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Preaching, History of
PREACHING, HISTORY OF.
I. In the Early Church.
1. Apostolic and Post-Apostolic Preaching.
It has occurred not infrequently that those who would give a history of preaching point to the apostolic letters in the New Testament as examples of apostolic homiletics. While these epistles undoubtedly give the form in which the apostles set forth the foundations and of Christian faith, it can not be too strongly emphasized that they are Preaching, not sermons. The epistolary style governs throughout. This position must be maintained in spite of the newest hypothesis advanced by Wrede and others to the effect that, particularly in the epistle to the Hebrews, and also in other New-Testament writings original addresses to Christian congregations are to be suspected. While this hypothesis has much in its favor, the proof of the existence of oral discourses therein has not been conclusively advanced. While, then, this idea has largely been given up, the more strongly do expounders of the history of preaching rest upon the discourses of Peter and Paul as reported in the Acts of the Apostles. Yet here difficulties arise some maintaining that the speeches there reported are to a greater or less degree the product of the author of that book while others decide that they are a working over of the actual discourses. Even conservative critics, however, agree with the others that the discourses were not exactly taken from the mouth of the speaker and are not exact reproductions of the speeches actually delivered, related as they are in style to other parts of the same book. On the other hand it is to he noted that the discourses have the character of sermons in that they have a direct relation to the concrete situation in 159 which they are given. Peter's discourses in Acts ii. 14 sqq., and iii. 12 sqq., deal with Pentecost and the healing of the lame man, while that in x. 34 sqq. is controlled by the vision of the context regarding clean and unclean. Paul's discourse in xiii. 16 sqq. has the character of a missionary address, the speech at Athens is exactly suited to a disputatious body of philosophers; but the address reported in xx. 17 sqq. is almost entirely personal, and is therefore not strictly a sermon. In all these examples, whatever partakes of the general character of the sermon is missionary in type. At any rate, these discourses afford little or nothing bearing on the history of preaching. Yet they may suggest the direction which preaching took in those times in the conflict with heathenism, the use of resources supplied by heathenism itself, the exposition of what had come through Christ, and the appeal to the ethical consciousness of the hearer. Acts ii. 42–43 indicates further the practise of the apostles in giving instruction to the community (cf. I Cor. xii.–xiv.; Rom. xii. 6–8; I Pet. iv. 10); but neither rules nor settled custom limited the brotherly communications. If a general term be needed to apply to the religious speeches of that period, it can take only the form of "free brotherly utterance." For the post-apostolic period the testimony of Justin Martyr is of special value (I Apol. lxvii.; Eng. transl., ANF, i. 186), showing the reading of Scripture and exhortation of a practical character based on the passage read. Tertullian (Apol. xxxix; Eng. transl., ANF, ii. 46) further illustrates the character of the discourses of that period (cf. De animo, ix.; ANF, iii. 188) when he says: "With the sacred words we nourish our faith, animate our hope, make our confidence more steadfast, and by inculcations of God's precepts confirm good habits." The one sermon from those times, the so-called II Epistle of Clement, is practical in character: it shows the reading of Scripture, the address only loosely connected therewith, read not spoken (chap. xix.), inculcating service of Christ with works and not with the mouth, and urging to repentance and charity and with pure heart to the service of God. A. Harnack has called attention (Der Presbyter-Prediger des Irenæus, in Philotesia, Paul Kleinert gewidmet, Berlin, 1907) to the fact that in the received remains of the literary work of Irenæus fragments from sermons of a "Presbyter-preacher" are extant which furnish examples of the earliest Christian exegetical-polemic homilies in existence.
2. The Period 200–300 A.D.
Origen (q.v.), the great thinker and scholar of the Greek Church, is the father of the sermon as a fixed ecclesiastical custom, to whom can be traced the theological-practical exposition of a definite text as well as the homily. It is noteworthy that, at that period of the separation of divine service into a homiletical-didactic part and a mystical part, the sermon was missionary and apologetic in type and suited to instruct the catechumens. It took the form of explication and application of the text, using particularly the method of allegory, which from that time on became prevalent and controlled the homiletical use of Scripture until the Reformation. Origen in his preaching followed the passage verse by verse, expounding it grammatically and historically, but dwelt most upon the deeper mystical or allegorical meaning, but he never forgot that the true purpose of the sermon is to develop the moral sense. Equipped with fine memory, marvellous knowledge of Scripture, and great learning, he knew how to apply the little things spiritually, practically, and often in a broad and general sense. He usually closed with the doxology. His appeal was rather to the perception than to the will. Of further development of the sermon in the school of Origen little is known. The homilies ascribed to Gregory Thaumaturgus (q.v.) are probably of later origin and recall the style of the Persian sage Aphraates (q.v.). The celebration of saints' days influenced the homily through the practise of pronouncing panegyrics, and this goes back into the third century. From the West there are remains of the sermons of the schismatic Roman bishop, Hippolytus (q.v.), but these are too fragmentary to guide to a decision regarding his style of preaching, and the longer addresses ascribed to him are probably not genuine. The sermon thus ascribed, which is entitled "On the Holy Theophany" and deals with the baptism of Jesus (Matt. iii.), follows closely the scriptural basis, yet has not the form of the exegetical homily; it appears more like a vibrating, picturesque hymn, and is the transition from the simple homily to the artistic synthetic sermon to the congregation. Since the writing Adversus aleatores, ascribed by Harnack to the second century (see Cyprian, § 5), is probably of later date, examples of Latin eloquence are to be sought first in Tertullian. Yet even from him no samples of the sermon have come down, though his primitive, fresh, spiritual, granulous, and always sententious style long remained the pattern for the eloquence of the Latin Church. Cyprian took Tertullian as his model in the development of dialectical yet practical, warm, and piercing persuasiveness. Lactantius mentions the celebrity of Cyprian's sermons, of which none are certainly extant.
3. Greco-Syrian Preaching 300–450 A.D.
With the victory of Christianity and the development of the service came a soaring of the sermon. Preaching became more frequent, being employed even during the week and during fast seasons in some places daily. As the Church during that period assimilated more and more Greco-Roman culture, the sermon developed pari passu. The most noted Christian preachers had not seldom been educated in the rhetorical schools of the heathen, and employed in their sermons the rules of rhetoric and the artistic effects taught there, and polish became almost an end, often giving more brilliancy than warmth. The hearers came to look for esthetic satisfaction rather than for edification, leaving after the sermon and before the Eucharist. Especially did the eulogy lead to a strained ostentation which showed no middle way between the purpose of the sermon and classical oratory. The homily retained its method of analytical explanation and application. The modern structural sermon had not yet been born. The sermon began with a rhetorical statement of the object and continued with salutation or invocation 160of blessing. The different currents of the life of the Church are exhibited in the discourses. Alongside of the Alexandrian allegorical method was the Antiochian grammatical-historical plan; doctrinal controversy was reflected; as were the tendencies toward sacrificialism and ceremonialism and the increasing practise of veneration of the saints and of the Virgin and toward asceticism. Polemics were not absent. In the East the sermon was often imaginative, poetic, even bombastic and wordy; in the West the rhetoric was more sober, and the sermon practical, simple, and clear. The function came to be confined to the bishops and the presbyters, the deacon requiring the authorization of the bishop before he could officiate. The bishop preached sitting; the audience stood in North Africa but sat in Italy and the East. The sermon came in the first part of the service after singing and reading of Scripture its length varied, and in the Greek Church all the audience did not always await the conclusion.
4. Individual Preachers.
The Greco-Syrian sermon divides into the Practical-rhetorical, the dogmatic-didactic, and the ascetic-mystical. Eusebius of Cæsarea (q.v.) forms the transition to this period, and already shows the style of the Byzantine court in a tendency to bombast and flattery after the pattern furnished in the Greek schools of rhetoric. But the leader in establishing the practical-rhetorical school of preaching was Basil the Great (q.v.), who gained his title by his preaching. He was bold, brilliant without aiming at brilliance, looking rather for force than elegance of diction, earnest, possessing a lively imagination, clearness, orderliness, and solidity of thought. All this made him, next to Chrysostom, the pattern of the Greek Church. Gregory of Nyssa (q.v.) stood near Basil in eminence in power of exposition and fluency, and excelled him as a thinker. His skill was less the product of nature than of art, and his turn of mind was speculative, philosophical, theological, with a strong trend to the allegorical. He was at his best in addresses commemorating persons of high estate, martyrs, and saints. Gregory Nazianzen possessed a solicitous soul with a tender spirit, in whom the wish for seclusion fought with the desire to use his splendid gifts for the community. A born orator of great versatility, he had, as compared with Basil, a feminine and receptive nature. His theological ideas were clear, his dialectic nimble, his imagination lively; his diction was elegant and his style deeply affected with irony often tempered with pathos, while he could flash out with invective. A defender of the doctrine of the Trinity and fond of dogmatic discussion, especially of the problems then alive in the Church, he did not lose sight of practical needs. His sermon followed a single thought and purpose, yet not without digressions. Greek preaching reached its eminence in the Antiochian school, which employed classical norms, alongside of exegetical, rhetorical, and popularly practical elements. Of this school Chrysostom (q.v.) was the chief exponent, combining in himself the exegete and the grammarian. Among those who employed the dogmatic-didactic style Eusebius of Emesa (q.v.) is probably to be numbered, though his homilies are lost. The name is to be said of Cyril of Jerusalem (q.v.). The homilies of Cyril of Alexandria (q.v.) have a dogmatic-polemic cast. The Antiochian Theodoret, bishop of Cyrrhus (q.v.), was peculiarly a homilist, as is shown in his ten addresses on divine providence, in which he preaches a sort of natural religion. Keen insight, orderly exposition, concise and luminous diction characterize his work. Examples of ascetic-mystical sermonizing come from the recluses of the desert. The twenty-nine addresses of the Egyptian monk Isaiah partake of the character of primitive Christianity, dealing partly with practical and common Christianity, in part with matter for the monks. Fifty homilies of the elder Macarius (see Macarius, 1) survive; they are textless, answer questions put by the monks, are full of noble pictures, deeply ethical, and emphasize the corruption of soul and body and the mystical union with Christ. Ephraem Syrus (q.v.), while belonging with this group, was eminently original. His was a native, not an acquired, homiletical genius, and his inspiration was a holy zeal for the orthodox faith and for the monastic ideal. Poetic brilliancy and the might of his exposition make of him one of the great preachers of the early Church. The swing of his thought is united with a metrical silveriness of diction, while the stream of his emotions combining with a fulness of imagination compel him to the use of exclamation, question, apostrophe, and other varieties of rhetorical expression. He is a mighty preacher of repentance.
5. Zeno, Ambrose, Augustine.
The sermon bloomed out near the end of this period in independent form through Augustine and Leo (q.v), who were long the best fruits of homiletic study in the West. During the fourth century the West did not simply imitate the East, it copied it. Bishop Zeno of Verona (q.v.) has left ninety-three genuine sermons or tracts. His best examples deal with patience, humility, modesty, covetousness, and he was largely dependent upon Basil. In strong contrast with these earlier preachers of the West stood Augustine (q.v.), who was distinguished for his energy and tirelessness as a preacher. The sermons of Augustine are strong in the elements of experience, witness-bearing, dialectic, and practical application; they are less affected by secular training and more infused with the Gospel; they give the impression of being by a man who had triumphed over the flesh, false philosophy, heathendom, and heresy, who spoke from the depths of his own living experience. They show the gifts of keen understanding, a power of deep speculation, precise expression, wide powers of illustration, and a deep sense of what salvation means. Augustine employs allegory less than the Greeks, stresses more the historical narratives of the Old Testament, and suppresses polemics more. His speeches show unity, coordination, and plan; the ethical elements are deeply Christian, the dialectic is keen, the antitheses are pregnant, and the thought is spiritual. His sermons on festal days, in rimed prose, deserve especial mention.
6. The Greek Church Continued.
In the Greek Church of the period from the fifth 161 century the decadence of preaching is visible in the excessive pomposity of verbiage in pulpit oratory, which concerned itself largely with the cultus of the saints and of Mary, with dogmatic hair-splitting, with asceticism, and with the value of works of piety. The development of the ritual in the brilliant unfolding of liturgy made the place of the sermon ever narrower and lessened its importance. After the great figures of the fourth century, Greek preaching seems to have exhausted itself, while to the people the sermon was purely secondary as compared with the liturgy. Its contents, dealing with legends of the saints, veneration of Mary, polemics against heresy, and with declamatory exposition of the cultus, justify this estimate. The three sermons of Proclus on the theotokos and twenty homilies on festal days are dogmatic-polemic in character. For Basil of Seleucia, Jacob of Sarug, and Andrew of Crete see the articles. Of the later sermonizing in the Greek Church little need be said. The genuineness of the sermons ascribed to John of Damascus (q.v.) is still under discussion. These exemplify the failings of the period—search of the Old Testament for types, allegorizing, mystical juggling with numbers, legendary handling of the Gospel history, and the like. A lesser star is Theodore the Studite (q.v.), whose 135 Sermones paraenetici are extempore addresses to monks, often containing fiery exhortations and well-rounded figures. His other sermons exhibit the taste of the times for the pompous and the superstitious. Where the sermon continues in the Greek Church, it occurs either before or after the mass. Of preachers of a later time may be noted Theophanes Kerameus, archbishop of Taormina (c. 1050), sixty-two homilies on the Gospel for the day, simple, popular, expository; Eustathius, archbishop of Thessalonica (c. 1194), who declaimed against hypocrisy, monkish love of ostentation, ascetic externalism, superstition, and frivolity; Germanus, patriarch of Constantinople (c. 1240); John Caleca (1330); Gregory Palamas, archbishop of Thessalonica; Gennadius II., of Constantinople (q.v.); and from the modern Russian Church Malow, archpriest in St. Petersburg, Philaretus, metropolitan in Moscow, and especially Innokenti, bishop of Charkow.
7. The Post-Augustinian Latin Church.
In the West the post-Augustinian sermon stood on a lower plane than that of Augustine himself. The chief sign of decadence is found in the lack of originality; Augustine remains the model, though adornment and elaboration have their part. The use of pericopes had its influence upon the sermon, which was employed to explain the Scripture selections. Preaching was also centered about the particular occasion and less bound to the text. For Gaudentius of Brescia, Peter Chrysologus, and Maximus of Turin see the articles. Leo I. (q.v.) is the first Roman bishop to leave behind Latin sermons (ninety-six on feast and fast days, etc.). While he is inferior to Augustine in fulness and depth of thought, he excels him in elegance, in piquant pregnancy of style, and in the rhythm of his sentences. While he employs sermons on festal occasions for dealing with the controversies of the period, he preaches no monkish morality, though there is little of exposition of Scripture in his preaching. It is greatly to the honor of Gregory the Great (q.v.) that he used the sermon to good effect and stimulated others; yet his sermons are best characterized by the word "practical." They are intelligible, simple, suited to the capacity of his hearers. Fulgentius of Ruape in North Africa (q.v.) imitates in speech and method Augustine and Leo, employing antithesis and pregnant brevity without polish yet with success. Among the preachers of Gaul mention may be made of Hilary of Arles; and Faustus of Riez (qq.v.). Cæsarius of Arles (q.v.) is of high importance in the history of preaching. He did not disdain the application of the finest art, but to gain polish did not sacrifice contents. To enchain his hearers be used especially parable and dialogue, and was not altogether free from allegorizing. Yet through all there was the background of a strong religious personality, employing forceful ethical truths.
II. In the Middle Ages.
1. To the Twelfth Century.
1. Character of the Sermon.
The Christianizing of the lands to which the Latin tongue was foreign furnished new occasion for the sermon of the Western Church. While the service was in Latin, the sermon required the use of the vernacular of the region. Irenæus at Lyons preached to the Celtic natives in their own language, though with the Latinizing of Gaul, the Latin sermon came in. So in Germany, Gallus knew the speech of the Allemanni, Boniface preached to the Frieslanders in their own tongue, and in Carolingian times there were directions so to preach that the people might understand. In spite of these facts, from the early part of the Middle Ages there are few remains of sermons in the vernacular, yet numerous works of the kind in Latin. But behind German vernacular lurked Latin conceptions and thinking. Before the clergy, Latin retained its rights. The sermons of this period show little originality; many of them were either translations or imitations of the homilies of the Fathers, especially of Augustine, Leo, or Gregory. The collections of sermons fostered this, e.g., the Homiliarium of Paul the Deacon (q.v.), and they became the resource of preachers, smothering independent work. The duty of preaching was principally assigned to the bishops; the priests in the rural parishes shared in this work, though but little of the product of the latter has survived (the period 900–1100 has been called "the period of the bishop's sermon"). The "rule" of Chrodegang (q.v.) required preaching once a fortnight at least; the Carolingian synods provided for preaching every Sunday and feast day. The sermon generally centered about the Gospel for the day, which it immediately followed; though sermons were also built on the Epistle. The extent of the sermons meant for the people is generally small; those meant for use in the cloisters were longer. The former show a fondness for legendary material, the latter are, allegorical-mystical. The foregoing pictures the condition of things for a long period, though ecclesiastical fostering of the sermon is abundantly evident. Thus Bishop Theodolf of Orléans, in his162 capitular of 797, may be quoted: "We exhort you (the priests) to be ready to teach the people; whoever knows the Scripture, let him preach Scripture; and whoever knows not Scripture, let him teach, at least, that which is surely known, so that the people may refuse the evil and do what is good, inquire after peace and follow it." In a capitular of 801 the same prelate ordered that: "the priests are to be urged on the Lord's Days, each in accord with his ability, to preach to the people." To like effect might be quoted the Capitulare episcoporum of 801, the Synod of Tours (canon 17; 813), the Council of Reims (canon 15; 813), the capitular of CharIemagne of the year 789 (chap. lxxxii. deals with "the preaching of bishops and presbyters"). This last goes further and prescribes the subjects to be dealt with in the sermon, covering the great topics of theological consideration and the Christian virtues.
2. Individual Preachers.
From what has already been said it may be inferred that what has come down is not the actual sermon as delivered, but in part the preparatory notes or later reports written down, and in part collections of model sermons. Most noted of these is the Homiliarium of Paul the Deacon (q.v.; and see Homiliarium), These collections make much use of patristic homiletic literature, few bearing the marks of individuality. Thus Rabanus Maurus (q.v.) used Cæsarius of Arles, though he impressed upon his collection a distinct moralizing characteristic. The personality of Haimo of Halberstadt (q.v.) is also recognizable in his collection; the homilies are longer and deal with geographical, historical, and exegetical questions, and stick closely to the text. There is a series of Latin sermons which, though ascribed to well-known men, are not surely genuine. Thus thirteen Instructiones, which appear to have been delivered before monks, go under the name of St. Columban (q.v.); a Latin sermon ascribed to Gallus, a pupil of Columban, belongs to a later date. If the homilies ascribed to St. Elegius (q.v.) be genuine, they show him to have been a man who aimed at the principal matters. The sermons ascribed to Boniface (q.v.) are not genuine. Similarly from the twelfth century collections of sermons have come down. Thus a homiletical help known as the Speculum ecclesiæ, which used to be ascribed to Honorius of Autun (q.v.) but probably came from the hermit Honorius, is of Latin origin, is practically identical with the Deflorationes of which Abbot Werner was the reputed author. It is of great significance for the history of preaching in Germany. Another book of the kind is the so-called Physiologus, which goes back to Greek preaching, but brings legends of animals into allegorical connection with Christian verities. It appears in various forms, both Latin and German. Of Latin origin are the sermons of Abbot Gottfried of Admont; meant for instruction in the monastery, exegetical in character. The twenty-nine homilies of the monk Boto are instructive, while the five sermons of Berengoz (q.v.) were intended for monks, and have at their basis a Biblical passage. The thirteen sermons of Eckbert of Schönau are controversial and directed against the Cathari (see New Manicheans, II.).
