The Nature and Efficacy of Preaching according to St. Bernardine of Siena

Abstract

THE NATURE AND EFFICACY OF PREACHING ACCORDING TO ST. BERNARDINE OF SIENA* The understanding which Bernardine of Siena (1380—1444) had of the important role of preaching in the life of the Church depended in large measure on a late medieval view of history. It is not easy for our minds, stamped with the thought-patterns of the modern era and dominated by the ideal of uninterrupted progress, to sympathize with and understand the late medieval mentality, saturated with and even haunted by the sentiment of the imminent end of the world.1 This feeling was focussed on the imminent advent of the Antichrist nearly everywhere in western Europe by the end of the fourteenth century.2 The all-pervasive anxiety about the Antichrist, so strange to our modern way of thinking, became especially acute during the Great Schism with its continual strife and political turmoil, with famine and pestilence following on the devastation of whole countrysides. Following a line of apocalyptic expectation influenced in large measure by the theories of Joachim of Flora (1202), the late medieval tendency was to identify the Antichrist with a particular historical personage.3 This led to wild speculations regarding his birth and possible whereabouts. * This article, based on the first part of doctoral dissertation "A Theology of Preaching according to St. Bernardine of Siena", is published as a partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Theology at the Alphonsian Institute Of Moral Theology, Lateran University, Rome. Abbreviations used are as follows: Opera for S. Bernardini Senensis Opera Omnia, 9 vols., Quaracchi-Florence, 1950—-1965; Seraphim for 5. Bernardini Senensis Quadragesimale Séraphin nuncupatum, Opera Omnia, Venice, 1591, vol. IV, parts 1—2 ; Sabatelli for La Fonte della Vita. Prediche scelte, ed. by G. Sabatelli, Florence, 1964; Banchi for Le Prediche volgari di S. Bernardino da Siena, dette della Piazza del Campo di Siena, l'anno 142J, 3 vols., Siena, 1880—1888. 1 Cf. M.-D. Chenu, "La fin du monde dans la spiritualité médiévale" in Lumière et Vie 11 (1953), I01—·??-62 E. Delaruelle, "L'Antéchrist chez S. Vincent Ferrer, S. Bernardin de Sienne et autour de Jeanne d'Arc" in L'Attesa dell'età nuova nella spiritualità alla fine del Medioevo (Todi, 1962), 37. 3 Joachim had identified six Antichrists during the history of Christianity : Herod, Nero, Constantius, Mahommed, Masmudi and Saladin, thus giving rise to the expectation of the seventh "qui proprie dicitur Antichristus ." The eight would come at the conclusion of the seventh age. Cf. H. de Lubac, Exégèse Médiévale, II, t. 2, (Paris, 1962), 546. 222LOMAN McAODHA O. F. M. The preachers of the period were not above using this popular anxiety and agation to further their missionary aims. This is evident in the case of St. Vincent Ferrer (f 1419)4 and more particularly in the crusade of his Italian confrère and follower, Manfred of Vercelli, who drew the fire of Bernardine during the latter's missionary tour of Lombardy around 1420.5 What Bernardine objected to most of all was the gross presumption which pretended to know more than God had revealed in Jesus Christ and which could only disillusion those who believed in these predictions.6 Although Bernardine's own ideas on the history of the Church do not figure prominently in either of his two great Lenten courses, De Christiana Religione and De Evangelio Aeterno, they are very much in evidence in the earlier Itinerarium Anni and in certain unfinished sermons which probably date from the same early period of his preaching viz., 1418—1425. 7 Following the traditional division of history into seven periods, Bernardine believed that his own era was placed towards the end of the sixth, and therefore penultimate, period of Church history. He did not profess to know, however, how long this sixth period would last and rejected all speculations about times or dates.8 On the contrary, it was his firm conviction that "grace or the presence of the Holy Spirit was more important for the disciples of Christ than any knowledge of future events."9 The beginning of the last age might be fast approaching but...