
 only a few of the most important for brief consideration. 
 
 Among the preachers of the early part of the century 
 none perhaps had so great a reputation as Egidio da Vi- 
 terbo (d. 1532). The place of his birth is uncertain, but 
 his surname suggests Viterbo. He seems to have been 
 of humble but respectable origin, but little is known of 
 him until, in 1488, he joined the Augustinian monks. 
 After this he spent some time in studies at various places, 
 including Padua, Florence and Rome. He was fond of 
 Platonic philosophy and gave lectures at Florence. Al- 
 ready, in his young manhood, he preached at Rome with 
 applause, and won the favorable notice of Pope Alex- 
 ander VI., whose favor, indeed, may not be considered 
 any special compliment, except for his capacity to discern 
 
 1 For the Italian preachers of the period I have chiefly used the 
 following authorities : Zanotto's Storia delta Predicazione ; a 
 bright critical introduction to an Antologia della Sacra Eloquenza 
 Moderna, da Ulisse Micocci ; notices in the appropriate volumes 
 of Tiraboschi's great Storia della Letteratura Italiana; articles in 
 Encyclopedia Italiana; Cardinal Fred. Borromeo's De Sacris nos- 
 trorum Temporum Oratoribus; and to some extent the works of 
 the preachers themselves, as far as available.
 
 542 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 talent. He was highly esteemed by the Franciscan Gen- 
 azzano, the rival of Savonarola, and accompanied him to 
 Naples in 1498, where Genazzano died and Egidio was 
 very ill, but recovered, and his preaching attracted great 
 notice. King Ferdinand of Naples sent him to many 
 places in his dominions to preach, and indeed his fame 
 spread all over Italy. His services were in such demand 
 as preacher during Lent and other seasons that Pope 
 Julius II., it is said, reserved to himself the right of giv- 
 ing Egidio his appointments. This pope also employed 
 him on a confidential mission to Venice. He also served 
 ten years as General of his order. Leo X. greatly ad- 
 mired him, and made him a cardinal in 1517. Such emi- 
 nent scholars and critics as Bembo and Sadolet speak 
 in the highest terms of his talents and eloquence, and 
 there can be no doubt of his learning and eminence as a 
 preacher. But his sermons seem to have perished in the 
 sack of Rome under Charles V., and no specimens of his 
 pulpit work have survived. 
 
 Passing over several men of some note who flourished 
 in the early decades of the century with and after Egidio, 
 we come to a group of three whose work lay from the 
 middle toward the end of the age. First of these is the 
 much-praised Cornelio Musso (d. 1575), who was born 
 in 1511, of good family, at Piacenza. At nine years of age 
 he entered as a novice the Franciscan order, received 
 his early education at their convent at Carpi, showing 
 both diligence in study and promising oratorical talent. 
 While a youth of nineteen he was invited to Venice, 
 and on Annunciation day in the Cathedral of San 
 Marco preached a sermon to the wonder of all hearers. 
 But, like young Bossuet afterwards, he was not unwisely 
 seduced from study by this early recognition of his 
 powers, but the rather devoted himself to his books. In 
 1 530 he went to Padua, where he studied hard under good 
 teachers, making progress in Greek and Hebrew, as well 
 as other branches, and in philosophy and oratory. During 
 all this time he was preaching much, and was heard with 
 admiration. 
 
 Soon he was called as preacher to Milan, and also held 
 a lectureship at the University of Padua. Later he lec- 
 tured on philosophy and theology at Bologna, all the
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 543 
 
 while being much in demand as preacher in various 
 places. In 1541 he is found at Rome, where he is highly 
 regarded by the pope, who frequently takes counsel with 
 him on important questions of theology. As a reward he 
 was made bishop, first of Bertinoro, and then of Bitonto, 
 under which appellation he is best known. It fell to 
 Musso to preach the opening sermon at the famous Coun- 
 cil of Trent, and he discharged that duty in a way to win 
 extravagant eulogies from the assembled prelates, show- 
 ing himself, as Tiraboschi says, " at once a profound the- 
 ologian and eloquent orator." After the Council of Trent 
 he returned to his bishopric of Bitonto, and was diligent 
 as bishop and preacher there for some years, but was later 
 called to Rome by Gregory XIII., and died there, in 
 
 1575- 
 
 A selection of ten of his sermons was published as 
 early as 1554, and a number of discourses on various 
 subjects appeared later. Many of them were translated 
 into Latin, Spanish, and French. They had wide circu- 
 lation, and were much praised by excellent critics among 
 the Catholics. Still, to our thinking, the sermons would 
 be by no means models for imitation, being rather long 
 and minute in some details, not remarkably well ar- 
 ranged, and not always in good taste. Yet, according to 
 Tiraboschi : "If Musso be compared with his predeces- 
 sors, he is to them like gold to earth." 
 
 Not an orator, but a man of high character, a prelate 
 of distinction, a useful preacher and helper of preaching, 
 was St. Charles Borromeo of Milan (1538-1584). He 
 came of a distinguished family in north Italy. He 
 was a faithful student, though at first somewhat slow. 
 The pure and pious lad was early designed for the cleri- 
 cal profession, and his uncle, Julius Caesar Borromeo, 
 resigned in the boy's favor an abbacy which had consid- 
 erable revenues. Already the lad showed signs of the 
 coming reformer and saint, for he requested his father to 
 take charge of these revenues and employ them in charity, 
 while he went on with his studies at Milan and Pavia, 
 and preserved his purity amid the snares of college life. 
 Pope Pius IV. was his uncle, and, availing himself of the 
 talents of his young kinsman, appointed him to great 
 offices in the church. Though very young and not yet
 
 544 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 ordained a priest, he was made cardinal deacon and arch- 
 bishop of Milan. Borromeo did not approve of such 
 abuses, and reluctantly accepted office in obedience to the 
 pope. 
 
 As a cardinal and an official in the pope's household, 
 he lived at Rome as befitted his dignity, but felt all the 
 while that he ought to be ordained and take hold of the 
 work of his diocese at Milan. Though only twenty-three 
 years old, he is said to have been the real ruler of the 
 church in the name of Pius IV., and it is claimed that not 
 for a long time had the affairs of the papacy been so 
 well administered. In these times of much responsibility 
 and public business he gave his nights largely to study, 
 and with him as a centre there was a circle of studious 
 men who used to spend their evenings in scholarly con- 
 verse at the Vatican. 
 
 On the death of Charles' elder brother without heir, he 
 was solicited by his kindred, including even the pope, to 
 resign his church offices and marry. But he said he had 
 wedded another bride ; and to be rid of the importunities 
 of his relatives he at once consummated his long-deferred 
 ordination as priest and bishop. Having received requis- 
 ite authority from the pope, he instituted some much- 
 needed reforms in the discipline of the clergy. He also 
 took hold of the dilatory and much-interrupted Council 
 of Trent, and under his skilful influence that body soon 
 accomplished its labors. To him, with others, was com- 
 mitted the preparation of the Tridentine Catechism, that 
 clear and compact standard of Catholic doctrine. 
 
 At last, in 1565, he was free to take up his work, per- 
 formed in his long absence by deputies, as archbishop of 
 Milan. He found things in great disorder, but he soon 
 proved himself almost another Ambrose ; and to this day 
 his name is honored at Milan along with that of his most 
 illustrious predecessor. He set the example of self- 
 denial that he required in his clergy. He was diligent 
 in all the work of a bishop, preaching much and adminis- 
 tering affairs with a firm and skilful hand. His deter- 
 mined and vigorous discipline made enemies among the 
 less worthy of the clergy, and one of these attempted his 
 life, shooting at him while he was engaged in prayer in 
 the church. But the bullet somehow did not take effect,
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 545 
 
 and his escape was accounted a miracle. When the 
 plague desolated Italy and visited Milan the archbishop 
 was away, but on its appearance he promptly returned 
 to his post of duty and labored in visitation and charities. 
 He escaped the plague, but not long after fell sick of a 
 fever and died in 1584. 
 
 As a preacher, so far as gifts of oratory are concerned, 
 Borromeo cannot be ranked with Musso and Panigarola, 
 but he was as diligent and conscientious in this part of his 
 work as in other things. His sermons were instructive, 
 and spiritually helpful to his people. Of course, one of 
 the leading theologians of Trent was a thorough-going 
 Catholic in doctrine. His voice and utterance were not 
 specially pleasing, but his knowledge of human nature, his 
 earnest spirit, the thoughtfulness of his matter, and the 
 weight and elevation of his character gave to his preach- 
 ing a power which mere graces of rhetoric could not 
 have brought. His great interest in preaching and the 
 reforms he instituted in that department, apart from his 
 own work in the pulpit, give him a worthy place in the 
 history of preaching. 
 
 Toward the close of the sixteenth century the most 
 popular and famous Italian preacher was Francesco Pani- 
 garola (1548-1594). Born at Milan, of gentle family, 
 he received careful training in youth, and early gave 
 evidence of a remarkably retentive memory and of ora- 
 torical powers of a high order. He studied law for some 
 years at Pavia and Bologna, leading at the same time 
 a somewhat loose life. Recalled to serious thoughts by 
 the death of his father, he determined to preach, and in 
 1567 he joined the Franciscan order and soon became 
 noted for his preaching talents. In 1571 he went to 
 Paris for further theological education, and while there 
 preached with acceptance before Catherine dei Medici. 
 After spending some time at Lyons and Antwerp, he re- 
 turned in 1573 to Italy, and during the following years, 
 while preaching much, also taught theology in various 
 convents of his order. He passed two years with Bor- 
 romeo at Milan, who highly regarded him and used him 
 in preaching. Later Panigarola was appointed to a bish- 
 opric, but, through envy, he was falsely accusedj and 
 suffered somewhat in reputation for a while. The
 
 546 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 charges against him not being sustained, he was pro- 
 moted in 1587 to the bishopric of Asti. Soon afterwards 
 he was called to Paris to help the Catholic cause there 
 as one of the preachers of the League, which his ready 
 acquaintance with French enabled him to do with credit. 
 In 1590 he returned to his diocese, which he administered 
 with diligence till his death, a few years later. 
 
 Panigarola had a fine voice and figure and a flowing, 
 pleasing style of speech, but the critics find him some- 
 what artificial and seeking after effect. His arrange- 
 ment is usually clear and good, and the expression fluent 
 and agreeable. Tiraboschi considers his fame well 
 founded, but Zanotto is scarcely so sure of it ; and if the 
 specimens of his work given by the latter are fair sam- 
 ples of his manner, there is far more evidence of fluency 
 than of depth either of thought or feeling. 
 
 Spain was less affected by the Reformation than any 
 other Catholic country, and it is just what we should ex- 
 pect when we find the distinctive Catholic preaching more 
 prominent than in Germany or even in Italy. Of the 
 preachers who were active during the sixteenth century 
 three at least are deserving of special notice: Juan de 
 Avila, Luiz de Granada and Thomas de Villanova. 
 
 The most evangelical of the three was the so-called 
 "Apostle of Andalusia," Juan de Avila (d. 1569). He 
 was of humble but respectable birth, received his educa- 
 tion at Salamanca and Alcala, and devoted himself with 
 zeal and success to preaching, more especially in Anda- 
 lusia. He loved to preach to the common people, and 
 his converts were numbered among the thousands. He 
 desired to go as a missionary to the East Indies, but 
 was urgently dissuaded by the archbishop of Seville, 
 who wished to retain his rare preaching talent for the 
 work at home. He began to preach at Seville, but visited 
 many other towns. It is said that he could move his 
 hearers by a single word, by a look even. His wonderful 
 success aroused envy, he did not escape attack, but the 
 Inquisition could not find the charges justified. He re- 
 fused various high church offices, but was highly re- 
 garded in his life and after his death. Many of his ser- 
 mons were translated into various languages. The abbe 
 Boucher * says of him : " We have of him sermons in, 
 *L'Eloquence de la Chaire, etc.
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 547 
 
 which there is found much of dash, of warmth, and of 
 passion. But rapidly improvised, they leave much to be 
 desired in respect to form." 
 
