medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
I looked at preaching on the Continent in the Carolingian period for my PhD
thesis.
Unfortunately, there is a lack of evidence regarding sermons' delivery to
say for sure whether they were preached in Latin or the vernacular. I found
no references to the language of preaching in contemporary literary texts,
and I know of only one Carolingian sermon collection in which the preacher
says explicitly that he will speak in the vernacular as a concession to the
layfolk in his audience (see James McCune, 'Rethinking the Pseudo-Eligius
Sermon Collection', Early Medieval Europe, 16 (2008), 445-76 (pp. 459-62)).
The canon from the Council of Tours in 813 referred to in Al's email implies
to my mind that there was an existing tradition of preaching in Latin, which
was no longer appropriate given the gulf that had opened up between the
vernacular and Church Latin.
I would presume that actual practice varied according to the venue or
occasion i.e. when large numbers of layfolk were present on major feast days
or saints' days, a bishop or priest may have decided to preach in the
vernacular (for a later period see e.g. Giles Constable, 'The Language of
Preaching in the Twelfth Century', Viator, 25 (1994), 131-52).
My area of expertise is not Anglo-Saxon England, so I would suggest
consulting e.g. M. McC. Gatch, Preaching and Theology in Anglo-Saxon
England: Aelfric and Wulfstan (Toronto, 1977); M. McC. Gatch, 'The
Unknowable Audience of the Blickling Homilies', Anglo-Saxon England, 18
(1989), 99-115; M. Clayton, 'Homiliaries and Preaching in Anglo-Saxon
England', Peritia, 4 (1985), 207-42.
Kind regards,
James McCune.
-----Original Message-----
From: medieval-religion - Scholarly discussions of medieval religious
culture [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Andrew Larsen
Sent: 20 July 2012 00:11
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [M-R] Query
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
I've wondered about this issue in reference to the Council of Claremont,
where Urban II gave his famous sermon. The audience included both northern
and southern French, I believe. The accounts tend to emphasize the crowd's
reaction ("Deus lo volt!), as if the audience hear the sermon, understood
it, and immediately responded enthusiastically. So was it preached in Latin
with translators, or in Occitan (Urban, IIRC, was from southern France and
so probably knew Occitan), with a translation into Northern French?
Andrew E. Larsen
Marquette University
On Jul 19, 2012, at 5:37 PM, John Briggs wrote:
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>
> On 19/07/2012 23:23, James Bugslag wrote:
>>
>> George,
>> Was it that straightforward? Preachers moved about a lot. Their mutual
knowledge of Latin meant that they could converse with each other, but, for
example, when St. Bernard made a preaching tour of Germany, if the sermons
were to be in the vernacular, he would have had to have a translator handy,
I would imagine.
>
> Or he didn't preach to people who didn't understand Latin.
>
> John Briggs
>
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