660 sermons and homilies
Peasant Servitude in Medieval Catalonia (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1991); Paul Freedman,
Images of the medieval Peasant(Stanford, Calif.: Stanford
University Press, 1999); Paul Hyams, King, Lords, and
Peasants in Medieval England: The Common Law of
Villeinage in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries(Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1980); R. H. Hilton, The English Peas-
antry in the Later Middle Ages(Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1975); R. H. Hilton, The Decline of Serfdom in Medieval
England,2d ed. (London: Macmillan, 1983).
sermons and homilies Technically a sermon is dis-
tinct from a homily. The homily was often on a biblical
text, usually from the New Testament, perhaps a parable
or miracle by Christ. The preached commentary that fol-
lowed the text tried to resolve any difficulties in the mes-
sage and to clarify its concrete moral and spiritual
implications. In a sermon, the speaker did not comment
on a scriptural text in detail. At the beginning he pre-
sented a single citation or quotation, generally biblical.
Sermons were generally more diversified and often based
in the Old Testament. Any real distinctions between a
homily and a sermon were not so neat or clear. Homilies
and sermons were preached on Sundays and feast days
and were addressed to all of the faithful.
PREACHINGsermons and homilies was the duty of bish-
ops and became the duty of PRIESTSand friars by the 13th
century. The MENDICANT ORDERSwere also supposed to
preach as one of their main duties on doctrines and ideas
other than biblical material. Sermons were mainly preached
in churches at certain services, but they could also be part
of less formal occasions. They were supposed to reform the
moral lives of their hearers, either lay or clerical.
See alsoALAN OFLILLE; ARS PRAEDICANDI;JAMES OF
VITRY.
Further reading:Nicole Bériou, ed., Modern Ques-
tions about Medieval Sermons: Essays on Marriage, Death,
History and Sanctity(Spoleto: Centro italiano di studi sul-
l’Alto medioevo, 1994); Jonathan Porter Berkey, Popular
Preaching and Religious Authority in the Medieval Islamic
Near East (Seattle: University of Washington Press,
2001); David L. D’Avray, Medieval Marriage Sermons:
Mass Communication in a Culture without Print(Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2001); Daniel R. Lesnick,
Preaching in Medieval Florence: The Social World of Fran-
ciscan and Dominican Spirituality(Athens: University of
Georgia Press, 1989); Carolyn Muessig, ed., Medieval
Monastic Preaching(Leiden: Brill, 1998).
Seuse, Heinrich SeeSUSO,HENRY.
seven deadly or capital sins The seven deadly sins
for Christians (now and) in the Middle Ages (are) were
envy, pride, anger, sloth (negligence or indifference),
avarice, gluttony, and lust. This list existed since the time
of Pope GREGORYI, from around 600. They were usually
used in opposition to the VIRTUES, which were to be prac-
ticed to prevent descent into the sinful state arising from
succumbing to these deficiencies of character. The seven
deadly sins were often featured in all kinds of art, since
artists enjoyed portraying them in varied guises, from
amusing to terrifying. They were useful also to preachers
as didactic and graphic images.
See alsoPENITENTIALS; PREACHING; SIN.
Further reading:Morton W. Bloomfield, The Seven
Deadly Sins: An Introduction to the History of a Religious
Concept, with Special Reference to Medieval English Litera-
ture(East Lansing: Michigan State College Press, 1952);
Adolf Katzenellenbogen, Allegories of the Virtues and Vices
in Mediaeval Arts: From Early Christian Times to the Thir-
teenth Century,trans. Alan J. P. Crick (New York: W. W.
Norton, 1964).seven liberal arts (quadrivium, trivium) The teachers
and educational theorists initially of antiquity and later of
the Middle Ages understood the seven liberal arts to be
the disciplines preparatory to the study of philosophy
proper and the acquisition of wisdom. Philosophy was
conceived as leading to wisdom. The liberal arts were to
be pursued by free individuals, unlike the “mechanical” or
manual arts, which were the province of slaves. The nega-
tive attitude toward the mechanical arts changed over the
course of the Middle Ages, as culture and society began to
value more highly the skilled crafts of artisans and the
beneficial services of traders and merchants.
MARTIANUSCapella compiled one of the first lists of
seven in his influential Marriage of Mercury and Philology
in about 420. In that work he distinguished the arts of
the trivium, or arts of the word, such as grammar,
RHETORIC, LOGIC, or dialectic, from those of the quadriv-
ium,or arts of the number, such as arithmetic, MUSIC,
geometry, or astronomy. About the same time AUGUSTINE
of Hippo in his On Christian Doctrinesuggested what
became an influential plan for a Christian education.
After purging it of its dangerous pagan elements, classical
literature could be safely be assimilated into Christian
pedagogy and the disciplines useful for the fruitful study
and explanation of Holy Scripture.
All of the seven liberal arts became the subjects of
study in the faculty of arts within UNIVERSITIES, or what
was essentially undergraduate higher education. Dialectic
became especially important to Scholastic education after
the 12th century. At the end of the Middle Ages, with the
rise of humanism and a renewed interest in grammar,
rhetoric, and the mathematical sciences, there was a
renewed interest in the ideas and the teaching of the
liberal arts.
See alsoPHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY;SCHOLASTICISM
AND SBDSCHOLASTIC METHOD.