Continued from Part I. Chapter I. The Prohibition of the Scriptures

CHAPTER II.
THE PREACHING OF THE WORD.

ALTHOUGH the reading of the Scriptures be indeed most important, there is another means more generally instrumental in the conversion of sinners, viz., THE PREACHING OF THE GOSPEL. The first triumphs of Christianity were accomplished, not by the circulation of the Scriptures, but by the preaching of the Apostles; and from that period to the present, it has ever been found that the living voice of the minister of God proclaiming the truth as it is in Jesus is the means usually employed by the Spirit to destroy the works of the devil and extend the limits of the kingdom of Christ.

It is thus obvious that if the churchmen of the Middle Ages had continued to preach the Word of Life, the prohibition of the Scriptures to the laity would not have constituted so great an evil. Unhappily, however, at the same time that the perusal of God’s word was made heresy, the sermon had either fallen into disuse or was of scarcely any service. A learned churchman of the twelfth century exclaims, “The Priests have altogether given up the preaching of God’s word, and have become dumb dogs,” and afterwards he rebukes them “that having left sound doctrine, they betook themselves to fables, and curious and idle speculations, and preached and taught these.” (Petrus Cantor, in Verb. Abb. citante Wolfio.) This account of Petrus Cantor is confirmed by the unanimous testimony of contemporary writers. In the language of Spanheim, the ecclesiastical historian, “Sound doctrine was entirely displaced by the errors of the times. Purgatory, human satisfaction for sin, the merit of pilgrimages, crusades, and the monastic life, auricular confession, the corporeal presence in the sacrament, the denial of the cup to the laity, the celibacy of the clergy, the omnipotence of the Pope, were the main points of discipline and doctrine on which the religion of this age chiefly insisted.” (Cent. xii. sec. 3.)

Some old engravings of this period afford an admirable satire on the gross selfishness and hypocrisy displayed in the preaching of the Middle Ages. An ancient copy of the fables of Æsop and others was extant, says the learned Wolfius, in the sixteenth century, containing numerous well-executed caricatures of the Popish prelates. Several of these represent wolves with copes on, in the act of preaching. Among others, one is a wolf dressed like a monk, with a shaven crown, addressing the sheep which surround him, and the interpretation added is, “The wolf with the cope is the hypocrite, of which we read in the gospel: ‘Beware of false prophets.’” The first fable in the book represents a wolf preaching to geese, and saying, “God is my witness, how greatly I long for you all in my bowels.” Of this, Wolfius gives an illustration in his Memorab. Lect., Tom. i. p. 585; and the annexed engraving is a facsimile of it. The date assigned by Wolfius for these caricatures is the close of the thirteenth century.

The following specimens from the works of two of the most celebrated preachers of the thirteenth century will give the reader some idea of the sermons of this period.

Saint Anthony of Padua was reputed in his day so great a preacher that the Pope on this account styled him “The Ark of the Covenant.” His sermons, then, may surely be taken as a fair sample of the preaching of that age. The first sermon in his works, which it may be presumed is not the worst, is as follows:

“There shall be signs in the Sun, and in the Moon, and in the stars; and on earth distress of nations.”—Luke xxi. 25.

“Here are four things observable,” says the preacher, “according as there are four advents, viz.:—Into Flesh, into the Mind, to Death, and to the final Judgment. 1. The coming into flesh, and this is the assumption of human flesh in those words, ‘There shall be signs in the Sun’; for the Sun is the Son of God. 2. Into the mind spiritually, and this is the purgation of our mind, or protection against sin, or bestowing virtues on us, in these words, ‘There shall be signs in the Moon.’ 3. To death, which is the division of the soul and body; in these words, ‘And in the stars.’ 4. The end of all things in these words, ‘And on earth distress of nations.’

“‘There shall be signs in the Sun.’ The Sun is Christ who dwells in the light inaccessible. ‘This sun is become black as sackcloth of hair.’—(Rev. vi. 12.) For with the sackcloth of our humanity He covered the light of His divinity. The Sun, therefore, became black as sackcloth of hair. Oh, the first! Oh, the last! Oh, the High One, and yet humble and vile!

Concerning whose humbled sublimity speaks Isaiah: ‘I saw the Lord sitting upon His throne, high and lifted up.’ The throne, so called from its solidity, is the humanity of Christ, which leaning upon seven pillars remains every way constant and solid. Hence it is said: ‘In that day, seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread and wear our own apparel, only let Thy name be called on us, to take away our reproach.’ The seven women are the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost. They are called women because no man is begotten to God but by the Holy Spirit. The man is Christ; one man, i.e., one alone, without sin, whom the seven women shall take hold of, i.e., the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, that they may firmly hold Him and not let Him go. ‘We will eat our own bread,’ etc. There the gloss: ‘He that hath bread and clothing needs nothing.’ It signifies that the Holy Ghost possesses all things equally with the Father, and is not in want of anything, etc.

“‘There shall be signs in the Moon.’ Of which it is said, Rev. vi.: ‘The moon is become as blood.’ God made two luminaries, the greater and the lesser. The greater is the angelical spirit, the lesser is the soul of man. By reason of its too great nearness to the earth, it has contracted blackness and has lost its clearness; therefore it is necessary, if it recover its brightness, that it be first turned into blood; which blood is contrition of heart. Of which it is said, (Heb. ix. 19): ‘Moses took the blood of calves and goats with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled the book and the people,’ etc. Behold how all the moon becomes as blood. But what does Moses signify? What the blood? What the water? What the scarlet wool? etc.