3. German and French Pulpit.
The oldest remains of early German sermons are in manuscripts at Munich and Vienna dating from the eleventh century. These sermons are the result of the working over of deliverances of Augustine and Gregory. From the twelfth century a greater number of sermon collections have come down. The most important of these is that containing the sermons of the Priest Conrad. The absence of a name from most of these collections would lead one rightly to infer that they display little originality; and this dependence upon earlier work continues, for the later German collections use those which preceded them. In method these German sermons are not to be differentiated from the Latin. The Biblical passage is briefly explained at the beginning, then the passage is followed in the order of its verses, while allegory is employed and all sorts of meanings are discovered. Introduction, discussion, and exordium are all brief. The book of sermons of Conrad gives sufficient for a full year. For Sundays the epistle is first briefly discussed, and then the Gospel, somewhat more at length. For the festivals a number of selections are given, and a series of sermons on the saints completes the whole. Preachers among the bishops of this period who deserve mention are Solomon of Constance (d. 930), who often preached to the people; Archbishop Bruno of Cologne (q.v.); Conrad of Constance (d. 976); Wolfgang of Regensburg (d. 994); Archbishop Heribert of Cologne (998–1011), whose preaching is described by Rupert of Deutz; Archbishop Anno of Cologne (q.v.); Archbishop Bardo of Mainz (d. 1051), the Chrysostom of his times; Gotthard of Hildesheim (q.v.); and the preaching hermit Guenther. The German sermon of the period prior to 1200 exhibits a popular and practical character. The preaching in France of this period ran parallel with that in Germany. Homiliaria existed there as well as in Germany, and from the twelfth century there are rich remains in manuscript form. Maurice de Sully, archbishop of Paris (d. 1196), was greatly celebrated as a preacher.
2. Twelfth to the Fifteenth Century.
1. Leading Influences to Improvement
A complete change came over the spirit of the sermon in the period from the twelfth to the fifteenth century. The development of theology in France, the influence of Scholasticism and Mysticism, of the crusades and the begging friars, reformatory movements, and the development of a higher culture gave a new impulse to preaching and in part a new content, and affected even the form in favor of a more artistic and finished product. In the sermon of the eleventh and twelfth centuries there were signs of betterment. Fulbert of Chartres (q.v.) exhibits the beginnings of scholastic preaching in a learned, dogmatic-polemic, allegorical, dialectic, and demonstrative style. The sermons of Peter Damian (q.v.) exhibit an extravagant bent for the cult of the Virgin, as do those of Bishop Amadeus of Lausanne (d. 1158); Anselm (q.v.) is not to be overlooked. Other preachers of note were Gottfried of Vendome, Hildebert of Tours, and Abelard (qq.v.). The beginnings of popular Preaching appear in the predecessors of the begging 163monks, and a fresh, stirring spirit marks the age of the crusades as the champions mingle with the high and low and urge the freeing of the Holy Land. The monk Radulph preached the crusade and also hatred of the Jews; Norbert of Xante, archbishop of Magdeburg, was a Second John the Baptist in his preaching of repentance, while in France were Robert of Arbrissel and Fulco of Neuilly (q.v.). The preaching of the mystics took deep hold of the people, especially that of Hugo of St. Victor, Bernhard of Clairvaux, the greatest preacher of his age, and Hildegard of Bingen. The Latin and German preaching of the scholastics reflects the characteristics of their philosophical discussions—definitions, distinctions, questions, arguments, and the like. The style varies, but a definite unity now begins to rule, whether the sermon is textual or thematic. Noted names are Cæsarius of Heisterbach and Anthony of Padua (qq.v). Albertus Magnus (q.v.) was known for his series of sermons on a single text (Prov. ix. 5), the first of the kind, while the sermons of his pupil Thomas Aquinas (q.v.) show a dry formalism and dialectic arrangement, as do those of Hugo of St. Cher (q.v.), and Petrus de Palude, patriarch of Jerusalem. German sermons scholastic in character were those of Nicholas of Landau (e. 1340), and Henry of Frimar (d. about 1340), of whose work little but skeleton appears. Jordan of Quedlinburg (middle of the fourteenth century) preached against the sects and against mysticism. Henry of Langenstein (q.v.), in his Sermones de tempore per annum, handles the Gospel pericopes in scholastic fashion. In this period belong the sermons wrongly ascribed to Albertus Magnus, which, while Evangelical and practical in interest, are yet scholastic in type.
2. Characteristics of the Sermon.
The popular preaching of the begging friars in the thirteenth century was a reaction against the stiff dogmatism of scholasticism. The members of the orders were allowed to preach without special permission from the bishops, and the results were important, going as they did to the masses in a fresh, natural, concrete, and often dramatic style. While sometimes the addresses bordered on the grotesque, yet a deep and broad comprehension of the essentials of the Gospel was present, and the sermons were ethical in content and urged to repentance. Distinguished names are the Dominican John of Vicenza, the noted preacher of crusades and prosecutor of heretics Conrad of Marburg (q.v.), the Augustinian Eberhard (c. 1285), and especially the Franciscan Berthold of Regensburg (q.v.). In a strain not concordant with Berthold was the anonymous "Schwarzwald preacher," the author of a series of sermons preached to laymen and then collected as a homiletical volume. His sermons for Sundays give a Latin introduction, a German exordium which covers the entire Gospel for the day, discusses the theme in a popular, naive, and often striking manner, with incisive application and suggestion of the dogmatic in content. During the tenth and eleventh centuries there had been little ecclesiastical official concern about preaching. But a synod of Treves (1227) directed the clergy to instruct the people in faith and morals, forbade the ignorant to preach, but laid it as a duty upon the preaching friars. From the fourteenth century on bishops urged this duty on the parish clergy. Homiletical material was found in the "Legends of the Saints" of Jacob of Voragine (q.v.). Other homiletic sources were the Gesta Romanorum, the Apiarus of Thomas of Brabant, the Summa prædicatorum of Bromyard of Oxford, the Biblia pauperum (q.v.), the Repertorium aureum of Anthony Rampigollis, and the Sermones amici. Toward the end of this period short addresses without exordiums became common. A special variety of sermons were the Collationes, used in cloisters and other places of communal life at midday, somewhat free in form and based on the Gospel for the day. Of historical value are the German "Plenaries," collections of house sermons, short, based on Gospel or epistle for the day, with summary of parts of the mass. Mention may be made of the sermons of German Alsatia, which partake of the qualities of the Schwarzwald preacher; they belong to the end of the thirteenth century. They are picturesque and instructive, simple, earnest, and edifying.
3. Preaching of the Mystics.
As the entire theology of the mystics seeks to obtain subjective certainty in religious matters through personal experience, so their preaching appeals to the inner perception. So completely was this method in control that the events of Biblical history were used allegorically and applied to the purpose of edification. One effect was emphasis upon Christ, and the scholastic preaching was changed to a deeper, warmer, more searching and edifying appeal. The sermons of Cardinal Bonaventura (q.v.) display a mingling of the scholastic and mystical. Mysticism controls the sermons of Eckhart (q.v.). Since the doubt has once more been raised by the Teutonic scholar O. Behaghel (Beiträge zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache and Literatur, xxxiv. 530 sqq.) whether there are extant any considerable numbers of Eckhart's discourses, the decision respecting his position as a preacher must be reserved. John Tauler (q.v.), the most edifying preacher of the Middle Ages, surpassed Eckhart as a preacher, though not as a thinker, combining lucidity with religious strength. Henry Suso (q.v.) excelled as an exponent of emotional mysticism. Other names of note among the mystics are Eckhart the younger (see Mysticism), Henry of Nördlingen, Herrmann of Fritzlar, Henry Ruysbroek, the canonist Geert Groote, and Johann Charlier Gerson (qq.v.).
4. Reformers before the Reformation.
Constituting a class by themselves were the "Reformers before the Reformation." The influence of John Wyclif (q.v.) was not confined to England, since through John Huss (q.v.) his activities affected the Continent. Wyclif preached both in Latin and English, but the style in each is different. The Latin sermons were delivered before young theologians; Scripture is the unvarying basis, and the character is expository, but in a thoroughly Catholic-scholastic sense, and not without the use of allegory. Conrad of Waldhausen (d. 1369) preached in Prague against the sins of the period, and also against the begging friars. His own164 preaching was correctly ecclesiastical. His sermons in German have perished, and there is extant only a collection of Latin sermons, the Postilla studentium homilies upon the pericopes from the Gospels, allegorical and scholastic in character. Like Conrad, devoted to ethical reform, was Militsch of Kremsier (q.v.); his pupil Mathias of Janow (d. 1394) left a collection of homilies. John Huss is in a not unworthy sense dependent upon Wyclif. He was noted for his activities as preacher before synods as for his popular sermons in the fields and woods, in the large centers of population and in the little villages. His synodal sermons in Latin are extant, preached before the clergy. What is striking is the courage with which he attacked the vices of the pastoral clergy. His sermons to the people often contain patristic citations, and the Biblical exegesis is not free from arbitrariness. To be named with Huss is his friend Jerome of Prague (q.v.). In this class must be placed Savonarola (q.v.), whose work was done chiefly through preaching, at first outside and then in Florence. He himself issued only his sermons on Ps. lxxiii.; but others in Italian exist in the reports of his friends, those on I John in the Latin. These sermons differ both in occasion and method. Those on I John are exegetical with practical application, while others have little relation to the text and are more exactly practical. Formally his sermons are based on the Bible, really they are made the basis of the expression of his weighty thought. He was a mighty preacher of repentance, a scourge of the vices of the times especially of the priests, possessed of a warmth of sentiment, keen perceptions, command of his mother speech, dramatic gestures, and a melodious voice.
3. Close of the Middle Ages:
1. Frequency and Worth of the Sermon.
It is not easy to pronounce upon the preaching at the end of the Middle Ages. Its practise was often enjoined, and it appears to have been frequent in the cities, but the villages were almost bereft of it. In 1511 in the diocese of Mainz many priests were pronounced completely disqualified for preaching, while toward the end of the fifteenth century in the South German states it cost a considerable sum to secure a preacher for certain festivals. In Breslau the bishop limited the preaching on Sundays to a single sermon, during the rest of the year only on Friday except in the fasting and advent seasons, when there was preaching also on Wednesday. In some parts the secular clergy had only a small part in the function of preaching; thus in Halle there were preachers from the Augustinians, Dominicans, Franciscans, and Semites, but only one secular preacher is named; in Nuremberg the preachers were all monks. Yet the general practise was to have preaching on Sundays and festivals, and on many other occasions, such as New Year's day. In the cloisters sermons from abroad were read at mealtimes; in the churches such sermons were practically worked over; there is a varying degree of independence shown in different cases. The general worth of these sermons was small. A special class of addresses were the indulgence-sermons. The preachers of these spared no pains to make them attractive and effectual. The assailants of the indulgence were pictured as sent by Satan; and the indulgence was urged by reference to the sufferings of Jesus Christ, by praise of Mary, by appeals to the hearers' affection and sympathy. The structure of the sermon was still under the influence of scholasticism; a formula of greeting, the text or theme, the exordium and divisions, the Lord's prayer or Ave Maria, the discussion, a short conclusion, and the Amen or dixi ("I have spoken") or both, was the usual order. The whole period is one of decline in homiletical power. This opinion has been controverted by Pfleger (Zur Geschichte des Predigtwesens in Strassburg vor Geiler von Kaysersberg, Strasburg, 1907), who has in mind the orthodoxy and religious earnestness of a series of less prominent preachers of Strasburg in the first half of the fifteenth century. But his own work affords no data for the second half of that century, and does not require a withdrawing of the statement.
2. Individual Preachers.
Preachers of this period who belong to the Brothers of the Common Life (see Common Life, Brethren of the) were Johann Veghe (q.v.) and Thomas a Kempis (q.v.). Notable too were the festival sermons (Quadragesimale) of the Franciscan Johann Gritsch of Basel, delivered in German and then translated into Latin with learned scholastic discussions and many citations from the classics, fables, anecdotes, and moral applications; the Sermones aurei of the Dominican Johann Nider; the sermons of Johann Herolt, popular because of their practicality and concreteness; the Dormi secure ("sleep in safety") of Johann von Werden (c. 1450); the Hortulus reginæ of the beloved Meffreth of Meissen, all which passed through many editions. The sermons of Jakob Jüterbock (d. 1465) reveal the vanishing of the hope for a general reformation of the Church. The sermons of Nicholas of Cusa (q.v.) are humanistic, logical, rhetorical, and rational; Gabriel Biel (q.v.) was diligent and keen, but had a clumsy, detailed style. A type of the preacher of indulgences is found in Johann Jenser von Paltz (q.v.), whose Himmliche Fundgrube includes a number of sermons published in response to the desires of several princes. He published also a Latin collection, Cœlifodina, and in 1502 a Supplementum Cœlifodinæ as a pattern for indulgence sermons. The Hungarian Franciscan Pelbart of Temesvar (c. 1500) shows how to dissect a text into its minutest parts in his Sermones pomarii de tempore et sanctis. Ulrich Krafft of Ulm (d. 1516) was instructive, earnest, thorough, and popular; Johann Meder of Basel (1494) used extensively the dialogue; Johann Trithemius (q.v.) was simple, practical, and Biblical in his Sermones et exhortationes ad monachos; Johannes Hegelin de Lapide was an earnest wisher of reform in the Church; Silvester Prierias (q.v.) exhibited a lingering scholasticism in his Rosa aurea (1503). Danish preachers were Martin Petri (d. 1515) and Christiern Pedersen; in Spain there was Vincent Ferrar (q.v.), the Franciscan Bernhardin of Sienna with his Sermones de evangelio æterno, Giovanni di Capistrano (see Capistrano, Giovanni di); in Italy there were Leonhard of 165Utino (d. 1400), Bernhardin of Busti (d. after 1500), and Roberto Caracciolo, who was celebrated as a second Paul. In Germany the decline of preaching showed itself in the serene Augustinian Gottschalk Hollen in Osnabrück (d. after 1481). In France the Minorite Olivier Maillard exhibited the declension in style which included the profane and the burlesque as characteristics, while his fellow Minorite Michel Menot presents what partakes of the comic and laughable. The sermons of the period contain much that is foreign to Christian edification, and indicate a demand for the renewing of Christian life.
III. The Continental Pulpit in Modern Times.
1. The Period of the Reformation.
1. The Controlling Factors.
The age of the Reformation marks a new stage in the history of preaching. The central truths of salvation being drawn anew from Scripture, the sermon engendered a new Church with a service the central point of which was the sermon, and this was again the means of a new activity in pulpit oratory. Yet this new development was confined almost entirely to the Protestant Church. In this period various streams of ecclesiastical life make their contribution to the river of sermons. The age of the Reformation forms the first period in this new age, the sermon developing in the Lutheran and then in the Reformed Church; the period of Spener and the coming of Pietism marked a new stage. A second period is noted by the sermon of Protestant orthodoxy, in Germany especially by polemic and confessional dogmatism. There is to be considered the Roman Catholic preaching of the period from the beginning of the seventeenth to the middle of the eighteenth century, especially the brilliant French product. Pietism, orthodoxy, and supernaturalism fought with rationalism on this ground during the eighteenth and part of the nineteenth century. The nineteenth century makes in itself a period of note. The new start of pulpit oratory took its rise in the deep thirst of the soul for a certainty in the experience of grace and of righteousness. There was a general demand for the bettering of ecclesiastical conditions, but leaders of impressive personality were needed to bring about the change, men who drew inspiration from the Scriptures and from their own experience of salvation. When these came forward, the Reformation could owe its success largely to preaching. The keynote of this was the Bible, by which the Reformers satisfied the longing of their own hearts, and its message of salvation in Christ. The preachers broke through the scholastic method and returned to the Biblical homily. The protest against Rome led to a development of the vernacular as against the Latin ecclesiastical tongue, and this played a great part in the unfolding of the sermon. From the work of Luther's Bible the vernacular sprang from the position of a dialect to that of a great speech, and became indeed the speech of the Protestants. The new constitution and basis of the clergy had also its effect, combined with the new order of service, which was no more prevailingly liturgical, while the sermon became indispensable.
2. Luther.
Luther probably preached to the monks in the Erfurt period before 1508, and by 1509 he had preached in the monastery churches at Wittenberg and at Erfurt. After 1514 he assumed also the duty of preaching in the Wittenberg parish church; about 1517 he was preaching twice a day regularly on Sundays and feast days; after 1522 he preached to the monks early and afterward in the parish church, and after Bugenhagen became city pastor in 1523, Luther often took his place. There are extant Latin sermons going back to 1515 or perhaps 1514; a series of sermons in Latin dating from 1514–17, preached in the parish church, the former and some of the latter still scholastic in type, though the public sermons are practical. His sermons of 1516–17 on the Commandments are in his "Latin Remains"; those on the Lord's Prayer (1517) he worked over and published in 1519. Steady progress toward practicality is discernible as the time goes on. After 1516 he shows the influence of Mysticism, which came to mean much for him, and grace and faith are already significant for him. In 1521 appeared at the direction of the elector the first part of a collection; and the same year he wrote at the Wartburg a series in German on the pericopes, and these with the first part just mentioned, worked over (1522), make the first beginning of German collections, intended for the use of preachers as yet unfitted or inexperienced. Their form is simple, and the aim is to bring out the truth of the Word. From 1522 till 1543 there appeared, either issued by himself or by others (Aurifaber, Andreas Poach, and others), various collections on different subjects and preached on different occasions. The sermons of 1528 on the Catechism formed the basis for the Deutsche Katechismus which appeared April, 1529, which served as a pattern for catechetical preaching. His sermons on the Sermon on the Mount appeared 1532. From his sermons at home in the bosom of his family was made up the so-called Hauspostille, in which polemics retreats and simple practical exposition controls. The Weimar edition of his works reproduces many other of Luther's sermons than those here noted.
3. His Sermons Characterized.
Surely if the preaching of any Reformer deserves the title of heroic, Luther's does, being the work of a man who was an orator by nature. As in ordinary life so in the pulpit he was unshakably convinced of the verity and righteousness of his cause, while his talents, tempered in the fire of God's word, enabled him to be a fearless path-breaker in his preaching. He had a firm faith in the Gospel which makes free, a hold upon his own certainty of salvation and joy in testifying to it, aptness in reaching the popular heart, an eye open to the facts of life, command of dialectic and oratorical means, and a union of life and doctrine which made an array of force not equalled since apostolic times. He dealt little with history, much with doctrine. In his exposition he freed himself gradually from the use of allegory, choosing the literal sense. Withal, he gave an ethical turn to his preaching, having in mind not the learned but the common people. The form of his sermons is simple, and they contained ever a fundamental and governing ground thought. For decades 166his spirit ruled the German pulpit, his preaching furnishing the model for that of many others. His published sermons served also for the private edification of many who were not reached through the pulpit. Not less valuable were the catechetical sermons, while the sermons to children served especially a need of the times. Yet Luther's method did not become the only one in use. A middle path was struck out between Luther's homily and the thematic sermon. Preachers selected in their discussion of the pericopes a single main thought and discussed the context seriatim, while orderly structure was rare. Scripture as such was central in the Protestant pulpit.
4. Other Lutheran Reformers.
After Luther preachers to be named are Melanchthon, Justus Jonas, Bugenhagen (qq.v.), whose Indices in evangelicas dominicas was a handbook for inexperienced preachers; his catechetical sermons of 1525 and 1535 were first published in Leipsic in 1909, being edited, with introduction by G. Buchwald; note further Veit Dietrich (q.v.), mild, Simple, clear, warm, and unpolemical, Urbanus Rhegius (q.v.), whose sermons were long, carefully composed, restful, clear in dogmatics, and forceful. Wenceslaus Linck is to be named; so Kaspar Aquila (q.v.), a mighty opponent of the pope; while Johan Spangenberg (d. 1550) had a childlike spirit, full of ripe Evangelical experience. Johann Brenz (q.v.) was one of those who preached whole books through, delivering also many short sermons with theme and subdivisions; Erhard Schnepf (d. 1558) was celebrated for a native eloquence; Anton Corvinus (q.v.) preached briefly on the Gospel and epistle for the day; Michael Cölius (d. 1559) was remarkable for clear arrangement; Andreas Osiander (q.v.) was doctrinal, warm, edifying, and not excessively polemic; Sebastian Fröschel (q.v.) left some catechetical sermons; Nikolaus Amsdorf (q.v.) left some exceedingly polemic yet much admired pulpit addresses; Georg Major (q.v.) in his long but well articulated sermons showed no polemic bitterness, but a marked clarity and mildness. Johann Mathesius (q.v.) was uncommonly fruitful in his pulpit work and Erasmus Sarcerius (d. 1559) issued a number of collections which were noted . for their catechetical value as well as for their exposition of the Lutheran doctrine. Joachim Moerlin (q.v.) left sermons on the Psalms and another collection; he was somewhat marked for polemical ability. Belonging to the Lutheran pulpit was Hans Tausen (d. 1561 as bishop of Ripen), who left a noteworthy collection which, while less polemic than Luther's sermons, yet smacks of the controversy over the Lords Supper and Peter Palladius, bishop of Zealand (d. 1560), was a celebrated preacher in the vernacular of his country. From Sweden (see Sweden, Reformation in) are to be noted Olaf and Lars Petri, whose style was that of the simple homily, M. Elof, and A. A. Angermanus, who was the champion of the Protestants against the Roman Catholic movement under John III. Hungary produced the noted Mátyás Biró Dévay (q.v.), and Austria, Primus Truber (q.v.) and the later Hans Steinberger (c. 1580).
