RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Preaching
Angelus a St. Claudia, whose diction and figures belong to the seventeenth century. Still there were prophecies of better things to come as in the discourses of Hermann Schlosser, who with approach to better form united an uncommon knowledge of Scripture. Anti-Protestant polemics characterized the sermons of Franz Neumayr of Augsburg, and of Alois Merx (d. 1792) ; a much finer diction was employed by Ignaz Wurz of Vienna (d. 1784), as well as an excellent style and material full of substance. The influence of the Enlightenment was seen in B. Bolzano (d. 1848), B. M. von Werkmeister, and the Franciscan Eulogius Schneider (d. 1794) . A. Selmar represented a utilitarian tendency. One of the noblest figures of the Roman Catholic pulpit was Johann Michael von Sailer (q.v.), pious, gentle, and broad, whose theory of preaching was that it was not the duty of the preacher merely to stimulate to performance of duty, but he was to furnish sustenance to the hungry soul. He displayed great clearness, versatile exposition, a wealth of deep and often flashing thought, a deep veneration of God, warm love for man, and a corresponding charitable peace of soul. With Sailer stood a group of men who might be called his school, in some of whom the universality of Christianity was emphasized against the Roman Catholicism of others. Of these may be mentioned Michael Nathanael Feneberg (q.v.), who preached a faith made fruitful in good works; Xavier Bayr, and the highly endowed Langenmayr of Augsburg; and the praiseworthy Christoph von Schmid (d. 1854), the writer for young people. In the bishopric of Augsburg alone were sixty priests with this tendency. Much assailed because of his preaching of righteousness through faith was Martin Boos (q.v.); Ignaz Lindl was one of the most popular preachers of his day, and was called to St. Petersburg, where he preached long in brilliant and inspired style, sermons, somewhat ecstatic in method and content, as well as chiliastic in tone, which brought finally his separation and building of an independent congregation. Johannes Evangelista Gossner (q.v.) preached in Munich the Gospel of " Christ in us and for us," a really Evangelical preacher in the fold of the Roman Catholic Church, from which he finally went out, and numerous collections of his sermons attest the real value of his pulpit work. Aloys Henhofer and Charles Paschal Telesphore Chiniquy (qq.v.) are to be named here, as well as J. H. Wichern (q.v.).
Apart from this Evangelical movement are to be remembered such pulpit orators as G. A. Dietl of Landshut (d. 1809), savory in illustration and expression; and the independent and suggestive T. A. Dereser (d. 1827), court preacher at Carlsruhe and professor in Lucerne and Breslau. Still more significant from the standpoint of the pulpit was the convert from Judaism Johann Emil Veith, author of works on medical science and in belles let-
2 tat ^res as we^ as *n homiletics. His ser- Ten'dencies mons are rhetorical in style, natural, clear, richly illustrated from history, picturesque, with an infusion of versatile polemics, and normal in arrangement. With him are to be recalled men like Melchior Freiherr von Diepenbrock (q.v.), Johannes von Geissel (d. 1864), Joseph Oth-
mar von Raucher (d. 1875), archbishop of Vienna, Prince-bishop Heinrich von Forster of Breslau (d. 1881), Franz Xaver Dieringer (d. 1876), professor at Bonn. In France about the middle of the nineteenth century a brilliant figure was Jean Baptiste Henri Lacordaire (q.v.), while Pere Hyacinthe (Loyson, q.v.) later left the Roman Catholic fold. The Roman Catholic pulpit of the present has an essentially ecclesiastical-missionary character, emphasizing not the doctrines of sin and the free grace of God, but the Church as an institution of salvation, and obedience to her commands. Scripture as furnishing the text has a much looser connection with the sermon than in the Evangelical pulpit, and the sermon itself is shallower. Of course there are not wanting sermons which fathom deeply Christian verity, but this type is rather exceptional. The general method is practical and popular, stressing the ecclesiastical, not avoiding reference to the saints and their legends. This has its advantages from the standpoint of people to whom thinking is unusual, but it reveals the general weakness of the Roman Catholic pulpit. (M. Schian.)
IV. Preaching in the English Tongue. — 1. Before the Reformation: Traces of the beginnings of preaching in Anglo-Saxon are found in Bede's Historia ecclesiastica. Through the preaching of Paulinus in the year 625 " the nation of the Northumbrians, that is, the nation of the Angles," received Christianity. Further, Pauli- . " e nus of York (q.v.) labored " to conon Period." ver* some 0I tne pagans to a state of grace by his preaching." Thus it would appear that he addressed them either directly or through an interpreter in their own tongue. This work was not enduring, but later (in 633) King Oswald wished to bring the Northumbrian Angles back to the faith, and sent to the Scots for a preacher. Aidan (q.v.) was dispatched from Iona, and his ministry was highly successful. He preached through interpreters. One charming story relates that " when the bishop, who was not skillful in the English tongue, preached the gospel, it was most delightful to see the king himself interpreting the word of God to his commanders and ministers." Others of the Saxon kingdoms received the word through preaching. Among the preachers to the common people was Saint Cuthbert (q.v.), who is described as a " skilful orator," who delighted to go to obscure places for weeks at a time and " allure that rustic people by his preaching and example to heavenly employments." Bede himself reports in Latin a number of monkish sermons, of more or less doubtful authenticity. Bede also preached to the people in their own tongue, and tradition reports that his word was with power. From the eighth century on there was much preaching by English monks in the vernacular, and there are a number of Saxon homilies dating from both before and after the Norman Conquest in 1066. One of the homilists was Wulfstan (q.v.), archbishop of York (d. 1023). Of him Professor Earle says (English Prose, p. 383, London, 1890), " Of all the writers before the Conquest whose names are known to us, Wulfstan is the one whose diction has the most marked physiognomy." There is also a collection of translations
Preaching