New History of The Sermon 004 - Preaching, Sermon and Cultural Change in The Long Eighteenth Century PDF

Preaching, Sermon and Cultural Change
in the Long Eighteenth Century

Preaching, Sermon and Cultural
Change in the Long
Eighteenth Century
Edited by
Joris van Eijnatten
LEIDEN • BOSTON
2009
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
On the cover: Preaching at the Herrnhutter community of Zeist in the Dutch Republic.
Engraving by Abraham Jacobsz Hulk, 1782. Museum Catharijneconvent, Utrecht, the
Netherlands (BMH g2797c). The print was originally included in William Hurd, Oude
en tegenwoordige staat en geschiedenis van alle godsdiensten van den schepping af tot op den
tegenwoordige tijd (7 vols.; Amsterdam 1781-1791).
A Herrnhutter (Moravian) community was established in Zeist in the Dutch Republic

around the middle of the eighteenth century. Committed to upholding the universal
priesthood of all believers, the Herrnhutters had no use for a pulpit. The preacher spoke
from behind a simple table in a sober, white-washed church, where women sat on one
side and the men on the other.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Preaching, sermon, and cultural change in the long eighteenth century / edited
by Joris van Eijnatten.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-90-04-17155-8 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Preaching--History--18th
century. I. Eijnatten, Joris van.
BV4207.P73 2008
251.009’033--dc22
2008036975
ISBN 978 90 04 17155 8
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface.................................................................................................. vii
List of Contributors ............................................................................. xv
I: Survey
Varieties of Sermon: A Survey of Preaching

in the Long Eighteenth Century.............................................................3
O.C. Edwards, Jr.
II: Foundation
The Theology of the Sermon in the Eighteenth Century.......................57

Alexander Bitzel
The Art of Preaching ............................................................................95
Françoise Deconinck-Brossard
III: Transformation
The Classical Sermon .........................................................................133

Thomas Worcester
Pietism and Revival ............................................................................173
Jonathan Strom
The Enlightenment Sermon: Towards Practical
Religion and a Sacred National Community ......................................219
Pasi Ihalainen
IV: Communication
On Sermons and Daily Life ................................................................263

Sabine Holtz
From Embodying the Rules to Embodying Belief:
On Eighteenth-Century Pulpit Delivery in England,
Germany and the Netherlands............................................................313
Herman Roodenburg
Getting the Message: Towards a Cultural
History of the Sermon ........................................................................343
Joris van Eijnatten
Index ..................................................................................................389
PREFACE
There has been considerable development in historical research into

sermons since the 1980s. The field has expanded to such an extent that
sermons have now been examined from almost every conceivable point of
view, including literary, Jewish, church, political, social, cultural, concep-
tual, and even economic history. Sermon research has touched on a wide
range of topics, from rhetoric, gender, eschatology, funeral rites and mysti-
cism to festivities, practical theology, theatre, propaganda, political culture,
domestic life and missions – to mention but a few. From a somewhat
narrow specialism within the domains of church history and literary
history, sermon research has become the subject of interdisciplinary
research. Sermons are now widely recognized as an indispensable historical
source, because of their importance as a means of communication, the
wealth of subjects they broach and the sheer quantities in which they
appeared in print. Much has been written on the historical sermon in gen-
eral and the eighteenth-century sermon in particular. The most important
recent literature has been integrated into this book, one aim of which is to
demonstrate the dynamic turn sermon research has taken internationally.
As the fourth volume in Brill’s series A New History of the Sermon, this
study examines the sermon during the ‘long’ eighteenth century – the era
between, say, Bossuet and Schleiermacher. It offers a broad outline of the
history of preaching in this period and an overview of the research that has
been done over the past three decades. The study takes a thematic approach,
rather like the volume on the medieval sermon edited by Carolyn Muessig.1
However, where Muessig’s Preacher, sermon and audience in the Middle Ages
was structured according to new areas of sermon research (with chapters
on preaching in relation to, amongst others, rhetoric, performance, art,
and audience), this study looks at different aspects of the sermon. The
thematic approach to some extent limits the degree of fragmentation
inherent in approaches that put more emphasis on chronological,
confessional or geographical divisions. Inevitably the reader will find,
1
Carolyn Muessig ed., Preacher, sermon and audience in the Middle Ages (A new history
of the sermon, 3) (Leiden Boston: Brill, 2002).
viii preface
as a consequence, that various historically important preachers (as, for

example, John Tillotson) or movements (such as Pietism) are discussed
from different points of view in various chapters. But the focus on several
broader themes will hopefully allow a general overview of the sermon’s
development between about 1670 and 1815.
The themes dealt with in this study have been grouped under three
headings. Firstly, attention is given to the sermon’s ‘Foundation’: the theol-
ogy of the eighteenth-century sermon and instructions given to preachers
by the writers of homiletic textbooks. Theoretical and prescriptive litera-
ture suggested the standards by which the ‘everyday’ practice of sermon-
giving ought to be judged. The way ideals were reflected in practice is
treated in the second section, on ‘Transformation’, which examines three
important currents in the long eighteenth century: (Neo-)Classicism,
Pietism, and the Enlightenment. Each of these contributed to the fact that
in the course of 150-odd years the sermon thoroughly changed. The
Classicist current, partly inspired by the rhetoric of antiquity, called for a
reconsideration of language and a reorientation on ethics; in doing so it set
a standard for eighteenth-century homiletics, thus becoming ‘classical’
itself. The Pietist (and revivalist) current attempted to refocus the sermon
on what most preachers would have recognised as its core business: the
effective, moral and spiritual regeneration of individual men and women.
The Enlightenment current took seriously the eighteenth-century revalua-
tion of “reason” and the “secular” – notoriously elusive concepts which are
probably best studied in and through concrete texts such as the sermon.
The third section of this volume, on ‘Communication’, addresses the ser-
mon as a means of disseminating and transmitting ideas and values.
It offers different perspectives on the methods and effects of preaching.
The section includes chapters on the way sermons reflected daily life, on
delivery as a means of reaching congregations, and on how and why
audiences responded to preaching.
In terms of chronology, this study follows on the volume edited by
Larissa Taylor although it does not exactly pick up where Preachers and
people left off.2 The seventeenth-century sermon still deserves to be dis-
cussed in a separate volume. Nevertheless, Preaching, sermon and cultural
change in the long eighteenth century does occasionally refer to the period
before the long eighteenth century, a time that witnessed the consolidation
2
Larissa Taylor ed., Preachers and people in the reformations and early modern period
(A new history of the sermon 2) (Boston; Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, 2001).
preface ix
of both the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation. The authors of

the present volume need to make clear how and why the sermon devel-
oped as it did, at a time when established orthodoxies were losing their
grip (or loosening their hold) on the Christian population of Europe.
Because of the thematic approach, this book is not organised along
geographical lines, unlike Taylor’s Preachers and people, which focused
explicitly on national contexts. Each of the nine chapters combines a clear
thematic focus with a broad geographical perspective. Although a certain
bias may be noticed towards Central and North-Western Europe, different
authors also treat the Nordic, Southern European and Northern American
contexts, either in the text itself or by referring to the pertinent literature
in the footnotes. In this way, much literature in languages other than
English (such as Swedish and Dutch) has been made accessible to a wider
audience.
The volume begins with a chapter on ‘Varieties of Sermon’ by O.C.
Edwards. His outline of different kinds of sermons in the period studied
also acts as a survey of the literature on the long eighteenth century, thus
providing a helpful introduction to the other chapters. Edwards’s ‘Varieties
of Sermon’ deals in part with styles of preaching. It emphasises the conti-
nuity of older styles while noting the changes that occurred. It is important
to remember that Baroque sermons, such as the Spanish ‘concetto’, the
German ‘emblematic’ and the Puritan ‘plain style’ sermons, were still regu-
larly held in the eighteenth century. They would not have been the brunt
of so much criticism if they had not been popular among large sections of
the church-going public. Edwards also reviews newer preaching styles,
such as the French Neo-Classicist style of Bossuet, the Anglican preaching
of Tillotson, the evangelistic sermons of the eighteenth-century ‘awaken-
ings’ as well as those of Lutheran Pietism. Much of the first chapter is, for
obvious reasons, concerned with the Sunday sermon. But it also pays due
attention to other varieties of preaching, such as sermons delivered on
saints’ days, funeral sermons in different national contexts, sermons for
civic occasions (including Calvinist ‘jeremiads’), and a host of minor types
of sermon. Taking into account the most important recent literature,
Edwards’s chapter provides us with a glimpse of the extraordinary diversity
of the world of the eighteenth-century sermon.
The first section, ‘Foundation’, opens with a seminal chapter by
Alexander Bitzel on the theology of the eighteenth-century sermon.
Concentrating on Germany, the chapter first discusses the theological basis
of the sermon as it had been re-established during the Reformation (Luther)
and Counter-Reformation (the Council of Trent). This allows Bitzel to put
x preface
into perspective the Pietist theology of Philipp Jakob Spener, August

Hermann Francke and Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf, as well as the
theology of later Lutheran Orthodoxy. The latter group includes such
important eighteenth-century thinkers as Siegmund Jacob Baumgarten
and Johann Lorenz von Mosheim. In this chapter’s careful analysis, other
theologies and theologians are discussed as well. Bitzel’s account culmi-
nates, on the Protestant side, in eighteenth-century ‘Neology’, the fasci-
nating mixture of traditional theology and new-fangled Enlightenment
that characterises much German thought of the time; in this chapter it is
illustrated by, among others, Friedrich Wilhelm Jerusalem. Bitzel con-
cludes this part of his chapter with a revaluation of post-Enlightened
theology, including the revival of traditional orthodoxy and the work of
Schleiermacher. In discussing Catholic theology, Bitzel shifts his focus
to French Neo-Classicism and the Catholic Enlightenment in Central
Europe. As Bitzel explains, little research has been done on the theology of
the sermon; his chapter, especially translated for this volume by courtesy
of the publisher, will hopefully encourage new research into this important
topic in other national contexts.
Françoise Deconinck-Brossard’s chapter on ‘The art of preaching’ is
no less foundational. Organised according to the five elements of classical
rhetoric – invention, arrangement, expression or style, memory, and pro-
nunciation – the chapter provides a detailed discussion of eighteenth-
century artes praedicandi in France and England. Deconinck-Brossard
explains which rules and techniques the textbooks expected preachers to
apply to their sermons. The prescriptive literature suggests, for example,
that subject matter could be derived from commonplace books (inventio).
Preachers were advised to choose appropriate passages from the Bible and
explain the context in which these occurred (dispositio). They were also
expected to follow rules and recommendations regarding style (elocutio),
memorisation (memoria) and delivery ( pronuntiatio: this latter aspect is
developed at greater length in Herman Roodenburg’s chapter on action in
the pulpit). Interestingly, where Bitzel ascertains that the Protestant and
Catholic theologies of the sermon were quite distinct, Deconinck-Brossard
concludes that French and English artes praedicandi did not differ very
much. In this respect, at least, geographical and confessional divides were,
apparently, irrelevant. Bitzel’s chapter on theology and Deconinck-Brossard’s
on the art of preaching demonstrate in different ways the relevance of this
volume’s thematic and comparative approach.
The next three chapters, which together constitute the section on
‘Transformation’, deal with several important general developments that
preface xi
took place during the long eighteenth century. The first chapter, by Thomas
Worcester, discusses the ‘Classical sermon’, a model of the sermon that
would be widely used – at least by the intellectual elite of the time – as a
standard by which to judge preaching in general. The Classical sermon
emphasised such things as ethics and language, arguably two aspects of
oral and written discourse that were central to eighteenth-century thought.
In order to make clear how the Classical (or Neo-Classical) sermon dif-
fered from the Baroque preaching of the early seventeenth century,
Worcester first examines the sermons of Jean-Pierre Camus. The latter
affords a fine illustration of a style of preaching that borders on the concetto
or metaphysical, as discussed by Edwards in the introductory chapter, but
without the extravagance to which that genre was prone. Worcester then
contrasts the sermons of Camus with close analyses of sermons by three
very influential preachers, Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet, Louis Bourdaloue,
and John Tillotson. He shows that ‘language in service of good morals’
was, indeed, characteristic of sermons and preaching in the long eighteenth
century.
‘Pietism and Revival’, the subject of Jonathan Strom’s chapter, repre-
sents a second key eighteenth-century transformation. Strom stresses two
things in particular: first, that sermons were central to the activities of
Pietists and Revivalists, and second, that they were above all concerned
with a preaching that was effective. At the same time, he urges us not to
underestimate the degree of continuity between Orthodoxy and Pietism,
and to heed the fact that Pietists launched a successful ‘media campaign’ in
both word and print. They first constructed the image of a supposedly
obsolete Orthodoxy that still influences present-day historiography. Several
well-known theologians reappear in this chapter, including Spener, Francke
and Zinzendorf. Strom, however, approaches them from a different angle
than either Edwards or Bitzel. Strom examines the place of the sermon in
the larger social and cultural context of late seventeenth-century Germany,
and the way traditional preaching was challenged by individuals and
groups who were interested most in the effects of preaching rather than the
mere fact that sermons were duly delivered. Apart from the mainstream
Pietists, Strom also examines radical Pietists like Gottfried Arnold. He
then moves on to discuss the revivalist movement in Britain and North
America, noting the differences and similarities with related currents in
Central Europe.
Pietists and Revivalists skilfully used new means of communication,
argues Strom, drawing attention to accounts about the success of their
own preaching. The same could probably be said for those preachers who
xii preface
reckoned themselves part of a ‘moderate’ Enlightenment. They are the sub-

ject of Pasi Ihalainen’s chapter on ‘The Enlightenment Sermon’. In a broad
overview that covers a variety of confessions, Ihalainen shows that religion
and Enlightenment are hardly antithetical. He makes his point in particu-
lar in a section on the political sermon – one of the many species of sermon
treated also in the introductory chapter to this volume. The political ser-
mon played a significant role, as Ihalainen says, in ‘registering, sanctifying,
reinforcing and sometimes producing changes in the contemporary world-
view’. In passing, Ihalainen offers a number of criteria that could be used
to gauge the degree of ‘enlightedness’, so to speak, of the theologically
more progressive, eighteenth-century sermon. In what is the most varied
chapter in this volume in terms of geographical scope, Ihalainen ranges
from Sweden to France and from Prussia to England to illustrate his point
that the Enlightenment sermon dynamically contributed to ‘more modern
conceptions of the national community’.
In her ‘On Sermons and Daily Life’, which opens the third section
(on ‘Communication’), Sabine Holtz makes an observation that is impor-
tant to the kind of thematic and comparative approach taken in this
volume. When comparing confessions, she observes, it is not so much the
differences between doctrines and church organization that ought to be
taken note of, but the relative value attached to them. Thus, Lutherans and
Calvinists set great store by preaching, but Holtz remarks that sermons
grew more important in the Catholic world as well. Holtz’s chapter exam-
ines the way daily life was reflected in sermons and how they referred to
daily life. Her main focus is on Central Europe. How did sermons func-
tion in the state churches of the long eighteenth century? Which views of
the social order, marriage, household, work, wealth, and of authority, were
transmitted through the sermon? What did sermons have to say on youth
and old age? Like the following chapters in this section on ‘Communication’,
this one too has a distinct slant towards socio-cultural history and the
methodologies of the social sciences. Holtz’s chapter, not published else-
where, was translated for this volume to allow an English-reading audience
to access her original approach to the sermon.
Herman Roodenburg’s ‘From Embodying the Rules to Embodying
Belief ’ looks at another aspect of communication: the delivery of sermons.
Roodenburg is not so much concerned with artes praedicandi in the
way Deconinck-Brossard deals with prescriptive literature. His aim is to
reconstruct the ‘repertoire’ of the preacher’s action in the pulpit. He argues
that attention to the manner of delivery grew steadily in importance
during the eighteenth century. He illustrates his case by examining the
preface xiii
reception of the work of Michel le Faucheur in England, Germany and the

Netherlands. In England, the elocutionary movement echoed but also
adapted Le Faucheur’s revaluation of action and delivery. Well-known
preachers and public speakers like James Fordyce, Thomas Sheridan and
Hugh Blair began to stress the affective power of oratory and the orator’s
personal sensibility. Interestingly, this led to a reassessment of Methodist
preaching, for which the production of heart-felt discourse had been a core
business. Such ideas also appeared among continental writers, including
Johann Ludwig Ewald in Germany and Johannes Clarisse in the
Netherlands. In order to communicate effectively, the preacher needed to
embody ‘belief in his voice, eyes, hands, arms and the whole body’.
In ‘Getting the Message’, Joris van Eijnatten shifts the perspective from
the preacher to the audience. The vast majority of the literature is either
concerned with sermon texts or the preachers who delivered them or had
them published. But how did the congregation or audience respond to the
sermon? One way of looking at audience response is a method in commu-
nication studies called the ‘uses and gratifications approach’. The intentions
of the message’s producer (the preacher) and the content of his message
(the sermon) are of secondary importance in this approach; central is the
way audiences receive the message. By studying so-called ego documents
such as diaries, travel accounts and letters, it is possible to examine responses
of members of the audience. Hearers actively selected those portions of the
message they considered relevant to their personal life, interpreting the
sermon in individual ways by using their own frame of reference rather
than the producer’s. Ranging through Italy, France, the Netherlands,
Britain and the American colonies, Van Eijnatten shows how motives for
attendance vary; they could be cognitive and affective, or they could follow
from a wish to develop or reaffirm personal and social identities. In this
sense, motives for audience attendance correspond with the threefold aim
of classical rhetoric: docere, to teach or persuade the intellect; delectare, to
delight the mind; and movere, to touch the emotions.
If this volume makes clear that the previous decades have begun to open
up the field of sermon research to other disciplines than church history or
the history of literature, it also demonstrates that there is still much work
to be done. Studies on the sermon in eighteenth-century literature, on the
sermon and oral culture, on sermons and missions, and on the preacher,
would greatly enrich the field; the same applies to sermons by women,
sermons by lay preachers, and non-Western sermons. The various chapters
published in this volume themselves contain numerous suggestions for
further research to be undertaken, both in fleshing out these and other
xiv preface
themes and in expanding comparative dimensions. Above all, this volume

makes a clear case in favour of a thematic and comparative angle in sermon
research, rather than the more traditional confessional and geographical
approach. I am greatly indebted to the authors who helped to write this
book. It is due to their hard work and devotion that this study is as rich
and diverse as it is. I hope it will inspire other researchers to further develop
research into sermons during the long eighteenth century.
Joris van Eijnatten.

LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS
Alexander Bitzel, Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter, Institut für Kirchen- und

Dogmengeschichte, Universität Hamburg, Germany.
Françoise Deconinck-Brossard, Head of the Department of Anglo-American
Studies, Professor of Eighteenth-Century English Studies, Université
Paris 10, France.
O.C. Edwards, Jr., former President and Dean and Professor Emeritus of
Preaching, Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, Evanston, Illinois,
and author of A History of Preaching (Nashville: Abingdon, 2004).
Joris van Eijnatten, Professor of Cultural History, VU University
Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Sabine Holtz, Professor at the Department of Philosophy and History,
University of Tübingen, and researcher at the Landesarchivdirektion
Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
Pasi Ihalainen, Acting Professor of General History, University of Jyväskylä,
Finland. He is the author of Protestant Nations Redefined: Changing
Perceptions of National Identity in the Rhetoric of the English, Dutch and
Swedish Public Churches, 1685–1772 (Leiden: Brill, 2005).
Herman Roodenburg holds a chair in Historical Anthropology at V U
University Amsterdam and is a researcher at the Amsterdam Meertens
Institute.
Jonathan Strom, Associate Professor of Church History and Acting
Associate Dean of Faculty and Academic Affairs, Chandler School of
Theology, Emory University.
Thomas Worcester is an Associate Professor of History at the College of the
Holy Cross, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA. He is the author of
Seventeenth-Century Cultural Discourse: France and the Preaching of Bishop
Camus (Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 1997), and the editor of The
Cambridge Companion to the Jesuits (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2008).
PART I
SURVEY
VARIETIES OF SERMON: A SURVEY OF PREACHING
IN THE LONG EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
O.C. Edwards, Jr.
Introduction
In view of the many different kinds of sermons preached in the ‘long

eighteenth century’, it may be more accurate to speak of them as varieties
than as genres. If ‘genre’ is construed in its most technical sense as Gattung,
it is doubtful that each of the different types of sermons preached during
the period can be described critically in a way that distinguishes it from all
the others. While some of the varieties have their form or dispositio as their
identifying element, for others it may be content, or the occasion on which
it was preached, or something else entirely. All of which is to say that there
was an abundant variety of sermons preached in the eighteenth century.
Perhaps the most basic distinction that must be made is that between
Sunday preaching and what was done the rest of the week. Each faith com-
munity had its own basic approaches to preaching at the Sunday assembly
for worship. For instance, many in the Calvinist tradition—both conti-
nental and English and American Puritan—preached exegetical homilies
on consecutive passages of a book of the Bible, and often did so several
times on a Sunday, turning to a different biblical book each time. Lutherans,
on the other hand, based their proclamation on one of the readings
appointed in the lectionary for that day (what they called the ‘pericopes’).
European Roman Catholics used a sermon form derived from the revival
of classical rhetoric in the Renaissance, as did also English Anglicans and
Protestant Dissenters, although for the Roman Catholics, the major ser-
mon of the day was often delivered at a separate service on Sunday after-
noon rather than at the morning Mass.
During the week there were other gatherings of the communities for the
ongoing round of worship. Those who followed the church year had major
feasts to celebrate that usually fell between Sundays, with Christmas, the
Epiphany, and the Ascension being the most important ones (Easter, of
course, falls on a Sunday). There were seasons during which preaching was
often done, notably Advent and Lent. And there were the heroes of the
faith, the saints, whose days were commemorated. For Roman Catholics
4 o.c. edwards, jr .
the greatest of these were those devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Calvinists had additional biblical homilies during the week, often under
the rubric of ‘lectures’. Following the first awakenings in England and
America, evangelistic sermons were preached day in and day out. Pietists
could call for renewal at weekday services. All traditions recognized the
need for regular catechesis of the faithful. Pastoral guidance was also given
at all rites of passage: baptisms, weddings, and funerals. The arrivals and
departures of clergy were major events in the lives of the communities that
were marked by special words from the pulpit.
There were also occasions in which the church consecrated the life of the
political community by appropriate prayers and preaching. Reformed
churches, for instance, would recognize the chastening hand of God in
disasters that overtook them and hold days of prayer and fasting to call for
repentance. Then, when the danger passed, there would be days of thanks-
giving. Other civic events, such as elections, were also occasions of solemn
supplication and proclamation for the Puritans in New England. Various
occasions called for state sermons in European churches, and special tradi-
tions were developed for preaching at the courts of monarchs.
Finally, to do justice to the many varieties of preaching in the long
eighteenth century, we must recognize particular ways of developing a ser-
mon popular at the time. Clergy of each faith tradition had their own ways
of preaching, and the ways of a given tradition were not always the same
from one geographical area to another. From the point of view of style,
varieties of sermon include European concetto, Spanish gerundianismo, and
Catholic and Lutheran emblematic sermons. There is no way to treat such
variety adequately in this chapter. That is partly because doing so would
take so much space, but also because there is much more scholarly litera-
ture on some of these types of preaching than on others. What follows,
then, is like many early maps: it gives the overall shape with more or less
accuracy and is much more detailed in some areas than others. For all the
many changes that occurred during the eighteenth century, most varieties
of sermons had deep roots in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Consequently, this account to some extent considers scholarly literature on
the earlier period.1
1
The volume previous to this one, Larissa Taylor ed., Preachers and people in the reforma-
tions and early modern period (Boston, Leiden, 2003), largely treated the sixteenth century,
so that there is something of a gap between both volumes. A brief overview of the ‘long
eighteenth century’ may be found in Joris van Eijnatten, ‘Reaching Audiences. Sermons
and Oratory in Europe, 1660–1800’, in: Stewart J. Brown and Timothy Tackett eds., The
Cambridge History of Christianity. Vol. VII: Enlightenment, Revolution, and Reawakening
(1660–1815) (Cambridge, 2006), pp. 128–146.
varieties of sermon: a survey 5
Sunday and Weekday Sermons
Roman Catholic Preaching

To begin to get a grasp on the luxuriant variety of the Sunday sermon,
it will help to make a basic distinction, that between Catholic and Protes-
tant preaching. It must be admitted here, though, that this distinction is
not absolute, since each tradition influenced the other – sometimes in
great detail. The study of Catholic preaching in the eighteenth century
must begin with looking at that of the seventeenth, since many of its
elements continued into the later period or influenced new directions. The
preaching style of that period, along with the style of the other arts,
was called Baroque by disdainful critics of a later generation. Speaking
of ‘nineteenth century Protestant scholars unsympathetic to the florid-
ity and extravagance’ of Spanish religious Baroque, Hilary Dansey Smith
wrote:
It would appear that, whereas it is quite legitimate for a poet, dramatist, or
novelist to aim at admiratio through the cunning development of tropes and
fine-sounding phrases, the preacher must always be a severe and plain speaker
whose message is simple and unchanging.
The term ‘Baroque’ is derived from a Portuguese noun meaning a pearl of
an irregular shape, indicating a classicism that had gone awry. That style in
all the arts owed much of its popularity to the Roman Catholic Church,
which, in the spirit of the Council of Trent, wanted art that would engage
the masses at a direct and emotional level. Thus it focused more on touch-
ing feelings than it did on communicating thought and information. In
doing so, it disturbed the regularities of the classicism of the Renaissance,
and thus was considered vulgar by some aesthetes.2
One of the best approaches to Baroque preaching is to look at the vari-
ety of its dispositiones. Smith compiled a list of the rhetorical structures
used in Spanish sermons from this period that will serve for most Catholic
preaching at the time. First he considers a sermón de un (solo) tema, which
can best be described as the thematic sermon of the High Middle Ages
adapted to the structure of a classical oration, with its four parts of propo-
sitio, narratio, confirmatio, and peroratio. In the first two of these, the text
(Latin: thema, Spanish: tema) is announced, divine aid is implored, a pro-
thema may be developed to give latecomers time to arrive, and the division
2
This issue is addressed by Hilary Dansey Smith, Preaching in the Spanish Golden Age:
A Study of Some Preachers of the Reign of Philip III (Oxford, 1978), pp. 1–2.
of the sermon into the points to be made is announced. The confirmation

then is the body of the sermon in which the points are made. These points
are recapitulated in the peroration along with a final exhortation to the
congregation.3
The second sermon structure used was that of the homilía, the form
coming down from patristic times in which the preacher gives a verse-by-
verse interpretation and application of a passage of scripture. That is fol-
lowed by the paradoxon, ‘a sermon which weaves together, or contrasts
with one another, a Gospel text and an Autoridad (which may be from the
Epistle of the Day, or from the Breviary)’.4 An example of this form uses
Matt. 6:16 as its theme and Gen. 3:19 and Joel 2:12–13 as prothemes; the
three are taken as a continuous passage that treats of the human condition
and its remedy. In the exordium the Genesis passage is identified as natural
law, representing the Father; that from Joel as written law, representing the
Son; and that from Matthew as the law of grace, representing the Holy
Spirit. The three passages of scripture are treated in the scholastic manner
by which propositions are derived from each and then confirmed by the
citation of authorities (auctoritates). The last structure is the panegyrico, a
form equally useful for preaching on saints’ days and at important funer-
als. In some ways, though, this is not a different form, because it can use
the outline of either a sermón de un tema or a paradoxon, but not, however,
that of a homilía.
Smith discusses three types of sermon illustration used in Spanish ser-
mons of the period: exemplum, comparación, and concepto predicable.5
Exempla are a device from medieval thematic sermons, and comparisons
will be discussed elsewhere below. Here it will be enough to look at the
concepto predicable and another device Smith examines later, the emblem,
to get an idea of what made Baroque preaching unique. Both conceits6 and
emblems are also used in the creative literature of the period and in the
preaching of Spain, Italy, France, and England.7 There are also Lutheran
emblematic sermons.
3
Smith, Preaching in the Spanish Golden Age, pp. 46–52.
4
Smith, Preaching in the Spanish Golden Age, pp. 53–54.
5
Smith, Preaching in the Spanish Golden Age, p. 69.
6
The English equivalent of concepto. The Italian word is concetto.
7
In addition to their treatments in Smith, Preaching in the Spanish Golden Age, conceits
and emblems are discussed widely. See especially Albrecht Beutel, “Katholische Predigt
der Neuzeit,” in Theologische Realenzyklopädie, vol. XXVII (Berlin, New York, 1977),
pp. 270–272, and Peter Bayley, French Pulpit Oratory 1598–1650: A Study in Themes and
Styles with a Descriptive Catalog of Printed Texts (Cambridge, 1980), passim.
Preaching of this sort is also called ‘witty’ and ‘metaphysical’ in English.

It is witty not in the sense that it is either lively minded or humorous, but
because it displays a ‘felicitous perception or expression of associations
between ideas or words not usually connected, such as produce an amus-
ing surprise,’8 although with the sermons devout delight is more the aim
than amusing surprise. The description of this preaching as metaphysical
derives from Samuel Johnson’s application of this adjective to much of the
poetry of the period; the poetry reflects the same taste, and, indeed, some
of the preachers, such as John Donne, were also poets.
Conceits are comparisons in which like is compared to unlike – and
even the unlikely. It is the surprise of discovering likeness where it was
assumed that none exists that keeps the hearer alert and open to spiritual
truths that had come to seem dull from their very familiarity. The audi-
ences for such sermons could be assumed to be well instructed in the faith,
so the strategy of such a device is to renew interest in what had become
ordinary. As Smith says, ‘A comparación becomes a concepto when a good
deal remains ‘between the lines’ and the reader, or hearer, is challenged to
pick up a perceptual clue by himself, with a sense of discovery’.9
This is the sort of thing that is better illustrated than described. In his
French Pulpit Oratory 1598–1650, Bayley gives an excellent example in a
sermon by Etienne Molinier (died 1650) preached at the consecration of a
painting of the Pietà. He begins by citing Pliny’s description of the trium-
phal procession given Pompey for his victories in Asia in which it is said
that there was carried before his chariot an image of him that was deco-
rated with pearls. The preacher claims that the painting is an image of the
Blessed Virgin Mary, because she too was covered with the pearls that were
her tears. Bayley explains:
Beneath the mention of the pearl there lie not only reminiscences of the
‘pearl of great price’ (Matthew xiii, 45) but theories about the way pearls are
formed in oysters by dew, and about the pearl/tear ambiguity in the interpre-
tation of dreams.10
While in many of these sermons such things would be explained, here
their familiarity is taken for granted. Instead, the preacher goes on to pile
detail upon detail, allusion upon allusion:
8
Webster’s New International Dictionary (Unabridged), 2nd ed., s.v. ‘wit,’ definition 9.
9
10
Bayley, French Pulpit Oratory, p. 96.
Larmes qui furent autant de perles que les Anges remasserent, & que nous
deuons recueillir pour en fair vn carquant à nostre col, vne plaque à nostre
poitrine, vne couronne à nostre deuotion. Les perles s’engendrent de la rosée
du Ciel, la Vierge est vn ciel animé, et les larmes vne diuine rosée, d’ou nais-
sent en nos coeurs les perles de mille sainctes pensées.11
The other rhetorical device of the Baroque period to which attention needs
to be called is the emblem. During this time it became popular to publish
books on each of the pages of which were three things: a motto, a symbolic
picture, and a set of verses called an epigram that explained the emblem.
An example of the way one of these worked is a ‘picture of a beehive in a
helmet, together with the motto Ex bello pax and the explanatory epigram,
[which] means that the weapons of war may be turned into the weapons
of peace’.12 Apparently the emblems were not always used effectively in
preaching. Smith says that the emblems are supposed to be very subtle: ‘the
true emblem is essentially enigmatic and composed of a set of secret rela-
tions which at first puzzle the beholder’.13 Yet, he says, preachers were often
so eager to extract all the teaching they could from an emblem that they,
in effect, beat it to death, depriving it of all its subtlety.
Bayley shows how the way such elements were used changed over the
half century he discusses. At first there were some preachers whose prose
was very poetic at a time when there were others who cultivated a plain
style. This was followed by a time when preachers were devoted to the use
of reference books that collected anecdotes, illustrations, and analogies.
‘Very often a sermon is built up by the indiscriminate heaping together of
undigested material culled from these reference works and the preacher’s
own commonplace-book’; the products of this process he labels ‘thesaurus
sermons’.14 The next style, associated with Jean-Pierre Camus (1584–
1652), he calls ‘catenary prose’ because it involves what Jean Descrains
called an enchaînement des images, ‘the nonchalant linking together of
strings of analogies, allusions, anecdotes, scriptural figures and quota-
tions’.15 This style was designed to replace the verbosity of the thesaurus
sermons with an aesthetic brevity.
11
Quoted in Bayley, French Pulpit Oratory, p. 95.
12
The Oxford Companion to English Literature, 5th ed., Margaret Drabble ed. (Oxford,
1985), s.v. ‘emblem book,’ p. 315.
13
14
15
Bayley, French Pulpit Oratory, p. 85. On Camus, see Jean Descrains ed., Jean Pierre
Camus, Homélies des états généraux (1614–1615) (Geneva, 1970); Thomas Worcester,
Seventeenth-Century Cultural Discourse: France and the Preaching of Bishop Camus (Berlin
[etc.], 1997).
In reaction to Camus’ proposals, Molinier, whose sermon is quoted

above, insisted that rhetoric was needed to instruct and persuade, and so
he embedded his devices in passages of consecutive writing. Thus his alter-
native was the sort of conceptist style witnessed above in the extract from
his sermon. Bayley calls the final movement he discusses ‘orchestrated’
prose; it recognizes that preaching is motivated behavior and that to achieve
its ends it must employ all available tools in a coordinated manner. ‘The
particular quality of this sort of prose,’ according to Bayley, who says that
it developed among French Protestants before it spread to Catholics, ‘is
often due to a combination of delicate but firm allusion and the use of
classical rhetorical figures’.16
It was inevitable that eventually so intense a preaching style as the
Baroque would go to seed, which brings us to the eighteenth century. In
preaching, as in many other activities, a movement will begin with fresh
inspiration and appear to carry all before it, only to be followed by a time
when imitators try to repeat the movement’s success by copying its tech-
niques rather than being motivated by its ideals. And at its best Baroque
preaching was susceptible to parody. The parody finally came in a pica-
resque novel by José Francisco de Isla (1706–1781), a Spanish Jesuit.
The Historia del Famoso Predicador Fray Gerundio de Companazas, which
first appeared in 1758, tells of the career of what Isla calls ‘a preaching
Don Quixote’, a mendicant friar who practiced the reigning style of
preaching.17 As a result, such homiletical histrionics came to be called
Gerundianismo. Isla himself was highly regarded as a preacher; seven vol-
umes of his sermons were published, and Queen Maria Barbara sought
him as her confessor. Equally at home in the cloister and the court, he
personified the sophistication for which Jesuits are famous. Thus he could
be the popular author of a number of satires and a respected preacher,
theologian, and biblical scholar at the same time. The friars parodied by
Isla were so well established that his satire of them was probably one of the
reasons the Jesuits were expelled from Spain; it certainly was the major
reason for his exile.
Isla’s critique of the excesses of Baroque preaching, however, did not
extend as far as that of Spanish Jansenists of the late eighteenth century
because he and his fellow members of the Society of Jesus were so much a
16
17
For a recent appraisal of the book, see Rebecca Haidt, Seduction and Sacrilege.
Rhetorical Power in Fray Gerundio de Campazas (Lewisburg, 2002).
part of the system whose excesses he parodies. While these Jansenists were
related to the seventeenth-century movement from which they draw their
name, they were more pastoral and practical than their French predeces-
sors, and more concerned with pedagogy. They disagreed with the Jesuits
over the relative authority of the pope and bishops, and in the controversy
revived many of the issues brought up during the Reformation.18
Not surprisingly, Spanish Jansenists had very different ideas about
preaching. They asked if it were to be based on a free interpretation of
scripture or it had to conform to the theological system of Thomas Aquinas.
What was the relative importance of sacraments and preaching? If, in the
Tridentine theory, the only purpose of preaching was to teach correct doc-
trine, the role of rhetoric was to pave the way for the grace that enabled
hearers to accept the teaching and act on the basis of it. Thus scholastic
theology was linked to the rhetoric of Aristotle. Against this, the Jansenists
believed that eloquence was the ransom for sin, necessitated by the weak-
ness of human nature. Indeed, preaching was not so much speaking about
God as it was God speaking through the preacher.
This conflict about the nature and purpose of preaching has been stud-
ied by Joél Saugnieux in Les jansénistes et la renouveau de la prédication dans
l’Espagne de la seconde moitié du XVIIIe siècle. Saugnieux was less interested
in a literary analysis of the contrasting types of sermons favored by the
Jesuits and Jansenists than in a theological and historical perspective on
their controversy, so he says little about the kind of preaching either group
would have offered as an alternative to Gerundianismo.19 He concludes
that, while the Jansenists wished to go further in the way of reform, their
own involvement in the higher echelons of Spanish society kept them
from going as far as Erasmus had recommended. The whole problem, as
Saugnieux sees it, went back to the Counter Reformation, which was afraid
to reconsider the content of preaching, so Catholic preachers could only
reform it by polishing up their style. It was this that led to the extremes
seen in the Gerundios.20
Although these trends continued to influence Catholic preaching in one
country or another throughout the eighteenth century, an alternative form
of proclamation had already become well developed in France before the
18
For an overview and bibliography, see William Doyle, Jansenism. Catholic Resistance to
Authority from the Reformation to the French Revolution (s.l., 2000).
19
Joél Saugnieux, Les jansénistes et la renouveau de la prédication dans l’Espagne de la
seconde moitié du XVIIIe siècle (Lyon, 1976), pp. 1–6.
20
Joél Saugnieux, Les jansénistes et la renouveau de la prédication, pp. 335–343.
seventeenth century was over. It returned to the fonts of classical rhetoric,

but remembered that it was speech in service of the gospel, so that it rec-
ognized that it was to be the voice of Jesus in the world and thus should
speak as he did, simply and naturally. This French school is perhaps best
represented in Jacques Bénigne Bossuet (1627–1704), Bishop of Meaux.
Bossuet certainly loved Cicero, Tacitus, Lucretius, and Sallust, but even
more he loved Augustine, John Chrysostom, and Tertullian. Unlike the
first two of these, however, he did not preach exegetical homilies. For his
ordinary sermons he came closer to what modern Americans call a topical
sermon, but was in fact also following much of the pattern of the sermon
on one thema as it evolved from the preaching of the friars in the high
Middle Ages.21
In the first part he would state his text and then move on to announce
the subject he would treat under that banner. This first part of his exor-
dium would culminate in a request for divine assistance to himself and his
hearers, generally in the form of a ‘Hail Mary’. The second part of the
exordium was the partition or division of classical oratory in which he
announced the points that he was going to make. This development nor-
mally consisted of two or three points, each of which was often subdivided.
From this he would move on to the practical implications for the lives of
Christians of the thesis he had advanced, often contrasting what those
would be for faithful believers to what they would be for others. The con-
clusion was generally a short exhortation to those who heard him to live in
accordance with the truth proclaimed.22
Anglican and Other English Preaching

While it might seem more natural to turn next to either Lutheran or
Reformed preaching, the developments in England were similar to those
among Roman Catholics, and two of the most important influences on
the preaching of continental Protestants during the Enlightenment were
Bossuet and Tillotson. There was a good bit of similarity between the
preaching of the two, so it makes sense to look at the English development
next. As noted above, the sermons of English metaphysical preachers such
21
For later developments in France, see John McManners, “Sermons”, in: Church and
Society in Eighteenth-Century France Volume 2: The Religion of the People and the Politics of
Religion (Oxford, 1999) pp. 58–78.
22
Philippe Selier ed., Bossuet: Sermons, Nouveaux Classiques Larousse (Paris, 1975),
p. 10.
as Lancelot Andrewes and John Donne were much like those of the Roman
Catholic Baroque period. In England, however, there is a distinct time gap
between Baroque and Enlightenment or Latitudinarian preaching, as it is
called there: the period of the Commonwealth (1642–60).
A number of influences have been used to account for this change in
preaching style, including the influence of French Neoclassicism, but,
while there were cross-fertilizations, there were also significant differences
in the temperaments of the two countries that would render a simple
importation impossible.23 The founding of the Royal Society is another
influence posited, and a number of the people were involved both in
founding the society and in preaching, but the two movements were prob-
ably products of the same social forces. The change seems to be, more than
anything else, one of those instances when the world went to bed with one
taste and awoke with another.
The great exemplar of the new taste was John Tillotson, who became
Archbishop of Canterbury after the ‘Glorious Revolution’ when William
and Mary replaced James II on the throne in 1689. His ideal was to preach
in the ordinary speech of ‘gentlemen’ at the time, and he wished to avoid
anything either dramatic or poetic, hoping to convince by nothing other
than the reasonableness of his thought. Yet he was more concerned that his
thought be clear than that it be profound. The structure of his sermons has
been described by James Downey:
He usually begins a discourse with a short proem which seeks to introduce
his subject, impress its high seriousness upon his hearers, and prejudice them
in his favour. As though outlining a problem in logic, he makes every sen-
tence count; there are no embellishments and no redundant phrases. In turn
he considers the several divisions into which his subject logically falls. There
is no peroration; no impassioned pleading with sinners; no final ‘call.’ When
the argument is concluded, the counsel for the Prosecution rests his case.24
It can be seen that the structure of one of his sermons was very similar to
that of one of Bossuet’s, the main difference being between Bossuet’s
23
For parallel develoments elsewhere, cf. P.J. Schuffel, ‘From minister to sacred orator:
Homiletics and rhetoric in the seventeenth and early eighteenth century Dutch Republic’,
in: Arie-Jan Gelderblom et al eds., The Low Countries as a crossroads of religious beliefs
(Leiden, 2004), pp. 221–245.
24
James Downey, The Eighteenth Century Pulpit: A Study of the Sermons of Butler,
Berkeley, Secker, Sterne, Whitfield, and Wesley (Oxford, 1969). For the whole period, see
O.C. Edwards, A History of Preaching (Nashville: Abingdon, 2004), pp. 391–425. For the
theology of the period, see Rolf Lessenich, Elements of Pulpit Oratory in Eighteenth-
Century England (1660–1800) (Cologne and Vienna, 1972).
restrained Gallic passion and Tillotson’s phlegmatic British rationality.

While it is hard for most people today to think his sermons could have
been anything other than dull, the fact remains that at the time they sold
far more copies than classics of English literature from the period that are
read today with great veneration and enjoyment. Indeed, many of their
authors imitated Tillotson’s prose style.
The preaching style that competed with the metaphysical school (com-
posed largely of what later came to be called Anglo-Catholics) and that
dominated the Commonwealth period was the Puritan plain style – a
variety of sermon that was still read (and preached) until well into the
eighteenth century. Before the Restoration of the monarchy the Puritans
were members of the Church of England who were devoted enough to the
theology of Calvin to wish to reshape the established church in the pattern
of Geneva.25 An aspect of that was their ideal of preaching exegetical homi-
lies on successive passages from a biblical book. They thought the English
way of doing that was to follow the model set forth by one of their divines,
William Perkins (1558–1602), in The Arte of Prophesying :
1. To read the Text distinctly out of the canonicall scripture.
2. To give the sense and understanding of it being read by the scripture
itself.
3. To collect a few and profitable points of doctrine out of the naturall
sense.
4. To applie (if he have the gift) the doctrine rightly collected to the manners
of men in a simple and plain speech.26
This formula, commonly referred to as ‘Understanding, Doctrines, and
Uses’, has been admirably summarized by Perry Miller:
The Puritan sermon quotes the text and ‘opens’ it as briefly as possible,
expounding circumstances and contexts, explaining its grammatical mean-
ings, reducing its tropes and schemata to prose, and setting forth its logical
implications; the sermon then proclaims in a flat, indicative sentence the
‘doctrine’ contained in the text or logically deduced from it, and proceeds to
the first proof. Reason follows reason, with no other transition than a period
25
After the Restoration, they became Dissenters in England, forming the Presbyterian,
Congregationalist, and Independent Churches. Those who emigrated to America remained
Puritans, later forming the Congregational Church, and began to lose some of their distinc-
tive beliefs around the time of the Revolution.
26
Ian Breward ed., The Works of William Perkins, Courtenay Library of Reformation
Classics (Appleford, Abingdon [Berkshire], 1970) III, p. 349. The form of seventeenth-
century spelling followed is that of Teresa Toulouse, The Arte of Prophesying: New England
Sermons and the Shaping of Belief (Athens, 1987), p. 20.
and a number; after the last proof is stated there follow the uses or applica-
tions, also in numbered sequence, and the sermon ends when there is noth-
ing more to be said.27
Another variety of sermon developed in England is the evangelistic ser-
mon that achieved such prominence during the Methodist revival of the
Evangelical Awakening, beginning in 1739.28 This grew out of the ‘reli-
gions of the heart’ movement beginning in the seventeenth century that
appears to have been a pan-European, ecumenical, and even interfaith
recovery of the affective aspect of the religious dynamic.29 Many of the
conventions of the later revivalist movement appeared in the meetings
Scottish and Irish Calvinists had to prepare for receiving Holy Communion
as early as the reign of Charles I. These were developed through the Welsh
revivals in the early eighteenth century and picked up by John Wesley
(1703–1791) and George Whitefield (1714–1770) who took the move-
ment into England with startling effects.
While Wesley, imitating the Church of England’s Book of Homilies, used
published sermons as the chief medium for teaching the theological system
of the movement he founded, these sermons do not necessarily give a clear
picture of what his live preaching was like, since most of them were written
for publication rather than for oral delivery. The surprising aspect of the
published sermons is that they follow in the tradition and form of the
sermons of Tillotson in that they are closely reasoned theological argu-
ments. One does not gain from reading them a sense of how such sermons
could have moved so many people to conversion. Yet Wesley’s diaries
record how emotionally aroused both he and his hearers were when he
preached. That there was some such additional element is suggested by an
unsympathetic eyewitness, the litterateur Horace Walpole. In a letter he
writes:
Wondrous clean, but as evidently an actor as Garrick. He spoke his sermon,
but so fast and with so little accent, that I am sure he has often uttered it, for
it was like a lesson. There were parts and eloquence in it; but toward the end
he exalted his voice, and acted very vulgar enthusiasm; decried learning, and
told stories.30
27
Perry Miller, The New England Mind: The Seventeenth Century (Cambridge, 1939),
pp. 332–333.
28
Edwards, A History of Preaching, 426–450.
29
Ted A. Campbell, The Religion of the Heart: A Study of European Religious Life in the
Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (Columbia, 1991).
30
W.S. Lewis et al, eds., Horace Walpole’s Correspondence with John Chute et al., The Yale
Edition of Horace Walpole’s Correspondence (New Haven, 1973) XXXV, pp. 118–119.
Certainly there must have been some emotional power to his preaching,
since when he died after fifty-two years of such preaching there were
70,000 members of his movement and he had constantly purged the rolls
to eliminate dead wood.
It is hard to imagine someone more different from Wesley than his
on-and-off colleague George Whitefield. Again, his sermons followed the
Neoclassical outline associated with Tillotson, but what filled in the outline
could not have been more different. His content was not the tight argu-
ments of Wesley, but was calculated in every respect to communicate with
people at the level of their most powerful emotions. He had extraordinary
gifts: his voice could be heard by larger audiences than any addressed before
modern means of amplification, it was capable of a range of emotional
expression that was the envy of actors, he also could use his face and body
to communicate these feelings, and he had great skill as a raconteur in
bringing to life biblical scenes and other illustrative material. Horton Davies
has made a long list of the techniques of popular speakers he employed.31
Enumerating these traits, however, is not so much to explain his ability as
to demonstrate that he had a genius for moving public address.
This description of evangelistic preaching shows that its essence was not
in its form but in its content, not in its style but in its purpose. Perhaps its
only formal difference from that of a sermon by Tillotson would be its
ending with an invitation for those present to accept the gospel and be
saved.
Lutheran Preaching after Luther

It is one of the ironies of church history that Lutherans, who derived such
a high doctrine of preaching from their founder, did not seek to imitate his
own style of proclamation. Yet the reason they have not is obvious. Luther
had a contempt of method as such and thus had a style that was inimitable,
a style that has been called ‘heroic’. Yet his close associate Melanchthon
was involved in the renaissance revival of classical rhetoric and it was he
rather than the Reformer who was influential on later preaching.32 In one
31
Horton Davies, From Watts and Wesley to Maurice, 1690–1850, vol. 3 of Worship and
Theology in England (Princeton, 1961), pp. 162–223.
32
This treatment of Lutheran preaching is mainly based on Yngve Brilioth, A Brief
History of Preaching, trans. Karl E. Mattson, The Preacher’s Paperback Library (Philadelphia,
1965), pp. 118–141. Old gives summaries of a number of sermons from the period of
Lutheran Orthodoxy in Hughes Oliphant Old, The reading and preaching of the Scriptures
in the worship of the Christian Church. Vol. 4, The age of the Reformation (Grand Rapids
(MI), Cambridge, 2002), pp. 369–408.
matter, however, the teaching and example of Luther were followed: the
setting of the sermon in the liturgy of the church. This setting involved
following the liturgical calendar with its cycle of epistle and gospel read-
ings (the pericopes, as they were called). While exegetical homilies could
be preached on weekdays, sermons on one of the pericopes were called for
at the main service (Hochamt) on Sunday.
During the period of Lutheran Orthodoxy or Scholasticism, the basic
shape of the sermon followed the recommendations laid down by a Dutch
Reformed theologian who was active in Marburg, Andreas Gerhard of
Ypres (Hyperius, 1511–1564).33 According to his scheme, the parts of the
sermon were:
The reading of scripture
Invocation (invocatio)
Introduction (exordium)
Announcement of subject and division (propositio et divisio)
Treatment of the subject (confirmatio)
Argumentation (confutatio)
Conclusion (conclusio)
As Brilioth notes, ‘This basic scheme has very obvious points of contact
with the divisions which we met in the medieval artes’, and even more with
the sermon on one thema preached by contemporary Roman Catholics.
A major difference, though, is that, while the Catholic sermons were on
one verse, Lutherans typically exegeted the entire pericope. Hyperius also
derived from 2 Timothy 3:16–17 and Romans 15:4 his usus quintuplex of
Scripture. From this quintuple use (teaching, rebuttal, training, correc-
tion, and comfort) Lutherans developed their fivefold application: ‘if pos-
sible, every sermon ought to draw out of every text this whole series of
applications’.34
One way in which Lutherans elaborated the pattern of Hyperius was a
function of their devotion to the pericopes. Since they were going to be
exegeting the same passage on a given Sunday in the liturgical calendar
that they had all the previous years, there was a danger of repetitiveness.
The way they developed to avoid that was to introduce variety in the
exordium. The extremes to which this could be carried can be seen in the
Hodegeticum of John Benedict Carpzov the Younger in which the author
33
Andreas Hyperius, De formandis concionibus sacris: seu de interpretatione scriptu-
arum populari (Marburg, 1553). This work was translated into English shortly after its
publication.
34
Brilioth, Brief History of Preaching, p. 126.
presents a hundred different outlines for sermons on the same text, but the
variation comes in the exordium, which was often longer than the interpre-
tation of the pericope.
Another way in which Lutheran preaching of the period resembled
Roman Catholic Baroque preaching was in its use of emblems. Brilioth
illustrates the extremes to which this method of development could be
taken by referring to
a Saxon court preacher [who] is said to have preached through a whole year
on ‘God’s Tower,’ alluding to well-known buildings with towers in Dresden
and using three divisions: God’s Powder Tower, God’s Castle Tower, and
God’s Cross Tower.35
In a comparison between a Roman Catholic and a Lutheran funeral ser-
mon, both from the seventeenth century, Johann Anselm Steiger has
pointed to the difference in the way that the two traditions used emblems.
The Catholic preacher used the emblem of the sunflower as a symbol of
courage, consistent with his greater emphasis on the virtues of classical
antiquity than biblical ones, but the Lutheran staunchly saw it as a symbol
of fides, basing his interpretation on the recognition of Christ as the Sun of
Righteousness.36
The period in which Lutheran Orthodoxy began was during the Thirty
Years War between the some three hundred Catholic and Protestant petty
states of the Holy Roman Empire, most of which were German speaking.
While it started out as a religious tug-of-war, it ended with the Peace of
Westphalia in 1648 as a less disguised struggle for political power. Yet its
drawing of a religious line of demarcation prompted the hardening of the-
ological positions, which, on the Protestant side, resulted in the Lutheran
Scholasticism discussed above. Another movement that appeared at the
same time and that was in some ways a response to the same historical situ-
ation was the German manifestation of Pietism.37 The so-called Father of
this movement, Philipp Jakob Spener (1635–1705), diverged from the
theological position of Luther in his understanding of where the problem
lay. For the Reformer, the problem was in knowing that he had been justi-
fied. For Spener, living 150 years later, it had to do with the effects of
35
Brilioth, Brief History of Preaching, p. 130.
36
Johan Anselm Steiger, “Oratio funebris versus Homilia Consolatoria: Ein exemplar-
ischer Vergleich zwischen einer römisch-katholischen Trauerrede und einer lutherischen
Leichenpredigt”, in Birgit Boge and Rolf Georg Bogner eds., Oratio Funebris. Die katholische
Leichenpredigt der frühen Neuzeit, Zwölf Studien, Chloe: Beiheft zum Daphnis 30
(Amsterdam and Atlanta, 1999), p. 121.
37
Edwards, History of Preaching, pp. 840–846.
justification on the lives of the elect. If one had truly been reborn, should
not that be obvious in one’s life? Justification was obviously sola gratia and
not earned by good works, but, if it had truly occurred, would not it inevi-
tably result in good works as the obvious fruit of grace?
Spener’s preaching of his conviction had such widespread effects that it
led to his being called ‘the second Luther’. His ideal was that ‘sermons
should be so prepared by all that their purpose (faith and its fruits) may be
achieved by the hearers in the greatest possible degree’.38 Yet those who
would expect that his promotion of his views from the pulpit would be
either sentimental or emotionally manipulative are in for a surprise. He
had, after all, spent most of his life in the courts of the small principalities
of the empire and was eminently respectable. He also was learned; he had
earned his doctorate and expected an academic career. And he never
stressed a conversion experience, not having had one himself. Nor does a
description of the way he preached lead one to anticipate that his faith
would have the power to move mountains. To begin with, his sermons
were very long, up to four times the duration of the half-hour efforts of his
contemporaries. Another place he disagreed with Luther was about always
preaching from the pericopes. Doing that would cause one to overlook
many important passages, especially those from passages in the epistles
that deal with personal faith.
As Jonathan Strom points out in his chapter on pietism and revival,39
Spener also had great objections to the rhetorical ostentation of Scholastic
preaching (causing him at one point to evoke the antagonism of Johann
Benedikt Carpzov (1639–1699) at a time when he badly needed allies).
He said:
Many preachers are more concerned to have the introduction shape up well
and transitions to be effective, to have an outline that is artful and yet suffi-
ciently concealed, and to have all the parts handled precisely according to the
rules of oratory and suitably embellished, than they are concerned that
the materials be chosen and by God’s grace developed in such a way that the
hearers may profit from the sermon in life and death.40
To achieve this effect, Spener did not believe he had to change the form
of the sermon. All his preaching was expository rather than topical,
38
Peter C. Erb ed., Pietists: Selected Writings, Classics of Western Spirituality (New York,
1983), 47. This is the sixth point in Spener’s Pia Desideria. For the life of Spener see
K. James Stein, Philip Jakob Spener: Pietist Patriarch (Chicago, 1986).
39
Jonathan Strom, ‘Pietism and Revival’, infra.
40
Erb ed., Pietists, 47.
and involved a minute analysis of the text. He began by stating what

the passage was about and then took four steps in the body of the sermon:
(1) explaining the truth of the passage, (2) refuting misunderstandings of
it, (3) applying it to the lives of his hearers with suggestions for the improve-
ment of their lives, and (4) a concluding word of comfort. There was little
here of the ‘enthusiasm’ so feared by contemporary British sermon critics,
yet Spener’s ideas took hold and, as noted above, had tremendous
influence.
One of his disciples, but a very different sort of person, was August
Hermann Francke (1663–1727), who spent most of his ministry at the
University of Halle. There he showed an extraordinary ability to translate
ideals into programs by founding a wide variety of institutions. Unlike
Spener, Francke did undergo a conversion experience and he came to
expect it as normative for others. His thoughts on preaching were expressed
in a letter to a friend in which he undertook to tell him
how a faithful minister, who earnestly desires to save and to edify his hearers,
to gain sinners unto Christ, and to inflame their hearts with a growing love
to their Savior, may best adapt his preaching to these excellent purposes.41
His method involved informing his congregation of the difference between
the saved and unsaved and of the criteria by which they could tell the state
they were in. They also need to know what Christ can do for them and be
moved to accept that. Then too they need to be taught how to live in
accordance with their state. Prayer was an important component of the life
of the converted. Others were self-denial and avoiding worldliness. Good
Christian literature should be recommended. But Francke, unlike Spener,
did not think that a lot of time should be spent in explanation of a ser-
mon’s biblical text; people only need to know what the real meaning of the
passage is. But to preach effectively this way pastors must have a deep love
for Christ and the flock of Christ, a love expressed in deed as well as word.
If they have that, their sermons will grow out of their prayer life.
With Spener’s emphasis on conversion, Pietistic preaching took on the
form that has characterized most evangelistic preaching since. John Wesley’s
preaching was greatly influenced by that of German Pietism as that was
mediated to him through one of its leaders, Count Nikolaus Ludwig von
Zinzendorf (1700–1760). Another influence on Lutheran preaching in
Germany, parallel to Pietism, was the Enlightenment. Just before the last
41
August Hermann Francke, “A Letter to a Friend Concerning the Most Useful Way of
Preaching,” in Erb ed., Pietists, p. 117.
quarter of the eighteenth century the Enlightenment began to question

the authority and popularity of both Lutheran Orthodoxy and its preach-
ing method. The Enlightenment, which appeared in Germany in a pre-
dominantly moderate form, reshaped theological thought and, with it,
both the form and the content of sermons. The movement has been stud-
ied by Reinhard Krause in Die Predigt der späten deutschen Aufklärung
(1770–1805).42 It can be understood through the leading homiletical text-
book of the period, Über die Nutzbarkeit des Predigtamtes und deren
Beförderung by Johann Joachim Spalding.43 As Krause points out, this work
was intended for two audiences. First, it was aimed at the world at large
(and literate German society in particular) to convince this skeptical audi-
ence that even in those enlightened times the ministry of preaching still
had value. He saw two ways in which it did.
The first was to provide for the eternal welfare of those who heard it, ‘die
Zubereitung menschlicher Seelen zu einer ewigen Wohlfart’.44 This refer-
ence to eternal (ewigen) salvation shows the intention of the Lutheran
Enlightenment to be faithfully Christian. But what the group to which
Spalding belonged, the Neologe or neologists, regarded as Christian belief
was a far cry from the teachings of either the Reformers or the Pietists.
Instead of justification by faith, they saw the essence of the Christian life
to be in the ethical improvement of the individual and society by those
who hoped to achieve eternal bliss (Gottseligkeit). This was a Christianity
that had outgrown its religious quarrels, its intolerance, and its supersti-
tion. The second intention, then, was this encouragement of right behav-
ior, both in the personal lives of those who heard it and in their efforts for
the improvement of human society. The preacher was to lead hearers to the
way prescribed by Jesus the crucified Son of God, but the emphasis was on
that way, rather than on Jesus’ self-offering on the cross and its meaning
for human beings.45
The second purpose of the book was to be a how-to-do-it manual for
clergy aspiring to preach neological sermons. The main thing was to help
them see that they were not to argue abstract scholarly concepts from the
pulpit, but were to bring the truth as near as possible to the thought world
42
Reinhard Krause, Die Predigt der späten deutschen Aufklärung (1770–1805), Arbeiten
zur Theologie, 2nd series vol. 5 (Stuttgart, 1965).
43
Johann Joachim Spalding, Über die Nutzbarkeit des Predigtamtes und deren Beförderung,
3rd ed. (Berlin, 1791).
44
Spalding, Über die Nutzbarkeit des Predigtamtes, p. 102, quoted in Krause, Predigt der
späten deutschen Aufklärung, p. 21.
45
Krause, Die Predigt der späten deutschen Aufklärung, p. 25.
of their normal audience, causing them to have great and fruitful thoughts.
They needed to help people see how their Christianity was connected to
the duties of their calling and their various relations on earth. This is to say
that Spalding was less interested in worship, devotion, and piety than in
social outreach. As Pasi Ihalainen confirms in his contribution to the
present volume,46 Spalding was a German Enlightenment preacher for
whom the important matter was the implications of a practical piety for
domestic, community, and political life.47 Another way of saying all this is
that the preaching Spalding recommended had a good bit in common
with that of Tillotson, whose sermons had been translated into German
by Johann Lorenz von Mosheim (1693–1755) in 1728.48 Spalding’s under-
standing of preaching came under sharp attack two years after it was
published from no less a thinker than Johann Gottfried Herder (1744–
1803),49 but it was Spalding’s method that was followed for many years
afterwards.50
Reformed Preaching
For the moment it is enough to say that for the most part Reformed
preaching continued in the pattern of Calvin’s homilies in which he exe-
geted continuous passages from biblical books. Over the years the passages
interpreted got shorter and shorter, so that at times a good Reformed ser-
mon would have much in common with the Catholic sermon on one
thema. And eventually the Enlightenment began to affect even Calvinist
thought. This evolution will be examined below in the consideration of
Dutch funeral sermons. We should note at this point a characteristic of
Reformed preaching, at least in the northern Netherlands: sermons on the
Heidelberg Catechism. The ‘national’ Synod of Dort (1618–1619) had
determined that preachers should treat the whole Catechism every year, so
that on Sundays they normally held Bible sermons in the morning and
Catechism sermons in the afternoon. The Catechism itself was conven-
iently divided into 52 sections or ‘Sundays’, so that each week the minister
had a prescribed topic on which to preach.51
46
See Pasi Ihalainen, ‘The Enlightenment Sermon’, infra.
47
48
49
Johann Gottfried Herder, Fünfzehn Provinzialblättern an Prediger (Leipzig, 1774).
50
Krause, Die Predigt der späten deutschen Aufklärung, pp. 29–34.
51
W. Verboom, De catechese van de Reformatie en de Nadere Reformatie (Amsterdam,
1986).
Sermons for Saints’ Days

The first thing to be said is that much of the evolution of preaching on
Sundays described above applies to that which was done on week days as
well. Thus the distinctions to be made between Sunday and weekday
preaching will often be matters of purpose or occasion rather than of form.
An important variety of mid-week preaching for Roman Catholics was
that done on the days of the church calendar devoted to remembering
individuals who had been officially recognized by the church as saints. The
significance of this genre is indicated by the number of sermons for such
occasions that were published individually. The library of one monastery
just north of Vienna contains 1,321 of these.52 They are catalogued in a
volume edited by Werner Welzig that also lists the saints preached about;
the brotherhoods and student groups before whom some of the sermons
were preached; the preachers; their themae ; occasions on which they were
preached (e.g., jubilees of vows, first vows, and professions of religious,
and dedications); the churches in which they were delivered; places they
were printed and published; and printers and publishers. This is an invalu-
able resource for anyone who wishes to do research in the area.
Welzig has analyzed the way these sermons achieved their purpose in an
essay appended to the catalog about amplification in Baroque preaching
on the saints. For his analysis he looks at three sermons preached by the
famous Viennese court preacher, Abraham a Santa Clara (born as Johann
Ulrich Megerle, 1644–1709). One sermon dealt with Catherine of
Alexandria, whose cult was widespread, even if her historicity is not well
attested. Another paid tribute to St. Leopold and the third to ‘good King
Wenceslas’, as the English Christmas carol calls him. The sermon for
Leopold was preached on his feast day at the chapel of the royal palace in
Vienna in the presence of the reigning monarch, who shared the name
of the saint. That for Wenceslas was delivered before the association of
students from Bohemia at the University of Vienna in the church of
Abraham’s order, the Discalced Augustinians.
Naming
The three means the Baroque preachers used to ‘amplify’ or develop these
sermons to which Welzig calls attention are name giving (nominatio),
52
Walter Welzig et al eds., Lobrede: Katalog deutschsprachiger Heiligenpredigten in
Einzeldrucken aus den Beständen der Stiftsbibliothek Klosterneuburg, Sitzungsberichte
Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosphische-Historische Klasse 518
(Vienna, 1989).
comparison (comparatio), and distribution (distributio). Welzig calls the

treatment of names, nicknames, and titles one of our elemental experi-
ences and says that the most concise and impressive possibility of praise or
blame lies in naming.53 Baroque preachers made ample use of this topos,
following the New Testament example of Jesus, who said, ‘Tu es Petrus et
super hanc petrum …’ (Matt. 16:18). The introduction was the best place
to use this figure; indeed it was considered a fault in the saint’s day sermons
of the time if the use of the name in the beginning did not shape the body
of the sermon.
Two examples of the way naming works can be seen in Abraham’s ser-
mons on Wenceslas and Leopold, the first using the name in the thema and
the second in the exordium. The sermon for the feast of Wenceslas takes its
text from the Vulgate of Dan. 3:26 (in the Song of the Three Children),
‘Your name is glorious’. The etymological meaning of Wenceslas is ‘more
praise’, and in the liturgy at which the sermon was preached the dedication
(Widmung) of Wenzel Norbert Oktavian Khinsky, Count of Wchinitz und
Tettau (1642–1719) occurred. Thus it happened that in the saint
(Wenceslas) and in the dedicatee (Wenzel) God is praised. It is a matter of
common experience that some of the best and some of the worst people
receive the same name, a point that Abraham illustrated with examples
from Roman, German, and Slavic history. He then ended the introduction
with the question, ‘Was aber hat der hl. Wenceslaus, für einen name ver-
dienet?’54 He decides that the best nickname for Wenceslas is ‘Victoriosus’,
‘Sieghaffte’, ‘Triumphant’. This naming freed the expectation that the bib-
lical word and the historical series built up, and thus it functioned as a
hinge for the sermon. How could this young man slain by his brother be
triumphant? In this way Abraham set his congregation up for this appar-
ently inappropriate epithet.
In the sermon for St. Leopold’s Day, Abraham changed the name of a
place rather than a person, calling Klosterneuburg ‘Klosterheiligburg’, thus
invoking Bethel (Gen. 28:19, vere locus iste sanctus est) and the burning
bush (Ex. 3:5, locus […] in quo stas, terra sancta est).55 This allows Abraham
to place himself last in a series of imaginary speakers who praise Leopold,
culminating with the Blessed Virgin Mary. Thus the entire introduction is
an accumulation of name giving and interpretation. Abraham picks up on
Jesus’ words to Nathan, ‘Here is truly an Israelite’ ( John 1:47), saying that
53
Welzig, Lobrede, p. 761.
54
55
Leopold is a true Austrian ‘in whom there is no deceit’. This giving of a

name to Leopold is the sermon’s first and central act of praise: everything
that follows grows out of that. Having established him as a victor in the
introduction, Abraham devotes the body of his sermon to showing the four
things over which he triumphed: himself, the temptations of the world,
the powers of evil, and outside enemies (thus placing political enemies
in the climactic position). That Leopold is the true Austrian is shown by
his coat of arms, his name, and where he was.56 Thus Abraham in his ser-
mon on Leopold demonstrated the wisdom of the rhetoricians that the use
of naming is one of the primary tools in the chest of the speaker.
Comparison
‘They’ or ‘One’ (man) is the subject of the sentence with which Abraham a
Santa Clara begins his sermon on St. Catherine. ‘They’ talk, write, or shout
about women. Thus he takes as his thema Mark 4:39: Tace, ‘Peace! Be still!’
and connects that with Prov. 31:10: ‘A capable (Lat.: fortem, Ger.: starckes)57
wife who can find?’ The opinion that man has of women is that they are
frivolous and impudent. Abraham then sets against these prejudicial views
a list of women that includes the Blessed Virgin Mary, Hildegard of Bingen,
Teresa of Avila, and Catherine of Alexandria along with others of the same
type. This list earns a glance at the views that man and Solomon (in
Proverbs) have of women. The body of the sermon examines six such views
that need testing against this list of women saints, the assumptions that
women are: unsuitable for studying and teaching, vain, eager for admira-
tion, mad about men, inconstant, and prickly.
This sermon, then, is built on comparatio – in this case a contrast of a
like with an unlike. Two other forms of comparison were popular with
Baroque preachers: that with a similar figure and that with an example.
Comparing one figure with another like it occurs in Abraham’s sermon
about St. Wenceslas. In relation to the good king’s victory over self, the
preacher tells the story of Jesus’ cursing the fig tree (Feige) and, with a pun
possible only in German, says that God does not like cowardly (feige)
men58 and proves the point by the story of the way that Gideon purged the
cowards from his army before the battle with the Midianites, concluding
that the worst enemy anyone has is that in one’s own breast. This is
followed by another comparison of a like with a like figure. The strength
56
57
58
of Wenceslas is compared with that of Samson. Samson’s strength was

great, as could be seen in the way he killed a thousand Philistines with the
jawbone of an ass, caught 300 foxes with one hand,59 pulled a lion apart
with his bare hands, and tore the city gates of Gaza off their hinges and
carried them off on his shoulder. Then Abraham uses Delilah to prove that
Wenceslas was stronger even than Samson because he was victorious over
himself while Samson was not. In the last part of the first section of the
Wenceslas sermon, Abraham lists five comparisons of the saint with bibli-
cal figures: Wenceslas’s strength is like that of Balaam with the ass, Gideon
with the wheat in the winepress, David with the harp, Tobias with the fish,
and Peter in prison.
The third sort of comparison is with an example, as when Wenceslas is
compared with Samson in regard to strength or in the sermon about
Catherine, where Solomon’s proverbial remark is an example of prejudice
against women.60 The paradigmatic qualities of Samson and Solomon are
named and assessed. In the sermon about him, Leopold’s compassion is
compared to that of one who celebrated his jubilee under Leo X, the
famous Duke Amadeus of Savoy, and to that of the ancestor of the
Hapsburgs, Rudolf I. Abraham had Leopold make his own the words of
Rudolf in quoting Jesus, ‘let the poor come to me’, and having him say
that he was head of Austria for the benefit of the country’s feet, its poor,
thus adding an element of imitatio Christi. Amadeus was exemplary in the
way he responded to a guest who was an avid hunter and asked to be
shown the duke’s hounds. He showed him 200 poor people he fed every
day, saying that they were the dogs with which he daily hunted the king-
dom of heaven. This is followed by an exemplum about a Roman jeweler
who gave great banquets that were served on silver dishes. When a dish was
emptied, the jeweler would astonish his guests by throwing it through a
window by the table into the Tiber. He had a net stretched across the river
and, when it was pulled in, he not only recovered his dishes but also
harvested the fish attracted by the food left on them. Leopold similarly
astonished his guests by his alms to the poor for which God rewarded him
with a high rate of interest.61
In the sermon about Catherine, Abraham notes that, while 1 Tim. 2:12
says that no woman is to teach or have authority over a man, women have
actually studied and taught, with Catherine herself as an example, when
59
Along the way Abraham calls Delilah a Fuchs-Schweif f : Welzig, Lobrede, p. 778.
60
61
she had a dispute with the pagan philosophers; she brought them from
idols to the worship of God. He then compares her to the woman on the
tower of Thebez in Judg. 9:50–54 who killed Abimelech by throwing the
upper stone of a hand mill at him. The king asked his armor bearer to
dispatch him so that it could not be said that a woman had killed him. The
preacher’s comment was that, just as a woman had broken the brains62 of
Abimelech, so Catherine had broken those of the philosophers.
Distribution
Thus far we have not faced the question of how these saint’s day sermons
represent the holiness of the saint honored. To do so we must recognize
how the standards of Baroque rhetoric differ from those of today in every-
day speech and in scholarly writing, where the contemporary standard is
‘naturalness’. For Baroque attitudes one can look at Pius Manzador (1706–
1774), a preacher who has thirty-seven sermons included in the catalog of
Welzig’s volume. Born in Vienna, he became superior general of the Order
of Barnabites, was made a bishop, and then promoted to a larger see.63 In
the beginning of his book Unterschiedliche Ehrenreden (1765)64 he lamented
the low quality of preaching about saints at the time, saying that could be
remedied by using the two most effective means of amplification: descrip-
tion and distribution. His own interest was in the latter. He said there were
four forms of distribution: according to category (Gattung), according to
pieces or parts, according to persons, and according to human nature in its
different powers.65 He thought distribution worked, not by a flood of
words or of information, but – as in all effective amplification – by moving
the heart and winning its assent around inflaming love and zeal for the
beloved.
This can be seen in operation in Abraham’s Wenceslas sermon where
Samson was an example of strength but the king was even stronger because
he was victorious over himself.66 It is only in the very last sentences that
we finally find anything about the saint himself. This leaves the impression
that only a fraction of Wenceslas’s conquest has been mentioned. The
preacher claimed the saint had obeyed all the commandments in every
62
‘Das Hirn zerbrochen,’ translating the Vulgate’s fregit cerebrum: Welzig, Lobrede,
p. 788.
63
64
Pius Manzador, Unterschiedliche Ehrenreden (Vienna, 1765).
65
E.g., instead of saying ‘the soul,’ say ‘the understanding,’ ‘the memory’, or ‘the will’.
66
detail except the command to love one’s neighbor. But then he hastens to
explain that here ‘his neighbor’ means ‘his body’, which has been greatly
tormented by his asceticism: his fasts, his nightly prayers, his going to the
church barefooted through the snow, his wearing a hair shirt. Through this
demonstration that the strength of Wenceslas is greater than that of
Samson, Abraham invites each of his hearers to join the king in gaining
victory over self.
A final observation can be made of Abraham’s distributive use of human
nature. It can be seen in the middle section of his sermon on Leopold in
which three stories are used to show that the saint was pater pauperum.67
There he said that Leopold’s compassion had nine manifestations: the
saint’s eyes, ears, hands, arms, mouth, tongue, feet, shoulders, and heart.
He goes on to show how Leopold used each of those parts of his body in
the expression of his compassion. Welzig says that, while such descriptions
may offend modern ears, they were a standard part of Baroque rhetoric, as
when Goethe in describing Gretchen used the figure of enumeratio par-
tium. Manzador said distribution is an instrument of description and that
description is only successful through the means of distribution.68
Such distribution through the use of bodily parts leads to a considera-
tion of the ‘anatomy’ of anything, including virtue. It is description per
omnia corporis membris distributa. There are two senses in which Baroque
preaching can be called an ‘anatomy of virtue’. First, such preaching shows
both in general and distributed to the individual parts what the saint is and
is capable of. This makes ‘anatomy’ the oeconomia of the entire sermon.
But it is also an anatomy in the sense of representing virtue as a body,
bringing actual virtuous deeds near to the hearers. True, Baroque saint’s
day sermons were preached to praise the virtue of the saints, but the main
reason that was done was to move those who heard them to imitate the
saints in Godly living.
Funeral Sermons
Funeral sermons have a good bit in common with those for saints’ days
since they often praised the virtue of the deceased and some of them even
shared the rhetorical genre of panegyric with them. Our detailed knowl-
edge of them is limited to those for persons of social eminence because it
67
68
is based on published sermons and the expense of publication was restricted

to the prominent (and only the elite could afford to commission a sermon
in the first place). A good bit of scholarly attention has been paid to this
genre of occasional preaching, both Catholic and Protestant, which is for-
tunate because it allows comparisons to be made, and both what the two
traditions have in common and how they differ can be instructive.
Catholic
Bossuet is even better known for the orations he delivered at the funerals
of a number of the most elite people in France during his life than he is for
his Sunday preaching. For these his outline was still very much like that of
the sermon on one thema, with adaptation to the occasion. One of the
main structural differences is that in his funeral sermons Bossuet omitted
the recitation of the Ave Maria for divine assistance. In the half-century
before Bossuet delivered his first, funeral orations combined four elements
in various mixtures: lamentation over the departed, eulogy, instruction on
Christian faith and morals, and observations on the problems of the day.69
All of these elements appeared in one combination or another in the ora-
tions of Bossuet, with aspects of the panegyric form of the classical epideic-
tic speech adapted when eulogy was the intention.70 Even then there were
differences. Not all of the elements of the classical form were included, and
the ones that were included were used more as a way of teaching the con-
gregation about faith and morals than the simple praise of famous persons.
Another major difference to be noted is that the funeral sermons are almost
twice as long as the others.71 In his chapter on the classical sermon, Thomas
Worcester offers a close reading of a number of Bossuet’s sermons and
funeral orations.72
Until recently most scholars regarded funeral sermons as an exclusively
Protestant phenomenon in the German-speaking world because not many
Catholic ones were found in the library catalogues of universities in
69
Jacques Truchet ed., Bossuet: Oraisons funèbres (Paris, 1961), pp. vi–xix. For a sum-
mary of several of Bossuet’s sermons see Old, Reading and Preaching of the Scriptures IV,
pp. 474–497. While Old’s preferences for lectio continua expositions of biblical books and
for Protestantism in general and Calvinism in particular over Roman Catholicism color his
account, he does offer a lot of information in an easily accessible form.
70
As noted above, the Spanish panegyric could have the form of a sermon on one
thema.
71
The seven sermons in the volume edited by Sellier averaged around twenty-three
printed pages while the ten orations edited by Truchet averaged around 41 pages of roughly
the same size, although there was more introductory material to the latter.
72
Thomas Worcester, “The Classical Sermon”, infra.
Protestant areas and there had been banns at the time on the publication
of such sermons without the permission of the local bishop. The fact that
Bossuet, Bourdaloue, and others were producing great Catholic funeral
sermons in France, however, prompted scholars to make a closer investiga-
tion of the matter. Soon they found rules for such sermons in the leading
rhetorical handbooks and began to search libraries in Catholic regions.
Even there the job was not as simple as one might expect because catalogues
were not always complete and also because the secularization that occurred
in many areas had resulted in the destruction of printed sermons as unwor-
thy of enlightened attention. That meant that scholarship in this field had
a lot of catching up to do, but its success in the effort is evidenced in the
recent publication of a catalogue of sermons and a collection of twelve
essays edited by Birgit Borge and Rolf Georg Bosner.73 The catalogue lists
469 individual Catholic funeral sermons published between 1576 and
1799 to be found in the libraries of Klosterneuburg and Eichstädt
University. The catalogue, though not as extensive as that of saints’ day
sermons assembled by Welzig, is a scholarly apparatus that should greatly
assist further research in the field.
One of the essays that is particularly relevant to our purposes is the con-
tribution of Johann Anselm Steiger, which compares the sermon preached
for the funeral of an important Catholic prelate with that offered at the
obsequies of a distinguished Lutheran leader. Both of these seventeenth-
century sermons were preached by respected theologians.74 The Jesuit
Wolfgang Fuchs in 1647 spoke at the funeral of Anselm Casimir, Prince
Archbishop of Mainz, while Johann Gerhard, Superintendent in Heldburg,
in 1614 did the honors for Melchior Bischoff, General Superintendent of
Coburg, a well-known theologian, author, hymn writer, and composer.
The two sermons, both published soon after delivery, had much in com-
mon, sharing conventions of the day. Both contained Latin quotations
that were then paraphrased, both had a well-thought-out seven-point
structure, and both followed a rhetorical schema of explicatio and
applicatio.
But there were great differences. Thus, while they both cite biblical texts,
Gerhard exegeted his (2 Corinthians 5:1–10) carefully and took from it
theological themes of resurrection, judgment, and entrance of the faithful
into their heavenly home, thus giving the bereaved eschatological comfort.
73
Borge and Bosner eds., Oratio Funebris (see above, n. 37).
74
Steiger, “Oratio Panegyrica versus Homilia Consolatoria”, in Borge and Bosner, Oratio
Funebris, pp. 103–130.
Fuchs preached from Proverbs 24:5 (Vulgate), Vir sapiens fortis est et vir
doctus robustus et validus, and wove from it, as he said, a garland of praise
for the deceased – but praise for the virtues of classical paganism rather
than those of Christianity, praise that focused on Casimir’s political rule
rather than his archiepiscopal ministry. Steiger finds the address of Fuchs
more of an expression of regret at Casimir’s death than a sermon, dealing as
it did more with his secular power and gifts than with his pastoral duties.75
While much could have been learned about the differences between
Catholic and Lutheran funeral sermons by comparing examples, this effort
fails to help us do so. First, the sermons studied antedate the eighteenth
century, and represent Lutheran homiletical practices of an earlier period.
How that preaching changed in the eighteenth century has been noted
above, and a very similar evolution will be observed below in Dutch
Reformed preaching. And a sermon for the funeral of a Prince Archbishop
can hardly be taken as characteristic of Catholic eulogies for deceased prel-
ates, as some of Bossuet’s funeral orations, e.g., make clear. The editors of
the volume, however, did publish a conclusion that was largely the results
of their analysis of their catalogue of published Catholic funeral sermons
from German-speaking territory.76 They point out that although these ser-
mons reflect a part of the richly differentiated spectra of Catholic funeral
writings, thus far little use of them has been made in scholarly writing.
Such writings include published funeral sermons in German; published
Latin university memorial addresses (Abdankungen); and individual ser-
mons published with epicedia or collections of epicedia, copper engravings
of the deceased, inscriptions, and descriptions of the funeral celebrations.
The editors admit that to modern tastes many of these sermons seem theo-
logically and rhetorically overblown and offer little concrete data about the
lives of the deceased or their family history. In contrast to the Lutheran
funeral sermons of the time, they are likely to be sermons on one thema
rather than exegetical homilies on whole passages. These Leichenpredigten
were not delivered exclusively at the funeral; a number of other services
could be held, especially masses. Of the sermons catalogued, 70–85%
were preached on these other occasions.77 The number of printed sermons
occasioned by the death of a given individual is an indication of the status
75
Steiger, “Oratio Panegyrica”, pp. 106–107.
76
Boge and Bogner, “Katholische Leichepredigten des 16. bis 18. Jahrhunderts: Einige
vorläufige Thesen zur Geschichte der Produktion und Distribution einer Gattung der
religiösen Gebrauchslitterature der frühen Neuzeit” in Borge and Bosner, Oratio Funebris,
pp. 317–340.
77
Boge and Bogner, “Katholische Leichepredigten”, pp. 17–19.
of that person; e.g., eleven of the catalogued sermons were for the death
of Kaiser Leopold I.
All of the preachers of the sermons studied were men who represented
the Catholic intelligentsia. They preached in German and were mostly
from Southern Germany and Austria. Only a small number of the preach-
ers were secular clergy; 85% were religious and more than half of those
were Jesuits.78 Over three-quarters of the departed for whom we have
funeral sermons were men. The few women memorialized in this way were
either of the nobility or superiors of religious orders (or both), or the wives
of prominent men. Almost two-thirds of the men commemorated were
nobles and two-fifths of the nobles were also superiors, religious, or pas-
tors. One third of the men were clergy not of the nobility, indicating that
men from the middle, artisan, or farming class who joined an order moved
up the social ladder. The tiny number of sermons for lay members of the
middle class were all for men who held important military, government, or
academic positions.79 Although the earliest funeral sermon the editors
found was delivered in 1576, 75% of the total number were preached in
the eighteenth century, and two-thirds of those are from the first half of
the century. These data show what a valuable resource such sermons can be
for historians.
Lutheran
The Lutheran tradition of funeral sermons was shaped by the Reformer
himself with his 1519 sermon on ‘Preparing to Die’, his funeral sermon for
the Elector Frederic the Wise in 1525, and his two funeral sermons for
Duke John, the Elector of Saxony, in 1532.80 In the introduction to the
first sermon for Duke John, he said:
My dear friends, since this misfortune has happened to our beloved sover-
eign prince, and the habit and custom of holding funeral masses for the dead
and funeral processions when they are buried has ceased, we nevertheless do
not wish to allow this service of worship to be omitted, in order that we may
preach God’s Word to the praise of God and the betterment of the
people.81
78
79
80
What follows is based on Rudolf Lenz, De mortuis nil nisi bene? Leichenpredigten
als multidisziplinäre Quelle, Marburger Personalschriften-Forschungen 10 (Sigmaringen,
1990).
81
John W. Doberstein ed. and trans., Luther’s Works, vol. 51: Sermons I (Philadelphia,
1959), 231.
Instead of having funeral rites like those of Catholics that centered on the
deceased – their accomplishments in life and their future hopes – Lutheran
obsequies would be concerned with interpreting the Bible for the consola-
tion, instruction, and edification of the living to build up their faith. It was
only in the second half of the sixteenth century that biographical informa-
tion about the deceased came to be inserted into funeral sermons. By the
seventeenth century death scenes became an important feature.
When these sermons were published, they had detailed title pages with
dedications, and other matter was added, such as a speech by a lay col-
league of the departed expressing the thanks of the family to the mourners
(Parentatio) and the dirges (Epicedia) of friends. Woodcuts of the deceased
were incorporated, and even notes on the funeral music. For an alumnus
of a university or a distinguished gymnasium, a Programma Academicum
(laudatio funebris) could be included as well. Thus printed funeral sermons
became impressive tributes to the deceased and it is their publication, of
course, that makes it possible for us to study the sermons. At the beginning
of the seventeenth century, the language in which these appeared changed
from Latin to German.82
In the first phase of their history, Lutheran funeral sermons were used as
a vehicle for the success of the Reformation, but in their third and last
phase they show the secularization that occurred as a result of the
Enlightenment. Along the way there developed a critique of the institution
of funeral sermons. Those in Latin, for instance, showed a dependence on
pagan classical models. The Parentation (Abdankung, resignation) came to
replace the sermon in its original function in some places, at times degen-
erating into a panegyric. The sermons themselves did not escape the faults
of the period; they became swelled with citations of florilegia and catenas,
showing off the erudition of the preacher while revealing a preoccupation
with the worldly status of the departed. It is therefore not surprising that
Leichen-predigten came to be called Lügenpredigten. Ironically, Spener,
whose ordinary sermons ran to a couple of hours, wanted to limit funeral
sermons to half an hour to resist this tendency to make them means of
giving status to the deceased rather than proclaiming God’s Word to the
mourners. With the change of taste reflected in this critique, the publication
of funeral sermons became unfashionable by the middle of the eighteenth
century; but, as Sabine Holtz points out in her contribution on sermons
and daily life, this variety of sermon did not cease entirely.83 Earlier, though,
82
Lenz, De mortuis nil nisi bene?, p. 12.
83
Sabine Holz, “On sermons and daily life”, infra; also Lenz, De mortuis nil nisi bene?,
pp. 13–14.
when such sermons were written to be edifying literature and there was a
taste for that kind of reading, a number of collections of published funeral
sermons were assembled in the libraries of members of the nobility, clergy,
and others, with the result that around a quarter-million such sermons
have survived.84
Dutch Reformed
In the Dutch Republic, funeral sermons traditionally took the form of the
usual exegetical homilies with just a short sketch of the life of the deceased
at the end of the application, but in the course of the eighteenth century
the amount of biblical interpretation diminished considerably.85 At first it
was feared that praising the departed might sound too much like what was
called ‘papist saint veneration’, but funeral sermons came more and more
to be accepted and the university custom of the oratio funebris grew com-
mon. As in Germany, those for the burial of high dignitaries in the church
and civil life were published, but the total number of such volumes is
relatively small. Factors such as the theological position and social status of
a cleric influenced the decision about whether the sermon should be
published.
A sermon for the death rites of a cleric began with an introduction that
announced the text that was followed by its divisio and its interpretation.
Then came an application of the text to the life of the deceased. The
departed minister was compared to a prophet or some other biblical figure,
and Heb. 13:7 and Isa. 57:2 were favorite texts.86 The point of departure
for these sermons was the personal religious merit of the cleric, so it was
easy to suggest that the departed awaited greater bliss in the afterlife than
the ordinary believer. The biographical sketch in the application was sel-
dom longer than a page when it appeared in print. After information about
the cleric’s origins and ministry, there was usually an extensive deathbed
scene complete with last words, which often depicted the departed as anx-
ious because he was uncertain of his state of grace. This was taken as evi-
dence of his sincerity, and also as an a fortiori warning to the less holy.
Towards the end of our period, however, these scenes became more modest
and rational.87
84
Lenz, De mortuis nil nisi bene?, pp. 20–21.
85
Jelle Bosma, Woorden van een gezond verstand. De invloed van de Verlichting op de in
het Nederlands uitgegeven preken van 1750 tot 1800, Bibliotheca Bibliographica Neerlandica
34 (Nieuwkoop, 1997), pp. 189–190.
86
Bosma, Woorden van een gezond verstand, p. 192.
87
Bosma, Woorden van een gezond verstand, pp. 191–196.
Funeral sermons were also published for political figures, especially for
leading ones and members of the nobility. Most of the Dutch ones from
the last half of the eighteenth century were for the stadhouder William IV,
who died unexpectedly in 1751.88 A relation of William III, he was
appointed hereditary stadhouder in all the provinces of the Republic. His
appointment brought to a close a restless political period that began with
the threat of a French invasion of the Republic and ended with a popular
uprising, the so-called doelistenoproer. Much had been expected of William
by his supporters, but they were disappointed because the old ruling class
remained in the saddle, so his popularity declined quickly. His death, how-
ever, was totally unexpected and sent such a shock through the country
that memorial services were held throughout it. This happened not only in
the public church that had ties to the House of Orange, but in the churches
of dissenters as well. Many of the sermons took Old Testament texts about
the deaths of kings, reflecting the comparison of the nation with Israel that
was so common among Calvinists during this period. There were not as
many sermons preached when his wife died, because she was English and
less popular, and had much less political authority.89 Printed funeral ser-
mons have also come down for members of the nobility not of the House
of Orange, local or colonial administrators, and even foreign rulers such as
Frederick V of Denmark and Frederick the Great. They were only sporadi-
cally published for ordinary people: a child, a woman, a housewife, a
merchant, an elder or a regent – who were often related to the preacher
himself.90
Sermons on Civic Occasions
There are a number of types of such sermons and they have been widely
studied because of their relevance to political history. A good place to begin
looking at them is Puritan New England. There an assumption was made
that the church was composed of those elected to salvation, such election
usually having become effective through a response to a sermon, that
response itself having been enabled by the election. That did not mean,
however, that those in the community who had not yet had that experi-
ence did not attend church. Where else could they hear the sermon through
88
More on the stadhouder in the following section, ‘Sermons on Civic Occasions’.
89
90
which election would be mediated? And it was assumed that those who
had risked the perils of the Atlantic to get there had done so precisely
because they either had already undergone the experience or desired it
with all their hearts. That being the case, there was no need for the political
organization to provide for the inclusion of pluralistic elements of the
community; there were none. All had arrived there precisely because they
were enlisted in what they called the ‘errand into the wilderness’.91 Indeed,
only those who could give evidence of their election were allowed to vote.
That did not mean, however, that the Puritans could be at ease in Zion.
They lived in a harsh environment and were exposed to many dangers, and
many died there. The way they understood that was to assume that such
perils were signs of divine disfavor because of the sins of the people. To be
elected was not the same as being impeccable; it meant rather that the
ultimate outcome was not in doubt. Besides, not all had yet experienced
election and it could not be assumed that all ever would do so. Disaster
was God’s way of warning God’s people that, unless they repented and
changed their ways, they were in danger. This does not mean that the elect
could become reprobate. Rather, it means that the Puritans thought in
terms of two covenants, one of grace that was eternal and another, a feder-
ated covenant, that could be revoked by God if the people did not keep it.
The New Englanders responded to their awareness that such times of dan-
ger would come the way they responded to everything else. As Harry Stout
has said: ‘Sermons were delivered at every significant event in the life of
communities.’
In New England there would be no competing voices and rituals, and the
sermon would become as important for social meaning as for religious
enlightenment. It not only interpreted God’s plan of redemption and told
the people how they must live as a church but also defined and legitimated
the meaning of their lives as citizen and magistrate, superior and inferior,
soldier, parent, child and laborer. Sermons were authority incarnate.92
When painful experience suggested that the people were straying from
the covenant, either the civil or the religious authority would call a fast day
for all the people to come to the meetinghouse and pray that God would
show through the sermon of the minister what had caused the divine
displeasure.
91
An allusion to Matt. 11:7, ‘What went ye out into the wilderness to see?’ King James
Version (although Puritans more often used the Geneva Bible).
92
Harry S. Stout, The New England Soul: Preaching and Religious Culture in Colonial
New England (New York, 1986), p. 23.
When, in time, the crisis passed, the people were called back together to
offer thanks that the destructive hand of God had been stayed. There was
also another civic occasion when sermons were offered in New England,
the only regularly appointed time of prayer and preaching other than
Sunday and weekday lectures, and this was the annual day when those
eligible to vote chose their representatives to the assembly and the legisla-
tors nominated members of the Governor’s Council. On that election day
in Boston one of the local ministers was chosen to address the magistrates,
the deputies, and the clergy. His theme was inevitably to restate the terms
of God’s covenant with the nation.93
Of these three types of civic sermons, that for fast days has received the
most scholarly attention. Partly that may be due to the skill of someone in
labeling it a ‘jeremiad’, suggesting thus that it resembled the oracles of that
notable prophet of doom, Jeremiah.94 The hermeneutical basis for such
sermons was a covenantal theology that saw the Puritan venture into the
new world as a modern parallel to the Exodus, and themselves as God’s
new Israel. Such a view did not originate in America, but had been for
sometime the way that English and other Christians understood them-
selves, whether they had a reforming or a conforming attitude toward the
established church. In Elizabethan times it was a commonplace
that the Deity’s ‘great mercies toward us Englishmen above many other
nations make his judgments more heavy’ because ‘we are like unto the
children of Israel’; that England enjoyed God’s favor but had no guarantee of
keeping it, because the people, like the old Israelites, had ‘rewarded the Lord
evil for good’; that although God had ‘tied himself to this whole nation’, the
nation had broken faith with him, so that he had with it the same contro-
versy he had prosecuted against Israel.95
93
Examples of election day sermons may be seen in Michael Warner ed., American
Sermons: The Pilgrims to Martin Luther King Jr. Library of America 108 (New York, 1999),
pp. 119–150, 151–171, 468–489. A fast day sermon by Cotton Mather at the time of the
controversy over witches in Salem, Massachusetts may be found on pp. 195–214. The
volume also contains a sermon preached by his father Increase Mather at the execution of
a murderer (pp. 1721–94).
94
Sacvan Bercovitch, The American Jeremiad (Madison, 1978) pointed out that, as threat-
ening as the sermons were, they were actually reassuring, reminding those who heard them
of a glorious past, the spirit of which could be reawakened. Later scholars, however, have felt
that Bercovitch, and Perry Miller after him, exaggerated the extent to which the New
England Puritans regarded themselves as in a unique relation with God. They regarded
themselves as simply one Israel among many others, the ‘others’ being European Calvinists
who used the same vocabulary. See Melvin B. Endy, “Just War, Holy War, and Millenialism
in Revolutionary America,” in The William and Mary Quarterly 42 (1985), pp. 3–14, n. 23.
95
Michael Mcgiffert, “God’s Controversy with Jacobean England”, in The American
Historical Review 88 (1983), pp. 1152–1153. The internal quotations are from three late
sixteenth-century British sermons.
Michael Mcgiffert has argued that this analogy changed from being seen as
between Israel and England to being understood as between Israel and the
Puritans in New England. The significant shift, according to him, began to
occur in 1608 when John Downame, a Calvinist who fit comfortably into
the Church of England, published the first major Protestant commentary
on Hosea.96 The format of the commentary forced him to do what no one
had bothered to do before, define the exact nature of the covenant that
God had with England. Since no one claimed that all the English had been
elected to salvation, God’s covenant with them had to be a covenant of
works rather than a covenant of grace. The logic of this did not force
Downame himself to suggest that the sins of the English were egregious
enough for God to revoke the covenant with them, but, as events moved
toward the accession of Charles I and the primacy of William Laud as
Archbishop of Canterbury when conditions would become unbearable
for God’s elect children in England, the logic of Downame’s distinction
began to force some Puritans in the direction of civil war and others to
migrate to New England where they could live in a covenant of grace.
Scholars today think, however, that Mcgiffert overestimates the sense of
uniqueness that he ascribes to American Puritans, since most European
Calvinists had a similar idea of understanding their country as Israel.97
Further, in the Puritan sermons in question, when ‘covenant’ is mentioned
(as it seldom is), it usually refers simply to a pledge by the spiritual leaders
of a group of people that they will live according to God’s rules.
Many American church historians of the period of the Revolution
attribute support for it from the Puritan clergy to a secularization of their
thought, but Harry Stout has pointed out that they could do so because
they have read only the published sermons of these preachers. Yet, he
shows, 85% of these were occasional sermons for fast, election, and militia
days, given only a few times a year, while the much more frequent Sunday
sermons during all this period, which exist mostly in manuscript form, still
express the same covenant theology with its classic Calvinist themes of sin,
salvation, and service that are found in the preaching of Reformed churches
96
John Downame, Lectures upon the Four First Chapters of the Prophecy of Hosea (London,
1608).
97
See for Sweden e.g. Nils Ekedahl, Det svenska Israel: myt och retorik i Haquin Spegels
predikokonst (Uppsala, 1999) (Studia rhetorica Upsaliensia); Nils Ekedahl, “Forkunnelse
fran predikstolen: Trosformedling och kommunikation fran predikstolen – tidigmoderna
perspektiv”, in: Kyrkohistorisk Arsskrift 2002, pp. 21–55. For the Dutch Republic: Cornelis
Huisman, Neerlands Israël: het natiebesef der traditioneel-gereformeerden in de achttiende
eeuw (Utrecht, 1983); Roelof Bisschop, Sions vorst en volk: het tweede-Israëlidee als theocra-
tisch concept in de Gereformeerde kerk van de Republiek tussen ca. 1650 en ca. 1750
(Veenendaal, 1993); and the literature cited elsewehere in this article.
in other countries at the time. The occasional sermons presuppose that

theological framework and work out its implications for the occasions
upon which they were preached.98
Indeed, it was the taken-for-granted quality of that theology that made
it possible for the Puritans to adjust so quickly to the changes going on in
the world about them.
Once we recognize and acknowledge the enduring hold of concepts like the
covenant, Sola Scriptura (scripture alone), and providential mission on pulpit
discourse and the public imagination, it is easier to understand the ease with
which most New Englanders accepted the Revolution and its republican
principles.99
One of the terms that some historians have used to describe the theological
significance these preachers gave the war is ‘millennial’.100 Stout is willing
to use the term, but he shows that the way others use it greatly overstates
the case. The Puritan preachers rarely spoke of the end of the world, and
when they did so, their words contained no detailed timetable, no count-
down to eternity. Covenant theology was still the basis of their interpreta-
tions, and they expected to see a parallel between their experience and that
of biblical Israel more than the end of history.101
The central focus of millennial rhetoric in the Revolution was less the attack
on Antichrist than the actual shape of the coming kingdom. America was
not the new heavens and the new earth – there were still sinners existing
alongside the saints. But it came closer to the future perfect state than any
previous society.102
After the Revolution one President of the United States tried to extend
New England fast days with their accompanying sermons to the country
as a whole. There had been a call from the Continental Congress for fast
days every spring from 1775 until the end of the war and thus the New
England states no longer called their own. The first President, Washington,
did proclaim two days of thanksgiving, but none of fasting. Thus it
remained for his successor John Adams, good New Englander that he was,
to decide that confession was good for the national soul. He called for
May 9, 1798 and April 25, 1799 to be set aside for this purpose. Much to
98
Stout, New England Soul, pp. 6–7, 282–311.
99
Stout, New England Soul, p. 8.
100
Endy, “Just War, Holy War”, points out the inaccuracy of this term as it is interpreted
by those historians.
101
Stout, New England Soul, pp. 7–8, 306–09.
102
his surprise, the idea met with great opposition from the parts of the coun-
try that were not accustomed to the New England Puritan tradition. It was
claimed that the provisions of the Bill of Rights in the Constitution for
freedom of religion and speech militated against it. Adams’ successor,
Thomas Jefferson from Virginia, said there is ‘a wall of separation between
Church and State’.103 After that, only one other President dared call for a
national day of fast, James Madison at the beginning of the War of 1812,
but his call also met with great opposition, and that was the end of the
national jeremiad in America.104
The New England Puritans were not the only people to set aside fast
days. The Dutch Republic did so from its very beginning (1572–1609).
This is not surprising because the public church there was also in the
Reformed tradition of Calvinism. While the Dutch fast days were origi-
nally called for during a time of crisis, beginning with 1713 (and thus
covering most of our period) they became regular annual events. It was
always a political authority, usually the States General, who called for the
fast, although the clergy were legally obligated to hold it, and to preach
sermons on appropriate texts for the occasion. After 1713, however, the
proclamations contained an assessment of the political, social, and moral
welfare of the Republic.
From near the beginning, Protestant dissenters from the public church
also observed the ritual, and, over time, they were officially invited to do
so by the local authorities. These included Arminians, Lutherans, and
Mennonites; even Jews were included sometimes and eventually even
Roman Catholics. This description of Dutch fast days is based on an article
by Peter van Rooden in which he traces the development of the sense of
‘nation’ that is revealed in fast day sermons over the years.105 In doing so,
he also compares and contrasts the Dutch fast day sermons with those of
the New England Puritans. Like many of the scholars who have contrib-
uted to the literature of the history of preaching, Van Rooden is not
primarily concerned with Christian proclamation as such but with what
103
Andrew H. Lipscomb and Albert Ellery Bergh eds., The Writings of Thomas Jefferson
(20 vols.; Washington, 1905) XVI, 281–282.
104
Charles Ellis Dickson, “Jeremiads in the New American Republic: The Case of
National Fasts in the John Adams Administration”, in The New England Quarterly 60
(1987), pp. 187–207.
105
Peter van Rooden, “Public Orders into Moral Communities: Fast and Thanksgiving
Sermons in the Dutch Republic and New England” in Kate Cooper and Jeremy Gregory
eds. Retribution, Repentance, and Reconciliation: Papers Read at the 2002 Summer Meeting
and the 203 Winter Meeting of the Ecclesiastical History Society (Woodbridge, Suffolk and
Rochester, NY, 2004), pp. 218–239.
a study of sermons can reveal about something else, in this case, with
the developing sense of nationalism in the Dutch Republic and New
England.
To follow van Rooden’s argument, it is necessary to know what he means
by nationalism. He says that it is part political programme, part social
imaginary.
It is the political notion that the nation-state, the organization of socially
free, legally equal, and culturally related citizens, is the only legitimate form
of political authority. The social imaginary focuses upon this notion of being
a community of free and equal men, who constitute themselves by being
morally committed to each other and their community.106
He further specifies that ‘when this notion of politics as the creation of a
moral community is heavily determined by religious language’, he will call
it religious nationalism.
In the beginning, Dutch fast sermons called upon those who heard
them to repent of their sins. In the 1750s, however, there was a shift in
which it was assumed that citizens have an obligation to the state to behave
morally. After that the proclamations of the fast called upon the citizens
not to repent so much as to reform. The new understanding of nation
involved in this shift can be seen in the use of the word for nation itself,
vaderland. At first, it was used in the state proclamations of the fast days,
but not by the clergy in their fast day sermons. At that stage, public imagi-
nation had not yet come to integrate civil and political duties with the
religious one. By the 1780s, though, the transition was complete not only
in the sermons of the ministers of the public church, but in those of the
Protestant dissenters as well.107 An example of the shift from Calvinist to
Enlightenment thought can be seen in a sermon preached by Joachim
Mobachius (1699–1790) in 1760: as his predecessors had done, he con-
nected God’s punishment with all sorts of disasters – wars, floods, earth-
quakes, cattle diseases, etc. – but when he told his congregation what they
should do, he did not tell them they should repent but instead indulged in
general Protestant moralizing. The transition was complete when, not
106
Rooden, “Public Orders into Moral Communities”, p. 219.
107
The period immediately prior to that studied by van Rooden is the subject of Roelof
Bisschop’s dissertation, Sions vorst en volk (see above, n. 98). During that period, he says, it
was not the Republic but the Reformed Church throughout the world, or, in some parties,
the church of all ages and places, that was considered to be the Second Israel, yet he sees
this position moving toward that described by van Rooden at the end of the period
(pp. 263–265). The precise vocabulary of the movement he describes he attributes to the
official translation of the Bible into Dutch at the beginning of the period studied.
much later, Johan Frederik Scheffer (1744–1808) shocked the world by

denying any connection between worship and good fortune.108
Van Rooden sees a similar transition in the New England fast and
thanksgiving day sermons, but the great difference he notes is that the shift
was complete in the Dutch Republic before its political upheavals in 1780s
and 1790s, while in America, it was ‘part and parcel of the Revolution’.109
In accounting for the difference, Van Rooden points out that study of the
Dutch situation can illuminate the American one. While in the eighteenth
century there were far more and far richer people in the Netherlands than
in New England, over two centuries later, the situation is reversed. This
results in a much more extensive literature about the American than the
European situation, one so vast that generalizations are difficult. ‘A focus
on fast day sermons and the comparison with the Dutch Republic enables
one to cut through many of the American discussions and to place them in
context.’ He says that in neither case was pietism, in the sense of ‘a stress
on the importance of the personal appropriation of religious doctrines,’
enough to cause the transition from an emphasis on repentance to one on
reform.110 In Holland pietism was in the background both before and after
the shift, and in New England there had been a recognition from the
beginning of an obligation to the public order alongside that of the need
for conversion. Nor does millennialism seem to account for the change, as
much as some scholars had made of its importance in New England
(a view consistent with what Stout said on the subject).
One difference that did exist was that the future did not look the same
to the Dutch and the Puritans. As much more populous and richer as the
Netherlands were, things had been going steadily downhill for them from
the time of their war with the French at the beginning of the century,
which caused them to attribute their decline to their moral failures and to
launch upon a program of national reform. The New Englanders, on the
other hand, were more successful in their military operations and consid-
ered their enemies rather than themselves to be depraved. The main differ-
ence between the two was the way that a sense of themselves as a moral
community had been inculcated in the Dutch by its ruling group and the
national days of prayer, while such a sense did not arise in the Americans
until it emerged suddenly at the time of the Revolution. On the basis of
this analysis Van Rooden challenges the thesis of those who have seen
108
109
110
American Revolutionary consciousness arising as a function of the Great

Awakening and indeed questions that there was such an awakening. Yet he
also denies that it was a result of a progressive secularization of the country.
He is rather of the opinion that with this shift in consciousness the way to
produce Christianity socially was no longer the established religion but
rather religious nationalism.
To put it starkly, before the end of the eighteenth century, general sin was an
occasion for collective rituals of repentance. Since then particular sins have
been a motive or justifications for projects by the state or for the actions of
social movements. The discursive change in the conceptual relation between
power and piety transformed penance into reform.111
Another sort of sermons on a civic occasion were the state sermons
preached by eminent clergy of the national church to either the monarch
or the legislative body of the country or both together at the invitation of
that audience. Three sets of these sermons, those delivered in England, the
Netherlands, and Sweden, have been studied by Pasi Ihalainen.112 Just
these three countries were chosen because they were on the way to becom-
ing distinct nation states; most of those who made up their populations
were Protestant; they had constitutions as free as any in the eighteenth
century; and each had a high rate of literacy, a relatively free press, and a
brisk book trade – conditions that permitted an interested and informed
discussion of ideas.
There were four times a year when state sermons could have been
preached appropriately in England: (1) the anniversary of the execution of
King Charles I on January 30, 1649, (2) that of the restoration of the
monarchy under Charles II on May 29, 1660, (3) a double commemora-
tion on November 5 of the foiling of the Gunpowder Plot against James I
in 1605 and the Glorious Revolution of 1688 when James II was rejected
because of his Roman Catholicism and William of Orange was invited in
replace him, and (4) the anniversary of the accession of the reigning sover-
eign. These were all ‘Red-Letter Days’ in the calendar of the 1662 Book of
Common Prayer and were observed until 1859 when Queen Victoria
cancelled the order she had given at the beginning of her reign for the
observance of the first three.113
111
112
Pasi Ihalainen, Protestant Nations Redefined: Changing Perceptions of National Identity
in the Rhetoric of the English, Dutch, and Swedish Public Churches, 1685–1772, Studies in
Medieval and Reformation Traditions 109 (Leiden and Boston, 2005).
113
W.K. Lowther Clarke, “The Calendar”, in W.K. Lowther Clarke ed., Liturgy and
Worship: A Companion to the Prayer Books of the Anglican Communion (London, 1932),
During the eighteenth century there could have been observance of all
these days in parish churches and cathedrals, but what made sermons
preached on those days ‘state sermons’ was their being preached before the
sovereign and one of the Houses of Parliament. Since, however, Parliament
was usually not in session for any of these days except January 30, more
sermons were preached and printed for that day than any other. The serv-
ice for the House of Lords was held in Westminster Abbey and that for the
House of Commons in St. Margaret’s Church, Westminster, next door.
Although these January services were held at the beginning of the parlia-
mentary session, they were not necessarily well attended; the journals of
the two Houses show that only their Speakers and a few other members
may have attended. It was the publication of a sermon that gave it national
significance. That being the case, being invited to preach was a great honor,
and only very learned clergy were asked. Since bishops were members of
the House of Lords, one of them preached to that chamber, while the
House of Commons heard a doctor of divinity who was usually a don at
one of the ancient universities.114 In neither case was anyone invited to
preach much more than once.
Official publication of the sermon came as a result of a vote of the rele-
vant House to thank the preacher and approve the printing. Such a vote
was not inevitable; there are several recorded instances of refusal. And there
was a case in 1722 when Commons expunged its thanks to a preacher
from the records after discovering the contents of his sermon. The preacher
had been a High Church Tory who advocated royal supremacy against the
parliamentarian sympathies of the Whig majority of the members.115
Since the Republic of the Seven United Provinces,116 or the Dutch
Republic, as it is sometimes called, did not have a strong central govern-
ment but was instead a union of seven independent states, it did not have
a national legislature like the English Parliament or the Swedish Riksdag,
and thus lacked a deliberative body before whom state sermons could be
preached. In practice, however, the Reformed church was the public church
p. 216. Since the 1662 book, issued shortly after the Restoration, is still the official prayer
book of the Church of England, the commemoration of the Glorious Revolution in 1688
was added to the observance on November 5 after the accession of William and Mary.
Under James I there had also been a commemoration of his escape from the conspiracy of
the Gowrie brothers, but it does not appear in the calendar of the 1662 Prayer Book.
114
Contrary to American usage where the doctor of divinity degree is usually honorary,
in Britain it is a very high earned degree.
115
This treatment of English state sermons is based on Ihalainen, Protestant Nations
Redefined, pp. 31–49.
116
The seven United Provinces were Holland, Zeeland, Gelderland, Utrecht, Friesland,
Groningen, and Overijssel.
of the Republic, and the States General issued the annual call for fast day
sermons noted above in the report of Van Rooden’s study. While the
English state sermons preached before Parliament were on occasions when
the calendar of the Book of Common Prayer called for services, Ihalainen
does not treat the parochial observance of these days as occasions when
state sermons were preached. But since there was no national venue for
showing that the Republic was a confessional state with a public church,
he is able to point to particular pulpits from which the sermons could be
considered state sermons.
Particularly in a forum like the Great Church of the Hague, sermons preached
on political occasions were subject to control by members of the House of
Orange, the States General, the Council of State, the States of Holland, and
at least the magistrates of the city.117
Which seems to be saying that these were state sermons de facto if not
de jure.
There being in the Netherlands nothing like the parliamentary authori-
zation of printing, the publication of Dutch state sermons was usually at
the initiative of the preacher, and most often appeared in a retrospective
collection of their author’s sermons. Thus they often did not come out
until long after they were delivered, and they could have been edited exten-
sively in preparation for publication. For studying changes in the under-
standing of ‘nation’, however, Ihalainen finds it more advantageous to look
at sermons published individually in pamphlet form the year they were
delivered and generally dedicated to the political authority. These had
normally been preached for extraordinary national celebrations that were
largely political in content, especially when the service was attended by
representatives of the States or by local regents. The call for such observances
generally laid down guidelines for the sermons connected with them.
The particular group of pamphlet sermons at which the author looks
consists of those preached at national days of celebration, including prayer
days, or commemorations of major events in the family of Orange. The
head of the House of Orange was stadhouder for as many of the provinces
as appointed him – a sort of hereditary civil servant who was a central
figure and for some a national symbol in the Republic. These sermons were
given at a wide variety of gatherings ranging from those at the Great
Church of the Hague to those in small rural churches. These occasions
most resembled those on which state sermons were preached in England
117
Ihalainen, Protestant Nations Redefined, p. 51.
and Sweden when the stadhouder himself was present, especially when rep-
resentatives of the States accompanied him. What makes all of these state
sermons is their containing in either their text, preface, or dedication indi-
cation that the occasion was called for by major political figures who may
also have been involved in their publication. Sermons so published were
subject to both political and ecclesiastical censorship, the ecclesiastical cen-
sorship based on the standards of the Church Order (Kerken-ordeninge) of
the Reformed Church as applied to the work in question by a theological
faculty, a synod, or local classis.118 While at the beginning all these sermons
supported the status quo, drawing on the Dutch Israel motif, during the
eighty years of the Patriotic Period, many sermons were published that
were quite outspoken. One preacher, for instance, criticized the stadhouder
in his presence.119
The most important state sermons preached in Sweden in the eight-
eenth century were those given at the opening and closing sessions of the
Diet (Riksdag). Other occasions for them occurred at royal births, wed-
dings, and funerals, when peace treaties were signed, or, after 1748,
in celebrations of the Royal Order on the birthday of King Frederick I.
The death of King Charles XII in 1719 was the end of the Age of Abso-
lutism in Sweden and the beginning of the Age of Liberty, which lasted
through most of the century. The Riksdag at the time was composed of
representatives of the four Estates that made up the society: nobility, clergy,
burghers, and peasants. The four Estates met separately, each with its own
chamber and speaker, and a proposal had to be passed by three of the four
to be enacted. The nobility were by far the largest group and the clergy
were the smallest Estate, having only fifty members, bishops and clergy
from each diocese.
Riksdag services were ordered by the king and council, who also
nominated the preacher. In practice, it was generally the clerical Estate
that chose the preacher, but king and council had the right to overrule
their choice. In any case, the preacher was a member of the clergy of
the state Lutheran church to which almost all Swedes belonged. Even the
biblical text of the sermon was subject to government control, but this
designation of the text did not determine what the preacher said about it.
There were, however, more restrictions on the kinds of things the bishop
could say than his Dutch and English counterparts had to cope with.
118
Ihalainen, Protestant Nations Redefined, pp. 49–69.
119
‘Above all, Swedish Lutheran preaching had to be strictly orthodox, biblical,

cautious, compact and simple, aiming at the advancement of belief ’.120
It also had to be simple enough for ordinary people to understand, and
had to be circumspect in discussing worldly matters. Content was not
controlled, however, by the sort of special liturgies used for state sermons
in England or by the content of the declarations of prayer days as Dutch
state sermons were.
Before 1726 the Riksdag services for the nobility were held separately
from those for the other Estates, but after that they were held for the king
and all four Estates together at the Great Church of Stockholm.121 And,
unlike those for the British Parliament, these were scrupulously attended.
Up until the late 1760s there was strict state censorship over all printing,
so all state sermons published echoed the correct party line. One of the
main reasons for printing the sermons was so that the lower clergy could
repeat their perspective and thus form the attitudes of the citizenry in ways
acceptable to the establishment. Even then, not all state sermons were pub-
lished until the 1740s; those dealing exclusively with religious matters and
not adequately encouraging appropriate patriotic feelings were not consid-
ered worth the expense of printing.122
How closely the purposes of the Swedish Riksdag sermon coincided with
those of English and Dutch state sermons is apparent in the following
summary:
Like their English and Dutch equivalents, eighteenth-century Riksdag ser-
mons represent not just religious preaching but also a highly institutional-
ized form of political speaking, in which the speaker made use of his
theoretical education in theology and his practical knowledge of politics to
define the fatherland and nation and its official politico-religious values in a
manner appropriate to the occasion. His formulations of political values
could not follow simply from his personal understanding of political reality
but had to reflect generally held conceptions – not only among the clerical
Estate but also among the political elite at large.123
As the subtitle of Ihalainen’s book indicates, he studied the state sermons
of the three countries to trace changing perceptions in national identity,
seeing a shift from the time that was phrased in a largely theological
vocabulary to one when it was expressed in thoughts forms from the
120
121
There was a period of almost twenty years beginning in 1739 that these services were
held in the Hall of State of the royal palace because of the poor health of the king.
122
Ihalainen, Protestant Nations Redefined, p. 69–85.
123
Enlightenment. While some earlier scholars have thought the shift to

Enlightenment language indicated a secularization of thought, Ihalainen
says:
It will be argued in this book that the transformation from early modern
religious national identities towards more modern, increasingly secular
national identities took place also within the genre of Protestant state ser-
mons. It was possible for the clerics to give innovative meaning to the con-
cepts of nation and fatherland within a traditional form of discourse, by
providing old terminology with new meanings or by introducing entirely
new elements of the language of nation borrowed from the more secular
language of politics.124
While the author’s analysis of how this happened is thorough and insightful,
it again leads us far away from issues of homiletical genres in themselves
and need not be summarized here.
Other Varieties of Preaching
In Dutch preaching of our era there are many additional varieties of ser-
mons that have been studied by different scholars. These include charity
sermons (which were common in England),125 or such varieties of preaching
as sermons by women,126 or sermons on the passions127 or the afterlife.128
Catechism sermons on the Ten Commandments are a treasure trove for
information on early modern values;129 other sermons offer insight into
124
125
Françoise Deconinck-Brossard, “Sermons sur les oeuvres charitables au dix-huitième
siècle”, in C. d’Haussy ed., Le Sermon anglais (Paris, 1982), pp. 91–121; Donna T. Andrew,
“On Reading Charity Sermons: Eighteenth-Century Anglican Solicitation and Exhortation”,
in: The Journal of Ecclesiastical History 43 (1992), pp. 581–591.
126
Cf. Mia Haggblom, “Den Heliga Svagheten: Handlingsmonster bland predikande
kvinnor i det Svenska riket under 1700-Talets senare halft”, in Historisk Tidskrift for Finland
91 (2006), pp. 101–138; Vicki Tolar Collins, “Walking in Light, Walking in Darkness. The
Story of Women’s Changing Rhetorical Space in Early Methodism’, in Rhetoric Review 14
(1996), 336–354; Catherine A. Brekus, Strangers & pilgrims. Female preaching in America,
1740–1845 (Chapel Hill [etc.]: University of North Carolina Press, 1998); Rebecca Larson,
Daughters of light: Quaker women preaching and prophesying in the colonies and abroad,
1700–1775 (New York, 1999); Jane Donawerth, “Poaching on Men’s Philosophies of
Rhetoric: Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Rhetorical Theory by Women”, in
Philosophy and Rhetoric 33 (2000), 243–258.
127
Alan Brinton, “The Passions as Subject Matter in Early Eighteenth-Century British
Sermons”, in Rhetorica 10 (1992), pp. 51–69.
128
Gerrit Vanden Bosch, Hemel, hel en vagevuur. Preken over het hiernamaals in de
Zuidelijke Nederlanden tijdens de 17de en 18de eeuw (Leuven, 1991).
129
A.Th. van Deursen, Rust niet voordat gy ze van buiten kunt. De tien geboden in de 17e
eeuw (s.l., 2004).
ideas on such diverse topics as children,130 women,131 marriage,132 the

family,133 poverty and wealth,134 rhetoric,135 sickness,136 hell,137 and the
devil.138 The most extensive list of genres, however, is that studied by Jelle
Bosma in his comprehensive study of Dutch preaching in the second half
of the eighteenth century. While sermons like those he treats were undoubt-
edly preached in other countries, they have not been studied in the same
way, so the wisest thing to do at this point seems to be to summarize what
he has to say.
Political Preaching
While the state sermons just discussed were political preaching, there were
other sermons on political issues that were not state sermons according to
the definition of Ihalainen. During the last twenty years of the eighteenth
century, the Republic was disturbed by widespread civil unrest during the
so-called Patriot Revolt. For a long time the status quo had been regarded
as holy for all denominations, but a stagnant economy as a result of a dis-
astrous downhill war with England prompted resistance to the stadhouder
William V. Different groups reacted differently to the Patriot Revolt. The
130
Françoise Deconinck-Brossard, “Representations of Children in the Sermons of
Philip Doddridge”, in Diana Wood ed., The Church and Childhood: Studies in Church
History 31 (Oxford, 1994), pp. 379–389.
131
Katelijne Rotsaert, Tussen Eva en Maria: de vrouw volgens de predikanten van de 17de
en 18de eeuw (Aartrijke, 1992).
132
Eileen Theresa Dugan, Images of marriage and family life in Nördlingen: Moral preach-
ing and devotional literature, 1589–1712 (Ann Arbor, 1988); Michael P. Winship, “Behold
the Bridegroom Cometh! Marital Imagery in Massachusetts Preaching, 1630–1730”, in
Early American Literature 27 (1992), pp. 170–184; Hans Storme, Die trouwen wilt voorsich-
telijck. Predikanten en moralisten over de voorbereiding op het huwelijk in de Vlaamse bisdom-
men (17e-18e eeuw) (Leuven, 1992).
133
Larry Wolff, “Parents and Children in the Sermons of Père Bourdaloue: A Jesuit
Perspective on the Early Modern Family”, in Christopher Chapple ed., The Jesuit Tradition
in Education and Missions (University of Scranton Press, 1993), pp. 81–94.
134
Steven Hennion en Hans Storme, “Door het oog van de naald. Predikanten over
rijkdom en sociale ongelijkheid in de achttiende eeuw”, in Trajecta 2 (1993) 228–244.
135
Ann Matheson, Theories of rhetoric in the 18th-century Scottish sermon (Lewiston,
Queenston, Lampeter, 1995).
136
An Vandenberghe, “Ziekte en genezing in de katholieke predikatie van de Zuidelijke
Nederlanden in de achttiende en de eerste helft van de negentiende eeuw”, in Trajecta
14 (2005), pp. 387–417.
137
Wolfgang Sommer, “Der Untergang der Hölle: Zu den Wandlungen des theolo-
gischen Höllenbildes in der lutherischen Theologie des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts”, in
Wolfgang Sommer ed., Politik, Theologie und Frömmigkeit im Luthertum der Frühen Neuzeit:
Ausgewählte Aufsätze, Forschungen zur Kirchen- und Dogmengeschichte 74 (Göttingen,
1999), pp. 177–205.
138
Christine Van de Steene, Satan en zijn trawanten volgens de achttiende-eeuwse
predikatie (Aartrijke, 1991).
House of Orange drew many supporters from among the orthodox

members of the public church, but many Calvinists and the dissenters also
favored the Patriots’ cause. Many sermons preached before synodical coun-
cils were published and these tended to be more ‘enlightened’ than those
that had been preached before; they were, in effect, opinionated lectures.
While the theme of the Dutch Israel continued to be invoked, its content
in the sermons of liberals was greatly changed, with a nationalization
of the concept and references to the ‘God of Freedom’. Not surprisingly
in the circumstances, many sermons were published anonymously in
1782–1783.139
Before Church Councils

As the previous paragraph indicates, clergy preached before church as well
as political councils. After 1618–19, when the only ‘national’ synod held
during the Dutch Republic took place, provincial synods became annual
events (although Holland had two a year, with one in the north and the
other in the south). The synods usually lasted about a week and had open-
ing and closing services at which the sermons were preached. The most
popular preachers at these were outspokenly orthodox professors, some of
whom were invited a number of times. That being the case, it is only to be
expected that their sermons would favor the religious status quo. When
public opinion began to change, sermons shifted to more neutral subjects
such as the influence of worship on the fortunes of the people. Under this
influence of the Enlightenment, religious tolerance became the guiding
principle of the church. While this description refers to the public church,
dissenters and some overseas churches also opened their synods with a
sermon.140
Commemoration Sermons, Jubilee Speeches, History Lectures

Sermons were preached at significant milestones in the ministry of clergy:
at their installation in a new ministry, at their departure, the Jubilee of a
professor, the installation of a new organ, or the introduction of a new
metrical Psalter (Psalmberijming). History lectures were another genre. It
was customary for clergy to be inducted when they began their ministry in
a new place and a colleague from the congregation or classis preached a
special induction sermon after the new minister had given an entrance
sermon. In sermons for the arrival and departure of ministers, parallels
139
140
were drawn between the cleric and biblical prophets, priests, or apostles
who made similar transitions. An ideal picture of the preacher was sketched
in which there appeared such adjectives as gentle, friendly, and submissive.
When one considers the total number of such sermons that were preached,
the quantity that was published is not extremely large, suggesting that
their publication was not a high priority for people with money. This was
as true for dissenters as for clergy of the public church.141
A jubilee was celebrated at a special service when a minister had served
with distinction for a long time, generally to mark a twenty-fifth, fortieth,
or fiftieth anniversary in the post. A special sermon (often called a ‘thanks-
giving’ or ‘jubilee’ sermon) could be published to serve as a daily reminder
of the preacher. These normally were one to two hundred pages, yet one of
these of almost three hundred went into a second edition. A favorite text
for such sermons was Psalm 71:17, ‘O God, from my youth you have
taught me, and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds’, which was applied
to the preacher’s life. In many the preachers went on for some length to
protest their simplicity and humility, although clergy in orthodox circles
tended to be more realistic. Some of the clergy published a number of their
other sermons along with the one for the occasion, always ‘at the request
of friends’.142
Another occasion for special sermons was the consecration of a new
church. This was a more important event in smaller towns than in larger
ones. These sermons took such appropriate texts as 1 Kings 8 and Ezra 6,
reports of the consecrations of the first and second Temples. In all churches,
orthodox or enlightened, churchgoing stood above all others as a necessary
Christian duty. Although the suitability of organ music in church had
been debated earlier, it was widely accepted in the eighteenth century, and
there were services for their consecration both in the public church and in
dissenting churches. Most of the sermons preached at these services dealt
with the way that the use of organs in worship was not only permitted but
even obligatory. All denominations also felt the need to develop hymns. In
the Reformed church they had used a rhymed Psalter since the time of the
Reformation, but it had become hopelessly outdated – although some dis-
senters continued to use it. In 1773 an official States Psalter was intro-
duced into the ruling church; dissenters had already accepted a new
metrical Psalter. Special sermons were preached at the introduction of
these, comparing them with the old and praising the new.143 Because care
141
142
143
for the poor was handled by the diaconate, there were jubilees of the houses
established for that purpose as well as for orphanages, and sermons
preached at some of these events spoke of the benefits provided for the
‘clients’ of these institutions, urging them to express gratitude.144
For important state events, for which the House of Orange furnished an
inexhaustible source, there were sermons, some of which were published.
Such events were the installation of William V as stadhouder and his mar-
riage a year later to Wilhelmina of Prussia. A special sort of commemora-
tive event was the so-called ‘history sermon’ given at important secular
events such as the centennial of a war or of the beginning of the Reformation
in a certain area. In the eighteenth century such historical sermons seem to
have become increasingly popular. As any other sermon, the historical ser-
mon had an introduction, an explanation of the text, and an application
that usually offered a broad exposition of the event being commemorated.
Hence the published form of historical sermons was much longer than the
two-hour speech that was delivered orally, extending as long as 200 pages
and filling in what data could not be squeezed into the sermon. Such
lectures served almost as much of a political as a religious purpose. Most of
those in the last half of the eighteenth century were over the bicentennial
of the Dutch Revolt and dealt with the important events in it, especially
with the founding of the public church. Lutherans had history lectures for
the two-hundred-fiftieth of the Augsburg Confession. Such lectures really
dealt as much with the present as the past.145
Preaching with a Specific Ecclesiastical Theme

Sermons were preached on feast days in the church year such as Christmas,
Easter, Pentecost, and New Year’s Day. When one thinks that, in the early
period of the Reformation, keeping such feasts was considered pagan or
popish, the number of Christmas and Easter sermons published in the
eighteenth century, especially toward the end, is astonishing. Most of their
authors were senior clergy; only one sermon was by someone aged fifty
while sixty preached by septuagenarians have come down to us. Sometimes
a group of sermons for Passiontide by various preachers were bundled
together to take the reader through the events step by step. Many fewer
Christmas sermons were published. A number of feast day sermons were
translated from German. A favorite theme for New Year sermons was
memento mori.146
144
145
146
Baptism was normally performed at the end of a church service rather

than at a separate service with a sermon of its own, the exception being
those of members of the House of Orange, for which the sermons
were published. The Eucharist was administered four times a year. Prior
to each of the celebrations there were special services, and the sermons
for some of them were published. Great thought was given to preparation
for Holy Communion, and extensive collections of sermons to assist
in that preparation were published. Some of those dealt with the ‘heretical’
understanding of the rite held by other churches. There were also
catechetical sermons to prepare the young for adult participation in the
church.147
Sermons from Regions Overseas

Because the Netherlands was a seafaring nation with possessions overseas,
its religious life stretched out from its home territory. There were sermons
for seamen, traders, and planters, and some of them were published. Some
of these sermons were from nearby countries where there were extensive
groups of Mennonites. Others sermons were preached at services held
in embassies. No single theme has been identified as common to these,
but they help one to see that both church life and rhetoric were much
the same in the colonies as they were at home. In some of the colonies,
there were churches of other traditions that predated the arrival of the
Dutch, so in theory the Dutch churches were only for the use of their
own members.148
Ad Status Sermons
As the Enlightenment proceeded and the desire to change behavior dis-
placed correct theology as the aim of preaching, there came to be more and
more concern with the skills of communication. With that went tailoring
sermons to their target audiences: common people, farmers, soldiers, sail-
ors, Christian husbands, young men and young women, old people, serious
Christians, and children. Again, some of these sermons were published.
They were almost ethical handbooks focused on the circumstances and
the needs of the audience for whom they were intended, as these were
understood by the preachers. Thus sermons were preached to sailors about
rebelliousness, desertion, drunkenness, cursing, and swearing, farmers
147
148
were exhorted to diligence, while good Christians, on the other hand, were
addressed about respectability and wandering from the pathway.149
Epilogue
This completes the map of the territory we have been exploring. While
there are no notations that ‘here be anthropophages’, the map is undoubt-
edly more complete in some areas than others – and more accurate! But
the general shape is probably pretty well on target. It enables us to see that
there was much in common between the preaching of various churches
and for various occasions, reflecting the culture of the time. But there were
also many and important differences. To change the metaphor, what we
see are variations on themes. The variety and that which is in common
have produced some lovely late Baroque counterpoint. Still, to change
the metaphor yet again, just the surface has been scratched. While we
are greatly in debt to the scholars whose work we have surveyed, much
more remains to be done. The following chapters indicate the main
directions sermon research has taken in recent years, while they open up
new territories to explore.
149
PART II
FOUNDATION
THE THEOLOGY OF THE SERMON IN THE
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
Alexander Bitzel*
1. Introduction
Since the time of the apostles, the church has occupied itself with these
theological questions: What is a sermon? What is its purpose? What is it
able to accomplish? Under what circumstances can a sermon reach its
potential? Within a homiletic discussion that distinguishes between funda-
mental and formal homiletics, the theology of the sermon is oriented
towards fundamental homiletics. Nevertheless, formal homiletics – espe-
cially the question of how a sermon should convey what the preacher wants
to say – is always bound up with theological decisions. Methodologically,
it is important in an investigation of the theologies of the sermon to derive
them not only from homiletic tracts, but also from the practice of preach-
ing. Indeed practice often has a hermeneutic advantage over theory.
Sometimes it reinforces the theoretical positions, while at other times it
opposes them. In both cases the results of practice must be brought to bear
in order to clarify a theology of the sermon. This chapter will attempt as
far as possible to view theory and practice together in the period under
investigation.
In terms of the history of the sermon, the eighteenth century is still not
very well researched. Hence clear typologies and categorizations are often
scarcely possible. At any rate, typologies are never more than a heuristic
medium, which cannot obscure the fact that the theologians in question
are independent personalities who did not merely repeat what they had
learned, but instead appropriated it productively and in new syntheses
made it their own.
A good example is the selection of people and sources. The selection of
sources can seem a little haphazard. It follows the rough outlines of theo-
logical history, but it has its limitations. This chapter focuses on German-
speaking areas. They are of particular interest, as decisive theological
* Translated by Charlotte Masemann.

