Model Sermons Research Articles

Medical knowledge in thirteenth-century preaching: the sermons of Luca da Bitonto

ABSTRACT Metaphors of physical health and illness occurred frequently in medieval exegesis, with diseased bodies providing figurative language that could be applied to sin and its effects upon the soul. The increasing availability of newly translated medical learning in Europe in the thirteenth century augmented and enriched this discourse in innovative ways. The present paper offers a close analysis of the systematic use of sophisticated medical knowledge in an unpublished collection of model sermons, written c.1240 by the Franciscan preacher Luca da Bitonto. Produced at least 50 years earlier than comparable sermons previously shown to contain advanced medical metaphor, Luca’s sermons offer new evidence for the intellectual and theological contexts in which thirteenth-century preachers sought out detailed and accurate knowledge of the natural world, and for the ways in which new medical knowledge was disseminated and incorporated into medieval religious discourse.

Kilka uzupełnień źródłowych do edycji Żywotu Pana Jezu Krysta Baltazara Opeca (w pięćsetlecie wydania z 1522 roku)

Some Supplementary Remarks on the Edition of Baltazar Opec’s Żywot Pana Jezu Krysta (on the Five Hundredth Anniversary of Its 1522 Edition) 500 years ago one of the most important Polish medieval works was published: Żywot Pana Jezu Krysta by Baltazar Opec (1522). It is the only complete Medieval apocryphal narrative written in Polish, describing Mary and Christ’s lives from the Annunciation till the Ascension and the Assumption of Mary. The first critical edition of this work was published in 2014, revealing multiple sources that may have been used by Opec. However, the primary sources of the last chapters dealing with the Dormition, Assumption and Coronation of the Mother of God were not identified. This paper presents these chapters together with fragments of a collection of Latin sermons by a Hungarian Franciscan Pelbartus Ladislaus de Temesvár, entitled Stellarium corone benedicte Marie Virginis (1498), which were previously used by the Polish translator and editor. The comparison of both texts makes it possible to observe how Baltazar Opec transformed Pelbartus’ erudite theological and Mariological treatise into the apocryphal narrative on the Dormition and Assumption of the Mother of God, preserving the style of the whole Żywot Pana Jezu Krysta. It is evident that Opec used Stellarium as model sermons but adapted them in a different way than the other sources of Żywot, such as Meditationes vitae Christi or Historia rythmica: he omitted the names and opinions of the Fathers of the Church and medieval theologians cited by the Hungarian Franciscan, as well as most of the references to ex Scriptura arguments.

Dicit Augustinus: Model Sermons as Episcopal Formation in St. Augustine's Tractates on the Gospel of John 55–124

The bishop's primary task is teaching. Because of a lack of availability, erudition, or engagement, the Church has often suffered from a shortage of suitably equipped and pastorally present bishops. Provincial, regional, and ecumenical councils of the patristic and medieval eras sought to address this need. The fifth-century North African Church turned to St. Augustine as their resident expert on exegesis and episcopacy. Augustine formed future bishops as monks in his monastery and his co-bishops through model sermons they requested at council. The Tractates on the Gospel of John 55–124 were dictated for this purpose. Because Augustine's immediate audience was bishops (current and future), he meditated on aspects of the episcopacy: the spiritual risks of preaching, the discernment and discipline demanded in mystagogy and excommunication, and participation in Christ's blood and His Spirit, enabling growth in martyrial virtue and the performance of “greater works” for the glory of God.

