PREACHING AND TEACHING.
There is a chain of evidences that the rulers of the Church not only
enjoined the diligent teaching of the people by their parish priests in
sermon[208] and otherwise, but also gave the clergy the assistance of
manuals of teaching and sermon helps; and, further, took pains at their
visitations to ascertain that the duty was efficiently performed.
So early as the beginning of the eighth century, Aldhelm, Bishop of
Sherborne, published a poem in four hundred and fifty-eight Latin
hexameters, “De Octo[209] Principalibus Vitiis.”
[Illustration: PREACHING. FROM THE XIII. CENT. MS., EGERTON, p. 745, f.
46.]
Ælfric’s address to the clergy (c. 1030) at the distribution of the chrism
seems to have been written for his Bishop Wulfsine to deliver to a
synodical assembly of the clergy of the Diocese of Sherborne. It is an
instruction to the clergy on the duties of their office; dealing first
minutely with their duty in baptism, unction, the eucharist, etc.; then it
bids them to know by heart and explain to the people the Ten Commandments,
and gives a brief explanation of each; then it goes on to explain the
eight[210] capital vices. It is the first which has been preserved to us
of a long series of synodal instructions.
The Synod of Oxford, in 1223, enjoins the clergy “not to be dumb dogs, but
with salutary bark to drive away the disease of spiritual wolves from the
flock.” A canon of Alexander of Stavenby, Bishop of Coventry (1224-1240),
requires all clergy to address to their people assembled on the Lord’s Day
or other festival the following words:--the words constitute a rhetorical
sermon on the seven deadly sins. Another canon gives directions as to the
mode of receiving penitents, and dealing with souls. Grostete (1235-1254)
gave directions to his clergy to preach on Sundays, and gave them the
heads of their teaching. In Exeter, Bishop Quivil (1280-1292) drew up a
similar book for the clergy, of which he required every parish to have a
copy under penalty of a fine. Bishop Brentingham, of Exeter (1370-1395),
issued a mandate against intruding priests who would say low masses in
parish churches on Sundays and holy days, which parishioners attended
instead of the _Magna Missa_, and so lost the benefit of the sermon: this
assumes that a sermon is preached in all parish churches on Sundays and
holy days. Other diocesan bishops adopted similar methods.
Archbishop Peckham, in the Constitutions of 1281, put forth a manual of
teaching on the Articles of Faith, the Ten Commandments, the Seven[211]
Deadly Sins, the Seven Principal Virtues, and the Seven Sacraments, so
fully and ably done that it continued to form a standard of teaching, and
is constantly referred to in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. It
seems worth while to give it _in extenso_ as an authentic record of the
teaching of the Mediæval Church. It appears as Canon X. of the Provincial
Synod of Lambeth, 1281, and begins with this preamble--
The ignorance of priests precipitates the people into the pit of
error, and the foolishness or rudeness of clerks, who ought to
instruct the minds of the faithful in the Catholic faith, sometimes
tends rather to error than to doctrine. Also some blind preachers[212]
do not always visit the places which most need the light of truth, as
the prophet witnesses, who says, “The children seek for bread, and
there is no one to break it to them;” and another prophet cries, “The
poor and needy ask for water, and their tongue is parched.” For the
remedy of such mischiefs we ordain that every priest who presides over
a people do four times a year, that is, once in each quarter of the
year, on one or more festival days, either by himself or by another,
expound to the people in popular language without any fanciful
subtlety, the 14 Articles of Faith, the 10 Commandments of the Lord,
the 2 Evangelical Precepts of Charity, the 7 Works of Mercy, the 7
Deadly Sins with their progeny, the 7 Principal Virtues, and the 7
Sacraments of Grace. And in order that no one may excuse himself from
this on account of ignorance, though all ministers of the Church ought
to know them, we have here with great brevity summed them up.