 Famous both as preacher and as author of devotional 
 books, praised by popes and saints, and admired by liter- 
 ary critics, in his own country, was Luiz de Granada l 
 (1504-1588). He was born of poor parents at Granada, 
 in 1504. One day he and another boy had a quarrel, 
 which soon came to blows. A Spanish nobleman wit- 
 nessed the affair and parted the lads, whereupon Luiz 
 stated his side of the case and pleaded his cause with 
 such good reasoning and eloquence that the count was im- 
 pressed by the boy's talents, and became so much interested 
 in him that he was allowed to pursue his studies along 
 with the gentleman's sons without charge. At nineteen 
 years of age Luiz entered the Dominican order, of which 
 he became a distinguished ornament. He studied philoso- 
 phy and theology at the University of Valencia. He 
 worked for his order in various ways, but chiefly as 
 teacher and preacher. He was greatly admired and be- 
 loved among all classes. Catherine, the sister of Charles 
 V., offered him a bishopric, and the pope desired to make 
 him a cardinal, but he declined all offers of ecclesiastical 
 preferment, and remained, first of all, a preacher, though 
 he also wrote numbers of books. After a life of industry 
 and devotion he died at Lisbon in December, 1588. 
 
 Among his writings the Guide to Sinners is considered 
 the best, of which a Catholic author said that it led more 
 sinners to God than it contained letters. One of the 
 leading Spanish literary critics is quoted as saying: 
 " Never has a devotional author spoken with such dig- 
 nity and sublimity of God. When he pictures our weak- 
 ness and poverty over against the almightiness and com- 
 passion of God, when he represents his infinite love and 
 our ingratitude, he is great, sublime, incomparable. He 
 is among the mystics what Bossuet was among the ora- 
 tors." The same critic praises his style as uniting charm 
 
 1 Short notices in Zanotto and Boucher, opp. citt., various en- 
 cyclopaedia articles, preferably the one in Wetzer und Welte; and 
 best of all some of the works of Luiz himself in Latin, namely, 
 his Rhetorica Ecclesiastica, and a beautiful old edition of his ser- 
 mons, Condones de Temporibus, etc., printed at Antwerp in 1384, 
 now in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris.
 
 548 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 with ornament, and compares him to Chrysostom in ease, 
 clearness, richness, fulness. On the other hand Rothe, 1 
 the German Protestant, is not so enthusiastic, for, though 
 admitting the oratorical talent of Luiz, he declares him 
 deficient in training and in taste, and says his sermons 
 lack order and are overloaded with images, comparisons, 
 legends and the like. The truth lies between these ex- 
 tremes of praise and censure. 
 
 Beside his books of devotion and his sermons, Luiz 
 published an interesting and, in its time, useful work on 
 the art of preaching, under the title, Rhetorica Ecclesias- 
 lica sen de Ratione Concionandi. The treatise has not 
 much originality, but shows easy grasp of the principles 
 of rhetoric and a careful reading of the best ancient 
 treatises Aristotle, Demetrius Phalereus, Cicero, though, 
 apparently, not Quintilian and also of Augustine's De 
 Doctrina Christiana. He treats the usual subjects of 
 Invention, Arrangement, Style and Delivery with good 
 sense and in clear and agreeable Latin. He earnestly in- 
 sists, both in the beginning and conclusion, on the char- 
 acter of the preacher as the highest essential to good 
 preaching, and urges devotion to Christ and absorption 
 in him in the act of preaching. 
 
 The sermons of Luiz were preached and many of them 
 published in Spanish, but there are also Latin sermons. 
 A beautiful old edition of these, published at Antwerp in 
 1584, contains a large number of discourses. The first 
 sermon on the Advent is based on the text Matt. 21 :i,2, 
 our Lord's' sending the two disciples to find and bring 
 the ass and her colt for his entry into Jerusalem. The 
 preacher first proposes to expound the Scripture lesson 
 and then discuss the reasons why the church celebrates 
 the Advent; but really there are three divisions, thus: 
 (i) Meaning of finding the ass and colt. They signify 
 the Jews and Gentiles the latter being as yet unbroken 
 to the yoke of the divine law, and all in bondage to sin 
 " tied," but Christ gives liberty. (2) Why had the Lord 
 need of these humble animals? First, to show his humil- 
 ity; and, secondly, to show his power to deliver, since 
 as already said the asses represent sin-bound people. 
 [The unfolding of this thought is good, notwithstanding 
 
 1 Gesch. der Pred., S. 385 ff.
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 549 
 
 the way he gets at it] (3) Reasons for celebrating Ad- 
 vent. The church, like a good mother, provides these 
 sacred seasons for the spiritual enjoyment and profit of 
 her children ; and the Advent has, among other blessings, 
 the reminder of the fulfilling of the promises and prophe- 
 cies of the Messiah. He enlarges upon our blessedness 
 in receiving fully what the Old Testament believers only 
 dimly foresaw. 
 
 The five sermons on penance give the Catholic doctrine, 
 but they contain much that is spiritually and morally 
 sound and profitable. The following passage from the in- 
 troduction to a sermon on the Epiphany will give a slight 
 taste of his style : " Among all the benefits which the un- 
 measured kindness of God has conferred on the human 
 race this holds the highest rank; that he has deigned to 
 grant to them the saving knowledge of his divinity, with- 
 out which light no man could savingly know him. For, 
 as no one is able to see the sun without the light of the 
 sun itself, so no one can piously receive God without the 
 aid of God himself. For it is himself to whom we come, 
 and himself by whom we come; he is the way which 
 leads, and the life to which it leads." 
 
 One of the very best of the Spanish Catholic preachers 
 was Thomas Garcias of Villanova 1 (d. 1555). He was 
 born in the diocese of Leon in 1487, but his parents hav- 
 ing come from Villanova, he was later called by that sur- 
 name. His father and mother were poor but pious folk, 
 who in their own narrow circumstances always found 
 means to give to the poor, and their example of self-sacri- 
 fice and charity made a profound and lasting impression 
 on their son. Thomas received his education at Alcala, 
 the recently founded university of Cardinal Ximenes, and 
 was so successful a student that soon after his gradua- 
 tion he was appointed professor of philosophy there. 
 Later he was called to the older university of Salamanca 
 to the same chair. But he had long had the intention of 
 becoming a monk, and retired from this high position to 
 enter the Augustinian order in 1520 and devote himself 
 to preaching and the direction of souls. His gifts as a 
 
 1 Condones Sacrae illustrissimi et reverendissimi D. D. Thomae 
 a Villanova; Brixiae, 1603; with a Life prefixed. In addition some 
 other notices in various authorities.
 
 5 SO A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 preacher attracted attention and his fame began to spread. 
 The warm admirer who wrote the life prefixed to Villa- 
 nova's sermons thus speaks of his powers : " It is a thing 
 most worthy of the greatest admiration that he was able 
 so freely to satisfy by one and the same discourse men 
 of so diverse minds. These are the divine powers of 
 liquid truth and sincere virtue. Of these I was an eye- 
 witness, who took diligent care never to be absent from a 
 sermon of that man." 
 
 Villanova attracted the notice of the emperor, 
 Charles V., who made him one of his preachers, and 
 wished to promote him to higher ecclesiastical dignities. 
 Villanova refused the archbishopric of Granada, but was 
 at last constrained by his superiors to accept that of Val- 
 encia. But he entered on his episcopal duties in the spirit 
 of his order, came on foot with a single attendant, and 
 clad in his monk's habit. He immediately began a visita- 
 tion of his diocese and the reform of abuses. This, as 
 usual, provoked opposition and enmity from the corrupt 
 element of the clergy; but he went on his way. He re- 
 served of his revenues only what was needed for his liv- 
 ing, and gave the rest in charity and religious works. All 
 the while he was active and frequent in preaching, and 
 gave to his public ministry the effectual backing of a life 
 of purity and piety. The feebleness of his health pre- 
 vented his attendance upon the Council of Trent. When 
 about to die he gave to the poor what few personal effects 
 he had, and left orders that the bed on which he died 
 should be given to some destitute prisoner. 
 
 The published collection of his sermons, done into 
 Latin, contains about a hundred discourses on various 
 subjects dear to Catholics, more especially those on the 
 Church seasons. Some are on the Song of Solomon, a 
 number in praise of the Virgin, and a good many on the 
 saints, all the way from John the Baptist to Augustine 
 and Ildefonso. One of the best of them is a sermon on 
 the Last Judgment, which discusses the subject in a 
 Scriptural way, as well as with good reasoning, and con- 
 tains some passages of real power. The introduction runs 
 thus : " Being now about to speak of the solemnity and 
 the manner of the final judgment, I beseech thee, benign 
 Spirit, from on high to faU upon our minds and gra-
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 551 
 
 ciously infuse the hearts of thy people, that we may have 
 the sentiments worthy of so great a mystery, and that 
 what we may worthily feel we may pour forth in full 
 speech. Put the right and the well-sounding word into 
 my mouth, and let it sound forth from my mouth as from 
 a trumpet to the people of God thy own speech so 
 that both the ears of those who hear may tingle, and they 
 be converted to thee, O Lord, lest thy wrath on that day 
 may swallow them up alive." 
 
 Then follows the customary invocation to the Virgin 
 for her intercession, and afterwards the statement of the 
 divisions, which are : (i) The reasons, and (2) the char- 
 acter of the judgment, with appropriate and clear sub- 
 division. In a fine passage too long to quote entire he 
 treats of those Scriptures which say that judgment shall 
 be in the hands of Christ, and thus proceeds : " I will not 
 refuse him for a judge whom I have had as a redeemer; 
 the lamb, I say, slain for me, him I request as my judge, 
 him I desire, him I long for with all my strength. I 
 will not accuse him of cruelty, for he is a lamb ; I will not 
 hold his friendship under suspicion, for he is my brother 
 and my flesh ; nor will I fear for his rectitude, for he is 
 God himself. I will not refuse to appear at the tribunal 
 of him who did not disdain to stand for me at the tribunal 
 of a wicked judge. Whatever he has decreed for me I 
 will willingly receive. Therefore, O most mighty Father, 
 give the King thy judgment ! Let him be my judge, who 
 for me was judged." Though he comforts thus, the 
 preacher does not fail to warn against false confidence, 
 saying : " But although I would say these things, let no 
 one, my brethren, let no one deceive himself, let no 
 one sleep, let no one become hardened in sin, in hope of 
 forgiveness ; for cursed is he who sins in hope." 
 
 In truth, Villanova was a preacher of decided merits. 
 The published sermons, while they do not justify extrava- 
 gant praise, do exhibit the essential qualities of good 
 preaching they show a warm and pious heart, a good 
 head for reasoning, good knowledge of the Scriptures, 
 usually a clear analysis, an elevated and at the same time 
 intelligible and impressive style. A Protestant cannot sub- 
 scribe to his doctrine, and will find other things to demur 
 to in many expressions and turns of thought, but no one
 
 552 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 who reads his sermons can fail to feel their devout spirit 
 and their oratorical power. And thus with him, as an un- 
 usually fit example, we may close our survey of the Cath- 
 olic preaching and preachers of the sixteenth century. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 PREACHING AT THE THRESHOLD OF THE MODERN WORLD 
 
 Our studies have conducted us to the threshold of the 
 modern world. The sixteenth century is the beginning 
 of modernity, as the fifteenth was the end of mediaeval- 
 ism. Renaissance and Reformation mark the death of 
 one, the birth of the other. Mental and spiritual culture 
 are the strong forces in human development, and these 
 received powerful impulse in the ages named. In preach- 
 ing, as our studies have shown us, no less than in other 
 important departments of this mental and spiritual cul- 
 ture, the forces which wrought great changes came to a 
 head in this time, more especially in the early part of the 
 sixteenth century. So this is a good place to pause in 
 considering the history of preaching and look backwards 
 and forwards. A summary of the progress made may 
 clear our vision of the past from the maze of detail into 
 which we have necessarily been plunged, and prepare us 
 better to take also a general forward look into the three 
 centuries after the sixteenth a more detailed study of 
 which is deferred to the future. 
 
 i. RETROSPECT 
 
 As we look back over the long and varied way by 
 which we have traveled and try to sketch in salient out- 
 line the main features of the scenes through which we 
 have just passed, what do we see? 
 