5. Zwingli and the Early Reformed Preachers.
As preachers neither Zwingli nor Calvin was so significant for the Reformed Church as was Luther for the Lutheran. Zwingli (q.v.) began as early as 1516 in Einsiedeln to explain the mass Biblically. His celebrated sermons against Mariolatry and the like date from 1523. In Zurich he preached from 1519 series of sermons on the New Testament and expounded the Psalms for the country people. Evangelical teaching concerning Christ and his salvation, attempts at a bettering of the ethical conditions, uncovering of the causes of national demoralization, the duty of protecting the confederation, and the social needs of the times were treated by him. His preaching was marked by great clearness, and he took seriously his office as a preacher. While he lacked the mystical depth, the creative imagination, the geniality of discussion and control of language shown by Luther, he was endowed with a power of testifying to the truth and of popular exposition with a unity of thought by no means inferior to the German leader's. He set himself free from the traditional use of the pericopes as the basin for his preaching, and the preachers of Switzerland and of Upper Germany followed him. There is a fundamental difference a between the preaching of the Reformed and the Lutheran Churches; the former took to expounding whole books of the Bible, and there was leas distinction made between the Old and the New Testament; in the Lutheran Church use was prevailingly made of the pericopes, and only secondarily was exposition of whole books given. The Lutheran a Church was more conservative in the observance of church festivals, through which the church year ran its round. Belonging to this school are Kaspar Megander, Heinrich Bullinger (qq.v.), Louis Lavater of Zurich (d. 1586), who handled well the Old Testament, Rudolf Gualther (d. 1586), pastor in Zurich, who also preached on the Old Testament, and Johann Wolf (d. 1571), pastor and professor in Zurich. Œcolampadius and Calvin encouraged by their habit preaching on entire books of Scripture. Thus Calvin dealt with I Samuel, Job, the twelve Minor Prophets, and with detached chapters, while over 2,000 sermons, mostly unprinted, show his extreme diligence. He appealed rather to the cultivated than to the masses. His method was exegetical, topological (not allegorical), doctrinal, somewhat lengthy, and without reference to the church year. The reformatory activity of Guillaume Farel (q.v.) was much helped by his preaching, though none of his sermons are extant. Theodore Beza (q.v.) is not particularly noted for his pulpit oratory, but his sermons were directed during his public life in Geneva to efficient purpose. Still to be mentioned are Berthold Haller, Martin Butzer, and Wolfgang Capito (qq.v.). Of significance as a preacher is Ambrosius Blaurer (q.v.), whose earlier sermons were richly allegorical, while those of a later period were illustrated from practical life; they are, however, simple, earnest, and deeply religious. His contemporary in Constants, Jean Zwick (q.v.), was a keen but kindly preacher. Of the sermons of Johannes a Lasco (q.v.) no examples have come down. In the Netherlands worked Petrus Dathenus (q.v.); Herman Modet of Oudenard,167 who after 1566 spoke to many thousands in the intrenched camps near Ghent; and Huib. Duifhuis of Utrecht (d. 1575). In France there was the Minorite François Lambert (q.v.), whose sermons on repentance had a Scriptural foundation, and Augustin Marlorat du Pasquier, an exegetical preacher. For Italy it is sufficient to cite the names and refer to the articles on Ochino, Paleario, Valdez, Vergerio, and Vermigli. Spain produced Juan de Avila (q.v.).
6. The Roman Catholic Pulpit.
The preaching of the Roman Catholic Church of the sixteenth century was ruled by the spirit of polemic against the Reformation, so that the declamation against heresy was its prevailing motif. Yet the homiletic activity of Protestantism drove the Roman Catholic Church to renewed activity, as is shown by the pronouncement at the Council of Trent, session V., chap. 2. Without significance were the exposition of the Gospels (1532) by Johann Eck (q.v.) and the Postilla Catholica of Martin Eisengrein (1576); more important were the German collections, homilies on the festivals, and repentance-sermons of the Dominican Johann Wild of Mainz (d. 1554). Georg Wicel (q.v.) holds a middle position between the two. Stanislaus Hosius (q.v.) is also to be named here, while among the prelates at Trent is Bishop Musso of Vitonto. Carlo Borromeo (q.v.) was himself a diligent preacher, and he worked for a better effect from the preaching of his clergy through his own pastoral and homiletical instructions. One of the last stars in the Spanish firmament was Luis of Granada (d. 1588), lively, even fiery, and full of psychological strength. In France the extremities of hatred of heresy found expression during the Huguenot wars. Particular instances of preachers here are Bishop Vigor of Narbonne, Edmund Angier, Jean Boucher, Aubry, Rose, and others. The rise of new orders in the Roman Catholic Church had its effect upon that church's preaching. Among these may be named the Theatines and the Capuchins (qq.v.), whose work was directed to pastoral ends as well as against the Reformation. But still more influential than these were the Jesuits, whose purpose was the spread of Catholicism throughout the earth, largely through the means of the sermon. Noteworthy here is the name of Cardinal Bellarmine (q.v.).
2. Protestant Orthodox Pulpit, 1580–1700.
1. The New Scholasticism.
This was of a confessional character. In place of the fresh and spirited witness-bearing of the Reformation, an insipid dogmatism, combined with a harsh polemic engendered by the controversies of the times, characterized the sermon. A new scholasticism arose, which increasingly infected the sermon as the seventeenth century advanced. The simple analytical style disappeared; in its place came the method which developed a number of loci, "heads," which were then unfolded. Preaching attached itself rather to Melanchthon than to Luther, it took the way of formal rhetorical development, and so the freedom of movement gained in the Reformation was lost. Textual consideration was given, the aim was to make the sermon a unit; the method of development was not always that of rhetorical norms—of exordium, development, application, and peroration—yet some such arrangement as this, with permutations of placing of the different parts, governed the machinery or framework, while a scheme for the sermon was thoroughly worked out on scholastic lines. Especially favored was the fivefold division, so that the sermon was regarded as imperfect which did not treat its matter in this way. Modifications of the scheme of the sermon came to have names of their own—the Leipsic method, the Jena method, the Helmstedt method, etc., according to the place where special types of treatment were in vogue. Alongside of this formalism, great influence upon the sermon was exerted by the restraint imposed by the use of the pericopes as the basis of preaching. The way this worked out is illustrated by the case of the elder Carpzov (q.v.), who in a ministry of fifty years had to preach from the same text fifty times. There was a difference between the preaching in town and in country, though most of the examples which have survived are from the town. Upon the country pastors was urged the duty of simple paraphrastic exposition. The degeneration of the sermon shows itself at the end of the seventeenth century in the work of such men as Christian Weise of Zittau (d. 1708) and Christian Weidling (d. 1731), who developed the "emblematic" sermon and were followed by many preachers who carried the style to extremes. Thus a preacher in 1642 used Ps. cxxxiv. 2, with the theme "The spiritual thankful hand," and described (1) the little ear-finger which keeps our ears clean; (2) the gold finger of faith; (3) the middle finger of many virtues; (4) the index-finger of John the Baptist; and (5) the strong thumb of sure confidence. The younger Carpzov preached for a year upon Christ as a workman; thus upon the basis of Matt. vi. 25 he dealt with Christ as the best clothmaker, and so on. Still this rage for the emblematic sermon was not universal, and a fine series of practical and edifying discourses were delivered in this period. Besides the pericopes, which were usual as texts in the sixteenth century and obligatory in the seventeenth, the catechism, here and there a confessional writing, hymns and proverbs were used as the basis of the sermon. The length of the discourse increased from three-quarters of an hour to two hours, funeral sermons were still longer in proportion to the dignity of the deceased. In most communities there were three discourses on Sunday, and sermons on the feast and fast days.
2. Style and Content of the Sermon.
A general characteristic of this period was a polemic confessional dogmatism. "Pure doctrine" was a catchword of the times, which was sought by discourses in dry scholastic form with theological learning and vexatious disputations, while Evangelical sustenance of the spirit was not furnished. Among the. names of this period are Tilemann Hesshusen (q.v.), Andreas Pancratius (d. 1576; noted for his dialectic and closely woven reasoning), Jakob Andreä (q.v.) and Nikolaus Selnecker (q.v.), a fellow worker in the field of confessional construction. Polemical in type are the sermons of Artomades in Königsberg and Johann Prätorius (who preached on 168 the three-headed Antichrist—pope, Turk, and Calvinist). Lukas Osiander (q.v.) was one of the most passionate polemists of the period. The two Preachers named Johann Benedikt Carpzov (q.v.) were scholastic in type; Philipp Nicolai (q.v.) was reserved in polemics and better known for his hymns. Deserving of mention are Hoe von Höenegg and Konrad Dannhauer (qq.v.), were Hermann Samson of Riga, who could not pass over a point of controversy, yet built up excellent illustrations and comparisons. Alongside of this dry scholastic method there was found a practical, edifying preaching with a mystical coloring; besides the merely intellectual, the polemically keen and the didactical-dogmatic there was a living, warm, and popular style of discourse, taking thought for the religious and ethical needs of life. Orthodoxy had, however, so strong a hold on the times that sermons were written, e.g., upon the greetings, the titles and signatures of the epistles. How minute were the details noticed may be seen by the fact that G. Strigenitz (d. 1603) preached in Meissen 122 sermons on the Book of Jonah! Examples of the better style of preachers are Johann Gigas in Freystadt (d. 1581), Johann Habermann (q.v.), Hieronymus Mencel in Eisleben (d. 1690), Martin Mirus, court preacher in Dresden (d. 1593), Ægidius Hunnius (q.v.), Jacob Heerbrand and Martin Chemnitz (qq.v), the eloquent Georg Mylius of Wittenberg, his colleague Polykarp Leyser (q.v.), a foe of all affectation, practical and fearless in application of the truth. Zealous for the coming of the kingdom of Christ was the diligent Stephan Prätorius of Salzwedel (q.v.). Worthy of notice is the practical and Biblically based work of Lukas Osiander (q.v.; d. 1604), whose products were illumined by touches of humor. His Bauernpostille (1597 sqq.) is well known, in which he insisted that for the poor peasantry citations and disputations should be omitted, for whom short sermons were the more suitable.
3. Individual Names.
Out of the sorrowful period of the Thirty Years' War, with its desolation of schools and universities, and the consequent lowering of educational tone, comes Johann Arndt (q.v.), with whom may be named the earnest and practical preachers of Danzig, Dilger (d. 1645), Blanck (d. 1637), and Rathmann (d. 1628); the earnest and strong Paul Egard of Nottorp in Holstein (c. 1620) preached without learned ostentation. Comparable to Arndt in spirituality and depth of feeling is Valerius Herberger (q.v.), while Johann Matthäus Meyfart (q.v.) opposed scholastic and errant Christianity and was particularly Biblical in his preaching. Akin in spirit to Arndt was Martin Geier of Leipsic (d. 1680). Seldom mentioned yet worthy of notice is the practical, learned, and Biblical Konrad Dieterich of Ulm (d. 1639), who left several volumes of sermons remarkable for learning, sound conclusions, fresh illustrations, and irenic spirit. Less significant was the Wittenberg Professor Balthazar Meisner (q.v.). Johann Heermann (q.v.) preached the splendor of the Gospel with lively effect and soul-saving earnestness, leaving several volumes of discourses, especially worthy of mention among which is his Nuptialia (Nuremberg, 1657). Johann Gerhard (q.v.) is not to be passed by. Among faithful shepherds of their flocks must be named Justus Gesenius (q.v.), whose sermons on the Gospels and epistles are thorough; but as a preacher he was excelled by Johann Valentin Andreä, (q.v.), who promoted a deeper comprehension of Scripture. A preacher full of wit and humor was Johann Balthasar Schuppius (q.v.), original, spiritual, fresh, satirical but earnest. Free from all false rhetoric was Joachim Lütkemann (q.v.), whose sermons treat of the Gospels and epistles. Worthy also was Heinrich Müller (q.v.), as was Christian Scriver. The great exegete of the seventeenth century, Sebastian Schmidt (d. 1696) left over 100 sermons on Biblical and confessional topics. Others who displayed somewhat of the spirit of Arndt were: Johann Lassenius of Bernstadt and Copenhagen (d. 1692), who left numerous volumes of sermons which display Biblical learning and concise thoughtfulness; Lütkens of Cologne-on-the-Spree (d. 1712), who helped transplant the spirit of Spener into Scandinavia; the Scriptural and practical Häberlin of Stuttgart (d. 1699), and the learned Caspar Neumann (q.v.), whose sermons were exegetical. Dilherr of Nuremberg, who was both a poet and an educator, left two volumes of sermons; Arnold Mengering (d. in Halle 1646) was a preacher of repentance; Joachim Schröder of Rostock (d. 1677) was especially severe against the 'ices of the times; Gottlob Cober (d. 1717) was the author of widely celebrated and circulated volumes of discourses. Eccentric in type were Jobst Sackmann (d. 1718), humorous, naive, yet true to life in his delineations, and the South German preacher Spörrer of Rechenberg (c. 1720). Heterodox in style was Valentin Weigel of Zschopau (d. 1588), preaching an intellectualism and a mystical spiritualism in opposition to the scholastic dogmatism of the period. In Denmark Niels Hemmingsen (q.v.) was noted for the finished style of his discourse, while Jesper Rasmussen Brockmand (q.v.), whose Sabbati sanctificatio went through fourteen editions, was Scriptural and thorough; Dinesin Jersin (d. 1634) was a forerunner of Pietism and one of the most influential preachers of Denmark. In Sweden the pulpit lagged a full generation behind Germany. From about 1600 the Christian faith was handled as sheer knowledge, though orthodoxism was not so much in the foreground as in Germany. Prominent and strong in the exposition of Christian verities were Bishop Rudbeck in Westeräs (d. 1646), and J. Botvidi, court preacher to Gustavus Adolphus II. J. Matthiä (d. 1670) appealed more to the emotions; J. E. Terser, bishop of Linköping (d. 1678), was a representative of syncretism. Johannes Gezelius the elder (q.v.), the eloquent Archbishop Hagain Spegel (end of the seventeenth century), and Jesper Svedberg (d. 1735) were among the greatest preachers of Sweden uniting warmth of faith, clarity, and oratorical brilliance with artistic construction.
4. The Reformed Pulpit.
In the Reformed Church the sermon presented much the same features as in the Lutheran, working along emblematic and allegorical lines, though the tendency was toward a simpler style with less adornment perhaps due to the influence of Andreas Hyperius (q.v.). A good representative of the169 German Reformed preachers is Abraham Scultetus (q.v.), and others are Johann Möller, Felix Wyss of Zurich (d. 1666), Bernhard Meier of Bremen (d. 1681), and Samuel Eyen of Bern (d.1700). Friedrich Adam Lampe (q.v.) led the Cocceian Biblical practical reaction against scholastic orthodoxy. Here is to be mentioned also Johannes Amos Comenius (q.v.), the most significant preacher of the Bohemian Brethren, whose discourses were characterized by quiet exposition, thoroughgoing exegesis of prophecy and fulfilment, and careful arrangement and articulation. In the Reformed Church outside Germany arose a real eloquence, responding more quickly to national conditions. This was especially the case in France, where the political conditions were favorable. The polemic was principally anti-Roman. The more forward condition of the national tongue made easy the productions of pulpit orators after classical models. A stimulus was found in the French literature of the period before and under Louis XIV. and in the brilliant oratory of the Roman Catholic Church. Pierre Du Moulin (q.v.), the most popular Protestant preacher of France, showed less of the oratorical than of a simplicity of illustration, thought, and direction expressed in frank, emphatic, terse, and lively language. Michel de Faucheur of Montpellier and Paris used little of art in his work, which was essentially exegetical and anti-Roman. Moïse Amyraut (q.v.) displayed a native oratorical talent, but was dogmatic in tone and synthetic in construction. Rather didactic in type were Jean Daille (q.v.), who left twenty volumes of sermons, and Samuel Bochart (q.v.). While thus far the analytic and polemic had prevailed, the synthetic style began with Jean Claude (q.v.). But with the revocation of the Edict of Nantes began an exodus of the best French preachers. Claude, whose eloquence in controversy made even a Bossuet tremble for his hearers, by the firmness of his character, his manly earnestness, his majestic calm, his precision, and clarity earned the position of one of the foremost preachers of his time. Such preachers as Ancillon, Abbadie, Lenfant, and Beausobre (qq.v.) were surpassed by Daniel de Superville of Rotterdam (d. 1728), who in lovable disposition, speculative might, and philosophical endowment surpassed his predecessors. Jacques Saurin (q.v.) attained the high point of French Reformed preaching for the eighteenth century; of less significance were Jacob Basnage (q.v.) and Henri Chatelain (d. 1743). In Holland the pulpits echoed with the dogmatic wrangling of Remonstrants (q.v.) and Counterremonstrants. The school of Gysbert Voetius was influenced by scholasticism and the analytical method, devoted to the justification of dogma. For a year the whole church of Holland was moved by a sermon of Conrad Vorst (q.v.) on long hair (I Cor. xi. 14), and Smijtegeld (d. 1739) preached 145 sermons on the "bruised reed." Of a better class were Hellenbroek of Rotterdam (d.1731) and the more practical W. a Brakel (d. 1711). When the homiletic practise through the Cocceian school broke away from its scholastic bonds, the prophetic-typical style entered, though remaining drily philological. But gradually life invigorated the dead orthodoxy of the pulpit in the discourses of David Flud van Giffen (d. 1701), Jan d’Outrein (d. in Amsterdam 1722), and H. Groenewegen. Antischolastic preaching was heard from J. Uytenbogaert (q.v.) of the Remonstrants, and Philip van Limborch (q.v.) of the Arminians.
5. The Roman Catholic Pulpit.
Apart from the brilliant flight of Roman Catholic pulpit oratory in France, mission preaching and compact addresses to the peasantry ruled inside that Church. In Italy in the seventeenth century in the missions of Jesuits and other orders, sermons on penitence and confession were the order of the day. The Jesuit Paolo Segneri (q.v.) traversed Italy for twenty years preaching, and with him should be named his nephew of the same name (d. 1713). A continuator of the homely discourse to the peasantry was the Augustinian André of France (d. 1675); a preacher of note was the Augustinian Abraham a Sancta Clara (q.v.). The direct opposite of this folk-sermon was exhibited in the discourse of the brilliantly oratorical pulpit of France in the period of Louis XIV., the basis of which was less in the church itself than in the circumstances of the times and in the general literature of the nation; the pulpit strove for a revival of the eloquence of the early Church. The result was an oratory only for the cultured, to the embellishment of which the graces of rhetoric were skilfully lent. The substance dealt with morality, the fear of God, inculcation of virtues, meditation upon death and its meaning, lessons from history and life. And the results came, with just pride in their finished form, to be included in the classical literature of the nation, and to be regarded as models of style to be employed in the Church both in France and elsewhere. A pathbreaker was the general of the Oratorians, J. F. Sénault (d. 1670); the brightest star in this constellation was Jacques Bénigne Bossuet (q.v.), whose eloquence flamed; his flow of thought was full and genial, and his imagination creative. Of special celebrity were his funeral sermons, and not a few of these belong to the masterpieces of French style. Among these may be mentioned his oration over Henriette Marie, that at the death of the duke of Orléans, and that over the bier of the Prince of Condé, from which cultured Frenchmen make quotations as from classics. One of the faults which somewhat repels, however, is the flattery directed to court circles; unworthy of the house of God are the epithets constantly applied to the king, and the unfortunate impression made is sometimes that of a man-serving courtier. But even more than was accomplished by Bossuet for the uplift of the French pulpit came about through Louis Bourdaloue (q.v.), especially by his passion sermons and those with the title Dei virtutem. After him is to be named Esprit Fléchier (q.v.), whose sermon on Turenne is his masterpiece, on whom J. Mascaron of Versailles (d. 1703) also delivered a celebrated discourse. Another star in this constellation was the Oratorian Jean Baptist Massillon (q.v.), among whose celebrated sermons are that on the Prodigal Son, that on Matt. v. 3 sqq., on Luke iv. 27, that on the deity of Christ—a model dogmatic 170sermon—the ten little sermons of 1718 which were intended as exhortations for the young king, which were so marked by terseness yet grace of diction that they were regarded as patterns. Massillon is distinguished for high ethical earnestness, remarkable frankness, and a sympathetic tone, and the totality of excellent qualities found in his work gained for him the title of "the Racine of the pulpit." Fenelon (q.v.) is sharply distinguished from the brilliant Bossuet by the fact that his discourses owe their strength to the element of prayerfulness, meditation on the divine, instructive spirituality, and use of Christian experience. With Massillon closed the classic period of the French pulpit. The Jesuit Segaud (d. 1748), Paulle, and especially the missioner J. Bridaine (d. 1767) are representatives of the post-classical period.
