CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS ORATORY. 



The Oratorical Genius of the Gauls. The Origin of the French Bar. Christian Oratory in the 

 First Centuries. Gallo-Roman Oratory. Preachers and Missionaries. Orators of the 

 Crusade. St. Bernard and St. Dominic. Pleadings at the Bar under Louis XI. Political 

 Oratory under Charles VI. Popular Preachers. Orators of the Reformation. Orators of the 

 League. Parliamentary Harangues. Oratory in the States-General. Military Oratory. 



HE veneration in which all the great men of 

 antiquity have held the gift of eloquence," 

 says M. Louandre, of whose treatise, as in 

 the previous chapter, we avail ourselves with 

 reference to this subject, " the historical 

 prestige attaching to the names of pagan 

 orators, the victories gained by the generals 

 who were able to address their soldiers, and 

 the influence acquired by the demagogues 

 who knew how to captivate the attention 

 of the crowd, show that in the ancient 

 - -' wor i,i ^ was no t merely literary renown, 

 but a share in the direction of state affairs which resulted from the art de bi<>n 

 dire" (the art of speaking). But, at the close of the first century of the 

 Christian era, this marvellous art, which had reached so high a pitch of 

 perfection in the flourishing periods of Athens and Rome, fell into complete 

 decadence, and the three following centuries possessed nothing but turgid and 

 insipid spouters. Rhetoric took the place of inspiration, and if oratory was 

 still professed in the Greek and Roman schools, the pedantic mode of teaching 

 produced only rhetoricians. Thus all that remains of that period is panegyrics 

 and congratulatory harangues ; for the sole aim of these rhetoricians was to 

 flatter the emperors and the great, obtain favour, and guard themselves 

 against disgrace. Amongst them may be mentioned Claudius Mumertinus 