 Preaching is distinctively a Christian institution, and 
 yet is founded on certain fundamental things in human 
 character and history. As one of the most widely em- 
 ployed and useful forms of public speech it has held for 
 all the Christian ages an assured place among the institu- 
 tions of human society. Thus, on rational principles, it 
 establishes a claim for fair and thorough scientific study
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 553 
 
 and treatment. Thus, too, on the historical side, it has 
 availed itself in its forms and technical principles of all 
 the developments in the art of oratory, and has con- 
 tributed no mean share of example and instruction to 
 that department of literature. But it is, of course, as a 
 vital element of the Christian religion that preaching 
 finds its highest historic value and interest. It derives 
 its warrant from the divine Founder himself. Its his- 
 toric origins are traceable to the prophets and scribes 
 of the Old Testament, and to the teaching and example 
 of Jesus and his Apostles. Its burden and message are 
 the good news of salvation by Christ. From its origin 
 preaching has a two-fold character proclamation and 
 teaching. It proclaims the gospel of Christ to men with 
 a view to their acceptance of him as their Saviour and 
 Lord ; and it teaches to those who have so accepted him 
 the lofty morality and the inspiring hopes and consolations 
 which that gospel includes. It brings to men's minds 
 the truth of God, to their wills his law, to their hearts his 
 love. In the very beginning, and ever as time goes on, 
 these two elements of proclamation and instruction are 
 variously combined in the Christian sermon, which as a 
 part of the congregational worship is occupied with the 
 explanation and enforcement of the mind and will of God 
 as revealed in Holy Scripture. From this origin the his- 
 tory of preaching proceeds through the centuries. 
 
 The accounts and remains of preaching in the times im- 
 mediately following the Apostles are very meagre, but 
 we know that there was preaching of both the evangelistic 
 and didactic sort. As those who could bear oral witness 
 to the main facts of the gospel history passed away, and 
 the authoritative teachers appointed directly by the Mas- 
 ter himself died off, the exposition of the written Word 
 became more and more the essence of preaching as a part 
 of Christian worship. With the spread of the gospel and 
 the rapid acquisition of converts, both by personal exer- 
 tions and more public discourses, the assemblies for wor- 
 ship and hearing became larger and more varied in char- 
 acter; and thus the combination of proclamation and 
 teaching becomes the fixed character of Christian preach- 
 ing, the two elements being varied according to circum- 
 stances. Naturally, in the assemblies the expository ele-
 
 554 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 ment predominates, and we have for centuries, and, in 
 fact, nevermore wholly abandoned, the homily, or ex- 
 planatory and hortatory talk, as the prevailing type of 
 sermon. All subsequent modifications grew from this 
 germ. The persecutions, which checked large public as- 
 semblies of Christians, naturally had the effect of empha- 
 sizing this kind of preaching. But somewhat by the 
 Apologists, and more effectively by Origen, and with the 
 intention to put honor upon the sacred Word, the alle- 
 gorical method of interpreting Scripture was employed 
 in the homilies, and vitiated preaching for ages to come. 
 With the cessation of the imperial persecutions and the 
 protection of Christianity as the religion of the empire 
 under Constantine, a new era for preaching, as for all 
 Christian interests, begins. All the lines of development 
 receive freer opportunity for extension, and there is espe- 
 cial emphasis upon the oratorical element because of two 
 things : one is the change in the character of the congre- 
 gations to large public assemblies ; the other is the better 
 opportunity offered to preachers for being trained in the 
 culture of the age, a culture chiefly rhetorical. The 
 preacher may now add to his duty of expounding God's 
 Word in Christian assemblies the larger office of being a 
 censor of public morals and the orator before a multi- 
 tude. These functions inherent in the ancient prophecy 
 have never been lost to the pulpit, though sometimes 
 neglected and sometimes abused. This line of develop- 
 ment reached its acme in Chrysostom, in the fourth cen- 
 tury, whose unrivalled homilies were also often eloquent 
 orations and noble pleas for truth and good morals. The 
 theological and philosophical element of preaching, be- 
 gun long before in the Apologists, found among the 
 Greeks an able exponent in Gregory of Nyssa, and among 
 the Latins in the incomparable Augustine, whose various 
 and numerous writings contain many homilies full of 
 thought and spiritual power. Toward the close of the 
 patristic period, after the times of these great men, 
 preaching suffered decay. This was partly natural re- 
 action, but was terribly assisted by the tottering and fall 
 of the Western empire, and the serious and incurable en- 
 feeblement of the Eastern. 
 The upheaval of Europe and the overthrow of the old
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 555 
 
 Roman civilization under the Teutonic barbarians in the 
 early part of the Dark Ages were serious hindrances, 
 along with inner decline, to the continuance of preaching, 
 much more to its further development. But, in a way, it 
 persisted through all the chaos and confusion of the 
 times ; and there were preachers who held it to the previ- 
 ous forms without adding anything of value to them. 
 Monasticism encouraged the mild contemplative life, and 
 here and there a Bede gathered his pupils about him and, 
 after the manner of Origen, gently expounded to them 
 the Word of God. Here and there devoted missionaries 
 like Patrick, Gall, Boniface, went among the heathen or 
 half-heathen, and preached and taught them the gospel 
 as they received it. Here and there a prelate like Eligius 
 of Noyon added to episcopal duties the preaching of the 
 Word, and encouraged by example and teaching the 
 preservation of this vital part of Christian work. Charle- 
 magne, enlightened ruler and far-seeing statesman, was 
 distressed at the decay of preaching and passed rules for 
 improving both its frequency and its quality. But these 
 reforms from the outside had no great effect, and with 
 the failure of Charlemagne's empire after his death, the 
 temporary improvements in the clergy and preaching like- 
 wise fell away. The darkness thickens till once more a 
 new period dawns. 
 
 In the eleventh century two powerful influences upon 
 the history of preaching come into play. One was the 
 rise of the scholastic theology, with Lanfranc and Anselm, 
 and the other, near the end of the century, was the procla- 
 mation of the first crusade by Pope Urban II. and Peter 
 the Hermit. The first came from within and gave to 
 preaching for three or four centuries its characteristic 
 method on the technical side, that is, minute analy- 
 sis, subtle speculative reasoning on the basis of ac- 
 cepted and authoritative church doctrines. Permanent 
 influence was exerted on preaching in the way of ar- 
 rangement and form, a method which went to ex- 
 tremes, but has left abiding traces for good in insist- 
 ing on clear structure and logical reasoning in 
 sermons. The other influence came from without, in 
 the call of the crusades, but was no less effective 
 in a different way. Urban's stirring addresses to the
 
 556 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 assembled nobles at Clermont, and Peter's vehement ap- 
 peals to the multitudes, revealed once more the power 
 of human speech to rouse men to action, and gave a 
 much-needed impulse to popular preaching. This, too, 
 produced important results, and left permanent influence 
 both for good and ill. Later the mystical impulse from 
 the monastic and contemplative side brought its less im- 
 pressive and less extensive influence to these, and added, 
 in the general preaching of the age, that spiritual and 
 thoughtful tone which was needed to complete, if not 
 counteract, the other two. All these elements of preach- 
 ing were represented in Bernard, the greatest preacher 
 of the twelfth century. Early in the thirteenth century 
 the two missionary preaching orders of St. Dominic and 
 St. Francis were started, and gave a powerful emphasis 
 to popular preaching. Members of these orders went all 
 over Europe, and even into foreign lands, preaching with 
 an enthusiasm and effect unknown for ages, and were 
 heard by gathered thousands of people. Nor did these 
 orders neglect the scholastic and mystical trends of 
 thought, as Aquinas, the Dominican, and Bonaventura, 
 the Franciscan, show. Mediaeval preaching reaches in 
 the thirteenth century its highest point of excellence and 
 power, but it is still marred by the allegorical interpreta- 
 tion and by the doctrinal perversions and superstitions of 
 the past ages, by the over-employment of saints' legends 
 and other unscriptural material, and by other faults. 
 Decline is already apparent toward the close of the cen- 
 tury, and of the three trends of thought the mystical 
 flourishes longest, finding its best expression in the four- 
 teenth century in the work of that saintly man and admir- 
 able preacher, John Tauler. But with him this age closes. 
 Action and reaction, revival and decline, this is history. 
 The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were evil indeed 
 for preaching. Every force scholastic, popular, mystic 
 that had contributed to the great forward movement 
 of the preceding age fell into degeneracy, extremes, 
 abuses. Pedantry and subtlety without power, popular 
 appeals that sunk to the burlesque, pale and feeble 
 ghosts of former giants, occupied the scene. And along 
 with this mental decline there was a moral laxity in the 
 clergy that is appalling. How could preaching survive
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 557 
 
 this famine and ever flourish again? All was not hope- 
 less. The gathering forces of reform, feeble and few at 
 first, came to be a mighty army, and early in the sixteenth 
 century effected the greatest religious revolution of his- 
 tory, and gave to preaching a significance and power in 
 the world such as it had had in the fourth and in the 
 thirteenth centuries, and in many important respects far 
 better and greater than in those two culminations. The 
 very year that John Tauler died, a young man in England 
 is ordained a priest. John Wiclif begins his work. The 
 preaching of the Bible is the main thing in his work, 
 personally and by others. He comes to see that many 
 things taught by the dominant church for truth have no 
 warrant in Scripture, and his eyes do not mislead him as 
 to the fearful moral corruption in the clergy. He has the 
 courage of his convictions, and powerfully speaks his 
 mind. The seeds of his planting will blossom into flower 
 and fruit at a later day. Meantime, over in the heart of 
 Europe, John Huss of Bohemia gets hold of Wiclif's 
 teachings and they get hold of him, and through him of 
 others. Constance and the stake are his reward; but 
 truth cannot be burnt. Other voices here and there are 
 heard, until after the middle of the century at Florence a 
 Dominican monk makes Italy and Europe listen while, in 
 flaming eloquence, he tells of the corruption and speedy 
 punishment of the church. Savonarola goes the way of 
 Huss, but he, too, is not forgotten. Scarcely twenty 
 years after his martyrdom a young Augustinian monk 
 and professor at Wittenberg, in Saxon Germany, startles 
 the world by a bold attack upon papal indulgences and 
 other abuses. One step leads to another. A chord of 
 slumbering sympathy is touched by a skilful and mighty 
 hand, and it is vibrating still. How quickly they come to 
 the fore, those mighty men and preachers Luther, 
 Zwingli, Calvin, Latimer, Knox, and their fellow-work- 
 ers and followers. And preaching that seemed dead is 
 now among the livest forces in the world. Protestantism 
 is born, and a new era for religion and preaching is begun. 
 Age-long faults and abuses in substance and method are 
 corrected. Preaching resumes its rightful place in Chris- 
 tian worship, it eschews the scholastic extremes while re- 
 taining the benefits of the scholastic method ; it effects for
 
 558 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 itself a wonderful deliverance from the abuses of a false 
 and overstrained mode of Scripture interpretation ; it de- 
 sires to bring home to the people of every grade the -Word 
 of God as being, in its rightly understood teachings, the 
 sole and sufficient guide in religious concerns ; and, above 
 all, against all perversions and additions it proclaims 
 anew, and with a power and clearness not heard of since 
 the Apostles themselves, the simple gospel of salvation by 
 grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. With this 
 restored method and message preaching stands at the 
 threshold of the modern world. 
 