58 alexander bitzel
developments of European church history – the Reformation above all,

but also Pietism – had their beginnings here. The German-speaking regions
also played a very particular role (at least in the Protestant areas) in the
context of the Enlightenment, which one could term, at a stretch, a West-
European phenomenon. There a synthesis of Enlightenment and theology
took shape that noticeably stands out from developments in the rest of
Europe, and which gave impulse and direction to the development of
church and theology in Europe, and not merely in Protestant areas.
In Western Europe, and particularly in France, the eighteenth-century
Enlightenment was in certain cases opposed to church and theology.
On occasion it was even accompanied by explicit enmity towards
the church, which provoked a vigorous defensive reaction on the part of
the church. In German-speaking areas matters developed differently. In the
eighteenth century there developed a synthesis of Enlightenment and
theology, whose full flowering can be summed up in the term Neology.1
This link between theology and Enlightenment was strongly criticized
in conservative religious circles. Nevertheless it gained a foothold in the
areas of German-speaking Protestantism and was able to influence even
conservative theologians to some extent through osmosis. Catholicism
followed a somewhat different course, with both individual theologians
and elements of the hierarchical leadership opening themselves up to
Enlightenment ideas.2 Moreover, German Catholicism of the 18th cen-
tury was quite open to input from abroad, and did not create a theological
synthesis comparable to the protestant Neology. German Catholicism can
thus be seen as a mirror of developments throughout Europe.
2. Historical Starting Point
2.1 The Theology of the Sermon According to the Confessional Writings

of the Reformation
Martin Luther saw the sermon as God’s quintessential medium of salva-
tion.3 According to his point of view, a sermon was not a speech about holy
1
Albrecht Beutel, “Aufklärung II. Theologisch-kirchlich”, in Religion in Geschichte und
Gegenwart, 4th ed., Vol. 1 (Tübingen 1998), pp. 941–948, at pp. 945–946.
2
See Dieter Breuer ed., Die Aufklärung in den deutschsprachigen katholischen Ländern
1750–1800: Kulturelle Ausgleichsprozesse im Spiegel von Bibliotheken in Luzern, Eichstätt
und Klosterneuburg (Paderborn, 2001).
3
See Alfred Niebergall, “Luthers Auffassung von der Predigt nach De Servo Arbitrio”,
in Reformation und Gegenwart (Marburger Theologische Studien 6) (Marburg, 1968),
pp. 83–109.
theology of the sermon in the 18th century 59
things or the contents of faith, but a speech that reached into the life of its
audience. A sermon can become verbum efficax, an efficacious word, which
moves, realigns and reconstitutes men.4
Both Lutherans and members of the Reformed Church followed
this view of sermons. The central confessional document of Lutheran
Protestantism, the Confessio Augustana of 1530, has this to say concerning
the office of preaching: in order “to obtain faith, God established the office
of preaching, to give the Gospel and sacraments, through which he awakens
faith where and when he wishes, as the means that gives the Holy Spirit, in
those who hear the Gospel”.5
When he preaches, a preacher places himself in the service of the
preaching office. He speaks in the hope that God might need his words.
Wherever God’s word rings out, something new will be created, according
to the example of Genesis 1:3–30. Righteous men are made out of sinful
ones (meaning those who are far from God) through the word of God in
the sermon. The righteous live with God in harmony and unison. This
new creation, just like the creation of the universe, is a creatio ex nihilo.
By his very nature man is – at least according to the fundamental assump-
tion of Reformation anthropology – an enemy of God. He bears within
himself the impulse of acting in competition with God. He wants to
manage without God in his own life, and contests God’s divinity. At the
very least he wishes to engage with God at the same level (see Genesis
3:4–6). In contrast to man’s assessment, however, this ambition does not
lead him to freedom and autonomy, but rather into enslavement to his
impulses, desires and moods; to dependence on others; to turning in upon
himself; and, finally, to death. The sermon intervenes in this disastrous
course of events, rending man from self-destruction and placing him in an
entirely new condition: the condition of faith. Faith can be understood as
an intact relationship with God. On the other hand, sin, as the opposite of
faith, is a broken relationship with God.
During his life man will lose his faith repeatedly. His nature struggles
against the intervention of God and leads him to fall back into the condi-
tion of sin. Thus man cannot be helped with one single sermon. He must
repeatedly expose himself to sermons, in order to allow his faith to be
4
Martin Luther, Eyn kleyn unterricht, was man ynn den Euangelijs suchen und gewartten
soll (1522) (Weimarer Ausgabe 10.I.1) (Weimar 1910), pp. 8–18, at pp. 11–12; Martin
Luther, Eine Predigt, dass man Kinder zur Schulen halten solle (1530) (Bonner Ausgabe 4)
(Bonn 1926), pp. 144–178, at p. 150.
5
Confessio Augustana, in Die Bekenntnisschriften der evangelisch-lutherischen Kirche
5th ed. (Göttingen, 1963), pp. 31–137, at p. 58.
60 alexander bitzel
renewed and to overcome his natural tendency towards distance from God.
For this reason, a central place was reserved for the sermon in the religious
services of the Reformation. When a sermon was not going to be preached
or was not possible, then Christians should simply not assemble, as Luther
wrote in Von Ordnung Gottesdiensts in der Gemeinde (1523).6
According to the Reformers, the sermon is the primary place in which
God reached out to his people. The sermon deals with what is most
important.Th e Protestant sermon is thus not a speech like any other.
A central confessional document from the Reformed church, the Confessio
Helvetica posterior, put together by Heinrich Bullinger (1505–1575),7
summarizes this view of the sermon in the following pithy phrase: Praedicatio
verbi dei est verbum dei (the preaching of the word of God is the word
of God).8 The verb est is crucial. A sermon is not automatically the word of
God, but becomes it when the spirit of God is bound to what is said in the
pulpit. When this alliance between spirit and word occurs, the words of the
sermon are no longer the words of man, but are rather the efficacious or
newly creating word of God.
In the area of the Protestant churches the sermon is soteriologially
understood. The heirs of Luther and Zwingli all knew about the potential
of preaching and thus laid heavy emphasis on its practice.9 The age of
confessionalism is for this reason a high water mark in the history of the
Christian sermon.10 With the expenditure of a great deal of rhetoric,
a homiletic level was reached that has since then seldom been achieved.11
6
Martin Luther, Von Ordnung Gottesdiensts in der Gemeine (1523) (Bonner Ausgabe 2)
(Bonn 1925), pp. 424–426, at p. 424.
7
See Emidio Campi, “Bullinger, Heinrich, in Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart,
4th ed. Vol. 1 (Tübingen 1998), pp. 1858–1859.
8
See Gottfried W. Locher, “PRAEDICATIO VERBI DEI EST VERBUM DEI.
Heinrich Bullinger zwischen Luther und Zwingli. Ein Beitrag zu seiner Theologie”,
in Gottfried W. Locher, Huldrych Zwingli in neuer Sicht. Zehn Beiträge zur Theologie
der Zürcher Reformation (Zürich/Stuttgart, 1969), pp. 275–287.
9
See Johann Gerhard as an example of this, LOCI THEOLOGICI VI.XXIII, ed.
F. Frank (Leipzig, 1885), pp. 164 and 177.
10
See Wolfgang Sommer, Gottesfurcht und Fürstenherrschaft. Studien zum
Obrigkeitsverständnis Johann Arndts und lutherischer Hofprediger zur Zeit der altprotestan-
tischen Orthodoxie (Forschungen zur Kirchen- und Dogmengeschichte 41) (Göttingen,
1988), p. 14.
11
Indeed, confessional polemic was a principal characteristic of Lutheran and Reformed-
orthodox sermons, according to Gottfried Bitter; see Gottfried Bitter and Martina
Splonskowski in “Predigt VII. Katholische Predigt der Neuzeit”, in Theologische
Realenzyklopädie, Vol. 27 (Berlin/New York 1997), pp. 262–296, at pp. 263–265. This
judgement is however not accurate. The preachers of the later sixteenth and the seventeenth
centuries recognized that conflict with the alternative versions of truth presented by their
theological opponents was an important mission of preaching, but this was never their
2.2 The Theology of the Sermon According to the Decrees of the Council
of Trent (1545–1563)
The Roman Catholic Church, which is the part of western Christendom
that did not participate in the Lutheran or Swiss Reformation, has a com-
pletely different understanding of the sermon. Only a few catholic theolo-
gians developed a mystagogical understanding of the sermon through the
conflict with Reformation theology.12 At the Council of Trent (1545–1563),
where the foundation stone of the Roman Catholic confession was being
laid,13 there arose a theology of the sermon quite divergent from that of the
Protestants.
The decrees of the Council of Trent that have to do with preaching
spend a great deal of effort on regulation, stipulating where and when
preaching has to occur, who is allowed to preach, how the vocation to
be a preacher works, and so on. Episcopal oversight over preaching is
particularly precisely regulated. Behind this juridical regulation lies the
attempt to avoid, under all circumstances, the penetration of Protestant
preachers into Roman Catholic congregations. The sermon itself was
defined as an instruction of the things that the congregation should know
in view of their salvation. The sermon also had the responsibility of exhort-
ing and of propagating the good characteristics which are to be followed,
if one wishes to avoid eternal damnation in hell and participate in the
heavenly Glory of God.14
central focus. Concerning the theme of confessional polemic in the age of Lutheran
Orthodoxy, see Alexander Bitzel, “Seelsorge und Streit. Johann Gerhards Bibliothek als
Spiegel seines theologischen Selbstverständnisses”, in Kerygma und Dogma 48 (2002),
pp. 133–146.
12
See Corrie E. Norman, “The Social History of Preaching: Italy”, in Preachers and
People in the Reformations and Early Modern Period, ed. Larissa Taylor, A New History of
the Sermon 2 (Leiden/Boston/Köln, 2001), pp. 125–191, at pp. 149–151.
13
Hubert Jedin, Der Abschluss des Trienter Konzils 1562/63 Ein Rückblick nach vier
Jahrhunderten (Katholisches Leben und Kämpfen im Zeitalter der Glaubensspaltung 21)
(Münster, 1963), p. 75, speaks in a restrained manner about an “act of self-awareness and
self-renewal of the church”; Klaus Ganzer, “Trient 3) Konzil”, in Lexikon für Theologie und
Kirche, 3rd ed., X, pp. 225–232, at p. 231, shows a more strongly articulated awareness that
the Council of Trent was about the constitution of Roman Catholic confessionalism.
14
See “Decretum secundum publicatum in eadem quinta sessione super lectione et
praedicatione, 11”, in Stephanus Ehses ed., Concilii Tridentini actorum pars altera acta post
sessionem tertiam usque ad concilium bononiam translatum (Concilium Tridentinum diario-
rum, actorum, epistolarum, tractatuum nova collectio IV) (Freiburg 1964), pp. 241–243,
at p. 242. The decree is quite clear that the bishop has to make sure that the position of
preacher can be set up for all cathedral and collegiate churches; the munus praecipuum of
bishops is the sermon; priests were obliged to preach on all Sundays and feast days; the
study of the Gospel for the purpose of preparing sermons was given precedence over its
study for scholastic purposes.
62 alexander bitzel
Teaching and admonition are thus the central tasks of preaching. The
sermon does not have a sacramental character. It is not a soteriologically
relevant phenomenon. According to the conception of the council of
Trent, the Eucharist is the central event of salvation in the Mass, providing
for the forgiveness of sins and energizing the believer.15 Preaching, by com-
parison, is merely an “indispensable medium for the internalization of the
new Roman Catholic edifice of teaching.” It has the purpose of instructing
the already existing congregation according to the Holy Word and the laws
of God.16 Thus the congregation is not initially constituted through the
sermon, in contrast to the case in Protestant sermon theology.17 The mem-
bers of a roman-catholic congregation are merely informed and instructed
through a sermon.
Just as with Protestant theologians, this theological view of the sermon
is based on a specific anthropology and doctrine of grace. According to the
Roman Catholic conception, a baptized person is no longer entirely a
sinner. He thus is no longer living in opposition to God. Rather, with
baptism he becomes a participant in the gratia prima, from which he
retains a lasting quality. The baptized person thus carries the kernel of the
intact relationship with God, as well as of moral good, within him.
The relationship with God must only be helped along and developed with
the assistance of the gratia subsequens. It does not constantly have to be
reestablished ex nihilo against strong opposition. For the person who has
been given the gratia prima and, according to the Roman Catholic point
of view, is thus qualified to have an intact relationship with God, the ser-
mon must only provide stimuli and encouragement to help him progress
on his chosen path.
With respect to the theological assessment of the sermon, therefore,
both of the major western confessions differ from each other significantly.
This disparity has lasted in principle to this day. Nevertheless, in eighteenth-
century sermon theology there occurred in certain senses a noticeable nar-
rowing of the gap between the two confessional camps, as will shortly
become clear.
15
See “Doctrina et canones de sanctissimo missae sacrificio, publicati in sessione sexta,
cap. I & II”, in Stephanus Ehses ed., Concilii Tridentini actorum pars quinta complectens acta
ad praeparandum concilium, et sessiones anni 1562 a prima (XVII) ad sextam (XXII)
(Concilium Tridentinum diariorum, actorum, epistolarum, tractatuum nova collectio IIX)
(Freiburg 1964), 959–960.
16
Bitter and Splonskowski, Predigt, p. 267.
17
See Luther’s work, based on Jacob 1:18, concerning the church as a creatura verbi in
Martin Luther, Resolutiones Lutherianae super propositionibus suis Lipsiae disputatis (1519)
(Weimarer Ausgabe 2) (Weimar 1884), pp. 388–435, at p. 430.
3. Protestant Theology of the Sermon in the Eighteenth Century
Lutheran sermon theory of the seventeenth century is strongly characterized

by the concept of the efficacia verbi divini (the efficacy of the divine Word).
It continues the legacy of the Reformation uninterrupted. The Lutheran
sermon of the seventeenth century tries to translate the basic insights of its
sermon theology into praxis. The rhetorical effort expended by the preacher
at the pulpit serves the purpose of rousing the emotions of the audience.
By doing so it tries make them receptive to the Holy Spirit that Jesus
Christ has promised to give. The sermon is understood as a tool that pre-
pares the way for the spirit of God and as a medium for the transmission
of this spirit. When the spirit of God joins with the words of the sermon
it takes up residence, according to John 14:23, in the hearts of the listen-
ers, and then the sermon has fulfilled its purpose.
3.1 Pietism
At the end of the seventeenth century, Pietism emerged within the Lutheran
church as a movement for the renewal of the church and of piety.18 It was
one of many movements in Europe at that time which tried to reform
church life. Pietism regarded itself as a continuation of the Reformation.
It wished to help in the removal of the deficiencies in religious life.19 This
also applied to the domain of preaching.
The manifesto of German Lutheran Pietism are the Pia desideria, which
appeared in 1675, written by Philipp Jakob Spener (1635–1705), at that
time pastor and provost (Senior) in Frankfurt (Main). In this work Spener
views the meaning of the sermon in a very traditional way. Along with
Romans 1:16, he recognizes that the sermon is the most outstanding
medium through which God builds his congregation20 and through which
he acts as the people’s saviour.21 For Spener, the sermon is “the divine hand
that offers grace and reaches out to the believer since the word itself
awakens faith through the Holy Spirit”.22
18
See Martin Brecht, “Einleitung”, in Geschichte des Pietismus, Band 1 Der Pietismus
vom siebzehnten bis zum frühen achtzehnten Jahrhundert, ed. Martin Brecht (Göttingen,
1993), pp. 1–10.
19
See Philipp Jakob Spener, Pia desideria: Oder Hertzliches Verlangen/Nach Gottgefälliger
Besserung der wahren Evangelischen Kirchen/sampt einigen dahin einfältig abzweckenden
Christlichen Vorschlägen (Frankfurt/Main, 1680; repr. Hildesheim, 1979), pp. 92–93.
20
Spener, Pia desideria, p. 149.
21
Spener, Pia desideria, pp. 47, 150.
22
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It is incontestable for Spener that a preacher is only able to preach God’s

saving word when the Holy Spirit accompanies his sermon. Thus at first
glance there appears to be no difference between the way that Spener and
his fellow Pietists theologically assessed the sermon, and the way that
Reformation theology did. Nevertheless, Spener demands a renewal of
religious preaching. According to him it was in a shocking state. One of its
chief problems was that controversialist or polemical theology was running
wild in the pulpit.23 Another problem was the lack of piety, that is to say
inappropriate lifestyles on the part of the preachers. In this context one
can observe an important renewal with Spener. As a theologian in the
Protestant tradition, he stood fundamentally by the conviction of western
Christendom, developed in the antidonatist conflict of the fourth century,
that the quality and state of he who administers the sacraments and the
Word of God – the latter being the underlying sacrament of all others
according to Protestant theology – did not have an influence on its efficacy,
which is ensured by God himself and would be bestowed now and forever.
A preacher’s way of life can of course influence the believability of his
sermon, whether negatively or positively, and this point was not over-
looked by Reformation and post-Reformation theology. Thus Spener’s
innovation is not his discussion of the lifestyles of preachers, but rather his
message of their desirable rebirth. He demands this expressly in his Pia
desideria. It is precisely because preachers have a deep responsibility for the
spiritual life of their congregations that Spener wants them “to be true
Christians as much as possible and to have divine wisdom so that they may
also carefully guide others on the path of the Lord”.24 Behind this demand
stands Spener’s conviction that only a converted preacher can bring about
conversions, just as only a reborn preacher can engender other rebirths.
Spener answers the question that arises from this, namely how a preacher
can be reborn, with the demand that any preacher should let the Word of
God penetrate his heart.25 Spener suggests a fundamental renewal of the
daily praxis pietatis in order to make this successful. This renewal is the
primary substance of the Pia desideria. Spener expects it to result in a sub-
stantial improvement in the religious situation. He expects that the church
“might be restored to a more splendid state”.26
23
Spener, Pia desideria, pp. 139–140.
24
25
26
The renewal of the church is meant to take place “through a conscious

effort to bring the Word of God more abundantly among us”.27 This is
because “The more abundantly the word lives among us, the more we will
manage to achieve faith and its fruits”.28 According to Spener’s view, the
media for spreading the Word of God are the sermon, public church
assemblies and private Bible readings, that is to say prayer meetings at
private homes, at which Biblical texts are discussed under the leadership of
a pastor or someone with theological training.29 While Luther and his
successors saw the church service, Bible readings and discussion with other
Christians about matters of belief (mutuum colloquium) as paths that led
equally to engagement with the Word of God,30 Spener made special plead-
ing for a stronger establishment of opportunities for discussion (collegia
pietatis), and thus for the formation of a mutuum colloquium fratrum soro-
rumque.31 He saw here an important place where the Word of God can
fortify the inner person in order to improve his way of life. In the case of a
preacher, the mutuum colloquium fratrum sororumque helps to make his
preaching more effective.32 Spener in this way gives methodical instruc-
tions for pneumatic preaching, or preaching that leads to salvation.33
On the surface Spener clings to the fundamental Protestant conviction
of the inalienability of the spirit of God, and thus to the belief that every
successful sermon is a gift of God’s grace. Spener also seems to adhere to
the fundamental division between preaching and preacher. However, he
does search for practical ways to have a positive influence on, indeed to
increase, the effectiveness and thus the pneumatic quality of the sermon.
Spener particularly wishes to promote the fruits of faith – that is good
works – by means of the sermon. Sermons should be arranged so that “their
purpose, namely faith and its fruits, can be furthered as much as possible
among their audience”.34 Accordingly, Spener’s method of preaching had
27
28
29
30
Martin Luther, Schmalkaldische Artikel III.IV, in Die Bekenntnisschriften der
evangelisch-lutherischen Kirche 5th ed. (Göttingen, 1963), pp. 405–468, at p. 449.
31
See Martin Brecht, “Philipp Jakob Spener, sein Programm und dessen Auswirkungen”,
in Geschichte des Pietismus 1 (see above, n. 18), pp. 279–389, at pp. 295–299.
32
Spener, Pia desideria (see above, n. 19), p. 144.
33
Another method of increasing the devoutness of preachers is for them to live an ascetic
life, as Spener already demands for theology students in: Spener, Pia desideria, pp. 135–137;
this ascetic lifestyle would then serve as an example to the congregation when the pastor
was in office, according to Spener, Pia desideria, pp. 133–134.
34
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a tendency towards moral exhortation and ethical instruction (paraenesis).

The theological emphasis thus shifted away from trying to establish faith
anew through the sermon, towards encouraging the faithful to good works
of justice.
The tendency of the following Pietist preaching towards a simple,
applicable interpretation of Biblical texts, and its thematic alignment
towards decision, conversion and rebirth as well as its strong pull towards
ethical instruction – particularly noticeable in the work of the Glaucha
preacher August Hermann Francke (1663–1727)35 – are ultimately related
to the fundamental theological assumption that faith is no longer a gift a
person has to receive over and over again. Faith is rather seen as something
that is more or less in the possession of each person who has had a conver-
sion experience. As a result, sermons help to deepen and strengthen one’s
faith. They help to keep converted believers on the way of sanctification.
The Pietism of Spener and his successors constitutes a Lutheran
modernization movement. It drew its impulse from its own time, learned
from its epoch, suited itself to the needs of people and attempted to update
the Lutheran tradition in a plausible manner. People in the late seven-
teenth and early eighteenth centuries had a strong need to verify faith
empirically and to be able to comprehend it. The contribution of Pietism
was ensuring this verification through a good mode of living. This point of
view became very popular. The theology of the sermon remained more or
less traditional, but gradually shifted its coordinates in the direction of the
moralization of preaching.
The Herrnhuter Brüdergemeine (Moravian Church) presents an entirely
different way in which Lutheran Pietism played itself out. It arises from a
religious revival among Bohemian and Moravian exiles in Upper Silesia,
who finally found a new home in the Upper Lusatia estates Berthelsdorf
and Herrnhut of Count Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf (1700–1760).
There they founded the renewed Brüder-Unität as a congregation of
revivalists.36 Together with Johann Andreas Rothe (1688–1758), the pas-
tor of Herrnhut, Zinzendorf tried to consolidate this colony that was
interested in personal salvation. It remained within the Lutheran church of
35
See Erhard Peschke ed., Die frühen Katechismuspredigten August Hermann Franckes
1693–1695 (Arbeiten zur Geschichte des Pietismus 28) (Göttingen, 1992).
36
See Dietrich Meyer, Zinzendorf und die Herrnhuter Brüdergemeine 1700–2000 (Kleine
Reihe V&R 4019) (Göttingen, 2000), pp. 19–24; Dietrich Meyer, “Brüder-Unität II.
Erneuerte Brüder-Unität”, in Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart 4th ed., Vol. 1 (Tübingen
1998), pp. 1792–1796, at p. 1792.
Saxony as an ecclesiola in ecclesia (a concept of Spener), although it

developed a pronouncedly peculiar and individual religious atmosphere.
An escalating rivalry with Halle, which in the beginning formed a model
for the brothers, led to a break in 1733. As a result the soteriological zeal
that was characteristic of Halle Pietism disappeared in Herrnhut.37
Zinzendorf rediscovered Luther’s insight that a person need not prepare
the way for conversion and deliverance through lengthy struggles with
penance, but rather that both were given to him entirely without precon-
ditions by Christ at the moment of a conversion carried out by the Holy
Spirit. Thus in Herrnhut there occurred a recovery of Reformation theology
and devoutness under the altered conditions of the eighteenth century.
This new appropriation is reflected also in Zinzendorf ’s theology and prac-
tice of preaching, which are significantly closer to those of the Reformation
than to those of Pietism.
In a speech Zinzendorf gave 1746 in London he identifies preachers
with the servants sent out by the king in Matthew 22:2–3 in order to sum-
mon guests to his son’s wedding. The servants do this on the instruction of
a congregation that is already in unio with Christ, looking forward to new
participants.38 Adding further souls to the community of Christ is the task
of the sermon,39 which does so “by dealing with nothing other than Christ
and by making the bridegroom tangible to these souls”.40 The sermon thus
fulfils its goal, as outlined in 1 Corinthians 2:2, exclusively in its depiction
of the nature, words and gifts of Christ. If the Holy Spirit accompanies
this rendering of Jesus, the audience of the sermon – according to
Zinzendorf – will recognize Jesus as saviour and will be enfolded into com-
munity with him.41 Consequently, no appeals for penance or moral
improvement should issue from the pulpit, but rather the story of Christ
that has the power to awaken faith and to lead the new believer into the
community with Christ. The preacher serves this calling of Christ. He, the
preacher, hopes – and here lies a further link to Reformation homiletics –
that his word becomes the efficacious, calling word of God and will lead
new participants to the congregation.42 The joy that fills a soul dedicated
37
Meyer, “Brüder-Unität”, 1792.
38
Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf, “Dritte Rede”, in Neun Oeffentliche Reden über
wichtige in die Religion einschlagende Materien, gehalten zu London in Fetterlane-Capelle
Anno 1746 (s. l. [1746]; repr. Hildesheim, 1963), pp. 43–61, at p. 60.
39
See especially Zinzendorf, “Dritte Rede”, pp. 44–47.
40
Zinzendorf, “Dritte Rede”, p. 50.
41
42
Zinzendorf points out that the Spirit of God can inspire men to the community of
Christ without a sermon as well, in “Dritten Rede”, pp. 52–56.
68 alexander bitzel
to Christ makes it unsusceptible to the temptations of the world.43

According to Zinzendorf moral improvement arises out of this joy and not
out of a struggle with penance or as a result of being terrified by the con-
sequences of too great a love of the world. Moreover the moral improve-
ment is not accompanied by the notion of a superior justification, nor is it
linked to the moral degradation of those who do not (yet) belong to the
congregation.
In a speech he gave in 1748,44 Zinzendorf characterizes a successful
sermon as a sharing of Christ’s reconciliation, through which the heart of
a person is made totally new. Christ’s meritum (atonement and reconcilia-
tion) can be shared in many ways. The sermon can be written on a torn
piece of paper used by a shopkeeper to wrap his wares.45 A maid can also
act as a preacher, “who is perhaps also a musical person, and who sits on
her step and sings a verse to pass the time”. If this verse pierces the heart of
a person passing by and makes him recognize Christ as his saviour, “the
words of such a musical maid are then the Gospel, and she is their angel”.46
This passage is a clear contradiction of Spener’s position that only a
converted soul can convert souls. The only thing that is of crucial impor-
tance for Zinzendorf is that Christ and no other is preached to the people:
“Thus the deeds of Christ are the treasure, and the description and telling
of this treasure are the means of calling forth and kindling faith, so that
the blessedness of man and all of secular and eternal wellbeing are there
simultaneously”.47
Also in this speech it is the Holy Spirit that is the exclusive agent of
man’s conversion:
The Saviour beckons to us, the Holy Spirit is there for that purpose in this
entire world, and even if there is only the slightest desire in a soul, he makes
that moment an opportunity, and brings a syllable, or a word, or a line of the
Gospel, i.e., earth-moving and salvation-bringing truths to the heart of that
same man, without his having to do anything, without preparation, and
makes a blessed heart out of him, among us.48
43
44
Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf, “Der zwölfte Discurs”, in Ein und zwanzig Discurse
über die Augspurgische Konfession gehalten vom 15. Dec. 1747 bis zum 3. Mart. 1748. denen
Seminariis Theologicis Fratrum zum Besten aufgefaßt (s.l. [1746], repr. Hildesheim, 1963),
pp. 220–230.
45
Zinzendorf, “Der zwölfte Discurs”, pp. 224–225.
46
Zinzendorf, “Der zwölfte Discurs”, p. 225.
47
48
The polemic remark against the struggle of penance in the tradition of

Halle Pietism is obvious here. Zinzendorf ’s theological view of the sermon
is in accord with the tradition of the Reformation. If the spirit of God – he
states – accompanies a sermon, it radically changes people’s lives. The
preacher takes part in the work of the Holy Spirit, but he does not set it into
motion with his own power. His activity is nevertheless indispensable, since
he has something to say that is unfathomable. People are dependent on the
service of the preacher, in order to experience the salvation through Christ.49
Questions of moral improvement are not the primary focus of preaching.
3.2 Later Lutheran Orthodoxy

Later Lutheran Orthodoxy is understood as that theological current that
further developed the classical orthodox Lutheran dogma of the late six-
teenth and seventeenth centuries and – to the extent that this was possible
without damaging the existing body of teachings – encompassed a more or
less cautious modernization. The late Orthodoxy of the eighteenth century
was characterized neither by a rigid adherence to inherited theological
positions, nor by being a niche phenomenon. Just as Pietism, it took in the
spiritual influences of its time, in particular the rationalism of the
Enlightenment. Late Lutheran Orthodoxy was the theological mainstream
within the Lutheran church in Germany until approximately 1750.
Ostensibly, the preaching of later Orthodoxy differed from that of
Pietism in many ways. It was a very erudite type of preaching. In addition,
it put a great emphasis on controversial issues. Both characteristics illustrate
the close ties of this type of preaching to its classical Lutheran roots.
However, the controversialist culture of later Orthodoxy from time to
time led to osmosis-phenomena, in the course of which the positions of
theological opponents flowed into one’s own teaching and practice.
Processes of this type had the effect of making one later Orthodox theolo-
gian more Pietistic, while another would have a stronger tendency towards
rationalism. Thus the theological spectrum of later Orthodoxy was broad.
49
Zinzendorf, “Der zwölfte Discurs”, p. 228; Gottfried Clemens’ “Vorrede” summarizes
Zinzendorf ’s homiletic request in [Nikolaus Ludwig Graf von Zinzendorf ], Auszüge aus des
Seligen Ordinarii der Evangelischen Brüder-Kirche sowol ungedruckten als gedruckten Reden
über biblische Texte, ed. Gottfried Clemens (Barby, 1763), pp. a2r-c7v, at p. b1r: “Just as the
witness of Jesus is the Spirit, the quintessence of all prophesying and the entire revelation
of God among men, Revelation 19:10, and just as Moses and all the prophets bore witness
to this Jesus, that in his name forgiveness of all sins should occur for all those who believe
in him, thus the blessed man attempts in all his discourse and meditations to make each
person aware of this spirit of the scriptures”.
70 alexander bitzel
Common to all representatives of this type of theology was their adher-

ence to the traditional Lutheran dogma.
Late Orthodoxy updated Lutheran sermon theology, emphasizing the
soteriological dimension of the sermon. In many ways it realized this
central belief in its practice of preaching. Of course, later Orthodox ser-
mons were different from those of their predecessors in the seventeenth
century. Practitioners of later Orthodoxy were not repristinators. Not a
single one of them remained uninfluenced by his own time.
In general terms, a rationalizing tendency is peculiar to late Orthodox
theologians. To a certain extent they all shared the fundamental thesis of
eighteenth-century rationalism that faith is substantially affected by human
reason, and that one should demonstrate the correctness and relevance of
the content of his preaching in a rational way. Besides this they handed
down the positions of Reformation and post-Reformation theologians.
Siegmund Jacob Baumgarten (1706–1757)50 for example, professor of
theology at Halle, defined the most important task of the preacher in his
posthumously published Evangelische Glaubenslehre (1759–60) as “the
preaching of the revealed order of salvation”.51 Moreover, drawing on John
8:31–32.47, John 10:27 and 14:23, he held that the sermon was “the
internal acceptance and observance of the approaching revelation of God
in Holy Scripture, the agreement of the soul with Holy Scripture, the
actual marker and item of differentiation of the true members of the
church”. For Baumgarten, the sermon was the place where decisions were
made for the membership of the church and for people’s salvation.
Accordingly he wrote concerning the sermon in a Sunday service:
The ultimate goal consists of the honouring and worshipping of God, which
are furthered in two ways through the office of teaching during the service.
1. Through making the perfection of God known and by indicating the best
way to worship him.
2. Through the arrangement and collection of people into the community of
God.52
In the context of the worship of God, the sermon serves “to further the
blessedness of the people, since it operated as one of the tools of God”.53
50
See Martin Schloemann, “Baumgarten, Siegmund Jacob”, in Religion in Geschichte
und Gegenwart, 4th ed., Vol. 1 (Tübingen 1997), pp. 1180–1181.
51
Siegmund Jacob Baumgarten, Evangelische Glaubenslehre, ed. Johann Salomon Semler
(Halle, 1760) III, p. 620.
52
Baumgarten, Evangelische Glaubenslehre, pp. 634–635.
53
Baumgarten, Evangelische Glaubenslehre, p. 635.
The doxology, the gathering of the congregation of God, and individual

salvation and justification were thus those things that Baumgarten wanted
to occur during a sermon. The soteriological potential of the sermon was
beyond question for him. In close agreement with Reformation teachings
on the office of the preacher, Baumgarten writes that God wants to assem-
ble his people on earth with the help of preachers and not directly by
himself.54 Because of this, one of the most important duties of the preacher
is to do his work very carefully.55 The sermon is the very center of the life
of the congregation. It lets “the audience know that God is willing and able
to help them on their spiritual pilgrimage, and to accompany all usage of
the office of preaching during services with saving grace”.56 This is a classic
Reformation view of a preacher’s task. The sermon is seen as a medium
of salvation. Despite all the innovations Baumgarten introduces into his
theology,57 in this respect tradition is upheld.
At first glance, late orthodox preachers preached exactly the same way
their forbears in the seventeenth century did. A closer comparison shows,
however, that rational argumentation played a much more important role
in later orthodox sermons than had previously been the case. Thus later
orthodox theologians and preachers laid heavy emphasis on psychological
and historical plausibility. For example, in a collection of sermons given by
the Lutheran churchman Johann Jakob Eisenlohr (1655–1736) and pub-
lished in Karlsruhe in 1740, the editor Christoph Peter Eisenlohr, one of
the author’s sons, wrote that it is tremendously foolish of man not to take
care of the lamentable state of his own soul and realize that for his salvation
he is totally dependent on God’s grace.58 On the other hand, the person
who is clever and sensible will reach out for God’s grace and will be blessed.
The following sermons aim to lead people to the recognition of the means
by which they can achieve their own salvation.59 The foreword ends, while
referring to Luke 10:38–42, with the plea: “O rational soul! What do you
54
Baumgarten, Evangelische Glaubenslehre, p. 635. Concerning the orthodox Lutheran
understanding of the office, see Alexander Bitzel, Anfechtung und Trost bei Sigismund
Scherertz. Ein lutherischer Theologe im Dreißigjährigen Krieg (Arbeiten zur Kirchengeschichte
Niedersachsens 38) (Göttingen, 2002), pp. 43–49.
55
Baumgarten, Glaubenslehre, pp. 635–637.
56
Baumgarten, Glaubenslehre, p. 639.
57
See Martin Schloemann, Siegmund Jacob Baumgarten. System und Geschichte in der
Theologie des Übergangs zum Neuprotestantismus, (Forschungen zur Kirchen- und
Dogmengeschichte 26) (Göttingen, 1974).
58
Christoph Peter Eisenlohr, “Vorrede”, in Johann Jakob Eisenlohr, XLI. geistliche
Betrachtungen/deren jede einen Biblischen Haupt=Spruch zum Grunde hat, ed. C. P. Eisenlohr
(Karlsruhe, 1740), pp. )()(1v-)()(8r, at p. )()(2v.
59
Eisenlohr, XLI. geistliche Betrachtungen, p. )()(7v.
72 alexander bitzel
wish to do now? Would you prefer eternal death or eternal life? Choose
what your own good sense tells you, choose the better part along with
Mary, and your Jesus will reach out the open arms of his grace to you”.60
This appeal to rational insight makes the influence of the Enlightenment
obvious. On the other hand, the reference to the biblical tradition, as well
as the statement that man must reach out for the grace of God, shows
that the classical Lutheran dogma is still very much alive. According to
C. P. Eisenlohr’s point of view, the task of a sermon is to make clear that
faith in salvation through Christ is the best and most plausible belief a man
can have. If a preacher is able to convey this in a successful way, then faith
will awaken among his audience.
The sermons of J. J. Eisenlohr that follow are formally traditional. But
they are also imbued with the spirit of the rationalizing eighteenth century.
In terms of their theological and doctrinal content they are anchored in
the classical Lutheran dogma. However, they differ significantly from the
Lutheran sermons of the seventeenth century in so far as they try to con-
vince their listeners in a rational way. Nevertheless, they have the ambition
of developing soteriological potential.
To conceive the sermon as an occasion where salvation can occur – the
shibboleth, so to speak, of Protestant sermon theology – is a basic belief
of the university teacher Baumgarten as well as of the preachers J. J. and
C. P. Eisenlohr. Christoph Weißenborn (died 1700), who himself was not
a preacher, but an adjunct (docent) in the faculty of philosophy at Jena
University and later head of a school in Eisenberg,61 also refers to the
sotetiological impact a sermon can have. Weißenborn had studied theol-
ogy in Jena where his uncle Johann Weißenborn (1644–1700), member of
the church council in Eisenach, was professor. His cousin Jesaja Friedrich
Weißenborn (1673–1750), pastor at St. Michael’s church in Jena, intro-
duced him to the practice of preaching. In his quite successful book62
Kirchen=Redner Christoph Weißenborn defined the task of a preacher,
according to 1 Corinthians 2:1–4, as to bring the congregation close to the
word of God, “not with high-flown words, not with human, but with
divine wisdom and with proof of the spirit and its power”.63 Theologically
60
Eisenlohr, XLI. geistliche Betrachtungen, p. )()(8r.
61
See Johann Heinrich Zedler, Grosses vollständiges Universal=Lexikon aller Wissenschaften
und Künste 54 (Halle 1732–1754, repr. Graz 1998), p. 1281.
62
Along with the first edition in 1704, there is evidence of editions from 1711 and 1714.
63
Johann Weißenborn, Gründlich=unterrichteter Kirchen=Redner welcher die
Haupt=Regeln der geistlichen Beredsamkeit vom Anfang bis zum Ende nach der Methode der
berühmtesten Prediger durch deutliche Fragen und Antwort beybringet/mit nützlichen Exempeln
erleutert (Jena, 1704), p. 2.
it was out of the question for Weißenborn that spirit of God itself infused
the preacher with the ability to give a sermon capable of causing salvation,
“in order to further the worship of the triune God”.64 Weißenborn presents
a very traditional view of the soteriological impact a sermon can have. Just
as traditional is his doxological definition of the goal of the sermon.
3.3 Johann Lorenz von Mosheim

Johann Lorenz von Mosheim (1693–1755), a professor at Helmstedt
University and later at Göttingen University, is generally viewed as the
father of modern homiletics.65 It is beyond the scope of this essay to explore
further how justified this assessment is. It is certainly true, however, that
Mosheim gave a specific flavour to the homiletics of his time. In his
posthumously published Anweisung erbaulich zu predigen, Mosheim asserts
that “everyone who recognizes the teaching of Christ needs instruction
and admonition”.66 The sermon, the locus for instruction and admonition,
is thus indispensable for a Christian congregation, because it arouses faith.
The faith awoken through the sermon is not the spiritual possession of
people, but must be given new life and sustenance through regular preach-
ing. Faith is not stable, but is rather a dynamic matter that perpetually
needs shoring up. Because very few Christians, according to Mosheim, are
in the position to instruct or uplift themselves; because owning a Bible is
no guarantee of reading it; and finally because individual instruction is not
affordable – public preaching is essential for the congregation of Jesus
Christ. Mosheim saw private collegia biblica as no alternative. They have
their place and their meaning, but do not make preaching to the congrega-
tion superfluous.67
Mosheim judged the practice of preaching in his own time to be in a
lamentable condition. He demanded that it be renewed. In so doing,
he acknowledged that each epoch needed its own style of preaching.
A classical, timeless style of preaching could not exist, because humans did
not remain the same.68 Mosheim accepted the Pietist form of preaching,
64
Weißenborn, Gründlich=unterrichteter Kirchen=Redner, pp. 2–3.
65
Karl Heussi, Johann Lorenz Mosheim. Ein Beitrag zur Kirchengeschichte des achtzehnten
Jahrhunderts (Tübingen, 1906), pp. 106–121; Martin Peters, Der Bahnbrecher der moder-
nen Predigt, Johann Lorenz Mosheim, in seinen homiletischen Anschauungen gewürdigt
(Leipzig, 1910); Albrecht Beutel, “Mosheim, Johann Lorenz v.”, in Religion in Geschichte
und Gegenwart, 4th ed., Vol. 5 (Tübingen 2002), pp. 1546–1547.
66
Johann Lorenz von Mosheim, Anweisung erbaulich zu predigen, ed. Christian Ernst
von Windheim (Erlangen, 1763; repr. Waltrop, 1998), p. 23.
67
Mosheim, Anweisung erbaulich zu predigen, pp. 22–24.
68
Mosheim, Anweisung erbaulich zu predigen, p. 40.
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and followed it in his own reform of preaching. It was always important to

him that no theological strutting should take place in the pulpit.69 Sermons
should have a simple and clear language in order to do what they can do
according to Reformation belief: to awaken faith and to renew the lives of
their hearers.70 Mosheim’s innovation dealt first of all with the formal side
of the sermon. His sermon theology stuck closely to the traditional paths
of Reformation theology. In this way he was not at all innovative.
3.4 The In-between Theologians: Christian August Crusius

The theologians of the eighteenth century do not perhaps lend themselves
as easily to categorization into schools as those of other periods do.
In general terms, one can of course classify one eighteenth-century theolo-
gian as a Pietist and another as a member of the late Orthodox school.
When one is dealing with individual theologians, however, these classifica-
tions are only approximate. There is scarcely a late Orthodox preacher who
remained untouched by Pietism. By the same token, the Pietists passed
on the orthodox tradition. Theologians like the Leipzig professor Christian
August Crusius (1715–1775) fell between these traditions.71 On the one
hand he was influenced by the theology of Johannes Coccejus (1603–
1669) and the Württemberg Pietist Johann Albrecht Bengel (1687–1752),
but on the other hand he wished to extend orthodox dogma72 and stood
in opposition to the Enlightenment biblical theology of Johann August
Ernesti (1707–1781). In this way Crusius was a typical phenomenon of
his age. He himself fostered a didactic and theologizing sermon style
based on rational arguments, and rejected abstract theology just as vigor-
ously as excessive rhetorical ornamentation.73 Theologically, Crusius held
the classic Reformation view that a sermon mediated the Holy Spirit to the
audience, if it pleased God, and made their lives new again. Thus he
began his Sammlung Geistlicher Abhandlungen with the following
prayer:
69
See Inge Mager, “Zu Johann Lorenz von Mosheims theologischer Biographie”, in
Johann Lorenz Mosheim (1693–1755) Theologie im Spannungsfeld von Philosophie, Philologie
und Geschichte, ed. M. Mulsow et al., (Wolfenbütteler Forschungen 77) (Wiesbaden,
1997), pp. 277–295, at p. 285.
70
71
See Gert Röwenstrunk, “Crusius, Christian August”, in Theologische Realenzyklopädie,
Vol. 8 (Berlin/New York 1981), pp. 242–244.
72
See Christian August Crusius, Sammlung Geistlicher Abhandlungen (Leipzig, 1753),
pp. 59–60, where Crusius admits his belief in the orthodox Lutheran doctrine of
inspiration.
73
Crusius, Sammlung Geistlicher Abhandlungen, pp. *8v-**1r.
I ask your mercy, heavenly Father, for this work that I have undertaken that
is inadequate to your glory, that you may lay your blessing upon it in order
to make the hearts of your children true, and to fill with all abundance those
who are subject to the exercise of your mercy, and who are close to the king-
dom of heaven – to draw them closer to you, and on the other hand to make
the souls of those new who have gone astray, whether they are distracted by
vanity or do not yet know you, or who indeed blaspheme against that which
they know not – pay attention and improve them.74
It is a fact for Crusius that the Holy Spirit alone can make men new.75
Whoever does not withdraw from the effect of the spirit begins to “feel the
power of the divine word”.76 Crusius takes the same approach to the
preacher as does 1 Corinthians 3:6–7 – and here again he is consistent
with the Reformation tradition – that a sermon can only prepare the
ground for the effects of the spirit of God that one hopes and prays for:
We unworthy teachers can contribute nothing, other than teaching God’s
word as the word of God, and we do this very thing not as if we are actors in
and of ourselves, but rather in this way, that all praise is due to God, and that
we merely plant or water, and indeed neither he who plants nor he who
waters is anything without God, who grants that things may prosper.77
Crusius was very much a product of his own age and longed to bring the
experience of faith into being.78 His sermons are characterized by rational
arguments of historicity, as well as by psychologizing details, moral appeals,
and dogmatic contents. Crusius’ sermon theology is classic Reformation:
the practice of his preaching reveals him to be equally influenced by Pietism
and the Enlightenment.
3.5 The Theological Enlightenment

The theological Enlightenment in German-speaking areas occupied itself
with establishing a new relationship between revelation and reason. For its
adherents, the only thing that was true was that which was rationally com-
prehensible. Accordingly a rational critique of revelation and of all the
teachings in the church was undertaken. Biblical traditions were stripped
of all content that could not be made rationally plausible. The theologians
of the Enlightenment tended to distance themselves from the Trinitarian
74
Crusius, Sammlung Geistlicher Abhandlungen, p. **3v.
75
Crusius, Sammlung Geistlicher Abhandlungen, pp. 61–63.
76
Crusius, Sammlung Geistlicher Abhandlungen, p. 62.
77
Crusius, Sammlung Geistlicher Abhandlungen, p. **3v.
78
Crusius, Sammlung Geistlicher Abhandlungen, p. 44.
76 alexander bitzel
concept of God, as well as from traditional Christology. To a fully realized

Enlightenment theology, Jesus counted no longer as Saviour (Soter), but
rather only as the ideal teacher of virtue and wisdom. Biblical miracle tales
were either entirely retired or explained away rationalistically. People
attempted to correct the factual errors of biblical authors, as well as
contradiction within the biblical tradition. The goal of the biblical
Enlightenment was to establish a rational worship of God by putting aside
the dogmatic ecclesiastical tradition, and thus creating a Christian theology
appropriate to the age. The loss of meaning in doctrine was compensated
for by a heavier emphasis on ethics. Altogether Enlightenment theology
led to an ethicization of western Christendom that continues to this
very day. All interest was focused on the function of religion practical for
life. The deeper theological dimensions of life were lost.79
Enlightenment theology in Germany began in a measured manner,
with fewer radical departures from tradition than elsewhere in Europe.
The German synthesis of Enlightenment and theological tradition in its
fully-realized form was known as Neology. In Germany the Enlightenment
discreetly penetrated the Lutheran church. Mosheim was one of its trail-
blazers. Late Orthodoxy and Pietism also had a part in this development.
One of the first declared Enlightenment theologians in Germany was
Friedrich Wilhelm Jerusalem (1709–1789). This leading theologian of the
principality of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel showed himself in his expert
theological publications to be a thinker who was entirely enmeshed in the
spirit of the Enlightenment. His sermons, while revealing somewhat of an
Enlightenment tendency, are nevertheless firmly rooted in tradition. One
observes this clearly in a sermon entitled Die selige Erleuchtung der Welt
durch Christum.80 It has a recognizably Enlightenment tone. Jerusalem
historicizes in this sermon very strongly in his attempts to portray the
point in time of the coming of Jesus as the best and most rational. He
ascribes the spread of the Gospel to God’s Providence, introduces proofs
for God and the immortality of the soul, quantifies the inspiration of the
world through Christ, demands a review of church doctrine for all that was
irrational, obscure and superstitious, and deals in a detailed manner with
Jesus’ teachings on ethics, which he interprets as an instrument of God
that serves to “make all of humankind happy”.81
79
See Reinhard Krause, Die Predigt der späten deutschen Aufklärung (1770–1805),
(Arbeiten zur Theologie II/5) (Stuttgart, 1965).
80
Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Jerusalem, Sammlung einiger Predigten (2nd ed.,
Braunschweig, 1756), pp. 1–56.
81
Jerusalem, Sammlung einiger Predigten, p. 32.
On the other hand, Jerusalem takes the necessity of a supernatural

revelation as a starting point, since only something of this kind is able to
teach people the true concepts of God, his Providence and the nature of
the soul. Likewise Jerusalem expresses himself in an orthodox manner on
Jesus’ role in reconciliation, as well as on original sin, whose consequences
are overcome by the satisfaction (satisfactio) of Christ. The sermon shows
Jerusalem to be a theologian in between tradition and Enlightenment, but
always with a clear tendency away from dogmatic tradition and towards
positions consistent with an Enlightenment and rationalist theology.
Jerusalem’s sermons are reminiscent of those of Mosheim, with whom
he had many connections. In the foreword to his Zweyte Sammlung einiger
Predigten, Jerusalem expresses a fundamentally traditional understanding
of the sermon. He reports that the sermons that he published there were
“listened to not without blessing and edification”.82 He hopes that they
will also be rich in blessing in printed form, and will help to increase “the
glory of God and the living recognition of his truths”.83 Nevertheless
Jerusalem counted on the following: “since the divine truths have their
own light and inner strength, without having to borrow from the words
and the order in which people present them, those who feel the impor-
tance of these truths become able to bear each type of presentation easily
without offence”.84 In this cliché of modesty, Jerusalem does nothing less
than release the close ties that have traditionally bound the actions of God
and the word of the sermon.85 The words of the sermon are no longer the
bearer of the acts of God, but rather just their accompaniment. The occur-
rence of the sermon is indeed, as before, a location in which an encounter
with God can take place; God can, however, also work past the words
of the sermon. The sermon loses its character as the central means of salva-
tion. The sermon’s audience, as well as its preacher, are no longer depend-
ent on the concrete word of the preacher in order to be able to experience
God’s power and redemption. This can occur in spite of a possibly incom-
petent sermon. This release of the originally closely connected ties between
the words of the sermon and salvation characterize the further development
of Enlightenment sermon theology.
82
Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Jerusalem, Zweyte Sammlung einiger Predigten (2nd ed.;
Braunschweig, 1756), pp. *4v-*5r.
83
Jerusalem, Zweyte Sammlung einiger Predigten, p. *5r.
84
Jerusalem, Zweyte Sammlung einiger Predigten, pp. *4r-*4v.
85
See Gerhard Ebeling, Luther. Einführung in sein Denken (4h ed.; Tübingen, 1981),
p. 119.
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The neological sermon took on a very particular character in the

second half of the eighteenth century. It oriented itself very strongly
towards ethics; its tendency was strongly argumentative; it caused tradi-
tional dogmatic content to gradually fade into the background; and it
stripped itself of rhetorical ornamentation. Texts functioned mainly only
as sources for key words for monothematic discussions, and the funda-
mental orientation of sermons became moralistic and utilitarian. The basic
thesis of sermons can be put thus: if it is possible to make the worth and
usefulness of the Christian religion plausible to the audience, then one will
win these people over to Christianity and keep them there. Johann Joachim
Spalding (1714–1804) expresses this connection in his later writing
Religion eine Angelegenheit des Menschen (1799) in the following manner:
“The rational and important good of a faith in a higher being must be
urgently revealed to human souls through their own thoughts and feelings,
before it can take hold with true inclination”.86
The fully developed Enlightenment sermon is one-dimensional. Its
emphasis on counsel for living allowed premises to reach the light of day
that differed sharply from those of the Reformation. This resulted in an
upheaval of the entire theological tectonic system in many aspects of
Lutheran theology in the eighteenth century. The sermon bid farewell to
itself as a soteriological phenomenon and developed into a source of infor-
mation, instruction and admonition. The theological premise for this was
a radical departure from Reformation anthropology. Enlightenment
preachers did not regard the human any longer as a justified sinner, who
had to rely continually throughout his life on the audible and absolving
word of God presented in sermons. Rather he appeared to Enlightenment
theologians as a creature capable of doing good deeds. This optimistic view
of human nature went hand in hand with a steadfast belief in perfectibility
and was the premise of many ambitious education projects in the Age of
Enlightenment.87 This faith in the ability of humans to become moral
beings by means of reason and their own efforts led to the defining of the
sermon as an instrument of education, which was meant to support the
general pedagogical project of the Enlightenment. Stripped of all its pneu-
matic qualities, the sermon became one speech among many. Its particular
86
Johann Joachim Spalding, Religion eine Angelegenheit des Menschen, ed. Wolfgang
Erich Müller (Darmstadt, 1997), p. 108.
87
See Hanno Schmitt ed., Visionäre Lebensklugheit. Johann Heinrich Campe in seiner
Zeit (1746–1818) (Wiesbaden, 1996).
characteristic no longer consisted in its radical renewal of its listeners, but

rather only that it was given from the pulpit. Only its position within the
service differentiated it from other types of speeches.
One Enlightenment preacher who took this route was Wilhelm Abraham
Teller (1734–1804), a theology professor at Helmstedt University and
later member of the consistory and provost in Berlin.88 In the foreword
to the first volume of his Predigten und Reden he notes that two of the
following texts go back to discussions in which he had been given the task
of preparing “a popular argument” concerning a specific theme.89 Teller
expressly welcomed a task of this kind, because, as he put it, “[it is] an
opportunity which one should use according to one’s judgement, and
when one has the certainty to have at least one listener who is served just
at that time”.90 These were two noticeable problems in Enlightenment
homiletics. On the one hand, turning away from the traditional order of
texts resulted in an embarrassment of riches in terms of what one could
choose from to preach about. On the other hand, the Enlightenment ser-
mon did not seem to entice all too many people into the church. Teller
acknowledged that the point of his activities as a preacher involved recom-
mending to people “a good spirit or sensibility, using the written word to
remember and to apply diligently to their behaviour”.91 For Teller, sermons
were all about the transmission of morals. Biblical texts were sayings
that made ethical directives more memorable, and nothing more. Teller
discusses the task of the preacher more specifically in several different
introductory sermons. He does this with the curious intention of making
the congregations respect the preachers who are being introduced to them,
or at least to ensure that the congregations did not regard their preachers
as lazy; this is of course very informative about the local situation at the
time. Thus the most important job of the preacher was, according to Teller,
to give “instruction in religion”92 while he was in the pulpit, in his interac-
tion with youth and in his pastoral care. In concrete terms this meant that
the goal in instructing youth was “to incline their hearts early towards
88
See Angela Nüsseler, Dogmatik fürs Volk: Wilhelm Abraham Teller als populärer
Aufklärungstheologe, (Münchner theologische Beiträge 4) (München, 1999); Albrecht
Beutel, “Teller, 2. Wilhelm Abraham”, in Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart, 4th ed.,
Vol. 8 (Tübingen 2005), pp. 103–104.
89
Wilhelm Abraham Teller, Predigten und Reden bey besonderen Veranlaßungen gehalten
nebst einigen sogenannten Homilien 1 (Berlin/Libau, 1787), p. IV.
90
Teller, Predigten und Reden, pp. IV–V.
91
Teller, Predigten und Reden, pp. V–VI.
92
Teller, Predigten und Reden, p. 4.
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good”.93 In his visits to people’s houses the job of the preacher was to utter
“rebukes and admonitions”94 and to “help married couples with their
differences and to prevent dissipation between male and female servants”.95
In the pulpit one was supposed to ensure that “the Word of Christ put
order into your inclinations and desires; that you accept it with true
approbation, bring it into practice and arrange your entire set of beliefs
according to it”.96
The work of a preacher is, according to Teller, “suited to all those for
whom serving others is joyous and rich in blessing”97 because this work
“consists of imparting altogether good, consecrating and reassuring
teaching, in urging towards that which serves peace and in warning against
that which makes one unhappy and wretched, in consoling each repentant
awareness of one’s own offences, each bitter loss, each of life’s troubles until
the final struggle of death”.98
This description of the preacher’s series of duties seems at first glance
quite traditional, but must be understood entirely in the Enlightenment
sense, as Teller makes plain in a sermon on Colossians 3:16. There he
discusses how the word of Christ should dwell abundantly within the
congregation, and that the preacher must take care that this is so. The word
of Christ means here – and in this Teller shows his Enlightenment side –
not merely the word of the cross of Christ but rather all the words of Jesus,
as they are preserved in the Gospels, and indeed especially including his
reproofs and his ethical instructions.99 The business of the preacher not
only involves the “instructions of Christianity”,100 but also paying atten-
tion to whether the word bears fruit and the congregation makes ethical
progress, since “as long as the ignorant becomes no wiser, the reckless no
steadier, the depraved no better, and each continues unattended on his
usual path, then just this long only lip service is being paid to good
teaching, and in no way is there a dwelling, a place prepared for it in us”.101
Merely to be touched by a sermon is meaningless to Teller. It is much more
important to him that people translate this experience of having been
93
94
95
96
97
98
Teller, Predigten und Reden, pp. 10–11.
99
100
101
touched into ethical action. Only when this happens does the word dwell
in the congregation and is the congregation truly alive. Teller urges his
readers that “you not wait only for domestic morning and evening prayers,
but rather also make evident during the day the fundamental beliefs which
are to constitute our constant reverence of God”.102 Thus a preacher is,
according to Teller, a teacher of virtue and a watchman over behaviour and
behavioural progress in the congregation. It is naturally assumed that he
must live a blameless life. Preaching from the pulpit is theologically closely
linked to the transmission of virtue and morality.
Josias Friedrich Christian Löffler (1752–1816)103 was, similarly to Teller
with whom he had close contact, indebted to the theological Enlightenment.
Before he became a general superintendent and member of the consistory
in 1788 in Gotha, Löffler occupied the positions of theology professor and
superintendent in Frankfurt (Oder). In the foreword to a collection of his
sermons, he sees the job of preachers quite generally as the “the furthering
of religiosity among people in order to keep public order and peace”.104
In the first instance, Löffler thought that preaching had a great deal to
do with moral instruction. The state of public behaviour stands and falls
with the religiosity of the people. In order to make Christian faith newly
plausible, Löffler demands that the tradition has to be freed from all “error
and superstition”. Löffler is convinced that each religion “that does not
think and that does not dare to clean out errors that have crept in, and
usages that have become aimless, bears the seeds of its own destruction in
itself, which sooner or later must germinate”.105 Consequently the preacher
must take care “to develop the correct and comprehensible concepts of the
religion; to reduce the causes for contempt towards ecclesiastical institu-
tions through clearing away everything that outraged reason; and to
further the valuing of faith and ethics through the presentation of the
rationality of the former and the indispensability of the latter”.106
Thus Löffler’s programme involved a departure from supposedly
dogmatic obscurantism and irrationality. These were classic Enlightenment
demands. It was also typically Enlightenment of him not to preach biblical
texts, but rather to use them only as a stimulus for religious speeches. Thus
102
103
See Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (Berlin 1884) XIX, pp. 106–107.
104
Josias Friedrich Christian Löffler, Predigten mit Rücksicht auf die Begebenheiten und
den Geist des gegenwärtigen Zeitalters (Gotha, 1795), p. VI.
105
Löffler, Predigten, p. X.
106
Löffler, Predigten, pp. XI–XII.
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Löffler planned, in a Pentecost sermon concerning John 3:16–21 “to speak

about the value of inspiration in religion”.107 He assured his readers:
I will make an effort to make this value itself clear; and then to speak about
the reasons for which from time to time this value cares to become known
even in our own age. Both provide enough material for further consideration,
and offer foundations for our judgements and actions.108
Löffler understood his speech as purely informative and ethically
instructive. He could not imagine that a sermon could not only deal
with inspiration, but could also cause it. The fundamental biblical and
Reformation thesis that a sermon does what it says and says what it does,
if this is pleasing to God, is absent from Löffler’s thinking.
One can state positively that the Lutheran sermon of the Enlightenment
was consequently aimed towards its audience, oriented towards the
concrete situation within the congregation and dealt with contemporary
questions.109 This development became more pronounced near the end of
the eighteenth century and led to aberrations. Thus in an Advent sermon
about Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem (Matthew 21:1–11) the theologian Georg
Conrad Horst (1769–1832) is preaching about the theft of wood (since
the people of Jerusalem broke palm-leaves to welcome Jesus). The text
about the twelve-year-old Jesus in the temple (Luke 2:41–52) allowed
Johann Friedrich Conrad Hille (1745-?) to exhort parents to stimulate a
desire for learning in their children. Others preached on Easter Sunday
about the advantages of rising early, and on Easter Monday about going
for walks and so on.110
Sermons of this sort exclusively provided information, advice and exhor-
tation. The intent of the preachers was to counteract the enormous loss of
meaning in ecclesiastical preaching, by trying to prove the societal and
practical relevance of the biblical tradition.111 Enlightenment preachers
did not see or did not take into account that the consequence of these
attempts to win back lost territory was a dilution not only of the sermon
but also of theological considerations about it.
107
Löffler, Predigten, p. 5.
108
Löffler, Predigten, p. 5.
109
See Christian-Erdmann Schott, “Akkommodation – Das homiletische Programm
der Aufklärung”, in Vestigia Bibliae 3 (1981), pp. 49–69.
110
All references from: Paul Graff, Geschichte der Auflörung der alten gottesdienstlichen
Formen in der evangelischen Kirche Deutschlands 2 Vols. (Göttingen, 1937–39) II,
pp. 124–129.
111
Schott, “Akkommodation” (see above, n. 112).
Homiletics of the later Enlightenment made a decisive break with

Reformation theology. In the usual practice of making biblical stories into
jumping off points for sermons one can, however, recognize a dim reflection
of the orientation towards scripture demanded by the Reformation.
Nonetheless, biblical stories are no longer seriously dealt with and fully
explained. The sermon was no longer theologically considered as a poten-
tial verbum efficax. The thought that the word of God is capable of creating
something totally new through a sermon was entirely foreign to the
Enlightenment preachers.
3.6 The Biblical and Enlightenment Sermons of Johann Ludwig Ewald

The oeuvre of Johann Ludwig Ewald (1748–1822) stands as a rebuttal to
the theology and the sermon of the Enlightenment. As a Calvinist, Ewald
was a pastor in Offenbach, a court preacher and general superintendent in
Detmold, a preacher and professor in Bremen, a professor in Heidelberg,
and member of the ministerial and ecclesiastical councils in Karlsruhe.112
Along with Matthias Claudius (1740–1815), Caspar Lavater (1741–1801)
and others, he belonged to a group of theologians who stood in critical
opposition to the raging rationalization of theology and the sermon of
their time. They tried to oppose this development by bringing the mystery
and reality of a God that could not be rationally calculated back to legiti-
macy. A new awareness arose with them that a sermon could be more than
a lecture about religious, moral or practical themes. They had the idea that
something could occur in the pulpit, that in the pulpit something could be
activated that was in a position to reach into the lives of the listeners and
alter those lives significantly.
Ewald recast the Reformation understanding of the sermon in his 1784
publication Ueber Predigerbildung, Kirchengesang und Art zu predigen.113
To him, a sermon was more than moral instruction or theological infor-
mation concerning a specific subject. It had the task of awakening the love
of Christ in its listeners. If this was successful, the sermon edified. Ewald
understood edification as follows:
112
See Johann Anselm Steiger, Johann Ludwig Ewald (1748–1822). Rettung eines theolo-
gischen Zeitgenossen (Forschungen zur Kirchen- und Dogmengeschichte 62) (Göttingen,
1996); Hans Martin Kirn, Deutsche Spätaufklärung und Pietismus, (Arbeiten zur Geschichte
des Pietismus 34) (Göttingen, 1998).
113
Johann Ludwig Ewald, Ueber Predigerbeschäftigung und Predigerbetragen, Zweites
Heft: Ueber Predigerbildung, Kirchengesang und Art zu predigen. Erfahrungen, Bemerkungen
und Wünsche (Lemgo, 1784).
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A person is edified when the mass of his belief, his love, his religious
knowledge or religious feelings is increased; when he approaches the goal
towards which religion is meant to lead. A preacher has edified if he has,
through his sermon, caused belief to be added to the belief of his listeners;
love added to love; and new things brought to their knowledge and feeling of
religion; or if he has made that which was already there better ordered, more
firmly based or more enlivened.114
A successful sermon thus affects the entire person and not merely his
rationality or emotionality. It is “just as little inspiration alone as emotion
alone” and is effective in making “a divine truth more alive and in bringing
it nearer”.115 Ewald continues the classical Reformation understanding of
the sermon, according to which a successful sermon renews the life of its
listeners in all its aspects. Thus Ewald recoils from the emotional one-
dimensionality of many of his contemporaries.
Ewald does not couple moral progress directly with the success of a
sermon:
One hundred times can a man be edified, really edified; one hundred times
can true religious feelings and decisions be aroused in him; or something
new be added to the sum of his religious knowledge, without him being
improved even once. Edification and improvement are like the seed and the
harvest.116
An effective sermon thus does not necessarily lead to people becoming
more moral. The connection between the sermon and moral progress that
was typical of Enlightenment homiletics was again severed by Ewald,
before the background of Reformation anthropology. The righteous one
was for him always also a sinner. With the parable of the sower and the
seed from Matthew 13:3–9 – a method of biblical verification that was
typical for Ewald – he sees the soul of the man who listened to the sermon
as a four-fold field, on which the seed of the sermon falls, but only part of
it may sprout, and sometimes not at all.117
Formally speaking, a sermon must “be clear, it must have interest, and
it must be memorable”.118 With his emphasis on a sermon’s interest, Ewald
affirms the Pietist assertion that only a person who is born again can
114
Ewald, Ueber Predigerbeschäftigung, p. 58.
115
116
117
Ewald, Ueber Predigerbeschäftigung, pp. 63–64.
118
achieve something with his sermons. Whoever has no interest in what he

is saying – Ewald writes – cannot convince someone else of it.119
It is important to Ewald that the rational message and the awakening of
effect always go hand in hand. For this he refers back to the classical pat-
tern of explicatio and then applicatio, as was specified in the sermon of the
seventeenth century. The preacher must always influence the entire person
and in so doing be aware that “light and warmth are inseparable”.120 Ewald
repristinizes neither the homiletics of the Reformation nor of the post-
Reformation era. Thus he knew that biblical references had lost some of
their plausibility with his contemporaries. A preacher should leave aside
references to Scripture.121 He should rather try to bring the Gospel close to
people by using a narrative path that involved the people in what he was
saying and thus “awaken faith and love for Christ, just as the Bible awak-
ens it – not through a demonstration that everything that does us good is
at his command, but by means of the most meaningful examples that show
that he loves people, and that everything good that happens to us, he has
commanded”.122 Mutatis mutandis Ewald regained in this way the biblical
homiletic of Luther and his successors,123 whose dicta probantia (references
to Scripture) also had the goal of involving the listeners of their sermons in
the world of the text of the Bible. Certainly common to them all is the
conviction that the biblical word is more than something philosophical,
and that it is suited to making the lives of men new again. Ewald was
steadfast against the rationalism of his age:
Everything has to do with reason, and nothing to do with the Bible anymore;
everything has to do with demonstrating advantage and disadvantage, and
nothing to do with the Word of Jesus and his messengers anymore; this
I consider to be unworthy of a Christian preacher, and especially because of
the sketchiest method that has ever existed anywhere. A Christian preacher
is there for one thing, and that is not to talk about wisdom, philosophy,
moral reasoning, wonderful though they all may be – rather, he is there to
preach the revelation of God contained in the Bible.124
This is important to Ewald, because “Christianity is something other
than human reason: and Christian morals something apart from moral
119
120
121
122
123
See Steiger, Ewald (see above, n. 115), pp. 240–277.
124
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reasoning, because they rest on completely different foundations and lead

to completely different heights”.125
3.7 Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher’s New Conception of Homiletics

Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher (1768–1834), certainly one of the
most important Protestant theologians,126 presented, among other things,
a new conception of homiletics. In his famous Reden Über die Religion an
die Gebildeten unter ihren Verächtern, published in 1799, he defines the
preacher as a religious virtuoso, who at first makes pneumatically inspired
voyages through the universe, from which he gains a view of the universe
and a taste for the eternal. Then the preacher transmits both view and taste
in a religious communication with his listeners. He draws them into his
own world of experience, so that “when he returns from his wanderings
through the universe into himself, his heart and those of each [of his hear-
ers] are at the same location of that very feeling”.127 It is significant that
Schleiermacher talks of “religious communication” rather than of sermons.
This is consistent with his view of the experience of inspiration. According
to Schleiermacher, the observation of the universe leads powerfully to this
pronouncement. Thus, the stronger the emotions experienced, the stronger
the urge to transmit them to other people. Religious emotions, caused by
the spirit of God, are necessarily very intense and thus push one automati-
cally into the mode of communication.128 A person who is disposed towards
communication functions as a priest. Through this he shows other
Christians that he has at his disposal the utmost receptivity to the universe,
and as a consequence of this, a gift for communication, realized in his
sermons.
The preacher presents his experiences and emotions in this type of
communication-sermon. In so doing he uses the art of rhetoric to paint a
tableau for his listeners, which has the effect of activating the religious
province in the souls of those listeners129 and thus leading them to God.
The homiletic presentations of the preacher – this is a conception that
125
126
Eberhard Jüngel, “Schleiermacher, Friedrich Daniel Ernst”, in Religion in Geschichte
und Gegenwart, 4th ed., Vol. 7 (Tübingen 2004), pp. 904–919, at p. 904.
127
Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher, Über die Religion. Reden an die Gebildeten
unter ihren Verächtern (1799) (Hamburg, 1958), p. 101.
128
Schleiermacher, Über die Religion, p. 99.
129
See Kurt Nowak, Schleiermacher Leben, Werk und Wirkung (Göttingen, 2002),
pp. 101–103.
makes Schleiermacher’s inclination towards Herrnhut clear – strengthen

and edify the listeners of the sermon. Religious communications are able
to reach into the lives of all who hear them. Thus a sermon is a speech that
has the potential to change the lives of its listeners. The Reformation view
that a successful sermon has an experiential and conversion effect is also
apparent with Schleiermacher.
The congregation is the product of the sermon. It is the multitude in
which the preacher’s spark has taken hold.130 The sermon is the very instru-
ment that renews the congregation over and over again. The congregation
is thus reliant upon “religious communications that are always new, and
thus upon individuals who communicate religiously in a new way”.131
In line with Reformation theology, Schleiermacher thinks of the congre-
gation as a creatura verbi.
In his Glaubenslehre (1821/22), which Karl Nowak considers “the classic
dogma of modern Lutheran theology”,132 Schleiermacher also gives the
preacher the task of furthering the salvation of the congregation.
Schleiermacher writes: “to develop the way that faith arises along with its
content, in other words to show that Jesus has a perfection lacking sin, and
that in the congregation founded by him there is a communication of that
same thing”133 – this is part of the job of the preacher. He is supposed to
have an effect on the “development of the awareness of grace”; the domi-
nance of the flesh over the spirit, sin and its accompanying wretchedness
“are to be overcome through a strengthening of spiritual power, through
reception into the powerfulness of the awareness of God of Christ. The
change in these conditions is the essence of redemption”.134
Although touches of the Reformation appear in the sermon theology of
the Reden from time to time, definite traces of Pietism and Enlightenment
are apparent in the sermon theology of the Glaubenslehre, especially within
specific discussions concerning the moral basis of sermons. Schleiermacher
gave ambitious sermons that were complex in their argumentation.135
130
Wolfgang Trillhaas, Schleiermachers Predigt und das homiletische Problem (Leipzig,
1933), p. 7.
131
Christoph Meier-Dörken, Die Theologie der frühen Predigten Schleiermachers
(Theologische Bibliothek Töpelmann 45) (Berlin/New York, 1988), pp. 15–16.
132
Nowak, Schleiermacher (see above, n. 133), p. 277.
133
Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher, Der christliche Glaube nach den Grundsätzen
der evangelischen Kirche im Zusammenhange dargestellt (1830/31) (Berlin/New York,
71960), § 88,2.
134
Trillhaas, Predigt (see above, n. 134), p. 12.
135
See Hans Urner, “Schleiermacher als Prediger”, in Friedrich Schleiermacher, Predigten,
ed. Hans Urner (Göttingen, 1969), pp. 9–20, at p. 19.
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He was not a preacher of the people. Instead he had a “strong affinity for
the society of notables, for politicians, officials, military men and the
learned”.136 Schleiermacher’s sermons are rhetorically polished. Even when
he uses few illustrations and examples, these are vivid. As a person, how-
ever, Schleiermacher remains a shadowy figure in his sermons. He certainly
shares experiences of faith, but he does not take his own person as his
theme and tells no anecdotes about his own life, because he understood
himself as a medium for the communication of a metapersonal awareness
of God.
Schleiermacher’s homiletic reworkings have had an effect on theological
discussion up the present day. Drawing from Reformation sermon theol-
ogy, he integrated ideas from the Pietists, Hermhut and the Enlightenment,
as well as critics of the Enlightenment. This can be described, at somewhat
of a stretch, as a brilliant synthesis of Protestant sermon history of the
eighteenth century.
4. Roman Catholic Sermon Theology in the Eighteenth Century
From the Council of Trent on, the Roman Catholic sermon meant admo-
nition, encouragement and the strengthening of the congregation on their
path to God. It is moreover an act of preparation for the central event of
salvation in the service, the Eucharist. This Tridentine version of the ser-
mon was spread throughout the Catholic world by the reform orders of the
sixteenth century, namely the Capuchins, the Oratory of St. Philip,
Theatines, Barnabites, Jesuits, and Ursulines.137 Almost all Roman Catholic
theologians of the eighteenth century adhered to the view of the sermon as
sketched out above.
4.1 The Extension of the Baroque Sermon Until 1750

German-speaking Catholicism was, as will become apparent, always open
to influences from predominantly Catholic lands such as Italy or France,
and it preserved Baroque pulpit rhetoric well into the eighteenth cen-
tury.138 The emblematic sermon, well-known among the sermons of the
136
Nowak, Schleiermacher (see above, n. 133), p. 212.
137
Bitter and Splonskowski, “Predigt” (see above, n. 11), p. 267.
138
See Ralf-Georg Bogner, “Predigt V. Katholische Kirche seit der Reformation”,
in Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, 3rd ed., Vol. 8 (Freiburg/Basel/Rom/Wien 2006),
pp. 530–532, at p. 531.
late sixteenth and the entire seventeenth century, remained most popular.
Preachers took great care with vividness and variety. The Augustine hermit
Abraham a Sancta Clara (1644–1709), an author as well as preacher in
Vienna on Sundays and feast days, was a master of the vivid sermon.139
This type of sermon was meant to have an emotional effect and to transmit
the Gospel by means of exciting emotions.
Thus far there is a certain similarity here with Protestant homiletics.
Theological differences remain nevertheless: Abraham a Sancta Clara did
not want to awaken faith in his listeners. He wished to support and
accompany them on their path of belief with the aid of illustrations.
4.2 The New Conception of the Sermon in France in the Late

Seventeenth Century
The late seventeenth century brought reform to the sermon in France.
After the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, the Catholic church
was victorious and without rivals. Non-Catholics were persecuted by
means of an effective state apparatus of repression, were forced to convert
or were exiled.140 Sermon reform took place within a Roman Catholic
church complicit in this repression. Efforts towards a national church,
prominent in France since the Middle Ages, had a positive and beneficial
influence on attempts at reform.141 They gave the French church certain
freedoms from the central Roman curia and made a reform dynamic
possible that would have developed less well elsewhere.
Jacques Bénigne Bossuet (1627–1704), priest, scholar, Bishop of
Condom, educator of the Dauphin from 1671 to 1682, and finally Bishop
of Meaux and member of the Académie Française,142 was one of the first
proponents of sermon reform. The main goal of reform was to free the
139
See Abraham a Sancta Clara, Etwas für Alle/das ist/Kleine kurtze Beschreibung allerley
Stands-Ambts- und Gewerbs-Persohnen, mit beygeruckter sittlichen Lehre und biblischen
Concepten (Nürnberg/Würzburg/Wien, 1699–1711); Abraham a Sancta Clara, Neu-
eröffnete Welt-Galleria: worinnen sehr curios und begnügt unter die Augen kommen allerley
Aufzüg und Kleidungen unterschiedlicher Stande und Nationen (Nürnberg, 1703). Abraham’s
sermons are distinguished by oratorical perfection of art, a vernacular language, plays on
word associations and sounds, emblems and a host of rhetorical figures.
140
See for example Martin Mulsow, Die drei Ringe. Toleranz und clandestine Gelehrsamkeit
bei Mathurin Veyssière La Croze (1661–1739) (Hallesche Beiträge zur Europäischen
Aufklärung 16) (Tübingen, 2001), pp. 10–29.
141
See Irene Dingel, “Gallikanismus”, in Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart, 4th ed.,
Vol. 3 (Tübingen 2000), pp. 459–460.
142
See Jacques Le Brun, “Bossuet, Jacques-Bénigne”, in Theologische Realenzyklopädie,
Vol. 7 (Berlin/New York 1981), pp. 88–93.
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sermon from Baroque affectation. Formally speaking Bossuet’s sermons

were quite traditional. Their language, however, is characterized by clarity,
simplicity and discreet rhetorical touches. Loyal to his king and a bitter
enemy of Protestantism, Bossuet was a ready representative of the aspira-
tions of the national church. At the same time, he knew that he was bound
to uphold the Council of Trent. Its decrees were sacrosanct to him, and he
saw each alteration of church dogma as an indication of heresy. Bossuet
made this exact accusation against the Protestants. According to him, they
had altered age-old church dogma and had thus manoeuvred themselves
into a heretical position.143
Thus Bossuet was not innovative with respect to the theology of the
sermon. His demands concerning a new language of the sermon were not
accompanied by a new accentuation on traditional Roman Catholic
theology.
The Jesuit Blaise Gisbert (1657–1731), a professor of rhetoric and a
preacher, took the same line as Bossuet. In his work on homiletics that
appeared in 1714 he also asked for a sermon rhetoric that could manage
without exaggerated pathos and over-ornamentation of language. His
homiletics were translated into German and edited by Johann Valentin
Kornrumpff (1709–1740), a school rector from Querfurt. Kornrumpff
described the task of the sermon in the foreword to his translation as
“lighting a divine fire in the sinner in order to inflame him towards works
of blessedness”.144 The sermon should have the effect that “the sinner
should go within himself, understand himself, be touched, do penance,
believe in the Gospel and carry out good works”.145 The paranetic aspect is
dominant here. Kornrumpff’s foreword advocates a more important role
for the sermon in the service.146 Following the Catholic tradition, and in
contrast to the Reformation view, the sermon is not characterized as the
soteriologically central event or indeed even the constituent element of the
service. No less typical of the Roman Catholic position is Kornrumpff ’s
gradualistic understanding of grace, in which he positions the sermon
143
See Owen Chadwick, From Bossuet to Newman (2nd ed.; Cambridge et al., 1987),
pp. 1–20.
144
Blasius Gisbert, Die Christliche Beredsamkeit, nach ihrem Jnnerlichen Wesen, und Jn
der Ausübung vorgestellet, trans. Johann Valentin Kornrumpff (Leipzig, 1740).
145
Kornrumpff, “Vorrede”, in: Gisbert, Beredsamkeit (see above, n. 148), pp. (6r-)
(7v, here: p. )(7r.)
146
Kornrumpff, “Vorrede”, in: Gisbert, Beredsamkeit, pp. (6r-)(6v.)
according to its function and concludes that its power does not consist of
the absolution of its audience, but only an encouragement to greater moral
integrity.147
Gisbert himself sees the task, function and possibility of the sermon in
exactly this way. He described what a sermon can and should achieve:
A person must recognize good and evil; he must be able to use this recogni-
tion to love the one and hate the other. See, this is according to his nature.
And this is also the way that God serves men, when he enlightens them and
moves them by means of his grace. He shows them first the good, and drives
them on to grasp the same for themselves. Oh, if only every preacher would
learn his own guilt from the Great Preacher!148
Gisbert’s position is tied on one hand to Tridentine dogma and on the
other hand to the Enlightenment. The sermon as means for the audience
to understand, as an instrument of moral improvement, corresponds to
the decrees of the Council of Trent. Wanting to reach this improvement,
primarily on the path of introspection and recognition, forms part of the
Enlightenment programme. For Gisbert, the mark of a good sermon is not
only that it shows the right path, but also that it has a lasting influence on
its listeners towards taking up that path, and does so both by means of
rational arguments and by controlled rousing of effect. In this manner
sermon rhetoric, in Gisbert’s view, was no different from that of secular
speech rhetoric. Both wished to affect their listeners rationally and effec-
tively, encouraging them towards action or lack of action.149
Gisbert did not see that a sermon could have an entirely different kind
of effect, namely a soteriological one, which did not merely lead men
morally, but also drew them out of their old lives and moved them towards
a new life. Roman Catholic tradition and Enlightenment combined to
form a strange brew within him.
The sermon reform that took place at the end of the seventeenth century
in France dealt with the sermon as speech. Theologically it added no new
touches. Formal homiletics were spring-cleaned, Baroque bombast rejected.
The decrees of the Council of Trent that were relevant to sermon theology
remained mainly in effect, and the Catholic conception of the sermon
remained well-established.
147
Kornrumpff, “Vorrede”, in: Gisbert, Beredsamkeit, p. (6v.).
148
Gisbert, Beredsamkeit (see above, n. 148), p. 21.
149
Gisbert, Beredsamkeit, pp. 14–15.
92 alexander bitzel
French homiletics took effect in German-speaking Catholicism from

the middle of the eighteenth century. The Benedictine Rudolph Graser
(1728–1787), professor of poetics in the monastery of Kremsmünster, and
later curate and priest in various places, was a proponent of this sermon
reform initiated in France. Graser was renowned as a preacher. In 1779
he was named as a member of the Bayerische Gesellschaft zur Pflege der
geistlichen Beredsamkeit in Munich.150 He came to know first hand the new
homiletics on a trip he took as a student to Paris. In his handbook on
homiletics he did not differentiate between spiritual and secular rheto-
ric.151 He promoted clear and unartificial language and saw the primary
goal of the sermon as moral instruction.152 The Benedictine Maurus
Lindemayer underlined this in his foreword to Graser’s book, when he
wrote “that a sermon must first be simple, just as the Gospel, for all its
grandeur, is quite artless and simple”.153 Lindemayer advised against both
exaggerated pathos154 and the Protestant idea that there can be an identifi-
cation between the words of the sermon and the word of God: “For the
word of God is nothing other than God himself speaking, but is in no way
any word that the preacher utters concerning the word of God”.155
Lindemayer saw the goal of the sermon as the improvement of life.156
4.3 The Catholic Enlightenment

The Roman Catholic sermon in the Enlightenment context differed only
in nuance from its Protestant counterpart. One can scarcely distinguish
confessional identities. Practical help with living, advice on coping with
day to day life and admonitions towards living a moral life stand at the
centre of the sermon for both traditions.
The Benedictine Frank Stephan Rautenstrauch (1734–1785)157 was one
of the most important Roman Catholic theologians of the Enlightenment.
Sometime abbot of the monastery of Braunau (Brevnov) near Prague, he
150
See Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, Vol. 49 (Berlin 1904), pp. 508–509.
151
Rudolph Graser, Praktische Beredsamkeit der christlichen Kanzel, in Regeln, Exempeln,
und vollständigen Mustern, ed. P. Maurus Lindemayr (2nd ed.; Augsburg, 1774), p. 2.
152
Graser, Praktische Beredsamkeit, p. 2.
153
Maurus Lindemayr, “Vorrede”, in Graser, Praktische Beredsamkeit (see above, n. 155),
pp. XIV–XXXI, at p. XVI.
154
Lindemayr, “Vorrede”, p. XXVII.
155
Lindemayr, “Vorrede”, pp. XXVII–XXVIII.
156
Lindemayr, “Vorrede”, p. XXIX.
157
See Klaus Fitschen, “Rautenstrauch, Franz Stephan”, in Religion in Geschichte und
Gegenwart, 4th ed., Vol. 7 (Tübingen 2004), p. 68.
became director of the theological faculty in Vienna, where he introduced

fundamental reforms to the study of theology. According to him, priests
should be educators first and foremost. Rautenstrauch understood the
moral girding of the audience as the goal of the sermon. The sermon should
serve “to lead the congregation towards a God-fearing life”.158
As a prominent theologian involved in the appointment of university
teachers of pastoral theology, Rautenstrauch had an enormous influence
on homiletics in the Habsburg Empire. Franz Christian Pittroff (1739–
1814),159 a theologian at the University of Prague, and Franz Giftschütz
(1748–1788),160 a professor in Vienna, were homileticians who followed
his teachings. Just like Rautenstrauch, they wanted preachers to have an
effect on the raising of the ethical standards of their listeners.
In addition, Johann Michael Sailer (1751–1832), one of the most distin-
guished Roman Catholic theologians of his time, professor of dogma at
Ingolstadt and Dillingen, and then Bishop of Regensburg,161 proposed in
his early works on pastoral theology that the sermon should demand
virtue.162
Roman Catholic theologians of the Enlightenment provide no contrast
in terms of sermon theology to the undertakings of the sixteenth century,
unlike what we find among Protestants. The reason for this lies in the fact
that the Council of Trent had already defined the main goal of the sermon
as the furthering of virtue and morality.
5. Conclusion
At the beginning of the time period under consideration, there was still a
clear difference between the Lutheran/Calvinist and the Roman Catholic
theology of the sermon. This went back to the fundamental decisions taken
in the age of the Reformation. In the second half of the eighteenth century,
in the wake of the Enlightenment, both confessional camps began to draw
closer in terms of sermon theology. Both saw the sermon as an instrument
158
Quoted in Paul Wehrle, Orientierung am Hörer. Die Predigtlehre unter dem Einfluss
des Aufklärungsprozesses (Studien zur Praktischen Theologie 8) (Zürich/Einsiedeln/Köln,
1975), p. 43.
159
Wehrle, Orientierung am Hörer, pp. 78–104.
160
Wehrle, Orientierung am Hörer, pp. 104–131.
161
See Hubert Wolf, “Sailer, Johann Michael”, in Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart,
4th ed., Vol. 7 (Tübingen 2004), pp. 744–745.
162
See Wehrle, Orientierung (see above, n. 162), p. 64.
94 alexander bitzel
of moral preparation for its listeners. On the Protestant side, particularly

with Schleiermacher, there was a new orientation in sermon theology
that spread effectively. One must not forget, however, that Protestant
theology speaks with many voices. Apart from Schleiermacher, many
other lines of tradition were active and remained influential on homiletics.
The confessional sermon of the nineteenth century was influenced less
by Schleiermacher than by the tradition of theologians critical of the
Enlightenment. On the Roman Catholic side as well, the nineteenth
century brought innovations to the theology of the sermon.
THE ART OF PREACHING
Françoise Deconinck-Brossard
Eighteenth-century reflection on the art of preaching was conveyed not

only in treatises or lectures on the eloquence of the pulpit usually targeted
at students reading rhetoric or divinity, but also in poetry, diaries, memoirs
and correspondence. By a kind of Chinese box effect – or mise en abîme, even
some sermons, usually addressing clerical audiences, also self-reflectingly
dealt with homiletics. Such discussions implied that the craftsmanship of
preaching can be learned, like any other form of discourse. Prescriptive
literature on pulpit oratory therefore dealt, to a greater or lesser degree,
with the five elements of classical rhetoric, namely invention, arrangement,
expression or style, memory, and pronunciation – inventio, dispositio,
elocutio, memoria, pronuntiatio.1 As one of the few surveys of neoclassic
English homiletics has underlined, ‘any attempt at completeness’ in a
‘systematic survey’ of eighteenth-century artes praedicandi ‘would be
doomed to failure […]’, so that ‘we must limit ourselves to a representa-
tive selection’,2 even in this age of computerised bibliography and online
databases.3 One may wonder whether Catholic and Protestant tractates
1
Cicero, De Inventione I.vii.9, ed. G. Achard (Paris, 1994), p. 64.
2
Rolf P. Lessenich, Elements of Pulpit Oratory in Eighteenth-century England (1660–
1800) (Köln, Wien, 1972), p. 20.
3
Although James Downey modestly claimed that his list did ‘not purport to be exhaus-
tive’, his bibliography of ‘the major treatises on preaching published in Great Britain in the
eighteenth century’ (i.e. 1700–1800) is a good starting point: The Eighteenth Century
Pulpit: A Study of the Sermons of Butler, Berkeley, Secker, Sterne, Whitefield and Wesley
(Oxford, 1969), pp. 230–233. Lessenich’s ‘selected bibliography of primary sources’,
pp. 237–252 has no separate entry for preaching manuals.
The list compiled by Harry Caplan and Henry H. King, “Pulpit Eloquence: A List of
Doctrinal and Historical Studies in English”, in Speech Monographs 22 (Special Issue, 1955),
23–37 includes publications on both sides of the Atlantic, translations, primary and sec-
ondary sources on rhetoric in general and pulpit oratory in particular. See also their “Latin
Tractates on Preaching: A Book-List”, in Harvard Theological Review 42 (1949), pp. 190–
206, “Dutch Treatises on Preaching: A List of Books and Articles”, in Speech Monographs
21:4 (November 1954), 235–247, “French Tractates on Preaching; A Book-list”, in
Quarterly Journal of Speech 36 (1950), pp. 296–325 (unverified), “Italian Treatises on
Preaching; A Book-list”, in Speech Monographs 16 (1949), pp. 243–252 (unverified), and
“Spanish Tractates on Preaching: A Book-list”, in Speech Monographs 17 (1950), pp. 16–70
(unverified).
For Spain see Joël Saugnieux, “Ouvrages de rhétorique”, pp. 404–406 in Les Jansénistes
et le renouveau de la prédication dans l’Espagne de la seconde moitié du XVIIIè siècle (Lyon, 1976).
96 françoise deconinck-brossard
in England and France prescribed similar rules, whether genre prevailed

over denomination and nationality, and how preaching textbooks charac-
terized the specificity of pulpit eloquence.
1. Invention
Many eighteenth-century English-speaking authors had no qualms about

the answer to the first question. As the first systematic course of lectures on
rhetoric published in the eighteenth century argued, ‘In the eloquence of
the Pulpit, it is, that England seems to stand alone, with manifest unrivaled
Superiority’.4 John Lawson (1708/9–1759), renowned preacher and pro-
fessor of divinity, proceeded to apply the prevailing politico-religious ide-
ology to pulpit literature: ‘The great Liberty allowed by the Laws […] may
have contributed to produce this good Effect’.5 Logically enough, he con-
cluded that French Protestants preached better than their Catholic coun-
terparts: ‘the Writers in that Language, of the reformed Religion, although
perhaps in other Respects inferior, do yet excel the Catholick Preachers
herein; they are more instructive and rational’.6
Protestant and Catholic preachers on both sides of the Channel shared
a common heritage of thorough training in classical rhetoric. It should
therefore come as no surprise that the imitation of ancient orators was
highly recommended. The approach has rightly been characterised as
‘neoclassic’.7 John Lawson emphatically underlined the need to learn from
literary imitation, which ‘being a great and compendious Method of arriv-
ing at eloquence, deserveth indeed distinct Consideration’.8 This method
was divided into two parts, ‘Study and Practice’.9 The first stage consisted
in reading carefully ‘the Works of the most eminent Speakers’, though ‘not
The interesting bibliography in Bernard Beugnot, Les Muses classiques, essai de bibliographie
rhétorique et poétique 1610–1716 (Paris, 1996), pp. 102–110 and pp. 167–171 provides
references to works published in France and the rest of Europe between 1600 and 1718.
Cf. Marc Fumaroli, L’ Âge de l’éloquence: Rhétorique et “res literaria” de la Renaissance au seuil
de l’époque classique (Paris, 1980), pp. 750–799.
4
John Lawson, Lectures concerning Oratory. Delivered in Trinity College, Dublin (Dublin,
1758), p. 95. The book went through four editions in Dublin (from 1758 to 1760) and
London (1759). A facsimile edition was published in 1972 with an introduction by E. Neal
Claussen and Karl R. Wallace (Carbondale and Edwardsville, 1972).
5
Lawson, Lectures concerning Oratory, pp. 96–97.
6
Lawson, Lectures concerning Oratory, p. 98.
7
Lessenich, Elements of Pulpit Oratory, passim.
8
9
the art of preaching 97
slightly or transiently, nor so meerly to apprehend the Sense, but with

Care, Intentness, Assiduity; with an Earnestness nearly equal to that of
Writing’.10 The latter part of the sentence quoted the authority of Quintilian
(‘legendum est p[a]ene ad scribendi sollicitudinem’).11 Like many of his
contemporaries, Lawson repeatedly referred to Cicero and Quintilian as
‘the greatest Masters of Rhetorick’.12 As pulpit eloquence belonged to the
art of oratory, the ideal preacher was expected to be thoroughly acquainted
with the standard textbooks of ancient rhetoric, both ‘heathen’ and
Christian. The works of St. Chrysostom and St. Augustine were ‘valuable
for Eloquence as well as Piety’.13
However essential the classical tradition may have been, it had to be sup-
plemented by critical knowledge from the best modern orators. One may
easily imagine the young preacher reading the works of his predecessors
with a pen in his hand, in order to follow Lawson’s imperative advice:
Make yourself master of their Subject. Observe the method they have chosen.
Follow them through every Transition. Attend to their Reasoning. Take
Notice, of the Address with which they prepare Things; how they guard
against Prejudices, prevent or solve Objections; how they paint, move,
amplify, contract; where abound in Images and Figures, where assume a plain
simple Stile: Penetrate into the several Reasons for this Variety. Having arrived
thus far, learn to distinguish the Genius of each Speaker.14
Discourse analysis thus dealt with both style and content, matter and
manner. Therefore the reading list compiled by the Independent minister
Philip Doddridge for his students at the Northampton Academy com-
mented on the language and arguments of the sermons under review.15 His
bibliography included the names of many seventeenth-century preachers
also mentioned in the guidelines drafted by the dean of Magdalene College,
Cambridge:16 not only archbishop John Tillotson (1630–1694), whose
influence on eighteenth-century English preaching cannot be exaggerated,
10
11
Institutio Oratoria, book X, § 20.
12
13
14
15
Philip Doddridge (1702–1751), Lectures on Preaching and the Several Branches of the
Ministerial Office: Including the Characters of the most Celebrated Ministers among Dissenters,
and in the Establishment, published posthumously in Works, ed. Edward Williams (Leeds,
1802–5), vol. V. For convenience purposes a later edition (London, 1821) will be quoted
hereafter.
16
Daniel Waterland, Advice to a Young Student. With a Method of Study for the First Four
Years (Oxford, 1730; 2nd ed. 1755).
for he was almost universally regarded as ‘one of the best models’17 of

preachers, but also Robert South (1634–1716), John Norris (1657–1712),
bishop Thomas Sprat (1635–1713), the Jacobite bishop and conspirator
Francis Atterbury (1663–1732), and bishop Edward Stillingfleet (1635–
1699). Hugh Blair (1718–1800), a prominent preacher and Professor of
Rhetoric and Belles Lettres at Edinburgh University, suggested that the
names of French orators be added to this canon of English homiletics:
‘Among the French Protestant divines, Saurin is the most distinguished.
[…] Among the Roman Catholics, the most eminent are, Bourdaloue and
Massillon’.18
Students were advised to keep commonplace books into which they
could copy excerpts from what that they read or heard, as the dean of
St. Patrick’s, Dublin recalled: ‘The mention of Quotations puts me in mind
of Common-place Books, which have been long in use by industrious
young Divines, and I hear do still continue so’.19 Indeed, this method of
collecting quotations, themes and commonly received ideas (loci communes
or topoi) under ‘heads’ or topics had been part of the scholastic curriculum
since the Renaissance at least.20 Humanists like Erasmus considered them
as aids to memory that would help structure thought and expression in
various situations, including pulpit oratory:
They generally are Extracts of Theological and Moral Sentences drawn from
Ecclesiastical and other Authors, reduced under proper Heads, usually begun,
and perhaps finished while the Collectors were young in the Church, as
being intended for Materials or Nurseries to stock future Sermons.21
Such a notebook would be one of the best preacher’s assistants, all the
more so as the divisions of a sermon were then usually referred to as ‘heads’.
Indeed, a manuscript now held at Dr. Williams’s Library in London
17
Hugh Blair, Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres (London, 1783; 3rd ed. 1787) II,
p. 328.
18
Blair, Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres II, p. 323, referring to the Jesuit Louis
Bourdaloue, sometimes known as ‘preacher to the king, and king of preachers’ (1632–
1704), the Oratorian Jean-Baptiste Massillon (1663–1742), and the Huguenot minister
Jacques Saurin (1677–1730) who preached at the Walloon church in London.
19
Jonathan Swift, A Letter to a Young Gentleman, Lately Enter’d in Holy Orders (Dublin,
1720; 2nd ed. London, 1721), p. 22.
20
Richard Yeo, “John Locke’s ‘New Method’ of Commonplacing: Managing Memory
and Information”, in Eighteenth-Century Thought 2 (2004), 1–38, <http://www.phil.mq
.edu.au/staff/jsutton/Yeo.doc> [last consulted 18 August 2006].
21
Swift, A Letter to a Young Gentleman, pp. 22–23.
provides a good example of a preacher’s commonplace book.22 It was

probably compiled by Thomas Collins, a Presbyterian minister educated
at the Taunton Academy, who worked at Templecombe (Somerset) from
1718 to c.1734, was a co-pastor at Ilminster (Somerset) from 1725 to
c.1735, then preached at Bridport (Dorset) from 1734/5 to c.1762/4, and
died in 1765.23 The book applies the Lockean method of commonplac-
ing. A table of contents subdivides alphabetical order into the combina-
tion of the first letter with the first vowel in the word, so that Glastonbury,
Grace, and Gal[atians] all come under Ga,24 and ‘Sermons’ are to be found
under Se. The book, which also served as a preaching calendar scattered on
different pages under the alphabetical entries for Biblical texts, covers the
whole of Collins’s preaching career.25 That probably explains why the
pages do not follow the alphabetical order: once a page had been filled,
another one was begun wherever there was some empty space. So Se starts
on three discontinuous pages,26 and H follows A, for instance. Hence the
use of the table of contents. The book includes excerpts, definitions and
summaries of various works, ideas, concepts or issues, and recurrently
quotes the Huguenot historian Paul de Rapin, Joseph Butler’s sermons
and Analogy of Religion,27 the whig bishop of Bristol John Conybeare,
together with Gilbert Burnet’s exposition of the Thirty-nine articles28 and
his ars praedicandi, Discourse of the Pastoral Care.29 The eclecticism of this
non-conformist minister’s reading list is noteworthy, since it included
seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Anglican bishops and Continental
authors.
Thomas Collins’s commonplace book is dated 1773, and may have been
passed on to one Lionel Browne, whose name is inscribed on the fly-
leaves at the beginning and end of the book, for him to use as a notebook
in his turn. Indeed, it had been traditionally assumed that such private
22
London, Dr. Williams’s Library, MSS 28.119. I owe special thanks to the staff of
Dr. Williams’s Library, Durham University Library, and Durham Cathedral Library for
their unfailing help over the years.
23
London, Dr. Williams’s Library, card catalogue of non-conformist ministers, card
n° 1195 [last consulted 16 September 2005].
24
London, Dr. Williams’s Library, MSS 28.119, p. 53.
25
The earliest preaching date that I have found after a cursory examination of the manu-
script is 1719.
26
London, Dr. Williams’s Library, MSS 28.119, pp. 32, 113 and 127.
27
London, Dr. Williams’s Library, MSS 28.119, especially pp. 140, 150 and passim.
28
London, Dr. Williams’s Library, MSS 28.119, e.g. p. 147.
29
compilations of commonly accepted knowledge could be transferred from

one reader to another.30 One may therefore wonder whether the entry enti-
tled ‘Various Extracts from Various Authors’, written in a different hand,
with its own separate pagination, was Lionel Browne’s completion of
Thomas Collins’s notebook.31 The authors quoted there included not only
classical poets like Horace and Virgil and reference works like the ‘incom-
parable […] Univers[al] Hist[ory]’,32 but also contained long summaries,
mostly in shorthand, of Francis Hutcheson’s System of Moral Philosophy, and
again a medley of excerpts from non-conformist, Anglican, and Continental
literature: Richard Baxter’s Saints’ Everlasting Rest (1650), Edward Chandler’s
sermons, Locke’s philosophy, and Charles Rollin’s Lettres.33
While preachers were encouraged to memorise words and ideas thanks
to their commonplace books, they were warned against slavish imitation of
their predecessors. Pupils at the nonconformist Academy at Northampton
were given the same advice as Cambridge students:
Take brief notes of the sermons you hear. Review them in your retirement.
Transcribe them, and add memorandums of your own thoughts and reflec-
tions upon them as you go along. Painting and carving are learnt by imita-
tion, and by observing the defects as well as the beauties of great masters.34
In the context of the Horatian ut pictura poesis, and within the framework
of the theory of the ‘sister arts’, similar rules applied to painting and pulpit
oratory. Imitation derived from critical analysis of the model, and would
lead to the development of a personal style. The trite metaphor of the bee,
borrowed from Lucretius,35 suggested that originality could result from
a new combination of borrowed beauties:
You should, like Bees, fly from Flower to Flower, extracting the Juices fit-
test to be turned into Honey. The severest Criticks allow such amiable
Plundering.
30
Yeo, “John Locke’s ‘New Method’ of Commonplacing”, pp. 26–27.
31
London, Dr. Williams’s Library, MSS 28.119, facing p. 153 and following pages.
32
33
Charles Rollin (1661–1741), De la Manière d’enseigner et d’étudier les belles-lettres, par
rapport à l’esprit et au cœur (Paris, 1726–1728), 4 vols. Wilbur Samuel Howell argues that
the anonymous translation The Method of Teaching and Studying the Belles Lettres: Or an
Introduction to Languages, Poetry, Rhetoric, History, Moral Philosophy, Physicks, &c. (London,
1734) contributed to the appearance of the word ‘belles-lettres’ in the English language:
Eighteenth-century British Logic and Rhetoric (Princeton, 1971), p. 533, but the Oxford
English Dictionary online quotes an earlier occurrence in 1710.
34
Doddridge, Lectures on Preaching, pp. 4–5.
35
Lucretius, De Natura Rerum 3:11: ‘Floriferis ut apes in saltibus omnia libant’.
It is true, you may not equal the Merit of any of your Models; but you
acquire a new, and become yourself an Original.36
The oxymoron of ‘amiable Plundering’ suggests that the line between licit
imitation and immoral plagiarism could be very blurred indeed. Indeed,
Doddridge warned his pupils against unacknowledged quotations pilfered
verbatim from other sermonizers: ‘Never borrow the Words of others. Use
their works in your compositions for hints and thoughts freely, but never
transcribe, unless it be as a quotation’.37 Likewise, the Anglican controver-
sialist Joseph Glanvill had already encouraged young preachers to reword
any ideas that they might have found in other people’s books: ‘When you
make use of any notions you meet in your reading, you should form them
according to your own way of expressing, and not tye your self to the
words of the Author’.38 Therefore, the commonplace book could be of
assistance only for the choice of suitable topics (inventio) or the arrange-
ment of arguments (dispositio), not for expression or style (elocutio). In
view of all the evidence of rampant sermon piracy, one may say that the
theorists’ advice was not always taken, but the historian should not jump
to the oversimplified conclusion that there was a ‘permissive attitude’39 to
plagiarism in the eighteenth-century pulpit.
Choosing a subject implied consulting ‘those who have written well
upon it’, in order to ‘have the fullest, most accurate Survey of it which is
possible’.40 One of the useful books in this respect would have been the
catalogue of sermons compiled by an almost obscure vicar, Sampson
Letsome (1703/04-ca. 1760), first published in 1734 for the benefit of
those preachers who might like to find inspiration in their predecessors’
work.41 The data was displayed in table form. Since a sermon always began
36
Lawson, Lectures concerning Oratory, p. 121. Cf. Joseph Glanvill, Essay concerning
Preaching: Written for the Direction of a Young Divine; and Useful also for the People, in order
to Profitable Hearing (London, 1677), p. 67: ‘They should be digested into your store of
thoughts, as the various juyce of flowers is by the industrious Bee’.
37
Doddridge, Lectures on Preaching, p. 66.
38
Glanvill, Essay concerning Preaching, p. 67.
39
James Downey, The Eighteenth Century Pulpit, p. 6.
40
41
An Index to the Sermons Published since the Restoration, Pointing out the Text in the
Order they Lie in the Bible, Shewing the Occasion on Which they were Preached, and Directing
to the Volume and Page in Which they Occur (London, 1734). According to Foster’s Alumni
Oxonienses, Letsome matriculated at Magdalen Hall, Oxford in February 1722, aged 18,
then proceeded B.A. in 1725 and M.A. in 1728. He co-edited the ‘Boyle Lectures’ as
A Defence of Natural & Revealed Religion (1739). By the time of the publication of the 1753
edition of the Preacher’s Assistant, he was vicar of Thame in Oxfordshire.
with a quotation from Scripture, Letsome first sorted the information

in order of Biblical texts, from Genesis to Revelation. Then, the major
bio-bibliographical data included the preachers’ names and titles, the year
of publication of the edition that the author had consulted for his compi-
lation (not necessarily the first edition), and the subject matter or occasion
of the sermon under review. A new edition, entitled The Preacher’s Assistant,
was published in 1753, in two parts. While the first part was an expansion
of the original work, with 13,734 entries, the second volume contained An
Historical register of all the authors in the series, containing, in chronological
order, a succinct view of their […] works.42 There is much evidence that such
a database was used extensively by members of the clergy. One member of
the distinguished ecclesiastical Sharp family43 acquired an interleaved copy
soon after publication, as evidenced by the inscription on the flyleaf
‘E libris Tho. Sharp Trin. Coll. Cant. 1754’.44 Another interleaved copy
has copious manuscript additions of sermons published in the early dec-
ades of the nineteenth century.45 Thirty years later, John Cooke, rector
of Wentrop, Salop published The Preacher’s Assistant, after the manner of
Mr. Letsome.46 Not only did Cooke extend the period of coverage by three
decades. He also increased fourfold the amount of references for the earlier
period. Indeed, he marked up those references that had been omitted by
Letsome with an asterisk. Accordingly, the total number of items amounts
to 24,295.47 Interestingly enough, Thomas Collins’s commonplace book
42
I have computerised the 1753 edition: see my electronic article “The Preacher’s
Helper: A Computerised Version of Letsome’s Preacher’s Assistant”, Erfurt Electronic Studies
in English 8/99, <http://www.uni-erfurt.de/eestudies/eese/artic99/fadeco/fadeco.html>
[last consulted 18 August 2006].
43
The Sharps were an eminent Northern ecclesiastical dynasty: Thomas Sharp Sr.
(1693–1758), the younger son of Archbishop John Sharp (1645?–1714), was succeeded in
the archdeaconry of Northumberland by his eldest son John (1723–1792) whose brother
Thomas (1725–1772), fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, became curate at Bamburgh.
44
I.e. Thomas Sharp Jr.; Durham, Durham University Library, shelfmark Bamburgh
M.5.17–18.
45
London, Dr. Williams’s Library, shelfmark 3008.C.1–2. The latest date for these
manuscript annotations seems to be 1830 (facing p. 148).
46
John Cooke, The Preacher’s Assistant, after the Manner of Mr. Letsome. Containing a
Series of the Texts of Sermons and Discourses Published either Singly, or in Volumes, by Divines
of the Church of England and by the Dissenting Clergy since the Restoration to the Present Time.
Specifying also the Authors Alphabetically Arranged under Each Text with the Size, Date,
Occasion, and Subject-matter of each Sermon or Discourse (1783).
47
Cooke’s Preacher’s Assistant was computerised in 1988 by the late John Gordon
Spaulding, of the University of Vancouver, B.C. I had the privilege to be sent the data
on loan in 1992, when I was spending part of my sabbatical leave at the IBM Almaden
Research Center in San Jose, California. For a long time, the only way to consult the data
arranged the catalogue of his sermon library, with more than three hundred
titles, in the same way as Cooke’s and Letsome’s: ‘Sermons in Pamphlets
on y e following Texts with y e Authors Names, w ch I have’,48 as if the main
sorting criterion were the Biblical reference.
Even though there was obviously a market for such reference works,
they were often criticized by preaching manuals. In Fénelon’s posthumous
Dialogues on Eloquence, which remained in manuscript until 1718
(although they had probably been composed between 1677 and 1681),
and were translated in 1722 by an English clergyman, William Stevenson,49
interlocutor C condemned the patchwork effect that might result from the
hasty consultation of concordances, anthologies, quotation dictionaries,
and ready-made collections of texts:
All this puts me in mind of a preacher, a friend of mine, who lives, as you
have it, from day to day. He does not ponder anything until he is scheduled
to preach upon it. Then he closes himself in his study, thumbs his concord-
ances, his Combéfis, his Polyanthea, some sermon books he has bought, and
various collections he has made of purple patches wrested from their context
and hit upon by good luck.50
was a set of printouts deposited at the Huntington Library. An enhanced edition is

now apparently available: John Gordon Spaulding ed., Pulpit Publications 1660–1782
(New York, 1996), 6 vols.
48
49
Dialogues sur l’éloquence en général et celle de la chaire en particulier, avec une lettre écrite
à l’Académie française (Paris, 1718); for the best scholarly edition, see [François de Salignac
de la Mothe] Fénelon, Œuvres I, ed. Jacques Le Brun (Paris, 1983), pp. 3–87, with notes
pp. 1233–1259. Stevenson’s version reappeared in print at Glasgow in 1750 and 1760, and
at Leeds in 1808. The translation quoted here is Wilbur Samuel Howell’s edition, Fénelon’s
Dialogues on Eloquence (Princeton, 1951).
50
Howell, Fénelon’s Dialogues on Eloquence, p. 86, and Fénelon, Œuvres I, p. 29 and
p. 1246. François Combéfis (1605–1679) had published an eight-volume preacher’s patris-
tic library, Bibliotheca patrum concionatoria (1662). As for the anthology of quotations
known as Polyanthea, it had gone through several editions from its original publication in
1507 to the 1660s. The Jesuit André Spanner published his own version in 1701: Polyanthea
Sacra, ex universæ sacræ scripturæ utriusque testamenti figuris, symbolis, testimoniis, nec non
e selectis patrum, aliorumque authorum, sententiis, eruditis Interpretationibus, Similitudinibus,
rarisque Historiis collecta, et copiosis, exquisitisque materiis moralibus de virtutibus et vitiis Pro
Concionibus efformandis Adornata, Atque ad communem sacrorum præsertim Oratorum utili-
tatem in lucem edita ([Paris], 1701), 2 vols., in which topics, or future sermon heads, are
arranged in alphabetical order (e.g.: Accedia, adulation, adulterium, aequanimitas, aetas,
aeternitas, affectus, agonia christi, ambitio, amicitia & amici, amor, amor dei in
nos, amor christi in nos, amor erga deum, amores mali, amor proprius, S. Andreas,
Angeli, anima rationalis, animalia, annus, apostolic, aqua, arbor, ascensio christi, avaritia,
aula, aurum, auxilium divinum etc.). For each topic, a selection of adequate quotations
from the Old Testament, the New Testament, and patristic literature is provided; each
quotation being expounded, in Latin of course.
Fénelon thus objected to the use of commonplaces as an element of

invention and disapproved of what the historian Peter Bayley has described
as ‘thesaurus sermons’ – seemingly the prevailing genre in France in the
former half of the seventeenth century.51 However, thesauri continued to
be published throughout the eighteenth century. For instance, William
Beveridge (1637–1708), bishop of St Asaph, a high-churchman who also
held Calvinistic views on the doctrine of predestination, had compiled a
Thesaurus Theologicus that was published posthumously, like most of his
other works.52 The four volumes contain outlines of sermons which the
author had probably prepared for his future use, but whoever edited them
must have known that they would sell well. Indeed, the copy in Durham
University library has an autograph inscription by John Sharp,53 who actu-
ally referred to the book in the marginal annotations of at least one of his
manuscript sermons.54 Beveridge’s sermon outlines are carefully con-
structed with divisions and subdivisions, many of which are supported by
the reference to a quotation, usually from the Bible, but also sometimes
from classical Latin and Greek literature. Much later in the century the
Unitarian minister William Enfield (1741–1797), tutor of belles-lettres at
the Warrington Academy, published a book similarly designed ‘to afford
those who compose sermons some assistance in the choice of subjects and
texts’.55 The book corresponds exactly to the description in the title: each
entry gives an adequate scriptural reference. Similarly the Jesuit Vincent
Houdry, who compiled a twenty-volume anthology designed to supply
preachers with a complete library of all the reading material they might
need, tabled a list of ‘ready-made designs and topics’ fully furnished with
appropriate quotations.56 The major difference with its English counterparts
51
Peter Bayley, French Pulpit Oratory 1598–1650: A Study in Themes and Styles, with a
Descriptive Catalogue of Printed Texts (Cambridge, 1980).
52
Thesaurus Theologicus: Or, A Complete System of Divinity: Summ’d up in Brief Notes
upon Select Places of the Old and New Testament. Wherein The Sacred Text is Reduc’d under
proper Heads, Explain’d, and Illustrated with the Opinions and Authorities of the Ancient
Fathers, Councils, &c (London, 1710–1711).
53
Durham, Durham University Library, shelfmark Bamburgh C.5.45–48.
54
John Sharp’s manuscript sermons are held in Durham Cathedral Library, reference
code: GB-0036-SHS. No. 3 p. 33 quotes from Beveridge’s paraphrase of Biblical quota-
tions about charity to the poor: ‘Not to merit thereby from God. But for his Honour and
Glory, Prov. iii. 9. I Cor. X. 31’ (Beveridge, Thesaurus, vol. 2, p. 86).
55
[William Enfield], The Preacher’s Directory; Or a Series of Subjects Proper for Public
Discourses, With Texts under Each Head: To Which is Added a Supplement, Containing Select
Passages from the Apocrypha (London, 1771), p. vii.
56
La Bibliothèque des Prédicateurs. Tome seizième. Contenant trois tables, Pour faciliter
l’usage de tout l’Ouvrage: La Première marque des Desseins & des Matériaux pour tous les
consisted in the fact that the data was laid out in order to follow the
Catholic lectionary for Sundays, as well as for the two preaching seasons of
Advent and Lent. Houdry systematically anchored his sermon topics in
the lessons for the day. Each subject was illustrated by bilingual excerpts
from Scripture and the Fathers, as well as extracts from modern preachers.
However, Fénelon’s third dialogue repeated his distaste for detached
passages taken out of their contexts.57 The Catholic archbishop of Cambrai
shared with Glanvill and his contemporaries a mistrust of the ‘false elo-
quence’ due to the pedantry of such preachers as would show off their
erudition or ‘extort from’ texts ‘that […] which they never intended’.58
Such ostentation was usually condemned as ‘affectation’, in contrast with
the plain style that was now being advocated on both sides of the Channel.
Besides, far-fetched ‘fooling with’59 the Biblical text amounted to ‘abusing
the Word of God’60 – a serious crime, not only in a Protestant background
where the principle of sola scriptura prevailed of course, but also in post-
Tridentine Catholicism, since the Counter-Reformation had led, inter
alia, to the rediscovery of the ministry of the word.
2. Dispositio
As Trim (one of the characters in Laurence Sterne’s novel Tristram Shandy)

well knew, the introductory Scripture quotation was the hallmark of hom-
iletic literature: ‘ ’tis more like a sermon, – for it begins, with a text of
scripture, and the chapter and verse; – and then goes on, […] – like a ser-
mon directly’.61 The choice of a suitable ‘text’ was therefore of paramount
importance. Lawson recommended that the selection of a short Biblical
passage take place as soon as the subject had been decided on, before the
composition of the sermon:
Dimanches de l’Année, pour tous les jours du Carême, & pour les Fêtes ou Mysteres de Nôtre-
Seigneur & de Nôtre-Dame. La Seconde marque plusieurs Desseins avec les Matériaux pour des
Avents. La Troisième est une Table générale par ordre Alphabétique, pour toutes les matieres de
chaque Tome (Lyon, 1721), vol. 16 of La Bibliothèque des prédicateurs, qui contient les prin-
cipaux sujets de la morale chrétienne, mis par ordre alphabétique (Paris, 1712).
57
Howell, Fénelon’s Dialogues on Eloquence, p. 58, and Fénelon, Œuvres I, p. 83.
58
Glanvill, Essay, p. 43.
59
60
61
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman ([York], 1760 [sic; 1759]),
book 2, chapter 15; eds. Melvyn and Joan New (Gainesville, 1978–1984), p. 138.
When you have thus fixed upon a Subject, your next Care should be, to
chuse a proper Text. […] For the Discourse should be the Text unfolded, the
Text should be the Discourse in Abstract: They should be as the Seed and
Plant; which latter is the Seed drawn out by Nutriment, and organised in its
just and full dimensions.62
Long before the word had been coined, intertextuality lay at the core of
pulpit eloquence, not only in Protestant churches, but also among Catholic
authors of prescriptive literature. In Fénelon’s Dialogues on Eloquence, the
character designated by the letter A criticizes a fashionable preacher’s sorry
choice of an inappropriate text for an Ash Wednesday sermon:
When the preacher chose for his text the words, ‘For I have eaten ashes like
bread’, ought he to have contented himself merely with finding a verbal
affinity between that text and today’s ceremony? Should he not have begun
by understanding the true sense of the text before he applied it to his
subject?63
Perhaps this is another instance of the possible misuse of concordances!
Instead of selecting his text from the lectionary,64 the preacher had super-
ficially linked an inappropriate verse65 with the liturgy of the day. The
emphasis on the adequate use of Scripture is thus probably embedded with
a concern for the respect of tradition. Indeed, other Catholic commenta-
tors also underlined the need to refer to extra-scriptural sources of authority.
The famous French Oratorian Bernard Lamy (1640–1715), wrongly
associated by his English translators with the Jansenist school of Port-
Royal, explained in the final chapter to the 1688 revision of his treatise
La Rhétorique ou l’art de parler, originally published in 1675, that preach-
ers should lean on the tradition handed down in the Councils and the
Fathers.66 Claude Fleury (1640–1723), the former preceptor to the Princes
of Conty, drew up a similar agenda:
62
63
Howell, Fénelon’s Dialogues on Eloquence, p. 59; Fénelon, Œuvres I, p. 4.
64
E.g. Gen. 3:19: ‘for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return’.
65
Ps. 102:9 in the Authorised Version.
66
‘Les principes sur lesquels s’appuient les prédicateurs, ce sont l’Ecriture, la tradition,
les passages des conciles et des Pères qui nous ont conservé cette tradition’, p. 524 in Bernard
Lamy, La Rhétorique ou l’art de parler, ed. Benoît Timmermans (Paris, 1998). A translation
of the first edition appeared in London as early as 1676: The Art of Speaking: Written in
French by Messieurs du Port Royal: In Pursuance of a Former Treatise, Intituled, The Art of
Thinking. Rendred into English. Subsequent translations were published in 1696 and 1708,
while Lamy himself constantly revised his text until his death in 1715. A copy of the 1685
French edition, hence without the chapter on ‘ecclesiastical discourses, or sermons’, was
A Clergy-man ought to […] Catechize, […] To make Familiar Exhortations,

accommodated to the Capacity of the Auditours: To hear Confessions, and
give Wholsom Advice. A Vertuous and Zealous Priest may do all this, with-
out Reading any thing but the Holy Scripture, the Catechism, the Council,
the Instructions of his Ritual, some Sermons of St. Augustin, or other Moral
Book of some of the Fathers, which shall happen to fall into his hands. This
is that which may be said to be necessary, in the matter of Ecclesiastical
Studies.67
Interestingly enough, the translator confessed in the preface to the reader
that he had hesitated to give a literal rendering of such an overtly Catholic
text, for fear that it might disturb an English audience:
[He] Advises his Priest to Read the Trent Catechism, and Council, and Romish
Ritual. These and such like Characteristicks of his Communion, I thought
once to have accommodated to the English Church; […] But upon second
Thoughts, I judged it more suitable with a Translation, to let these Passages
go unaltered: Since the Weakest are in no danger of being harmed by them;
and the Wiser will only conclude from them, that Custom and Education,
in some things are apt to prevail over the Judgements of the most Reasonable
Men.68
The adjective ‘reasonable’ conveyed the idea that enlightened readers were
expected to set aside any anti-Catholic prejudice in order to recognize the
good qualities of the treatise. Remarkable though it may seem, such an
open-minded approach was probably not an isolated phenomenon. A vast
body of evidence may lead to the conclusion that devotional literature and
religious books circulated widely in European ecclesiastical circles, across
national borders and denominational frontiers. The links between the
Wesley brothers and Continental spirituality have long been documented,
for instance, but much more information suggests that Catholic works
were not banned at all from English ecclesiastical libraries. After all, trac-
tates on the methodology of preaching dealt with more technical than
doctrinal matters. It should therefore come as no surprise to find a
copy of Claude Fleury’s treatise, in the original French, in the Sharps’
used in 1748 by Thomas Sharp Jr. at Trinity College, Cambridge (Durham, Durham
University Library, shelfmark Bamburgh O.8.46).
67
The History, Choice, and Method of Studies By Monsieur Fleury, Sometime Preceptor to
the Princes of Conty, Monsieur D’Vermandois, and to the Dukes of Burgoyne and Anjou, trans.
D. Poplar (London, 1695).
68
Fleury, The History, Choice, and Method of Studies, “Preface to the reader”, n.p.
library.69 To a certain extent, the durability of pulpit oratory prevailed over

theological controversies.
This may also partly explain why works dating back to the latter half
of the seventeenth century still played an influential part all through the
eighteenth century. There is evidence, for instance, that a copy of the
second edition (1703) of Joseph Glanvill’s Essay concerning preaching,
first published in 1678, was used by a Henry Briggs (1687?–1748) and
subsequently acquired in 1751 by Thomas Sharp Jr.70 Similarly, the post-
humous treatise on the composition of a sermon by the French Protestant
minister Jean Claude (1619–1687)71 was still being printed in translation
a century after its publication.72 Likewise, The Method of Good Preaching,
Being the Advice of a French Reform’d Minister [Philippe Delmé] to his Son
[Elias Delmé] was published in English half a century after the former’s
death.73 That the translator might have been James Owen, the famous
champion of Dissent in Manchester (1654–1706), suggests the possible
existence of international religious networks.
On both sides of the denominational divide, and on both sides of the
Channel, the sermon appeared as a kind of extended commentary on a
selected Biblical quotation. It was now ‘universally established’74 to head
the sermon with a single verse rather than a longer passage from Scripture.
Both Lawson and Lamy observed that such a method had been ‘intro-
duced very late’.75 Fénelon looked back nostalgically to ‘the ancient cus-
tom’ of explaining ‘the holy books one after the other’,76 which allowed
the preacher to expound on ‘the interconnections of the doctrines of
Scripture’,77 instead of choosing a single verse known as ‘the text’.78
69
Claude Fleury, Traité du choix et de la méthode des études (Paris, 1675; 1687), in the
library of Thomas Sharp Sr. Durham, Durham University Library, shelfmark Bamburgh
D.3.54.
70
Durham, Durham University Library, shelfmark Bamburgh N.8.42.
71
Traité de la composition d’un sermon, in Les Œuvres posthumes de Mr. Claude
(Amsterdam, 1688) I.
72
Jean Claude, An Essay on the Composition of a Sermon. Translated from the Original
French of the Revd. John Claude, Minister of the French Reformed Church at Charenton. With
Notes, by Robert Robinson (Cambridge, 1778; 3rd ed. London, 1788).
73
[Philippe Delmé (†1653)], The Method of Good Preaching, Being the Advice of a French
Reform’d Minister to his Son. Translated out of French, into English (London, 1701), p. 7.
74
75
76
Howell, Fénelon’s Dialogues on Eloquence, p. 134.
77
Howell, Fénelon’s Dialogues on Eloquence, p. 133.
78
Fénelon, Œuvres I, p. 83.
However, the Oxford English Dictionary identifies the first instance of

this acceptation of the word ‘text’ in 1377, long before the Protestant
Reformation, when such sections of Scripture were still cited in Latin.79
Not only did the selected excerpt have to be clearly connected with the
occasion on which the sermon was preached, but it was also advisable to
keep it short: ‘Chuse out one […] of moderate Length, so as not to puzzle
the Attention, or burthen the Memory of the Hearer’.80 Such advice conveys
the awareness of the fact that the sermon relies heavily on the audience’s
aural memory. Many rules given by tractates on preaching derived from
this principle, underlined by Thomas Sharp Sr:
The grand Maxim, by which we are to be guided in all those Compositions
which are distinguished by the name of Sermons, is this, viz. That they are
verbal Instructions, designed to be taken by the ears of the persons instructed,
and are not originally formed to be read by their eyes: Therefore, if not under-
stood at first hearing, are good for nothing.81
Even though many eighteenth-century sermons were fully written out and
some eventually went into print, the orality of the genre, at the crossroads
between literature and oratory,82 was of paramount importance. Whether
artes praedicandi dealt with invention, disposition, or elocution, they
always emphasized the ephemeral nature of the spoken word, hence the
need for clarity and mnemonic devices.
Once the Biblical text had been read out, the introduction could explain
the context of the quotation. However, Doddridge tried to teach his stu-
dents at the Northampton Academy that, contrary to a much ingrained
preaching habit, contextualisation need not be automatic in the exposition
of the theme. Here as elsewhere, the Independent minister advocated
variety:
How shall the sermon begin? Let it not be always with mentioning the con-
text, though it may sometimes be allowed, or indeed necessary. Use a variety
79
http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50250103?query_type=word&queryword=text
&first=1&max_to_show=10&sort_type=alpha&search_id=5qbn-7fRY8x-7149&result
_place=2 [last consulted 27 September 2006].
80
81
Thomas Sharp, First Discourses on Preaching, Or, Directions Towards Attaining the Best
Manner of Discharging the Duties of the Pulpit: Delivered, in Three Visitation-Charges
(London, 1757; 3rd ed. 1787), p. 12.
82
I am grateful to Jennifer Farooq for sending me a copy of the paper that she read on
“The Eighteenth-Century Sermon in Oral and Literate Culture” at the 2006 conference of
the British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies.
of exordia; sometimes, by scripture stories; sometimes by quotations and

allusions; sometimes, by similes; at others, by a weighty, laconic sentence,
and sometimes, fall directly upon your subject, especially when it is so copi-
ous that you will be in danger of exceeding the time.83
Of course, the word exordium denotes the classical training that most
prospective preachers were given in an age when Latin was still the inter-
national language of communication in the Republic of Letters.84 Besides,
Doddridge’s recommendations always partook of the baroque85 aesthetics
of surprise that suited the needs of oral discourse particularly well. The
idea that a sermon lasted for a customary length of time is also noteworthy.
There is scattered evidence that as the eighteenth-century went by, the
allotted time in England became close to half an hour, whereas in the early
seventeenth-century sermons had been twice as long.86 In a critical review
of pulpit literature, for instance, Thomas Weales, dean of St. Sepulchre’s,
remarked: ‘It is really a penance to listen to a discourse of half an hour
long, which proves nothing, and says nothing’.87 Similarly, John Sharp’s
preaching register at the beginning of each manuscript shows that, when
he timed his sermons, they averaged under thirty minutes. Perhaps the
hour-glass in William Hogarth’s famous engraving of The Sleeping
Congregation is to be construed as a satirical detail.
After the preamble, the preacher was advised to outline the main propo-
sitions drawn from the text under distinct heads, and even sometimes to
repeat the plan, in order to make the structure of the sermon very clear
to the congregation: ‘Give the plan twice, as briefly as possible, and the
review. This makes Tillotson so clear. A few moments thus employed
are well spent. Let your hearers always perceive where you are; and be
upon your guard against long digressions’.88 Thus, repetition, brevity, and
83
84
Lawson, Lectures concerning Oratory, apologised p. 21 for publishing his lectures in
English.
85
Lessenich uses this word when he refers to the sophisticated rhetoric of John Donne
or Lancelot Andrewes, in contrast with the post-Restoration ‘neoclassical’ approach:
Elements of Pulpit Oratory, p. 1. In view of the recurrent comparisons in artes praedicandi
between homiletics and music (see infra), I would like to use the word here in a rather loose
acceptation closer to the definition used by musicologists: cf. Marc Fumaroli’s preface to
the second edition of Victor-L. Tapié’s Baroque et classicisme (Paris, 1980; 2000).
86
Peter Bayley, French Pulpit Oratory, p. 16. Indeed, Philippe Delmé the elder (†1653)
had mentioned ‘the hour allotted’: The Method of Good Preaching, p. 5.
87
Thomas Weales, The Christian Orator Delineated. In Three Parts ([London], 1778), p. 91.
88
conciseness resulted from the perception of preaching as an oral art. The

reference to Tillotson firmly placed this recommendation within the
framework of the plain method of preaching that had been introduced
after the Restoration in 1660. A hundred years later, Hugh Blair looked
back on this radical revolution in pulpit oratory:
During the period that preceded the restoration of King Charles II. the
sermons of the English divines abounded with scholastic casuistical theology
[…] Upon the Restoration, preaching assumed a more correct and polished
form. It became disencumbered from the pedantry and scholastic divisions of
the sectaries; but it threw out also their warm and pathetic Addresses, and
established itself wholly upon the model of cool reasoning, and rational
instruction; […] hence that argumentative manner, bordering on the dry and
unpersuasive, which is too generally the character of English Sermons.89
Undeniably, the Restoration marked a watershed in the history of English
pulpit literature, with the development of a new taste for ‘plainness
of preaching’,90 which implied simplicity of construction and sobriety of
style akin to the scientific prose recommended by the Royal Society. The
eighteenth-century sermon was characterised by division into fewer parts
and subheadings than the elaborate compositions of former Puritan homi-
letics or metaphysical preachers. Although the theologian and natural phi-
losopher John Wilkins had pioneered the call for plain style, and although
his Ecclesiastes, (1646), which had already reached its fifth corrected and
enlarged edition in 1669,91 kept being reprinted through the eighteenth
century, to a certain extent he still referred to a preaching method that
soon became obsolete.92 The complexity of his diagram of the ‘chief parts
of a Sermon’ arguably represents the transition from Puritan division and
subdivision to the post-Restoration plain style (figure 1).93
89
Blair, Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres, II, pp. 325–327.
90
91
John Wilkins, Ecclesiastes, or, A Discourse Concerning the Gift of Preaching as it Fals
under the Rules of Art. Shewing the Most Proper Rules and Directions, for Method, Invention,
Books, Expression, Whereby a Minister may be Furnished with such Abilities as may Make him
a Workman that Needs not to be Ashamed. Very Seasonable for these Times, wherein the Harvest
is Great, and the Skilful Labourers but Few (London: 1646).
92
Barbara J. Shapiro argues in John Wilkins 1614–1672: An Intellectual Biography
(Berkeley, Los Angeles, 1969), p. 72 that Wilkins ‘belongs to the school of sermon con-
struction that divides and subdivides, although he warns against excessive subdivision’.
93
John Wilkins, Ecclesiastes, pp. 5–7. Tabulation marks and bulleted lists have replaced
the brackets used by Wilkins’s printer. Barbara J. Shapiro remarks that Wilkins’s ‘formida-
ble looking diagrams’ are ‘really quite simple’: John Wilkins, p. 273.
Strangely enough, French pulpit oratory also underwent a complete

transformation in the latter half of the seventeenth century, although the
historical context differed considerably. Thus Houdry stated in his preface
that the method of sermon composition had changed since the 1650s.94
Indeed, under the influence of Vincent de Paul (1581–1660), whose ‘small
method’ of preaching emphasized apostolic simplicity in order to reach
even the poorest listener,95 the mannerism, erudition and scholasticism
that had infiltrated French Catholic sermons in the first few decades of the
seventeenth century gave way to a plainer style.
The parallel evolution of pulpit oratory in France and England is so
striking that some historians have been tempted to wonder whether the
English taste for plain preaching may have been partly influenced by con-
temporary French homiletics.96 After all, many Royalist clergymen had
accompanied Charles II in exile in France, where they would have had the
opportunity to sample French classicism. Indeed, in his Directions concern-
ing preachers (1662), Charles II encouraged the new style of preaching.97
Conversely, immigrant Huguenot ministers, especially after the 1685 rev-
ocation of the edict of Nantes, brought the Reformed homiletic tradition
with them.98 Besides, the widespread circulation of European sermon lit-
erature across geographical and denominational borders has already been
noticed. There is much evidence that English divines and students in the-
ology were well versed in Continental homiletics. Lawson had copies of
Fénelon, Lamy, Le Faucheur99 and Rollin on his bookshelves. Of course,
94
La Bibliothèque des prédicateurs, vol. 1, preface, n.p.: ‘en France […] la méthode de
composer des sermons est change, & tout autre qu’elle n’étoit il n’y a pas plus de cinquante
ans’. Elsewhere, his definition of ancients and moderns specifies that the turning point was
the mid-seventeenth century: ‘le milieu du siècle passé’ vol. 1, p. xj.
95
Vincent de Paul, “Conférence du 20 août 1655”, Entretiens, ed. Pierre Coste (Paris,
1924), vol. 11, pp. 274 and 286, quoted in Bossuet, Sermons: Le Carême du Louvre, ed.
Constance Cagnat-Deboeuf (Paris, 2001), p. 9.
96
Liliane Gallet-Blanchard, “La Rhétorique et les rhétoriciens au dix-huitième siècle
en Grande-Bretagne: Fondements et fondateurs de la stylistique”, thèse pour le doctorat
ès-lettres, dir. Paul-Gabriel Boucé (Université de Paris III-Sorbonne Nouvelle, 1984), vol. 2,
pp. 331–380.
97
A Letter of the Kings most Excellent Majesty, to the Most Reverend Father in God, William
Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury. To Which are Adjoyned His Majesties Directions Concerning
Preachers ([Dublin]: London, 1662).
98
In Huguenot Heritage: The History and Contribution of the Huguenots in Britain
(London and New York: 1985), Robin D. Gwynn underlines both the ‘cross-fertilisation of
ideas’ due to the fact that ‘the refugees diffused French thought in England’ (p. 85), and the
complex process of assimilation (chapter 10).
99
The treatise by the French Protestant Michel Le Faucheur (1585–1657), Traitté de
l’action de l’orateur, ou de la prononciation et du geste (Paris, 1657), had been anonymously
such a web of mutual influences is not, by far, the only explanation for the
development of plain style in post-Restoration England. The fact remains
nonetheless that the age of the neoclassic sermon was a very long eighteenth
century indeed on both sides of the Channel, from approximately 1660
to 1815.
One of the only differences in the rules of composition was that French
Catholic preachers had become used to inserting an Ave Maria into the
exordium, either before or after the division into points.100 Lamy claimed
that the custom had first been introduced in order to differentiate between
Catholic and ‘heretical’ sermons,101 which seems to confirm the idea that
they were otherwise very similar. Actually, the practice dated back to the
sixteenth century and went out of fashion in the late 1680s,102 maybe
partly because it made the orator devise an artificial link between his cho-
sen topic and the angelic salutation to the Virgin.103 Like character B in
Fénelon’s Dialogues on Eloquence, late seventeenth-century polite company
praised the skill of an ingenious transition,104 but the spokesman for the
author’s viewpoint is interlocutor A, who criticizes the affectation of ‘fine
preaching’ in the same terms as many contemporary treatises.
translated as An Essay upon the Action of an Orator; as to his Pronunciation & Gesture. Useful
both for Divines and Lawyers, and Necessary for all Young Gentlemen, that Study how to Speak
well in Publick. Done out of French (London, [1680?]); the second edition was published
with a slightly different title: The Art of Speaking in Publick: or an Essay on the Action of an
Orator; as to his Pronunciation and Gesture. Useful in the Senate or Theatre, the Court, the
Camp, as well as the Bar and Pulpit (London, 1727; 1750).
100
Lamy, La Rhétorique ou l’art de parler, p. 521: ‘On propose d’abord ce sujet; et pour
le traiter comme il le doit être, on demande les lumières du Saint Esprit par l’intercession
de la Vierge, qu’on salue en récitant l’Ave Maria. Ensuite on partage son discours en deux
ou trois points, auxquels on rapporte tout ce que l’on a à dire. Il y en a qui font ce partage
avant l’Ave Maria, après lequel tous commencent à expliquer leur premier point’.
101
Lamy, La Rhétorique ou l’art de parler, p. 521: ‘On remarque qu’on commença de
faire cette prière à la naissance des dernières hérésies, pour distinguer les prédications des
catholiques d’après les prêches des hérétiques’. In one of his earliest sermons, preached at
Metz in 1653, Bossuet had explained the introduction of this ‘pious custom’ as an anti-
protestant move: “Panégyrique de Saint Bernard”, in Œuvres oratoires vol. 1, pp. 395–396,
quoted in Sermons: Le Carême du Louvre, p. 316.
102
Fénelon, Œuvres I, p. 1241, n. 3. However, the custom seems to have survived in
manuscript Catholic sermons preached in eighteenth-century colonial Maryland by Jesuit
priests who had almost all received their homiletic training at Liège: see Joseph C. Linck,
Fully Instructed and Vehemently Influenced: Catholic Preaching in Anglo-Colonial America
(Philadelphia, 2002), p. 40.
103
La Bruyère: ‘il n’y a pas si longtemps qu’ils avaient des chutes ou des transitions
ingénieuses, quelquefois même si vives et si aiguës qu’elles pouvaient passer pour épi-
grammes’, § 5 in “De la Chaire”, Les Caractères ou Les Mœurs de ce Siècle (8th ed., 1694), in
Œuvres complètes, ed. Julien Brenda (Paris, 1951), p. 437.
104
Fénelon, Œuvres I, p. 4; Dialogues on Eloquence, p. 58.
Where Catholic and Protestant preachers may have parted, however,

was in the choice of themes that they dealt with. However, Lawson had
reservations about the introduction of anti-Catholic polemics in English-
speaking sermons:
Points of Controversy among Christians should not be altogether shut out
from the Pulpit, those especially which subsist between us and the Church of
Rome, whose Doctrines are the most grosly erroneous; and besides, involve
Danger to the State. But the Treatment of these is difficult. […] Your
Arguments should be simple, yet strong; drawn from Scripture, or plain
Reason; not embarrassed with historical Deductions, or the Erudition of
Quotations, or the Perplexity of numerous Objections and solved; for you do
not write to Readers, but speak to be understood. And what is perhaps the
hardest Part, you are to preserve the due Mean: […] shew the Heinousness
of the Mistakes, without raising Abhorrence of the Mistaken; […] and join
the Moderation of a Christian with the Vehemence of an Orator.105
The keyword of ‘moderation’ in this remarkably tolerant passage is in keep-
ing with all the other neoclassic rules about plain preaching. The orality of
the genre implied that controversial arguments remain ‘simple’. Even the
appeal to reason, combined with the authority of Scripture in a phrase that
was typical of the English Enlightenment, was described as ‘plain’.
While Lawson was reluctantly prepared to include anti-Catholic con-
troversy in the English pulpit on the grounds that Popery represented a
genuine political threat, he hesitated about the relevance of intra-protestant
polemic against nonconformists:
As to the Articles in Dispute between us and our dissenting Brethren, these,
if to be at all admitted; should be reserved for a masterly Hand. In Points of
Difference which affect not Essentials, Prudence, as well as Religion, directeth
to sweeten and reconcile Mens Spirits on both Sides; […] And most skilful
and happy is the Preacher, who can open such Wounds with a Touch so deli-
cate, as to asswage rather than enflame.106
Many denominational differences related to matters that had been referred
to since the sixteenth century as adiaphora or ‘indifferent things’. Therefore
they needed to be handled with so much sensitivity that they could
be regarded as almost incompatible with plain preaching. This is probably
the reason why Glanvill felt that ‘the Doctrines that are speculative and
nice should be let alone’.107 Simplicity of composition could only apply
105
106
107
to equally simple topics. Glanvill recommended four major subjects:

‘Explications and vindications of the Attributes of God, especially of his
Goodness’,108 ‘the Reasonableness of Religion, both in the principles and
duties of it’,109 the ‘necessity of an holy life’,110 and ‘Universal Charity’.111 He
considered such moral and religious subjects as ‘most sutable to the
Exigencies of the Age’.112 However, Lawson and Blair, among others, later
remarked on the difficulty of dealing with points of morality, ‘the most
trite of all Subjects’.113 Therefore pulpit eloquence required more skilful
presentation than forensic oratory – a commonplace idea from La Bruyère
to Blair: ‘it is easier to rise to Indifference in Preaching, than in Pleading;
more difficult to arrive at Excellence’.114
3. Style
The main difference between pulpit oratory and other forms of public
discourse lay precisely in the fact that the purpose of a sermon was ‘edifica-
tion’.115 Plainness of preaching implied simple eloquence, as ‘opposed to
affected Rhetorick’.116 Even though the classical definition of literature as
a combination of instruction and entertainment (utile dulci) always lurked
in the background, neoclassic artes praedicandi often emphasized useful-
ness more than pleasure. Most rules about style and delivery derived from
this basic principle, and aimed at recommending what might be called an
anti-rhetorical form of eloquence.
Stylistic advice could begin with warnings against the complexity of
compound sentences. Thomas Sharp, for instance, recommended that
beginners focus on short clauses: ‘Long Sentences, in Sermons, to be avoided
as much as possible. They are too large for the swallow of ordinary capaci-
ties. But, break them into three or four distinct sentences, and they will all
easily be taken down, and all will become food’.117 In a similarly paradoxi-
cally anti-Ciceronian approach, Doddridge advocated the use of parataxis
108
109
110
111
Glanvill, Essay, p. 32 [sic; in fact 33].
112
113
114
115
Glanvill, Essay, p. 21 [sic; in fact p. 12].
116
117
Thomas Sharp, First Discourse on Preaching (London, 1757; 3rd ed. 1787), p. 13.
rather than hypotaxis: ‘When a sentence grows too long, divide it. Affect
not to confound the distinction between different periods and paragraphs
by the perpetual use of connecting particles. Encumber not your discourse
with the particles, ‘by how much, by so much, for as much as, further-
more, howbeit’, etc’.118
In order to make himself understood, the preacher was also advised to
choose adequate syntactic structures, and to write in good continuous
prose, without disrupting the natural word order:
Never to keep a principal Word in a Sentence at a Distance, if it can be brought
out early; or to express it otherwise, Never to leave the Hearer in Suspense to
the very End of the Sentence, if you can let him into the meaning of it as you
proceed in it. […] I know such-like Dislocations of principal words are com-
mon in writers, who use them as ornaments of language. But they do not suit
with the style of the Pulpit; in which, I think, it is an universal Rule, that the
Sentiment to be conveyed must never be hurt, or impaired, or obscured, for
the sake of embellishing the Sentence that conveys it.119
Plain syntax structure would be of no use, however, if the vocabulary
did not follow suit. From Glanvill and Fénelon to Swift, Doddridge, and
Blair, there was a constant obsession with the need to avoid ‘hard words’,
that is to say obscure, obsolete, foreign or rare terms. Given the nature of
the English language, this rule implied that monosyllables of Anglo-Saxon
origin would prevail over polysyllables derived from French, Latin or Greek
roots.
Like a modern-day scholar in lexicometry,120 the dean of St Patrick’s
claimed that he had sampled the vocabulary used by a young preacher:
118
Doddridge, Lectures on Preaching, p. 40. Interestingly enough, the linguist Fiona
Crake-Rossette has highlighted the prevalence of parataxis in a corpus of oral and written
contemporary English: “Parataxe et connecteurs: Observations sur l’enchaînement des
propositions en anglais contemporain”, thèse de doctorat soutenue devant l’université de
Paris IV-Sorbonne, dir. Pierre Cotte, 15 December 2003, 2 vols. Her dissertation abstract
argues that ‘connecting items are superfluous to the understanding of the text’ and that
‘with fewer words more can in fact be communicated’. Consequently the advice given to
French twenty-first century undergraduates in her course on ‘public speaking’ is very simi-
lar to Doddridge’s recommendations to prospective preachers at the Northampton
Academy, although she encourages students to use discourse markers and coordination in
oral presentations: see the course description at <http://anglais.u-paris10.fr/spip.php?article
443> [last consulted on 26 December 2006].
119
Sharp, First Discourse on Preaching, p. 14.
120
As the name implies, lexicometry is a method based on the (computer-assisted) anal-
ysis of word frequencies. The standard textbook introduction is to be found in Ludovic
Lebart and André Salem, Statistique textuelle (Paris, 1994).
I have been curious enough to take a List several hundred Words in a Sermon
of a new Beginner, which not one of his Hearers among a hundred could
possibly understand. […]
And upon this Account it is, that among hard Words, I number likewise those
which are Peculiar to Divinity as it is a Science; because I observe several
Clergymen otherwise little fond of obscure Terms, yet in their Sermons very
liberal of all those which they find in Ecclesiastical Writers, as if it were our
Duty to understand them; which I am sure it is not. And I defy the greatest
Divine to produce any Law either of God or Man, which obliges me to com-
prehend the meaning of Omniscience, Omnipresence, Ubiquity, Attribute,
Beatistic Vision, with a thousand others so frequent in Pulpits, any more than
that of Excentrick, Idiosyncracy, Entity and the like!121
The problem with the ecclesiastical terminology satirized by Swift lay in
the accumulation of abstract concepts cloaked in words of Latin or Greek
origin. Even with such a Romance language as French, interlocutor A in
Fénelon’s third dialogue on eloquence summarized the issue in a nutshell:
‘I knew an intelligent woman who said that preachers speak Latin in
French’.122 However, Glanvill qualified the idea that Latinisms should
always be shunned:
You cannot think I intend to condemn all that are borrow’d from the Greek,
Latin, or other more modern languages: No, the English is a mixed speech
[…] I therefore blame not all forreign words, provided common usage hath
made them free of our language: […] but to affect outlandish words that
have not yet receiv’d the publick stamp, and especially to do it, when the
ordinary English will represent the thing as well; These are the hard words
I condemn, and this is a vanity I think extreamly reprehensible in a
Preacher.123
What mattered here as elsewhere was to keep a happy medium between
two extremes, too many or too few Latinate terms. The same rule applied
to technical words: ‘the Preacher should not employ more terms of art than
need: Yea he should always avoid them, when they are not necessary’.124
Such recommendations viewed the ideal sermon as devoid of any lexical
specificity, in order to address every single member of the congregation,
without any distinction of class or gender: ‘the first [Fault] is the frequent
use of obscure Terms, which by the Women are called Hard Words, and by
121
Swift, A Letter to a Young Clergyman, pp. 6–7.
122
123
Glanvill, Essay, pp. 13–15.
124
the better sort of Vulgar, Fine Language’.125 Hence the legends about
Tillotson testing his sermons on ‘an illiterate old woman of plain sense,
who lived in the house with him’126 and erasing any word that she would
not understand. Preaching was an art of communication in which the
appropriate discursive register cultivated banality: ‘common Idioms of
Speech are oftentimes the most proper and significant; nay, a mean, bald,
blunt Expression is sometimes very becoming; a familiar Word or Saying
very useful and seasonable’.127 The edification of the hearers implied that
the orator level his language on the common lowest denominator, though
not to the extent of reaching vulgarity:
I observe in some mens Preaching a certain sordidness, which though igno-
rant people may like as plain, and familiar Preaching; yet ‘tis such a familiar-
ity as begets contempt. […] Plainness is the best Character of Speech,
especially in a Sermon, but not that which is Bluntness, this degenerates into
sordidness, and rusticity.128
In a very hierarchical society, the perfect preacher had to be aware of
‘the Difference between elaborate Discourses upon important Occasions,
delivered to Princes or Parliaments, written with a view of being made
Publick, and a plain sermon intended for the Middle or lower Size of
People’.129 The sermon as a genre could be divided into many sub-genres,
defined not only by subject-matter, but also by social categories of audi-
tors. This may partly explain why Letsome’s catalogue included a list of
abbreviations referring to the audience of occasional sermons, preached
before the King and/or Queen, the Lords or Commons, the Duke of
Marlborough, the Lord Mayor, Convocation, Lord Justices, or the
University, but also before blacks, criminals, debtors, free masons, officers,
physicians, young persons, Bristol merchants, or the Society of Cutlers.130
125
Swift, A Letter to a Young Clergyman, p. 6.
126
George Campbell, Lectures on Systematic Theology and Pulpit Eloquence (London,
1807), pp. 304–305, quoted in Lessenich, p. 17.
127
Cuthbert Ellison, What Will this Babler Say, In two Sermons, on Acts xvii. And 18.
preach’d in St. Nicholas’s Church, Newcastle, before the Mayor, Recorder, Aldermen, Sheriff, and
Common-Council, November 6 (London, 1748), p. 11.
128
129
130
Letsome’s list and use of abbreviations is inconsistent, probably because it was com-
piled manually, but a query in my version of the Preacher’s Assistant, which was first digi-
tized in the days when computers only read upper-case data transcripts, produced the
following results, arranged in alphabetical order: b. physicians, b. prince of w., b.asso.of
min., b.so.of cutlers, b.soc.of yg per, bef. an execut., bef. army, bef. cns., bef. crimi-
nals, bef. debtors, bef. k. & q., bef. king, bef. l. justices, bef. physicians, bef. qn., bef.
The preacher had to adjust his language to the requirements of each

distinct audience. Hence the recurrent idea that young clergymen could
practise in country parishes before they started addressing more refined
urban congregations.
Conversely, the congregation’s duties were not always neglected. Thus,
the highly Calvinistic John Edwards devoted the latter part of his second
discourse to the manner of attending sermons.131 Reverence, diligence,
understanding, faith, humility, patience, application and delight were
required from the listeners. Drowsiness or wandering thoughts would
hinder their concentration and prevent them from memorizing later what
they had heard, in order to practise what had been preached, for ultimately
the benefit of sermon attendance was not only edification, but eternal
happiness.
Taken to extremes in a kind of reductio ad absurdum, prescriptions for
plain preaching thus almost defined the impossible task of writing without
style. The idea needs qualification. The heated debate that took place in
Protestant and Catholic Europe, from the middle of seventeenth century
onwards, about the acceptable amount of rhetoric in pulpit oratory132
should not be oversimplified. Critics of ‘fashionable’ eloquence who advo-
cated more ‘evangelical’ or ‘apostolic’ homiletics, like the Portuguese Jesuit
Antonio Vieira (1608–1697) or the Capuchin Albert de Paris,133 usually
lamented the abuse of rhetoric that changed sermons into entertainment.
La Bruyère’s famous aphorism that ‘Christian discourse has become a stage
university, bef.artil.co., bef.brist.merc., bef.d.marlb., bef.debtors, bef.fr.mas., bef.

goldsm., bef.great audi., bef.l., bef.l.jan., bef.l.may, bef.l.mayor, bef.merchts.,
bef.q., bef.queen, bef.university, before blacks, before convoc., before cs., before
officers, before parliam., before synod.
131
John Edwards, The Preacher. The Second Part. A Discourse, Shewing, I. What Particular
Doctrines ought to be Preached by the Dispensers of the Gospel. II. That these Doctrines are
generally neglected, or (which is most usual) preached against. III. What are the Causes of this
Neglect and Opposition. IV. What are the Dreadful Consequences hereof. With Continued
Advice to Students in Divinity, And to Young Preachers. To which is Annexed, The Hearer: Or
a brief Discourse, Shewing what are the Qualifications that are Required in those Persons who
would Receive Benefit and Advantage by Hearing the Word Preached (London, 1707), p. 185
and following pages.
132
Jean-Pierre Landry, “Bourdaloue face à la querelle de l’éloquence sacrée”, XVIIe siècle
143 (avril-juin 1984), 133–139, and Jacques Truchet, La Prédication de Bossuet: Etude des
Thèmes (Paris, 1960), vol.1, pp. 54–63. The debate was echoed in Bossuet’s sermon on the
word of God, first preached in 1661 and re-used in a Lenten sermon in 1665: “Quelle part
peut donc avoir l’éloquence dans les discours chrétiens [?]”, Sermon sur la parole de Dieu
(extraits), in Sermons: Le Carême du Louvre, p. 303.
133
His treatise, La Véritable manière de prêcher selon l’esprit de l’évangile, was published
in 1691.
performance’,134 and his depiction of the ‘characters’ of urbane preachers

are well-known. Beyond social satire, what was at stake was the age-old
problem of how to strike a delicate balance between the three aims of
rhetoric: instruction (docere), persuasion (movere), and delight (delectare).
While ‘evangelical’ theorists like Bourdaloue argued that excessive orna-
mentation ran the risk of cloaking truth, other orators maintained that a
moderate use of rhetoric would enhance the sermon. From an Augustinian
approach, eloquence could even be interpreted as a necessary evil that
would appeal to the perverted taste of fallen man.
Without going to such extremes, many English treatises on the art of
preaching recommended a moderate use of rhetoric. Pulpit oratory was
not only a medium of communication, but also an art of persuasion: ‘Every
Sermon should be a persuasive Oration’.135 It was generally agreed, espe-
cially in the former half of the long eighteenth century, that it would be
impossible to influence human beings without appealing to their ‘pas-
sions’. Even in Britain where the philosophical outlook tended to be more
Lockean than Cartesian, the word referred to a wide range of emotional or
mental states136 – or, to use a contemporary definition, ‘certain Motions of
the Mind depending upon and accompanied with an Agitation of the
Spirits’.137 However rational the congregation may have been, they would
only be affected by representations of emotions or feelings, as Pope sug-
gested: ‘The ruling Passion conquers Reason still’.138 Therefore plain
preaching could not be completely devoid of rhetoric:
When setting to work, ask yourselves such questions as these […]. What
passions are to be raised, and what figures of speech are to be used? […]
What strain of preaching is most suited to the subject in general, and to
select parts in particular?139
In a kind of grammar of affections, tropes and figures of speech could thus
become figures of passion.140 The orator would represent emotions in such
a way as to move the hearers and ‘raise’ their feelings. Far from being
134
La Bruyère, Œuvres complètes, p. 436: ‘Le discours chrétien est devenu un spectacle’.
135
Blair, Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres II, p. 304.
136
Descartes, Les Passions de l’âme (Paris, Amsterdam, 1649).
137
John Norris (1657–1711), A Treatise Concerning Christian Prudence: Or the Principles
of Practical Wisdom, Fitted to the Use of Human Life, and Design’d for the Better Regulation of
it (London, 1710), p. 323.
138
Alexander Pope, Of the Use of Riches, an Epistle to the Right Honorable Allen Lord
Bathurst (London [Edinburgh], 1732 [1733]), l. 9.
139
140
See the catalogue to an exhibition that investigated the aesthetics of affect in the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Figures de la passion (Paris, 2001).
superfluous, ornamentation therefore served a purpose, provided modera-

tion tempered quantity:
Let not your discourses be too bare, but prudently interspersed with figures.
When too many, they are like flowery weeds growing among corn, which
render the prospect more pleasing to the eye, but hinder the growth; or like
painted glass; yet moderately used, they exhilarate the mind, and fasten on
the memory.141
4. Memory
Whether the author just cited referred to the preacher’s or the audience’s
memory is not obvious. Not only did preaching manuals repeatedly com-
ment on the oral nature of the sermon, but they also debated whether
homilists should learn their discourse by heart, in order to avoid the two
extremes of extemporisation and ‘Book-utterance’,142 if Lawson’s neolo-
gism may be used to describe the habit of reading out from a full script.
The latter method was well established in the Church of England. Like
Lawson and Burnet, Blair believed this was a British specificity: ‘The prac-
tice of reading Sermons, is one of the greatest obstacles to the Eloquence
of the Pulpit in Great Britain, where alone this practice prevails’.143 Not all
English preachers, however, answered the description. When Doddridge
advised students to learn how to distance themselves from their prepared
text or to use only brief notes, he was faithful to the long tradition of
improvisation in the nonconformist pulpit:
Let your delivery be free, that is, above the servile use of notes. Do not read
every word, nor be afraid to change a clause, or to add a sentence which may
rise suddenly, and be as useful and frequently as graceful as any. To be able to
preach without notes raises a man’s character.144
However moderate such advice may have been, extemporaneous deliv-
ery still smacked of sectarian ‘enthusiasm’ and recalled the fanaticism of
mid-seventeenth century England. Later in the century, the Methodist
movement revived the Dissenting tradition of spontaneous delivery. In
mainstream churches however, the fully written sermon was the norm,
so memorisation represented one possible alternative to reading:
141
Doddridge, Lectures on Preaching, pp. 41–42.
142
143
Blair, Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres II, p. 321.
144
I cannot get over the Prejudice of taking some little Offence at the Clergy for
perpetually reading their Sermons. […] I cannot but think, that whatever is
read, differs as much from what is repeated without Book, as a Copy does
from an Original.145
There is indeed evidence that the generation of Tillotson were expected to
deliver their sermons memoriter, though the practice went out of fashion
even before his death.146 Likewise Fénelon’s criticism of the potential draw-
backs of such a habit suggests that French Catholic homilists too were used
to memorizing their sermons: ‘As long as one preaches by heart and often,
one will fall into [the] difficulty’ of overburdening one’s memory.147
5. Delivery
Once memorization and improvization had been ruled out, good reading
technique had to be developed. First of all, it was essential to read from a
fair copy, with characters large enough for the orator to see them from an
appropriate distance, and thus give the audience the illusion that he was
preaching without notes:
his Method was to write the whole Sermon in a large plain Hand, with all the
Forms of Margin, Paragraph, marked Page, and the like; […] and when he
deliver’d it, by pretending to turn his Face from one Side to the other,
he would (in his own Expression) pick up the Lines, and cheat his People by
making them believe he had it all by Heart.148
The method had the advantage of allowing the speaker to keep eye contact
with the audience, a basic skill in the art of communication, for ‘a single
glance thrown to good purpose will strike to the depths of the heart’,149 and
a preacher keeping his eyes closed150 makes the listener feel uncomfortable.
145
146
David D. Brown quotes an anonymous letter sent in March 1753, according to
which Dr Maynard, Tillotson’s immediate successor in Lincolns Inn, reported that the
Archbishop ‘had always writt every word, before he preached it, but used to gett it by heart,
till he found, that it heated his head so much, a day or two before & after he preached, that
he was forced to leave it off ’ and the same Dr Maynard also stated ‘that Dr Wake, at the
same time Preacher at Grays Inn, one day told him, that he was resolved to preach no
longer without book, for everybody has now left it off, even Dr Tillotson’; see “The Text of
John Tillotson’s Sermons”, The Library, 5th series, vol. 13 (1958), 27.
147
148
Swift, A Letter to a Young Gentleman, p. 16.
149
150
It has now been established that this detail did not actually allude to Bourdaloue: see
Fénelon, Œuvres I, p. 1249 n. 6 to p. 44.
The most extreme example of this method of reading out from a full
script is probably the advertisement by John Trusler, a rather eccentric
Church of England clergyman, for a collection of ‘two hundred and four-
teen’ engraved sermons imitating cursive handwriting ‘so large as to be
read by any eye’.151 He assured prospective buyers, who wished to trick
their congregations into believing that they read out their own texts, that
such plagiarised documents ‘selected and compiled from the best authors’
were published in a limited edition with ‘only 400 copies of any one ser-
mon’ sold privately without passing through the hands of the booksellers,
‘of course’. That he did find customers is evidenced by the British Library
copy of a sermon ‘On domestic happiness’ at the end of which is a preaching
calendar suggesting that it was used at least fourteen times.152
Large characters enabled preachers to keep their heads straight and
project their voices properly: ‘You will observe some clergymen with their
Heads held down from the beginning to the end, within an Inch of the
Cushion, to read what is hardly legible; which, besides the untoward
Manner, hinders them from making the best Advantage of their Voice’.153
The voice being the main tool of the preacher’s trade, prescriptive literature
often gave sensible advice on pronunciation and delivery. Whether the ora-
tor chose to improvise or read out a prepared text, he needed to make
himself heard properly. Once more, moderation was the key to finding a
happy medium between the extremes of ‘excessive loudness in some peri-
ods, and […] unfit lowness in others’.154 Of the two faults, the founder of
Methodism found that the latter was ‘more disagreeable than the former’.155
Whatever extreme the speaker’s voice was ‘naturally’ inclined to, it had to
be corrected in ‘ordinary conversation’: ‘if it be too low, converse with
those that are deaf: if too loud, with those who speak too loudly’.156 The
headmaster of the Northampton Academy, who was well acquainted with
the recent developments in modern science, even advised students to try
out their sermons on their friends:
151
John Trusler, A List of Books, Published by the Rev. Dr. Trusler, at the Literary Press,
no. 62, Wardour-Street, Soho (London, 1790), p. 10. I am grateful to Rosemary Dixon for
informing me that Trusler’s works are available in the Eighteenth Century Collections Online
Gale Group database: <http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/ECCO> [accessed on 18
July 2006].
152
John Trusler, On Domestic Happiness (London, 1785?), p. 16.
153
154
155
John Wesley, Directions concerning Pronunciation and Gesture (Bristol, 1749), p. 3.
156
Wesley, Directions concerning Pronunciation and Gesture, p. 3.
We hear not our own voices as others do, nor see that air and manner with
which we speak in the light in which they view it. Our friends, therefore, are
the best judges. And if they find fault, you are not, while young, to be dis-
pleased. […] It is much pleasanter to commend than to blame; and if our
friends therefore deny themselves so much as to take this trouble, we ought
to be very thankful.157
A critical ear would have been sensitive, not only to adjusting the amount
of sound that was produced, but also to the tone of voice. In a trite com-
parison between eloquence and music,158 preaching manuals emphasized
variety: ‘It is a kind of music: all its beauty consists in the variety of its
tones as they rise or fall according to the things which they have to
express’.159 Lack of monotony suited a variety of styles that corresponded
to the classical principle of gradatio:
One Part will introduce one another, just at the same time that the Minds of
the Audience are prepared to receive it; and what follows will support and
fortify that which went before: the more plain and simple Truths will pave
the Way to the more abstruse and complex ones; and the Proofs or Illustrations
will still raise, one above the other, in a regular and easy Gradation, till the
whole Force of Conviction breaks upon the Mind, and now allows you fair
Scope to play upon every tender and passionate String, that belongs to the
Heart of Man.160
Delivery and style differed from one discursive register to another. It was
essential to
make a suitable Difference between the Style that is employed in the Pathetic and
that which is used in the Didactic. For, one and the same form or construction
will not agree equally well with both, any more than one and the same mode
of utterance and delivery can be used with equal propriety in both […].
But, neither the didactic nor the pathetic should be continued long at a time.
Tedious Instructions dull the attention, and tedious Addresses cloy the
mind.161
A preacher had to bear in mind that he was addressing an audience with a
limited attention span. Lack of variety or surprise would fail to keep listen-
ers literally or metaphorically awake. Hence the commonplace satire of the
157
158
See my article on “Musique et rhétorique”, Tropismes 8 (1997), 49–67.
159
160
Sharp, Discourses on Preaching, pp. 15–16; Cf. Fénelon, Œuvres I, p. 51 and p. 1250,
and Cicero, De oratore book II, 53.
161
Sharp, Discourses on Preaching, pp. 15–16.
sleeping congregation, not only in Hogarth’s engraving, but also in Swift’s

sermons,162 and Fénelon’s Dialogues on eloquence.163 The analogy between
human emotions and musical instruments, and the need to catch the hear-
er’s attention led to many comparisons between sermons and concerts. The
celebrated Presbyterian preacher James Fordyce, for instance, highlighted
the similarity between public speaking and instrumental music:
A preacher of real judgment will take care still to blend variety with this
uniformity. He will not dwell long on one single string: he will vary the notes
and measures frequently; and, if I may so express myself, like some able mas-
ter of the musical art, touch off sometimes the softest airs, and then on a
sudden strike the instrument with a bolder hand. By these means he will
keep the publick ear still awake and hold the people’s thoughts in an agree-
able agitation all along.164
Movements of the body (actio) harmoniously accompanied vocal modula-
tion: ‘The more the action and the voice appear simple and familiar in the
places where you are only seeking to instruct, to report, and to suggest, the
better do they prepare for surprise and emotion in those places where they
are elevated by sudden enthusiasm’.165 Thus, the aesthetics of surprise
applied, not only to invention,166 but also to pronunciation and action.
Of course, preachers were advised to tread the path of moderation and find
the golden mean between the two extremes of excessive stiffness and unrea-
sonable agitation: ‘Some are mimical, phantastical, and violent in their
motions; this is rude and irreverent; others in opposition stand like images,
and Preach without any motion at all; this is stupid and unnatural’.167 True
to the classical principle of ars celare artem, it was essential to look as natu-
ral as possible: ‘If you use art, conceal it so well by imitation that one will
take it for nature itself ’.168
When the aesthetics of ‘affect’ gradually gave way to ‘the invention
of sentiment’,169 the preacher was recommended to ‘be possessed of ’ the
162
Jonathan Swift, “Upon Sleeping in Church”, Irish Tracts 1720–1723 and Sermons, ed.
Louis A. Landa (Oxford, 1968), pp. 210–218.
163
Fénelon, Œuvres I, p. 1248, n. 2 to p. 40.
164
James Fordyce, The Eloquence of the Pulpit, An Ordination Sermon: To Which is Added
a Charge (Aberdeen, 1752), p. 24.
165
166
Cf. supra.
167
168
169
See the catalogue to a later exhibition, L’Invention du sentiment: Aux sources du
romantisme (Paris, 2002).
passions that he wanted to ‘excite’.170 The standard justification came from

Horace: ‘Si vis me flere, dolendum primum ipsi tibi’.171 The representation
of feeling gained so much immediacy that the much-debated issue of
extemporisation came back to the fore ‘because it proceedeth directly from
the Heart, from a Mind agitated by the same Passions which the Speaker
would raise in his Audience’,172 all the more so as the orator would indi-
rectly convey meaning by the ‘natural Eloquence’173 of what would now be
called ‘body language’: ‘all strong Passions stamp themselves upon the out-
ward Form. They are visible in the Air of the Countenance, in every
Gesture and Motion. The Use or final End of which Constitution is very
evident; that our Passions may be communicated’.174 There was no scope
for theatrical action in the pulpit. The recurrent idea that the Preacher
‘should be a good Man’175 was more relevant than ever.
Just as it takes much practice for a musician to play with apparently
effortless grace, so the young preacher had to learn all the necessary tech-
niques in order to improve his delivery. Studying clear diction did not only
consist in working on the melody of the sentence, but also in paying atten-
tion to the pronunciation of single words: ‘Take care of running your
words into one another, and of sucking your breath, or dropping your
voice at the end of a sentence. Make pauses in proper, and avoid them in
improper places’.176 Doddridge even stressed the crucial role of a distinct
articulation of consonants:
It is well known, that a piece of writing may be understood, if all the vowels
are omitted; but if the vowels are set down and the consonants omitted,
nothing can be made of it. Make the experiment upon any sentence, for
example: Judge not, that ye be not judged. Take out the vowels, and it will
stand thus, jdg nt tht y b nt jdgd; this may readily be made out: but take away
the consonants, and nothing can possibly be made of it, ue o a e e o ue. It is
the same in speaking as in writing: the vowels make a noise, and thence they
have their name, but they discriminate nothing. Many speakers think they
are heard if they bellow them out: and so they are; but they are not under-
stood: because the discrimination of words depends upon a distinct articula-
tion of their consonants: for want of considering which, many speakers
170
171
Horace, Ars poetica, ll. 102–103, quoted by Lawson, Lectures concerning Oratory,
p. 170.
172
173
174
175
176
spend their breath to little effect. Do justice to every consonant, the vowels
will be sure to speak for themselves.177
Interestingly enough, such remarks echoed Doddridge’s observations on
the consonantal features of shorthand,178 thus linking the classical art of
pronuntiatio with phonetics in particular and the study of language.
6. Conclusion
One may conclude that eighteenth-century prescriptive literature about

pulpit oratory resulted from careful thought about the nature of discourse.
Treatises on the art of preaching had imbibed the classical rhetorical tradi-
tion, embraced the ideology of moderation, and developed an aesthetics of
surprise in keeping with the oral character of the genre. That may explain
why Catholic and Protestant tractates differed little, as the English transla-
tor to the French Jesuit Blaise Gisbert suggested: ‘there is no mixture in it
of any thing peculiar to the Religion of the Author, excepting in one single
Instance of so little Consequence, as not to deserve any notice’.179
Artes praedicandi and preachers’ assistants may still be with us, albeit in
a slightly modernised version. On 10 July 2006, up to 4,500 Church of
England parishes were disturbed by a computer crisis180 due to a warning
by the anti-virus software company Symantec that the desktop publishing
package used to choose services, plan Bible readings, and create sermons
had been infected by a virus, and that the relevant files should be deleted.
It turned out that it was a false alarm, and apparently there is a slight
inaccuracy in the story, insofar as Visual Liturgy is designed for liturgical
purposes only, so that it will not produce any computer-assisted sermon.181
177
178
See my article on “La sténographie de Philip Doddridge (1702–1751)”, in XVII–
XVIII: Bulletin de la Société d’Études anglo-américaines des XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles, 12 (juin
1981), pp. 29–43.
179
Blaise Gisbert, Christian Eloquence in Theory and Practice. Made English from the
French Original, by Samuel d’Oyley (London, 1718), n.p.
180
http://news.com.com/Symantec+labels+church+software+as+spyware/2100-7355
_ 3-6101859.html [last consulted 4 August 2006].
181
http://news.com.com/5208-7355_3-0.html?forumID=1&threadID=19939&messa
geID=171757&start=0 [last consulted 4 January 2007].
Figure 1. Wilkins’s Ecclesiastes (1646) pp. 5-7.
… the chief parts of a Sermon are these three;

Explication
Confirmation
Application
Each of these may be further subdivided and branched out according to this
following Analysis.
1 Explication is either of the

Text by
Unfolding difficulties in the sense, for which we are to consider
The phrase it selfe according to the
Originall
Translations
The circumstances of the place
Persons
Occasions
Time
Place
Scope or end
Context
The Analogy of faith
Other Parallel or like Scriptures
Distinguishing ambiguous
Words
Phrases
Dividing of the text, which must not be
Needlesse
Obscure
Doctrine deduced from it, by
Clearing their inference
Shewing the latitude of every
Truth
Duty
According to their several
Branches
Degrees
Figure 1. (Cont).
2 Confirmation by
Positive proofs from
Scripture, in
Notionnall truths by
Direct
Affirmation
Negation
evident consequence
Practicall truths by
precepts
examples
Reason to convince, in
Doctrinall points from the nine Topicks
Cause, Effect.
Subject, Adjunct.
Dissentan: Comparats.
Name, Distribution.
Definitions
Practicall truths from the two general heads of
Necessity
Equity
Solution of such doubts and Quæries as are most
Obvious, and
Materiall.
Figure 1. (Cont).
3 Application, which is either

Doctrinall for our information
More generall in some truth to be acknowledged.
Didacticall instruction
Elencticall confutation
More particular of our own estates, to be examined by Marks,
which are commonly either
Effects
Properties
Practicall
Reproof, which hath two parts,
Disswasive from
The aggravation of the sin.
Threats denounced.
Judgements executed.
Directive, wherein, concerning
Impediments that hinder.
Means to promote, more
Remote.
Immediate
Consolation by
Promises.
Experience.
Removing of scruples.
Exhortation, to be amplified by
Motives to excite the affections from
Profi t.
Danger.
Means to direct the actions,
Generall.
Speciall.
PART III
TRANSFORMATION
THE CLASSICAL SERMON
Thomas Worcester
1. Introduction
In an essay entitled “The Classical Sermon and the French Literary

Tradition”, W. Pierre Jacoebee argued that what may be termed the ‘classi-
cal’ French sermon was developed by late seventeenth-century preachers in
response to changing public taste. This evolution included elimination of
sources other than Biblical and Patristic literature, a ‘replacement of the
teaching of Christian dogma by that of Christian ethics’, and a ‘purifica-
tion’ of language. The sermon, Jacoebee asserts, ‘attained its classical per-
fection’ in the works of Mascaron, Fléchier, Massillon, Bossuet, and
Bourdaloue.1 It should be noted that by ‘classical’ Jacoebee does not indi-
cate especially frequent citation of the authors of classical antiquity. Indeed,
the five French preachers he singles out lived in an age when French orators
and writers were increasingly confident in the French language they used
as not only equal to but as superior to Latin, Greek, or any other language,
ancient or modern. The France of Louis XIV (reign 1643–1715) domi-
nated Europe politically and culturally; French became the international
language of courts and the literate elite across Europe. Well-educated per-
sons in that era would have known well the ‘classical’ literature of Greece
and Rome, but explicit reference to ancient Greek or Roman texts is not
what characterized ‘classical’ sermons. The preachers Jacoebee highlights
are ‘classical’ in that they set a standard against which many were subse-
quently judged, and not solely in France. To some extent, these ‘classical’
preachers also reacted against the ‘Baroque’ preaching of the earlier seven-
teenth century, an oratory in which abundance rather than concision had
been valued, and in which doctrinal abstractions sometimes took pride of
place.2 Classical preachers aimed at practical results in ethical decision
1
W. Pierre Jacoebee, “The Classical Sermon and the French Literary Tradition”,
in Australian Journal of French Studies 19 (1982), pp. 227–242, at p. 232.
2
On the terms Baroque and classical, see Victor Lucien Tapié, Baroque et classicisme
(Paris, 1957), and Peter Bayley, “Resisting the Baroque,” in Seventeenth-Century French
Studies 16 (1994), pp. 1–14. Bayley cautions against overstating the difference between
classical and Baroque.
134 thomas worcester
making on the part of their hearers. These preachers may well have used
topoi from classical antiquity, such as ‘le juste milieu’ (e.g. Aristotle,
Horace), but they were little interested in parading their knowledge of
ancient Greece or Rome. They addressed their own era, on its terms, and
they embraced an Enlightenment rhetoric of reason, nature, and practical
religion.
In this essay I shall first briefly examine the oratory of a particularly
prolific preacher in early seventeenth-century France: Bishop Jean-Pierre
Camus (1584–1652), an extraordinarily prolific exemplar of the Baroque
tradition. I shall then turn to sermons of two of the preachers Jacoebee
presented as exemplars of the ‘classical’ sermon: Bishop Jacques-Bénigne
Bossuet (1627–1704), and Louis Bourdaloue, S.J. (1632–1704). How
their preaching was and was not like that of Camus, and how they did or
did not focus on ethical themes (as Jacoebee suggested) I will examine.
Some interpreters of Bossuet, in particular, have contrasted him with
Camus.3 I shall consider whether a sharp contrast is justified, and I shall
also assess how Bossuet and Bourdaloue remained influential as preachers
in the eighteenth century, through editions of their published sermons.
Finally I shall briefly compare their sermons with their contemporary, John
Tillotson (1630–94), an Anglican preacher and archbishop of Canterbury.
Tillotson was a kind of English Bossuet, in his style and his influence as a
preacher, and in his focus on preaching at court.
2. Camus
Bishop of Belley, a small diocese just north of Savoy, between Lyon and
Geneva, Camus was a native Parisian, who preached frequently in his dio-
cese but also in Paris. In his own lifetime he published some 400 sermons,
and these were but a part of an enormous literary output that included
many devout novels and short stories, theological treatises, and practical
manuals of piety.4 Camus took pleasure in word plays and in imaginative,
unlikely similes and metaphors. While there was a moral component to his
3
See Paul Jacquinet, Des prédicateurs du XVIIe siècle avant Bossuet (Paris, 1863),
pp. 84–85; Charles-Emile Freppel, Bossuet et l’éloquence sacré au XVIIe siècle (2 vols.; Paris,
1893) I, pp. 129–132. Jacquinet calls Camus puerile, and Freppel finds in him bad taste.
4
On Camus as preacher and writer, see my Seventeenth-Century Cultural Discourse:
France and Preaching of Bishop Camus (Berlin and New York, 1997). See also Jean Descrains,
Bibliographie des oeuvres de Jean-Pierre Camus, évêque de Belley (1584–1652) (Paris, 1971).
the classical sermon 135
discourses—he sought to move his audiences to make good choices and to

live good, Christian lives—he was at least as concerned to delight his
audiences, and to instruct them in Christian doctrine. He often began his
sermons with an exordium that concluded with an Ave Maria, invoking
the help of Mary in his preaching, and followed this with a second exor-
dium in which he announced the number of points (and their themes) in
the sermon.
An excellent example of Camus’ oratory is the octave of sermons he
preached for the feast of Corpus Christi in 1617, at the Parisian church of
Saint-Merry, sermons published as a book the following year.5 In the first
of these eight homilies, Camus highlights the Catholic doctrine of the real
presence of Christ in the Eucharist, and he contrasts this belief with the
errors and the blindness of heretics, who deny such presence. Camus
exhorts his audience to weep for such blindness, and to pray that Jesus may
remove the ‘cataract’ from the eyes of the erring, the hardness of their
hearts, and the murmuring of their mouths.6 To reinforce belief in conti-
nuity between the body of Christ in the Eucharist and the body of the
Jesus born to Mary at Bethlehem, Camus emphasizes the similarity of the
words stable and table. Jesus was born in a stable (estable); if the altar on
which the sacrament is celebrated is not an estable it is a table, and altar
cloths are made of linen, which is a kind of straw (as in a stable).7 The
second homily in the octave continues to focus on the doctrine of the real
presence, calling it Catholic Truth (la Vérité Catholique). Camus discourses
at length on Old Testament ‘figures’ and anticipations of the Eucharist,
such as manna in the desert.8 The Eucharist is the Red Sea of the blood of
the Savior, wherein the true Israelite is saved, but the Egyptian sinner is
drowned. Those who receive the sacrament ‘worthily’ will ascend by the
‘mystical ladder’ to heaven, while those who do so unworthily will descend
by that ladder to hell.9
Often Camus returns in these eight homilies to the question of recep-
tion of communion, and he exhorts his hearers to receive frequently and
worthily (by going to confession first). Bishop Camus devotes a great deal
of time in these discourses to making communion attractive. He compares
5
Jean-Pierre Camus, Premières homélies eucharistiques (Paris, 1618). Translations of this
and other works are my own unless otherwise indicated.
6
Camus, Premières homélies eucharistiques, p. 13.
7
Camus, Premières homélies eucharistiques, p. 35.
8
Camus, Premières homélies eucharistiques, pp. 44– 45.
9
Camus, Premières homélies eucharistiques, pp. 74–75.
its reception to a kiss from one’s spouse, and he draws in this case of Old
Testament analogies on the marital imagery of the Canticle of Canticles.
Camus criticizes the practice of attending Mass in order to see and adore
the Eucharist, but not to taste it.10
In fact, food and the spiritual life, and food as metaphor and analogy for
the spiritual life, are themes to which Camus returns frequently in his
preaching. He has what are (and surely must have been in his time) inter-
esting things to say, literal and/or metaphorical, about breasts and breast
feeding, milk and wine, fasting and feasting, obesity, salt and sugar, rhu-
barb, onions, truffles, and garlic.11
Camus is also sensitive to matters of literary taste. He deplores the prac-
tice of other preachers who, so as not to offend depraved tastes ( gousts
dépravez), ‘abstain’ from including in their sermons good examples that
may serve to edify devout souls and confirm them in the faith.12 Camus
proceeds to recount various improbable stories regarding the Eucharist:
There was a devout gentleman dressed in rich clothing. Though he pros-
trated himself on the ground when he came upon the Eucharist being
brought to the sick (Viaticum), his clothes were in no way soiled. A man
mounted on horseback lacked devotion to the Eucharist. He encountered
Viaticum carried along the same way as he, but he refused to come down
from his horse. But the horse, ‘as reasonable and human as he was unrea-
sonable and brutal’, knelt before the Eucharist.13
Bishop Camus also devoted a good number of his sermons or homi-
lies—interchangeable terms in his usage—to praise of more plausible, his-
torical examples of sanctity. These included Ignatius of Loyola and Charles
Borromeo. Archbishop of Milan, Borromeo (1538–84) had been canon-
ized as a saint in 1610. Between 1616 and 1622, Camus preached eight
panegyric homilies (homélies panégyriques) on Borromeo, and these were
published in 1623. Several of the homilies were preached at the Parisian
church of Saint-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie, where a confraternity was
10
11
See my Seventeenth-Century Cultural Discourse, and my “A Sunday Feast: Alimentary
Discourse in the Preaching of Bishop Jean-Pierre Camus”, in Seventeenth-Century French
Studies 15 (1993), pp. 99–114.
12
Camus, Premières homélies eucharistiques, p. 162. On what was meant by ‘taste’ in the
1600s, see Michael Moriarty, Taste and Ideology in Seventeenth-Century France (Cambridge,
1988). Exempla were often a central component of the sermons of late medieval preachers;
see, for instance, on Bernardino of Siena, Franco Mormando, The Preacher’s Demons:
Bernardino of Siena and the Social Underworld of Early Renaissance Italy (Chicago, 1990),
pp. 20–21.
13
dedicated to Saint Charles. One of the themes Camus develops at length

is how Saint Charles, as a preacher, was an ‘evangelical trumpet’ who, like
Saint Paul, preached in season and out of season, bringing ‘spiritual nour-
ishment’ to the people.14 Saint Charles adapted his discourses to his audi-
ences, for he knew that just as different animals live on different pastures,
it is necessary for the preacher to change his ‘terms, style, and material’
according to his audiences. For if one were to serve grain to eagles and prey
to doves, both would die of hunger.15
In Charles Borromeo, Camus lauded a saint imitable above all by other
clergy. But in Ignatius of Loyola (1491–1556), the founder of the Society
of Jesus, the bishop of Belley found a saint to be imitated by a broad
range of laity and clergy. Between 1611 and 1622 Camus preached 13
homilies on Ignatius; these were published in 1623, the year after his can-
onization as Saint Ignatius. Camus finds in him ‘a jasper enriched with
diverse colors, a meadow, a garden embellished with different flowers,
a diamond with several lusters, an image furnished with many traits’, a
saint from whom soldiers may learn how to serve in a spiritual as well as a
corporal militia, from whom students may learn humility, modesty, and
gentleness, a saint from whom priests may learn how to be spiritual physi-
cians, and how to impress their own qualities on souls in their care, just as
nurses pass in their milk their own qualities to the bodies of infants.16
3. Bossuet
Camus was well into his forties when Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet was born,
at Dijon, in 1627. Receiving his early education from the Jesuits in his
native city, Bossuet then studied theology in Paris before his priestly ordi-
nation in 1652, the year of Camus’ death. As Camus is the outstanding
example of a French preacher and bishop in the first half of the seven-
teenth century, Bossuet is surely that for the latter half of the century.
In the 1650s, Bossuet began his priestly ministry in Metz, where his
preaching skills were soon noted. In the 1660s, he resided principally
in Paris, preached frequently, and attracted favorable attention at court.
In 1669 he was named bishop of Condom by Louis XIV; less than two
years later the King named Bossuet preceptor to his son, the Dauphin.
14
Camus, Homélies panégyriques de Sainct Charles Borromée (Paris, 1623), pp.
142–144.
15
Camus, Homélies panégyriques de Sainct Charles Borromée, pp. 147–148.
16
Camus, Homélies panégyriques de S. Ignace de Loyola (Lyons, 1623), pp. 157–178.
In 1671 Bossuet was elected to the French Academy; around this time he
also wrote several works in addition to pulpit oratory, including his
Discourse on Universal History, and he began his Politics Drawn from the
Very Words of Holy Scripture. In 1672, Bossuet resigned from the see of
Condom; by 1680 he had completed his efforts to educate the Dauphin,
and he was named, in 1681, bishop of Meaux.
Meaux was much closer to Paris than the remote Condom, and resi-
dence at Meaux allowed him to continue his various activities in Paris and
at court. In 1682, Bossuet drafted the Four Articles (on the liberties of the
Gallican Church) adopted by the assembly of the clergy of France. Bishop
Bossuet continued to preach frequently, and he gained a very high reputa-
tion for funeral orations in particular, some of which were published
multiple times, during his lifetime and beyond. In the 1690s Bossuet
devoted much energy to criticism of the spirituality of the Quietists, espe-
cially that of Bishop Fénelon and Madame Guyon. Bossuet died on 12
April 1704.17
Unlike Camus, who seems to have had few unpublished thoughts in his
lifetime, Bossuet left many of his sermons in manuscript only. While
Bossuet’s funeral orations for prominent people, such as princes and prin-
cesses, were often in print shortly after their oral delivery, other types of his
pulpit oratory would await posthumous publication.18 What was consid-
ered as complete as possible a collection of Bossuet’s sermons was pub-
lished in an edition of his works that appeared in 1772–88.19 The publisher
was Antoine Boudet, in Paris. After examining several of Bossuet’s sermons
and funeral orations, I shall return to a prospectus Boudet published in
1769 in search of subscriptions to the forthcoming many-volumed edition
of Bossuet. It may provide a window onto how Bossuet was thought to be
an attractive author, in the second half of the eighteenth century, many
decades after his death.
Like Camus, Bossuet sometimes preached panegyrics of the saints, or of
those likely to be canonized as saints.20 One of Bossuet’s earliest sermons is
17
Dictionnaire de spiritualité, s.v. “Bossuet, Jacques-Bénigne”. For brief summaries of
the life of Bossuet, see also Jean Meyer, Bossuet (Paris, 1993), pp. 293–298; Joseph Bergin,
Crown, Church and Episcopate under Louis XIV (New Haven, 2004), p. 386; Georges
Minois, Bossuet entre Dieu et le Soleil (Paris, 2003), pp. 719–721.
18
For a list of editions through the beginning of the twentieth century, see Victor
Verlaque, Bibliographie raisonnée des oeuvres de Bossuet (Paris, 1908).
19
J.-B. Bossuet, Oeuvres de Messire Jacques Bénigne Bossuet (19 vols.; Paris,
1772–1788).
20
See Jacques Truchet, Bossuet panégyriste (Paris, 1962). For a study of the various
themes in Bossuet’s pulpit oratory, see Truchet, La prédication de Bossuet: Etude des thèmes
(2 vols.; Paris, 1960).
a panegyric of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, preached at Metz for his feast

day, 20 August, in 1653. The recently ordained Bossuet begins by recalling
that a ‘pious custom’ was introduced in France in the last century, the cus-
tom of beginning one’s preaching by invoking divine assistance through
the intercession of Mary. He asserts that there is a similarity (convenance)
between preachers and Mary, for the former ‘engender’ Jesus Christ in the
souls of the faithful, while Mary engendered him in the flesh. Thus Bossuet
invites his audience to pray an Ave Maria with him.21 After this first exor-
dium, Bossuet offers a second exordium, on the cross of Christ, affirming
that Saint Bernard was always at the foot of the cross, that is, in his cell he
always studied and contemplated the cross, and thus became a perfect
Christian.22 Bossuet then proceeds to preach on two points: 1) Saint
Bernard taught that the Savior, hanging on the cross, teaches us scorn for
the world, a scorn for which Saint Bernard himself provides an admirable
example; 2) Saint Bernard preached the cross to his own family, to his
monastery, and to everyone, rich and poor, sparing neither princes nor
popes. Regarding scorn for the world and the lack of such scorn, Bossuet
explains that Bernard understood that the rich of the earth who pass this
life in a pleasant dream, imagining that they have many goods, will wake
up in eternity, ‘surprised to find their hands empty’.23 Alluding to the war
underway in his era between France and Spain, a war that would in fact
continue until 1659, Bossuet brings his panegyric of Bernard to a conclu-
sion. He addresses him directly and prays that he beg God to bring peace,
for Christian brotherhood has been broken, and Christians, who should
be ‘children of peace, have become wolves insatiable for blood’.24
The feast day of Saint Charles Borromeo was 4 November. Like Camus,
Bossuet had occasion to preach a panegyric of Borromeo, on his feast, at
the Parisian church of Saint-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie.25 Suggesting that
Borromeo is not a model for ordained clergy only, Bossuet states that
by baptism all Christians are participants in the priesthood of Christ,
and thus all must consecrate themselves to God for a life of sacrifice. He
21
J.-B. Bossuet, Oeuvres oratoires, critical ed. by Joseph Lebarq, rev. by Charles Urbain
and Eugène Levesque (7 vols.; Paris, 1922–1927) I, pp. 395–397.
22
Bossuet, Oeuvres oratoires I, pp. 397–403.
23
Bossuet, Oeuvres oratoires I, p. 408.
24
Bossuet, Oeuvres oratoires I, p. 424. Bernard retained much authority in the early
modern period, even among some Protestants. On Calvin and Bernard of Clairvaux, see
Dennis Tamburello, Union with Christ: John Calvin and the Mysticism of St. Bernard
(Louisville (KY), 1994).
25
This was most likely in 1656; see editor’s note in Bossuet, Oeuvres oratoires II,
p. 575.
concludes this exordium with an Ave Maria, asking that Mary may obtain
the grace of such consecration for faithful Christians.26
Dividing this discourse into three points, Bossuet devotes the first point
to how Borromeo suffered for the sake of the people of his diocese of
Milan. For that city was a New Nineveh, ‘drunk in its pleasures, proud in
its pomp, blind in its vanities, insatiable in its debaucheries’. But Saint
Charles did penance and shed tears for their sins; he became ‘a man of sor-
rows, a victim who immolates himself for the sins of his people’.27 When
plague struck Milan, Borromeo offered his life for the salvation of his peo-
ple. Leading a procession, his eyes were ‘bathed in tears, his head lowered
like a victim destined for death’. But after ‘this great sacrifice’, the heavens
were more serene, and God ordered the angel of death to withdraw his
arm, and the disease came to an end.28
To Borromeo as an example of sacrifice, Bossuet adds, in his second and
third points, Borromeo as example of discipline and charity. Fulminating
against ministers of Church and State who opposed his sacred discipline,
he ‘fought’ for ecclesiastical discipline, and hoped for martyrdom. But it
did not please God that Saint Charles should fall under the hands of his
enemies, and thus Borromeo established discipline in order to ‘repress’
iniquity and disorders in the Church.29 At the same time, the heart of Saint
Charles, ‘moved by compassion’ (ému par la compassion), led him to give to
the poor. He sold his own bed to relieve their needs, for charity is a sacri-
fice, and it does not content itself with giving from what is superfluous,
but from what is necessary.30 Bossuet turns, in his conclusion, to the unac-
ceptable contrast between what Saint Charles did for the poor and the
sick, and what his audience does: ‘He scorned contagion and pestilence.
Ah! Christians, your brothers languish at your doors, and you leave them
be without help and consolations!’31
Bernard of Clairvaux and Charles Borromeo were canonized saints
whom Bossuet lauded as exemplars for imitation. In the case of Francis de
Sales (1567–1622), who was beatified in 1661 and canonized in 1665,
26
Bossuet, Oeuvres oratoires II, p. 576.
27
Bossuet, Oeuvres oratoires II, pp. 581–583.
28
Bossuet, Oeuvres oratoires II, pp. 583–584. Seventeenth-century iconography of Saint
Charles often highlighted his courage in the face of plague; see Pamela M. Jones, “San
Carlo Borromeo and Plague Imagery in Milan and Rome”, in Hope and Healing: Painting
in Italy in a Time of Plague, 1500–1800, Gauvin Bailey, Pamela M. Jones, Franco Mormando
and Thomas Worcester eds. (Worcester, MA, and Chicago, 2005), pp. 65–96.
29
Bossuet, Oeuvres oratoires II, pp. 587–589.
30
31
Bishop Bossuet preached a panegyric of a holy individual even prior to

formal recognition of such holiness by the Church. In 1660, Bossuet
preached in Paris on Francis de Sales, before the Sisters of the Visitation;
the preacher took as a Scripture text for his discourse John 5:35, ‘He was
an ardent and shining light’ (Il était une lumière ardente et luisante).32
Inviting the sisters to pray an Ave Maria with him, Bossuet declares that
they all await the ‘glorious day’ when the ‘incomparable merits’ of Francis
de Sales are pronounced by the Church. Announcing three points in his
homily, Bossuet identifies in Francis exemplary knowledge as a teacher and
preacher, authority as a bishop, and conduct as a spiritual director.33
Lauding de Sales as a teacher and preacher, Bossuet compares him to
Borromeo, and states that he finds, in recent centuries, two men of extraor-
dinary sanctity, Saint Charles Borromeo and Francis de Sales. While the
former ‘awoke’ in the clergy a spirit of piety, the latter ‘restored’ devotion
among the people, by bringing devotion back into the midst of the
world, and not solely in places of solitude. De Sales taught that one may
be saved ‘in the world’, provided that one lives with a ‘spirit of detach-
ment’, and that one may be saved in the midst of riches (parmi les rich-
esses), provided that one gives them away in charity.34 And it is detachment
from ambition that is the focus of Bossuet’s second point. De Sales was ‘an
ardent and shining light’ in that even though he was a bishop, he distanced
himself from seeking further promotion and from maintaining ‘with
pomp’ (avec faste) the authority of his rank. Among his virtues were
Christian modesty and humility; to make him a bishop, he had had to be
forced. His heart was ‘hidden with God’, and he used the power he had to
write his Introduction to the Devout Life, a ‘masterpiece of piety and
prudence’, a treasure of wise counsels, a book in which souls come to ‘taste
with joy’ the gentleness of devotion.35
Jean-Pierre Camus was ordained a bishop by Francis de Sales, in the
same year as publication of the Introduction to the Devout Life. Camus
became a personal friend and disciple of de Sales, a relationship facilitated
32
Bossuet, Oeuvres oratoires III, pp. 575–576. De Sales founded this congregation, with
Jane de Chantal, in Annecy. For an excellent biography of Francis de Sales, see André
Ravier, Un sage et un saint: François de Sales (Paris, 1985).
33
Bossuet, Oeuvres oratoires III, pp. 576–578.
34
35
Bossuet, Oeuvres oratoires III, pp. 585–86. The Introduction to the Devout Life, first
published, in French, in 1609, rapidly became a bestseller, and was translated into many
languages. See preface by John K. Ryan, to Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life,
trans. by John K. Ryan (Garden City (NY ), 1972), pp. 12–20.
by the fact that they were bishops in neighboring dioceses.36 Bossuet, born
well after the death of de Sales, had no such personal relationship. Yet
Bossuet’s preaching sounds a great deal like that of Camus when he
preaches the third point of his homily on de Sales. Bossuet uses rich similes
and metaphors, not unlike those of Camus. Bossuet praises the gentleness
and charity of Francis de Sales, calling such charity a mother and a nurse
who presents her breasts and their milk to her children. Terming spiritual
direction a ‘spiritual agriculture’, Bossuet states that the virtue of those
who labor with the earth is patience, and in Francis de Sales as a spiritual
director one finds ‘invincible’ patience, to which he joined compassion.37
Charity and compassion are also central themes in a sermon Bossuet
preached in Paris in 1659, on the ‘eminent dignity’ of the poor in the
Church. This sermon is particularly rich with biblical references, especially
from the gospel of Luke. Delivering this sermon before the Filles de la
Providence, a congregation of women religious devoted to work among
prostitutes and other vulnerable women, Bossuet declares that because the
world abandons the poor, God takes up their defense and is their protec-
tor. Because people scorn their condition, God ‘raises up their dignity’,
and because people think that one ‘owes’ the poor nothing, God imposes
the necessity of caring for them. In the Church, ‘this house of the poor’,
preachers are advocates for the poor.38 After an Ave Maria, and a second
exordium in which he emphasizes that those who are first in the world are
last in the Church, Bossuet announces three points of his sermon, and he
declares that the ‘graces of the New Testament’ belong by right to the poor,
and that the rich receive these graces but through the hands of the poor.39
In his first point, Bossuet insists that it is not enough for the rich to
assist the poor. The poor are the ‘true citizens’ of the Church; Christ
addressed his sermon on the mount (Luke 6) to the poor, and he spoke to
the rich but to condemn their pride. In the early Church, if the rich were
received, they ‘stripped themselves’ of their riches and placed them at the
feet of the apostles, in order to take on the ‘character’ of poverty. It does
not suffice to pity ( plaindre) the poor, nor to assist them; we must also
36
After the death of his mentor, Camus helped to promote his beatification. He pub-
lished a multi-volume work to assist this process: L’Esprit du bienheureux François de Sales
(6 vols.; Paris, 1639–1641).
37
38
Bossuet, Oeuvres oratoires III, p. 120. On the Filles de la Providence, see Barbara
Diefendorf, From Penitence to Charity: Pious Women and the Catholic Reformation in Paris
(Oxford, 2004), pp. 222–226.
39
have for them ‘great sentiments of respect’ (de grands sentiments de respect).
For the poor are the ‘principal members’ of Jesus Christ and the ‘first born’
of the Church. By serving them we honor ‘the mysterious conduct of
divine providence’, which gives them the first places in the Church in such
a way that the rich are received but to serve them.40
In this first point of this sermon, the preacher makes clear the second-
class status of the rich in the Church. The second and third points rein-
force this theme. Bossuet finds in Jesus the poorest of the poor, humiliated
even unto the cross. Jesus wants in his Church only those who bear his
mark, that of the poor and the afflicted. The door of the Church is also
open to the rich, but on condition that they serve the poor (à condition de
les servir). The rich were foreigners (étrangers) to the Church, but the serv-
ice of the poor ‘naturalizes’ them, and serves to expiate the ‘contagion’ they
contracted by their wealth. The rich must share in carrying the burden of
the poor, for the rich will appear before the tribunal where they must make
account of how they have used their talents and riches.41 Bossuet develops
his third point by recalling that Jesus is a monarch who wore a crown of
thorns, and thus it is among the poor and the suffering that resides the
majesty of his spiritual kingdom. And Bossuet concludes with an exhorta-
tion to the rich to enter into contact with the poor (entrez en commerce avec
les pauvres), and give to them your temporal goods, lest you be deprived of
spiritual benedictions. Those who look with faith upon the poor will see in
them Jesus Christ; they will see ‘the citizens of his kingdom, the inheritors
of his promises, the distributors of his graces, the true children of his
Church, the first members of his mystical body’.42
Most of Bossuet’s sermons were delivered before elite audiences, indeed
many before the court, sometimes in the presence of Louis XIV himself.
In addressing the Filles de la Providence, the preacher spared few words in
exalting the status of the poor and in exhorting his hearers to serve the
poor. But did Bossuet preach with the same ardor, and develop similar
points of view, before the court? What kind of religion did he preach to the
French monarch, a monarch who held the title of Most Christian King?
The Lenten sermons Bossuet preached at the Louvre in 1662 are a good
40
Bossuet, Oeuvres oratoires III, pp. 123–127. On Bossuet’s theology of providence, and
its dependence on Augustine and Aquinas, see Gérard Ferreyrolles, “Histoire et finalité: sur
les origines du discours providentialiste au XVIIe siècle,” in Seventeenth-Century French
Studies 23 (2001), pp. 1–14.
41
42
example of his court sermons; I shall examine in particular his discourse

for Palm Sunday 1662, on the duties of kings.
Taking as his Scripture text Matthew 21 on the entry of Jesus into
Jerusalem, Bossuet stresses, in his first exordium, that Jesus was a king, but
one who scorned worldly glory; and so we must learn ‘to strip ourselves of
ambition and to scorn the grandeurs of the world’. But, Bossuet continues,
as it is no easy task (ce n’est pas une entreprise médiocre) to preach such a
truth before the court, the help of the Blessed Virgin may be sought with
an Ave Maria.43 In his second exordium, Bossuet explains that Jesus Christ
reigns as king throughout the universe, but he established Christian kings
to be the ‘principal instruments’ of his power. Addressing Louis XIV,
Bossuet tells him that the gospel in the Most Christian King’s hands gives
him more authority than his scepter does.44
Bossuet both exalts kings and cautions them at length about their duties
and their dependence on God. Citing Proverbs 8:15, ‘Through me kings
reign’ (Per me reges regnant), Bossuet states that the choice of who is king is
‘an effect’ of God’s providence, for the king of the world does not permit
anyone to take command without his ‘particular commission.’ Thus a wise
king will humbly confess to God that God is his protector, and it is God
who makes the people obey the king’s laws. The king should know that he
is God’s image, and that the power of God is active in him.45 Knowing that
they are images of God may not always have promoted humility among
kings, but Bossuet is quick to turn his attention to the duties of kings.
Kings must not permit anything ‘outside the boundaries of Christian
justice’. And they must themselves not violate the laws of which they are
the protectors. Like other men, the ‘great of the earth’ must combat their
passions, and more than other men, they must combat misuse of their
power. They must fear God’s judgments of their actions.46
43
Bossuet, Oeuvres oratoires IV, pp. 356–357. For an excellent study of Bossuet’s 1662
Lenten sermons, see Jean-Pierre Landry and Catherine Costentin, Sermons, Carême du
Louvre: Bossuet (Paris, 2002). On Bossuet’s efforts, in the 1662 Palm Sunday sermon, to call
the king and his court to repentance, see Georges Couton, La chair et l’âme: Louis XIV entre
ses maîtresses et Bossuet (Grenoble, 1995), pp. 47–51. For a more general introduction to
Bossuet and the court, see Jean-Claude Boyer and Sylvain Kerspern, “Bossuet et la cour”,
in Bossuet Miroir du Grand Siècle, ed. Musée Bossuet Ville de Meaux (Paris, 2004),
pp. 113–139.
44
Bossuet, Oeuvres oratoires IV, pp. 358–359.
45
Bossuet, Oeuvres oratoires IV, pp. 360–362. On how early modern Europeans imag-
ined the relationship of royal power to divine power, see Paul Kléber Monod, The Power of
Kings: Monarchy and Religion in Europe, 1589–1715 (New Haven, 1999).
46
In this two-point sermon, Bossuet asserts in his second point that the
kingdom of Jesus Christ is the Catholic Church. Kings are to be defenders
of its faith, protectors of its authority, and guardians of its discipline.
Bossuet reminds Louis XIV of the actions of his ancestors: of Saint Louis
(Louis IX, 1226–70), and of Louis XIV’s own father, Louis XIII
(1610–43). The latter ‘overturned’ the party that created heresy, and left to
his successor ‘the glory’ of suffocating heresy altogether ‘by a wise tempera-
ment of severity and patience’.47 To the elimination of heresy from France,
Bossuet adds other duties that Louis XIV owes to the Church. The King
ought to promote ‘good morals and true piety’, he should ‘exterminate’
blasphemy, and he ought to combat public and scandalous crimes. By the
example of his life of virtue, he should make Jesus Christ reign. The mon-
arch should elevate, defend, and favor virtue; he should love justice and
imitate King Solomon in rendering justice to his people.48
Bossuet brings this sermon to a conclusion by exhorting the young
Louis XIV not to place, through his sins, any obstacle in the way of the
things in preparation; and to ‘carry the glory of your name and that of the
French name to such a height that there be nothing further to desire but
eternal happiness’.49 Again and again, Bossuet suggests that a French king
who meets his obligations to God and to the Church will prosper on earth
and enjoy paradise in the next life. These themes would be further devel-
oped by Bossuet in his book of advice for the Dauphin, Politics Drawn
from the Very Words of Holy Scripture.50 Death and preparation for it rank
among the most prominent themes in Bossuet’s writing and preaching,
whether intended for the court or other audiences.51
Funeral orations were privileged occasions for Bossuet to preach on
death and closely related themes. Bossuet’s orations for deceased members
47
Bossuet, Oeuvres oratoires IV, pp. 367–368. Bossuet alludes here to the success of
Louis XIII in eliminating the military power of Protestants in France. By 1685 Louis XIV
had run out of patience with Protestants, and turned to severity in revoking the Edict of
Nantes that had granted them a degree of toleration. On the ideological climate that paved
the way for the Revocation, see Bernard Dompnier, Le venin de l’hérésie: Image du protes-
tantisme et combat catholique au XVIIe siècle (Paris, 1985).
48
49
50
J.-B. Bossuet, Politics Drawn from the Very Words of Holy Scripture, trans. by Patrick
Riley (Cambridge, 1990), pp. 191–285.
51
Bossuet’s sermon for Wednesday of the fourth week of Lent 1662 is often referred to
as his sermon on death; see Bossuet, Oeuvres oratoires IV, 262–281. On the theme of death
in Bossuet’s oratory, see Jacques Truchet, “Points de vue de Bossuet sur la mort”, in Bossuet,
Sermons: Anthologie critique, Jean-Philippe Grosperrin ed. (Paris, 2002), pp. 61–72; Cécile
Joulin, La Mort dans les Oeuvres oratoires de Bossuet (Saint-Etienne, 2002).
of the royal family are among his most famous discourses, and some of
these were printed more than once in his own lifetime, as well as in later
editions of his works. Indeed, his first published discourse was his funeral
oration of 16 November 1669, for Henriette-Marie.52 The daughter of
King Henry IV and Marie de Medici, she married King Charles I of
England. Having fled to France during the English Civil War, Queen
Henriette-Marie was a widow for some twenty years after the 1649 execu-
tion of Charles. She was the mother of some six children, including King
Charles II (reign 1660–85), and Henriette-Anne, who would marry Philip,
the Duke of Orléans and brother of Louis XIV.
Addressing the Duke of Orléans, Bossuet begins his oration with Psalm
2:10 as his Scripture text: ‘And now, Kings, learn; instruct yourselves, you
who judge the earth’ (Et nunc, Reges, intelligite; erudimini, qui judicatis
terram). Bossuet points to the grandeurs and the miseries in the life of this
princess: from happiness without limit to ‘tyranny under the name of lib-
erty’, from a throne overturned to a throne ‘miraculously re-established.’
In her life God teaches kings: he makes them see the nothingness (le néant)
of the world’s pomp and grandeur. In the life of this ‘wise and religious’
princess, a ‘spectacle’ is proposed in which one may see divine providence
at work.53 In most of his sermons Bossuet concluded an exordium such as
this with an Ave Maria, and then turned to a second exordium which led
him to announce division of his discourse into two or more points. But in
this funeral oration Bossuet moves directly from a single exordium into the
body of his oration.
Henriette-Marie was a Catholic Queen in a Protestant land. Bossuet
lauds her courage and her attachment to the religion of her ancestors, Saint
Louis among them. She was able to obtain ‘some peace’ for persecuted
Catholics in England; in the royal chapel she had built, she upheld, through
prayers and devotions, the ‘ancient reputation of the most Christian house
of France’. Through her alms, poor Catholic families, ‘ruined for the sake
of the faith’, were able to survive. She not only helped to conserve the
people of God, but to augment it through ‘innumerable’ conversions;
some 300 converts abjured their errors in the presence of her chaplains.54
Bossuet does not contrast Henriette-Marie’s Catholicism with the
Anglicanism of her husband, Charles I. The preacher focuses, rather, on
the difference between King Charles and his Protestant opponents. Charles
52
On early editions of this oration, see Verlaque, Bibliographie raisonnée, pp. 2–3.
53
Bossuet, Oeuvres oratoires V, pp. 515–516.
54
was ‘just, moderate, magnanimous, clement’. Hatred, excess, violence, and

scorn for ancient religion animated the ‘sects’ that opposed him. The ‘inno-
vators’ tore apart the majesty of religion, and they harbored ‘a secret dis-
taste’ for authority. The Calvinists helped to establish the Socinians; the
Baptists came from the same source, and from their opinions mixed with
Calvinism came the independents. God, ‘in order to punish the irreligious
instability of these peoples, gave them up to the intemperance of their
foolish curiosity’, such that their ‘arbitrary religion’ became the most dan-
gerous of their maladies.55 For when the authority of religion is annihi-
lated, ‘all turns to revolts and seditious thoughts’. God himself threatens to
‘hand over to civil wars’ peoples who alter the religion he had established.
A ‘refined hypocrite’ (i.e., Oliver Cromwell) gained the support of the
multitude by appealing to liberty, though they did not see that they were
headed for servitude.56
Providence and its pedagogical designs are Bossuet’s hermeneutical key
to why all of this happened in England. He explains that God wished to
teach kings not to leave his Church; he wanted to show them what heresy
can do, especially how it is ‘fatal to royalty and to all legitimate authority.’
Bossuet compares England under Cromwell to Israel subjected to the
Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar (Jeremiah 26:6–7).57
Providence-at-work is also Bossuet’s explanation for Henriette-Marie’s
escape from England, in 1644, in the midst of the Civil War, and her life
in France without Charles. Having given birth to a princess (Henriette-
Anne) at Exeter, Henriette-Marie said what would be last adieu to the
King, and fled approaching armies. She arrived in France, where Queen
Anne of Austria, ‘Anne the magnanimous, the pious, whom we will never
name without regret’, received her in a manner worthy of the two queens.58
Receiving letters from the imprisoned King Charles, Henriette-Marie
knew suffering that taught her the ‘virtue of the cross’ and knowledge of
the gospel. For while prosperity ‘blinds us’ and makes us forget God, the
cross and suffering ‘fortify’ Christianity. With suffering and the cross we
expiate sins, ‘we lose all taste for the world’ (on perd tout le goût du monde),
55
56
Bossuet, Oeuvres oratoires V, pp. 532–534. Cromwell’s hypocrisy or sincerity in reli-
gious matters remains a disputed issue. For a relatively recent biography of Cromwell that
stresses his sincere religious motivations, see Barry Coward, Oliver Cromwell (London,
1991).
57
Bossuet, Oeuvres oratoires V, p. 534.
58
Bossuet, Oeuvres oratoires V, pp. 538–540. Anne of Austria had died in 1666, some
three years before. On Anne as Queen Regent, see Katherine Crawford, Perilous Performances:
Gender and Regency in Early Modern France (Cambridge, MA, 2004).
we cease to rely on ourselves. When (in 1660) God restored the royal
house, and her son was recognized as King Charles II, Henriette-Marie
was much consoled, but remained changed by her years of suffering.
The world, once banished, had no return to her heart. Until her death,
she spent her time in prayer, in reading the Imitation of Christ, in ‘rigorous’
examination of her conscience, in penance and in giving alms. She
‘preferred the cross to the throne’.59
One cross she was spared was the sudden death of her daughter,
Henriette-Anne, in June 1670, less than a year after her own death. Bossuet
preached a funeral oration for Henriette-Anne, the Duchess of Orléans, at
Saint-Denis, the traditional burial place of French royalty, on 21 August
1670. In his exordium, the preacher dwells on the shock of her death, and
states that his only words are those of Ecclesiastes 1: 2, ‘Vanity of vanities,
says Ecclesiastes, vanity of vanities, and all things are vanity’ (Vanitas vani-
tatum, dixit Ecclesiastes: vanitas vanitatum, et omnia vanitas). In her death
one may see ‘the death and the nothingness of all human grandeurs’. For
‘life is but a dream, glory but an appearance’, and pleasures but ‘a danger-
ous amusement.’ But meditating before her tomb and before the altar may
show us both our nothingness and our dignity.60
Such meditation leads Bossuet to attribute to heaven Henriette-Anne’s
escape from England to France: ‘as if by a miracle’, heaven snatched her
from the hands of the enemies of her father the king, ‘to give her to
France’.61 Bossuet then reviews at length how her ‘merit’ was even greater
than her rank. In so doing, he implicitly critiques those who lack what he
defines as her merit. Thus her love of wisdom led her to read history,
‘the wise counsel of princes’ (la sage conseillère des princes); she studied the
‘duties’ of those whose lives are the subject of history. At the same time, she
lost the taste for novels, and she scorned their ‘dangerous fictions’.62 Her
spirit made her apt for the great matters of state; she could keep the great-
est secrets, unlike those persons unable to restrain their ‘indiscrete’ tongue.
She was able to be the ‘worthy link’ between ‘the two greatest kings in the
world’ (Louis XIV and Charles II).63
59
60
61
62
Bossuet, Oeuvres oratoires V, pp. 658–659. The novel developed rapidly as a literary
genre in seventeenth-century France, and as one especially associated with women; see Joan
DeJean, Tender Geographies: Women and the Origins of the Novel in France (New York,
1991).
63
Turning to the unexpected death of Henriette-Anne, Bossuet both

recalls the painful surprise of such news, and insists that God instructs and
saves others through such a death. Bossuet exclaims, ‘Oh disastrous night!
Oh fearful night, where suddenly resounded, like a clap of thunder, this
stunning news: Madame is dying! Madame is dead!’ But the preacher also
declares that such a shock can shake our hearts ‘enchanted with the world’,
and can convince us of our nothingness. For divine power, ‘justly irritated
by our pride’, pushes it to nothingness, and makes of all of us but ashes.
God ‘thunders’ against our grandeurs, reducing them to dust. Yet God
does not leave us without hope.64 In ‘our Christian heroine’, Henriette-
Anne, we may ‘adore’ the mystery of grace. The life of a Christian, as Saint
Augustine teaches, is but ‘a miracle of grace’. In the terrible death of
Madame, one may see grace at work. Regretting but her sins, she asked for
the crucifix, and requested ‘priests before physicians.’ She requested the
sacraments of the church: Penance, Eucharist, and Extreme Unction. She
offered her sufferings to God ‘in expiation’ for her faults; she professed
the Catholic faith and the resurrection of the dead.65
Bossuet brings this oration to a conclusion with an appeal for the con-
version of his hearers. ‘What are we waiting for in order to convert our-
selves?’ Are we waiting for God to raise the dead? Yet this ought not to be
necessary for conversion. The ‘truths of eternity’ are well enough estab-
lished; it is by passion, not by reason, that we dare to oppose them. Beyond
the death of Madame, what more could ‘divine providence’ do to show
us the vanity of human things?66
Queen Marie-Thérèse was the wife of Louis XIV, and the daughter of
Philip IV of Spain. Born in 1638, she married Louis in1659 and had six
children with him, though but one of them survived, the Dauphin. Marie-
Thérèse died in 1683, and on 1 September of that year Bossuet preached a
funeral oration for her, at Saint-Denis. Addressing Louis, the Dauphin,
whose tutor he had been, Bossuet takes as his Scripture text Revelation
14: 5 ‘For they are without stain before the throne’ (Sine macula enim sunt
ante thronum). The preacher declares that the Queen was horrified by sin;
her soul was innocent and her heart sincere, ‘without dissimulation and
without artifice.’ Like Saint Louis, she was ‘always pure and always holy’,
64
65
Bossuet, Oeuvres oratoires V, pp. 668–675. In lauding Henriette-Anne’s death as a
‘good’ death, Bossuet’s oration recalls the tradition of printed manuals on how to die well;
see Roger Chartier, The Cultural Uses of Print in Early Modern France, trans. by Lydia
Cochrane (Princeton, 1987), pp. 32–70.
66
from her childhood onwards. God raised her to human grandeurs in order
to make her life more visible, for the ‘instruction of the human race’.67
After such an exordium, Bossuet devotes the body of his oration first to
crediting Marie-Thérèse with reconciling Spain and France, ‘two proud
nations’ and long-time enemies, and secondly, and especially, to presenting
the ‘incomparable beauty’ of the Queen’s soul to his audience.68 Alluding
to the realities of court life, Bossuet maintains that the Queen conserved
her purity in a place of temptations and of illusions of grandeur. She joined
a lively faith with exterior practices of piety and with frequent reception of
the sacraments. Before God, she poured out ‘torrents of tears’ for her sins,
even though these were, in themselves, but slight.69 She visited the poor,
the sick, and the crippled, for she was happy to ‘strip off a borrowed
majesty’ and adore in the poor the ‘glorious poverty’ of Jesus Christ. By her
life she continues to speak, and she says that ‘grandeur is a dream, joy an
error, youth a flower that fades, health a name that fools’.70
In this and other discourses, Bossuet promoted an austere spirituality
that contrasted the world as a place of illusion and sin with a spiritual
life that led to eternal happiness.71 Yet Bishop Bossuet did not advocate
flight from the world to a monastic refuge in the countryside. The exem-
plary lives he most often lauded in his preaching were examples of Chris-
tian lives lived in the world, in the midst of temptations, but triumphant
over them. With his admission to the French Academy in 1671, Bossuet
gained in recognition as a master practitioner of eloquent, elegant French,
both in oral discourses and in printed texts.72 Bossuet himself was a
man who lived in the world, and whose talents were recognized by the
world. Bossuet called his hearers to make practical decisions about living
Christian lives in the world of their day. His literary aplomb no doubt
explains at least part of the reasons why his writings were printed and
reprinted after his death, in the eighteenth century and beyond, perhaps
at times regardless of spiritual or theological content. But his spiritual
message of piety in the world would not be altogether outdated in the
eighteenth century.
67
Bossuet, Oeuvres oratoires VI, pp. 172–175.
68
Bossuet, Oeuvres oratoires VI, pp. 179, 184.
69
Bossuet, Oeuvres oratoires VI, 6, pp. 186–91.
70
Bossuet, Oeuvres oratoires VI, pp. 196–197, 204.
71
For an excellent study of Bossuet’s approach to the spiritual life, see Jacques Le Brun,
La spiritualité de Bossuet (Paris, 1972).
72
He delivered his discourse of reception into the French Academy on 8 June 1671;
see Bossuet, Oeuvres oratoires VI, pp. 5–12.
Reception of Bossuet’s sermons in the 1700s included negative and

positive reactions, and not necessarily from those we might think would
have liked or disliked his oratory. In his book, Death and the Enlightenment,
John McManners suggests that Bossuet’s funeral orations attracted readers
well into the eighteenth century, though Bossuet was not read without
some criticism. The juxtaposition in his funeral oratory between extended
praise of deceased members of the elite, and an oft-repeated insistence on
human equality in the face of death and beyond the grave, came to be seen
as ‘incongruous’ and even ridiculous.73 There was some criticism of Bossuet
by Catholic clerics, who perhaps thought that they were better preachers
than the bishop of Meaux. Jean Siffrein Maury (1746–1817) eventually
became archbishop of Paris and a cardinal; an anonymous work published
in 1773 defended Bossuet against hostile comments by the then ‘young’
Maury. Maury had suggested, among other things, that pleasure in encoun-
tering Bossuet’s sermons was reserved to Bossuet’s own contemporaries,
and that Bossuet’s ‘enthusiasm’ had led him to spread ‘terror’ among his
audiences.74 Yet even a Deist, such as Voltaire, had some positive things to
say about Bossuet.
Voltaire (1694–1778)—his anticlerical polemics notwithstanding—
acknowledged Bossuet’s eloquence, in a work on the ‘century’ of Louis
XIV, first published in the 1750s. Calling Bossuet’s eloquence sublime,
this Enlightenment philosophe specifically mentioned the funeral orations
for Henriette-Marie and Henriette-Anne, comparing them to tragic
theater, and noting that only the French have succeeded in this genre of
eloquent oratory.75
More fulsome praise of Bossuet, appreciative of the religious content of
his oratory, could also be found in Voltaire’s era. A forthcoming edition of
Bossuet’s works was marketed ca. 1770, and its prospectus offers a valuable
window onto favorable attitudes toward a preacher who had been dead for
some 65 years. The printer Antoine Boudet published a 13-page prospec-
tus in 1769, seeking subscriptions to the new, multi-volume edition of
Bossuet’s works, an edition that did appear 1772–88. The prospectus states
that the public has made known a desire for this new edition, a desire that
will be fulfilled. The ‘just impatience’ with which this desire is expressed
‘proves’ how much the writer is esteemed. For ‘as long as love of truth
73
John McManners, Death and the Enlightenment: Changing Attitudes to Death among
Christians and Unbelievers in Eighteenth-Century France (Oxford, 1981), p. 289.
74
Eloge a l’allemande, des réflexions sur les sermons nouveaux de M. Bossuet (Aix, 1773),
pp. 10, 26.
75
Voltaire, Oeuvres historiques, René Pomeau ed. (Paris, 1957), pp. 1005–1006.
remains’ the works of Bossuet will be recommended. Never will one find
writings ‘so appropriate for forming the spirit and ruling the heart’.76
There are few limits to the praise this prospectus lavishes on Bossuet. He
is called a ‘universal genius’ in whose writings one finds majesty of dogma,
grandeur of thoughts, and energy of expression. He makes the most abstract
matters interesting, as he imitates the ‘elegant simplicity’ of nature. Like
nature, Bossuet produces, ‘from the inexhaustible bosom of his abundance’
(du sein inépuisable de son abondance), the greatest riches with an ease that
makes them even more admirable.77 By his ‘male eloquence’ he produces
conviction, while the gentleness and feeling (le pathéthique) of his discourses
‘touch, persuade, and capture consent’. Bossuet makes one see ‘the wisdom,
economy, and marvels of religion’. He ‘instructs the Catholic, confounds
the unbeliever, dissipates the false reasonings of the heretic’. And writings
so precious to religion ‘guarantee to their author an immortal glory’,
already evident as some call him a Father of the Church.78 His sermons are
a ‘lively and natural painting’ (une peinture vive et naturelle). He preached
to the great truths opposed to their passions, and his courage, ‘far from
offending them’, made them respect the preacher all the more. His ser-
mons should be models for preachers ‘in our day’, so that they may replace
the ‘frivolous eloquence’ one finds in the pulpit. ‘Evangelical truths alone’,
and ‘in their august simplicity’, should be preached.79 The Bossuet edition
promoted by this prospectus was published, in 19 volumes, 1772–88.80
There were also editions of Bossuet’s preaching in other languages. It is
no surprise to find that there were English translations of some of Bossuet’s
funeral orations, given that two of the most famous were pronounced for
the consort and a daughter of Charles I. But there were also other English
translations of Bossuet’s oratory.81 And there were translations into other
languages, of various works by Bossuet, and not solely his oratorical
works.82
76
Prospectus de la nouvelle édition des oeuvres de Messire Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet, évêque de
Meaux (Paris, 1769), p. 2.
77
Prospectus, pp. 2–3.
78
79
80
On what this edition did and did not contain, see Verlaque, Bibliographie raisonnée,
pp. 104–105.
81
As late at 1800, the last year of my survey, there was such an edition. See Biographical
Sketches of Henrietta Duchess of Orleans, and Louis of Bourbon Condé. To which are added
Bossuet’s Orations, pronounced at their interment, 2nd ed. (London, 1800). See also these
examples: Bossuet, A Sermon Preached at the Funeral of Mary Terese of Austria (London,
1684); Bossuet, Select Sermons (London, 1800).
82
See Verlaque, Bibliographie raisonée.
4. Bourdaloue
Bossuet was not the only late seventeenth-century French preacher to

enjoy a considerable life, in print, in the eighteenth century and beyond;
another was the Jesuit Louis Bourdaloue (1632–1704). I shall examine
several of his sermons, and I shall also briefly survey when and where edi-
tions of Bourdaloue’s sermons appeared in the eighteenth century.
Bourdaloue’s preaching career extended from 1665 to the year of his death,
1704.83 He preached frequently and for a wide variety of occasions. There
were funeral orations, Advent and Lenten series of sermons, sermons at the
Jesuit church of Saint-Louis and elsewhere in Paris,84 sermons before the
court, sermons in religious houses, and sermons outside Paris in the prov-
inces. With the exception of some funeral orations, very little was pub-
lished until after his death. Beginning in 1707, Jesuit father François de
Paul Bretonneau (1660–1741), himself a preacher, published Bourdaloue’s
pulpit oratory.85 He also wrote prefaces for some of these volumes; I shall
return to one of these prefaces. First I shall examine several of Bourdaloue’s
published sermons, including examples that were originally preached for
Sundays, for Lent, for saints’ feast days.These sermons offer a particularly
good overview of themes characteristic of Bourdaloue’s preaching.86
Preaching for a twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost, Bourdaloue
begins his first exordium by citing a verse from the gospel of Matthew:
‘Render unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God what to belongs
to God’ (Matthew 22: 21). One might expect the preacher to develop
themes such as obligations to the state (perhaps taxes), or various
obligations to God. But Bourdaloue tells his ‘dear hearers’ that the maxim
contains ‘one of the most essential duties of Christian justice’, the duty to
give to each other what you owe to each other. If, by ‘usurpation’ you have
violated another’s rights, ‘may your first concern be to restore them by a
prompt and legitimate restitution’.87 Père Bourdaloue is quick to reply to
any possible objection that the interests of one’s neighbor ought not to be
put ahead of God’s interests. God’s interests are ‘necessarily included in the
83
See the chronology of Bourdaloue’s sermons in Aimé Richardt, Bourdaloue
(1632–1704). L’Orateur des rois (Tournai, 1995), pp. 277–281.
84
On the Jesuit church of Saint-Louis, see Saint-Paul—Saint-Louis: Les jésuites à Paris
(Paris, 1985).
85
On Bretonneau and his publications, see Carlos Sommervogel, Bibliothèque de la
Compagnie de Jésus (10 vols.; Brussels and Paris, 1890–1909) II, pp. 139–143.
86
My citations are from an early nineteenth-century edition, Oeuvres complètes de
Bourdaloue, de la Compagnie de Jésus (16 vols.; Versailles, 1812).
87
Bourdaloue, Oeuvres complètes VII, Dominicale, pp. 273–274.
interest of the neighbor’.88 Bourdaloue concludes the first exordium with

an Ave Maria, and then announces in a second exordium a four-point
division of his discourse.89
The first point concerns concupiscence, and the second treats the diffi-
culty of restitution. The preacher explains: Concupiscence makes us look
with jealousy upon the goods of the neighbor, and we often have opportu-
nities to seize the neighbor’s goods. Neither grace, nor reason, nor nature
governs us; it is passion, and the more that this concupiscence has, the
more it wants. There is no ‘artifice’ that this passion will not employ, no
ruse it will not invent, no crime it will not commit; it will turn to usury, to
simony, to false contracts, to chicanery. The ‘disordered love’ of temporal
goods has led us to traffic and to sell even in the sanctuary, and to trade the
patrimony of the poor and the benefices of the Church. Yet while the
smallest thefts are punished according to the severity of the laws, the greater
thefts occur with impunity. The great, the rich, persons of dignity, ‘seem to
be the furthest from usurpation and stealing’, but they are nevertheless the
most exposed to it.90 In his second point, Bourdaloue examines resistance
to the making of restitution: While those who possess the goods of others
may prostrate themselves before altar, with ‘their eyes bathed in tears’, and
they may confess and seemingly wish reconciliation with God. But when
one speaks to them of restitution, they change their language, and they
seek out another priest, one more malleable, one less demanding, one
who damns himself with them. And if we deny the Eucharist to those who
refuse to make restitution, these remedies are weak, for there are few
who resolve to engage in restitution in order to be restored to participation
in ‘the body of Christ, who is the sovereign good of the just on earth’.91
The third and fourth points deal with the impossibility of restitution
that is alleged by most of those that must make it, and the real impossibil-
ity of salvation without restitution. Bourdaloue surveys the excuses—the
‘pretended reasons’—given by those claiming that they cannot make
restitution, and responds to them: They say that restitution will ruin their
family; but is financial ruin not better than damnation? If children are so
88
Bourdaloue, Oeuvres complètes VII, Dominicale, p. 275.
89
Bourdaloue divides his sermons into two, three, or four points or parts. In an other-
wise excellent essay on Bourdaloue, Eric de Moulins-Beaufort is incorrect to claim that
Bourdaloue always composed his sermons in three points; see “Louis Bourdaloue (1632–
1704) sa vie, son oeuvre”, Résurrection 105–106 (December 2004-March 2005), pp. 11–39,
at p. 26.
90
91
hard and blind so as to follow the example of parents who refuse to make
restitution for what their avarice and ambition took from their neighbor,
such children will be accomplices of sin and they will share in ‘eternal rep-
robation’. And to those that say that they must maintain their condition or
state (état) of life, Bourdaloue replies that the first duty of a Christian is
restitution, not the maintenance of one’s condition. If necessary, reduce
your expenses, diminish the number of your domestics, be more modest in
your clothing and your table, live in simplicity, and do all of that in ‘the
spirit of justice that is the soul of Christianity’. For this is true piety; ‘with-
out it, everything you do for God is but hypocrisy, all your devotions are
but so many abuses’.92 Bourdaloue makes his fourth and final point even
more non-negotiable: there is no salvation without restitution. Of all that
is required for salvation, Père Bourdaloue insists, none suffers less relaxa-
tion than this obligation. Even the keys of Saint Peter, given to the Church
to absolve sins, cannot open heaven to a usurper who retains the goods of
his neighbor. The obligation of restitution is an eternal and invariable law
of ‘sovereign’ justice. Sincere contrition includes the ‘effective willingness’
(la volonté efficace) to restore all things to what they were before sin.
A person who beats his chest before God and punishes his body with
all the austerities of mortification, but remains the unjust possessor of his
neighbor’s goods, is a false penitent. If he receives communion it is
sacrilege and profanation. If death surprises him, he dies impious and a
reprobate.93
Bourdaloue closes his sermon by addressing the rich with a stern warn-
ing. He cites the epistle of Saint James: ‘Go now, you rich misers; weep,
make loud cries, and recognize the appalling misery where you have fallen’
( James 5:1). ‘At death you will see that your riches have rotted and your
gold and silver have rusted’ ( James 5:2–3). He adds: You sacrificed your
immortal soul for ‘passing’ goods; your blindness is the greatest of disor-
ders. The Lord will hear the cry of the miserable ones whom you oppressed.
He will hear the domestics from whom you demanded much but refused
recompense…the cries of the workers whose salaries you did not pay, the
cries of the creditors you did not pay…the cries of orphans. Only a ‘prompt
and perfect restitution’ can preserve you from the ‘thundering anathemata’
that God is ready to rain down upon you.94
92
93
94
Bourdaloue’s message in Sunday sermons was not always quite so

menacing, though exhortation to some change in one’s life remained
central to his oratory. In a discourse for a Sunday within the octave of the
feast of Corpus Christi,95 he speaks at length on the Eucharist as a great
meal and an adorable sacrament. His biblical text is Luke 14:16–24, the
parable of a man who invited many guests to a dinner, but few of those
invited came. Bourdaloue explains that preachers are sent by the Lord to
announce to people that they are ‘called’ to the table of the Lord. But
many allege various pretexts for not coming to the table: they have tempo-
ral matters to attend to; the obligations of their condition or ‘state’ retain
them; they have family and children to care for. The most ‘specious’ excuse
advanced is that one is not ‘pure’ enough to present oneself to such a holy
table. Such a ‘false humility’, imagined by some as meritorious, is often but
a ‘trap’ lain by the enemy of our salvation.96
In 1643, Antoine Arnauld had published his De la fréquente commun-
ion, a vigorous attack on the Jesuits for their encouragement of frequent
reception of communion.97 Arnauld and other Jansenists lambasted the
Society of Jesus for laxism in moral theology and in sacramental practice;
the Jansenists lauded not easy access to the Eucharist, but a lengthy period
of penitential preparation for it.98 One needed to be worthy to approach
the altar.
Bourdaloue clearly has all of this in mind as he divides his sermon into
two parts. The first part will ‘destroy the vain excuse of those who withdraw
from communion because they do not believe themselves to be pure
enough’. He explains that Christ instituted the sacrament in the form of
a meal and nourishment that we should use, not rarely but ‘frequently
and often’, just as we take everyday other nourishment to sustain ourselves.
One may err by insisting too much on ‘perfection’ prior to reception
of communion. The Lord did not ‘scorn’ human weakness; human beings
have their infirmities and fragilities, and it is precisely for that reason the
‘physician of their souls’ calls them to himself. He does not assemble
the rich, the great, and the saints, but the poor, the little ones, the infirm,
the blind and the lame. All extremes are bad: to make the use of communion
95
On the origins and history of this feast day, see Miri Rubin, Corpus Christi: The
Eucharist in Late Medieval Culture (Cambridge,UK, 1991).
96
Bourdaloue, Oeuvres complètes VI, Dominicale, pp. 65–67.
97
Antoine Arnauld, De la fréquente communion (Paris, 1643).
98
On this controversy between Jesuits and Jansenists, see Jonathan Wright, God’s
Soldiers: Adventure, Politics, Intrigue, and Power—A History of the Jesuits (New York, 2004),
p. 168.
‘too easy’ is a slackening (un relâchement), but to make it too difficult is an

excessive rigor. We should seek the middle way (le juste milieu).99
The second point in this sermon makes abundantly clear that Bourdaloue
sees the much greater danger in infrequent communion than in overly
frequent reception of the sacrament. Here he insists that the ‘effect’ of the
Eucharist is to imprint on the soul of the one receiving it a ‘character’ of
purity and sanctity. The Eucharist, containing the author of grace, extends
its virtue to the life of those who receive it and sanctifies them, and even,
in a sense, ‘divinizes’ them. While it is ordinarily the spirit that vivifies the
flesh, here, by a miracle, the flesh vivifies the spirit. If a Christian only
receives communion annually, at Easter, he will barely draw any profit
from it. The ‘happy effects’ of this celestial food include restraint of ‘sen-
sual appetites’ and fortification against temptation. The sinner, ‘by a happy
transformation’, becomes a saint.100
Addressing clergy, Bourdaloue brings this sermon to a close. ‘Never for-
get’ that you are sent to gather the faithful at the table, not to distance
them from it. Do not ‘take away from children the bread that must sustain
them, and without which they will perish…do not be misers, when the
Lord who confided it to you for them is so liberal with it’.101
A theme one finds again and again in Bourdaloue’s preaching is that of
choices or decisions to be made. Père Bourdaloue clearly sees as central to
the preacher’s role the provision of various kinds of assistance, advice, and
exhortation useful for the making of good choices. Frequent reception of
communion is one such choice; another concerns the vocational choices of
children and the place of parents in such decisions. Parents—especially
fathers—in seventeenth-century France often sought to control the choice
their children would make to marry or not (and if to marry, to whom), or
the choice to enter religious life or the priesthood.102
Bourdaloue exhorts his hearers/readers to respect the vocational free-
dom of their children. In a sermon for the first Sunday after Epiphany,
Bourdaloue develops this argument from the response of Jesus, in the
gospel of Luke, chapter 2, to his parents who were seeking him, while he
was in the Temple. For Bourdaloue, just as Mary and Joseph did not
99
100
101
102
See Barbara Diefendorf, “Give Us Back Our Children: Patriarchal Authority and
Parental Consent to Religious Vocations in Early Counter-Reformation France”, in Journal
of Modern History 68 (1996), pp. 265–307.
understand what Jesus said concerning what God called him to do, so too
most Christian parents have not understood their obligations regarding
the dispositions of their children in the matter of a vocation and state of
life.103 Dividing his sermon into two parts, Bourdaloue devotes the first
part to showing that it is not for parents to ‘determine’ the choice of their
children in these matters. If they do so, they commit two injustices, one
against God’s right (le droit de Dieu), and another against the children.
Though an earthly father may determine the education and material goods
of his children, he is not to decide their state of life. When fathers ‘inter-
fere’ in these things, they do so with ‘unworthy’ motives and ‘vile’ interests.
They wound the ‘respect’ due to God’s rational creatures.104 Bourdaloue
insists that the father of family is not the ‘distributor’ of vocations; this
grace is not in his hands. It does not depend on him whether or not his
daughter marries or enters religious life; for a father to attempt to decide
this matter is to attack the ‘sovereign domain of God’ and to ‘injure’
grace.105
It is perhaps above all those parents who force their daughters to become
nuns that find no support in Bourdaloue. He denounces this practice as an
‘abomination’ and asks whether one should be surprised to find that such
families are struck with divine malediction, for such fathers sacrifice their
daughters not to God but to their own wealth and ‘avaricious cupidity’. Yet
for Bourdaloue, just as bad are those parents who seek to prevent a child
from entering religious life. They, too, interfere with the ‘inviolable rights’
of God, a God who may even call a family’s only son to religion. The ‘false
pretensions’ of fathers and mothers ought not to trouble the ‘reasonable
liberty’ of their children in making these choices.106
Eternal salvation itself is at stake: Bourdaloue explains that nothing less
than this is at stake in vocational choices. Living one’s vocation is how one
is saved, and when something is a matter of salvation, ‘a father has no
authority over his son’ ( point d’authorité du père sur le fils). God does not
oblige parents to make their children rich, but he does oblige them to leave
their children free (les laisser libres).107
In a much shorter, second point, Bourdaloue acknowledges that while it
does not belong to parents to ‘determine’ the vocations of their children,
103
Bourdaloue, Oeuvres complètes V, Dominicale, pp. 1–3.
104
105
Bourdaloue, Oeuvres complètes V, Dominicale, p. 8.
106
107
they may ‘participate’ in such choices. Indeed, for Bourdaloue, parents

ought to ‘assist’ and guide children in choosing well. Parents ought to
instruct and form their children so as to make them ‘capable, intelligent,
and worthy of the places’ to which they may aspire.108 Yet this second point
seems more a minor concession to parents than anything central to voca-
tional decision making. Bourdaloue is adamant in defending the freedom
to make one’s own vocational choices, and the vigor with which he makes
this defense suggests the degree to which his ideals challenged the practices
of his audiences.109
Financial motives are one of the things Bourdaloue mentions as likely to
incline parents to interfere in their children’s vocational choices. In a
sermon on ambition, for Wednesday of the second week of Lent,
Bourdaloue asserts that vocations from God may be ‘profaned’ when we
treat them as but temporal advantages.110 Taking a text from the gospel of
Matthew, chapter 20, in which the disciples of Jesus demonstrate much
ambition but little understanding, Bourdaloue argues that providence
chose as disciples these men who were proud, ambitious, and jealous of the
world’s honors, in order that we discover the ‘disorder’ of our ambition by
viewing theirs.111 Bourdaloue then announces a three-part division of his
sermon: he will consider how we ‘profane’ our vocations by seeking only
temporal advantages; how we ought to serve our neighbor but instead
seek proud domination; and how we ought to labor but instead seek an
agreeable life.
The relation between grace and human freedom was a hotly debated
theological issue in the seventeenth century, especially between Jesuits and
Jansenists.112 Bourdaloue, in preaching on vocation and ambition, insists
that ‘theologians say’ that predestination is nothing but a series of graces
108
109
On this question in Bourdaloue’s preaching, see also Lawrence Wolff, “Parents and
Children in the Sermons of Père Bourdaloue: A Jesuit Perspective on the Early Modern
Family,” in The Jesuit Tradition in Education and Missions: A 450-Year Perspective, Christopher
Chapple ed. (Scranton, 1993), pp. 81–94. In the first half of the seventeenth century
another prolific Jesuit writer, Nicolas Caussin (1583–1651), had already articulated many
of the arguments made by Bourdaloue for vocational freedom; see Thomas Worcester,
“Neither Married nor Cloistered: Blessed Isabelle in Catholic Reformation France”, in
Sixteenth Century Journal 30 (1999), pp. 457–472.
110
Bourdaloue, Oeuvres complètes II, Carême, p. 363.
111
112
On Jesuit views of freedom and grace, see Philippe Lécrivain, “Liberté et grâce au
XVIIs. et la part prise par la Compagnie de Jésus dans ce débat”, in Dieu au XVIIe siècle:
Crises et renouvellement du discours, Henri Laux and Dominique Salin eds. (Paris, 2002),
pp. 191–212.
prepared for us; our part consists of actions in response to grace, actions
for which God will judge us. How many of the reprobate in hell ‘would
have lived as saints on earth if they had followed the voice of God by
embracing the state to which God called them?’113 The ‘grace of a vocation’
is not, Bourdaloue insists, restricted to the humble life in cloister. On the
contrary, the more a state of life includes high honors the more it demands
a vocation from God. ‘Ecclesiastical dignities’ should be seen as a divine
vocation, for God to dispose as he will, not simply as honors ‘due’ to those
of a certain birth.114 Bourdaloue vigorously castigates any such sense of
entitlement: some consider the sanctuary of God as their inheritance,
and they think that because a benefice has been in the family for many
years it is theirs to keep. But nothing is more ‘fatal’ than the blindness
of such cupidity. Some think that because a young man is the youngest
son that he is therefore ‘called’ to the functions of pastor of souls; but the
goal of fathers thinking in that way is to make powerful families not
Christian families.115 Yet Bourdaloue acknowledges that his message
may be falling on unwilling ears, especially at court, where auditors lis-
ten carefully, but are poorly disposed to believe or do as he says. Still,
Bourdaloue protests that he will always bear ‘witness’ to the truth, against
the world.116
In the second part of this sermon on ambition, Bourdaloue asserts that
the proper task of the human being is to serve others. While the great
among the pagans treat the small with domination, the great among
Christians must treat the small with love and respect.117 In Bourdaloue’s
era many in France, especially among the bourgeois, sought ennoblement
and the higher status and privileges nobility brought.118 What Bourdaloue
says about servants and ennoblement could not have been easy for many
in his audience to hear. He states that the Word of God, by taking on the
113
114
Bourdaloue, Oeuvres complètes II, Carême, p. 367–369. By the late seventeenth
century, nearly all high level church appointments (bishops, abbots) in France were drawn
from noble families; see Joseph Bergin, Crown, Church and Episcopate under Louis XIV
(New Haven, 2004).
115
Bourdaloue, Oeuvres complètes II, Carême, pp. 372–373.
116
Bourdaloue, Oeuvres complètes II, Carême, p. 374. On audiences at court resisting the
practice of what Bourdaloue preached, see Hughes Oliphant Old, The Reading and Preaching
of the Scriptures in the Worship of the Church: The Age of the Reformation (Grand Rapids,
2002), p. 504.
117
118
For a succinct discussion of what ‘nobility’ meant in early modern Europe, see
M.L. Bush, “An Anatomy of Nobility”, in Social Orders and Social Classes in Europe since
1500: Studies in Social Stratification, M.L. Bush ed. (London, 1992), pp. 26–46.
quality of a servant, ennobled that quality, in a sense ‘divinizing’ it; thus it

should be honored among Christians. For Christians, all domination is
forbidden; the ‘function’ of a Christian is to be charitable and to serve.119
Bourdaloue, claiming the ‘holy liberty of the pulpit’ (la sainte liberté de la
chaire), declares that he will insist on such morality. The higher a person’s
rank, the more that person must act with gentleness, moderation, and
charity.120
Bourdaloue’s third point focuses on the Christian vocation to suffer and
labor, as Christ suffered and labored. The highly ranked disciples of Jesus
will know a large measure of tribulations and crosses. From those who
have received much from God, much will be asked by God. Bishops, espe-
cially, should examine themselves. Are they ecclesiastics for the sake of
receiving revenues and for showing themselves with the miter and the
purple? Do they think of serving at the altar, instructing the people, and
helping the needs of the poor?121
The needs of the poor—and the question of charity for the poor—are
themes to which Bourdaloue returns frequently in his discourses. The
Council of Trent (1545–63) had insisted on the obligation of good works
and faith in order to be saved,122 and Bourdaloue certainly teaches this.
In some cases, his emphasis is precisely on what charity does for the one
who acts with charity for the poor, rather than on what it does for the
poor recipient of such charity. An example is an ‘exhortation’ in which
Bourdaloue addresses a group of wealthy women and explains to them
how almsgiving may serve them as a ‘preservative’ from the corruption
of the world. Crediting the sermons of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–
1153) with his three points, he asserts that there are three things difficult
to conserve in the world: humility in the midst of riches; chastity in the
midst of the delights of the world; and piety amidst the business of the
world.123
On the first point, Bourdaloue states bluntly that riches inspire pride, and
‘nothing is more rare’ than a humble person in the mist of opulence
and wealth. Though the rich may pretend to merit an abundance of goods,
and persuade themselves that it is all ‘owed’ to them, their riches are often
119
120
121
122
Council of Trent, Decree Concerning Justification, in Canons and Decrees of the Council
of Trent, trans. H.J. Schroeder (Rockford, IL, 1978), pp. 29–46.
123
Bourdaloue, Oeuvres complètes VIII, Exhortations, p. 1.
based but on injustice, and are the fruit of usury.124 But the ‘corrective’ for
such sentiments is the ‘indispensable duty’ of alms and works of charity, a
corrective that includes attribution to God of one’s goods. The rich should
say to themselves that God is the first master and owner of their goods, and
that they are but the dispensers; for they have nothing but what they have
received. What they have received has been ‘confided’ to them for the
poor; in God’s providence, the rich are not made rich in order to satisfy
their own ambition, but in order to ‘relieve the misery of the poor’, as serv-
ants of the poor (les servantes des pauvres). Citing the gospel of Matthew,
chapter 25, Bourdaloue insists that what one does to the poor one does to
Christ, and thus one should not be ashamed to be called servants of the
poor. For ‘our kings’ wash the feet of the poor and recognize in the poor
not their subjects but the ‘living images’ of the first of all masters ( Jesus
Christ). Among those kings is Saint Louis, who embraced humility amidst
royal grandeur.125 Though Bourdaloue explicitly cites Bernard of Clairvaux,
he could well have also cited Vincent de Paul (1581–1660), whose work
among the poor and whose foundation (with Louise de Marillac) of the
Daughters of Charity was enormously influential in France and beyond,
through Bourdaloue’s lifetime, and long after.126
Bourdaloue turns, in the second point of this exhortation on charity, to
how the ‘practice of works of charity and of mercy’ is the means provided
by providence for preservation from self-love, sensuality, and impurity.
Such practice will inspire ‘the exercises of a penitential life’, and a reduc-
tion in the excesses of precious ornaments and sumptuous meals. It will
also produce ‘shame’ when one contrasts one’s abundance with the poor
who do not have necessities. It will lead one to ask what difference there is
between oneself and the poor, and to reflect on how they, too, are children
of God.127 Vincent Houdry (1631–1729) was a Jesuit preacher contempo-
rary with Bourdaloue; penance was a dominant theme in his oratory.128
Bourdaloue places less emphasis on penance than Houdry did, but in this
exhortation it does play a prominent role. By serving the poor one will
learn to suffer and to stop complaining about it. One will see that the poor
124
Bourdaloue, Oeuvres complètes VIII, Exhortations, p. 2. On Christian critique of
what was termed usury, see John Noonan, The Scholastic Analysis of Usury (Cambridge,
MA, 1957).
125
Bourdaloue, Oeuvres complètes VIII, Exhortations, pp. 3–7.
126
On the Daughters of Charity, see Susan Dinan, Women and Poor Relief in Seventeenth-
Century France: The Early History of the Daughters of Charity (Aldershot, UK, 2006).
127
128
See Marie-Christine Varachaud, Le Père Houdry, S.J. (1631–1729): Prédication et
pénitence (Paris, 1993).
suffer far more, and thus one will learn to accept the practices of penance,
of abstinence, and of fasting, practices that serve as a ‘preservative’ against
the inclinations to vice of our corrupt nature.129
The third ‘advantage’ of Christian charity Bourdaloue finds in conserva-
tion of the spirit of piety in the midst of the cares of the world. He notes
that while some religious have a vocation to the cloister and to separation
from the world, for other people it is also possible to ‘sanctify’ their lives—
through serving the poor. By visiting the poor in prisons and hospitals
one’s heart is raised to God and one’s tepid piety is warmed; a visit to the
poor is a ‘salutary suspension’ of worry about worldly things, and an
opportunity for God to speak to the heart of such visitors, and to renew in
them the spirit of eternal truths.130
Models of sanctity are a recurring theme in Bourdaloue’s discourses;
holy exemplars such as Saint Louis and Saint Francis de Sales provide con-
crete models of how to live a holy Christian life in the world. In a sermon
for the feast of Saint Louis (25 August), Bourdaloue shows both how this
king of France was like Moses and even like God in his zeal for the people
of God. Yet his sanctity, ‘though royal and magnificent’, is an example for
all Christians to follow, especially the French. They have a ‘special obliga-
tion’ to honor him, and one that is even more ‘indispensable’ to imitate
him. He is not a saint imitable only by those in some ‘conditions’ or ‘states’
of life; his life shows that it is possible to be a saint in all states and condi-
tions of life.131
In the first part of this two-part sermon, Bourdaloue endeavors to show
that royalty not only was not an obstacle to holiness in the life of Saint
Louis, but it was the means by which he reached ‘heroic’ sanctity. The
‘greatest of kings’, Saint Louis was the most humble of men, obedient to
God. He died a martyr, seeking the conversion of the Saracens in Egypt.
In France, he labored to eliminate the scandal of simony among the clergy.
He published an edict against blasphemy ordering the piercing of the
tongue of those who ‘profaned the holiness and the majesty of the name of
God’. He forbade duels, exterminated usury. Even when in camp with his
armies, he had a tent set up as a kind of sanctuary for the Eucharist. And
he opened his treasury to purchase the holy crown of thorns (of Jesus), ‘for
which he would have given all the crowns in the world’.132
129
130
131
Bourdaloue, Oeuvres complètes XIII, Panégyriques, pp. 87–89.
132
Again and again, Bourdaloue highlights how the kingship of Saint Louis
not only did not interfere with his holiness, but was also a vehicle for or
means to holiness. Thus Saint Louis was charitable toward his people,
receiving personally the requests of widows and orphans, rendering justice
to all, consoling the afflicted. Motivated by ‘tender and affectionate’ love
for the poor, he founded innumerable hospitals. He loved the poor so
much that he housed them in his palace and received them at his table, and
served them with his own hands. He also washed their feet and bandaged
their ulcers and wounds. He was persuaded that the poor person was the
‘living representation of Jesus Christ’ (la vive représentation de Jésus-Christ).
But in what concerned himself, Saint Louis was austere. He punished his
body with ‘rigorous mortifications’ and judged himself severely.133
Bourdaloue’s second part of this sermon on Saint Louis is a response to
those who would claim that ‘evangelical perfection’ is incompatible with
accomplishment of great things. He declares that this ‘error’ has made an
infinite number of libertines and impious. Bourdaloue argues that the
example of Saint Louis proves them wrong. He was great in war and great
in peace, great in prosperity and great in adversity. Neither Greece nor
ancient Rome produced a more heroic warrior; it is not true that holiness
‘weakens the courage of men’. Never, since the establishment of the French
monarchy, had France been so flourishing and opulent, as in the reign of
Saint Louis.134 To this history lesson Bourdaloue adds a direct appeal to
Louis XIV, successor to Saint Louis and ‘heir of his zeal’, to pray to God
that all who hear this sermon be persuaded and touched by its ‘important
truths’. For Bourdaloue, without Christian sanctity, there is in this world
‘but appearance of virtue, but dissimulation, but lying, but illusion and
hypocrisy’.135
François de Sales (1567–1622) was canonized as a saint in 1665, the
very year in which Bourdaloue began his preaching career. Bourdaloue’s
high praise of Saint François de Sales knows few limits. In a sermon for his
feast day, Bourdaloue calls the ‘incomparable’ de Sales ‘a saint for our
times’ (un saint pour nos jours), the apostle of Savoy, the oracle and preacher
of France, the model of prelates, the scourge of heresy, the defender of true
religion, the ornament of our century, a saint respected by the monarchs of
the earth, a saint canonized for the excellence of his gentleness.136
133
134
135
136
Bourdaloue, Oeuvres complètes XII, Panégyriques, pp. 188–190.
Dividing his discourse into two parts, Bourdaloue devotes the first part
to destruction of heresy. Asserting that God raised up François de Sales just
as he once raised up David for the Israelites, Bourdaloue explains that God
did not want the most Christian kingdom of France or the duchy of Savoy
to become a rampart of error. Thus François de Sales converted more than
70,000 heretics, a miracle accomplished by virtue of his patient and active
gentleness.137 For Bourdaloue, not only was François de Sales like David,
but he was also like Moses. Just as Moses defeated Pharaoh, François de
Sales defeated heresy, and delivered the people of God from servitude.138
In his second point, Bourdaloue lauds de Sales as a writer and as a
preacher. After Scripture, Bourdaloue declares, there are no works that
have done more to support piety among the faithful than those of this holy
bishop. And ‘to form the morals of the faithful’, and establish souls in a
solid piety, no one has the gift of the bishop of Geneva. As for his
Introduction to the Devout Life, ‘how many sinners has it converted?’ And
how many men and women has it ‘sanctified’ within marriage? ‘Have you
ever opened it’, without being moved to the ‘practice of virtue’ and with-
out being moved by holy desires? Preaching in Paris and at court, François
de Sales also devoted entire Lents to the least towns of his diocese; he was
like Jesus who preferred preaching in small towns to doing so in Jerusalem.
The bishop of Geneva ‘still lives in his writings’ (vit encore dans ses écrits),
for he left his spirit in them.139
To live on after one’s death through one’s writings: not only did François
de Sales do that but so too did Louis Bourdaloue. In the case of the latter,
his sermons were collected and published after his death in 1704, under
the editorship of Jesuit Father Bretonneau. Bretonneau’s editions of
Bourdaloue’s oratory first reached the printing presses in 1707; many
reprintings and editions followed, through the eighteenth century and
beyond. It may be useful to examine one of the prefaces Bretonneau
provided.
For a 1716 edition of Advent sermons of Bourdaloue, Bretonneau
explains that it is fitting for the Society of Jesus to preserve the memory of
a man it regards as one its ‘first ornaments’ and whose loss it continues to
mourn. Thus the works of this celebrated preacher should be published
‘for the good of souls and to perpetuate the fruits of his zeal’. Bretonneau
goes on to recall how Bourdaloue painted a picture of morals in which
137
138
Bourdaloue, Oeuvres complètes XII, Panégyrqiues, p. 203.
139
each person saw and recognized himself; with his ‘full, resonant, gentle
and harmonious’ voice, Bourdaloue made his audience listen. Frequently
from the audience one would hear a cry that he was right, that he accu-
rately described humanity and the world. Though he first preached in the
provinces, it was not long before he was sent to Paris. There providence
opened to him ‘the most vast and beautiful field’, and as soon as he appeared
at the professed house of the Jesuits (the church of Saint-Louis), all Paris,
and from the court, ‘a prodigious crowd’ ran to hear him. The more one
heard him the more one wanted to hear him. With a ‘ground of reason’
( fonds de rasion) joined to ‘a lively and penetrating imagination’ (une imag-
ination vive et pénétrante), he found in each thing what was solid and true.
His discourses were well-organized, his arguments ‘ordered and convinc-
ing’, and he never wandered from his goal.140
Even as Bretonneau draws attention to the elite audiences that rushed to
hear Bourdaloue, he also insists that Bourdaloue was appreciated by all
sorts of persons. One ought not to be surprised by this, Bretonneau adds,
for what is ‘natural and founded on reason’ (naturel et fondé sur la raison),
pleases everywhere, and all times, and all tastes.141 Bourdaloue, perhaps
especially Bourdaloue as presented by Bretonneau, offers us excellent
examples of a ‘classical’ ideal of preaching. Christian ethics took pride of
place, and the preacher sought to persuade his audiences, by reasonable
arguments and by eloquent speech, to make good moral choices.
Bretonneau may have overstated somewhat the degree to which
Bourdaloue was well received as a preacher in his time, but if the number
of editions and translations published is a way of measuring how pleasing
Bourdaloue was in print, he was very pleasing indeed. The Bourdaloue
holdings of the library at the Centre Sèvres, the Jesuit faculty of theology
and philosophy in Paris, are vast. This library has some 300 volumes of
Bourdaloue’s works from the eighteenth century alone, published between
1707 and 1787.142 In addition to various editions in French, published in
several cities in France, there are editions from Brussels, Liège, and
Antwerp. There are also versions published in translation—Latin, German,
140
Sermons du Père Bourdaloue, de la Compagnie de Jésus: Pour L’Avent, new ed. (Paris,
1716), preface by François Bretonneau.
141
Bourdaloue, Sermons, preface by François Bretonneau.
142
I am grateful for the assistance of Jacqueline Diot, librarian at the Centre Sèvres, in
compiling this information. Nineteenth-century editions I have not examined, except the
1812 Versailles edition, which I have used in my own reading of Bourdaloue. See also the
list of Bourdaloue’s works in Sommervogel, Bibliothèque de la Compagnie de Jésus II,
pp. 5–28.
Italian, or Dutch—in Augsburg, Innsbruck, Venice, or Amsterdam. No