Multum prodest circa honesta officia occupari.Jacques de Vitry et les artisans en France au XIIIe siècle. Édition du sermon ad artifices mechanicarum artium (Serm. ad stat. 62)

Jacques de Vitry (ca 1165 ? - 1240) was one of the most renowned preachers of his time. The 74 Sermones uulgares uel ad status belong to an uncommon genre of preaching, namely a collection of model sermons organised according to different audiences representing the various classes (status) of medieval society, both religious and lay. Sermon 62 is addressed to manual laborers. The choice of the biblical theme: Labores manuum tuarum quia manducabis, beatus es et bene tibi erit (Ps. 127:3), suggests a positive approach to this social group and testifies to the change in the Church's attitude towards them that was already evident in the twelfth century. Vitry stresses that for all craftsmen, whatever their trade, their talent is a gift from God through which they are called to contribute to the common good. To illustrate his recommendations and warnings, he uses biblical and patristic quotations, but above all edifying anecdotes or exempla. The edition of Sermon 62 is based on eleven of the fifteen manuscript witnesses of the collection Sermones uulgares uel ad status that preserve our text. It follows the editing principles established by J. Longère for the first 36 sermons (CC CM, 255; 2013). The Franciscan preacher Guibert of Tournai († 1284) used this sermon in his own Sermones ad status diuersos. An appendix lists those borrowings by referring to the text as it is transmitted in MS Paris BnF lat. 15943.

Old Fiddle, Good Tune

Abstract In this article the author presents and edits a set of texts, two model sermons In capite ieiunii and two Parisian reportationes by the same preacher, Gilbert of Tournai (OFM, d. 1284), at different moments of his career. The study of those texts offers a rare insight into the mental toolbox of a preacher, showing how Gilbert was able to craft different sermons, over a number of years, by recycling, repurposing and enriching a favourite set of preaching material. This also raises the issue of transmission and transformations of the preaching material, through the prism of live performances, memory, and written records.

Crusade Preaching and the Ideal Crusader by Miikka Tamminen

Reviewed by: Crusade Preaching and the Ideal Crusader by Miikka Tamminen James H. Kane Tamminen, Miikka, Crusade Preaching and the Ideal Crusader (Sermo: Studies on Patristic, Medieval, and Reformation Sermons and Preaching, 14), Turnhout, Brepols, 2018; hardback; pp. ix, 332; R.R.P. €90.00; ISBN 9782503577258. The extant crusade model sermons of the thirteenth century have attracted increasing scholarly attention over the past few decades. A series of invaluable studies by historians such as Penny Cole, Christoph Maier, Nicole Bériou, Jessalynn Bird, and Alexis Charansonnet has made these fascinating texts more widely accessible and shed considerable light on their composition, dissemination, sources, rhetorical strategies, themes, and impact. This new book by Miikka Tamminen explicitly builds on the work of these scholars and explores how concepts of the ‘true’ or ideal crusader were constructed and promoted in the model sermons and preaching aids composed by a group of crusade preachers who had all either studied or taught at the University of Paris at some stage: Phillipe le Chancelier, Jacques de Vitry, Roger of Salisbury, Eudes de Châteauroux, Humbert de Romans, Federico Visconti, and Guibert de Tournai. Drawing on thirty-six texts summarized at the outset (pp. 24–43) and listed in five useful appendices for ease of reference (pp. 291–97), Tamminen offers nothing less than ‘a comprehensive study of crusade sermons […] where the focus is on the messages intended for those who have already taken the cross’ (p. 2). Although no single book could truly provide ‘a comprehensive study’ of such a rich corpus of sources, Tamminen’s analysis does illuminate the perspectives of [End Page 251] the crusade preachers in detail. Fortunately, that detail never comes at the expense of clarity. The structure of the book is simple, but logical: following the introduction (pp. 1–43), the remainder of the study functions as a kind of triptych, with each chapter tackling a specific set of themes and motifs deployed by the preachers in their idealized constructions of crusaders’ spiritual comportment and physical conduct. Chapter 2, ‘The Crusade and the Bible’ (pp. 45–89), is not only the least substantial chapter, but also arguably the least innovative, even though it does provide a thoughtful and concise analysis of the ways in which preachers used various biblical figures such as Joshua, Achor/Achan, the Maccabees, and the prostitute Rahab as examples of the kinds of behaviour that they should both adopt and avoid. Though undoubtedly interesting, the chapter’s final subsection on ‘Biblical Prophecy’ (pp. 74–89) does not engage thoroughly with previous scholarship on apocalypticism in the crusading context, and fails to explain clearly how the apocalyptic and prophetic material discussed aided preachers in constructing and instructing ‘true’ crusaders. Chapter 3, ‘The Crusader and God’ (pp. 90–201), on the other hand, is both very long (perhaps too long) and full of insightful observations. One of the most important of these is that the ideals, language, and imagery of the imitation of Christ (imitatio Christi), inextricably bound up with concepts of self-denial, rejection of the world (contemptus mundi), love for God, and the ready embrace of suffering, remained as prominent in thirteenth-century crusade ideology as they had been in the twelfth century (pp. 108–32). This chapter also aptly illustrates the preachers’ complex, nuanced, and by no means consistent views on crusading stigmata, indulgences, and martyrdom. Chapter 4, ‘The Crusader and the World’ (pp. 203–78), shifts the frame of reference and investigates how the preachers articulated the ideal crusader’s relationship with wealth, family, home, and society. As in Chapter 3, Tamminen further refines our understanding of thirteenth-century crusade ideology by demonstrating that, contrary to what some scholars have suggested, awareness and expressions of the fundamental link between crusade and pilgrimage persisted in this period and can be seen in many of the model sermons (pp. 239–50). Furthermore, Tamminen shows convincingly (and somewhat surprisingly) that not all preachers were hostile or opposed to the participation of women and children in crusading expeditions, as is especially clear in the case of Eudes de Châteauroux (pp. 262–69). For all its merits, Crusade Preaching and the Ideal Crusader suffers to some extent from...

