val period, few can be mentioned on account of distin- guished ability as preachers. The two men who, per- haps, more than others deserve such mention were An- tony of Padua, subsequently canonized as a saint, and the Jesuit Antonio Vieyra, both natives of Portugal of the former, it has been said that -his rare talentsas a preacher caused him to be employed on unceasing missions through the north and centre of Italy, especial- ly in the neighborhood of Bologna ami Padua." "We have the most ample testimony to the popularity of his sermons. The churches where he was to preach wire thronged from daybreak. .Multitudes were unable to force their way in at the doors. Often it happened that the preacher had to come out of the building and ad- dress his auditors in the open air. Shops were closed, thoroughfares deserted. The crowds that Hocked to sermon were sometimes calculated at thirty thousand persons. Nor were the effects less striking — Italian hatreds reconciled; men thai had prepared the stiletto for an enemy hurrying into bis embrace, a forgiving and a forgiven friend; women leaving oil' their orna- ments, and selling them for the beiieiit ofthepoor; old. hardened sinners brought to immediate confession" t Xcale. Mi, I'm ml Preaching). As in the case of many other popular preachers. Antony was greatly given to allegorizing, often introducing into his sermons animals, birds, and even lishes. and putting into their mouths quaint messages lor human ears.
Vieyra was bom in 1608, later than the usual limit of the period under consideration; nevertheless, from his style and general character, be has been usually
called ■■ the last of the mediaeval preachers.'' 'Ihc great- er part of his life was spent in Brazil, though for a lime he served as court preacher at Lisbon. During that period he visited various cities of Europe, and even preached at Lome in the Italian language. His labors as superior of the missions i;i Brazil were Belf-Sacriftl nig.
requiring him to travel thousands ol leagues on foot through the wildest regions, and to traverse immense
rivers in canoes; yet be was ever ready to preach to a
few natives through an interpreter, or to persons of rank
and influence in society. His great talent was satire, which he did not scruple to employ both in and out of the pulpit. At Maranhatn. one of the northern cities of Brazil, be preached a noted sermon •• To the I isb< -."
after the method of Antony of Padua. It was based upon the text "Ye are tin- salt of the earth." Ill style and ingenuity it is not unlike his book entitled Tht Ait of Stealing, which is regarded as a species of classic in the Portuguese language. Vieyra lived to an advanced
age and died at the city of Labia, having, in eircimi- BtanceS where printing was difficult, published Hot less than thirteen volumes of sermons, which were followed
b\ tWO others after bis death.
IV. 'flu Modern Period. The beginning of the great
Reformation was characterized by a revival ol' preach-
PULPIT ELOQUENCE
ing. It was by preaching that the Reformers sought to expose the errors and corruptions into which the Church had fallen, as well as to set forth the doctrines of the Word of God. Thus Peter Waldo in the south of France, Wycliffe in England, Huss and Jerome of Prague in Bohemia, Savonarola in Italy, Luther and Melancthon in Germany, Zwingli in Switzerland, and Farel and Calvin in Switzerland and France, pursued similar courses and with similar success. Wherever such men were not overborne and crushed by opposition, they were sustained and followed by an ever-increasing num- ber of preachers. Hence it may be said that since the Reformation preaching has been in all Protestant coun- tries a universal accompaniment of public worship. It has not only been maintained at a single service on the Lord's-day, but usually twice or thrice in each church, and often at other times during the week. This custom has called into action a vast number of preachers, and developed the preaching talent of the Church more thoroughly than it had ever been previously cultivated subsequent to the apostolic age.
As attack prompts defence, so the zeal of Protestant preachers called out new activity and enlisted new tal- ent among the preachers of the Roman Catholic Church. The preaching orders became greatly stimulated. Preach- ing ceased to be confined to bishops. Priests and curates began to preach, at least to the extent of endeavoring to antagonize Protestant influences. Thus in the two great sections of Christendom a new prominence was given to the preaching office. It is true that among Roman Catholics the mass still held the precedence and preach- ing did not universally become a part, of Sabbath ser- vices. Nevertheless, in Protestant countries Roman Catholics came by degrees to maintain preaching in about as great frequency as the Protestants around them. Even the seating of churches and cathedrals for the convenience of auditors — a custom still unknown in Roman Catholic countries — has come to be common among the Roman Catholics of England and America.
It may thus be seen that the influence of the Refor- mation tended to increase in various ways the activity and power of the pulpit. It certainly secured for preach- ing a degree of prominence and frequency unknown to any previous period following the days of the apostles. While the impulse thus given to pulpit eloquence has never died out, its effects have been variable in different countries and at different periods. In Germany, for ex- ample, after the Reformation became so far established as to be incorporated into the political institutions of the people, the Protestant pulpit suffered a decline in its power from which it has not even yet fully recovered. The causes of that decline were numerous, involving the influence of Jesuitic opposition, false philosophy, scepti- cism in various forms, and, worst of all, a prevalent in- difference to the power of religious truth and the neces- sity of a personal religious life.