called by the Greek Church aKnoiofiivoi, and by the Latin audientes, " from their being admitted to hear ser- mons and the Scriptures read in the church ; but they were not allowed to stay during any of the prayers, not even during those that were said over the rest of the catechumens, or energumens, or penitents; but before these began, immediately after the sermon, at the word of command then solemnly used — ' Nc quis audientium ; Let none of the hearers be present' — they were to de- part the chiu-ch" (Bingham, Orig. Eccl. bk. x, c. ii, § 3). Preaching, having become a ceremony, w-as next cor- rupted by embellishments, and an artificial style adopt- ed from the Greek rhetoricians. Exhortations and ser- mons of a scriptiu-al character began to be substituted by formal orations, and panegyrics upon martyrs and confessors subsequently worshipped as saints. Never- theless, homilies, or familiar expositions of Scriptiu-e, were maintained by the ablest of the fathers, and were sometimes furnished for the use of clerics incompetent to produce original addresses (see Augustine, Doctrina Christiana, lib. iv). The 5th century has been called the oratorical period of the Church, with reference to the distinguished preachers who then flom-ished, such as Basil, Gregory Nazianzen, Gregory of Nyssa, Chry- sostom, and Augustine. Two books which have come down to us from the last-named fathers are often quoted as containing the best specimens of homiletical litera- ture that appeared both in the Greek and Latin church- es diu-ing the long period of a thousand years, if indeed they have ever been excelled in those churches; yet neither of these works formally or fuUy discussed the subject of preaching. Chrj'sostom's Tzepi 'Itpw^vvrjc, being devoted to the subject of the priesthood, only al- luded to preaching incidentally ; nevertheless, it embod- ied some excellent precepts concerning it, such as may be supposed to have governed the studies and the hab- its of the writer himself, and by means of which he ob- tained his wonderfid success. Yet no estimate of Chrj-- sostom (the golden-mouthed') can be accepted as just which does not concede to him extraordinarj' genius and transcendent abilities as an orator. Augustine, in his Doctrina Christiana, treated the subject of preach- ing more full}', and discussed it more S3'stematically. He divided his treatise into four books. 'Three of them are entitled De inrenimdo, and treat of invention in a broad sense, including the interjiretation of the Scrip- tures. These books have not in modern times been very highly valued. The fourth relates to expression, De profe7-(ndo. Although a brief fragment, it has been pronomiced the best homiletical production tiiat ap- peared between the days of Paul and Luther. It has been translated into various languages, and its most im- portant precepts have often been quoted, and in various forms reproduced. The chief intrinsic interest of this fragment from the pen of Augustine consists in its show- ing the best views of an eminent Christian bishop of the 4th century, who, after his conversion, made his Roman rhetorical education in a high degree subservient to the promulgation of Christian truth. Well would it have been for the Church of the following centiu-ies had the spirit and power of Augustine's instnictions to preachers been held in remembrance and kept in practice. But, unhappily, even this light became obscured. The Scrip- tures of truth having lapsed out of use, ceremonies be- came multiplied more and more. The doctrine of Christ's eternal sacrifice for sin having become corrupt- ed by incipient theories of transubstantiation, the pre- tended sacrifice of the IVIass rose to greater prominence, and so far usurped the time of public worship that ser- mons and homilies gave place to a diminutive form of public religious address caWeA postils. Even the func- tion of postulating was chiefly confined to bishops, the common clergy not attempting or being allowed to preach. As if such a degradation of one of the highest offices ever committed to men was not sufficient, preach- ing sank still lower by being employed for the promo- tion of error under the giuse of truth. INIediseval preach-
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liig was largely occupied in culogiziiig the Virgin 'Man; and in exciting reverence for the pictures and images of saints. Thus preaching was made to corrupt the very religion it was designed to promote. Beyond this, it even became the agency of exciting millions of men to war and bloodshed. Successive crusades were preach- ed by popes and friars, and even the cruel persecutions of the Albigenses were stimulated by the preaching of vengeance against innocent men, who sought to follow Christ in sinceritj'. For such ends, more than for the promulgation of truth, were several orders of preaching and mendicant monks established in the 13th century. Among these, the Dominicans were the founders and principal abettors of the Inquisition, while others, of less cruel temper, went about to harangue the masses in the interests of papal supremacy, and to promote the sale of indulgences.
2. It was not till medieval superstition had culmina- ted in the grossest abuses, and the Reformation had be- gmi to exert a counter influence, that the Scriptures be- gan to be restored to their proper supremacy. From that period the original design and true character of preaching came to be better comprehended. Much of the preaching of the liefonnatioa was indeed contro- versial, but so far as it was founded on the Word of God it tended to revive scriptural conceptions of the preach- ing office. The diligence of the Protestant reformers in promulgating their views made preaching also neces- sary to Roman Catholics, among whom, from that time, it became more common, and, especially in Protestant countries, it Avas no longer confined to bishops, but en- joined upon the clergy of all grades.