 2. PROSPECT 
 
 The three and a half centuries from about the middle 
 of the sixteenth to the end of the nineteenth constitute the 
 modern period in the history of preaching. As we know, 
 it has been a rich and powerful epoch in the general his- 
 tory of mankind. Preaching has been no small force in 
 the world during this time, and, as we have just seen, it 
 stood at the beginning of the period revived and newly 
 equipped for the important services which it was to ren- 
 der in this last and greatest epoch in human history. Tak- 
 ing our stand back at the beginning of this modern 
 period, we may look forward to the task of preaching in 
 that coming age, and consider both its developing equip- 
 ment for its task, and the problems with which it will 
 have to deal. 
 
 It will not surprise us to find that, like every other sin- 
 gle force in the progress of civilization, preaching will 
 sympathize with the sum of others at each successive 
 stage in its development ; that is, it will at every epoch be 
 in touch with the times. But it will unite to the influence 
 of environment the momentum of its past, the estab- 
 lished principles of its working methods. In fact, this 
 union of tradition and adaptation assures its readiness 
 for work in every age. Nor should the reflection escape 
 us that a wise balance in these forces is the best equip- 
 ment. Excess of deference to tradition makes the pulpit 
 stiff, dull, ineffective; excess of deference to environ- 
 ment makes it opportunist, superficial, without lasting 
 fruit. With these general remarks, let us more particu-
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 55Q 
 
 larly notice some of the elements of power which Chris- 
 tian preaching will employ in the age which lies before it 
 at the close of the reformatory period. 
 
 The two great principles established, or newly em- 
 phasized, by the Reformation are the most weighty com- 
 ponents of the pulpit's new equipment for service in the 
 modern age ; the sole authority of Scripture as a revela- 
 tion from God, and justification by faith in Christ alone 
 as Saviour from sin. The great body of modern preach- 
 ing with due discount for exceptions of all sorts will 
 be thoroughly pervaded by these two dominant thoughts. 
 Where they are accepted and honored preaching will be 
 strong and fruitful, where they are discredited preaching, 
 however brilliant as oratory, will be meagre of perma- 
 nent spiritual results. Preaching emerges from the Re- 
 formation armed with this double-edged sword, and by 
 this sign it will conquer. 
 
 A remarkable feature of modern preaching will be its 
 variety. As a result of the revolt from Rome, and the 
 assertion of the right of private judgment in the interpre- 
 tation and application of Scripture, there will follow a 
 great variety of churches and preachers. There will now 
 no longer be one only church opposed here and there by 
 more or less feeble sects or audacious leaders ; there will 
 now no longer be one authoritatively declared body of 
 doctrine to which all must subscribe, whether they be- 
 lieve it or not, on pain of anathema and the stake. But 
 there will be many bodies of Christians calling them- 
 selves churches, and many standards or confessions of 
 faith professing to be derived from the sole authority of 
 the Word of God. The different Protestant bodies in 
 their sum will constitute a formidable denial to Rome's 
 arrogated supremacy, and in their diversities a remark- 
 able contrast to its apparent unity. These " variations of 
 Protestantism " will be one of the stock Catholic argu- 
 ments against it, but the freedom and variety thus ex- 
 pressed and maintained will prove of more value to true 
 religious life and progress than unreal, because enforced, 
 uniformity and tame monotony could be. In the pulpit 
 this manifold variety is to show itself in methods, aims 
 and effects, as well as in the persons and offices of the 
 preachers. The celibate and the monk will no longer
 
 560 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 appear the highest type. The man among men the pious 
 husband and father, the exemplary citizen, the respected 
 member of society, as well as the teacher of divine truth 
 and moral guide of the community will henceforth be 
 the best kind of preacher. His personality will become 
 relatively more important, and his character will count 
 for more than in former times. This new age is going 
 to be one of infinite variety and many changes, and will 
 need a flexible and widely varied ministry to meet its 
 wants. 
 
 The sketches we have had of the leading reformers 
 show us that for the most part they were men of great 
 force of character and intellect. They took hold of the 
 work and the problems of their time with a vigor that 
 commands respect. Their labors, their success, their ex- 
 ample, their principles, require strong men to follow them. 
 Though there will naturally be some falling off in the 
 immediate successors of the reformers, the ministry of 
 the gospel in modern times will on the whole be distin- 
 guished for vigor of mind, strength of character, and 
 general ability to deal intelligently and firmly with the 
 problems of the modern pulpit. 
 
 The requirements of the new age, and the brilliant ex- 
 ample of the leading preachers, alike will work to erect 
 a high standard of ministerial character and culture. 
 One of the principal objects of the reformer's attack was 
 the corrupt, lazy and ignorant clergy. And this very 
 thing forced the reformers to raise and maintain a higher 
 standard of clerical conduct and ability. Both morals and 
 culture were to be elevated, and they were elevated. The 
 general standard of spiritual and intellectual culture in the 
 ministry was more improved by the Reformation than by 
 all the capitularies of Charlemagne or canons of reforming 
 councils. This does not say that many bad and ignorant 
 men will not be found, alas ! among the preachers of all 
 sects, but it does mean that in this modern period upon 
 the whole the standard of ministerial character and cul- 
 ture will be higher than ever before. 
 
 The combination of things which have been spoken of 
 will tend to increase the hold of the ministry upon the 
 people. It is inevitable that the people shall begin to 
 take more interest in preaching when the preachers are
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 561 
 
 men whose character and learning compel respect, and 
 when their message comes more clearly as the voice of 
 God through his authorized spokesman, who deals 
 directly with his Word and unfolds its meaning. The 
 attendance upon preaching will increase again, and its 
 effect in guiding men to the higher things of religion and 
 morality will be more decided and marked. It is then 
 with such an outfit as has been suggested rather than 
 described, that the pulpit of the modern world faces the 
 problems that are to rise before it. What are they ? 
 
 Along with all other human interests preaching will 
 suffer from the storms of war. Tried and tested in that 
 stern school it will have power to meet other difficulties. 
 Civil war in France, thirty years of desolation in Ger- 
 many, civil war and revolution in England, the eighteenth 
 century wars in Europe, revolution in America and 
 France, the Napoleonic struggle, and all the nineteenth 
 century wars all these to live through ! How the pulpit 
 will adjust itself to these strifes, and preach the gospel 
 of peace amid the rude alarms of war is one of its heavy 
 problems ; but it will find a way. Sometimes the preacher 
 will be with the armies in the field, in camp and hospital 
 holding up the Prince of Peace above the noise and chaos 
 of strife; sometimes at home amid the anxious and be- 
 reaved he will be giving the consolations of grace and 
 keeping men's eyes on the heavenly rest while the earth 
 is racked with contention. 
 
 Naturally the exigencies of the Reformation quickened 
 the spirit of debate and polemic as to the doctrines of 
 Christianity. Henceforth the pulpit will be largely con- 
 cerned with this feature of the religious life. Nor will 
 it be a pleasing or edifying part of pulpit work, though 
 often an unavoidable one. Much ability, some remains 
 of scholastic sophistry, and too often a rancorous and 
 unchristian spirit will mark the sermons of this kind. 
 Alas ! one of the hardest lessons for the Christian pulpit 
 to learn will be that of " speaking the truth in love." 
 
 One of the side results of the Reformation was the 
 liberty of thought which it encouraged in religious affairs. 
 The reformers, however, were not quick to accept the 
 logical consequences of their principles. Many of them, 
 perhaps most, were intolerant of differences from them-
 
 562 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 selves, and Protestant persecutions are an illogical dis- 
 grace upon the cause. But the liberty which their prin- 
 ciples demanded inevitably had its perils within the 
 churches it will lead to rationalism outside it will en- 
 courage infidelity. Or rather let us say that among some 
 professing Christians freedom of speculation and crit- 
 icism will go too far, even to virtual denial of the super- 
 natural origin and exclusive authority of Scripture ; and 
 that unbelieving opposition to the Christian revelation 
 will too often pervert liberty into license, and assume a 
 tone of arrogant and often insolent confidence unjustifi- 
 able alike by fact or sentiment. All this, preaching will 
 have to meet, and in the nineteenth century the skepti- 
 cism mentioned will call to its aid the grand achieve- 
 ments in scientific investigation and boldly assail the fun- 
 damental verities of Christianity, in the name of the 
 highest thinking and most assured knowledge of mankind. 
 Truly for such a conflict the pulpit will need the best out- 
 fit possible and all its best strength of development. Here 
 was lurking a giant whom the reforming fathers could 
 not foresee, but none the less in asserting the principles 
 they did, and holding up the standard they did for the 
 ministry, they were making the best possible preparation 
 for the coming conflict. The preaching, however, of 
 these coming ages is going to show upon the whole an 
 ability to grasp and handle the problem of rationalism 
 and infidelity that its opponents and critics may not will- 
 ingly admit, but which history will own. 
 
 The growth and wonderful developments in the litera- 
 tures of the modern Christian nations will present a prob- 
 lem of adjustment and mutual service or hindrance to 
 the pulpit. In some respects there will be rivalry, in 
 others stimulus and wholesome interaction. Where doc- 
 trine and morals are concerned there will sometimes be 
 sharp conflict, but on the whole preaching and literature 
 will be most friendly. The pulpit will not be overshad- 
 owed and displaced, but it will be closely rivalled and 
 often fatigued and discredited by other means of public 
 instruction. Secularism in press and school will by their 
 very rivalry demand the continuance and strengthening 
 of the pulpit. Its relative range will be narrowed, but in 
 that very fact its energies concentrated, and concentrated
 
 THE TRANSITIONAL, OR REFORMATORY, AGE 563 
 
 not in vain, upon its own proper duties. The world has 
 never yet heard such preaching as it will hear in the nine- 
 teenth century. For, notwithstanding the newspaper and 
 the book, the pulpit will still remain in modern times the 
 chief instructor of men in morals and religious truth. 
 
 Progress of thought and freedom will, in these three 
 modern centuries, bring with them increasing recognition 
 of the common man in civil and social life. The Christian 
 pulpit from our Lord's own days till now has ever been 
 one of the foremost champions of the rights of the in- 
 dividual man, whether high or low. Of course there 
 have been exceptions, and many here and there among 
 the preachers have been found untrue to this high ideal, 
 but upon the whole the history of preaching shows the 
 general truth to be as stated ; and as the pulpit of the Re- 
 formation faces its future it looks to a coming glorious 
 record in its advocacy of human rights, its rebuke of op- 
 pressive wrong, its encouragement of social ameliorations. 
 
 Early in the seventeenth century Protestant America 
 will be born a feeble infant truly, yet bravely grasping 
 its mighty future with two weak baby hands at James- 
 town and Plymouth Rock. Here in the dependent col- 
 onial days American preaching will mostly follow in form 
 and method the traditions of the old world; but under 
 the strong impetus of the Great Awakening it will begin 
 to strike out its own way and be getting ready for its 
 mighty work in the nineteenth century. Here the firm 
 establishment of the voluntary principle in the choice and 
 maintenance of pastors, combined with complete religious 
 liberty, will give to preaching such opportunities as it 
 never had before to develop adaptability, variety and 
 strength. And right nobly it will take its work. 
 