3. Transformation of the Protestant Pulpitm 1700–1810.
1. Pietism
1700–1810. The next period shows the battle of Pietism and ecclesiastical orthodoxy, of supernaturalism and the Enlightenment (q.v.). With Spener began a pulpit service which had a practical aim of upbuilding upon the basis of faith and a consecrated life. The means was a faithful and diligent exposition of Scripture. Mechanical confessions of salvation in Christ alone became experienced salvation, external ecclesiasticism became a living attachment to the true body of Christ. The form of the sermon became simpler, the structure more distinct, the expression plainer. The development was gradual, the movements in theology having their influence as the relations of Pietism and orthodoxy changed, and as the new philosophy and the Enlightenment and supernaturalism contributed to the unfoldings of the period.
2. Spener and His Followers.
Philipp Jakob Spener (see Pietism, I.) gave in his Pia desideria, chap. vi., and in his Theologische Bedenken, vols. iii.–iv., worthful hints for the reform of the sermon. The discourse was to have as its aim the renewing of man by faith and the production of the fruits thereof in life. Yet Spener accomplished more through his personality than by the too learned and dry method of his preaching. Spener sought with painstaking endeavor to exhaust the dogmatic and ethical content of the text by an exact and extended exegesis. His discourses were often lacking in unity, the cause being a sort of prelude to the sermon used in order to attain comprehensiveness. Yet by his clear reference to Scripture, his simple and practical-fruitful application, and by the employment of ethical themes and a strongly ethical trend of the dogmatic material he drew crowds to his church and became the introducer of a strong stimulus for the Lutheran Church and its pulpit. His principal collections are those upon the Gospels for the year 1688, Evangelische Lebenspflichten (1693), Evangelischer Glaubenstrost (1694), sixty-six sermons on the article dealing with regeneration (1695), and a considerable number of volumes on various subjects and occasions. The Halle school of preaching soon gained great celebrity and preeminence. Its characteristic was a greater simplicity in form, while the application was a matter of more concern than the development of doctrine. August Hermann Francke (q.v.), who left several volumes of discourses, showed a simpler structure than Spener, followed the course of the text rather than a theme, though his handling of the material was somewhat mechanical, and the treatment verbose. In content his sermons were practical, and what he produced was individual in character, free in its method, and essentially quick in substance. Johann Anastasius Freylinghausen (q.v.) employed, as did Spener, a prelude, and his theme and division are inartistic. Joachim Justus Breithaupt (q.v.) was leas influential as a preacher than as an instructor and furtherer of the new tendency in learning. Joachim Lange (q.v.) was more a teacher of homiletic theology than a preacher. Gottfried Arnold (q.v.) took high rank by his pulpit work. The Gotha superintendent, Georg Nitsch (d. 1729), was a man of great freshness of spirit, exact knowledge of Scripture, possessed of humor, able to appeal to the popular ear, keen in his denunciation of sin, and sturdy in his appeals for the realization of the Christian virtues in life.
3. Various Schools.
The later Halle school failed in that it too frequently spoke over the heads of the congregation in its effort for the didactic and the intellectual; it stressed emotion, producing warmth rather than light. The great teacher and exegete of this school was Johann Jakob Rambash (q.v.), a man of fine grain and irenic spirit, whose Præcepta Homiletica aimed at a simpler, more lucid and natural, practical yet text-true development of theme and exposition in the year's round of sermons. He united intelligible clarity with Christian heartiness and warmth, a poetic and lively imagination with a strong depth of thought. He used a short introduction, simple arrangement based on the text; logical order, a clear and living development on the basis of the best of North German Pietism. Nevertheless he exhibited that schematic stiffness in the arrangement of his sermons which was a heritage from the seventeenth century, as well as a wearying uniformity, which grew out of pietistic leanings, in the practical application of his sermons to converted and unconverted (new matter is to be found concerning him in M. Schian's J. J. Rambsch als Prediger and Predigtheoretiker, in Beiträge zur hessischen Kirchengeschichte, vol. iv., Darmstadt, 1909). Among his imitators are Johann Philipp Fresenius (q.v.), Johann F. Starck (d. 1758), author of a Hausgebetsbuch (new ed. by Heim, 1845), and Abbot Steinmetz of Bergen (d. 1762). Württemberg produced a series of preachers who developed a fresh, healthy, and many-sided method which has lasted till the present. The characteristics of this school are a firm, realistic, in part mystic Bible faith, with a broad conception of the organism of revelation, real churchmanship, a free and scientific development, and unconstrained construction of the doctrinal basis, especially on the eschatological side. The forerunners were Heinrich Häberlin, named above, Johann Andreas and Johann Friedrich Hochstetter (both d. 1720), Johann Reinhard Hedinger (q.v.), and the best preacher of them all, Georg Konrad Rieger (q.v.). Johann Albrecht Bengel (q.v.) is less famous as a preacher than as an exegete, though his sermons show a classical repose 171and penetration, and a method of exposition almost catechetical in type. Friedrich Christian Oetinger (q.v.) by his singular mystic-speculative art won a special place in the history of preaching. Now he interwove great thoughts in apothegmatic method, again he dealt with daily life in naive yet popular fashion, once more soared high above the mental range of his hearers, or, again, he spoke from a lower level of thought and conception. His sermons were collected by K. C. E. Ehmann (5 vols., Reutlingen, 1852–57). The speculative branch of the school of Bengel was represented further by Philipp Matthaeus Hahn (q.v.) and J. L. Fricker of Dettingen (d. 1766). The practical branch is naturally represented by a series of preachers Biblical-Evangelical in type rather than specifically Pietistic. Among them may be named Friedrich Christoph Steinhofer and the less known Immanuel Gottlob Brastberger (qq.v.). A special gift of originality was possessed by Philipp David Burk of Kirchheim (d. 1770), in whose Sammlungen zur Pastoraltheologie (new ed. by Oehler, Stuttgart, 1867) are found excellent counsels on homiletic subjects. Similarly, Christian Samuel Ulber of Hamburg (d. 1776) left a rich material in his Erbauliche Denkzetteln (new ed., Kiel, 1847). Karl Heinrich Rieger, son of the Georg Konrad Rieger already named, surpassed his father in his appreciation of the essential points of the Gospel. In this company belong the noted exegete, apologete, and author Magnus Friedrich Roos, Jeremias Friedrich Reuss of Tübingen, and the exceedingly original pedagog Johann Friedrich Flattich (qq.v.). From the Reformed Church should be reckoned here the pious mystic and poet Gerhard Tersteegen (q.v.).
4. The Moravian Pulpit.
A sort of acme of the Halle method, though not without elements of disagreement, was achieved by the preaching of the Moravian Brethren. There were certain ideas which received such emphasis in the pulpit of the latter that other points of the Christian faith were, so to speak, lost to view. Some of these ideas were faith in the merits of Christ and his atoning blood, a childlike trust in the grace of the Lord, an assurance of confidence in the wounds of the Lamb, and the consciousness of possession of the Savior and his bride-like love. With this went a disregard of arrangement, a too frequent use of certain catchwords, together with appeals to the emotions. The founder, Count von Zinzendorf (q.v.), was the most significant and original of their pulpit orators, as well as one of the most diligent. He had many of the qualities of a great speaker—an intense passion for Christ, an excellent education, geniality, lively emotions, rich imagination and flow of thought, and great strength of language. His discourses were largely expressions of the affections which stirred his soul, and his constant endeavor was to exalt Christ. He was especially eloquent at ordination and consecration services, in which he often carried his congregation into heights of emotion. It is fortunate that the first extravagant period of the Herrnhut community (1743–50), with its creations of religious fantasy and its insipid and effeminate trifling, was only an episode in the history of the church, with no lasting effects. Bishop August Gottlieb Spangenburg (q.v.) was an example of the clear, sober, and worthy sermonizer. One needs only to mention such names as Bartholomew Ziegenbalg, Benjamin Schultze, Christian Friedrich Schwarz, David Zeisberger, Hans Egede, and Thomas von Westen (qq.v.).
Exponents of ecclesiastical orthodoxy made their appearance especially in Saxony, where the battle with Pietism was especially sharp, and among the number were such pious and practical preachers as Johannes and Gottfried Olearius (qq.v.). Among their opponents were Johann Friedrich Mayer, Samuel Schelwig, Johannes Fecht, and Valentin Ernst Löscher (qq.v.). These diligent and gladly heard men, to whom the work of the pulpit was not a first concern, were not from the old scholasticism. Learned investigations, allegories, mystical comparisons, broke into the instructive formation, though there were present warmth and inspiration. Polemics against the court, which had become Roman Catholic, was a part of the substance. The sermons of Johann August Ernesti were full of conception and illumined by Biblical orientalism, as well as packed with thought. From South Germany mention should be made of the military chaplain Johann Friedrich Flattich, a polemist, fresh and able, against atheism and free thinking. From the Reformed Church in Germany may be named the Berlin court preacher Daniel Ernst Jablonski (q.v.), the Zurich president Johann Jakob Ulrich, and Daniel Stapfer of Bern (q.v.).
4. Reform of the German Pulpit and the Preaching of Rationalism.
1. The Conflicting Influences.
In consequence of the influence of the stimulus from England and from France the Germans after Mosheim began to lay new emphasis upon pleasing form. As the Enlightenment (q.v.). made way, the striving became great to use logical arrangement and method in the pulpit. But the influence of the Enlightenment covered also the content. Dogmatic propositions, not consonant with "rational" thinking, fell into the background, and the truths of rational verities were put in the front. While the Enlightenment at first combated the ruling supernaturalism (to about 1775), there followed a period when rationalism was in the ascendency (to c. 1810), when a period of emphasis upon Evangelical truths was reached in a reaction partly esthetic and partly Biblical-Evangelical. The period of ruling supernaturalism and germinating rationalism (1740–80) reveals as the starting-point of a better pulpit style Mosheim's translation of selected sermons of Tillotson in 1728. Frederick the Great read to his soldiers his own renderings of the sermons of Bourdaloue, Fléchier, Massillon, and Saurin. To Fléchier and Saurin Mosheim did homage. A prophecy of what was coming was furnished by the Basel preaching professor Samuel Werenfels (q.v.), who was estranged from false pathos, elegant, intelligible, and edifying. He and the sensitive Pierre Roques in Basel (d.1748) and the fiery court preacher of Berlin, Jaquelot, show how soon the better form of sermon of foreign Reformed theologians could domesticate itself in Germany. Yet the movement was not merely imitative. There was a 172general attempt at the purification and development of the German tongue, as witness the establishment of a professorship of German oratory in Halle before 1730, and a search for a national literature which had its bearing upon the pulpit. This movement dealt also with the matter of the sermon. People were weary alike of the theological quarrels and of Pietistic verbosity. Interest was more and more philosophical, due in part to the influence of the foreign pulpit and the Enlightenment outside Germany, in part to the growing taste at home cultivated by the demonstrative, mathematical-philosophical work of Leibnitz and Wolff. Preachers learned the value of conception, arrangement, solidity, definition, and demonstration. Natural religion as the essential content of the Christian, and morals as the essential of natural religion were emphasized. So Mosheim found contrast not merely between Pietist and orthodox but between philosophical and Biblical. The mediation between theology and philosophy was begun by Johann Gustav Reinbeck (d. 1741), who showed careful arrangement, solid application, correct development of the conception, and union of Biblical and philosophical elements.
2. Mosheim and His School.
Johann Lorenz ion Mosheim (q.v.), the German Tillotson or Saurin, revealed an elegant style, an apologetic tendency, a convincing force of proof, strong and sure as it was fine, flowing, and pleasing. In spite of a certain breadth of view, the basis is the Evangelical fundamental doctrines; the aim is to bring to realization the working-out of the verity of Christian doctrine. To this end Mosheim uses historical illustrations, descriptions of the events of the times, all this with fine psychological solidity. His argumentation is thought through and the exposition is wrought out, revealing the divine active force of the Gospel, the divine origin of Christian ethics. The employment of the text is careful, the themes are practical, the discussion is broad and full. Peters (Der Bahnbrecher der modernen Predigt J. L. Mosheim in seinen homiletischen Anschauungen, 1910) is undoubtedly right in seeing in Mosheim's preaching and homiletics modern traits. While Mosheim was thus influencing the Lutheran pulpit, Tillotson of England (see below) was doing the same for the German Reformed Church through August Friedrich Wilhelm Sack (q.v.) of Berlin, the religious teacher of Friedrich Wilhelm III. and IV. Johann Andreas Cramer (q.v.) was influential more upon the oratorical side, employing a fiery pathos, a wealth of rhetorical figures which sometimes seemed to overload the discourse, but a fullness of thought, clear arrangement, excellent choice of doctrinal and ethical circumstances. Related to him in style was Gottfried Less (q.v.), while Christoph Christian Sturm of Magdeburg and Hamburg (d. 1786) infused a stronger rationalistic strain together with a poetic-esthetic coloring. Among those who followed the new trend of the times were Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Jerusalem and Johann Joachim Spalding (qq.v.).
3. Entrance of Rationalism.
The period of ruling rationalism (1780–1810) had been prepared for by the constantly growing influence of the Enlightenment. There was a decided break in the preaching of this period from that of orthodoxy and Pietism. The orthodox pulpit maintained the integrity of what it held to be the confirmed verities of faith. The Enlightenment was concerned also with preaching "the pure faith of Christians," and naturally there was a connection with Evangelical church teaching. But the he content of the rationalistic preaching stressed the doctrines of God, virtue, and immortality; ethics was me distinctly in the foreground. This ethical strain was a reaction from the unfruitful and scholastic discourse of orthodoxism, and it led to a handling of the Christian virtues. This turn of work in the pulpit does not suffer when compared with the Pietistic pulpit, though it was in some respects shallower. It protested against the one-sided appeal to the emotions, it called to earnest action and practical activity. It is therefore not to be condemned out of hand, any more than the preaching of orthodoxism is to be considered a sort of bankruptcy. Of course the handling of Scripture in the pulpit of this type corresponded to the method in which the Enlightenment dealt with the Bible, which ruled the preaching of this time somewhat as it did that of orthodoxism and Pietism, though the thought-world of the Bible retreated in favor of that of the philosophic-moralistic, while Biblical diction made way for the buoyant-poetic or ethical-learned. The chief weakness of the rationalistic pulpit lay in its content; its Christianity was diluted. Its commendation is that it advocated a fundamental and practical religion. Particulars to be noted are first the homiletic journals to which this period gave birth, such as the Journal für Prediger at Halle (1770 sqq.), Beyer's Allegemeines Magazin für Prediger (1789 sqq.), and Teller's Neues Magazin für Prediger (1792 sqq.). In the front rank of the individual preachers of the times stand Wilhelm Abraham Teller and Georg Joachim Zollikofer (qq.v.). A commanding personality was that of August Hermann Niemeyer (q.v.). There were also such pedants as Kindervater, Soldan, Snell, and Schuderoff, who preached on the basis of Kantian learning in a manner unintelligible to their congregations. Numerous preachers of the following of Teller turned to dry didactics; so Stolz in Bremen, Löffler in Gotha, Ribbeck in Magdeburg, and the productive Klefecker in Hamburg. Others employed more of pathos; so Hanstein, and Ehrenburg in Berlin. After the French Revolution the history of the church and of the times furnished much material for sermons. This was the case with the Swiss Johann Kaspar Häfeli (d. 1811) of Dessau, Bremen, and Bernburg. In his early career an opponent of the Enlightenment, later he came strongly under the influence of Kant; yet his talented control of language and masterful style revealed the born orator. Stolz, named above, preached on Frederick II., the freedom of the press, Zinzendorf, and the like; the pious supernaturalist Rosenmüller in Leipsic, on the noteworthy events of the eighteenth century. When Töllner proposed to preach on the revelation of God in nature, Köppen, the advocate of the Bible, protested. Such preachers abounded in city and hamlet. J. L. Ewald (d. 1822) issued sermons upon 173nature (1781) and Predigten über Naturtexte (without a Biblical text; 1789 sqq.).
4. The Reaction.
The result was a reaction against the dominant tendency from either an esthetic or a more Biblical standpoint. This reaction was the result of a deeper and stronger piety which had lived on among the people, to which were added the influences of a surviving supernaturalism. To this other factors contributed, such as the deeply grounded spiritual labors of a Johann Georg Hamann (q.v.), or the earnest piety, the dainty humor, and biting wit of Matthias Claudius (q.v.), or the power in prayer of a Johann Heinrich Jung Stilling (q.v.). Not to be overlooked in this movement were the results of the elevation and enriching due to the bloom of literature of the period, while the political conditions of the country made in the same direction: Of unusual significance, too, was Johann Gottfried Herder (q.v.), who is best compared with Baumgarten as an example of the classically instructed. The culture ideal of the humanists and the life ideal of Christianity were combined in his sermons. A large figure was that of Franz Volkmar Reinhard (q.v.); and related to him as exponent of supernaturalistic rationalism in carefully arranged and smoothly expressed sermons was Henry Gottlieb Tzschirner (q.v.), patriotic chaplain in the field, historian, and apologete. In German Switzerland this reaction was carried' on from the Biblical standpoint by a series of original minds. Johann Tobler of Zurich (d. 1808) showed naiveté and originality in expression, and Evangelical earnestness. Especially noteworthy is Johann Caspar Lavater (q.v.), in his sermons as in his poetry preeminently appealing to the feelings. The text and its fundamental thought came to their own in his discourses, though somewhat overladen with emotion. Another Swiss, Johann Jakob Hess (q.v.), while in warmth, liveliness, and richness of thought behind Lavater, surpassed him in keenness of understanding, possession of historical sense, knowledge of Scripture, clearness of collocation of thought, and aptness of application. David Müslin of Bern (d. 1821) also strove against the tide of the Enlightenment, leaving eight volumes of sermons. A pious Evangelical sense, correct valuation of Scripture, surrender to the leading of the text, earnestness, clarity, and utility are the characteristics of his pulpit work. Karl Ulrich Stückelberger (d. 1816) of Basel stimulated the study of the Bible in sermons which showed a clear comprehension expressed didactically and leading to a surer knowledge.
5. The Mediating Pulpit.
The effects of the earlier homiletic methods still continued to be felt throughout this period, and were followed by preachers who took a middle position between orthodoxy and Pietism. Thus in Basel worked the ardent Andreas Battier (d. 1793), who devoted himself to the Evangelical doctrine of salvation, and Nikolaus von Brunn, who labored with afresh message for twenty years. In Württemberg preached Gottlieb Christian Storr (q.v.), Biblical but not fluent. in type. Karl Friedrich Harttmann of Neuffen and Lauffen (d. 1815) ministered out of a rich fund of Evangelical instruction and religious experience. From Nuremberg came Johann Gottfried Schöner (d. 1822), poet and defender of the Bible, holding to the essential truths of the Gospel. His belief was that preaching would be effective if trust and salvation expressed externally the inward experience of the speaker. He was simple and clear in his arrangement of material and fluent in language. Not to be passed by is the unusually fertile work of G. E. Hartog in Löhne and Herford, Westphalia, marked by great clearness, comprehensiveness and intelligibility, strong. and precise expression, intense earnestness, and rich practical application. The county of Tecklenburg produced such men as Johann Gerhard (q.v.), Friedrich Arnold, and Johann Heinrich Hasenkamp (q.v.). Original in force was the Lutheran founder of missions, Johann Jänicke (d. 1827), preacher at the Brethren's Church in Berlin.
