596 predestination
Arles (469/470–542), and Pope GREGORYI THEGREAT
were compiled and recopied from Christian late antiq-
uity. One model for this was a homiliary written by the
LOMBARDmonk PAULthe Deacon. He collected patristic
texts meant for particular feasts for a lectionary to use
in the liturgy and in preaching to the people. Preaching
was, however, secondary to the liturgy and the sacra-
ments in pastoral care.
In the 13th century, with the rise of the MENDICANT
orders and an increased awareness of HERESY, the PAPACY
began to promote more preaching activity to assist people
in understanding and practicing a true Christian life. An
increased emphasis was placed on clerical education to
enable priests to preach more effectively, to combat evan-
gelization by heretical groups, and to avoid unknowingly
spreading unacceptable doctrine.
The DOMINICANSand the FRANCISCANSadopted the
technique of the so-called modern SERMON. In form
the preacher began with a verse from the liturgy of the
day, or the theme, and explained it point by point.
Collections of model sermons were compiled for general
use according to the CALENDARof the church, for the
feasts of saints, for occasions such as funerals and for
certain social classes of people. Aids for the preacher
soon followed. These were treatises on the art of preach-
ing, or ARS PRAEDICANDI,concordances of Scripture, sum-
mariesof the lives of the saints, the writings of more or
less contemporary Scholastic theologians and the
FATHERS OF THE CHURCH, and lists of exemplary stories
for the edification of the hearer. Some of the friars
became famous for their effective and entertaining
preaching. They drew huge open-air crowds, especially
for their sermons during the seasons of ADVENTand
LENT. The parish clergy also began to preach much more
frequently, backing up the friars in the towns and partic-
ularly in rural parishes, where the mendicants rarely
appeared. The 15th century was the great age of mendi-
cant preachers.
See also ANTHONY OF PADUA,SAINT;ANTONINUS,
SAINT; BERNARDINO OFSIENA, SAINT; BERTHOLD OFREGENS-
BURG ORRATISBON; EXEMPLUM; RHETORIC; SAVONAROLA,
GIROLAMO;VITTORINO DAFELTRE.
Further reading: Jonathan Porter Berkey, Popular
Preaching and Religious Authority in the Medieval Islamic
Near East (Seattle: University of Washington Press,
2001); Marianne G. Briscoe, Artes praedicandi(Turnhout:
Brepols, 1992); David L. D’Avray, The Preaching of the Fri-
ars: Sermons Diffused from Paris before 1300 (Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1985); David L. D’Avray, Death and the
Prince: Memorial Preaching before 1350(Oxford: Claren-
don Press, 1994); Carolyn Muessig, ed., Medieval Monas-
tic Preaching(Leiden: Brill, 1998); James J. Murphy, ed.,
Three Medieval Rhetorical Arts(Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1971); John W. O’Malley, Praise and
Blame in Renaissance Rome: Rhetoric, Doctrine, and Reform
in the Sacred Orators of the Papal Court, c. 1450–1521
(Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1979); Marc
Saperstein, ed., Jewish Preaching, 1200–1800: An Anthol-
ogy(New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1989);
P. S. Wilson, A Concise History of Preaching(Nashville:
Abingdon Press, 1992).predestination Predestination in the Middle Ages was
the idea that some people, the elect, were gratuitously
already destined for and were infallibly guided to SALVA-
TION. It was considered a HERESYin the Middle Ages, but
it and its implications were a part of much theological
discussion and dispute. It could abrogate or at least ques-
tion the doctrine of free will: that people can chose to do
good or evil and then suffer the consequences, either sal-
vation or damnation. GODcould also let people fall short
of what was destined for them by their own actions or
reprobation.
Predestination was a profound problem for medieval
THEOLOGYand became an even greater issue in the 16th-
century Reformation. It raised questions about the nature
of GRACE, the universal saving will of GOD, divine gratu-
ity, human merit and the value of good actions, future
contingency, and, most important, human freedom and
divine prescience. For the medieval church grace was a
prerequisite for salvation, but it was not arbitrarily
bestowed and could be earned.
See also AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO,SAINT;HUS,JOHN;
JOHNSCOTTUSERIUGENA; PELAGIANISM; WILLIAM OFOCK-
HAM;WYCLIFFE,JOHN.
Further reading:John Scottus Eriugena, Treatise on
Divine Predestination,trans. Mary Brennan (Notre Dame,
Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1998); William, of
Ockham, Predestination, God’s Foreknowledge, and Future
Contingents,trans. Marilyn McCord Adams and Norman
Kretzmann, 2d ed. (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1983); Harm J.
M. J. Goris, Free Creatures of an Eternal God: Thomas
Aquinas on God’s Infallible Foreknowledge and Irresistible
Will(Louvain: Peeters, 1996); James L. Halverson, Peter
Aureol on Predestination: A Challenge to Late Medieval
Thought(Leiden: Brill, 1998).Premonstratensians(Norbertines, White Canons)
The Order of Canons Regular of Prémontré in the Middle
Ages was an order of regular canons living together in
autonomous abbeys under the AUGUSTINIANRule. The
foundation of the order was part of the great 12th-century
reforming movement known as the GREGORIAN REFORM.
When NORBERT OFXANTENand his first disciples, all cler-
ics and canons, made a profession in the solitude of Pré-
montré, near the town of LAON, on Christmas night 1121,
the order was born. They aimed to establish a community
based on the common ownership of goods, hospitality to
the poor and pilgrims, solemn liturgical worship, and
PREACHING. Their influence soon spread, producing a net-
work of abbeys in FRANCE, GERMANY, ENGLAND, HUNGARY,