“When the merciful and pitying Jesus Christ comes into the mind of sinners, then Moses takes the blood—Moses is a sinner, now converted from the waters of Egypt, who ought to take these five things, viz.:—

1. The blood of sorrowful contrition.
2. The water of weeping confession.
3. The wool of innocency and purity.
4. The scarlet of brotherly kindness.
5. The hyssop of true humility.

“With these he ought to sprinkle the book, i.e., the secrets of his heart, and all the people of his cogitations; and the tabernacle, i.e., his body and all its vessels, i.e., the true senses, etc. Hence it is that the Lord promises these four things to a penitent soul: ‘The glory of Lebanon shall come to thee, and the fir-tree, and the box-tree, and the pine-tree, etc.’ (Isaiah lx. 13.) The glory of Lebanon is the chastity of the body, of which the soul glories. (Ecclus. xxiv. 13.) ‘I am exalted as a cedar in Lebanon,’ which signifies by interpretation, whiteness, etc. The fir-tree, which grows higher than other trees, signifies humility. The box-tree, which is of a pale color, signifies abstinence in meat and drink, of which Isaiah xxx. 20: ‘The Lord shall give thee scant bread and short water,’ etc.”

Another instance is upon the following text: “The souls of just men are in the hand of God.” (Wisd. iii. 1.)

“Note here that noble persons are wont to carry seven things in their hands, viz.: a ring, gloves, a hawk, a looking-glass, a rod, a flower or apple to smell to, and a scepter. The souls of just men are in the hand of God, like to all these:

1. As a ring, by faith: Hosea ii.: ‘I will betroth thee to Me in faith.’ The ring of just men is hope of heavenly things founded in faith, etc.

2. The righteous ought to be in God’s hand as gloves, by works of mercy; for he covers the Lord’s hand who freely gives alms to the poor, and leaves it naked who is unmerciful. The five fingers of this glove are five things that are required in alms: 1. That it be speedy. 2. Large. 3. Of the best and choicest things. 4. Of goods lawfully gotten. 5. Discreet; to those that are indigent.

3. As hawks. God’s hawk is a heart full of charity. Note that a hawk ought not to be carried without gloves, because charity without the expression of good works, viz., works of mercy outwardly, is worth nothing.

4. As a looking-glass, by purity of conscience; that thy soul may be the daughter of Zion, which is by interpretation, a glass—a glass of God’s majesty, without spot, and the image of His goodness, etc.

5. As a flower or apple to smell to. For a sweet smell goes forth from the soul as from an apple, a flower, etc.

6. As a rod in the Lord’s hand, to correct others.

7. As a scepter to show their dignity,” etc.

James de Voragine was a contemporary of the foregoing saint. He was a learned Dominican and author of the celebrated Golden Legend, and also of a volume of sermons so excellent that they too were styled “Golden Sermons.” I will give the reader a specimen of this preacher by citing his discourse upon Rev. xxii. 18: “He that is holy let him be holy still.”

“Holy men, how holy soever they are in soul, desire also to be holy in their body. These two things St. Francis had, viz., a holy body and soul; that it might be truly said of him: He that is holy, viz., in soul, let him be more holy, viz., in body.

First. He had a holy body, for all things that were in him were holy.

1. His hair was holy. For when a man’s house was falling, he took a little of his hair and put it into the cracks and the house stood firm, being established by the brittle hair of the holy man.

2. His eyes were holy.

3. His ears were holy.

4. His mouth was holy; for such powerful words came from it, that whom he blessed were blessed, and whom he cursed were cursed. Witness the sow that died for eating a lamb when he cursed her, and the girl whose sight was restored by his spittle.

5. His hands were holy; for they were so consecrated with the wounds, that the things he touched were holy, etc.

6. His nails were holy; for a tempted brother by paring his nails and keeping them as relics was delivered and much comforted.

7. His writing was holy. This being preserved had the same effect.

8. His girdle was holy. Being dipped in water it cured all distempers.

9. His body was holy; for whipping himself against corrupt motions, he said, ‘Go to, brother ass, thus you must be served.’

10. His feet were holy, being consecrated with Christ’s wounds. Hence, by sprinkling the water in which they were washed, cattle were cured of the murrain,” etc.

In another sermon on “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hid in a field,” he says, “By the kingdom of heaven may be understood St. Catherine.”

Such was the absurd and wicked trash which the Church of Rome substituted for the “gospel of the grace of God”; and so little were the people of this age accustomed to anything like faithful discourses that when perchance such a preacher appeared, the success which attended him was truly wonderful. In the case of Fulco, a French priest, for instance, at the beginning of the thirteenth century, we read that immediately after he appeared in Paris as a preacher, both doctors of theology and their scholars hastened to hear his rude and simple sermons. One invited another, saying, “Come and hear Fulco the priest, who is indeed another Paul.” (Jacobi a Vitriaco hist. occid. Sect. 7.)

The grossest abuses of preaching, however, were those practiced during the great festivals of the year. “The Easter drolleries held an important place in the acts of the church. As the festival of the Resurrection required to be celebrated with joy, everything that could excite the laughter of the hearers was sought out and thrust into sermons. One preacher imitated the note of the cuckoo, while another hissed like a goose. One dragged forward to the altar a layman in a cassock; a second told the most indecent stories; a third relates the adventures of the Apostle Peter, among others, how, in a tavern, he cheated the host by not paying his score.”[1] The inferior clergy took advantage of the occasion to turn their superiors into ridicule. “The churches were thus turned into stages, and the priests into mountebanks.” (D’Aubigné’s History of the Reformation, vol. i. b. 1. c. 3.)