6. Preaching Outside Germany.
In this period the waves which rolled on the German sea of thought beat also throughout Continental Europe. In Denmark Pietism found no advocate of first rank in the pulpit; it was represented only by translations from the German and found a stern opponent in Bishop Hersleb in Zealand, whose mighty eloquence contemporaries could not praise too highly. The sermons of Christian Bastholm (q.v.), distinguished for clear arrangement and brilliant diction and much admired by the cultured, revealed the principle that in theory and practise eloquence was a sumptuous dress to conceal poverty of thought. The foremost representative in Denmark of the rationalistic spirit was H. G. Clausen of Copenhagen (d. 1840), whose sermons are lucid and free from trivialities. Among Norwegians to be mentioned are Johan Nordahl Brun (d. 1816), bishop in Bergen, fiery in eloquence and poetic in gifts; he was an advocate of supernaturalism against rationalism, though not profound in thought; more friendly to rationalism were the discourses of Niels Stockfleth Schultz, preacher in Drontheim; and still more rationalistic was Claus Pavels (d. 1822), bishop in Bergen. Hans Nielsen Hauge (q.v.) had the Pietistic bent with a nomistic slant. In Sweden from 1700 to 1770 the prevailing preaching was a blend of the old orthodoxy with Pietism, but with a national coloring. The strong orthodox sermons of court preacher Andreas Nohrberg (d. 1767), though in form somewhat scholastic, are still used with great satisfaction by orthodox Pietists. Erik Tollstadius was a noble representative of the more mystic Pietism, and the few sermons which were printed are still much used. Peter Murbeck of Bleking (d. 1768) introduced more of the logical element, while the spirit of Herrnhut was exemplified in Carl Blutstrom (d. 1772) and Peter Hamburg. Among the bishops of the first half of the century worthy of mention as preachers were G. A. Humble of Wexio, a high-churchman; the second archbishop of Upsala S. Troilius, and Bishop J. Seranius of Strengnäs, both statesmen and men who introduced the State-Churchly idea into their sermons, as later did O. Wallqvist (d. 1800), and J. M. Fant (d. 1813). G. Enebom (d. 1796), belonging to the Enlightenment, introduced a period of Utilitarian moralism. From 1741770 to 1809 virtue as the most serviceable thing was the theme of the sermons of J. Möller, B. von Gotland (d. 1805), C. Kullberg (d. 1808), and the neologian Bishop Lehnberg of Linköping (d. 1808). P. Fredell was an advocate of Swedenborgianism in opposition to the Enlightenment. In Holland in the second quarter of the nineteenth century no names of prominence stand out, and where the French language was spoken the same state of affairs existed. F. J. Durand left L’Année evangélique in seven volumes (2d ed., Bern, 1780). Jean Frédéric Oberlin (q.v.) stands out as a true witness to the Gospel in an evil time, earnest and popular in his application of Scripture and life, illustrating his thoughts with instructing fulness. Antoine Court and Paul Rabaut (qq.v.) should be mentioned here, and J. Roget (q.v.). In Holland the sermon was influenced by the English school, and the style changed slowly from the older detailed exposition of the text to the synthetic method. The road in this country was broken by E. Hollebeek of Leyden, and P. Chevalier of Groningen followed in discourses that were ethical and rationalistic in tone, as were those of E. Kist (d. 1822) in Dort. G. Bonnet of Utrecht (d. 1805) united the methods of the old and the new schools; the pious Jakob Hinlopen (d. 1803) for half a century protested by his method against all scholasticism, while L. Egeling in Leyden (d. 1835) was fruitful in his ministry. At the end of the eighteenth century examples of bombastic rhetoric appear in the sermons of J. Bosch and J. van Loo, while the reading of sermons began to be practised after the English model by the middle of that century.
5. The Evangelical Pulpit of the Nineteenth Century.
1. Basal Influences.
The revival of church life which took place at the beginning of the nineteenth century found its reflection in preaching, which received new blood and quickening and in turn stimulated the common life. Among the influences which worked in this direction were the political conditions. The necessities of Germany during the Napoleonic period and its rebirth during the wars for freedom, resulting in a feeling of united life among the people, gave to the pulpit an aim and a definite direction. The two men most influential in this extended crisis were Schleiermacher and Draeseke, though they were supported by a host of preachers who with earnestness and courage and in noble spirit led the way. A further influence was the growing consciousness of a concrete Christianity in the piety of the times. While some preachers held to the old ways, the general trend was in the new direction, led by men like Draeseke and Theremin into a new form and to contents which attempted to realize a historical Christianity. Above all was the guidance of Schleiermacher, who made the person of Christ and the redemption central in his preaching. Immediately there developed a style of sermon suited to the movement of awakening, and the use of the Bible was no small part of the method employed, while a confessional interest was powerfully revived. As a whole the preaching of the first decades of the nineteenth century was essentially Christological. The general truths of reason are no longer in control, the Gospel rules. Meanwhile the text has come to its own as the constitutive element, while the dogmatic and confessional are in the foreground; the merely moral sermon has lost its reputation, the Evangelical takes its place.
2. Schleiermacher.
Special importance attaches to Daniel Friedrich Schleiermacher (q.v.), who stands in the front rank of pulpit orators, as is attested by his ten volumes of sermons. His importance rests not alone in the fact that he influenced a generation of preachers and their sermons as did no other theologian of his century; but still more fundamental was his theological and homiletical starting-point in the immediateness of the emotions, to his steady retreat to the innermost Christian consciousness against the old supernaturalism, and also against the ruling rationalism and Kantianism. For him, the living sense of community with God is the center of Christian piety, and the stimulation of this is the purpose of all Christian preaching. His idea was to speak ever as to brethren and develop their Christian consciousness. Hence the chief content of his sermons is a clear exposition of his own inner life for believing Christians. The ethical was not neglected, but its sources were found in the religious consciousness. Characteristic was the way in which sin was treated by him, emphasizing the necessity of the new birth; he believed in a lifting above the situation where the flesh ruled rather than in a continuous conflict with a sinful inclination. In his earlier period he was closely tied to his text, which was generally short; as might be expected of so sturdy a thinker, the disposition of the thought was less formal than material. His preaching was wholly free from pathos, was classically tranquil to its thought development, closely logical in its articulation. Popular in the widest sense his sermons are not, adapted as they are for the cultured; but their clarity and logicalness make easy the understanding of them. He spoke often not simply as a Protestant preacher, but as a pious, experienced sage and moral philosopher. He did not write his sermons, but prepared them by moat careful and painstaking meditation. The fact that one so learned in classical antiquity and in philosophy yet made Christ the central point and gave to ethical conceptions the cast of the New-Testament methods of viewing them was to many, tired of the old rationalistic preaching, not merely attractive but positively grateful. And long afterward the influence of his method was found among preachers who still regarded him as their model. New light has been cast in this direction by the publication by J. Bauer of Schleiermacher's Ungedruckte Predigten aus . . . 1820–28 (Leipsic, 1909), and Bauer's Schleiermacher als patriotischer Prediger (Giessen, 1908).
3. His School.
His services were supported by a number of preachers of significant homiletical power. As advocates of a faith based on a Biblical revelation may be mentioned Gottfried Menken, Johann Baptist Albertini, and Johann Christian Gottlob Krafft (qq.v.), Theodore Lehmus of Ansbach (d. 1837), a victorious combatant of rationalism; Christian Adam Dann (q.v.), a preacher with suggestive themes and a diction juicy and forceful; Wilhelm 175Hofacker (q.v.); and J. E. F. Sander (q.v.), careful in the exegesis of his text, rather learned than forceful. Also Biblical in his basis but concentrating his thought upon sin and grace was Ludwig Hofacker (q.v.). Preachers of another type were equally Biblical in their sphere of thought, but more confessional in their development. Such a man was Claus Harms (q.v.), a man of kindly, serene, and poetic sensibilities and fresh humor which made him acceptable to all classes. His originality lay in the plasticity of his diction and in richness and weight of thought. Pathos was sometimes unpleasantly abundant. His subjects were suggestive and catchy; while his arrangement is philosophical, it is not determined always by the text. He had numerous followers, of whom may be named here Martin Stephan and A. G. Rudelbach (qq.v.). Biblical and confessional in type were the two Krummachers, Gottfried Daniel and Friedrich Wilhelm (qq.v.). Of the latter it may be said that he was an artist in the use of words, supported by a tangible realism and an uncommonly lively power of construction, by which he was able to make real the characters of the Bible story. Yet in his word pictures he did not always adhere to the historically true. The New Testament was frequently read back into the Old, while his use of the typical and allegorical was rather excessive. In this group belong also Hermann Friedrich Kohlbrügge and the Reformed preacher Friedrich Ludwig Mallet (qq.v.). While between Claus Harms and Bernhard Draeseke (q.v.) certain connections existed, in general they are of different types. The latter's sermons can not be characterized accurately as prevailingly either Biblical or confessional; they were more general in type. Related to him in style was the important Bishop Ruhlemann Friedrich Eylert (q.v.), in whom buoyancy became extravagance and freshness unction. Other preachers, while supernatural in trend, were not of the narrow supernatural school; such were the Königsberg preacher Ludwig August Kähler (q.v.), and Heinrich Leonhard Heubner of Wittenberg (q.v.). Franz Theremin (q.v.) was akin to this group in the expression which he gave to his piety.
4. Remainders of Rationalism.
Another group may be designated as the stragglers of rationalistic preaching. Belonging here is the celebrated Christoph Friedrich von Ammon (q.v.). In his earlier sermons he appears as a Kantian moralist; in a later period he devoted him self to the exposition of ecclesiastical doctrine. Finally, in his third period he returned to practically his first position. Gifted in the matter of form, diplomatically clever in expression of courtly fluency, and often of lofty and witty flow of thought, his sermons were especially adapted to the educated. The most important representative of the popular rationalism in these times was Johann Friedrich Rohr (q.v.). In clarity and logical coordination he follow Reinhard. In general his sermons escape many o he inherent weaknesses of the rationalistic discourse, though the basis is thoroughly rationalistic. Here belongs also Moritz Ferdinand Schmalz (d.1860), who served pastorates in Vienna, Dresden, and Hamburg; prolific and lively in thought, he recalled Reinhard in the careful and often comprehensive disposition of his material. Of like prominence were the Hamburg pastors J. K. W. Alt and C. U. A. Krause.
5. A New Trend.
The decades after the wars for freedom, in which on one side rationalism was one of the forces and on the other the influence of Schleiermacher and of the awakening was potent, constitute a period of ferment for the pulpit. Strong individuals like those already described broke away from the rationalistic, emotional-judicious, stirring-pathetic method, and a type gained the ascendency corresponding to the new influences. The result was not unlike that produced by Schleiermacher, though the resemblance was not due to dialectic trenchancy nor to depth of thought. The new preaching became often a preaching of repentance under the stimulus of the emphasis upon the significance of Christ for salvation. But the fine lines of Schleiermacher's dialectic, due to his dogmatic system, were hidden behind the grosser outlines of ecclesiastical confessions. In sum the new preaching was a return to Christ and the Bible. Hence the relation of the sermon to the text was recast. Rationalism formally allowed the authority of the Bible, but interpreted as it chose. The new understanding of Christianity caused the employment of the text in its original meaning as the guiding principle of the sermon. Of course traces of the earlier usage remained here and there, and the Word was sometimes misconstrued, especially the Old Testament, into which the New Testament was read. But the pulpit was essentially Biblical, the pericopes retained their importance, although the use of free texts was not unknown, while sometimes whole books of the Bible were the occasion of courses of sermons. The diction of the sermon was also influenced by that of the Bible, sometimes so strongly as to have an archaic sound. Similarly, the content of the sermon underwent change. Rationalism had chosen ethical themes, and these fell into discredit. Religious or religious-dogmatic themes were the rule, with a polemic against rationalism, the Friends of Light, liberalism, the new theology, and especially against the unchristian spirit of the times. Standard themes, of course with infinite variation, were repentance, grace, judgment, the person of Christ, the atonement. Consequently there was danger of the sermon becoming stereotyped. The way in which text and sermon contents were bound together was controlled by the ruling analytic-synthetic method. The text furnished the chief suggestions or themes; the thoughts furnished by the analysis of the text were united in a theme and then put in order according to the divisions, and these latter were prevailingly threefold-more than four divisions are rare. The length of the sermon gradually became shorter, from thirty to forty minutes. Here and there other than a Biblical text was chosen, while catechetical sermons were not unknown, as were those on the Apostles' Creed.
6. The Confessional Type.
A considerable proportion of pulpit orators laid emphasis upon Christ and Scripture, after the forms176 of the Lutheran confessions, and were at no pains disguise this spirit of confessional energy and dogmatic stress. The cardinal doctrines of the person of Christ, of sin and grace, and of the atonement ruled the sermon; and along with the positive exposition of these themes there was a polemic against errant tendencies of the period. The endeavor was to have the sermon practical with reference to center of the Gospel. Among the exponents of spirit of the pulpit may be named from South Germany Johann Konrad Wilhelm Löhe, Gottlieb Christian Adolf von Harless, and Gottfried Thomasius (qq.v.); from North Germany especially Ludwig Harms (q.v.), Ludwig Adolf Petri, and K. K. Münkel (qq.v.). Petri's sermons were simple in construction, but so deep and rich in their thought that they were adapted rather for the educated. The text governed in the working-out of his discourses, and was often exegetically treated. He emphasized doctrine without obscuring the Gospel, and revealed an earnest, keen thoroughly trained personality of the Lutheran-confessional type. Münkel, while stressing less the form, exercised a like care in the working-out of his discourses and in their clearness He preached to the church of a village, and that influenced his diction and his illustrations; the result is that his sermons may be designated popular. He avoids all that is coarse; he is learned, the church standards define his exposition, and his exegesis is unadorned. In this connection Bernhard Adolph Langbein of Saxony should be mentioned. From Christian Ernst Luthardt's pen have come down a number of volumes of sermons which unite a full utilization of the text with determination of its religious testimony. Simple and forceful repose combines with a great active ethical strength and rich theological content. Gerard Uhlhorn (q.v.) had a remarkable gift of exposition, and vigorous material found a corresponding form of expression, while a mighty ethical earnestness was combined with the energy of the Lutheran proclamation. Of Lutherans outside of Germany mention may be made of A. F. Huhn, preacher at Reval, prolific in production.
7. Emphasis on the Practical.
From this group of distinctively confessional preachers a second group may be distinguished by a closer grip of the confessional element and a sharper emphasis upon practical, communal, and individual matters. To be named here are Karl Heinrich Caspari of Munich and J. F. Ahlfeld (q.v.) in Leipsic. The sermons of the former in their simplicity appeal more to the ordinary man than to the educated; but they show a rich experience, a deep knowledge of men special aptitude in individualization, concrete illustrations, and a plastic exposition. Johann Friedrich Ahlfeld was too practically disposed to be a mere partizan. In the many volumes of sermons from his pen there are shown an engaging warmth, a religious-ethical earnestness, and an extraordinary power of presentation combined with popular homeliness. The Württemberg Church produced Wilhelm Hoffmann (q.v.), a preacher whose discourses lead clearly and surely to into the Scriptures and their plea of salvation and illuminate the practical life. Another man of note is B. B. Brückner (q.v.), preacher in Berlin and he professor in Leipsic, a man of gentle orthodoxy, Pleasing speech, fine employment of the text, and correct in his methods of arrangement. Of Carl Gerok (q.v.) it may be said that he possessed a great as power of pleasing, a gentle mildness, a pronounced the clarity, a poetic beauty, none of which lessened the this earnest depth of his Christian thought and comprehension of the teat. He was, however, more of a practical man than thinker, partaking of the qualities of Ahlfeld as a saver of souls. Also to be named are the brothers Max and Emil Frommel, the former of whom belonged to the group of practical sermonizers who based their work on the Bible. Max's sermons may be said to be more forceful and earnest than his brother's, and carry a tinge of Pietism with a joyous and certain faith in God. They are artistically complete. Emil , court preacher and military chaplain at Berlin, especially in his sermons on festival days took great delight in leading his congregation into the world of Biblical thought; he also was practical in type, polished to a degree. Events, history, application, interpretation, illustration, followed each other throughout his discourses. He was a preacher for all ranks of society, though the fineness of his discourse made him appreciated most by the cultured. Two preachers of recent date are Rudolph Kögel and Heinrich Hoffmann (qq.v.). The former, in dogmatics stronger than Frommel, did not strive for dogmatic profundity; his forte was a rhetorical art which made all else serviceable. Hoffmann's strength lay in his fine, searching, saving, and keen psychology, in the energetic compactness with which he brought to expression his rich and deep thinking, in the forcefulness of the testimony which he brought to the Gospel, and finally in the holy earnestness with which he appealed to the conscience. T. J. R. Kögel (q.v.), preacher at the cathedral in Berlin, was the foremost Evangelical clergyman in Prussia, possessed of great national and courtly opportunities, a prince in the pulpit, the rhetorician of sacred oratory, a master of style; on the other side was Heinrich Hoffmann, restricted to the narrow sphere of the Neumarktkirche in Halle, without notoriety, yet a herald of earnest and philosophical thought, a real shepherd of souls. Both of them were preachers to the educated; for simple people the genius of Kögel was too lofty, the compressed thought of Hoffmann too difficult of comprehension. Neither had the fine, light touch of Emil Frommel, the gripping power of narration of Ahlfeld, or the gentle art of Gerok. Only briefly to be mentioned here are Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Arndt (q.v.), the Berlin preacher Strauss, whose sermons are distinguished by devoutness and feeling, and Karl Büchsel (q.v.), whose rough, formless, knotty, but uncommonly earnest and practical sermons had aide influence. The sermons of F. L. Steinmeyer (q.v.) might be called essays toward the understanding of Scripture. The material for them he derived from the text, while the exegesis was almost too broad and artistic; but the thoughts were ever deep and original, the structure well thought through, the form beautiful 177and connected, and the aim was to produce religion, not theology.
8. Pietistic Antirationalistic Preaching.
A third group show either Pietistic or Scripturalistic influences. They are pronouncedly antirationalistic, and reveal the sharp ecclesiastical tendency. They are preachers of repentance, or salvation, or awakening, or conscience, but never, in the pulpit, theologians. They have little to do with exegesis and offer their own witness. They seldom speak as the mouth of the congregation, though they are the more successful as Evangelists. They regard little the arrangement of the discourse, at any rate the formal carrying-out of a plan and the formulation of subject and divisions. A peculiar position in this group was gained by Johann Tobias Beck (q.v.), who was Scripturalistic. Other men of Württemberg to be named are Sixt Karl Kapff and Johann Christoph Blumhardt (qq.v.). The latter was mighty as a preacher, and often opened wide the treasure of knowledge and experience hidden in the Scriptures. His sermons rang true, and he was smooth yet popular in his diction. Here should be named a German Swiss who belonged to the speculative division of the school of Bengel and Oetinger, the original and spirited David Spleiss of Schaffhausen (d. 1854), who traced the inner unity of nature and Scripture. In his earnestness he used mouth, hand, and foot in the pulpit in order to give expression to the press of thought, was impressive, fiery, clear, suggestive, yet always popular. His discourses were uncommonly full and connected. From the Prussian rural church came August Tholuck (q.v.), whose Pietistic coloring was toned down by his academic activity. His idea of the sermon was that it should not be a demonstration of man's intelligence but a testimony of the divine Spirit. His discourses owe their force especially to the masterful psychological development of a deep and binding apologetics, sharpening the conscience. The noble, cultured, and impressive diction is inspired with the warmest feeling and the deepest earnestness, while the exposition is lightened with the play of a lively but sanctified imagination. He was free in the matter of form, in the method of handling his text, even in the choice of a text, not restricting himself to Scripture but using, e.g., passages from the Augsburg Confession. Purely a Pietist was Gustav Knak (d. 1878), especially successful in his appeal to the heart and emotions of the congregation, and possibly the most sensitive and appealing of all the preachers of the nineteenth century.