_Of the Articles of Faith._--Seven of them concern the mystery of the
Trinity; four of these belong to the essence of the Godhead, and the
other three relate to His works. The first is the unity of the Divine
Essence in three Persons of the Indivisible Trinity agreeably to this
part of the Creed, “_I believe in one God._” The second is to believe
God the Father, begotten of none. The third is to believe the Son the
only begotten, and God. The fourth is to believe the Holy Ghost to be
God, neither begotten nor unbegotten, but proceeding both from the
Father and the Son. The fifth article is to believe in the creation of
Heaven and Earth (that is, of every visible and invisible creature) by
the whole and undivided Trinity.
The sixth is the Sanctification of the Church by the Holy Ghost, and
by the Sacraments of Grace, and by all those things in which the
Christian Church communicates. By which is understood that the Church,
with its Sacraments and discipline, is, through the Holy Ghost,
sufficient for the salvation of every sinner; and that outside the
Church there is no salvation. The seventh article is the consummation
of the Church in eternal glory by a true resurrection of body and
soul; and on the contrary is understood the eternal damnation of the
lost.
_Of the Seven Articles relating to the Humanity of Christ._--The first
is His Incarnation, or His true assumption of human flesh of the
Blessed Virgin, by the Holy Ghost. The second is the real birth of
God Incarnate from the immaculate Virgin. The third is the true
passion of Christ and His death upon the Cross under Pontius Pilate.
The fourth is the descent of Christ in the Spirit into hell, while His
body remained in the grave, for the despoiling of Tartarus. The fifth
is the true Resurrection of Christ. The sixth is His Ascension to
heaven. And the seventh is the most confident expectation of His
coming to judgment.
_Of the Ten Commandments._--Of the ten commandments of the Old
Testament three relate to God, and constitute the first table; the
remaining seven concern our neighbour, and are called the Commandments
of the Second Table. The First Commandment is,[213] _Thou shalt have
no other gods before Me_; by which all idolatrous worship is
forbidden; and by inference all lots and incantations and
superstitions[214] of letters, and such-like figments are forbidden.
In the Second, where it is said, _Thou shalt not take the Name of the
Lord thy God in vain_, all heresy is principally condemned; and, in a
secondary sense, all blasphemy, irreverent mention of the Name of God,
and especially perjury. The Third Commandment, where it is said,
_Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day_, commands Christian
worship, to which clergy and laity are alike bound. But we are to
understand that the obligation of rest upon the Jewish Sabbath came to
an end together with the other legal ceremonies; and that under the
New Testament came in the practice of Divine worship on the Lord’s day
and other holy days appointed by the authority of the Church, and the
manner of keeping those days is to be governed by the laws of the
Church, and not by any Jewish usage.
The First Commandment of the Second Table is, _Honour thy Father and
Mother_, in which we are explicitly commanded to honour our parents,
both in temporal and in spiritual matters; but implicitly, and in a
secondary sense, every man is by this commandment to be honoured
according to his proper degree; not only our natural father and mother
are intended, but our spiritual parents, the Bishop of the Diocese and
the Priest of the Parish, may be said to be our fathers; and the
Church is our Mother, who is the Mother of all the faithful. The
Second precept in this division is, _Thou shalt not kill_; by which
the unauthorized taking away any person’s life, either by consent,
act, word, or encouragement, is explicitly forbidden, and implicitly
every unrighteous injury to the person. They likewise who do not
support the poor, they who murder a man’s reputation, are guilty of
the breach of this Commandment; and so are all such as harass and
distress the innocent. The Third Commandment says, _Thou shalt not
commit adultery_. Adultery is explicitly condemned, and implicitly
fornication, which is likewise explicitly forbidden in Deuteronomy
xxiii., where it is said, “There shall be no whore of the daughters of
Israel.” But, further, the command extends by way of reduction to all
instances of impurity. The Fourth Commandment declares _Thou shall not
steal_, which explicitly condemns the clandestine conveying away
another man’s property without his consent, implicitly it forbids
taking what belongs to our neighbour either by fraud or violence. The
Fifth Commandment is, _Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy
neighbour_. This precept explicitly forbids false testimony to the
damage of our neighbour; and in a secondary sense it disallows undue
commendation in order to the promotion of an unworthy person. Lastly,
under this command, all sort of lies, but especially those which are
injurious, are condemned. The Sixth Commandment is, _Thou shalt not
covet thy neighbour’s house_--i.e. to his injury. By this command we
are implicitly forbidden to desire the _real_ estate of our neighbour,
and especially if he is a Catholic. The Seventh and last Commandment
of the Table is, _Thou shalt not covet his wife, nor his servant, nor
his maid, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is his_, where
the coveting of our neighbour’s stock or _personal_ estate is
forbidden.
