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The Word Eclipsed? Preaching in the Early Middle Ages

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 July 2016

R. Emmet Mclaughlin
R. Emmet Mclaughlin*
Affiliation:
Villanova University
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Extract

The modern interest in and study of medieval sermon literature was first driven by a combination of confessional acrimony and professional scholarship. L. Bourgain, Albert Lecoy de la Marche, Richard Albert, Rudolf Cruel, Anton Linsenmayer, and G. R. Owst combed through the archives to uncover the written remains of medieval preaching, and what they discovered came as a surprise to those who had been raised on the Protestant black legend of a mute medieval Church. For quantity and variety the period from the twelfth century to the Reformation must count as one (or several) of the great ages of pulpit activity. In fact, on the eve of the Reformation there was some concern that too much was being preached too often. For example, as a result of complaints by laity and clergy alike, in 1508 the Bishop of Breslau ordered a limit on the number of sermons preached in the city. To be sure, modern judgments concerning the quality of that preaching in both style and content vary with the confessional stance and aesthetic preferences of the individual scholar. But of the late medieval dedication to preaching in season and out there can be no doubt.

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Traditio , Volume 46 , 1991 , pp. 77 - 122
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Copyright © The Fordham University Press 

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References

1 Bourgain, L., La Chaire française au XIIe siècle d'après les manuscrits (Paris 1879 ); Lecoy de la Marche, A., La Chaire française au moyen age, spécialement au XIIIe siècle d'après les manuscrits contemporains (Paris 1868); Albert, F. R., Die Geschichte der Predigt in Deutschland bis Luther (Gütersloh 1892–1896); Cruel, R., Geschichte der Predigt im Mittelalter (Detmold 1879); Linsenmayer, A., Geschichte der Predigt in Deutschland von Karl dem Grossen bis zum Ausgang des 14. Jahrhunderts (Munich 1886); Owst, G. R., Literature and Pulpit in Medieval England (Cambridge 1938); idem, Preaching in Medieval England: An Introduction to Sermon Manuscripts of the Period 1350–1450 (Cambridge 1926). For more recent evaluations see Longère, J., La Prédication médiéval (Paris 1983), and Schneyer, J. B., Geschichte der katholischen Predigt (Freiburg 1969). Specifically on late medieval preaching, see Blench, J. W., Preaching in England in the late Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries: A Study in English Sermons, 1450-1600 (Oxford 1964).Google Scholar

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28 The transmission can best be seen with c. 28 of the first Capitulary of Theodulf, MGH Cap. Ep. 1.125, which was taken over (along with c. 21, ibid. 117) by Radulf of Bourges in c. 13 of his collection (ca. 853–866), ibid. 242. This in turn was incorporated by Ruotger of Trier in c. 14 of his Capitulary (ca. 915–929), ibid. 66. It eventually found a place in the Decreta of Burchard of Worms and Ivo of Chartres, see ibid. 125 n. 100. In general, Carolingian legislation was ineffective, Mordek, H., ‘Karolingische Kapitularien,' in Überlieferung und Geltung normativer Texte des frühen und hohen Mittelalters (ed. Mordek, H.; Sigmaringen 1986).Google Scholar

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57 Ibid. 42; Schneyer, Geschichte der katholischen Predigt 42.Google Scholar

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84 See Irenaeus' letter to Florinus, in Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 5. 20. Also 2 John 12, 3 John 13, 2 Peter 1.20–21, 3.15–16, 2 Thess. 2.2; Ignatius of Antioch, Philadelphians 8.2; Gerhardsson, Memory and Manuscript 195–97. Even as late as 2 Clement (100–150) the author, while citing chapter and verse from Scripture, unself-consciously appealed to non-canonical sayings of Jesus that derived from a continuing oral tradition, Brilioth, A Brief History of Preaching 20. Google Scholar

85 Gerhardsson, , ibid. 32, 123, 157, 197.Google Scholar

86 Graham, , Beyond the Written Word, 4–5. As Ong, , Orality and Literacy 26, points out, Arabic and certain other Mediterranean cultures have still not fully ‘interiorized’ literacy.Google Scholar

87 Ibid. ix.Google Scholar

88 Gerhardsson, , Memory and Manuscript 29.Google Scholar

89 Ibid. 46.Google Scholar

90 ‘Omne Verbum Sonat: The New Testament and the Oral Environment of Late Western Antiquity,’ Journal of Biblical Literature 109 (1990) 3–27. Remarkably few biblical papyri survive from the first three centuries and there is remarkably little evidence that reading was done by the great mass of Christians, Harris, Ancient Literacy 294, 304–305.Google Scholar

91 There is an interesting passage in what some believe to be a second-century homily attached to the Epistle to Diognetus, that seems to describe the structure of Christian worship:Google Scholar

A chant celebrates the fear of the Law,

The grace of the Prophets is made known,

The faith of the Gospels is implanted,

The tradition of the Apostles is preserved, and

The grace of the Church waxes jubilant.

