Ars Componendi SermonesPeeters Publishers, 2003 - 86 pages Ranulph Higden, monk of St. Werburgh's Abbey and well-known author of the Polychronicon and other treatises, penned a concise and user-friendly Art of Preaching about 1346. His Ars componendi sermones follows a schematic common to many members of this genre and includes attributes desirable or necessary in the preacher, methods for piquing an audience's interest, the process of effective repetition, and suggestions for creating rhythmic patterns in prose. Its major focus, however, is the clear and comprehensive discussion of each thematic sermon part: the theme or scriptural text, its development in protheme and introduction, its division, subdivision, and embellishment. In structure and content, Higden's prescriptive manual has affinities to contemporary rhetorical texts, especially the artes poeticae and dictaminis, and displays an analogous relationship with Ciceronian dispositio as developed in the De Inventione and Rhetorica ad Herennium. A few of the many items of interest scattered throughout the text are Ranulph's insistence that preaching be separate from university exercises and his comments about various subjects like direct entry into heaven post mortem, the scope of medieval optics, what and who compose the church, and the quadruple levels of scriptural exegesis. |
Common terms and phrases
according Alain de Lille allegorical amplification anagogical antetheme Apostle appropriate art of preaching artes praedicandi Augustine authority Basevorn Benedictine biblical Boethius Brepols Cambridge chapter Charland Chester Chobham Christ Church Cicero Ciceronian componendi sermones Concerning d'études médiévales Dallas Medieval Texts Decretum Gratiani dictaminis dictandi discussed dispositio divided division dwell Eccli English example explicated exposition favored grace Gregory Higden's holy homily Ibid introduction inventione James John of Wales Kings Latin let the theme Likewise listeners literally Loeb Classical Library Lord Luke manner manuscript Margaret Jennings Matt meaning Medieval Philosophy Medieval Rhetorics method of amplifying Middle Ages modo monastic Morenzoni Murphy noted Oxford pastoral Polychronicon prayer preacher protheme Prov psalm Ramon Llull Ranulph Higden reference Sacred Scripture saint says sermones of Ranulph signification speaking subdivision Summa thematic sermon three things tion treatise Turnhout twelfth century University of Dallas University Press verb verse virgin word