But to these Ten Commandments the Gospel superadds two, viz. _The Love
of God and of our neighbour_. He loves God who obeys the aforesaid
Commandments more out of love than out of fear of punishment; and
every one ought to love his neighbour as himself; where the particle
“_as_” does not signify equality but similarity. So that, for example,
you may love your neighbour to the same extent as you love yourself,
that is for good and not for evil; and in the same way that is
spiritually and not carnally; and as much as yourself, in regard to
time, that is in prosperity and adversity, in health and sickness; as
also as much as yourself in respect of degree, insomuch as you love
each and every man more than riches; also insomuch as you love the
soul of your neighbour, or his eternal salvation, more than your own
earthly life, as you ought to put the life of your soul before the
life of your body; also in the same kind as yourself, so that you
succour all others in need as you wish to be helped in like necessity.
All these things are meant when it is said “Thou shalt love thy
neighbour as thyself.”
_Of the Seven Works of Mercy._--Six of the Seven Works of Mercy may be
learned from St. Matthew’s Gospel: _To feed the hungry; to give drink
to the thirsty; to entertain the stranger; to clothe the naked; to
visit the sick; to comfort those in prison_; the seventh is gathered
from Tobit--_to bury the dead_.
The Seven Deadly or Capital Sins are Pride, Envy, Anger or Hatred,
Sloth, Avarice or Covetousness, Gluttony, Intemperance. Pride is the
love of one’s own superiority (_amor propriæ excellentiæ_), from
whence spring boasting, ostentation, hypocrisy, schism (_sasinata_),
and such like. Envy is hatred of another’s good: whence come
detraction, strife, complainings, dissension, perverse judgements, and
such like. Anger is the desire of revenge, of doing hurt to any
person, when it continues upon the mind it settles into hatred; whence
proceed outrage in words and acts, quarrels, murders, and such like.
Sloth (_accidia_)[215] is a strong indisposition for spiritual good,
so that a man has no delight in God or in His praises; out of it come
idleness, cowardice, despair, and the like. Avarice is an immoderate
love of riches, either by unlawful gathering or unlawful hoarding; out
of it spring fraud, theft, sacrilege, simony, and every sort of base
gain. Gluttony is an immoderate love of gratifying the palate in food
and drink, and it sins in many ways; first, in regard to time, when a
man eats too early or too late or too often; second, in respect to
quality, when he is too nice in the choice of his diet; third, in
respect of quantity, when he eats and drinks too much, which is the
most degrading form of gluttony; also in respect of avidity and
voracity, and lastly, in too nice a preparation of food so as to
excite the appetite; all which are contained in this verse--
“_Præ, propere, laute, nimis, ardenter, studiose_.”
Lastly, as for Luxuria, it is not needful to explain it, for its
infamy poisons the whole atmosphere.
The Seven Principal Virtues are Faith, Hope, and Charity, which,
having God for their object, are called the Theological Virtues; and
the others, Prudence, Temperance, Justice, and Fortitude, which relate
to ourselves and our neighbours. The action of Prudence is to make a
proper choice; of Justice to do what is good and right; of Temperance
not to be hampered by pleasures; Fortitude is not to desert our duty
for any pain or hardship. These are called the seven cardinal or
principal virtues, because from these seven many others are deduced;
concerning which, since we work chiefly for the benefit of the plainer
sort of people, we shall at present add no more.