(translation based on Early Christian Writings [trans. Staniforth M.; New York 1986] 183, with slight revision.) On the oral nature of the early liturgy and its eventual formalization in writing after the Constantinian conversion, see Bouley, From Freedom to Formula. On the distinctive oral character of catechesis and its content, Gerhardsson, Memory and Manuscript 203. On catechesis in the ancient Church, Daniélou J., La Catéchèse aux premiers siècles (Paris 1968).

92 Clanchy, , From Memory to Written Record 21.Google Scholar

93 This type of homily would predominate in North Africa until Augustine gave it a more speculative cast, Leclercq, J., ‘Predication et rhétorique au temps de saint Augustin,' Revue Benedictine 57 (1947) 117–31. See also idem, ‘Le sermon, acte liturgique,’ in La Liturgie et les paradoxes chrétiens (Paris 1963) 205–27. For an early comment on the ‘conservative’ nature of ancient preaching see Irenaeus, , Adversus Haereses 1.10.2. On the mix of strict and more loosely maintained formulas in oral performance, Ong, , Orality and Liturgy 25–26.Google Scholar

94 Gerhardsson, , Memory and Manuscript 93–189.Google Scholar

95 Countryman, L. W., The Intellectual Role of the Early Catholic Episcopate,’ Church History 48 (1979) 261–68; Carpenter, H. J., ‘Popular Christianity and Theologians in the Early Centuries,' The Journal of Theological Studies 14 (1963) 294–310. The Syrian Didascalia Apostolorum (3rd century) and the Apostolic Constitutions (4th century) derived from it both assume the possibility of illiterate bishops, Connolly, Didascalia Apostolorum 30; Funk, Didascalia et Constitutiones Apostolorum, 1.31–33. In the more developed regions of the Empire, e.g., urban Egypt, the bishops, presbyters, and deacons were usually literate. Elsewhere this might not always have been the case, Harris, Ancient Literacy 320–21. It is intriguing, however, that even in fourth-century Egypt deacons and presbyters were expected to commit to memory certain specific portions of Scripture, ibid. 301. On the nature of liturgical preaching, Wagner, J., ‘La Fonction de la prédication dans la liturgie,' in Parole de Dieu et sacerdoce (eds. Bouyer, L. and Fischer, E.; Paris 1962) 179–194.Google Scholar

96 Syria, unlike Rome, Alexandria, and North Africa, allowed for presbyteral preaching. For an example of this love of preaching as reported by the fourth-century pilgrim Egeria, see the Peregrinatio Egeriae. This may have its roots in the prophetic tradition which seemed to endure longest in that region, Brilioth, A Brief History of Preaching 23. Google Scholar

97 Contra Celsum (trans. Chadwick;, Chadwick; rpr. Cambridge 1986) I:62 p. 57. Cf. I:2 I:5, I:6, I:18, I:25, I:26, I:27, I:29.Google Scholar

98 Gunnar af Hällström, Fides simpliciorum according to Origen of Alexandria (Helsinki 1984 ); Lebreton, J., ‘Les désaccord de la foi populaire et de la théologie savante dans l 'église chrétienne du IIIe siècle,’ Revue d'histoire ecclesiastique 19 (1923) 481–506; 20 (1924) 5–37.Google Scholar

99 Graham, , Beyond the Written Word 15: ‘Speaking involves interaction with an audience; writing necessitates distancing of the writer from his or her readers.’ See also 16. Cf. Goody, J. and Watt, I., ‘The Consequences of Literacy,' in Literacy in Traditional Societies (ed. Goody, J.; Cambridge 1986) 27–68.Google Scholar

100 On the new basilicas, Krautheimer, R., Early Christian and Byzantine Architecture (Baltimore MD 1965) 17–65; idem, Three Christian Capitals: Typography and Politics (Berkeley CA 1983). On the interaction of architecture and liturgy, Gamber, K., Liturgie und Kirchenbau: Studien zur Geschichte der Messfeier und des Gotteshauses in der Frühzeit (Regensburg 1976); idem, Domus Dei (Regensburg 1968).Google Scholar

101 Daniélou, , La Catéchèse 39–40; but see the De catechizandis rudibus for a sketch of his program.Google Scholar

102 Dix, The Shape of the Liturgy 325, 434, describes the character of pre-Constantinian sermons and readings as ‘witness,’ not ‘edification.’ See also Leclercq, , ‘Le sermon, acte liturgique,’ 215; Jungmann, J. A., The Mass of the Roman Rite (New York 1951) 1.459. An interesting parallel can be seen in the reading of Scripture in synagogue services. It was designed as an act of worship, not instruction, Gerhardsson, Memory and Manuscript 42.Google Scholar