A yet greater degree of profanity was displayed on New Year’s Day, the Feast of Innocents, the Feast of Fools, the Feast of Asses, etc. Of the ceremonies connected with these festivals, a full and minute account may be seen in Du Cange (Glossarium, Parisiis, 1733). The following brief sketch of these, taken from Fosbroke’s Cyclopedia of Antiquities, will be sufficient for our purpose:

“On the day of the festival (which Cowell makes the caput anni, or New Year’s Day), all the petty canons elected an Abbot of Fools, who, after the ceremony and Te Deum, was chaired to a place where the others were assembled. At his entrance all arose, and even the Bishop, if present, was bound to pay him homage. Some fruit and spices were next served to him, singing, hissing, howling, shouting, etc., then followed, one party against another. A short dialogue succeeded, after which a porter made a mock sermon. They then went out into the town, cracking jokes upon everybody whom they met.

“On the Feast of Innocents, a fool bishop was elected in the same manner as the Abbot of Fools, and chaired with a little bell ringing before to the house of the bishop, where the gates were to be immediately thrown open, and the mock-prelate placed in a principal window, where he stood and gave the benediction towards the town. The fool-bishop with his chaplain presided at matins, high mass, and vespers, for three days pontifically in the episcopal throne properly adorned. The chaplain sat at his feet holding a cross; the sub-deacon and deacon, about to sing the epistle and gospel, bent one knee to him and made supplication, and he marked him with his right hand, etc. The chaplain proclaimed silence and a service followed, after which he gave the blessing, indulgences, etc.”

About 150 years ago a stone monument to one of these boy bishops was discovered in Salisbury Cathedral, under the seats near the pulpit, from whence it was removed to the north part of the nave. A facsimile of this curious remain of antiquity, taken from Hone’s Every-Day Book, is annexed. Mr. Gregorie found the processional of the boy bishop. He notices, says Hone, the same custom at York.[2]

“In the Feast of Fools they put on masks, took the dress, etc., of women, danced and sung in the choir, ate fat cakes upon the horns of the altar, where the celebrating priest played at dice, put stinking stuff from the leather of old shoes on the censer, jumped about the church, with the addition of obscene jests, songs, and unseemly attitudes.” (Fosbroke’s Encyclopaedia of Antiquity, vol. ii. p. 664.)

One more instance of the gross buffoonery which was substituted by the Romish Church for the ministration of Divine truth, and we have done. The celebrated “Feast of Asses” took place on Christmas Day, and the ceremonies connected with this wicked superstition are such as must disgust every reader. The following extract from the office of the “Feast of Asses” is translated from a manuscript “Ordinary” of the church of Rouen, given by Du Cange (Gloss. sub voc. Festum Asin.):

“Order of the procession of asses according to the use of Rouen. Tierce having been sung, prophets prepared each in his own order, and a furnace filled with rags and tow provided, let the procession start from the cloister, and two of the clergy of the second rank direct the procession, singing these verses: ‘Oh, glorious and famous,’ etc. Chorus: ‘Oh, glorious,’ etc. Vers.: ‘Whose rising.’ Chorus: ‘Oh, glorious.’ Vers.: ‘Him who was to be.’ Chorus: ‘Oh, glorious.’ Vers.: ‘Of the wicked Jews.’ Chorus: ‘Oh, glorious,’ etc. Then let the procession halt in the middle of the church, and six Jews be there in readiness, and Gentiles on the other side, and certain callers (vocatores) thus call all the nations: ‘Oh, all ye nations, the Lord is become man.’ (Here the callers shall turn to the Jews.) ‘Oh Jews, the word of God.’ Vers.: ‘The witnesses of your law.’ (The Jews shall answer.) ‘We have given a command to you.’ (The callers shall say to the Gentiles.) ‘And ye, oh Gentiles, have not believed.’ (The Gentiles shall answer.) ‘The true God, the King of kings.’ (The callers shall call Moses first, saying.) ‘Thou Moses, the lawgiver.’ (Then Moses, holding the tables of the law open, clothed in an alb and cope, with two horns on his head, a long beard, and a rod in his hand, shall say.) ‘A man shall arise and come after me.’ (Then the callers shall lead him beyond the furnace, etc.) After this Amos is called, and after him Isaiah, Aaron, Jeremiah, Daniel, and Habakkuk. (Then two messengers from King Balak call out.) ‘Balaam come and act.’ (Then Balaam sitting upon an ass—whence the name of the festival—and wearing spurs, shall pull the bridle and put spurs to the ass, and some young man holding a sword in his hand shall stand in the way of the ass. Some one under the ass shall say.) ‘Why do you hurt unhappy me with the spurs?’ (Then the angel shall say to him.) ‘Cease to perform the command of King Balak.’ Then follow, just as before, the calling of Samuel, David, Hosea, Joel, and all the other prophets, etc., of the Old and New Testament. When Nebuchadnezzar’s turn comes, the three children of Israel appear on the stage, and the whole scene of their refusing to bow down to the golden image and their being cast into the furnace is acted.”

