Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/54

42 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE sermons of Gabriel Biel, for instance, are treatises on the most abstruse dogmas of the Christian faith, such as the doctrine of the Trinity, Original Sin, the Seven Sacraments. ' In many churches,' writes Erasmus, ' it is the custom for the priest, in one sermon, to expound the whole of the Gospel to the people, or else to give a continuous exposition of all the Pauline Epistles in succession. Each one of the Ten Commandments would have four or five whole sermons devoted to it. In the general run of sermons, it was also the custom to introduce fables, legends, sayings, anecdotes (occa- sionally somewhat out of taste), by way of illustrating the meaning.' * From collections of sermons still extant we find that preachers in the rural districts generally confined them- selves to the explanation of the principal passages of the Gospel of the Sunday ; this explanation often preceded, or was followed by catechetical instructions. The ' Seelenfiihrer ' (< The Soul's Guide ') says : ' The practice which exists among priests of explaining to old and young points of doctrine, and of questioning them upon the same, is highly commendable. The teaching of the sermons, and the tables of Command- ments and Confession, &c, which hang in the churches are thus rendered intelligible. This sort of catechetical instruction, as a supplement to preaching, was carried on in towns and villages in a variety of ways. A fundamental principle in religious instruction 1 Speculum Escemplorum (Hain, No. 14,915). ' Do not imitate,' says Trithemius to a friend in the year 1486, 'those who entertain the people with fables, thus exciting admiration for themselves. Wonder not that the people prefer such to the Gospel.' See Cruel, p. 654.