103 Even Chrysostom had difficulties holding the attention of his audiences, Brilioth, A Brief History of Preaching 39. Google Scholar

104 Classical rhetoric arose in the first truly script culture — fifth-century b.c. Athens, Goody and Watt, ‘Consequences of Literacy,’ 49–55. Cf. Harris, , Ancient Literacy 223. Already in the fourth century b.c. it had begun the shift from a purely oral political phenomenon to an increasingly literate school discipline, Gastaldi, S., ‘La retorica del iv secolo tra oralità e scrittura: “Sugli scrittori di discorsi” di Alcidamente,’ Quaderni di storia 14 (1981) 189–225. By the time of Constantine, it had become even ‘more closely intertwined with the written rather than the spoken word, a strategy for style in written prose and verse rather than in vocal speech,’ Graham, Beyond the Written Word 24–25. For an intriguing parallel shift from oral to literate preaching in the thirteenth century, see Berlioz, J., ‘La Mémoire du predicateur: Recherches sur la memorisation des recits exemplaires (XIII-XV e siècles),’ in Temps, mémoire, tradition du Moyen Age (Aix-en-Provence 1983) 157–183. Exempla collections that had originally been organized on ‘traditional’ patterns known to all (e.g., the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit) were replaced by collections organized alphabetically.Google Scholar

105 Lot, F., ‘A quelle époque a-t-on cessé de parler latin?' Recueil des travaux historiques de Ferdinand Lot (Geneva 1986) 1 .432, pointed out that the Western Christian authors of the third through sixth centuries were either professionals (‘professors’or lawyers), e.g., Minucius Felix, Cyprian, Arnobius, Lactantius, Firmicus Maternus, Marius Victorinus, Augustine, Prudentius, Sulpicius Severus, Dracontius, or nobles and high officials, e.g., Hilary of Poitiers, Ambrose, Priscillian, Paulinus of Nola, Fulgentius of Ruspe, Boethius, Cassiodorus, Avitus of Vienne, Caesarius of Aries. Cf. Harris, , Ancient Literacy 300.Google Scholar

106 Lot, F., ibid. 433, remarks that the rhetorical education demanded six to ten years of study devoted solely to grammar and rhetoric, to the exclusion of science and philosophy. On the lack of an educational opportunity for most people in the ancient world, including the Roman Empire, Harris, Ancient Literacy 16: ‘The school systems of Graeco-Roman antiquity were for the most part quite puny.’Google Scholar

107 Schneyer, , Geschichte der katholischen Predigt 49. Of pre-Vatican II Catholicism Jungmann, The Mass of the Roman Rite, 1.456, could still write: ‘The sermon, which (together with its embellishments) is delivered in the vernacular after the Gospel, is currently regarded as an interpolation in the course of the liturgy rather than as a step forward in its progress.’Google Scholar

108 Schneyer, Thus, Geschichte der katholischen Predigt 48; Leclercq, ‘Le sermon, acte liturgique,’ 211; Brilioth, A Brief History of Preaching 49–50, though each applauds the work of individuals like Augustine and Chrysostom.Google Scholar

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111 This goes beyond mere intellectual rigor and linguistic elaboration. It is not clear that individual members of an oral community would have possessed the mental tools to appreciate the products of a literate society. See Ong, , Orality and Literacy 31–77, on the ‘psychodynamics’ of orality.Google Scholar

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115 In the East the period covers the careers of Cyril of Jerusalem (d. 386), Basil the Great (d. 379), Gregory of Nyssa (d. ca. 395), Gregory Nazianzus (d. 389), and Chrysostom, Chrysostom (d. 407). It might be extended to include Cyril of Alexandria (d. 444) and Theodoret of Cyrrhus (d. 458), although scholars have not been favorably impressed by these later preachers. Cf. Brilioth, , A Brief History of Preaching 39–40; Schneyer, Geschichte der katholischen Predigt 92–3. In the West, as we have seen, the first significant surviving sermon literature was produced by Zeno of Verona (d. ca. 375) and Ambrose (d. 397). It reached its generally recognized peak with Augustine (d. 430), and was already moribund by the time of Petrus Chrysologus (d. ca. 450) and Leo the Great (d. 461), Brilioth, A Brief History of Preaching 42–43, 62–64; Schneyer, Geschichte der katholischen Predigt 85–86. Schneyer (p. 49) is troubled by the dearth of sermons even from this period.Google Scholar