There are Seven Sacraments of the Church, the power of administering
which is committed to the clergy. Five of these Sacraments ought to be
received by all Christians in general; that is, Baptism, Confirmation,
Penance, the Holy Eucharist, and Extreme Unction, which last is only
for one who seems to be in danger of death; it should be given, if it
may be, before a man is so far spent as to lose the use of his reason;
but if he happens to be seized by a frenzy, or suffer from any
alienation of mind, this Sacrament ought nevertheless to be
administered to him, provided he gave signs of a religious disposition
before his mind was disturbed. Under such qualifications Extreme
Unction is believed to be beneficial to the sick person provided he is
predestinated (_predestinationis filius_), and either procures him a
lucid interval or some spiritual advantage. The other two Sacraments
are Order and Matrimony. The first belongs to the perfect, but the
second in the time of the New Testament belongs to the imperfect only,
and yet we believe that, by the virtue of the sacrament, it conveys
grace, if it is contracted with a sincere mind.
Thoresby, Archbishop of York in 1357, commissioned John Graytrigg, a monk
of York, to write in English verse an exposition of these six things: The
Fourteen Points of the Creed, the Ten Commandments, the Seven Sacraments,
the Seven Works of Mercy, the Seven Virtues, the Seven Deadly Sins; and
this he sent to all his priests, and bade them teach them often to their
people, and urge them to teach their children; and to examine them as to
their knowledge when they come to confession in Lent. At a synod held at
Ely in 1364, priests were enjoined frequently to preach, to expound the
Ten Commandments, etc., to study the sacred Scriptures, to see that
children are taught prayers, and to examine adults when they come to
confession as to their religious knowledge. When Arundel, in 1408, forbade
preaching without a licence, he expressly excepted the parish priests, who
were bound to instruct their people in simple language.
A provincial synod at York, under Archbishop Nevil, in 1465, orders
systematic teaching quarterly in simple language on points which the canon
elaborately sets forth.
* * * * *
There were numerous helps to preachers. Ælfric, towards the end of the
Saxon period, freely translated forty homilies from Augustine, Jerome,
Bede, Gregory, and other great ancient writers, which were put forth for
the use of the clergy under the authority of Archbishop Siric; he
afterwards added forty others of a more legendary character; and there are
many other Saxon sermons still extant, printed by Wanley, Sharon Turner,
Thorpe, the Early English Text Society, etc. Of a later period there are
series of sermons by Grostete of Lincoln, FitzRalph of Armagh, and
literally hundreds of other writers, some for all the Sundays of the year,
some for the great festivals only. A series of sermons for Sundays and
feast days, by John Felton, Vicar of St. Mary Magdalene, Oxford, c. 1450,
seems to have been popular, since many manuscripts of it remain. The
“Liber Festivalis” of John Myrk, Canon of Lillieshall, was also popular;
Caxton’s printed “Liber Festivalis” was founded upon it. The “Summa
Predicantium” is a book of sermon notes for preachers; the “Alphabetum
Exemplarium” is a collection of illustrations and anecdotes from which the
preacher might cull examples.
The “Speculum Christiani,” by John Watton, in the fourteenth century, was
intended, as is stated in the preface, to help the parish priests to carry
out Peckham’s injunctions. A great part of it is in English, and it
contains rhymed versions of the Commandments to help the memory. Several
editions of it (one in 1480, at the cost of a London merchant) are among
the earliest printed books. The “Flos Florum” was another book of the same
class explaining the Lord’s Prayer, Virtues, and Vices, etc. There were
also many private manuals instructing the clergy in all their duties: as
the “Pars Oculi Sacerdotis” of W. Parker, about 1350 A.D.; and the revised
edition of it, under the title of “The Pupilla Oculi” of Burgh, in 1385.
These series of authoritative instructions are open to the criticism that
they are dry and formal, lacking evangelical tone and unction, manuals of
theology are apt to be dry and formal; the treatment of sins and virtues
is perhaps pedantic and fanciful, but it proves a searching analysis of
the human heart and conduct, and contains much which is striking and true.