Between Text and Orality, Between Legend and Doctrine: The Model Sermon in Dominican Preaching and the System of Communication Established in the Thirteenth Century

Stories of the saints are set between the divine and the human, between transcendence and reality and between eternity and the momentary. They are crucial for medieval culture, for the transmission of the traditions of the cult, and they are the essence of religion. The thirteenth-century Latin texts written for Dominican preachers were composed according to the Scholastic method and incorporated elements of the saints’ stories. Some collections of model sermons, by different authors but directed at different auditors, explicitly or implicitly enable us to grasp the varied modulations possible in one subject. Two different compilations exist of De sanctis, the sermons by Iacopo de Voragine (1228–1298), one for the brothers of the order, and the other for preachers generally. They enable us to grasp the dynamics of the Dominican system of communication established in the thirteenth century, especially when important saints – Francis, Dominic, Peter martyr – are examined, and also the doctrinal content that was important for religion in the society of the time.

The <em>Syntagma musicum</em> in Lutheran Organ Sermons of the Seventeenth and the Eighteenth Centuries

Based on a corpus of organ sermons, this paper analyses the theological reception of the Syntagma musicum. As early as 1621 Michael Praetorius’s treatise was explored for the first time by a Lutheran pastor. In 1624, it stimulated Conrad Dieterich to include a description of the Ulm organ into his sermon. After the Thirty Years’ War Michael Praetorius’s work became a regular part of the scholarly apparatus of the sermons. Model sermons and homiletic handbooks helped to shape a distinctive musical-theological discourse. As an example of intercultural exchange the transmission of several excerpts from Girolamo Dirutas Il Transilvano translated by Michael Praetorius merits special attention.