116 McVann, James, The Canon Law of Sermon Preaching (New York 1940) 8–9.Google Scholar

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120 I owe this insight to Cavadini., Cavadini. On Adoptionism see his ‘The Last Christology of the West: Adoptionism in Spain and Gaul, 785–817’ (Ph. D. diss., Yale 1988).Google Scholar

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167 Cited in Erbe, M., Pfarrkirche und Dorf: Ausgewählte Quellen zur Geschichte des Niederkirchenwesens in Nordwest- und Mitteldeutschland vom 8. bis zum 16. Jahrhundert (Gütersloh 1973 ). For other examples see Theodulf, (788–817/8) c. 3, MGH Cap. Ep. 1.149; Walter of Orleans (869–870), c. 20, ibid. 192; ‘Capitula Florentina’ (post-820), cc. 2–5, ibid. 222. Cf. ‘Quae a presbyteris discenda sint’ (ca. 805), cc. 1–15, MGH Cap. 1.234. Perhaps it is in this context that we should place the school text which Cruel, R., Geschichte der deutschen Predigt 115–16, describes, the ‘Cisio-Janus,’ that held psalms, hymns, prayers, the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, the Ten Commandments, and a short poem (the ‘Cisio-Janus’ proper) which served as a mnemonic device for the feast days of the year.Google Scholar

168 Die Wundergeschichten des Caesarius von Heisterbach (ed. Hilka;, Hilka; Bonn 1937) 3.199.Google Scholar

169 Pontal, O., Les statuts synodaux (Typologie des sources du moyen age, 11; Turnhout 1975) 39, 68.Google Scholar

170 De cessatione legalium (eds. Dales, R. C. and King, E. B.; Oxford 1986) 34.Google Scholar

171 Reinke, D. R., ‘“Austin 's Labour”: Patterns of Governance in Medieval Augustinian Monasticism,’ Church History 56 (1987) 159, 161.Google Scholar

172 As noted by O'Sullivan, J. F. with regard to the visitations of Eudes of Rouen, The Register of Eudes of Rouen xxix. Wendehorst, A., ‘Monachus scribere nesciens,' Mitteilungen des Instituts für Österreichische Geschichte 71 (1963) 67–75, found, for example, that of the 47 monks in the Cistercian house of Bildhausen in 1324, eleven could not write their own signature, and another could do only part of it.Google Scholar

173 The formulation of basic Christian beliefs was often accomplished in prayer, hymn, and acclamation in the primitive Church, as can be seen from the text of the New Testament itself, Bouley, From Freedom to Formula 37–87. Google Scholar

174 Rieger, M., ‘Die altdeutsche Predigt,' in Wackernagel, W., Altdeutsche Predigten und Gebete aus Handschriften (Basel 1876) 306; Albert, Geschichte der Predigt, 1.66–7, 116, 118–9, 121–23, 156–7; Jungmann, The Mass of the Roman Rite, 1.459 n. 22. Mohrmann, C., ‘Praedicare-tractare-sermo: Essai sur la terminologie de la predication paleo-chrétienne,' La Maison Dieu 39 (1954) 97–107, sees a narrowly technical use of ‘praedicatio’ by the end of the 4th century. In contrast, Dagens, ‘Grégoire le Grand et le Ministère de la Parole,’ 1055–56, shows that ‘praedicatio’ was not understood in that narrow sense even by Gregory. See e.g. ‘Arnonis instructio pastoralis’ (798), c. 7, in which Arno refers to singing and ‘other preaching,’ MGH Conc. 2/1.198. Even 12th and 13th century vernacular sermon collections did not clearly distinguish ‘preaching’ from ‘reading,’ Zink, M., La prédication en langue romane avant 1300 (Paris 1982) 201.Google Scholar

175 See Davies, J. G., ‘Deacons, Deaconesses, and the Minor Orders in the Patristic Period,' Journal of Ecclesiastical History 45 (1963) 1–15 esp. 11–12.Google Scholar

176 Ong, , Orality and Literacy 140–1, identifies narrative as the key to oral culture.Google Scholar

177 Cruel, , Geschichte der deutschen Predigt 218; Petzold, ‘Die altdeutsche Predigt,’ 190; Oediger, Bildung der Geistlichen, 121 n. 3; Deanesly, M., The Lollard Bible 45, 75 n. 3. For a good example, see Gatch, , ‘The Unknowable Audience of the Blickling Homilies,’ 103, where he discusses Blickling homily IV. The compiler/translator seems to use ‘godspelle’ to refer to any ‘text that is being adapted for delivery to a congregation in their vernacular language.’ Specifically, it refers to a homily of Caesarius of Aries as ‘godspelle.’Google Scholar