 Better than in the Middle Ages with Francis and 
 Dominic, better than at the Reformation with the re- 
 formers absorbed in pressing matters at hand, the modern 
 Christianity will take hold of the problem of world-wide 
 evangelization and the pulpit will not be found wanting. 
 Pious Francke at Halle will preach missions as well as 
 charity, obscure but devoted Carey at Northampton will 
 tell his hesitating brethren to attempt great things for 
 God and expect great things from God, a few theological 
 students will hold a prayer-meeting at a haystack in
 
 564 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 Massachusetts, and the great foreign missionary move- 
 ment of modern times will be on. Preachers at home 
 will emphasize the Master's " marching orders," and 
 preachers abroad in all lands of the earth will revive the 
 primitive methods of preaching Christ, not on other men's 
 foundations but among the heathen who never heard the 
 gospel of God's grace. Thus, true to its double mission of 
 proclamation and instruction, the modern preaching will 
 delight to recall the Founder's words : " Ye shall be 
 witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, 
 and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the 
 earth ; " nor will it faint before its sublime task as out- 
 lined by its greatest representative among the Apostles: 
 " And he gave some apostles, and some prophets, and 
 some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the 
 work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of 
 Christ, till we all come in the unity of , the faith and of 
 the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, 
 unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ."
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 The author does not attempt the impossible task of giving an 
 exhaustive survey of the vast literature which more or less 
 directly bears on the great subject treated in this volume; nor 
 even to mention all the books which have come in various ways 
 under his notice, or have contributed to his knowledge. Only 
 those, and not all of them, which have been actually used or 
 found specially helpful in the preparation of the work are given. 
 Many works of general and church history which have been con- 
 sulted are necessarily omitted. The enumeration under II. is 
 more nearly complete than under the other heads. It is hoped 
 the classification and enumeration of the following works may 
 be found of some service to any who may wish to pursue the 
 subject further. 
 
 I. WORKS OF A GENERAL NATURE 
 
 1. HISTORY, (a) General. Histories of the various countries 
 involved. Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire; 
 Puruy's History of the Middle Ages ; Bryce's Holy Roman Em- 
 pire; Weber's Weltgeschichte ; Lecky's History of European 
 Morals ; Seignobos, Histoire de la Civilisation ; Langlois and 
 Seignobos, Introduction to the Study of History (translation). 
 
 (b) Ecclesiastical. Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History; Schaff, 
 History of the Christian Church ; Hase, Kirchengeschichte ; 
 Fisher, History of the Christian Church; Kurtz, Church His- 
 tory; Newman, Manual of Church History; others of similar 
 character. Of special works a few, such as a number of his- 
 tories of the Reformation, and more particularly: Baird, Rise of 
 the Huguenots; Cutts, Parish Priests and their People in the 
 Middle Ages in England; Beckett, History of the English Ref- 
 ormation; Montalembert, Monks of the West; Stoughton, Span- 
 ish Reformers; and other similar works. 
 
 (c) Literary and Philosophical. Cruttwell, Literary History of 
 Christianity; Tiraboschi, Storia della Letteratura Italiana; 
 Scherer, Geschichte der Deutschen Litteratur; Histoire Lit- 
 teraire de la France (Daunou, Haureau and others) ; several 
 histories of English literature. Ueberweg, History of Philos- 
 ophy; Weber, History of Philosophy; Vaughan, Hours with the 
 Mystics; Preger, Geschichte der Deutschen Mystik im Mittel- 
 alter. Sears, History of Oratory. 
 
 2. CYCLOPEDIAS, (a) General. The Britannica ; the American ; 
 Ersch und Gruber, Allgemeine Encyclopadie ; Cyclopedia Italiana ; 
 and others. 
 
 (b) Biographical. Dictionary of National Biography; Allge- 
 meine Deutsche Biographic; Biographic Universelle ; and several 
 others. 
 
 (c) Ecclesiastical. Herzog-Plitt-Hauck, Real Encyclopadie fur 
 Protestantische Theologie und Kirche; Wetzer und Welte, Kirch- 
 enlexikon.
 
 566 A HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 3. COLLECTIONS. Acta Sanctorum; Migne, Patrologia Graeca 
 and Patrologia Latina ; the Oxford Library of the Fathers ; Dods' 
 (T. and T. Clark) edition of the writings of the Fathers ; Works 
 of Chrysostom, Augustine and others in the original in some 
 editions ; the Christian Literature Series, i.e., the Apostolic Fa- 
 thers, the Ante-Nicene Fathers, and the Nicene and Post-Nicene 
 Fathers. Texte und Untersuchungen, Harnack und Gebhardt. 
 Guillon, Bibliotheque des Peres. Brieger und Bess, Zeitschrift 
 der Kirchengeschichte. On the Swiss Reformation the excellent 
 Leben und Ausgewahlte Schriften der Vater und Grunder der 
 Reformirten Kirche. Old English Homilies of the Twelfth Cen- 
 tury, Publications of the Early English Text Society, edited by 
 Robert Morris, LL.D. The Book of Homilies. Collections of 
 Sermons of the different preachers in their works. Fish, Mas- 
 terpieces of Pulpit Eloquence ; Volume III. of G. P. Putnam's 
 Sons' The World's Great Orators. 
 
 II. HISTORY OF PREACHING 
 
 1. GENERAL. Works which in a way deal with the whole sub- 
 ject: Broadus, Lectures on the History of Preaching; Ker, Lec- 
 tures on the History of Preaching; Pattison, The History of 
 Christian Preaching; Fleming James, The Message and the Mes- 
 sengers; R. Rothe, Geschichte der Predigt. Brief biographical 
 notices with specimens of preaching : Lentz, Christliche Homi- 
 letik; Fish, Masterpieces of Pulpit Eloquence. Sketches of the 
 history: Christlieb, Geschichte der Predigt (article in Herzog, 
 Bd. 18, supplement, much the most complete treatment yet writ- 
 ten) ; Hering, Geschichte der Predigt (part of a larger work, Die 
 Lehre von der Predigt) ; the historical sketch in Harnack's Ge- 
 schichte und Theorie der Predigt ; sketch in Van Oosterzee's Prac- 
 tical Theology ; also in Hoppin's Homiletics ; several others of 
 similar nature. Character sketches : Bromel, Homiletische Cha- 
 rakterbilder ; Nebe, Zur Geschichte der Predigt. 
 
 2. EPOCHAL. Paniel, Pragmatische Geschichte der Christjichen 
 Beredsamkeit (designed as a complete history, but as it only 
 comes down to Augustine it is placed here; one of the notable 
 books on the subject) ; Villemain, Tableau de 1'Eloquence Chre- 
 tienne au Quatrieme Siecle; Moule, Christian Oratory during 
 the First Five Centuries ; Neale, Mediaeval Preaching ; Ammon, 
 Geschichte der Homiletik; Albert, Geschichte der Predigt in 
 Deutschland bis Luther; Cruel, Geschichte der Deutschen Pre- 
 digt im Mittelalter; Linsenmayer, Geschichte der Predigt in 
 Deutschland von Karl dem Grossen bis zum Anfang des isten 
 Jahrhunderts ; Beste, Die Bedeutendste Kanzelredner der Luther- 
 ischen Kirche der Reformationszeitalters ; C. G. Schmidt, Ge- 
 schichte der Predigt in der Eyangelischen Kirche Deutschlands 
 V9p Luther bis Spener ; Bourgain, La Chaire Franchise au Xllme 
 Siecle; Lecoy de la Marche, La Chaire Franchise au Moyen Age 
 Specialement au Xlllme Siecle; Renoux, Les Predicateurs 
 Celebres de 1'Allemagne; Boucher, L'Eloquence de la Chaire, ou 
 1'Histoire Litteraire dela Predication; Meray, Les Libres Predi- 
 cateurs devanciers de Luther et de Rabelais ; Marenco, L'Oratoria
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 567 
 
 Sacra Italiana nel Medio Evo ; Zanotto, Storia della Predicazione 
 nei Secoli della Letteratura Italiana; F. Borromeo, De Sacris 
 Nostrorum Temporum Oratoribus ; Blaikie, The Preachers of 
 Scotland from the Sixth to the Nineteenth Century ; W. M. Tay- 
 lor, The Scottish Pulpit. 
 
 III. LIVES AND WORKS OF PREACHERS 
 
 Much about individual preachers and their preaching has been 
 gathered from the works previously named, and so, to avoid 
 repetition, only additional works are here mentioned. 
 
 1. PATRISTIC. Works of the Fathers in various editions, both 
 the originals and translations. Life and Times of Chrysostom, 
 by W. R. W. Stephens. Sketches of some of the more notable 
 preachers by Bishop Carpenter, in the Clergyman's Magazine, and 
 afterwards gathered into a volume. Sketches of Patrick and 
 other missionaries in Walrond's Christian Missions before the 
 Reformation. 
 
 2. MEDIEVAL. Neander, Der Heilige Bernhard und sein Zeit- 
 alter; Storrs, St. Bernard; Herkless, Francis and Dominic; 
 Lacordaire, Vie de Saint Dominique ; Sabatier, Life of St. Fran- 
 cis of Assisi (translation) ; Opera SS. Francisci et Antonii (old 
 edition of De la Haye) ; Fioretti di San Francesco; Locatelli 
 (editor), A New Life of St. Anthony of Padua (translation), 
 also a new edition of the Sermones Dominicales of Antony of 
 Padua, issuing at Padua ; Vaughan, Life of St. Thomas Aquinas ; 
 Drioux, Opera S. Thomae; Ashley, Homilies of St. Thomas 
 Aquinas ; Card. Fanna, Ratio Novae Collectionis Operum S. 
 Bonaventurae ; Gobel, Die Missionspredigten des Franziskaners 
 Berthold von Regensburg; Stromberger, Berthold von Regens- 
 burg; Life of Wycliffe, by J. L. Wilson, and other sources; Select 
 English Writings of John Wyclif, edited by Thos. Arnold, Ox- 
 ford, 1869 (the best) ; Madden, Life and Martyrdom of Savona- 
 rola ; Villari, Life and Times of Savonarola ; Mrs. Oliphant, 
 Makers of Florence; Baccini, Prediche di F. Girolamo Savona- 
 rola. 
 
 3. REFORMATORY. Kostlin, Life of Luther (the original in two 
 large volumes, the translation in abridged form), Luther's Werke, 
 Hauspostillen, Table Talk (Bohn ed.), Luther and Calvin (ser- 
 mons) ; Stahelin, Huldreich Zwingli, sein Leben und Wirken; 
 Zwingli's Werke (Schuler und Schultess) ; Jackson, Huld- 
 reich Zwingli ; Bullinger's Decades ; Cheneviere, Farel, Froment 
 et Viret; Calvin, Works (some in Latin and French, and some 
 in English in various editions), Preface to Comm. on Psalms 
 (Latin, a brief account of his life) ; Beza, Vie de Calvin; Bung- 
 ener, Jean Calvin, sa Vie son CEuvre et ses Ecrits ; Benrath, 
 Bernadino Ochino von Siena (translation also) ; Sermons and 
 Remains of Bishop Latimer, Parker Society's edition by Corrie; 
 Works of Archbishop Cranmer ; Sermons of John Bradford ; 
 Life and Writings of Ridley, Religious Tract Society; Works of 
 Bishop Hooper ; Works of Bishop Jewel ; Knox, History of the 
 Reformation in Scotland, and sermon (the only one) in Fish's 
 Masterpieces; McCrie, Life of Knox; Brown, Life of Knox.
 
 INDEX 
 
 Abbey of St. Victor, 216. 
 
 Abelard, 207 f. 
 
 Achelis, 56 n. 
 
 J\fric, 169 f. 
 
 Ailred, 203. 
 
 Albert, F. R., 148 n., 151 n., 169, 
 
 180 n., 185 n., 188, 190, 201 n., 
 
 256 n. 
 Albert of Brandenburg, 426 f., 
 
 462, 537- 
 Albert the Great, 237!, 270, 
 
 273- 
 
 Aleth, Mother of Bernard, 208. 
 
 Alfred the Great, 128. 
 
 Allegorical Preaching, 51, 103, 
 114, 118, 137, 143, 157, 172, 
 190, 212, 230, 244, 265, 527, 
 
 531- 
 
 Allen, A. V. G., 24 n. 
 Amalric of Bena, 270, 328. 
 Ambrose, 8, 65 n., 94, (Sketch) 
 
 98 ., 112. 
 Ammon, Gesch. der Homiletik, 
 
 317 n., 318, 319 n., 324 n., 
 
 326 n., 334 n., 345 n. 
 Amsdorf, Nicholas von, 399. 
 Anabaptists, 406 f., 424, 427, 
 
 444, 466 ff. 
 