But there was another class of English books, like “The Prick of
Conscience” and other works of Richard the Hermit of Hampole[216] (died in
1349), and the “Speculum” of Archbishop St. Edmund Rich, in which we find
a vein of pious meditation, intended in the first instance for the use of
the clergy; but the pious thoughts of the clergy are not long in finding
their way to their tongues, and so to the ears and hearts of their people.
The religious poem of William of Massington, an advocate of the Court of
York, “On the Works of God and the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ,”
etc., and a number of short poems, which have been printed in various
collections, give examples of the existence of the emotional element in
the popular religion in strains of considerable poetical and religious
merit.
It is a very curious circumstance that many of these books are cast into a
poetical mould--Dom Johan Graytrigg’s work is in the alliterative poetry
of Saxon and early English literature, and John Myrk’s “Instructions” and
the “Lay Folks’ Mass-book” are in rhyme, no doubt with the twofold purpose
of making them more attractive and more easily remembered.
A remarkable feature of the moral teaching of the Middle Ages was its
minute analysis of sin. It divided sin into the Seven Deadly Sins: Pride,
Envy, Anger, Sloth, Covetousness, Gluttony, Luxury; the list of them is
sometimes slightly varied. Then it divided each sin into its various
branches. It will be enough to quote from the “Argenbite of Inwit” the
analysis of the first of them--Pride.
_Pride_ has seven boughs: Untruth, Contempt, Presumption, Ambition,
Vainglory, Hypocrisy, Wicked Dread.
_Untruth_ has three twigs: Ingratitude, Foolishness, Apostasy.
_Contempt_ is of three sorts: not praising others as they deserve; not
giving reverence where one ought; not obeying those who are over us.
_Presumption_ has six twigs: Singularity, Extravagance, and also Strife,
Boasting, Scorn, Opposition.
_Vainglory_ has three small twigs: God’s gifts of Nature, Fortune, and
Grace.
_Hypocrisy_ is of three kinds: Foul, Foolish, Subtle.
The seventh bough of Pride is Wicked Fear and Shame.
And so with the rest of the deadly sins.
_Envy_ poisons the heart, mouth, and head.
_Hatred_ has seven twigs: Chiding, Wrath, Hate, Strife, Vengeance, Murder,
War.
_Sloth_ means yielding to our natural disinclination to good and proneness
to evil, and has six divisions: Disobedience, Impatience, Murmuring,
Sorrow, Desire of Death, Despair.
_Avarice_ has ten divisions: Usury, Theft, Robbery, False Claim,
Sacrilege, Simony, Fraud, Chaffer, Craft, Wicked Gains.
_Gluttony_ has five kinds; _Lechery_ fourteen. It is very pedantic in
form; but there is a keen insight into human frailty, and there are many
shrewd hits and pithy sayings, and it is lightened by anecdotes and
illustrations. Men nowadays would not have the patience to read it; but if
they did read and digest it, they might gain a great amount of
self-knowledge.
Some similar treatises at the end of every deadly sin give its remedy,
also minutely analyzed.[217] Other subjects are treated by the same
method--the Seven Virtues, the Ten Commandments, the Lord’s Prayer, etc.
It is all dry reading, but it gives the patient reader valuable knowledge
of the attitude of men’s minds in those days towards Christian faith and
practice. An evidence of the popularity of these treatises is given by the
fact that “The Parson’s Tale” in Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” is nothing
more or less than such a treatise on penitence, divided into three parts,
viz. Contrition, Confession, and Satisfaction; in the course of which the
Seven Deadly Sins, with their remedies, are dealt with in the usual
manner.
People bestowed a great deal of ingenuity in representing these systems of
teaching by diagrams. A MS. Psalter of the thirteenth century (Arundel,
83) gives a number of them;[218] at f. 129 _verso_ is the _Arbor
Vitiorum_, a tree with seven principal branches, viz. the Seven Deadly
Sins, and their subordinate boughs and twigs as above. At f. 120 is the
_Arbor Virtutum_, treated in a similar way. At f. 130 the Seven Petitions
of the Lord’s Prayer, the Seven Sacraments, the Seven Vices, and the Seven
Virtues, are arranged in a device so as to give their relations to one
another; and there are similar devices on f. 2 _verso_, and the two
following pages. Such devices were sometimes painted on the walls of
churches.