library has a complete collection of all the editions of Bourdaloue,
eighteenth-century or later. The Centre Sèvres has some volumes not in
the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, and vice versa. While the British
Library does not have much of what may be found in Parisian collections,
in the catalogue of the former one finds some of Bourdaloue in English, in
a four-volume edition published in 1776 in London.143
The Society of Jesus had been suppressed not long before this date, by
Pope Clement XIV, in 1773.144 Such an effort to eliminate the Jesuits—
carried out under pressure from the Bourbon monarchs—seems not to
have affected the publishing of the sermons of Jesuit Father Bourdaloue.
In 1773 itself, in Liège, several volumes of Bourdaloue’s sermons were
published; in 1787, in Toulouse and Nîmes.
Reception of Bourdaloue’s works in the eighteenth-century can be
gauged by other means, such as critical commentaries. One of the most
interesting is found in Voltaire, and it perhaps gives some idea of how
Bourdaloue retained an audience of readers, even in an age less and less
given to traditional Christian piety. In his work on the century of Louis
XIV, Voltaire praises in Bourdaloue an always eloquent reason (une raison
toujours éloquente), unlike other orators. Voltaire adds praise, or at least
respect, for Bourdaloue’s ‘style’, one that did not aim to please, but to
convince.145
5. Tillotson
Bourdaloue, like Camus, and like Bossuet, would have seen Protestant
preachers not only as rivals but as heretics.146 These French preachers would
not have given much attention to any similarities between their Catholic
preaching and Protestant preaching. Yet in retrospect, the historian may
well find continuity (as well as discontinuity) between their pulpit oratory
and that of their contemporaries on the other side of the confessional
divide. John Tillotson (1630–94) may serve as an example. He has been
143
Louis Bourdaloue, Practical Divinity: Being a Regular Series of Sermons, trans. by
Anthony Carroll (4 vols.; London, 1776).
144
On the Jesuit suppression, see Jonathan Wright, God’s Soldiers, pp. 175–90.
145
Voltaire, Oeuvres historiques, René Pomeau ed. (Paris, 1957), pp. 1004–1005.
146
Paul Hazard recounts that Bossuet, who never set foot in England, hoped to go there
to change the minds of its (Protestant) theologians; see Hazard, The European Mind, trans.
by J. Lewis May (New Haven, 1953), p. 207.
called ‘the most famous preacher of his day’, in England, and a preacher
whose printed works ‘were widely read and admired in the eighteenth
century’.147 An Anglican theologian and preacher seeking to make the
Church of England more Protestant, Tillotson was a Fellow of Clare
College Cambridge. With the Glorious Revolution of 1688, and the
accession to the throne of William and Mary, Tillotson moved to the
centers of power in the Anglican Church. In 1689 he was made Dean of
Saint Paul’s Cathedral in London, and in 1691, Archbishop of Canterbury.
While some of his preaching was published in his own lifetime, editions
of his complete works appeared after his death. A 14-volume edition of
his sermons was published 1695–1704, and other editions of his works
followed.148 Some of his sermons were translated into French and pub-
lished in London, others in eighteenth-century Amsterdam.149 There
were also works about Tillotson; for example, a funeral oration for Tillotson,
by Gilbert Burnet, bishop of Sarum, was published in 1694; a life of
Tillotson, nearly 500 pages long, by Thomas Birch, was first published
in 1752.150
Like Bossuet, Tillotson often preached before royalty. One example is
Tillotson’s sermon on Moses, preached in 1687, at Whitehall, before
Princess Anne.151 (One of James II’s two Protestant daughters, Anne would
eventually reign as Queen Anne, 1702–14.) Taking as his text Hebrews
11: 24–25, Tillotson explains how Moses chose an ‘afflicted piety’ rather
than a kingdom. Moses refused the kingdom of Egypt rather than forsake
God and his religion; ‘considering how strangely the Egyptians were
addicted to idolatry’, he could not have been heir of that kingdom without
violating his conscience, ‘either by abandoning or dissembling his
religion’.152 Tillotson then divides his sermon into four points: Moses’
147
James C. Livingston, Modern Christian Thought: From the Enlightenment to Vatican II
(New York, 1971), p. 15. On Tillotson, see also Louis Glenn Locke, Tillotson: A Study in
Seventeenth-Century Literature (Copenhagen, 1954).
148
Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd ed., s.v. “Tillotson, John”.
149
See J. Tillotson, L’esprit du christianisme, ou, Sermon sur le IX de S. Luc v. 55,56, trans.
by J.B. de Rosemond (London, 1679); Sermons sur diverses matières importantes, trans. by
Jean Barbeyrac (2 vols.; Amsterdam, 1713–18); Sermons sur la repentance, trans. by Charles
Louis de Beausobre (Amsterdam, 1728).
150
Gilbert Burnet, A Sermon Preached at the Funeral of the Most Reverend Father in God,
John Tillotson (Dublin, 1694); Thomas Birch, The Life of the Most Reverend Dr.John Tillotson
(London, 1752).
151
John Tillotson, The Works of Dr. John Tillotson, Late Archbishop of Canterbury
(10 vols.; London, 1820) IV, pp. 51–72.
152
Tillotson, Works, IV, pp. 51–52.
self-denial; the circumstances of this self-denial; the prudence and reasona-

bleness of this choice; why so many other people make another choice.153
On the one hand, Tillotson insists that it is very rare to find a person
that would choose suffering rather than be a prince. On the other hand, he
endeavors to ‘abstract from the particular case of Moses, and shew in gen-
eral, that it is a prudent and reasonable thing, to prefer even an afflicted
state of piety and virtue, before the greatest pleasures and prosperity of a
sinful course’. Appealing to the self-interest of his audience, Tillotson
argues that nothing in this world is ‘too grievous to suffer, for the obtain-
ing of a blessed immortality.’ Thus, the one who ‘suffers for God and reli-
gion does not renounce his happiness, but put[s] it out to interest upon
terms of greatest advantage, and does wisely consider his own best and
most lasting interest’. Tillotson also cautions his elite audience that their
status in this world will be of no advantage to them at the Last Judgment.
Before God’s tribunal, the distinctions ‘which now seem so considerable,
and make such a glaring difference amongst men in this world, shall all
then be laid aside, and moral differences shall only take place.’ If we have
changed our religion for the sake of gain in this world, our guilt will ‘never
leave us nor forsake us’.154
With the 1685 accession of James II, a Catholic, to the throne, the reli-
gious situation in England had dramatically changed. It was no longer
English Catholics who might become Protestant for the sake of worldly
gain, but English Protestants who might be tempted to become Catholic.
With the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the situation would, again, be
reversed.
But even in 1687 Tillotson did not confine his preaching at court to the
danger of what seemed to him opportunistic apostasy. In the same sermon
before Princess Anne, he sounds very much like Bourdaloue by insisting
on restitution of ‘that which hath been gained by sin, if it hath been got
by injury of another’. Arguing that is better to have never had ‘an ill-gotten
estate’ than to be obliged to refund it, Tillotson suggests an analogy
between restitution and regurgitation. A wise man will do without the
most pleasant foods, if he knows in advance ‘that they will make him
deadly sick, and that he shall never be at ease till he have brought them up
153
On how Tillotson and his contemporary Anglican theologians and preachers appealed
to both reason and to Scripture, see Gerard Reedy, The Bible and Reason: Anglicans and
Scripture in Late Seventeenth-Century England (Philadelphia, 1985).
154
again’. Tillotson’s broader point is that the consequences of sin are misery,
in this world, and for eternity in the next world.155
Unike the 1687 sermon before Princess Anne, many of Tillotson’s
collected sermons offer no indication of a date or of circumstances when
originally preached. But like the sermon before Princess Anne they reveal
a preacher hostile to Catholicism yet not altogether unlike Catholic preach-
ers such as a Bossuet or a Bourdaloue. Tillotson’s sermon, ‘Of the Form
and Power of Godliness’, more than once points to Catholics as examples
of ‘the show and pretence of religion’, of religion as form without power.
Like the Pharisees, many in the ‘Romish church’ fast and impose other
bodily mortifications, yet they remain favorable to their lusts and supersti-
tions; they may go on pilgrimage to Jerusalem to visit the Savior’s sepulcher,
yet they know not the power of his death.156 The papists praise ‘silliness
and freakishness’ among their saints, such as Saint Francis preaching to the
birds and the beasts, or stripping himself naked. These things ‘render reli-
gion ridiculous to any man of common sense’.157 What is needed for
Christian holiness, Tillotson declares, is a ‘sincere and diligent use of the
means and instruments of religion, such as prayer, reading, and hearing
the word of God, and receiving the sacraments’. To these must be added
the ‘subduing of our passions, the government of our tongues, and the
several virtues of a good life’. Those virtues must include humility and
meekness, ‘charity to those in want and necessity, a readiness to forgive our
enemies, and a universal love and kindness to all men’.158
Like Bourdaloue, Tillotson puts much emphasis on morality, the virtu-
ous life, on making good choices, and so on. Bourdaloue was a member of
a religious order whose motto was ‘For the greater glory of God’, a focus
not very different from that in Tillotson’s sermon entitled ‘Of Doing All to
the Glory of God’. Tillotson argues our actions may be done to the glory
of God when they meet three conditions: our actions must be what God
commands; we must do them with the right intention, ‘with regard to
God and out of conscience’ of our duty to obey God; our actions must not
‘be spoiled and vitiated by any bad circumstance: for circumstances alter
moral actions, and may render that which is lawful in itself unlawful in
some cases’.159 Tillotson thus endorses an ethical reasoning known as
155
156
Tillotson, Works, VIII, pp. 500–501, 510–511.
157
Tillotson, Works, VIII, p. 515.
158
Tillotson, Works, VIII, pp. 518–522.
159
Tillotson, Works, IX, pp. 38–39.
casuistry, a case-based ethical reasoning associated with the Jesuits, at least

in Catholic circles, and a reasoning that remained very controversial in the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.160
6. Conclusion
It is well known that late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were an age
when the French language emerged as an international idiom for literate
elites in many parts of Europe.161 This essay on the classical sermon may
shed light on how, in the pulpit, and perhaps even more so in print, preach-
ing played an important role in such literacy. The influence of preachers
such as Bossuet (1627–1704) and Bourdaloue (1632–1704) was vast in
their own era, but also beyond, thanks to the printing press. Camus
(1584–1652) focused somewhat more on doctrine than Bourdaloue or
Bossuet did. Camus indulged in a richer array of images than either
Bourdaloue or Bossuet, though the ‘classical’ preachers of the late 1600s
also relied, at times, on vivid analogies and metaphors. Terms such as
nature and reason make more frequent appearance in the classical sermons
than in those of Camus, and this surely reflects Enlightenment culture and
its ideals, though of course the meaning attached to such terms could vary
enormously, from one era to another, from one author to another.162
Language in service of good morals is a key component of classical
preaching. A member of the French Academy, Bossuet stands out as a dis-
tinguished practitioner of polished, elegant French. But as a preacher he
sought not only to delight francophone ears, but especially to call his audi-
ences to conversion, to change of life. Moral change is the most consistent
goal in his pulpit oratory. The same can be said of Bourdaloue. His ser-
mons have a practical focus. They are efforts to convince their hearers/
readers to make certain decisions, to do certain things, and not others.
They are aimed at comfortable people living in the world, and they call
them to live lives of charity and service for the poor. They insist on the
160
On continuities between Jesuit and English Protestant casuistry, see James Keenan,
“Jesuit Casuistry or Jesuit Spirituality? The Roots of Seventeenth-Century British Puritan
Practical Divinity”, in The Jesuits: Cultures, Sciences, and the Arts, 1540–1773, John W.
O’Malley, Gauvin Alexander Bailey, Steven J. Harris and T. Frank Kennedy eds. (Toronto,
1999), pp. 627–640.
161
On French as an international tongue, see Peter Burke, Languages and Communities
in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge, UK, 2004), pp. 85–88.
162
On the changing meanings of the word reason, see Hazard, The European Mind,
pp. 119–154.
freedom of children to make vocational decisions, in response to the grace

of God, not the economic desires of their parents. They frequently repeat
a relatively small number of themes, such as these, and make their argu-
ments from Scripture and reason, in view of what will lead to eternal salva-
tion. Even as Bourdaloue’s sermons challenged their audiences to change
their ways, they may have been pleasing by their eloquence, practicality,
and clarity. They were not at all concerned with abstract theologies or doc-
trinal subtleties. They were contemporary—one could say modern—in
that they addressed in a direct way real moral issues faced by many people
in that time and place.
Even as Tillotson denounced certain things he thought typical of
Catholicism, his preaching was not altogether unlike that of a Bossuet or a
Bourdaloue. Like those Catholic preachers, Tillotson often addressed elite
audiences and sought to call them to a change of life, to putting aside pas-
sion in favor of duty, and hypocrisy in favor of sincerity. He would seek to
persuade audiences with eloquent speech, and through citation of Scripture
and arguments appealing to reason and nature. His pulpit oratory, like
that of his French Catholic contemporaries, made ethical life the heart of
Christian life. Duty, sincerity, nature, reason: these would be ideals pro-
moted by many moralists in the eighteenth century, Catholics, Protestants,
and others.
PIETISM AND REVIVAL
Jonathan Strom
1. Introduction
The sermon rose to new prominence and controversy in the Pietist and
revival movements of the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Above
all, preaching and printed sermons came to represent the movements’ dis-
tinctive expressions of piety and theology. Sermons remained one of the
leading literary genres of the movement’s theologians. Both John Wesley
and August Hermann Francke relied heavily on sermons rather than theo-
logical treatises to disseminate their theology. Pietists and revivalists were
particularly concerned to produce effective sermons. They focused atten-
tion on the religious disposition of the preachers and introduced innova-
tive forms of pulpit oratory and new occasions for preaching. They further
developed new methods of disseminating sermons and employed print
media shrewdly to convey stories recounting the effect of their preaching.
They criticized much traditional preaching as both ineffective and insuffi-
cient for inculcating lay piety. All of these mark important developments
in the history of preaching, but scholars should not underestimate the level
of continuity with earlier eras of Protestant preaching, especially with
regard to Pietism. The following will focus on first on Pietist preaching and
sermons, predominately in Germany, and then look to revivalist sermons
in Europe and the New World.
2. Sermons and Preaching in Germany
Pietist sermons and preaching in Germany emerged from a context in

the seventeenth century in which there was widespread criticism of the
sermon and keen interest in improving efficacy in the pulpit. Older his-
toriography has often portrayed this period as one of declension in
which the vibrant preaching of the Reformation gave way to the highly
stylized, doctrinally obtuse, and spiritually devoid preaching of the
late seventeenth century, to which the Pietists offered an important
174 jonathan strom
corrective.1 New studies of the confessional era have challenged these

negative views and consequently, the place of Pietism. Albrecht Beutel has
shown in his study of Johann Benedikt Carpzov how the picture of
Carpzov’s homiletics created by Pietists in the eighteenth century and
uncritically repeated by later historians has fundamentally distorted his
work.2 Case studies by Sabine Holtz and Nobert Haag of the preaching
activity of clergy in Tübingen and Ulm during the confessional age have
shown the difficulty of sweeping generalizations about preaching in this
period.3
The sermon was one of the most public events in the early modern vil-
lage and city and this remained so into the eighteenth century, so much so
that the clergy were often required to publicize the edicts and pronounce-
ments of the civil authorities from the pulpit immediately following their
sermons. Nothing defined the duties of the Protestant clergy more than the
task of preaching; it was the most visible of their pastoral duties, and almost
universally the office of ministry in German Protestantism was known the
Predigtamt or office of preaching in the seventeenth century. Candidates
for pastoral positions vied before the congregations in trial sermons, or
Probepredigt, and poor performance in the pulpit could spell trouble for an
otherwise promising candidate.4 In colloquial usage, the ‘sermon’ came to
stand as a synecdoche for the entire worship service, reflecting its figurative
dominance within religious worship in German Protestantism.5
1
A particularly influential interpretation is Martin Schian, Orthodoxie und Pietismus im
Kampf um die Predigt. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des endenden 17. und des beginnenden 18.
Jahrhunderts (Gießen, 1912), esp. pp. 10–12. Schian sees Orthodox preaching as typical of
‘epigoni’ who only narrowly and superficially clung to classic preaching of the Reformation.
His understanding of Orthodox preaching is tendentious and deficient, but his analysis of
Pietist preaching still remains the most thorough account in print.
2
Albrecht Beutel, “Aphoristische Homiletik. Johann Benedikt Carpzovs ‘Hodegeticum’
(1652), ein Klassiker der orthodoxen Predigtlehre,” in Klassiker der protestantischen
Predigtlehre: Einführungen in homiletische Theorieentwürfe von Luther bis Lange, Christian
Albrech and Martin Weeber eds. (Tübingen, 2002), pp. 29–32.
3
Norbert Haag, Predigt Und Gesellschaft. Die Lutherische Orthodoxie in Ulm 1640–
1740, Veröffentlichungen des Instituts für europäische Geschichte Mainz Abteilung
Religionsgeschichte 145 (Mainz, 1992). Sabine Holtz, Theologie und Alltag. Lehre und
Leben in den Predigten der Tübinger Theologen 1555–1750 (Tübingen, 1993).
4
Effective preaching was by no means the only factor in clerical elections, but it was
important. On its role in clerical election, see Jonathan Strom, Orthodoxy and Reform: The
Clergy in Seventeenth Century Rostock (Tübingen, 1999), pp. 51–52. Heinrich Müller was
particularly critical of the importance placed on the voice of the preacher in clerical elec-
tions in his Geistliche Erquickstunden, Oder Drey hundert Haus u. Tisch-Andachten
(Frankfurt/Main, 1692), p. 398, Nr. 197.
5
Theophilus Großgebauer, Wächterstimme auß dem verwüsteten Zion, Das ist, Treuhertzige
und nothwendige Entdeckung, auß waß Ursachen die vielfaltige Predigt deß Worts Gottes bey
evangelischen Gemeinen wenig zur Bekehrung und Gottseligkeit Frucht (Frankfurt/Main,
pietism and revival 175
The sermon, of course, was part of a larger liturgical act in Protestantism,

and on Sundays it typically followed the credo and was expected to span
an hour, though they could last considerably longer especially on church
holidays.6 Most parishes had at least two sermons on Sundays. Larger par-
ishes often offered a separate catechism sermon on Sundays or at a separate
time during the week. Many parishes also held regular midweek sermons,
and throughout the church year there were feast days, special days of peni-
tence and prayer, and occasional ceremonies such as weddings and funer-
als, all of which were accompanied by sermons. Lutheran churches still
followed the traditional lections for the Gospels and Epistles that were
to form the textual basis for sermons on Sundays and church holidays,
but other sermons offered ample opportunities for preaching on texts out-
side the lections. The demands on clergy for preaching were considerable,
usually requiring several sermons a week, and often many more.7
Preaching was almost exclusively the prerogative of the ordained minis-
try, and in the ordination ceremonies, the ordinand was expressly charged
with the task of the preaching.8 In many cities, students who had completed
a substantial portion of their theological studies were often admitted as
ministerial candidates and allowed to preach when the regularly appointed
1661), p. 207. Beyreuther describes the growing dominance of the sermon in Lutheran
worship during the seventeenth century and what he termed the “distention” of the
preaching event, which overshadowed other elements of worship. Erich Beyreuther,
“Die Auflösung des reformatorischen Gottesdienstes in der reformatorischen Orthodoxie
des 17. Jahrhunderts,” in Evangelische Theologie 20 (1960), pp. 380–397, at p. 384.
Christoph Besold, a convert to Catholicism complained in 1639, “The whole religion of
the Lutherans consists of preaching.” Quoted in Arnold Schleiff, Selbstkritik der luther-
ischen Kirchen im 17. Jahrhundert (Berlin, 1937), p. 20. Underscoring this are the com-
plaints by Fritsch and others that many parishioners, especially well-to-do women, arrived
at church just as the preacher entered the pulpit. Ahasver Fritsch, I. Der sündliche Kirchen-
Gänge, II. Der sündliche Kirchen-Schläfer, III. Der sündliche Kirchen-Schwätzer (Dresden,
1686), pp. 13–14.
6
On the lengths of sermons, see the examples cited by Schian, Orthodoxie und Pietismus,
pp. 6–8. Despite some calls to reduce the length of sermons, both in Pietism and Orthodoxy,
preachers regularly exceeded one hour.
7
Tobias Wagner estimated that he preached from three to six times a week in his parish
in Esslingen. Albrecht Beutel, “Lehre und Leben in der Predigt der lutherischen Orthodoxie.
Dargestellet am Beispiel des Tübinger Kontroverstheologen und Universitätskanzlers Tobias
Wagner (1598–1680)” in Albrecht Beutel, Protestantische Konkretionen: Studien zur
Kirchengeschichte (Tübingen, 1998), pp. 161–191, at p. 171. Adami describes some clergy
having to preach as many as ten or eleven sermons within three days during the major
church festivals. [Johann Samuel Adami], Der vertheidigte, beliebte und gelobte Postillen-
Reuter (Dresden, 1703), pp. 67–68.
8
In the ordination services, it was often explicitly referred to as the ‘office of preaching’
as in Württemberg. See Ralph F. Smith, Luther, Ministry, and Ordination Rites in the Early
Reformation Church (New York, 1996), p. 271.
176 jonathan strom
clergy were absent from the pulpit.9 This provided an avenue for theological
students to receive experience in preaching and also made promising can-
didates known to the congregations in the event of a future vacancy.
In other situations, qualified candidates who were appointed as adjuncts or
substitutes for ordained clergy regularly assumed preaching duties. Despite
the calls from some to widen preaching to the laity, preaching remained
first and foremost a function of the ordained clergy and theologically
trained candidates preparing for a clerical career.
The historical sources for sermons comprise predominately printed
sermons and sermons collections. These include the postils, or collected
sermons on the lections throughout the church year, sermon cycles on
themes or particular biblical books, occasional sermons, especially funeral
sermons, as well as individual sermons published as pamphlets. Printed
sermons, of course, are one or more steps removed from the sermons deliv-
ered in the pulpit, and preachers often took the liberty to revise extensively
their sermons before publication. One of the most popular authors of
postils in the late seventeenth century, Heinrich Müller, for instance,
acknowledged editing his sermons for publication significantly, especially
the elision of local content.10 Often learned quotations and references
were added for print and were not part of the oral delivery.11 Manuscript
sermons represent a step closer than printed sermons, but even these rep-
resent an inevitable distance to actual sermons preached from the pulpit.12
Scholars should be careful not to assume exact correspondence between
spoken and written sermons. Printed sermons functioned as a form of
devotional writing in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that at
9
On the function of the ministerial candidates in general see Hans Bruhn, Die
Kandidaten der Hamburgischen Kirche von 1654 bis 1825 (Hamburg, 1963).
10
Heinrich Müller, Apostolische Schluß-Kette, und Krafft-Kern oder Gründliche Auslegung
der gewöhnlichen Sonn- und Fest-Tags-Episteln (Frankfurt/Main, 1671), p. ii.
11
See Thomas Kaufmann, Universität und lutherische Konfessionalisierung: Die Rostocker
Theologieprofessoren und ihr Beitrag zur Theologischen Bildung und kirchlichen Gestaltung im
Herzogtum Mecklenburg zwischen 1550 Und 1675 (Gütersloh, 1997), pp. 540–544.
12
Many sermons were delivered from outlines or brief drafts not a full manuscript. See
Veronika Albrecht-Birkner, Reformation des Lebens : die Reformen Herzog Ernsts des Frommen
von Sachsen-Gotha und ihre Auswirkungen auf Frömmigkeit, Schule und Alltag im ländlichen
Raum (1640–1675) (Leipzig, 2002), p. 298; Kaufmann, Universität und lutherische
Konfessionalisierung, p. 499. Consequently many manuscripts were composed post facto or
transcribed by a third party. Studies of the differences of manuscript and printed sermons
are relatively rare. On the relationship of printed and spoken sermons, see Monika
Hagenmaier, Predigt und Policey. Der gesellschaftspolitische Diskurs zwischen Kirche und
Obrigkeit in Ulm 1614–1639 (Baden-Baden, 1989) pp. 75–76.
times could be only loosely related to the act of pulpit preaching. Other
sources such as homiletical manuals, church orders, and indirect reports
about content and reception can greatly aid in understanding early mod-
ern sermons, but caution should be used in drawing practical conclusions
from these normative and prescriptive sources.13
From the late Reformation, Lutherans applied the divisions of classical
oratory to the sermon, a process that intensified with an increased concern
for preaching and language in the seventeenth century.14 While critics later
decried the inflexible application of these categories, in fact, they shaped
explicitly or implicitly the structure of the sermons well into the
eighteenth century and the structure afforded listeners a more or less
predictable form of the sermon.15 In addition, homiliticians generally
identified five genera, didactic (genus didascalicus), refutatory (genus
elenchticus), admonitory (genus paedeuticus), condemnatory (genus
epanorthoticus), and consolatory (genus consolatorius).16 Neither the
structure nor the genera were invariable during the period and while the
potential rigidity they represented was criticized, they continued to pro-
vide the underlying rhetorical structure of sermons among Pietists and
Orthodox into the eighteenth century.17 In basic form there were two
methods of preaching, the analytic or paraphrastic, which dealt with the
explication of the text, and the synthetic, which developed doctrinal issues;
a third method, the ‘heroic,’ or free method of preaching, usually con-
nected with Luther was not recommended by homileticians, although
some Pietists such as Gottfried Arnold would call for a return to this
approach.18
13
In overview, Janis Kreslins, Dominus narrabit in scriptura populorum: A Study of Early-
Seventeenth-Century Lutheran Teaching on Preaching and the Lettiche lang-gewünschte Postill
of Georgius Mancelius, Wolfenbütteler Forschungen 54 (Wiesbaden, 1992).
14
Kreslins, Dominus narrabit, 21–25.
15
The typical divisions were: exordium, propositio, confirmatio, applicatio, conclusio.
Schian, Orthodoxie und Pietismus, p. 13. On the variations in this structure, Kreslins,
Dominus narrabit, 120–121.
16
Kreslins, Dominus narrabit, 57–74. Kreslins notes the teaching on genera are trans-
formed into teaching on corresponding usus (p. 114). See also, Schian, Orthodoxie und
Pietismus, p. 21.
17
See, for instance, the continued reference to these in Johann Jacob Rambach,
Erläuterung über die Praecepta Homiletica (Gießen, 1736), one of the leading Pietist
homiletic manuals.
18
Beutel, “Aphoristic Homiletik,” p. 38 and Gottfried Arnold, Evangelische Reden über
die Sonn- und Festags-Evangelien zu einer beqvemen Hauß- und Reise-Postill heraus gegeben
mit einer Vorrede De Methodo Heroica oder von der freyen und einfältigen Predigt-Art (Leipzig,
1713). On Arnold, see below.
178 jonathan strom
3. Challenges to the Lutheran Sermon Prior to Pietism
There is no doubt concerning the centrality of the sermon in religious wor-

ship at the end of the seventeenth century both for the self-understanding
of the clergy and the expectations of the laity. But we can identify several
challenges to preaching and the sermon at the end of the seventeenth cen-
tury that had long-term implications for the place of the sermon in Pietism
and in the eighteenth century.
First, there was increasing criticism of the clergy and with it their actions
in the pulpit. Radical spiritualists such as Joachim Betke and Christian
Hoburg deplored the state of the clergy and made them and their sermons
largely responsible for the poor condition of Christianity in Germany.
Hoburg, for instance, called on the clergy to devote less time to their
preaching duties and more to their other pastoral tasks.19 Betke, in particu-
lar, called for opportunities that would allow pious laity opportunities to
preach, a point echoed by Hoburg.20 Where Hoburg and to a lesser extent
Betke fundamentally questioned the office of ministry in Lutheranism, it
is telling that other, less radical clergy raised similar concerns about the
sermon. Theophil Großgebauer questioned the excessive emphasis on the
sermon within Lutheran worship.21 He criticized the neglect of other
aspects of Christian worship and called for a reinvigoration of church
discipline and a revived universal priesthood of the laity. Moreover,
Großgebauer emphasized the spiritual quality of the clergy themselves as
essential to effective preaching and speculated one reason that the Word of
God bears so little fruit is perhaps ‘because those, who proclaim the Word
of God to others, do not believe in it, are not illumined by it, and have not
been converted from the world to God’.22 What does not come from the
heart, he wrote, does not reach the heart.23 His colleague Heinrich Müller,
who became one of the most widely published devotional writers of the
second half of the seventeenth century, echoed Großgebauer on this point
and called the unreflective reliance on the pulpit one of the four dumb
19
Christian Hoburg [Elias Praetorius], Spiegel der Misbräuche beym Predig-Ampt im
heutigen Christenthumb und wie selbige gründlich un heilsam zu reformieren (s.l. 1644),
p. 745.
20
Joachim Betke, Sacerdotium, Hoc est, New-Testamentisches Königliches Priesterthumb
(s.l., 1640), p. 83. Cf. Hoburg, Spiegel der Misbräuche, pp. 739, 743.
21
Großgebauer, Wächterstimme, p. 208.
22
23
idols of the church.24 As Schleiff has shown, these complaints were not
untypical in the seventeenth century.25 They underscore that it was not the
lack of preaching that had become problematic for many Lutherans at the
end of the seventeenth century, rather it was its dominance and unthinking
reliance on it that was criticized.
The sermon at the end of the seventeenth century faced other challenges
as well. The production of devotional literature flourished in the seventeenth
century and presented, indirectly, an alternative to the pulpit sermons of
the parish clergy for many laity. Much of the devotional literature consti-
tuted printed sermons such as the popular postil collections, but this
literature also allowed the ‘pious middle classes’ as Lehmann has described
them, to bypass in some measure the individual connection to the parish
clergy by offering access to sermons and sermon-like devotional materials
outside of regular worship.26 These devotional works afforded the laity not
only a way of conceiving their religious life apart from regular parish
preaching, but they also provided standards against which the laity could
measure the spirituality and rhetorical skills of the local preacher.
An indirect challenge to traditional parish preaching was the phenomenon
of lay prophecy in the seventeenth century.27 Though drawing on super-
natural revelation, most lay prophecies were modest and often focused
on specific concerns or events, usually with the intent of encouraging
repentance.28 On occasion some prophets explicitly challenged the clergy
directly in the pulpit, as did Ludwig Friedrich Gifftheil who stormed
the chancel with his sword drawn and demanded that the pastor preach
‘God’s Word’.29 Indeed, in some cases the prophecies of the laity had a
24
Heinrich Müller, Apostolische Schluß-Kette, und Krafft-Kern oder Gründliche Auslegung
der gewöhnlichen Sonn- und Fest-Tags-Episteln (Frankfurt/Main, 1671), p. 271.
25
Schleiff, Selbstkritik der lutherischen Kirchen, pp. 18–24.
26
Hartmut Lehmann, “The Cultural Importance of the Pious Middle Classes in
Seventeenth-Century Protestant Society,” in Religion and Society in Early Modern Europe,
1500–1800, Kaspar von Greyerz ed. (London, 1984), p. 37.
27
On lay prophets see Jürgen Beyer, “A Lübeck Prophet in Local and Lutheran Context,”
in Popular religion in Germany and Central Europe, 1400–1800, Bob Scribner and Trevor
Johnson eds. (London, 1996), pp. 166–182 and Jürgen Beyer, “Lutherische Propheten in
Deutschland und Skandinavien im 16. und 17. Jahrhundert. Enstehung und Ausbreitung
eines Kulturmusters zwischen Mündlichkeit und Schriftlichkeit,” in Europa in Scandinavia:
Kulturelle und soziale Dialoge in der frühen Neuzeit, Robert Bohn ed. (Frankfurt/Main,
1994), pp. 35–55.
28
Beyer reports that many prophets brought their concerns to the pastors to encourage
them to preach on the matter in their sermons; Beyer, “Lübeck Prophet,” p. 166.
29
Gottfried Arnold, Unpartheyische Kirchen- und Ketzer-Historie, Vom Anfang des Neuen
Testaments biß auf das Jahr Christi 1688 (Frankfurt/Main, 1729) II, p. 102.
180 jonathan strom
sermonic quality.30 But even much more modest claims by laity to visions
and new revelations were also considered by many clergy to be a direct
affront to their preaching and spiritual authority.31
Thus for all its prominence, the sermon faced increasing challenges in
the second half of the seventeenth century that would leave it open to new
developments in the face of Pietism, the most important religious renewal
movement after the Reformation.
4. Spener and the Emergence of Pietism
The emergence of Pietist renewal movements in the 1670s in Frankfurt/

Main under Philipp Jakob Spener and later elsewhere in Germany was
not fundamentally directed at changing the structure of preaching and
sermons, but the development of Pietism had long-reaching implications
for the place and criticism of the sermon within the church.32
When two laymen encouraged Spener to begin holding devotional
meetings outside the regular worship service in the early 1670s, they initi-
ated a new phase in the history of Lutheranism in which conventicles had
only sporadically played a role.33 The collegia pietatis, as the meetings in
Frankfurt were known, became a central feature of Pietism at the end of
the seventeenth century. Their purpose as Spener and his supporters
described it was to encourage piety and devotion while allowing the word
of Christ to dwell more richly among them (Col. 3:16). The collegia pietatis
in no way presented a direct challenge to the place of preaching and the
30
See for instance Christian Bullen, Vox Clamantis in deserto oder Stimme Johannis des
Teuffers an alle Sünder, Sie in ihren Gewissen zu überzeugen (Amsterdam, 1668), in which
Bullen clearly modeled himself after John the Baptist.
31
Jacob Stolterfoth, Consideratio Visionum Apologetica, Das ist schrifftmässiges Bedencken,
Was von Geischtern heutiges Tages zu halten sey (Lübeck, 1645), pp. 145, 230.
32
The definition and scope of Pietism remains controversial in the historiography and it
can be understood both in a broader sense reaching back to Johann Arndt and others in the
early seventeenth as well as in a narrower sense referring primarily to the emergence of a
socially tangible movement in the 1670s. For a discussion, see Jonathan Strom, “Problems
and Promises of Pietism Research,” in Church History 71 (2002), pp. 536–555. On con-
tinuing debates and further literature, Hartmut Lehmann, “Erledigte und nicht erledigte
Aufgaben der Pietismusforschung. Eine nochmalige Antwort an Johannes Wallmann,”
Pietismus und Neuzeit 31 (2005), pp. 13–20. For the purposes of this article I will focus on
Pietism in the narrower sense, which corresponds much more closely with the overall
framework of this volume.
33
On the emergence of conventicles in Frankfurt, Johannes Wallmann, Philipp Jakob
Spener und die Anfänge des Pietismus, 2nd ed. (Tübingen, 1986), pp. 264–290.
sermon. Indeed, in some ways Spener saw these gatherings as an extension

of the sermon and opportunity to build on it.34 But implicitly the emer-
gence of conventicles challenged the sufficiency of the sermons for the
adequate proclamation of the Word of God. The gatherings offered an
alternative forum for the public discussion of scripture and later provided
an avenue for the criticism of sermons by the ordained clergy and the
opportunity for informal lay preaching that had not previously been
available.
Spener presented the first programmatic work of Pietism—the 1675 Pia
Desideria—as an extensive foreword to a collection of sermons of Johann
Arndt, indirectly linking his reforms to the extensive tradition of sermon
publications of the period. In his proposals, he advocated the use of collegia
pietatis and other exercises outside of worship to inculcate the Word
of God, the reinvigoration of the universal priesthood, an emphasis on
Christian practice, the curbing of gratuitous polemics and religious
controversy, the reform of theological education to promote piety, and
practical training for the ministry.
The Pia Desideria did not deal extensively with preaching and sermons,
but in it Spener specifically pointed to limitations and problems of current
preaching practice. For instance, he recognized that the sermon alone
could not afford an adequate discussion of the scriptural texts for the laity.
The limitation of the sermon in this regard became a major reason for the
practice of the collegia pietatis.35 In his discussion of theological training he
also emphasized the necessity of godly clergy for credibility as preachers.36
In the last proposal, Spener dealt with the problems of preaching itself.
Spener felt that it was not the lack of sermons which was the problem,
observing: ‘There are probably few places in our church in which there
is such want that not enough sermons are preached. But many godly per-
sons find that not a little is wanting in many sermons’.37 Spener articulated
two major concerns about preaching: first, that preachers avoid using
the sermon to display their erudition and focus instead on Erbauung—a
34
Philipp Jacob Spener, Pia Desideria, trans. Theodore G. Tappert (Philadelphia, 1964),
p. 90.
35
Spener acknowledged, ‘In the absence of such exercises, sermons which are delivered
in continually flowing speech are not always fully and adequately comprehended because
there is no time for reflection in between or because, when one does not stop to reflect,
much of what follows is missed (which does not happen in a discussion).’ Spener, Pia
Desideria, p. 90.
36
Spener, Pia Desideria, p. 103.
37
Spener, Pia Desideria, p. 115.
182 jonathan strom
building up of faith, giving special attention to the common people.

Second, that preachers not fall prey to an excessive rhetorical formalism in
their sermons and instead should attend to the inner lives and beliefs of
their listeners.38
Spener’s criticisms of the contemporary sermons and recommendations
for preaching that he developed in the Pia Desideria and expanded else-
where would become hallmarks of the Pietist understanding of the sermon:
An emphasis on Erbauung and speaking from the heart, the importance of
the preacher’s character, a distaste for rhetorical formalism, and criticism
of excessive learnedness in pulpit that distracts from the greatest rule of
preaching—the salvation of one’s parishioners.39
From Mosheim on, historians have seen Spener as a great break in the
history of homiletics. Mosheim described Spener’s criticisms as the begin-
nings of an epochal battle between the Orthodox and Pietists regarding the
sermon. In his own homiletical work, Anweisung Erbaulich zu Predigen, he
wrote: ‘In 1700 this homiletical war began, and it had the consequence
that the Spenerians were victorious and the so-called Orthodox, who had
favored the vulgar form of preaching previously described, were forced to
be ashamed of themselves’.40 Martin Schian made Mosheim’s idea of war-
ring homiletical factions the basis of his major study of the sermon in
Pietism and Orthodoxy and largely seconded Mosheim’s conclusions.41
But some skepticism on the easy division on this point between Pietism
and Orthodoxy is warranted, not only because it distorts their relationship
but also because it obscures some of the changes that Pietism effected.
Spener’s criticisms about the sermon were neither new nor were they
unique to Pietism. Earlier figures as diverse as Theophil Großgebauer, who
can be seen as a forerunner of the Pietists, and Johann Benedikt Carpzov,
who was the epitome of seventeenth century orthodoxy, had stressed the
importance of piety for the preacher.42 Like these, Johannes Quenstedt
38
Spener, Pia Desideria, pp. 115–118.
39
On Spener’s understanding of preaching and homiletics, see Albrecht Haizmann,
“Erbaulichkeit als Kriterium der Predigt bei Philipp Jakob Spener,” in Klassiker der protes-
tantischen Predigtlehre, Christian Albrecht and Martin Weeber eds. (Tübingen, 2002),
pp. 48–73. Still enormously helpful on Spener and preaching, Paul Grünberg, Spener als
praktischer Theologe und kirchlicher Reformer (Göttingen, 1905), pp. 31–58.
40
Johann Lorenz von Mosheim, Anweisung erbaulich zu predigen. Aus den vielfältigen
Vorlesungen des seeligen Herrn Kanzlers verfasset und zum Drucke befördert (Erlangen, 1763),
p. 85.
41
Schian, Orthodoxie und Pietismus, p. 119.
42
On Großgebauer, see above. On Carpzov see Schian, Orthodoxie und Pietismus,
pp. 86, 87. Beutel, “Aphoristische Homiletik”, p. 35.
also criticized excessive displays of learnedness in the pulpit and bringing

polemics into the pulpit.43 Further many of Spener’s concerns would have
been shared with his Orthodox contemporaries. Zacharias Grapius, cer-
tainly no friend of Pietism, attacked the artificial and ‘galant’ sermons of
the day in a 1704 disputation, and Greschat argues that Spener’s concerns
for preaching and the sermon would have been shared by Ernst Valentin
Löscher, one of the leading anti-Pietists of the era.44 Consequently,
Mosheim’s idea of an epochal battle between Pietism and Orthodoxy on
the nature of the sermon overstates the divisions between the parties.
As Grünberg notes, Spener hewed to the traditional schema of the sermon
more closely than some of his contemporaries, an approach that prevented
him from developing a freer preaching style.45 Many concerns were shared
on both sides of the Pietist - Orthodox debate, and on most issues Pietist
and Orthodox understandings of the sermon were considerably closer than
Mosheim would suggest.46
How then do we account for the level of complaint about the sermon at
the turn of the century? Schian often takes Pietist complaints about preach-
ing in this period as indicative of the problems of the preaching by the
Orthodox clergy, and, at the same time, he uses complaints by Orthodox
theologians who echo these criticisms as simple confirmation of Pietist
charges, rather than examining them critically for what they might suggest
about preaching in general at the time.47 Since Leube’s groundbreaking
work, we know that the complaints about religious decline cannot merely
be taken at face value and were often exaggerated.48 It would, of course, be
obtuse to argue that the criticisms of the sermon by Pietists and others,
43
On Quensted, see Hans Leube, Die Reformideen in der deutschen lutherischen Kirche
zur Zeit der Orthodoxie (Leipzig, 1924), p. 55.
44
Zacharias Grapius, De concionibus artificiosis et alamodiciis, vulgo: von Künstlichen und
Galanten Predigten (Rostock, 1704). Martin Greschat, Zwischen Tradition und neuem
Anfang. Valentin Ernst Löscher und der Ausgang der Lutherischen Orthodoxie (Witten, 1971),
p. 196. In a similar vein, Beutel argues that the orthodox theologian Tobias Wagner largely
agreed with Spener on the sermon, Beutel, “Lehre und Leben,” p. 188.
45
Grünberg, Spener als praktischer Theologe, pp. 51–52.
46
This is a point that Schian acknowledges despite his adoption of Mosheim’s rhetoric
of warring factions. Schian noted that Pietist homiletics posed no fundamental contrast to
those of Orthodoxy, although in their presuppositions sketched some new directions.
Schian, Orthodoxie und Pietismus, pp. 60–61, 87.
47
This inconsistent approach, especially with regard to the defects of Orthodox preach-
ing, mars Schian’s otherwise thorough analysis.
48
Leube, Die Reformideen in der deutschen lutherischen Kirche, pp. 140–148 and Leube,
“Die Theologen und das Kirchenvolk im Zeitalter der lutherischen Orthodoxie,” in
Orthodoxie und Pietismus, Martin Schmidt ed. (Bielefeld, 1975), pp. 59–73.
184 jonathan strom
including many Orthodox, had no basis in reality. But rather than forcing
it into a dichotomy of Pietist and Orthodox, perhaps we should see in
many of these complaints of pedantry, pompousness, and unoriginality by
Pietist and Orthodox observers, common concerns about the sermon at
the turn of the century and, perhaps, an indication of higher expectations
regarding its production.
The practical literature on sermons grew significantly around the turn of
the century. Books offered particular methods of constructing sermons,
complete with week-by-week concrete examples that clergy could employ
in their sermons.49 Johann Samuel Adami was particularly industrious in
this regard producing an extensive series of works to aid preachers in con-
structing their sermons.50 In another series, Adami described the burdens
facing the clergy at turn of the century and even wrote a defense of the
much maligned ‘postil riders’ (Postillen-Reuter), who drew on the many
published sermon collections for their preaching. Adami found it perfectly
understandable that the over-worked clergy often resorted to postils to
help construct their sermons and offered suggestions how to do so respon-
sibly.51 While this may also appear as a falling away from an ideal of
Protestant preaching in which through meditation, prayer, and study the
preacher would construct an original sermon, it may also reflect the reality
of frequent preaching and higher expectations faced by clergy at this time
at the end of the seventeenth century.
Further, historians should be careful not to assume that the complaints
surrounding preaching meant that these sermons were necessarily unpop-
ular. There is little evidence to suggest that sermons in the early eighteenth
century were losing popularity or centrality with most parishioners. In
1732, Gerber disapprovingly noted that parishioners in Saxony explicitly
arrived at church just in time to hear the sermon, which they considered
49
Helmstädtische Prediger-Methode: In sich haltend Dispositiones über die sonn-, fest- u.
apostel-täglichen Evangelien durchs gantze Jahr (Hannover, 1703); Gottfried Steinbrecher,
Concionator Theoretico-Philologico Practicus Oder Leipziger Prediger-Kunst (Leipzig, 1697);
Johann Friedrich Bauch, Jenaische Prediger-Methode in vollständiger Dispositionibus über die
Sonn- und Festtags-Evangelia (Jena, 1704).
50
See, for instance, Johann Samuel Adami, Deliciae Evangelicae, d.i. Vorrath solcher
Realien welche zu den Sonn u. Fest-Tags-Evangelien durchs ganze Jahr zugebrauchen, 14 vols.
(Dresden, 1699-1715); Deliciae epistolicae, oder Epistolische Ergetzlichkeiten, 4 vols.
(Hamburg, 1711-1717).
51
[ Johann Samuel Adami], Der vetheidigte, beliebte und gelobte Postillen-Reuter (Dresden,
1703).
the essential part of the service, while ignoring the rest of the service.52
Adami wryly commented that many of new modes of preaching, criticized
by Spener and Grapius alike, in fact, often came off quite well with the
common people, at least initially.53 Some of the complaints themselves
reflect this, noting that the sermons were entertaining and even elegant,
using words and phrases that ‘tickle the ears’ but fail to move the heart.54
Of course, alongside these are many reports of inattention and sleeping
during sermons, but as Hagenmaier has noted, one should not assume that
what the clergy wanted from sermons was the same as what the majority
of their parishioners expected or desired.55 Reception of preaching by the
laity is a particularly complicated issue and will require analysis that goes
beyond simply cataloguing complaints.56
The emphasis on the divisions between Orthodox and Pietists on the
sermon also tends to obscure other challenges that the Pietist movement
presented to the sermon that had profound effects. All but the most radical
Pietists recognized the centrality of the sermon in worship and its role in
furthering piety, but many implicitly, and sometimes explicitly, raised
questions about its sufficiency and proposed other parallel forms of
Christian discourse and community in order to further the growth of piety
and the Christian life. By emphasizing conventicles and the universal
priesthood, Pietists created new possibilities of Christian fellowship and
52
Christian Gerber, Historie der Kirchen-Ceremonien in Sachsen; Nach ihrer Beschaffenheit
in möglichster Kürtze mit Anführung vieler Moralien, und specialen Nachrichten (Dresden,
Leipzig, 1732), p. 353. This was not a new practice, however. See Fritsch, I. Der sündliche
Kirchen – Gänge, as well as further examples cited in Joseph Herl, Worship Wars in Early
Lutheranism: Choir, Congregation, and Three Centuries of Conflict (New York, 2004),
pp. 50, 117.
53
Adami, Wolgeplagte Priester, p. 94. From a very different point of view, the radical
spiritualist Christian Hoburg also complained that the common people often preferred
preachers who used exaggerated gestures and mannerisms in the pulpit and that they even
praised those vain preachers who inappropriately made use of their Greek, Hebrew,
and Syriac extensively in the pulpit. Neuer Präedicanten-Spiegel (s.l., [ca. 1670]), esp.
pp. 6, 29.
54
The phrase of ‘tickling the ears’ comes from 2 Tim. 4:3 and was commonly applied to
preachers who catered to their audiences. See for instance, Spener quoted in Haizmann,
“Erbaulichkeit als Kriterium der Predigt”, p. 65 and Rambach, Erläuterung, preface.
55
Monika Hagenmaier, Predigt und Policy. Der gesellschaftspolitsche Diskurs zwischen
Kirche und Obrigkeit in Ulm 1614–1639 (Baden-Baden, 1989), pp. 67–69. For criticisms
of sleeping, chatting, and inattentiveness during sermons, see Fritsch, I. Der sündliche
Kirchen-Gänge.
56
In her recent book, Kevorkian addresses the reception of preaching in Leipzig: Tanya
Kevorkian, Baroque Piety: Religion, Society, and Music in Leipzig, 1650–1750 (Aldershot,
2007), pp. 29–30, 46–51.
186 jonathan strom
speech that afforded a supplement and sometimes an alternative to the

sermon in regular public worship.
The purpose of the early Pietist conventicles was to pray, read the Bible
and devotional works, and engage in spiritual discussion and edification.57
Supporters of such gatherings repeatedly emphasized that these exercises
provided no threat to public worship and the ordinary sermons of the
clergy; they were, to the contrary, intended to supplement them.58 However,
their opponents saw in them almost immediately a heterodox threat to the
office of preaching, labeled their leaders Winkelprediger, and portrayed
them as an invitation to lay preaching.59 The specter of the English Quaker
movement, in which lay women and men openly preached, certainly
played a role in the accusations. Pietists rejected the comparison to the
Quakers, from whom they differed significantly, but their gatherings and
revived notions of the universal priesthood did create new possibilities
for religious speech that could impinge on the clerical monopoly on
preaching. Perhaps a more apt comparison than the Quakers would have
been the conventicles and communions in Scotland and Ireland in the
seventeenth century that afforded new opportunities for dissenting
preaching.60
In his defense of the collegia pietatis, Spener, for instance, cited a passage
from Luther that described a sermon as a ‘collation’ over a table, acknowledg-
ing an affinity of the spiritual discussions in such gatherings with sermons.61
The growth of Pietism and its attendant gatherings provided new audi-
ences for lay preachers and ready-made forums to express prophecy and
57
Spener, Pia Desideria, pp. 88–92; Wallmann, Philipp Jakob Spener, pp. 278–279.
58
Wilhelm Christoph Kriegsmann, Symphonesis Christianorum (Leipzig, 1689), p. 57.
Johann Winckler, Send-Schreiben an den Hoch-Ehrwürdig, Großachbar und Hoch-Gelahrten
Herrn, Hn. Philippum Ludovicum Hannekenium (s.l. 1690), pp. 28, 34.
59
The Hamburg clergy accused students who held private devotional gatherings of
being “Winkelprediger,” Arnold, Unpartheyische Kirchen- und Ketzer-Historie II, p. 993.
Against supporters like Spener and Kriegsmann, Dilfeld argued that the arguments for
conventicles inevitably opened the door for lay preaching. Georg Konrad Dilfeld, Gründliche
Erörterung der Frage Ob neben der öffentlichen Kirch-Versammlung auch noch einnige Privat
und Haus-Zusammenkünfften zu Erbauung der Christlichen Kirchen von nöthen und von
Christo und denen Apostel eingesetzet und zu halten geboten, auch in primitiva Ecclesia üblich
gewesen sey (s.l., 1679), p. 11.
60
These, however, had a powerful political dimension largely lacking in Germany. See
Marilyn J. Westerkamp, Triumph of the Laity: Scots-Irish Piety and the Great Awakening,
1625–1760 (New York, 1988), pp. 43–73.
61
Philipp Jacob Spener, Sendschreiben An Einen Christeyffrigen außländischen Theologum,
betreffende die falsche außgesprengte aufflagen/ wegen seiner Lehre/ und so genanter Collegiorum
pietatis (Frankfurt/Main, 1677), pp. 70–71. Dilfeld criticized Spener’s use of this passage,
Dilfeld, Gründliche Erorterung, 10.
new revelations. This became especially clear during the so-called Pietist
disturbances of the late 1680s and early 1690s that opened new possibili-
ties for religious speech and discussion. In some cases, Pietist prophecies by
individuals such Rosamunde Juliane von der Asseburg had a quasi-ser-
monic quality in their call for repentance and use of scripture.62 In particu-
lar, participants in the conventicles became increasingly critical of
traditional preaching because the ordained clergy lacked the ‘illumination
of the Holy Spirit.’63 This criticism devalued pulpit preaching and rein-
forced the value of the gatherings of the Pietists and the kinds of informal
and ‘private’ preaching that went on in them.
5. Francke
One of the most copiously documented figures of Pietist preaching is

August Hermann Francke (1663–1727). He was founder of the Halle
orphanage and its schools and associated enterprises, professor of theology,
and the leader of the Pietist movement in Germany after Spener, but
throughout his career preaching remained central to his self-identity. In his
famous conversion narrative, it was the charge to preach a sermon as a
student that induced a profound crisis and brought him to faith.64 Once
ordained, Francke preached regularly for the next three and a half decades,
and he left behind an extraordinary legacy of printed and manuscript
sources that encompasses over 1,700 sermons; these remain the best sources
for understanding his theology.65 Francke conducted his preaching within
the traditional bounds of Lutheran worship, but he gave his sermons
62
See the description in Ryoko Mori, Begeisterung und Ernüchterung in christlicher
Vollkommenheit: Pietistische Selbst- und Weltwahrnehmungen im ausgehenden 17. Jahrhundert
(Tübingen, 2004), pp. 113–114. Matthias describes the biblical underpinnings of some of
her prophecies; Markus Matthias, Johann Wilhelm und Johanna Eleonora Petersen: Eine
Biographie bis zur Amtsenthebung Petersens im Jahre 1692, Arbeiten zur Geschichte des
Pietismus 30 (Göttingen, 1993), pp. 266–267. Martin discusses prophecy and preaching
in: Lucinda Martin, “Möglichkeiten und Grenzen geistlicher Rede von Frauen in Halle
und Herrnhut,” in Pietismus und Neuzeit 29 (2003), pp. 80–100.
63
Mori, Begeisterung und Ernüchterung, pp. 91, 244.
64
Markus Matthias, Lebensläufe August Hermann Franckes (Leipzig, 1999), pp. 25–32.
65
Francke’s sermons are well catalogued. The most complete listing of manuscript and
printed sermons (over 1700) is found in Erhard Peschke, Katalog der in der Universitäts-
und Landesbibliothek Sachsen-Anhalt zu Halle (Salle) vorhandenen handschriftlichen und
gedruckten Predigten August Hermann Franckes (Halle, 1972). Supplementing this, the
recent bibliography by Paul Raabe and Almut Pfeiffer, August Hermann Francke 1663–
1727. Bibliographie seiner Schriften, Hallesche Quellenpublikationen und Repertorien 5
(Tübingen, 2001) lists among his other writings over 500 sermons in nearly 900 editions.
188 jonathan strom
distinctive theological accents—especially emphasizing conversion and the

personal appropriation by his audience—but he also pioneered new meth-
ods of recording and distributing his sermons that made him one the of
the most influential preachers in Germany.
During the radical events of the Pietist disturbances in the late 1680s
and early 1690s pulpit preaching played only a subordinate role in the
rapid spread of the movement, but as ecclesial Pietism became established
in Halle and elsewhere in the 1690s, the sermon increasingly became one
of the prized modes of Pieist proclamation and communication, and
Francke one of its best known representatives. In his duties as parish pas-
tor, Francke preached a full cycle of sermons on Sundays and church holi-
days alongside the frequent catechism, weekday and occasional sermons,
burdens shouldered by many parish clergy at that time. Francke carried
this heavy load amid many other responsibilities in the university and his
growing charitable institutions. His innovative approach to documenting
his sermons allowed for its rapid distribution and resulted in the remarkable
preservation of much of his preaching.
In most cases, Francke did not work from a full draft but only with
notes.66 According to contemporary reports, Francke began preparation
for his sermons in the early hours of the day, working closely with carefully
chosen theological students to whom he would dictate his thoughts and
ideas for an outline that he could then expand upon in the pulpit.67 For a
typical Sunday sermon, Francke preached from an hour and a quarter to
an hour and a half.68 His sermons first took complete written form in an
innovative process of transcription done by theological students. Beginning
in 1694, specially selected students sitting near the pulpit had the task of
transcribing Francke’s sermons. Working together with carefully numbered
notebooks, one student would capture a phrase or sentence and give a
66
August Hermann Francke, Predigten über die Sonn- und Fest-Tags- Episteln nebenst
einer Vorrede vom erbaulichen predigen, und dem rechten Gebrauch dieser Predigten, 3rd ed.
(Halle, 1741), preface c3r-v. Francke was typical in this regard. See Gerber, Historie der
Kirchen-Ceremonien, p. 405.
67
Staatsbibliothek Berlin, Nachlaß Francke 3b/2c:138, Letter Heinrich XXIII. v. Reuß-
Lobenstein to Ulrich Bogislaus von Bonin, 17 February, 1716, p. 11v. Some of these dispo-
sitiones are still extant. See, for instance, Staatsbibliothek Berlin, Nachlaß Francke, 1b/4 F:1c
“Stichwortzettel.” Even when Francke had dictated a complete draft for the pulpit, which
was sometimes the case, the transcripts show that the oral sermon was often much longer
and only loosely tied to the draft. See the two versions of “Von der gründlichen und hert-
zlichen Frömmigkeit” in August Hermann Francke, Predigten, Erhard Peschke ed., Texte
zur Geschichte des Pietismus 2/9 (Berlin, 1987) II, pp. 18–138.
68
Staatsbibliothek Berlin, Nachlaß Francke 3b/2c:138, 11v. This length is also reflected
in the transcripts and printed versions of Francke’s sermons.
signal to the next in line to continue transcribing. After the sermon, the
notes were collated and a full transcript produced. Unlike manuscript ser-
mons from this period that were drafts completed before the sermon or
written down from memory later, the Francke sermon transcriptions are
significant because they are based on what the students heard and, in prin-
ciple, reflect an orality that a manuscript completed by the preacher before
or after the sermon would not.69
The transcripts formed the basis of his printed sermons, and Francke’s
editing of them could vary considerably. Many were published quickly
with only with small stylistic and orthographic changes while others were
heavily edited and, in a few cases, completely rewritten. In addition, as was
the case with many printed sermons, Francke sometimes attenuated his
polemical remarks or dropped references to local events in the transition to
print.70 Like many of his fellow ministers, Francke produced a series of
sermon collections, including a popular postil that he continued to revise
throughout his career and went through many editions.71
Francke’s sermon collections were influential and were frequently cited
as examples for good preaching for parish clergy.72 But while these collec-
tions followed the traditional forms of sermon collections or postils and
typically appeared years after the sermons themselves were preached,
Francke also published an unusually high number of individual sermons
that were printed as pamphlets in inexpensive duodecimo format and
distributed widely, often shortly after the original sermon.73 When Francke
undertook his tour of Germany in 1717–1718, his sermons were transcribed
by students in the ‘Halle manner’ and some appeared in print in the city
69
On the transcription process, see Peschke, Katalog. In contrast to Francke – and most
other preachers at the time – Spener completed finished drafts of his sermons and delivered
them almost verbatim. Grünberg, 56. Cf. Gerber, 405.
70
Peschke, introduction to Francke, Predigten I, xv. Because the collated transcripts were
generally used as the copy for type-setting, relatively few transcripts of printed sermons
remain.
71
On the editions of Francke’s sermons collections, see Peschke, “Die Predigtsammlun-
gen August Hermann Franckes”, in Theologische Literaturzeitung 110 (January 1985),
pp. 1–14. The Sonn-, Fest- und Apostel-Tags-Predigten were printed first in 1704 and reprinted
seven times in the first half of the eighteenth century.
72
Friedrich Andreas Hallbauer, Nöthiger Unterricht zur Klugheit erbaulich Zu Predigen
zu Catechisiren und andere geistliche Reden zu halten: Nebst einer Vorrede von der Homiletischen
Pedanterey (Jena, 1737), 42–43.
73
For example, Francke’s sermon, Busz-Predigt über Ps. LI, v. 11, 12, 13. darinnen Der
Kampff eines Bußfertigen Sünders (Halle, [1695]), appeared shortly after it was held in 1695,
again in 1698 as a separate pamphlet and then was taken up into his collection of
Bußpredigten in 1699. See Raabe and Pfeiffer, August Hermann Francke 1663–1727,
pp. 217–218.
190 jonathan strom
where they were preached almost immediately.74 The transcription process

and decision to publish so many in pamphlet form afforded a rapidity of
publication that created a kind of inexpensive tract literature, a phenom-
enon according to Raabe and Pfeiffer that was unprecedented since the
early Reformation.75 Francke published 492 sermons as individual publi-
cations, which were printed in estimated runs of 5,000. This would have
put nearly two and a half million of his pamphlet sermons in circulation
in Germany.76 The publication in this form extended the communicative
reach of Francke’s sermons, and established him as a paradigm of Pietist
preaching in the eighteenth century.
The huge number of Francke’s sermons published indicates his influ-
ence as a preacher in Halle and the broader Pietist community. Peschke
provides a number of contemporary accounts that describe the powerful
effect Francke could have in the pulpit.77 Letters testify as well to the power
of Francke’s preaching on his listeners, particularly on the issue of conver-
sion.78 Undoubtedly, similar things could be said about many preachers at
this time, but what distinguishes Francke is the influence through his
printed sermons that multiplied the reach of his preaching far beyond
Halle.
The archives of the Franckesche Stiftungen contain numerous letters
testifying to the effect of Francke’s printed sermons. For instance, Samuel
Urlsperger wrote how the reading of one of Francke’s sermons had trans-
formed a pastor in Stuttgart.79 Prince Anton Günther of Anhalt-Zerbst
wrote Francke of the influence of duodecimo pamphlet sermons in his
household.80 Others described the influence of these printed tracts could
74
See, for example, August Hermann Francke, Anleitung zum rechten Gebrauch der an
sich klaren Weissagung Christi vom jüngsten Gericht (Stuttgart, [1717]). The same year
another edition appeared in Halle. Obst describes how Francke and his associates distrib-
uted large numbers of his printed sermons in pamphlet form, 1,000 alone during his stay
in Ulm. Helmut Obst, August Hermann Francke und die Franckeschen Stiftungen in Halle
(Göttingen, 2002), p. 42.
75
Raabe and Pfeiffer, August Hermann Francke 1663–1727, p. xv.
76
Figures based on Raabe and Pfeiffer, August Hermann Francke 1663–1727, p. xv. Obst
estimates that in the six years from 1717 to 1723 the publishing house of the Halle orphan-
age produced around 350,000 copies of Francke’s sermons; Obst, August Hermann Francke,
p. 43.
77
Peschke in Francke, Predigten I, pp. 78, 205.
78
See for instance the 1712 letter of Samuel Stott, Staatsbibliothek Berlin, Nachlaß
Francke 30/50: 1.
79
Letter of Samuel Urlsperger to A.H. Francke (1720), Staatsbibliothek Berlin, Nachlaß
Francke 21,2,1/7: 69.
80
Letter of Anthon Günther von Anhalt-Zerbst to Johann Eberhard von Exter (March
1707), Staatsbibliothek Berlin, Nachlaß Francke, 2a/4a: 1.
have on the individuals. The Wahrhaffte und umständliche Historie Von der
Schwedische Gefangenen in Rußland in particular emphasized the effect of
Francke’s printed sermons, which were often read aloud in their gatherings
and were instrumental in many conversions.81 Francke’s printed sermons
could also take on an exemplary character for others. One correspondent
of Francke wrote to say that he had given his local pastor some of Francke’s
sermons, and the pastor had promised to read them carefully and model
his own sermons to Francke in the future.82 In his instructions to students,
Francke likewise recommended that they model their preaching on that of
their teachers in Halle and emphasized the value of personal examples far
more than any set of homiletical precepts they might learn from a book.83
Francke also proposed that students in Halle practice preaching through
carefully structured homiletical exercises.84
In his 1724 Send-Schreiben vom erbaulichen Predigen, Francke laid down
his specific ideas of preaching for students and clergy.85 As one might
expect, Francke emphasized the need for the preacher to function as
example to his congregation in faith and life. However, the question of
conversion and the order of salvation is the overriding theme of the open
letter. Throughout the preacher is to help the congregants determine
81
Halle and its allies supplied the prisoners in Russia with large quantities of books and
pamphlets including many sermons. For the effect of Francke’s sermons, see Curt Friedrich
von Wreech, Wahrhaffte und umständliche Historie von der schwedische Gefangenen in
Rußland (Sorau, 1728), esp. pp. 43, 125, 170, 172. See also W. Reginald Ward, The
Protestant Evangelical Awakening (Cambridge, 1992), pp. 84–86 and Pentti Laasonen,
“Der Einfluß A.H. Franckes und des hallischen Pietismus auf die schwedischen und finn-
ischen Karoliner im und nach dem Nordischen Krieg,” in Halle und Osteuropa: Zur
Europäischen Ausstrahlung des hallischen Pietismus, Johannes Wallmann and Udo Sträter
eds. (Tübingen, 1998), pp. 5–22.
82
Letter to Heinrich Julius Elers (1710). Staatsbibliothek Berlin, Nachlaß Francke,
5,2/113: 1.
83
August Hermann Francke, Idea Studiosi Theologiae, oder Abbildung eines der Theologie
Beflissenen, wie derselbe sich zum Gebrauch und Dienst des Herrn, 3rd ed. (Halle, 1717),
pp. 222–224.
84
Francke recommended that after learning the fundamentals of theology and the basic
precepts of homiletics students begin by analyzing their colleague’s sermons and then move
to preaching their own practice sermons. Francke, Idea Studiosi Theologiae, p. 278.
85
The Send-Schreiben was first published separately as Vom erbaulichen Predigen, Oder
die Frage: Wie ein treuer Lehrer, der gern seine Predigten zur Gewinnung und Erbauung seiner
Zuhörer immer weißlicher einrichten (Halle, 1725) and then as preface to Francke’s Predigten
über die Sonn- und Fest-Tags-Episteln, Nebst einer Vorrede vom erbaulichen Predigen (Halle,
1726). It is reprinted as well in Francke, Predigten II, pp. 3–10. An English translation
appeared in 1736 under the title, A Letter to a Friend Concerning the Most Useful Way of
Preaching (s.l. [1736]). The English title however, loses the broader spiritual sense of
Erbauung. A modernized English translation appears in Peter C. Erb, Pietists: Selected
Writings (New York, 1983), pp. 117–127.
192 jonathan strom
whether they belong to the unconverted or the converted, whether their

actions are only outwardly moral or flow from true contrition of the heart,
whether they deceive themselves with vain outwards rituals or have been
freed from the bonds of Satan through Christ’s grace. Francke recommends
that in their sermons, preachers should complete their exegesis of the
assigned biblical passage thoroughly but briefly in order to hasten to
the application and explain to their congregants how the text relates to
conversion, faith, and life. Francke emphasizes that the preacher should
guide his congregants to Christ as a shepherd herds his sheep or a hen
entices her chicks, making manifest Christ’s divinity and love. In order to
be effective in the pulpit Francke emphasizes that preachers should press
for a deep denial of the ways of the world, encourage them to keep Christian
company, and provide them with other biblical texts and devotional writ-
ings that will further their faith and salvation.86
In many ways the open letter captures main themes of Francke. Running
throughout his sermons is the strong emphasis on Erbauung and especially
conversion, a point Peschke repeatedly emphasizes, but other themes in his
preaching should not be neglected. Thomas Kuhn has recently emphasized
the emphasis on Christian charity in Francke’s preaching.87 Much as clergy
had throughout the seventeenth century, Francke also employed the ser-
mon for polemical purposes, for Christian instruction, and as part of
church discipline.
The continuity of Francke’s preaching with earlier models should not be
neglected. Where radical Pietists challenged the ecclesial context of many
sermons altogether, to a certain extent, Francke represents a reassertion of
the place of the sermon. His sermons fell within the context of the larger
liturgical worship in Lutheranism. They were almost always delivered from
the pulpit in the church. The sermons took as their lead texts the tradi-
tional lections appointed for Sundays and feast days, and the underlying
rhetorical structure remained that of the seventeenth-century sermon
although its formal divisions became more fluid.
There were a number of points on which ecclesial Pietists represented by
Francke differed clearly from their Orthodox opponents. One of the most
important of these was the debate on the preaching by the impious. For
neither the Orthodox nor Pietist parties was the character of the preacher
86
“Sendschreiben” in Francke, Predigten II, pp. 3–10.
87
Thomas K. Kuhn, Religion und neuzeitliche Gesellschaft: Studien zum sozialen und
diakonischen Handeln in Pietismus, Aufklärung und Erweckungsbewegung (Tübingen, 2003),
pp. 42–77.
irrelevant, but the emphasis on the centrality of the preacher’s spiritual

condition marked the Pietist approach to the sermon and distinguished
them from the Orthodox. Francke and his colleagues repeatedly empha-
sized how critical a converted preacher was for efficacy in the pulpit.
Francke likened the unconverted preacher to an ignorant farmer, who may
sow with the best of seed but whose ignorance and missteps nevertheless
ruin the harvest.88 His colleague Joachim Lange was even more direct,
arguing that the unregenerate preacher could have no living recognition of
God and divine truths. ‘How would the unregenerate teachers show the
people the way to salvation in their sermons and private conversations, if
they themselves lack the spiritual light of the true knowledge? Might a
blind man show another the way?’89 Moderate Pietists were always careful
not to make the power of the Word of God dependent on the character of
the preacher, but they consistently stressed the importance of a regenerate
and converted ministry for effective preaching, which put the Orthodox
on the defensive.90 In response, the Orthodox increasingly emphasized the
objective power of God’s word along with the authority of the office of
ministry and the special grace that it afforded clergy in their preaching and
other ministerial activities, a position the Pietists utterly rejected.91
A second area of contention concerned the use of ‘artifice’ in sermons.
Pietists such as Joachim Lange regularly derided the excessive use of
method and rhetorical structures in preaching, which he connected with
the Orthodox style preaching.92 In the debate that followed, however, the
controversy was less about the use of appropriate methods and rhetorical
structures, which both moderate Pietists and the Orthodox could affirm.
Pietists interpreted the word ‘ars’ to mean artificiality, which had no place
in sermons whereas the Orthodox interpreted it to mean any method in
sermons.93 In both Orthodox and Pietist preaching in the beginning of the
88
Francke, Predigten I, 409. Francke devoted almost an entire sermon to problem of the
unconverted clergy and their ineffectiveness. “Von dem Dienst untreuer Lehrer,” in
Predigten I, pp. 400–437. See also “Von den falschen Propheten,” in Predigten I, p. 458.
89
Joachim Lange, “Academische Abhandlung von erbaulichen Predigten” in Johann.
Georg Walch, Sammlung Kleiner Schriften von der Gottgefälligen Art zu Predigen ( Jena,
1747) p. 128.
90
Schian, Orthodoxie und Pietismus, p. 94; Lange, “Academische Abhandlung”,
pp. 125–126.
91
On the debate between Lange and Loescher on the Amtsgnade, see Schian, Orthodoxie
und Pietismus, 93–97.
92
Lange particularly ridiculed the publication of sermon outlines or dispositiones in the
Unschuldigen Nachrichten, the chief periodical of Loescher and the Orthodox party;
Mosheim, Anweisung erbaulich zu predigen, p. 85. Schian, Orthodoxie und Pietismus, p. 80.
93
Schian, Orthodoxie und Pietismus, p. 80.
194 jonathan strom
eighteenth century the structure of the sermon became more flexible.94

Pietists were in general more open to looser homiletical forms, and they
did avoid certain popular devices in their sermons. For instance, in con-
trast to Loescher, Pietists were generally quite skeptical of the use of the
emblems and Realien as illustrations in sermons, preferring to use figures
exclusively drawn from scripture.95 Further, the Pietists were critical of the
so-called Jahrgang sermons that would introduce a theme that would be
explored throughout the regular sermons of the year, arguing that it
required the preacher to bend the texts to his needs.96 Thus while there are
distinctions, caution should be exercised in drawing overly broad contrasts
between Pietist and Orthodox preaching, a point that Sabine Holtz’s lon-
gitudinal study of preaching in Tübingen reinforces.97
6. Radical Pietism
By emphasizing the converted and regenerate, moderate Pietists did move

the personality of the preacher to the center of their sermons and in their
critique of ‘artificiality’ of rigid rhetorical structures in sermons, they
opened up new possibilities of non-traditional preaching. Yet, moderate
Pietists continued to emphasize the ecclesial setting of the sermon and
university education as essential for the task of preaching. Indeed, one of
the main educational goals of the Halle Pietists was to produce university-
trained men for the ministry. But in the radical streams of the movement,
the Pietist emphasis on the character of the preacher and the necessity of
divine illumination created the conditions for more unorthodox forms of
preaching than that which existed under moderate Pietism of Francke and
Spener. Radical Pietism afforded the laity without theological training the
possibility to assume preaching duties and increasingly dissociated it from
the ecclesial context of the established territorial churches.
The emergence of the Pietist itinerant preacher is exemplified by Ernst
Christoph Hochmann von Hohenau (1669/70–1721) who studied law
94
See Schian’s discussion of the homiletical reflection among the Orthodox, especially
in the Unschuldigen Nachrichten; Schian, Orthodoxie und Pietismus, pp. 82–83.
95
Greschat notes Loescher frequent use of emblems in his sermons. Greschat, Zwischen
Tradition und neuem Anfang, pp. 90, 93. On the Pietist critique, see Francke, Predigten I,
pp. 455–456; Rambach, Erläuterung, pp. 136–137; Hallbauer, Nöthiger Unterricht,
pp. 345–347.
96
Schian, Orthodoxie und Pietismus, pp. 16–18.
97
Holtz, Theologie und Alltag, pp. 338–348.
and then experienced a profound conversion in a circle of radical Pietists

in Halle.98 Convinced of his immediate calling by God and disdainful of
the hypocritical ordained clergy, Hochmann began a peripatetic existence,
traveling throughout Germany where he sought to gather the regenerate
into separate communities, alternating his itinerancy with periods of ere-
mitical withdrawal. His preaching often took place informally among cir-
cles of radical Pietist sympathizers, and he was repeatedly imprisoned and
banished for unauthorized preaching.99 Despite persecution, Hochmann
could find continued support from radical Pietists scattered throughout
Germany. In a number of small territories in Germany such as Laubach
and Wittgenstein-Schwarzenau, rulers who favored radical Pietism gave
Hochmann refuge and, as in Obergreiz even involved him in their plans
for church reform and opened some pulpits in the churches to him.100
Hochmann wanted to form no new church but rather organize loose
affiliations of small regenerate communities.
Some itinerant preachers among the Pietists were clergy who had lost
their positions because of their radical views. For instance, Victor Christoph
Tuchtfeld (1678-ca. 1752) had been trained in Halle and became parish
pastor in Dössel. He reportedly had great gifts as a preacher and appeared
to have a promising career in front of him in the eyes of the Halle Pietists.101
However, Tuchtfeld became increasingly critical of the practice of forcible
recruitment to the military in Brandenburg-Prussia, and his belief in
immediate divine visions created a rift with his former mentors in Halle.102
Anxious about the favor of the king and the legitimacy of the movement,
98
On Hochmann, Heinz Renkewitz, Hochmann von Hochenau (1670–1721).
Quellenstudien zur Geschichte des Pietismus (Breslau, 1935). For a detailed description of his
conversion and his sense of direct calling, see Mori, Begeisterung und Ernüchterung,
pp. 229–239.
99
See Renkewitz, Hochmann von Hochenau, pp. 165, 241, 337.
100
Hans Schneider, “Der radikale Pietismus im 18. Jahrhundert,” in Martin Brecht and
Klaus Deppermann eds., Der Pietismus im achtzehnten Jahrhundert, Geschichte des
Pietismus 2 (Göttingen, 1995), pp. 127–128.
101
On Tuchtfeld’s skills as a preacher and his commitment to the Pietist “spirit of Halle”
in his congregation, see Hannelore Lehmann, “Victor Christoph Tuchtfeld und das
Tuchtfeldische Soldaten-konventikel in Potsdam 1726/27. Erziehung zum frommen
Soldaten oder ‘Verleidung’ des Soldatenstandes,” in Militär und Religiosität in der frühen
Neuzeit, Michael Kaiser and Stefan Kroll eds. (Münster, 2004), p. 280. Francke singled out
Tuchtfeld’s first book as especially promising. A.H. Francke, Monita Pastoralia Theologica,
oder Theologische Erinnerungen und Vorschläge (Halle, 1718), p. 149.
102
Carl Hinrichs, Preußentum und Pietismus: der Pietismus in Brandenburg-Preußen als
religiös-soziale Reformbewegung (Göttingen, 1971), p. 137. See also Lehmann, “Victor
Christoph Tuchtfeld”, p. 281.
196 jonathan strom
they turned their back on Tuchtfeld, and he was arrested and dismissed
from his position.103 He began informally preaching in and around
Magdeburg and Halle, at one point even appearing in the great hall of the
orphanage in Halle to attack the ordained clergy.104 He traveled to
Hanoverian territories in 1723 and 1724 where his revivalistic preaching
met an enthusiastic response among the separatist Pietists in the mining
town of Clausthal.105 Expelled from Clausthal, Tuchtfeld returned to
Brandenburg where he began holding conventicles and preaching, espe-
cially focusing on the soldiers. He was detained for several years in the
Charité in Berlin, but Tuchtfeld was not without his prominent supporters
and after his release became preacher at the radical Pietist court of Sayn-
Wittgenstein in the early 1730s. Following his patron’s death in 1741 he
again took up his itinerant preaching. In the late 1740s he was in the
Rhineland, and in 1752 was again arrested for unauthorized preaching in
the Tiergarten in Berlin. He was taken to the Charité, where he disappeared
from the records.106
Much more than moderate Pietists, radical Pietists broke decisively with
tradition by encouraging itinerancy and lay preaching, emphasizing imme-
diate divine calling, and dissociating preaching from the ecclesial and litur-
gical context. Those without official positions only rarely published their
sermons, partly a consequence of their commitment to the oral nature of
preaching and partly a result of their marginalization and difficulty in
gaining access to the printing presses.107 In many cases, we only have a
small number of second-hand accounts of their sermons.108 Radical Pietists
103
Lehmann, “Victor Christoph Tuchtfeld”, p. 282.
104
Ibid. Lehmann argues that without a parsonage or other adequate rooms to hold
gatherings that Tuchtfeld engaged in field preaching; Lehmann, “Victor Christoph
Tuchtfeld”, p. 285.
105
On Tuchtfeld’s powerful preaching among the separatists in Clausthal, see Rudolf
Ruprecht, Der Pietismus des 18. Jahrhunderts in den Hannoverschen Stammländern
(Göttingen, 1919), pp. 48–80. To the skeptical authorities in Clausthal, Tuchtfeld claimed
his calling was “to preach the Gospel freely and without compensation wherever the spirit
of God would lead him.” Ibid., p. 51.
106
Lehmann, “Victor Christoph Tuchtfeld”, p. 292.
107
In contrast to the Halle Pietists, radical Pietists often focused their major publishing
projects on other genres than the sermon, such as the spiritual biographies collected in
Reitz’s Historie der Wiedergebohrene or the commentaries and heavy annotation of the
Berleburger Bibel. On publications of the radical Pietists, see Hans-Jürgen Schrader,
Literaturproduktion und Büchermarkt des radikalen Pietismus: Johann Henrich Reitz’ “Historie
der Wiedergebohrnen” und ihr geschichtlicher Kontext (Göttingen, 1989). Gottfried Arnold,
however, published several collections of sermons; see below.
108
On the content of Tuchtfeld’s preaching, see Ruprecht, Der Pietismus des 18.
Jahrhunderts, p. 50. On Hochmann’s sermons, Renkewitz, Hochmann von Hochenau,
pp. 168–172, 196–197, 334–336 and passim.
generally remained strongly biblically oriented in their preaching, although

they were often more open to spiritualist interpretations and new revela-
tions than moderate Pietists such as Spener and Francke. For other highly
spiritualist radicals, preaching became increasingly unnecessary. An alche-
mist and radical Pietist active in North Germany and Sweden, Johann
Konrad Dippel, for instance, intensified his criticism of any form of estab-
lished Christianity to the point that he devalued the place of the sermon in
his writings and made it virtually superfluous.109
Indeed, among some radicals such as the Inspirationists, the proclama-
tion of new prophecies took precedence and even superseded the practice
of preaching entirely. The Inspirationists drew from both the radical
Pietists as well as the ecstatic French Prophets who toured Germany in
1713 and 1714.110 The Inspirationists found refuge as a separatist com-
munity in the relatively tolerant territories of the Wetterau. The ‘instru-
ments’, as the male and female prophets among them were known, would
fall into ecstatic states in which they would begin to prophesy.111 There
were periodic reports of ecstatic preaching among radical Pietists, espe-
cially on the fringes of the movement. Daniel Lindmark describes a
number of ecstatic lay preachers that appeared among Pietist revivals in
eighteenth-century in Sweden. Much like the Inspirationists, these mostly
young women and girls would fall into trances and begin to preach.112 The
authorities referred to the phenomena of ecstatic preaching as a form of
contagion, which they term the ‘preaching disease’.113 There were as well
a few cases in Scandinavia of somnambulant preaching among Pietists,
109
Stephan Goldschmidt, Johann Konrad Dippel (1673–1734): Seine radikalpietistische
Theologie und ihre Entstehung (Göttingen, 2001), pp. 223–224.
110
Isabelle Noth, Ekstatischer Pietismus: die Inspirationsgemeinden und ihre Prophetin
Ursula Meyer (1682–1743) (Göttingen, 2005), pp. 96–101. See also Schneider, “Der
radikale Pietismus”, pp. 145–152. On the French Prophets, Georgia Cosmos, Huguenot
Prophecy and Clandestine Worship in the Eighteenth Century: ‘The Sacred Theatre of the
Cévennes’ (Aldershot and Burlington, VT, 2005) and Hillel Schwartz, The French Prophets:
The History of a Millenarian Group in Eighteenth-Century England (Berkeley, 1980).
111
Noth provides a number of eyewitness accounts of the ecstatic prophesying or
Aussprechen. Noth, Ekstatischer Pietismus, pp. 116–133.
112
Daniel Lindmark, “Vision, Ecstasy, and Prophecy: Approaches to Popular Religion
in Early Modern Sweden,” in ARV, Nordic Yearbook of Folklore 59 (2003), pp. 177–198. On
Pietist preaching in Scandinavia see most recently, Carola Nordbäck, Samvetets röst. Om
mötet mellan luthersk ortodoxi och konservativ pietism i 1720-talets Sverige (Umeå, 2004);
Erik Vikström, Ortotomisk applikation: bibelordets tillämpning och delning enligt den kon-
servativa pietismens predikoteori (Åbo, 1974), and Yngve Brilioth, Predikans Historia: Olaus
Petri-föreläsningar hallna vid Uppsala Universitet (Lund, 1945), pp. 201–233.
113
Daniel Lindmark, “The Preaching Disease: Contagious Ecstasy in Eighteenth-
Century Sweden”, in Imagining Contagion in Early Modern Europe, Claire Carlin ed.
(Basingstoke, 2005), pp. 139–153.
198 jonathan strom
in which the lay preacher, usually a woman, would appear to fall asleep
and then begin to preach.114
Gottfried Arnold was one of the most prominent radical Pietists who
assumed clerical office and preached regularly on the appointed lections.115
Most radical Pietists remained outside the official church structures
and reflected little in print on the nature of sermons. Arnold took up the
question of preaching in the preface to his postil on the Gospel texts, which
was first published in 1709. In his forward, Arnold shares many of the
concerns of moderate Pietists like Spener and Francke against worldly
sermons, elaborate rhetorical devices, and oratorical inventions that were
merely ‘empty husks without kernel or power of the Holy Spirit’116 and
consequently fail to feed wretched souls. Instead, he calls for the return to
the heroic method of preaching, through which the Holy Spirit would
touch the hearts of his parishioners. This method, which he connected
with Luther, Arndt, Lütkemann, Müller, and Egardus, would be simple,
clear, and erbaulich but also driven by the Spirit in the regenerate preacher.117
In his preface, Arnold defined the heroic method: ‘It means in actual
understanding, such a heroic form of teaching, in which one does not bind
oneself or turn to his own or other human strictures or rules, much less to
the logic and rhetoric of Aristotle (as is currently thought) but rather
speaks, after the Spirit has been given to him to pronounce, out of a com-
plete faith in the true freedom of the spirit according to its guidance and
rules’.118 Arnold emphasized the need to stay close to the scriptural texts,
114
The best known of these in eighteenth-century Scandinavia was Anna Rogel. See
Jan Häll, “Den sovande predikerskan: Anteckningar om Anna Rogel”, in Lychnos: Årsbok
för idé- och lärdomshistoria (1997), pp. 49–79. The tradition of sleeping preachers or sleep
preachers continued in Finland into the twentieth century. See Kirsi Stjerna, “Finnish
Sleep-Preachers: An Example of Women’s Spiritual Power,” Nova Religio 5 (2001),
pp. 102–120. Among the Mennonites in the nineteenth century, see Harry H. Hiller, “The
Sleeping Preachers: An Historical Study of the Role of Charisma in Amish Society,” in
Pennsylvania Folklife 18 (1968/1969), pp. 19–31. See also Ann Taves, Fits, Trances, &
Visions: Experiencing Religion and Explaining Experience from Wesley to James (Princeton,
1999), p. 137.
115
On Arnold’s turn away from celibacy and radical separatism in the early 1700s, see
Schneider, “Der radikale Pietismus”, pp. 116–117. Despite these shifts, Schneider argues
for the continuity of many radical themes in Arnold’s thought.
116
Arnold, Evangelische Reden, preface. pp. *3v, [**7v].
117
Arnold, Evangelische Reden, preface, **4r.
118
Arnold, Evangelische Reden, preface, **1v. In traditional Lutheran homiletics, the
heroic method was recognized alongside the more common analytical and synthetic meth-
ods of preaching, though its use was strongly discouraged. See Hanspeter Marti, “Die
Rhetorik des Heiligen Geistes. Gelehrsamkeit, poesis sacra und sermo mysticus bei
Gottfried Arnold,” in Pietismus-Forschungen: zu Philipp Jacob Spener und zum spiritualistisc
h-radikalpietistischen Umfeld, Dietrich Blaufuß ed. (Frankfurt/Main, 1986) pp. 276–278.
but his approach was also more allegorical, even mystical, than that of
Spener or other moderate Pietists, and one of his goals in preaching was to
bring the ‘obscured truth’ of scriptural texts back to the forefront.119 In
fact, many of his contemporaries did find his sermons obscure and difficult
to understand, a complaint Arnold himself seemed to recognize.120 In con-
trast to some radicals who doubted the function of the sermon altogether,
Arnold did not question the legitimacy of preaching, but as Blaufuß argues,
he nonetheless devalued the importance of the sermon within the larger
context of Gottesdienst or worship.121
7. Zinzendorf
One of the most distinctive forms of Pietism that developed its own
traditions and styles of preaching emerged under the guidance of Nikolas
Ludwig von Zinzendorf who began settling religious refugees on his estate
in Upper Lusatia in 1722. The community, known as Herrnhut, grew
quickly and despite early dissension, Zinzendorf was able forge an agree-
ment among the refugees led that led to the founding of a new religious
community in 1727 with common roots in German Pietism and the
Hussite Unitas Fratrum. The Moravians, as they became known in English,
went beyond many Pietist communities and groups in the way that they
combined traditional ecclesiastical preaching with lay preaching of both
men and women within the community. By ordaining men and women
without formal theological education to a series of offices, they blurred
many of the lines between lay and clerical religious speech and set new
examples for Protestant preaching in the eighteenth century.
Under Zinzendorf, the community at Herrnhut understood itself,
partly for legal reasons, as an ecclesiola within the established Lutheran
church of Saxony, and members of the community continued to attend
the sermons in the Lutheran parish church in nearby Berthelsdorf well
119
Arnold, Evangelische Reden, preface, pp. **4r-v. On Arnold’s allegorical style of
preaching, see Dietrich Blaufuss, “Zur Predigt bei Gottfried Arnold,” in Gottfried Arnold
(1666–1714): Mit einer Bibliographie der Arnold-Literatur ab 1714, Dietrich Blaufuss und
Friedrich Niewöhner eds. (Wiesbaden, 1995), p. 51 and Schian, Orthodoxie und Pietismus,
pp. 75–76.
120
See, for instance, the comments by Prince Anton Günther of Anhalt Zerbst, who
found them obtuse. Staatsbibliothek Berlin, Nachlaß Francke, 2a/4a: 1, letter from
22 March 1707. On Arnold’s recognition of this, see Schian, Orthodoxie und Pietismus,
p. 77.
121
Blaufuss “Zur Predigt,” p. 43.
200 jonathan strom
into the 1750s.122 They integrated the traditional parish preaching into a
much larger and richer liturgical practice in Herrnhut, part of which
included the repetition of the Sunday morning sermon within their own
community.123 The extensive liturgical life of the Moravians opened up
new possibilities for preaching within their community, including numer-
ous homiletical addresses throughout the weekly course of worship.124
From the beginning the Moravian movement incorporated lay preach-
ers such as Christian David and David Nitschmann who had no theologi-
cal training but were practiced lay preachers before coming to Herrnhut.125
Zinzendorf, though highly learned, had no formal theological training
himself. The Moravians did not just include lay preachers in their practice
of worship, they also created their own spiritual offices and ordained or
appointed them within the community according to their gifts rather than
on the basis of any formal academic requirements.126
Known within the community as ‘the Disciple’, Zinzendorf became the
Moravian’s most prominent preacher, and his sermons were widely printed
and used within the community devotionally and to communicate his
theology both internally and to the outside world. Zinzendorf did become
an ordained Lutheran minister in 1734, but perhaps because of his lack of
homiletical training, his sermons reflect a stronger break with traditional
preaching than that of ecclesial Pietists such as Spener or Francke. His
sermons show little of the traditional rhetorical structures that are muted
but still present in the preaching of many church Pietists. His Pennsylvania
sermons from 1742, for instance, evince a flexibility in their approach to
the scriptural texts, audience, and length. Before Lutheran congregations,
122
The Moravians were however strongly ecumenical and did not see themselves as a
Lutheran organization, but rather as a close-knit community within all the major confes-
sions. On Zinzendorf ’s understanding of the Tropenlehre, Heinz Motel, Zinzendorf als
ökumenischer Theologe (Herrnhut, 1942), pp. 110–117.
123
Nicole Schatull, Die Liturgie in der Herrnhuter Brüdergemeine Zinzendorfs, (Tübingen,
2005), pp. 94–95.
124
A description of an informal homily based on the daily Losung or watchword during
the Frühstunde is found in Schatull, Die Liturgie in der Herrnhuter Brüdergemeine, p. 82.
Lucinda Martin observes that the Moravians “redefined the ‘sermon’ to fit their own
requirements, developing various new kinds of sermons for various occasions and settings.”
Lucinda Martin, “Women’s Religious Speech and Activism in German Pietism” (Ph.D.
dissertation, University of Texas, 2002), p. 287.
125
Dietrich Mayer, “Zinzendorf und Herrnhut,” in Brecht and Depperman, Geschichte
des Pietismus im achtzehnten Jahrhundert, pp. 20–25.
126
For a discussion of the Moravian offices with special attention to the role of women,
see Martin, “Women’s Religious Speech and Activism”, pp. 277–282, 287–294.
for instance, he preached on the appointed lections, while before Moravian

audiences he chose the daily watchword, and for Reformed he selected yet
other texts.127 At other times to the community, Zinzendorf preached on
the litany of the wounds, which was central to Moravian theology and
worship.128
The inclusion of non-traditional preachers from carpenters like Christian
David to nobleman like Zinzendorf was part of the Moravian success in
the eighteenth century as they spread in the New World and throughout
northern Europe, where they were particularly successful in gaining adher-
ents in Scandinavia and the Baltic.129 They blurred the lines between lay
and clerical preaching and broke with the model that was still dominant in
Halle Pietism that the preacher should be a university-trained theologian
if nonetheless regenerate. Furthermore, the networks of itinerant preachers
they developed to work with the ‘Diaspora’, that is with awakened ‘chil-
dren of God’ in all Christian confessions outside established Moravian
communities, proved an effective means of spreading Moravian ideas and
practices in North America and Europe.130 Zinzendorf and the Moravians
never adopted large scale open-air preaching and remained suspicious of
Anglo-American field preaching.131
One of the most distinctive aspects of Moravian preaching was the
inclusion of women. There were precedents for women’s preaching within
Pietism, and a repeated criticism of Pietism by critics was that they allowed
127
Nikolas Ludwig von Zinzendorf, A Collection of Sermons from Zinzendorf ’s
Pennsylvania Journey 1741–42, trans. by Julie Tomberlin Weber and edited by Craig D.
Atwood (Bethlehem, 2001).
128
Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf, Vier und Dreyßig Homiliae über die Wunden-
Litaney der Brüder, Gehalten auf dem Herrnhaag in den Sommer-Monathen 1747 (s.l., 1757).
On the litany of the wounds, Craig D. Atwood, Community of the Cross: Moravian Piety in
Colonial Bethlehem (University Park (PA), 2004), pp. 201–208.
129
Meyer, “Zinzendorf and Herrnhut,” pp. 66–67; Ingun Montgomery, “Der Pietismus
in Schweden im 18. Jahrhundert” in Brecht and Deppermann, pp. 514–520.
130
On the meaning of Diaspora for Moravians and their Diaspora work, see Meyer,
“Zinzendorf and Herrnhut,” pp. 65–68. See also Horst Weigelt, “Die Diasporaarbeit der
Herrnhuter Brüdergemeine und die Wirksamkeit der deutschen Christentumsgesellschaft
im 19. Jahrhundert”, in Der Pietismus in neunzehnten und zwanzigsten Jahrhundert,
Geschichte des Pietismus 3, Ulrich Gäbler ed. (Göttingen, 2000), pp. 113–124.
131
Zinzendorf critically noted: “For thus when ten thousand and twenty thousand come
running together, as they did during the recent English and American revivals, that is a
mob; it is more a decent game than a time of listening. For of the twenty thousand scarcely
a third is listening. The others are there out of boredom, doing nothing.” Nikolaus Ludwig
von Zinzendorf, Die an den Synodum der Brüder in Zeyst vom 11. May bis den 21. Junii
1746 gehaltene Reden (s.l., [1747]), p. 188 reprinted in Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf,
Hauptschriften III, Erich Beyreuther and Gerhard Meyer eds. (Hildesheim, 1963).
202 jonathan strom
women to preach in their assemblies.132 The Moravians were the only

Pietist community to institutionalize women’s preaching and ordain
women as deaconesses and priestesses. Many of the records of women’s
preaching in Moravians have deny been lost or destroyed, but as Lucinda
Martin and Peter Vogt have shown, Moravian women leaders such as Anna
Nitschmann took on preaching roles within the community.133 Unlike
Quaker women preachers, who had a much more public role, Moravian
women only preached to women within the community, and their ser-
mons were never published.134 After Zinzendorf ’s death in 1760, in fact,
the authority of women within the movement was sharply curtailed and a
longer tradition of women’s preaching in Moravianism did not continue.
Moravians democratized preaching in some respects, and they allowed
pious men and women many more opportunities for preaching and similar
religious speech than most other Pietist communities. They expanded the
understanding of the sermon and preaching, sometimes even referring to
singing as a kind of sermon.135 At the same time, preaching was not neces-
sarily the focus of Moravian worship as it was in ecclesial Pietism. The rich
liturgical and musical life, including hymn singing, litanies, love feasts,
and foot washing became the center of communal worship among the
Moravians. These incorporated sermons and homiletical addresses, of
course, but the elaborate and lengthy liturgical practices also tended, in
relative terms, to deemphasize preaching’s centrality in Moravian worship
even as printed sermons played an important role in communicating the
community’s theology both internally and externally.
The legacy of Pietism for preaching leads in several directions. The criti-
cism of preaching by Pietists and their emphasis on plain speech and
Erbauung was embraced by others outside the Pietist movement, including
reformers of the German language and theological representatives of the
132
Ecclesial Pietists were sensitive to these charges and repeatedly rejected them. See
Spener, Sendschreiben, p. 90. Likewise, Francke denied in a 1692 sermon that he allowed
women to preach. Francke, Predigten, I, pp. 70–71. Johann Heinrich Feustking, for
instance, portrayed a woman being toppled from the pulpit in the frontpiece to his vehe-
mently anti-feminist and anti-Pietistic polemic, Gynaeceum Haeretico Fanaticum, Oder
Historie und Beschreibung Der falschen Prophetinnen, Quäckerinnen, Schwärmerinnen, und
andern sectirischen und begeisterten Weibes-Personen (Franckfurt, 1704).
133
Peter Vogt, “Herrnhuter Schwerstern der Zinzendorfzeit als Predigerinnen”,
in: Unitas Fratrum, 45/46 (1999), pp. 29–60; Martin, “Möglichkeiten und Grenzen,”
pp. 80–100; Martin, “Women’s Religious Speech and Activism,” pp. 226–317.
134
Martin is planning an edition of Moravian women’s sermons; Martin, “Möglichkeiten
und Grenzen,” p. 80.
135
Schatull, Die Liturgie in der Herrnhuter Brüdergemeine, p. 91.
early Enlightenment such as Johann Christoph Gottsched and Johann

Gustav Reinbeck. The Prussian Cabinets-Ordre from 1739 implicitly
recognized the influence of Pietist homiletics in its recommendations.136
However, the understanding of Erbauung in the accompanying explana-
tions and prefaces differed from the much more spiritual and theological
sense of Erbauung as the Pietists had understood it.137 A bridge figure
between Pietism and Enlightenment, Mosheim approvingly saw Pietist
preaching practice triumphing over Orthodox in the eighteenth century.138
He understood Erbauung more in moral terms than the sense of
spiritual conviction and conversion that it connoted for many Pietists.139
Consequently, in some important respects Pietism also prepared the
way for rationalist approaches to preaching and the sermon in the later
eighteenth century.140
Where Pietism gradually lost influence in Brandenburg-Prussia after the
1740s, Pietism remained strong in other parts of Germany, especially
Württemberg, and here Pietism shaped preaching and the sermon through-
out the eighteenth century in figures such as Johann Albrecht Bengel,
whose emphasis on scriptural exegesis and its personal application remained
influential throughout the eighteenth century.141 The Pietist emphasis on
the regenerate character of the preacher and the expectation of conversion
136
In fact, the order specifically criticized the Reformed preachers for adopting an often
“forced, unclear, and hardly edifying” approach to preaching, implicitly comparing them
unfavorably to the Pietist Lutheran preachers in Brandenburg Prussia. [ Johann Christoph
Gottsched], Grund-Riß einer Lehr-Arth ordentlich und erbaulich zu predigen nach dem
Innhalt der Königlichen Preußischen allergnädigsten Cabinets-Ordre vom 7. Martii 1739
entworffen (Berlin, 1740), p. H8r. This edition also contained “Vorbericht und kurtzen
Einleitung wie eine gute Predigt abzufassen sey” by the Wolffian theologian, Johann Gustav
Reinbeck. On their common interests with Pietists on preaching, see Schian, Orthodoxie
und Pietismus, esp. pp. 154–164.
137
This was a point raised specifically by Joachim Oporin, who was not a Pietist, but had
reservations about the rationalist understanding of Erbauung in Gottsched’s Grund-Riß and
Reinbeck’s accompanying text. Joachim Oporin, Theologisches Bedencken über den Grund-
Riß einer Lehr-Arth ordentlich und erbaulich zu predigen (Hannover, 1741), pp. 4–5.
138
139
On Mosheim’s understanding of Erbauung, Ulrich Dressman, “Erbauliche
Aufklärung. Zur Predigttheorie Johann Lorenz von Mosheims,” in Albrecht and Weeber,
p. 81. For a contrast of the Pietist and Rationalist understandings of Erbauung, see Lucian
Hölscher, Geschichte der protestantischen Frömmigkeit in Deutschland (Munich, 2005),
p. 116.
140
Schian, Orthodoxie und Pietismus, esp. pp. 154–164.
141
On Bengel, see Hughes Oliphant Old, The Reading and Preaching of the Scriptures in
the Worship of the Christian Church, Vol. 5: Moderatism, Pietism, and Awakening
(Grand Rapids, 2004), pp. 98–103 and Lothar Bertsch, Johann Albrecht Bengel. Seine
Lebensgeschichte (Holzgerlingen, 2002) pp. 51–59.
204 jonathan strom
through preaching could also create tensions and self-doubt as clergy

blamed themselves for the lack of homiletical effectiveness.142
Where ecclesial Pietists remained traditional in many respects, radical
Pietists challenged tradition more decisively than their ecclesial Pietist
counterparts. They stressed illumination by the Spirit and incorporated lay
preaching into their practices much more readily, often dissociating it
entirely from clerical office; they established a tradition of itinerant preach-
ing. The long-term influence of radical Pietist preaching in Europe was less
pronounced than in North America where radicals were able to establish
their own denominations and practices of preaching. Though similar to
radical Pietists in some respects, Moravians did not break with parish
preaching entirely but added new opportunities for uneducated men and
women to preach while at the same time they created new religious offices.
Moravians influenced the early Wesleyan approach to preaching, but they
diverged on the question of field preaching and revival.143 As they became
more established, however, Moravians became more conventional in their
practices of preaching.
8. Revival and Preaching
The development of preaching and the sermon in the revival movements

of the mid-eighteenth century shows clear parallels to Pietism. Revival
preaching dealt with similar concerns including an emphasis on conversion,
the character of the preacher, itinerancy, the role of lay preaching, and the
place of the sermon within worship. In some cases, the revival movement
in Britain and North America took more radical positions on preaching
than did ecclesial Pietism in Germany. Revivalists often embraced, for
instance, itinerancy and the necessity of a regenerate ministry without, in
contrast to radical Pietism, separating themselves from the established
churches. In these revival movements, the personality of the preacher was
particularly emphasized, and revivalists such as Gilbert Tennent or George
Whitefield became public figures in a way that transcended local parishes
142
Ulrike Gleixner, Pietismus und Bürgertum: eine historische Anthropologie der
Frömmigkeit, Württemberg 17.–19. Jahrhundert (Göttingen, 2005), pp. 314–316. Theodor
Wotschke, “Der Pietismus in Moskau”, in Deutsche Wissenschaftliche Zeitschrift für Polen 18
(1930), pp. 53–95, at p. 61.
143
See above and Colin Podmore, The Moravian Church in England, 1728–1760
(Oxford, 1998), p. 99.
and congregations. The revivals reflected new forms of preaching as well as

innovative means of communication about preaching and its effects.
Born in Germany and trained in the Netherlands, the Reformed
preacher Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen (1691–1747) brought a dis-
tinctive style of preaching to the Raritan valley in New Jersey.144 Drawing
on the Nadere Reformatie, a religious renewal movement of seventeenth-
century Netherlands closely related to Puritanism and German Pietism,145
Frelinghuysen developed a method of addressing different audiences in his
sermons that presupposed varying levels of faith and stages of conversion
among his audiences. This classificatory method or discriminating preach-
ing, as it is sometimes known, sought to address multiple audiences within
a congregation in a sermon and not seek one general application of a
sermon for all listeners.146 In a manner reminiscent of August Hermann
Francke, Frelinghuysen called in his preaching for an experience of conver-
sion and personal introspection, exploring whether one had received the
marks of grace. Frelinghuysen’s revivalist preaching and his strict discipline
found a receptive audience among many Dutch immigrants, but it also
earned him considerable opposition among the Dutch elite in the middle
colonies.147 His remarkable success as a preacher also won him admirers
among clergy outside the Dutch Reformed church.
Taken with Frelinghuysen’s success in the Raritan valley, Gilbert Tennent
sought to emulate his colleague’s approach among his congregants in New
Brunswick. Coalter largely credits Frelinghuysen with Tennent’s transfor-
mation into one of the leading revivalist preachers in North America in
144
On Frelinghuysen, see James Tanis, Dutch Calvinistic Pietism in the Middle Colonies.
A Study in the Life and Theology of Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen (The Hague, 1967); Joel
R. Beeke ed., Forerunner of the Great Awakening: Sermons by Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen
1691–1747 (Grand Rapids, 2000), and Milton Coalter, Gilbert Tennent, Son of Thunder:
A Case Study of Continental Pietism’s Impact on the First Great Awakening in the Middle
Colonies (Westport, 1986), pp. 13–25.
145
For an overview with further literature, Fred van Lieburg, “From pure church to
pious culture: the further Reformation in the seventeenth-century Dutch Republic”, in
Later Calvinism, David Graham Murphy ed. (Kirksville, 1994), 409–430.
146
Frelinghuysen discusses his method of preaching in the ordination sermon, “Duties
of Watchmen on the Walls of Zion,” in Beeke, Forerunner of the Great Awakening, 280–
281. On the classificatory method in the Nadere Reformatie see Teunis Brienen, De predik-
ing van de Nadere Reformatie: Een onderzoek naar het gebruik van de klassifikatiemethode
binnen de prediking van de Nadere Reformatie (Amsterdam, 1974).
147
Randall Balmer describes the reception of Frelinghuysen’s revivalism among the
Dutch immigrants in “The Social Roots of Dutch Pietism in the Middle Colonies,” in
Church History 53 (1984), pp. 187–199. See also Randall Balmer, A Perfect Babel of
Confusion. Dutch Religion and English Culture in the Middle Colonies (New York, 1989),
esp. pp. 108–116.
206 jonathan strom
the 1730s.148 Along with continental Pietism, the tradition of Scots-Irish

revivalism stretching back to the seventeenth century also influenced
Tennent and Reformed revivalism in North America with its emphasis on
new birth and conversion as well as practices of outdoor preaching and
occasional itinerancy.149
Emphasizing the necessity of personal conviction and conversion rather
than doctrinal exposition, Tennent became widely known for his powerful
preaching of the terrors facing the unconverted who remained mired in
their false security. Tennent argued that the balm of the Gospel could be
applied only after there was a profound conviction of the soul.150 Just as
many Pietists did, Tennent became critical of an unregenerate clergy but
he took the argument further and argued that not only were clergy who
had not experienced a true conversion ineffectual, they were in practice the
allies of the Devil.151 This reasoning led to Tennent’s famous 1740 sermon,
The Danger of An Unconverted Ministry, in which Tennent excoriated
unconverted ministers and argued that they presented a clear danger to a
parishioner’s salvation.152 The implications for preaching were substantial.
Such an argument underscored both the need for godly preachers to itiner-
ate and loosened the connection between the laity and their appointed
ministers. Along with his emphasis on extemporaneous preaching, Tennent
represented the ‘new measures’ of preaching that would characterize revival
preaching of the early 1740s during the Great Awakening in America.
Less dramatic than Tennent, perhaps, but equally powerful in the pulpit
was Jonathan Edwards in Northampton, Massachusetts. In 1734 and
1735, Northampton and the surrounding area was swept by a revival
movement under Edwards. Revival preaching with a focus on conversion
was itself hardly unprecedented, but the regional rather than local charac-
ter of the revivals was new.153 Edwards applied the rationalism of the
148
Milton Coalter, Gilbert Tennent, Son of Thunder: A Case Study of Continental Pietism’s
Impact on the First Great Awakening in the Middle Colonies (Westport, 1986), p. 24.
149
On these influences, see Westerkamp, The Triumph of the Laity, and Leigh Eric
Schmidt, Holy Fairs: Scottish Communions and American Revivals in the Early Modern
Period, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids, 2001). Schmidt especially emphasizes the sacramental
background of revivals. As Brauer signals, however, both studies raise unanswered questions
about the nature and importance of revivalistic preaching. Jerald Brauer, “Revivalism
Revisited,” in Journal of Religion 77 (1997), p. 271.
150
Coalter, Gilbert Tennent, pp. 44–46.
151
Coalter, Gilbert Tennent, p. 44.
152
Gilbert Tennent, The Danger of an Unconverted Ministry (Philadelphia, 1740), and
Coalter, Gilbert Tennent, pp. 64–66.
153
Harry S. Stout, The New England Soul: Preaching and Religious Culture in Colonial
New England (New York, 1986), pp. 180, 189.
Enlightenment to an understanding of the emotions, and his preaching, as

Lambert argues, ‘had an emotional effect on his listeners as they heard
calm, quiet, clear, reasonable sermons setting forth the terrors awaiting the
unredeemed in an everlasting hell’.154 Edwards instituted new sermons
that were designed especially to reach young people who were key to the
revival’s success. He later penned an account of the events, in which preach-
ing is important but not the central focus of the work of the revival.
The translation and wide publication of accounts like Edwards’ Faithful
Narrative represent new forms of communication about revival and preach-
ing.155 The structure of Edwards’ sermons reflected the older Puritan style
of text, doctrine, and application and remained doctrinally orthodox, but
Kimnach, Minkema, and Sweeney emphasize the metaphysical aspect of
Edwards, who employed a radical rhetoric in his preaching that strove to
make the spiritual tangible in that it added ‘a new dimension of psycho-
logical realism in religious rhetoric’.156 Edwards also gave appeals to the
emotions in preaching philosophical justifications that made him the
leading theoretician of the revivals in North America.157 However, Edwards
did not embrace all innovations and he remained skeptical of the role
of lay preaching in the Awakening and continued to see it as a clerical
prerogative.158
George Whitefield became the best-known revival preacher on either
side of the Atlantic, and his rise to prominence marks new approaches to
preaching. Like the Pietists, he emphasized themes of New Birth and con-
version as well as personal experience, but in contrast to many Pietists, White-
field also rejected any semblance of classical oratory in preaching, and he
brought innovative forms of theatricality to his pulpit. He emphasized
extemporaneous preaching without any notes whatsoever and sometimes
even no predetermined biblical text. Further he moved preaching out of
154
Frank Lambert, Inventing the “Great Awakening” (Princeton, N.J., 1999), p. 65.
155
Jonathan Edwards, A Faithful Narrative of the Surprizing Work of God in the Conversion
of Many Hundred Souls in Northampton (London, 1737). Lambert describes the develop-
ment of the narrative and publication history; Lambert, Inventing the “Great Awakening”,
69–81. Ward emphasizes the influence of the narrative in continental Europe, where it was
translated and published almost immediately. Ward, The Protestant Evangelical Awakening,
pp. 91, 275.
156
Jonathan Edwards, The Sermons of Jonathan Edwards: A Reader, Wilson H. Kimnach,
Kenneth P. Minkema and Douglas A. Sweeney eds. (New Haven, 1999), pp. xiii, xix. They
note the rhetorical richness of Edwards’ preaching in contrast to the older “plain style.”
Kimnac et al., The Sermons of Jonathan Edwards, p. xx. Cf. Old, Moderatism, Pietism, and
Awakening, p. 253.
157
Stout, The New England Soul, pp. 202–207.
158
George Marsden, Jonathan Edwards: A Life (New Haven, 2003), p. 276.
208 jonathan strom
the churches and meetings houses and made open-air preaching a central
feature of the revival, a practice that most Pietists would reject.
Trained at Oxford where he was an associate of the Wesleys, Whitefield
was ordained a deacon in the Church of England in 1736 and began
preaching in churches in London to great acclaim. Stout emphasizes that
it was less the content of his sermons than his dramatic delivery and
emphasis on experience that set him apart from other preachers.159
Whitefield adopted a particularly theatrical approach in the pulpit that
Stout argues owes much to the English stage in the eighteenth century.160
At first he preached from written texts in the traditional Anglican manner,
but Whitefield quickly moved to a form of extemporaneous preaching that
was particularly amenable to his dramatic style.161 Whitefield drew large
crowds to the churches where he preached and news of success circulated
in the London press as well as rumblings of opposition.162 Whitefield
proved to be particularly adept at self-promotion throughout his career
and the skillful use of print and other forms of publicity would be critical
to his growing reputation.163
After a brief stint as a missionary to Georgia where he resolved to estab-
lish an orphanage, Whitefield returned to England. Ordained as a priest in
1739, he began a new phase as a field or open-air preacher. When he found
pulpits closed to him, Whitefield moved outside. Possessing a powerful
voice, he found open-air preaching particularly well-suited to his style of
delivery. He drew thousands of listeners from the coalfields of Kingswood
to the urban setting of London and became a sensation. He traveled to
North America again in 1739 and embarked on one of the most successful
preaching tours of the eighteenth century. The ‘Grand Itinerant’, as he
became known, preached from Georgia to Massachusetts to enthusiastic
crowds. Whitefield’s appeal cut across denominational lines and preaching
outdoors he drew thousands to hear his sermons.164 His preaching proved
especially effective in the religiously diverse context of North America.
159
Harry S. Stout, The Divine Dramatist: George Whitefield and the Rise of Modern
Evangelicalism (Grand Rapids, 1991), p. 38.
160
Stout, The Divine Dramatist, p. xviii.
161
Stout, The Divine Dramatist, pp. 39, 43.
162
Stout, The Divine Dramatist, pp. 46, 47.
163
Frank Lambert, “Pedlar in divinity”: George Whitefield and the Transatlantic Revivals,
1737–1770 (Princeton, 1994), esp. 47–51. See also Stout, The Divine Dramatist, p. 45.
164
In Philadelphia in November 1739, Whitefield preached to six thousand, roughly
one-half of the city’s population. Stout, The Divine Dramatist, p. 90.
Whitefield’s sermons reflect a strong orality. The dramatic delivery and

the ability to work spontaneous occurrences seamlessly into his sermons
gave his preaching an immediacy and sense that he was speaking directly
from the heart. Contemporaries such as Benjamin Franklin noted that his
printed sermons failed to convey the power of his preaching in person.165
Furthermore, as Stout argues, Whitefield’s itinerancy and lack of familiar-
ity with his audience changed the social context of preaching, moving it
away from the local context of churches and meetinghouses and the
authority of the standing ministry.166 Indeed part of Whitefield’s success
was also tied to his criticism of the clergy, in what has been called an
‘inverted jeremiad’. Rather than blaming the people themselves, Whitefield
and other revivalists made ‘lukewarm’ and presumably unconverted
ministers—and the colleges that trained them—responsible for the general
lack of piety.167
While the power of Whitefield’s preaching in person was extraordinary,
historians have also emphasized the importance of printed forms of com-
munication to his success. Revivalist magazines, newspaper accounts, the
publication of Whitefield’s journals and sermons, served to publicize his
preaching and prepare the public for its acceptance. Frank Lambert, in
particular, has stressed the importance of these modes of communication
in the ‘invention’ of the Great Awakening.168 Whitefield capitalized on
these forms of publicity and used them artfully to purvey the power of his
revivalist message.169
Whitefield established the standard for revivalist preaching in Great
Britain and North America. He and other revivalists made itinerant and
field preaching widely accepted forms of religious communication that
could complement and at times challenge traditional preaching in the
parishes and congregations. They emphasized extemporaneity, although
itinerancy afforded them the opportunity to return to similar themes over
165
Quoted in Stout, The Divine Dramatist, p. 192. See also Old, Moderatism, Pietism,
and Awakening, p. 137.
166
‘With his itinerancy, there blossomed an innovative style of public speaking that
redefined the social context of homiletics. In his revivals the power to speak was dispensed
from beneath, in the voluntary initiative of the people assembling in extrainsitutional set-
tings, thereby creating new models of authority and social order. Gone were seated meet-
inghouses and every other distinction that reinforced the ministry’s aristocratic claims.’
167
Stout, New England Soul, p. 194; Stout, The Divine Dramatist, p. 120.
168
On the concept of ‘invention’, see Lambert, Inventing the “Great Awakening”, p. 8.
169
Lambert argues that Whitefield conceived of his mission in commercial terms, seeing
himself as a “merchant of the Lord.” Lambert, “Pedlar in divinity”, p. 46.
210 jonathan strom
and over without fear that their ever-changing audience would have heard
them before. The practice of itinerant preaching he and others popularized
had far-reaching effects on the development of Protestantism in eight-
eenth-century North America as it loosened the connection to parish
boundaries across denominations.170 By emphasizing the personality of the
preacher and attacking the institutions that trained the ministry, they
opened new possibilities for lay preachers without academic qualifications,
including in some cases women.171 As a preacher, Whitefield and a number
of his colleagues also became public figures that transcended denomina-
tions or confessional boundaries. This was based in part on their extraordi-
nary effectiveness in person but also on the shrewd use of publications that
promoted their stature as extraordinary preachers.
The revival waned in North America by the mid-1740s and some pulled
away from revivalist emphases. Once the scourge of unconverted minis-
ters, Gilbert Tennent began to seek rapprochement between pro-revivalist
‘New Side’ and the more traditional ‘Old Side’ Presbyterians, and his
own preaching moved away from the revivalist style.172 Opposition to
revivalist practices hardened in many areas.173 Whitefield remained a pop-
ular preacher throughout his life, and he embodied a new style of evangeli-
cal preaching, but revivalist forms of preaching found their greatest
acceptance and success in the burgeoning Methodist movement under the
direction of the Wesleys.
John Wesley never matched the reputation of Whitefield as a preacher,
but under his organizational verve and unstinting energy, Methodism
became the most important movement to emerge from revivalism of the
eighteenth century. It made revivalist forms of preaching such as itiner-
ancy, open-air preaching, and lay preaching a key part of its extraordinary
success.
Influenced by Whitefield’s success, Wesley began field preaching in
1739 and made it part of his evangelical movement that was centered
on the new Methodist societies in England. Wesley saw it as part of his
170
Timothy D. Hall, Contested Boundaries: Itinerancy and the Reshaping of the Colonial
American Religious World (Durham, 1994).
171
Brekus describes the emergence of women exhorters during the Awakening in the
1740s, who, however, left few records. Catherine A. Brekus, Strangers & Pilgrims: Female
Preaching in America, 1740–1845 (Chapel Hill, 1998), pp. 44–61.
172
After 1744 and his move to Philadelphia, Tennent increasingly relied on detailed
notes and sermon manuscripts rather than an extemporaneous preaching. Coalter, Gilbert
Tennent, pp. 122–123.
173
Lambert, Inventing the “Great Awakening”, pp. 185–221.
mission to reach those that were left untouched by the regular parish
preaching of the Church of England.174 Lacking the theatricality of
Whitefield, Wesley was nonetheless a powerful and effective preacher,
often drawing thousands to hear him preach. Wesley’s sermons tended to
be short—generally a half an hour or less—and focused on the clear appli-
cation of a scriptural theme.175 Later Wesley described the best method of
preaching as: ‘(1.) to invite. (2.) To convince. (3.) To offer Christ. (4.) To
build up; and to do this in some measure in every sermon’.176
Wesley was a prodigious preacher, delivering an estimated 40,000 ser-
mons during his long career. But where Wesley was not the orator that
Whitefield and other revivalists were, he more thoroughly instituted revival
forms of preaching than any other figure of the eighteenth century and
established a legacy that made Methodism one of the most dynamic Prot-
estant movements of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Certainly
Wesley’s personal example as an itinerant preacher was part of this success.
Wesley’s published sermons, however, differ from those of some other
revivalists or Pietists. Wesley brought relatively few of his sermons to print.
Many were published long after they were originally delivered and most
were carefully composed and then edited for a wider audience. Those he
did publish took on a model character for the movement as succinct state-
ments of Methodist teaching and doctrine. Wesley published the first
collection in 1746 as Sermons on Several Occasions to show critics and sup-
porters ‘the Substance of what I have been preaching, for between Eight
and Nine years last past’.177 Rather than an attempt to communicate in
print the immediacy and orality of the preaching event, these were care-
fully constructed and re-edited in order to demonstrate the central teach-
ings and doctrines of Wesley and his emerging Methodist movement. As
such, they functioned as a doctrinal guide for his corps of lay preachers.
Wesley’s unstinting example as a preacher was undoubtedly a force
within the emerging Methodist movement, but the movement’s remarkable
174
On Wesley’s decision to begin field preaching, William Parkes, “John Wesley: Field
Preacher,” in Methodist History (1992) 30, pp. 217–223.
175
Parkes, “John Wesley”, p. 223.
176
John Wesley, The Works of John Wesley 3rd ed., VIII (Peabody, 1984 [1872]), p. 317.
177
John Wesley, Sermons on Several Occasions: In Three Volumes (London, 1746), preface.
The planned second and third volumes were published in 1748 and 1750. A fourth was
added in 1760 and these volumes comprise the 44 “Standard Sermons” of Wesley’s corpus.
Additional sermons were added in later editions reaching eight volumes by the time of his
death. For the publishing history of Wesley’s sermons, see Albert Outler, “Introduction” in
The Works of John Wesley I (Nashville, 1984), pp. 29–54.
212 jonathan strom
growth was not based solely on the charisma of a handful of evangelists.