 Anabaptist Preaching, 468. 
 Ancient Homily, 37, 42, 44 f. 
 Andrew of Crete, 139. 
 Anselm, 10, (Sketch) 171 f., 
 
 177- 
 
 Ansgar, 167. 
 Ante-Nicene Theologians, 42 f., 
 
 47 f- 
 Anthusa, Mother of Chrysos- 
 
 tom, 78, 86 f . 
 Antony of Padua, 188, 229, 250, 
 
 (Sketch) 252 ff. 
 Apologists, 33, 42 f., 45 f. 
 Apostles, Preaching of, 23 ff. 
 Apostolic Fathers, 42 f. 
 
 Arcadius, Emperor, 62, 89. 
 Aristotle, 16, 17. 
 Armitage, Thos., 22 n. 
 Arnold, Thos., Ed. of Wiclif's 
 
 Works, 339 n. 
 Arnold of Brescia, 198. 
 Assonance, 189, 201. 
 Asterius, 74 f. 
 Athanasius, 72. 
 Aubert, 148. 
 Audiences, 39, 68, 192, 228 f., 
 
 307 f. 
 Augustine, 8, 10, 65 n., 93 f., 
 
 (Sketch) 100 ff., (DeCivitate 
 
 Dei) 105, 112, 187. 
 Austria - Hungary, Reform 
 
 Preachers in, 460 f . 
 Aquila, Caspar, 396. 
 Aquinas, Thos., 10, (Sketch) 
 
 238 ff., 270, 273. 
 
 Backer, John of, 464. 
 
 Baird, H. M., 450. 
 
 Barbarian Invasions, Effect on 
 
 Preaching, 112. 
 Barletta, Gabriel, 302, 303, 313, 
 
 (Sketch) 323! 
 Basil, the Great, 65 n., 77, 
 
 (Sketch) 78 ff., 112. 
 Basil of Seleucia, 117. 
 Baum, W., Life of Capita, 
 
 425 n. 
 
 Beaton, Cardinal, 511, 513. 
 Beckett, W. H., 474, 477 n., 
 
 485 n., 495 n., 502 n. 
 Bede, 131, 138, 147, 187. 
 Behmen, 267. 
 
 Bembo, Cardinal, 295, 457, 542. 
 Benrath, Life of Ochino, 455 n., 
 
 458. 
 Bernard of Clairvaux, 8, 112, 
 
 183, 188, (Sketch) 208 ff. 
 Bernardino of Busti, 322.
 
 INDEX 
 
 Bernardino of Siena, 317 f. 
 
 Bernher, A. (Latimer's Secre- 
 tary), 493. 
 
 Berthold of Regensburg, 135 n., 
 229, (Sketch) 256 ff. 
 
 Beste, Wm., Kanzelredner, 384, 
 
 399- 
 Beza, Theodore, 433 n., 440 and 
 
 note, 442, 445 n., 448, 450 f., 
 
 459- 
 
 Biel, Gabriel, 321. 
 Bilney, Thos., 488. 
 Blaurock, Anabaptist Preacher, 
 
 468. 
 Bloody Mary, Influence on 
 
 Preaching, 476. 
 Bohemian Reformers, 344 ff ., 
 
 460. 
 
 Boissier, G., 17 n. 
 Bona ventura, 270, (Sketch) 
 
 273 ff. 
 Boniface (Winfred), Apostle 
 
 of Germany, 8, 137, (Sketch) 
 
 15.1 ff- 
 
 Boniyard, 438. 
 
 Borgia (Alexander VI), 353. 
 Borromeo, St. Charles, 527, 
 
 (Sketch) 543 ff. 
 Boucher, the Abbe, 3, 525 f., 
 
 535 n., 546. 
 Bourgain, the Abbe, i8on., 181, 
 
 189, 204, 207, 211, 215, 226. 
 Bradford, John, (Sketch) 
 
 498 ff. 
 
 Brandt, Gerard, 464. 
 Brentz, John, 377, 396 f., 417. 
 Brethren of the Common Life, 
 
 206, 299, 329, 330, 332, 334. 
 Brigonnet, Wm., 430 f., 433. 
 Briessmann, John, 462. 
 Broadus, John A., 5n, i6n. 
 
 19, 22 n., 24 n., 49, 51 n., 58 
 
 64, 73, 75, 80, 86 n., icon. 
 
 188, 206 n., 21 r, 241, 283 n. 
 
 309 n., 367, 370, 374 n., 381 n. 
 
 449 n., 471, 494, 502 n. 
 Bromel, ioon., 102, 373. 
 Bucer. See Butzer. 
 Buchanan, George, 513. 
 Bugenhagen, John, 392 ff., 465. 
 Bullinger, Henry, 371, 373, 
 
 (Decades') 3 7 7 f., 382, 
 
 (Sketch) 41 iff., 424, 459, 
 477, 497- 
 
 Bungener, F., 433 n., 440 n. 
 
 Bunsen, C. J., 56 n. 
 
 Burlesque Preaching. See Sen- 
 sational Preaching. 
 
 Butzer, Martin, 373, 374, 424, 
 427, (Sketch) 428 f., 409. 
 
 Csedmpn, 131. 
 
 Csesarius of Aries, 126, 187. 
 
 Csesarius of Heisterbach, 260. 
 
 Callistus, 57. 
 
 Calvin, John, 8, 10, 369, 370, 
 373, 376, 377, 381, (on But- 
 zer) 429, (to Roussel) 431, 
 435, (with Farel) 436, 439 f., 
 (Sketch) 440 ff., 520. 
 
 Canisius, Peter, 527, 530, 539 ff. 
 
 Canon of Scripture, 40 f., 66. 
 
 Capistrano, John, 317, 349. 
 
 Capito, Wolfgang, 373, 416, 
 (Sketch) 425 ff- 428, 444, 
 469. 
 
 Cappadpcia, 76 f. 
 
 Capuchins, 527. 
 
 Caraffa, 527. 
 
 Carlstadt, 467. 
 
 Carlyle, Thps., 389. 
 
 Carnesecchi, Pietro, 455 f. 
 
 Carpenter, Bishop W. Boyd, 84, 
 
 93- 
 
 Carranza of Toledo, 453. 
 
 Cassian, 93. 
 
 Cauvin, Gerard, Father of Cal- 
 vin, 440, 441 f., 443. 
 
 Cazalla, A., 453. 
 
 Charlemagne, 129, (Capitula- 
 ria) 134, ISS- 
 
 Chelchitsky, 460. 
 
 Cheneviere, C, 433 n., 439. 
 
 Christlieb, 3, 5 n., 6, 48, 49, 129, 
 237, 261, 367, 463, 465 n., 
 526 n., 534. 
 
 Christopher of Alexandria, 
 
 159 ff- 
 
 Chrodegang, 134. 
 Chrysostom, 8, 65 n., (Sketch) 
 
 86 ff., 97, 116, 117, 128. 
 Church Buildings, 67 f. 
 Cicero, 17, 112. 
 Cipriano of Valera, 454 f.
 
 INDEX 
 
 571 
 
 Classification of Preachers 
 Parochial, Cloistral and Mis- 
 sionary, 134 f., 166, 196 ; 
 Scholastic, Popular and Mys- 
 tic, 230! 
 
 Clement of Alexandria, 36, 49. 
 
 Clement of Rome, 44. 
 
 Clergy, Corruption of, 164, 
 224 ff., 297 f., 311. 
 
 Colet, John, 295, (Sketch) 
 342 f., 475. 
 
 Collections of Sermons. See 
 Homiliaries. 
 
 Columban. 1.37, (Sketch) 148 f. 
 
 Conrad of Brundelsheim, 261. 
 
 Conrad the Priest, 188, 201 f. 
 
 Conrad of Waldhausen, 344. 
 
 Constantine, Emperor, His 
 Toleration of Christianity, 63. 
 
 Contents or Materials of Early 
 Preaching, 39 ff. 
 
 Controversy, Influence on 
 Preaching, ill, 132, 367, 
 
 374 *, 533 ff- 
 
 Cop, Nicholas, 443. 
 
 Corvinus, A., 399. 
 
 Council of Trent, on Preach- 
 ing, 525, 528, 532, 544. 
 
 Coverdale, Miles, 373, (Sketch) 
 486 f. 
 
 Cranmer, Thos., 373, 374, 378, 
 429, 456, (Sketch) 482 f., 494, 
 
 495- 
 Cruel, R., 138 n., 148 n., 153 n., 
 
 i68n., i8on., 185 n., 189 n., 
 
 199 n., 201, 256 n., 307, 309 n., 
 
 319 n., 344 n. 
 Crusades, Effect on Preaching, 
 
 177 f., 221. 
 Cruttwell's Literary History of 
 
 Christianity, 55 n., 56 n. 
 Cutts, E. L., 136 n., 138 n., 
 
 202 n., 203. 
 
 Cyprian (Sketch), 58 f. 
 Cyril of Alexandria, 112, 116, 
 
 (Sketch) 117. 
 Cyril of Jerusalem, 73 f. 
 
 Darnley, 519. 
 Datheen, Peter, 463. 
 David of Augsburg, 256, 260, 
 281. 
 
 Davidson, Prof. Thos., 1711. 
 
 Delivery of Sermons, 307. 
 
 Demosthenes, 16, 112. 
 
 Denmark, Reformation Preach- 
 ers in, 465. 
 
 Devay, Matthias, 461.- 
 
 Development (Early) of 
 Preaching, 35 ff. 
 
 Diaz, J.uan, 454. 
 
 Didache, 37. 
 
 Dietrich, Veit, 377, 398 f. 
 
 Diodorus of Antioch, Teacher, 
 87, 115, 119. 
 
 Dionysius of Corinth, 46. 
 
 Dominic, 229, (Sketch) 245 ff. 
 
 Dominicans, 229. 
 
 Duishuis, Guibert, 463. 
 
 Durand, 265. 
 
 Eck, John, 468, 528, 536. 
 
 Eckhart, 10, 267, (Sketch) 
 276 ff., 331- 
 
 Education of the Ministry, 
 Earlier Centuries, 67 ; Re- 
 formation, 373 f. 
 
 Edward VI. and Reform 
 Preaching, 476. 
 
 Edwards, Jonathan, 8, 10. 
 
 Egidio, Juan Gil, 452. 
 
 Egidio of Viterbo, 541 f. 
 
 Eligius of Noyon, 137, 138, 
 (Sketch) 145 f. 
 
 Elinand, 234 f. 
 
 Eliot, Geo. (Romola), 350 n. 
 
 Elizabeth, Queen, Relation to 
 Preaching, 477. 
 
 Emerson, 267. 
 
 Ephraem Syrus } 75 f. 
 
 Erasmus, Desiderius, 296, 300 f., 
 307, 330, 363 f-, 403, 4i6, 426, 
 454, (in England) 475; 
 Paraphrase, 478 f., 527. 
 
 Eudoxia, Empress, 90. 
 
 Eusebius, 37, 42 n., 46, 50, 51, 
 56, (Sketch) 71 f. 
 
 Eusebius of Emesa, 72. 
 
 Eutropius, 89. 
 
 Expository Preaching, 70, 112, 
 113, (of Luther, Calvin and 
 other reformers) 380 ff., 449, 
 466, (English) 481, 530.
 
 572 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Faber Stapulensis, 295, 363. See 
 
 also Le Fevre. 
 Fairs, Preaching at, 221. 
 Farel, Wm., 418, 424, (Sketch) 
 
 433 ff., 445, 446, 466. 
 Featley, Daniel, 508. 
 Ferus. See Wild. 
 Fichte, 267. 
 Fish, H. C., Masterpieces of 
 
 Pulpit Eloquence, 5, 59 n., 
 
 8211., 86n. } 338, 381, 492 n., 
 
 506 n., 521. 
 