Prelacy, Pastoral Care and the Instruction of Subordinates in Late Twelfth-Century England

Historians of the Middle Ages usually associate the phrase ‘pastoral care’ with the sacraments and religious services performed by parish priests on behalf of lay people. But late twelfth-century writers primarily attributed pastoral care to prelates. Closely following the tradition of Pope Gregory I's Pastoral Rule, they held that prelates bore the responsibility to govern, guide and (perhaps most importantly) instruct their subordinate clergy or religious. Prelates did this by preaching, and they were supposed to validate their words with the example of their own righteous lives. But although commentators assumed that prelates would be reasonably well educated, late twelfth-century writers did not attribute good preaching to intellectual aptitude, or to the availability of preaching treatises or model sermon collections, as historians often assume. In an age of intellectual vibrancy and flourishing schools, ensuring that prelates instructed their subordinates remained firmly a moral, rather than an educational, question for the English church. Only by instructing subordinates could a prelate ensure their, and by extension his own, eternal salvation: neglect of preaching was tantamount to murder. This article uses the little-studied writings of Alexander of Ashby, Bartholomew of Exeter and Thomas Agnellus to uncover new links between ideas about prelacy, pastoral care and the instruction of subordinates in the high Middle Ages.

Catechesi e drammatizzazione: Lo Spirito Santo nei sermoni di Pentecoste di Vicent Ferrer

[it] L’articolo si concentra sull’abilità comunicativa di Vicent Ferrer e sulla sua capacità di miscelare catechesi e invenzione narrativa, analizzando sei versioni del sermone Repleti sunt omnes Spiritu Sancto. Gli schemi, le reportationes, i sermoni modello delle prediche tenute da Ferrer in diverse parti d’Europa mostrano come la festa di Pentecoste fornisse l’occasione per una vivace ‘messa in scena’ del racconto biblico e come la predicazione fornisse agli ascoltatori un accesso, mediato ma non banale, alla conoscenza della Scrittura. Nel sermone di Pentecoste, indicando la comunità apostolica come modello per i suoi ascoltatori, Ferrer sviluppava una riflessione tanto sul ruolo della predicazione quanto sul disporsi ad accogliere lo Spirito Santo.

Nicolas de Biard’s de festis model sermon collection: Preliminary study for an edition

This article aims to present the textual tradition of Nicolas de Biard’s de festis model sermon collection which was transmitted by the pecia system, along with an edition of one sermon. It is comp...

Parents, Authorities, and Disobedience in Sixteenth-Century Lutheran Sermons

The Lutheran Reformation is often portrayed as being slavishly obedient to secular rulers. This article examines printed Lutheran postil sermons on the Fourth Commandment, which was the Lutheran justification for obedience to secular rulers, between the momentous years 1530 and 1580. Postil sermons were model sermons intended to guide pastors in their creation of sermons and were also often read outright both in Lutheran pulpits and during worship services in the home. This article shows that these sermons universally commanded a conditional obedience to rulers and many even demanded disobedience in certain situations. Furthermore, obedience to rulers was a secondary matter after obedience to parents. Rulers were parents’ helpers, not vice versa.

Forgiveness in Late Medieval Sermons: On the Unforgiving Servant

ABSTRACTThis study contributes to the history of forgiveness. It samples twenty-nine Latin model sermons on the parable of the unforgiving servant (Matthew 18. 23–35) to access instructions and persuasive material used to teach late medieval Christians about interpersonal forgiveness, peacemaking, or reconciliation. Only half the surveyed sermons discuss forgiveness. Of those that do, only two authors explained the qualified obligation to forgive: to obtain divine forgiveness, Christians must be willing to forgive a penitent offender agreeing to make amends. Christians could still seek justice for harm suffered, so long as they did so without resentment or the desire to harm their offender. These authors also acknowledged the practical difficulties of loving enemies. Unconditional forgiveness remained a goal for those seeking a heavenly reward for Christian perfection, especially monks and nuns. More sermons discouraged anger or warned of God’s wrath against the unforgiving without detailing the norms for forgiveness.