Still more ridiculous, however, was the “Feast of Asses” formerly celebrated at Beauvais on the 14th of January. On this occasion they made choice of a very beautiful girl and placed her on a sumptuously adorned ass, with a baby in her arms, in order to represent the flight of Joseph and Mary into Egypt with the child Jesus. She was then conducted with great state from the cathedral church to the parish of St. Stephen, the whole clergy and people following. As soon as the pompous procession had reached the place, the girl entered the church and was placed with the ass near the altar where the gospel is read, and immediately the mass of the solemnity began; the various parts of which—the Introit, Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, etc.—were concluded by imitating the braying of an ass! But what is more astounding, the manuscript rubric of this festival says: “At the end of the mass, the priest turning towards the people, instead of saying, ‘Ite missa est,’ shall bray three times, and the people instead of answering, ‘Gratias Deo,’ shall bray three times!” (Du Cange, Glossarium ubi sup.)

The state of preaching continued much the same during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. “Most of the clergy,” says Gieseler, “could not even preach, and those who did, for the most part mendicant monks, usually entertained their hearers with absurd fables, the object of which was to magnify the importance of their various relics, or made an exhibition of their barren scholastic learning, as may be seen in the sermons still extant of Meffreth, a priest in Meissen, A.D. 1443–1476; of Leonardus de Utino, a Dominican in Bologna (died 1470); and even in those of Gabriel Biel, otherwise so distinguished for their practical tendency.” (Vol. iii. p. 320.) The character of Popish preaching never materially altered, except where Protestantism exerted a correcting influence upon it. The sermons of the clergy always set forth the corrupt doctrines and superstitious practices of Romanism, rather than the great and life-giving truths of Christianity. They have abounded too in forced allegories, unnatural interpretations, and absurd legends, and have therefore totally failed in the great object for which Christian preaching was instituted—the conversion of the ungodly and the spiritual advancement of believers. In order to substantiate this charge, we shall now proceed to the citation of several sermons from books of homilies in use in England at the period of the Reformation.

In the book called Sermones Discip. de Sanctis, the 48th sermon, on the twelve fruits of the mass, is as follows:

“Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.”

“This sermon,” says the preacher, “is the last about the saints!” After a short preface he begins the exposition of his subject by saying: “Then God will be with us when we diligently and devoutly hear mass. Wherefore it is said, ‘Lo, I am with you always,’ etc.” In this present sermon he goes on to say: “we must speak of the twelve benefits every one hath that devoutly and diligently hears mass:

1. If a man should give in alms as much ground as he could walk over whilst the mass is saying, it would not do him so much good as the hearing mass.

2. Angels will delightfully stay with that man and carefully keep him.

3. His venial sins are thereby forgiven.

4. He that in mortal sins hears the mass and is present in the church when Christ is sacrificed on the altar, all his mortal sins are pardoned.

5. He that is present at this mass may every day spiritually communicate.

6. He shall be a greater partaker that day of all the good things done in the church by all Christ’s faithful throughout the world. Ps. cxix. 63: “I am a companion of all them that fear Thee.”

7. Thy prayer is sooner heard in the church and in the presence of God.

8. The souls for whom the mass is said or for whom the standers-by do pray have special comfort thereby. Witness that soul that was to abide fifteen years in purgatory and was delivered by one mass.

9. One mass in one’s lifetime devoutly heard is more worth than a thousand after death.

10. A woman with child devoutly present at mass, if she should fall in travail the same day, it is to be hoped that God will make her a joyful childbearer, and the angels will carefully keep mother and child. But let her devoutly pray at mass-time to the Virgin Mary to be a glad mother as she was on the birth of Christ.

11. Whatsoever a man eats that day, it agrees better with his nature after the mass than before. Moreover, he will be prospered that day in his labors, craft, buying, journeys.

12. If thou happen to die that day thou hearest mass, Christ will be present with thee in thy extremity and stand by thee, as thou didst by Him at hearing mass.”

In the same book the 31st sermon, “Of St. Lawrence,” is as follows: “He hath tried me as gold that passeth through the fire.” (Job xxiii. 10.) St. Lawrence was gold for the perfection of his life, and he was tried by the examination of his punishment. Hence to the perfection of St. Lawrence three things are to be spoken of.

1. His privilege.
2. Some things for our instruction.
3. Some miracles.

I. We must know that St. Lawrence had seven privileges:

1. He began to serve Christ when he was a child.
2. Was archdeacon of Rome.
3. Was very merciful.
4. Was a very great martyr by reason of various torments and, at last, roasting on a gridiron, till he died.
5. The celebration of his feast throughout the world.
6. The fast on the eve of his holy day.
7. He is mentioned in all masses.

II. As to the second part: For our information we are to know that by his example we are to be merciful, etc., etc.

III. As to the third part: All men ought devoutly to pray unto St. Lawrence today. And first, they that are troubled with pain in their eyes. For one night, St. Lawrence finding one blind in a Christian’s house, with the sign of the cross he gave him sight, etc., etc. So poor men that have not bread to eat should pray to St. Lawrence; because one day when an old church of St. Lawrence was repairing, and the priest who employed the workmen had prayed to St. Lawrence, he multiplied a little loaf of bread that was scarce enough for one meal for three men, so that it served all the workmen ten days. And St. Lawrence too can help men in extremities, etc., etc.