9. Individualism Dominant.
A fourth group is composed of those who first set forth Christian verity in an external garb drawn not so much from the Bible as from the individuality of the preacher; they also show a desire to rub off many corners and edges of Biblical pronouncements, thus to present Christian doctrine in a milder form and one Dominant. more in accord with the characteristics of the times. Preachers of this type of academical theologians are especially numerous, and particularly those who belong to the mediating theology. It is not strange that among many of these the thoughtful working-out of the verities of faith seemed more important than immediate influence upon heart and conscience, and one might even assign Tholuck to this group, though in him the pietistic-Biblical element preponderated. This last was not the case with Karl Immanuel Nitzsch (q.v.), whose sermons, like Schleiermacher's, showed a complete blending of the religious and the ethical; he also laid little stress upon form and diction. The deep inner harmony of his being, grounded in a fully ripened completion of his philosophical, theological, and practical ecclesiastical views, the imperturbable peace, and the conciliatory character of his mind were mirrored forth in his preaching. Julius Müller (q.v.) showed in his preaching an argumentative exposition of Scripture and a learned and dialectic development which required sympathy of energy in the hearer or reader. The sermons of Richard Rothe (q.v.) were such as could spring only from his own singularly deep and cultured nature; what he uttered was wholly his own, in speech and in flow of thought entirely individual. Externally his sermons present a finished oratorical and artistic form. Karl Theodor Albert Liebner and Friedrich August Eduard Ehrenfeuchter (qq.v.) belong to this group, as do Albrecht Wolters, remarkable for poetically beautiful and thoughtfully fine testimony, and Willibald Beyschlag (qq.v.), a brilliant preacher of fine sensibilities, who employed a mild apologetics to the reconciliation of Christianity and modern culture. He was a witness for Evangelical Christianity with great freedom of spirit and constraint of conscience, a noted exegete, uniting the thought of the text with individual comprehension and elaboration. Here also must be placed Julius Müllensiefen (q.v.), though his sermons reproduce more faithfully than those just mentioned the Biblical coloring; he is also much more popular, deeper mentally, and richer in feeling than many of them.
10. Moderninstic Groups.
The fifth group includes within its numbers preachers with wide differences; they share with the preceding independence in the form of thought and of construction, and they speak not in the language of the Bible but in that of the times. The general attitude is that of Carl Schwarz: "Not only is the present born again through the spirit of Christianity, but Christianity itself is born again through the present." It is not the old rationalism which comes out in this group, however; all in which that form of thought failed, religion, in which lie the depths of the soul's life, is that which these preachers would supply on the basis of the incarnation of Christ, real and effective, and no less on the basis of the entire and complete humanizing of Christianity. Of this group Carl Schwarz (q.v.), cited above, is the leader and chief representative. His idea was to make use of whatever had been critically established by Lessing, Herder, Schleiermacher, and Hegel, and to make it available to the congregation. He translated Christianity, formally as well as essentially, into German in sermons which were religious-ethical. Christ was not pushed into the background, though the presentation of him was of a sort other than that of the Biblically based church doctrine. His sermons might be described as highly idealistic, rhetorically forceful, warmly religious, 178ethically earnest, in their conception of life free. Of another type, yet in many respects related to Schwarz, is the worthy Albert Bitzius of Switzerland, who spoke out openly and frankly, perhaps even more plainly than Schwarz, his dissent from the earlier church doctrine. Schwarz was in his homiletical art a pure idealist; Bitzius was as emphatically a realist; where Schwarz is all buoyancy and inspiration, Bitzius is reality, fact. But the latter is never dull or dry, the expression is forceful, comprehensively and yet simply beautiful. As a result the matters treated are intimately joined with his subject. He does not deal with generalities, but handles many special themes from common life and from other spheres. It follows that for him the text can not have the upper hand; his sermons are never analytical; they deal with the material furnished by his congregation in a serious, essentially religious, ethical, end vigorous manner. Ethical sermons, in the strict sense of the phrase, he never delivers; yet he feels his connection with the faith of Christians of all periods, and he urges his hearers each to have a faith which is individually his very own. If any of the preachers of the nineteenth- century is practical, then is Bitzius practical. The fresh, picturesque, and inspired sermons of the Swiss Heinrich Lang (q.v.) differ from the discourses of Bitzius in that they do not follow of purpose a set ethical-religious aim; they set relentlessly before the hearers his own free religious position and woo those hearers to adopt them. Daniel Schwenkel, Carl Weizsäcker, and Alexander Schweizer (q.v.) should be in this group.
6. The Recent German Pulpit.
1. Emphasis on the Practical.
In this section only a survey can be afforded of the prolific product of the pulpit. The first and the second groups of the last period find their continuance in this period: The general tendency is to make the dogmatic retreat before the practical. Following the first group as given above are on the Wilhelm Walther of Rostock and Theodor Zahn (qq.v.) of Erlangen. Affiliated with the second group, strongly represented, are O. Pank in Leipsic, producing thoughtful and forceful discourses; Paul Kaiser of the same city, noted for smooth diction, clear construction, easy comprehensiveness, and living conceptions; E. Quandt, who has produced several volumes of sermons; Hermann Cremer (q.v.), who stresses the grace of God in Christ to sinful man; and Adolf Schlatter, a Swiss, whose activities are displayed in Tübingen. These all intend to preach the "old Gospel" in the sense of the doctrine of the Church; they are opposed to the modern tendency and polemize against the emptying of the Gospel by theologians of liberal spirit as against positive tendencies against Christianity. They notice little the questions and doubts urged by modern skepticism; they start with the trustworthiness of the Bible, appeal to experience for confirmation, and address wholly the flock as standing on the old faith. They are in part, therefore, masters of form; they know how to use the text practically and to apply it to the inner religious life. The fourth group described in the foregoing is also represented in the latest period, though not without characteristic deviations. Ernst Dryander (q.v.) of Berlin may be set in this group. One of his dicta is: "We are accustomed to say and to believe that the Gospel is akin to all that is great and noble in man." He is noted for his fine culture, for the eloquent though unrhetorical control of form, for religious fervor, and for depth of Biblical feeling. The school of Nitzsch is continued by a number of preachers mostly in academic positions, though the tendency of these in their theological conceptions is conservatively mediating, not without influence. Such are Erich Haupt of Halle (q.v.), possessing an extraordinary exegetical keenness, a thrilling force of thoughtful development, and a deep fervor; Gustav Kawerau (q.v.), who seeks to move men through the holy earnestness, the depth and strength of God's word alone; Julius Kaftan (q.v.); Ernst Christian Achelis (q.v.) of Marburg; and Wilhelm Faber of Berlin, who recalls Kögel in his rhetorical form. They preach the old Gospel for the modern comprehension and adapt it to present conditions, of which they have a deep apprehension.
2. A Composite Group.
Yet those who have been named differ widely from each other, and the line between them and those of a freer tendency or of the right wing is tenuous. To the right wing belong those preachers who in the matter of the sermon sharply separate theology and religion, assigning the debated questions of religious knowledge to theology and reserving matters of religious influence for the popular ear. Men of this tendency were particularly under the guidance of Albrecht Ritschl and include such names as Kaftan (ut sup.), B. W. Bornemann, Hermann Schultz, Paul Drews, J. Gottschick, Theodor Häring, and Friedrich Loofs (qq.v.). A somewhat freer theological position is taken by preachers like Otto Baumgarten (q.v.), Erich Förster, and H. Hackmann. Between this group and the left wing of the freer theology stands the distinction that the latter in the sermon take up expressly the contest with the traditional apprehension of Christian knowledge, but of course with individual differences of method and viewpoint. Thus there are Heinrich Holtzmann (q.v.) of Strasburg, spiritual, thoughtful, and deep-reaching in exegesis and reflection; P. Kirmss and W. Bahnsen, and Heinrich Ziegler, an idealist of the type of Carl Schwarz; and the two Bremen preachers A. Kalthoff and Moritz Schwalb. There is another strain as yet uncharacterized. The idealistic tendency of Schwarz had its counterpart in the realistic lines of Bitzius; the abstract-religious or general-ethical implies a special-concrete opposite, in which the text is less directive in the sermon than the definite situation of the congregation. As Drew puts it: "It has come forcibly to our apprehension that each community has its individuality, and that to each in its appropriate method the Gospel is to be adapted." Special circumstances are to be handled to the profit of the congregation, chief among which are problems arising in social conditions. Among preachers who take cognizance of matters social Friedrich Naumann has especial prominence by reason of his masterly grip and clear handling of the 179fundamental problems of the present, including those in the ethical and religious worlds. While his solutions are perhaps never fully satisfying from a theoretical standpoint, they show a marvelously clear and practical piety. He conceives his message to be "to those who in the-midst of the life of the new age would find a personal relation to Christianity," and to these he speaks in their own tongue, starting with them as a sharer in their own conception of things, yet by reason of the strength of his faith is their leader. A preacher of the type of Naumann is Bernhard Doerries; in his concreteness and aptness of dealing with affairs of the congregation and individual he reproduces Naumann at his best. Here belong also Geyer and Rittelmeyer of Nuremberg, with their excellent modern fresh and plastic methods. Gustav Frenssen does not always preach real village sermons; but he does not take fright at any particular circumstances. Yet the thinking auditor finds something lacking in his work; he gives religious conceptions without theological insight; he is an apologete for Christianity, but above all as a preacher he is a poet. Very concrete and suited for a rural people are the discourses which H. Kaiser has collected, as well as the addresses of Erwin Gros. K. Hesselbacher, now at Carlsruhe, has established a firm reputation as village preacher. The descendants of the third group named above have experienced also great changes. The Pietistic emotional sermon suits no longer the taste of the Methodist-revivalistic hearer. The modern sermon of Evangelization has many types, from the one-sided and fanatical works of Karl Idel to the more restful ones of J. Stockmeyer, the psychologically fine and many-sided ones of Elias Schrenk, and the energetic, rousing, apologetic, and modern discourses of Samuel Keller. But all these claim the right to be distinguished from those who use the stormy, impetuous, and nerve-racking methods so largely dominant, even while they receive their impulse toward the "Field-Mission" from the very decided movement manifested among the different congregations. Whether the Methodistic flavor of these sermons is great, less, or very little, whether they are prevailingly Biblical or modern and practical, their aim is conversion, their object is decision, and their method is a rousing call to repentance. The modern pulpit has certain well-marked characteristics. It appeals to the soul life of the hearer with firm grip and full understanding; it is religious and practical and ill-disposed to dogmatics, realizes the logic of necessity in requiring a solution of the problems of the times.
7. The Continental Pulpit Outside Germany.
1. In Scandinavia.
For Denmark the first name worthy of mention is that of Jakob Peter Mynster (q.v.), bishop of Zealand, simple but noble in diction and deep in thought. Not simply a preacher but also a religious author, the prophet of the inner life and the opponent of ecclesiastical Christianity was Sören Aabye Kierkegaard (q.v.). Mynster's successor, Hans Lassen Martensen (q.v.), with all his versatility in the study of the text and its application, yet many a time misses a really enchaining style. Nikolai Frederik Severin Grundtvrig (q.v.) was a preacher of really original power. With the early strength of his polemic against rationalism, somewhat decayed, there remained the undauntedness of his living testimony, resting upon his inner experience, against a declension of faith in the Father, the fire of his temperament, and above all his popular, poetic, blazing eloquence. His great influence was seen in such men as W. Birkedal and C. Hostrup. D. G. Monrad had a keen eye for the psychological approach and great ability in delineation of character. N. G. Blaedel, R. Frimodt, H. H. Paulli (d. 1865), Wilhelm Beck (d. 1901), are names meriting mention. Living Danish preachers of eminence are T. S. Roerdam (q.v.), bishop of Zealand, a pupil of Grundtvig, J. Paulli, son of H. H. Paulli, and H. B. Ussing (q.v.). It may be said in passing that the prevailing usage in Denmark is against the use of manuscript in the pulpit. In Norway, Willem Andreas Wexels won great renown both as an eminent preacher and as a distinguished foe of rationalism. O. Andreas Berg (d. 1861) was entirely orthodox in his short, penetrating, clear and practical sermons, but after the Norwegian method which combined Lutheran orthodoxy with Pietism. Somewhat similar in character was Honoratus Halling, and the still living G. Jensen of Christiania shows the influence of Grundtvig and Lutheran orthodoxy. In the most recent years a more "modern" spirit has invaded, closely akin to that of Germany. It has been recognized as a function of the pulpit to meet the modern educated man with a warm-hearted understanding and to win him for Christianity and the Church. A noted exponent of this tendency is T. Klaveness of Christiania. In Sweden also there set in early in the nineteenth century a current against rationalism, in the form of a strong confessional Lutheranism combined with a strong Pietistic movement among the laity. The sermons are of the synthetic type, but for the chief service of the day the pericopes furnish the text, for other services the choice of text is free; the reading of the sermon is more frequent than in Norway and Denmark, at least in the established Church, indeed many bishops expressly recommend that form. In the antirationalistic campaign a leading influence was that of Professor Samuel Oedmann of Upsala (d. 1829) and C. P. Hagberg of Lund (d. 1837), who led also in the changes in sermon form. In the following period in the Established Church three groups appeared. Those who were under the influence of romanticism opposed rationalism as an empty religion of reason and approximated closely to Lutheran doctrine as the expression of their convictions. This class was represented by a series of poetically endowed men of very different qualities, such as the celebrated poet of the Frithiofs Saga, Esaias Tegnér (d. 1846), the childlike and lovable Bishop Franz Mikael Franzén (d. 1847), and Johann Olof Wallin (d. 1839), who in catchy diction, roundness of expression, beauty of rhythm, and perspicuity of arrangement was unexcelled in Sweden. In a second group are to be placed C. G. Rogberg of Upsala (d.1842), whose sermons showed great beauty of form, in the early period a liking for the Enlightenment, later a better agreement with Christian doctrine; Johan Henrik Thomander (d. 1865), called 180by his friends "the new Luther," was extemporaneous in style, with an uncommon freshness of presentation; and Anton Niklas Sundberg (d. 1900), a mighty personality. All these had a broad outlook, but especially emphasized freedom in the pulpit. A third and somewhat larger group were in control in the second half of the century, and advocated a strong orthodox Lutheranism. The pathbreaker was Henrik Schartau (q.v.), with his passionate zeal for pure doctrine, who founded a homiletical school which is yet influential in the south and west of Sweden. He was full of Evangelical zeal as a saver of souls, though no Pietist, in his sermons full of thought, psychologically fruitful, with a mystical depth of content and of spiritual experience, carefully exegetical not only of the text but of the context. With him stood E. C. Bring (d. 1884), bishop in Linköping, and J. C. Bring, director of the deaconess institute in Stockholm. Revivalist in type was Levi Lastadius (d. 1861), while a Methodistic preacher was the layman Karl Olof Rosenius (d. 1868), who emphasized free grace. Of more recent preachers the bishop of Lund, G. Billing, is worthy of mention.
2. The German-Swiss Pulpit.
The preachers of German Switzerland followed the lead of Bitzius and H. Lang (ut sup.); and of contributors to the literature of preaching there are Konrad W. K. Kambli, A. Hauri, A. Bolliger, and B. Riggenbach. G. Benz, in Basel, and R. Aeschbacher have sprung in recent years into wide fame as preachers. In French Switzerland men of prominence were François Samuel Robert Louis Gaussen, Paul Ami Isaac David Bost, Solomon Caesar Malan, and Jean Henri Merle d’Aubigné (qq.v.). These were all of the revivalistic type of pulpit orators. Of a totally different kind was the preaching of Alexander Rodolphe Vinet (q.v.), in which emotion is suppressed in favor of dialectically sharp thought which requires the close attention of the reader. While the text is in the background, definite themes are marshalled in masterly fashion, with deep comprehension of what is essential and with religious warmth. His illustrations are from history, nature, and life rather than the Bible; and he rests upon a clear comprehension of the essence and needs of the soul, of its relationship to time and the world, and of its search for freedom and God. Here should be mentioned Frank Coulin (q.v.).
3. In France and Holland.
In France, out of the circles which were in relations with the Swiss revivalistic school sprang Adolphe Monod (q.v.), possibly the first French preacher of the century; his brother Frédéric (q.v.) is of less prominence. In the first rank stand Grandpierre and Eugéne Artur François Bersier (q.v.). While these orthodox representatives are noted, it would be unfair to omit mention of such followers of a freer method as Athanase Coquerel father and son (qq.v.). The former was guided by the earlier French liberalism, quietly moderate in tone; and the polish extended beyond the rich and full flow of thought, the clear, incisive language, to the gesture and pose, to the dignity of the very man himself. The son was a leader of the freer Protestantism in France, a genial and versatile personality. His sermons were greatly valued for their religious force and penetration, with which he united simplicity and elegance. With these men Ferdinand Fontanes should also be named. In Holland the sermons of the first half of the century were essentially practical. Meriting first plane is E. A. Borger (d. 1820), brilliant and original, still studied. The court preacher at The Hague, J. J. Dermout (d. 1867), was called the Napoleon of the pulpit because of the imperative force of his discourses. H. H. van der Palm (q.v.) was celebrated as an expounder of Scripture, and was known as doctor mellifluus for the elegance of his style. Among those who adorned the pulpit of the Remonstrants were Amorie van der Hoeven, father (d. 1855) and son (d. 1848), the first of whom, a polished speaker, issued a study of the eloquence of Chrysostom, while the son was even more fundamental in thought than the father. Others of eminence were J. J. van Oosterzee (q.v.), J. I. Doedes (q.v.) of Rotterdam, J. P. Hasebroek of Amsterdam, and J. J. L. ten Kate of Middleburg; while of recent date is C. E. van Koetsveld. In Holland alongside of the orthodox Calvinistic pulpit, then, goes a strong tendency toward the free and modern style.
8. The Roman Catholic Pulpit.
1. Early Characteristics.
In Germany only very slowly did the Roman Catholic pulpit work itself free from formlessness and unimportance into the respectability which it reached in the nineteenth century as illustrated, for example, by the work of Johann Michael von Sailer. The influence of the blooming German literature affected the Roman Catholic pulpit later than it did the Lutheran. Even the brilliant orators of the French Roman Catholic pulpit failed to affect their coreligionists in Germany as much as they did those of Italy. In the same way the philosophic and rationalistic stream was later in making its way into Roman Catholicism than into Protestantism; but the return to an ecclesiastical orthodoxy was achieved contemporaneously with the same movement in the Protestant pulpit. The value of the Church, the papacy, and its holy treasure, the veneration of the saints, above all of the mother of God, were the principal themes, but treated in a more modern way. This is true of the first decades of the nineteenth century, where preaching obtained. In the last half of the century three phases are to be discriminated. One was rooted in dogmatics, the second was under the influence of rationalistic philosophy and the Enlightenment, the third was a return to the ultramontanistic spirit. At the beginning of the eighteenth century many preachers mingled with their discourses quotations from the Church Fathers, so that in some cases the discourses were half Latin. Exponents of this mixed style are the Benedictine Placidus Urtlauff, the Augustinian Samuel Depfer of Vienna, and the Benedictine Sebastian Textor. Others delivered a course of sermons dealing with morals, sometimes covering a considerable period; so the Capuchin Jordan Annaniensis and the Carmelite Pacificus a Cruce. Preaching was at a low ebb, men did not learn from the great patterns; hence the flatness of the work of Xaver Dorn, Maximin Steger, Joseph 181Angelus 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 Bailer (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 fob 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 Evangelists 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 Henhöfer and Charles Paschal Telesphore Chiniquy (qq.v.) are to be named here, as well as J. H. Wichern (q.v.).
2. Later Tendencies.
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 lettres as well as in homiletics. His sermons 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 Othmar von Raucher (d. 1875), archbishop of Vienna, Prince-bishop Heinrich von Förster 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 Père 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.
IV. Preaching in the English Tongue.
1. Before the Reformation.
1. The Anglo-Saxon Period.
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 North Umbrians, that is, the nation of the Angles," received Christianity. Further, Paulinus of York (q.v.) labored "to convert some of the 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 182from the Latin into Saxon which bears the name of Aelfric (see Alfric) and dates from early in the eleventh century.
2. The Norman Period.
After the Norman Conquest there are no traces of preaching to the invaders in their own language; though there are Latin sermons from this period. To the English people themselves, however, there was preaching in their own tongue. Many Anglo-Saxon homilies from this time are extant. From the twelfth and thirteenth centuries comes the highly valuable collection of Morris, Old English Homilies, which contains many interesting specimens of the English preaching of that epoch. During this period at least four notable prelates are also entitled to notice as preachers. These are: Ailred of Revesby (q.v.), Peter of Blois (q.v.), who, though a Frenchman, learned the English tongue and preached in it; Stephen Langton (q.v.), the celebrated archbishop of York, in his earlier years a preacher of distinction; and the famous bishop of Lincoln, Robert Grosseteste (q.v.), a preacher of force as well as a polemical prelate. In the early fourteenth century William of Macclesfield and Walter of Winterbourne were prominent preachers of the Dominican order in England.