One of Wesley’s great successes was the way in which he was able to employ
lay preachers so effectively in the spread of the movement. Preaching by
non-theologically trained laymen was by no means unprecedented in
English Protestantism—the ‘mechanic preachers’ of radical Puritanism are
but one example. But Wesley was able to assemble a corps of these lay
preachers and incorporate them as part of a formal religious organization
in dynamic fashion that others could not match. In the first Methodist
Conference of 1744 called by Wesley, he and his collaborators gave shape
to an organization that would institutionalize itinerancy and lay preach-
ing. By 1745 there were fifty lay preachers associated with Wesley.178 These
would grow substantially in the coming years, and the mobilization of lay
preachers was a major factor in Methodism’s extraordinary growth. The
itinerant lay preachers were rotated frequently in their circuits, in part to
ensure that their sermons not turn stale or repetitive.179 In addition to
these ‘assistants’ and ‘helpers’ as the itinerant preachers were known, were
local preachers, who as Wesley noted, ‘assist us only in one place’.180
Wesley’s embrace of preaching by lay men without formal theological
training was a central part of the movement, and this opened a possible
avenue for exhorting and preaching by women as well. Women generally
constituted a majority of the early Methodist societies and played a critical
role within the bands and classes. After 1760 a number of women went
beyond public praying, witnessing or exhorting and began preaching
within the movement. While initially wary, John Wesley eventually recog-
nized their ‘extraordinary call’ to preach in Methodism.181 Although
the numbers were never very large—around forty—Wesley supported a
number of women such as Sarah Crosby, Mary Bosanquet, and Sarah
Mallet, the latter of which received official recognition within the Methodist
Conference in 1787. After Wesley’s death, the number of women preach-
ers declined, and they were eventually repressed and excluded from public
preaching.182
178
The Works of John Wesley, vol. 9: The Methodist Societies. History, Nature and Design,
Rupert E. Davies ed. (Nashville, 1989), p.16.
179
Davies ed., The Methodist Societies, p. 16.
180
Quoted in Davies ed., The Methodist Societies, p. 17.
181
Paul Wesley Chilcote, John Wesley and the Women Preachers of Early Methodism
(Metuchen, N.J., 1991), p. 143.
182
Chilcote, John Wesley, pp. 232–237. See also Jean Miller Schmidt, Grace Sufficient:
A History of Women in American Methodism (Nashville, 1999), pp. 29–32.
Wesley never intended his societies as a separation from the Church of

England; rather he saw them as a supplement to its worship and sacra-
ments. Methodists did establish their own preaching houses, and through
the classes and bands they cultivated a rich and highly successful religious
culture. Frequent preaching was a critical part of its success, but it was only
one aspect of Methodism, which employed gatherings in classes and bands,
liturgical practices such as the love feast, and above all its rich hymnody to
further its distinctive piety.183 In Wesley’s instructions for preachers he
moved seamlessly from discussing the style and manner of preaching to the
selection of hymns and their effective use, illustrating how closely preach-
ing and hymns were associated in Methodism.184
The Methodist practices of itinerancy and preaching by men—and
sometimes women—without formal theological training helped make
Methodism into one of the most dynamic religious movements of the
eighteenth century. Particularly, in North America the institutionalization
of itinerancy and revival preaching found extraordinary growth and made
Methodism’s distinctive approach to preaching one of the dominant forms
in nineteenth century America.
9. Conclusion
Pietism and Revivalism challenged traditional sermons and the practices

of preaching, but historians should not discount the continuity with ear-
lier periods. This is especially the case for ecclesial Pietism. Like many
contemporaries, Pietists questioned undue reliance on the sermon, and to
supplement it, they proposed conventicles and other devotional practices,
which in turn opened up new possibilities for religious speech. The typical
Pietist criticisms of the sermon against excessive rhetorical devices, florid
language, or attempts to entertain rather than edify were not unique to
Pietism and were shared by contemporaries, including many Orthodox
opponents. They did, however, develop distinctive themes. Pietists empha-
sized Erbauung, conversion and the personal application of scripture to
183
Hempton describes the Methodist sermon along with hymns and gatherings as quin-
tessential Methodists practices. David Hempton, Methodism: Empire of the Spirit (New
Haven, 2005), pp. 74–85. On the early classes, see David Lowes Watson, The Early
Methodist Class Meeting: Its Origins and Significance (Nashville, 1987).
184
Wesley, Works, vol. 8 (1984), pp. 317–318.
214 jonathan strom
one’s own life. Further, Pietists were generally open to freer homiletical
forms and they disdained certain devices, especially non-biblical emblems
and figures.
Nonetheless, preaching among Pietists such as Spener and Francke
remained conventional in many respects. Mainstream Pietist preaching
was based in the parish, delivered from the pulpit, followed the prescribed
lections as part of the liturgy, and, despite attempts to shorten its duration,
remained roughly of the same length as in the seventeenth century. The
traditional rhetorical structure of the sermon became less obvious but con-
tinued to provide the underlying framework. University education for
preachers remained the norm. Pietists questioned the sufficiency of the
sermon for devotional life, but at the same time their emphasis on
the regenerate character of the clergy put the personality of the preacher
in the foreground. In contrast to the revivalists, many of whom also
retained their church ties, ecclesial Pietists did not advocate itinerancy, nor
did they employ field preaching as strategy. They did take advantage of
new forms of communication to distribute their sermons as inexpensive
pamphlet literature, making their sermons influential models for other
preachers as well as a form of devotional literature.
The legacy of the moderate Pietists for preaching was therefore mixed.
While they criticized the form and function of the sermon and offered
supplemental devotional exercises, their emphasis on preaching as a pre-
rogative of highly educated, ordained clergy, the setting of the sermon
within the established liturgies of the church, its delivery from the pulpit,
and the continued use of the prescribed lections all tended to reinforce the
traditional place of the sermon even as they developed new thematic inter-
ests. The Pietist emphasis on the spiritual disposition of the preacher could
undermine the authority of some preachers whose sincerity their congre-
gants doubted, but as a paragon of godliness, the Pietist preacher could
also endow his sermons with greater authority and reinforce their place
within traditional church services.185
Rejecting non-traditional forms of preaching advocated by the radicals
and revivalists, the ecclesial Pietist understanding of Erbauung and criticism
of excessive artifice in their sermons fit well with emerging rationalist ideas
of the sermon. From Mosheim on, scholars have recognized an affinity
between moderate Pietist views of preaching and those of the rationalists
185
For an example, see the idealization of the pietistic preacher in Karl Philipp Moritz,
Anton Reiser: Ein psychologischer Roman (Leipzig, 1987), pp. 57–66.
in the eighteenth century.186 To be sure, the Pietist understanding of

Erbauung with its emphasis on individual spiritual awakening and conver-
sion differed significantly from the largely moral and didactic emphasis of
the Rationalists. Indeed, one of the ironies of ecclesial Pietist preaching
may have been its indirect contribution to Rationalist preaching, against
which the descendants of Pietism in the nineteenth century would react so
strongly.
The tradition of eighteenth-century Pietist preaching lived on in edi-
tions of sermons that were reprinted in the nineteenth century. Sermons
by Spener, Francke, and Bengel all enjoyed new editions, but in the case of
Francke, for whom a complete bibliography exists, sermons make up only
a small part of his works reprinted between 1800 and 1900,187 pointing
perhaps to a different role of printed sermons in devotional life. The extent
of continuity between eighteenth century Pietism and correlate movements
of the nineteenth including the Erweckungsbewegung remains controver-
sial, but the continued publication of eighteenth century sermons, some-
times across national and linguistic borders, ensured a measure of literary
continuity.188
Radical Pietists and the Moravians broke more decisively with tradition
in their practices of preaching. There was a range of preaching practice
among radical Pietists, but in general, they emphasized direct illumination
by the Spirit and tended to dissociate preaching from the ordained und
university educated ministry. They were able to incorporate lay preaching
more easily into their practices and widened the setting beyond the pulpit
of the parish church. Some radicals such as Dippel spiritualized practices
to the point where preaching became superfluous, where others such as the
Inspirationists essentially merged prophecy with preaching. Still others
like Arnold continued to find a place for preaching in the established
churches even as he radicalized his understanding of it. The radicals drew
on Pietist conventicles as forums for their preaching and Pietist networks
allowed dissident clergy and lay preachers to itinerate. Radicals more
readily offered women opportunities for leadership and preaching, but
outside of the prophecy of the Inspirationists and the Finnish somnabulent
186
See above and Schian, Orthodoxie und Pietismus, pp. 154–164.
187
See Raabe and Pfeiffer, August Hermann Francke 1663–1727, pp. 727–731.
188
On the question of the continuity in the nineteenth century, see most recently,
Hartmut Lehmann, “Erledigte und nicht erledigte Aufgaben der Pietismusforschung. Eine
nochmalige Antwort an Johannes Wallmann”, in Pietismus und Neuzeit, 31 (2005),
pp. 13–20.
216 jonathan strom
preachers—both of which continued throughout the nineteenth century—

radical Pietists did not generally establish lasting practices of female
preaching.
More than any other Pietist group, Moravians instituted new practices
of preaching within their communities, although these were embedded
in a rich array of distinctive liturgical and devotional practices. Their
‘Diaspora’ endeavors carried out by itinerant preachers allowed them to
connect small communities of awakened Christians throughout Europe
and North America. Moravians were the only Pietist group to institute
regular preaching by women, though this remained limited and was
never exercised in public. As a practice it was largely discontinued after
Zinzendorf ’s death.189
Revivalists instituted many of the more radical practices of Pietism,
without, however, necessarily separating from the established confessions
or denominations as radical Pietists did. The itinerant preacher became a
fixture of the revivals of the eighteenth century, and they challenged the
relationship between the parish minister and his flock. Revivalists also
tended to break more strongly with traditional forms of the sermon. White-
field’s emphasis on extemporaneity allowed him to introduce spontaneity
and theatricality into his sermons in a way that Pietists did not. Like most
Pietists, revivalists also stressed the importance of a converted ministry for
effective preaching, but a number took it further than most moderate
Pietists would find comfortable. In contrast to Pietists, they embraced field
preaching to reach new audiences. While revivalists and Pietists both used
the new forms of communication skillfully to further their goals, revival-
ists were particularly adept at employing news accounts about the success
of revivalist preaching to increase their support. Revivalists were split on
the issue of lay preaching, but under John Wesley, the Methodist move-
ment institutionalized itinerant lay preaching as a fundamental aspect of
its organization. Products of revivalism, these Wesleyan lay preachers
helped make Methodism one of the most dynamic religious movements of
the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and profoundly shaped sermons
and the practice of preaching well into the nineteenth century.
Many of the innovations pioneered by revivalists gained momentum in
the nineteenth century, and the legacy of eighteenth-century revivalist
189
See Beverly Smaby, “ ‘Only Brothers should be accepted into this proposed council’:
Restricting Women’s Leadership in Moravian Bethlehem,” in Pietism in Germany and
North America, 1680–1820: Transmissions of Dissent, Jonathan Strom et al eds. (Aldershot,
forthcoming 2009).
preaching was in many respects more direct than that of moderate Pietism.
With roots in Scots-Irish and North American revivalism, the Cane Ridge
revival of 1801 inaugurated the nineteenth-century the camp meeting, in
which the community formed itself around the occasion of revival. The
camp meeting signified a further break from traditional, Protestant parish-
based preaching, in which not only the preachers itinerated, but in a sense
the audience did as well.190 When Charles Finney, the most prominent
evangelist of the Second Great Awakening, embraced the ‘new measures’ of
preaching, he consciously endorsed the practices of eighteenth century
revivalists along with new features, such as the anxious seat and spontane-
ous exhortation, that were adeptly employed to wring the maximum
number of conversions from his audience.191 Itinerancy and lay preaching,
already features of eighteenth century revivalism, became more widely
established in nineteenth century and profoundly affected the develop-
ment of Christianity, especially in North America.192 One result was the
emergence of many more women preachers in the revival traditions. Just
as the eighteenth-century Pietists and revivalists had used print media
to communicate effectively about preaching, its use intensified among
nineteenth century revivalists. Anglo-American and continental revival
movements of the nineteenth century influenced each other, although
continental revival movements never developed the mass events with
large-scale conversions that were a feature of Anglo-American revival
preaching.193
If at the end of the seventeenth century, regular parish preaching was
one of the most public events of the early modern village or town, in the
course of the eighteenth century the traditional sermon faced increasing
competition from religious and non-religious forms of communication
that challenged its centrality and form. Establishing innovative practices of
preaching, Pietism and Revivalism contributed to these challenges, but
190
Marilyn J. Westerkamp, Women and religion in early America, 1600–1850: The
Puritan and Evangelical traditions (London, 1999), p. 107.
191
Charles G. Finney, Lectures on Revivals of Religion 2nd ed. (New York, 1835), p. 252.
For a detailed description of these ‘new measures’ in Britain and North America, see
Richard Carwardine, Transtatlantic Revivalism: Popular Evangelicalism in Britain and
America, 1790–1865 (Westport, 1978), pp. 3–42; Ted A. Smith, The New Measures:
A Theological History of Democratic Practice (New York, 2007).
192
For the effects on the United States, see Nathan O. Hatch, The Democratization of
American Christianity (New Haven, 1989), esp. pp. 3–9.
193
On this distinction, Ulrich Gäbler, “Auferstehungszeit”. Erweckungsprediger des 19.
Jahrhunderts: Sechs Portraits (Munich, 1991), p. 165.
218 jonathan strom
they also sought to revitalize preaching in an era of religious, cultural, and

political change. Moderate Pietists focused on reshaping the sermon to
accommodate Pietist notions of Erbauung, conversion, and the character
of the preacher within the parish context. Radical Pietists, Moravians, and
Revivalists extended innovations beyond the parish and ordained ministry.
Especially Revivalism would launch new models of preaching and com-
munication that would be powerfully effective in Great Britain and North
America, establishing a legacy of preaching that continued well into the
next century.
THE ENLIGHTENMENT SERMON: TOWARDS
PRACTICAL RELIGION AND A SACRED
NATIONAL COMMUNITY
Pasi Ihalainen
The idea that European thought had undergone a fundamental seculariza-

tion was the premise of eighteenth-century studies for much of the twen-
tieth century. Such a paradigm suggests that “the Enlightenment” and
“sermon” must be opposite – even antithetical – terms. It will be argued in
this chapter that this is not the case. Instead, the Enlightenment should be
seen as a period of intellectual debate, resulting in changes that took place
not only in opposition to but also within religion. Sermons need to be
analysed as important contributions to the Enlightenment debate and to
the emergence of modernity as such.
The clergy, as a social group that had received professional education,
and the sermon, as a genre of public debate, were involved both in main-
taining intellectual continuity and in facilitating the intellectual change
which Western Christendom experienced during the eighteenth century.
Particularly in North-Western Europe and North America, preachers were
influenced by Enlightenment thought. In many cases, their engagement
resulted only in a defence of tradition. Yet it could also mean that clergy-
men acquainted themselves with new ideas, adopting them, and some-
times actively contributing to their development. Indeed, in the Age of the
Enlightenment, sermons were expected to have a practical purpose and to
reflect current debates. In preparing their sermons, the less dogmatically
oriented members of the clergy were able to redescribe the Christian reli-
gious confessions and political theories as well. By addressing current
themes in their sermons – accommodating them either intentionally or
unintentionally – and thus gradually reinterpreting the worldview propa-
gated by the Church, the preachers made their own contribution to intel-
lectual change. In this way, they provided emerging modernity a religious
sanctification. They also propagated ideas combining traditional religion
and moderate forms of Enlightenment thought to audiences which might
otherwise not have learned about them via other media. This meant that
members of the clergy could support the intellectual shift towards modernity
not only among the higher echelons of society but also among the masses.
220 pasi ihalainen
This chapter focuses on the Enlightenment renewal of the sermon

within the public churches of North-Western Europe in the late eighteenth
century. By the renewal of the sermon I am referring to the adaptation of
the theory, form, style, and theological and political content of sermons to
the modes of thinking characteristic of the Enlightenment. Public churches
are the main focus here, as changes within state religion and the ideology
propagated by it can be assumed to reflect transformations in mainstream
values. In their public statements, religious minorities predominantly
conformed to the common values provided by the state and voiced by its
privileged church, so that whatever diverging views they may have had did
not figure prominently in their preaching.
The Enlightenment sermon will be approached from three perspectives.
Firstly, I shall define the Enlightenment sermon in the context of the recent
scholarly debate on religion and the Enlightenment. Secondly, I shall
present a comparative exploration of how the Enlightenment sermon has
been understood in different national contexts. Thirdly, I shall analyse the
elements of Enlightenment thought contained in the sermons by focusing
on the specific genre of the political sermon, which, due to its unusual
politico-religious authority, played a particularly important role in regis-
tering, sanctifying, reinforcing and sometimes producing changes in the
contemporary worldview. Ten political sermons originating from Anglican,
French Catholic, French Constitutional, Austrian Catholic, Prussian
Lutheran, Dutch Reformed and Swedish Lutheran contexts will be ana-
lysed for this purpose. The analysis will reveal how deeply involved
the sermon was in the process of Enlightenment, at the same time both
advancing and criticizing it.
1. The Enlightenment Sermon: A Contradiction in Terms?
The eighteenth century is still viewed by many as an era during which

religious belief waned, political theory and practice liberated themselves
from the domination of religion, and religion was pushed to the margins of
social life. The Enlightenment has conventionally been interpreted as being
radically secularist and as an alternative to supernaturalism. The rise of
secular modernity is believed to have been a unilateral process, and this has
led many historians to conclude that everything “religious” in the eight-
eenth century was passée or at best a desperate defence of the old world.
the enlightenment sermon 221
They have argued that secularization, naturalization, rationalization and

modernization were the leading trends, not religiosity of any kind.1
It is now clear that the secularization thesis is beset with problems.
An increasing number of scholars have argued that both change and con-
tinuity should be studied and that the consideration of continuity means
that religion should also be taken seriously as a political, social and ideo-
logical force. Furthermore, religion potentially had a considerable level of
dynamism and could even act as a catalyst for change in a world which
cannot be simply divided into two with traditional religion opposing
progressive Enlightenment within religious communities.2 Religion and
other expressions of thought interacted in a fruitful manner throughout
the eighteenth century. Confrontations between the established church
and radical forms of the Enlightenment only became irreconcilable in
1
See Roy Porter, Enlightenment: Britain and the Creation of the Modern World (London,
2000), with references to how “ecclesiastics had been secularizing themselves” (p. 98), “the
rejection of traditional Christian dogmas in favour of new secular models” (p. 219) and
“a profound transformation of mentalities, secularization and naturalization” (p. 229). The
Enlightenment World, Martin Fitzpatrick, Peter Jones, Christa Knellwolf and Ian McCalman
eds. (Abingdon, 2007) discusses the Enlightenment and religion only through conven-
tional themes such as the critique of Christianity, the debate on toleration, German Pietism,
deism, materialism, and atheism. For summaries of historians’ arguments on the
Enlightenment and religion, see Dorinda Outram, The Enlightenment (Cambridge, 1995),
p. 31; Jeremy Gregory, “Christianity and Culture: Religion, the Arts and the Sciences in
England, 1660–1800”, in Culture and Society in Britain 1660–1800, Jeremy Black ed.
(Manchester, 1997), p. 102; and James E. Bradley and Dale K. Van Kley, “Introduction”,
in Religion and Politics in Enlightenment Europe, James E. Bradley and Dale K. Van Kley
eds. (Notre Dame, 2001), pp. 1–17.
2
J.C.D. Clark, English Society 1688–1832: Ideology, Social Structure and Political Practice
During the Ancient Regime (Cambridge, 1985); Robert Hole, Pulpits, Politics and Public
Order in England 1760–1832 (Cambridge, 1989); Joris van Eijnatten, God, Nederland en
Oranje: Dutch Calvinism and the Search for the Social Centre (Amsterdam, 1993); Peter van
Rooden, Religieuze regimes. Over godsdienst en maatschappij in Nederland 1570–1990
(Amsterdam, 1996); Tony Claydon, William III and the Godly Revolution (Cambridge,
1996); B.W. Young, Religion and Enlightenment in Eighteenth-Century England: Theological
Debate from Locke to Burke (Oxford, 1998); Pasi Ihalainen, The Discourse on Political
Pluralism in Early Eighteenth-Century England (Helsinki, 1999); Tony Claydon, “The
sermons, the ‘public sphere’ and the political culture of late seventeenth-century England”,
in The English Sermon Revised: Religion, Literature and History 1600–1750, Lori Anne
Ferrell and Peter McCullough eds. (Manchester, 2000), pp. 208–234; Bradley and Van
Kley, “Introduction”, pp. 36–37; Jonathan Sheehan, “Enlightenment, Religion, and the
Enigma of Secularization: A Review Essay”, The American Historical Review 108 (2003),
1057–1080; S.J. Barnett, The Enlightenment and Religion: The Myths of Modernity
(Manchester, 2003); Joris van Eijnatten, Liberty and Concord in the United Provinces:
Religious Toleration and the Public in the Eighteenth-Century Netherlands (Leiden, 2003);
222 pasi ihalainen
France – and only during the Revolution. In most European countries and
even in France, Christians yearning for reform and some clergymen of the
established churches could play an active role in the Enlightenment.3
The sermon, in turn, was one of the genres which could be used to redefine
prevalent values in the context of emerging modernity.
Defining “the Enlightenment” as the belief in human reason, a scientific
worldview and a hostile attitude towards religion inevitably excludes any
analysis of interaction between religion and other areas of discourses.4
We therefore need to adopt a broader definition of the Enlightenment, as
advocated by Jeremy Black, Dorinda Outram and Thomas Munck, among
others. These scholars have emphasized the highly diversified and often
contradictory nature of the Enlightenment as it appeared in various
national contexts. The Enlightenment should in their view be seen as a
critical attitude and as a series of debates on the acute problems of the
time. The Enlightenment took on various forms in different national and
cultural contexts, sometimes remaining marginal and at other times con-
tributing to revolutionary intellectual, social and political change.5 The
Enlightenment was also a process of communication, in which new ideas
were spread that led to millions of Europeans reconsidering their tradi-
tional values and beliefs.6 This contributed gradually to the establishment
of a practical modernity, or a new way of seeing the relationship between
religion and other areas of life, which often quite creatively reconciled
the changing social and political realities and emerging new ideas with
inherited tradition.
Pasi Ihalainen, Protestant Nations Redefined: Changing Perceptions of National Identity

in the Rhetoric of the English, Dutch and Swedish Public Churches, 1685–1772 (Leiden,
2005); Dale K. Van Kley, “Piety and politics in the century of lights”, in The Cambridge
History of Eighteenth-Century Political Thought, Mark Goldie and Robert Wokler eds.
(Cambridge, 2006), pp. 110–143.
3
Nigel Aston, Christianity and Revolutionary Europe, 1750–1830 (Cambridge, 2002),
p. 93. See also Gregory, “Christianity and Culture”, p. 103, Outram, The Enlightenment,
p. 34; Jeremy Black, Eighteenth Century Europe, 2nd ed. (Basingstoke, 1999), p. 262;
Ernestine van der Wall, “Religie en verlichting. Harmonie of conflict?” De Achttiende Eeuw
32 (2000), pp. 5–16, at p. 10; Helena Rosenblatt, “The Christian Enlightenment”, in
Stewart J. Brown and Timothy Tackett eds., The Cambridge History of Christianity:
Enlightenment, Reawakening and Revolution 1660–1815 (Cambridge, 2006), pp. 283–301,
at pp. 283–284.
4
Cf. Tore Frängsmyr, Sökandet efter upplysningen (Stockholm, 1993); see also Outram,
The Enlightenment, pp. 4–5, 8.
5
Outram, The Enlightenment, pp. 3, 12; Black, Eighteenth Century Europe, pp. 246–262;
Thomas Munck, The Enlightenment: A Comparative Social History 1721–1794 (London,
2000), pp. 4–7.
6
Munck, The Enlightenment, p. 20.
This understanding of the Enlightenment as a variegated phenomenon

that combined an interest in new ideas, attempts to reconcile them with
older patterns of thought, and a willingness to communicate them to the
masses, suggests that sermon literature, too, needs to be examined. Printed
sermons contained both traditional and Enlightenment ideas and sometimes
had a considerable audience. They thereby contributed to the development
of European thought. Some clergymen, aware of the current state of the
debate, included entirely new ideas in their sermons. Orthodox clerics,
while apparently loyal to traditional doctrine and preaching conventions,
were also affected by changes in the form and content of sermons and thus
came to surprisingly new conclusions, making them participants in the
process of intellectual change.
The current historiographical debates on Enlightenment and religion
lead to a similar reinterpretation on interaction between the Enlightenment
and sermons. As a consequence of the “revisionist” controversy of the late
1980s, mainstream British history writing now rejects strict definitions of
the Enlightenment as a sceptical, anti-clerical, and conscious alternative to
religion. Indeed, some historians want to dispense with the entire category
as an anti-religious, polemical, oversimplifying, modernist nineteenth-
century invention. They also argue that religion was not marginalized in
the eighteenth century in the way that the term “secularization” suggests.7
In the Netherlands as well the religious dimensions of the Enlightenment
have been considered, the conclusion being either that the relationship
between religion and the Enlightenment was harmonious or that the two
were never distinct from one another in the first place.8 This Anglo-Dutch
paradigmatic shift can be contrasted with a tendency in some Continental
eighteenth-century studies to reinforce the older interpretation of the
Enlightenment as anticlerical criticism and the defence of reason.9 Yet
7
J.C.D. Clark, “Providence, Predestination and Progress: Or, Did the Enlightenment
Fail?,” in Ordering the World in the Eighteenth Century, eds. Diane Donald and Frank
O’Gorman, (Basingstoke, 2005), pp. 27–28, 51–52.
8
Van der Wall, “Religie en verlichting”, pp. 10–11.
9
See Jean Mondot, “Einleitung”, in Les Lumières et leur combat. La critique de la religion
et des Églises à l’époque des Lumières, Jean Mondot ed. (Berlin, 2004), pp. xiii, xv; cf. Ulrich
Dierse, “Das Verhältnis von Vernuft und Offenbarung bei den Theologen der Neologie”, in
Mondot, Les Lumières et leur combat, pp. 87–88, who points out that Aufklärung in the
form of neology worked within Christian theology and the church; and Peter M. Jones,
“ ‘And Calm of Mind, all Passion Spent’: Church and State in England during the Eighteenth
Century”, in Mondot, Les Lumières et leur combat, pp. 167 and 170, who distinguishes
between anticlericalism and the critique of religion and questions the paradigm of the
Enlightenment as totally anti-Christian; cf. also Religion und Aufklärung. Studien zur
224 pasi ihalainen
some American, German, Scandinavian, and even French historians have

started to emphasize the continuing ideological significance of religion in
eighteenth-century society and the ability of religion to support forms of
practical modernity.10
Such an approach rejects the assumption that secularization and moder-
nity refer to identical processes, and focuses instead on the potentially
constructive elements of religion in eighteenth-century intellectual life.
While the interpretation of the Enlightenment and religion as opposites
would by definition render the concept of the Enlightenment sermon
contradictory, the new paradigm, which aims at analysing the interaction
and intimate links between the Enlightenment and religion, renders the
study of Enlightenment sermons quintessential. The “religious Enlighten-
ment” approach facilitates the recognition that the Enlightenment and the
Counter-Enlightenment had common interests. It helps us to find Enlight-
ened ways of thinking among educated members of the clergy, and to see
how religious discourse, too, changed as a result of the Enlightenment.
The Enlightenment appears as a debate in which religion was involved rather
than as a confrontation in the course of which religion was excluded.
To be sure, the established churches were challenged in a number of
ways in the eighteenth century, often by intellectuals who called for reforms
within Christianity. The anticlerical critique of the church rarely arose out
of pure atheism, however. A process of fundamental religious change was
taking place within the apparently unchanging external forms of religion.
Intellectual conflicts in which politics and religion were deeply intertwined,
contributed to the formation of some major aspects of the Enlightenment.11
Sermon literature, in particular, provides an abundance of instances in
which leading clerics were willing to defend traditional religion with both
old and new arguments, and to reconsider their assumptions on the basis
of the new ideas expressed in Enlightened discourse. It illustrates how
a significant intellectual change occurred within apparently traditional
modes of discourse and not only within an alternative secular discourse
neuzeitlichen “Umformung des Christlichen”, Albrecht Beutel and Volker Leppin eds.
(Leipzig, 2004), which sees the Enlightenment as a phase in the continuous reform of
Christianity.
10
Michael Bregnsbo, Samfundsorden og statsmagt set fra prædikestolen. Danske præsters
deltagelse i den offentlige opinionsdannelse vedrørende samfundsordenen og statsmagten 1750–
1848, belyst ved trykte prædikener (Copenhagen, 1997); Pierre Chaunu, Le basculement
religieux de Paris au XVIIIe siècle: essai d’histoire politique et religieuse (Paris, 1998); Ihalainen,
The Discourse; Sheenan, “Enlightenment”; Ihalainen, Protestant Nations; Van Kley, “Piety
and politics”, p. 110.
11
Barnett, The Enlightenment and Religion, pp. 14, 26–27.
which openly challenged orthodoxy.12 Orthodox Protestantism – and

sometimes even Catholicism – was capable of considerable dynamism in
its response to the challenges of modernity.
How might we then characterize the Enlightenment sermon from the
point of view of the religious Enlightenment? The content of an Enlighten-
ment sermon could include one or more of the following features:13
(i) the recognition of contemporary economic, social, political or intel-
lectual change and the willingness to view the consequences of change
as potentially positive;
(ii) the willingness to build on a language not oriented towards tradi-
tional theological doctrine (for instance by appealing to the rhetoric
of classical republicanism, freedom, popular sovereignty, economy,
mechanical natural philosophy) as opposed to the strict adherence to
religious dogmas typical of seventeenth-century orthodoxies;
(iii) a trust in the capability of human beings to achieve social progress
and a related future-oriented outlook;
(iv) an emphasis on the use of reason and on freedom of thought;
(v) outspoken participation in Enlightenment debates on for example
toleration, the form of government, and proper citizenship.
This approach to the Enlightenment sermon must be flexibly applied by
examining the theological, political, social and cultural content of each
sermon, and not by building on any established canon of Enlightenment
preachers. The emphasis in the following will be on the role of the
Enlightenment sermon in political culture rather than on its contribution
to theological debate or homiletic developments. Yet theology and homi-
letics will also be considered. The change in the structure of sermons from
‘analytic’ to ‘synthetic’, which favoured clarity, practice, and the discussion
of a moral theme instead of a particular theological point, led to innova-
tions within perfectly orthodox sermons as well.
12
See J.G.A. Pocock, “Within the margins: the definitions of orthodoxy”, in The Margins
of Orthodoxy: Heterodox Writing and Cultural Response, 1660–1750, Roger D. Lund ed.
(Cambridge, 1995), p. 35.
13
Among the examples analysed below, the Anglican ones contain most of these
features. The French example from 1774 mainly builds on feature (ii), while the example
from 1791 contains them all. The instances from the German states (1791 and 1814) lack
most of these features, although they make use of the language of classical patriotism and
comment on the Enlightenment. The same is true of the Dutch case, the example from
1785 merely discussing patriotism, while that from 1795 expresses a belief in progress as
well. The Swedish instance from 1762 combines features (ii), (iv) and even (v), while that
from 1810 focusses on features (i), (ii) and (iii). See also Rosenblatt, “The Christian
Enlightenment”, p. 284.
226 pasi ihalainen
2. The Enlightenment Sermon in North-Western Europe
The rest of this chapter surveys Enlightenment sermons in two ways: by

reviewing the extant literature and by analysing a special genre of Enlight-
enment sermon which reveals how sermons contributed to the formation
of modern conceptions of the national community. My discussion here
will not be limited to what have been traditionally regarded as the core areas
of the Enlightenment, Britain and France, but will also include Germany
(Prussia), the Dutch Republic, and Scandinavia. Little will be said on
Southern Europe and the Catholic countries of Eastern Central Europe, as
there is only a very limited amount of relevant literature available. The
existing literature suggests that religious traditionalism, censorship and
the lack of public debate were dominant features of the mostly Catholic
regions in Southern Europe, and that this left few possibilities for
Enlightenment sermons to flourish there. In contrast, the Enlightenment
sermon appears to have been highly relevant in the economically more
developed and literate regions of North-Western Protestant Europe, where
a certain degree of freedom of the press had also been achieved.14 Together
with North America,15 this was an area where public religion and Enlight-
ened ideas were more likely to converge than to conflict.
The survey is carried out in national contexts, as most scholars have
limited their examinations to developments in their own country. Yet
there were international currents and parallel developments in preaching.
There were confessional connections and influences across national bound-
aries, and the reading of sermon literature was not limited to the authors
belonging to the confession of the reader. While the proportion of theo-
logical literature in the publishing industry declined in the course of the
eighteenth century, sermons continued to convey ideas across national
boundaries, and the ongoing intellectual change affected preaching in
similar ways in different countries.
The sermons presented here are political sermons preached during
national ceremonies and in the presence of political rulers. They have been
selected because they enable the reconstruction of the basic concepts in the
official political and social theory of each eighteenth-century state. They
form a relatively uniform series of sources, allowing a comparative study of
14
Munck, The Enlightenment, pp. viii–x.
15
An analysis of Enlightenment preaching in the North American British colonies and
the U.S. would have been equally interesting but could not be realized within the confines
of this chapter. The European influences on the American debate are obvious.
the various European political cultures dealt with here. Their analysis
allows us to draw conclusions concerning the political consequences of the
Enlightenment not only within the sermon but also in the official ideology
of the states as disseminated by the churches to their subjects. What
interests us most are the effects of the Enlightenment on clerical formula-
tions of the officially endorsed identity of each national community.
The most important political preachers were, after all, bishops or had a
corresponding status in the clerical hierarchy. As educated representatives
of the clerical estate they were well-informed about intellectual develop-
ments and often ready to react quickly to them – mostly in traditional but
some-times also in progressive terms. They often belonged to the political
elite themselves, being members of the British House of Lords, the council
that governed the Prussian state church, or the Swedish Clerical Estate.
Many of them also held influential posts as preachers in the Bourbon,
Habsburg, Hohenzollern or Holstein-Gottorp courts.
To be sure, as a genre the printed political sermon did possess features
which distinguished it from ordinary, more theology-based sermons and
Enlightened sermons given in ordinary parish churches on practical every-
day issues.16 Due to their special function as summaries of the official
ideology of the state, political sermons formed a genre in which the reli-
gious and the political were closely intertwined. The justification for
preaching was initially political, not ecclesiastical. The secular elites initi-
ated the service in which the sermon was given, formed the core of the
audience, and also controlled the publication of the sermon. A solemn
occasion of nationwide significance readily gave rise to expressions of the
common values of the national community. The sermon was expected to
combine the official ideology of the state and the theology of its public
church not only for the purposes of the specific occasion but also as a
means of providing a wider political education. The clergyman had to dis-
cuss political theory in easily understandable terms and to support it with
a biblical justification, which led to creative combinations of religious and
political vocabularies. When describing the state of the national commu-
nity, the preacher had to take into consideration the political views of the
elite. He had to develop his exegesis in accordance with the appropriate
political message of the sermon.
The arguments put forth in such sermons were considered carefully, as
the sermon was likely to be printed ex post and to serve as a model text.
The total number of printed political sermons rose to the thousands in
16
Ihalainen, Protestant Nations, Ch. 2.
228 pasi ihalainen
eighteenth-century Europe. These numbers demonstrate not only the

capability of the political rulers to exploit the clergy in the propagation of
presumably shared values but also the willingness of the clergy to reformulate
the state ideology according to the demands of the day. Political sermons
focusing on issues of national interest sold relatively well and played an
important role in public discourse. The views expressed in them were
actively imposed on the public by the fact that they were printed. First and
foremost, the sermons reveal what kind of official national identity the
powers that be wished their subjects to adopt.
In the late eighteenth century there was a growing awareness of a mod-
ern national identity in most European countries. The Enlightenment and
the French Revolution contributed to a shift towards conceptions of the
nation as the source of sovereignty and as an independent and active politi-
cal agent advancing the common good of the people in the temporal world.
These developments can be seen in political sermons as well. The moderni-
zation of the national community did not originate within the clergy, yet
its expression through sermons cleared a path for the adoption of a more
modern and increasingly secular concept of nation.
3. The Eighteenth-Century English Sermon: “Enlightened” by Definition?
Many historians are now agreed that, in eighteenth-century England,

reason and religion were generally seen as complementing rather than
competing with each other. Anglican clergymen readily familiarized them-
selves with novel ideas, initially often with the intention of opposing secu-
lar philosophy and defending traditional beliefs. Many clerics exploited
arguments borrowed from the new natural philosophy to defend Anglican
orthodoxy and participated in the intellectual controversies of the day.
When contributing to these debates and discussing the ideas of the Enlight-
enment, some clergymen drew conclusions which inspired them to reinter-
pret Anglican political theology as well.17
The preaching models of latitudinarian Anglicanism, as provided in
the late seventeenth century by John Tillotson (1630–1692), guided the
17
Gregory, “Christianity and Culture”, pp. 104–5, 116, 129; Young, Religion and
Enlightenment, p. 3; Claydon, “The sermon”, p. 227; Jeremy Gregory, Restoration,
Reformation and Reform, 1660–1828: Archbishops of Canterbury and Their Diocese (Oxford,
2000), p. 57; Munck, The Enlightenment, p. 8; William Gibson, The Church of England
1688–1832: Unity and Accord (London, 2001), pp. 148–49; Aston, Christianity and
Revolutionary Europe, p. 99.
preaching of many clergymen. In terms of theology, Latitudinarianism

looked for a compromise between deism and traditional religion and
counted on reason as the basis of revealed religion. It gave rise to sermons
such as Religion plain, not mysterious; or, reason the judge of all doctrines
(George Johnston, 1733) and The use of reason asserted in matters of religion:
or, natural religion the foundation of revealed (Ralph Heathcote, 1756).
It took the findings of the new natural philosophy as evidence of the
existence of a benevolent divinity, which consequently gave rise to more
optimistic theological notions, including a belief in the natural goodness
of man. The doctrine of predestination in its Calvinist form was removed
from sermons, while the availability of grace to everyone living according
to God’s will was emphasized. The primary duty of a latitudinarian preacher
was to persuade the public to choose moral reform and the Christian life,
to teach private and social virtues, and to educate the people on their
duties. Significant emphasis was placed on a benevolent Providence, charity
and toleration.18
Latitudinarian preachers favoured a neoclassical plain style and attempted
to avoid all extremes in their sermons. They utilized both ancient and
modern rhetoric in their quest to identify the strategies which could best
influence the broadest possible audience, preferably without appealing
excessively to the emotions. The preachers were less interested in lecturing
on dogmatic issues or in polemizing against theological rivals than they
were in practical teaching on ethical questions. Exegesis became simpler
and shorter. Sophisticated explanations were avoided, as it was considered
sufficient to demonstrate that the propositions in question were of biblical
origin. The sermons tended to concentrate on teaching the message of the
biblical text by explanation or by applying the text to some topical question.
As a consequence, natural philosophy, education, politics and practical
social and economic issues entered sermons, which is shown by such titles
as The religious use of botanical philosophy (William Jones, 1784), The
happiness and advantages of a liberal and virtuous education (Thomas Hough,
1728), The religious and politick prudence of Hezekiah, when invaded by
the Assyrians, consider’d, and recommended in the present conjuncture
(Leonard Howard, 1759), British constitutional liberty (Caleb Evans, 1776),
18
James Downey, The Eighteenth Century Pulpit: A Study of the Sermons of Butler, Berkeley,
Secker, Sterne, Whitefield and Wesley (Oxford, 1969), pp. 1, 14–16; Rolf P. Lessenich,
Elements of Pulpit Oratory in Eighteenth-Century England (1660–1800), (Cologne, 1972),
pp. 162–165, 178, 209–233; O.C. Edwards, A History of Preaching (Nashville, 2004),
pp. 403–405.
230 pasi ihalainen
The morality of a citizen (David Williams, 1776) and Liberality in promoting

the trade and interest of the publick display’d ( John Thomas, 1733). In brief,
sermons were expected to include a clear point which was relevant to their
audiences.19
Eighteenth-century English sermons have been interpreted in different
ways. Some have not connected the Enlightenment and the sermon at all,
while others have considered a universal concept of the Enlightenment as
capable of explaining all developments in preaching as well.20 Françoise
Deconinck-Brossard, for instance, has argued that both Anglican and non-
conformist preaching was based on a philosophy that was “clearly enlight-
ened and Lockean”. “Lockean” here means that English preachers favoured
a more simplistic style and rejected religious enthusiasm in favour of mod-
eration, saw no conflict between natural and revealed religion, and could
easily reconcile traditional providentialism with latitudinarian religion.21
While such features did occur in sermons, not all English preaching should
be regarded as latitudinarian, Enlightened, and Lockean. There was a con-
siderable amount of diversity within English preaching, as the clergy were
divided into High and Low Church and Tory and Whig, did not collec-
tively see the Church of England as the church of reason, and seldom
made explicit references to John Locke.22 Though English preachers were
prepared to adopt some of the ideas and practices of modernity in their
defence of the established order, some aspects of their thinking were quite
incompatible with the views of progressive Enlightenment.23 Hence we
19
Lessenich, Elements of Public Oratory, p. 163; summarized and commented by
Edwards, A History of Preaching, pp. 400–403; Downey, The Eighteenth Century Pulpit,
pp. 10–13, 17, 25. See also Françoise Deconinck-Brossard, Vie politique, sociale et religieuse
en Grande-Bretagne d’après les sermons prêchés ou publiés dans le Nord de l’Angleterre
1738–1760, 2 vols (Paris, 1984) II, 770.
20
Downey, The Eighteenth Century Pulpit; Lessenich, Elements of Pulpit Oratory;
Deconinck-Brossard, Vie politique, sociale et religieuse; the impact of the Enlightenment on
the sermon has been discussed in Hole, Pulpits, Politics and Public Order; J.C.D. Clark, The
Language of Liberty, 1660–1832: Political Discourse and Social Dynamics in the Anglo-
American World (Cambridge, 1994); Claydon, “The sermon”; James Caudle, “Preaching in
Parliament: patronage, publicity and politics in Britain, 1701–60”, in The English Sermon
Revised: Religion, Literature and History 1600–1750, Lori Anne Ferrell and Peter McCullough
eds. (Manchester, 2000).
21
Deconinck-Brossard, Vie politique, sociale et religieuse, pp. 773–774.
22
Ihalainen, The Discourse, pp. 248–256; Jones, “ ‘And Calm of Mind, all Passion
Spent’ ”, pp. 163–164.
23
J.G.A. Pocock, “Clergy and Commerce: The Conservative Enlightenment in
England,” in L’Età dei Lumi. Studi storici sal settecento Europeo in onore di Franco Venturi
(Naples, 1985), pp. 528–529, 558; A helpful summary of Pocock’s argument can also be
found in Knud Haakonsen, “Enlightened Dissent: an introduction”, in Enlightenment and
should be cautious not to fall into anachronisms by arguing that Anglican

preachers unanimously supported “a contractual view of the body politic,”
“constitutional monarchy” or “liberalism,” despite the fact that they
opposed popery as superstition and absolutism as tyranny and advocated
free trade. Deconinck-Brossard is certainly correct in claiming that the
Anglican clergy was willing to consider natural philosophy an ally of reli-
gion, but it is an exaggeration to refer to their theology as “Christian only
in name”.24 The changes in their political theology took place gradually. In
fact, Robert Hole has suggested that a major shift in English clerical politi-
cal theory from religious to secular took place only in the early 1790s. The
accommodation of the Anglican sermon was obviously a process that went
on throughout the eighteenth century.25
It is equally difficult to deduce the extent to which the sermons of the
Evangelical revival should be seen as Enlightened. Despite the fact that the
Evangelicals sometimes conceptualized human nature in rational and opti-
mistic terms and had an interest in natural philosophy, they relied heavily
on revealed religion. Jonathan Edwards and John Wesley included Lockean
philosophy and Newtonian natural philosophy in their thought, although
they were skeptical about a reason distinct from revelation. Their emphasis
on the active role of God and the constant presence of evil were not neces-
sarily Enlightened notions.26
The Enlightenment sermon in its English context is thus as complicated
a phenomenon as the English Enlightenment itself. The popularity of lati-
tudinarian theology and the neoclassical sermon might suggest that all
Anglican preaching was Enlightened. Some preachers went further than
others in turning sermons into discourses on the practical questions of the
day, but not all preachers advocated ideas that could be called Enlightened.
Yet it is relatively easy to find Anglican political sermons which contain
arguments that fit the broad definition of the Enlightenment as a positive
attitude towards the reconciliation of traditional religion and new ideas,
Religion: Rational Dissent in Eighteenth-Century Britain, ed. Knud Haakonssen (Cambridge,

1996), pp. 2–5; Ihalainen, The Discourse, pp. 72–74 and literature cited there; Jones, “ ‘And
Calm of Mind, all Passion Spent’ ”, p. 170.
24
Deconinck-Brossard, Vie politique, sociale et religieuse, pp. 771, 774; Françoise
Deconinck-Brossard, “Eighteenth-Century Sermon and the Age”, in Crown and Mitre:
Religion and Society in Northern Europe since the Reformation, eds. W.M. Jacob and Nigel
Yates (Woodridge, 1993), pp. 119–120.
25
Hole, Pulpits, Politics and Public Order, p. 7; cf. Ihalainen, Protestant Nations, pp. 582,
590–591, 593–596.
26
Katherine Thomas Paisley, “Evangelical Sermons”, Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment,
Alan Charles Kors ed., 4 vols. (Oxford, 2003), IV, pp. 68–69.
232 pasi ihalainen
thus accepting the emergence of a kind of practical modernity. Many

leading clergymen actively applied new political languages alongside more
traditional theological views and thus contributed to the redefinition of
the national community. Although the form of political preaching
remained the same, the content of Anglican political sermons changed
dramatically over the course of the century, particularly when contrasted
with the continuity shown by Continental preaching.27 Though the
Enlightenment in England has been characterized as conservative due to
its clerical basis and support for the established order, it contributed to the
popularization of new concepts, opening possibilities for the reconciliation
of the old and new in European political thought.
The British nation, instead of being seen as an Israel-like fallen nation
awaiting divine judgements, increasingly appeared as an active political
agent advancing the common good in this world. The relevance of
the Israelite prototype of nationhood declined, religion was defined in
increasingly nation-centred rather than confessional terms, the national
community included a greater degree of religious pluralism, the stereotype
of the popery as “the other” against which to construct identity weakened
little by little, and the monarchy, too, was redefined in less confessional
terms. Secular patriotism, liberty, commerce, and scientific progress
provided new vocabularies for the construction of national identity. The
transition from religion-based early modern national identities to an under-
standing of the nation as “sacred” was gradual, but the trend is clear.28
The Anglican version of the Enlightenment political sermon can be
illustrated by two examples selected from a corpus of some 400 eighteenth-
century parliamentary sermons. These examples should not be considered
representative of the entire genre, but they do demonstrate some major
features of the English Enlightenment sermon in its most explicitly politi-
cal form. The first and most obvious instance dates from 1770, when
British national self-confidence ran high in a period following the Seven
Years’ War and preceding the American War of Independence. In his
sermon, Bishop Jonathan Shipley (1714–1788) described the current state
of the British national community and offered some reasons for loving
one’s country. For Shipley, Britain was essentially a community of human
beings who had joined together to advance their common national inter-
ests. Shipley saw freedom as having promoted economic activities among
27
Ihalainen, Protestant Nations, pp. 17–18.
28
Ihalainen, Protestant Nations, pp. 581–97; see also Anthony D. Smith, Chosen Peoples:
Sacred Sources of National Identity (Oxford, 2003), pp. vii-vii, 3–6.
“an active people” which had access to natural resources and was able to
use the findings of the new natural philosophy to its advantage. He sug-
gested that the recent economic and intellectual change had given rise to a
new kind of national spirit and understanding among Britons. As a conse-
quence, Britain was in many ways superior to all other nations. Every
Briton had the highest duty to serve, defend and obey his or her country.
Indeed, the whole of mankind had good reason to respect a nation from
which so many scientific discoveries benefiting men had originated. In
Shipley’s view, Britain deserved to enjoy a permanent state of prosperity
and power among the nations of the earth.29
Our second instance illustrates the Anglican sermon’s response to the
intellectual challenges of the French Revolution. By 1798, the belief in
progress and the adherence to revolutionary principles, evident in some
sermons given in the immediate aftermath of the Revolution, had with-
ered away. Republican France was ever more clearly “the other” against
which Britishness was defined. Criticism of the belief in reason and
progress, and of the religious and moral state of the British nation, had
come to the fore in Anglican preaching.
On the occasion of thanksgiving for the victories over the French in
Egypt and Ireland, Bishop John Buckner (1734–1824) gave what could be
characterized as a post-Enlightenment sermon defining the British national
community. For Buckner, Britain was still in many ways a very special
nation. The ideal British political model was “founded on the principles of
equity [not equality!] and freedom, and received such improvements as
accumulated experience and progressive wisdom could suggest”. It contin-
ued to be “the admiration and envy of other nations”.30 The values under-
lying the national community still included reason and liberty, but
rationality and libertinism of the French type were denounced, the central-
ity of religion underscored, and the adequacy of “Christian liberty” empha-
sized. For Buckner, patriotism entailed that31
every humane feeling, every liberal sentiment, every ardent commendation,
is excited towards those of our fellow-subjects, who, by the faithful and hon-
ourable execution of their momentous trust, have been, in the hands of
Providence, the glorious instruments of our success.
29
Jonathan Shipley, A Sermon Preached before the House of Lords … January, 30, 1770 …
the Day of the Martyrdom of King Charles I (London, 1770), pp. 10–12, 15–16, 18.
30
John Buckner, A Sermon Preached … Before the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, …, Nov. 29,
1798, being the Day Appointed for a Public Thanksgiving (London, 1798), p. 14.
31
Buckner, A Sermon Preached, pp. 21–23, 27.
234 pasi ihalainen
A new argument in the context of Anglican political preaching was the

presentation of the social consciousness of the government as a unique
feature of the British “system of national rule” that could explain the “well-
known patriotism of the community”. According to Buckner, the British
government aimed at “balancing, as far as possible, these social distinc-
tions, and softening down the apparently harder lots of human life”.32
The Anglican Enlightenment sermon, despite its more cautious content
in the era of the American and French Revolutions, had already provided
a model for Continental preachers. The idea that it was the principal
duty of the preacher to persuade his listeners to live a proper Christian life
and the strategy of making more practical points related to the acute
issues of the day had an impact that extended far beyond the British Isles.
As England was often the model country for Continental advocates
of Enlightened politics, Anglicanism served for many as a model of Enlight-
ened Christianity. Many preachers in Scotland and Germany adopted
similar views on the form, structure, style, and themes of sermons, empha-
sizing simplicity and clarity and aiming at the development of human
nature primarily through moral education.33 Some French clerics would
also be affected by the Enlightenment in its English form.
4. France: Did Enlightened Catholic Sermons Exist?
The shadow of the Revolution obscures the Enlightenment sermon in

France. Church historians used to criticize French eighteenth-century
preaching for its diminished quality in comparison with the grand pulpit
orators of the seventeenth century. According to A. Bernard, for instance,
the preachers adopted a lighter style, focused increasingly on ethical ques-
tions, allowed non-theological factors influence their sermons, and began
to speak apologetically. The arrival of the fashionable “English” philosophy
in France endangered the Catholic faith and led to “the tyranny of the
philosophers towards the preachers”. As a reaction, “semi-philosophical
preaching” emerged among clerics such as Abbé Boismont and Abbé
Fauchet in the 1770s and 1780s.34
32
Buckner, A Sermon Preached, pp. 16–17.
33
Lessenich, Elements of Pulpit Oratory, p. 234; Jelle Bosma, Woorden van een gezond
verstand. De invloed van de verlichting op de in het Nederlands uitgegeven preken van 1750 tot
1800 (Nieuwkoop, 1997), p. 19.
34
A. Bernard, Le sermon au XVIIIe siècle: étude historique et critique sur la prédication en
France, de 1715 a 1789 (Paris, 1901), pp. 587–607.
In contrast, the paradigm of the French Enlightenment as an anticlerical

philosophical movement has caused many historians to maintain that
Enlightened Catholic sermons simply could not have existed. According
to François Lebrun, Catholic homiletics was so dependent on the sermon
guidelines laid out by the sixteenth-century Council of Trent that it
remained practically impossible for Catholic eighteenth-century preachers
to be innovative in their work. The same kind of teaching was provided to
practically all Catholics. The only duty of a preacher was to translate the
doctrines held by the Church into the native language in which he gave his
sermons. Such strict limits on preaching meant that there was no change
in the content of most Catholic sermons in comparison with the preceding
century. A pessimistic conception of Christianity was dominant; the sin-
fulness of human beings was emphasized; the people were warned about
approaching divine punishments; and the rejection of worldly matters was
seen as the only way out of the circle of sin. The predominance of orthodox
Catholicism would have made it very difficult for the clergy to become
involved in the process of the Enlightenment. Lebrun’s conclusion is that
the clergy were incapable of engaging in a constructive debate with
Enlightenment philosophy, which advocated ideas completely opposite to
the values of the Catholic Church.35
If Lebrun is correct, hardly anything more need be said about Catholic
sermons. The limited availability of secondary literature on the interaction
between preaching and the Enlightenment throughout much of Catholic
Europe – particularly the Mediterranean and Eastern Central Europe –
would suggest that Lebrun has a point.36 Yet, contrasting the Enlightenment
and Catholic preaching as starkly as this is misleading. It is evident that
Enlightenment ideas were beginning to creep into French political sermons
during the two last decades of the ancien régime. The effect of Enlightenment
principles on revolutionary sermons was even more explicit. There should
be no doubt as to the willingness of some French Catholic clerics to recon-
cile Enlightenment thought and Christian religion.
Christian Cheminade’s case study on Abbé Coyer (1707–1782) illus-
trates one extraordinary clergyman’s attempt to find a compromise between
traditional religion and the ideas borrowed from Enlightenment philosophy.
35
François Lebrun, “Roman Catholic Sermons”, in Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment
IV, pp. 66–68.
36
Joël Saugnieux, Les Jansénistes et le renouveau de la prédication dans l’Espagne de la
seconde moitié du XVIIIe siècle (Lyon, 1976), p. 341, does not identify similar kinds of
Enlightenment influences on Spanish Catholic preaching as those found in North-Western
Europe.
236 pasi ihalainen
As both priest and philosopher, Coyer criticized superstition, intolerance,

corruption, and inequality, and advocated reforms intended to increase
material welfare. His social criticism was based on the traditional Christian
censure of vice and a critique of social and political inequality that was in
line with Enlightenment philosophers. In more concrete terms, Coyer
called for prison reform, opposed extreme forms of slavery, rejected tor-
ture, questioned the death sentence and criticized economic regulations.
Not unlike other Enlightened clerics, he built on a conception of Christian
morality which viewed the roles of man, Christian and citizen as identical
and interchangeable. Christ in his view taught that the virtues of a good
citizen were also the virtues of a good Christian and constituted the first
steps towards another life. This attempt to reconcile religion and the
Enlightenment, which might well have succeeded in a Protestant country,
ended in an impasse in France, causing Coyer to lose both his philosophi-
cal optimism and Christian hope.37 Cheminade’s conclusion suggests that
a compromise between the Enlightenment and religion was impossible in
France. Yet Coyer had colleagues within the ranks of the higher clergy who
were more successful in combining Enlightenment and Christianity. They
did so subtly in the decades preceding the Revolution and more radically
once the old order had been crushed.
The Huguenot minority was so completely excluded from the national
community that it could, in principle, provide another alternative to the
Catholic stagnation. Yet the persecution which took place in the aftermath
of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes strengthened the old tradition
of Calvinist preaching until at least 1760. Only the rejection of the most
pessimistic forms of Calvinist theology made possible the rise of the neo-
classical sermon and the reformulation of political and social views.
Preachers influenced by Enlightenment ideas during their studies in
Switzerland began to draw conclusions based on reason rather than
Calvinism in their sermons. The plain style and an unproblematic combi-
nation of natural and revealed religion in the English fashion began to
emerge in French Protestant sermons. One undeniable indication of a
connection between French Protestantism and the Enlightenment is
that some Huguenot clerics became advocates of Voltaire and Rousseau.
They opposed religious intolerance and held an idealistic belief in the
possibility of reconciling Enlightenment and Christianity, something not
37
Christian Cheminade, “L’abbé Coyer et L’Essai sur la Prédication (1781) ou une
réconciliation du christianisme et de la philosophie”, in Dix-huitième siècle 34 (2002),
pp. 325–331.
all philosophers themselves agreed on. This dedication to Enlightenment

thought made it easy for some French Protestant preachers to reform their
sermons and contribute actively to the early phase of the Revolution.38
Though marginal in overwhelmingly Catholic France, Protestant Enlight-
enment preaching provides a further illustration of the existence of the
Enlightenment sermon in France.
How about the “semi-philosophical” preaching among Catholic clerics,
then? By the 1750s, Montesquieu and Voltaire had defined political virtue
as synonymous with love of the country, its laws and the welfare of the
state. For the Enlightenment philosophers, patrie stood for a free state,
the laws of which protected the freedom and happiness of its citizens.
The vocabulary used to describe the national community in sermons was
developing in a similar direction, particularly among clergymen influenced
by the ideas of the Enlightenment. We can even trace the rise of the con-
cept of a sacred nation in their sermons in the period preceding the
Revolution. In other words, an early form of modern nationalism, which
saw the nation and people as objects of particular veneration, was gradually
emerging within the French public religion.
Two sermons from 1774 and 1791 demonstrate the kind of changes
that were taking place in the context of the Enlightenment. The first was
given by Nicolas Thyrel de Boismont (1715–1786), the Royal Preacher in
Ordinary, to the Academy of France in the chapel of the Louvre on 30 July
1774. Boismont, a member of the Academy since 1755, readily adapted
himself to the intellectual trends of the day, being the only bishop to attend
a reception when Voltaire, the arch-critic of the Church and Christianity
as such, visited the Academy in 1778. Boismont’s sermon contained a mix-
ture of Enlightenment and early nationalism. Firstly, Boismont followed
his learned contemporaries and declared science, literature and the
Enlightenment as the source of French national dignity in times when the
kingdom was less successful in warfare:39
C’est par cette gloire littéraire, Messieurs, que la Nation dans ses disgraces
conserva de la dignité aux yeux de l’Europe; il sembloit qu’elle regagnât par
les lumières la supériorité qui lui échappoit du côte des resorts et de l’action
du Gouvernement.
38
François Deconinck-Brossard, “Protestant Sermons”, in Encyclopedia of the Enlight-
enment IV, p. 66.
39
Nicolas Thyrel de Boismont, Oraison funebre de Louis XV, …, prononcée dans la
Chapelle du Louvre le 30 Juillet 1774, en présence de Messieurs de l’Académie Françoise (Paris,
1774), pp. 20, 22.
238 pasi ihalainen
This was an open recognition of the achievements of French Enlighten-

ment authors, given the fact that he was speaking at the commemora-
tion of a deceased monarch before the scholarly elite of the country. Such
an approach, though hardly endorsed by the clerical elite as a whole,
identified the national community with its philosophical and scientific
achievements.
Secondly, Boismont included an account of French history in which the
nation and the people were awarded a role alongside the monarchy.
Boismont presented Louis XIV as a ruler who possessed qualities which
earned him the veneration of his subjects and thus made him capable of
representing “the feeling of an entire nation”.40 The actions of Louis XV
were even more “touching … for the nation”, “his nation”, and “his peo-
ple”.41 The language of rising nationalism also inspired Boismont to
emphasize that “all the principles of the moral and national spirit” and “the
interest of their people” had guided the work of Louis XV and his minis-
ters and that much had been done to strengthen the economic and cultural
standing of the nation.42 He argued that “the heart of Louis” had provided
“the nation” all that it needed and that the people had responded to him
with universal loving sentiments and “a national belief ” in his kindness.43
It was still the love of the monarch which formed the basis of this national
belief, but the role of the nation within the national community also was
central. Boismont argued that monarchical government was patriotic, too,
maintaining that the “enlightened charity of these nobles” stemmed from
“all the virtues” and was “devoted to patriotism and glory”.44
Another example of French Enlightenment preaching comes from
François-Claude Fauchet (1744–1793), a Royal Preacher who attempted
to demonstrate the compatibility of religion and liberty when speaking to
the deputies of the National Assembly, representatives of the municipality,
electors, the national guard, the friends of truth, and “an immense meeting
of citizens” on the anniversary of the royal recognition of the sovereignty
of the people on 4 February 1791. Fauchet had had a successful career
before the Revolution despite his interest in Enlightenment philosophy
and his willingness to criticize the established order in general and the
privileges and corruption of the nobility in particular. In April 1789,
40
Boismont, Oraison funebre, pp. 5, 8.
41
Boismont, Oraison funebre, p. 14.
42
Boismont, Oraison funebre, pp. 13, 21–22.
43
Boismont, Oraison funebre, pp. 29–30.
44
Boismont, Oraison funebre, p. 31.
he had advocated reforming French Catholicism in an ever more Gallican

direction, arguing that “[t]he Catholic faith is national in France”.45 After
the fall of the Bastille, he gave a sermon in memory of its victims, calling
it Discours sur la liberté française, which further increased his popularity as
a preacher and a revolutionary. Fauchet supported the confiscation of cleri-
cal property, took an oath on the new constitution and contributed to the
creation of a society which would advocate Rousseau’s thought. In 1791,
he became a bishop of the Constitutional Church, joined the Jacobins and
was elected a delegate of the National Convention. He expressed too much
sympathy for the King, however, which led to his becoming a victim of the
Terror in 1793. In 1791, however, Fauchet was still whole-heartedly com-
mitted to a political and religious revolution, showing, in accordance with
Mirabeau, that God was the creator of both the nation and its liberty.
One distinctly Enlightened feature of Fauchet’s sermon was the redefi-
nition of both God and Jesus in a way which tended to lead to a civil reli-
gion of the revolutionary type. Fauchet addressed God as “the God of
France and the universe, of the patrie and religion!”46 Despite the reference
to the universe, this view reflects the ongoing nationalization of divinity so
that God was primarily seen as the God of the nation and fatherland, not
only as the God of religion and the wider world. Fauchet’s interpretation
of Jesus was also adapted to the needs of the revolutionary regime and
presented him as a major patriotic figure, as a champion of popular activ-
ism, and even as a defender of social revolution. Fauchet’s Jesus was an
advocate of the people against the enemies of the people.47
Fauchet’s sermon was not merely Enlightened; it was revolutionary in
its radical conclusions concerning the national community and political
liberty. God still appeared as the primary agent of political change. He had
made the French free and established popular sovereignty as the basis of all
national power. God dictated “the laws of national democracy to the Jewish
people” in the Old Testament, and in the New Testament he dictated “the
laws of brotherly democracy to mankind”, a path which France was
following.48 Fauchet’s text from Paul already declared that anyone who
45
Cited in Jeffrey W. Merrick, The Desacralization of the French Monarchy in the
Eighteenth Century (Baton Rouge, 1990), p. 1.
46
Claude Fauchet, Sermon sur l’Accord de la Religion et de la Liberté, prononcé dans la
Métropole de Paris, le 4 Février 1791, pour la solemnité civique des anciens Représentans de la
Commune, en mémoire de ce qu’à pareil jour, le Roi vint à l’Assemblée Nationale, reconnaître
la Souveraineté du Peuple [Paris, 1791], p. 5.
47
Fauchet, Sermon sur l’Accord, pp. 14–15.
48
Fauchet, Sermon sur l’Accord, pp. 3, 5–6.
240 pasi ihalainen
resisted sovereign power – defined here as the power of the people – resisted
the divine ordinations.49 Fauchet was clearly drawing more radical conclu-
sions than any previous political preacher. He claimed that “in the
Revolution, the face of the world has changed”.50 Revolutionary vocabu-
lary dominated Fauchet’s sermon in every respect, yet his redescriptions of
both religion and the national community were not enough to satisfy the
revolutionary government in the long run, as it was already moving in the
direction of lay liturgies and rejecting the Catholic tradition in favour of
classical and secular ones.51
Yet Fauchet tried to demonstrate that, counter to the claims of some revo-
lutionaries, the Christian religion was not an obstacle to liberty but actually
its primary source. He argued that the true principles of religion were prin-
ciples of liberty. The divine regime was one of liberty and, indeed, God was
“the God of liberty”. In the Old Testament, He had instituted “the primitive
democracy … for the free government of his people”.52 At the same time,
He had given the people the right to resist arbitrary rulers. Heaven was
favourable to liberty on earth and closed to all tyrants who sought to destroy
this original liberty. In Fauchet’s reinterpretation of the Scripture, the unwa-
vering divine support for liberty had been most manifestly demonstrated
by the Gospel’s “announcement of liberation”, and by Jesus, who “brought
together against himself all the aristocrats who debased or ran over the
people, and [who] died for the democracy of mankind”.53 The Revolution
meant that Jesus’ liberating message would ultimately be understood “in
an age of liberty, equality, general fraternity of the peoples”.54
All of this constituted an extremely radical reformulation of the polit-
ico-religious theory derived from the Christian religion. Enlightenment
and revolutionary preaching undoubtedly existed in late eighteenth-century
France, and it continued to play a role in the intellectual debate at least
until the start of the radicalization of the Revolution in 1792. The
Revolution also affected Catholic preaching on a broader scale, forcing
it to reconcile Christianity and democratic principles. A future Pope,
Cardinal Barnaba Chiaramonti (1742–1823), recognized the compatibility
49
Fauchet, Sermon sur l’Accord, pp. 3–4. The text is derived from Rom. 13:2 “Whosoever
therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God”.
50
Fauchet, Sermon sur l’Accord, p. 4.
51
Claude Langlois, “La rupture entre l’Eglise catholique et la Révolution”, The French
Revolution and the Creation of Modern Political Culture, François Furet and Mona Ozouf
eds., 3 vols. (Oxford, 1989) III, pp. 384–385.
52
Fauchet, Sermon sur l’Accord, pp. 5–6, 9, 15 [erroneously printed as ‘51’].
53
Fauchet, Sermon sur l’Accord, pp. 7, 10–11, 13, 18–19.
54
Fauchet, Sermon sur l’Accord, p. 18.
of democratic government and the Gospel at least in name in 1797,55

during which time the French occupied much of Italy.
5. Prussia and Austria: Conservative Auf klärung in Sermons
The situation in the German states was very different. There the
Enlightenment was to a greater extent an intellectual current within which
the state, the church and the Enlighteners cooperated rather than chal-
lenged each other. The renewal of the sermon in Protestant Germany took
place considerably later than in England and was restrained rather than
inspired by the French Revolution. The early eighteenth century did see
the emergence of a moderate Frühauf klärung in philosophy, but the
German Enlightenment proper did not really gain ground until the period
between the early 1770s and 1805.
Johann Joachim Spalding (1714–1804) played a key role in the devel-
opment. He published an influential essay on the usefulness of the office of
the preacher (Über die Nutzbarkeit des Predigtamtes und deren Bef örderung)
in 1772. French and English influences also played a role in transforming
the sermon. Rather dated examples of preaching by Jacques-Benigne
Bossuet (1627–1704), Tillotson, Jean-Baptiste Massillon (1663–1742),
andFrançois de Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon (1651–1715) were well-
known and imitated in Germany, although mostly for their form rather
than their theological content. French Protestant influences were dissemi-
nated via Huguenot refugees in the Netherlands and Switzerland. Some
Dutch influence was also felt, although this mostly concerned orthodox
homiletics.56
In sermon theory, the popularity increased of a pragmatically under-
stood rhetoric and homiletics. Johann Lorenz von Mosheim (1693–1755),
and later also so-called neologians such as Spalding, who attempted to
prove the basic tenets of Christianity by reason, looked for ways to over-
come what they saw as weaknesses in Orthodox and Pietistic preaching.
Seventeenth-century orthodox homiletics appeared to them as too formal
and dogmatic, while Pietism seemed to entail an excessive rejection of
the world. Instead of emphasizing original sin, Mosheim spoke in favour
of a simplified Christianity based on the Bible, adopted a more optimistic
55
John Dunn, Setting the People Free: The Story of Democracy (London, 2005), p. 112.
56
Reinhard Krause, Die Predigt der späten deutschen Auf klärung (1770–1805) (Stuttgart,
1965), pp. 8, 15; Hans Martin Müller, “Homiletik”, Theologische Realenzyklopädie, 36 vols.
(Berlin, 1977–2004) XV, pp. 536–537; Deconinck-Brossard, “Protestant Sermons”, p. 66.
242 pasi ihalainen
conception of man, emphasized differences between the biblical and con-

temporary worlds, and focused increasingly on the common man and his
daily life. Together with Spalding, he advocated simple, stylish and the-
matically clear “philosophical” sermons which would build on both the
Bible and reason, advance the spirituality of the people, and convert every
listener by persuasion. Analytical sermons, which had lumped together
biblical quotes and used biblical texts allegorically, were replaced by syn-
thetic sermons, which developed themes that were deemed more relevant
to life and faith.57 German sermons thus became more practical and
reason-based, as shown by titles such as Gedanken von dem Einfluss der
Vernunft-Lehre in die Auslegungskunst ( Johann Hinrich Vincent Nölting,
1761) and Predigten zur Bef örderung einer vernünftigen Aufklärung in der
Religion (August Christian Bartels, 1793).
The new form of preaching was based on a novel conception of the rela-
tionship between the preacher and his audience. Biblical texts were seen
primarily as historical expressions of general truths which had to be accom-
modated to the contemporary situations. Mosheim insisted that the listener
had to be enticed by the sermon. This meant that attention was to be paid
to the circumstances in which the listeners lived and that the preacher had
to base his sermon on ideas and concepts which were familiar and signifi-
cant to them. A sermon had to be both didactic and exhorting, addressing
both intellect and will. It had to enhance religious knowledge and prove the
arguments it made through examples borrowed from human life or nature.
It was only through persuasion and emotional response that the preacher
could expect people to accept the truth and to follow the divine will.58
Preachers generally adapted their style of preaching to the demands of
time and audience, recognizing the need to make sermons useful and prac-
tical. The Prussian rationalists, in particular, saw it as their Enlightened
duty to improve the morals and welfare of mankind.59 Themes such as
57
Müller, “Homiletik”, p. 537; Bosma, Woorden, pp. 75–76; Ulrich Dreesman,
“Erbauliche Aufklärung. Zur Predigttheorie Johann Lorenz von Mosheims”, in Klassiker
der protestantischen Predigtlehre: Einführungen in homiletische Theorieentwürfe von Luther bis
Lange, Christian Albrecht and Martin Weeber eds. (Tübingen, 2002), pp. 75–76, 78, 80,
84, 87, 91.
58
Olav Hagesæther, Norsk preken (Oslo, 1973), p. 255; Albrecht Beutel, “Evangelische
Predigt vom 16. bis 18. Jahrhundert”, in Theologische Realenzyklopädie XXVII,
pp. 306–307; Dreesman, “Erbauliche Aufklärung”, pp. 82–84.
59
Günter Birtsch, “The Christian as a Subject: The Worldly Mind of Prussian Protestant
Theologians in the Late Enlightenment Period”, in The Transformation of Political Culture:
England and Germany in the Late Eighteenth Century, Hellmuth Eckhart ed. (Oxford,
1990), pp. 315, 318.
individual and social virtue, and issues relating to politics, economics, and
nature flourished in sermons. Titles such as Die Nothwendigkeit Hindernisse
des Glaubens und der Tugend in der Welt zu finden (Wilhelm Friederich
Stölzel, 1759), Der erklärte Bürgereid (Johann Gotthilf Lorenz, 1786), Die
Gesinnungen guter Bürger in Rücksicht der Huldigung eines neuen guten
Königes ( Jakob Elias Troschel, 1798), Dreyerley Arge Gedancken die man
besonders in Handel und Wandel … vermeiden soll (Romanus Teller, 1742),
and Die Offenbahrung Gottes in der Natur (Friedrich Christian Lesser,
1750) illustrate the trend toward thematic diversification. Sermons began
to become more secular in the sense that the Bible might serve as no more
than the source of a motto. Attention was paid primarily to moral topics,
worldly questions were discussed, the notion of accommodation was
embraced to the extent that teaching the practicalities of economic life
became a relevant theme for a sermon, and the preacher was seen as best
serving his country when focusing on the advancement of material wel-
fare.60 It was thus quite easy to move from this practical approach to
preaching to the notion of clergymen as Enlightening their congregations
on issues that had little to do with traditional theology. A lecture on the
cultivation of potatoes, for instance, followed from the fact that clergymen
were generally considered representatives of the secular authorities and as
an important link between the parishioners and the wider world.
Prussia, and Berlin in particular, was the centre of the German style of
Enlightenment sermon, but the trend was also felt in much of Northern
Germany. The supernatural began to play a less central role in sermons,
whereas the belief in man’s reason and his ability, as a being created in the
image of God, to achieve ethical improvement grew in importance. Such
neology flourished until the Napoleonic wars, which led to a rejection of
rationalist preaching in favour of rather more conservative Romantic
sermons.61 Although the period of Enlightenment preaching was relatively
brief, German solutions to the problem of combining religion and reason
were embraced also outside the country. This reflects the considerable
intellectual impact which Northern Germany had on much of Northern
Europe, including the Netherlands and all of Scandinavia.
60
Krause, Die Predigt, pp. 50–51, 116–19; Joris van Eijnatten, “Reaching audiences:
Sermons and oratory in Europe”, in Stewart J. Brown and Timothy Tackett eds., The
Cambridge History of Christianity: Enlightenment, Reawakening and Revolution 1660–1815
(Cambridge, 2006), pp. 128–146, at pp. 137, 144.
61
Krause, Die Predigt, pp. 8, 12, 14, 16–17.
244 pasi ihalainen
Politically speaking, the Enlightened German preachers supported abso-

lutism. In Frederick II’s Prussia, they spurned theocratic political theory,
advocated religious tolerance, rejected religious discord and superstition,
and referred to philanthropism and even cosmopolitanism in their sermons.62
At the same time, they expressed traditional ideas in the language of the
new era. The status of religion and paternalistic authority were hardly chal-
lenged by the German Enlightenment. The importance of the community
over the individual continued to be emphasized in public discourse.63
This tendency is evident in the case of Prussian political sermons given
in times of war. An analysis of war sermons in England and Prussia during
the Austrian War of Succession and the Seven Years’ War reveals that the
early Enlightenment had hardly had any impact on the conception of
political community propagated by the Prussian clergy. Rather than being
secularized, Prussian conceptions of the national community were radical-
ized during the war, so that Israelite parallels were substituted for refer-
ences to God’s direct personal involvement on the Prussian side – possibly
a consequence of Pietistic influences on the Lutheran state church and the
entire Prussian society. One major change was the rise of “fatherland” as a
key concept. Another noteworthy feature was the explicit sanctification of
sacrifices for the fatherland. Fighting and dying for the fatherland was
represented as a holy duty to be rewarded by God. Hardly anything was
heard about the advancement of liberty, the common good or commerce,
themes emphasized by Anglican preachers. The Prussian concept of free-
dom underscored collectivist and passive religious freedom as opposed to
the active political freedom of the individual. An economic understanding
of the political community did not feature in Prussian sermons at all.
The notion that there was no greater accomplishment than to save one’s
fatherland by fighting and dying for it seems to have been incorporated
into the state ideology in other German principalities as well, signalling
the emergence of a German version of secular patriotism.64
Political sermons from late eighteenth-century Prussia and Austria are
equally traditional and monarchical in tone. Most preachers concentrated
on legitimating the established political order; sermons criticizing the
political elite were rare.65 Enlightened absolutism did manifest itself in
62
Krause, Die Predigt, pp. 12–14.
63
Munck, The Enlightenment, p. 6.
64
Pasi Ihalainen, “Patriotism in Mid-Eighteenth-Century English and Prussian War
Sermons”, to be published in Gilles Teulié et al. eds., War Sermons (Newcastle-upon-Tyne,
2009).
65
Krause, Die Predigt, pp. 111–115.
sermons, however. In 1791, before the outbreak of the Revolutionary

Wars, the Royal Preacher of the Habsburgs, Johann Donat Holzmann
(1743–1811), still believed in the potential of the Enlightenment to over-
come the “unnatural” hatred that had emerged between the nations of the
Habsburg monarchy:66
(…) die Aufklärung trägt das Ihrige bey, und vertilgt den eben so unnatürli-
chen als in diesem Falle schädlichen Nationalhass; der Böhme, der Ungar,
der Slave, der Bataver, der Italiener ist der Oesterreichers Bruder, und alle
lieben sich wie Glieder einer Familie; (…) Wie glücklich werden wir seyn,
wenn wir uns untereinander lieben, wenn jeder National- und Privathaβ
sammt der Wurzel aus unserm Herzen gerissen ist, und Freundschaft und
Wohlwollen und brüderliche Zuneigung an derselben Stelle tretten!
This kind of optimistic view on the Enlightenment hardly survived the war
and the rise of nationalism in the early nineteenth century.
In Prussia, first the French Revolution and then the French occupation
gave rise to a fierce anti-Enlightenment reaction which strengthened pan-
German nationalism. German preachers opposed the French Revolution
and seldom dared to discuss concepts such as liberty and equality.67 The
anti-Revolutionary views of the Prussian clergy as well as the rising national
sentiment were aired in a victory sermon given by Court Preacher
Rulemann Friedrich Eylert (1770–1852) in Potsdam in 1814. Eylert pre-
sented the Enlightenment as the cause of the loss of piety and the rise of
rationalism, which had resulted in a Europe-wide crisis:68
Durch eine einseitige, so genannte Vertstandes-Aufklärung, durch ein stolzes
Vernünfteln, durch einen irdischen Sinn voll Leidenschaft und Begierde,
hatten sie den kindlichen Glauben an einen Gott, der anordnet und regieret,
der richtet und vergilt, wie es jeder verdient, verloren – sie waren ohne Gott.
For Eylert, the advocates of the Enlightenment had been totally mistaken
in their assumption that the fate of the people depended solely on laws
which were analogous to those of the physical world and which could be
directed by “human intelligence and power”. For him, the welcome resto-
ration of religion after the Revolution was a direct result of “the loud echo
66
Johann Donat Holzmann, Predigt auf den Friedenschluss zwischen Oesterreich und der
Pforte im Jahre 1791 (Wien, [1791]), pp. 17, 28.
67
Krause, Die Predigt, pp. 115, 126–127.
68
R. Eylert, Siegespredigt. Gehalten in der Königlichen Hof- und Garnisonskirche zu
Potsdam, an dem, wegen der Einnahme der Stadt Paris, verordneten Dankfeste (Potsdam,
1814), p. 12.
246 pasi ihalainen
of the voice of the people”.69 This formulation made the revolutionary

principle of popular sovereignty serve a reactionary vision of the future.
As for the requirement that the Prussians love their country, Eylert
emphasized the role of God in delivering “our common German father-
land” from the enemy. He mentioned not only the monarch and the con-
stitution, as would have been conventional, but also “the national honour”,
the fatherland, freedom, independence, science, culture, and prosperity.70
These were keywords of rising nineteenth-century nationalism. When
fulfilling their “sacred duty” in the “sacred battle” for the fatherland, the
community as an entity and each individual within it was inspired by God,
who sanctified this cause for the sake of humanity:71
Darum befiehlt denn auch das Ganze ein höherer, mächtiger, göttlicher
Geist, darum ist denn auch die Kraft, die jede Brust hebt, und jedes Herz
begeistert, und jeder Arm stählt, eine Kraft von Oben; darum sind denn
auch die, welche in diesem grossen heiligen Kampfe gefallen sind, nicht blos
für König und Vaderland, sondern in Dienst der menschheit gefallen; (…)
So fühle denn men jeder die heilige Pflicht, die diese grosse Zeit ihm aufer-
legt, und helfe da wo er steht, her beiführen und vollenden die Wiedergeburt
des Vaterlandes zu einem neuen Leben, voll Wahrheit und Tugend, voll Kraft
und Wohlfahrt.
Eylert’s sermon illustrates how at first Enlightenment and then anti-revo-
lutionary discourse had strengthened those features of the Prussian state
ideology that supported the rise of a Prussia-centred German nationalism.
It illustrates how forcefully Prussian political preaching could formulate
and propagate the ideology of the state both in and after the Age of the
Enlightenment. The cultural elites of emerging Northern European nations
readily adopted the German Lutheran model of conceptualizing the
national community in the nineteenth century.
6. The Netherlands: A Delayed Change in Religious Mentality
The influence of the Enlightenment on preaching within a single country

has been most exhaustively explored in Jelle Bosma’s study on late
eighteenth-century Dutch printed sermons. Bosma argues that the Dutch
Enlightenment is best approached as a change in mentality. In his view,
69
Eylert, Siegespredigt, pp. 12–13.
70
Eylert, Siegespredigt, pp. 6, 8, 11.
71
Eylert, Siegespredigt, pp. 12, 14.
the Dutch Enlightened mentality in the second half of the eighteenth

century was essentially Christian, rather slow to develop, moderate and
eclectic. In contrast to dissenting religious groups (Remonstrants and
Mennonites), the Reformed public church adopted the new mentality
with a considerable lag.
The influence of German and English theological and homiletic tradi-
tions on the Dutch intellectual climate is evident, as 20 percent of printed
sermons were of German and 15 percent of English origin. The pattern of
change in Dutch preaching is reminiscent of the German one, with tradi-
tional orthodoxy losing ground to an emphasis on moral responsibility.
Orthodox traditions dominated preaching within most denominations
until about 1770, after which changes gradually set in. However, a major
transition in the relationship between the church and state occurred as late
as in 1796, when the Reformed Church lost its privileged status as a result
of the formal separation of church and state.72 This in turn followed from
the establishment of the French-inspired Batavian Republic.
The style and content of the Dutch sermon developed along similar
lines as in England and Germany. Dutch preaching had traditionally been
based on a detailed explanation of a biblical text. By 1750, some preachers,
initially those belonging to the Walloon (Huguenot) and dissenting
churches, had begun to regard this method as unpractical and inefficient
and to instead favour the English plain style model with its brief exegesis
and practical conclusions. Reformed preachers criticized the trend at first
but were increasingly influenced by it after the 1780s. Dutch sermons thus
became more freely structured, linguistically simple and argumentative.
Even the theological content changed gradually so that dogmas were seen
as theoretical constructs not be contemplated excessively in sermons. The
simplicity and reasonableness of Christian life and the temporal and spir-
itual utility of virtue were emphasized more than they had been in the past.
Christianity was also defended with appeals to reason and utility. Religion
became more anthropocentric, emphasizing the responsibility of individual
Christians. The expression of these pragmatic views were most common in
sermon translations, however, whereas Reformed preachers often contin-
ued to preach in a traditional manner.73 Yet the focus on more practical
everyday issues in sermons advanced modernity in the Netherlands more
generally, in due course also in Reformed sermons.
72
Bosma, Woorden, pp. 410–413; for continuity in Dutch preaching, see also Ihalainen,
Protestant Nations, pp. 582, 592, 594–595.
73
Bosma, Woorden, pp. 413–415.
248 pasi ihalainen
Continuity is characteristic of the political and social ideas expressed in

Dutch Reformed political sermons for most of the eighteenth century.
Along with the basic pessimistic Calvinist conception of the people and
nation, the economic decline of the Republic did not make the Reformed
clergy more willing to focus positively on the role of the nation. Yet the
Reformed clergy carefully followed the instructions given by the States
General in prayer-day declarations. The notion of loving one’s country
thus found its way into sermons. Even before the 1770s, Reformed politi-
cal preaching had begun to emphasize the importance of national rather
than international religious and political communities, adopted a more
inclusive conception of the national community, rejected some older
pejorative connotations of the term nation, and combined the languages
of classical patriotism and political freedom with Calvinist political
discourse.74
In comparison with Anglican political preaching, Enlightened ideas are
rare in Dutch political sermons. The effects of the Enlightenment seem to
have been more indirect. Joris van Eijnatten has viewed the growing accept-
ance of modernity and the redefinition of the public sphere in more secu-
lar terms as reflections of a conservative Enlightenment of the Dutch type.
He has argued that even orthodox Calvinists might have seen the
Enlightenment as “beneficial, unavoidable or necessary” and pointed out
that the Dutch Reformed Enlightenment included a willingness to appre-
ciate the new material understandings of society and culture as well as
forms of public religiosity such as open-mindedness, rationality, morality
and utility.75 Such elements existed, although their effects would only
become discernable towards the end of the eighteenth century. In the
meantime, Dutch political preachers redefined the values of the commu-
nity in more subtle terms. Peter van Rooden has argued that, starting from
the 1760s, they adopted a new conception of vaderland as a community of
individuals with moral responsibilities. Thus an era of “religious national-
ism” began. The love of the fatherland was continuously linked with the
fulfilment of religious duties, and public and private morals were both seen
as relevant for the fate of the nation. The public role of religion changed so
that public religion began to be increasingly seen as grounded in private
religious convictions.76
The Patriot period of the mid-1780s and the creation of the Batavian
Republic in 1795 led to a new kind of politicization in some Dutch
74
75
Van Eijnatten, God, Nederland en Oranje, pp. 200–203.
76
Van Rooden, Religieuze regimes, Ch. 2.
sermons and to an increased interest in ideas borrowed from Enlight-

enment discourse.77 Two Reformed sermons, which were distinctly politi-
cal in that they were preached to provincial magistrates and printed by
order of the representative body, illustrate this development. In 1785,
Theodorus Brunsveld de Blau (1729–1815) gave a sermon on the “patri-
otic ruler” to the Provincial Estates of Groningen at a time when the Patriot
movement was expanding. In 1795, Johannes Heringa (1733–1816)
preached to the provincial representatives of the people of Holland
in connection with the alliance between revolutionary France and the
Republic.
Brunsveld de Blau concentrated on formulating a comprehensive defi-
nition of a good patriot. In the spirit of classical patriotism, he pointed out
that a true patriot associated himself with the people of a country and
more particularly with their rights and liberties, aiming at the advance-
ment of the common good within “a free nation”. He understood Dutch
patriotism to refer simultaneously to the home town, the Province and the
entire Dutch Republic. Unlike most Protestant preachers, Brunsveld de
Blau conceded that the duty to love one’s fatherland had not been recorded
in the Bible but was nevertheless compatible with Scripture.78 Enlightened
features of this sermon included the adoption of the language of republi-
can patriotism and a concomitant willingness to interpret Scripture from
this perspective.
Whereas Dutch political sermons had previously contained few
Enlightened elements, the constitutional changes that followed the French
invasion forced even relatively orthodox clerics to update their descrip-
tions of the national community.79 Heringa’s sermon of 1795 was already
considerably more radical in its advocacy of distinctly revolutionary
ideas. Associating Batavian republicanism with that of France and America
and urging the congregation to pray for “our brothers the French”, “our
sister America,” and “other liberty-loving republics”, Heringa recognized
“the indefeasible rights of man and citizen”.80 The principle of popular
sovereignty was expressed in his argument that “popular government
77
Bosma, Woorden, pp. 245–264.
78
Theodorus Brunsveld de Blau, Een Patriotisch Regent Geschetst in eene Landdags-
Predikatie … Uitgesproken in het Provincie-Huis te Groningen, den XXIII Febr. 1785
(Groningen, 1785), pp. 9–11, 35, 52, 55.
79
Bosma, Woorden, pp. 252, 263.
80
Johannes Heringa, Godsdienstige redenvoering op verzoek en in tegenwoordigheid der
Provisioneele Representanten van het volk van Holland, ter gelegenheid van de geslotene en
geratificeerde alliantie tusschen de Fransche en Nederlandsche Republieken, in ’s Hage gehouden
(The Hague, 1795), pp. 9, 47.
250 pasi ihalainen
(volksregeering), when well ordered and consolidated, has the equality,

liberty, and brotherhood of all the inhabitants as its goal”. As in France,
representatives were to be chosen by the people.81
Heringa continued to advocate an essentially Christian form of patriot-
ism in that he underscored the link between virtue, piety, and the love
of fatherland. The revolutionary period called for some modifications,
however. While using the common Christian concept of the heavenly
fatherland, Heringa also emphasized the need for a Christian to fulfil his
duties in this world. It was appropriate for a Christian to have a close
affinity with his fellow citizens, to help them willingly, to advance the
common good, and to thereby increase the happiness of the fatherland. It
had now become possible for a Reformed clergyman to speak about the
need “to make sacrifices, for the support, protection and rescue of the
beloved fatherland, and for the consolidation and increase of popular
virtue (volksdeugd ) and the happiness of the people (volksgeluk)”.82 The
focus on the nation-state in Heringa’s sermon was quite different from the
Protestant internationalism characteristic of late seventeenth and early
eighteenth-century Reformed sermons.83 Internationalism was now prima-
rily secular and political.
The adoption of the revolutionary ideas of liberty, equality and
brotherhood appeared to have made the Dutch one of “the virtuous, pious
and patriotic peoples”. Liberty, above all, was the most precious property
of the country. Liberty was to be cherished along with equality and
brotherhood, both seen as derivatives from the Christian principle of
charity. Heringa summarized the revolutionary ideology of the new politi-
cal elite when calling on the representatives to pray to God for power “for
the practice of moral virtue, true godliness, and genuine love of the father-
land, and for the faithful care of well ordered liberty, equality and
brotherhood”.84 This was indeed an expression of a new moral community
combined with moderate revolutionary principles. Despite its late start,
the Dutch Reformed Enlightenment sermon clearly participated in the
transition to the modern world of nation states and representative
government.
81
Heringa, Godsdienstige redenvoering, pp. 14, 21.
82
Heringa, Godsdienstige redenvoering, pp. 32–34.
83
84
Heringa, Godsdienstige redenvoering, pp. 35–36, 38–39, 44.
7. Scandinavia: Modest Transformations
German Lutheran and Pietistic influences had long been felt throughout
Scandinavia, even though Pietism had met with fierce resistance from the
state churches. The latter had become practically inseparable from both
state and nation. The Scandinavian Lutheran churches were isolated from
each other and feared intellectual developments that seemed to jeopardize
the orthodoxy they so cherished. This was the context of the eighteenth-
century sermon in the kingdoms of Denmark and Sweden, which included
present-day Norway and Finland.
Danish Lutheran preaching was built on national traditions despite the
close geographical and cultural proximity to Germany. Michael Bregnsbo
has argued that, like the ruling dynasty, the Lutheran state church and its
clergy, were one of the few factors that created a sense of belonging within
the Danish conglomerate state. As loyal servants to and representatives of
the absolutist state, the clergy, who had received a shared education at the
University of Copenhagen, willingly taught theocratic conceptions of the
social and political order as part of the official ideology of the state. It was
only during the French Revolution that the clergy was challenged in public
discourse, which caused some clerics to search for new ways to legitimate
their profession, distance themselves from traditional religion, and dem-
onstrate their usefulness to the public. While practical information had
commonly been delivered via the pulpit, the Enlightened Danish sermon
began to concentrate on moral rather than dogmatic topics. Temporal
happiness was underscored. Sermons became shorter, more easily under-
standable and even entertaining – something that more traditionalist
parishioners would oppose.85
In Norway, the clergy served the same Danish state-church. Because of
Norwegian contacts with much of Western Europe, Enlightenment influ-
ences were received not only via Denmark but also directly from England,
Germany and the Netherlands. These influences reached the Norwegian
clergy relatively late, however, and hence the era of the Enlightenment
sermon was not truly experienced until the early nineteenth century.
Although the clergy of the turn of the nineteenth century has occasionally
been accused of having had an excessive interest in radical ideas, truly
85
Bregnsbo, Samfundsorden, pp. 454–56; Michael Bregnsbo, “Præster under pres. Den
danske statskirkegejstligheds reaktioner på udfordringen fra Oplysningen i 1790’erne”,
Den jyske Historiker 105 (2004), 94–108.
252 pasi ihalainen
rationalist theologians were few and far between. Instead, many clerics
attempted to reach their audience with sermons that differed from the
tradition of orthodox Lutheranism and found their inspiration in German
neology.86
In Denmark, the political ideas of the Enlightenment, such as an
emphasis on civic virtues, contractual notions and a more dynamic view of
society as capable of reforming itself, only began to appear in sermons in
the 1780s and 1790s. The French Revolution was generally condemned
and refuted with arguments that portrayed the Danish monarchy as
defending “law-bound” (or regulated) freedom, natural equality and
human rights, albeit in a typically harmonious Danish way, with the sup-
port of the people.87 What makes the clerical expressions of patriotism
particularly noteworthy is that, within the composite state, separate
national and ethnic identities were growing among the Danes, Norwegians
and Germans at the same moment that the Enlightenment and the
Revolution challenged the established order. The clergy did their part
by emphasizing civic virtues and duties, public spirit and the willingness
to make sacrifices for one’s fatherland. Whenever they discussed the
“fatherland”, they used the term in a wide variety of senses, sometimes
referring to the entire Danish state, sometimes to just one of its territories,
and sometimes merely to the province where the speaker was born or lived.
Norwegian preachers were most likely to focus on Norwegian patriotism
and the geographical and historical features which distinguished the
Norwegians from the Danes. In Denmark proper and the German
territories, the clergy – while vindicating patriotism as a link between the
different peoples of the realm – also contributed to the formation of
separate regional and ethnic identities by simultaneously speaking in
favour of local patriotism.88
The Danish and Norwegian Enlightenment sermon thus rose only with
and after the French Revolution. The timing of the Swedish Enlightenment
sermon is far less clear due to the fact that Swedish historians have often
used the concept of the Enlightenment loosely. The influence of Wolffian
philosophy on Lutheran apologetics or the translation of a sermon by
Tillotson into Swedish in the late 1760s, for instance, have been taken as
86
Hagesæther, Norsk preken, pp. 251–252, 306–308.
87
Bregnsbo, Samfundsorden, pp. 454–456, 459–462.
88
Michael Bregnsbo, Gejstlighedens syn på samfund og øvrighed 1775–1800, belyst ved
trykte prædikener og taler (Copenhagen, 1992) II, pp. 4–7; Bregnsbo, Samfundsorden,
pp. 158–164.
breakthroughs of the Enlightenment in Sweden.89 Tore Frängsmyr has

been one of the few historians to oppose this tendency and to argue that
Wolffianism was actually used in Sweden to resist the spread of Enlight-
enment. He has suggested that signs of the Enlightenment proper are
difficult to discern in Sweden, particularly as regards the state church.90
Many historians, by contrast, have viewed the Ages of Liberty (1718–1772)
and Gustavus III (1771–1792) as eras which gave rise to radical ideas
within the Swedish clergy and ever “more modern trends of a more distinct
type of Enlightenment”. Tensions between traditional and Enlightened
ways of thinking may have existed, but they have been considered less
relevant.91 In recent interpretations, Lutheran orthodox support for the
rise of practical modernity, at least in science, has also been emphasized.
The eighteenth century was without a doubt an era of some change in
Swedish preaching. Independence from Germany grew as Swedish
Lutheranism distanced itself from Prussian Lutheranism, which was con-
sidered to be tainted by Calvinism and Pietism. Despite Sweden’s relative
isolation, however, calls for logical clarity and practical relevance became
familiar through Mosheim’s texts and also directly from the French classi-
cal sermon and the English plain style of preaching.92 Yet the Swedish
clergy remained fierce defenders of continuity in preaching and seldom
advocated ideas that could be easily seen as Enlightened. Fashionable
concepts of the time were applied only as far as they suited the Lutheran
confession, as in the sermon Friheten hwar til wi kallade äre, såsom den
förnämsta orsak, hwarföre wi bore tacka och lofwa Gud (Christian Cavander,
1761).93 Until mid-century, the orthodox rejection of innovations domi-
nated the pulpit. Pietist ideas concerning pastoral care and the notions of
clarity and simplicity might have affected some sermons, but it is an over-
statement to argue that preachers such as Sven Baelter and Abraham
Pettersson were influenced by “the moderate Enlightenment”.94 It is reveal-
ing that Anders Chydenius, known as an Enlightened spokesman for free
89
E. Leufvén, Upplysningstidens predikan, 2 vols. (Stockholm, 1926–27) I, pp. 42,
87–89, 148, 162–163, 175.
90
Frängsmyr, Sökandet, p. 112.
91
Leufvén, Upplysningstidens predikan, 2:1–2; cf. Ihalainen, Protestant Nations,
pp. 583–584, 586, 592–596.
92
Leufvén, Upplysningstidens predikan, 1:1; Yngve Brilioth, Predikans historia (Lund,
1945), pp. 202–205.
93
Ihalainen, Protestant Nations, pp. 583–584, 586, 592–596.
94
Leufvén, Upplysningstidens predikan, 1:71–72; Brilioth, Predikans historia, pp. 205–6,
209. Cf. Ihalainen, Protestant Nations on the preachers mentioned, pp. 157–159, 213, 227,
235–236.
254 pasi ihalainen
trade and a free press, gave sermons to his parishioners in Finland that do
not reflect the Enlightenment. Disillusioned with Diet politics as a means
of reform, Chydenius welcomed the revival of the royal prerogative in
1772, and preached according to the tenets of traditional Lutheranism.95
He could allow a degree of modernity in politics and economics but hardly
in Lutheran doctrine or homiletics.
Towards the end of the century, German homiletic literature and
contemporary philosophy encouraged some Swedish clerics to exper-
iment with innovations in their otherwise orthodox sermons. German
physico-theology, in particular, inspired sermons on nature. The only
major homiletic work published in Swedish during the second half of the
century ( Johan Möller, 1779) recommended the plain English style but
otherwise advocated orthodoxy and a traditional approach to preaching.
The Gustavian secular authorities advised the clergy to abstain from phi-
losophy (1797). German neology thus only truly began to affect Swedish
preaching during the first half of the nineteenth century.96
In some ways, of course, the Enlightenment challenged Lutheran ortho-
doxy and its preaching methods. Censorship could not prevent new ideas
from pouring into the country, and preaching had to be accommodated to
elite audiences familiar with foreign trends. The concept of the citizen, for
instance, was reflected in Riksdag sermons emphasizing traditional duties,
as in En christen medborgares skyldighet, at fara efter frid och förbettring
(Engelbert Halenius, 1755) and in En christen medborgares skyldighet, at
befordra inbördes kjärlek (Anders Forssenius, 1769). Claims that reason
and revelation were compatible led to appeals to natural religion, as in
Människans skyldighet at rätt nyttja den kunskap om Gud, som erhålles af
naturens och förnuftets ljus (Anders Bergner, 1780). By the late 1780s, some
clerics could argue that both reason and revelation should be discussed and
that moral advice should replace lectures on divine law and optimism take
the place of the traditional pessimistic conception of man. Even orthodox
theologians occasionally discussed ethical instead of dogmatic questions
and conceded that the pulpit should teach not only on the road to salva-
tion but also on matters of practical use in this world. Some sermons
turned into educative speeches responding to the needs of contemporary
95
Anders Chydenius, Homiletiska forsök (Stockholm and Upsala, 1781). One explanation
may be that Chydenius did not consider the common people as capable of understanding
the new trends of thought. For him, the reforms remained an elite affair only.
96
Leufvén, Upplysningstidens predikan, 1:73; Leufvén, Upplysningstidens predikan, 2:141;
Brilioth, Predikans historia, pp. 210–211, 216, 218, 222–223, 233.
society and using biblical citations only as openings.97 The new forms and
vocabularies which arose from neology mostly affected court sermons,98
however, and to a lesser extent Riksdag and ordinary Sunday sermons.99
The utility of Christianity was demonstrated through its support for the
established order, as in the title Et lyckeligt borgerligt samhälle, där man
håller konungens ord och Guds ed, eller Den rätta christendomens och Jesu
evangelii nytta i den borgerliga regeringen (Carl Johan Brag, 1788).
Distinctly Enlightened sermons were rare in late eighteenth-century
Swedish political preaching. The Swedish clergy retained many of their
traditional notions about the Lutheran national community well until the
Finnish War and the constitutional reform of 1809.100 As far as political
preaching is concerned, the most obvious instances of the Swedish clerical
Enlightenment date from the early 1760s, a period of increasingly free
debate and gradual radicalization, and then again from the period follow-
ing the fall of the Gustavian autocratic monarchy in 1810. There was little
Enlightenment political preaching in between.
In 1762, the Royal Preacher Gabriel Rosén (1720–1784), whose brother
was a sympathizer of Rousseau, spoke to the Noble Estate on the duty of
citizens to advance the common good of the fatherland. Though begin-
ning with a reference to the Christian love of one’s neighbour, Rosén soon
turned to arguments borrowed from the classical tradition of patriotism
and interpreted the need to express love of the fatherland as a natural
human characteristic. As a new feature in Swedish Lutheran sermon dis-
course – though not in the aristocratic language of politics – he showed
admiration for pagan authors when he referred to Cicero and Virgil as
models for the Swedes: “The heathen men … the more enlightened
(upplysta) they were, the greater the value they attached to the love of the
fatherland”.101 The traditional dominance of the Israelite model in the
Swedish Lutheran descriptions of the national community was beginning
to be challenged by the Roman model, which paved the way for the further
secularization of the language of nation.
97
Brilioth, Predikans historia, pp. 222–224, 226–228; Leufvén, Upplysningstidens
predikan II, pp. 28–29, 43.
98
Leufvén, Upplysningstidens predikan II, pp. 32–33, 93–94, 103. One reason for this
was that men with lacking theological knowledge could make a career in court preaching.
99
Ihalainen, Protestant Nations, pp. 583–584, 586, 592–596.
100
Pasi Ihalainen, “Svenska kyrkan och det moderniserande nationella tänkandet
1789–1810”, Sjuttonhundratal 3 (2006), pp. 25–48.
101
Gabriel Rosén, En Medborgares Löfte in f ör Gud, at bewisa Kärlek emot Fäderneslandet,
På Den Femtonde Kongl. Ordens-Dagen I Swerige, Den 28 April, 1762 …Uti Kongl.
Slotts-Kyrkan … (Stockholm, 1762), pp. 8–10.
256 pasi ihalainen
Rosén argued that by fostering the common good, citizens were repaying
a debt to their fatherland which they would not be able to repay in full
during their lifetime.102 This argument suggests that the national commu-
nity to a certain extent could replace God as an object of gratitude and
love. Christianity justified love of country, as Rosén argued that the Swedes
“as human beings, as citizens and as Christians are undeniably involved in
a threefold relation and must never forget [their] fatherland”.103 Rosén
maintained that the classical authors and “enlightened reason”, and not
only the Lutheran religion, taught that citizenship called for active
expressions of the love of one’s country. When defining the love of country,
Rosén referred to the conservative Bossuet on the one hand and to the
fashionable Montesquieu on the other as authors to be followed by the
Swedes. Rosén’s political theory included references to the formation of
civil society through a voluntary contract not unlike Lockean theory. This
cannot be found in other contemporary sermons, but it fitted well with
Swedish political discourse, in which the Estates figured prominently.104
Despite the fact that Rosén soon became unpopular in the Swedish court
and was pushed to the margins of the clerical elite, he had expressed some
Enlightenment ideals more explicitly than can be found in most political
sermons in western Christendom – not to say eighteenth-century Sweden.
His sermon reflects the temporary radicalization of political discourse in
Sweden in the late 1750s and 1760s.
Swedish clerics discussed economic and scientific developments in the
pulpit every now and then during the Gustavian era (1772–1809), but a
conservative approach prevailed and a truly Enlightened political sermon
would appear only five decades later, when Gustaf Murray (1747–1825)
spoke at the closing of the Diet in May 1810. The loss of Finland, the
abolition of the absolutist form of government, and the possibility of elect-
ing a French successor to the Swedish throne had opened the gates for the
expression of political ideas that had until then existed only among the
noble opposition, and had been championed in much more radical forms
by the French revolutionaries. Three novel arguments deserve particular
attention here.
Firstly, arguments using the concept of freedom, which had been avoided
in the Gustavian clerical propaganda, were forcefully reintroduced. Murray
102
Rosén, En Medborgares Löfte, p. 9.
103
Rosén, En Medborgares Löfte, p. 15.
104
Rosén, En Medborgares Löfte, pp. 8–9, 13, 18–19.
argued that the Swedes had a duty to love their fatherland and to advance
its common good, as they enjoyed such a high degree of civic liberty.
The love of country and liberty were united in Enlightenment patriotism,
though the old emphasis on “law-bound” liberty also remained. The
emphasis was on the collective rather than individual liberty of Swedish
citizens; the independence of the fatherland was primary. The liberty of the
“nation” as a whole had also been extended by the abolition of royal autoc-
racy, however, so that “all have been allowed to express more freely their
thoughts at a Diet”.105
Secondly, Murray adapted the traditional Lutheran emphasis on
solidarity by applying the rhetoric of fraternity developed during the
French Revolution. Having himself worked in favour of poor relief and
education, he urged all members of society to see in each other “a brother
whose rights are equally holy to them as those of their own” and to advance
“enlightenment (upplysning) and the development of fellow brothers”. This
emphasis on a wider “enlightenment”, or the education of the people, and
the belief in the potential of society to develop were new in comparison to
Gustavian political sermons.106
Thirdly, Murray’s recognition of the ideal of popular sovereignty was
unique in its explicitness when compared to previous Swedish Riksdag
sermons. Murray praised the fact that it had become easier for “the voice
of the nation” to reach the throne, thus distinguishing the monarchy and
the nation from one another and recognizing the political role of the
Estates as representing the Swedish nation. The idea of popular sovereignty
was also reflected in Murray’s emphasis on the responsibility of the people
themselves (rather God or the monarch) to shape their own destiny: “It is
up to you, the people of Sweden, to become happy again!”107 The main
reformulations of political theory produced by the Swedish Enlightenment
sermon thus seem to have occurred only from the 1810s onwards.
8. Conclusion
The shift in eighteenth-century studies away from a simplified seculariza-

tion thesis has led to a reinterpretation of the Enlightenment. In conse-
quence, the ability of sermons to provide a forum for debate on reform and
105
Gustaf Murray, Predikan, hållen wid riksdagens slut i Stockholm, den 2 maj 1810
(Stockholm, 1810), pp. 5–6, 9, 12, 16.
106
Murray, Predikan, pp. 12–13.
107
Murray, Predikan, p. 16.
258 pasi ihalainen
renewal has been increasingly recognized. This chapter has highlighted

the specific Enlightened aspects of preaching. Although the involvement
of the clergy in Enlightenment debates did encourage traditionalist resist-
ance – particularly during and after the French Revolution – it also forced
clergymen to reconsider their conceptions of the proper way of teaching
Christianity, the themes to be addressed, the arguments to be used, and the
conclusions to be drawn. Changes in preaching led to less dogmatic and
more practical preaching. The interest in new forms and topics of preach-
ing, the recognition of ongoing intellectual changes, the emphasis on
reason and freedom of thought, and the willingness to describe political
reality in non-theological terms are just some of the features found in
sermons that can be called “Enlightened”.
A comparative discussion of the Enlightenment sermon revealed a
number of common trends but also major differences in England, France,
the German states, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden. Diverging
understandings of Enlightenment preaching have previously led to confus-
ing conclusions on the timing and extent of the phenomenon. While some
scholars used to doubt the very existence of an English Enlightenment,
others considered nearly all eighteenth-century English preaching
“Enlightened”. The early and extensive renewal of the Anglican sermon
and its significance as a model for Continental Enlightenment preaching
is evident. By the 1760s, the Anglican clergy was already able to define
the national community in secular terms. Yet a variety of approaches
continued to exist within Anglicanism, and the revolutions and wars of
the late eighteenth century led to a conservative turn – even to an anti-
Enlightenment reaction – in Anglican sermons.
In France, the renewal occurred much later but led in some individual
cases to more radical changes. Some scholars have maintained that the
Enlightened Catholic sermon was a contradiction in terms, but both late
ancien régime and revolutionary French political sermons demonstrate that
major changes in ideological content took place, and that there was a
marked interest in secular political and social theory. The idea of an active
nation possessing popular sovereignty, for instance, arose very distinctly
within the French revolutionary sermon.
German, Dutch and Scandinavian scholars have emphasized the role of
both English and French models as sources of inspiration for Enlightenment
preaching. In the north of Europe, German models were also significant.
Many have identified Enlightenment preaching in their own country,
emphasizing a general turn toward practical and moral questions, although

there has been a great deal of diversity as regards the interpretation of
the exact timing, extent and significance of these changes. We have been
able to mention only one Enlightenment sermon preached in Sweden in
the radical 1760s, for instance. It is questionable, therefore, that wide-
spread Enlightenment preaching truly existed in mid-eighteenth-century
Sweden.
The content of German Lutheran preaching changed in the 1770s but
supported a conservative version of Auf klärung. Dutch Reformed sermons
only became more “Enlightened” in the mid-1780s and increasingly in the
mid-1790s. In Denmark, the transition started during the French
Revolution, and in Norway, the Enlightenment sermon flourished only in
the early nineteenth century. Caution is clearly needed in determining the
extent of Enlightenment preaching throughout much of Continental
North-Western Europe before the early nineteenth century. The shift
toward practical and secular themes was most clear in Prussia, where the
sermon supported the rise of Prussian nationalism.
Still, the various examples of political preaching analysed in this article
illustrate the dynamic role of the Enlightenment sermon in the formation
of late eighteenth-century European political thought in general and more
modern conceptions of the national community in particular. Whenever
the official values of the national community were discussed, arguments of
non-theological origin were used side by side with, or instead of, biblical
language. A more dynamic conception of the nation was thus beginning to
emerge. The versions of national discourse which arose in different
European countries varied from arguments in favour of popular sover-
eignty in revolutionary France, the Batavian Republic and Sweden, to calls
for action on behalf of the nation. While the sanctification of duties for the
fatherland was a common European feature, the arguments were most out-
spoken in Prussia.
The French case, in particular, illustrates how an early form of modern
nationalism, which saw the nation and the people as primary objects of
veneration and justified democracy with the Christian religion, could
emerge within the sphere of public religion. The rise of nationalism did
not thus necessarily entail secularization in the sense of a sharp distinction
between national thought and religion; rather, it implied a transformation
within public religion. In the early years of the French Revolution, religion
and nationalism were not yet distinct phenomena, though they separated
260 pasi ihalainen
into different spheres during the course of the Revolution. Nationalism

never entirely replaced religion in European thought, however. In many
countries, they supported each other to the extent that in Finland, for
instance, state services were still held in the early twenty-first century.
We clearly need to remain wary of an overly simplistic secularization thesis,
as it may prevent us from seeing the constant redefinition of public reli-
gion even in the modern world. The ability of the clergy to reconstruct
religion, to reform the sermon, and to reconcile tradition and modernity
in the Age of the Enlightenment explains much of this continuity in
European thought.
PART IV
COMMUNICATION
ON SERMONS AND DAILY LIFE
Sabine Holtz
Translated by Charlotte Masemann
1. Introduction
Despite their differing beliefs, confessional churches were similarly

constituted and established.1 They exerted approximately the same mod-
ernizing influence and occupied similar functions. Along with their instru-
mental, functional and microhistorical commonalities, one can, however,
also observe differences in confessional development. In the process of
confessionalization, the issue was less about differences in doctrines, organ-
ization and practice of faith, rather the more decisive point was the relative
value that was assigned to them as starting points in the different confes-
sions. These different points of departure for the structuring of the confes-
sions had a lasting impact on the establishment of standards and limits
for the respective religions, and thus impressed themselves on the culture
as a whole.
Johannes Burkhardt identified the following points of departure: pri-
macy of doctrine for the Lutherans; primacy of organization and ritual for
the Catholics; primacy of practice for the Reformed Church.2 Due to the
primacy of doctrine, preaching began to stand out from among the various
forms of communication in the churches of the Reformation.3 The signifi-
cance of preaching, however, also increased for Catholicism. The
dogmatically strengthened validity of the preacher as ‘an authoritative
* I thank Mr. Stefan Kötz, MA, of the Institut für Geschichtliche Landeskunde und
Historische Hilfswissenschaften der Universität Tübingen for his competent assistance in
researching primary and secondary sources as well as in correction.
1
Cf. Wolfgang Reinhard, “Zwang zur Konfessionalisierung: Prolegomena zu einer
Theorie des konfessionellen Zeitalters,” in Zeitschrift für historische Forschung 10 (1983),
pp. 257–277.
2
Cf. Johannes Burkhardt, Das Reformationsjahrhundert: Deutsche Geschichte zwischen
Medienrevolution und Institutionenbildung, 1517–1617 (Stuttgart, 2002), pp. 77–135.
3
Cf. Wolfgang Sommer, Gottesfurcht und Fürstenherrschaft: Studien zum Obrigkeits-
verständnis Johann Arndts und lutherischer Hofprediger zur Zeit der altprotestantischen
Orthodoxie, Forschungen zur Kirchen- und Dogmengeschichte 41 (Göttingen, 1988),
p. 14.
264 sabine holtz
mediator of the truth of salvation’4 led to a significant increase in the

authority of the speaker.
In 1720, Franz Höger (1664–1727) advised the listeners of Catholic
preaching to pay attention to three points. First, the listener should possess
a great desire for the word of God; secondly, he should have a holy inten-
tion with reference to the sermon and thirdly he should attempt to unite
himself with God in prayer to the Holy Spirit.5 In the words of the preacher:
the ‘characteristics of a Christian listener which he must bring with him to
church and which must precede the sermon: desire, good intentions and
prayer’.6 The sermon ‘has not yet come to an end’7 with the Amen. If the
believer attended the service ‘with devotion and attention’, then he has
done his part, but if he merely listened to the sermon, then his duty is not
yet at an end: ‘he must also put into practice what he heard and learned in
the sermon […]’.8 Tobias Wagner (1598–1680), sometime superintendent
at Esslingen and later a theology professor at Tübingen, emphasized in the
preface of his Epistel-Postill (Tübingen 1668) that usus practicus should be
of equal importance to the proclamation of true doctrine at the centre of
Lutheran preaching.9 According to this preface, preachers attempted to
establish norms for a Christian life. By ‘punishing vices seriously’ and
‘praising the worthy’, they made a contribution to the constitution of
social reality.10 The sermon acted as ‘a mirror of human habits’ for the
Capuchin Andrea da Faenza as well.11 He considered morality to be every-
thing that concerned the habits of his listeners. Therefore it was important
for him that morality be not abstract, so that listeners could recognize
themselves in the words of the preacher.12
4
Franz M. Eybl, Abraham a Sancta Clara: Vom Prediger zum Schriftsteller, Frühe Neuzeit
6 (Tübingen, 1992), p. 215.
5
Cf. Urs Herzog, Geistliche Wohlredenheit: Die katholische Barockpredigt (München,
1991), p. 323.
6
Franz Höger, Die siben Brodt (Ingolstadt, 1720), pp. 223a–224.
7
Franz Hunold, Christliche Sitten-Lehr uber die Evangelische Wahrheiten, 3rd ed.
(Augsburg, Würzburg, 1751) I, p. 81a.
8
Pacificus à Cruce, Sylva Spiritualis Morum, Oder: Geistlicher Sitten-Wald […]
(Augsburg, 1726), p. 90b.
9
Tobias Wagner, Epistel=Postill Das ist: Schrifftmässige Auslegung der ganzen Sonn=Fest=
und Feyertäglichen Episteln deß Jahrs […] Erster namlich Winter= und Frühlings=Theil […]
(Tübingen, 1668), p. ii.
10
Wagner, Epistel=Postill I, preface.
11
Andrea da Faenza, Lettera didascalia ad un predicatore novello […] (Rom, 1763),
quoted from Italo Michele Battafarana, “Der Arme Lazarus und der reiche Prasser: Theorie
und Praxis der Predigt in Italien von Musso bis Campadelli,” in Predigt und soziale
Wirklichkeit: Beiträge zur Erforschung der Predigtliteratur, Werner Welzig ed., Daphnis 10
(Amsterdam, 1981), pp. 153–192, at p. 166.
12
Cf. Battafarana, “Der Arme Lazarus”, pp. 169–70.
on sermons and daily life 265
It is precisely these pronouncements that preachers of all confessions

made concerning everyday life that form the focus of the following article.
Its geographic emphasis will be the German-speaking south of the Holy
Roman Empire. Because of the establishment of the state church there
from 1648 on, different territories arose that were each confessionally uni-
form. The existence of these territories offers the possibility of taking
a look at preachers and sermons of the Catholic and Lutheran confessions
as examples, and also offers some hints concerning the Reformed
Church.
Within our period of focus, 1680 to 1815, and particularly around the
middle of the eighteenth century, many European states underwent con-
siderable change. There are some indicators that the principles of the
Enlightenment had met with a positive response among broad swathes of
the populations even before the French Revolution.13 The churches had to
have it out with their Enlightenment critics. The French Revolution, with
its anticlerical ideology and its politics that were hostile to the church,
brought the Christian church and its institutions seriously into question.
This confrontation with the church was also carried over into neighbour-
ing states during the revolutionary wars. This struggle was waged particu-
larly bitterly in Belgium, the Netherlands and the lands on the left bank of
the Rhine.14 In the German territories, the established church that had
been in existence since 1648, was forced to cede to multiconfessionality
after 1803/1806; equal religious rights and a reduction in clerical claims
were imminent. Thus the demands of the Enlightenment were met,
even if this came about less as a result of conviction than of the practical
considerations of politics.
In spite of these developments, it remains an open question whether
this structural change around 1800 ultimately led to a collapse of tradi-
tional frames of reference or to a strengthening of received tradition at the
beginning of the nineteenth century.15 It is apparent in any case in the
sermon literature that, taken purely quantitatively, the number of printed
13
Michel Vovelle, Piété baroque et déchristianisation en Provence au XVIIIe siècle. Les
attitudes devant la mort d’après les clauses des testaments (Paris, 1973); Rudolf Schlögl, Glaube
und Religion in der Säkularisierung (München, 1995).
14
Horst Carl, “ ‘Der Anfang vom Ende’ – Kriegserfahrung und Religion in Belgien
während der Franzosenzeit” in Der Krieg in religiösen und nationalen Deutungen der Neuzeit,
Horst Carl ed. (Bonn 2001), pp. 86–110, at p. 88.
15
Hartmut Lehmann, “Säkularisierung, Dechristianisierung, Rechristianisierung im
neuzeitlichen Europa. Forschungsperspektiven und Forschungsaufgaben” in Säkularisierung,
Dechristianisierung, Rechristianisierung im neuzeitlichen Europa, Hartmut Lehmann ed.
(Göttingen, 1997), pp. 314–325.
266 sabine holtz
sermons as well as of devotional literature in general experienced a

reduction.16 In addition, concrete references to daily life within Protes-
tantism gradually decreased because of Pietist influence. A stronger empha-
sis on inner belief arose, admittedly without losing sight of active faith.
Through the constant work of inculcation of Protestant preachers, a way of
life had been achieved around 1700, that at the time was described as
‘bourgeois’ or ‘externally respectable’.17 According to it, a man was devout
and godfearing if he went to church regularly, led a moral life, believed in
eternal salvation and had a minimum of religious knowledge. In the eyes
of the Pietists this was a dubious form of success. The Pietists presented a
Christian life, in contrast to this externality, that nourished itself entirely
on personal experience of God. Initially Pietism was more of a contempla-
tive and subjective devotional and reform movement with ascetic elements.
It soon laid aside otherworldliness and called for the active presence of
Christ in the world, in the state and in society. The individual was meant
to give form to the will of God in his own life, and to mould the world
energetically wherever necessary. Each person was meant to help to over-
come social and political opposition, and so to place his work in the service
of the spreading of the kingdom of God on earth.18
As sermon titles indicate, sermons of all confessions increasingly took
on the task of the enlightenment of the people, as well as that of edifica-
tion.19 This altered the character of sermons considerably. Catechism and
catechistic preaching stepped into the background and only emerged in
16
Cf. Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger, Europa im Jahrhundert der Aufklärung (Stuttgart,
2000), p. 136.
17
Christoph Reuchlin, Kurtze Abbildung […] Des Rechtschaffenen Wahren und Thätigen
Christenthums […] (Tübingen, 1705), pp. 185–186.
18
Cf. Wolfgang Sommer, “Der Untergang der Hölle: Zu den Wandlungen des theolo-
gischen Höllenbildes in der lutherischen Theologie des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts,” in
Politik, Theologie und Frömmigkeit im Luthertum der Frühen Neuzeit: Ausgewählte Aufsätze,
Wolfgang Sommer ed., Forschungen zur Kirchen- und Dogmengeschichte 74 (Göttingen,
1999), pp. 177–205, at pp. 189–190.
19
Cf. Johann Ludwig Ewald, Familienpredigten für mittlere Stände (Lemgo, 1784);
S.C. Dittmann, Predigten zur Beförderung häuslicher Tugenden (Königsberg, 1798);
H.M. Rehm, Predigten zur Privaterbauung über einige Quellen und Ursachen häuslicher
Leiden, nebst zwei Erntepredigten (Leipzig, 1797); Conrad Gottlieb Ribbeck, Predigten für
Familien zur Beförderung häuslicher Tugenden, 4 vols. (Magdeburg, 1798–1804); Ludwig
Friedrich August Hoffmeister, Predigten zur Beförderung häuslicher Tugenden und häuslicher
Freuden (Braunschweig, 1810); Karl August Moriz Schlegel, Biblische Predigten über
Gegenstände des Privat- und Familienlebens (Göttingen, 1817); Friedrich Daniel
Schleiermacher, Predigten über den christlichen Hausstand, Johannes Bauer ed., 2nd ed.
(Leipzig, 1927). Cf. Holger Böning, Die Genese der Volksaufklärung und ihre Entwicklung
bis 1780 (Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt, 1990).
the instruction of children.20 This also made traditional sermons about the
Christian household obsolete. Nevertheless this type of sermon continued
and examples date from the last third of the eighteenth century and into
the nineteenth. These new sermons, however, were different from the so-
called house-sermons. The nine Predigten über den christlichen Hausstand
(Berlin 1820) form a good example. These were preached by Friedrich
Schleiermacher in the Church of the Holy Trinity in Berlin in 1818. The
basis for these sermons was, in similar fashion to the earlier sermons, the
Haustafeln (advice for families) of the New Testament. Whereas former
preachers, basing their remarks on the Biblical text, had presented house-
hold duties as ethical instructions, Schleiermacher took on the task of,
‘surveying the fabric of the relationships of our lives, observing them in the
mirror of the divine Word, in order to renew our Christian understanding
of them and to stimulate our consciousness of how they draw us back a
great distance from community with God and from the pious love of our
Saviour, rather to solidify both of these much more within ourselves and,
through our actions, to arouse it in others’.21 That the separate spheres of
life were undergoing an upheaval is demonstrated by the fact that
Schleiermacher had the contemporary urban household of Berlin in mind
and sharply differentiated the family from the servants.
The diminishing quantity of printed sermons does not allow us to make
general statements to the extent possible for the earlier period. Thus the best
period for the study of everyday life as seen in sermons for all three confes-
sions lies in the years between 1680 and 1780. Studies on Catholicism and
Lutheranism far outweigh those on the Reformed Church and this makes
an interconfessional comparison well-nigh impossible. There is, however,
an urgent need not only for work on the Reformed Church, but also on
Lutheranism, linked to the structures of the local church; in addition work
on Catholicism is needed, for example in the form of a comparison per-
haps between parish priests and regular clergy. Serial longitudinal studies
of the early modern period would put statements concerning the success,
or lack of it, of the work of inculcation by means of preaching on a broader
basis and would thus permit wide-ranging comparisons. Certain aspects,
20
Cf. Julius Hoffmann, Die “Hausväterliteratur” und die “Predigten über den christlichen
Hausstand”: Lehre vom Haus und Bildung für das häusliche Leben im 16., 17. und 18.
Jahrhundert, Göttinger Studien zur Pädagogik 37 (Weinheim a.d. Bergstraße, Berlin,
1959), p. 209.
21
Friedrich Schleiermacher, Predigten über den christlichen Hausstand, quoted from
Hoffmann, Die “Hausväterliteratur”, p. 210.
268 sabine holtz
such as funeral sermons, already stand out.22 Moreover, interconfessional

comparative studies on the entire field would be desirable.
The decrease in the publication of sermons affected moral sermons and
sermon collections above all. Nevertheless, sermons on particular themes
were printed, not least for purposes of wider distribution. A good example
is represented by sermons in the context of the national uprising of the
wars of liberation,23 and also those that addressed themes of the popular
Enlightenment. It is nevertheless conspicuous that important theologians
like Friedrich Schleiermacher published their sermons continually.24
Because of a disinterest in publication or the reduced demand for the ser-
mons by rural, and particularly, urban ministers, one is not able to derive
guidelines for the structuring of daily life from this medium to the same
extent as before. The glory days of printed sermons, especially as media of
early modern mass communication, ended in the eighteenth century.
It is generally the case that certain trends can be identified over the
entire period of research; these trends coalesce to form a unified picture.
Before wide-reaching generalizations can be made, however, research on
the broader theme, for all confessions and provinces, must be intensified.
In all confessions, sermons had the goal of interpreting and forming
societal realities, as well as dealing in spiritual edification. Just how ser-
mons interpreted and formed daily life is the theme of the following sec-
tions. Sermons served church and state (section 2). Sermons were concerned
with everyone: with all social classes, the illiterate as well as the literate,
men as well as women, and indeed with (school) childrenas well (sec-
tion 3). The clergy discussed elements of social order such as marriage and
household, food and employment, wealth and poverty, as well as the
authorities and their subjects (sections 4–5); they also discussed important
stages of life: birth, childhood and youth, as well as illness, old age and
death (section 6). The question of why confessional polemic became the
22
Cf. Rudolf Lenz, ed., Marburger Personalschriften-Forschungen (Stuttgart et al.,
1978–2006); Birgit Boge and Ralf Georg Bogner, eds., Oratio funebris – Die katholische
Leichenpredigt der frühen Neuzeit: Zwölf Studien, Chloe: Beihefte zum Daphnis 30
(Amsterdam, 1999).
23
Cf. Sabine Holtz, “Todesangst und Gottesfurcht: Preußische Militärseelsorge zwischen
Machtpolitik und Erweckungsbewegung,” in Interdisziplinäre Pietismusforschungen: Beiträge
zum Ersten Internationalen Kongress für Pietismusforschung 2001, Udo Sträter et al. eds.,
Hallesche Forschungen 17,1 (Tübingen, 2005), pp. 257–262.
24
Cf. Hans-Joachim Birkner, Hermann Fischer eds., Friedrich Daniel Ernst
Schleiermacher: Kritische Gesamtausgabe, 14 vols. (Berlin, 1980–2005); Nicholas Saul,
“Prediger aus der neuen romantischen Clique”: Zur Interaktion von Romantik und Homiletik
um 1800 (Würzburg, 1999).
norm despite the hesitant beginnings of religious tolerance will be discussed

in section 7, while sermons and social control will be dealt with in section
8. Finally, section 9 will sum up the conclusions.
2. Sermons in the Service of Church and State
In the Lutheran territories, church regulations made attendance at service

and listening to the sermon obligatory. Absence was punished by the
authorities.25 Sermons were held on Sundays, often both in the morning and
the afternoon; the sermons during the week that had been introduced after
the Reformation were for the most part eliminated again, at least in the
villages. The number of sermons in addition to these was increased by
those held on feast days or on special occasions.
The church regulations of Reformed Bern also made attendance at the
sermon compulsory.26 At least one representative from each household had
to take part in the service. In order to find those who missed church and
desecrated the Sabbath, each congregation employed two so-called
Heimlicher 27 after 1587 at the latest who were in charge of this. Those who
were found guilty received the punishment of a number of days in jail
from the local canonical court; more serious cases came before the city’s
superior canonical court.28 The three weekday sermons that had been
introduced during the course of the Reformation in 1528 were reduced to
two in 1587, to one in 1748, and eliminated in 1780. The number of
absences at sermons increased correspondingly throughout the eighteenth
century.29 In Lutheranism and Catholicism, Sunday sermons were based
on the yearly order of service. The Reformed Church, in contrast, pre-
ferred consecutive sermon interpretations of entire Biblical books (serial
sermons). It is often difficult to assess the content of a sermon from its title
or the assigned text in the order of service. The structure of the religious
year remained unchanged to the greatest extent in Lutheranism. Usually
25
Württembergische Große Kirchenordnung (1559), Ch. “Politisch Censur und
Rügordnung”, taken over literally in the Siebente Landesordnung (1621) (Ch. cxi–cxxxiii,
i.c. Ch. cxxi), cited in August Ludwig Reyscher ed., Vollständige, historisch und kritisch
bearbeitete Sammlung der württembergischen Gesetze (Tübingen, 1841) XII, p. 873.
26
Cf. Heinrich R. Schmidt, Dorf und Religion: Reformierte Sittenzucht in Berner
Landgemeinden der Frühen Neuzeit, Quellen und Forschungen zur Agrargeschichte 41
(Stuttgart, Jena and New York, 1995), p. 113, n. 214.
27
Schmidt, Dorf und Religion, p. 49.
28
Cf. Schmidt, Dorf und Religion, pp. 51–58.
29
Cf. Schmidt, Dorf und Religion, pp. 123–125, 168–171.
270 sabine holtz
religious holidays were celebrated over three days; festivals of the Virgin
Mary included the Feast of the Purification of the Virgin, Annunciation
and Assumption.30 The feast days of the apostles (John the Baptist and
Michael) were retained. Consequently the occasions for sermons in the
Catholic Church tallied to a great extent with those in the Lutheran,
although the Catholics had additional sermons as a result of their greater
number of feast days and special occasions such as pilgrimages.31 A com-
parison with the Reformed Church reveals more serious differences. The
rigorous limiting of feast days significantly altered the traditional course of
the church year. There were few feast days apart from Sunday. Christmas,
Easter and Pentecost were celebrated as two-day-long festivals, as were the
New Year and the Ascension. As a result of these limitations, the number
of workdays increased significantly.
In contrast to the situation within Protestantism, Catholic sermons in
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were embedded in popular litur-
gical events. The missionary sermons of the Jesuits and Capuchins were
especially enlivened by dramatic enactments and processions.32 Everyone
was supposed to be able to come to the sermons and the attendance of
sermons by servants was meant to be facilitated. The Jesuit Conrad Purselt
(1644–1706) quoted servants and children as saying, ‘Ah, I would like
to go to the sermon and worship, but I am not allowed to go to a single
sermon all year’.33 Going to sermons allowed a chance even for illiterate
servants to have access to spiritual teaching.34
In general, regardless of the confession, one hour was the outer limit for
the length of a sermon; exceptions in sermons for feast days prove the rule.
Rural preachers were to express themselves more briefly than those in the
city.35 In Württemberg in the eighteenth century the length of the sermon
30
Cf. Paul Münch, “Volkskultur und Calvinismus: Zu Theorie und Praxis der ‘reforma-
tio vitae’ während der ‘Zweiten Reformation’,” in Die katholische Konfessionalisierung:
Wissenschaftliches Symposion der Gesellschaft zur Herausgabe des Corpus Catholicorum und des
Vereins für Reformationsgeschichte, Wolfgang Reinhard and Heinz Schilling eds., Schriften
des Vereins für Reformationsgeschichte 198 (Gütersloh, 1995), pp. 291–307, at p. 302.
31
Cf. Herzog, Geistliche Wohlredenheit (see above, n. 5), p. 18.
32
Herzog, Geistliche Wohlredenheit, p. 59. Cf. Werner Welzig, ed., Katalog gedruckter
deutschsprachiger katholischer Predigtsammlungen, 2 vols., Österreichische Akademie der
Wissenschaften: Sitzungsberichte der philosophisch-historischen Klasse 430, 484 (Vienna,
1984–1987).
33
Conrad Purselt, Fons Aquae Triplici Scaturigine […], Andere Quell Sonntäglicher
Predigen (Augsburg, Dillingen, 1700), p. 31b.
34
Ludwig Anton Freyhammer, Arca Noe Evangelica (Augsburg, 1740), p. 41a.
35
Michael Conrad Curtius, Kritische Abhandlungen und Gedichte (Hannover, 1760),
p. 159.
(45 minutes in the cities) was regulated by pulpit clocks; fines, payable to
the alms chest, were levied if the sermon went overtime.36 In Wolfenbüttel,
sermons had to be planned so that the entire service ‘[could] be completely
finished in one hour, so that no one had to spend too much time away
from his work’.37 Catholic preachers also took an hourglass, or later, a
pocket-watch, into the pulpit.38 Johann Benedikt Carpzov (1595–1666)
responded to criticism of overly long sermons thus: ‘Last Wednesday at the
ball the youth and the gentle womenfolk sat for endless hours and watched;
if that was not too long for them to be gazing at vanity, why would a
shorter sermon of the word of God for the betterment of their souls annoy
them?’39
Most sermons are preserved in printed form and not in manuscript.
One must keep in mind when interpreting these sermons that the written
version may not correspond exactly with the sermon as it was actually
preached. Alterations must surely have occurred, particularly in order to
get through the censors.40 Other elements are also lacking: the impression
of spoken speech, as well as the charisma and the gestures of the preacher.
These are certainly important factors whose influence on the audience
should not be underestimated.41 Sermons about Sunday’s Gospels and
Epistles, as well as the Passion or the catechism, could be published indi-
vidually or in collections. Georg Schimmer (1652–1695), a preacher at
St. Mary’s Church in Wittenberg gave demand, his own initiative and the
willingness of the publisher to undertake financial risk as reasons for
undertaking a printing in 1689.42
36
Cynosura Oeconomiae Ecclesiasticae Wirtembergicae (1687), cited in Reyscher,
Württembergische Gesetze (Tübingen, 1834) VIII, pp. 392–465, at p. 394; Johann Georg
Hartmann, Geseze des Herzogthums Wirtemberg, Kirchen-Geseze des Herzogthums
Wirtemberg 1 (Stuttgart, 1792) II, p. 71, §§ 186–187. Cf. Herzog, Geistliche Wohlredenheit
(see above, n. 5), p. 175.
37
Curtius, Kritische Abhandlungen und Gedichte (see above, n. 35), p. 169.
38
Rudolph Graser, Vollständige Lehrart zu predigen (Augsburg, 1768), p. 677.
39
Johann Benedikt Carpzov, Evangelische Vorbilder- und Frag-Predigten (Leipzig, 1703),
quoted from Werner Welzig ed., Predigten der Barockzeit: Texte und Kommentar,
Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften: Sitzungsberichte der philosophisch-histor-
ischen Klasse 626 (Vienna, 1995), pp. 369–399 (comment pp. 674–682), at p. 391.
40
Cf. Herzog, Geistliche Wohlredenheit (see above, n. 5), pp. 225–226.
41
Cf. Maria Kastl, Das Schriftwort in Leopoldspredigten des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts:
Untersuchungen zur Heiligenpredigt als lobender und beratschlagender Rede, Wiener Arbeiten
zur deutschen Literatur 13 (Vienna, 1988), pp. 8–9.
42
Georg Schimmer, Geistliche Erquick-Stunden (Wittenberg, 1689), quoted from
Welzig, Predigten der Barockzeit (see above, n. 39), pp. 103–118 (comment pp. 561–566),
at p. 561.
272 sabine holtz
As a result of these collections, sermons could on the one hand attain a

higher degree of distribution, while one the other hand they could also
serve as a sort of handbook in the preparation of sermons.43 Some priests
became writers of collections of sermons, merely by copying out the
sermons.44 In order to stop this to some extent at least, it was compulsory
in Württemberg for curates and assistants in particular to write out their
sermons and date them.45 Even educated laypeople who had sermon col-
lections at their disposal kept a watchful eye: ‘there are those who have
poked their noses into a couple of sermon books and when they hear
something in the sermon that they have read in the sermon book they
purse their lips in order to poke fun at the preacher and scold him as a
copier-out of sermons […]’.46
Collections of Latin sermons were published well into the eighteenth
century.47 This did not, however, mean that sermons were preached in
Latin. These were sermon collections firmly aimed at preachers themselves.
Joseph Ignaz Claus (1691–1775) explained in his 1752 preface to his col-
lection of sermons why he had decided to publish in Latin: first because of
the brevity and expressiveness of the language, secondly with a view to its
reception on the entire European market and the ease of its printing, and
also because of didactic and pastoral considerations: ‘Thirdly the Latin
language struck me as better, so that beginning preachers, who avail them-
selves of these rough drafts, are encouraged to elaborate on these and thus
to present them in their own colloquial words, in their mother-tongue’48
43
Cf. Renate Dürr, “Images of the priesthood: An analysis of Catholic sermons from the
late seventeenth century,” in Central European History 33 (2000), pp. 87–107, at pp. 89–90;
Franz M. Eybl, Gebrauchsfunktionen barocker Predigtliteratur: Studien zur katholischen
Predigtsammlung am Beispiel lateinischer und deutscher Übersetzungen des Pierre de Besse,
Wiener Arbeiten zur deutschen Literatur 10 (Vienna, 1982), p. 45.
44
Cf. Hans-Christoph Rublack, “Lutherische Predigt und gesellschaftliche
Wirklichkeiten,” in Die lutherische Konfessionalisierung in Deutschland: Wissenschaftliches
Symposium des Vereins für Reformationsgeschichte 1988, Hans-Christoph Rublack ed.,
Schriften des Vereins für Reformationsgeschichte 197 (Gütersloh, 1992), pp. 344–395,
here pp. 345–346 with notes 5–7 (pp. 383–386 present an assembly of pre-Reformation
and Reformation sermon collections 1417–1735); Franz M. Eybl, “Die gedruckte
katholische Barockpredigt zwischen Folklore und Literatur: Eine Standortbestimmung,”
in Der Umgang mit dem religiösen Buch: Studien zur Geschichte des religiösen Buches in
Deutschland und in der frühen Neuzeit, Hans Erich Bödeker, Gerald Chaix and Patrice Veit
eds., Veröffentlichungen des Max-Planck-Instituts für Geschichte 101 (Göttingen, 1991),
pp. 221–41, at p. 223.
45
Hartmann, Geseze des Herzogthums Wirtemberg, (see above, n. 36) II, pp. 69–70.
46
Arnold Mengering, Informationes conscientiae evangelicum: Evangelisches
Gewissens=Recht und Unterricht […] (Naumburg, 1656), p. 10.
47
48
Joseph Ignaz Claus, Der an vilen Orthen eingeladene Gast-Prediger (Augsburg,
Innsbruck, 1752), preface.
The language of preaching was of course German. The Homilist Joseph