178 Albert, , ibid. 121; Toledo (633), c. 12, Concilios Visigóticos 196; Ghärbald of Liége (ca. 801), c. 3, MGH Cap. Ep. 1.17; Ruotger of Trier (915–29), c. 14, ibid. 66; Theodulf of Orleans (789–817/8), c. 28, ibid. 125; Radulf of Bourges (853–66), c. 13, ibid. 242; ‘Capitula a sacerdotibus proposita’ (802?), c. 4 MGH Cap. 1.106.Google Scholar

179 Cf. Reims (813), c. 5, MGH Conc. 2/1.254, where the deacon's role as lector of the Gospel in the Mass is modeled on Christ's preaching office. See also the address of the Deacon Florus (838) in which he dwells on his ‘preaching’ office, MGH Conc. 2/2.770. Google Scholar

180 Hincmar of Reims, ‘Capitula quibus de rebus, magistri et decani per singulas ecclesias, inquirere et episcopo renuntiare debeant,’ c. 11, PL 125, col. 779: ‘Si habeat clericum qui possit tenere scholam, aut legere Evangelium aut canere valeat, prout necessarium sibi videtur.’ See also Radulf of Bourges (853–66), c. 10, MGH Cap. Ep. 1.240–41; Ruotger of Trier (915–29), c. 10, ibid. 64–65, where priests are warned not to say private Masses or to let laity do the readings. One wonders just how much of Scripture the general population actually heard. If one looks at Hincmar's Vita Remigii ep. Remensis (MGH SS 3.314ff.) one is struck by the absence of biblical imagery and reference in the chapters designated for the unlearned, by contrast to those for the learned, which are filled with biblical references, Gurevich, A., Medieval Popular Culture: Problems of Belief and Perception (Cambridge 1988) 51–52. See also Smith, J. M. H., ‘Oral and Written,' 319–320 for a Breton example.Google Scholar

181 Cited by Hauck, A., Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands (Leipzig 1903) 4 .26 n. 7. Zink, M., La prédication en langue romane 225, has also discovered vernacular sermons that are merely paraphrases of the biblical text.Google Scholar

182 Deanesly, , The Lollard Bible 10 n. 1, 27 n. 2, 28, 38, 39, 41, 352.Google Scholar

183 Ibid. 350.Google Scholar

184 Ibid. 141.Google Scholar

185 Toledo (589), c. 2, Concilios Visigóticos 125; Bouley, From Freedom to Formula 212–213 n. 231; ‘Capitulare missorum specialia’ (802), c. 29, MGH Cap. 1.103. For thirteenth-century Alsace, Oediger, Bildung der Geistlichen 118. On the ‘Verkündigung’ see Schönfelder, A., ‘Die “Verkündigung” im mittelalterlichen Gottesdienst,' Liturgischer Zeitschrift 1 (1929) 58–62.Google Scholar

186 Jungmann, , ibid. 473.Google Scholar

187 ‘3’(585), ibid. 14. Cf. Cruel, , Geschichte der deutschen Predigt 288–9.Google Scholar

188 Leyser, K. J., Rule and Conflict in an Early Medieval Society (Bloomington IN 1979) 103.Google Scholar

189 This seems to be the thrust of Hinson, The Evangelization of the Roman Empire. Participation in worship services was the means by which interested pagans were drawn into the Christian fold. Google Scholar

190 ‘Religion as a Cultural System ,’ in Anthropological Approaches to the Study of Religion (ed. Bainton, M.; London 1966) 28. Le Bras, G., Institutions ecclésiastiques de la chrétienté médiévale (Paris 1959) 1.140 n. 7, has remarked: ‘Cette fonction éducative du culte et des sacrements a été mésestimée par des historiens trop intellectuels, qui n'attendent la formation que des livres et des discours.’Google Scholar

191 ‘Religious Celebrations ,’ in Celebration: Studies in Festival and Ritual (ed. Turner, V.; Washington DC 1982) 218.Google Scholar

192 Turner, V., ‘Introduction,' ibid. 12–13.Google Scholar

193 Ibid. 13, 16–19, 22.Google Scholar

194 V., and Turner, E., ‘Religious Celebrations,' 204.Google Scholar

195 Ong, , ‘Orality, Literacy and Medieval Textualization,’ 9. The study of ritual is a relatively new and expanding field. For an introduction to the nature of the results as seen in two of its best-known practitioners, see Grimes, R., ‘Ritual Studies: A Comparative Review of Theodor Gaster and Victor Turner,' Religious Studies Review 2 (1976) 13–25.Google Scholar

196 Nickl, , Der Anteil des Volkes an der Messliturgie 4. Though differing on the nature of spoken Latin in the pre-Carolingian period, both Lot, ‘A quelle époque a-t-on cessé de parler Latin,’ 104 and Wright, Late Latin and Early Romance in Spain and Carolingian France 44, came to the same conclusion.Google Scholar