In the Sermones Parati de Sanctis, the twentieth sermon is “Of St. Agnes,” on the following text: “My beloved is mine, and I am his,” etc. (Cant. ii. 16.) “St. Agnes in these words doth glory of the mutual love that was betwixt her husband Christ and herself. We must know that there are many things for which God is wont to love men. First is charity. (Prov. viii.): ‘I love them that love me, and those that seek me early shall find me.’ We find this in St. Agnes, that early, i.e., in her youth, she sought God, and therefore she found him.” Then follows the legend: “Coming from school, the city governor’s son meets and falls in love with her, and gives great gifts to her, but she scorns all, etc. The second thing for which God loves men is faith. St. Agnes had firm faith, for when it was told her, ‘either sacrifice to the gods with the other virgins, or go with the whores,’ and she was put naked into the bawdy house, God made her hair so thick that it covered her better than her garments, etc. Third is chastity. This St. Agnes had, and therefore her husband Christ loved her and preserved her pure. For the governor’s son attempting her chastity, died. But at her prayer, was raised again to life,” etc.

In a volume of homilies published in England the beginning of Henry the Eighth’s reign, occurs the following:

“It is written that sometime was a man that was called Pyers and was a rich man, but he was so hard that there was no beggar that might get any good of him. Than on a time it happened so that many beggars sate together in a place, and spake of this Pyers, how they might get no good of him. Then spake one of them as master and said, what will ye lay with me that I shall get some good of him. And so they made a wager. And then went this man forth and came to Pyer’s place and sate him down at the porche of the hall door and there abode till Pyers came, and anone as he saw Pyers he spake so horribly to him that for grete angre as his servants came by him with a basket of brede, he took a loaf and with all his might cast it at the beggar and smote him on the breast and said, ‘Stoppe thy mouth therewith that the devil stoppe it.’ And anone the beggar caught the loaf and ran his way to his fellows and showed his loaf and so he gate his wager. Then the next night after it happened so that this Pyers was shryven and brought to his bedde and so died, and anone fiends came to take his soul. But then was our lady ready and bad them bring the soul to her, and so they did. Then was there nothing to help the soul but only that loaf that he had kest to the beggar. Then said the fiends he gave it against his will, therefore by right it should not help him. Then our Lord bad to bear the soul again to the body. And when the soul was with the body, anone he sate up and gave a grete sigh and called to him all his servants and told them how hard a doom he was at, and had ben damned, had not that loaf been that he kest at the beggar. Therefore anone he made to sell his good and deled to poor people for God’s sake. And when he had so done he made himself an hermyte and after was a holy man. Hereby ye may well know how grete that is almes dede and prayers, that made a man so privy with God and so ayker against the doom, for all that have done almes for God’s sake shall be saved, yf they be out of deedly syne.”

In the same volume, p. 17, occurs the following homily on Lent:

“Good men and women, this is the seconde Sunday in clene Lent. Wherefore lyke as ye have all this yere before made you honest and well beseen in good array to your bodies now should you be as besy to make you a clene soul. Wherefore this holy time of Lent is ordeyned to clense your conscyences from all manner of rust and fylth of synne; so that ye may on Easter-day, with a clene conseyence receyve the precyous bodie of our Lord. Wherefore St. Paule in the Epistle of this day sayth thus: (hac est voluntas Dei) this is Goddes wyll that ye shoulde be besy to keep your bodyes in clenness for to please God moche, and make his vessel clene agaynst the comygne of his blessyd mageste. Then shal ye understande that this vessel is man’s conscyence that keepeth all good thynges that is put therein tyll the day of Dome. Than how that a man shall kepe his vessel clene, holy Churche teacheth by ensample of the holy putryarke Jacob, of whom is redde and songe all this weke long. Jacob had a father which was called Ysaac and his mother Rebecca, and she had twain Chyldren at one byrth, and he that was fyrst borne hyght [called] Esau; and that other Jacob; but because this story is longe we shal leave it, but ye shall understande that this story is redde in holy churche in ensample of all good servantes, that desire to get the blessynge of the father of heven; he must wrestle here on earth with the wicked aungel, that is to saye, the Fende, and with his fleshe strongely, and make it to tell his sinnes, and do penaunce after the counseyle of his ghostly father, taking the ensample of the woman of ferre countrees, that came to Chryste to gete helpe for her daughter that was troubled with a Fende, and sayd (Jesu fili David miserere mei) Jesu the son of David have mercy on me, than our Lord answered, (non est bonum sumere panem filiorum et dare canibus) it is not good to take brede of children and gyve it to the hounds, (nam et Catuli edent de mensa dominorum suorum).”

The following is the homily appointed to be read in Rogation Week, in the old English Festivale, p. 38:

“Good friends, these three days, that is to say Mondaye, Tuesdaye and Wednesdaye, ye shall fast and goin Processyon, man, woman and servant, for we be all sinners and none may excuse them from the Processyon that may lawfully be there. Than hee that withdraweth himself fro the Commaundement of holy Churche wilfully, he synneth full grievously. First he synneth in pryde, for hee is unboxom; also he synneth in sloth, that knoweth himself in synn and will not do his dylygence to come out thereof; and ryght as he withdraweth hymsef fro the holy Processyon, ryght so wyll God put hym from all the company of Heven, and from all the prayers that ben done in holy Chyrche, till he come to Amendement. Therefore all Chrysten people come togyder, and pray these thre dayes to all the saintes in heven, to pray to God for us, and put away all the power of the Fende and kepe us from all mychefe, perylles and drede, that fallen more this tym of the yee than ony other tyme. For in this tyme fall many grete Thondres and Lightenings. And as Lyncolnience says, ‘There wer Fendes that fluttred in the ayre, for fere of the blast of thondor whan that Chryat came to hell gates, whan hee dispoiled hell.’ So yet whan they here the Thonder in the ayre, they bee soe agast thereof, that they fall down, and than they go not upp agayn tyll they have done some cursed dede, and raise Tempest on the See and throw down Shyppes and make debate amyng folk, and make one to slee another, and kyndle fire to brenne houses and throw down steples and trees and cause women to over-lye their Chyldren, and hang and drown themselves in wan hope and dispayre. Now to put away all such mischeves and power of the Fende, holy Chyrche hath ordained that all Chrysten people shall go in Processyon and pray to God and our Lady and to all the Sayntes in Heven for succour. Wherefore in the Processyons belles be rongen, Banners bee displayed, and the Cross cometh after. For ryght as a kynge when hee goeth to a Batayle his Trompetis go before, than the Baners, and than cometh the kyng and his hoost; for the Belles bee Goddes Trompeltes; the Baners cometh after, than cometh the cross in Chrystes likeness, as King of Chrysten People. And as a cursed Tyraunt will bee sore aferde and a dredde whan he hereth the Trumpettes of a king that is his Enemy, so the Fende, the tyraunt of Hell is aferd and dredeth him sore whan the Belles rynge and the Banners ben born, and the Cross with all the people come, then he fleeth and dare not abyde, and so the processyon putteth away his power.”

The homily which we shall give next is the homily appointed to be read on the feast of Corpus Christi, p. 53:

“In Devonshire besyde Exbridge was a woman that lay sick and was nygh dede, and she sent after a holy person about midnyght to have her rights. Than this man in all haste hee might, arose and went to the chyrche and took Goddes body in a box of Ivory and put it in his bosome and went forth towards this woman. And as he went thro’ the forest in a fayre mede that was his next waye, it happed that his box fell out of his bosome to the ground, and he went forth and wyst it not, and came to this woman and herde her confession. And then he asked her yf she wold be houseled, and shee syd ‘Ye Syr.’ Than he put his hande into his bosom and sought the box and whan he found it not he was sorry and sad, and said, ‘Dame! I will go after Goddes body and come agayne anone to you; and so he went forth sore weepynge for his sympleness. And so as he came to a wylowe tree, he made thereof a rodde and stryped himself naked and bette himself so that the blode ranne down by his sydes and sayde thus to himself, ‘O thou simple man why hast thou lost thy Lord God, thy maker, thy fourmer, thy creatour?’ And when he had thus bette himself, he dydon his clothes and wente forth, and then he was ware of a pyller of fire that lasted from Erth to Heven, and he was all astonyed thereof. Yet he blessed him and went to it, and there lay the Sacrament fallen out of the box into the grass, and the pyller shone as bryght as the Sunne, and it lasted from Goddes body to heven and all the beastes of the Forest were comen about Goddes body and stood in compasse round about it and all kneeled on four knees, save one black horse that kneled but on one knee. Than sayed he, ‘If thou be ony beest that may speke, I charge thee in Goddes name here present in fourme of brede, tell me why thou knelest but on one knee.’ Than sayd he ‘I am a Fende of hel and wyll not knele and I myght, but I am made agenst my wyll, for it is wryten, that every knelynge of heven and erth shall be to the worship of the Lord God.’ ‘Why art thou like a hors.’ And he sayed, ‘to make the people to stele me, and at such a town was one hanged for me and at such a town another.’ Than sayed the holy person, ‘I command thee by Goddes fleshe and his blode that thou go into wyldernesse, and be there as thou shalt never dysease Chrysten man more.’ And than he went bys way, he myght no longer abyde. And than this man wente forth to the woman, and dyd her rights, by the whyche she was savyd and wente to everlasting blyss. To the whyche he bring us, &c.” Amen.

The above extracts may be considered a fair sample of the usual style of preaching in England just before the Reformation by Henry VIII. They are all taken from the books of homilies published by authority in that monarch’s reign. As to the sermons of the Romish priests since that period, much valuable and particular information is given in a work which I shall often have occasion to quote: Frauds of Romish Monks and Priests, by Gab. D’Emilliane, London, 1681. The following passages are full of interest and instruction:

“They have ordinarily no preaching in Italy save only during Advent and Lent. On all other Feasts and Sundays of the year they have no sermons at the parishes, and instead thereof, they only sing a high mass in music, but the Word of God is not at all preached in them. Yet in some convents of monks they have sermons in the afternoon, but these are sermons peculiar to the order to which the monks belong, and always on the same subject. The Dominicans preach eternally on the Rosary. The Carmelites on the Scapulary. The Franciscans on the Rope of St. Francis, and the Saccolanti have for their subject St. Anthony of Padua. True it is these matters are of themselves very dry and barren; and I am astonished how they can continually make them yield something to talk about. One greater help indeed they have, which is that the greatest part of their sermons is made up of a relation of miracles which a preacher of good invention may almost with as much ease coin as utter.” (p. 291)

