Page "Homiletics" Paragraph 14

After the age here described preaching was on the decline in the West, partly because of the decay of the Latin language ( cf.

Fénelon, " Dial.

", 164 ), and in the East, owing to the controversies on Arianism, Nestorianism, Eutychianism, Macedonianism, and other heresies.

But still preaching was regarded as the chief duty of bishops ; for instance, Cæsarius, Bishop of Arles, gave charge of all the temporal affairs of his diocese to deacons, that he might devote all his time to the reading of the Scriptures, to prayer, and to preaching.

The next great name in preaching is that of St. Gregory the Great, particularly as a homilist.

He preached twenty homilies, and dictated twenty more, because, through illness and loss of voice, he was unable to preach them personally.

He urged bishops very strongly to preach ; and, after holding up to them the example of the Apostles, he threatened the bishops of Sardinia in the following words: " Si cujus libet Episcopi Paganum rusticum invenire potuero, in Episcopum fortiter vindicabo " ( III, ep.

xxvi ).

An edict was issued by King Guntram stating that the assistance of the public judges was to be used to bring to the hearing of the word of God, through fear of punishment, those who were not disposed to come through piety.

The Synod of Trullo laid down that bishops should preach on all days, especially on Sundays ; and, by the same synod, bishops who preached outside their own diocese were reduced to the status of priests, because being desirous of another's harvest they were indifferent to their own -- " ut qui alienæ messis appetentes essent, suæ incuriosi ".

At the Council of Arles, in 813, bishops were strongly exhorted to preach ; and the Council of Mainz, in the same year, laid down that bishops should preach on Sundays and feast days either themselves ( suo marte ) or though their vicars.

In the Second Council of Reims ( 813 ), can.

xiv, xv, it was enjoined that bishops should preach the homilies and sermons of the Fathers, so that all could understand.

And in the Third Council of Tours ( can.

xvii ), in the same year, bishops were ordered to make a translation of the homilies of the Fathers into the rustic Roman tongue, or theodesque — the rustic Roman tongue being a species of corrupt Latin, or patois, understood by the uneducated ( Thomassin, " De Benef.

", II, l. III, c. lxxxv, p. 510 ).

Charlemagne and Louis the Pious were equally insistent on the necessity of preaching.

The former went so far as to appoint a special day, and any bishop who failed to preach in his cathedral before that day was to be deposed.

Pastors, too, were ordered to preach to their people as best they could ; if they knew the Scriptures, they were to preach them ; if not, they were at least to exhort their hearers to avoid evil and do good ( Sixth Council of Arles, 813, can.

x ).