3. The Pre-Reformation Period.
The leading name here is that of John Wyclif (q.v.). His great work as Bible translator and reformer does not obscure that of his preaching. Some of his homilies have come down and give good evidence of his earnestness, learning, acuteness, and popular power. He trained and sent out many preachers to instruct the common people in Bible truth and give them a purer Gospel than they received at the hands of monks or parish clergy. Among the churchly clergy of his age none appear to have reached distinction as preachers.
2. The Reformation.
1. General Account.
In Great Britain, as on the continent, the religious upheaval of the sixteenth century was vitally and powerfully related to preaching. (1) The worth of preaching as a religious force came to be more highly esteemed both by the preachers themselves and their hearers, and this naturally improved its tone. (2) Preaching was more Biblical. It now not only more clearly recognized the authority of the Bible, but it adopted a far more accurate and serious interpretation of Scripture. (3) Unavoidably the preaching was controversial and often hotly so. (4) The contents of sermons were thus quite theological and Biblical; but there was also much reasoning and illustration. (5) Preaching sought the people more than ever; less and less was it mere instruction of the clergy. Hence also the vernacular became now the rule and Latin the exception in the pulpit. This was not due solely to the Reformation, but it was accepted and fixed by that movement. (6) Preaching did not wholly escape the scholastic forms and the allegorizing methods of the Middle Ages, but there was improvement and progress toward better methods. (7) Modern preaching in the English tongue is the product of the Reformation. Before that time English preaching was comparatively undistinguished. Since then there has been none greater in history.
2. English Preachers.
John Colet (q.v.), professor at Oxford and dean of St. Paul's, though Erasmian rather than Lutheran, was a preacher of power. His striking lectures on Paul's Epistles at Oxford, and his popular preaching in London gave great impulse to the new ideas. The Bible translators—especially Tyndale and Coverdale (qq.v.)—were also preachers of influence. Chief among the preachers was Hugh Latimer (q.v.). His earnestness, boldness, acuteness, his knowledge of Scripture, his shrewd humor and tact, his racy English, all make Latimer one of the great preachers of history. Three other victims of the Marian reaction and persecution in 1555 are also notable as preachers: John Hooper (q.v.), bishop of Gloucester, who was diligent in and out of the pulpit, and from whom a few sermons of grasp, strength, and pungency have come down; Nicholas Ridley (q.v.), bishop of London, who was perhaps the deepest theologian of them all, but from whom no sermons are extant, though his preaching is highly praised by Foxe and others; and good John Bradford (q.v.), perhaps the most spiritual and edifying of the group, from whom remain a few excellent sermons. In the early years of Elizabeth there was something of a dearth of preachers and preaching. This was in part due to the preceding persecution, but also in part to the queen's cautious policy and her dislike or fear of the political influence of the pulpit. Worthy of mention are: Thomas Lever, whose sermons are said to have resembled Latimer's in boldness and spirit; Bernard Gilpin (q.v.), "the apostle of the north," whose eloquence and devotion are warmly praised by contemporaries; and the archbishops Edmund Grindal and Edwin Sandys (qq.v.). But the best preacher among the Elizabethan prelates was John Jewel (q.v.), bishop of Salisbury, who made his mark in the pulpit by his learning, eloquence, and devoutness.
3. The Scotch Preachers.
The Reformation in Scotland was perhaps more directly promoted by preaching than was the case anywhere else, and yet the literary remains of that preaching are very scanty. Such accounts and specimens as are extant exhibit the three essentials of reformatory eloquence: Scriptural basis, depth of conviction and corresponding fervor in appeal, and popular power. Before Knox the two preachers most often mentioned as preparing the way for him are Patrick Hamilton and George Wishart (qq.v.), both of whom were noted for earnestness and persuasiveness, and died as martyrs to their convictions. Nor must John Rough (d. 1557) be forgotten, the first minister to the reforming refugees at St. Andrews, who introduced Knox to the ministry there. Of John Knox himself (q.v.), maker and writer of history, patriot and statesman, theologian and reformer, the main thing to say is that he was all these by virtue of being in and above them all a preacher. One sermon only, with alight accounts of others, is all that remains from his pen; but the notices and results of his preaching give him a place of first rank among the great. Among his contemporaries and followers were: John Willock 183(d. 1585), who ranks next to Knox in power and influence; Christopher Goodman (d. 1603), an Englishman by birth and education, but a faithful preacher of reform in Scotland; and James Lawson (d. 1584), the successor of Knox at St. Giles in Edinburgh.
3. The Seventeenth Century.
This is well called "the classic age of the English pulpit." The momentous events of the age profoundly affected its preaching; and the pulpit was no small factor in shaping thought and action in all departments of the national life.
1. Character of Preaching.
Seventeenth-century preaching generally, but less in England than elsewhere, exhibited some reaction from the freshness and force of the Reformation, yet manifested and continued both the substantial gains and much of the spirit of that revolution. Doctrine and controversy on the basis of Scripture continued to be a large element of the sermon, but there was also much appeal to the more spiritual and devotional sides of religious life. In English preaching marked diversities appear. The differences between Anglicans, Puritans, and Non-conformists, with a multitude of individual peculiarities, led to a rich and interesting variety in pulpit work. In Scotland, owing to the influence of Knox and the dominance of Presbyterianism, there was a greater uniformity of type. Yet there were certain common characteristics which distinguish the great preaching of this age. The more glaring faults may be reduced to three: (a) The general prevalence-perhaps inevitable, yet carried too far-of the dogmatic and polemical spirit; (b) the tendency to minute analysis and tedious prolixity; (c) the affectation of both pedantry and fancy, which mar much of the best pulpit work of the time. On the other hand the admirable virtues of that "classic" preaching may also be set down under three general statements: (a) the Protestant principle of appeal to the Bible as authority led to power in the grasp and application of Scriptural truth, though with some polemical forcing and use of allegorical fancies; (b) the place and effect of preaching as a recognized and practical force in life and affairs gave to the preachers a sense of mastery and power in their work; (c) the varied and splendid use of the English language fixed its rank as one of the noblest instruments of religious utterance ever known.
2. Leading Preachers.
(1) English. These fall into the two well-defined groups of Anglican as against Puritan and Nonconformist. The Anglicans divide into an earlier and a later group. Among the earlier Preachers. may be named: Bishop Lancelot Andrewes (q.v.), somewhat heavy and pedantic, but strong with a tendency to mysticism; John Donne (q.v.), in early life courtier and poet but later a devout and earnest preacher somewhat given to poetic conceits and fancies; Joseph Hall (q.v.), bishop of Exeter and Norwich, pure and sweet of spirit, winsome in speech with a slight excess of ornament; and the eloquent defender of Protestantism, William Chillingworth (q.v.). The later group falls within the troublous times of the Commonwealth, Restoration, and Revolution, and chief among the mighty are: Jeremy Taylor (q.v.), marvelously gifted in fancy and diction, erudite and pious; Isaac Barrow (q.v.), mathematician, scholar, theologian, profound and exhaustive thinker, with a richness and strength of diction well suited to his mental methods; Robert South (q.v.), sharp and pugnacious in spirit and speech, but clear, forcible, and interesting; and John Tillotson (q.v.), moderate in temper and thought, strong without being powerful, clear without much beauty, a model of common sense. Of the Puritans proper there are: Thomas Adams (q.v.), weighty in thought and vigorous in style, called the "Shakespeare of the Puritans"; Thomas Goodwin (q.v.), devout, fanciful, strong; and the ever memorable pastor and earnest preacher at Kidderminster, Richard Baxter (q.v.). Among the Independents are the great theologian John Owen (q.v.) and the powerful thinker John Howe (q.v.). One English Presbyterian of first importance is Edmund Calamy (q.v.), popular preacher in London. The Baptists have the worthy names of John Bunyan (q.v.), Vavasor Powell (see Fifth Monarchy Men), a mighty Welsh preacher, and Benjamin Keach (q.v.), a scholarly and able pastor in London. (2) Scotch. Presbyterianism was the established religion of reformed Scotland, and among the faithful preachers of the time are: Alexander Hamilton (d. 1646), well trained, calm, able pastor at Edinburgh; David Dickson (q.v.), pastor, preacher, professor; Samuel Rutherford (q.v.), author of the well-known devotional Letters, a queer compound of devout preacher and sharp controversialist. (3) American. A number of Oxford and Cambridge men came over to New England, both Puritans and Independents, and brought the characteristic English preaching of the age to found that which was soon to become really American. A few of these early New England divines are: Francis Higginson, John Eliot, Thomas Hooker, John Cotton, Richard Mather, John Davenport, Roger William s (qq.v.). The son and grandson of Richard Mather—Increase (1639) and Cotton (qq.v.)—were born in Boston and are the first notable American preachers of native growth. But distinctively American preaching is of the eighteenth century and after.
4. The Eighteenth Century In the British Islands.
1. Survey.
In this period a low tone of religion prevailed, so that the time has been called "the dark night of Protestantism." The effect of the age was to produce a lower vitality in morals in the ministry, rationalism in the pulpit, and much tame and lifeless preaching even among the orthodox. But it was not all dark; there was among Christians a good leaven of faith and devotion, and in this century came the great revival under Whitefield and Wesley. Considerable diversity appeared in types of doctrine, in methods and spirit of individuals and groups. Morals received great emphasis. In theology relaxed views found expression in Unitarianism; Arminianism had a mighty uplift through Wesley; but Calvinism had able exponents among the evangelicals and the followers of Whitefield. Methods of preaching and style naturally varied with individuals. As compared with the former age there was less artificiality184 and Pedantry, but some loss of life, beauty, and power. English preachers had never given as much attention to expository preaching as the Reformers on the continent, and sermons of the topical sort are more frequent in England. Some traces of the stiff and severe analysis of scholasticism remain; but the tendency is toward a more popular and simple presentation of truth. In general the eighteenth-century style is stately and solemn, sometimes heavy and pompous.
2. Leading Preachers.
(1) Roman Catholic. In England the Roman Church had a distinguished pulpit representative in John Milner (d. 1826). In Ireland Bishop Doyle was an admired pulpit orator, and is said to have been the first Irish Catholic preacher of distinction to use the English tongue. Walter Blake Kirwan (q.v.) began as a Roman Catholic but became Protestant. He was a man of remarkable eloquence. (2) Church of England. The lax and worldly group is represented in Jonathan Swift (d. 1745) of Dublin, and Lawrence Sterne (q.v.), rector of Sutton; both were more distinguished in literature than in the pulpit. The churchly orthodox include Francis Atterbury (q.v.), bishop of Rochester, who was more showy than profound; Joseph Butler (q.v.), bishop of Durham, author of the Analogy and of a series of sermons on Christian ethics; Samuel Horsley (q.v.), bishop of St. Asaph's, the powerful opponent of Unitarianism, and a vigorous preacher. The Evangelical group includes George Horns (q.v.), bishop of Norwich, a pleasing and popular preacher; William Grimshawe (d. 1763), rector at Haworth; William Romaine (q.v.), a much loved pastor chiefly in London; John Newton (q.v.), rector of Olney and later of St. Mary Woolnoth in London, friend of Cowper , writer of hymns and useful pastor and preacher. Above all were the two famous revivalists. George Whitefield (q.v.) came of humble origin but took a degree at Oxford and was ordained. He had a wondrous faculty of popular eloquence, and led thousands to Christ. John Wesley (q.v. and see Methodists) was of good birth and breeding, very thoroughly educated at Oxford. Calm and logical, but determined and masterful as preacher and organizer, he did work unsurpassed in the history of preaching. (3) Presbyterian. In England no distinguished preachers are found among the Presbyterians, but it is otherwise in Scotland where Presbyterianism was the established church. The "moderates" included John Logan (d. 1788) and Hugh Blair (q.v.), author of the Rhetoric. The Evangelical group contained John MacLaurin (d. 1754) and John Erskine (q.v.), both highly regarded as pastors and preachers. The "secessionists" were led out of the lax establishment by the pious Thomas Boston (q.v.) and the brothers Ebenezer and Ralph Erskine (d. 1756, 1754), three devoted and influential preachers. (4) Non-conformist. The famous scientist Joseph Priestley (q.v.) was also famed as a theologian of Unitarian opinions, and was a preacher of ability. Among the orthodox Independents the two best-known names are those of Isaac Watts (q.v.), better remembered as a hymnist than preacher, and Philip Doddridge (q.v.), teacher, hymnist, writer, pastor—a man of noble character and abundant usefulness. Among Baptists were the brilliant and scholarly Robert Robinson (q.v.), the judicious and solid Andrew Fuller (q.v.), theologian and missionary. leader; and the fervent William Corey (q.v.), whose historic sermon before the Northampton Association in 1792 gave mighty impulse to the modern missionary movement.
5. The Eighteenth Century is North America.
The Puritan preaching of New England, with its Biblical authority, its Calvinistic theology, its intellectual and ethical elevation, its ponderous scholasticism, and its solemn earnestness, forms the a basis of American preaching in general. But the conditions of life—social, political, and religious— in the New World soon began to work important modifications in the developments from this original impulse, though without destroying its force. Among the more obvious distinctive qualities of American preaching may be noted: (1) Its remarkable variety—which makes any accurate general characterization impossible. The great medley of Christian denominations is reflected in the pulpit. Social life also—pioneer, rural, urban—produced different types of ministry. Nor has the intense political life of Americana been without influence upon their preaching. This suggests (2) the freedom which has characterized the American pulpit in all its history. "Liberty of prophesying" has found its goal in America. (3) An element of the first importance in American preaching has been its emphasis on evangelism. American preachers have not conceived their mission as a teaching function only, but also as proclamation of the Gospel. The labors and influence of George Whitefield (q.v.) in America entitle him to mention here also. Jonathan Edwards (q.v.) is the most eminent American preacher of this age. Philosopher and college president, he was also a preacher of admirable gifts of mind and heart. After him came his son, Jonathan Edwards, Jr. (q.v.), and his grandson, Timothy Dwight (q.v.), both of them distinguished theologians and preachers. Other Congregationalists are: Joseph Bellamy (q.v.); and Ezra Stiles (q.v.), brilliant scholar and president of Yale. The Presbyterians have the honored names of David Brainerd (q.v.), missionary to the Indians; Samuel Davies (q.v.), pastor of a rural charge in Virginia, then president of Princeton, who died at the age of thirty-six, a noble and admirable preacher, whose published sermons were long recognized as models; the remarkable Tennent family, of whom Gilbert (q.v.) was the most important, a "terrible preacher," austere but strong. Of the Baptists were such men as James Manning (q.v.), Daniel Marshall, Oliver Hart, John Gano, John Leland (q.v.), Samuel Stillman , who did their work about the middle and end of the century. The Methodists had the high-minded, self-sacrificing Francis Asbury (q.v.), who was chief among the founders of American Methodism and a preacher of considerable power.
6. The Nineteenth Century in the British Islands.
1. The First Third of the Century 1801–83.
All elements of the national life responded to the vigorous movements of this great epoch. The pulpit felt the touch of the time, and there is 185 no greater preaching in modern history than that of the British Islands during the nineteenth century. Movements in the political, social, and literary spheres all influenced the pulpit. And there was the more direct touch of the benevolent and religious activities of the age among which missionary and philanthropic organization and effort are of special moment. In religious thought the three church parties, later distinguished as "low," "broad," and "high," began to appear in this period. The "Evangelical" view of Christianity was dominant in pulpit and pew. But under the lead of Unitarians and a few thinkers in the Church of England, aided by other influences, there was a decided trend toward "liberal" views. A few strong men in the establishment also were preparing the way for the coming sacramentarian movement. In respect of style, generally speaking, the eighteenth-century vogue—stilted, formal, dignified—was yet prevalent. In respect of influence the pulpit was able and esteemed. The Church of England Evangelical group was led by Charles Simeon (q.v.), beloved pastor at Cambridge for fifty years; not a deep thinker, but a preacher of spiritual power and a skilled homilist. Of the churchly school was Henry John Rose (q.v.), an impressive preacher. Among the beginners of the "Broad-church" tendency were Richard Whately (q.v.), archbishop of Dublin, a notable author and man; and the famous teacher at Rugby, Thomas Arnold (q.v.), whose sermons to boys exhibit his greatness of nature and mind. The Presbyterians of various schools had some distinguished men. The Unitarian element in England was headed by Thomas Belsham (q.v.). The Moderates in Scotland had a few leaders, while the Evangelical party was well represented by Andrew Thomson (q.v.). The brilliant but erratic Edward Irving (q.v.) attracted crowded congregations during his brief career in London. But the greatest Presbyterian preacher of this period was Thomas Chalmers (q.v.) notable for thoroughness and height of thought, sweeping and grand style, elevated and commanding character. It is hard to place the eccentric Rowland Hill (q.v.), who was ordained a deacon in the Established Church, sympathized in theology with the Calvinistic Methodists, and was pastor of the famous Surrey (Independent) Chapel in London; odd, but true and sincere, a preacher of freshness and power. The Independents possessed the pious and useful William Jay (q.v.), long pastor at Bath; not profound but an excellent preacher of strong Evangelical views, and writer on devotional topics. The most important Methodist preacher of the time was the eminent theologian and secretary of missions, Richard Watson (q.v.). Among the Baptists the admirable and once popular essayist John Foster (q.v.) preached with some success, and the wonderful Welshman, Christmas Evans (q.v.), was a preacher of powerful imagination and fervor but first rank easily belongs to the gifted Robert Hall (q.v.), philosophical in intellect, highly cultured, elevated in style, commanding in eloquence, devout in spirit—one of the great masters of English pulpit discourse.
2. Middle of the Century, 1833–69.
Literary and scientific work of a high order is characteristic of the age, and a powerful stimulus to preaching. There was also much thought and movement in religion, and these naturally and profoundly influenced preaching. Movements toward. fuller liberty in religion must not be overlooked. The influence of philosophical, scientific, and critical speculation is strongly felt in modifying religious views. There was better exegesis of Scripture, but less regard for its authority. Social reforms encouraged and went along with evangelistic and missionary activities and found advocacy in the pulpit. There was a great variety of thought and method in groups and individuals, but the general trend of pulpit utterance was in the direction of freedom from conventionalisms, more adaptability to the people, without loss of either intellectual vigor or strength of conviction. Among Roman Catholics Cardinals Wiseman, Manning, and Newman were eminent prelates, but only Newman was specially distinguished as a preacher, and that was before he entered the Roman Catholic communion. In Ireland, however, there were not a few able preachers, such as: Thomas N. Burke, Archbishop Walsh (q.v.), Father Mathew (q.v.)—the great temperance orator, Father Boyle, Thomas J. Potter. In the Church of England the Evangelical group contains the rhetorical, popular, and earnest canon of St. Paul's, Henry Melvill (q.v.); and Hugh McNeile (d. 1879), .Irish by birth and training, moving and tender in speech, beloved as rector in Liverpool and dean of Ripon. "High-church" views were strongly advocated by the unconventional but highly esteemed Walter F. Hook (q.v.), attractive preacher in Coventry and Leeds, and dean of Chichester. Here also belong the Oxford leaders, John Keble, E. B. Pusey, and J. H. Newman (qq.v.), of whom Newman was greatest in the pulpit. As a preacher he was deep toned, intense, magnetic, with appealing personality and utterance, and a master of expression. Three quite different but influential men must be reckoned to the Broad-church party: Julius Hare (q.v.), devout, cultured, and sweet; F. D. Maurice (q.v.), thoughtful and independent in theology but a very influential mind; and the sensitive, high-strung, courageous F. W. Robertson (q.v.), whose posthumous and briefly reported sermons are choice reading still and have had wide influence. Of the Independents there were: John Angell James (q.v.) of Birmingham, good pastor, and pleasing though not profound preacher; James Parsons of York (d. 1877), a clear and intense thinker with forceful utterance, and much in demand as preacher on occasions; Thomas Binney (q.v.), a powerful, practical leader and thinker of weight and strength in the pulpit. Two well-known men among the Methodists were Jabez Bunting (q.v.), a strong leader and preacher; and W. M. Punshon (q.v.), oratorical and popular and a widely useful man. The Presbyterians had John Cumming (q.v.) of London, whose eloquence drew crowds to hear his famous sermons on prophecy; Henry Cooke (q.v.), of Belfast, Ireland, a vigorous professor and preacher; and the several branches of Presbyterianism 186in Scotland had such famous preachers Thomas Guthrie, R. S. Candlish, John C. Norman McLeod (qq.v), and John Ker. Of the Baptists F. A. Cox, B. W. Noel (q.v.), and Willi Brock deserve mention; but the preeminent name is that of the young but already celebrated Charles H. Spurgeon (q.v.), who sprang at one bound into a world-wide and lasting fame as a preacher of wonderful power and built up a remarkable congregation and working church in London.