As to the general character of the sermons in Italy our author states that “the Italians are extremely in love with sermons that make them laugh, which is the reason why the most part of their preachers apply themselves to a comical and droll style. As for the order observed as to partition of their sermon, it is the same through all Italy. They all begin their sermons with the Angelical Salutation, or Ave Maria, and not with the invocation of our Heavenly Father in praying ‘Our Father, etc.,’ or by calling upon the Holy Ghost, which yet are the most proper, or rather the only necessary for this purpose. But indeed the doctrine they preach is so extremely corrupt and wrested, that it is no wonder to find their introductions tainted with the same infection. God by this very thing manifesting to us that what they preach is not the pure word of God, by permitting them to preface their human inventions with the invocation of a creature. After the address to the virgin they pronounce their text, which commonly is a place of Scripture, or sometimes a part of a prayer of their church, or some sentence of the mass. They cite the text of Scripture only by halves and in an abstracted and interrupted sense, without declaring what goes before or follows after, which yet they ought to do, to render the sense perfect. After this they proceed to their proposition, and then continue their discourse of a piece without any division or subdivisions at all. They divide their sermon indeed into two parts, but the second is nothing else but a heap of examples, histories, and tales, made at pleasure to divert their auditors. In the interval between the first and second part, they gather alms in the church for the poor; there are men appointed for this purpose, who have bags fastened to the end of long staves with little bells at the bottom of them, and they pass by all the ranks and seats of the hearers to receive their charity. The preacher in the mean time whilst these bags or purses are marching about, doth with an incomparable zeal exhort them to give freely. I never in my lifetime saw people more inflamed with charity for their neighbours than they are in the pulpit. ‘You would say they are the very fathers of the poor.’ But if we cut this fair apple in two we shall find the worm there, which makes it all rotten and corrupt within. To make short, my meaning is that the motive that prompts them so seriously and zealously to recommend the poor to their auditors is a piece of self-interest; for the one-half of the alms that are gathered in the church, as well as at the church door during the sermon, belongs to the father preacher. Otherwise it were impossible to induce those hard-hearted and pitiless monks,[3] those hearts of brass and marble, who are so signally qualified [marked] with insensibility and cruelty. I say it would be impossible to induce them to any sentiments of mercy and compassion for the miseries of their neighbours, if laymen had not found out a way to join the interest of the preacher with that of the poor, and to make but one of them.”

“I went one day in Lent,” adds the author, “to hear one of the sermons at the church of St. Andrew of the valley, at Rome; it was a father Franciscan that then preached there; his sermon was concerning Predestination. At the close of the sermon, he put a question to himself whether there were not some visible mark upon earth by which one might distinguish the elect from the reprobate? He answered himself, ‘Yes that certainly there were such signs.’ Amongst other signs he reckoned up, I remember, this was one, ‘To love music and the sound of instruments.’ But that the principal sign of all was ‘to give alms.’ This was indeed the point he would be at, and very dexterously took occasion from this, to exhort all his hearers, to expose that day to the eyes of all men the undoubted tokens of their predestination, by their liberal putting into the purses; and that for his part he would take great notice, from his station on high, of all those who gave this evidence of their election; that so he might know who were reprobate and who were predestinate among them. Accordingly, he sets himself down in his pulpit and was silent: and staring with his eyes that way they carried the bag, having perceived all the past rank had shewed themselves very liberal: ‘This is well (said he) I find that there is one rank already of my hearers that are predestinate.’ And the second and third rank having followed the same example: ‘In very truth (said he) I believe that my whole auditory will prove to be of the number of the elect. This is an extraordinary comfort for me, that I have preached here this Lent, and I render thanks to God for it, because it is a sign that sinners are converted.’ By this means this father procured a very liberal collection. I observed all the while that he put many of his auditory to the blush, who probably had no money about them; and to avoid the conclusion of being accounted reprobates, they reached forth their hand to the bags as though they had put something in.” (p. 280)

The following extract relates to the Easter sermons:

“Forasmuch,” says the writer, “as I have now made mention of an Easter-day, I must give you some account of a pleasant, but yet truly detestable and abominable custom, which takes place on Easter-day, throughout all Italy. They tell us, that Easter-day is a day of merriment and rejoicing, applying to this use that text of the Psalmist: ‘This is the day which the Lord hath made; let us be glad and rejoice in it.’ The word Hallelujah, is a common text with all the preachers on that day, which signifies in its proper sense, ‘Praise the Lord.’ On Easter-day in Italy, however, it signifies, ‘Gentlemen and Ladies, prepare yourselves for a good laughter.’ After they have named their text, they enter upon matter, and vent all the most ridiculous stuff they can think of. These sermons, afterwards, serve all the Easter time for mirth and pastime in company; where every one delights in relating to others, what he has heard.”

“Being once on an Easter-day in Bologna, I went to hear the service in St. Peter’s Church, being the cathedral of that city, the Archbishop himself being then present. After that the preacher had turned several texts of Scripture into ridicule; he quoted Mark xvi. 2, where it is said, that the two Maries came to the sepulchre, after sunrising; and opposed this to John xx. 1, where it is said, they ‘came very early before it was light,’ and then put the question, ‘how it was possible to reconcile these two places which seemed to contradict one another.’ ‘For his part (he said) he believed, that the Maries did not rise till long after the sun was risen,’ and indeed till it was near noon; for see (said he,) that this goes for very early rising with our Italian ladies, who do not come to mass on Sunday, till half an hour after eleven or twelve.’ And hereupon he began in a comical manner to represent a woman’s awaking out of her sleep; the time she takes to rub her eyes, to stretch her arms, and a hundred other impertinent follies, which put all the church into a loud laughter. Afterwards he recalls himself and said, ‘That indeed, the Maries were risen very early in the morning, but they needed so much time to dress and trick up themselves; that it was very late before they could get out of the doors; which was the reason they could not reach the sepulchre, till after the sun was risen.’ Here he represented women dressing themselves; how much time they spend in dressing their head, and laying on of paint, fixing their patches and making an hundred faces before their looking-glasses; and expressed all those particulars, admirably well, with his mimical gestures. ‘This curious thought he immediately backed with another. Very merry (said he) the Maries were not such vain women as I have just now been describing. But they were gossiping housewives; they rose and went abroad, indeed, betimes in the morning; but before they could take their leaves of their neighbours, much time was spent; so that they did not come to the sepulchre till it was late—the sun was risen.’ Here he enlarged on the tattling and gossiping discourse of women, and mentioned such ridiculous stuff amongst it, that the Cardinal Archbishop, who was there, burst out into a loud laughter. He continued his Easter sermon, at the same rate to the end of it; profaning, after a most heinous and unworthy manner, so holy a day and the venerable history of these holy women, who were judged worthy to be the first witnesses of the greatest mystery of our faith—the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thus these wretched monks,” says our author, “instead of dispensing the word of truth, ordinarily feed them with nothing but lies.” (p. 310)

