S. Baring-Gould
Post-Mediaeval Preachers
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Table of contents
PREFACE.
INTRODUCTION.
GABRIEL BIEL.
JEAN RAULIN.
MEFFRETH.
MATTHIAS FABER.
PHILIP VON HARTUNG.
JOSEPH DE BARZIA.
JACQUES MARCHANT.
JOHN OSORIUS.
MAXIMILIAN DEZA.
FRANCIS COSTER.
FOOTNOTES
PREFACE.
The following work is of Theological,
Biographical, and
Bibliographical interest.
It has been written with the view of bringing a class of Preachers
before the public who are scarcely known even by name to the
theological student, but who are certainly remarkable for their
originality, depth, and spirituality.
Among the numerous Preachers of the three centuries under review,
it
has been difficult to decide which to select, but those chosen are
believed to be the most characteristic.
The Author returns thanks to Mr. John Mozley Stark, of
Fitzwilliam-street, Strand, for his assistance in the compilation
of
this Work, by the loan of some costly and scarce volumes not in the
Author’s library.
The title-page, and the Dance of Death at the head of this page,
are
taken from the Sermons of Santius Porta, printed and published by
J.
Cleyn, Lyons, 4to. 1513.
INTRODUCTION.
The history of preaching begins with the first
sermon ever
delivered,
the first and the best, that of our blessed Lord on the mount in
Galilee.
The declamations of the ancient prophets differ widely in character
from the sermons of Christian orators, and in briefly tracing the
history of sacred elocution, we shall put them on one side.
For the true principles of preaching are enshrined in that glorious
mountain sermon. From it we learn what a Christian oration ought to
be. We see that it should contain instruction in Gospel truths,
illustrations from natural objects, warnings, and moral
exhortations,
and that considerable variety of matter may be introduced, so long
as
the essential unity of the piece be not interfered with.
In this consists the difference between Christ’s model sermon,
and the exhortations of those who went before Him.
Jonah preached to the Ninevites, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh,
shall be overthrown,” and that was his only subject.
John Baptist preached in the wilderness, and on one point only,
“Prepare ye the way of the Lord.”
They confined themselves to a single topic, and that purely
subjective, whereas a Christian sermon is to be both objective and
subjective. It should be like Jacob’s ladder, reaching from
God’s throne to man’s earth, with its subject-matter
constantly ascending and descending, leading men up to God, and
showing God by His Incarnation descending to man.
A Spanish bishop of the seventeenth century thus speaks of the
Sermon
on the Mount, the model for all sermons, and the pattern upon which
many ancient preachers framed their discourses.