Ignaz Wurz (1727–1784) did not approve of sprinkling one’s text with
Latin quotations.49
In contrast to Postillen, which assembled the sermons of an entire church
year according to the order of service, some sermon collections were often
thematically oriented (e.g., preaching related to education, preaching
against the Turks, or preaching done on the occasion of the consecration
of the church).50 They provided the preacher with a source of information,
the head of a household with matter to read aloud, and finally the reader
with enlightening material.51 Posterity did not always have much regard
for most of the sermons printed in the Baroque period. The Homilist
Rudolph Graser (1728–1787), who modelled his preaching on the most
famous orators of France and Germany, confirmed this in 1768: ‘Perhaps
in no other subject are there so many miserable and poorly considered
writings as in this one. One must indeed marvel at the audacity of some
preachers in presenting their sermons to the eyes of the world in print
[…]’.52
In the course of the eighteenth century French homiletics exerted an
increasingly strong and observable influence on German sermons. The
works of French theologians such as Jacques Bénigne Bossuet (1627–
1704), Louis Bourdaloue (1632–1704), François Fénelon (1651–1715)
and Esprit Fléchier (1632–1710) were translated and thus formed models
for German preachers. French sermons had, like their Italian counterparts,
begun already around 1700 to shake off the bonds ‘of the stylistic methods
and the ideological positions of “Baroque preaching”’.53 French preaching
was thus able to become a model for Catholic preaching in southern
Germany in the second half of the eighteenth century. Maurus Lindemayr
(1723–1783) presents a good example of the reception of French sermons
49
Ignaz Wurz, quoted from Franz Hettinger, Aphorismen über Predigt und Prediger
(Freiburg i.Br., 1888), p. 250.
50
Cf. Robert Pichel, “Zur Dokumentation der deutschsprachigen katholischen Predigtl-
iteratur vom späten 16. bis zum frühen 19. Jahrhundert: Probleme ihrer Durchführung
und wissenschaftlichen Auswertbarkeit,” in Jahrbuch für Volkskunde 3 (1980), 166–193.
51
Cf. Eybl, “Die gedruckte katholische Barockpredigt” (see above, n. 44), pp. 222–230;
Rolf Engelsing, Der Bürger als Leser: Lesergeschichte in Deutschland, 1500–1800 (Stuttgart,
1974); Rolf Engelsing, Analphabetentum und Lektüre: Zur Sozialgeschichte des Lesens in
Deutschland zwischen feudaler und industrieller Gesellschaft (Stuttgart, 1983).
52
Graser, Vollständige Lehrart zu predigen (see above, n. 38), p. 12. Cf. Herzog, Geistliche
Wohlredenheit (see above, n. 5), pp. 14–5.
53
Herzog, Geistliche Wohlredenheit, p. 15.
274 sabine holtz
in upper Swabia; some of Bossuet’s writing was found in his possession.54

Lindemayr outlined his thoughts on preaching in 1769, in his preface to
Rudolph Graser’s collection of sermons entitled Praktische Beredsamkeit
der christlichen Kanzel (Augsburg 1769). This preface shows to what extent
Lindemayr was under the influence of the Catholic reforming model:
‘O on how many cold hearts has an entirely artless evangelical voice had a
far better effect than the most magnificent and beautiful oratory?’55
Funeral sermons form a special genre of preaching. For a long time it
was assumed that this fashion was a ‘phenomenon of the Protestant upper
and middle classes’,56 especially in the first decades after 1600 and the
second half of the seventeenth century. The middle of the eighteenth cen-
tury marked the end of printed Protestant funeral sermons, although it
remained the custom in Basel, for example, to print funeral sermons into
the late twentieth century.57 This development had most to do with the
Enlightenment and its accompanying profound changes in reading habits
that involved a rejection of devotional literature. Preliminary research has
focussed mainly on central Germany and, to a lesser extent, on the Imperial
cities of the south.58 It has thus far demonstrated that this phenomenon
certainly existed in all Protestant areas in Germany. Catholicism as well
produced a large number of printed funeral sermons.59 Their heyday like-
wise was the late seventeenth century and the first half of the eighteenth.
In contrast to the Protestant case, this genre remained active into the
1780s.60 In Anglican England, funeral sermons continue into the 1760s,
54
Cf. Andreas Brandtner, “Zu einer Rhetorik des Herzens: Pater Maurus Lindemayrs
Leichenpredigten auf den Schwanenstädter Pfarrer Johann Ferdinand Gessl und den
Baumgartenberger Abt Eugen Schickmayr,” in Oratio funebris, Boge and Bogner eds. (see
above, n. 22), pp. 247–73, at p. 252 with n. 17.
55
Rudolph Graser, Praktische Beredsamkeit der christlichen Kanzel in Regeln, Exempeln
und vollständigen Mustern (Augsburg, 1769), pp. xiv–xxxi (preface), at p. xvi.
56
Rudolf Lenz, De mortuis nil nisi bene? Leichenpredigten als multidisziplinäre Quelle,
Marburger Personalschriften-Forschungen 10 (Sigmaringen, 1990), p. 17.
57
Cf. Rudolf Mohr, “Das Ende der Leichenpredigten,” in Leichenpredigten als Quelle
historischer Wissenschaften: Personalschriftensymposion, Forschungsgegenstand Leichenpredigten,
Rudolf Lenz ed. (Marburg, 1984) III, pp. 293–330.
58
Cf. Lenz, De mortuis nil nisi bene, p. 17.
59
Cf. Birgit Boge and Ralf Georg Bogner, “Leichenpredigtforschung auf Abwegen?
Zu den Gründen für die bisherige Ignoranz gegenüber einer Gattung frühneuzeitlicher
katholischer Gebrauchsliteratur,” in Oratio funebris, Boge and Bogner eds. (see above,
n. 22), pp. 3–8.
60
Cf. Birgit Boge and Ralf Georg Bogner, “Katholische Leichenpredigten des 16. bis
18. Jahrhunderts: Einige vorläufige Thesen zur Geschichte von Produktion und Distribution
einer Gattung der religiösen Gebrauchsliteratur der frühen Neuzeit,” in Oratio funebris,
Boge and Bogner eds., pp. 317–340, at pp. 335–337.
with their zenith occurring from 1660 to 1714; the share of these preached
by Dissenters is considerable.61 In all confessions, however, the funeral ser-
mon remained a phenomenon that was confined to the middle and
especially the upper classes.
Missionary sermons, on the other hand, were a special feature of
Catholicism in Germany. During the eighteenth century ‘all of Catholic
Germany saw missionary activity’.62 After the Council of Trent the
Capuchins and the Jesuits were particularly engaged in this; their primary
goal was to address the illiterate. Missionary sermons certainly relied on
the oral form and thus only a few remain in written form. Among the best
known of the Jesuit missions in Germany were those led by Fulvio Fontana
(1649–1723) in 1705, by Konrad Herdegen and Georg Loferer in 1715
and by the Capuchin Marco d’Aviano (1631–1699). These sermons were
preached in the German language, and they had even more of an effect
because of the pathos of their delivery and the gestures of the preacher.
Internal missionary work became a Protestant preoccupation only around
the middle of the nineteenth century.63
Collections of sermons served as an aid in the religious instruction
carried out by the paterfamilias into the eighteenth century. A domestic
sermon collection dating from the Age of Enlightenment defines ‘instruc-
tion of the family’ as one of the duties of the paterfamilias.64 The job of
preaching and spiritual instruction was thus transferred from ordained
clergy and the church to the private sphere of the family.65 In this respect
Protestantism was no different. The prefaces of sermon collections refer to
the duty of the paterfamilias to preach and at the same time emphasise that
he is strongly obliged to send the entire household, servants included, to
church to hear the sermon.66
Since one must assume the existence of regional and confessional differ-
ences when considering the degree of literacy, sermons in some places took
61
Cf. Ralph Houlbrooke, Death, religion, and the family in England, 1480–1750
(New York, 1998), pp. 295–330; John L. McIntosh, English funeral sermons, 1560–1640:
The relationship between gender and death, dying, and the afterlife (Oxford, 1990).
62
Bernhard Duhr, Geschichte der Jesuiten in den Ländern deutscher Zunge, vol. 4,2
(Freiburg i. Br., 1929), p. 190. Cf. Eybl, Abraham a Sancta Clara (see above, n. 4),
pp. 96–102.
63
Cf. Volker Herrmann ed., Johann Hinrich Wichern und die Innere Mission: Studien zur
Diakoniegeschichte, Veröffentlichungen des Diakoniewissenschaftlichen Instituts an der
Universität Heidelberg 14 (Heidelberg, 2002).
64
Christkatholische Hauspostill (Vienna, 1786), preface. Cf. Eybl, Gebrauchsfunktionen
barocker Predigtliteratur (see above, n. 43), p. 56.
65
66
Reuchlin, Kurtze Abbildung (see above, n. 17), p. 385.
276 sabine holtz
on a particular importance in relation to reading or being read to, so that

the Christian message would not go unheard. Sermons made use of three
strategies in order to facilitate the reception of what the illiterate public
had heard: simple language, a clear manner of speaking with repetition of
the most important points, and vivid examples.67 Wherever possible, ser-
mon literature was also meant to be read aloud: ‘Beloved farmer in Christ!
If you can read, then read these rules aloud often to yourself and to your
household servants; if you cannot read, then it is to be hoped that there is
a person in your house or neighbourhood who can perform the duty on a
quiet day’.68
The religious duty of the paterfamilias lasted into the nineteenth century,
at least in rural areas. A notice in a newspaper shows that the reading and
reading aloud of sermon collections was firmly established in the rural way
of life: ‘The farmer, if he can read, takes a spiritual book of fables as his
domestic sermon collection, reads in it on Sundays and holidays, gives it
to his children as a schoolbook, and takes every foolishness he finds within
it as gospel truth […]’.69
Despite such criticism on the part of the enlightened bourgeois classes,
to whom such behaviour counted as ‘foolishness’, Catholic sermons had
not changed all that much.70 What was, however, particularly noticeable
was the decline of monastic preaching.71 The titles of the sermon collections
67
Amandus of Graz, Seelen-Wayde der Christlichen Schäfflein […] (Augsburg, 1708),
preface to the reader, quoted from Welzig, Katalog deutschsprachiger Predigtsammlungen
(see above, n. 32) I, nr. 161, 7.
68
Franciscus Antonius Oberleitner, Geistliche Bauren-Reglen (Augsburg, 1748), quoted
from Elfriede Moser-Rath ed., Predigtmärlein der Barockzeit: Exempel, Sage, Schwank und
Fabel in geistlichen Quellen des oberdeutschen Raumes, Supplement-Serie zu Fabula A,5
(Berlin, 1964), p. 12. Cf. Jacob Lupperger, Dreyfache Sonntägliche Predig […] (Augsburg
and Graz, 1739), preface to the reader; Eybl, Gebrauchsfunktionen barocker Predigtliteratur
(see above, n. 43), p. 52–55; Franz M. Eybl, “Die Rede vom Lesen: Kirchliche Argu-
mentationsmuster zum Problem des Lesens in Predigten des 18. Jahrhunderts,” in Jahrbuch
für Volkskunde, n.s. 10 (1987), 67–93; Elfriede Moser-Rath, “Lesestoff fürs Kirchenvolk:
Lektüreanweisungen in katholischen Predigten der Barockzeit,” in Fabula 29 (1988),
48–72.
69
Münchner Tagsblatt (17 May 1803), quoted from Moser-Rath, Predigtmärlein der
Barockzeit, p. 80.
70
Werner Schütz, Geschichte der christlichen Predigt (Berlin and New York, 1972),
p. 171. Cf. Horst Alfred Fild, Beiträge zur Entstehungsgeschichte der bürgerlichen
Weltanschauung in Deutschland: Dargestellt an der protestantischen Predigt zwischen 1740
und 1800 (Erlangen, 1965); Klaus Scholder, Grundzüge der theologischen Aufklärung in
Deutschland (München, 1976).
71
Cf. Johann Baptist Schneyer, Geschichte der katholischen Predigt (Freiburg i.Br., 1969),
pp. 305–326.
testify that change was afoot: Addresses on morality; Instructive Sermons;

Instructive Sermons for Christianity; Collections of Practical Orations for the
Strengthening of Belief, Virtue and Contentment ; Orations on the Promotion
of the Love of Homeland, Morality and Domestic Happiness.72 The short
sermon was on the rise: brevity was practical, time was money. Friedrich
Nicolai (1733–1811), on a trip in southern Germany, was amazed at how
much precious time people spent in ‘external religious practice’.73 He saw
the weekday sermons held by the religious of Ulm as a waste of time, as
foolish and harmful ‘to male and female citizens, who should be spending
their time working to feed their families so that they don’t end up in the
poorhouse’.74 Nicolai especially criticized Catholic devotions: the believers
‘vegetate between praying, eating and drinking'. The consequence: ‘One
must not seek industry in Passau or in almost any other religious area’.75
The unproductive and contemplative life of monks seemed particularly
useless to him. He came up with the idea that ‘monasteries, instead of
being dedicated to monastic asceticism, should be turned into foundations
for the learned’ and that they should occupy themselves with modern
scientific research.76
Most Enlightenment thinkers agreed, despite their criticism of the
church, that religion was the basis of political and moral order. The virtues
of the striving bourgeoisie, such as rationality, industry, morality, peaceful-
ness, love of order, obedience and utility, appeared with increasing fre-
quency in sermons.77 The ideals of the popular Enlightenment are also
somewhat reflected in rural sermons,78 although sermons On the advantage
72
Cf. Schütz, Geschichte der christlichen Predigt (see above, n. 70), pp. 170–1;
Chrysostomus Schreiber, Aufklärung und Frömmigkeit: Die katholische Predigt im deutschen
Aufklärungszeitalter und ihre Stellung zur Frömmigkeit und zur Liturgie. Mit Berücksichtigung
von Michael Sailer (München, 1940); Saul, “Prediger aus der neuen romantischen Clique”
(see above, n. 24).
73
Herzog, Geistliche Wohlredenheit (see above, n. 5), pp. 159–60.
74
Friedrich Nicolai, Beschreibung einer Reise durch Deutschland und die Schweiz im Jahre
1781: Nebst Bemerkungen über Gelehrsamkeit, Industrie, Religion und Sitten, 9 vols. (Berlin
and Stettin, 1783–95), quoted from Wolfgang Martens, “Ein Bürger auf Reisen,” in
Friedrich Nicolai 1733–1811: Essays zum 250. Geburtstag, Bernhard Fabian ed. (Berlin,
1983), pp. 99–123, at p. 104.
75
Nicolai, Beschreibung einer Reise, quoted from Martens, “Ein Bürger auf Reisen”,
p. 106.
76
Nicolai, Beschreibung einer Reise, quoted from Martens, “Ein Bürger auf Reisen”,
p. 105.
77
Cf. Herzog, Geistliche Wohlredenheit (see above, n. 5), pp. 159–160.
78
Cf. Johann Ferdinand Schlez, Landwirthschafts-Predigten: Beiträge zur Beförderung der
wirtschaftlichen Wohlfahrt unter den Landleuten (Nürnberg, 1788).
278 sabine holtz
of stall feeding over pasturing and On the unutterable blessing of growing

potatoes also appeared.79 Friedrich Nicolai expected that sermons about
nature and farming would have economic and practical uses; they were
meant ‘to make farmers aware that they ought to feed their children with
gruel and that they would contract dropsy by using spirits’.80 Although for
Catholics the demands of the Enlightenment became established more
slowly than elsewhere, here too the new ideals of instructiveness, sensibleness
and usefulness took hold. Sermons became more and more ‘sensible
instruction[s]’,81 and appeared in fashionable journals and weeklies.
The church became an ‘educational institution’.82 ‘There is no love for the
preached word of God’,83 complained a Catholic preacher in 1792.
A preacher at the cathedral in Paderborn, Johann Martin Mentges (1743–
1815), came to the same conclusion.84 ‘It is no wonder that just at the
zenith of rationalism it has been proven that the practice of going to church
has declined’,85 confirmed a historiographer of the church in Zürich.
3. The Sermon Audience
Protestant preachers preached to an audience that was obliged to come and

listen. Their sermons were addressed to all sorts, to the authorities and
their subjects, to men, women and children, to the poor and the rich, to the
educated and the uneducated, to literates and illiterates. The Tübingen
theology professor and preacher Andreas Adam Hochstetter (1668–1717)
advised his listeners: ‘Take up our loving punishment gladly therefore,
both high and low, for God is no respecter of persons’.86 The power of
79
Cf. Martin Schian, “Geschichte der christlichen Predigt,” in Realencyklopädie für
protestantischeTh eologie und Kirche 15 (1904), 623–747, at p. 695.
80
Nicolai, Beschreibung einer Reise, quoted from Martens, Ein Bürger auf Reisen,
p. 105.
81
Herzog, Geistliche Wohlredenheit (see above, n. 5), p. 10.
82
Herzog, Geistliche Wohlredenheit (see above, n. 5), pp. 10–11.
83
Klagstimme eines Predigers über das Sittenverderbniß unserer Zeiten (Augsburg, 1792) I,
p. 64.
84
Johann Martin Mentges, Predigten auf alle Sonntage des Jahres (Paderborn, 1786) II,
p. 4.
85
Georg Rudolf Zimmermann, Die Zürcher Kirche von der Reformation bis zum dritten
Reformationsjubiläum (1519–1819) nach der Reihenfolge der Zürcherischen Antistes (Zürich,
1878), p. 349. Cf. Herzog, Geistliche Wohlredenheit (see above, n. 5), p. 161.
86
Andreas Adam Hochstetter, […] Der H. Schrifft Doctoris und Profess. Ordinarii,
Christliche Antritts-Predigt […] (Stuttgart, 1711), p. 25.
their office gave Protestant church officials an admonishing and punishing

function in respect to both upper and lower classes.87
The Catholic church also directed its preaching to all believers. The
Capuchin Amandus von Graz (1637–1700) wrote about his activities in
the pulpit: ‘Where I have had all types of people as an audience, such as
high and minor nobility; authorities, councils and officials from different
court positions; secular clergy and students; city-dwellers; married and sin-
gle people; artisans, servants and farmers’.88 Jacques Bénigne Bossuet
(1627–1704) summarized the facts of the matter: ‘[…] it is the listeners
who create the preachers: and may God grant, through his ministers,
teaching that is agreeable to the sainted dispositions of those who listen.
Construct the discourse through your prayers that must instruct you; and
obtain for me the lights of the Holy Spirit, through the intercession of the
blessed Virgin: (Ave, Maria)’.89 Without an audience, preachers and ser-
mons would be simply nothing; as Prokop of Templin (1609–1680) notes
with the words of the apostle Paul (1 Corinthians 13:1): they would be
‘a sounding gong or a clanging cymbal’.90
Because attending the sermon, unlike attending the Mass, was abso-
lutely required by the church, Catholic preachers, as well as their Protestant
collegues, had to contend with the excuses of the ‘learned’: ‘we have our
Postill and sermon-book at home, we can preach to ourselves, we already
know what may be said to us’.91 Georg Grill harboured doubts, however,
whether they would actually do this: ‘That’s right, that they say, I can read
a religious book; that this is possible, no one will deny. But whether they
actually undertake this reading that often, I seriously doubt […]’.92 Even
in the case of those who possessed many books and liked to have them
on show, most of the admittedly few religious books had been gifts
or inheritances, surmised one preacher, and gathered dust at the back of
87
Cf. Sabine Holtz, “Vom Umgang mit der Obrigkeit: Zum Verhältnis von Kirche und
Staat im Herzogtum Württemberg,” in Zeitschrift für württembergische Landesgeschichte
55 (1996), 131–159; David Gugerli, Zwischen Pfrund und Predigt: Die protestantische
Pfarrfamilie auf der Zürcher Landschaft im ausgehenden 18. Jahrhundert (Zürich, 1988),
pp. 76–83.
88
Amandus of Graz: Seelen-Wayde (see above, n. 67), preface.
89
Jacques Bénigne Bossuet, Oeuvres oratoires de Bossuet, Jean Lebarq ed. (Lille, Paris,
1891) VI, pp. 26–27.
90
Prokop of Templin, Mariale Concionatorium (Indifferentiale) (Salzburg, 1667),
pp. 133a–134. Cf. Herzog, Geistliche Wohlredenheit (see above, n. 5), pp. 315–347.
91
Conrad Purselt, Fons Aquae Triplici Scaturigine […] (Augsburg and Dillingen, 1700)
II, p. 31b.
92
Georg Grill, Sonn- und Feyertagspredigten (Augsburg and Innsbruck, 1769) I,
pp. 222–223.
280 sabine holtz
the bookcase.93 In all confessions a socially heterogeneous congregation

faced the minister.94 In theory, everyone belonged to the congregation:
from the socially disadvantaged to the pinnacle of worldly rank. The social
order based on privilege was, however, also omnipresent in the sphere of
the church. The Protestant authorities accepted, in contrast to the Catholic
Church, the demands of the laity for an established place to sit in the form
of private pews. At the end of the sixteenth century the fitting of pews in
Lutheran churches had been largely brought to an end. As late as 1729 a
completed law school dissertation by Friedrich Philippi (1650–1724) con-
firmed the use of pews for order in church services.95 Each member of the
congregation, who saw his position as important, had an established place.
Man- and maidservants, however, often had to stand during the service.96
Listening to the sermon was not, however, the only task of the congregation.
Lutheran preachers admonished parents to take their children, and indeed
their servants, to church, and also to ‘pursue, put forward and impress
through repetition’97 what had been discussed in the sermon and instruction
of the children. The content of the sermon was thus not only inquired after
in school, but was also meant to be discussed at home.
In general, going to church and listening to the sermon was an estab-
lished element of social life for all confessions, whether it was out of innate
piety98 or enforced by the state or the church. The spectrum of topics was
wide-ranging: social order was as much a subject for discussion as the
phases of human life. Preachers made an emphatic effort to impress social
and ethical norms and values for the formation of daily life.
4. Sermons and Social Order
Societal Order
The order of society was regarded as God-given by all classes. Each per-
son had a function assigned to him by God, however differentiated or
93
Klagstimme eines Predigers (see above, n. 83), p. 94.
94
Cf. Münch, “Volkskultur und Calvinismus” (see above, n. 30), p. 292.
95
Friedrich Philippi, Tractatio iuridica de subselliis templorum vulgo Von Kirchenstühlen
(Leipzig, 1683, 2nd ed. 1729), p. 10.
96
Cf. Reinhold Wex, “Der frühneuzeitliche protestantische Kirchenraum in Deutschland
im Spannungsfeld zwischen Policey und Zeremoniell,” in Geschichte des protestantischen
Kirchenbaues: Festschrift für Peter Poscharsky zum 60. Geburtstag, ed. Klaus Raschzok and
Reiner Sörries (Erlangen, 1994), pp. 47–61, at p. 58.
97
98
inegalitarian, for him to carry out in order to preserve the divine order.99
Catholic sermons on class, which were customary at the New Year and on
Martinmas, discussed the rights and responsibilities of each estate. These
dates were chosen because they marked the beginning of a new phase,
whether it was a new calendar year or a new fiscal year; socially, however,
everything remained the same.100
According to contemporary opinion an established order based on class
existed even in Heaven. Ignatius Ertl (1645–1713), in his sermon about
the ‘chief steward of the heavenly court’,101 characterized heaven as a court,
of which God was in charge as the ruler, comparable to an absolute mon-
arch. The heavenly court became the perfect model for imperfect human
rulership.102
Inequity within a society organized by class was part of an all-embracing
order set up by God: if only one member failed, then overall harmony was
endangered. It was a matter of course for Catholic preachers that ‘each
[person] should dress according to his class, occupation and income; the
burgers’ wives should look bourgeois and noblewomen should look
noble’.103 Clear division of functions between duties and offices acted as a
guarantee of stable relationships: ‘Where there is good order, then all is
well, not only in certain houses but in the entire country and this order is
best preserved when one part does not interfere in the duties and offices of
another’.104 He saw the collapse of the social order in the possibility of
the reversal of power relationships: ‘When the farmer wants to be a lord,
the underling to command his better, the wife to put on trousers and to
rule her husband, then everything will be chaos and confusion’.105
99
Martin Resch, Discurus in festo S. Jacobi Apostoli 25 Julii 1698. Quid vis? Was willst
du. Matth, 20; cf. M. Eybl, “Jakobus auf dem Lande: Eine Festpredigt von Martin Resch,
sozialgeschichtlich gelesen,” in Predigt und soziale Wirklichkeit, Welzig ed. (see above,
n. 11), pp. 67–111, die Predigt [Abschrift des Exemplars in der Stiftsbibliothek Krems-
münster, angefertigt von Franz M. Eybl] pp. 95–111, at p. 111.
100
101
Ignatius Ertl, Sonn- und Feyer-Tägliches Tolle Lege: Das ist: Geist- und Lehr-reiche
Predigen […] Festival-Teil […] (3rd ed. Nürnberg, 1715), p. 162. Cf. Peter Brecht, Der
Barockprediger Ignatius Ertl (1645–1713): Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der süddeutschen
Barockliteratur (München, 1967), p. 50.
102
Ertl, Sonn- und Feyer-Tägliches Tolle Lege, p. 162.
103
Ignatius Ertl, Amara Dulcis: Das ist: Bitter-Suesses Buß-Kraut […] (Nürnberg, 1712),
p. 339.
104
Donatus von Passau, Triumphus Temporis Evangelici (Sultzbach, 1695), quoted from
Paul Münch, Das Jahrhundert des Zwiespalts: Deutschland 1600–1700 (Stuttgart, Berlin
and Köln, 1999), p. 68.
105
Donatus of Passau, quoted from Münch, Das Jahrhundert des Zwiespalts, p. 68.
282 sabine holtz
Preachers vehemently supported the preservation of the hierarchical

order of classes.106 They equated the breaking of social barriers ultimately
with a rebellion against the divine order. Social mobility was just not
conceived of in this system, either horizontally by means of changing
professions, or vertically through desire for upward mobility. The latter
was reckoned as the vice of ambition.107 Each person was meant to fulfil his
position so that at any time he could render an account not only to man
but also to God. God had promised nourishment to those working at a
profession, not only for the individual and for his wife and children, but
also so that he would be able to give alms to the poor and to lend money
to the needy. Even when a good income, property and wealth were obvious
signs of doing well in general, the ‘common good’108 was not meant to fade
into the background. Here, efforts towards maximizing earnings and profit
butted up against the public interest. Individual dealings were meant to be
conducted with reference to the social structure of the congregation as well
as of the entire territory.109 Preachers emphatically addressed the issue of
contact with riches and its attendant obligations towards the poor and
needy; at the same time the necessary thrift was strongly differentiated
from avarice and closefistedness – characteristics that could be at the
expense of one’s fellow man.110
Marriage and Household

In the course of the disciplining of society by authorities and the church,
the home ultimately became the dominant force for social order.111 The
106
Cf. Sabine Holtz, Theologie und Alltag: Lehre und Leben in den Predigten der Tübinger
Theologen, 1550–1750, Spätmittelalter und Reformation, n.s. 3 (Tübingen, 1993),
pp. 348–362.
107
Wagner, Epistel=Postill (see above, n. 9), Der Ander nämblich Sommer= und
Herbst=Theil […] (Tübingen, 1668), pp. 455–460; Reuchlin, Kurtze Abbildung (see above,
n. 17), p. 47.
108
Paul Münch, “Parsimonia summum est vectigal – Sparen ist ein ryche gült: Spar-
samkeit als Haus-, Frauen- und Bürgertugend,” in Ethische Perspektiven: Wandel der Tugenden,
ed. Hans-Jürg Braun, Zürcher Hochschulschriften 15 (Zürich, 1989), pp. 169–187, at
p. 175. Cf. Winfried Schulze, “Vom Gemeinnutz zum Eigennutz: Über den Normenwandel
in der ständischen Gesellschaft der frühen Neuzeit,” Historische Zeitschrift 243 (1986),
pp. 591–626.
109
Christoph Wölfflin, Christliche Landtags=Predigt […] (Stuttgart, [1675]), p. 25;
Christoph Wölfflin, Christliche Landtags= Predigt […] (Stuttgart, [1672]), p. 17.
110
Cf. Rublack, “Lutherische Predigt und gesellschaftliche Wirklichkeiten” (see above,
n. 44), pp. 355–360.
111
Cf. Richard van Dülmen, Kultur und Alltag in der Frühen Neuzeit (München, 1990) I,
pp. 12–23.
power of the paterfamilias increased because both the Reformation and

Catholic reform movements took the house as a point of departure for
their social ethics; this had an effect not only on domestic power struc-
tures, but also strengthened patriarchical, meaning noble, structures. The
patriarchal position of the paterfamilias grew, because state and church
expected him to keep domestic order. The paterfamilias combined very
different social functions. He was at the same time father, husband, teacher,
master, educator and nourisher, and he functioned as the moral and reli-
gious controller. In addition he represented in the public sphere those
members of his household who were adult and unrelated, who neither had
rights as individuals before the law nor could participate in the political life
of the society.
The process of dissolution of the household began in the context of
urbanization and (proto)industrialization. This change in structure funda-
mentally altered interpersonal relationships, as it involved a division
between household and business, as well as between home and work life;
it relieved the family of its production functions.112 To the same degree, the
paterfamilias lost his function as the lowest rung of secular and religious
authority.113 Life at home was restricted to the private sphere and became
a substructure of society.
The establishment of a household, rather than the choice of partner,
formed the basis of marriage.114 It was the household that made early mod-
ern people into recognized members of society.115 Sermons were directed at
everyone living in the household, meaning parents, their children by blood
(both legitimate and illegitimate), stepchildren, and domestic servants. In
some cases the elderly were included, who no longer took part in
working life, but still dwelt in the household. Thus the ties of life and law,
and not only blood relationships, formed the social basis of the house-
hold. This was equally true for farming, artisanal, merchant and noble
112
Cf. Winfrid Freitag, “Haushalt und Familie in traditionalen Gesellschaften: Konzepte,
Probleme und Perspektiven der Forschung,” Geschichte und Gesellschaft 14 (1988), 5–37,
at p. 26.
113
Cf. Freitag, “Haushalt und Familie”, p. 21.
114
Cf. Hoffmann, Die “Hausväterliteratur” (see above, n. 20), p. 112; Rublack,
“Lutherische Predigt und gesellschaftliche Wirklichkeiten” (see above, n. 44), p. 354; Eileen
Theresa Dugan, Images of marriage and family life in Nördlingen: Moral preaching and
devotional literature, 1589–1712 (Ann Arbor, 1988), pp. 110–123.
115
Cf. van Dülmen, Kultur und Alltag (see above, n. 111) I, pp. 156–59; Richard van
Dülmen, “Fest der Liebe: Heirat und Ehe in der frühen Neuzeit,” in Armut, Liebe, Ehre:
Studien zur historischen Kulturforschung, Richard van Dülmen ed., Studien zur historischen
Kulturforschung 1 (Frankfurt a.M., 1988), pp. 67–106.
284 sabine holtz
households; indeed a noble household was scarcely different from a large

farming one in terms of its representative functions.
In Protestant areas, the household took on an outstanding importance,
because, in contrast to Catholicism, there was no alternative form of social
life to that of marriage and family.116 For both men and women entering
the cloister was no longer a possibility, although Protestant foundations for
women formed the only exception to this rule.117 Though some people did
live alone, the norm was life in a large household. During the Reformation,
marriage lost its sacramental character. Nevertheless, in the context of the
ways in which humans could live their lives, it took on a significantly
higher status, since the everyday life of marriage and its tribulations could
be dealt with as the will of God in faith. In contrast to this point of view,
the Council of Trent largely confirmed medieval teachings on marriage.118
The Council confirmed the sacramental nature of marriage, placed it under
religious jurisdiction, rejected divorce and preserved celibacy. Unmarried
life maintained its higher status, as it had done before.
The Württembergischen Summarien (Leipzig 1709) asked the following
three things of candidates for marriage: fear of God, a godly way of life,
and industrious work.119 People who intended to get married were sup-
posed to pay attention that
they did not impose on their parents and friends for long, that they did not
sit down to eat at another’s table, that in the meantime they should not
spend time idly going for walks or having fun over meals provided by their
parents, but should set up their own household […], because it is only in his
own household that a man leaves his father and mother and cleaves to his
wife […] In order to succeed in this, however, it is necessary that beforehand
he should have studied somewhat diligently or that he should have spent
some time working in the service of other people truly and industriously, so
that he can begin his own household, and that he may increase it with the
true contribution of his wife.120
116
Cf. Hoffmann, Die “Hausväterliteratur”, p. 112; Rublack, “Lutherische Predigt und
gesellschaftliche Wirklichkeiten”, p. 354.
117
Cf. Lucia Koch, “ ‘Eingezogenes stilles Wesen’? Protestantische Damenstifte an der
Wende zum 17. Jahrhundert,” in “In Christo ist weder man noch weyb”: Frauen in der Zeit
der Reformation und der katholischen Reform, Anne Conrad ed., Katholisches Leben und
Kirchenreform im Zeitalter der Glaubensspaltung 59 (Münster, 1999), pp. 199–230.
118
Cf. Heribert Smolinsky, “Ehespiegel im Konfessionalisierungsprozeß,” in Die
Katholische Konfessionalisierung, Reinhard and Schilling ed. (see above, n. 30), pp.
311–331.
119
Summarien Oder gründliche Auslegung Uber die gantze Heil. Schrifft […], vol. 1–6
(2nd ed. Leipzig, 1709), pp. 1603–1605.
120
Summarien I, pp. 184–185.
Quite a few preachers feared that the romantic ideals with which young
people entered marriage could not withstand reality.121 Therefore in their
sermons they depicted a realistic picture of what those who married could
expect: poverty and hunger were not out of the question; effort and worry
expended on bearing and raising children were daily occurrences; squab-
bling and even jealousy and marital breakdown were possible; one was not
proof against the illness and death of one’s spouse. The idea of marriage
thus propagated was not based primarily on emotional inclination or
agreement, but rather on commonality founded in solidarity, in which
each must fulfill his or her allotted role.122 Marriage was a functional alli-
ance rather than a grand passion. Preachers knew and approved of the
socio-economic requirements and fit them into their depictions of mar-
riage and family. In most cases, marriage contracts were completed before
the wedding; this shows the significance of material possessions in the
choice of a partner.123 In individual cases the maternal inheritance of chil-
dren from the first marriage and the marriage portion of the bride were
established. All of this occurred in the presence of the relatives of both
spouses and several of the village notables. It also sometimes came about
that parents were present at discussions concerning first marriages. Thus
material and social interests were always intertwined. Nevertheless these
interests could only then form a lasting foundation if they were founded
on a love based on solidarity and duty. Sermons indicate throughout that
in a marriage it was not only necessary to fulfill one’s functions within the
household, but that affection also played an important role. In any case,
emotionality in the early modern period can only be understood within a
social context that did not traditionally separate life and work. The preser-
vation of property, the collective way of life of the household and the soli-
darity that was necessary in the face of the experience of want, illness and
death, were those categories that were to be bound up in emotionality.
Thus it was not personal feelings of happiness, but rather dealing in
solidarity while paying attention to the obligations of love that went along
with the marriage, that stood at the centre of the early modern household.
Worry about providing for a family of many members was one of the
121
n. 44), pp. 348–355.
122
Cf. van Dülmen, Kultur und Alltag (see above, n. 111) I, p. 164.
123
Contract of marriage (1795–10–10), quoted from Andreas Maisch, Notdürftiger
Unterhalt und gehörige Schranken: Lebensbedingungen und Lebensstile in württembergischen
Dörfern der frühen Neuzeit, Quellen und Forschungen zur Agrargeschichte 37 (Stuttgart,
Jena and New York, 1992), p. 401 and note 10.
286 sabine holtz
reasons that a married couple ‘had many crosses to bear’ and it ‘made their
marriage bed into a bed of nails’.124
Fundamentally speaking, in each household there were people whose
job it was to exert authority and people whose job it was to obey. This
subordination was the will of God. For preachers, marriage was not a goal
in itself, but had much more to do with life as a father or mother of a
household. The bearing and rearing of children was its essential function.125
One’s relationship as a spouse was nonetheless integrated into one’s status
as father or mother. Protestant preachers therefore described life in terms
of household categories. The division of roles between the sexes involved a
relationship of subordination of the woman to the man: the relationship of
the woman to the man was characterized by obedience, while that of the
man to the woman was characterized by love.126 This division of roles was
oriented in the first instance to both Haustafeln of the New Testament
(Eph. 5:22–6:9; Col. 3:18–4:1). This subordinate relationship was how-
ever not based on the absolute rule of the man over his wife, but rather
prescribed the rights and responsibilities of both partners toward one
another. The necessary division of labour and spousal reliance upon one
another for the security of their existence led to a certain equality of rights
for the woman.127 A household could not function if ‘one part did not
know what the other was doing, and why it was troubled or joyful; if one
half of the couple is always pestering the other and neither allows the other
to get a word in, then what kind of love can there be between them?’128
The principle of equality between spouses – Gleich und gleich macht
Freuden-reich – was also stressed in Catholic Baroque sermons: ‘And as
well, when two people are married, the man and the woman are equal,
equal in religion, equal in intention, opinion and desire, equal in virtue,
equal in age, equal in status or background, equal in wealth […]’.129
Andreas Strobl (1641–1706), a secular preacher from Upper Bavaria,
based the precedence of the man on reference to passages in Paul:130 ‘You
124
Wagner, Epistel=Postill (see above, n. 9) I, p. 368. Cf. Lenz, De mortuis nil nisi bene
(see above, n. 56), pp. 77–81.
125
Summarien (see above, n. 119) IV, pp. 142–144 and III, p. 1607. Cf. van Dülmen,
Kultur und Alltag (see above, n. 111) I, p. 158.
126
Summarien (see above, n. 119) IV, p. 1034 and III, p. 256; Wagner, Epistel=Postill
(see above, n. 9) I, pp. 351–357.
127
Cf. van Dülmen, Kultur und Alltag (see above, n. 111) I, p. 46.
128
Summarien (see above, n. 119) II, p. 194.
129
Leo Wolff, Rugitus leonis, Geistliches Löwen-Brüllen […] (Augsburg, 1702),
pp. 106–107. Cf. Elfriede Moser-Rath, “Familienleben im Spiegel der Barockpredigt,” in
Predigt und soziale Wirklichkeit, Welzig ed. (see above, n. 11), pp. 47–65.
130
Cf. Moser-Rath, “Familienleben im Spiegel der Barockpredigt”, p. 57.
wives should be subordinate to your husbands, the way the Lord deserves
respect […] The wife should nicely give in to her husband, she should not
arrogate authority to herself, but allow the man to rule, if he is sensible and
of good understanding, and is not a wastrel’.131 The domestic servants also
belonged to the household; these were mainly unmarried menservants and
maidservants, who were related to the man or woman of the house. It was
quite usual for people to send their children to work at other houses.
In addition there were the so-called Inleute who on the whole had no
family relationship to anyone in the household and who were quite possi-
bly married. All of these people were subject to the authority of the head
of the household. According to the conception presented by the preachers,
domestic servants had a similar status to children. Certainly, men- and
maidservants were subject to unlimited subordination.132
Preachers warned against hasty marriages: parental consent was abso-
lutely necessary. Even if the Catholic church rejected ‘a constitutive
collaboration of the parental will in the marriage vows’133 in their guides to
marriage, the consent of the parents became de facto the norm.134 For
Protestants, as well, it was considered that the consent of the parents should
not be ignored in entering into marriage.135 Legally speaking, however, a
couple did not require parental consent before marrying.136 The blessing of
the church then sanctioned a relationship that had become legally valid
through the taking of marriage vows. Thus the state of marriage was
‘publicly praised’ and was referred to God as the founder and preserver of
the marriage.137 In order to preserve social harmony, people approved this
consent and observed it. Thus two goals were met: parental consent
limited suspect marriages and made sure that a secure livelihood was
available.
Work and Working Life

In the teaching of every confession, all work was connected to effort and
pain: according to the Fall of Man in the Bible, a human must earn his
131
Andreas Strobl, Noch ein Körbel voll Oster-Ayr […] (Salzburg, 1708), p. 175.
132
Wagner, Epistel=Postill (see above, n. 9) I, pp. 353–354.
133
Smolinsky, “Ehespiegel im Konfessionalisierungsprozeß” (see above, n. 118), p. 316.
134
Cf. Eybl, “Jakobus auf dem Lande” (see above, n. 99), p. 82.
135
Summarien (see above, n. 119) III, pp. 1603.
136
Cf. van Dülmen, Kultur und Alltag (see above, n. 111) I, pp. 136–7.
137
Tobias Wagner, Postilla textualis: Das ist; Schrifft= vnd Textmässige Außlegung° Der
Son=Fest= vnd Feyrtäglichen Evangelien desz Jahrs […] Erster Jahrgang […] (Ulm, 1650),
pp. 119–124.
288 sabine holtz
bread ‘in the sweat of his brow’.138 It was the earning of food by working
that drove humans on. Self-actualization or happiness had nothing to do
with it: ‘Vnser leben wehret siebenzig Jar/ wens hoch kompt so sinds
achtzig jar/ Vnd wens köstlich gewesen ist/ so ists Mühe vnd Erbeit
gewesen/ Denn es feret schnell da hin/ als flögen wir dauon’.139 In a
translation of Psalm 90 by Martin Luther (1483–1586), struggle and work
were closely bound together. This ‘made an example of the accursed
character attributed to all labours by each person in his time’.140 Each
person was placed in his profession by divine Providence and there he had
to do his duty. A person could hardly achieve anything by his own efforts;
the blessing of God must accompany his activity. Sermon and prayer did
not hinder a man in his work and profession, but rather one was able to
‘work well and achieve a lot’141 after hearing a sermon. Work thus per-
formed was blessed by God: ‘Indeed, the blessing of God comes to the
devout in their sleep, but not by means of sleep; First it goes: Put your
hand to the plough, and work; and then stop working, and take your bless-
ing from the Lord’.142 God promised to reward now and forever all
housework and other tasks done from the heart and voluntarily with good
will.143 Work preserved human health and prevented the slide into pov-
erty.144 The Lutherans preached that contentment in relation to earthly
possessions, to which one was not supposed to become too attached, was
also the part of work. A person was indeed supposed to work hard in his
profession, but should also enjoy with a happy heart that which God had
given him.145 Whoever approached his duties with faith in God, industri-
ously, decently, truly and honestly, would find his work not a burden but
a pleasure.
God wished to reward all good work now and forever.146 In Lutheranism
all work had equal status; the spiritual sphere did not have an advantage
over the secular. Thus theologians were able without difficulty to advocate
138
Summarien (see above, n. 119) I, p. 11.
139
‘Seventy years is the span of our life, eighty if our strength holds; the hurrying years
are labour and sorrow, so quickly they pass and are forgotten.’ Psalm 90:10–11; translation
taken from The New English Bible (Oxford and Cambridge, 1970).
140
Paul Münch, Lebensformen in der frühen Neuzeit (1500–1800) (Frankfurt a.M. and
Berlin, 1992), pp. 356–357.
141
Summarien (see above, n. 119) VI, p. 373.
142
Summarien VI, pp. 512–513.
143
Summarien VI, p. 1038.
144
Summarien V, p. 539 and III, p. 1814.
145
Summarien III, pp. 1961–2.
146
the preservation of hierarchical order within classes.147 Social inequality

was thus certainly willed by God. The Providence of God alone had the
right to make each change in class and function.
Preachers condemned worry about providing food because it hindered
efforts towards piety while also leading to avarice.148 Well-earned earthly
goods could be enjoyed with pleasure and in good conscience. Lutheranism
and Catholicism agreed on this point, and indeed their conception of work
scarcely differed, apart from the extra weight the Catholics gave spiritual
professions. Here as well preachers declare war on the idleness and laziness
which lead to sickness and infirmity, through which man himself is
destroyed. The commandment to work effected a tremendous ‘campaign
of diffusion’ and confessional differences are almost nonexistent.149 In con-
trast to the case in the Reformed Church, Lutheran ‘job satisfaction’ did
not lead to a connection between the ‘Protestant work ethic’ and the ‘spirit
of capitalism’.150 In the Reformed Church, however, worldly success in
work was linked to the belief in predestination. This placed a higher value
on success in work. It was linked with a tendency towards asceticism in
work and led to a maximization of profit, along with personal modesty.
It is reasonable to expect that this conception was impressed upon the
congregation by means of sermons.
Wealth and Poverty

The principle of inequality formed the kernel of early modern society.151
It was divinely ordained: just as there were privileged people who exerted
power, and dependents who had to obey, there were also rich and poor.
The divine order legitimized social inequality, and divided God’s gifts une-
qually. Nonetheless, life lived in need could be sustained as well as with
excess. Even if it was said that work was profitable, in the final analysis it
was God who led the way to prosperity. Humans were meant to use their
gifts for the glory of God and the good of their neighbours. Goods achieved
147
Wagner, Epistel=Postill (see above, n. 9) II, p. 466; Georg Heinrich Häberlin, Postilla
epistolica versicularis […] (Stuttgart, 1685), p. 302a.
148
Summarien III, pp. 1961–2.
149
Münch, Lebensformen in der frühen Neuzeit (see above, n. 140), p. 359.
150
Cf. Max Weber, Die protestantische Ethik und der Geist des Kapitalismus: Gesammelte
Aufsätze zur Religionssoziologie (9th ed. Tübingen, 1988) I, p. 77.
151
Cf. Münch, Lebensformen in der frühen Neuzeit, pp. 68–70; Françoise Deconinck-
Brossard, “Le discours des églises sur la pauvreté,” in Pauvreté et assistance en Grande-
Bretagne, 1688–1834, Paul Denizot and Cécile Révauge eds. (Aix-en-Provence, 1999),
pp. 77–88.
290 sabine holtz
through careful management could be used for necessary food for oneself,
or could also alleviate the poverty of another. In no way was the believer to
set his heart on these goods and to depend on earthly property. Wealth
per se was nevertheless not at all reprehensible; it was indeed necessary for
the support of churches and schools, for the payment of taxes to the
authorities, for the proper nourishment of a man and his family, and for
the aid of the poor. Mutual aid preserved love and unity among people.
The weak beggars of a town had the right to count on the help of its
citizens.152 On the other hand, able-bodied beggars, that is, those who
were able to work, threatened the already scanty food supply of the village
and urban population. They could expect no help. Whoever became poor
through his own fault, whether through drunkenness, extravagance or
indebtedness, could not rely on the support of society. On the other hand,
those threatened by illness or death could count on solidarity, even if for
the most part the surplus was scanty. Responsibility for the ill and for
orphans was borne by civic and religious institutions.
In this context, differences existed between Catholic and Protestant ter-
ritories. The Capuchin Antonio dalla Barra (d. 1751), Bishop of Aversa,
who preached in the farming villages around Naples, saw that his task as a
preacher on alms consisted above all of dispelling doubt about the identity
of the poor in his audience.153 Dalla Barra repeatedly brushed all possible
objections on the part of the public aside. He came to the conclusion that
the question of whether one was dealing with a needy person or a cheat
was in the final analysis of no importance, since the receiver of alms was
actually Christ. Vincenzo Maria Zaretti treated the rich as eternally damned
in a sermon published in 1794, merely because they were rich.154 Whatever
the rich did, be it never so pious, devout, altruistic, modest or self-sacrificing,
it was always just hypocrisy. Being rich meant cheating, cunning and
innate sin.155
The Tuscan Jesuit Paolo Segneri (1624–1694) saw only the profit motive
in enterprise. The negative consequence was that wealth was squandered on
luxury and magnificence. Segneri sought to convince businesspeople not
to invest the profits they gained through management back into business
undertakings, nor to invest it in luxury, but rather to make use of their wealth
152
Cf. van Dülmen, Kultur und Alltag (see above, n. 111) II, pp. 238–240.
153
Cf. Battafarana, “Der arme Lazarus” (see above, n. 11), p. 190.
154
Cf. Battafarana, “Der arme Lazarus”, pp. 190–191.
155
Vincenzo Maria Zaretti, […] Quaresimali, Panegirici, e Sermoni (Napels, 1794) II,
pp. 74–75.
in a Christian manner.156 He condemned the maximization of profit by the

entrepreneur.157 He wanted also to ensure that the rich not only supported
the poor in material terms, but also ceased their exploitation of the poor:
‘Up to this point I have tried to encourage you to support the poor sub-
stantially. But O, God! It would be a lot if some, as I have said, even if they
do not support [the poor], would at least refrain from oppressing them’.158
The Jesuit Wolfgang Rauscher (1641–1709) consoled the old and the sick,
as well as those who were ‘devout, begging, indigent’ people, and who
placed their faith in God: ‘there is a little piece of bread left over for you,
indeed in the hand of the Lord, who can and will save you himself ’.159
The majority of preachers had to struggle with the social reality of a
farming society based on scarcity. The mass of men was threatened by sink-
ing into want and hunger. Illness and crop failure quickly led to a life lived
below the minimum required for existence: ‘when again and again a half
dozen children grow up, with nothing to chew or bite on’, then the path
to begging and perhaps even vagrancy was indicated.160
5. Authorities and Subjects
The social teachings of all Christian confessions came into conflict with
the interests of the ruling classes. The churches taught a natural loyalty
on the part of Christian citizens towards the state.161 Preachers were aware
that earthly power always existed within, and not independently of, an
order of power that for its part rested on divine laws.162 Political repre-
sentatives of this order of power had to be personally responsible before
God. Being in possession of both Tablets of the Law, the Lutheran authori-
ties exercised trusteeship over both worldly and spiritual rule.163 This double
156
Paolo Segneri, Quaresimale (Florenz, 1679, 11th ed. Venedig, 1717), cited in
Battafarana, “Der arme Lazarus”, p. 187.
157
Segneri, Quaresimale, quoted from Battafarana, “Der arme Lazarus”, p. 186.
158
Segneri, Quaresimale, quoted from Battafarana, “Der arme Lazarus”, pp. 188–9.
159
Wolfgang Rauscher, Oel und Wein Deß Mitleidigen Samaritans, vol. 1 (Dillingen,
1689), pp. 272a–3.
160
Resch, Discursus in festo S. Jacobi, quoted from Eybl, “Jakobus auf dem Lande”
(see above, n. 99), p. 84.
161
Cf. Holtz, Theologie und Alltag (see above, n. 106), pp. 348–362.
162
Cf. Gerd Mischler, “English political sermons, 1714–1742: A case study in the
theory of the ‘divine right of Governors’ and the ideology of order,” in British journal for
eighteenth century studies 24 (2001), 33–61.
163
Johannes Öchslin, Das um einen nachdrücklichen Land-Tags-Seegen Zu GOTT
Hertzlich seuffzende Würtemberg […] (Stuttgart, [1739]), p. 36.
292 sabine holtz
responsibility for the piety of the lower classes and the course of their lives
formed the basis of the duties of the authorities.164
In principle the cooperation of church and state in preserving good
order and ‘the common good’165 was indispensable. The responsibility
of the authorities for the Lutheran church did not merely involve exter-
nalities such as the protection of churches, the facilitation of church serv-
ices, the abolition of idolatry and the protection of theologians and
teachers. According to their conception of themselves, Lutheran clergy
occupied the position of mediator between authorities and subjects and
both had to pay attention to the word of God. The church, just like the
authorities, was interested in keeping subjects on the straight and narrow.
Secular authorities thus had to take care that their subjects endeavour to
follow a respectable way of life, an ‘external respectability’.166 Without
these authorities, anarchy would reign, and no one would ‘remain lord of
his manor for one hour’.167 The preachers had to take care that each person
followed an appropriate way of life, not only out of fear of punishment,
but also from inner conviction.
Those who worked in churches had a difficult dual function: they were
at one and the same time servants of God and servants of rulers. Nonetheless,
clergy were mainly taken as representatives of the authorities by their
listeners, not least because they were meant to satisfy the religious expecta-
tions of the congregation and not create problems in the first place.
Without a doubt preachers stabilized political power through their meas-
ures concerning social discipline, although they also reminded the secular
authorities that their responsibilities had been given legitimacy by the
grace of God. Lutheran preachers made the governing classes take to heart
the behaviour that was expected of them.168 The continuity and stability of
political rule – the basic aspiration expressed by the behaviour of Lutheran-
orthodox rulers – similarly were held by the preachers to be inherent in a
conflict-free change of government: ‘Thus a ruler does well when he enters
164
Cf. Wolfgang Sommer, “Obrigkeits- und Sozialkritik in lutherischen Regenten-
predigten des frühen 17. Jahrhunderts,” in Predigt und soziale Wirklichkeit, Welzig ed.
(see above, n. 11), pp. 348–362.
165
Dieter Stievermann, “Die württembergischen Klosterreformen des 15. Jahrhunderts:
Ein bedeutendes landeskirchliches Strukturelement des Spätmittelalters und ein
Kontinuitätsstrang zum ausgebildeten Landesfürstentum der Frühneuzeit,” in Zeitschrift
für württembergische Landesgeschichte 44 (1985), 65–103, at pp. 99–100.
166
Johannes Öchslin, Christliche Predigt Von der Kinder-Zucht […] (Stuttgart, 1713),
p. 22.
167
Johann David Frisch, Die wahre Fürsten-Ehre Jn einer Huldigungs-Predigt […]
(Stuttgart, [1734]), p. B2v.
168
Cf. Holtz, “Vom Umgang mit der Obrigkeit” (see above, n. 87).
into government […] when he maintains the pacta majorum, the old set-
tlement and contract/…; in this way it appears that there has been no
change of government […]’169 On the occasion of the burial of the
Württemberg senior official Friedrich Jakob Witt (1640–1722), the some-
time deacon and then court preacher Johannes Öchslin (1677–1738) took
the opportunity to identify serious shortcomings in the administration.
The preacher evaluated the dead man himself as a prime example of a civil
servant, but noted that many ‘politici’ and authorities did not, in contrast
to the deceased, have the skill of ‘self-knowledge’; their arrogance stopped
them from having it; and indeed they indulged in unashamed partisan-
ship.170 In spite of all the difficulties with officials, it was important to
Öchslin that the ruler ‘did not arrogate everything to his own might, and
act alone in the full force of his power against his own subjects’.171 In con-
trast, a wise ruler paid attention to the weal and woe of his subjects and
attempted to further the common good (1 Kings 3:9). Such a ruler would
also preserve the agreements that had been concluded by his predecessors.
This was particularly important at a time when the Dukes of Württemberg
were Catholic. Öchslin expressed himself forcefully on this subject: ‘We
demand in the name of religion and its freedom nothing other than to be
able to conduct ourselves freely and undisturbed in the ways of God, and
to carry out his laws, rights and customs […]’172
When Duke Carl Alexander (1733–1737),173 who had converted to
Catholicism, began governing, Johann David Frisch (1676–1742), a
preacher at the collegiate church in Stuttgart, expressed himself very subtly
on the occasion of his enthronement: ‘O it is of course in every way nothing
but an expression of the love of God, when the land and its people are
supplied with a ruler. The heathen have recognized that it would be even
better to have the most evil ruler than to have none at all'.174 Rulers
not only enacted laws, but also provided justice for all, and gave their sub-
jects well-being, nourishment and safety.175 Frisch incorporated his –
attested – expectation that he would be able to remain a Lutheran into the
169
Wölfflin, Christliche Landtags=Predigt 1675 (see above, n. 109), pp. 44–45.
170
Johannes Öchslin, Hertzliche Liebe zu dem geschriebenen Wort Gottes Ist ein Vortrefflicher
Vortheil eines vornehmen POLITICI […] (Stuttgart, [1722]), p. 24.
171
Öchslin, Land-Tags-Seegen, p. 33.
172
Öchslin, Land-Tags-Seegen, p. 27.
173
Cf. Hermann Tüchle, “Herzog Carl Alexander (1733–1737),” in 900 Jahre Haus
Württemberg: Leben und Leistung für Land und Leute Robert Uhland ed. (3rd ed. Stuttgart
et al., 1985), pp. 227–236, at pp. 227–228.
174
Frisch, Die wahre Fürsten-Ehre (see above, n. 167), p. B2r.
175
Frisch, Die wahre Fürsten-Ehre, p. C1r.
294 sabine holtz
responsibility of the ruler to ensure the eternal well-being of his subjects;

this could only mean in this case remaining Lutheran. Frisch conflated his
(officially sanctioned) expectation to be able to remain a Lutheran with his
magisterial duty to be responsible for the eternal welfare of his subjects; in
this instance, this could only mean remaining with his traditional Lutheran
faith.
Abraham a Santa Clara (1644–1709), a preacher at the imperial court
in Vienna, did not himself shrink back from open criticism of the
nobility:
[…] in these times it’s all over for preachers who trust rulers to speak out
against troublesome public misdeeds and blasphemy, as the case of a certain
court preacher demonstrates. He punished his ruler’s wicked lifestyle by tell-
ing allegories that the ruler was certainly able to pick up on. After a sermon,
the ruler invited him to a meal. While they were dining in the finest style, the
ruler spoke: ‘Mr. Court Preacher, you’ve been taking pot-shots at me!’ The
court preacher answered: ‘Your Excellency, I’m very sorry. I was aiming at
your heart, and here I find out that they were only flesh wounds’.176
The responsibilty of preaching at court, at the centre of power, was cer-
tainly a double-edged sword, since the court preacher was part of the court,
but at the same time a member of the religious authorities.177 He was the
voice ‘of objection and if need be of opposition to the absolutist world of
court […]'.178 The ruler in his turn relied on sermons to support his power:
for example, pietas Austriaca was the basis of the dynastic might of the
Habsburgs.179 On the other hand he was at the mercy of the sermon with
its demands and criticism.180 If the preacher discussed questions of govern-
ment or indeed made criticisms in the pulpit, then this served abundantly
as the stuff of conflict. This was not only the case for preachers at noble
courts; in many cities as well, criticism that issued from the pulpit led to
tensions between the religious and secular spheres.181 Preachers did not go
176
Abraham a Sancta Clara, quoted from Theodor Georg von Karajan, Abraham a
Sancta Clara (Vienna, 1867), p. 132. Cf. Brecht, Der Barockprediger Ignatius Ertl (see
above, n. 101), p. 69.
177
Cf. Rudolf von Thadden, Die brandenburg-preußischen Hofprediger im 17. und 18.
Jahrhundert: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der absolutistischen Staatsgesellschaft in Brandenburg-
Preußen, Arbeiten zur Kirchengeschichte 32 (Berlin, 1959).
178
179
Aemilian Daneli, Der Verstellte einer gantzen Welt/ Denen Christen aber bekandte
Pilger/Heiliger Rochus […] (Vienna, 1728), cited Welzig, Predigten der Barockzeit (see above,
n. 39), pp. 195–206 (comment pp. 608–614, at pp. 608–610).
180
Cf. Dieter Breuer, “Der Prediger als Erfolgsautor: Zur Funktion der Predigt im 17.
Jahrhundert,” Vestigia Bibliae 3 (1981), 31–48, here p. 35.
181
out of their way at all to avoid an impending conflict with the nobility and
did not let themselves be intimidated by the ‘baying’182 of the powerful.
The state could fundamentally, however, count on the cooperation of
the church, and not only in questions of social discipline.183 For example,
August Graf Neithardt von Gneisenau (1760–1831) very consciously used
religion as an instrument in the wars of independence.184 In August 1811
he lectured the Prussian clergy ‘of all Christian confessions’ on their respon-
sibilities in case of war and provided them with propaganda material.
He expected not only pointed sermons from them, but also patriotic
missionary activity. The military preacher Christian Wilhelm Spieker
(1780–1858), a theology professor at the University of Frankfurt a. d.
Oder from 1809 on, spoke to military chaplains accordingly: they should
say to the soldiers that ‘the deciding moment had come, in which they
should justify the love of the king, the trust of the fatherland, the expecta-
tions of all patriots, […] that God was standing by them in battle, and that
through their efforts an honourable peace would soon be achieved’.185
Faced with the brutalities of war, the preachers put their patriotic mission
aside, since practical brotherly love and pastoral care were needed on the
field of battle.
Preachers nevertheless did not acquiesce to being used simply as an
extension of the secular authorities. Even when they agreed with the goals
of the nobility in issues of social policy and social discipline, they used
their admonishing and warning position not only to bring about the
behaviour desired by God in the lower classes, but also to shine a critical
light on the behaviour of the nobility. It did not make the sermons of the
Lutheran preachers apolitical when in so doing they referred often to
examples from the Old Testament in order to comment on contemporary
developments and events from the pulpit.186 Before a background pro-
vided by the authority of scripture, they argued by means of pictures which
could easily be transferred by their listeners into the present. It is reasonable
182
Mauritius von Nattenhausen, Homo Simplex Et Rectus, oder der alte redliche Teutsche
Michel (2nd ed. Augsburg, 1705) I, p. 101b.
183
Cf. Holtz, “Todesangst und Gottesfurcht” (see above, n. 23).
184
Cf. Hartmut Rudolph, Das evangelische Militärkirchenwesen in Preußen: Die
Entwicklung seiner Verfassung und Organisation vom Absolutismus bis zum Vorabend des
Ersten Weltkrieges, Studien zur Theologie und Geistesgeschichte des Neunzehnten
Jahrhunderts 8 (Göttingen, 1973), pp. 92–93.
185
Christian Wilhelm Spieker, “Was können Feldprediger im Kriege nützen?” Journal
für Prediger 52 (1807), 241–288, at p. 264.
186
Cf. Holtz, “Vom Umgang mit der Obrigkeit” (see above, n. 87).
296 sabine holtz
to conclude that, since the Bible was one of the most important
books in school, along with the catechism and hymnal, audiences had no
difficulty in understanding their points. Argumentation made on a biblical
basis protected preachers from possible charges of treason for harsh criti-
cism of the nobility. Preachers thus occupied the position of watchmen
over the nobility.187
6. Sermons and Stages of Life
Birth, Childhood and Youth

The household formed part of public order in early modern society; a form
of rule therefore passed to the parents. It was children who really made a
marriage into a household, and in the long run they ensured heirs, and
that one would be cared for in old age.188 The birth of a child was a big
event and signified the fulfillment of a fruitful union.189 Childlessness was
taken as a stigma. God’s blessing rested upon every pregnancy, since preg-
nant women did not get that way only ‘through the orderly joining together
of man and wife’: God himself formed the embryo, and the task of the
woman was then to bear the child.190 The labour pains of the woman served
as a reminder of the wages of Eve’s sin. Through them they felt the punish-
ment for sinning laid down upon them by God.191
187
Cf. Luise Schorn-Schütte, “Zwischen ‘Amt’ und ‘Beruf ’ – Der Prediger als Wächter,
‘Seelenhirt’ oder Volkslehrer: Evangelische Geistlichkeit im Alten Reich und in der
schweizerischen Eidgenossenschaft im 18. Jahrhundert,” in Evangelische Pfarrer: Zur
sozialen und politischen Rolle einer bürgerlichen Gruppe in der deutschen Gesellschaft des 18.
bis 20. Jahrhunderts Luise Schorn-Schütte and Walter Sparn eds., Konfession und
Gesellschaft 12 (Stuttgart, Berlin and Köln, 1997), pp. 1–35; Luise Schorn-Schütte, “Priest,
preacher, pastor: Research on clerical office in early modern Europe,” Central European
History 33 (2000), 1–39, at pp. 29–36; Dürr, “Images of the priesthood” (see above, n. 43),
pp. 92–99.
188
n. 44), pp. 365–369.
189
Summarien I, p. 184 and Summarien III, p. 1601. Cf. Dugan, Images of marriage
(see above, n. 114), pp. 123–138.
190
Bonifatius Stöltzlin, Geistlicher Adlerstein, d.i. Christlicher Unterricht, Gebet und
Seuffzer für schwangere und gebärende Frauen (9th ed. Ulm, 1747), preface.
191
Stöltzlin, Geistlicher Adlerstein, pp. 1–2. – Cf. Werner Unseld, “ ‘Strafen, von der
Seelen auf den Leib gelegt’: Predigt für alle, Seelsorge für Schwangere, Gebärende,
Wöchnerinnen,” in Weib und Seele: Frömmigkeit und Spiritualität evangelischer Frauen in
Württemberg – Katalog zur Ausstellung im Landeskirchlichen Museum Ludwigsburg vom 16.
Mai bis 8. November 1998, Kataloge und Schriften des Landeskirchlichen Museums 8
(Ludwigsburg, 1998), pp. 45–48.
Baptism played an important role not only in religious practice, but

also in the life story of the parents. Through it the birth of the child was
publicly acknowledged and at the same time the fruitfulness of the union
was proven.192 In the eighteenth century it also became a Protestant prac-
tice to baptize newborns two to three days after the birth.193 To live with-
out being baptized would be equivalent to being shut out of society. Only
baptism counted as entry into the congregation and as a social legitimiza-
tion of the birth.
The relationship between parents and children was defined by honour
and obedience, as described in the fourth commandment, in all confes-
sions.194 Respect for one’s parents was based on the fulfillment of the
required obedience. In addition to this, children should ‘behave and speak
respectfully to their parents, gloss over their mistakes and faults, and be
patient’; especially in old age, when parents were without means, one
should be good to them and bless them.195
Parents were required by Protestant preachers to ‘love their children
well’, so that the children could take their parents’ love as an example and
‘love them dearly in return and to conduct themselves such that they might
at all times go honourably in their sight’196 For their part, parents were
meant to cherish their children as a gift from God as ‘dear and worthy’.197
If parents were ‘sorely troubled’ by their children’s accidents, if the crying
of the children really tugged at the mothers’ heartstrings, then they were
feeling their love towards their children. The care of the mother was also
apparent when ‘she cared for, instructed and raised her children heartily,
deeply and truly’.198 The concern and care of the father also found its
expression when he took the knife away from the child so that he would
192
Cf. van Dülmen, Kultur und Alltag (see above, n. 111) I, 190.
193
Cf. Robert W. Scribner, “Die Auswirkungen der Reformation auf das Alltagsleben,”
in Robert W. Scribner: Religion und Kultur in Deutschland, 1400–1800, ed. Lyndal Roper,
Veröffentlichungen des Max-Planck-Instituts für Geschichte 175 (Göttingen, 2002),
pp. 303–330, at p. 307.
194
Cf. Dugan, Images of marriage (see above, n. 114), pp. 138–58; Françoise Deconinck-
Brossard, “Representations of children in the sermons of Philip Doddridge,” in The church
and childhood, ed. Diana Wood, Studies in Church History 31 (Oxford, 1994), pp. 379–389;
Lawrence Wolff, “Parents and children in the sermons of Père Bourdaloue: A Jesuit per-
spective on the early modern familiy,” in The Jesuit tradition in education and missions:
A 450-year perspective, ed. Christopher Chapple (London and Toronto, 1993), pp. 81–94.
195
196
Summarien II, pp. 509–10; Hochstetter, Christliche Antritts-Predigt (see above,
n. 86), p. 21. Cf. Hoffmann, Die “Hausväterliteratur” (see above, n. 20), p. 134.
197
198
Christian Hagmajer, Zwey Abend=Predigten […] (Tübingen, 1728), p. 13.
298 sabine holtz
not hurt himself, but at the same time spoke to him gently, ‘[…] when he
cried about it, and gave him something better in order to dry his tears’.199
The father-child relationship was often seen as a representation of the
relationship between God and man. Through the analogy of the heavenly
and earthly father a reason that inclined towards transcendence was given
for the position of the paterfamilias.200 No observable difference appears in
Catholicism. Catholic preachers had the corporeal and spiritual well-being
of children at heart.201 They admonished parents to care for them thought-
fully and bring them up in a Christian manner. This occurred not only in
sermons for St. Nicholas Day, when favoured children received presents,
but also in special sermons about childrearing, and on the occasion of the
popular symbolic distribution of gifts to the various estates during the
New Year’s sermons.202 Andreas Strobl (1641–1706) asked that all parents
take care of their children in material respects, but also ‘that they teach
them to read and write and to practice an art or profession so that they
have the necessary food and clothing, in order that today or tomorrow
they could support themselves and find a crust of bread’.203 At the same
time the preachers impressed upon children that they should stand
by their parents in love and loyalty, just as the fourth commandment
demanded. Here as well the preacher appealed to the adult children,
evidently because of old people who were often neglected or at least treated
as irksome. He illustrated the ungratefulness of children with drastic
examples.204 In this context he also adduced further negative aspects of
family life, that lead one to the conclusion that inter-generational relation-
ships and relationships between master and servant were in no way always
devoid of problems.205
The astonishingly exact depictions of the play of children in the house and
out of doors, as well as the toys mentioned there, demonstrate that here
was a childhood worthy of the name.206 Preachers were thinking mainly
199
200
Cf. Gotthard Frühsorge, “Die Begründung der ‘Väterlichen Gesellschaft’ in der
europäischen oeconomia christiana,” in Das Vaterbild im Abendland, ed. Hubertus
Tellenbach, vol. 1 (Stuttgart et al., 1978), pp. 110–123, at pp. 114–123.
201
Cf. Moser-Rath, “Familienleben im Spiegel der Barockpredigt” (see above, n. 129),
pp. 59–60.
202
Cf. Michael Christoph Benz, Neu-Erklingender Freudvoller Jubel-Schall […] (Stadt
am Hof, 1702), p. 24.
203
Andreas Strobl, Ovum Paschale Novum Oder Neugefärbte Oster-Ayr […] (Salzburg,
1700), p. 15. Cf. Moser-Rath, “Lesestoff fürs Kirchenvolk” (see above, n. 68), pp. 51–52.
204
Cf. Moser-Rath, Predigtmärlein der Barockzeit (see above, n. 68), nr. 25.
205
206
Cf. Elfriede Moser-Rath, “Zeugnisse zum Kinderspiel der Barockzeit,” in Jahrbuch
des Österreichischen Volksliedwerkes 9 (1962), 194–203.
of the children of city-dwellers and farmers, and not of the families of

rulers and aristocrats.207 They often complained about the pampering and
mollycoddling of children, of an exaggerated level of care, indeed an ‘infat-
uation’208 on the part of parents, and urged more strictness. Here as well
there was no difference between Catholic and Lutheran sermons, whence
the overwhelming majority of examples are derived, particularly from the
second half of the sixteenth century and the early seventeenth century.209
When children misbehaved, parents were supposed to punish them in a
‘suitable manner’.210 Most preachers called for the use of the switch as an
unavoidable and in all cases tried and true aid to raising children.211
Without a doubt, the constraints of employment left parents with little
time for giving conscious attention to their children, and yet watchful care
is evident. The parent-child bond was at the same time constrained by a
severely authoritarian relationship, and corresponded to the social prac-
tices of early modern society. The fourth commandment was much men-
tioned in this context, as for example in Luther’s Großer Katechismus, and
was directed mainly at adult children, who were not supposed to deny help
and care to their old and sick parents. The emotional relationship between
children and parents, in addition to the requirement of obedience, played
an important part in the socialization of children. Children were granted
much more than minimal care. The family was more than an alliance for
the purposes of work; it provided room for emotional protection for chil-
dren and enabled a feeling of safety and security.
The absolutist state made clear, with increasing implementation of com-
pulsory school attendance, that the disciplining of youth was not a private
matter.212 Compulsory attendance at elementary school had been attempted
207
p. 61.
208
Franz Loidl, Menschen im Barock: Abraham a Sancta Clara über das religiös-sittliche
Leben in Österreich in der Zeit von 1670–1710 (Vienna, 1938), pp. 195–197. Cf. Hubertus
Rauscher, Die Barockpredigten des Jesuitenpaters Wolfgang Rauscher in volkskundlicher Sicht,
Ph.-Diss. (München, 1973), pp. 213–214; Leonhard Intorp, Westfälische Barockpredigten
in volkskundlicher Sicht (Münster, 1964), p. 106.
209
Cf. Monika Hagenmaier, Predigt und Policey: Der gesellschaftspolitische Diskurs
zwischen Kirche und Obrigkeit in Ulm, 1614–1639, Nomos-Universitätsschriften:
Geschichte 1 (Baden-Baden, 1989), pp. 201–212.
210
Summarien (see above, n. 119) I, p. 510. Cf. Gerald Strauss, Luther’s house of learning:
Indoctrination of the young in the German Reformation (Baltimore, 1978), pp. 176–182.
211
Wolff, Rugitus leonis (see above, n. 129), p. 96. Cf. Christoph Selhamer, Tuba Rustica,
Das ist: Neue Gei-Predigen […], vol. 2 (Augsburg, 1701), pp. 12–13.
212
Christoph Ott, Hohe Schul Der lieben Eltern/ Darinnen Die Christlich- und
höchst-nothwendige Kinder-Zucht […] gelehret wird (Augsburg, 1657, 3rd ed. 1728),
pp. 320–321.
300 sabine holtz
in the Protestant territories since the second half of the sixteenth centuries.
The Große Kirchenordnung, introduced in Württemberg in 1559, contained
an attempt at a widespread provision of schools.213 Change at the middle
and higher levels of the education system was not considered, and yet a
far-sighted interest underpinned an elementary education that sought to
treat boys and girls equally. Four subjects (reading, writing, memorization
and singing) were taught at German school. The Bible, the catechism and
hymns formed the curriculum. In 1729 Duke Eberhard Ludwig (1693–
1733) issued a new set of rules for German schools, which strengthened
the function of the school as a place for religious instruction. This occurred
as a result of Pietistic influence. The content of the curriculum in Reformed
Bern was not noticeably different, where school was decidedly a religiously-
based institution. The intention was that lessons learned at Sunday school
would be understood better with the aid of the catechism learned by
heart.214
Pietistic influence can be observed in Württemberg from around 1720
on. A ducal Reskript of 1649 attempted to implement compulsory school
attendance for the whole year, but resistance was long-lasting.215 It posited
a certain norm, but the reality in cities and villages was quite different.
Many cities were so-called Ackerbürgerstädte, populated by citizens who
farmed land within the city limits, and thus were not far removed from the
village way of life and its agrarian structures. The early modern territorial
state did not have the capability either to implement established norms
that penetrated to the lowest levels of society, or to punish resistance.
School sermons, which were held twice a year, were therefore meant to
convince parents of the necessity of sending their children to school for the
whole year. Many more children attended school in the winter than in the
summer. After the middle of the eighteenth century, however, school
attendance in the summer as well was the rule.
Catholic preachers urged parents to enable their children to go to school;
this was far from self-evident, even despite the effort of the authorities.
Christoph Selhamer (1640–1708), who was a secular priest active in
Salzburg and Weilheim, called for school attendance from the seventh
year, even if parents had reservations: ‘If I can’t read and write, why should
my child be able to? It’s sour grapes, if they don’t want to grant their
213
Cf. Sabine Holtz, “Stadt – Land – Schule: Ein Beitrag zum Bildungs- und Schulwesen
des Alten Reiches,” in Landesgeschichte und Geschichtsdidaktik: Festschrift für Rainer Jooß.
Gerhard Fritz ed., Gmünder Hochschulreihe 24 (Schwäbisch Gmünd, 2004), pp. 79–95.
214
Cf. Schmidt, Dorf und Religion (see above, n. 26), pp. 109–113.
215
Landeskirchliches Archiv Stuttgart, A 9, nr. 1.
children something when they should be seeking to further their children

above all else’.216 The primary goal of raising children was thus for each
person to be able to fulfill his assigned place in society for the glory of God
and for the common good. In the household at that time, if the children
‘had turned out well and were God-fearing’, they were a ‘huge help in
times of difficulty’ to their parents.217 The confessions did not differ signifi-
cantly in their pronouncements.218
Illness, Old Age and Death

The results of historical demography make clear how short the average life
expectancy was;219 that of men was usually higher than that of women.220
The high birth rate alone, which was demographically moderated by a
high infant and child mortality rate, had an impact on female life expect-
ancy.221 Even when social and regional differences are taken into account,
the fact remains that death was a fact of life for the people of the early
modern period.222 Work that was hard on the body, limited nutrition, poor
living conditions, all sorts of illnesses, poor hygiene and much more took
a heavy toll on life.223 According to most estimates, old age began at about
the age of fifty.224 Many representations of the course of life show this as
the summit; it was all downhill from there.225
216
Selhamer, Tuba Rustica (see above, n. 211), pp. 93–95. Cf. Moser-Rath, “Lesestoff
fürs Kirchenvolk” (see above, n. 68), pp. 51–52.
217
Summarien (see above, n. 119) III, p. 1602. Cf. van Dülmen, Kultur und Alltag
(see above, n. 111) I, p. 107.
218
p. 63.
219
Cf. van Dülmen, Kultur und Alltag (see above, n. 111) I, pp. 207–15; Arthur E.
Imhof, Die Lebenszeit: Vom aufgeschobenen Tod und von der Kunst des Lebens (München,
1988), pp. 54–68.
220
Cf. Lenz, De mortuis nil nisi bene (see above, n. 56), p. 89; Arthur E. Imhof, Die
gewonnenen Jahre: Von der Zunahme unserer Lebensspanne seit dreihundert Jahren oder von
der Notwendigkeit einer neuen Einstellung zu Leben und Sterben (München, 1981),
pp. 159–71; Maisch, Notdürftiger Unterhalt und gehörige Schranken (see above, n. 123),
pp. 281–91, here p. 284.
221
Cf. Imhof, Die gewonnenen Jahre, pp. 35–44; Maisch, Notdürftiger Unterhalt und
gehörige Schranken, pp. 284–288.
222
Cf. Peter Borscheid, Geschichte des Alters, 16.–18. Jahrhundert, Studien zur Geschichte
des Alltags 7,1 (Münster, 1987), pp. 152–162; Imhof, Die gewonnenen Jahre, p. 89.
223
Christian Brez, Excitatorium Adhortantis se Christiani (Nürnberg, 1722), p. 37.
224
Cf. Münch, Lebensformen in der frühen Neuzeit (see above, n. 140), pp. 452–485,
at p. 471.
225
Cf. the copperplate engravings of Gerhard Altzenbach (c.1650), cited in Borscheid,
Geschichte des Alters (see above, n. 222), pp. 33–37. Cf. van Dülmen, Kultur und Alltag
(see above, n. 111) I, p. 199; Münch, Lebensformen in der frühen Neuzeit, pp. 160–9.
302 sabine holtz
Protestant preachers were extremely ambivalent about what constituted

advanced age. In 1676, when bloody dysentery was raging in Tübingen,
Balthasar Raith (1616–1683) presented to his congregation a more pro-
found assessment of the relationship between life and death, in which
achieving old age alone was not the deciding factor. A ‘blessed end’ relativ-
ized the age of the dead person.226 The ideal was a peaceful death; nothing
was more feared than a bad, meaning sudden, death.227 This applied equally
in Catholicism, where sudden death presented a significant spiritual
problem.228 In that case no appropriate preparations for death could take
place; neither last rites nor farewells to family or monastic community
were possible. One therefore had to pray to God for protection from
sudden death.229 Only one thing was certain after death: personal respon-
sibility before the judgement of God. Life was therefore not restricted to
the here and now, but also corresponded to a life in the hereafter; a life of
eternal duration was promised, if one assumed a favourable judgement.
The transience of life was evident to people and was sufficiently con-
firmed by their own experience. No one could be sure that he would see
the end of any given day; death and judgement could come upon him at
any time. A fearful end waited for the one who lived unrepentantly.230
Preachers warned people urgently to prepare themselves for death as soon
as they reached old age, because illness did not always precede death and
many died suddenly. Only those who anticipated death through constant
visualization were able not to fear it.231
For preachers, illness was the consequence of sin, just as the health of body
and soul could conversely be seen as the highest gift in the world.232 God’s
punishment of transgression was experienced as a lessening of existence,
as illness or loss. Conversely, forgiveness or remission of punishment was
226
Balthasar Raith, Jm Namen JESU! […] (Tübingen, undated), p. 51. Cf. Michel de
Montaigne, quoted from Sherwin B. Nuland, Wie wir sterben: Ein Ende in Würde?
(München, 1994), p. 143.
227
Cf. Arthur E. Imhof, “Normen gegen die Angst des Sterbens,” in Leichenpredigten als
Quelle historischer Wissenschaften, Lenz ed. (see above, n. 57), pp. 271–284.
228
Cf. Brandtner, “Zu einer Rhetorik des Herzens” (see above, n. 54), pp. 271–273.
229
Maurus Lindemayr, Rednerische Eingänge zu Sonntäglichen Predigten durch das Jahr,
auf dessen aus dem Französischen übersetzte Advents- und Fastenpredigten Karls de la Rue […]
(Augsburg and Innsbruck, 1772), p. 179.
230
Reuchlin, Kurtze Abbildung (see above, n. 17), pp. 190–191.
231
Matthias Heimbach, Newe Schaw-Bühne des Tods (Köln, 1716), pp. 19–23.
Cf. Wisintho Hartlauer, ed., Rudolph Graser: Predigten auf alle Sonn- und Festtage des Jahres,
vol. 1 (4th ed. Innsbruck, 1894), pp. 290–298, 513–520.
232
Summarien (see above, n. 119) V, p. 579. Cf. François Lebrun, Les hommes et la mort
en Anjou aux 17e et 18e siècles: Essai de démographie et de psychologie historiques, Civilisations
et Sociétés 25 (Mouton, Paris and La Haye, 1971), p. 391.
seen as a furthering and benefit of existence. This understanding of illness

as divine retribution did not exclude medical care, however; medicines
were an element of God’s creation.233
All small and large catastrophes in the world counted as proof of a God
angered by corrupted humanity. This was common to both Protestants
and Catholics. Preachers of all confessions believed that one could set
people on the straight and narrow by instilling fear of punishment in this
life and the next.234 The eternal validity of an irreversible decision after
death worked backwards into life. The goal of the preachers was to protect
people through punishment immanent in this world from the path to eter-
nal damnation. Ultimately it did not matter for people which eschatologi-
cal conception they were confronted with after death.235 Judgement simply
awaited them, which would decide finally for damnation or for salvation.
In the Catholic sermons of Ignatius Ertl (1645–1713) death had become
‘the most terrifying of duellists’.236
7. Sermons and Polemic
The confessionalization that all churches engaged in strengthened both the

territorial and national identity of the (early modern) state. In consequence
relatively closed areas for each confession were created, which still remained
in the eighteenth century even despite the cautious beginnings of tolerance
in the name of Enlightenment.237 It had already become evident during
the religious wars of the seventeenth century that confessional uniformity
throughout could not be produced merely by means of force. Many
authorities has thus deemed it necessary to tolerate deviation. Followers of
another religion were for the most part tolerated at best; they were not
allowed to practice their religion openly and had to suffer various disad-
vantages. Ultimately this meant that the state still practiced enforced
adherence to a particular confession even in the eighteenth century. Within
closed confessional areas it was not necessary for sermons to exploit
polemical disagreements with other confessions. As initial research into
233
Summarien V, pp. 272, 580.
234
Cf. Lebrun, Les hommes et la mort en Anjou, p. 417; Norbert Haag, Predigt und
Gesellschaft: Die lutherische Orthodoxie in Ulm 1640–1740, Veröffentlichungen des Instituts
für Europäische Geschichte. Religionsgeschichte 145 (Mainz, 1992), pp. 314–315.
235
236
Ertl, Amara Dulcis (see abote, n. 103), p. 609. Cf. Brecht: Der Barockprediger Ignatius
Ertl (see above, n. 101), p. 69.
237
Cf. Stollberg-Rilinger, Europa im Jahrhundert der Aufklärung (see above, n. 16),
pp. 94–113.
304 sabine holtz
the ‘second confessionalization’238 has shown, the confessional factor gained

renewed significance in the nineteenth century. The opening up of estab-
lished confessional areas in the course of territorial revolution and then
industrialization probably necessitated renewed confessional division by
means of polemical disagreements. In the eighteenth century confessional
polemic was most commonly found in areas where the confessions were
not firmly separated from one another; the form that deviated from the
religion of the state could only be experienced in private. A good example
is the crypto-Lutheranism practized in the archbishopric of Salzburg until
the expulsion of the Lutherans in 1731–1732.239 Under Empress Maria
Theresa (1745–1780) as well, concerted action was undertaken against the
Protestants who lived in Upper Austria (Land ob der Enns), Upper Styria
and Carinthia.240 For example, the urban population of Schwanenstadt
had already been converted back to Catholicism in the seventeenth century,
but crypto-Protestantism was practiced by the rural population. For this
reason Maria Theresa sent missionaries to the Protestant areas for the con-
version of the ‘heretics’. After more than one hundred farmers sent a peti-
tion for ‘the free exercise of Lutheranism’ to the empress in 1751, forced
expulsions of Lutherans living there followed from 1751 to 1758.
In this context, Maurus Lindemayr (1723–1783) was assigned mission-
ary activity by the Prior of the monastery of Lambach.241 Lindemayr spoke
decidedly in defence of the transmigration measures. Looking back in
1777 he expressly condoned the separation of families: ‘Recall the years of
grief, when large masses of the population who had risen up against the
church migrated to Transyslvania. This was a blow to agriculture which was
palpable. But one would have felt it even more, had the families not been
parted: we now have the infants as good subjects, righteous Catholics’.242
His anti-Protestant position is also evident in his poems, as well as his
Treuherzige Unterredung Eines Ländler Bauern, mit seinem Herrn Pfarrer
238
Cf. Olaf Blaschke ed., Konfessionen im Konflikt: Deutschland zwischen 1800 und
1970, ein zweites konfessionelles Zeitalter (Göttingen, 2002); Carsten Kretschmann and
Henning Pahl, “Ein ‘Zweites konfessionelles Zeitalter’? Vom Nutzen und Nachteil einer
neuen Epochensignatur,” Historische Zeitschrift 276 (2003), 369–392; Lucian Hölscher,
Geschichte der protestantischen Frömmigkeit in Deutschland (München, 2005).
239
Cf. Erich Buchinger, Die “Landler” in Siebenbürgen: Vorgeschichte, Durchführung und
Ergebnis einer Zwangsumsiedlung im 18. Jahrhundert, Buchreihe der Südostdeutschen
Historischen Kommission 31 (München, 1980), pp. 27, 35–37, 62, 153–154.
240
Cf. Brandtner, “Zu einer Rhetorik des Herzens” (see above, n. 54), pp. 259–263.
241
Cf. Brandtner, “Zu einer Rhetorik des Herzens”, pp. 259–263.
242
Maurus Lindemayr, “Domine! Opus tuum,” in: Die Jubelfeyer des tausendjährigen
Kremsmünsters, Benediktinerstifts in Oberösterreich […] (Linz, 1778), pp. 146–172, at
pp. 168–169.
(Linz c.1760/65). His Lied vom lutherischen Glauben oder Der katholische
Bauer can be understood as a reaction to the Edict of Toleration issued by
Joseph II (1765–1790) in 1781.
Another scene of Controversialist disagreements was the city of
Augsburg, where both confessions lived together on equal terms.243 Polemic
served here as a means of shoring up and defending one’s confessional
identity.244 Samuel Urlspeger (1685–1772), parish priest at St. Anne’s
Church, preached a funeral sermon for a Senior of the Lutheran Minis-
terium, Gottfried Lorner (1666–1728), who had died on December 7.
The sermon, which appeared in print in 1729, was based on a text chosen
by Lorner himself, Romans 5:1, ‘Therefore, now that we have been justi-
fied through faith, let us continue at peace with God through our Lord
Jesus Christ’.245 In his interpretation, Urlspeger preached on the Lutheran
doctrine of justification and the salvation that resulted for believers. When
discussing examples of the theological steadfastness of the deceased, he
came to the subject of dogma. The sermon thus did not only fulfill the
usual function of a funeral sermon, but also served to strengthen confes-
sional identity. Lorner had the reputation, far beyond the boundaries of
the imperial city of Augsburg, of being a controversialist: he had engaged
in confessional polemical disagreements with many representatives of
Catholicism, particularly with the Jesuit Kaspar Mändl (1655–1728).
Urlsperger referred back to this: ‘There will indeed be many from the
opposite religion who will rejoice at my death and mock it; I ask alone of
God before you that he have mercy upon you; and convince you that I do
not hate your persons; I am now going in freedom to my God; thus noth-
ing can harm me and you can mock me as you wish; you will have to
answer for it’.246 Thus Urlsperger made use of the reconciliation expressed
by the deceased in the face of death in order to depict the Lutheran
position as one tolerant and ready for peace, whereas he described the
Catholic camp as intolerant and aggressive.247
243
Cf. Ralf Georg Bogner, “Polemische Leichenpredigt: Die Augsburger Kontroverse
um Franz Xaver Pfyffers Schmachrede auf Gottfried Lomer,” in Oratio funebris, ed. Boge
and Bogner (see above, n. 22), pp. 211–233, at p. 213, n. 9.
244
Cf. Etienne François, Die unsichtbare Grenze: Protestanten und Katholiken in Augsburg,
1648–1806, Abhandlungen zur Geschichte der Stadt Augsburg 33 (Sigmaringen, 1991),
pp. 147–149.
245
Translation taken from The New English Bible (Oxford and Cambridge, 1970).
Samuel Urlsperger, Den Frieden mit GOtt/ als eine Frucht der Rechtfertigung […] (Augsburg,
[1729]), p. 7.
246
Urlsperger, Den Frieden mit GOtt, p. 30.
247
Cf. Bogner, “Polemische Leichenpredigt” (see above, n. 243), p. 215.
306 sabine holtz
A good two weeks after the obsequies, the Jesuit preacher at the cathedral,
Franz Xaver Pfyffer, piped up. Instead of the usual controversialist sermon
held on Holy Innocents’ Day (December 28), he also gave a funeral sermon
for Lorner, which also appeared in print.248 Following Lorner’s example,
Pfyffer polemicized against the central points of Lutheran doctrine.249 This
sermon in its turn did not go unanswered. Lorner’s son-in-law, Johann
Martin Christel (1690–1752), sometime theologian and deacon at the Bar-
füsser church in Augsburg, composed a response. In further activity, the
Jesuit preacher at the cathedral, Franz Neumayr, was defended in a funeral
sermon preached against the reproaches of his Lutheran adversaries.250
Then in 1782 the prince-bishop of Augsburg forbade controversialist
sermonsa ltogether.251
Contrary to these observations, polemic also existed outside of areas
that were confessionally non-homogeneous. Johann Benedikt Carpzov
presented himself as a Lutheran hardliner in his Evangelische Vorbilder- und
Frag-Predigten (Leipzig 1703). He made use of every opportunity for strife
that his sermon structure252 offered, speaking against both Catholicism
and the Reformed Church. Carpzov caricatured the Catholic service with
the saying, ‘passa, passa nice and fast and then always quickly off again’.253
He called the ‘papist’ doctrine of purgatory a ‘fable’; to him, the reports ‘of
phenomena of the souls of the dead’,254 which confirmed this doctrine,
were fabrications. According to his opinion, they only served to illumi-
nate255 the ‘lies’ of this religion. Carpzov also criticized the Reformed doc-
trine of predestination.256 He judged the internal enemies of Lutheranism
almost more harshly; they had already at the time of the Reformation been
248
Franz Xaver Pfyffer, Die Saul der Kirchen/ Jn einer Leich-und Lob-Predig Zu Ehren deß
Weyland (Titul) Herrn M. Gottfrid Lomers (Augsburg, 1729).
249
Pfyffer, Die Saul der Kirchen, p. 21.
250
Cf. Bogner, “Polemische Leichenpredigt”, p. 217, n. 20.
251
Cf. Peter Rummel, “Fürstbischöflicher Hof und katholisches kirchliches Leben,” in
Geschichte der Stadt Augsburg: 2000 Jahre von der Römerzeit bis zur Gegenwart, ed. Gunther
Gottlieb et al. (Stuttgart, 1984), pp. 530–541, at p. 537.
252
Carpzov, Evangelische Vorbilder- und Frag-Predigten, quoted from Welzig, Predigten
der Barockzeit (see above, n. 39), p. 375.
253
der Barockzeit, p. 394.
254
255
256
disparagingly characterized as Anabaptists, enthusiasts and maniacs.257

It was understandable that Carpzov reacted with concentrated polemic
against Johann Michael Wansleben’s (1635–1679) Gute botschaft, having
understood it as ‘a holy encouragement to leave the Protestant pack of
blasphemers’.258 Controversialist sermons such as these stand as an exam-
ple of ‘engineered differentiation’.259 They were actually directed at those
who belonged to the same faith and served as ‘support and fortification
against papist horrors’.260
Sermons preached on the occasion of Reformation festivals were pecu-
liar to Lutheranism.261 They served to reinforce the sense of self of the
reformers as well as to differentiate the confessions. In addition, Catholic
sermons on saints262 can be interpreted not only as ‘the dynastic programme
of the Habsburgs’, but also as the ‘wish of the Counter-Reformation’.263
Despite his controversialist tendencies it was no problem for the
Protestant Martin Geier (1614–1680) to borrow effective examples from
well-tried Catholic authors.264 Theological controversies conducted by
257
der Barockzeit, pp. 385–88.
258
Johann Benedikt Carpzov, Schrifftmäßige Predigt/ von/ Der grossen Hure/ auf dem
siebenköpffigten/ und zehenhörnigten/ Thier […] (Leipzig, 1687), quoted from Welzig,
Predigten der Barockzeit (see above, n. 39), pp. 453–520 (comment pp. 697–718).
259
François, Die unsichtbare Grenze (see above, n. 244), pp. 143–144.
260
Carpzov, Schrifftmäßige Predigt (see above, n. 258), quoted from Welzig, Predigten
der Barockzeit (see above, n. 39), p. 460.
261
Cf. Michael Basse, “Luthers Geschichtsverständnis und dessen geschichtstheolo-
gische Rezeption im Kontext der Reformationsjubiläen von 1817 und 1917,” Lutherjahrbuch
69 (2002), 47–70; Johannes Burkhardt, “Reformations- und Lutherfeiern: Die
Verbürgerlichung der reformatorischen Jubiläumskultur,” in Öffentliche Festkultur: Politische
Feste in Deutschland von der Aufklärung bis zum Ersten Weltkrieg, ed. Dieter Düding, Peter
Friedemann and Paul Münch (Hamburg, 1988), pp. 212–236; Hans-Dieter Schmid,
“Reformations- und Lutherfeiern in Hannover, 1617–1883,” in Feste und Feiern in
Hannover, ed. Hans-Dieter Schmid, Hannoversche Schriften zur Regional- und Lokalge-
schichte 10 (Bielefeld, 1995), pp. 57–84. Cf. François, Die unsichtbare Grenze,
pp. 153–167.
262
Cf. Kastl, Das Schriftwort in Leopoldspredigten (see above, n. 41), pp. 4–24.
Cf. Welzig, Predigten der Barockzeit (see above, n. 39), pp. 121–145 (on Florentinus
Schilling, Oesterreichischer Marggraff. Das ist: Lob- vnd Ehrnpredigt vber das leben/ vnd
thaten deß heiligen Leopold (Vienna, 1653) ) and pp. 147–164 (on Abraham a Sancta Clara,
Austriacus Austriacus Himmelreichischer Oesterreicher Der Hochheilige Marggraff Leopuldus
[…] (Vienna, 1673) ).
263
Eybl, Abraham a Sancta Clara (see above, n. 4). Cf. Abraham a Sancta Clara,
Neuerwöhlte Paradeys-Blum, Von der Allerdurchlauchtigsten Ertz-Hauß Oesterreich […].
Das ist: Danckbarliche Lob- und Lieb-Verfassung von dem glorreichesten H. Joseph (Vienna,
1675).
264
Cf. Martin Geier, Allgegenwart Unsers Allsehenden Gottes (Pirna, 1691), quoted from
Welzig, Predigten der Barockzeit (see above, n. 39), pp. 79–102 (comment pp. 531–582).
308 sabine holtz
means of sermons were far from the rule. For example, the collected works
of Ignatius Ertl (1645–1713) contained only one sermon that dealt with
confessional issues. He directed his sermons at an exclusively Catholic
public that was no longer interested in confessional quarrels.265 Johann
Michael Sailer (1751–1832), as well, did not engage at any point in
his Pentecost sermons with – admittedly thematically related – issues of
schism.266
8. Sermons and Social Control
Given the fact that churches tried in their sermons not only to impress
Christian norms and values upon their listeners, but also to control these
norms and in some cases to exact punishments through the use of synods
and ecclesiastical courts, they made a considerable contribution to social
control in early modern society. Preachers contributed to stability and
order in society and operated in a way that promoted social discipline.
Offences that were pursued by the ecclesiastical court committees were
measured against both Tablets of the Law.267 Their punishments served to
restore social peace (in the case of slander or malicious gossip), public
order (in the case of violence or public nuisance), domestic harmony
(in the case of marital or family disputes, or questions concerning the rais-
ing of children or their guardianship), and professional and economic
cooperation. Spiritual and secular spheres could thus intersect. Conflicts
over jurisdiction appear to have been a marginal issue, however. In issues
of premarital and extramarital sex, as well as of theft, the committee on
ecclesiastical discipline in any case only had the authority to establish the
facts of the case. Most Enlightenment thinkers did not place the function
of religion in doubt; they saw it as a partner in the maintenance of moral
order. They in fact saw religion in this respect as indispensable for society.
It was not the eighteenth century that first witnessed the church’s goal
of playing a normative role in everyday life. Before this point it attempted
to transmit guidelines on how to live one’s life in the familial and domestic
as well as in the political and economic domains. Already around 1700
the Lutherans had achieved bourgeois or outer respectability. Pietists saw
265
Cf. Brecht, Der Barockprediger Ignatius Ertl (see above, n. 101), p. 64.
266
Cf. Saul: “Prediger aus der neuen romantischen Clique” (see above, n. 24), p. 40.
267
Cf. generally Heinz Schilling ed., Kirchenzucht und Sozialdisziplinierung im früh-
neuzeitlichen Europa, Zeitschrift für historische Forschung: Beihefte 16 (Berlin, 1994).
this as external behaviour that conformed to norms, in which internal

conviction was lacking. They wanted to prepare the way for the coming
reign of Christ through a saintly life. They therefore subjected themselves
to strict morally ascetic measures, whose main characteristic was intensive
self-examination. English Methodism was engaged in a similar project; in
addition, Jansenism, a Catholic renewal movement, was characterized by
strict moral ideas and practical social engagement.268 These renewal move-
ments had an effect on the churches despite sometimes separatist tenden-
cies. In so doing they intensified already-exisiting efforts towards a Christian
way of life. Pietism demanded a stronger degree of self-reflection; this
intensified control over how life was lived. An account had to be rendered
not only to the synod, but in private dwellings as well people had to
reflect on their own ups and downs.269 Many recorded their thoughts in
journals.270
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, synods were seen as institu-
tions that policed behaviour; because of their religious character they were
especially suited to pursuing the goals of the state: ‘the handling of justice,
peace and quiet, social order, the welfare of the countryside and of the
lower classes, the pursuit of good and the rejection of evil’.271 Pressing syn-
ods into service particularly showed that the goal of the state could no
longer be based on religion. The task of the state, namely to hinder moral
decay and to preserve public discipline and order, was now buttressed by
the fear of undermining the happiness of the family and the state, and no
longer by the otherwise palpable wrath of God. The social discipline func-
tion of the committees on ecclesiastical discipline remained untouched
by this.
The opportunity for an extensive consideration of confessional norms
always arose when the interests of the church and nobility on the one hand
and leading social groups on the other hand coincided. Norms were made
use of in congregations in order to preserve and deepen social, economic
and political differences. In the hands of the local elites, who were free to
268
pp. 109–110.
269
270
Ulrike Gleixner, Pietismus und Bürgertum: Eine historische Anthropologie der Fröm-
migkeit. Württemberg 17.–19. Jahrhundert, Bürgertum Neue Folge: Studien zur Zivilges-
ellschaft 2 (Göttingen, 2005), pp. 124–145.
271
Friedrich Christian Ludwig Reyscher, Die Wirksamkeit und Behandlung der Kirch-
enkonvente und Gemeinde-Sitten-Gerichte, der Verwaltung der Stiftungen und des Armenwesens
in Württemberg (Reutlingen, 1826), p. 9.
310 sabine holtz
decide what to do with their opportunities for economic and political

influence, they were a suitable means of strengthening their own position
and at the same time of expressing their distance from the lower classes.
Only those principles of order and regulations on discipline that dealt with
the perception of the lower classes as well as of their leading social groups
were adapted. In so doing they were thoroughly successful in using norms
and behaviours established by the church for their own purposes; for
example, they were able to convert extramarital relationships, forbidden in
reality, to their own interests.272 Certain age and gender groups made active
use of church norms and implemented them when it came to questions of
neighbourhood, marriage and sexuality. In this context it must be stated
that the activity of committees of ecclesiastical discipline however was not
limited to social discipline for long. Increasingly they took on the respon-
sibility of congregational administration and of social welfare, particularly
for the poor.
9. Conclusion
In conclusion, one can state that it was not only the church but also the
(absolutist) state that had an interest in the devoutness of their subjects.
Only a devout subject, that is one who was under the thumb of his church
and its preaching, was a reliable guarantee of public stability.273 Sermons
became an instrument of social discipline in the service of church and
state. Even when preachers agreed with the goals of the authorities,
however, they did not let themselves simply be used as an extension of the
secular authorities. They made used of their independent position to
admonish and warn both subject and authority. Admonishment and warn-
ing were integral elements of a system of norms founded in social life that
was meant to provide security and impart perspectives on the future; the
transgressions of the individual could threaten society as a whole. Sin and
misdemeanours were expressions of the lack of security of the world.274
After the middle of the eighteenth century mass media provided com-
petition for sermons. Increasing literacy and a print market growing under
272
Cf. Andreas Maisch, “ ‘Unzucht’ und ‘Liederlichkeit’: Sozialdisziplinierung und
Illegitimität im Württemberg der Frühneuzeit,” in Ländliche Frömmigkeit: Konfessionskul-
turen und Lebenswelten, 1500–1850, Norbert Haag, Sabine Holtz and Wolfgang Zim-
mermann eds. (Stuttgart, 2002), pp. 279–306.
273
Cf. Breuer, “Der Prediger als Erfolgsautor” (see above, n. 180), p. 35.
274
the influence of the Enlightenment led to the displacement of sermons.275

Increasingly fewer people were instructed by means of oral communica-
tion. The printed word became an item of mass consumption, in the form
of newspapers, journals and a swelling flood of book titles. The content of
these book was changing as well: the proportion of religious literature
steadily declined, while belles-lettres correspondingly increased. This in no
way meant that sermons had given up their mission to speak to all levels of
society, but they were on the verge of losing their significance, in the cities
more quickly than in the countryside. A pluralism of opinions was on the
rise. At this point many different media competed to offer direction on
how to live one’s life. Until then, churches, by means of their preaching,
had put a continuous case for discipline and moralization in train, to which
many of the mandatory and self-evident norms and modes of behaviour of
modern secular society can trace their roots.
275
pp. 94–113.
FROM EMBODYING THE RULES TO EMBODYING BELIEF:
ON EIGHTEENTHCENTURY PULPIT DELIVERY IN
ENGLAND, GERMANY AND THE NETHERLANDS
Herman Roodenburg
1. Introduction
Having no films, but only such visual sources as pictures and prints to go
on, we shall never know how a sermon was delivered in the eighteenth
century – how a priest, a minister or a rabbi modulated his voice, how he
used his eyes, hands, arms or, for that matter, the whole body when address-
ing the faithful. The scant data we have derives from written records: vari-
ous church documents, the occasional eyewitness account, and – the main
source for this chapter – manuals on pulpit oratory.
For the Dutch Republic, some examples can be found in the Reformed
Church’s records. They occasionally inform us on the exams of licentiates,
which included an assessment of their bodily eloquence. Church councils
looking for a new minister also evaluated a candidate’s delivery. Those with
a strong, resonant voice and a wide range of expressive gestures had a far
better chance of being appointed than colleagues with a husky or halting
voice. A weak constitution was not recommended, either, for normally a
good sermon required a fair amount of physical exertion. In the harsh
winter of 1650, the Amsterdam church council actually proposed building
a fire in the consistory so that the ministers ‘descending exhausted and
sweating’ from the pulpit would not catch cold. In a similar vein, in 1780,
an Amsterdam wigmaker advertised wigs that would stay put even during
the ministers’ most furious gesticulations.1
Only rarely do we come across an eyewitness account: for example,
notes taken down by a churchgoer who paid more attention to the preacher’s
1
Herman Roodenburg, Onder censuur. De kerkelijke tucht in de gereformeerde gemeente
van Amsterdam, 1578–1700 (Hilversum, 1990), p. 79; R.B. Evenhuis, Ook dat was
Amsterdam, 5 vols. (Amsterdam, 1965–1978) IV, 37. Cf. the lawyer and man of letters
Justus van Effen (1684–1735) who disapprovingly quotes a village minister boasting that
he never preaches for more than an hour and comes down from the pulpit ‘hardly more
heated and worn out’ than upon going up. See Hollandsche Spectator 3 (1734), p. 256.
314 herman roodenburg
sermo corporis than the sermo delivered.2 In the spring of 1634, the physicist
Isaac Beeckman (1588–1637) recorded the many gestures of Hugh Peters
(1598–1660), a minister at the English Church in Rotterdam who cer-
tainly had the gift of oratory. Beeckman, one of the Republic’s few Ramists
and a long-time friend of René Descartes, had a special interest in the
nature of emotions and how they are displayed through the orator’s voice,
countenance and gestures. In his notes, he described the minister’s fervent
gesticulation in detail and approvingly wrote: ‘He depicts the matter well
with his gestures’.3
Peters was a devout Puritan who before emerging in the 1640s as a
major leader among Oliver Cromwell’s Independents, would leave
Rotterdam for the New World, moving to Salem in New England. Peters’
style of preaching may be said to have followed William Perkins (1558–
1602) and his Prophetica, sive De sacra et unica ratione concionandi (1592).
According to Perkins, the ‘father’ of Elizabethan Puritanism, preachers
should always be ‘fervent and vehement’ in their delivery.4 A similar kind
of oratory was defended by other contemporary authors, among them
the Jesuit Nicolas Caussin (1583–1651). In his De eloquentia sacra et
humana (1617), Caussin even allowed for grinding one’s teeth (when in
anger), turning up one’s nose (when scornful) or stamping one’s feet (when
embittered).5 If we may believe a third manual on oratory, the Traitté de
l’action de l’orateur (1657) by the Geneva-born clergyman Michel le
Faucheur (1585–1657), such vehement preaching came to be perceived as
improper by the middle of the seventeenth century.6 What, actually, do
these manuals tell us?
When studying pulpit oratory, one may well take notice of Diana Tay-
lor’s distinction between the ‘archive’ and the ‘repertoire’. Archival mem-
ory, according to Taylor, exists in the form of documents, maps, literary
2
For an interesting analysis of such accounts, collected from a variety of European
countries, see the contribution by Van Eijnatten to this volume; also Urs Herzog, Geistige
Wohlredenheit. Die katholische Barockpredigt (Munich, 1991), pp. 302–311.
3
Isaac Beeckman, Journal tenu par Isaac Beeckman de 1604 à 1634, C. de Waard ed.
(3 vols.; The Hague, 1939–1945) III, p. 342; also quoted in A.Th. Van Deursen, Bavianen
en slijkgeuzen. Kerk en kerkvolk ten tijde van Maurits en Oldenbarnevelt (Assen, 1974),
p. 44.
4
Quoted in James Thomas Ford, “Preaching in the Reformed Tradition”, in Larissa
Taylor ed. Preachers and People in the Reformations and Early Modern Period (Leiden, 2001),
p. 76. Perkins’ treatise was translated into Dutch in 1606 as William Perkins, Prophetica,
dat is een heerliick tractaet van de heylighe ende eenighe maniere van predicken, trans. Vincent
Meusevoet (Amsterdam, 1606).
5
Nicolas Caussin, De eloquentia sacra et humana (Paris, 1643).
6
Michel le Faucheur, Traitté de l’action de l’orateur (Paris, 1657).
from embodying the rules to embodying belief 315
texts, letters, archaeological remains, bones, videos, films and compact

discs. Conversely, the repertoire exists as embodied memory in the form of
performances, gestures, orality, dancing and singing. The archive/reper-
toire divide exceeds that of written-versus-spoken language, for the archive
encompasses more than merely written texts (think of paintings and draw-
ings of church services that still exist today), just as the repertoire contains
performances both verbal and nonverbal. What makes them different is
their means of transmitting knowledge: the archive through supposedly
enduring materials; the repertoire through the embodied action of the
people actually involved. The relationship between the two modes of trans-
mission, Taylor concludes, is not sequential. The repertoire does not disap-
pear as the archive gains ascendancy; on the contrary, they usually work in
tandem.7
Distinctions such as these are vital to qualifying the role of written
culture.8 We should be aware, for instance, that manuals on preaching –
the best source we have to document the phenomenon – were, at best, a
prompt to performance. The manuals were nothing more than a mnemonic
device: actual delivery was essentially a matter of observation, imitation
and exercise. Once internalised – or rather, literally incorporated – delivery
also became a matter of bodily memory. It had a performative force that, as
every priest or minister came to realise, no published sermon could equal.
As lamented by the English pastor John King (1559?–1621) in a preface to
his own sermons: ‘[I] have changed my tongue into a pen, and whereas I
spake before with the gesture and countenance of a living man, have now
buried my self in a dead letter of less effectual persuasion’.9
It is inevitable, then, that this chapter – like all investigations into deliv-
ery, sacred or not – will, at best, just brush the subject; the repertoire itself
is lost for good. As historians, we may try to reconstruct the contemporary
delivery (labelled interchangeably in the Latin parlance of the time as actio
or pronuntiatio). But we are in no better position than, for example, the
Amsterdam professor of rhetoric Petrus Francius (1645–1704), who
believed he could recognise the ancients’ bodily eloquence manifested in
7
Diana Taylor, The Archive and the Repertoire: Performing Cultural Memory in the
Americas (Durham 2003), pp. 18–22.
8
For a similar distinction (between inscribing and incorporating practices), see Paul
Connerton, How Societies Remember (Cambridge, 1989), pp. 72–78. Though critical of
Bourdieu’s notion of ‘habitus’, Connerton also profits from his work.
9
Quoted in Bryan Crockett, “The Act of Preaching and the Art of Prophesying”, in
Sewanee Review 105 (1997) I, p. 48.
the gestures of a famous actor at the Amsterdam schouwburg.10 What has

survived is the ‘archive’, a handful of non-animated images and a fair share
of texts – of which the manuals on pulpit oratory are the most significant.
These manuals may shed light on what their authors were thinking at the
time and how their views evolved. Sometimes they even offer us a glimpse
of the repertoire by holding up an individual preacher’s delivery as an
example that is worthy or unworthy of imitation. Until recently though,
scholars have largely neglected this archive. Traditionally, historians of
rhetoric, like those of homiletics, have been more interested in reading
texts than reading gestures of the body.
Considering the nature of the sources at hand and the inchoate state of
the present research, the aim of this chapter is a modest one. I will focus on
what seems specific to pulpit oratory in the eighteenth century, its break
into sentiment and sensibility: an inclination to cherish the fifth depart-
ment of ancient oratory, that of actio or pronuntiatio, while dismissing all
but the most general rules on the subject. As argued by manuals that
emerged in the latter half of the eighteenth century and the first decades of
the nineteenth, a good preacher should not think too much about the
rules. As long as his delivery answered to the prevailing codes of politeness,
a preacher’s ‘fire’ as embodied in his voice, countenance and gestures, took
precedence over the rules. What was at stake was all a matter of the preach-
er’s sensibility, his capacity for emotion and emotional expression, a nd the
religion being veritably communicated through his body.11 Emerging
around the middle of the eighteenth century, particularly in England, these
views superseded older and more rule-based notions of sacred oratory.
Authors on oratory in general shared these views, as did authors on stage-
craft in France, England, the Netherlands and Germany. Thus, a newfound
appreciation for unpolished delivery evolved. Eloquence could come to be
appreciated among itinerant preachers, Methodists and other Pietists all
over Europe. Though often going against the contemporary codes of polite-
ness and propriety, a plain eloquence as such worked to move the hearts of
the faithful, and in doing so, instil them with virtue and religion.
More precisely, in what follows I will describe how French thinking on
delivery, especially in the work of Le Faucheur, was received during the
10
Ben Albach, Langs kermissen en hoven. Ontstaan en kroniek van een Nederlands
toneelgezelschap in de 17de eeuw (Zutphen, 1977), pp. 81, 147–148; C.L. Heesakkers,
“Petrus Francius en het toneel. Latijnse testimonia”, in A.C.G. Fleurkens, W. Abrahamse,
M. Meijer Drees eds., Kort tijt-verdrijf. Opstellen over Nederlands toneel (vanaf ca. 1550)
aangeboden aan Mieke B. Smits-Veldt (Amsterdam, 1996), pp. 243–250.
11
For the eighteenth-century meanings of ‘sensibility’ and ‘sentiment’, see Joseph
Roach, The Player’s Passion: Studies in the Science of Acting (Newark, 1985), pp. 98–100.
eighteenth century in England, Germany and the Netherlands. Le Faucheur

was the first author to successfully merge the orator’s delivery with
notions of civility. He left room for the passions, yet embedded them in
a long list of rules governing the body, such as voice pitch, use of eyes
and the raising of one’s arms and hands. Le Faucheur’s ideas would inspire
the British ‘elocutionary movement’, in which actio or pronuntiatio came
to be seen as simply surpassing ancient rhetoric’s other four departments:
inventio, dispositio, elocutio and memoria. Gradually, Le Faucheur’s classi-
cist rules would be abandoned and the movement would put the orator’s
sensibility first.
As I will argue, a very similar development (albeit several decades later)
can be traced in both Germany and the Netherlands. This phase was all
part of a wider movement in the history of preaching that strove towards
verbal clarity and both rational and emotional accessibility, as promoted
by the Latitudinarian divines Bishop John Wilkins (1614–1672) and
Archbishop John Tillotson (1630–1694). Fighting the often arcane and all
too stilted preaching of their time, they stressed the importance of persua-
sion and edification by putting the audience and their reception of the
sermon first.12 After the middle of the century, however, there came a turn-
ing point which was no doubt informed by the elocutionary movement,
the period’s cult of sensibility and contemporary German Pietism. After an
initial focus on reason and rational argument, the manuals on pulpit
oratory gradually began to shift their emphasis to that of sentiment and
sensibility.
2. Delivery Regained
As Wilbur Samuel Howell complained, typical of the British elocutionary

movement was its almost exclusive interest in delivery or, to use the move-
ment’s own terminology, ‘elocution’. Howell clearly deplores the whole
episode. In advocating only the last of ancient rhetoric’s five departments,
the movement marginalised the other four. Its adherents liked to quote
Demosthenes who, according to Cicero, considered delivery to be the first,
the second and the third among the accomplishments of an orator.13
12
Isabel Rivers, Reason, Grace, and Sentiment: A Study of the Language of Religion and
Ethics in England, 1660–1780, vol. I (Whichcote to Wesley) (Cambridge, 1991), pp. 37–38;
Paul Goring, The Rhetoric of Sensibility in Eighteenth-Century Culture (Cambridge, 2005),
p. 37.
13
Wilbur Samuel Howell, Eighteenth-Century British Logic and Rhetoric (Princeton,
1971), p. 172.
The elocutionists’ emphasis on delivery was exclusive – and new. Once

their writings on rhetoric were rediscovered at the beginning of the fif-
teenth century, Cicero and Quintilian’s influence took off. Together with
the anonymous Rhetorica ad Herennium, they became primary models for
every self-respecting Renaissance scholar and, for that matter, all contem-
porary eloquence. However, few fifteenth- and sixteenth-century authors
on rhetoric devoted much space to delivery. With the exception of the
German humanist Jodocus Willich (1501–1555), no one wished to quote
Cicero or Quintilian on actio, rejecting the ancient precepts as anachronis-
tic.14 Another humanist, the reformer Philipp Melanchton (1497–1560)
wrote: ‘delivery today is very different from that among the ancients’.15
Albeit across the religious divide, the Catholic rhetorician Bartolomeo
Cavalcanti (1503–1562) agreed. Though these rhetoricians all deemed
actio or pronuntiatio important, they relegated it to daily practice. Pointing
to the period’s motley displays of gesture – the Babel of vernaculars – and
finding no support in the writings of Cicero or Quintilian, they simply
refrained from theory. Delivery was based on convention, not on any
formally articulated rules.16
In the second half of the sixteenth century, such views were gradually
abandoned. From then on, scholars started to believe that a general set of
rules could – and should – be developed. Proponents writing on the elo-
quence of the church included various authors such as the Catholic priests
Luis de Granada (1505–1588) and Lodovico Carbone (d. 1597), as well as
Wilhelm Zepper (1550–1607), a Calvinist minister at the Nassau court in
Dillenburg. In both Protestant and Catholic churches, the sermon came to
acquire a more prominent position. It also generated a new interest in the
uses of physical eloquence, consequently also encouraging Protestant and
Catholic schools (especially of the Jesuit order) to incorporate in their cur-
ricula school plays and general training in actio.17 Discussions on delivery
were also taken up by other scholars such as the Italian lawyer and historian
14
Jodocus Willich, Liber de pronvnciatione rhetorica doctus & elegans (Basel, 1540).
15
Philipp Melanchton, Elementorum rhetorices libri duo (Wittenberg, 1531), quoted in
Ursula Maier-Eichhorn, Die Gestikulation in Quintilian’s Rhetorik (Frankfurt and Bern,
1989), p. 38.
16
For the present and the three following paragraphs, see Dilwyn Knox, “Ideas on ges-
ture and universal languages, c. 1550 – c. 1650”, in John Henry and Sarah Hutton eds.,
New Perspectives on Renaissance Thought: Essays in the History of Science, Education and
Philosophy in Memory of Charles B. Schmitt (London, 1990), pp. 101–136.
17
Dilwyn Knox, “Order, reason and oratory: rhetoric in Protestant Latin schools”, in
Peter Mack ed., Renaissance Rhetoric (London, 1994), pp. 63–80; Erika Fischer-Lichte,
Semiotik des Theaters. Eine Einführung (3 vols.; Tübingen, 1995) vol. II.
Giovanni Bonifacio (1547–1635) in his L’arte de’cenni (1616) and the

