V.

Mediæval and Post-Mediaval

W

Preachers.

ITH the preaching and the preachers of the Middle Ages most readers have but a very slight acquaintance; and many, indeed, fancy that the pulpit and its powers were the birth of the Reformation, but this is far from true; no doubt, the stories of the pulpit of those darker times are most inaccessible ; they are in other languages, and buried in the libraries of colleges and monasteries, or they are scattered through the hugh masses and incidental references of miscellaneous church literature; but could they be rescued from their obscurity they would tell a very wonderful tale of the power of speech in those rude times. The accomplished and lainented Dr. Neale has done this work in a slight, interesting, and popular book,* and with this may be mentioned another even more interesting work, dealing with less known names,† by a scholar whose taste leads him into the

* Mediæral Preachers and Mediaval Preaching. A Series of Extracts, translated from the Sermons of the Middle Ages, with Notes and an Introduction. By Rev. J. M. Neale, M.A., Warden of Sackville College.

† Post-Mediæval Preachers: Some Account of the Most Celebrated (138)

Pulpit Light in Dark Ages.

139

study of all strange folk-lore-and truly these anecdotes of preachers belong to a kind and branch of folk-lore-Mr. Baring-Gould. Anecdotes of the pulpit, of the monastery, and the Catholic Church are found strewn along the pages of those immense and insane piles of manifold reading and learning, The Mores Catholici, and the Compitum of Mr. Kenelm Digby, but there is no well-wrought history of those times; and he who would write it must spend his days and nights for a long time among dusty piles of church antiquities, and be a very Bollandist in industry and patience.

As these lectures are not a course upon Church History, so neither are they intended to be a complete review of the history of pulpit eloquence; in leaving, therefore, the earlier ages for the medieval, I do not feel called upon to trace the distinct links of instruction which held together the doctrines and teachings of those times; specially when barbarian hordes were ploughing up all the ancient landmarks of civilization in Europe. In many lonely cloistered places the truth of form and the truth of feeling survived. The sermons of the venerable Bede are known to us; they are short and popular. We must also, in any measure of prejudice we may feel against the follies and falsehoods and tyrannous cruelties of the Papacy, be wise to distinguish between the men and the ages. Dr. Neander's invaluable Memorials of the Christian Life and his Light shining in Dark Places will show you that in rude times the "fire the Redeemer came to kindle on the earth, among the human race, never ceased to burn, either with a clearer or a duller flame; that rude stock of humanity communicated its rudeness to the chosen to be trained by it, and in virtue of human freedom, it could be trained in no other way. "Christianity was propagated in a few intelligible doctrines which verified themPreachers of the 15th, 16th, and 17th Centuries; with Outlines of their Sermons and Specimens of their Style. By S. Baring-Gould, M.A.

selves as the power of God in the souls of men; for the true dignity of man does not consist in the harmonious cultivation of all the moral and spiritual tendencies of his nature, but in the Divine received into the interior of the soul.” *

There was darkness enough; we do know they were dark ages; I especially allude to the period from the sixth to the twelfth centuries; but I suppose that the pulpit had its place in those times, and from the twelfth the light began to stream with a steady clearness, and even to blaze.

That attention was given to the art of reading in public and preaching, even in the earliest times, is evident from the book De Institutione Clericorum, by Rabanus Maurus, afterwards Archbishop of Mentz; this work was written in 819, but Dr. Maitland, in his work on the Dark Ages, in quoting it, shows that for much of it Maurus was indebted to Isidor of Seville, who wrote more than two hundred years before; but volumes might easily be filled with extracts illustrating the faith and the mental and the spiritual power of those, and the subsequent times, evidenced in the words and the works of the pulpit, referring more generally to the method of the pulpit of those times; from all that I know of it, I am sorry to agree with Dr. Neale when he affirms that there was an immense and intuitive knowledge of Scripture possessed by those preachers, setting them, in these particulars, far above the preachers of our own or of any times since the Reformation; there was a perfect affluence of Scripture reference in them very instructive ; as Mr. Gould has said, "they did not make long extracts, but with one light sweep brushed up a whole bright string of sparkling Scripture instances," and he gives the following extract, we know not from whom it is taken :

(C MANY ARE CALLED, BUT FEW ARE CHOSEN." "Noah preached to the old world for a hundred years the 415.

* Neander's Memorials of the Christian Life, &c., p.

The Many Called,—Few Chosen.

141

coming in of the flood, and how many were saved when the world was destroyed? Eight souls, and among them was the reprobate Ham. Many were called, but only eight were chosen.

"When God would rain fire and brimstone on the cities of the plain, were ten saved? No! only four, and of these four one looked back. Many were called, but three were chosen.

"Six hundred thousand men, besides women and children, went through the Red Sea, the like figure whereunto Baptism doth even now save us. The host of Pharaoh and the Egyptians went in after them, and of them not one reached the further shore. And of these Israelites, who passed through the sea out of Egypt, how many entered the promised land, the land flowing with milk and honey? Two only-Caleb and Joshua. Manysix hundred thousand-were called, few, even two, were chosen. All the host of Pharaoh, a shadow of those who despise and set at nought the Red Sea of Christ's blood, perish without exception; of God's chosen people, image of His Church, only few indeed are saved.

"How many multitudes teemed in Jericho, and of them how many escaped when Joshua encamped against the city? The walls fell, men and women perished. One house alone escaped, known by the scarlet thread, type of the blood of Jesus, and that was the house of a harlot.

"Gideon went against the Midianites with thirty-two thousand men. The host of Midian was without number, as the sand of the sea-side for multitude. How many of these thirty-two thousand men did God suffer Gideon to lead into victory? Three hundred only. Many, even thirty-two thousand men, were called; three hundred chosen.

"Type and figure this of the many enrolled into the Church's army, of whom so few go on to 'fight the good fight of faith!'

"Of the tribes of Israel twelve men only were chosen to be Apostles; and of those twelve, one was a traitor, one doubtful, one denied his Master, all forsook Him.

"How many rulers were there among the Jews when Christ came: but one only went to Him, and he he by night!

"How many rich men were there when our blessed Lord walked

this earth; but one only ministered unto Him, and he only in His burial!

"How many peasants were there in the country when Christ went to die; but one only was deemed worthy to bear His cross, and he bore it by constraint.

"How many thieves were there in Judaa when Christ was there; but one only entered Paradise, and he was converted in his last hour!

"How many centurions were there scattered over the province; and one only saw and believed, and he by cruelly piercing the Saviour's side!

"How many harlots were there in that wicked and adulterous generation; but one only washed His feet with tears and wiped them with the hair of her head! Truly Many are called, but few are chosen." "

There can be no doubt that this is earnest scriptural preaching, and if the Bible is the power of God, it may surely be expected that such preaching would be with power.

I am not concerned to recite all the madness of the preaching friars, the races of men who wandered over Europe with the rosary of St. Dominic, or the cord of St. Francis, nor do I desire in this lecture to narrate their achievements, but without doubt they do sufficiently affirm the power of speech and of preaching. Dr. Milman has shown how their popular eloquence became a new power, reviving the languid faith, and rekindling the dying ardor or superstition of the Church of the Middle Ages. Wondrously from burning lips, the enthusiasm spread; the story of the preaching orders is a wonderful chapter in the romance of the pulpit, and if we smile at, and even scorn the fanaticism of some, it is impossible to forbear interest in the magical effects of the harangues of St. Anthony of Padua, and the spell of holiness, which even now seems to attract, in the life and words of St. Bonaventura: we may