Translating Clergie: Status, Education, and Salvation in Thirteenth-Century Vernacular Texts by Claire M. Waters

Reviewed by: Translating Clergie: Status, Education, and Salvation in Thirteenth-Century Vernacular Texts by Claire M. Waters Andrew Fogleman Claire M. Waters, Translating Clergie: Status, Education, and Salvation in Thirteenth-Century Vernacular Texts (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press 2016) xv + 289 pp. Claire M. Waters's Translating Clergie: Status, Education, and Salvation in Thirteenth-Century Vernacular Texts offers a new and much-needed interpretation of post Lantern IV educational reform. She explores thirteenth-century vernacular didactic works, primarily in Anglo-French, whose homilies and narrative texts offered audiences a "new way of imagining themselves as religious subjects" (5). Though often dismissed in secondary literature as "basic" in its educational goals, Waters show how this genre engaged readers and hearers individually and worked to collapse status differences between learned and unlearned members of medieval society. Waters argues that vernacular catechetical works of the thirteenth-century constituted a "crucial middle ground between the traditional spheres of laity and clergy" (24). They gave instruction to the better educated among the laity and the less learned among the clergy in language both could understand. The structure and content of these works also blurred hard lines between learned and unlearned, clergy and laity. The dialogue or dialogue-like forms of texts, such as the Dialogue du père et du fils and the Chastoiment d'un père à son fils, model face-to-face interactions of teachers and students or fathers and sons revealing an interactive and personal view of Christian education. The Latin and vernacular works of Honorius Augustodunensis (1080–1154) tailored its material to its audiences, revealing a marked sensitivity to lay learners. His model sermon collection, Speculum ecclesiae, instructed clerics how to adapt teaching according to an audience's reception and interest. Tired and cold parishioners got shorter sermons and preachers expanded lessons for attentive audiences. Honorius also encouraged priests to adapt their language to the native tongue of their congregations, with Scripture read in Latin and explanations given in the vernacular. Honorius reminded his clerical readers that they were "mirrors," or living examples to the laity. Waters sees in this an optimistic assumption that laymen and laywomen were capable of emulating clerical behavior. Vernacular texts designed for private use by lay readers, such as Robert of Gretham's Miroir or Évangiles de domnées, reflected similar themes of lay empowerment. His work emphasized lay capabilities, offering them the "intellectual means by which to correct themselves, rather than simply [End Page 287] providing that direction directly" (31). Robert provided lay readers with "clerical tools," such as a method of exposition for "dark and difficult" portions of Scripture, from which the laity began to take on a new role and status as educated Christians. In doing so, authors such as Robert wrote themselves out of the picture, emphasizing a shared pursuit of faith with the lay reader. Didactic narratives such as revenant stories that focused on death and judgment motivated lay audiences spiritually while also minimizing the status differences between teachers and students. One account, given by the famous preacher Robert of Sorbon, featured a Paris master returned from hell to warn his former student to avoid "empty learning." Burdened by a cape woven of logical puzzles weighing "more than the towers of St. Germaine" he cautioned his student to fear the "therefore" of death more than its use in vain disputations. Accounts such as this collapse the status differences between teacher and student since both learned and unlearned must ultimately account for their actions at the Day of Judgment. They also highlight an important Christian paradox for those considering educational reform during this period: "It is good to learn, but only if you learn the right things; it is acceptable to be a holy fool, but not to be a fool tout court" (72). In addition to softening the differences between the learned and unlearned, Waters notes how didactic literature of this period taught the "irrelevance of earthly status" across all levels of society (63). Vernacular sinner-saints accounts such as those found in the l'Évangile de Nicoème, conveyed complex doctrines such as the two natures of Christ as expected but also presented the "equalizing implications of Christian teaching" (95...

