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The art of preaching in the light of its history
The art of preaching in the light of its history Author:Edwin Charles Dargan Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: LECTURE HI INSTRUCTION IN THE ART OF PREACHING DURING THE MIDDLE AGES 600-1500 The long mediaeval age from 600 to 1500, or more exactly from the death o... more »f Gregory I (604) to the beginning of Luther's Reformation (1517), contained much of interest for the history of preaching, but little that is of value for the theory. It is not until the impulse received from the Revival of Letters and the Reformation is strongly felt and becomes potent that a true theory of preaching is developed and established. Yet we find a few specific works and some general data that bear on the subject of Homiletics, and these have been collected and discussed for different times and countries by several scholars. But I know of no comprehensive historical treatise upon mediaeval Homiletics as a whole. It will help clearness of discussion and comprehension to divide the Middle Ages into three periods: (1) The early mediaeval period, 600-1100; (2) the central or scholastic period, 1100-1300; (3) the declining mediaeval period, 1300-1500. The Early Mediaeval Period, 600-1100 The period from the seventh to the eleventh century inclusive is the darkest in the history of preaching. Ignorance and other unfitness in the clergy, brutality and illiteracy among the people, and many other hindrances worked against the preaching of these ages. It is not to be expected that our research into the state of homiletical theory during such times will be rewarded with anything of special value. Yet there are a few treatises which present some degree of interest as filling what would otherwise be a total blank. Two of these claim notice here, for this and other reasons, and not as having any intrinsic worth. These are works of Isidore of Seville and Rabanus Maurus. Isidore of Seville (d. 636 ) was the...« less