 Foulques of Neuilly, 215 f. 
 Fox, Geo., 267. 
 Francis of Assisi, 199, 229, 
 
 (Sketch) 247 ff. 
 Franciscans, 229. 
 Frith, John, 479. 
 Froment, Antoine, 433, 436, 
 
 (Sketch) 437 f. 
 Fulbert of Chartres, 169. 
 Fulgentius of Ruspe, 126. 
 Fuller, Thos., 265. 
 
 Gall (Saint), 137, 138, 150 f. 
 Gaudentius of Brescia, 70, 
 
 (Sketch) 97f. 
 Geiler, John, of Kaisersberg, 
 
 313, (Sketch) 325 ff., 422, 425. 
 Genazzano, 542. 
 George of Nicomedia, 161. 
 George of Pisidia, 139. 
 George of Polentz, 462. 
 Germanus, 141. 
 Gerson,Jean Charlier, (Sketch) 
 
 333 f- 
 
 Gibbon, 91, 99, H7n. 
 Gilpin, Bernard, 503 f. 
 Gobel, A., 256 n. 
 Golden Legend, 261 f., 303. 
 Goodman, Christopher, 523. 
 Goodspeed, E. J., 74 n. 
 Grebel, Anabaptist Preacher, 
 
 468. 
 Gregory I., 8, 108, 113, 127 ff., 
 
 187. 
 
 Gregory of Isauria, 158 f. 
 Gregory Nazianzen, 65 n., 77, 
 
 (Sketch) 8 1 ff., 89, 128. 
 Gregory of Nyssa, 10, 65 n., 77, 
 
 (Sketch) 84 ff. 
 Gregory, Thaumaturgus, 54 f. 
 
 Greek Language in the Roman 
 
 Church, 55. 
 Grindal, Edmund, 478, (Sketch) 
 
 SOS- 
 
 Gritsch, John, 319 ff. 
 Groot, Gerhard, 296, (Sketch) 
 
 329 f. 
 
 Crete's History of Greece, 16 n. 
 Grynaeus, Simon, 416, 422, 444, 
 
 461. 
 Guelf and Ghibelline, 179. 
 
 Haller, Berthold, (Sketch) 
 
 422 ff., 432. 
 
 Hamilton, Patrick, 510. 
 Harlow, Wm., 522. 
 Harnack, Th. (quoted), 114. 
 Hastings' Bible Dictionary, 2411. 
 Hatch, Edwin, 17 n. 
 Hauck, Prof. A., 332 n. 
 Haymo of Halberstadt, 168 f. 
 Hemmerlin, Felix, 400, 404. 
 Henry VIII., Influence on 
 
 Preaching, 476, (and Lati- 
 
 mer) 490 f. 
 
 Henry of Frimar, 265. 
 Henry of Lausanne, 218. 
 Hering, Gesch. der Pred., 
 
 317 "-, 334 n-, 3.8i n. 
 Hilary of Poitiers (Sketch), 
 
 94- 
 
 Hildebert of Tours, 207. 
 Hildebrand (Gregory VII.), 
 
 156, 177- 
 Hippolytus, 35 f., (Sketch) 
 
 56 f. 
 Historic Origins of Preaching, 
 
 13 ff. 
 
 Hoffmann, Melchior, 467. 
 Holy Scriptures (Appeal in 
 
 Reform Preaching), 315 f. 
 Homiletics, 188, 304 f., (Helps) 
 
 309, 380 ff. 
 
 Homiliaries, 187, 199 ff., 304 f. 
 Homilies, 41, 137, 172, 199, 466. 
 Homilies (English), Books of, 
 
 479 ff., 505. 
 
 Homilies on the Statues, 87 ff. 
 Honor i us, Emperor, 62. 
 Honorius Scholasticus, 199 f. 
 Hooper, John, 373, 382!, 
 
 (Sketch) 496 ff.
 
 INDEX 
 
 573 
 
 Hoppin, J. M., 6, 21 n. 
 Hort, F. J. A., 24 n. 
 Hiibmaier, Balthasar, (Sketch) 
 
 468 ff. 
 Hugo of St. Victor, 216 f., 
 
 269 f ., 273. 
 Huss, John, 291, (Sketch) 
 
 345 ff- 
 
 Hutten, Ulrich von, 364. 
 Hypatia, 114, 118. 
 
 Ignatius, 43. 
 
 Ildefonso of Toledo, 136, 144! 
 
 Innocent III., 179, 224, 231, 235. 
 
 Investiture Controversy, 179. 
 
 Irenaeus, 36, (Sketch) 56. 
 
 Isidore of Seville, 136. 
 
 Ivo of Chartres, 207. 
 
 Jackson, S. M. (on Zwingli), 
 
 400 n. 
 
 Jacob of Voragine, 261. 
 Jacques de Vitry, 235 f . 
 James, Fleming, 7, 20 n., no. 
 Jebb's Attic Orators, i6n. 
 Jerome of Dungersheim, 305. 
 Jerome of Prague, 348. 
 Jerusalem, Influence of Its Fall 
 
 on Preaching, 29, 34. 
 Jesus, as a Preacher, 22 f. 
 Jewel, John, 373, 383, 478, 
 
 (Sketch) 506 ff. 
 Joachim of Floris, 198 f. 
 John the Baptist, 21 f. 
 John of Damascus, 133, 
 
 (Sketch) 141 ff. 
 John of Sterngassen, 280. 
 John of Vicenza, 261. 
 Jonas, Justus, 388, 395 f. 
 Jordan of Pisa, 264. 
 Jordan of Quedlinburg, 265. 
 Joris, David, 467. 
 Juan, de Avila, 451, (Sketch) 
 
 546. 
 Jud, Leo, 370 f., 373, (Sketch) 
 
 409 ff., 416. 
 
 Julian the Apostate, 61. 
 Justinian, 106, 107. 
 Justin Martyr, 10, 37, 46 f. 
 
 Kempis, Thomas a, 296, 329, 
 (Sketch) 332. 
 
 Ker, John, 7, 20 n., 59 n., 283 n. 
 
 Kingsley's Hypatia, 11411., 
 11711. 
 
 Klostermann, 52. 
 
 Knox, John, 8, 369, 373, (in 
 England) 502, (Sketch) 
 512 ff., (Compared with 
 Other Reformers) 513 and 
 520. 
 
 Kostlin, Julius, Life of Luther, 
 384 n. 
 
 Kratander, 417. 
 
 Lambert, Frangois, 423, 
 
 (Sketch) 432 f., 510. 
 Lanfranc, 171, 177. 
 Langlois and Seignobos, 4. 
 Langston, Stephen, 233. 
 Lasco, John a, 374, 461 f., 472. 
 Latimer, Hugh, 371, 373, 378, 
 
 382, (Sketch) 487 ff. 
 Latin Language in Sermons, 
 
 131, 138, 151, 164 ff., 184 ff., 
 
 197, 306 f., 530 f. 
 Law of Reaction, 109. 
 Lawson, James, 524. 
 Leander of Seville, 136. 
 Lecoy de la Marche, 165 n., 
 
 :8on., 184, 185, 193 n., 204, 
 
 215, 226, 228, 233, 235 f., 323. 
 Le Fevre, Jacques, 430, 431, 
 
 433, 527. 
 Lentz, 5, Sin., 96 n., 11711., 
 
 iign., 157 n. 
 Leo I., 8, 108, 113, (Sketch) 
 
 123 f. 
 
 Leonardo of Utino, 318 f. 
 Leroux, Abbe, 534, 536. 
 Lever, Thos., 477, 503. 
 Libanius, Teacher of Rhetoric, 
 
 78, 86, 115. 
 Lightfoot, J. B., 24 n. 
 Lindsay, T. M., 24 n., 37 n. 
 Linsenmayer, A., 180 n., 185 n., 
 
 189 n., 199 n., 201 n., 256 n., 
 
 285 n. 
 Literature of the History of 
 
 Preaching, 5 ff. 
 Liturgy, Effect on Preaching, 
 
 109 f, 531. 
 
 Longfellow, H. W., 303. 
 Lollards, 341, 369, 474 f.
 
 574 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Lords of the Congregation, 
 
 516,517- 
 
 Lorenzo dei Medici, 295, 352. 
 Luiz of Granada, 527, (Sketch) 
 
 547 ff- 
 Luther, Martin, 8, 335, 364, 369, 
 
 370, 372 f., 374, 375, 376, 377, 
 
 380 f., (Sketch) 384 ff., 394, 
 
 405, 407 f., 462, 520. 
 
 Macarius, 73. 
 
 " Maccaroni Sermons," 323, 
 
 325-. 
 McCrie, Thos., Life of Knox, 
 
 510 n., 511, 51311., 516, 520, 
 
 521, 522, 523. 
 McGlothlin, W. J., 468 n. 
 " Mad Men of Miinster," 467. 
 Maillard, Oliver, 302, 313, 
 
 (Sketch) 324! 
 Major, George, 399. 
 Mantz, Anabaptist Preacher, 
 
 468. 
 Marenco, L., 180 n., 185 n., 197, 
 
 302, 304, 317 n. 
 Margaret of Navarre, 443. 
 Martel, Charles, 130, 152. 
 Martyn, Henry, 91 n. 
 Mary Stuart, 517 ff. 
 Materials for Writing History 
 
 of Preaching, 4. 
 Mathesius, John, 377, 399, 460. 
 Matthias of Janow, 345. 
 Maurice of Sully, 214 f . 
 Maximus of Turin, 123. 
 Maybaum, Rabbi, 21 n. 
 Melanchthon, Philip, 364, 391 f., 
 
 417, 422. 
 Melito, 46. 
 
 Menno Simons, 471 f. 
 Menot, Michel, 302, 325. 
 Meray, A., 302, 304, 325 n. 
 Migne, Patrologia Grceca,S 2n -> 
 
 139 n., 158 n., 159 n., 161. 
 Migne, Patrologia Latino, 94 n., 
 
 95 n -> 97 n -> 9811., ioon., 124, 
 
 126 n., 127 n., 134 n., 145 n., 
 
 14711., 148, 149, 151, 170 n., 
 
 19711., 199 n., 20311., 20511., 
 
 207 n., 208 n., 211, 234 n. 
 Milicz, John, 344. 
 Milton, gi. 
 
 Mirandola, Count of, 352. 
 
 Modet, Herman, 463. 
 
 Monasticism, Influence on 
 Preaching, 135 f., 163 f., 225. 
 
 Monica, Mother of Augustine, 
 78, loo f. 
 
 Montalembert, 136. 
 
 Moody, D. L., 229. 
 
 Morgenstern, George, 321. 
 
 Morris, Old English Homilies, 
 136 n., 180 n., 185, 193, 202 f. 
 
 Morton, Earl of (Eulogy on 
 Knox), 520. 
 
 Miinzer, Thos., 467. 
 
 Murray, Earl of, 519. 
 
 Musso, Cprnelio, 542 f. 
 
 Myconius, Oswald, 373, 
 (Sketch) 419 ff. 
 
 Mysticism, 73, 266 ff., (Women) 
 269, (in Schools and Clois- 
 ters) 269, (Preaching and 
 Preachers) 270 ff. 
 
 Nas, John, 534 f., 536. 
 
 Neale, J. M., 147 n., i68n., 
 170 n., 172 n. 
 
 Neander, i8on., 208 n. 
 
 Nebe, 51 n., 73, 256 n., 370, 372, 
 384 n. 
 
 Need of a History of Preach- 
 ing, 7 f- 
 
 Nestorius, 116, 118. 
 
 Netherlands, Reform Preach- 
 ers in, 463 ff. 
 
 Newman, Cardinal, 473. 
 
 Newman, A. H., 45 n. 
 
 Nicholas of Clemanges, 305. 
 
 Nicholas of Landau, 264. 
 
 Nicholas of Lyra, 265. 
 
 Nicholas Oresmus, 343. 
 
 Nicholas of Strasburg, 281 f. 
 
 Nonna, Mother of Gregory 
 Nazianzen, 78. 
 
 Norbert, Founder of Premon- 
 strants, 213 f. 
 