NEW INSIGHTS, OLD TEXTS CLERICAL FORMATION AND THE CAROLINGIAN RENEWAL IN HRABANUS MAURUS

Hrabanus Maurus'sDe institutione clericorumis a masterpiece of clerical formation, emblematic of the Carolingian Renewal and esteemed by thinkers throughout the Middle Ages. In the third book, Hrabanus juxtaposes Augustine's teachings inDe doctrina christianawith Gregory the Great's instruction in theRegula pastoralisto craft an original case for a close connection between wisdom and moral life in priestly training. Hrabanus's effort concretizes long-standing concerns of Carolingian reformers reiterated in landmark reform documents from the late eighth and early ninth centuries. Moreover, throughout his life, Hrabanus periodically returns to his work on priestly formation for words and ideas to undergird subsequent efforts at integrating education with pastoral practice in a variety of genres, including his model sermons, his encyclopedic commentary, and his handbook for missionary conversion. In addition to highlighting Hrabanus's individual genius as one who adroitly applies traditional authorities in novel ways to contemporary problems, this study illumines the crucial role played by monasteries like Fulda as engines for the Carolingian reform.

Robert Rypon and the Creation of London, British Library, MS Harley 4894: A Master Preacher and his Sermon Collection

London, British Library, MS Harley 4894 is a handsome manuscript containing the fifty-nine extant sermons of Master Robert Rypon, a monk of Durham priory in England at the turn of the fifteenth century. Complete with illuminated initials and a detailed index, this sermon collection attests not only to the high regard in which Rypon was held as a preacher but to the resources that the monks were willing to expend in preserving his sermons and making them accessible to current and future readers. Like a model sermon collection the sermons are arranged in liturgical order, and the manuscript employs a system of marginal annotations which, together with its index, is designed to help readers navigate the collection. This article presents evidence, palaeographical and textual, suggesting that Rypon himself is the mastermind behind the creation of Harley 4894.

A Mendicant Sermon Collection from Composition to Reception: The ‘Novum opus dominicale’ of John Waldeby, OESA by Yuichi Akae (review)

Reviewed by: A Mendicant Sermon Collection from Composition to Reception: The ‘Novum opus dominicale’ of John Waldeby, OESA by Yuichi Akae Anna Milne-Tavendale Akae, Yuichi, A Mendicant Sermon Collection from Composition to Reception: The ‘Novum opus dominicale’ of John Waldeby, OESA ((Sermo, 7), Turnhout, Brepols, 2015; hardback; pp. xvi, 360; 7 b/w illustrations, 3 b/w tables, 1 b/w line art; R.R.P. €90.00; ISBN 9782503530345. Yuichi Akae’s contribution to Brepols’s Sermo series sets out to clarify and detail the systems constructed by the mendicant orders to support their preaching ministry, in particular that of the Austin friars in fourteenth-century [End Page 252] England. Akae undertakes what he calls a ‘vertical approach’ to his topic by focusing on a single-author model sermon collection, Novum opus dominicale, written by John Waldeby at the Austin convent at York. In contrast to previous horizontal approaches, which compare a number of sermons from different collections in order to ascertain the typicality of a sermon subject or its form, Akae explores Waldeby’s collection as a microcosm through which the technologies of late medieval England’s entire mendicant preaching and education systems can be determined. The book is divided into two distinct sections. The first section establishes in three chapters the wider context in which the Novus opus dominicale operated. Akae positions Waldeby as an important mendicant preacher and places him at the heart of the Augustinian educational reforms of the 1350s. Rejecting as overly speculative previous attempts to reconstruct Waldeby’s career through an examination of the wider educational system in which he acted, Akae provides a thorough and definitive replacement for previous biographical works on Waldeby based solely on available documentary evidence. Continuing a close textual examination, demonstrating linguistic and codicological proficiency, Akae compares surviving manuscripts of the Novum opus dominicale and their use and placement in the York convent library. He thus reveals the way that Waldeby’s sermon collection was ‘intended for multiple audiences’ and had multiple functions for its readers, the Augustinian youths in their novitiate and preachers from both within and beyond the York convent. The long and dense fourth chapter, which marks the beginning of Section II, is where Akae’s labour is most evident. Undertaking a complex comparison of Waldeby’s Novum opus with the Forma praedicandi of Robert Basevorn, he anatomises the modern sermon form used by the mendicants that appeared at the beginning of the thirteenth century. Placing the texts within the ‘same intellectual milieu’, he demonstrates that ‘Basevorn’s discussion of preaching techniques illuminates the intentions behind Waldeby’s particular practices. Waldeby’s sermons, on the other hand, supply concrete contexts for Basevorn’s explanatory language’ (pp. 116–17). While Akae admits that Waldeby’s and Basevorn’s shared context cannot be proven categorically, he maintains that the similarities between their approaches are ‘robust enough’ to conclude that they both relate to an identical and particular form of the modern sermon. In addition to revealing much about the techniques of sermon composition, viewing each text through the lens of the other has the benefit of adding to the discussion of the mindset of mendicant preachers and the paths that they needed to negotiate between language and audience, and the literacy and levels of education of their readers and hearers. When combined with Chapter 5, which analyses the role played by the concept of sign (signum) [End Page 253] as biblical interpretation and mnemonic technique to shed further light onto Waldeby’s mindset and the possible experiences of his audiences, Akae’s analysis draws attention to the hybrid nature of the modern sermon form between text and performance. He concludes that the preachers and audiences shared ‘a world of imagery’, going on to say: ‘The mental space visualized by the preacher is transmitted through his preaching to the audience, who is led to share the space and “see” things in this space’ (p. 260). Indeed, Akae likens this experience to the modern phrase ‘virtual reality’. In one of the more fascinating aspects of his analysis, Akae coins the term ‘fractal’ to describe the dynamic process of the modern sermon, which leading sermon scholar David d’Avray...