197 This instruction may in large measure have taken place in the context of sacramental penance, von Raumer, R., Die Einwirkung des Christentums auf die althochdeutsche Sprache: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der deutschen Kirche (Stuttgart 1845) 254.Google Scholar

198 Deanesly, , The Lollard Bible 45. The work cited is Passavanti, J. (d. 1357), Lo Specchio della vera penitenza (ed. Polidori; Florence 1863).Google Scholar

199 Deanesly, , The Lollard Bible 195.Google Scholar

200 Ibid. 197.Google Scholar

201 Ibid. 198.Google Scholar

202 Ibid. 199.Google Scholar

203 ‘In Fassten hat Jederman müssen beichten, Frawen und Mann und was zue seinem Tag khommen ist. Die Jung khindt haben Vatter und Muotter ahnhin gefürth, so sie noch clein seindt gewesen, habens vor dahumb edtwas gelehrt sagen, wie wenig es ist gesein, damit sie lehrnent beichten und in brauch kommen,’ Schilling, A. (ed.), ‘Die religiösen und kirchlichen Zustände der ehemaligen Reichstadt Biberach unmittelbar vor Einführung der Reformation,’ Freiburger Diözesansarchiv 19 (1887) 115. I owe this citation to W. David Myers.Google Scholar

204 Ibid. 243, citing De Veritate Sacrae Scripturae II (ed. Buddensieg;, 1905) 179. Schmitt, J.-Cl., ‘Du bon usage du ‘credo ',’ in Faire croire. Modalités de la diffusion et de la réception des messages religieux du XIIe au XVe siècle (Rome 1981) 360, cites an exemplum from Etiénne de Bourbon from the thirteenth century in which an old woman who faithfully recited her Creed, Lord's prayer, and Ave Maria, was regularly visited by the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove who gave her the gift of tears. When a bishop sought to improve upon her undoubted holiness by teaching her the Psalter, she lost the gift.Google Scholar

205 Rieger, M., ‘Die altdeutsche Predigt,' 294; Gillespie, V., ‘Doctrina and Praedicatio: The Design and Function of Some Pastoral Manuals,’ Leeds Studies in English 11 (1980) 36 50. Perhaps already in the thirteenth century, and certainly by the seventeenth century, the early medieval situation would be totally reversed, with a simpler form of preaching, the prones absorbing doctrina, D'Avray, D. L., The Preaching of the Friars: Sermons Diffused from Paris before 1300 (Oxford 1985) 82.Google Scholar

206 See above n. 162. Google Scholar

207 ‘Karoli magni capitula a canonibus excerpta' (813), c. 26, MGH Conc. 2/1.297: ‘Ut presbiteri bene vivere et ita populum doceant.’ Most often the priest's visible example is coupled with his ‘preaching’ — in effect ordering the priest to teach by word and deed — but the emphasis is clearly on the necessity for clerics to lead lives in accordance with canonical requirements, e.g., Constitutions of Archbishop Oda (942–946), c. 4, Councils and Synods 1.71; Council of Paris (829), c. 3, MGH Conc. 2/2.611; Aries (836) c. 25, ibid. 723; ‘Concilium Foroiuliense’ (796/797), MGH Conc. 2/1.195. On the role of imitation, discipleship, and apprenticeship in oral societies, Ong, , Orality and Literacy 9. An interesting comparison can be drawn with the role assigned women in the ‘conversion’ of their husbands during the ancient and early medieval periods. It was to be their behavior and physical allure, not their verbal persuasion, that was to move their spouses. Only in the thirteenth century did clerics call on women to convince their men with words as well, see Farmer, S., ‘Persusive Voices: Clerical Images of Medieval Wives,' Speculum 61 (1986) 517–543.Google Scholar

208 E.g., , ‘Genesis ,’ ‘Exodus,’ ‘Daniel,’ ‘Christ and Satan,’ ‘Fates of the Apostles,’ ‘Christ,’ ‘Juliana,’ ‘Elene,’ ‘Andreas,’ ‘Judith,’ ‘Guthlac’ and the ‘Dream of the Rood.’ On Anglo-Saxon religious literature, Gardener, J., The Construction of Christian Poetry in Old English (Carbondale PA 1975 ). For the Heliand, Behagel, O., ed. Heliand und Genesis (9th ed.; Tübingen 1984).Google Scholar

209 These works show the remarks of ‘primary orality’ as briefly outlined by Ong, , ‘Orality, Literacy and Medieval Textualization’3. Cf. Haendler, G., Geschichte des Frühmittelalters und der Germanenmissions (Die Kirche in ihre Geschichte 2/E; Göttingen 1961) 36. Frantzen, A. J., The Literature of Penance in Anglo-Saxon England (New Brunswick NJ 1983), has argued convincingly that it is necessary to examine a much broader range of genres in reconstructing the instruction given concerning penance.Google Scholar