“On this subject I have only further to add, that there is yet another sort of preachers who only preach before the Nuns’ grates. These are finical preachers, of a sweet countenance, and commonly all of them handsome young monks. For except beauty and sweetness do meet in a preacher, the Nuns who have the choice of them, will have none of him. All the study of these men is to send out pretty words, and most tender and affectionate expressions, and frequently to enlarge themselves in praise of the Nuns, to whom they preach. I have heard many of these sort of preachers, and among the rest, a young monk at Milan, a preacher to the Benedictine Nuns of the monastery, called the Magiore. Scarcely could this monk speak three words together without some expression of the high value and love he had for them. ‘My most dear and lovely sisters, whom I love from the deepest bottom of my heart,’ said he, which was repeated at the end of almost every sentence he uttered.” (p. 312)

Such is the description given of modern Popish preaching by one whose writings carry on the very face of them the strongest evidence of sincerity and truth. In some countries, as France, where Protestantism has altered the state of things, the sermons of the clergy are to some extent free from the gross characteristics above referred to, and occasionally such men as Massillon and Bourdaloue appear amongst them. In England too, and other Protestant kingdoms, Popish preaching is chiefly objectionable on account of the deadly errors which it inculcates rather than for the gross ribaldry, absurd legends, and forced interpretations in which the sermons of foreign priests abound.

Enough has now been said to justify the charge brought against the Romish Church, of having for many centuries either altogether abandoned or awfully perverted the preaching of the Word of God. As declared by the apostles, the Gospel of Christ was “the power of God unto salvation.” Those holy men labored to convince the hearers of their guilt, by setting before them the holiness of the divine character, and the righteous nature of the law which they were bound to obey, and by which they would hereafter be judged. And when men were thus convinced of sin and of judgment to come, the salvation which Christ had purchased by His blood was earnestly pressed upon them, and they were taught to exercise faith in Jesus, as the cause of pardon and of bliss. Such was the preaching which, under the divine blessing, produced the extraordinary results related in the Scriptures.

Far, very far different from apostolic preaching has been the preaching of the Romish clergy. In the first place, as already shown, this highest of all the means appointed by the Lord for the conversion of the world has been to a great extent wholly neglected. Surrounded by people as ignorant of the first principles of Christianity as the heathen themselves, and holding in their hands the word of salvation, they wickedly neglected to declare it; and thus, this great source of light and life was so far closed to a perishing world!

But again, when they did preach, whether we look at the Middle Ages or later times, they did so shamefully abuse that ordinance, as to render it altogether useless, or what is worse, constitute it a vehicle of poisonous error. The sermons of the clergy, as we have abundantly seen, were miserably deficient in the life-giving truths of Christianity, have been filled with such empty and ridiculous matter as to be wholly inefficient in awakening the conscience or reforming the life. Or else, where some measure of divine truth has been imparted, it has been so mixed up with deadly error as to be wholly neutralized. Thus, for about a thousand years, the preachers of the Church of Rome have fed their famishing people with chaff, instead of the bread of life, and holding in their exclusive possession the great remedy provided for man’s spiritual disease, they infused venom in the cup whenever they administered it, which wholly counteracted the healing virtues of this heavenly balm, and rendered it poison instead of a medicine to the millions who innocently received it. It is thus too obvious a truth to be questioned by any intelligent and impartial reader, that for neglecting and perverting the preaching of the Word, as much as in prohibiting the Scriptures, the Papacy is a system of FAMINE which deprives immortal souls of that spiritual nourishment which the love and grace of God Himself have provided.

Footnotes

[1] Oecolampadius de risu Paschali.

[2] “The ceremony of the Boy Bishop is supposed to have existed not only in collegiate churches, but in almost every parish in England. On Dec. 7, 1228, the day after St. Nicholas’ Day, a boy bishop, in the chapel at Heton, near Newcastle-upon-Tyne, said vespers before Edward I. on his way to Scotland. By a proclamation of Henry VIII., July 22, 1542, the show of the boy bishop was abrogated, but in the reign of Mary it was revived with other Romish ceremonials. A flattering song was sung before that queen by a boy bishop, and printed. The account of St. Mary at Hill, London, in 10 Henry VII. and for 1549 and 1550, contain charges for the boy bishops for three years. At that period his estimation in the church seems to have been undiminished.”

[3] Preaching in the Romish Church is confined to the monks of the Dominican and Franciscan orders.

(To be continued.)