 Ochino, Bernardino, 455 n., 
 
 (Sketch) 457 ff- 
 CEcolampadius, John, 373, 411, 
 
 (Sketch) 416 ff., 424, 434, 
 
 469. 
 Oliphant, Mrs., 350 n.
 
 INDEX 
 
 575 
 
 Olivetan, Robert, 435, 442. 
 Oratorical Development of 
 Preaching in Fourth Cen- 
 tury, 62 ff. 
 Oratory, 14 ff. 
 
 " Ancient, 15. 
 " Greek, 16 f. 
 " Latin, 17. 
 Origen, 10, 35 f-, 37, 4, 
 
 (Sketch) 49 ff. 
 
 Osiander, A., 370, 398, 399, 462. 
 Outline of the History, 25 ff. 
 
 Pacianus, of Barcelona, 96 f . 
 
 Palladius, Peter, 465. 
 
 Paniel, 5 n., 6, 36 n., 51 n., 74, 
 85, 94 n., 95, 96 n., 97 n., 
 loo n., 115. 
 
 Panigarola, Francesco, 545 f. 
 
 Parati Sermones, 309. 
 
 Parker, Matthew, 373, 477, 487, 
 504 f- 
 
 Pascal, 211. 
 
 Patriarchs, 108. 
 
 Patrick (Saint), 121 f. 
 
 Pattison, T. H.,-7, 22 n., 283 n. 
 
 Paul, the Apostle, 8. 
 
 Pelbart, 321. 
 
 Pellican, 373. 
 
 Peregrinus, 260. 
 
 Perez, Juan, 454. 
 
 Periods of the History, 28. 
 
 Persecutions, 29, 32, 34 f., 62 f. 
 
 Pestalozzi, C, Life of Jud, 409, 
 422 n. 
 
 Peter of Blois, 204. 
 
 Peter of Bruys, 218. 
 
 Peter Comestor, 214. 
 
 Peter Damiani, 170 f., 177. 
 
 Peter the Hermit, 183, (Sketch) 
 206. 
 
 Peter Lombard, 197, 214. 
 
 Peter of Ravenna, 123. 
 
 Petri, Olaf and Laurent, 465 f. 
 
 Photius, 161 f. 
 
 Plagiarism, 187, 308 f. 
 
 Poland, Refugees and Reform- 
 ers in, 461 f. 
 
 Pole, Cardinal, 456, 477. 
 
 Polycarp, 43. 
 
 Ponce de la Fuente, 452 f. 
 
 Postil, Postulating, 305 f., 466. 
 
 Prayer-Book (English), Rela- 
 tion to Preaching, 479. 
 Preger, Geschichtc der Mystik, 
 
 266 n., 280. 
 Preaching and Art, 9. 
 
 Education, n. 
 History, 8 ff. 
 Literature, n. 
 Modern Life, 
 
 558 ff. 
 Morals, 9. 
 Philosophy, 9 f. 
 Science, 10. 
 Spread of Chris- 
 tianity, 12; Worship, 69. 
 Presbyters, Preaching Re- 
 stricted to, 69. 
 Preservation of Early Sermons. 
 
 42, 70, 1 86. 
 Proclus, 116. 
 Prophecy, 18 ff. 
 
 Protestantism, Effect on Chris- 
 tianity, 365. 
 
 Quadratus, 46. 
 Quintilian, 17. 
 
 Rabanus Maurus, 167 f. 
 
 Rabelais, 363. 
 
 Raoul (Radulphus) the Ardent. 
 183, 189, (Sketch) 206 f. 
 
 Reformation and Preaching, 
 358 ff., (Effect on Catholic 
 Church) 366, (Particular Re- 
 lation to Preaching) 366 ff., 
 (in Italy) 455 f-, (in Eng- 
 land) 473 ff., (in Scotland) 
 509 ff., (Influence on Catho- 
 lic Preaching) 525 ff. 
 
 Reformers, (Their Use of 
 Other Means) 369, (Their 
 Diligence in Preaching) 
 370 f., (Their Use and Esti- 
 mation of Preaching) 372 ff., 
 (Their Abilities and Train- 
 ing) 374, (Their Use of the 
 Word of God) 376 ff., (Their 
 Homiletical Methods) 380 ff. 
 
 Reform Preaching, 310, 312, 
 314 f., 336 ff. 
 
 Regulars and Seculars, 164, 
 224 f.
 
 576 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Renaissance, 294 f., 362, 527. 
 
 Retrospect and Summary, 552 ff. 
 
 Reublin, Anabaptist Preacher, 
 468, 469. 
 
 Reuchlin, John, 364. 
 
 Revival of Learning, 294 ff., 
 362. 
 
 Revival of Preaching in Mid- 
 dle Ages, 181 ff. 
 
 Rhetoric, Study of, and Influ- 
 ence on Preaching, 65 f. 
 
 Richard of St. Victor, 217 f., 
 269 f., 273. 
 
 Ridley, Nicholas, 373, 478, 485, 
 (Sketch) 494 ff. 
 
 Robert Grosseteste of Lincoln, 
 234- 
 
 Robert of Lecce, 303, 323. 
 
 Robert of Sorbon, 237. 
 
 Rogers, John, 484 ff. 
 
 Rokytsana, 460. 
 
 Roman Emperors, Relation to 
 Preaching, 31 ff. 
 
 Rothe, R., 6, 36 n., 42 n., 56 n., 
 116, H7n., 119, 120, 123, 133, 
 139. 157 n., 162, 203 n., 204, 
 302 f., 317 n., 319 n., 333 n., 
 344 n., 534- 
 
 Rothmann, Bernard, 467. 
 
 Rough, John, 503, 512, 514. 
 
 Roussel, Gerard, 431. 
 
 Ruiz, Gregorio, 453. 
 
 Ruysbroek, John, 331 f. 
 
 Sabatier, A., 198 n., 247 n., 250 n. 
 
 Sandys, Edwin, 478, 506. 
 
 Saunier, 435, 466. 
 
 Savonarola, G., 8, (Sketch) 
 350 ff., (Compared with Oth- 
 er Reformers) 354, 358. 
 
 Schaff, Philip, Church History, 
 56, 01, 66, 75 n., ii7n., 118, 
 iign., 128, 143 n., 155 "-. 
 156 n., 161 n. 
 
 Scherer, E., 21 n. 
 
 Schism, Between East and 
 West, 155. 
 
 Schoell, C, 121 n., 170 n. 
 
 Scholasticism, 231 ff., (Decline 
 of) 263 f. 
 
 Schott, E., 198 n., 199. 
 
 Schrenck, E. von, 22 n. 
 
 Sears' History of Oratory, 16 n. 
 Sensational Preaching in the 
 
 Middle Ages, 244, 302 ff. 
 Sermones Dormi Secure, 309. 
 Servetus, 447. 
 
 Sickingen, Francis of, 417. 
 Sigismund, Emperor, 291, 347 f. 
 Simons. See Menno. 
 Smith, Geo. Adam, 20 n. 
 Social Classes, 131, 133 f., 164, 
 
 221 f., 361. 
 Sophronius, 139. 
 Spangenberg, John, 399. 
 Spencer, Herbert, 14. 
 Speratus (Spretter), Paul, 
 
 462 f. 
 Stahelin, R., Life of Zwingli, 
 
 400 n. 
 
 Stalker, Jas., 20 n., 22 n. 
 Staupitz, 335, 385, 527. 
 Steinberger, Hans, 460. 
 Stephen of Bourbon, 260. 
 Stephens, W. R. W., 86 n. 
 Storrs, R. S., 208 n. 
 Stromberger, C. W., 256 n. 
 Surgant, Ulrich, 305, 307. 
 Suso, Henry, 279 ff. 
 Sweden, Reform Preachers in, 
 
 465 f- 
 
 Synagogue, 20 f. 
 Synesius, H4f. 
 
 Tanchelm, 218. 
 
 Tauler, John, 267, (Sketch) 
 
 283 ff., 331, 425- 
 Tausen, Hans, 465. 
 Tertullian, 46, (Sketch) 58. 
 Tetzel, 364, 386. 
 Theatines, 527. 
 
 Theodore of Mopsuestia, 115. 
 Theodore Studies, 143 f. 
 Theodoret, 112, (Sketch) 119. 
 Theodosius the Great, 61 f., 83, 
 
 87, 99, 106. 
 Theophanes, 162. 
 Theophilus of Alexandria, 89, 
 
 90, 115. 
 
 Theophilus of Antioch, 46. 
 Theophylact, 162. 
 Times for Preaching, Earlier 
 
 Centuries, 68, 192; Middle 
 
 Ages, 307.
 
 INDEX 
 
 577 
 
 Tindale, Wm., 478 n., 479, 
 (Sketch) 483 f. 
 
 Tiraboschi, 455 n., 457, 541, 543, 
 546. 
 
 Translations (English) of the 
 Bible, Influence on Preach- 
 ing, 478. 
 
 Truber, Primus, 460. 
 
 Tunstall, Bishop, 483, 504. 
 
 Ulfilas, 76. 
 
 Ullmann, Reformers before Re- 
 formation, 296, 312, 331 n. 
 Universities, 222 f. 
 Urban II., 177, 178, 205. 
 
 Valdez, Alfonso, 453. 
 Valdez, Juan, 453 f., 456. 
 Valentinus, the Gnostic, 49. 
 Valer, Rodrigo, 451 f. 
 Valerio, 528. 
 
 Van Oosterzee, 3, 6, 463. 
 Vaughan, Hours with the Mys- 
 tics, 73 n., 211, 217 n., 266 ff. 
 Veghe, John, 334. 
 Verger io, 455, 461. 
 Vermigli, Peter Martyr, 374, 
 
 455 n., (Sketch) 456 f., 458!, 
 
 494, 504, 506. 
 Vernacular, Use of, 131, 138, 
 
 151, 165 ff., 184 ff., 197, 306 f. 
 Villanova, Thos., (Sketch) 
 
 549 ff. 
 Villari, Life of Savonarola, 
 
 350 n. 
 
 Vincent Ferrar (Saint), 322. 
 Viret, Pierre, 433,434, (Sketch) 
 
 438 ff. 
 
 Virgin Mary, Worship and 
 Preaching, 132, 133, 139, 140, 
 143, 157, iQi. 
 
 Waldenses, 435, 466. 
 
 Waldo, Peter, 218. 
 
 Walrond, F. F., 121 n., 122, 
 
 151 n. 
 
 Walter of Winterbourne, 265. 
 Werdena, John, 309. 
 Werner of Ellerbach, 201. 
 Wesel, John Richsrath, 349!, 
 
 425. 
 
 Wesley, John, 8. 
 Wessel, John, 296, 330. 
 Whitefield, George, 8, 229. 
 Wiclif, John, 8, 310, (Sketch) 
 
 336 ff., 473, 474. 
 Wild, John, 529, 530, 536 ff. 
 William of Auvergne, 260. 
 William of Macclesfield, 265. 
 Willibrord, 137, 152. 
 Willock, John, 522 f. 
 Wishart, George, 511. 
 Wolsey, Cardinal, 475, 490. 
 Wyttenbach, Thos., 401, 416, 
 
 425- 
 
 Ximenes, Cardinal, 292, 451. 
 
 Zanotto, F., 197, 317 n., 525, 
 
 541 n., 546. 
 
 Zell, Matthew, 425, 427, 428. 
 Zeno of Verona, 96. 
 Zwickau Prophets, 467. 
 Zwingli, Ulrich, 369, 370, 373. 
 
 376, 382, (Sketch) 400 ff., 
 
 469, 470, 520.
 
 THE PREPARATION AND 
 DELIVERY OF SERMONS 
 
 JOHN A. BROADUS, D.D.,LL.D. 
 
 28lh EVITIOSf 
 
 ENTIRELY REVISED FROM THE AUTHOR'S OWN NOTES BY 
 PROF. E. C. DARGAN, D.D. 
 
 Author of "A History of Preaching"; Professor of Homiletics at the Southern 
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