210 Clanchy, , From Memory to Written Record 198–201, 229–230, emphasizes that the oral culture of the nobles was sophisticated and demanding. It involved not only the lessons in the use of arms, but also the ability to administer the customary oral law, and to understand the often complex political systems of their time. The more purely artistic aspects found in the epics would help mold the warrior ethos. According to the Quedlinburg-Chronicle, German peasants sang songs about Dietrich of Bern (Theodoric the Great) as late as the tenth century (MGH SS 3.31). The Life of St. Liudger relates that a singer Bernlef sang of the wars and exploits of kings to the Frisians (MGH SS 2.410). The Frankish kings were celebrated in vulgaria carmina in the time of Charlemagne (MGH SS 1.268). On these incidents, see Gurevich, A., Medieval Popular Culture: Problems of Belief and Perception (Cambridge 1988) 50. On the German lay poetry of the Carolingian era, see McKitterick, , Carolingians and the Written Word 232–235.Google Scholar

211 On this see LeGoff, , ‘Clerical Culture and Folklore Traditions in Merovingian Civilization,’ and idem, ‘Ecclesiastical Culture and Folklore in the Middle Ages: Saint Marcellus of Paris and the Dragon,’ both in his Time, Work and Culture in the Middle Ages (tr. Goldhammer, A.; Chicago 1980) 153–58, 159–188. Cf. Schmitt, Schmitt ‘"Religion populaire” et “Culture folklorique,”' Annales 31 (1975) 941–953; Graus, F., Volk, Herrscher und Heiliger im Reich der Merowinger (Prague 1965). For an example of the relationship of oral and literate in Brittany, Smith, J. M. H., ‘Oral and Written: Saints, Miracles, and Relics in Brittany, c. 850–1250,' Speculum 65 (1990) 309–43.Google Scholar

212 The penetration was so successful that there was resistance among some of the clergy to reliance upon written evidence in preference to oral testimony in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, Clanchy, From Memory to Written Record 209, 233. Google Scholar

213 On Caedmon, , Ecclesiastical History 4.24. On the distinctively ‘oral’ nature of Caedmon's Hymn in the manuscripts of Bede, see Magoun, F. P., Jr., ‘Oral-Formulaic Character of Anglo-Saxon Narrative Poetry,’ Speculum 28 (1953) 446–67; idem, ‘Bede's Story of Caedman: The Case History of an Anglo-Saxon Oral Singer,’ Speculum 30 (1955) 49–63; O'Keefe, K. O'B., ‘Orality and the Developing Text of Caedmon 's Hymn,’ Speculum 62 (1987) 1–20. On Ottfried, Albert, Geschichte der Predigt 2.129–130. The first examples of sermons written in German had close ties to the poetry of the period, ibid. 1.129, 172. See also Fichtenau, H., ‘Bemerkungen zur rezitatorischen Prosa des Hochmittelalters,' in Beiträge zur Google Scholar

Mediävistik: Ausgewählte Aufsätze (Stuttgart 1975) 1.145, 149–151. That pagan poetry was known to the clergy can be seen in Alcuin's complaint that during their common meals English monks were listening ‘not to a reader, but to a harpist, and not to sermons of church fathers, but to pagan songs.’ ‘What do Christ and Ingeld [a Germanic hero] have in common?’ (MGH Epp. Kar. 2.183). Centuries later Meinhard, the scholasticus at Bamberg, excoriated his bishop Gunther (1057–75) because ‘he never thinks of Augustine or Gregory, but always of Etzel, Amalung and such like.’ Both cited by Gurevich, Medieval Popular Culture 7.

214 Barlow, C. W., ed., Martini Episcopi Bracarensis Opera Omnia (New Haven 1950) 159–203. The Sermo Galli seems actually to have been composed by Notker Babulus (late ninth century), Willwoll, W. F., Die Konstanzer Predigt des heiligen Gallus: Ein Werk des Notkers Babulus (Freiburg, Switzerland 1947). On the ‘Scarapsus’ or ‘Dicta Pirminii’ see Angenendt, A., Monachi Peregrini: Studien zu Pirmin und den monastischen Vorstellungen des frühen Mittelalters (Munich 1972). For the text, Jecker, G., Die Heimat des hl. Pirmin des Apostels der Alamannen (Münster 1927) 34–73.Google Scholar

215 On the content of early medieval missionary preaching, Sullivan, R. E., ‘The Carolingian Missionary and the Pagan,' Speculum 28 (1953) 705–40, esp. 715–16. The cosmological and historical elements were often provided by Genesis commentaries, McClure, ‘Bede's Notes on Genesis’ 19–20.Google Scholar