3. Close of the Century, 1869–1900.
A general view of British preaching in this period reveals the continued influence of most of those forces which have already been described. If anything, the pressure of scientific and critica views was greater. Social questions and movements were more than ever characteristic of the age and the pulpit. Theological thinking was infinitely various, and no one school could claim dominance. A group of influential mystical preachers arose in the Keswick movement (see Keswick Convention); and there was much evangelistic preaching with earnest endeavor to reach "the masses." In the Church of England the older Evangelical views were fairly represented by J. C. Ryle (q.v.), bishop of Liverpool. A greater preacher than he was the witty and eloquent W. C. Magee (q.v.), bishop of Peterborough and archbishop of York. To the High church group belongs the leading Anglican preacher of the age, H. P. Liddon (q.v.). Elevated in character, thought, and style, learned, fair to opponents, with pleasing presence and voice, he was a master in the pulpit. Perhaps to this school must be assigned the thoughtful and profound preacher on difficult subjects, J. B. Mozley of Oxford (q.v.). To the Broad-church group belong the cultured dean A. P. Stanley of Westminster (q.v.) and the brilliant and versatile F. W. Farrar (q.v.). The great scholars J. B. Lightfoot and B. F. Westcott (qq.v.), both bishops of Durham, are also to be enrolled among the effective preachers of the age. The Roman Catholics had several preachers of ability and influence, chief among whom are perhaps Bernard Vaughan, who severely arraigned popular society in London, and Father Harper, who preached with effect a series of rather philosophical discourses. The Baptists of this period are ably represented by William Landels (q.v.); Alexander Maclaren (q.v.), the long active and beloved pastor at Manchester, whose published discourses have been an inspiration to thousands, with their clear, accurate, and spiritual exposition and application of Bible truth; John Clifford (q.v.), of London, the still active pastor and champion of religious freedom; John Turner Marshall, Hugh Stowell Brown (qq.v.), Richard Glover, and Charles Brown. Presbyterians of note are John Watson (q.v.), of Liverpool; Alexander Whyte (q.v.), of Free St. George's, Edinburgh, devout and mystical with special success in character studies; George Matheson (q.v.), the blind poetic and philosophic preacher and devotional writer; and George Adam Smith (q.v.), who with the "advanced" views of a modern critic combines fervor and power in the pulpit. The leading Methodist was Hugh Price Hughes (q.v.), active in social reforms as well as a preacher of great acceptance and success. With him should also be named M. G. Pearse, a man of talent and vigor, and the elevated, clear-thoughted, impressive W. L. Watkinson. The Independents have not been behind others in the number and worth of their ministers, among whom were the eminent theologian and pastor R. W. Dale of Birmingham (q.v.); the world-famous Joseph Parker of London (q.v.), a man of rare personality and conviction; George Campbell Morgan, Reginald John Campbell (qq.v.), and Charles Sylvester Horns. Besides the eminent leaders who have been named, there were many others in all the churches who helped to render the closing years of the nineteenth century illustrious in the annals of the British pulpit.
7. The Nineteenth Century in Greater Britain.
In Canada, Australia, British India, and South Africa—making necessary allowance for differences of environments and conditions—preaching in English has exhibited very much the same character as in the mother country. The different churches and opinions have had their representative men. There has not been a numerous native ministry, except in Canada: the supply has been kept up mostly from the home lands. The movements of modern thought in regard to both social and religious affairs have been keenly felt, but there has been on the whole perhaps a closer adherence to the Evangelical traditions. In India the earlier missionaries, William Carey, Alexander Duff, and Bishops Heber and Wilson (qq.v.), preached with acceptance to their fellow countrymen as well as conducted missionary operations; nor have there been wanting excellent preachers in later days, such as Bishop J. E. C. Welldon (q.v.). In Australia and New Zealand preaching has been more independent of the missionaries than in India. A few notable names are those of Dr. Gittos, Methodist, and Dr. North, Baptist, of New Zealand, whose work has counted for much in that dominion. In Australia the Roman Catholics had Cardinal Moran, and the Anglicans Bishop Moorhouse among their leading preachers. Presbyterians have taken a high stand in pulpit work, with such men as Principal Harper of Sydney, Dr. Marshall of Melbourne, and others. Of Methodists leading names are those of "Father" Watsford, a successful evangelist, and Dr. Fitchett, editor and author. Canada has naturally had the advantage of the other British possessions in the nativity, number, and independence of her preachers. Some of the better-known are Canon Cody among Episcopalians, Dr. Wilkes of Montreal among Congregationalists, Drs. McDowell, Herridge, Johnston, Milligan, and Gordon (q.v.; "Ralph Connor"), among Presbyterians; Douglas and Potts of the Methodists; and Cameron, Wallace, Trotter, McNeill, Farmer, Thomas, and others among the Baptists. Some of these-as well as others not mentioned-have published sermons and other writings, but the literature of preaching for Canada is not large.
8. The Nineteenth Century in the United States.
The war between the States marks a deep cleft in the national life and gives a dividing line for the history of all subjects; religion and preaching 187no less than others.
1. Before the Civil War.
A general survey of preaching in the earlier period shows that the main lines of life and progress which began in the eighteenth century had their natural development. Variety, freedom, practical adaptation and directness, evangelistic power continue to characterize the American pulpit. It responded to the demands of a progressive age and kept pace with the growth of culture and religion. The traditions, history, and sermons of the period indicate that the views of Christian truth which are usually called "orthodox," and "Evangelical," were in the ascendant, though "liberal" opinions did not lack free and able utterance. Preachers as a class were held in high esteem and had a strong influence. The pulpit was conscious of power, able and efficient. It is probable that the two decades from 1840 to 1860 witnessed on the whole the highest point of American preaching. Among the Roman Catholics may be named Bishop England (d. 1842) of Charleston, Archbishop Spalding (q.v.), and Archbishop Kenrick (q.v.). The Episcopalians had such men as G. T. Bedell (d. 1854), Stephen H. Tyng (q.v.), and his sons; Bishop Alonzo Potter of Pennsylvania (q.v.), and Bishop C. P. McIlvaine of Ohio (q.v.). Foremost among the Unitarians was W. E. Charming, (q.v.), pastor in Boston, highly gifted in thought and style. Others of this body were Kirkland, Norton, H. W. Bellows (q.v.), and the agitator and reformer, rather than preacher, Theodore Parker (q.v.). The Congregationalists had many great men. Nathaniel Emmons (q.v.) had already achieved fame as a preacher and theologian in the preceding century, but his remarkable work and influence went on well into the nineteenth. Lyman Beecher (q.v.), the father of distinguished children, was himself a man of might and influence in the pulpit. Charles Grandison Finney (q.v.) with his strain of mysticism was also a cogent reasoner, a theologian and college president (Oberlin), but is best remembered as a remarkably successful evangelist. Horace Bushnell (q.v.), pastor at Hartford, was a man of powerful and independent mind, whose thoughtful sermons have had lasting influence. In the middle stage of his remarkable career Henry Ward Beecher (q.v.) was perhaps the most famous of all American preachers; a man of acute and versatile intellect, broad sympathies, splendid imagination, impressive personality, and so an orator of the first rank. To the Presbyterians likewise this was an age of pulpit excellence. Some of their best representatives are: Archibald Alexander (q.v.), and his son, James W. (q.v.), professor at Princeton and pastor in New York; Albert Barnes (q.v.), the commentator, pastor in Philadelphia; and James H. Thornwell (q.v.), of South Carolina, educator, theologian, preacher. To the Dutch Reformed Church belongs the beloved and eloquent George W. Bethune (q.v.), pastor in New York. Of notable Methodists were: the young Irishman John Summerfield (q.v.), called " seraphic " for his moving eloquence; William McKendree (d. 1835), one of the early Methodist bishops, a man of large mind and labors; Stephen Olin (q.v.), a strong and logical preacher; John P. Durbin (q.v.), original and striking; and the exuberant and rhetorical Henry B. Bascom (q.v.), one of the first bishops of the Southern Methodist Church. The Baptists also had not a few notable preachers, among whom were: William Staughton (d. 1829), of English birth, a very impressive speaker; Andrew Broaddus (d. 1848) of Virginia, preferring rural pastorates, a man of noble eloquence and great influence; Spencer H. Cone (d. 1855), pastor in New York, strong preacher and trusted leader; Francis Wayland (q.v.), for a short time pastor in Boston but better known as president of Brown University, a great preacher of solid thought and balanced judgment; and, now just at the height of his great powers and influence, Richard Fuller (q.v.), of South Carolina and Baltimore, a preacher of striking personality, broad culture, deep piety, and sweeping eloquence.
2. The Civil War and After.
Most of the characteristics and tendencies noticed in the preceding section went on with developed force during the wonderful era of expansion and growth in the country since the war. But some additional matters require notice. The differences between the North and the South—social, political, religious, temperamental—naturally were more or less reflected in the pulpit. The North was more commercial and progressive, the South more rural and conservative. There was more of political and reformatory preaching in the North, but the South had the balance in favor of a devout adherence to the evangelical traditions. In the armies on both sides there was excellent preaching by chaplains with much resultant good. After the war the North prospered and entered on an age of rapid accumulation of wealth; the impoverished South recovered very slowly, and only toward the close of the century began to regain its place in the national life. The North was more hospitable to new ideas in science, philosophy, and religion. There the struggle with scientific and critical unbelief, with the influx of various foreign peoples, and other modifying influences upon religious thought and custom, were more keenly felt; and the pulpit reflected all these things. Modern modes of thought have profoundly influenced preaching at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century, and have greatly changed the aspect of American preaching on the whole. The pulpit has been less dignified, more inclined to sensation and opportunism, and has had less hold upon popular respect than formerly. Yet such loss has not been total, and some advantages have accrued. American preaching has been modern, popular in style, aggressive, evangelistic, successful. The Episcopalians have had such excellent preachers as Bishops Huntington, Doane, Potter, Dudley, Gailor, together with Drs. Newton, Rainsford, Greer, and others; but the preeminent name in the Episcopal pulpit of America is that of Phillips Brooks (q.v.), pastor in Philadelphia and Boston, and bishop of Massachusetts, a man of large mold, devout, sympathetic, cultured, refined, spiritual, with rapid and forcible address. The Congregationalists still had Beecher in his closing years and declining influence; but along with him were: R. S. Storrs of Brooklyn, W. M. Taylor of 188New York, N. J. Burton of Hartford; and later Lyman Abbott, Newman Smith, George A. Gordon of Boston, F. W. Gunsaulus (who began as Methodist) of Chicago, Newell D. Hillis of Plymouth Church Brooklyn (qq. v.), and the widely known and useful evangelist, D. L. Moody (q.v.), a man of direct and forceful ways, no great thinker, but deeply in earnest, and a master of assemblies. The Presbyterians had not a few great men, such as John Hall (q.v.), Irish born, but pastor in New York; T. DeWitt Talmage (q.v.), of Brooklyn, sensational and flowery, but popular and effective; the erratic but moving David Swing (q.v.), of Chicago; the venerable and beloved Theodore L. Cuyler; A. T. Pierson, C. H. Parkhurst, D. J. Burrell, M. D. Babcock, G. T. Purves (qq.v.), and others in the North; and in the South Moses D. Huge (q.v.), of Richmond, and B. M. Plamer (q. v.) of New Orleans, both of them cultured, beloved, and eloquent. The northern Methodists are represented by Bishops Matthew Simpson, J. P. Newman C. H. Fowler, F. T. Bristol, and the Rev. L. A. Banks (qq.v.). Southern Methodists also had some names of strong preachers to their credit, such as Bishops E. M. Marvin, Geo. F. Pierce, A. G. Haygood, A. W, Wilson, J. C. Granberry, J. J. Tigert, C. B. Galloway. Here also belongs the sensational and often rude popular lecturer and preacher, Samuel P. Jones (q.v.), whose fame and work were achieved partly because and partly in spite of his extraordinary pulpit methods. The Baptists had a number of excellent preachers during the period. George C. Lorimer (q.v.), born in Scotland, but active in Boston Chicago, and New York, was a preacher of commanding abilities of thought and expression; P. S. Henson (q.v.), of Philadelphia, Chicago, and Boston, has had a long and brilliant ministry; other notable names of living and dead are those of A. J. Gordon, R. S. MacArthur, T. G. Jones, J. L. Burrows, J. R. Graves, B. H. Carroll, J. B. Hawthorns. But preeminence was cheerfully accorded by his brethren to the devout and scholarly John A. Broadus (q.v.), for a short time pastor at Charlottesville, Virginia, but best known as professor and president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, at Louisville, scholar, author, teacher, leader, but above all a tender, simple and persuasive preacher of the gospel.
9. Twentieth-Century Outlook.
It is too early in the century to do more than point out that in all English-speaking lands the main elements and forces which ruled the pulpit at the close of the nineteenth century are operative and powerful at the beginning of the twentieth. Social and ethical preaching abounds. The turn of speculative philosophy toward spiritual idealism, instead of the materialism of the preceding age, leas been accompanied by a mystical tendency in preaching, both among conservative Evangelicals and advanced critics. Some of the men already named are still active, and there are many others in all the churches to illustrate the varied spirit, aims, and methods of modern preaching in all countries where the English language prevails.
Bibliography: Much of the literature under Homiletics will be found pertinent, as manuals on the subject often contain a brief history of the pulpit, The works on the history of the church contain hints of value and the literature under the articles on the great preachers named in the text is pertinent for details into which this bibliography can not enter. On the history of preaching in general consult: E C. Dargan A History of Preaching . . . 70–1572, New York, 1905 (with a bibliography, which, however, does not give places or dates of publication); John M. Neale, Mediaeval Preachers and Mediaeval Preaching, London, 1856: H. C. Fish. History and Repository of Pulpit Eloquence, 2 vols., New York, 1856–57; J. A. Broadus, Lectures on the History of Preaching, ib. 1876; A Nebe, Zur Geschichte der Predigt. Charakterbilder der bedeutendsten Kanzelredner, 3 vols., Wiesbaden, 1879; R. Rothe, Geschichte der Predigt von Anfängen bis auf Schleiermacher, Bremen, 1881; G. J. Davies, Successful Preachers. Being Biographical and Critical Sketches of Eminent Preachers, New York, 1884; E. P, Hood, The Throne of Eloquence: Great Preachers, London 1885; F. H. Wallace, Witnesses for Christ; or, a Sketch of the History of Preaching, Toronto, 1885; F. W. Farrar, Hist. of Interpretation, New York, 1886; J. Ker, Lectures, on the History of Preaching, London, 1888; G Longhaye, La Prédication. Grandes maîtres, Paris, 1888; E. Boucher, L’Éloquence de la chaire. Histoire littéraire, Lille, 1894; J. Telford, A History of Lay Preaching, London, 1897; F James, The Message and the Messengers, Lessons from the History of Preaching, ib., 1898: T. H. Pattison, The History of Christian Preaching, Philadelphia, 1903.
On the pulpit in different countries—Germany: J. N. Brischar, Die katholischen Kanzelredner Deutechlands in den drei letzten Jahrhunderts, 5 vols., Schaffhausen, 1867–71; C. G. Schmidt, Geschichte der Predigt in der evangelischen Kirche Deutschlands von Luther bis Spener, Gotha, 1872; L. Stiebritz, Zur Geschichte der Predigt in der evangelischen Kirche von Mosheim bis auf die Gegenwart, Gotha, 1876; R. Cruel, Geschichte der deutschen Predigt im Mittelalter, Detmold 1879: G. Renoux. Les Prédicateurs célèbres de l’Allemagne, leur vie, leurs œuvres, Paris, 1881; H. Rinn, Kulturgeschichtliches aus deutschen Predigten des Mittelalters, Hamburg 1883; W. Beste, Die bedeutendsten Kanzelredner der ältern luther. Kirche von Luther bis zu Spener, 3 vols., Dresden, 1886; A. Linsenmayer, Geschichte der Predigt in Deutschland von Karl dem Grossen zum Anfang des 14. Jahrhunderts, Munich, 1886; K. H. Sack, Geschichte der Predigt in der deutschen evangelischen Kirche von Mosheim bis auf die letzten Jahre von Schleiermacher und Menken Heidelberg, 1886; F. R. Albert, Die Geschichte der Predigt in Deutschland bis Luther, Gütersloh, 1892–96; A. E. Schoenbach, Studien zur Geschichte der altdeutschen Predigt, Vienna, 1896.
On France: R. Turnbull, The Pulpit Orators of France and Switzerland, New York, 1848; A. Vincent, Hist. de la prédication en langue française au XIX. siècle (1800–1866), Geneva, 1871; A. Hurel, Les Orateurs sacrés a la cour de Louis XIV., 2 vols., Paris, 1874; L. Bourgain, La Chaire française au XII. siècle d’aprés les manuscrits, ib.,1880; P, Jacquinet, Les Prédicateurs du XVII. siècle avant Bosseut, ib., 1885; A. Lecoy de la Marche, La Chaire française au moyen âge, ib., 1886; J. Fontaine, La Chaire et l’apologétique au XIX. siècle; études critiques et portraits contemporains, ib., 1887; A. Samouillan, Étude sur la chaire et la société française au quinzième siècle, Toulouse, 1891; P. Stapfer La Grande Prédication chrétienne en France, Paris, 1898; A. Bernard, Le Sermon au XVIII. siècle. Étude hist. et critique sur la prédication en France de 1715 à 1789, ib., 1901; A. de Coulanges, La Chaire française au dixhuitième siècle, ib., 1901; C. H. Brooks, Great French Preachers, 2 vols, London 1904.
On great Britain: J. C. Ryle, Christian Leaders of the Last Century, Edinburgh, 1869; J. E. Kempe, Classic Preachers of the English Church, 2 series, London, 1877–78; E. J. Evans and W. F. Hurndall, Pulpit Memorials, ib. 1878; J. H. Bloom, Pulpit Oratory in the Time of James the First Considered and beautifully Illustrated by Original Examples, A.D 1620–21–22, ib 1831; O. Jones, Preachers of Wales, ib., 1885; J. C. Jones, The Welsh Pulpit of To-Day, ib., 1885; W. M. Taylor, The Scottish Pulpit from the Reformation, ib., 1887; W. G. Blaikie, Preachers of Scotland, 6th to 19th Century, Edinburgh, 1888; H. Rashdall, The Friars Preachers of the University, Oxord, 1890; E. L. Cutts, Parish Priests and their People in the Middle Ages in England, London 1898; J. Brown, Puritan Preaching in England, ib., 1900; Liber exemplorum ad usum prædicantium, ed. A. G. Little, Aberdeen, 1908 (a work 189compiled between 1270 and 1279 by an English Franciscan in Ireland).
On the United States: H. Fowler, The American Pulpit: Sketches, Biographical and Descriptive, of living American Preachers, New York, 1856; W. B. Sprague, Annals of the American Pulpit, 9 vols., New York, 1857 sqq.; J. W. Thornton, The Pulpit of the American Revolution; or, the Political Sermons of the Period of 1776, Boston, 1860; H. Haupt, Die Eigenart der amerikanischen Predigt, Giessen, 1907.
On other countries: J. Hartog, Geschiedenis van der Predikkunde in de Kerk van Nederland, Utrecht, 1887; V. L. Nannestad, Portraiter fra Kirken. Bidrag til en Karakteristik of dansk Prædiken i det nittende Aarhundredes sidste Halvdel, Copenhagen, 1899; F. Zanotto, Storia della Predicazione nei secoli della letteratura italiana, Modena, 1899; L. Marenoo‘ L’Oratoria sacra italiana nel medio evo, Savona, 1900.
On the modem pulpit: H. C. Fish, Pulpit Eloquence of the Nineteenth Century, New York, 1857; E. A. Park, Pulpit Eloquence of the Nineteenth Century . . . with an Introductory Essay, Boston, 1874; A. M. Littlejohn, The Christian Ministry at the Close of the Nineteenth Century, New York, 1884; Camera Obscura, Modern Anglican Preachers, London, 1892; Preachers of To-day, ib., 1899; J . Edwards, Nineteenth Century Preachers and their Methods, ib., 1902; L. O. Brastow, Representative Modern Preachers, New York, 1904; idem, The Modern Pulpit, Homiletic Sources and Characteristics, ib., 1906; W. C. Wilkinson, Modern Masters of Pulpit Discourse, ib., 1905; C. L. Slattery, Present Day Preaching, ib., 1909.
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