GRATIA.
Pax. || Contricio.
Indulgencia. || Compassio.
Concordia. || Miserecordia.
\-----------------\ || /---------------------/
\ || /
CARI||TAS.
||
Virginitas. || Contemplatio.
||
Puritas. | Munditia. || Paciencia. | Contricio.
Continentia. | Simplicitas. || Gaudium. | Confessio.
Castitas. | Devotio. || Disciplina. | Penitentia.
||
FIDES. || SPES.
\----------------\ || /------------------/
\||/
Donat’ || Spiritus.
||
Vita. || Moralitas.
||
Lex. | Correctio. || Jejunium. | Moderatio.
Judicium. | Severitas. || Sobrietas. | Benignitas.
Juris | Rectitudo. || Contemptus | Tolerantia.
observantia.| || mundi. |
||
JUSTITIA. || TEMPERANTIA.
\-----------------\ || /----------------/
\||/
Via || Vitæ.
||
Timor Dei. || Quies.
Vigilancia. | Racio. || Stabilitas. | Perseverancia.
Consilium. | Tractabilitas. || Silencium. | Non deject’ in
| || | prosperis.
Providencia. | Discretio. || Longanimitas. | Non excess’ in
|| prosperis.
||
PRUDENCIA. || FORTITUDO.
\------------------\ || /-----------------/
\||/
||
[Picture of [Picture of || [Picture of [Picture of
Prudencia.] Justicia.] || Fortitudo.] Temperancia.]
--------------------------------------------
Radix Virtutum Humilitas.
--------------------------------------------
ARBOR VIRTVTVM.
PRECIPITATIO.
||
Amor sui. || Odium dei.
Inconsideratio. || Instabilitas.
Incontinentia. || Affect’ Seculi.
||
------- Lux||uria. ------------
/ \ || / \
/ \ || / \
GULA. \ || / ACCIDIA.
\ || /
Eletuso sensis. | Immundicia. \ || /Mentis vagacio. | Pusillanimitas.
Saurilitus. | Multiloquium.\||/ Occositas. | Error in fide.
Inepta Letitia. | Crapula. || Tristicia. | Bonor’ omissio.
||
Ebrietas. || Desperacio.
--------- || -----------
/ \ || / \
/ \ || / \
IRA. \ || / INANIS GLORIA.
\ || /
Rixa. | Metus Timor. \ || / Inobedientia. | Presumpcio.
Clamor. | Indignacio. \||/ Singularitas. | Jactantia.
Blasfemie. | Furor. || Discordia. | Obstructio.
||
Odium. || Ypocrisis.
||
-------- || ----------
/ \ || / \
/ \ || / \
AVARICIA. \ || / INVIDIA.
\ || /
\ Serpent/
Fraus. | Rapina. \ || /Doli machinatio.|Detractio.
Furta. | Prodicio. \ || / Scelus. |Dolor in prosperis.
Penuria. | Usura. \||/ Susurium. |Plaus in adversis.
||
Simonia. || Homicidium.
||
Figure of the angel. || Figure of B.V.M.
||
[Picture of Dives Avarus.] || [Picture of Pauper Superbus.]
------------------------------------
Radix Viciorum Superbia.
--------------------------------
ARBOR VICIORVM.
The pictorial representation of type and antitype seems to have had an
interest for them. So early as the seventh century, Benedict Biscop
brought pictures from Gaul and Italy to adorn his monasteries on the Tyne,
and among them were one pair of Isaac bearing the wood for the sacrifice,
and our Lord carrying His cross; another pair the brazen serpent and our
Lord upon the cross. In the King’s MS. 5 are a series of pictures arranged
in three columns; in the middle a subject from the history of our Lord,
and on each side two Old Testament types. The “Biblia Pauperum” of the
fifteenth and sixteenth centuries consisted of a similar arrangement of
gospel histories, with Old Testament types.