German lawyer and Calvinist Johannes Althusius (1557–1638).
As Dilwyn Knox has suggested, much of this new interest in theory may
have been furthered by the spread of Ramism. Around the middle of the
sixteenth century, the French logician and philosopher Pierre de la Ramée
(1515–1572) proposed a simplified classification of the existing disci-
plines, which included a restructuring of classical rhetoric. In this system,
the five departments were abolished; more precisely, inventio and dispositio
were assigned to logic, while memoria was dispensed with altogether. What
remained were elocutio (in its original meaning of mastering stylistic ele-
ments)18 and pronuntiatio which in and of itself heightened the positions
of the two departments. Indeed, in Rhetorica, published in 1552, Ramée’s
pupil Omer Talon (ca. 1510–1562) opined that pronuntiatio deserved an
even higher position than elocutio, for unlike written or spoken communi-
cation, gestures formed a universal language that was shared by the whole
of humanity.
According to Knox, this new methodological ordering, combined with
the period’s voyages of discovery, led Talon and a whole range of authors to
believe in the universality of gesture and its being informed by general
principles. Gesture offered a welcome and interesting means to overcome
the confusion of spoken languages. Le Faucheur concurred. As stated in
the first English translation of his work: ‘by Gesture, we render our Thoughts
and our Passions intelligible to all Nations, indifferently, under the Sun.
‘Tis as it were the common Language of all Mankind’.19
3. Embodying the Rules
Born in Calvinist Geneva, Le Faucheur (1585–1657) spent most of his life

in France, serving as a clergyman in Montpellier, Charenton and Paris.
Though he published other writings, Le Faucheur is best remembered for
his posthumously publicised book Traitté de l’action de l’orateur (1657).
The Traitté inspired many authors writing in the last decades of the seven-
teenth century and the first decades of the eighteenth, not only in France,
18
For a discussion of elocutio and the elocutionists’ use of the term, see Howell,
Eighteenth-Century Logic, pp. 147–151.
19
[Michel le Faucheur], An Essay upon the Action of an Orator (London, [1702]) p. 171.
On the work’s dating to 1702, see Howell, Eighteenth-Century British Logic, pp. 165–168.
For readability’s sake, I have taken all quotations of Le Faucheur from this first, generally
quite faithful translation.
but also in England, the Netherlands and Germany. With its new and
refined rules for delivery, the work offered more than just another miscel-
lany of what Cicero, Quintilian and other ancients had to say on the sub-
ject.20 Even Howell praised the book as ‘one of the most respectable works
in the whole history of the elocutionary movement and one of the leading
treatises on delivery in the history of rhetorical theory’.21
Unlike the eighteenth-century British elocutionists, Le Faucheur did
not believe that the other four departments of the rhetorical programme
were a matter of lesser concern. He did regret, though, that the ancients
wrote relatively little on delivery. They provided few rules at all (although
Quintilian did propose rules for the bar), and naturally, they had no rules
for the pulpit. Le Faucheur subsequently aimed to fill this lacuna, as well
as to elaborate on Quintilian’s rules for the bar.22
Orators, according to Le Faucheur, should stir the passions, and
delivery – more so than any of the other departments – could help achieve
this aim. It was believed that preachers and lawyers could learn from
the stage. They should observe how actors can modulate their voices
(Le Faucheur praised lively intonation), and how they use their eyes, hands
and entire body. From actors preachers could even pick up how to break
into tears.
As the French pastor admitted, such ‘worldly’ care for voice and gesture
did not go uncontested. After all, religion is a spiritual thing, while voice
and gesture are sensual and exterior. But one can hardly ban all sensuality
from church; if that would be the case, church music should also be
expelled. Moreover, the Bible tells us of the thunderous voices of St. John
and St. James and the tears of St. Paul – the apostles already knew all about
delivery. Le Faucheur’s Traitté aimed to demonstrate how preachers might
touch the hearts of the faithful ‘not only with their discourse and Style, but
in some measure also by the decency of their Speaking and the Fineness of
their Action’. Proclaiming the glory of God, they may use their voice,
countenance and gestures in a holy and salutary manner. At the same time,
20
For a typical and well-known example of such miscellanies, see Louis de Cressolles,
Vacationes autumnales, sive de perfecta oratoris actione et pronunciatione (Paris,1620); on this
work, see Marc Fumaroli, “Le corps éloquent. Une somme d’actio et pronuntiatio rhetorica
au XVIIe siècle: Les Vacationes Autumnales du P. Louis de Cressolles (1620)”, in XVIIe Siécle
33 (1981), pp. 237–264; in 1783 Hugh Blair described a similar text, Gerardus Vossius’
Oratoriarum Institutionum Libri Sex (1616) as ‘one heap of ponderous lumber (…) enough
to disgust one with the study of eloquence’.
21
Howell, Eighteenth-Century British Logic, p. 168.
22
[Le Faucheur], Essay upon the Action, pp. 8–9.
they should take care not to be blinded by their own graceful action, not
to turn ‘the Pulpit of Jesus Christ into a Theatre of their own Pomp and
Vanity’.23
Le Faucheur’s interest in the techniques of actors and, specifically, their
ability to rouse the passions of their audiences, may have been new, but his
interest in the passions was not. The seventeenth-century Puritan Perkins
condemned acting in a passage that already looked forward to Constantin
Stanislavski (1863–1938) and the method school of acting.24 He urged the
preacher to have a direct emotional involvement in his sermons: ‘Wood,
that is capable of fire, doth not burn, unless fire be put to it: and He must
first be godly affected himself who would stir up godly affections in other
men. Therefore what motions a sermon doth require, such the Preacher
shall stir up privately in his own mind, that he may kindle up the same in
his hearers’.25 Similarly, Le Faucheur stated: ‘The Orator (…) ought first of
all to form in himself a strong Idea of the Subject of his Passion; and the
Passion it self will then certainly follow in course; ferment immediately
into the Eyes, and affect both the Sense and the Understanding of his
Spectators with the same Tenderness’.26 As he explained, this held true for
the entire body, not only the eyes. Nonetheless, Le Faucheur saw eyes as
the channel through which the passions were most contagiously exposed:
‘this Fire of your Eyes easily strikes those of your Auditors, who have theirs
constantly fixt upon yours; and it must needs set them a-blaze too upon the
same Resentment and Passion’.27 Much of this emphasis on emotional
involvement derived from the oratory of the ancients and their notion that
the best speakers are those who actually believe what they say. As Quintilian
had already written: ‘Pectus est, quod disertos facit, et vis mentis’ (It is the
heart which makes the orator, and his strength of mind).28
Celebrating such emotionalism, Le Faucheur seems to anticipate the
eighteenth century’s culture of sensibility. At the same time, the emotional
investment Le Faucheur expected was well defined; he added a long and
detailed list of rules on how to use one’s voice and body in accordance with
23
24
Method acting, in which the character’s motivations and emotions are first thoroughly
analysed in order to reach psychological realism and authenticity, was developed by
Stanislavksi around 1900 to be perfected in the 1940s and 1950s by Lee Strasberg.
25
Quoted in Crockett, “The act of preaching”, p. 45.
26
[Le Faucheur], Essay upon the Action, p. 189.
27
28
The Institutio Oratoria of Quintilian, trans. H.E. Butler (4 vols.; London, 1920–1922)
IV, Bk. 10, Ch. 7, p. 15.
the contemporary codes of civility, propriety and stateliness. Le Faucheur

championed a ‘natural’ delivery, by which he meant refraining, on the one
hand, from vulgarity and extremes of force, and on the other hand, from
affectation and pomp. Against the vehement gestures promulgated by
Perkins, Caussin and Beeckman, Le Faucheur proposed a pulpit oratory
consonant with the rules of civility, something which contemporary man-
uals on the subject often described as the ‘science of conversing agreea-
bly’.29 As Le Faucheur explains, the orator should ‘neglect nothing that
may render him more accomplisht and agreeable to his Auditors’.30 His views
may be situated in what Marc Fumaroli has described as a ‘new age of
conversation’, taking its inspiration from the writings of Jean Louis Guez
de Balzac (1597–1654), among others, and advocating a written French
that is as natural as spoken French.31 Balzac moved in the circles of Madame
de Rambouillet (1588–1665), as did Valentin Conrart (1603–1675),
secretary to Louis XIII and one of the founders of the Académie Française.
Although Conrart has on occasion been attributed as the Traitte’s author, he
actually only supervised its publication after his friend’s death in 1657.32
Le Faucheur’s treatise appears to be the first manual that successfully
integrates pulpit oratory with both contemporary codes of civility and a
view on how to deploy the passions to the greater honour and glory of the
Lord. This integration may explain its long-lasting popularity well into the
eighteenth century. Around 1750, however, especially in England, ‘natu-
ral’ delivery came to be perceived as ‘unnatural’. It was dismissed as
‘affected’ and overly rule-based which, considering Le Faucheur’s inten-
tions, seems a bit unfair. Though he presented his rules as strict prescrip-
tions, the Genevan also pointed out that delivery was a matter of practice,
habit and internalisation. Once the orator started speaking he should
forget about the rules, for ‘the very thought of Rules and the care of observ-
ing them would mightily distract and amuse him upon that Conjuncture’.
To acquire a good habit of speaking in public, the orator should first
29
Peter Burke, The Art of Conversation (Cambridge, 1993); Herman Roodenburg, The
Eloquence of the Body. Studies on Gesture in the Dutch Republic (Zwolle, 2004), pp. 49–55.
30
[Le Faucheur], Essay upon the Action, p. 217; see also p. 211: ‘and as for his Action they
are well enough satisfied, if it be but reasonable and agreeable, and do not offend their Ears
or their Eyes’.
31
Marc Fumaroli, “De l’Age de l’éloquence à l’Age de la conversation: la conversion de
la rhétorique humaniste dans la France du XVIIe siècle”, in Bernard Bray and Christoph
Strozetski eds., Art de la lettre et art de la conversation à l’époque classique en France (Paris,
1995), pp. 217–232.
32
Howell, Eighteenth-Century British Logic, pp. 162, n.35 and 254.
master the rules by testing them in private and then actually begin exercis-
ing them as soon as possible, before an ‘ungenteel habit’ might develop. By
carefully selecting elders for imitation he might learn ‘to fly the Bad and
follow the good ’.33
Such interest in training ‘habits’ reminds us of what Rebecca Bushnell
has described as the contemporary ‘gardening metaphors’, notions that
compare raising children to the practices of pruning, bending and weeding
in the garden. According to Bushnell, there were actually two sides to
humanist pedagogy. Repression was one side; the other was a respect for
nature’s claims – a child’s ‘nature’, ‘seeds’ and ‘inclinations’. Similarly illus-
trating this, Erasmus wrote that, unless they are cultivated from the start,
the shoots will grow wild: it will be the bad and not the good inclinations
that will harden into habit.34 At the centre of such pedagogy was a requisite
for ‘naturalness’, or at least, the semblance of naturalness and spontaneity.
According to Le Faucheur, ‘all Affectation is odious … it must appear purely
Natural, as the very Birth and Result both of the things you express and of
the Affection that moves you to speak them’. Like his eighteenth-century
critics, he already knew about the performativity of delivery, along with
the feelings and meanings generated therein. Le Faucheur even seems to
anticipate Pierre Bourdieu and Paul Connerton, and their concepts of
habitus, habit and habitual memory.35
4. Britain: the Elocutionary Movement
The Traitté was to become a major influence on the British elocutionary

movement, with its beginnings traced to 1702, the year in which the first
English translation of Le Faucheur’s manual came out. Though there is no
mention of its author, the translation is clearly of Le Faucheur’s Traitté; the
anonymous translator followed the original almost to the letter. It also
appeared in a second edition in 1727 and a third edition in 1750. In 1710,
the work was even adapted for the stage, namely Charles Gildon’s The Life
33
[Le Faucheur], Essay upon the Action, pp. 208–209; cf. Howell, Eighteenth-Century
British Logic, pp. 175, 178.
34
Rebecca W. Bushnell, A Culture of Teaching: Early Modern Humanism in Theory and
Practice (Ithaca (NY), 1996), pp. 98–103.
35
Pierre Bourdieu, Outline of a Theory of Practice (Cambridge, 1977); Connerton, How
Societies Remember. Cf. Roodenburg, The Eloquence of the Body, pp. 17–23; Roodenburg,
“Pierre Bourdieu: Issues of Embodiment and Authenticity”, in Etnofoor 17 (2004),
pp. 215–226.
of Mr. Thomas Betterton. Gildon (1665–1724) did not offer his audience so
much the biographical account suggested by the production’s title, but
rather, a summary of the translated Traitté delivered from the mouth of the
famous actor.36 Whether Thomas Betterton (c. 1635–1710) ever even read
the author is unknown, but it seems clear that Gildon was convinced of
the actor’s capacity to embody Le Faucheur. Betterton’s performance man-
aged to incarnate Le Faucheur’s defence of entwining passion with dignity,
and of emotions working all the more powerfully through an orator’s bod-
ily restraint. Gildon may have recognised in Betterton’s acting style enough
of the Genevan’s penchant for propriety and stateliness to make him a
creditable spokesman for his own ideas on the stage.
As we will see, Gildon (who was an actor as well) took an interest in
studies on delivery much as others were doing at the time. Around 1700,
scholars discovering the importance of rhetoric as displayed through voice
and gesture began to comment on the stage, while actors simultaneously
came to realise they could learn from these learned writings and contem-
porary historical painting. Across Europe, actors began collections of draw-
ings and paintings with the primary aim of documenting ‘postures’ that
could be incorporated in their acting. Some took up drawing and painting
themselves. Conversely, painters such as Gerard de Lairesse (1640–1711)
took an active interest in the stage, while preachers, hoping to improve
their method of delivery, took lessons with actors. From the last decades
of the seventeenth century onwards, and frequently inspired by Le
Faucheur, authors on the pulpit, the stage and the bar all sought to adopt
the contemporary codes of civility that were moulded by exercises such as
dancing, fencing and horseback riding. These very corporal activities were
considered integral to the cultivation of that other eloquence: a natural,
elegant and stately body.37 Le Faucheur’s translator saw the connections
as follows:
In fine, This Book is no Enemy to Good Breeding, and it intrenches upon no
Mans Education or Profession. The Dancing-School indeed teaches Gesture or
Motion wonderfully well, and the Ballance of the Body to Perfection; but it
can never do the whole Business of an Orator nor accomplish him with all
necessary Action either for the Pulpit or the Barr, till the Feet can speak Figures
36
Charles Gildon, The Life of Mr. Thomas Betterton, The Late Eminent Tragedian
(London, 1710); cf. Howell, Eighteenth-Century British Logic, pp. 182–189; Goring,
Rhetoric of Sensibility, pp. 122–127.
37
See Dene Barnett, The Art of Gesture: The Practices and Principles of 18th Century
Acting (Heidelberg, 1987), pp. 121–135; Roodenburg, The Eloquence of the Body,
pp. 83–109.
and the Hands plead Causes. ‘Tis certain however, that Eloquence does not lay
in the Heels, nor Rhetorick in Frisking and Gesticulation.38
In other words, rhetoric and civility should be integrated to meet in mutually
advantageous ways. As the Traitté ’s translator continued to say, the work:
will make as excellent a School-Book for Boyes as any extant; to reform the
vitious Habits of their Pronuntiation; to refine the affected Rudeness of their
Behaviour; to polish the natural Clownishness of their Gesture, and to give
them a true Light at last into the main end and design of Rhetorick, which is
to express themselves distinctly and handsomely in their Exercises upon all
Occasions.
In short: ‘it will not be thought unworthy of any Young Gentlemans Pocket
or Study, who has any value for the Graces of Action, and the Charms of
Eloquence’.39
Le Faucheur’s rules would remain influential for much of the eighteenth
century. However, things started to change around 1750 when, for instance,
James Fordyce (1720–1796) proposed a pedagogical technique different
from that of the Genevan. Fordyce was a Scottish Presbyterian minister
who, already famous for his oratory in his home country, moved to
London. There, he quickly attracted a crowd of admirers, among them
long-time friend Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) and the actor David
Garrick (1717–1779). Fordyce is the supposed author of a short and anon-
ymous tract entitled An Essay on the Action Proper for the Pulpit (1753).40
The essay goes so far as to eulogise Garrick, articulating ideas correspond-
ing with his innovations on the stage, specifically, the introduction of a
more ‘natural’ style than that of Betterton and his followers. The work
marks a crucial phase in what Paul Goring has described as the ‘sentimen-
talisation’ of delivery, which puts a premium on the affective power of
religious oratory. Playing a crucial role here is the preacher’s voice and his
gesture as a means to arouse the passions of the audience and work directly
on their hearts.
According to Howell, Fordyce merely echoed Le Faucheur, but he appar-
ently overlooked the Essay’s real intentions. Fordyce actually rejected the
Genevan’s didactics of internalising the rules, instead proposing training in
pulpit performance that is grafted upon ‘genuine feeling’. Religion would
38
[Le Faucheur], Essay upon the Action, sig. A8r-Abv.
39
[Le Faucheur], Essay upon the Action, sig. A9r.-A11r.
40
[James Fordyce], An Essay on the Action Proper for the Pulpit (London, 1753). Both the
British Library catalogue and the English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC) attribute the essay
to Fordyce.
thus become visible through the preacher’s passions, manifesting them-

selves through the modulation of voice, in his eyes, gestures and bearing.
A sermon ought to be emotionally contagious, and it was only the preach-
er’s habitus – his ‘warm and worthy heart’ – that could effect such
contagion.41
As Goring explains, Fordyce’s new didactics worked by means of a
preacher nurturing virtuous passions. If such emotions were genuine –
truly felt – they would naturally and automatically mark themselves upon
his body. Religion could only touch the hearts of the faithful through such
marks that were manifested through the preacher’s sentimental body:
‘When they seem all possessed, expanded, exalted with those beautiful and
sublime Perceptions which she inspires; when their Countenances brighten
and their Eyes glow with her sacred Spirit … is it possible for the Auditors …
not to be charmed into Love, or awed into Veneration?’42 The most impor-
tant factor in affecting hearts was the orator’s eyes, especially when they
welled up with tears. Fordyce’s ideal preacher, so writes Goring, was a
lachrymoseone .43
In accordance with the open cultural climate, where actors were thought-
fully looking at drawings and paintings, even collecting them as inspira-
tions to improve their gestures and postures, Fordyce illustrated his own
arguments with Raphael’s St. Paul Preaching in Athens, a highly esteemed
painting at the time. Fordyce praises Raphael for his masterful portrayal
both of the apostle’s religiously inspired body and his hearers whose hearts
are touched by the spiritual and bodily performance before them.44
Closely related to Fordyce’s didactics were those of the Irish educator
Thomas Sheridan (1719–1788). Writing not only on the eloquence of the
church, but also on eloquence in general (in addition to many other sub-
jects), this former actor and charismatic public speaker defended his ideas
in several books and numerous lectures throughout England and Scotland.
In 1762, he published his Lectures on Elocution, an eight-part collection of
his lectures.45
Sheridan advocated general reform of the English language. On the one
hand, he aimed ‘to revive the long lost art of oratory’, as he called it; on the
other, he sought to finally establish a standard English pronunciation.
41
Goring, Rhetoric of Sensibility, pp. 52–59, esp. 56–57.
42
[Fordyce], An Essay on the Action, p. 25.
43
Goring, Rhetoric of Sensibility, p. 57.
44
[Fordyce], An Essay on the Action, p. 26.
45
Thomas Sheridan, A Course of Lectures on Elocution: Together with Two Dissertations on
Language; and Some other Tracts relative to those Subjects (London, 1762).
Within this ambitious and much lauded programme, Sheridan developed

ideas very similar to those of Fordyce. Like the Scottish minister, he valued
spoken over written languages, the former being the gift of God, the latter
the invention of man. Living speech, voice and gesture could transmit our
emotions. As he argued in his Lectures: ‘All writers seem to be under the
influence of one common delusion, that by the help of words alone, they
can communicate all that passes in their minds. They forget that the pas-
sions and the fancy have a language of their own, utterly independent of
words, by which only their exertions can be manifested and communi-
cated’.46 It is only through body language – ‘sensible marks’ like ‘tones,
looks, and gestures’ – that emotions residing in the mind of one man may
be communicated to that of another.47
Like Fordyce, Sheridan did not attach much value to Le Faucheurian
rules, preferring instead an elocutional didactics in which a speaker strives
to put feeling first. The philosophy was that if a speaker could succeed in
emotionally identifying with the subject of his speech, he would grasp how
good oratory works, how the pertinent emotions would be marked upon
body and face through his bearing and gestures: ‘Let him speak entirely
from his feelings; and they will find much truer signs to manifest them-
selves by, than he could find for them’.48
A third interesting figure was the Presbyterian preacher Hugh Blair
(1718–1800). In 1783, he published his Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles
Lettres, a collection of lectures he gave while serving as the first Regius Pro-
fessor of Rhetoric and Belles Lettres at the University of Edinburgh.49 It
seems he was not a very impressive speaker, his voice being weak and his
delivery, poor. His writings, furthermore, indicated he was better at syn-
thesising than innovating. As he all too modestly acknowledged: ‘There is
little in the lectures that is original’. But by adopting ideas on delivery very
similar to those of Fordyce and Sheridan, Blair still contributed substantially
to the elocutionary movement.50 Until well into the nineteenth century,
not only in England, but also in Germany, the Netherlands and elsewhere,
his Lectures would serve as one of the major textbooks on the market.51
46
Sheridan, A Course of Lectures, p. x.
47
Sheridan, A Course of Lectures, pp. 99–100.
48
Sheridan, A Course of Lectures, p. 121.
49
Hugh Blair, Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres (2 vols.; London, 1783).
50
On Blair and Sheridan, see Edward P.J. Corbett and James L. Golden eds., The
Rhetoric of Blair, Campbell, and Whately (New York, 1968), p. 14.
51
Hugh Blair, Vorlesungen über Rhetorik und schöne Wissenschaften, 4 vols. (Leipzig,
1785–1798); Blair, Lessen over de redekunst en fraaie wetenschappen, 3 vols. (Deventer,
1788–1790).
Though not as radical as Fordyce and Sheridan, Blair identified with

their encouragement of delivery, ‘for beyond doubt, nothing is of more
importance’. He also agreed that, in the moment of speaking, orators
should forget about the rules and merely follow nature. Ultimately, Blair
stressed the orator’s own sensibility. As he wrote: ‘No kind of language is
so generally understood, and so powerfully felt, as the native language of
worthy and virtuous feelings. He only, therefore, who possesses these full
and strong, can speak properly and in its own language, to the heart’.
Furthermore, Blair continued: ‘On all great subjects and occasions, there
is a dignity, there is an energy in noble sentiments, which is overcoming
and irresistible. They give an ardour and a flame to one’s discourse, which
seldom fails to kindle a like flame in those who hear; and which, more than
any other cause, bestows on eloquence that power for which it is famed, of
seizing and transporting an audience’. As Blair concluded: ‘A true orator
should be a person of generous sentiments, of warm feelings, and of a
mind turned towards the admiration of all those great and high subjects,
which mankind are naturally formed to admire’.52
Blair thus demonstrates another notion of delivery fully similar to
Fordyce’s and Sheridan’s, though distinct from Le Faucheur’s. Typical of
the elocutionary movement as a whole, it matches the period’s interest in
‘sensibility’, in man’s inherent capacity for emotion and his disposition to
respond to sensation. It also relates to the contemporary pursuit of energy
and vividness which, according to Geoffrey Carnall, had its ‘most convinc-
ing application in the context of theatre and oratory, rather than in the
written word’.53 As Joseph Roach has shown, these notions and other simi-
lar ones came to be articulated by theoreticians of the theatre, such as Luigi
Riccoboni (1674–1753) (who boldly wrote about ‘Enthusiasm’ and
‘Divine Madness’), Pierre Rémond de Sainte-Albine (1699–1778) and the
English physician, actor and playwright John Hill (1706–1775). These
ideas were also expressed by Garrick, who wrote of the heart’s ‘instantane-
ous feelings, that Life blood, that keen Sensibility, that bursts at once from
Genius, and like Electrical fire shoots thro’ the Veins, Marrow, Bones and
all, of every Spectator’. Clearly, eighteenth-century pulpit oratory should
be studied in connection with contemporary theories on acting as well as
physiology and the passions.54
52
Quoted after Hugh Blair, Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres (3 vols., Basel and
Paris, 1801) II, pp. 224, 385; III, pp. 6–8.
53
John Butt, The Mid-Eighteenth Century, Geoffrey Carnall ed. (Oxford, 1979),
pp. 495, 505–506.
54
Roach, The Player’s Passion (see above, n. 11), pp. 93–103; Carnall and Garrick also
quoted there.
Oratory, upon its break into sentiment and sensibility, was of course
also closely related to contemporary literature. Among the religious orators
celebrated for their actio was the Anglican clergyman Laurence Sterne
(1713–1768). In 1759, he published the first parts of his ‘sentimental’
novel, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy (1759). The book would
bring him international fame, with his most ardent admirers lovingly call-
ing him ‘Tristram’. One such fan was the political radical John Wilkes
(1725–1797) who, in reference to Demosthenes, urged a friend to go hear
the well-known preacher: ‘Tho’ you may not catch every word of Tristram,
his action will divert you, and you know that action is the first, second,
third, &c parts of a great orator’. Answering to Fordyce’s ideal of the lach-
rymose orator, Sterne was a master at rousing the emotions of the faithful.
Another contemporary noted how he ‘never preached (…) but half the
congregation were in tears’.55
In his novel, Sterne also poked fun at contemporary manuals on deliv-
ery. Through the bodily eloquence of Corporal Trim, one of the book’s
main characters, he offered an amusing parody of Le Faucheurian rules
(for instance, the description of Trim delivering a speech bending forward
so ‘as to make an angle of 85 degrees and a half upon the plain of the hori-
zon’). However, in the same endearing character Sterne also depicted the
perfect orator, the untrained amateur attaining eloquence by first living
the very passions he must transmit. No gesture proved more touching than
Trim throwing down his hat while speaking about the fickleness of life! As
Goring has written, Sterne and other authors of sentimental fiction such as
Samuel Richardson (1689–1761) or Henry Mackenzie (1745–1831) were
masters at ‘staging’ somatic eloquence, thus reducing their readers to
tears.56 As we will see, even this shared weeping (often the novels were read
aloud before company) was recommended as an instrument to enhance
the sensitivity of the heart.
5. Praising ‘Enthusiasm’
Inextricably bound up with the period’s quest for sensibility, seen as an

innate sort of vitality, was an interest in those champions of unpolished
‘enthusiastic’ oratory.57 Their rhetorical qualities were suddenly taken
55
Both accounts quoted from Goring, Rhetoric of Sensibility, pp. 185–185.
56
Goring, Rhetoric of Sensibility, pp. 144–145.
57
See especially Goring, Rhetoric of Sensibility, Ch. 2.
seriously because they offered a fine illustration of how orators could

instrumentalise the passions and thus work directly on the hearts of their
audiences.
For example, in his British Education, published in 1756, Sheridan
praised ‘the wild uncultivated oratory of our Methodist preachers’, and
even suggested that their ‘canting and frantick gestures might be more
forcible than the best regulated oratory’.58 Considering the Methodists’
dubious reputation and the condemning terms of ‘enthusiasm’ and ‘mad-
ness’ that were often employed to describe their gatherings at the time,
Sheridan’s appreciation was a provocation more than anything else.
Methodists were hotly discussed, although they comprised no more than
24,000 adherents in the 1760s and the majority belonged to the lower
classes of both town and country. They were censured as much as they were
feared for a perceived lack of physical control witnessed, for example, in
the seemingly involuntary convulsions they underwent while hearing the
sermon. Gradually, however, Methodist preachers also came to be admired
for their oratorical gifts, their genius in stirring up the feelings of the faith-
ful. Most famous among the preachers were the two leaders of the move-
ment in England, John Wesley (1703–1791) and George Whitefield
(1714–1770). Most appreciated was Wesley’s actio, always forceful though
able to avoid giving in to Whitefield’s extreme emotions. In his twelve-page
Directions concerning Pronunciation and Gesture (1749), Wesley even bor-
rowed from Le Faucheur.59 Yet, Sheridan’s praise of the Methodists’ ‘can-
ting and frantick’ ways, which many of his contemporaries equated with
‘enthusiasm’ and ‘madness’, was a gamble. Perhaps Sheridan realised this
himself, for six years later, in his Lectures, he took a more cautious stance,
assuring readers that his own idea of bodily eloquence was a polite and
restrained one. Emotional and passionate, though not manic, this eloquence
did not advocate the violent gesticulation cherished by the Methodists.60
In the decades to follow, such polished esteem for a delivery unpolished
would become standard phrase. In his influential Essai sur l’éloquence de la
chaire (1777), Archbishop of Paris Jean-Siffrein Maury (1746–1817)
praised the delivery of Jacques Bridaine (1701–1767), an itinerant preacher
who worked mostly in the Midi.61 Much later, in 1817, the Dutch professor
58
Thomas Sheridan, British Education: or, The Source of the Disorders of Great Britain
(London, 1756), pp. 91, 153.
59
Goring, Rhetoric of Sensibility, p. 73 n.39.
60
Goring, Rhetoric of Sensibility, p. 112.
61
Jean-Siffrein Maury, Essai sur l’éloquence de la chaire (2 vols.; Paris, 1777) I, p. 144.
of rhetoric Joannes Matthias Schrant (1783–1866) wrote approvingly of

the ‘simple and unesteemed preachers, known in England by the name of
Methodists, and in Italy by that of Improvisatoris (…), travelling the coun-
try or the streets of cities, and preaching penance’. Among them were ‘men
inspired by an apostolic spirit, true orators of the people (…) who know
no other fruits than conversion, no other acclaim than tears’.62 Naturally,
no cultured reader of Maury, Schrant or any of the other authors on pulpit
oratory expected to have himself converted by such preachers. Praising
their artless delivery had the express function of putting polite delivery
on the table, of making it less artful and appear less grafted upon Le
Faucheurian rules.
More than he did with the Methodists and their variety of Pietism,
Schrant actually identified with the views of Johann Ludwig Ewald (1748–
1822), a German Reformed minister whose beliefs merged the German
tradition of Pietism with the late Enlightenment. Of course, what all
Pietists, including the Methodists, had in common was religious subjectiv-
ism. It made them natural allies in the search for a more affective oratory
of the pulpit. Mostly channelled through the contemporary cult of sensi-
bility, the actual impact of the British elocutionary movement in Germany
and the Netherlands may well have been equally informed by contempo-
rary German Pietism.63
6. Affective Oratory in Germany
Well received both in Germany and the Netherlands, Ewald’s many publi-
cations included, among others, studies on the philosophy of Immanuel
Kant, church and educational reforms and the social position of women
and Jews.64 For many years, Ewald conducted a lively correspondence with
62
Fenelon’s Gesprekken over de welsprekendheid in het algemeen, en over die van de kansel
in het bijzonder, J.M. Schrant ed., (Amsterdam and Zaltbommel, 1817), pp. 70–71; see
also the comments by Johannes Clarisse in Johann Ludwig Ewald, Over de uiterlijke kansel-
welsprekendheid, trans. and ed. J. Clarisse (Zutphen, 1814), pp. 203, 210–211.
63
On Pietism taken in this integral sense and encompassing not only Methodism and
German Pietism, but also the Dutch ‘Further Reformation’ with its eighteenth-century
aftermath, see Martin Brecht, “Einleitung”, in: M. Brecht et al eds., Geschichte des Pietismus
(4 vols.; Göttingen, 1993–2004) I, pp. 1–5; W.J. op ‘t Hof, Het gereformeerd piëtisme
(Houten, 2005), pp. 14–35.
64
On the striking popularity of German theological writings in the Dutch Republic,
especially in the second half of the eighteenth century, see Joris van Eijnatten, “History,
Reform, and Aufklärung. German Theological Writing and Dutch Literary Publicity in the
Eighteenth Century”, in Zeitschrift für neuere Theologiegeschichte 7 (2000), pp. 173–204.
two Pietists, Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741–1801), also famous for his
studies on physiognomy, and Philipp Matthäus Hahn (1739–1790). Later
on, he also adopted ideas from Johann-Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746–1827).65
Many of these inspirations, especially Kantian philosophy, may be traced
in Ewald’s influential Ueber Deklamation und Kanzelvortrag, published in
1809 and translated into Dutch five years later.66
Like Le Faucheur, Ewald was well aware that his manual offered what
was essentially a prompt to delivery.67 A distinction between the ‘archive’
and the ‘repertoire’ was here also made, albeit in his own terms. On the
work’s very first page, he warns the young man with preacherly aspirations
that his manual cannot replace actual exercise. Even after having read,
studied, grasped and memorised the text – or, for that matter, all texts on
the subject – the man will be no more of a good orator than a man who
has read all the best existing violin manuals is a good violinist, or a man
who has read all the best existing voice manuals is a good vocalist. In sum:
‘there is little to read here, but much to do’.68
‘Oratory,’ explained Ewald, ‘is the capacity to act on other people’s selves
through one’s own self and appearance – through ideas and sensations, and
65
Hans-Martin Kirn, Deutsche Spätaufkläring und Pietismus. Ihr Verhältnis im Rahmen
kirchlich-bürgerlicher Reform bei Johann Ludwig Ewald (1748–1822) (Göttingen, 1998),
pp. 53–86, 324–352. See also Johann Anselm Steiger, Johann Ludwig Ewald. Rettung eines
theologischen Zeitgenossen (Göttingen, 1996).
66
Johann Ludwig Ewald, Ueber Deklamation und Kanzelvortrag. Skizzen und Ergüsse;
auch zum Leitfaden akademischer Vorlesungen brauchbar (Heidelberg, 1809); Ewald, Over de
uiterlijke kanselwelsprekendheid, J. Clarisse ed. (Zutphen, 1814); a second, revised edition
of this translation was published in 1839 as Ewald, Voorlezingen over de uiterlijke kanselwel-
sprekendheid (Arnhem, 1839). On Kant’s influence on the German theology of his time,
see C.W. Flügge, Versuch einer historisch-kritischen Darstellung des bisherigen Einflußes der
kantischen Philosophie auf alle Zweige der wissenschaftlichen und praktischen Theologie
(3 vols.; Hannover, 1796–1798).
67
The precise impact of Le Faucheur’s Traitté on German oratory still needs investiga-
tion. It was never translated into German, but did see a Latin edition in 1690: Michel le
Faucheur, De actione oratoria sive de pronunciatione et gestu liber utilissimus (Helmstadt,
1690). In the eighteenth century, German manuals on pulpit oratory often seem to refer to
the Traitté; both Le Faucheur and Francius are mentioned in Johann Jacob Engel’s influen-
tial Ideen zu einer Mimik (2 vols.; Berlin, 1785–1786).
68
Ewald, Ueber Deklamation, pp. 3–4: ‘Diese kleine Schrift soll und kann dem Jünglinge
keine Uebung ersetzen: sie soll ihn vielmehr überzeugen, daß er Uebung im Lesen,
Deklamiren, in der anständigen Stellung des Körpers und in der Gestikulation bedürfe:
daß er ohne sie, nie ein Redner werden könne. Und wenn er diese Schrift und alle Schriften
über äusseren Vortrag gelesen, studirt, gefaßt und behalten hätte (…), so wird er dadurch
eben so wenig einen guten Vortrag bekommen, wie mann durch das Lesen der besten
gedruckten Violin- und Singschule, ein guter Geiger oder Sänger werden wird (…). Es ist
hier wenig zu lesen, aber viel zu thun’.
through language, facial expression and bodily movements’.69 Accordingly,

it is the task of the religious orator ‘to act through appearance on the self,
to lead a throng of people to morality, to warm them to the high merit of
virtue, of true religiosity’.70 Ewald distinguishes between ‘active’ and ‘pas-
sive’ subjects, and from among the instruments available to both. The
process as a whole presupposes reciprocity or ‘sympathy’, as he calls it, for
what is ‘needed’ or ‘coveted’ by the one is ‘imparted’ by the other. Not
surprisingly, we are reminded that man is a rational and a sensual being.
People (certainly the ‘uneducated mass’) are motivated more by sensory
impressions than by rational ideas. That is what makes delivery so all-
important. As the German writer Jean Paul (the pseudonym of Johann
Paul Richter, 1763–1825) asked: ‘Why should the devil enlist all sensual-
ity and God none of it?’71
Central to Ewald’s thinking – and almost echoing the elocutionists’
emphasis on the orator’s ‘fire’ – is that the self comes first. Before he ascends
the pulpit, the preacher should turn to his inner self in order to ‘collect’ all
that may affect appearance: ‘There has to be a life which must enliven, a
warmth which must warm, a strength which must strengthen’. And he
continues: ‘One should never imagine to act on the self through appear-
ance alone’, such ‘hypocrisy’ will work ‘nothing durable and lasting’.72
Of course, rules are indispensable: a knowledge of counterpoint was
necessary for Mozart, and Michelangelo needed to understand anatomy.
But as Ewald reiterates, first something has to well up in an inner life
before the self can enliven at all. What orators need, then, is a ‘sensitivity
of the heart’, an openness ‘to be lifted, touched and enflamed’ by what
their audience should also ‘lift, touch and enflame’. Ewald quotes Quintilian
on the orator’s heart as well as Goethe’s Faust: ‘But from heart to heart you
will never create, if from your heart it does not come’.73
69
Ewald, Ueber Deklamation, p. 9: ‘Beredsamkeit ist die Fertigkeit, durch sein Inneres
und Aeusseres, durch Ideen und Empfindungen, durch Sprache, Minen und Körperhaltung,
auf das Innere Anderer zu wirken’.
70
Ewald, Ueber Deklamation, p. 8: ‘(…) durch Einwirken des Auessern auf das Innere,
eine Menschenmasse zur Sittlichkeit lenken, sie erwärmen für den hohen Werth der
Tugend, der ächten Religiosität’.
71
Ewald, Ueber Deklamation, pp. 29–31.
72
Ewald, Ueber Deklamation, pp. 17–18: ‘Es muß ein Leben seyn, was beleben, eine
Wärme, die erwärmen, eine Kraft, die stärken soll. Nie lasse man sich doch einfallen, durch
bloß Aeusseres auf das Innere zu wirken. Diese Heuchelei, wenn sie auch bis zur höchsten
Kunst geht, wirkt nichts dauerhaftes, bleibendes’.
73
Ewald, Ueber Deklamation, pp. 86–87: ‘Es gibt eine gewisse Reitzbarkeit des Herzens
(…), die ein Haupttalent des Redners ausmacht.’ ‘Es ist die Fähigkeit, sich schnell in
jede Art von Empfindung zu versetzen, die mann jetzt ausdrücken soll und will; die
If a young man does not know such sensibility, then Ewald has some
devastating advice for him: ‘If you are not touched by any poem, drama or
choral song, if a simply ‘majestic’ and purely sung hymn leaves you cold and
always left you cold, if you do not warm more to a touching song read or a
heart-rending story told to you than to a newspaper article read or a town
gossip told to you, then go and study cameralistics, loiter in the chaos of
positive laws and in the labyrinth of legal proceedings; go and become a
botanist, a transcendental philosopher, an algebraist, build machines, houses,
mills, measure heaven and earth, do what you like. But renounce the calling
to spread religiosity through public oratory among your people’.74
Ewald’s realisation was that some people have more sensitive hearts than
others, though the heart may – and, in fact ought to – be cultivated by
everything enlivening the emotions. Ways to do so include conversing
with sensitive people and reading aloud heartrending texts, to either one-
self or like-minded others. Ewald does not mention Richardson or Sterne,
but he recommends Shakespeare, Klopstock, the young (sentimentalist)
Goethe, Schiller’s Jungfrau von Orleans, as well as Fénelon and Lavater.
Music and singing, especially, could also enhance one’s sense of the
heart. The aspiring clergyman should take every opportunity to hear vocal
music. If he himself is a practitioner, he might perform songs written by
Christan Gottlieb Neefe (1748–1798) on texts of Klopstock, hymns by
Johann Friedrich Reichardt (1752–1814), arias and duets from Handel’s
Messiah, Haydn’s Schöpfung and Mozart’s Requiem. All pieces would deepen
the sensitivity of the heart.75
Geschmeidigkeit, jetzt selbst belebt zu werden, von dem was Andere beleben, selbst
gehoben, gerührt, entflammt zu werden von dem was Andere heben, rühren, entflammen
soll.’ For the Quintilian quote, see above, n. 28; Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust. Eine
Tragödie (Tübingen, 1808), p. 43: ‘Doch werdet Ihr nie Herz zu Herzen schaffen, wenn es
euch nicht von Herzen geht’.
74
Ewald, Ueber Deklamation, pp. 87–88: ‘Wenn du darum von keinem Gedicht,
keinem Drama, keinem Chorgesange gerührt wirst; wenn dich der einfach “erhabene”,
reingesungene Kirchengesang kalt läßt und immer kalt ließ; wenn du bei dem Vorlesen
eines rührenden Liedes, bei dem Erzählen einer herzdurchdringenden Geschichte nich
wärmer wird, als bei dem Vorlesen eines Zeitungsartikels oder bei dem Erzählen einer
Stadtträscherei; so studire Kameralwissenschaften, treibe dich im Chaos der positifen
Gesetze, und im Labyrinth der Prozeßformen herum; botanisire, transzendentalisire, alge-
braisire; baue Maschinen, Häuser, Mühlen, – miß Himmel und Erde aus, – treibe, was dus
willst. Nur lasse dich von dem Berufe, Religiosität, auch durch öffentliche Reden zu ver-
breiten in deinem Kreis’.
75
Ewald, Ueber Deklamation, pp. 88–91; Ewald also mentions the composer Carl
Heinrich Graun (1704–1759) and his passion cantata, Tod Jesu (1755), and the poet
Christoph August Tiedge (1752–1841) and his Urania (1801), containing poems ‘com-
posed in heaven’.
Finally, there are the notions of friendship and love, the former of which
was preferred by Ewald. An intense bond with another young man who
shares life’s joys and sorrows with you, opens his heart to you and will cau-
tion, encourage and restrain you, was believed to function better than a
woman’s love. After all, in the former kind of love, the emotions remained
more chaste, spiritual and powerful.76
At the end of his manual, Ewald compares the oratory of the pulpit with
the stage techniques of an actor, as many authors before him, such as Le
Faucheur, had done. As Ewald explains it, crucial to the preacher is Miene,
the expression indicated in his eyes, forehead, mouth and all the animate
aspects of his face. Revealed here are vanity, humility, frivolity, absent-
mindedness, timidity, complacency, feeling and concern. But Miene, a per-
son’s facial expression, and Mienenspiel are two distinct concepts, for the
preacher, unlike the actor, plays nothing. The preacher should take care to
be truly moved by the emotion he is expected to express; failing to do so
means he is merely playing and proffering forth no more than some
Mienenspiel – precisely what actors do.77 Though Ewald does not mention
Diderot, he implicitly refers to the Paradoxe sur le comédien, in which the
French philosophe and encyclopaedist, distancing himself from Garrick’s
art of the stage, argued that acting was not about feeling, but only mimick-
ing gesture, posture and expression.78 In fact, Diderot offered a perfect
argument for why religious orators would profit from visiting the theatre
and how, while actors were faking, preachers were not.79
In consonance with such views, Ewald emphasises that imitation should
be absolutely forbidden – it is a negative, artificial thing. By contrast, one’s
delivery should seem totally genuine, a convincing alliance of politeness
and nature: ‘Everything has to grow so natural to the young man, as if he
never moved otherwise, could not move otherwise’.80 For as long as the
aspiring preacher is conscious of the rules and fears failure, he will be far
less convincing. But, according to Ewald, that will change because in the
end: ‘the rules (…) will turn into a kind of instinct in him. No longer does
he need to watch his movements. He will perform those rules so lightly, so
76
Ewald, Ueber Deklamation, pp. 91–92.
77
Ewald, Ueber Deklamation, p. 110: ‘Also muß es das Hauptbemühen des öffentlichen
Religionslehrer seyn, in dem Augenblick des Redens wirklich von der Empfindung ergriffen
zu seyn, die er auszudrücken hat, wenn er anders durch seine Miene wirken will’.
78
On Diderot and his Paradoxe, see Roach, The Player’s Passion (see above, n. 11),
pp. 133–136.
79
On faking and the Paradoxe, see William Ian Miller, Faking It (New York, 2003),
pp. 195–200.
80
Ewald, Ueber Deklamation, p. 118.
fluently, and so flexibly, yet move with certainty, propriety and expressive-
ness, and as perfectly as can be’.81 It seems another instance of Bourdieu’s
notion of the habitus, whereby exercises turn into bodily automatisms,
and ‘history’ turns into ‘nature’.
7. Affective Oratory in the Netherlands
Compared to other German texts on sacred oratory, Ewald’s innovations

were remarkable. He may have profited from earlier authors on the subject,
especially Gotthilf Samuel Steinbart (1738–1809), Carl Friedrich Bahrdt
(1741–1792) and a couple of authors publishing in the 1790s.82 But for
most of the eighteenth century, the German manuals tend to emphasise
the practical rules elaborated by Le Faucheur and his successors.
The texts published in the Netherlands reveal a similar pattern, though
they usually refer less to Le Faucheur than to Petrus Francius (1645–1704),
professor of rhetoric (and also of history, Greek and Latin) at the Amsterdam
Athenaeum Illustre. Francius reaped a great deal of fame after his Specimen
eloquentiae exterioris was published in 1697. The book did not only offer a
new edition of Cicero’s oration Pro Archia, but also provided a set of 39
rules concerning pronunciation and a set of 56 rules on delivery.83 Surveying
the presence in Francius’ library of Balzac and a selection of manuals on
civility, from Baldassare Castiglione and Giovanni della Casa to Antoine
de Courtin and the Chevalier de Méré, he was as much an exponent of the
‘new age of eloquence’ as Le Faucheur. He may have found new models
within the eloquence of the church in the writings of Antoine Arnauld
(1612–1694), René Rapin (1621–1687) or Etienne Dubois de Bretteville
(1650–1688), whose works were also present on his shelves.84 Rapin,
81
Ewald, Ueber Deklamation, p. 118.
82
Gotthilf Samuel Steinbart, Anweisung zur Amtsberedsamkeit christlicher Lehrer unter
einem aufgeklärten und gesitteten Volke (Zülichau, 1779); Carl Friedrich Bahrdt, Versuch
über die Beredsamkeit nur für meine Zuhörer bestimmt (Dessau and Leipzig, 1782); Franz
Christian Cordes, Ueber die Action angehender Prediger auf der Kanzel (Wittenberg and
Zerbst, 1791); Johann Gottlob Marezoll, Ueber die Bestimmung des Kanzelredners (Leipzig,
1793); Johann Gottfried Pfannenberg, Ueber die rednerische Action mit erläuternden
Beispielen; vorzüglich für studierende Jünglinge (Leipzig, 1796); Christoph Friedrich von
Ammon, Anleitung zur Kanzelberedsamkeit (Göttingen, 1799). Clarisse mentions a transla-
tion of Marezoll’s manual by the Groningen professor of theology, Eelco Tinga (1762–
1828): Over de bestemming van den kerkelijken redenaar (Franeker, 1804); I have not been
able to trace a copy of this book.
83
Petrus Francius, Specimen eloquentiae exterioris, ad Orationem M. T. Ciceronis Pro
A. Licin. Archia accomodatum (Amsterdam, 1697).
84
Catalogus librorum Petri Francii (Amsterdam, 1705), pp. 224, 230, 233–234.
whom Francius met in Paris in 1669 while on his grand tour of France,
lamented the lack of sacred eloquence as much as Francius did. ‘It is a
striking thing,’ Rapin wrote, ‘that among the persons devoting themselves
to preaching one finds so few who distinguish themselves’.85 Leafing
through De Bretteville’s L’eloquence de la chaire et du barreau, we come
across many of the rules mentioned by both Le Faucheur and Francius.
Francius’ Specimen was well received in the Netherlands. Indeed, it may
have prevented Le Faucheur’s Traitté from becoming as influential in the
Dutch Republic as it had in Britain. In 1701, the Specimen was translated
into the vernacular and included in a convolute containing the first Dutch
translation of the Traitté as well as another text on delivery, also in Dutch,
taken from Jean Le Clercq’s Parrhasiana.86 Clearly, as the first English
translation of the Traitté is dated 1702, it was only in these years that Le
Faucheur’s merging of oratory and civility found a larger audience in the
two countries. In the Netherlands, however, the Traitté may well already
have been known among the French-speaking elite.87
Like the English translation, the convolute would see two reprints in the
first half of the century, in 1741 and 1748,88 followed in 1753 by a new
Latin edition of the Specimen alone.89 However, as the Dutch manuals on
sacred oratory reveal, Le Faucheur’s and Francius’ rules would be valid
until the end of the century. According to a number of sources, from
Francius’ pupil Franciscus Fabricius (1663–1738) to Jan Konijnenburg
85
René Rapin, Les oeuvres du P. Rapin, qui contiennent les Reflexions sur l’Eloquence, la
Poetique, l’Histoire et la Philosophie (2 vols.; Amsterdam, 1707) II, pp. 61–62.
86
Verhandeling van de uitspraak en gebaarmaaking van eenen redenaar door Michiel Le
Faucheur; als mede Bestieringen aangaande de uitspraak en gebaarmaaking door Petrus
Francius, en ten laatsten, Aanmerkingen aangaande de uitspraak, uit de Parrhaziana, trans.
J. van Zanten (Haarlem, 1701). Like Francius, Le Clercq expresses his admiration for the
Traitté, which he calls ‘a masterpiece of its kind’. Unlike Francius, he also knew the author’s
name.
87
Howell mentions two French editions of the Traitté published in Leiden in 1686 and
in Amsterdam in 1697; see Howell, Eighteenth-Century Logic (see above, n. 13), p. 163 n.86;
other French editions were published in France itself.
88
Michel le Faucheur, Verhandeling van de uitspraak en gebaarmaking van eenen rede-
naar. Als mede Bestieringen aangaande de uitspraak en gebaarmaking door den here Petrus
Francius; en ten laatsten Aanmerkingen aangaande de uitspraak uit de Parrhaziana. Ten nut-
tigen gebruike voor godgeleerde, regtsgeleerde, en alle openbare redenvoerders opgesteld, trans.
J. van Zanten (Amsterdam, 1741); Le Faucheur, Verhandeling van de uitspraak en gebaar-
maaking van eenen reedenaar (Groningen, 1748).
89
Petrus Francius, Specimen eloquentiæ exterioris, ad Orationem M.T. Ciceronis Pro
A. Licin. Archia accomodatum (Groningen, 1753). Rather surprisingly, the Traitté even
went through another Dutch edition as late as 1845: Michel le Faucheur, Over de voordragt
des redenaars, of Over de uitspraak en het gebaar. Naar het Fransch, met aanteekeningen door
J.M. Schrant (Leiden, 1845).
(1758–1831),90 what must be emphasised are the rules and the preacher’s
dignity – his deftigheid – not the sensitivity of the heart, his or his hearers’.91
Judging by the manuals, it would even seem as though it were only Ewald’s
text, translated and amply commented on by the Reformed minister
Johannes Clarisse (1770–1846), which would force a break into sentiment
and sensibility.92 But the manuals only tell us one side of the story.
Like Schrant, Clarisse looked up to Ewald and his adoption of Kant’s
philosophy. His comments served to inform readers on the Kantian termi-
nology employed by Ewald, explaining the philosopher’s notion of
Sinnlichkeit, or sensory perception, and cautioning that, without any
knowledge of the critical philosophers, no theologian would still be able to
understand his discipline.93 Though he also criticises Ewald for his discus-
sion of ‘sympathy’ or for overly graphic and rather irreverent terms (such
as Verkörperung Gottes) that are occasionally used to described the working
of God on man’s inner self, Clarisse fully endorses the German’s views on
the relevance of the emotions and the preacher’s sensibility. As he rhetori-
cally asks: ‘What will he bring forth (…) whose heart is not touched itself,
is not filled, warmed, cheered, formed and enlivened itself by the truths of
the Gospel and their reverential embrace?’94 He also dutifully lauds the
Methodists, especially Whitefield, who knew how to appeal to the heart
90
Franciscus Fabricius, De heilige redevoerder (Leiden, 1728); Fabricius, Orator sacer
(Leiden, 1733); Jan Konijnenburg, Lessen over het leeraars-ambt in de christelijke kerk
(Utrecht, 1802); on Fabricius, see P.J. Schuffel, ‘From minister to sacred orator. Homiletics
and rhetoric in the seventeenth and early eighteenth century Dutch Republic’, in: The Low
Countries as a Crossroads of Religious Beliefs, Arie-Jan Gelderblom et al eds. (Leiden, 2004),
pp. 221–245.
91
See for instance Salomon van Til, Methodus Concionandi (Utrecht, 1717); Taco van
den Honert, Rhetorica ecclesiastica in usum auditori domestici conscripta (Leiden, 1742);
Henricus van Ravesteyn, De Nasireer Gods tot den heiligen dienst toegerust, of heilzame raad-
geving aan studenten, proponenten en jonge leraren, hoe zy in het huis Gods met vrugt kunnen
verkeeren (Amsterdam, 1743); Jan Wagenaar, Zeven lessen over het verhandelen der Heilige
Schrift in de godsdienstige byeen-komsten (Amsterdam, 1752).
92
Johann Ludwig Ewald, Over de uiterlijke kanselwelsprekendheid, uit het Hoogduitsch,
met breedvoerige aanteekeningen door J. Clarisse (Zutphen, 1814); Ewald, Voorlezingen over
de uiterlijke kanselwelsprekendheid (Arnhem, 1839). Clarisse did a thorough job. He sup-
plemented his translation with numerous observations of his own, often on the oratory of
the pulpit in the eighteenth-century Dutch Republic. Moreover, in referring to a host of
ancient and modern authors on delivery, he turned Ewald’s elegant treatise into a weighty
compendium aimed at all ministers in spe. While the original totalled 123 pages, Clarisse’s
translation totals almost 400 and a second edition, published in 1839, over 500 pages.
Interestingly, Clarisse was a pupil of Utrecht professor of theology Gisbertus Bonnet
(1723–1805), who took acting lessons to improve on his delivery.
93
Ewald, Uiterlijke welsprekendheid, pp. 10–12, 108–109.
94
Ewald, Uiterlijke welsprekendheid, p. 29: ‘Wat zal hij voortbrengen (…), wiens hart
niet zelf getroffen is, niet zelf vervuld, verwarmd, bemoedigd, bewerkt, levend gemaakt is
door de waarheden van het Evangelie en derzelver eerbiedige omhelzing?’
and the senses. While other preachers’ audiences were yawning and sleep-
ing in church, witness the caricatures by Rowlandson, Whitefield’s hearers
were moved to tears.95 Interestingly, neither Clarisse nor Schrant praised
any of the Dutch Pietists. Similarly, the Dutch ‘spectatorial papers’, mod-
elled after Richard Steele’s and Joseph Addison’s The Spectator, used to con-
demn all preachers appealing more to the passions than to reason. They
especially denounced the mid-century ‘Nijkerker troubles’ (Nijkerker
beroeringen), a striking number of revivals, similar to the earlier Scottish
revivals, in which the faithful were reduced to tears and lost all control over
their bodies.96
Commenting on the instruments available to the young preacher to
foster his sensitivity of the heart, Clarisse recommends not only the music
already mentioned by Ewald, but also reading the works of Sterne, Fielding,
Richardson, the young Goethe and the Dutch sentimentalist writer
Rhijnvis Feith (1753–1824). Similarly, Sterne’s Corporal Trim is held up
as a model of pure, natural eloquence. However, Clarisse also cautions
against shedding too many tears in the pulpit: it will hamper the preacher’s
pronunciation, causing him to fiddle with handkerchiefs and, above all,
enervating his ‘manly dignity’. Similar objections were raised by Schrant,
in his comments on Fénelon. He criticises those colleagues who considered
‘novels and all kinds of sentimental pieces’ as homiletic handbooks, or that
one colleague who used to appeal to the sentimentalist poet Edward Young
(1683–1765) as if he were one of the apostles.97 However, like Clarisse, he
subscribes to Quintilian’s ‘Pectus est, quod disertos facit’. In a central pas-
sage quoting not only the Roman orator, but also Ewald and Blair, he
finally concludes: ‘The heart must feel, and the mouth must speak the
overflow of the heart: that is oratory’.98
95
Ewald, Uiterlijke welsprekendheid, p. 210.
96
Dorothee Sturkenboom, Spectators van hartstocht. Sekse en emotionele cultuur in de
achttiende eeuw (Hilversum, 1998); Joke Spaans ed., Een golf van beroering. De omstreden
opwekking in de Republiek in het midden van de achttiende eeuw (Hilversum, 2001).
97
Schrant ed., Fenelon’s Gesprekken over de welsprekendheid (see above, n. 62, pp. 25–26, 32.
Young was the author of the melancholy Night Thoughts (1742–1745), one of the most
popular poems of the period and also translated into Dutch; for a general background, see
Annemieke Meijer, The Pure Language of the Heart: Sentimentalism in the Netherlands
1775–1800 (Amsterdam, 1998).
98
Schrant ed., Fenelon’s Gesprekken over de welsprekendheid, pp. 72–73: ‘Het hert moet
gevoelen, en van dat gevoel moet de mond overvloeijen: dat is welsprekendheid.’ Cf. p. 26,
where Schrant, again quoting Ewald and Blair, opines: ‘Therein lies the great aim of the
orator: to work on the inner self of others and to rouse their passions.’ (‘Daar in bestaat het
grote doel des Redenaars: op het innerlijke van anderen te werken en hunne harstogten op
te wekken.’)
By the time Clarisse and Schrant recorded their comments on Ewald

and Fénelon, the impact of the British sentimentalists, like that of Feith
and the Dutch sentimental poets and novelists, had lost much of its former
significance. Both ministers preferred Ewald’s synthesis of German Pietism
and Kantian philosophy, though they could see affinities between Ewald’s
thinking and the older developments in the elocutionary movement and
the cult of sensibility. It may explain why they both appealed to this prior
history and at the same time, writing in the 1810s, felt compelled to
dissociate themselves from their colleagues’ sentimentalist exaggerations,
or what was often referred to as the ‘Herveyan’ style of preaching, after
the English clergyman and former friend of Wesley, James Hervey
(1714–1758).99
8. Conclusion
In this exploratory chapter, I have sketched some contours of eighteenth-

century pulpit delivery in England, Germany and the Netherlands, argu-
ing how from mid-century onwards, manuals and other writings on the
subject start to emphasise the preacher’s sensitivity of the heart, his disposi-
tion to literally embody belief in his voice, eyes, hands, arms and the whole
body. Important vectors that emerged were the British elocutionary move-
ment, the cult of sensibility, and late German pietism.
The manuals on pulpit oratory offer a crucial and fascinating source for
studying these developments. We may study the manuals from the stance
of intellectual history, as did Howell. Or, we may adopt a Foucauldian
stance, as did Goring, bringing in the body, though construing it merely as
a surface, another text we can read in order to grasp broader cultural
changes.100 When viewed from the perspective of embodiment (Taylor’s
approach, though also Bourdieu’s and Connerton’s), we gain insight into
the body as another important medium of transmission.101 We realise that
these manuals, much like those on civility, only served as a prompt to
99
Jelle Bosma, Woorden van een gezond verstand. De invloed van de Verlichting op de in
het Nederlands uitgegeven preken van 1750 tot 1800 (Nieuwkoop, 1997), pp. 315–316.
Hervey reaped fame with his Meditations among the Tombs, Reflections on a Flower-garden,
and Contemplations on the Night. His work was often translated into Dutch.
100
Goring, Rhetoric of Sensibility, pp. 18–19.
101
For a more recent approach, focusing on religion and embodiment and introducing
the helpful notion of ‘sensational forms’, see Birgit Meyer, Religious Sensations: Why Media,
Aesthetics and Power Matter in the Study of Contemporary Religion (Amsterdam, 2006).
performance; delivery was first and foremost a matter of observation,

imitation and incorporating practices. Everything was meant to look ‘nat-
ural’ and, at the same time, be ‘polite’. How to accomplish this task could
also be learned by looking at historical paintings and, more than anything
else, by watching the stage.
Of course, in accordance with the axioms of neo-classicism, ‘nature’
should be helped; that is what all the exercise was about. Consequently,
what was understood to be ‘nature’ constantly changed. What was regarded
‘natural’ or authentic by one generation was often considered ‘affected’ or
even ‘fake’ by the next. To be taken seriously, preachers were to follow the
codes of civility, or at least follow them precisely enough so as not to be
dismissed as ‘affected’ or, on the other end of the spectrum, ‘uncultured’
(as the average village priest and itinerant preachers were considered). Yet,
naturalness should also reveal a spiritual dignity that transcended the codes
of civility. And, like actors, preachers were expected to know how to play
to the passions of their audiences, though without forgetting their sense of
dignity. This complicated task, which is returned to in every manual on the
oratory of the pulpit, is what made practice so important. The discussions
all revolve around constantly changing notions of authenticity.
When looked at superficially, Blair’s or Ewald’s treatises hardly seem to
differ from Le Faucheur’s Traitté. They keep emphasising the importance
of a literal incorporation of the rules, of no longer having to reflect on
them at the pulpit. But what changed was the prominence of the rules.
Once the emotional accessibility of the sermon was recognised as being no
less, or even more, important than its rational accessibility, it was the
preacher’s sensibility that was put forward. And with this, there came a
new, more subjective and corporeal twist to the notions of fake and
authenticity.
GETTING THE MESSAGE: TOWARDS
A CULTURAL HISTORY OF THE SERMON
Joris van Eijnatten
1. Introduction
An analysis of audience reception of sermons based on surveys held in the

1970s among Roman Catholic churchgoers in West Germany yielded
the following results.1 The ability of a preacher to captivate his audience
strongly influenced appreciation of his sermon. The credibility or intelligi-
bility of his message proved to be a less significant factor. The audience’s
approval was greater if the preacher focused explicitly on the Bible. There
was no clear correlation between the sermon’s duration and audience
appreciation. Most of the audience tended to pay attention to the sermon
in its entirety, although relatively few people actually remembered what
they heard.2 The limited ability to recollect the content of the sermon was,
according to most people, a consequence of its (imperfect) quality. The
research suggested a relation between the level of education and the ability
to remember. Those members of the audience who personally knew the
preacher or had a more positive image of him tended to value the sermon
more highly. Furthermore, a direct relation was found between age and
approbation; the older the churchgoer, the greater his or her appreciation.
The researcher’s general conclusion was that for German Catholics in the
1970s, the sermon was not a very significant part of church life. We may
add that, in the age of gramophone, tape recorder, radio and television,
audience responses to sermons apparently depended largely on who
preached how to whom, and that what was actually preached may not have
been as significant to hearers as the preacher probably would have liked
it to be.
Although there is a large and still burgeoning literature on the effects of
mass media, especially television, little research has been done on audience
1
J.G.M. Sterk, Preek en toehoorders. Sociologische exploratie onder katholieke kerkgangers
in de Bondsrepubliek Duitsland (2 vols.; Nijmegen, [1975]).
2
The figures concerning attention span were: 60% (attention to sermon in its entirety),
34% (partial attention), 6% (almost no attention); the figures for recollection were: 22%
(substantial recollection), 35% (moderate recollection), 43% (little recollection).
344 joris van eijnatten
reception of sermons.3 Our knowledge of church audiences in the pre-

electric age is practically negligible.4 The reason why audience reception
before the twentieth century is largely uncharted territory is quite simple.
Sociologists and anthropologists avant la lettre did not think of holding
the kind of surveys their colleagues do today. In consequence, applying the
approaches of communication researchers to the past is, to a large degree,
contingent on finding appropriate source material.
Such source material does, in fact, exist. Cultural historians have long
made use of diaries, autobiographies, letters, travel journals and even fic-
tional accounts – in brief, all documents containing personal reflections,
which have appropriately been called ‘ego documents’5 – to gather infor-
mation on the attitudes and opinions of people in the past. Some ego
documents provide material concerning the response of audience mem-
bers to ‘media events’ such as the sermon. They allow us to take the point
of view of the listener or reader and gauge his or her reaction to the ser-
mon; such reactions may take the form of an emotional response, a rea-
soned attitude or concrete behaviour. Crucial to the use of ego documents
is the assumption that writers are sufficiently reflective and willing to
actively interpret what is communicated to them in church.6 This kind
of audience response to the sermon as an ‘oral media event’ has not
been methodically examined.7 The object of this chapter is to pioneer the
use of this material in order to better understand the sermon’s role as a
means of communication. It offers a provisory outline of a cultural history
of the sermon.
3
Related research includes J. Donald Ragsdale and Kenneth R. Durham, “Audience
Response to Religious Fear Appeals”, in Review of Religious Research 28 (1986), pp. 40–50;
the authors found that ‘high fear appeals’ were appreciated more than ‘low fear appeals’,
especially among listeners with strong religious beliefs, and that women listeners remem-
bered more when the sermon had a ‘high fear appeal’.
4
One of the few systematic approaches is Ned Landsman, “Evangelists and Their
Hearers: Popular Interpretation of Revivalist Preaching in Eighteenth-Century Scotland”,
in The Journal of British Studies 28 (1989), pp. 120–149.
5
Cf. Rudolf Dekker ed., Egodocuments and history. Autobiographical writing in its social
context since the Middle Ages (Hilversum, 2002).
6
I am assuming here that ego documents are to historians what surveys are to sociolo-
gists; a discussion of the methodological issues involved is necessary, but extends beyond
the aims of this article.
7
On theatre audiences, see e.g. Richard Butsch, The Making of American Audiences from
Stage to Television, 1750–1990 (Cambridge, 2000). There is little to be found on sermon
audiences in e.g. Antoni Mączak, Travel in early modern Europe (Cambridge, 1995); Jean
Viviès, English travel narratives in the eighteenth century. Exploring genres (Aldershot etc,
2002); Marie-Madeleine Martinet, Le voyage d’Italie dans les littératures européennes (Paris,
1996); Bärbel Panzer, Die Reisebeschreibung als Gattung der philanthropischen Jugendliteratur
in der zweiten Hälfte des 18. Jahrhunderts (Frankfurt am Main etc, 1983).
towards a cultural history of the sermon 345
One way of systematically analysing audience response to media events

is a method in communication studies called the ‘uses and gratifications
approach’. According to the classic account, the uses and gratification
approach is concerned to point out ‘(1) the social and psychological ori-
gins of (2) needs, which generate (3) expectations of (4) the mass media or
other sources which lead to (5) differential patterns of media exposure
(or engagements in other activities), resulting in (6) need gratifications and
(7) other consequences, perhaps mostly unintended ones’.8 In this approach
to audience reception of mass media, the intentions of the message’s pro-
ducer (the preacher) and the content of his message (the sermon) are of
secondary importance. The focus is on members of the audience who
actively select those portions of the message they consider relevant to their
personal life, and who may interpret it in individual ways, using their own
frame of reference rather than the producer’s.
Apart from suggesting that audiences are active interpreters of what they
hear, see or otherwise witness, the uses and gratifications approach has
several other characteristics. It assumes that a medium competes with other
means of need gratification, in other words, that audience use of media is
intentional. This assumption would seem to apply less to sermons, since
church attendance was largely a social obligation. On the other hand, in
the eighteenth-century, the sermon as a medium increasingly competed
with other means of communication in gratifying religious, social or other
needs. As an alternative to church services, people (especially those in
urban settings) may have preferred to read the Bible, for example, or attend
a conventicle, or even socialize in a coffee house. They did not necessarily
just happen to be in the place where the sermon was held. In any case, if
they wanted to fulfil personal needs or at least reciprocate the preacher’s
effort in holding the sermon, they had to concentrate on what was being
said. The question is, therefore, whether sermons gratified eighteenth-
century listeners as much (or as little) as churchgoers in twentieth-century
West Germany.
Gratification, whatever its corresponding need, can be achieved in at
least three different ways: by disclosure of message content (listening
to what is said), exposure to medium (being present at a sermon), or
participation in the ritual of media performance (taking part in activities
8
The definition stems originally from E. Katz, J.G. Blumler and M. Gurevitch,
“Utilization of mass communication by the individual”, in J.G. Blumler and E. Katz, The
uses of mass communications: Current perspectives on gratifications research (Beverly Hills CA,
1974), pp. 19–32, at p. 20.
surrounding a sermon). The various means through which hearers are

gratified implies, of course, that a sermon may answer to very different
needs. These do not necessarily have to be religious; they may pertain to
any sphere of personal and social life. Thus, motives for attendance vary.9
They may be primarily cognitive, in order to acquire knowledge and under-
standing. They may be affective, resulting from the need to achieve an
emotional or pleasurable experience, or to escape from ‘real life’ as a way of
releasing tension. Thirdly, attendance may reflect a need to develop or reaf-
firm personal identity, to strengthen individual confidence or stability.
Finally, sermon-goers may seek social affirmation in contacts with their
community or family, or by developing personal relationships. In a sense,
these motives for audience attendance correspond with the threefold aim
of classical rhetoric: docere, to teach or persuade the intellect; delectare, to
delight the mind; and movere, to touch the emotions.
This chapter examines eighteenth-century audience reception by
employing aspects of the uses and gratifications approach to obtain an
understanding of the kind of reflection on the sermon one might find in
ego documents. Since ego documents are relatively rare, and reflections on
sermons even rarer, this account makes use of quite a wide variety of
sources, mainly English, French and Dutch. The aim is to apply the
different motives distinguished in uses and gratifications theory to ego
documents written by people from different confessions in different
national contexts. The following is therefore divided into four sections –
respectively dealing with cognitive pursuits, emotional needs, personal
fulfilment and social affirmation – each of which reflects a particular kind
of need and its corresponding gratification.
2. Cognitive Pursuits
One evident reason why people attended sermons was to gratify certain
cognitive needs. Audience members wanted religious knowledge and
insight, and the pulpit was one way of acquiring it. This may seem an open
door, and it certainly agrees with the self-image and ambitions of preach-
ers. According to one eighteenth-century theologian, a sermon should
‘explain the whole of religion’, which in effect meant that preachers were
expected to
9
These motives were outlined in E. Katz, M. Gurevitch and H. Haas, “On the use
of the mass media for important things”, in American Sociological Review 38 (1973),
pp. 164–181.
instruct, solve difficulties, unfold mysteries, penetrate into the ways of divine
wisdom, establish truth, refute error, comfort, correct, and censure, fill the
hearers with an admiration of the wonderful works and ways of God, inflame
their souls with zeal, powerfully incline them to piety and holiness (…).10
It is important, however, to keep in mind that sermons could be used dif-
ferently than those who delivered them intended. For example, sermons
were sometimes used, not to understand the ‘whole of religion’, but to
learn a foreign language. In order to have his English pronunciation cor-
rected, a Dutch correspondent of the diarist James Boswell (1740–1795)
read Samuel Clarke’s sermons out loud to a British exile.11 The future pres-
ident of the United States John Adams (1735–1826) resolved to visit
taverns, the courts and the theatres when next he visited France, and
‘go to Church, whenever I could hear a Sermon. These are the Ways to
learn the Language’.12 Once in Paris, an abbé gave to Adams, on his request,
a list of ‘the purest Writers of french’. Typically, he suggested, apart from
Bossuet’s Histoire universelle, writings by La Fontaine, Molière, Racine and
Rousseau, and ‘Le petit caerene [carême] de Massillon’ and ‘Les sermons
de Bourdaloue’.13
John Adams also points to other uses to which the eighteenth-century
sermon was put. For example, sermons provided topics for conversation.
In Massachusetts, in 1759, discussing ‘News, War, Ministers, Sermons &c.’
was an integral part of social life.14 ‘Mr. Royal Tyler began to pick chat
with me’, wrote Adams, who recorded the dialogue: ‘Mr. Adams, have you
ever read Dr. Souths sermon upon the Wisdom of this World? No. I’le
lend it to you. – I should be much obliged’. Such conversations were not
simply a way of politely whiling away the time. Tyler did actually bring the
book, and Adams carefully read it, ‘(…) and excellent Sermons they are.
Concise and nervous and clear.’ Despite the political overtones, observed
Adams, ‘there is a Degree of Sense and Spirit and Taste in them which will
10
Jean Claude, An essay on the composition of a sermon (trans. by Robert Robinson of
Traité de la composition d’un sermon; 2 vols.; 3rd ed. London, 1788) I, p. 5.
11
Frederick A. Pottle ed., Boswell in Holland 1763–1764. Including his correspondence
with Belle de Zuylen (Melbourne, London, Toronto, 1952), p. 359 (I.A.E. van Tuyll van
Serooskerken to Boswell, 16-02-1768).
12
John Adams, Diary and autobiography of John Adams, L. H. Butterfield ed. (4 vols.;
Cambridge, Mass., 1962) II, p. 361 (Thursday, 22-04-1779).
13
Adams, Diary and autobiography of John Adams II, 315 (Tuesday, 26-05-1778). The
reference is to the sermon collection Petit carême (1745) by the Oratorian Jean-Baptiste
Massillon (1663–1742), and to sermons by the Jesuit Louis Bourdaloue (1632–1704).
14
Adams, Diary and autobiography of John Adams I, p. 97 (Spring 1759).
ever render them valuable’.15 If sermons were appreciated for their content,
this did not mean that the specifically religious information they contained
was always considered most important. Sometimes sermons were treated
at best as a form of socially relevant knowledge. In the ‘Bible, in the com-
mon sermon Books that common People have by them and even in the
Almanack and News Papers’, commented Adams, could be found the
‘Rules and observations’ men needed to enlarge their understanding.
Responsible citizens who kept abreast in this manner would be capable of
electing a government.16
Useful Learning
Listeners above all expected sermons to communicate religious knowledge,
or, as some critics would have it, to at least create the impression that
what they communicated was worth listening to. Enlightened Protestants
criticized their orthodox fellowmen for their inordinate love of pseudo-
scholarship, and all Protestants took Catholics to task for the same reason.
If we are to give credence to such accounts, eighteenth-century audiences
often felt rewarded by displays of learning from the pulpit. Italians may
have loved clownish preachers best but they esteemed learned ones most,
asserted the Spanish priest-turned-Anglican Antonio Gavin (no dates) in
the early eighteenth century. His harsh attack on Catholic custom is reveal-
ing for what it tells us about the radicalism of converts and the bias of
Protestants. But Gavin does offer us a vivid if slanted view of Catholic
preaching based on first-hand experience.
One category of preachers Gavin treats is that of the erudite priest. In
his sermons, this type of preacher made ample use of belles pensées, which
(in Gavin’s opinion) meant that he avoided as much as possible the ‘natural
sense’ of things. Rather, he resorted to an exegesis of Scripture that was
‘forcé, subtil, curieux, & recherché’. He also set great store by the authority
of such Church Fathers as Chrysostome, Ambrose, Jerome and Augustine,
next to Aquinas and Bellarmine. It flattered the erudite preacher’s vanity to
prove to the people that his belles pensées were in perfect agreement with
the views of the great men of the Church. Unfortunately, this type of
preacher often failed to check his sources, and more often than not he
15
Adams, Diary and autobiography of John Adams I, p. 362 (Sunday, 19-08-1770).
Robert South had preached at Westminster Abbey on 1 Cor. 3:19 (‘For the Wisdom of this
World, is Foolishness with God’, 30-04-1676).
16
Adams, Diary and autobiography of John Adams I, 220 (Saturday, 1-08-1761).
made dubious claims. Gavin, who had once heard a Benedictine at the
Santa Prassede in Rome cite Saint Jerome, later took great pains to find
that quotation in the writings of the Church Father. Needless to say, he
was unable to find it.17
It is not difficult to find similar critiques of the Protestant love for learn-
ing, which apparently was just as widespread in Massachusetts as it was
in Italy. Overly learned knowledge is useless knowledge, believed John
Quincy Adams (1767–1848), the son of John Adams. Parson Timothy
Hilliard (1746–1790) once preached two sermons, on the very same
Sunday, on the armour of God (Eph. 6:11). ‘The shield, and the helmet,
the sword and the arrow, afforded subject for description, and application’.
Adams Jr. was at a loss to indicate the use of such sermons. Hilliard’s objec-
tive was merely to show that it is man’s duty to avoid sin. For Adams Jr.,
this was a self-evident principle which no preacher needed to explain.
He exclaimed, ‘how barren must the imagination of a man be, who is
reduced to give descriptions of warlike instruments, to fill up a discourse of
20 minutes!’18
Enlightened observers qualified sermons on doctrine as equally useless.
What surprised Louis-Antoine, Marquis de Caraccioli (1721–1803), was
that preachers were inclined so vehemently to defend a truth already so
well established. They filled their sermons with invectives against free-
thinkers who never attended sermons anyway, using arguments that only
served to plant doubts in the minds of the hearers. It was for this very
reason that the King of Sardinia had forbidden a preacher from Paris to
preach in defence of Christendom.19 Not all members of the intellectual
elite will have considered argumentative, apologetic sermons a waste of
time; but a substantial number (relatively speaking, since they constituted
a small minority of churchgoers) probably rejected doctrinal sermons of
the excessively ‘mystical’ kind. The Independent clergyman James Murray
(1732–1782), writer of the anti-Methodist Sermons to Asses (1768), once
attended a meeting of dissenting ministers at Founders’ Hall in London.
There he heard a dull and tedious (and presumably Methodist) sermon.
17
[Antonio Gavin], Histoire des tromperies des prestres et des moines de l’Eglise Romaine
(2 vols.; Rotterdam, 1693) II, pp. 111–112, 115–117.
18
John Quincy Adams, Diary of John Quincy Adams, David Grayson Allen, Robert J.
Taylor, Marc Friedlaender, Celeste Walker eds. (2 vols., Cambridge (MA), 1981) II, p. 158
(Sunday 11-2-1787).
19
[Louis-Antoine Caraccioli], Letters on the manners of the French, and on the follies and
extravagances of the times. Written by an Indian at Paris (2 vols.; London, 1790) (translation
of Lettres d’un indien à Paris (1789) by Charles Shillito) II, pp. 205–206.
Some London ministers claimed to have ‘great intimacy with the Spirit’,
but this was not immediately apparent to Murray. The sermons he had
heard were ‘indigested rhapsodies, destitute of sentiment, and crowded
with absurdities.’ Their preachers employed scriptural texts much too
freely and used a ‘mystic jargon’ that would have better suited a medieval
scholastic.20
Sermons on exotic themes similarly raised questions as to their utility.
Ironically, such sermons were also often best remembered precisely because
of their extraordinary subject matter. In a French sermon on the counte-
nance of Mary Magdalene, for instance, the preacher cited numerous
authorities who claimed that she was beautiful, and as many who main-
tained that she was not. In the end, the priest solved the conundrum he
had created for himself by concluding that Mary’s face changed according
to the way she lived.21
Boswell is representative of the men of the world who did not consider
preaching in traditional, old-fashioned vein to be particularly useful. He
reports on a Glassite sermon event, where someone ‘harangued with a
clear, strong voice and a fluence of words. But he uttered strange doctrine.
He in explicit terms asserted predestination and election’, a subject Boswell
detested. ‘The only circumstances in this meeting not of a piece with their
dreary creed was very fine singing in parts. It reminded me of a choir of
monks or nuns.’ Fortunately, that afternoon Hugh Blair preached ‘beauti-
fully and rationally’ from another pulpit.22 At a Bereans’ meeting Boswell
heard John Barclay ‘lecture drearily and wildly’, a ‘vulgar cant’ that did not
differ much from that of the Glassites.23 He entered Adam Gib’s ‘seceding
meeting-house’ in 1785 to ‘gratify my curiosity in experiencing to some
degree the vulgar and dreary fanaticism of the last century in Scotland.’
The experience was not as bad as he had feared, although his curiosity was
gratified more than his conscience. ‘They did not preach long, and there
was nothing wild, but just the common old-fashioned Presbyterian way of
haranguing’.24
20
[James Murray], The travels of the imagination; a true journey from Newcastle to London,
in a stage-coach (London, 1773), p. 130.
21
[NN], Travels into France and Italy. In a series of letters to a lady (2 vols.; London, 1771)
II, p. 128. These comments were provoked by the traveller’s visit to the Barbarini palace in
Rome, where he saw the painting of Mary Magdalene by Guido Reni (1575–1642).
22
Hugh M. Milne ed., Boswell’s Edinburgh Journals 1767–1786 (Edinburgh, 2001),
pp. 395–396 (Edinburgh, Sunday 21-05-1780).
23
Milne ed., Boswell’s Edinburgh Journals 1767–1786, pp. 437–438 (Edinburgh, Sunday
2-09-1781); the reference is to John Barclay, 1734–1798.
24
Milne ed., Boswell’s Edinburgh Journals 1767–1786, p. 536 (Edinburgh, Sunday
8-01-1786).
The condescending and often derogatory observations of the Enlight-

ened elite demonstrate, of course, that traditional preaching still captivated
larger audiences, perhaps because of its familiarity or because it corresponded
to or sustained the identities of certain religious groups. The more
‘Enlightened’ immediately recognized the orthodox Presbyterian method
even if they did not appreciate it. In his early twenties, John Adams noted
in his diary:
Heard Mr. Maccarty. He is particularly fond of the following Expressions.
Carnal, ungodly Persons. Sensuality and voluptuousness. Walking with God.
Unregeneracy. Rebellion against God. Believers. All Things come alike to
all. There is one Event to the Righteous and to the Wicked. Shut out of the
Presence of God. Solid, substantial and permanent joys. Joys springing up in
the Soul. The Shines of G[od]s Countenance.25
He added no further comment; indeed, the young Adams often repro-
duced a sermon’s message in extenso without remarking on it.26 Adams did
develop outspoken opinions in later years. An excellent sermon, in his
view, amounted to ‘plain common sense. But other sermons have no sense
at all. They take the Parts of them out of their Concordances and connect
them together Hed and Tail’.27
As was to be expected, one of the main themes in eighteenth-century
responses to (or comments on) sermons concerns the weight preachers
should accord to doctrine in relation to morality. The general opinion was
that the less they spoke about doctrine, the more useful sermons were. In
one of his letters,28 the abbé Jean-Bernard Le Blanc (1707–1781) told a
story about two Englishmen meeting in a coffeehouse on a Monday to
discuss, over a bottle of French wine, the sermons they had heard the day
before. One was the ‘devout and constant hearer’ of an Anglican preacher,
the other the ‘zealous attendant’ of a Presbyterian teacher. They so furiously
debated various points of theology (beginning with predestination) that
they drew the attention of two ‘lewd women’ with whom they began a
frivolous conversation. After a while they continued their discussion, at
one point even drawing swords. In the end the drunks parted as friends.
Suppose, continued Le Blanc, that the preachers had held moral sermons,
25
Adams, Diary and autobiography of John Adams I, p. 28 (Worcester, Sunday
23-05-1756); Thaddeus Maccarty (1721–1784).
26
E.g. Adams, Diary and autobiography of John Adams I, p. 31 (Worcester, Sunday
30-05-1756) and pp. 43–44 (Worcester, Sunday 22-08-1756).
27
Adams, Diary and autobiography of John Adams I, p. 73 (Tuesday ?-01-1759).
28
Jean Bernard Le Blanc, Letters on the English and French nations (2 vols.; London,
1747; translation of Lettres d’un François, 1745) I, pp. 374–378 (Letter XLVIII), at
376–378.
say, on libertinism and drunkenness on the Sunday before. There would

then have been no dissension in the coffeehouse. Le Blanc’s point is clear.
Preachers should devote themselves more to ‘forming manners and cor-
recting vice’, than treating topics their audiences, and often they them-
selves, do not understand. The anecdote associates doctrine with vice
(drink, prostitutes and violence), and morality with virtue (peacefulness).
Adams Jr. typically distinguished between two kinds of preaching, ‘the
one, doctrinal, the other, practical.’ He, too, insisted that the latter was the
more useful. ‘The abstruse points of religion, have so long been disputed
upon, that it is probable every argument that can be of use on either side,
has been repeatedly offered; and the preacher can do little more than give
his own opinion’.29 Reporting on sermons he had heard, he wrote in his
diary: ‘The discourses were moral, and practical; and I prefer hearing none
at all, to hearing those of any other kind’.30 A minister who preached on
Rom. 15:3, ‘for even Christ pleased not himself ’, first explained what the
text’s meaning was not, and then what it was. In this particular case the
juxtaposition of negative and positive explanations was appropriate, since
the text might otherwise have been misconstrued, but really the approach
was very old-fashioned. ‘In former times a Minister would take, an hour to
prove, negatively, that the Lord, was not Job, nor Satan, nor in short any
thing but God. This absurd custom, is now I believe, universally
abolished’.31
Not all worldly-wise travellers and diarists were as patronizing. Italian
publics were gratified by other sermon genres than the moral, and these
proved to be just as effective in disseminating ethical counsel. As inhabit-
ants of warmer climes, declared the Prussian historian and traveller Johann
Wilhelm von Archenholz (1743–1812), the Italians are governed by two
‘powerful passions’, love and vengeance. Such moral topics could well be
tackled from the pulpit, but hardly any preacher devoted sermons to them.
Italian sermonizers considered the miracles of the saints to be ‘themes of a
much sublimer nature’. And apparently these themes bore fruit, since the
principle of neighbourly love was ingrained in the Italian people.32
English Protestants tended to equate Italy and the Italians with back-
ward Catholicism, but there were some exceptions. In the 1780s, one
29
Adams, Diary of John Quincy Adams I, p. 373 (Sunday 18-12-1785).
30
31
32
Johann Wilhelm von Archenholz, A picture of Italy (translation by Joseph Trapp of
vols. 4–5 of England und Italien, 1785) (2 vols.; London, 1791) I, p. 11.
Signor Paoletti, a curate and ‘practical farmer’ in the neighbourhood of

Florence, had the habit of instructing his audience on agriculture after the
sermon; the members of his congregation were free to leave the church if
they so wished. The curate’s archbishop took him to task for his troubles,
despite the fact that the priest neglected none of his duties. The British
agriculturalist Arthur Young (1741–1820) faulted Leopold, the Enlightened
Grand Duke of Tuscany, for not reprimanding the archbishop. The duke
would have done well to ‘encourage an attention to agriculture in the
clergy’, and in addition to reward a good farmer and worthy priest, who so
adroitly combined the sacred with the secular.33
Apposite Devices
Perhaps we may draw two general conclusions from the previous section:
first, different audiences require different message content; and, second,
sermons will be appreciated most when they fit the expectations and/or
understandings of the audience. If most clergymen were bound by both
profession and conviction to point out that homiletics is something quite
distinct from rhetoric, they were not at all averse to oratorical tricks of
trade. Serious Protestants, of course, valued concentration on the Bible.
Evelyn in 1680 censured a sermon by the Dean of Sarum,
In which he assembled so many Instances out of heathen histories, and greate
persons, who had quitted the Splendor and oppulence of their births, for-
tunes, and grandures, that he seemed for an houre and halfe to do nothing
else but reade Common-places, without any thing of Scripture almost in his
whole sermon, which was not well.34
Again, we may surmise that at least some audience members will have
been pleased to obtain such elaborate information on defunct persons of
distinction.
Catholics delighted in telling trivial stories – at least, that is what
Protestant travellers typically liked to report. The French lawyer and writer
Pierre Jean Grosley (1718–1785), not exactly an impartial observer, made
this point in his account of a journey through Italy. At a Jesuit meeting
there, he once heard tell of a beautiful young princess who had devoted
33
Arthur Young, Travels, during the years 1787, 1788, and 1789. Undertaken more par-
ticularly with a view of ascertaining the cultivation, wealth, resources, and national prosperity,
of the kingdom of France (2 vols.; 2nd ed. London, 1794) II, p. 273.
34
John Evelyn, The diary. Now first printed in full from the manuscripts belonging to
Mr. John Evelyn ed. Esmond Samuel de Beer ed. (6vols.; Oxford: The Clarendon Press,
1955) IV, p. 197 (26-03-1680).
body and soul to the Virgin. Predestined to wed the heir of a neighbouring
state, she implored the Virgin to help her keep her vows. Her prayers were
soon answered, for on the night before her wedding she lost an eye and
became a leper, making her somewhat less eligible for marriage. The
preacher’s imagination amply provided his audience with the gruesome
details necessary to paint the fair lady’s miserable plight.35 Looking back, it
was clear to Grosley why a French Jesuit had advised him not to attend this
particular meeting. Yet, to many if not most listeners, the moral of this tale
was probably perfectly clear. God still works miracles, devotion is more
important than beauty or status, and true faith will triumph over worldly
politics.
Sermons for the common people, held in Rome on street corners by
apprentice preachers belonging to religious orders, were badly organized
and poorly delivered. Such ‘declamations’ mostly treated purgatory, hell or
similar subjects, and their proofs were derived exclusively from tales; in
fact, according to Grosley, the populace derived most of its religion from
these stories.36 A Corsican parish priest, preaching on ‘They go down alive
into the pit’ (Ps. 54:16, Vulgate), and having described the horrors of
inferno, told his audience the tale of how Catherine of Siena had person-
ally wanted to block the mouth of hell to prevent people from falling into
it. ‘Our priest did very well’, concluded Boswell.37 But stories were told on
Protestant pulpits as well. Evelyn, a particularly meticulous listener, some-
times noted the story used to illustrate the sermon’s message instead of the
message itself. In a sermon on the way Christ rejected Satan’s temptations
(Matt. 4:4, ‘It is written’), the preacher spoke about Augustine’s wish to
have the text ‘written on the Wall of his bed-chamber, that when he should
be speechlesse he might have it ready to repell him [i.e. the devil]’.38
Listeners, as we saw, felt that sermons should fit the audience. What a
preacher believed to be suitable was not necessarily accepted as such by his
public. Evelyn’s country curate in 1703 preached on
pride & Luxury of Apparell, which could be applied to none save my Wife
& Daughter, there being none in all the parish else, but meane people, who
[had no] more than sufficient to cloth them meanely enough &c upon which
I told the Doctor that I conceived the sermon had ben more proper to
35
Pierre Jean Grosley, Observations sur l’Italie et sur les Italiens, données en 1764, sous le
nom de deux Gentilshommes Suédois (4 vols.; London, 1770) III, pp. 34–35.
36
Grosley, Observations sur l’Italie III, pp. 35–36.
37
James Boswell, An account of Corsica (London, 1769; 3rd ed.), pp. 298–299.
38
Evelyn, Diary, De Beer ed. III, p. 39 (20-08-1651).
St. James’s or some other of the Theatrical Churches in Lond, where the
Ladys & Women were so richly & wantonly dressed & full of Jewells (…).
The curate, ‘falling into a very furious passion’ on being called to order in
this manner, made a point of preaching exactly the same sermon a week
later. He knew perfectly well that Evelyn’s wife and children dressed mod-
estly, as did his domestics. To make matters worse, he did not so much as
mention ‘the pride of the Clergy, their long powdered Perruks, silke
Casso[c]ks, Covetousnesse’. The sermon, Evelyn admitted, had been very
learned. It was ‘fit for a Gallant Congregation; but by no meanes with our
poore Country people’.39
This was a personal matter, although Evelyn made it quite clear that,
regardless of his own role in the affair, he did not consider the sermon
appropriate for a country audience. Yet part of the audience may well have
found the preacher’s public scolding of a distinguished local landholder
rather exciting. Evelyn usually knew, or thought he knew, what was good
for church audiences. In a sermon on Mary Magdalene in 1695, a preacher
spent ‘too much time’ on controversial issues. Evelyn believed that there
was no ‘neede of insisting on a nicity among the Country people here’.40
Eighteenth-century connoisseurs often supposed they knew best and had
no compunction in laying down rules even as total outsiders. Travelling
through Scotland, the Englishman Edmund Burt (d. 1755) observed that
the Calvinist clergy there mostly treated grace, free will and predestination
in their sermons. ‘They might as well talk Hebrew to the Common People,
and I think to any Body else’, he remarked.41 Again, many people may
have had a better grasp of learning than the elite supposed. ‘There is not a
Page in Flavels Works without several sentences of Latin’, noted John
Adams, commenting on a long-dead Puritan preacher. ‘Yet the common
People admire him. They admire his Latin as much as his English, and
understand it as well’.42
In any case, a good preacher took care to offer his audience a pertinent
message. On their part, audiences frequently knew very well which
preachers offered them their money’s worth. In London, in April 1688,
a celebration of the Holy Communion at court was interrupted by ‘the
39
Evelyn, Diary, De Beer ed. V, p. 542 (18-07-1703). In the end, the curate
apologized.
40
Evelyn, Diary, De Beer ed. V, p. 216 (25-08-1695).
41
Edward Burt, Letters from a gentleman in the north of Scotland to his friend in London
(Dublin, 1755), p. 101.
42
Adams, Diary and autobiography of John Adams I, p. 73 (Tuesday ?-01-1759); John
Flavel (1628–1691).
rude breaking in of multituds into the Chapell, zealous to heare’ a Lenten

sermon on sin and repentance by Thomas Ken (1637–1711), bishop of
Bath and Wells. He preached ‘with his accustom’d action, zeale & Energie,
so as people flock’d from all quarters to heare him’.43 When Evelyn
attempted to hear a sermon by Thomas Sherlock, dean of St. Paul’s, he
found that ‘the presse of people was so greate that I durst not venture’, and
went instead for his Sunday sermon to St. Martin, Ludgate Hill.44
There was a downside to popular preachers who attracted large audi-
ences. Some performed so regularly that they could not help but repeat
themselves. As Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) pointed out, only itiner-
ant preachers could really afford the luxury of frequent reiteration.
Repetition had the advantage that discourses were very finely honed. In
the case of the revivalist George Whitefield (1714–1770), ‘every Accent,
every Emphasis, every Modulation of Voice, was so perfectly well turn’d
and well plac’d’ that listening to a sermon was like listening to music.45
Ordinary preachers had to beware most of repeating sermons time and
again, at least if they wanted to avoid irritating listeners. ‘The sermon we
had this afternoon I have heard Mr. Porter preach 7 times with very little
or any alteration’, wrote Thomas Turner (1729–1793), a busy shopkeeper
and conscientious diarist in Sussex, England.46
Overexposure to the same media content at least had the effect that
regular churchgoers knew few sermons very well, and in the long run this
may have been more fruitful than knowing many sermons superficially.
It was said (reported Adams Jr.) that the Masschussetts preacher Anthony
Wibird (d. 1800) had written very few sermons, and that he was therefore
obliged to preach ‘them over and over in continual succession.’ Some ladies
complained that his sermon on Rom. 8:1 ‘was an old one, which, had been
delivered so many Times, that, they had it, almost by heart’.47 One church-
goer said that he had heard old parson Wibird’s sermon on Luke 19:10 ten
times before. John Quincy Adams expected no complaint if Wibird read
printed sermons written by others. ‘But to hear one thing continually
repeated over which does not deserve, perhaps, to be said more than once,
is very fatiguing’.48 In the end, Adams Jr. simply stopped listening. ‘I did
43
Evelyn, Diary, De Beer ed. IV, pp. 577–578 (1-04-1688).
44
Evelyn, Diary, De Beer ed. V, p. 279 (5-12-1697).
45
Alan Houston ed., Franklin. The autobiography and other writings on politics, economics,
and virtue (Cambridge [etc.], 2004), p. 90.
46
David Vaisey ed., The Diary of Thomas Turner 1754–1765 (Oxford/New York, 1984),
p. 64 (Whitsunday 22-05-1763, on Luke 24:49).
47
Adams, Diary of John Quincy Adams II, p. 3 (Sunday 19-03-1786).
48
not hear much of it: and indeed I very seldom do’.49 When Wibird did
take the trouble to write a new sermon, Adams Jr. was agreeably surprised.
His sermon on John 1:47 ‘was new, and one of the best that I ever heard
him deliver, full of judicious reflections, and wise instructions’. He consid-
ered it proven that although Wibird was deficient as a moral teacher, it was
‘not for want of sufficient abilities’.50
Repetitiveness also marred the performances of Timothy Hilliard, but
in a different way. It was not, observed Adams Jr., that Hilliard’s sermons
on Acts 7:9 were bad. On the contrary, the ‘Sermons were good, but there
is such, a sameness in almost all the Sermons, I hear preach’d, that they are
Seldom very entertaining to me’.51 He appeared to use a variety of texts to
preach one and the same sermon. Hilliard suffered from a common defect
of preachers: ‘there is one favourite point, (often self evident) which they
labour, to prove, continually; and beyond which they seldom, have much
to say’.52 If Hilliard chose to speak on, for instance, 1 Peter 1:3–4, Adams Jr.
needed to know no more. ‘The text was enough for me; I heard nothing of
the Sermon. It is the old Story, over and over again so repeatedly that I am
perfectly weary of it’.53 In January 1787 Adams Jr. again complained: ‘It is
a long time since he has given us any variety’. On the other hand, parson
Hilliard ‘writes short Sermons, which is very much in his favour,
in cold weather’.54
3. Emotional Needs
Gratification of affective needs was a second major reason for attending

sermons. As we have seen, audiences appreciated sermons that fit their
understandings; but a sermon also had to fit their mood. People looked for
an emotional or pleasurable experience, or a release of tension by having
the hardships, problems and vicissitudes of daily life put into perspective
by a religious leader. Preaching before such audiences, funeral orators,
of course, had a field day. Their task in performing was meaningfully to
49
50
51
52
Adams, Diary of John Quincy Adams II, p. 42 (Sunday 28-5-1786). Cf. Adams, Diary
of John Quincy Adams II, p. 89 (Sunday 3-9-1786): ‘I do not believe that Mr. H. has one
new idea, in ten Sermons upon an average’.
53
Adams, Diary of John Quincy Adams II, p. 63 (Sunday 9-7-1786). Cf. Adams, Diary
of John Quincy Adams II, p. 96 (Sunday 3-9-1786): ‘I seldom hear much of Mr. H.’s
Sermons, except the Texts’.
54
Adams, Diary of John Quincy Adams II, pp. 148–149 (Sunday 14-1-1787).
canalise emotions. The preacher who spoke on Phil. 1:21 (‘For to me to

live is Christ, and to die is gain’) at the funeral of Evelyn’s daughter Mary
concluded ‘with a modest recital of her many vertues, and especialy her
signal piety, so as drew both teares, & admiration from the hearers’. Evelyn
was gratified, since his daughter’s life fulfilled a higher purpose. Eulogies,
he believed, served above all ‘the edification & encouragement of other
young people’.55 To do so, sermons had to appeal to the emotions. The
Unitarian minister Ebenezer Gay (1696–1787), a septuagenarian who
preached shortly after the death of his own brother, was anxious that he,
too, must soon ‘put off this Tabernacle’, and that this would probably be
his last sermon. ‘I have not heard a more affecting, or more rational
Entertainment on any Sabbath for many Years’, wrote John Adams, who,
as we have seen, emphasized cognition. Little did he know that the ‘good
old Gentleman’ would live to be 91.56
Like deaths, calamities evoked affective needs among anxious audience
members. Take, for example, earthquakes, such as those in London in
March 1750. Eighteenth-century publics usually interpreted them as
divine judgements. Clergymen, believed Horace Walpole, fourth earl of
Orford (1717–1797), not only responded to such anxieties, but wilfully
reinforced them. ‘All the women in town’, wrote that master of irony, com-
menting on the 1750 earthquakes, ‘have taken them up upon the foot of
judgments; and the clergy, who have had no windfalls of a long season, have
driven horse and foot into this opinion’. Thomas Secker (1693–1768),
bishop of Oxford, was one preacher who purposely initiated ‘a shower of
sermons and exhortations’. When he noticed that women were leaving
town so as to avoid the next quake, he began to be alarmed about the
possible absence of his Easter congregation and the concomitant loss of
income. He therefore advised his female flock ‘to await God’s good pleas-
ure in fear and trembling’. Surprisingly, even the bishop of London,
Thomas Sherlock (1678–1761), added to the general distress with a
pastoral letter, ‘of which ten thousand were sold in two days’. Walpole
considered it an absurd pamphlet, as if earthquakes were meant ‘to punish
bawdy prints, bawdy books (…), gaming, drinking (…) and all other sins,
natural or not’.57 Again, this account only confirms the popularity of
sermons and pastoral pamphlets in difficult times.
55
Evelyn, Diary, De Beer ed. IV, p. 430 (16-03-1685).
56
Adams, Diary and autobiography of John Adams I, p. 345 (Tuesday, 24-10-1769).
57
Horace Walpole, The Yale edition of Horace Walpole’s correspondence, W.S. Lewis ed.
(47 vols.; New Haven, CT, 1954–1983) XX, pp. 133–134 (to Horace Mann, Arlington
A suitable discourse on a suitable text will have done much to gratify

hopeful audiences at other occasions as well. During a visit, in the entou-
rage of Prince Edward, to an institution for fallen women, Walpole
attended a sermon by William Dodd (1729–1777). The latter (who, inci-
dentally, would later be hanged for forgery) harangued ‘entirely in the
French style, and very eloquently and touchingly’. The female inmates
‘sobbed and cried from their souls’, and so did the women in Walpole’s
company.58 Emotionalism was associated at the time with varieties of reli-
gious ‘fanaticism’. In such cases, elite commentators expected intense
and immediate audience response not only from women, but especially
from the ignorant, ‘in whom it instils a Kind of Enthusiasm, in moving
their Passions by sudden Starts of various Sounds’.59 These examples raise
interesting questions regarding the role of gender and class in sermon
reception. We may also ask whether fulfilment was the consequence of
a good sermon or of the expectations entertained beforehand by the
audience. One way of examining this is to look at the sermon as part of a
larger ritual.
Performed Ritual
The rituals into which all sermons were integrated might well produce
gratification where the sermon as such did not. An impressive backdrop
could alleviate even the dismay of not hearing the sermon at all. ‘It was a
good decent show to me to see the Judge in his robes, scarlet faced with
black, at public worship’, wrote Boswell. ‘I did not hear one sentence of
the sermon, the crowd made such a disturbance. But although that distur-
bance somewhat hindered my devotion, I had it tolerably well excited by
the service and by recollecting that here I first heard cathedral worship’.60
A service at Westminster Abbey elicited the following comment from him:
‘The solemnity of the grand old building, the painted glass windows, the
noble music, the excellent service of the Church and a very good sermon,
all contributed to do me much good’.61 The smallest English parish church,
Street, Monday 2-04-1750). The pamphlet at issue was Thomas Sherlock, A Letter to the
Clergy and People of London and Westminster (…) on occasion of the late Earthquakes
(London, 1750).
58
Walpole, Correspondence (Yale edition) IX, pp. 273–274 (to George Montagu,
Arlington Street, 28-01-1760); the institution was Magdalen House.
59
Burt, Letters from a gentleman in the north of Scotland, p. 105.
60
Joseph W. Reed and Frederick Pottle eds., Boswell. Laird of Auchinleck 1778–1782
(New York, Toronto, London, 1977), p. 10 (Carlisle, Sunday 23-08-1778).
61
William K. Wimsatt Jr. and Frederick A. Pottle eds., Boswell for the Defence 1769–
1774 (Melbourne, London, Toronto, 1960), p. 114 (London, Sunday 12-04-1772).
such as that at Mamhead near Exeter, had something gratifyingly ‘venerable

and ornamental about it’.62 Even John Adams felt tempted when visiting
an Anglican church. ‘The Scenery and the Musick is so callculated to take
in Mankind that I wonder, the Reformation ever succeeded’.63
In the Catholic world, sermons could be integrated into very elaborate
rituals, and most evidently so in the case of mission sermons. These con-
sisted of an intensive programme of various religious activities, including
sermons, processions and other collective ceremonies, organized at inter-
vals to inspire and motivate believers. It is instructive to examine the way
contemporaries commented on the entourage and action in Catholic mis-
sions.64 Their remarks make clear how elite observers viewed these popular
events (they more often than not made disparaging comments), but above
all demonstrate the extent to which the sermon was only one element in a
popular and complex ceremony.
The fact that representatives of both church and state attached great
significance to missions enhanced the status of the sermons preached. An
account by Jean Baptiste Labat (1663–1738), a well-travelled Dominican,
shows how ecclesiastical and local interests coincided. He describes an
extraordinary mission the aim of which was to bring the people of Livorno
to penitence and reform, apparently after having been exposed to, and cor-
rupted by, ‘des gens de Religions differentes’.65 First the vicar-general of
Livorno requested permission from his superior the Archbishop of Pisa.
The Archbishop then discussed the matter with the Grand Duke of
Tuscany, who immediately appointed a famous Jesuit preacher to lead the
mission. To give the operation sufficient weight, the Archbishop, the
Grand Duke and the latter’s cousin, a Cardinal, together attended various
sermons, discussions and instructions. Since the church proved to be too
small to accommodate the large number of people who came to listen to
the able and extremely eloquent preacher, a canopy was put up outside in
the square. A dais with a chair and a large cross served as the ‘Tribunal’
from which the preacher thundered against public vice.
Labat describes another mission in Civitavecchia, which began several
days after Easter and lasted fifteen days.66 This time the pope himself had
62
Frank Brady and Frederick A. Pottle eds., Boswell in search of a wife, 1766–1769
(London, 1957), p. 360 (London, Sunday 5-11-1769).
63
Adams, Diary and autobiography of John Adams II, p. 150 (Sunday, 9-10-1774).
64
Cf. Charles C. Noel, “Missionary Preachers in Spain: Teaching Social Virtue in the
Eighteenth Century”, in The American Historical Review 90 (1985), pp. 866–892.
65
Jean Baptiste Labat, Voyages du P. Labat de l’ordre des ff. precheurs en Espagne et en Italie
(8 vols.; Amsterdam, 1731) II, pp. 157–158.
66
Labat, Voyages du P. Labat VII, pp. 24–42.
chosen the preacher, an excellent and zealous man of about forty years of
age belonging to the Maltese Mission. He had under his tutelage a young
priest acting as catechizer, and together they organized a grand and splen-
did performance. Having arrived by carriage, they took off their shoes,
removed their cloaks, and placed on their shoulders large collars made of
black leather (rather like those worn by pilgrims to Santiago di Compostella,
but without the shells, noted Labat). Each then picked up a large bell and
approached the city gate. There they were awaited by a religious delegation
from the town, the Company of Blue Penitents,67 clothed in sackcloth,
their faces covered. Addressing the preacher, the Prior of the Company
formally exchanged the Company’s crucifix for the preacher’s bell. The
procession subsequently began its march to the church, headed by two
former Priors wielding blue gilded batons. They were followed by the com-
pany members, two by two. The missionary, bearing the crucifix and
chanting the litanies of the Holy Virgin, was the last in line, flanked on
the right by his catechizer and on his left by the Prior, both of whom
carried bells.68
The parish priest, after receiving the procession at the entrance to the
local church, offered the missionary holy water. The latter then climbed
into the pulpit to read the papal instructions concerning the mission and
explain the temporary powers bestowed on him. These powers included
the privilege to bless the mission on its completion by erecting a large
cross. He also possessed the right to grant an indulgence to all those who
confessed, received communion, or had otherwise participated in the mis-
sion. He exhorted everybody to attend his sermon, which was to be held
at one o’clock that night. The missionary and his assistant were then led to
their quarters. Their luggage was brought to them, including a box con-
taining the missionary’s portable crucifix, disassembled into pieces that
could be put together when the need arose.69
At a quarter to one, the bells began to toll and the church rapidly filled
with people. To give the preacher more room, a square dais covered with a
Turkish rug had been put up in the church next to the pulpit. There the
missionary held a lengthy but excellent discourse on 2 Cor. 6:1, ‘We
beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain’. The sermon
pleased Labat greatly, except for the fact that the preacher insisted on
addressing the audience as mio caro populo – as if they had all been ‘begot-
ten in Jesus Christ’ (Cor. 4:15). But this was the only blemish on an
67
Compagnie des Pénitents Bleus.
68
69
otherwise immaculate performance. The preacher succeeded in touching

the audience, especially the women, who ‘selon la coûtume’ weeped and
repeatedly cried misericorde! misericorde! People whose emotions got the
better of them were obliged to leave the pews. Following the sermon, the
church doors were closed and the lights dimmed. Several helpers distrib-
uted instruments of penitence (brought by the missionary in one of his
boxes) among the audience. The preacher himself used a whip made of five
iron links; others wielded knotted ropes or leather thongs to flog themselves.
This continued for at least fifteen minutes, the preacher urging the people
not to spare themselves in chastising the enemy of God. The people then
went home and the missionary to his lodgings to eat. ‘Je croi qu’après une
telle fatigue,’ observed Labat drily, ‘ils ne manquoient pas d’appetit’.70
Judging by the number of people who confessed, the sermons were
extremely successful. They were repeated every two nights. In the morn-
ings and evenings the missionary preached in the square, where a theatre
had been built. The ground there was covered with tents, so that the people
could stand in the shade. Since processions and flagellations continued
during the mission, Labat began to wonder how the missionary, who, after
all, used a whip of iron, was able to carry on his work with so much energy.
According to Labat, he handled his whip in such a way that he made much
noise without really hurting himself. Labat did not blame the preacher for
his ‘pious fraud’. After all, he had not come to exhort himself, but to bring
others to penitence. It is quite clear, however, that Labat himself had little
affection for these exuberant displays of mortification, and he even incurred
the missionary’s displeasure after he had convinced his own colleagues that
the clergy themselves were not obliged to participate.71
Despite the somewhat derogatory observations on weeping women,
excessive flagellation and pious pretence it is clear from Labat’s account
that the ‘sermon event’ itself was embedded in a whole series of religious
practices, and that audience gratification depended in part on the way the
audience participated in the broader context in which the sermon took
place. The elaborate ceremonial is precisely the reason why observers chose
to comment at length on mission sermons. Gavin, too, described regulars,
often Capuchins, who ‘preached the mission’. Typically, these monks
applied to the Holy See for permission to preach in certain towns and
provinces. The pope then invested them with the power to extend indul-
gences and give absolution.
70
71
Apart from demonstrating the extent of his own prejudice, Gavin’s

description of mission sermons reveals the highly effectual rhetoric of
gifted and specialized preachers. He once witnessed a Capuchin preach the
mission at Montefiascone, near Viterbo. The heavily bearded Capuchin,
who according to Gavin had the grotesque look common to his order, was
dressed to the event. He wore a large red skull-cap (symbolizing the
‘tongues like as of fire’ in Acts 2:3) as a sign of his zeal to convert souls, held
a large crucifix while preaching and bore a rope around his neck. The gen-
eral aim of such mission sermons was to get as many people as possible to
weep, claimed Gavin, and hence the preacher used the most emotional
language at his disposal to describe the passion of Christ. He painted an
impressive picture of Jesus’s beautiful snow-white hands bound by pitiless
brutes. Soon the whole church was in tears (first the women, then the
men). At this juncture the Capuchin knelt down, lifted his hands to
heaven, grasped the rope around his neck as if strangling himself, and cried
out in a dismal and grisly voice: ‘mercy, mercy’. He repeated this about
forty or fifty times, his audience joining in; and this resulted in a horren-
dous noise pervading the church for about fifteen minutes. Usually such
missions continued for several weeks, after which the villagers erected
a huge cross and received the departing preacher’s blessing.72
It is a pity, perhaps, that many eighteenth-century accounts of Catholic
mission sermons are so critical, disdainful or ironical; but it is evident that
displays of ritualized oratory attracted a great deal of attention. Moreover,
it would be wrong to suppose that Protestant sermons were not integrated
into formal ceremonies. The rituals in which they were embedded were
more frugal. It was the lack of pomp and circumstance that made Boswell
express misgivings about the sermon of even a preacher as talented as
Hugh Blair; but he only deplored the less ornate character of Presbyterian
worship. In May 1763 he went to a meeting of dissenters in Monkwell
Street, London, hoping it would do him good, but ‘Blair’s New Kirk deliv-
ery and the Dissenters roaring out the Psalms sitting on their backsides,
together with the extempore prayers, and in short the whole vulgar idea of
the Presbyterian worship, made me very gloomy’. He hastened to St. Paul’s,
where he arrived in time to hear ‘the conclusion of service, and had my
mind set right again’.73
72
[Gavin], Histoire des tromperies II, pp. 133–138.
73
Frederick A. Pottle ed., Boswell’s London Journal 1762–1763 (Melbourne, London,
Toronto, 1952), p. 259 (London, Sunday 15-05-1763).
We may conclude this section as we began it. Affective gratification was

not necessarily the result of good discourse. Boswell, who as a youth had
temporarily lapsed into Roman Catholicism (almost throwing away every
prospect of a career), often showed his appreciation for the environment in
which preaching was done. A ‘very good sermon’ at the Temple Church in
London, in combination with music ‘and the good building put me into a
very devout frame, and after service my mind was left in a pleasing calm
state’.74 ‘The idea of the Knights Templar lying in the church was solemn
and pleasing’, Boswell wrote some years later.75 ‘Between ourselves’, he
divulged to his future wife, ‘the Church of England worship is infinitely
superior to our Presbyterian method. I at present have my mind raised to
heaven by the grand churches, noble organs, and solemn service of the
churches around me’. He looked forward to an oratorio that was to be
performed the next day.76 It is important to realize that many eighteenth-
century audience members valued sermons as part of a larger performance,
like soliloquies in a play. When Horace Walpole went to hear John Wesley
preach, he spoke of going to Wesley’s ‘opera’, where ‘boys and girls with
charming voices’ sang endless hymns.77
Amusing Entertainments
Walpole’s comparison between the pulpit and the stage was an echo, as we
shall see, of eighteenth-century ‘Enlightened’ discourse; but it also points
to the general expectation that sermons gratify affective needs that were
not necessarily, or only, of a religious nature. The fact that English Protestant
travellers were put off by what they regarded as the unrestrained theatrical-
ity of Romish ritual tells us a lot about Protestant assumptions (or bias),
but also about popular techniques of reaching audiences. The first sermon
Gilbert Burnet (1643–1715), bishop of Salisbury, heard during his stay
in Italy in 1685 was one delivered by a Capuchin friar in Milan. The
speaker’s ‘many comical Expressions and Gestures’ surprised him, but he
74
Pottle ed., Boswell’s London Journal 1762–1763, p. 237 (London, Sunday
10-04-1763).
75
Brady and Pottle eds., Boswell in search of a wife 1766–1769, p. 280 (London, Sunday
3-09-1769): ‘The noble music raised my soul to heaven, though it was not Stanley’s day,
who officiates as organist every other Sunday’; the reference is to the organist John Stanley
(1712–1786).
76
Brady and Pottle eds., Boswell in search of a wife 1766–1769, p. 297 (Oxford, Tuesday
5-09-1769).
77
Walpole, Correspondence (Yale edition) XXXV, p. 118 (to John Chute, Bath,
10-10-1766).
was astonished most by the conclusion. Italian pulpits contained a crucifix

on the side of the altar; having addressed it extensively, the Capuchin ‘in a
forced Transport took it in his Arms’. He hugged it and kissed it, but not
before carefully blowing away the dust that had accumulated on it (Burnet
was able to observe this detail because he sat right under the pulpit). The
friar carried the cross ‘with a long and tender Caress, and held it out to the
People’.78
Descriptions of Catholic sermons testify both to the prejudice of the
narrator and the popularity of the performer. Take, again, Gavin. Italian
churches were always full of people, he claimed, since the people liked the
burlesque sermons that made them laugh.79 He had often attended ser-
mons in the Santa Maria Sopra Minerva in Rome. These sermons were
held by the Dominican fathers, that is, members of what was supposed to
be an ordo praedicatorum. One very old Dominican preacher, Gavin wrote,
was really just a clown who made his audience roar with laughter. He used
to walk about in his pulpit (which in Italy were both long and large),
thumping with his hands and feet, rolling his eyes and gesturing in a ridic-
ulous way. Gavin’s account of the actual sermon, which treated Abraham’s
rejection of Hagar in Genesis 21, in fact demonstrates the excellent theat-
rical talents of an experienced performer. Both content and action made
a lasting impression on Gavin, for he was able to reproduce both:
Messieurs, dit-il, suivez moy, & venez vous promener avec moy dans l’Ecriture
Sainte. Alors faisant trois pas dans la chaire ayant une main à son côté, il
s’arrêta tout court au quatrième, & comme un homme qui dans une affreuse
solitude verroit de loin venir une femme, il s’arrêta fort long-temps sans rien
dire, & regardant fort attentivement jusques à ce que l’objet fût plus proche,
il commença à dire: Qui est-ce que je vois? N’est-ce pas là une femme?
Et restant encore un grand espace de temps, il dit: Oh Dieu! il me semble que
c’est Agar la Servante d’Abraham.80
Italian preachers clowned in the pulpit even on Easter Sunday, when they
usually chose the word ‘Halleluia’ to preach from. Ordinarily signifying
‘praise the Lord’, during Easter it was understood to mean ‘get ready to
laugh’. Gavin once attended a sermon of this kind at St. Peter in Bologna,
where, in the presence of the archbishop, the preacher discussed the
moment at which Mary Magdalene arrived at Jesus’s grave. How may we
78
Gilbert Burnet, Travels through France, Italy, Germany, and Switzerland (London,
1750), p. 108.
79
80
reconcile, he queried, Mark 16:2 (‘unto the sepulchre at the rising of

the sun’) with John 20:1 (‘when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre’)? He
solved the conundrum by ascertaining that Mary must have approached
the grave around noon. Everyone knows, he exclaimed, that ladies do not
get up early on Sundays. Italian ladies certainly never attend Mass unless it
is celebrated around midday. To drive home his point, he described in
impertinent detail a lady’s Sunday toilet, from rubbing her eyes and stretch-
ing her arms in bed to combing her hair and making faces in the mirror.
Ladies, moreover, tend to be extremely talkative. It would logically have
taken a great deal of time before Mary left her home. Imitating a chatty
female, the preacher soon had the archbishop himself holding his sides
with laughter. According to Gavin, such profanations (as he regarded
them) were common enough.81 For many people laughter may simply
have been a pleasant side effect of an otherwise serious event.
Any sermon held at an extraordinary occasion or delivered by an
extraordinary preacher may have been regarded as a source of entertain-
ment, giving both pleasure and instruction. The extent to which the
sermon was regarded as a form of entertainment is evident from the way
eighteenth-century writers associated it with more obvious forms of
amusement. Travellers, for example, moved effortlessly from the stage to
the pulpit, or vice versa, in their portrayals of urban life. Piozzi’s comments
on a sermon were followed by his description of a play enacted by some
friars and a musical performance of Metastasio’s La Passione di Gesù Cristo.82
It is said that the English clergy make ‘admirable sermons’ with the aim of
instilling virtue in the people, wrote Karl Ludwig, Freiherr von Pöllnitz
(1692–1775), in his observations on English entertainments. He set out
these views in a section describing horse racing and prize fighting in and
around London.83
To the general public of eighteenth-century towns, open-air sermons
were a form of street entertainment. According to Gavin, Italy possessed
a kind of preacher that could not be found elsewhere in Catholic Europe.
The so-called ‘preachers of the square’ took advantage of the fact that in
the towns, people strolled through the streets in the evenings, when the
81
82
Hester Lynch Piozzi, Observations and reflections made in the course of a journey through
France, Italy, and Germany (2 vols; London, 1789), I, pp. 77–79.
83
Karl Ludwig von Pöllnitz, The memoirs of Charles-Lewis, baron de Pollnitz. Being the
observations he made in his late travels from Prussia thro’ Germany, Italy, France, Flanders,
Holland, England, &c. in letters to his friend (2 vols.; London, 1737) (translated by Stephen
Whatley from Mémoires de Charles-Lewis, baron de Pöllnitz, 1734) II, p. 469.
worst heat was over. They would gather in the square, where preachers
joined the singers, acrobats, quacks and fortune-tellers in entertaining the
public. As soon as the daily action began, a monk would walk into
the square bearing a large cross and sounding a bell. He then climbed
into a portable pulpit and started to preach. People immediately rushed to
hear him, leaving the comedians to their tricks. Initially, Gavin was
surprised at this apparent display of piety, until he understood that, because
of their pleasing discourses and ridiculous gestures, preachers were merely
considered more entertaining than jugglers. In the end, both charlatans
and preachers were in the business for the money, the one by selling
potions, the other by convincing the public to give to charity. Gavin once
heard a company of monks claiming that this kind of open air preaching
was, in fact, a fulfilment of Prov. 1:20, ‘Wisdom crieth without; she
uttereth her voice in the streets’, and a proof of the truth of the Catholic
religion.84
Horace Walpole looked upon Wesley’s popularity among the upper class
as a fad supported by wealthy people who needed entertaining to get them
through the week. It was the pulpit one day and the theatre the next: ‘what
will you lay [bet] that next winter he is not run after instead of Garrick?’,
wrote Walpole.85 Unsurprisingly, Walpole himself found little amusement
in sermons. He thought they were boring and incapable of gratifying polite
society. He informed a correspondent that he had no particular desire for
attending church:
I have always gone now and then, though of late years rarely, as it was most
unpleasant to crawl through a churchyard full of staring footmen and
apprentices, clamber a ladder to a hard pew, to hear the dullest of all things
a sermon, and croaking and squalling of psalms to a hand organ by
journey-men brewers and charity children.86
Sermons, then, did not always live up to expectations; but many church-
goers went to sermons in the expectation or the hope that they would at
least entertain. Having had quite enough of one preacher, Adams Jr. went
to hear another, ‘who entertained me much better, though, I am not a
great admirer of his doctrine’.87
84
85
Walpole, Correspondence (Yale edition) IX, p. 74 (To George Montagu, Strawberry
Hill 3-09-1748).
86
Walpole, Correspondence (Yale edition) XXXIV, p. 115 (to Lady Ossory, Strawberry
Hill, Monday 08-08-1791).
87
Delivery
François-Timoléon de Choisy (1644–1724), an abbé-in-training bound in
1685 on a long voyage to Siam, was an avid learner who knew that one day
he too must climb into the pulpit. His shipboard diary illustrates the
importance contemporaries attached to the how of preaching in relation to
the what. It was impossible to make an impression doing the one without
taking into consideration the other. On his voyage to Siam, De Choisy
closely attended the sermons of his colleague missionaries. Bénigne Vachet,
who spoke after dinner one day, was somewhat long-winded, but at least
he was sincere and meant what he preached. ‘Il n’est pas éloquent, mais à
l’étendre et à le voir, on ne doute pas qu’il ne pense tout ce qu’il dit’.88
De Choisy had a clear liking for plain sermons, such as those of Father Jean
de Fontaney, who ‘a dit de bonnes choses, simples, intelligibles, de pra-
tique’, and did so with modesty. Likewise, the abbé François de Langlade
de Chayla preached a sermon that ‘était de fort bon sens, familière, propre
à des matelots à qui il faut se faire entendre’.89 A specialist in mathematics
and astronomy, Fontaney was nonetheless capable of preaching the Passion
on Good Friday, and to do so ‘à la Bourdaloue’. Father Le Comte, too, ‘se
bourdalise beaucoup […] Il est éloquent, familier et touchant’. People were
anxious that he might catch a cold, they so delighted in hearing him.90
Basset preached rather well on the torments of hell. If he continued in
the same way, noted De Choisy, he would not preach for long. ‘Il se met
en colère à l’exorde; il n’est poitrine de fer qui puisse résister à des mouve-
ments si impétueux’. His superiors had to calm him down. This particular
subject invariably raised the emotions of the speaker. Father Jean-François
Gerbillon also preached on hell ‘avec beaucoup d’esprit’. He would not be
able to do so in China, remarked De Choisy, for what would the Chinese
say when one talked about common sense and just reason while unchaining
the passions?91 When De Choisy, forty-two years old, finally got down to
preaching himself, he congratulated himself on his own performance. He
was pleased that he had felt no fear at all, and that he had not slavishly read
his notes word for word. ‘J’ai dit beaucoup de choses que je n’avais point
88
François-Timoléon de Choisy, Journal du voyage de Siam, Dirk Van der Cruysse ed.
(s.l., 1995), pp. 68 (Sunday 8-04-1685).
89
De Choisy, Journal du voyage de Siam, 71 (on Fontaney: Sunday, 15-04-1685), p. 60
(on De Chayla: Sunday, 25-03-1685).
90
De Choisy, Journal du voyage de Siam, p. 73 (on Fontaney: Friday, 20-04-1685),
p. 122 (on Le Comte: Sunday 8-07-1685).
91
De Choisy, Journal du voyage de Siam, p. 127 (on Basset: Sunday 15-07-1685), p. 136
(on Gerbillon: Sunday 29-07-1685).
écrites, et c’est la manière que je veux suivre: on n’a point peur de man-
quer’. When preaching extemporaneously, the sentences may not be as
clear as they would be otherwise, ‘mais souvent le style naturel est plus
touchant que l’étudié, et il ne faut que toucher. Malheur au prêcheur qui
veut plaire à l’esprit et qui néglige le coeur!’92 Judging from the many
observations by eighteenth-century hearers, Choisy hit the head on the
nail. Preaching had to be both authentic and delivered in style.
Sadly, for both preachers and hearers, there was no accounting for taste.
Jean Jacques Rutledge (1742–1794) witnessed quite a few of the more
popular preachers in Paris, and thought their eloquence artificial.
Compared, however, to English preachers, the French sermons possessed
esprit, style, movement, order and harmony. English sermons, by contrast,
were burdened with depressing and deadly boring pedantry.93 Although he
drew a different conclusion, Muralt agreed that the attitude of English
preachers in the pulpit differed from that of the French. The English
preacher was modest and almost appeared afraid of the audience; he spoke
sedately and offered a short and sensible discourse. By contrast, the French
preacher swelled with ‘Ecclesiastick Pride’:
he begins with turning his Head on all Sides, and looking arrogantly on his
Hearers, as if he would inspire them with Respect for his Person, his Discourse
is long and tiresome, full of Fancies and Flowers of Rhetorick, he lays about
him furiously, and cries out like a Man unprovided with good Reasons to
persuade, or Dignity to give Weight to what he advances.94
No eighteenth-century churchgoer would have denied the importance of
delivery; but a sermon that was all delivery and no content would not do
either.95 The Rev. Jacob Foster (1732–1798), who preached from Isa. 53:1,
was a most ‘extravagant fellow’, thought Adams Jr. ‘His Discourse was a
mere Declamation, without any connection, or train of Reasoning’. He
argued that religion should not ‘be communicated by raising the Passions’,
and that Christianity, more than any other religion spoke to the under-
standing. At the same time,
92
De Choisy, Journal du voyage de Siam, p. 335 (Sunday, 3-03-1686).
93
[Jean Jacques Rutledge], Premier et second voyages de Milord de *** (…) Par le Ch. R ***
(3 vols.; London, 1782) III, p. 134.
94
Béat Louis de Muralt, Letters describing the character and customs of the English and
French Nations. With a curious essay on travelling (London, 1726) (translation of Lettres sur
les Anglois et les François et sur les voïages, 1726), pp. 7–8.
95
Cf. Bossuet’s inconsistency in this respect: Jean-Claude Vuillemin, “Strategies et apo-
ries de l’éloquence sacrée: l’oeuvre oratoire de Bossuet”, in Seventeenth-Century French
Studies 17 (1995), pp. 25–36.
he made an Attempt, (a most awkward one I confess) to be pathetic: talk’d,

of a Grave, a winding sheet, and a Place of Skulls, all of which amounted to
nothing at all, which was likewise the Sum total, of his whole Sermon. Yet
this Man, is a Popular preacher, in the Place where he is settled.
His popularity, observed Adams Jr., proved the accuracy of Boileau’s maxim
that ‘Un Sot trouve toujours, un plus sot qui l’admire’.96 A Mr. Smith
began his sermon well enough with a discourse on the dove of Cant. 2:14
(‘thy countenance is comely’). Towards the end of his sermon ‘he grew
extremely vociferous’, as he usually did, so that ‘it was a continued strain
of declamation’. Smith did not take much trouble in preparing his sermon.
He simply began, ‘and when embarassed with any contested point, scream-
ing, is his only resource’.97
An inappropriate delivery could spoil a sermon the content of which in
itself was fine. ‘Mr. Mellen’s manner is more affected, than that of any
preacher I ever saw’. His sentiments were liberal, his composition good;
‘but all is entirely spoilt by his manner of speaking’.98 Similarly, an other-
wise first-rate sermon on the deceitfulness of sin was, in John Adams’s
opinion, marred by the preacher’s performance. The man’s
Air and Action are not gracefull – they are not natural and easy. His Motions
with his Head, Body and Hands are a little stiff and affected. His Style is not
simple enough for the Pulpit. It is too flowery, too figurative – his Periods too
much or rather too apparently rounded and laboured. – This however Sub
Rosa, because the Dr. passes for a Master of Composition, and is an excellent
Man.99
Adams, an experienced observer of preachers, sometimes volunteered harsh
verdicts in his diary. A certain Sprout possessed ‘a great deal of Simplicity
and Innocence’ but ‘very little Elegance or Ingenuity’. In prayer, ‘he hangs
his Head in an Angle of 45 over his right Shoulder’. In sermon,
he throws himself into a Variety of indecent Postures. Bends his Body, Points
his Fingers, and throws about his Arms, without any Rule or Meaning at all.
He is totally destitute of the Genius and Eloquence of Duffil [Duffield], has
no Imagination, No Passions, no Wit, no Taste and very little Learning, but
a great deal of Goodness of Heart.100
96
Adams, Diary of John Quincy Adams II, pp. 98–99 (Sunday 24-9-1786); Adams
quotes from Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux, L’art poétique (1674), Chant I, final line.
97
98
99
100
Adams, Diary and autobiography of John Adams II, pp. 175–176 (Sunday,
17-09-1775).
Goodness, honesty, simplicity and zeal – in brief, authenticity – compen-