Regendering the Festial in British Library MSS Harley 2247 and Royal 18.B.XXV

This article examines the ways in which John Mirk’s Festial , a popular late fourteenth-century model sermon collection, was revised and edited in two mid-fifteenth-century manuscripts, British Library MSS Harley 2247 and Royal 18.B.XXV. While Mirk included stories and ideas designed for parochial audiences, many of those ideas were edited out of the Revision in order to create a more academic and intellectual version of the collection that would appeal to a somewhat more elite audience. This article argues that, in addition to making the sermons more academic, the sanctorale sermons (sermons that focus on celebrating the lives of saints) were edited in ways that minimize the power and authority possessed by Saint Anne, the Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalene, and Anna the Prophetess. Instead of Mirk’s active women who provide models of piety, in the Revision these women become passive figures who lack authority and who are dependent on masculine authority.

Practical Hagiography: James of Voragine’s Sermones and Vita on St Margaret of Antioch

In addition to his exceedingly popular Legenda Aurea, James of Voragine wrote in another hagiographical genre: sermons on the saints. The Sermones de sanctis likewise became immediately popular, as his Dominican brothers used James’s model sermons to learn to preach about the saints in a format that would provide the laity with intelligible and practical theological instruction. James’s corpus gives us a rather unusual opportunity to compare the ways in which a single author manipulates multiple hagiographical genres, and his writings on St Margaret of Antioch allow us to explore how a medieval preacher used a historically disputed saint — a dragon-fighter — to provide a practical model of sanctity to his lay audience. I compare the representations of Margaret in James’s sermones and vita, arguing that James adapted certain features of Margaret’s saintly example in the vita to instruct the audience of his sermons about proper Christian virtues and actions. As a point of comparison, I explore a sermon by Évrard of Val des Écoliers in which the Augustinian teaches his audience a practical skill — how to pray — through Margaret’s example.

Preachers as historians. The case of the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD

This article studies the uses of historical sources in thirteenth-century sermons. As the surviving corpus of the sermons is vast, one particular Sunday, namely the 10th Sunday after the Holy Trinity, which refers to the destruction of Jerusalem, was chosen for the analysis. In particular, it will examine the use of the widely copied model sermon collections. The author demonstrates that the writers of these sermons indeed used a wide selection of historical sources and that they sometimes had obvious gusto for historical writing. However, the historical reliability of the text was always secondary to the theological purposes. If theological argumentation demanded tampering with the historical evidence, it was done without remorse.