216 Elliott, A. G., ‘The Power of Discourse: Martyr 's Passion and Old French Epic,’ Medievalia et Humanistica NS 11 (1982) 39–60.Google Scholar

217 Clovesho (747) c. 12: ‘Ut presbyteri saecularium poetarum modo in ecclesia non garriant, ne tragico sono sacrorum verborum compositionem ac distinctionem corrumpant vel confundant, sed simplicem sanctamque melodiam secundem morem ecclesiae sectentur,’ Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents, 3.366–7. See also Fichtenau, , ‘Bemerkungen zur rezitatorischen Prosa des Hochmittelalters’ 160–61.Google Scholar

218 Kluckhohn, C., ‘Myths and Rituals: A General Theory,' Harvard Theological Review 33 (1942) 45–79. Cf. Kee, , Miracle in the Early Christian World 61. Oral culture and myth seem to be intrinsically related, Graham, Beyond the Written Word 16: ‘Where memory collapses time spans, writing tends to fix events temporally and heighten the sense of their distinctiveness as well as their “pastness” or separation from the present and the individual person. The sense of participation in the events narrated becomes more difficult. Something of this kind of perceptual shift is what we often try to get at by distinguishing (oral) “myth” from (written) “history” as narrative modes. The crux of the difference between the two is not their relative “truth,” but their presentation of temporality — the one in a synchronic or atemporal frame of reference of “time out of mind” (Mircea Eliade's illud tempus) and the other in a fundamentally diachronic, linear frame of temporal sequence and relation.’ Cf. Goody, and Watt, , ‘The Consequences of Literacy’44–49. For a wonderful contrast between what was considered proper to the mass of the population as opposed to the learned, see Hincmar of Reims Vita Remigii ep. Remensis, MGH SS 3.314ff. Hincmar marks off chapters to be read to the common people and others for the more advanced. For the former the emphasis was upon the saint's miracles, his more unusual virtues, and the duties owed by peasants who belonged to villas that St. Remi had acquired for the Church. For a discussion of this work see Gurevich, , Medieval Popular Culture, 1–2. See also Smith, , ‘Oral and Written,’ 319, for a description of the tripartite life of the Breton Saint Winwaloe, especially of the third part, a homily for the people: ‘… shorn of any stylistic flamboyance and of invitations to spiritual reflection, it catalogues the events of Winwaloe's life in such a way as to elicit immediate respect for his virtutes.’ Google Scholar

219 ‘The Clerical Population of Medieval England,’ Speculum 2 (1944) 185.Google Scholar

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221 See Clanchy, , From Memory to Written Record 220–226, for the situation in England as late as the thirteenth century. McKitterick, R., The Carolingians and the Written Word (Cambridge 1989) 23–134 is unpersuasive in her arguments for the predominance of written law and procedure on the Continent in the ninth century.Google Scholar

222 Murray, A., ‘Gregory VII and his Letters,' Traditio 22 (1966) 149–202; Southern, R. W., Western Society and the Church in the Middle Ages (New York 1972) 108–109. This may have been particularly marked in the post-Carolingian period. The Papacy had inherited the written administrative traditions of the Roman Empire and they had served the Papacy well in the period through the Carolingian era, T. F. X. Noble, ‘Literacy and Papal Government in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages,’ in The Uses of Literacy in the Early Middle Ages 82–108.Google Scholar

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225 The tension between the two cultures can be seen in Bede. Although he provided vernacular translations of the Creed and Lord's Prayer for the clergy and laity, in the end he chose to follow the path indicated by Gregory the Great, i.e., the attempt to form a Christian clergy on the basis of Latin patristic theology rather than vernacular culture, McClure, ‘Bede's Notes on Genesis,’ 17, 28–29. Google Scholar

226 Stock, ‘Medieval Literacy’ 20–21. One can see this in the Blickling homilies where homilies that were originally aimed directly at the laity were converted into exhortations to the clergy, who in turn were to instruct the laity, Gatch, ‘The Unknowable Audience of the Blickling Homilies’ 104–105. Google Scholar

227 Scribner, R., ‘Ritual and Reformation,' in The German People and the Reformation (ed. Po-chia Hsia, R.; Ithaca NY 1988) 122–44, has recently argued that even the Reformation must be seen as in some sense a ‘ritual process.’ As late as the eighteenth century in some parts of Italy the shift from instruction based on ritual to one based on texts was still not complete, Turini, M. and Valenti, A., ‘L 'educazione religiosa,’ in Brizzi, G. P., Il catechismo e la grammatica. I. Istruzione e controllo sociale nell'area emiliana e romagnola nell'700 (Bologna 1985) 347–423.Google Scholar