sated for lack of oratorial talent. In the Baptist Church, Adams had ‘heard
a trans Alleganian – a Preacher, from the back Parts of Virginia, behind the
Allegany Mountains. He preached an hour and an half. No Learning – No
Grace of Action or Utterance – but an honest Zeal. He told us several good
Stories’.101
The ‘whining sort of Tone’ employed by Samuel Deane (1733–1814)
from Falmouth ‘would have injured the Sermons if they had been good’.
In this case, evidently, the tone could do no injury at all.102 If delivery was
really bad and Adams not in the mood, he easily withheld a preacher the
benefit of the doubt. The Rev. William Patten (1763–1839), a young cler-
gyman from Rhode Island, came to preach on Prov. 3:17, a promising
theme (‘Her ways are ways of pleasantness’). ‘I never felt so disagreeably,
in hearing any Preacher’, wrote Adams Jr.
He look’d as if he had already, one foot in the grave, and appeared plainly, to
suffer while he spoke. His diction was flowery, but he spoke, in a whining
manner, lowering his voice, about an octave, at the last Syllable of every
Sentence.103
A sermon badly delivered was a good reason to leave the church before the
service had ended. Boswell, who made a point of sampling every pulpit in
London, observed that the preacher at St. Bride’s Church ‘was so very
heavy and drawling’ that he and his friend went away, ‘rather unsettled and
in a bad humour’.104
According to some commentators, it wasn’t at all what one said that was
important but the way that one said it. There was a young preacher at
Orléans who bore himself well, had ‘a voice of Thunder, a noble Gesture,
and all the other Graces of Declamation which charms the Auditors and
keeps ‘em attentive’. He once climbed into the pulpit to hold a sermon,
only to discover that he had forgotten to bring his notes with him.
Disconcerted by his carelessness, he nevertheless considered it shameful to
fetch them, and therefore resolved to speak; but since he did not know
what to say, he composed a discourse on the spot using only ‘imperfect, or
disjoynted’ words such as ‘But if, Wherefore, Pass me on, Moreover, My
Beloved, In fine, &c’. His delivery, meanwhile, was impressive. He cried
101
102
103
Adams, Diary of John Quincy Adams II, pp. 9–10 (Sunday 26-03-1786).
104
Pottle ed., Boswell’s London Journal 1762–1763, p. 242 (London, Sunday
17-04-1763).
out with all his strength, made exclamations, thumped with his hands and
stamped with his feet, while the church’s roof echoed ‘the thunder of his
Voice’. The audience sat in silence, straining to hear what the preacher
said. Naturally, they could make neither head nor tail of the sermon. This
observer pointed out that the hearers attributed their inability to under-
stand the preacher to their location in the church. Rather than fault the
preacher, they decided to get better seats next time.105
The anecdote is rather far-fetched, but it does make the point that
impressive delivery could make people believe that a sermon was worth-
while. Crede quod habes, & habes, believe that you have it, and you have it,
noted the same author. He had been to a church in London, where he
witnessed a crowd ‘sighing and sobbing’ in the porch ‘at what I’m sure it
was impossible to hear one Word of ’. The moral: ‘He that knows how to
give himself an Air of Importance, and to set off his Ware, may rate the
Market as he listeth, and shall find Fools enough to give him his Price’.106
If the content of a sermon could not be understood, it could at least still
divert an audience: contemporary observers could make this point without
detracting from preacher, event or audience. At the Benedictine monastery
of Montserrat in Catalonia, Philip Thicknesse (1719–1792) attended high
mass to hear ‘one of their best orators’. The sermon was in Spanish, ‘and
though I did not understand the language sufficiently to know all I heard,
I understood enough to be entertained, if not edified.’ Thicknesse was
impressed by the ‘decency’ of the congregation, who took no notice of the
English party.107
Protestant ministers used rhetorical techniques to entertain their audi-
ences as much as Catholics did. An older Edinburgh minister acted out the
following dialogue on the Fall to entertain his audience:
First he spoke in a low Voice. –
And the L.G. came into the garden and said –
Then loud and angrily – Adam where art?
Low and humbly – Lo, here am I, Lord!
Violently – and what are ye deeing there?
With a fearful trembling Accent – Lord I was nacked, and I hid mysel.
Outrageously – Nacked! And what then Hast thou eaten, &c.
105
[Charles Cotolendi?], An agreeable criticism, of the city of Paris and the French; giving
an account of their present state and condition (London, 1704), pp. 69–70. The account
includes some further remarks ‘by a French gentleman’, presumably Charles Marguetel de
Saint-Denis, Seigneur de Saint-Evremond (1610–1703).
106
[Cotolendi?], Agreeable criticism, of the city of Paris, pp. 70–72.
107
Philip Thicknesse, A year’s journey through France, and part of Spain (2 vols.; Dublin,
1777) I, p. 219.
Edmund Burt considered this conversation between Adam and his Maker
a profanation of Scripture, since it pictured the Lord God as an impatient,
angry master.108 Admitting that such rhetorical techniques probably con-
vinced nineteen out of twenty of the ‘ordinary People’, Burt inadvertently
underlined the fact that traditional Calvinist preaching techniques were
quite effective.109
Again, one conclusion we may draw from the above is that different
audiences appreciated, and therefore required, different deliveries. In
eighteenth-century accounts, recommendations to this effect were some-
times highly gendered. To tempt wealthy female aristocrats to a sermon,
noted one writer, required a specific kind of approach. Preachers did well
to obey the rules of fashion, pronouncing ‘amphibolous’ (equivocal) dis-
courses that consisted of ‘far-fetched phrases, a loose and rambling style,
and a sort of poetry reduced to prose’. Addressing all kinds of topics in
their sermons, ranging from politics and finance to fashions and recent
publications, preachers to this type of audience sought to maximize effects
by ‘theatrical declamation’ and ‘studied gesture’.110 The assumption was,
apparently, that the attention of female listeners was particularly hard to
hold, and that one had to resort to mundane subjects and extravagant
methods to succeed.
Class was another factor determining the composition of (and therefore
the reception by) audiences. The traveller Grosley wondered at the ‘voiles
de l’éloquence ultramontaine’ exemplified by a preacher he encountered in
Venice in 1764. A Dominican of a respectable age and physiognomy –
doubtless a doctor, thought Grosley – climbed into the pulpit to dish out
a number of far-fetched stories about ‘le Saint du jour’ to the common
people. With the tone, emphasis and verbosity of a raconteur on St. Mark’s
Square, he entertained his audience with the story of a highwayman who
daily said his rosary. The thief was killed while exercising his occupation,
without, however, having confessed. One day, St. Dominic arrived at
the foot of the oak where the robber had been buried. The saint uttered
his name, and the bandit responded by rising from the grave, upon
which Dominic confessed and absolved him and took his soul to heaven.
It saddened Grosley that such an Enlightened man, a theologian by
profession, performed as a common street acrobat;111 but the audience was
happy enough.
108
Burt, Letters from a gentleman in the north of Scotland, p. 106.
109
Burt, Letters from a gentleman in the north of Scotland, pp. 106–107.
110
[Caraccioli], Letters on the manners of the French II, pp. 203–204.
111
Grosley, Observations sur l’Italie, II, pp. 50–51.
4. Identity Fulfilment
One day in the autumn of 1778, Boswell was happy to find ‘a most decent
clergyman (Mr. Michael Todd), with a gown and band, and a distinct
manly utterance’ at a country kirk in Dreghorn. ‘He lectured very well’,
and Boswell’s spirits ‘instantaneously recovered’. Boswell was not quite
certain whether his mental recuperation was caused by the preacher’s
appearance, his performance or his message. ‘Our minds, like our stom-
achs, are restored to soundness sometimes by one thing, sometimes by
another, we know not by what operation’.112 Sermons were an important
religious means of reaffirming personal identity or otherwise gaining per-
sonal assurance, the third category of needs dealt with in this chapter. At
the same time, we should keep in mind Boswell’s comment that sermons
were only one means among others.
Even Benjamin Franklin was susceptible to the influence of sermons,
although he, like Horace Walpole, used them to reaffirm his personal
detachment from things religious as well as his abiding interest in them.
He claimed, for example, that the power of George Whitefield’s oratory
had made a lasting impression on him. The people loved Whitefield,
Franklin noticed, in spite of ‘his common Abuse of them, by assuring
them that they were naturally half Beasts and half Devils’. Irreligious audi-
ence members became devout after hearing Whitefield, and ended up
singing Psalms in the evenings. Whitefield’s ‘Eloquence had a wonderful
Power over the Hearts and Purses of his Hearers’, so that even Franklin
came under his spell:
I happened (…) to attend one of his Sermons, in the Course of which
I perceived he intended to finish with a Collection, and I silently resolved he
should get nothing from me. I had in my Pocket a Handful of Copper
Money, three or four silver Dollars, and five Pistoles in Gold. As he pro-
ceeded I began to soften, and concluded to give the Coppers. Another Stroke
of his Oratory made me asham’d of that, and determin’d me to give the
Silver; and he finish’d so admirably, that I empty’d my Pocket wholly into the
Collector’s Dish, Gold and all.113
Sermons could have a forceful psychological or spiritual effect on the more
religious members of an audience. James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, an
112
Reed and Pottle eds., Boswell. Laird of Auchinleck 1778–1782, p. 42 (Kilmarnock,
Sunday 8-11-1778).
113
Houston ed., Franklin, pp. 87–88.
eighteenth-century slave who was later set free, provides the following
account of the distress caused by his former owner’s preaching:
(…) one Sunday, I heard my master preach from these words out of the
Revelations, chap. i. v. 7. ‘Behold, He cometh in the clouds and every eye shall see
him and they that pierc’d Him.’ These words affected me excessively; I was in
great agonies because I thought my master directed them to me only; and,
I fancied, that he observed me with unusual earnestness – I was farther
confirm’d in this belief as I looked round the church, and could see no one
person beside myself in such grief and distress as I was (…).114
To ascribe such ‘agonies’ exclusively to Puritans, Pietists or Methodists
would be both to misconstrue these religious traditions and misconceive
the spiritual experiences of others. On the other hand, the role of sermons
in reinforcing and developing personal identity can be very aptly illus-
trated by examining a Puritan-Pietist diary; believers in this tradition had
particular expectations of sermons, and made a habit of writing at length
about their spiritual labours.
One such diary, titled An abstract of the remarkable passages in the life of
a private gentleman (1708), has been ascribed to Daniel Defoe as well
as a certain Thomas Woodcock. The subtitle explains the book’s content
(‘Relating to Trouble of Mind, some violent Temptations, and a Recovery’)
and purpose (‘In order to awaken the Presumptuous, convince the Sceptic,
and encourage the Despondent’). When the spiritual state of this troubled
gentleman allowed him to go to church, he happened to hear there a
discourse on the glory of the resurrection. He concluded that he was
damned, although presumably this was not the message the preacher
intended him to receive. The ‘Anguish of this Thought gnaw’d my Heart
all the Remains of that Evening, with more pungency than the Fear of Hell
had before’. Having fallen into deep despair, he was in due course pre-
vailed upon to go to church again, which he did very reluctantly. He had
no high opinion of the preacher who held the sermon (‘having observ’d
him strangely perfunctory in his Performances’). Nevertheless, it was as if
he ‘heard a Voice from Heaven, till Terror and Astonishment possessed
every Part of me’. He concluded that God spoke to him through the
preacher’s mouth, so that ‘the Shades of Death and Hell’ seemed to close
114
James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, A narrative of the most remarkable particulars in
the life of James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, an African prince, written by himself (Bath,
1770), p. 20.
in on him more than ever. He spent much time ‘in hideous Fansies about
future Torments’, and fell physically ill.115 He remained distressed,
But at length God was pleas’d to give me a glimmering Hope. One Day as
I was reading a Sermon of that holy Prelate A.B. Leighton’s God blessed some
Passages much to my Reviving: I heard a Sermon a little after, which gave
me more: I sat under it with Terror; in the close, St. Austin’s Sickness
before his Conversion was mention’d; in which he was represented, as one
desperate (…).
Augustine’s case resembled his own, and this knowledge helped him a little.
It was an accidental meeting with a friend, however (and not a sermon),
that first brought about a real change in his spiritual state. From that
moment he could see ‘God in his Providence; in Sermons, suiting his Word
to my Wants; in ordinary Conversation; in Dangers, Deliverances; in
Afflictions, Mercies; in the Works of Nature and Grace’.116 If this diarist is,
in fact, representative of Pietism, we would have to conclude that the ser-
mon was only one medium among many through which religious needs
were gratified.
A totally different example of the way sermons contributed to identity
construction or self-fashioning may be found in the diary entries of Otto
van Eck (1780–1798). Otto was a Dutch youth from an upper middle
class background whose parents were bent on giving their son an upbring-
ing and education that complied with a rational, Enlightened form of
Christendom. They tried to stimulate and steer his personal development
by supervising his writing and scrutinizing his diary. Since sermons played
an important role in his education, the way Otto appreciated sermons was
largely determined by the expectations of his father and mother. He made
a point of mentioning the instruction and edification he had received from
sermons. Together with his parents, he frequented the chique Walloon
(French Presbyterian) church in Voorburg near The Hague.
Today I went to church at dominee Cussy, who by the example of Peter
showed us how unhappy is the man who allows himself to be dominated by
sensual desires.
This morning I went with my father to church in Voorburg at dominee Cussy,
who took his material from Psalm 33:13, that God from heaven sees every-
thing done by men, governs their fate and fashions their hearts.
115
[Anon], An account of some remarkable passages in the life of a private gentleman
(London, 1715), pp. 65–80.
116
[Anon], Account of some remarkable passages, pp. 121–130. The reference presumably
is to Alexander Leighton (c.1570–1649).
This morning I went with Papa and Mama to the French church in Voorburg
at dominee Geraud, who showed us that we shall remain unhappy despite the
greatest treasures, if we are not rich in God, that is if we do not know and
love God. The text was Luke 16 verse 16 and following.117
This is not to say that Otto was always as attentive as his parents would have
wished him to be. For instance, he noted with his usual disarming sincerity
that he had been so engrossed by the preparations for celebrating the Lord’s
Supper that he failed to listen to the preacher, and consequently had noth-
ing to tell his parents when he got home.118 His mother sometimes scolded
him, saying that his failure to understand the sermon was due to his behav-
iour in church, which she found unsatisfactory.119 His father chided him
for not being quiet and attentive (although on this occasion Otto prided
himself on having remembered the text, which was Acts 24:1).120
Otto’s failure to get the minister’s message was not always his own fault,
but the fact that he felt obliged to mention this at all demonstrates the
importance his parents attached to the role of sermons in his religious
and moral development. Dominee Bril’s sermon on Job 19 was incompre-
hensible.121 A week-day visit to a Herrnhutter colony meant that he had to
listen to a sermon in German. He understood little of it.122 Otto, moreover,
was hard of hearing. At church in Delft, he had been unable to hear a
minister’s sermon; like his father, he preferred dominee Cussy, who spoke
more loudly.123 A ‘reverend N.N.’, who once replaced Cussy at Voorburg,
spoke so softly that Otto understood nothing.124 Hence Otto’s high regard
for Géraud, who
spoke so loudly and clearly that I understood him well. Papa wished that
I might become such a minister, so that he could enjoy twice the happiness
in coming to listen with so great a rapture.125
117
Arianne Baggerman and Rudolf Dekker eds., Het dagboek van Otto van Eck (1791–
1797) (Hilversum, 1998), p. 26 (Sunday 28-5-1791), p. 28 (Sunday 5-6-1791), p. 46
(Sunday 25-9-1791). The dominees or ‘reverends’ mentioned are Jacques Jonathan Cussy
(?–1797) and Samuel Géraud (1749–1828).
118
Baggerman and Dekker eds., Dagboek van Otto van Eck, p. 33 (Sunday 3-7-1791).
119
Baggerman and Dekker eds., Dagboek van Otto van Eck, p. 122 (Sunday
29-9-1793).
120
Baggerman and Dekker eds., Dagboek van Otto van Eck, pp. 133 (Sunday
17-11-1793).
121
Baggerman and Dekker eds., Dagboek van Otto van Eck, p. 52 (Sunday 25-10-1791);
Johannes Bril (1740–1801, minister at Rijswijk).
122
Baggerman and Dekker eds., Dagboek van Otto van Eck, p. 110 (Wednesday
14-8-1793).
123
124
125
Baggerman and Dekker eds., Dagboek van Otto van Eck, pp. 40–41 (Sunday
21-8-1791).
Otto found the prospect of becoming a preacher rather daunting, but he

seems to have enjoyed talking with his parents about Géraud’s ‘fine ser-
mon’ on Phil 3:20 in the carriage on the way home. Otto makes it clear in
his diary that sermons were of personal use to him when preachers spoke
‘clearly and understandably’. His entries show that he was able to repro-
duce the message even when his parents had not attended church with
him.126 He once blamed his missing the gist of a fast day sermon partly
on his own deafness and partly on his lack of attention. This displeased
his father, who bade him read a fast day sermon held fifteen years
previously.127
We shall look at two more examples of the way sermons contributed to
identity construction. Adults like the shopkeeper Thomas Turner, who jus-
tified himself in his diary only to himself and not, like Otto, to his parents,
similarly noted the texts on which the preacher had spoken. ‘We had, both
forenoon and afternoon, excellent discourses wherein that necessary and
excellent duty of repentance was strongly and pathetically recommended
and enjoined to be done if we hope for salvation (…)’.128 Sermons met
Turner’s spiritual needs, but he also used them as a means of keeping track
of time in a hectic social environment. He used his diary to make a com-
prehensive report of the day’s events, keeping account of the money he put
in the collection bag and recording the texts chosen for sermons. Turner
did not comment frequently on what he had actually heard, but he does
seem to have paid close attention. For example, he was quite able to repro-
duce an account of the relations between sin and calamity (and between
virtue and welfare) delivered from the pulpit on a day of public fast and
humiliation some months after the Lisbon earthquake.129 It did take a
close reading of one of Tillotson’s published sermons in his own home to
bring about some serious reflection on his own spiritual state:
Oh! may the God of all goodness give me the grace to mind what I read,
that the same may sink deep into my heart and mind, and that I may every
day become a better Christian. Oh! How weak and feeble are my best
resolutions.130
126
Baggerman and Dekker eds., Dagboek van Otto van Eck, p. 113 (Sunday 25-8-1793)
and p. 115 (Sunday 1-9-1793), on Willem de Roo (1753–1813), minister at Tiel.
127
Baggerman and Dekker eds., Dagboek van Otto van Eck, p. 166 (Sunday 26-3-1794);
Otto read a sermon by Samuel Eschauzier (see also p. 245: Sunday 20-9-1795).
128
Vaisey ed., Diary of Thomas Turner, p. 26 (Sunday 8-02-1756, on Rom. 4:3 and
Job 7:20).
129
Vaisey ed., Diary of Thomas Turner, p. 26 (Friday 6-02-1756, on Ps. 18:3).
130
Vaisey ed., Diary of Thomas Turner, p. 65 (Friday 8-10-1756).
Turner made a note of those sermons heard in church that he found worth
his time. ‘We have had I think two extreme good sermons this day preached
unto us’, is a typical comment.131
James Boswell, finally, illustrates the way some eighteenth-century dia-
rists felt compelled to indulge in concentrated self-reflection after attend-
ing a sermon. Several early observations made in 1762 on three consecutive
Sundays portray him very nicely as the candid and engaging, but self-
doubting diarist he remained throughout his life. On the first Sunday he
noted:
I went to Mayfair Chapel and heard prayers and an excellent sermon from
the Book of Job on the comforts of piety. I was in a fine frame. And I thought
that God really designed us to be happy. I shall certainly be a religious old
man. I was much so in youth. I have now and then flashes of devotion, and
it will one day burn with a steady flame.132
One week later, acknowledging his sinful proclivity to transgress against
Christian norms (women and drink not being the least of his sins), he
offered a personalized account of the effects of that morning’s sermon:
I went to St. James’s Church and heard service and a good sermon on ‘By
what means shall a young man learn to order his ways’, in which the advan-
tages of early piety were well displayed. What a curious, inconsistent thing is
the mind of man! In the midst of divine service I was laying plans for having
women, and yet I had the most sincere feelings of religion. I imagine that my
want of belief is the occasion of this, so that I can have all the feelings.
I would try to make out a little consistency this way. I have a warm heart and
a vivacious fancy. I am therefore given to love, and also to piety or gratitude
to God, and to the most briljant and showy method of public worship.133
Even when he did not apply the preacher’s message to his own individual
state of mind, his unease in personally failing to live up to the religious
standards is as palpable as his honesty is disarming:
I then went to St. George’s Church, where I heard a good sermon on the
prophets testifying of Jesus Christ. I was upon honour much disposed to be
a Christian. Yet I was rather cold in my devotion. The Duchess of Grafton
attracted my eyes rather too much.134
131
Vaisey ed., Diary of Thomas Turner, p. 111 (Sunday, 18-09-1757).
132
Pottle ed., Boswell’s London Journal 1762–1763, pp. 45–46 (London, Sunday
21-11-1762).
133
Pottle ed., Boswell’s London Journal 1762–1763, pp. 53–54 (London, Sunday
28-11-1762).
134
Pottle ed., Boswell’s London Journal 1762–1763, p. 68 (London, Sunday 5-12-1762).
Cf. Milne ed., Boswell’s Edinburgh Journals 1767–1786, p. 270 (Edinburgh, Sunday
Boswell makes clear how eighteenth-century ego documents sometimes

evince a discrepancy between socialization (or the self-imposition of social
rules) and individual identity. Lying in bed on a Sunday and having no
wish to get up, he pondered: ‘I had a slight conflict between what I really
thought would do me most good and the desire of being externally decent
and going to church’. He solved his dilemma by reading the Bible in the
morning, and going out to hear Blair in the afternoon.135 After a night of
gambling and heavy drinking, he woke up with a hangover but nonethe-
less went to church. There he listened to one of Blair’s moral discourses ‘on
a man who has ruined himself in life by foolish conduct’. He applied this
to himself, but it made him uneasy, until he remembered Dr. Johnson’s
advice for such situations, and thankfully considered ‘how many had done
worse than I had done’.136
Sermons, then, affirmed identities in various ways. They contributed
to one’s conversion experiences or religious education; they might help
to regulate one’s daily existence; and they provoked reflection on one’s
commitment to the moral life. In each of the cases briefly discussed above,
the hearer reinterpreted the sermon to suit his own or other people’s needs.
The Pietist did not necessarily require sermons, and construed the ones
he did attend as part of his own personal conversion process. Otto ensured
that his own sermon reception corresponded to the pedagogical require-
ments of his parents. Turner fitted sermons into the daily order of village
life, while Boswell employed sermons as a means of moral self-control.
5. Social Affirmation
Partly for social reasons, fast day sermons tended to attract many people.
The following entry in Turner’s diary is for Friday, 17 February 1758: ‘This
fast-day to all outward appearance has (in this parish) been observed with
a great deal of decorum and, I hope, true piety, the church in the morning
being more thronged than I have seen it lately’.137 Turner seems sceptical as
to whether there was more to sermon attendance than mere outward
10-11-1776), on ‘licentious schemes’ regarding Annie Cunninghame, due to which he

failed to hear Blair’s sermon.
135
17-07-1774).
136
25-02-1776).
137
Vaisey ed., Diary of Thomas Turner, pp. 136–137 (Friday 17-02-1758).
appearance and decorum. His entry for Friday 16 February 1759 repeats
the same observation: ‘The fast in this place hath seemingly been kept with
great strictness and, I hope, with a sincere and unaffected piety, our church
in the morning being crowded with a numerous audience’.138 As we saw
above, sermons on calamities gratified the affective needs of worried audi-
ence members; at the same time, they strengthened community bonds.
People attended fast day sermons to seek social affirmation in times of
(potential) crisis, seeking consolation from the preacher as spokesman for
the community.
Communities
Run-of-the-mill weekly sermons were no less significant than occasional
sermons in establishing social relations. Contemporaries frequently associ-
ated sermons with the obligations of the bourgeois life. The typical devo-
tion of upper-class women in Paris, claimed Caraccioli, required that they
were accompanied to church by a couple of footmen. The latter provided
their mistress, upon entering into the church, with a prayer book carried
in a bag of velvet fringed with gold, and made way for her through the
crowd. My lady’s prime objective was ‘to hear a fashionable discourse
pronounced by a fashionable priest’. By contrast, the piety of a plain bour-
geoise was ‘to stand humbly and unobserved at the church door, in a neat
and simple dress’.139 Incidentally, we find again that sermon attendance
was associated with both gender and class. As for Boswell himself, he
associated church attendance in part with what he called ‘decency’, or
social propriety, for instance when he wrote: ‘I was at church all day
decently’.140
Of course, obligations could be performed so routinely that observers
might question their efficacy. During Lent, as a ‘Sicilian’ wrote in a cri-
tique of city life in Paris, ‘the People run in the Morning to Sermon with
great Devotion, and after Dinner to the Comedy with the same haste’.141 In
some circles, attending particular sermons was the trendy thing to do. The
Methodist ‘new light is extremely in fashion’, wrote Walpole. ‘Whitfield
preaches continually at my Lady Huntingdon’s at Chelsea; my Lord
138
Vaisey ed., Diary of Thomas Turner, p. 175 (Friday 17-02-1758, on Ps. 122:6).
139
[Caraccioli], Letters on the manners of the French II, pp. 202–203.
140
Milne ed., Boswell’s Edinburgh Journals 1767–1786, p. 81; also Charles Ryskamp and
Frederick A. Pottle eds., Boswell: The ominous years 1774–1776 (Melbourne, London,
Toronto, 1963), p. 31 (Valleyfield, Sunday 30-10-1774).
141
[Cotolendi?], An agreeable criticism, of the city of Paris, p. 27.
Chesterfield, my Lord Bath, my Lady Townshend, my Lady Thanet and

others, have been to hear him’.142 Sermons offered occasions for outward
display. In Europe, claimed the revolutionary Brissot (who himself was
given to republican austerity and virtue), people came primarily to see and
be seen.143
In small towns, where social control was stronger than elsewhere, any-
body’s absence was conspicuous. When the Rev. John Shaw (1748–1794)
went to preach in Bradford and a Mr. Smith took his place, Adams Jr.
noticed that several persons attended whom he had never seen before.
‘There are a number of gentlemen in Town, who, make it a Rule, never to
attend divine Service here, if Mr. Shaw preaches’, remarked Adams. ‘What
narrow illiberal prejudices attend us, almost in every Circumstance of our
lives’.144 Church services were social occasions, and part of the fabric of
daily life. People made appointments at church. On Easter Day at Saint
Paul’s, Boswell had himself shown to a seat near the London publisher
John Rivington (1720–1792). ‘He invited me to his family dinner, a fillet
of veal and a pudding, but I told him I was engaged with Mr. Johnson’.145
Social rank implied social obligations, the observance of which con-
firmed social roles. Even the notorious rake John Wilkes (1725–1797)
attended sermons in order to confirm his social status. It seemed that
Wilkes’s ‘dignity of alderman has dulled him into prudence’, wrote Walpole.
Recently, he had ‘done nothing but go to city banquets and sermons, and
sit at Guildhall as a sober magistrate’.146 The Church of England clergyman
James Woodforde (1740–1803) regularly noted in his diary the absence of
members of the Custance family at the church in Weston Longville,
Norfolk, and sometimes provided an explanation as well. ‘None from West
House at Church this Morn’ being bitter cold Frost with high Wind and
Snow’, he wrote in December 1788. ‘Very small Congregation at Church
this Morn’.147
142
Walpole, Correspondence (Yale edition) IX, pp. 73–74 (To George Montagu, Straw-
berry Hill 3-09-1748).
143
J.P. Brissot de Warville, New travels in the United States of America, performed in
MDCCLXXXVIII (2nd ed.; London, 1794), p. 74 (to Étienne Clavière, Boston 30-7-
1788); Brissot cites Ovid, Ars Amatoria I, p. 99: ‘spectatum veniunt, veniunt spectentur
ut ipsae’.
144
Adams, Diary of John Quincy Adams I, p. 370 (Sunday, 11-12-1785).
145
Wimsatt and Pottle eds., Boswell for the Defence 1769–1774, p. 181 (London, Sunday
11-04-1773).
146
Walpole, Correspondence (Yale edition) XXIII, p. 208 (to Horace Mann, Strawberry
Hill, 6-05-1770).
147
James Woodforde, The Diary of a Country Parson 1758–1802, John Beresford ed.,
(London etc., s.a.), p. 240 (Sunday, 21-12-1788).
Court sermons, of course, were still highly ritualized in the eighteenth

century; a person’s presence or absence could be highly symbolic. The
Journal of Philippe de Courcillon, Marquis de Dangeau (1638–1720),
marks out Easter sermons at the court of Louis XIV as particularly signifi-
cant events. The sermons were part of a series of religious ceremonies
involving the king, who, among other things, washed the feet of the
poor on Maundy Thursday and touched the sick on Holy Saturday. Lent
(as well as Advent) preachers were carefully chosen well in advance of
the actual event, such as in 1700:
M. L’évêque de Metz présenta au roi la liste des prédicateurs, afin que
S.M. choisisse ceux qui prêcheront l’avent et le carême prochain. Le roi
a nommé pour l’avent le P. Maure, qui n’a jamais prêché ici, mais qui est en
grande réputation, et pour le carême le P. Massillon, qui prêcha ici l’avent
dernier. Ces deux prédicateurs sont Pères de l’Oratoire; on choisit toujours
les prédicateurs en ce temps-ci afin qu’ils aient le loisir de travailler à leurs
sermons.148
It was a tradition at court that whoever preached on Candlemas was
‘toujours le prédicateur qui doit prècher le carême’.149 The seating arrange-
ments during such events were meticulously taken care of, as on Good
Friday, 1700:
Pendant le sermon, M. de Souvré, maître de la garde-robe, étoit assis derrière
la chaise du roi, en la place de M. de La Rochefoucauld, grand maître de la
garde-robe, qui est absent. Il y a présentement cinq places derrière la chaise
du roi, celle de capitaine des gardes, celle du grand chambellan, qui est à la
droite du capitaine des gardes, celle de premier gentilhomme de la chambre,
qui est à la gauche, et au-dessous du grand chambellan, la place du grand
maître de la garde-robe et celle du premier aumônier.150
Audiences
The few examples given in the previous section show the extent to which
sermon audiences were extensions of local communities. Even the clothes
one wore confirmed one’s social status, denominational affiliation or other
148
Philippe de Courcillon, Journal du marquis de Dangeau (19 vols.; Paris, 1854–1882)
VII, p. 274 (17-03-1700). The persons mentioned are the bishop of Metz Henri-Charles
du Camboust (1665–1732); père Le Maure is presumably the Jesuit Charles de La Rue
(1643–1725).
149
Courcillon, Journal du marquis de Dangeau I, p. 116 (2-02-1685).
150
Courcillon, Journal du marquis de Dangeau VII, p. 289 (Good Friday, 9-04-1700).
The persons mentioned are Louis-Nicolas Le Tellier, marquis de Souvré (1667–1725) and
François VII de La Rochefoucauld (1634–1714).
relation to the social community.151 Wearing one’s hat in church partly

defined one’s confessional identity. To an Anglican, a clergyman preaching
with his hat on was little better than ‘a Monster from Hell’, commented
the traveller Henri Misson (no dates). To prevent disturbances, the French
Protestant churches in London started to prohibit their clergymen from
preaching with their heads covered. This led to differences among the 22
consistories, especially between moderates (who removed their hats in
conformity with English custom) and hardliners (who refused to compro-
mise).152 Misson knew of a French minister from one of the moderate
congregations who had been asked to preach in a church of stricter observ-
ance. Unfortunately, he had forgotten to take his hat into the pulpit and
started preaching without it.
Scarce had he begun his Exordium, when behold ten or twelve Arms rose all
together from the Pew where the silly old doting Elders sat, making Sign
after Sign, together with an odd Kind of a stifled Murmur, to let him know
that it was not customary among them to preach without a Hat.
The preacher understood the signals from the audience, but was in a quan-
dary as to how to obtain his hat.153 If Anglicans looked upon wearing
headdress in church as ‘the greatest Indignation, as an infamous and
abominable Thing’, Jews, by contrast, considered the whole issue ludicrous.
They ‘enter their Synagogues as they’d go into a Fair’. Genevan and French
Calvinists stuck to a middle course. They took off their hats upon entering
church and kept their heads uncovered when the commandments were
read, psalms sung and prayers said. Nobody took offence if anybody put
on his hat during the sermon. ‘Here you see’, concluded Misson, ‘is Custom
and Fancy on every Side’.154
Travellers like Misson were aware of the fact that audiences responded
as social groups belonging to specific local communities. While in the
United States, Brissot, for example, visited a Quaker meeting. He had to
wait in ‘profound silence’ for more than an hour before one of the elders
finally began to preach. This man rose from his bench, pronounced four
words, remained silent for a minute, and then spoke four words more. He
151
Leigh Eric Schmidt, “ ‘A Church-going People are a Dress-loving People’. Clothes,
Communication, and Religious Culture in Early America”, in Church History 58 (1989),
pp. 36–51.
152
Henri Misson, Memoirs and observations in his travels over England (London, 1719)
(translated by John Ozell from Mémoires et observations faites par un voyageur en Angleterre
(1698), pp. 83–84.
153
Misson, Memoirs and observations in his travels over England, pp. 84–85.
154
Misson, Memoirs and observations in his travels over England, p. 82.
continued preaching in this manner until he had completed his sermon.

Apparently, this was the way Quakers usually preached.
Whether I judged from habit or reason, I know not; but this manner of
speaking appeared to me not calculated to produce a great effect: for the
sense of the phrase is perpetually interrupted, and the hearer is obliged to
guess at the meaning, or be in suspense; either of which is fatiguing.
It was important, Brissot thought, to take into consideration the nature of
the audience. Both ancient orators and modern preachers addressed hear-
ers who were ‘enervated and enfeebled’, people who did not wish to take
the trouble of giving thought to what was said. Public speakers were there-
fore obliged to attend to the imagination, the passions and reason, pleasing
their listeners in order to move them: ‘it is by pleasure that they draw you
after them’. Quakers, by contrast, were used to meditating and reflecting.
They had no need for ‘sounding phrases and long sermons’. Since the aim
of preaching was to convert, ‘it ought rather to lead to reflection, than to
dazzle and amuse’.155
It was not always immediately evident to outsiders why audiences
responded in the ways they did. Rutledge recounts how he went with some
friends to witness a Jesuit preacher whose eloquence attracted ‘toutes les
dévotes de Paris’.156 Expectations ran high, if only because of the substan-
tial admission fee. In Paris, the price of a seat in church was proportional
to the extent to which the preacher was in vogue. This particular speaker
performed in one of the largest churches in the city, and the fee equalled
that of a ticket to the theatre. Rutledge obtained a seat near a company of
respectable women, each of whom was fitted out with an enormous purse
made of crimson velvet edged with golden tassels, a sign (according to
Rutledge) both of ostentation and devotion. The man who climbed into
the pulpit was majestic and venerable; he exuded an air of contemplation
and penitence. His strong, noble traits reminded Rutledge of the paintings
of the Apostles’ heads by Rubens and Raphael. Speaking in a dignified and
resolute voice, he began with an introduction so worthy of his august office
that Rutledge would have advised any English preacher to take lessons
from him.157
155
Brissot de Warville, New travels in the United States, pp. 162–164.
156
Cf. Marie-Claude Leleux, “Les predicateurs Jesuites et leur temps a travers les ser-
mons prononces dans le Paris religieux du XVIIIe Siecle, 1729–1762”, in Histoire, Economie
et Société 8 (1989), pp. 21–43.
157
[Rutledge], Premier et second voyages, III, pp. 128–130.
However, not everyone in the audience was as taken with the perform-
ance as Rutledge. A group of abbés spitefully parodied the preacher’s words.
‘Quel style!’, said one; ‘quelle capucinade’, responded another.158 A second
group of hearers repeatedly grumbled ‘au blasphême! à l’hérésie’. Rutledge
begged his readers’ pardon for again comparing the pulpit with the stage,
but it seemed to him that the indecent tumult in church, together with
the spluttering and coughing and blowing of noses, strongly resembled the
noisy parterre at the Comedy. It only became clear to him on leaving the
church why the sermon had been attended by such commotion. Jansenists
had come there purposely to hiss and anathematize.159 Sermons, in sum-
mary, were social events that affirmed social boundaries, between the com-
munity and the external world, between rank and class, or between in- and
outsiders.
6. Conclusion
This chapter has employed the ‘uses and gratification’ model to classify and
interpret audience responses to sermons gleaned from eighteenth-century
ego documents. Responses to the sermon as a ‘media event’ were divided
into four categories, labelled respectively cognitive (providing knowledge
and understanding), affective (offering an emotional or pleasurable experi-
ence), affirmative on a personal level (strengthening personal identity)
and affirmative on a social level (reinforcing community ties with the
community).
As far as cognition is concerned, sermons sometimes gratified hearers in
unexpected ways; they might use ‘sacred’ oratory to learn a language, for
example, or as a topic for conversation. The more ‘Enlightened’ observers
often distinguished between useful and useless knowledge. They regarded
doctrine, mysticism and exaggerated learning as a waste of time, and had a
distinct preference for commonsensical sermons, especially those that
treated moral issues. Audience members who explicitly associated them-
selves with traditional communities or denominations valued the older
preaching methods. Views differed on the best way to disseminate reli-
gious knowledge. Not everyone, for example, appreciated story telling.
Both the message and the preaching technique should fit the audience.
Repetition clearly irritated churchgoers and was to be avoided.
158
Capucinade = moralistic discourse.
159
[Rutledge], Premier et second voyages III, pp. 130–134.
Particularly prominent in ego documentary material is the gratification

of affective needs. Sermons helped people to come to terms with personal
or communal hardships, including deaths and calamities. Emotional
responses were hard to predict, although audience members sometimes
appreciated precisely those preachers whom they expected to stimulate
emotionalism (or what eighteenth-century writers called ‘enthusiasm’).
In such cases, the prospect of gratification helped determine (emotional)
audience response. Reception depended also on the extent to which ser-
mons were integrated into elaborate rituals. Mission sermons, for example,
often involved a high degree of audience participation. Even in Protestant
settings, affective gratification was not necessarily the result of good dis-
course. Not infrequently, churchgoers (especially the more educated ones)
regarded sermons as a form of entertainment that gave both pleasure and
instruction. The pulpit was often compared to the stage. Hence the stress
put on delivery; no sermon delivered without minimal attention to rhe-
torical technique gratified any eighteenth-century audience. Sermon-goers
acknowledged that different audiences required different deliveries. Gender
and class figure prominently in contemporary attempts to distinguish
different kinds of audiences.
Sermons helped to confirm personal identities. They played a role in
conversion experiences and the religious education of youths, contributed
to regulating the daily pattern of life, and brought about reflection on
personal behaviour. People attended sermons to seek social affirmation,
in times of crisis but also during the normal run of events. Sermons were
woven into the fabric of daily life at all levels of society. Sermon audiences
were extensions of local communities. The way one participated in ser-
mons confirmed one’s social status, denominational affiliation or other
aspects of social identity.
The most important question, perhaps, is what we can learn from ego
documents about audience reception. Do they allow us to better understand
the role of the eighteenth-century sermon as a means of communication?
Do they shed light on the character and social background of the various
writers? Or do they merely offer an insight into the commonplaces and
clichés of the period? Probably ego documents do all three things, although
the extent to which will depend on the kind of material we examine.
Compared to travel accounts, diaries (such as those of Boswell, Otto or
Adams Sr.) and letters (for example Walpole’s) will in most cases reflect a
briefer time lapse between the ‘sermon event’ itself and a writer’s report on
it. We might therefore expect travel accounts to be better thought-out and
less subject to immediate impressions, and diaries and letters to be less
susceptible to being influenced by clichés, topoi and particular trends.

However, it is highly questionable that this is indeed the case. It is quite
easy, for instance, to separate Catholics from Protestants and the tradition-
ally orthodox from the ‘Enlightened’, regardless of whether one reads a
diary, a letter or a travel journal. Examining the eighteenth-century ser-
mon through ego documents offers a worthwhile perspective on the way
sermons functioned in society, the personal views of audience members,
and the cultural representation of sermons. It will require extensive research
to sort out these various themes in the abundant ego documentary
material available, and to relate the findings to other aspects of audience
reception. The result will be a cultural history of the sermon.
INDEX
abbots, and nobility, 160n 233, 234, 244, 274–5, 348, 351,
Abimelech, biblical, 26 360, 384; see also Church of England
Abraham a Santa Clara ( Johann Ulrich Anglo-Catholics, 13
Megerle), 22–7, 89, 294 Anglo-Saxon, language, 116
Abraham, biblical, 365 Anne of Austria, queen consort of France,
absolution, 362 147, 147n
Absolutism, 244, 256, 299 Anne, queen of Great Britain and Ireland,
abstinence, 163; see also fasting 168, 169
Académie Française, 89, 237, 322 Annecy, 141n
Ackerbürgerstädte (farmer towns), 300 Annunciation, of the Virgin Mary, 270
acting, preaching and, 320–1, 324, 325, anticlerical reforms, 224
326, 327, 328, 335, 338n, 340, 364, Anti-donatism, 64
367; see also Elocutionary, theatre Antwerp, 166
Adam, biblical, 373 Apostles, 385
Adami, Johann Samuel, 175n, 184, 185 Aquinas, Thomas, 10, 143n
Adams, John Quincy, 347–8, 349, Aristotle, 10, 134, 198
352, 356, 357, 367, 369, 370, Arminians, 39; see also Remonstrants
371, 382, 387 Arnauld, Antoine, 336
Adams, John, 38, 39, 349, 351, 355, 358, De la fréquente communion, 156
360, 370, 371 Arndt, Johann, 180n, 181, 198
Addison, Joseph, The Spectator, 339 Arnold, Gottfried, xi, 177, 198–9, 216
adiaphora (indifferent things), 114 artisans, 31
Advent, sermon for, 3, 82, 105, 153, Ascension, 3, 270
165, 383 Asia, 7
afterlife, 302 Asseburg, Rosamunde Juliane
Age of Absolutism (Sweden), 45 von der, 187
Ages of Liberty (Swedish), 45, 253 Assumption, of the Virgin Mary, 270
Alexander, Carl, duke, 293 atheism, 221n, 224
Allegany Mountains (Virginia), 371 Atlantic, 35, 207
alms, 281 Atterbury, Francis, Bishop, 98
Althusius, Johannes, 319 audience, of sermons, see sermon
Amadeus, duke of Savoy (Leo X), 25 audience
America, 13n, 314 Augsburg Confession, 51
America, political sermons from, 226n Augsburg, 167, 305
American Revolution, 13n, 38–9, 41, Augustine, St, 11, 97, 107, 120, 143n,
42, 232, 234 149, 354
Amsterdam, 167, 168, 313, 315, Augustinians, 89
316, 337n Discalced, 23
Amsterdam, Athenaeum Illustre, 336 Austria, 24, 31, 244, 304; see also
Anabaptists, 52, 307; see also Mennonites Germany, Prussia
Analogy of Religion, 99 Austrian War of Succession, 244
Andrewes, Lancelot, 12, 110n Ave Maria, 28, 134, 140, 141, 142, 144,
Anglicanism, 3, 11, 13, 100, 101, 146, 146, 154, 279
168, 220, 225n, 226, 228, 230, 231, awakenings, 4
390 index
Babylon, biblical, 147 Bethel, biblical, 23

Baelter, Sven, 253 Bethlehem, 135
Bahrdt, Carl Friedrich, 336 Betke, Joachim, 178
Balaam, biblical, 25 Betterton, Thomas, 324, 325
Baltic, 201 Beutel, Albrecht, 174
Balzac, Jean louis Guez de, 322, 336 Beveridge, William, bishop of St. Asaph,
Bamburgh, 102n Thesaurus Theologicus, 104
baptism, 4, 52, 62, 140, 297 Bible, 3, 4, 21, 32, 34, 73, 104, 267,
Baptist Church, 147, 371 269, 287, 295–6, 300, 320, 343, 345,
Barbarini (Rome), palace of, 350n 353, 380
Barclay, John, 350 epistle and gospel readings from, 16
Barfüsser (Augsburg), church, 306 exegesis, 6, 66, 133; see also homilies
Barnabites, Order of, 26, 88 importance of, 65
Baroque, sermon style, ix, xi, 5, 6, 8, 9, translation of, into Dutch, 41n
12, 17, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 53, 88, 90, use of, in political sermons, 239
91, 110, 133, 134, 273; see also sermon Bible, citations from:
style: rhetoric Genesis, 6, 102
Barra, Antonio dalla, bishop of Aversa, 1:3–30: 59
290 3:4–6: 59
Bartels, August Christian, 242 3:19: 6
Basel, 274 21: 365
Bastille, 239 28:19: 23
Batavian Republic, 247, 248, 249, 259 Exodus 3:5: 24
Bath, Lord, 356, 382 Judges 9:50–54: 26
Baumgarten, Siegmund Jacob, 1 Kings 8: 50
Evangelische Glaubenslehre, x, 70–1 Ezra 6: 50
Bavaria, 286 Job
Baxter, Richard, Saints’ Everlasting Rest, 7: 20: 378n
100 19: 377
Bayerische Gesellschaft zur Pflege der geistli- Psalms, 385
chen Beredsamkeit (Munich), 92 2:10: 146
Bayley, Peter, 7, 8, 104 33:13: 376
Beeckman, Isaac, physicist, 314, 322 54:16: 354
behaviour, Christian: 71:17: 50
as Christ’s presence in the world, 266 90: 288
definition of, 266 Proverbs
family vs. servants, 267 1: 20: 367
household duties, 267 3:17: 371
Belgium, 265 8:15: 144
belles-lettres, 104, 100n, 311 24:5: 30
Belley, 134, 137 31:10: 24
Benedictinism, 92, 349, 372 Ecclesiastes 1:2: 148
Bengel, Johann Albrecht, 74, 203 Canticum 2:14: 370
Bereans, meeting of, 350 Isaiah
Bergner, Anders, 254 53:1: 369
Berlin, 78, 243 57:2: 33
Charité, 196 Jeremiah 26:6–7: 147
Tiergarten, 196 Daniel 3:26: 23
Bern, 300 Hosea, 37
Bernard of Clairvaux, St, 140, 161–2 Joel, 6
Bernard, A., 234 2:12–13: 6
Bernardino of Siena, 136n Matthew, 6, 7
Berthelsdorf, 66, 199 4:4: 354
Besold, Christoph, 175n 6:16: 6
index 391
13:3–9: 84 1:21: 358

13:45: 7 3:20: 378
16:18: 23 Colossians
20: 159 3:16: 80
21: 144 3:18–4:1: 286
21:1–11: 82 4:15: 361
22:2–3: 67 1 Timothy 2:12: 26
22:21: 153 2 Timothy
25: 162 3:16–17: 16
Mark 4:3: 185n
4:39: 24 Hebrews
16:2: 366 11:24–25: 168
Luke, 142 13:7: 33
2: 157 James
2:41–52: 82 5:1: 155
6: 142 5:2–3: 155
10:38–42: 71–2 1 Peter 1:3–4: 357
14:16–24: 156 Revelation, 102
16:16: 377 14:5: 149
19:10: 356 19:10: 69n
John Bibliothèque Nationale de France
1:47: 24, 357 (Paris), 167
3:16–21: 82 Bill of Rights, 39
5:35: 141 Birch, Thomas, 168
8:31–32.47: 70 Bischoff, Melchior, General
10:27: 70 Superintendent of Coburg, 29
14:23: 63, 70 bishops, and nobility, 160n
20: 366 Bitzel, Alexander, ix
Acts Black, Jeremy, 222
2:3: 363 Blair, Hugh, xiii, 98, 111, 115, 116, 121,
7:9: 357 339, 341, 350, 363, 380
24:1: 377 Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres, 327
Romans blasphemy, 163
1:16: 63 Blaufuß, 199
4:3: 378n Bohemia, 23, 66
5:1: 305 Boismont, Abbé, 234
8:1: 356 Bologna, 365
13:2: 239 Bonifacio, Giovanni, L’arte de’cenni,
15:3: 352 318–19
15:4: 16 Bonnet, Gisbertus, 338n
1 Corinthians Book of Common Prayer (1662), 43, 44
2:1–4: 72 Book of Homilies (Church of England), 14
2:2: 67 book trade, 42
3:6–7: 75 Borge, Birgit, 29
3:19: 348n Borromeo, Charles, archbishop of Milan,
13:1: 279 St, 136, 139–40, 141
2 Corinthians Bosanquet, Mary, 212
5:1–10: 29 Bosma, Jelle, 48, 246
6:1: 361 Bosner, Rolf Georg, 29
Galatians, 99 Bossuet, Jacques-Bénigne, Bishop of
Ephesians Condom, Bishop of Meaux, vii, ix, xi,
5:22–6:9: 286 11, 12–13, 89, 90, 119n, 133, 134,
6:11: 349 137–8, 167, 170, 171, 172, 241, 256,
Philippians 273, 274, 279, 369n
392 index
Discourse on Universal History, 138, 347 on responsibilities of secular/clerical

Four Articles, 138 leaders, 161–2, 163–4
Politics Drawn from the Very Words of on restitution and salvation,
Holy Scripture, 138, 145 154–6
anti-Quietists, 138 on saints and sanctity, 163–4
audiences of, 143 on salvation, 159
exemplary life of, 150 on the Eucharist, 156–7
funeral orations (for Queen on the poor, 161–3, 164
Henriette-Marie), 145–7, 151; (for sermon analysis of, 153–4
Duchess Henriette-Anne), 148–9, sermon composition of, 154 and n
151; (for Queen Marie-Thérèse), 149 sermons of, 153–6; (Pentecost season),
funeral sermons of, 28, 29, 30, 138, 153–6; (Corpus Christi), 156; (on
145–6 St. Louis), 163–4; (on Francis de
Lenten sermon (Wednesday 1662), Sales), 164
145n theme of vocational freedom, 157–8,
on death, 145 159–60
on kingship, 144–5 Bourdieu, Pierre, 323, 336, 340
on the rich and the poor, 142–3 Bradford, 383
publication of sermons, 138 Brag, Carl Johan, 255
publications of sermons, 151–2 Brandenburg-Prussia, 195, 196, 203
relations with the Dauphin, 137–8, Braunau (Brevnov), nr Prague, 92
145 Braunschwig-Wolfenbüttel, 76
reputation of, 150–2 Bregnsbo, Michael, 251
sermons for the royal court, 144–6; Bremen, 83
(Palm Sunday 1662), 144–5 Bretonneau, François de Paul, S.J.
themes used by, 142, 143n, 147 editions of Bourdaloue’s sermons,
use of biblical references, 142–3 165–6
use of historical figures, 139–42; see also preface to, 153, 165
Charles Borromeo, Bernard of Breviary, 6
Clairvaux Bridaine, Jacques, 330
use of similes and metaphors, 142 Bridport (Dorset), 99
Boston (Massachusetts), 36 Briggs, Henry, 108
Boswell, James, 347, 350, 354, 359, 363, Bril, 377
364, 371, 374, 379–80, 381, Brilioth, Yngve, 16
382, 387 Brissot, 382, 384
Boudet, Antoine, 138, 151 Bristol, 99
Bourbon, monarchs of, 167, 227 Britain, xi, xiii, 19, 205, 209, 337
Bourdaloue, Louis, S.J., xi, 29, 98, 122n, British Library (London), 167
133, 134, 169, 170, 171, 172, 273, Browne, Lionel, 99, 100
347, 368 Brüder-Unität, 66
audiences of, 160n, 166 Brunsveld de Blau, Theodorus, 249
Bretonneau’s assessment of, 166 Brussels, 166
critical commentaries of, 167 Buckner, John, Bishop, 233–4
editions and translations of, 153, Bullen, Christian, 180n
165–6 Bullinger, Heinrich, and the Confessio
on ambition, 159–61 Helvetica posterior, 60
on charity, 161–3 Burkhardt, Johannes, 263
on Christian behaviour, 160–1 Burnet, Gilbert, bishop of Salisbury, 121,
on concupiscence and restitution, 154 168, 364
on evangelism, 120 Thirty-nine articles, 99
on grace and human freedom, 159–60 Discourse of the Pastoral Care, 99
on humility, chastity and piety, 161–3 Burt, Edmund, 355, 373
on kingship, 164 Bushnell, Rebecca, 323
on nobility, 160–3 Butler, Joseph, 99
index 393
calamities, sermons for, 36, 41, 303, 105, 106, 107, 112, 113, 114, 119,
358, 381 122, 127, 135, 145, 146, 151, 167,
calendar, liturgical, 16 169, 171, 172, 175n, 220, 223, 234,
Calvinism, ix, xii, 3, 4, 13, 14, 21, 28n, 235, 263, 264, 265, 267, 270, 271,
34, 37, 38, 39, 40, 83, 94, 104, 119, 273, 274, 275, 277, 278, 279, 283,
147, 229, 236, 247, 248, 318, 319, 289, 290, 293, 298, 299, 302, 303,
355, 384 304, 305–6, 307, 308, 318, 343, 348,
Camboust, Henri-Charles du, bishop of 352, 360, 364, 367, 372, 388
Metz, 383n Caussin, Nicolas, 159n, 322
Cambrai, 105 De eloquentia sacra et humana, 314
Cambridge, 100 Cavalcanti, Bartolomeo, 318
Clare College, 168 Cavander, Christian, 253
Magdalene College, 97 celibacy, 198n, 284
Trinity College, 102n, 107n censorship, 254
Camus, Jean-Pierre, bishop, xi, 8, 9, 134, Centre Sèvres (Paris), 166, 167
167, 171 Chandler, Edward, 100
literary and historical figures used by, Charenton, 319
136–7; see also Ignatius of Loyola Charles I, king of England, 14, 37, 42–3,
and Charles Borromeo, Francis de 146–7
Sales Charles II, king of England, 42, 111, 112,
metaphors often used by, 136, 171 146, 147, 148
on Christ in the Eucharist, 135 Directions concerning preachers, 112
on confession and communion, 135–6 Charles XII, king, 45
sermon style of, 134–5 Charles, St, see Borromeo
sermons for Corpus Christi, 135 Chelsea, 381
use of biblical allusions in, 135–6 Cheminade, Christian, 235–6
Candlemas, sermons for, 383 Chesterfield, Lord, 382
Canterbury, 168 Chiaramonti, Barnaba, cardinal, 240
Capuchins, 88, 119, 264, 270, 275, 290, children, 283, 285, 286, 287, 296, 297,
362, 363, 364, 365 308, 323
Caraccioli, 381 childhood games, 298–9
Carbone, Lodovico, 318 Christian instruction for, 267
Carinthia, 304 discipline of, 299
Carnall, Geoffrey, 328 education of, 298, 299–301
Carpzov, Johann Benedikt, 174, 182, 271 in church, 270, 278, 280
Evangelische Vorbilder- und Frag- relationship with the father, 298
Predigten, 307–8 China, 368
Carpzov, John Benedict the Younger, Christ Jesus, 11, 17, 19, 20, 23, 24, 63,
Hodegeticum, 16, 18 67, 73, 76, 80, 82, 135, 142, 143,
Cartesian philosphy, 120 144, 158, 162, 164, 165, 170, 352,
Casa, Giovanni della, 336 354, 363
Casimir, Anselm, prince archbishop of Christel, Johann Martin, 306
Mainz, 29, 30 Christmas carols, 22
Castiglione, Baldassare, 336 Christmas, sermons for, 3, 51, 270
casuistry, 171 Christology, 76
Catalonia, 372 Chrysostom, St, 97
catechism, sermons for, 4, 21, 47, 52, Church of England, 13, 14, 37, 43n, 121,
266–7, 271, 295, 300, 361 127, 208, 211, 213, 364, 382; see also
Catherine of Alexandria, 24 Anglicanism
Catherine of Siena, St, 24, 26, 354 Chydenius, Anders, 254
Catholicism, anti-, 114 Cicero, 11, 97, 255, 317, 318, 320
Catholicism, x, xii, 3, 4, 5, 9, 10, 11, 12, Pro Archia, 336
16, 17, 21, 22, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 39, civic occasions, sermons for, ix, 34–5,
42, 58, 61, 88, 89, 90, 92, 93, 96, 98, 38, 42
394 index
Civil War (English), 146, 147 Courcillon, Philippe de, Marquis de

Civitavecchia, liturgical ceremony at, Dangeau, Journal, 383
360–2 courts, sermons for
Clarisse, Johannes, xiii, 338–9, 340 ecclesiastical, 308
Clarke, Samuel, 347 legal, 383
Classicism, viii, xi, 112, 341 royal, 254
Claude, Jean, 108 Courtin, Antoine de, 336
Claudius, Matthias, 83 covenant theology, 36–7, 38
Claus, Joseph Ignaz, 272 Coyer, Abbé, 235–6
Clausthal, 196 Cromwell, Oliver, 147, 314
Clavière, Étienne, 382n Crosby, Sarah, 212
Clement XIV, pope, 167 crucifix, 365
Coalter, Milton, 205 Crusius, Christian August, 74
Coccejus, Johannes, 74 Sammlung Geistlicher Abhandlungen,
collegia biblica, 73 74–5
collegia pietatis, 180 crying, preaching and, 339
Collins, Thomas, 99 Cunninghame, Annie, 380n
commonplace book of, 99–100, 102–3 Cussy, Jacques Jonathan, 375, 377
commonplace books, 98–100, 102–4 Custance, family of, 382
Commonwealth, 12, 13
Company of Blue Penitents, 361 D’Aviano, Marco, 275
Condom, 89, 137–8 Daughters of Charity, 162
Confessio Augustana, 59 Dauphin (son of Louis XIV), 89, 137–8,
Confessio Helvetica posterior, 60 145, 149
confessions, xii, 39, 60, 61, 226, 361, 362 David, Christian, 200, 201
congregation, see sermon audience David, king, biblical, 25, 165
Congregationalists, 13n Davies, Horton, 15
Connerton, Paul, 323, 340 De Boismont, Nicolas Thyrel, 237–8
Conrart, Valentin, 322 De Bretteville, Etienne Dubois, 336
consecrations of churches, sermons for, 50 L’eloquence de la chaire et du barreau, 337
Conservative party (Tory), 43 De Chantal, Jane, 141n
Constitution of the United States, 39 De Chayla, François de Langlade, 368
Constitutional Church, French, 220, 239 De Choisy, François-Timoléon, 368
contemplation, 277 De La Rue, Charles, 383n
Continental Congress, 39 De Sales, Francis, St, 140–1, 154–5
Controversialism, 305, 306, 307 Introduction to the Devout Life,
conventicles, 180, 181, 185–6, 196, 213, 141, 165
216, 34; see also Pietism Deane, Samuel, 371
conversions, 19, 26, 41, 64, 66, 89, 148, death, 301–2
149, 163, 165, 171, 190, 191, 203, Last Judgement, 302, 303
207, 380, 387; see also Francke, Pietism afterlife, 302
Conybeare, John, bishop of Bristol, 99 Deconinck-Brossard, Françoise, x,
Cooke, John, rector of Wentrop (Salop), 230, 231
The Preacher’s Assistant, after the manner dedications, 23
of Mr. Letsome, 102, 103 Defoe, Daniel, 374–6
Copenhagen, University of, 251 Deism, 151, 221n
Corpus Christi, sermons for, 135, 156 Delft, 377
Corsica, 354 Delilah, biblical, 25
Council of State, 44 Delmé, Philippe, The Method of Good
Council of Trent (1545–1563), ix, 5, Preaching, Being the Advice of a French
61, 88, 90, 91, 93, 107, 161, 235, Reform’d Minister to his Son, 108
275, 284 Demosthenes, 317, 329
councils, church, sermons for, 49, 106, 313 Denmark, 251
Counter Reformation, ix, 10, 105 Descartes, René, 314
index 395
Descrains, Jean, 8 war with England, 48

Detmold, 83 wars with France, 42
devil, sermons for, 48 Dutch, language, ix, 21, 314n, 337
devotional literature, 179, 274 dysentery, bloody, 302
diaries, xiii
Diderot, 335 earthquakes, sermons for, 358, 379,
Diet see also calamities
Finnish, 254 Easter Monday, sermon for, 82
Swedish, 256 Easter, sermons for, 3, 51, 82, 270, 358,
Dijon, 137 360, 365, 382, 383
Dillenburg, 318 Edict of Nantes, Revocation of, 145n
Dillingen, 93 Edict of Toleration (1781), 305
Dippel, Johann Konrad, 197, 216 Edinburgh, 372
disasters, see calamities University of, 98, 327
Discalced Augustinians, 23; see also education, see schooling
Augustinians Edward, prince, 359
dispositio (argument), 5, 101, 105 Edwards, John, 119
biblical text for, 105–6 Edwards, Jonathan, 206–7, 231
Dissenters, 3, 13n, 34, 39, 50, 121, 247, Faithful Narrative, 207
275, 349, 363 Edwards, O.C., ix
divorce, 284 efficacia verbi divini (efficacy of the divine
doctor, of divinity, 43 Word), Lutheran sermon theology,
Dodd, William, 359 63; see also Lutherans
Doddridge, Philip, 97, 101, 109 Egardus, 198, 208
on plain vocabulary, 116 Egypt, biblical, 163, 168, 233
on pronunciation, 126 Eichstädt, University of, 29
on sermon memorization, 121 Eijnatten, Joris van, xiii, 248
on sermon style, 115–16 Eisenach, 72
Dominic, St, 373 Eisenberg, 72
Dominicans, 360, 365, 373 Eisenlohr, Christoph Peter, 71, 72
Donne, John, 7, 12, 110n Eisenlohr, Johann Jakob, 71, 72
Dort, Synod of, 21 election day, sermons for, 36
Dössel, 195 election, divine, 350
Downame, John, 37 elocutio (style), 101, 319
Downey, James, 12 Elocutionary Movement, in British pulpit
Dreghorn, 374 delivery, 317, 318, 320, 323–9, 340
Dresden, 17 acting and, 320–1, 324, 326, 327, 328,
drunkenness, 352 335, 340; see also acting
dueling, 164 Is this the correct spelling? characteristics of, 326, 327, 329, 339
Is it duelling? influences on, 323
Durham University, 104 natural vs. rules, 328
Dutch Reformed church, 205, see also painting and, 324, 326, 328, 340
Reformed Church sensibility, cult of, 328–9, 340
Dutch Republic (Republic of the Seven theatre and, 328
United Provinces), xiii, 30, 37n, 41, see also Enthusiasm
48 226, 313 embassies, 52
church councils/synods in, 49 emblems, see sermon style: emblematic
compared with England, 43 Emotionalism, 320, 359
compared with Sweden, 46 Enfield, William, 104
Dutch Israel, 34, 45, 49 Engel, Johann Jacob, 332n
Dutch Revolt, 51 England, x, xii, xiii, 6, 7, 11, 12, 13, 14,
fasting in, 39–40, 41; see also fasting 34, 96, 98, 112, 113, 147, 148, 167n,
funeral sermons in, 33 168, 169, 170, 233, 251, 316, 317,
state sermons from, 21, 42, 43–4, 51 320, 340, 346, 352
396 index
England, political sermons in: 42–3, 48, Evans, Caleb, British constitutional liberty
228–34, 258 (1776), 229
depicting England as a model of Eve, biblical, 296
Enlightened Christianity, 234, Evelyn, John, 353, 354, 355, 358
244, 248 Ewald, Johann Ludwig, xiii, 83, 331, 338,
expressing social consciousness of 339, 340, 341
government, 233 Ueber Predigerbildung, Kirchengesang
expression of national community, 233 und Art zu predigen, 83–5
French Catholicism and, 233, 234 exegesis, 6, 30; see also homilies
interpretation of, 230–1 Exeter, 147
reason and religion complimentary in, Extreme Unction, 149
228, 248 Eylert, Rulemann Friedrich, 245–6
Sweden and, 46 Eyptians, biblical, 135
the Netherlands and, 43
English Church (Rotterdam), 314 Fabricius, Franciscus, 337
English, language, 319, 323, 337, Faenza, Andrea da, 264
347, 355 faith
reforms of, 326–7 conversion and, 66
Enlightenment, viii, x, xii, 11, 12, 20, 32, human reason and, 70–2
40, 47, 49, 52, 58, 69, 72, 74, 83, 84, sermons and, 59, 65, 73, 89
87, 88, 91, 92, 93, 134, 151, 171, 203, Falmouth, 371
207, 219, 224, 228, 246, 248, 265, family, sermon collections for, 275
274, 277, 304, 308, 331, 348, 351, fasting, 4, 39, 163
374, 376, 388 sermons for, 36, 39–40, 41, 44, 381
Anglo-Dutch interpretation of, 223 see also abstinence
as practical modernity, 224 father-child relationship, 298; see also
as secularization, 223–4 children
definition of, 222 Fauchet, François-Claude, 234, 238–40
interpretation of, 220–1 Feith, Rhijnvis, 339, 340
relationship with religion, 220, Fénelon, François, 108, 116–17, 122,
221–3, 224 138, 273, 334, 339, 340
religious Enlightenment, 224 Dialogues on Eloquence, 103–4, 105,
sermon theology of, 58, 75–7, 78, 80, 106, 112, 125
81–3, 88, 219–21 Fielding, 339
see also sermons: political Filles de la Providence, 142, 143
Enthusiasm, 329–31, 359, 387 Finland, 198n, 216, 251, 254, 256, 259
characteristics of, 328, 330 Finnish War, 255
Epiphany, 3 flagellation, 362
Epistles, 175, 271 Fléchier, Esprit, 133, 273
Erasmus, 10, 98, 323 Fleury, Claude, 106–7
Ernesti, Johann August, 74 Florence, 353
Ertl, Ignatius, 281, 303, 308 Fontana, Fulvio, 275
Erweckungsbewegung, 215 Fontaney, Jean de, 368
Eschauzier, Samuel, 378n Fordyce, James, xiii, 125, 327, 329
Esslingen, 175n, 264 An Essay on the Action Proper for the
Estates, social, in Sweden, 45 Pulpit, 325–6
Eucharist, 14, 52, 62, 88, 135–6, 149, forgiveness, 303
154, 156–7, 163, 377; see also Forssenius, Aners, sermon of 1769, 254
Holy Communion Foster, Jacob, 369
Europe, ix, x, xi, xii, 201, 204, 235 Foucault, Michel, 340
Evangelical Awakening, 14 Founders’ Hall (London), 349
Evangelism, ix, 14, 15, 19; see also Four Articles (on the liberties of the
Revivalism Gallican Church), 138
index 397
France, x, xii, xiii, 6, 9, 10–11, 12, 28, Frelinghuysen, Theodorus Jacobus, 205
29, 34, 42, 88, 89, 98, 104, 112, 113, French Academy, 138, 150, 151n, 171
122, 133, 137, 138, 145, 148, 150, French Prophets, 197
160, 162, 163, 164, 168, 169, 170, French Revolution, 228, 233, 234, 236,
222, 233, 240, 249, 256, 273, 316, 238, 240, 245, 252, 257, 258, 259, 265
319, 337, 346, 347, 353, 354, 359, French, language, 116, 117, 133, 150,
369, 384 168, 171, 322
France, political sermons in: 220, 226, friars, 9, 11
234–40, 258, 259 Frisch, Johann David, 293–4
against the background of the Fritsch, Ahasver, 175n
Revolution, 237–40 Fuchs, Wolfgang, 29, 30
influence of Council of Trent on, 235 Fumaroli, Marc, 322
influence of Enlightenment on, 235–6 funerals, sermons for, ix, 4, 6, 21, 27–34,
nationalism expressed in, 237–40 138, 153, 168, 175, 176, 274, 305,
semi-philosophical preaching in, 237 306, 357
Francis, St, 170
Francius, Petrus, 315, 337, 332n Gallican Church, in France, 138, 239
Specimen eloquentiae, 336, 337 Garrick, David, actor, 14, 325, 328,
Francke, August Hermann, x, xi, 19, 66, 335, 367
173, 187, 194, 197, 198, 200, 205, 214 Gavin, Antonio, 348–9, 362, 363, 365, 366
audience reaction to, 190–1 Gay, Ebenezer, 358
Franckesche Stiftungen, 190 Gaza, biblical, 25
individual sermon publications of, Geier, Martin, 307
189–90 Geneva, 13, 134, 165, 314, 322, 384
influence of, 190–1 Georgia (USA), 208
on appropriation, 188 Géraud, Samuel, 377, 378
on conversion, 188, 190, 191, 192, Gerber, 184
203, 213 Gerbillon, Jean-François, 368
on Erbauung, 192, 198, 202, 203, 215 Gerhard, Andreas, of Ypres (Hyperius), 16
on importance of the preacher as Gerhard, Johann, Superintendent in
models of Christian behaviour, Heldburg, 29, 30
191–3, 203 German, language, 17, 24–25, 28, 30, 31,
on rhetoric, 193 32, 51, 57–8, 90, 92, 166, 189, 197,
on role of preachers to convert, 191–2 202, 205, 265, 273, 275, 332n, 377
on salvation, 191, 193 Germany, ix, xi, xiii, 20, 21, 23, 31, 76,
on the importance of the sermon, 195, 234, 243, 251, 273, 274, 275,
192, 202 277, 316, 317, 318, 319, 320, 327,
sermon collections of, 189–90, 190–1 331, 340, 343, 345
sermons of, 187–90 Germany, incl. Prussia and Austria
Francke, Send-Schreiben vom erbaulichen (see also Prussia), political sermons
Predigen (1724), 191–3, 203 in: 225n, 240–6, 258
François VII de La Rochefoucauld, 384n intellectual context of, 240–1
Frängsmyr, Tore, 253 influence of French Revolution on, 241
Frankfurt a. d. Oder, 81; University of, 295 the Frühaufklärung, 241, 258
Frankfurt/Main, 63, 180 practical and rational tenor of, 241–3
Franklin, Benjamin, 208, 356, 374 relationship between preacher and
Frederic the Wise, Elector, 31 audience, 242
Frederick I, king, v moral emphasis of, 243
Frederick II, 244 importance of community over indi-
Frederick the Great, 34 vidual, 244
Frederick V of Denmark, 34 war sermons, for Prussia, 244
free press, 42 pan-German nationalism as God-
free will, 159–60, 355 inspired, 245–6
398 index
Germany, preaching in, 331–6 Graun, Carl Heinrich, Tod Jesu, 334n
affective oratory, concepts of: 331–6 Grays Inn, 122n
as a public event, 174 Graz, Amandus von, 279
contemporaneous complaints about, Great Awakening, 42, 206, 207, 209
184–5 Great Church of Stockholm, 46
delivered by ministers only, 175–6 Great Church of the Hague, 44
emergence of Pietism in, see Pietism Greece, 133, 134, 164
excessive emphasis on, 178 Greek, language, 116, 117, 133, 185n,
importance of, 174 315, 336
lay prophecy and, 179–80; see also lay Greschat, 183
preaching Gretchen, 27
Orthodox, 174n Grill, Georg, 279
Pietists, 173–7; see also Pietism Groningen, 336n
Pietists’ criticism of, 181–2, 187 Gronniosaw, James Albert Ukawsaw, 374
Predigtamt (office of preaching), 174 Grosley, Pierre Jean, 353, 354, 373
printing vs. preaching of, 176–7 Großer Kirchenordnung, 300
Probepredigt (trial sermons), 174 Großgebauer, Theophil, 178, 182
Gib, Adam, 350 Grünberg, 183
Gideon, biblical, 25 Gunpowder Plot, 42
Gideon, Charles, The Life of Mr. Thomas Günther, Anton, prince of Anhalt-Zerbst,
Betterton, 324 190, 199n
Gifftheil, Ludwig Friedrich, 179 Gustavian monarchy (Sweden), 254, 255,
Giftschütz, Franz, 93 256, 257
Gisbert, Blaise, 90, 91, 127 Gustavus III, 253
Glanvill, Joseph, 101, 105, 108, 114–15, Guyon, Madame, 138
116, 117
Glassite sermon, 350 Haag, Nobert, 174
Glastonbury, 99 Habsburg Empire, 25, 93, 227, 245, 307
Glaucha, 66 pietas Austriaca and, 294
Glorious Revolution, 12, 42, 168, 169 Hagar, biblical, 365
Gneisenau, August Graf Neithardt von, Hagenmaier, 185
295 Hague, the, 376; see also Great Church of
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 27, 334, the Hague
339 Hahn, Philipp Matthäus, 332
Faust, 333 Halenius, Engelbert, 254
Good Friday, sermon for, 368, 383 Hall of State (royal palace, Stockholm), 46
Goring, Paul, 325, 340 Halle, theological school for Pietism at,
Gospels, 175, 271 19, 67, 70, 187, 188, 189, 190, 194,
Gotha, 81 195, 196, 201
Göttingen University, 73 Hamburg, 186n
Gottsched, Johann Christoph, 203 Händel, Georg Friedrich, Messiah, 334
Grund-Riß, 203n Hanoveri, 196
Governor’s Council, 36 Haydn, Joseph, Schöpfung, 334
Gowrie brothers, 43n Heathcote, Ralph, The use of reason
grace, doctrine of, 62, 63–4, 99, 159–60, asserted in matters of religion, 229
229, 355 Hebrew, language, 185n, 355
preaching and, 65, 68, 71, 87, 90–1 Heidelberg, 83
Grafton, Duchess of, 379 Heidelberg Catechism, 21
Granada, Luis de, 318 Heimlicher, church official, 269
Grapius, Zacharias, 183, 185 Helmstedt University, 73, 78
Graser, Rudolph, 92, 273 Henriette-Anne, duchess of Orléans,
Praktische Beredsamkeit der christlichen queen of France, 146, 147–8, 151
Kanzel, 274 Henry IV, king, 146
gratification, 345–6 Herdegen, Konrad, 275
index 399
Herder, Johann Gottfried, 21 Houses of Parliament, 43, 44, 46

heresies, 52, 90, 145, 147, 164, 167, 304 House of Lords, 43, 227
Heringa, Johannes, 249–50 House of Commons, 43
Hernhut, 66, 67, 87, 88, 199, 200, 377 Howard, Leonard, The religious and
Herrnhuter Brüdergemeine (Moravian politick prudence of Hezekiah
Church), 66 (1759), 229
Hervey, James, 340 Howell, Wilbur Samuel, 317, 320, 340
Hildegard of Bingen, 24 Huguenots, 98n, 99, 112, 236, 241
Hill, John, 328 Huntingdon, Lady, 381
Hille, Johann Friedrich Conrad, 82 Hussite Unitas Fratrum, 199
Hilliard, Timothy, 349, 357 Hutcheson, Francis, System of Moral
Hoburg, Christian, 178, 185n Philosophy, 100
Hochstetter, Andreas Adam, 278 hymnal, 295
Hogarth, William, The Sleeping hymns, 50, 213, 300
Congregation (engraving), 110, 125 Hyperius, see Andreas Gerhard
Höger, Franz, 264
Hohenau, Ernst Christoph Hochmann Ignatius of Loyola, St, 136, 137
von, 194–5 Ihalainen, Pasi, xii, 21, 42, 44–5, 48
Hohenzollern, royal court, 227 illiteracy
Hole, Robert, 231 sermon listening and, 270, 275, 278
Holland, see Dutch Republic sermon strategies for, 276
Holstein-Gottorp, royal court, 227 illness, as a consequence of sin, 302–3
Holtz, Sabine, xii, 32, 174, 193 Ilminster (Somerset), 99
Holy Communion, 279, 355, 361; see also imitation, in sermon writing, 100–1
Eucharist immigrants, from the Netherlands, 205
Holy Innocents’, feast day of, 306 Independent Churches, 13n, 97, 109,
Holy Roman Empire, 17, 265 147, 314, 349
Holy Saturday, 383 indulgences, 362
Holy Spirit, 63, 67, 68, 279 Ingolstadt, 93
preaching and, 198, 204 Innsbruck, 167
Holzmann, Johann Donat, 245 Inspirationists, 197, 216
homilies, exegetical, viii, 3, 4, 6, 11, 13, Internationalism, 249
16, 20, 21, 30, 33, 47, 57, 60 inventio, classical rhetoric, 96–105
Horace, 100, 126, 134 Ireland, 14, 233, 326
Horst, Georg Conrad, 82 Isla, José Francisco de, Historia del Famoso
hospitals, 164 Predicador Fray Gerundio de
Houdry, Vincent, 104–5, 112, 162 Companazas, 9
Hough, Thomas, The happiness and advan- Israel, biblical, 34, 41n, 45, 232, 244; see
tages of a liberal and virtuous education also Dutch Israel
(1728), 229 Israelites, biblical, 135, 147, 165
House of Orange, see Orange Italian, language, 167
household Italy, xiii, 6, 88, 241, 273, 318, 348, 349,
authority and submission, 286 352, 364–5
dissolution of, 283 Itinerant preachers, 194–6, 201, 206,
importance of children, 286; see also 209–10, 211, 212, 213, 316, 330, 356;
children see esp. George Whitefield
importance of, xii, 282, 296
marriage solidarity vs. happiness, 285 Jacobins, 239
Protestant vs. Catholic, 284 Jacobites, 98
relationships within, 298 Jacoebee, W. Pierre, 133, 134
religious guidelines of, 308 James I, king of England, 42
social discipline of, 310 James II, king of England, 12, 42, 168, 169
superiority of the husband, 286–7 James, St, 155, 320
various forms of, 283–4 Jansenism, 9–10, 106, 156, 159, 309, 386
400 index
Jefferson, Thomas, president of the United Kriegsmann, 186n

States, 38, 39 Kuhn, Thomas, 192s
Jena University, 72
‘jeremiad’ (sermons for fasting days), ix, La Bruyère, 115, 119–20
36; La Fontaine, 347
in America, 39 Labat, Jean Baptiste, 360–2
Jeremiah, prophet, 36 Lairesse, Gerard de, 324
Jerome, St, 349 laity, 176, 178, 179, 180
Jerusalem, biblical, 82, 144, 165, 170 Lambach, monastery of, 304
Jerusalem, Friedrich Wilhelm, x, 76 Lambert, Frank, 209
Die selige Erleuchtung der Welt durch Lamy, Bernard, La Rhétorique ou l’art de
Christum, 76–7 parler, 106, 108, 112
Zweyte Sammlung einiger Predigten, Lange, Joachim, 193
77 Last Judgement, 169, 302, 303
Jesuits, 9, 10, 29, 31, 88, 90, 98n, 103n, last rites, 302
104, 113n, 119, 127, 137, 153, 156, Latin, language of, 30, 32, 103n, 109,
159, 162, 165, 166, 167, 171, 270, 110, 116, 117, 133, 166, 272, 273,
275, 290, 305, 306, 307, 314, 318, 315, 332n, 336, 337, 355
347n, 353, 354, 360, 383n, 385 Latitudinarianism, 12, 229, 230, 231,
Jews, 39, 331, 384 316
John Chrysostom, 11 Laubach, 195
John the Baptist, 180n, 270 Laud, William, archbishop of
John, Duke, elector of Saxony, 31 Canterbury, 37
John, St, 320 laughter, and preaching, 365–6
Johnson, Samuel, Dr., 7, 325, 380, 382 Lavater, Caspar, 83
Johnston, George, Religion plain, not Lavater, Johann Kaspar, 332, 334
mysterious (1733), 229 law school, 280
Jones, William, The religious use of law, and religion, 308
botanical philosophy (1784), 229 Lawson, John, 105–6, 112, 114
Joseph II, 305 Lectures concerning Oratory, 96–7, 108,
Joseph, biblical, 157 115, 121
journals, 309 lay preaching, xiii, 179–80, 181, 185,
186, 187, 194, 196, 199, 200, 201,
Kant, Immanuel, 331 204, 207, 210, 212
Kantian philosophy, 332, 338, 340 lay prophecy, 179
Karlsruhe, 71, 83 Le Blanc, Jean-Bernard, Abbé, 351
Kempis, Thomas à, Imitation of Christ, Le Clercq, Jean, Parrhasiana, 337
148 Le Comte, 368
Ken, Thomas, bishop of Bath and Le Faucheur, Michel, 316–17, 321–2
Wells, 356 Traitté de l’action de l’orateur, 112, 314,
Khinsky, Wenzel Norbert Oktavian, count 319–20, 323, 337, 341; English
of Wchinitz and Tettau, 23 translation of, 324, 325
Kimnach, Wilson H., 207 oratorical doctrines of, 327, 329, 330,
King, John, 315 331, 332 and n, 336
kingship, and subjects, 290–6 Le Tellier, Louis-Nicolas, marquis de
Kingswood, coalfield, 208 Souvré, 384n
Klopstock, 334 Lebrun, François, 235
Klosterneuburg, 23, 29 lectionaries, 3, 105
Knights Templar, 364 lectures (biblical homilies), 4
Knox, Dilwyn, 319 Lehmann, Hartmut, 179
Kornrumpff, Johann Valentin, 90–1 Leiden, 337n
Krause, Reinhard, Die Predigt der späten Leipzig, 74, 185n
deutschen Aufklärung (1770–1805), 20 Lent, sermons for, 3, 105, 119n, 143,
Kremsmünster, 92 145n, 153, 159, 165, 356, 381, 383
index 401
Leo X, duke Amadeus of Savoy, 25 Lutheran Orthodoxy (Scholasticism),

Leopold I, Kaiser, 31 sermon theology of, x, 15–17, 18, 20,
Leopold, grand duke of Tuscany, 353 59, 61, 69–70, 72, 74, 76, 93
Leopold, St, sermon for, 22, 23–4, Lutheran Pietism, see Pietism
25–6, 27 Lutheranism, xii, 3, 4, 6, 11, 20, 29, 30,
Lesser, Friederich Christian, sermon of 39, 51, 175, 177, 178, 179, 180, 187,
1750, 243 192, 199, 200, 203n, 244, 252, 254,
Letsome, Sampson, 101 255–6, 257, 263, 264, 265, 267, 269,
A Defence of Natural & Revealed 270, 280, 288–9, 291, 292, 294, 299,
Religion, 101n 304, 305, 308
Preacher’s Assistant, 101n, 102, Danish, 252
103, 118n funeral sermons of, 31–37
Leube, 183 German, 251
lexicometry, 116 Prussian, 220, 253
libertinism, 352 Swedish, 45, 220, 253
Liège, 113n, 166 Lütkemann, 198
life expectancy, 301 Lyon, 134
Lincolns Inn, 122n
Lindemayer, Maurus, 92, 273–4, 304 MaCarty, 351
Lindmark, Daniel, 197 Mackenzie, Henry, 329
Lisbon, 378 Madison, James, president of the United
literacy, 42 States, 39
Livorno, 360 Magdeburg, 196
Locke, John, 230 Mallet, Sarah, 212
Lockean philosophy, 99, 100, 120, 230, Maltese Mission, 361
231, 256 Mamhead (nr Exeter), church, 360
Loferer, Georg, 275 Mändl, Kaspar, 305
Löffler, Josias Friedrich Christian, 81–2 manuals, of pulpit oratory, 322, 338, 340
London, 98n, 167, 168, 208, 325, 355, Manzador, Pius, Unterschiedliche
358, 366, 371, 372, 384 Ehrenreden, 26–7
Lorenz, Johann Gotthilf, 243 Marguetel de Saint-Denis, Charles,
Lorner, Gottfried, 305, 306 seigneur de Saint-Evremond, 372n
Löscher, Ernst Valentin, 183 Maria Barbara, queen, 9
Louis IX, king of France, 145, 146, 149, Marie de Medici, 146
162, 163 Marie-Thérèse, queen, 149, 150
Louis XIII, king of France, 145, 322 Marillac, Louise de, 162
Louis XIV, king of France, 133, 137, 143, marriage, extra-, 309
144, 145, 146, 148, 149, 151, 164, marriage, xii, 284, 285
167, 238, 383 as described in the Württembergischen
Louis XV, king of France, 238 Summarien, 284
Louis-Antoine, marquis de Caraccioli, 349 happiness vs. household solidarity, 285
Louvre (Paris), 143, 237 importance of children for, 286, 296
Lucretius, 11, 100 romantic ideals of, 285
Ludgate Hill (London), 356 superiority of the husband, 286–7
Ludwig, Eberhard, duke, 300 Martin, Lucinda, 202
Ludwig, Karl, Freiherr von Pöllnitz, 366 Martinmas, sermons for, 281
Lusatia, 66 Mary Magdalene, 350, 355, 365, 366
Luther, Martin (the Reformer), ix, 17, 18, Mary, daughter of Evelyn, 358
31, 58–9, 60, 67, 177, 186, 198, 288 Mary, queen of England, 12, 43n, 168
preaching style of, 15–16 Maryland (USA), 113n
‘Preparing to Die’ (1519), 31 Mascaron, 133
Großer Katechismus, 299 mass media, sermons and, 343, 386
Von Ordnung Gottesdiensts in der Mass, see Eucharist, Holy Communion
Gemeinde, 60 Massachusetts (USA), 208, 347, 349, 356
402 index
Massillon, Jean-Baptiste, 98, 133, 241, Möller, Johan, sermon of 1779, 254
347n, 383 monarchy, sermons for, 4
Materialism, 221n monasteries, 22, 284
Mather, Cotton, 36n monasticism, 276–7
Mather, Increase, 36n Monkwell Street (London), 363
Maundy Thursday, 383 Montefiascone, nr Viterbo, 363
Maury, Jean-Siffrein, archbishop of Montesquieu, 237, 256
Paris, 151 Montpellier, 319
Essai sur l’éloquence de la chaire, 330 Montserrat (Catalonia), monastery, 372
Mayfair Chapel (London), 379 Moravians, 66, 199–204, 216
Maynard, Dr, 122n Diaspora, 201
McGiffert, Michael, 37 importance of the sermon in, 200
McManners, John, Death and the and n, 202
Enlightenment, 151 music in the liturgy of, 202
Meaux, 11, 138, 151 on the Holy Spirit, 216
medicine, 303 on the litany of the wounds, 201
Mediterranean, 235 role of women in, 200n, 201–2
Megerle, Johann Ulrich, see Abraham a spreading ideas of, 201
Santa Clara worship of, 202
Melanchton, Philipp, humanist, 15, 318 Zinzendorf as ‘the Disciple’, 200;
Mellen, 370 see also Zinzendorf
memento mori, sermon theme, 51 mortification, 362
mendicant friars, 9 Moses, biblical, 163, 165, 168–9
Mennonites, 39, 52, 247, see also Mosheim, Johann Lorenz von, x, 21, 73,
Anabaptists 76, 241, 242, 253
Mentges, Johann Martin, 278 Anweisung erbaulich zu predigen, 73–4,
Méré, Chevalier de, 336 182, 203, 214
Metastasio, La Passione di Gesù Cristo, Mozart, 333
366 Requiem, 334
Methodism, anti-, 349 Muessig, Carolyn, vii
Methodism, xiii, 14, 121, 123, 210, 212, Müller, Heinrich, 176, 178–9, 198
213, 309, 316, 330, 338, 374, 381; Munck, Thomas, 222
see also Wesleys Munich, 92
Methodist Conference (1744), 212 Muralt, 369
Metz, 113n, 138, 383 Murray, Gustaf, 256–7
Michael, archangel, 270 Murray, James, Sermons to Asses, 349–50
Michelangelo, 333 music, 32, 320, 350, 360, 364
Midi, 330 preaching and, 334, 339
Midianites, biblical, 25
Milan, 140, 364 Nadere Reformatie, 205
military, 31 Nantes
millennialism, 38–9, 41 Revocation of the Edict of Nantes
Miller, Perry, 13 (1685), 89, 112, 145n, 236
Minkema, Kenneth P., 207 Naples, 290
Mirabeau, 239 Napoleonic wars, 243
miracles, 76, 352, 354 Nassau (Dillenburg), court of, 318
missions/missionaries, xiii, 361, 362, Nathan, biblical, 23
363, 368 National Assembly of France, 238
sermons for, 270, 275, 295, 304, 360, National Convention of France, 239
362, 387 nationalism, ideology of, 40, 42, 46,
Misson, Henri, 384–5 49, 303
Mobachius, Joachim, 40 natural philosophy, 231
Molière, 347 Nebuchadnezzar, king, biblical, 147
Molinier, Etienne, 7, 9 Neefe, Christian Gottlieb, 334
index 403
Neo-Classicism, viii,xi, x, 12, 110n, 113, Norway, 251

115; see also Classiscism novel, as a literary genre, 149n
neology, x, 20, 58, 76, 78, 223n, 241, Nowak, Karl, 87
243, 252, 255
Netherlands, the, 205, 223, 241, 243, Öchslin, Johannes, 293
248, 249, 251, 265, 316, 317, 320, Offenbach, 83
327, 330, 331 and n., 340, 346, old age, 301–2
347, 376 Oporin, Joachim, 203n
Netherlands, the, political sermons of: Orange, House of, 34, 44, 51, 52
225n, 246–50, 258 oratorios, 364
anthroprocentric, 247 Oratory of St. Philip, 88
community of morally responsible indi- oratory, art of, 326–7, 329, 332–3; see also
viduals, 248–50 preaching
emphasis on moral responsibility, 247 ordination, 175n, 205n
emphasis on reason and utility, 247 ordo praedicatorum, 365
importance of liberty, 250 Orford, 358
influence of German and English organs, 50
preaching on, 247 Orléans, 371
patriotism, 249–50 Orthodoxy, xi, x, 175n, 177, 182, 193,
printing of, 247 203, 241; see also Lutheranism
religious nationalism, 247–8 Outram, Dorinda, 222
Netherlands, preaching in, 336–40 Ovid, Ars Amatoria, 382n
affective oratory: 336–40 Oxford English Dictionary, 109
importance of rules and dignity before Oxford, 208
sensibility, 337–9 Magdalen Hall, 101n
music and, 339
‘Nijkerker troubles’, 339 Paderborn, 278
see also Dutch Republic painting, preaching and, 324, 326,
Neumayr, Franz, 307 328, 340
New Brunswick, 205 Palm Sunday, sermon for, 144–5
New England, 4; see also Puritans panegyric, 27, 32
New Jersey, 205 Paoletti, Signor, 353
New World, 201 Parentation, funeral thanksgiving, 32
New Year, 270 Paris, 92, 134, 135, 136, 137, 138, 141,
sermons for, 51, 281, 298 142, 153, 165, 166, 319, 330, 337,
Newtonian philosophy, 231 347, 349, 369, 381, 385
Nicholas, St, feast day of, 298 Paris, Albert de, 119
Nicolai, Friedrich, 278 parody, 9, 10
‘Nijkerker troubles’, in the Netherlands, Passau, 277
339 passions, and preaching, 320–1
Nîmes, 167 Passiontide, sermons for, 51, 271
Nitschmann, Anna, 202 paterfamilias, religious and social duties
Nitschmann, David, 200 of, 275, 276, 283, 298
nobility, 31, 160n, 160 Patriot Revolt (Netherlands), 48
Nölting, Johann Hinrich Vincent, 242 Patriotic Period (Netherlands), 45
Nonconformists, 100, 114, 121, 230 Patristics, 133
Norfolk, 382 Patten, William, Rev., 371
Norris, John, 98 Paul de Rapin, 99
North America, 201, 204, 205, 208, Paul, Jean, see Johann Paul Richter
209, 213 Paul, St, 137, 279, 320
Northampton (Massachusetts), 206 Paul, Vincent de, 112, 162
Northampton Academy, 97, 100, 109, penance, 69, 149, 156, 162–3, 175,
116n, 123 360, 362
Northumberland, 102n Pennsylvania, 200
404 index
Pentecost, sermons for, 51, 82, 270 pilgrimages, 270, 361

pericopes, 3, 16, 17 Piozzi, 366
Perkins, William, 321, 322 Pisa, 360
Prophetica, 314 Pittroff, Franz Christian, 93
The Arte of Prophesying, 13 Pliny, 7
persecutions, of non-Catholics, 89 poetry, 7, 12
Peschke, 190, 192 Polyanthea, 103n
Pestalozzi, Johann-Heinrich, 332 Pompey, 7
Peter, St, biblical, 25, 155 poor, the, 281, 290
Peters, Hugh, 314 Port-Royal, Jansenist school of, 106
Pettersson, Abraham, 253 Portugal, 5, 119
pews, in church, 280 Postdam, 245
Pfyffer, Franz Xaver, 306 postils, see sermon collections
Pharaoh, biblical, 165 Prague, 92
Pharisees, biblical, 170 Prague, University of, 93
Philadelphia (Pennsylvania), 208 prayers, 19
Philip IV, king of Spain, 149 national days of, 42, 44
Philip, duke of Orléans, 146 preachers
Philippi, Friedrich, 280 as models of Christian behaviour, 64,
Philistines, biblical, 25 126, 191–2
Pietà, painting of, 7 authority of, 263–4, 279
Pietism, viii, ix, x, xi, 4, 17–18, 19–20, clothing appropriate for, 384–5
41, 66, 67, 69, 173, 174, 175n, 177, conversion role of, 191–2
180, 190, 192, 193, 205, 207, 208, for the court, 294
211, 213, 214, 221n, 241, 244, 251, itinerant, 194–6, 201, 206, 209–10,
253, 266, 300, 308, 309, 316, 317, 211, 212, 213, 316, 330, 356;
331, 339, 340, 374, 376, 380 see esp. George Whitefield
conventicles (collegia pietatis), 180, 181, popularity of, 356
185–6, 196, 213, 216, 345 responsibilities of, 292, 296, 308
disturbances of, 187 preaching
ecclesial, 188, 192, 200, 202, 204, acting and, 320–1, 324, 325, 326, 327,
205, 213 328, 335, 338n, 340, 364, 367;
emergence of in Germany, 180 see also Elocutionary
Enlightenment and, 203 archives of, oral vs. written,
Erbauung and, 192, 198, 202, 203, 314, 315
213, 215 art of (artes praedicandi), x
importance of conversion, 188, 190, classical ideal of, 166
191, 192, 203 devoted to ministry, 175
legacy of, 202–3 ecstatic, 197–8
Orthodoxy and, 183–4, 185, 192–4; entertaining, 366–7
see also August Hermann Francke, evangelical, 15, 19
Spener extemporaneous, 206, 207, 208,
preachers as models of Christian behav- 209, 369
iour, 191–3, 203, 213 in Germany, see Germany: preaching in
Radical, 197–9, 204; see also in the Netherlands, see Netherlands:
Moravians, Radical Pietism preaching in
role of women in, 201–2 Latitudinarian, see Latitudinarianism
sermon style of, 181, 187, 193, 214 laughter and, 365–6
sermon theology of, 58, 63–4, 66, 69, lay, see lay preaching
73–4, 75, 76, 84, 87, 88 manuals of delivery, 329; see also
Spener’s proposals for, 181 preaching delivery
universal priesthood of lay preachers, music and, 125, 126, 202, 334; see also
185, 186; see also lay preaching music
index 405
open-air, 201, 206, 208, 209, 210, Protestant Dissenters, see Dissenters
211n, 360, 366–7 Protestantism, x, 5, 9, 11, 17, 28, 29, 37,
oral vs. printing, 271, 327; see also 41, 42, 47, 58, 61, 72, 88, 90, 92, 94,
printing 96, 106, 114, 119, 127, 145n, 146,
purpose of, 10, 57, 59, 62, 174, 303 167, 168, 169, 171n, 173, 175, 199,
Reformation attitudes towards, 21, 71 210, 212, 225, 236, 241, 266, 270,
revival, see Revival preaching 274, 278–9, 290, 297, 302, 304, 318,
somnambulant, 197 348, 349, 352, 354, 363, 364, 372,
theatre and, 208, 365, 385, 386, 384, 387, 388
see also George Whitefield Providentialism, 230
traditional, 173 Prussia, xii, 227, 242, 243, 244, 295, 352;
transferred to paterfamilias, 275, 276 see also Germany
wigs and, 313 Prussia, political sermons from, 244, 259
preaching delivery, x, xii-xiii, 122–7, 313, Cabinets-Ordre (1739), 203
314, 318, 322 context of war, 245–6
actio/pronuntiatio, 314, 315, 316, 317, German nationalism centred in, 246
318, 329, 330, 340–1 ideology of the state propagated in, 246
bodily elegance, 324–5 psalms, 363, 374
comparison with musical performance, Psalters, 49, 50
125, 126 metrical, 49
extemporaneous, 121 States, 50
eye contact, 122–3 pulpit oratory, manuals of, 313, 314,
from memory, 121–2 315, 322
gestures, 125, 271, 319 Purification, of the Virgin Mary, 270
integration of passions and rules in, Puritanism, 3, 4, 13, 111, 205, 212, 314,
322, 324 321, 355, 374
large script, 122–3 Puritans, New England, 34, 36, 37,
painting and, 324, 326, 328, 340 38, 39
passions and, 320–1 fasting in, 39, 40; see also fasting
practice, 322 importance of sermons for, 35
pronunciation, 126–7 moral theology of, 42
rhetorical method for, 319 Purselt, Conrad, 270
tonal variation 127
see also Elocutionary Movement, Quakers, 186, 202, 384–5
Enthusiasm, oratory Querfurt, 90
predestination, 160, 229, 307, 350, Quietists, 138
351, 355 Quintilian, 97, 318, 320, 321, 333, 339
Predigtamt (German office of preaching),
174 Racine, 347
pregnancy, 296 Radical Pietism, 194–9, 204, 216
Presbyterianism, 13n, 99, 125, 210, 325, itinerant preaching, 194–6, 201
327, 350, 363 characteristics of, 196–7
printing press, 165, 168, 171, 173 publishing projects of, 196
printing, of sermons/devotional literature, role of the Holy Spirit for, 198, 204
176, 181, 189, 190, 196, 202, 208, importance of lay preaching, 204; see
209, 211, 223, 265–7, 268, 271, 274, also lay preaching
310–11 Raith, Balthasar, 302
publishers of, 22, 43, 44–5, 46, 50 Rambouillet, Madame de, 322
Probepredigt (trial sermons), 174 Ramée, Pierre de la, 319
Prokop of Templin, 279 Ramism, 314, 319
prophecy, 197, 216, 216; lay, 179–80, Raphael, painter, 385
186, 187; see also lay preaching, St. Paul Preaching in Athens, 326
preaching:ecst atic Rapin, René, 336–7
406 index
Raritan valley, 205 Rhode Island, 371

Rationalists, 203n, 215, 242 Riccoboni, Luigi, 328
Rauscher, Wolfgang, 291 Richardson, Samuel, 329, 334, 339
Rautenstrauch, Frank Stephan, 92, 93 Richter, Johann Paul, 333
reconciliation, 305–6 Riksdag (Swedish Diet), 43, 45, 46,
Red Sea, biblical, 135 255, 257
Reformation, ix, 10, 32, 50 51, 58, 59, Rivington, John, 382
61, 63, 64, 67, 69, 70, 74, 75, 78, 82, Roach, Joseph, 328
83, 84, 87, 173, 174n, 177, 180, 190, Rochefaucauld, 383
263, 269, 272n, 283, 284, 307, 360 Rogel, Anna, 198n
Reformation, Counter-, 307 Rollin, Charles, Lettres, 100, 112
Reformed Church, 11, 38, 39, 40n, 45, Romanticism, 243
50 59, 200, 203n, 289, 300, 307, 313 Rome, 23, 133, 134, 164, 349, 354
application of preaching doctrine, 265, Rooden, Peter van, 39, 40, 44, 248,
267 Roodenburg, Herman, xii, x
Bern 269 Rosén, Gabriel, 255–6
Dutch, 43, 220, 247, 248, 331n, 338 Rothe, Johann Andreas, 66
German, 331 Rotterdam, 314
primacy of practice, 263 Rousseau, 236, 238, 255, 347
sermons for special feasts, 270 Rowlandson, 339
Sunday sermon, 269 Royal Order, 45
Reformers, 15, 16, 20, 21, 30, 60 Royal Society, 12, 111
reforms, 42, 63, 89, 93, 283 Rubens, painter, 385
Regensburg, 93 Rudolf I, 25
Reichardt, Johann Friedrich, 334 Russia, 191n
Reinbeck, Johann Gustav, 203 Rutledge, Jean Jacques, 369, 385–6
relics, 163
religious wars, 303 Sailer, Johann Michael, 93
Rémond de Sainte-Albine, Pierre, 328 St. Anne’s Church (Augsburg), 305
Remonstrants, 247; see also Arminians St. Asaph, 104
Renaissance, 3, 5, 98, 318 St. Bride’s Church (London), 371
Reni, Guido, 350n Saint-Denis (Paris), 148, 149
repentance, 4, 41, 42, 179, 302, 378 St. George’s (London), church, 379
Reskript (1649), 300 Saint-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie (Paris),
Restoration, 13, 43, 111, 113 136, 139
Restoration, post-, 110n, 111 St. James’s (London), church, 379
Revivalism, viii, xi, 173, 204–18, 231, 356 Saint-Louis (Paris), church of the Jesuits,
continental, 206 153, 166
emphasis on conversion, 206 St. Margaret’s Church (Westminster), 43
North American (Reformed), 206 St. Mark’s Square (Venice), 373
preaching forms of, 210 St. Martin, Ludgate Hill (London), 356
role of women in, 210; see also women St. Mary’s Church, Wittenberg, 271
Scots-Irish, 206 Saint-Merry (Paris), 135
see also Wesley, Whitefield St. Michael’s (Jena), 72
Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, see St. Patrick’s (Dublin), 98, 116
Nantes St. Paul’s (London), cathedral, 168, 356,
Revolutionary Wars, 245 363, 382
rhetoric, xiii, x, 3, 90, 95, 120, 315, 316, St. Peter’s (Bologna), 365
318, 319, 331, 346; see also Baroque, saints, sermons for feast days of, ix, 3–4,
sermon style: rhetoric 6, 22, 26, 27, 33, 153, 270, 307
Rhetorica ad Herennium, 318 Salem (Massachussets), 36n, 314
Rhine, 265 Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon, François
Rhineland, 196 de, 241
index 407
Sallust, 11 schooling, 299–301

salvation, sermons and, 20, 58–60, 61, Schrant, Joannes Matthias, 331, 338,
62, 65, 66, 69, 70, 72, 73, 77, 87, 339, 340
88, 91, 303, 305 Schwanenstadt, 304
Salzburg, 300, 304 Scotland, 14, 234, 325, 339, 355
somnambulant, 216 Secker, Thomas, bishop of Oxford, 358
Samson, biblical, 25, 26 secularization, of society, 42
Santa Maria Sopra Minerva (Rome), 365 Segneri, Paolo, 290
Santa Prassede (Rome), 349 self-denial, 19
Santiageo di Compostella, 361 self-examination, 309
Saracens, in Egypt, 163 Selhamer, Christoph, 300
Sardinia, king of, 349 sensibility, cult of, 328–9, 333–4, 337–9,
Sarum, 168, 353 340
satires, 9 Sentimentalism, 339, 340
Saugnieux, Joél, Les jansénistes et la separatism, radical, 198n
renouveau de la predication dan sermon audience, viii, xiii, 82, 118–19,
l’espagne de la seconde moitie du XVIIIe 124–5, 271, 278, 345, 346, 383, 386
siècle, 10 attendance of, 278, 279, 345, 382
Saurin, Jacques, 98 children attending, 270, 230; see also
Savoy, duchy of, 134, 165 children
Saxony, 67, 184, 199 class and gender associations, 281, 373,
Sayn-Wittgenstein, 196 381, 384, 386, 387
Scandinavia, 197n, 201 communities, 381–4
Scandinavia (see also Denmark, Sweden, different audience requires different
Norway, Finland), political sermons sermon style/content, 118–19,
of: 226, 243, 251–7, 258 137, 278, 280, 281, 353, 357,
censorship, 254 385, 386, 387
concept of Lutheran state church entry charges for, 385–6
in, 251 eyewitness accounts (‘ego documents’)
concept of the citizen, 254 of, 344, 379, 387, 388
Finnish developments, 254 illiterate, 270, 275
moral emphasis of, 251 pew privileges of, 280
natural religion in, 254 reactions to: 344, 374–80, 385–7;
Norwegians, Danes, and Germans as assessment of, ‘uses and gratifications
separate identities, 252 approach’, 345, 346, 386–8;
on reason and revelation, 254 (cognitive pursuits), 346-;
patriotism, 252 (emotional needs), 346, 357–74;
political ideas expressed in, 251–2 (identity/personal fulfilment), 374–81;
Swedish developments, 252–3 (social affirmation), 346, 381–6
Scheffer, Johan Frederik, 41 recollection of, 343
Schian, Martin, 182 responsibilities of, 264
Schiller, Jungfrau von Orleans, 334 sermon strategies for, 276
Schimmer, Georg, 271 servants attending, 280; see also
Schleiermacher, Friedrich Daniel Ernst, servants
vii, x social occasion, 382, 386
Glaubenslehre, 87, 94 women attending, see women
Predigten über den christlichen sermon collections, 184, 189, 268,
Hausstand (1818), 267, 268 271–2, 273, 275, 276
Reden Über die Religion an die occasional sermons, 176
Gebildeten unter ihren Verächtern, individual sermons, 176
86–8 Postillen (lection-based postils ordered
Schleiff, 179 by church year), 176, 179, 184, 189,
Scholasticism, see Lutheran Orthodoxy 273, 279
408 index
sermon composition, 111, 113 classical, xi, 32, 133–72, esp. 133–4,
diagram of sermon structure, 128–30 171–2
dispositiones, 109, 193n comparison (comparatio), 24–5
divisions of, 98–9 distribution (distributio), 26
elocution, 109 emblematic, ix, 4, 8, 17, 88, 193,
exordium, 23, 135, 140, 142, 144, see also emblems
146, 150, 154; Ave Maria, 113, 135, emotional, 359
140, 142, 146, 154 evangelistic ‘awakenings’, ix, 14
inventio: Biblical text, 108–9; explana- expository, 19
tion of biblical text, 109–10 Gerundianismo, 4, 9, 10
schematic parts of, 16 heroic method, 198n
treatises on, 107–9 naming (nominatio), 22
sermon content: 118, 273, 343, 347, 373; neoclassical, 115, 229, 231, 236, see
see also sermons: political also Classicism, Neo-classicism, ser-
exotic themes, 350 mon style: classical
on doctrine vs. practicality/morality, ornamented, 32
351, 387 Pietist, see Pietism
on nature and farming, 278 plain style’, ix, 114–18, 119, 120, see
on the afterlife, 47 also sermon style: classical
on the Bible, 21 poetics and, 8–9
on the passions, 47 Puritan, 13–14; see also Puritanism
on various subjects, xi, xii, 47–8 rational argumentation, 74
on vice vs. morality, 352, 387 repeating the same one, 356
preservation of social order, 281, 308; rhetoric (classical oratory), xiii, 3, 5–6,
see also social order 9, 10, 11, 15, 18, 26, 27, 29, 60, 74,
authorities and subjects, 290–6 86, 90, 95, 96, 100–1, 105, 120–1,
confessional polemics, 303–8 177, 182, 193, 363, 372–3, see also
cooperation of state and church, Baroque, rhetoric
269–78, 295 thematic, 5–6, 11, 16, 21, 23, 24, 28,
impact of clerical criticisms on 30, 193
government, 294 topical, 19
marriage and household, 281–7 use of allusions, 9
nationalism expressed in, 226, 227, witty, 7
228, 237–40, 303; see also sermons
sermons:p olitical acting and, 320–1, 324, 325, 326, 327,
on the poor and the rich, 281 328, 335, 338n, 340, 364, 367; see
stages of life, 296–303; (birth, also Elocutionary
childhood and youth), 296–301; as a literary genre, 173, 177, 219
(illness, old age and death), as an oral media event, 344, 386
301–3 as entertainment, 366–7
wealth and poverty, 289–91 as part of liturgical ritual, 359–64, 387
work, 287–9 Baumgarten’s view on, 70–1
references to daily life, 266, see also biblical exegesis in, 3, 6; see also
behaviour homilies
references to inner belief, 266 by lay preachers, see lay preaching
social morals: 280–91 by women, xiii, 47
sermon style, 110–11, 112, Catholic understanding of, 61
115–21 church setting of, 16
amplification of, 23 civic, 38
Anglican, ix; see also Anglicanism commonplace books and, see common-
audience determined, see sermon place books
audience communication of, viii
Baroque, see Baroque, sermon style: conversion through, 87
rhetoric daily life and, xii
index 409
delivery of, 369, 370–1, 372, 375, 387; for saints’ days, ix, 6, 22, 26, 27, 153,
see also preaching 270, 307
didactic function of, xii, 20, 21, 57, for school, 300
59–60, 62, 72, 73, 78–9, 82, 90, for Sunday, ix, 3, 5, 16, 22, 28, 38,
276–7, 347, 376–8, 380 105, 153, 175, 255, 269, 271
duration of, 175n, 270, 271, 276, 313n for thanksgiving, 4
English orators, 98 for the Eucharist, 52
Enlightenment and Reformation views for the monarchy, 4
compared, 83 for the Virgin Mary, 4
Enlightenment, 219, 225 for various occasions, 49, 51
evangelistic, ix, 4 for war, 244
exegetical homilies, 3 for weddings, 175, 277
faith and, 73; see also faith for weekdays, 3, 4, 5, 16, 22
for Advent, 3, 105, 153, 165, 383 French orators, 98
for Ascension, 3 heart-felt discourse (Methodist), xiii
for Ash Wednesday, 106 historical, vii
for baptism, 52 Holy Spirit and, 60, 63, 75
for calamities, 358, 381 homiletic, see homilies
for Calvinists, 3 house-, 267
for Candlemas, 383 illustrations for, 6, 7
for Catechism, 22, 47, 52 impact of French Revolution on, 265
for charity, 47 importance of, xii, 72, 83, 84, 175,
for Christmas, 3 192, 263
for church councils, 49 inspiration and, 82, 84
for commemorations, 49–50 language used for, xi, 272–3
for consecrations, 7, 50for Corpus Luther’s view of, 58–9
Christi, 135, 156 Lutheran, 3; see also Lutherans
for court, 255, 383 metaphysical, 7, 11, 13
for crises, 36 monastic, 276–7
for disasters, 4 moralizing of, 65–6, 67, 69, 78, 80, 81,
for Easter, 3, 382, 383 84, 94
for ecclesiastical occasions, 51 mysticism, 61, 349, 350
for election days, 36, 38 obligatory, 279
for embassies, 52 open-air, see preaching
for Epiphany, 3 panegyrical, 6
for fasting, 36, 38, 39–40, 41, 44, 381 place of in liturgical worship, 199
for funerals, ix, 6, 21, 27–31, 31–4, pneumatic quality of, 65
138, 153, 168, 175, 176, 274, 305, practical application of, 263
306, 357; see also funerals printing of, see printing
for Good Friday, 368, 383 Protestant theology of, 63–88
for historical events, 49–50, 51 pulpit fines, 271
for Jubilee Speeches, 49–50 reforms of in France, 89, 91, 92
for Lent, 3, 105, 119n, 143, 145n, renewal of, 219–20
153, 159, 165, 356, 381, 383 Roman Catholic theology of, 88–93
for Martinmas, 281 salvation and, 65, 77, 78, 87, 91
for militia, 38 serial, 269
for missions/missionaries, 270, 275, specialized, 363
360, 362, 387 Spener’s view on, 65
for moral behaviour, 52–3 state, 42–6, 51, 227–8, 247, 251,
for New Year, 281, 298 269–78, 295
for overseas regions and activities, 52 street, or ‘declamations’, 354, 362,
for Palm Sunday, 144–5 see also preaching: open-air
for political events, ix, 4, 34–5, 42 theology of (eighteenth-century), ix, x
for practical life, 11 ‘thesaurus’, 104
410 index
types of, 22, 30, 358 Slavs, 23

women and, see women Smith, Hilary Dansey, 5
sermons, political: xii, 48–4, 220, 221–8, Smith, Mr, 383
257–9, 268 social order, xii, 280–1, 308; see also
as a response to Enlightened sermon content: social order
modernity, 224 clothes of, 281
concept of nationalism expressed in, heavenly analogy, 281
226, 227, 228, 237–40 hierarchy of, 281–2, 294
contents of, 225: contemporary topics, home as centre of, 281–2
225; language, 225; reason, 225; justification of social inequality, 289
social progress, 225; use of loyalty of subjects to ruling class,
Enlightenment debates, 225 290–6
countries of origin, 220 paterfamilias, 282; see also paterfamilias
English, 42–3, 44, 46, 228–34, see also royalty/aristocracy vs. farmers/city
England’s political sermons dwellers, 298–9
expression of official state ideology, social discipline, 308, 309
227–8 social outreach, 21
French, 234–40, see also France’s Society of Jesus, see Jesuits
politcalser mons Socinians, 147
national ceremonies for, 22 Solomon, king, biblical, 24,
Netherlands, 43–5, 246–50, see also the 25, 145
Netherlands’ political sermons South, Robert, 98, 348n
Prussia and Austria, 240–6, see also Souvré, 383
Germany’s political sermons Spain, 4, 5, 6, 9, 150, 235n, 348
publications of, 227–8 Spalding, Johann Joachim
reflecting current affairs, 223, 225 Religion eine Angelegenheit des
Scandinavia, 251–7, see also Menschen, 78
Scandinavia’s political sermons Über die Nutzbarkeit des Predigtamtes
Sweden, 45–6 und deren Beförderung, 20–1,
servants, in the sermon audience, 270, 241, 242
275, 276, 280, 283, 287 Spanish, language, 372
Seven Years’ War, 232, 244 Spanner, André, 103n
sex, 308 Spener, Philipp Jakob, x, xi, 17–20, 67,
Shakespeare, William, 334 180, 181, 183, 185, 186n, 187, 189n,
Sharp, family, 102, 107 194, 197, 198, 199, 200, 214
Sharp, John Jr, 102n, 104, 110 on conversion, 68
Sharp, John Sr, Archbishop, 102n on criticisms of preaching, 181–2
Sharp, Thomas Jr, 102n, 107n, 108 on funeral sermons, 32
Sharp, Thomas Sr, 102n, 109, 115 on grace, 63–4
Shaw, John, Rev., 383 on preachers’ rebirth, 64
Sheridan, Thomas, xiii on the sermon, 65
British Education, 330 Pia Desideria, 181–2
Lectures on Elocution, 326 Spiritualists, 178
Sherlock, Thomas, bishop of London, Sprat, Thomas, Bishop, 98
356, 358 Sprout, 370
Shipley, Jonathan, bishop, 232 stadhouder (functionary in Dutch
Siam, 368 Republic), 45, 51
Sicily, 381 Stanislavski, Constantin, 321
Sieker, Christian Wilhelm, 295 States General, Dutch, 39, 44, 247
Silesia, 66 States of Holland, 44
simony, 163 Steele, Richard, 339
sin, 35, 42, 59, 87 Steiger, Johann Anselm, 17, 29, 30
singing, preaching and, 202; see also music Steinbart, Gotthilf Samuel, 336
Sisters of the Visitation, 141 Sterne, Laurence, 334, 339
index 411
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Teller, Wilhelm Abraham, Predigten und
Shandy, 105, 329, 339 Reden, 79–81
Stevenson, William, 103 Temple Church (London), 364
Stift, Stuttgart, 293 Templecombe (Somerset), 99
Stillingfleet, Edward, Bishop, 98 Ten Commandments, sermons for, 47
Stockholm, Great Church of, 46 Tennent, Gilbert, 205, 206, 210
Stölzel, Wilhelm Friederich, 243 on unregenerate clergy, 206
Stout, Harry, 35, 41, 208 revival preaching of, 206
Strobl, Andreas, 286, 298 The Danger of An Unconverted Ministry
Strom, Jonathan, xi, 18 (1740), 206
Stuttgart, 190, 293 Teresa of Avila, 24
Styria, Upper, 304 Terror of 1793, in France, 239
Sunday, sermons for, ix, 3, 5, 16, 21, 28, Tertullian, 11
38, 153, 175, 255, 269, 271 Thame (Oxfordshire), 101
sunflower, symbol of, 17 Thanet, Lady, 382
Sussex (England), 356 thanksgiving, sermons for, 41
Swabia, 274 Theatines, 88
Sweden, xii, 37n, 197, 251, 256 theatre, preaching and, 270, 328, 344n,
Sweden, political sermons from, 42, 45–7, 385, 386; see also acting
225n, 252–7, 258, 259; see also Thebez, biblical, 26
Scandinavia theft, 308
Ages of Liberty, 253 Theresa, Maria, Empress, 304
aspects of natural religion in, 254 Thicknesse, Philip, 372
Christian patriotism in, 255–6 Thirty Years War, 17
concepts of freedom, 256 Thomas, John, Liberality in promoting the
German influences on, 253–4 trade (1733), 230
influenced by Mosheim, 253 Tiber, river, 25
limited signs of Enlightenment in, Tiedge, Christoph August, Urania, 334n
252–3 Tillotson, John, archbishop of
responsibilities of the individual, 257 Canterbury, viii, ix, xi, 11, 12, 14, 15,
traditional approaches of, 254 21, 97–8, 110, 122, 134, 167, 172,
Swedish Clerical Estate, 227, 256 228, 241, 252, 317, 378
Swedish, language, ix, 252 biography of, 168
Sweeney, Douglas A., 207 Catholic tenor of, 170
Swift, Jonathan, dean of St. Patrick’s compared with Bossuet, 12–13
(Dublin), 98 elite audiences of, 168, 169, 172
on different styles for different funeral oration for, 168
audiences, 118 ‘Of Doing All to the Glory of God’
on plain vocabulary, 116–17 (sermon), 170
on sermon memorization, 122 ‘Of the Form and Power of Godliness’
on the sleeping congregation, 125 (sermon), 170
Switzerland, 236, 241 on moral Christian behaviour,
synods, 308, 309 170–1, 172
Dort, 21 on plain vocabulary, 117–18
Dutch, 49 on restitution, 169–70
Syriac, language, 185n on self-denial and piety, 169
quality of casuistry in, 171
Tablets of the Law, 291, 308 sermon on Moses (1687), 168–9, 170
Tacitus, 11 sermons of, editions and translations
Talon, Omer, Rhetorica, 319 of, 168
Taunton Academy, 99 Tinga, Eelco, 336n
Taylor, Diana, 314–15 Tobias, biblical, 25
Taylor, Larissa, viii, ix Todd, Michael, 374
Teller, Romanus, sermon of 1742, 243 Tory party, 230; see also Conservative
412 index
Toulouse, 167 Vogt, Peter, 202

tower, symbol of, 17 Voltaire, 151, 167, 236, 237
Townshend, Lady, 382 Von Archenholz, Johann Wilhelm, 352
Transylvania, 304, 305 Voorburg, nr The Hague, 376–7
travel accounts, xiii Vossius, Gerardus, Oratoriarum
Trent, Council of (1545–1563), ix, 5, 61, Institutionum Libri Sex, 320n
88, 90, 91, 93, 107, 161, 235, 275, 284 vows, 22
Tridentine, 10, 88, 91, 105
Trim, in Tristram Shandy, 105 Wagner, Tobias, 175n, 183n
Trinitarianism, 75 Epistel-Postill, 264
Troschel, Jakob Elias, 243 Wahrhaffte und umständliche Historie von
Trusler, John, 123 der Schwedische Gefangenen in
Tübingen, 174, 193, 264, 278, 302 Rußland, 191
Tuchtfeld, Victor Christoph, 195–6 Wake, Dr, 122n
Turkey, 361 Wales, revivals in, 14
invasion by, 273 Walloon (Huguenot), 247
Turner, Thomas, 356, 378–9, 380 Walloon (London), church, 98n
Tuscany, 290, 360 Walloon (Voorburg, nr The Hague),
Tyler, Royal, 347 church, 376
Walpole, Horace, earl of Orford, 14,
Ulm, 174, 190n, 277 358–9, 364, 367, 374, 381, 387
Unitarianism, 104, 358 Wansleben, Johann Michael, Gute
United States, 384, see also North America botschaft, 307
Universal History, 100 War of 1812, 39
universities, 32, 33, 43 war, sermons for, 244
Upper Lusatia, 66, 199 Warrington Academy, 104
Upper Silesia, 66 Washington, George, president of the
Urlsperger, Samuel, 190, 305–6 United States, 38, 39
Ursulines, 88 Weales, Thomas, dean of St. Sepulchre, 110
usury, 163 wealth, xii, 289, 290
Utrecht, 338n weddings, sermons for, 4, 175
Weilheim, 300
Vachet, Bénigne, 368 Weißenborn, Christoph, 72
vaderland (nation), 40 Kirchen-Redner, 72–3
Van Eck, Otto, 376–8, 380, 387 Weißenborn, Jesaja Friedrich, 72
Van Eijnatten, Joris, see Eijnatten, Joris Weißenborn, Johann, 72
van Wells, 356
Van Rooden, Peter, see Rooden, Welzig, Werner, 22, 23, 26, 27, 29
Peter van Wenceslas, St, sermon for, 22, 23, 24, 25,
Venice, 167, 373 26–7
Versailles, 167n Wentrop (Salop), 102
Viaticum, sermon character, 136 Wesley, John, 14–15, 19, 173, 210, 231,
Victoria, queen, 42 340, 364, 367
Vieira, Antonio, 119 Directions concerning Pronunciation and
Vienna, 22, 26, 89, 93, 93, 294 Gesture, 330
Virgil, 100, 255 on lay preaching, 212
Virgin Mary, 4, 7, 11, 23, 113, 134, 135, on women as lay preachers, 212
140, 144, 157, 270, 279, 354, 361 preaching style of, 210–11
Annunciation, 270 publications of sermons, 211
Assumption, 270 Sermons on Several Occasions, 211
Purification, 270 Wesleys, family, 107, 208, 210
Virginia, 39, 371 Westminster Abbey, 43, 348n, 359
virtue, 27 Weston Longville (Norfolk), 382
Viterbo, 363 Westphalia, Peace of (1648), 17
index 413
Wetterau, 197 in the Moravian offices, 200n

Whigs, 43, 99, 230 in the sermon audience, 175n,
Whitefield, George, 14, 15, 205, 330, 278, 373
338, 339, 356, 374, 381 lay, among Quakers, 186
‘Grand Itinerant’, 207 life expectancy, of, 301
on New Birth and conversion, 207 novel associated with, 149n
preaching style of, 207–9 ordained, 199
publications of, 209, 210 sermons by, xiii, 47
Whitehall (London), 168 social position of, 331
Wibird, Anthony, 356–7 views of preachers on, 24, 26
wigs, and preaching, 313 Woodcock, Thomas, 374–6
Wilhelmina of Prussia, queen to William woodcuts, 32
V, 51 Woodforde, James, 382
Wilkes, John, 382–3 Worcester, Thomas, xi, 28
Wilkins, John, bishop, 317, 329 work, 287–9
Ecclesiastes, 111 worship, 21
William III, stadhouder, 34 Württemberg, 74, 175n, 203, 270, 272,
William IV, stadhouder, 34 293, 300
William of Orange, 42 Württembergischen Summarien, on
William V, king, 51 marriage, 284
William, David, The morality of a citizen Wurz, Joseph Ignaz, 273
(1776), 230
William, king of England, 12, 43n, 168 Young, Arthur, 353
Willich, Jodocus, German humanist, Young, Edward, 339; Night Thoughts,
318 339n
Winkelprediger, 186
witches, 36n Zaretti, Vincenzo Maria, 290
Witt, Friedrich Jakob, 293 Zepper, Wilhelm, 318
Wittenberg, 271 Zinzendorf, Count Nikolaus Ludwig von,
Wittgenstein-Schwarzenau, 195 x, xi, 20, 66–7, 199, 200, 201, 202
Wolfenbüttel, 271 on Christ’s reconciliation, 68
Wolffian philosophy, 252 on moral improvement, 68–9
women on the deeds of Christ, 68
as Methodist lay preachers, 212, 213 on the Holy Spirit, 68–9
cloister and, 284 on the sermon, 67–8, 69
funeral sermons for, 31 Zion, 35
in the Great Awakening, 210n Zürich, 278
in the ministry, 210 Zwingli, 60

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Preaching, Sermon and Cultural Change

in the Long Eighteenth Century

A Herrnhutter (Moravian) community was established in Zeist in the Dutch Republic

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

ISBN 978 90 04 17155 8

Copyright 2009 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.

Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke

printed in the netherlands

Varieties of Sermon: A Survey of Preaching

The Theology of the Sermon in the Eighteenth Century.......................57

The Classical Sermon .........................................................................133

On Sermons and Daily Life ................................................................263

There has been considerable development in historical research into

as a consequence, that various historically important preachers (as, for

of both the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation. The authors of

into perspective the Pietist theology of Philipp Jakob Spener, August

reckoned themselves part of a ‘moderate’ Enlightenment. They are the sub-

reception of the work of Michel le Faucheur in England, Germany and the

themes and in expanding comparative dimensions. Above all, this volume

Joris van Eijnatten.

Alexander Bitzel, Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter, Institut für Kirchen- und

O.C. Edwards, Jr.

In view of the many diﬀerent kinds of sermons preached in the ‘long

Sunday and Weekday Sermons

Roman Catholic Preaching

of the sermon into the points to be made is announced. The conﬁrmation

Preaching of this sort is also called ‘witty’ and ‘metaphysical’ in English.

In reaction to Camus’ proposals, Molinier, whose sermon is quoted

seventeenth century was over. It returned to the fonts of classical rhetoric,

Anglican and Other English Preaching

restrained Gallic passion and Tillotson’s phlegmatic British rationality.

Lutheran Preaching after Luther

and involved a minute analysis of the text. He began by stating what

quarter of the eighteenth century the Enlightenment began to question

Sermons for Saints’ Days

comparison (comparatio), and distribution (distributio). Welzig calls the

Leopold is a true Austrian ‘in whom there is no deceit’. This giving of a

of Wenceslas is compared with that of Samson. Samson’s strength was

is based on published sermons and the expense of publication was restricted

Sermons on Civic Occasions

in other countries at the time. The occasional sermons presuppose that

much later, Johan Frederik Scheﬀer (1744–1808) shocked the world by

American Revolutionary consciousness arising as a function of the Great

‘Above all, Swedish Lutheran preaching had to be strictly orthodox, biblical,

Enlightenment. While some earlier scholars have thought the shift to

Other Varieties of Preaching

ideas on such diverse topics as children,130 women,131 marriage,132 the

House of Orange drew many supporters from among the orthodox

Before Church Councils

Commemoration Sermons, Jubilee Speeches, History Lectures

Preaching with a Speciﬁc Ecclesiastical Theme

Baptism was normally performed at the end of a church service rather

Sermons from Regions Overseas

* Translated by Charlotte Masemann.

developments of European church history – the Reformation above all,

2. Historical Starting Point

2.1 The Theology of the Sermon According to the Confessional Writings

3. Protestant Theology of the Sermon in the Eighteenth Century

Lutheran sermon theory of the seventeenth century is strongly characterized

It is incontestable for Spener that a preacher is only able to preach God’s

The renewal of the church is meant to take place “through a conscious

a tendency towards moral exhortation and ethical instruction (paraenesis).

Saxony as an ecclesiola in ecclesia (a concept of Spener), although it