524 CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS ORATORY. 



and I do not dread death ; I only wish to live in order to save your 

 souls." 



From its birth the Gallic Church was associated in this great work of 

 oratorical proselytism. In the fourth century the preachers were already 

 numerous, and their inspired word had an immense influence upon the faith- 

 ful (Fig. 394). We can estimate the authority which the Catholic pulpit 

 must have possessed when we read the Greek sermons ascribed to Eusebius, 

 of Emesa in Syria sermons which are now said to have been delivered in 

 Gaul. His oratory is of a very simple kind, and yet these primitive 

 preachers, whose very names are unknown, had vividly in their minds the 

 recollections of pagan literature when they related the spiritual combats of a 

 saint, or the blood-stained struggles of a martyr. In one of these sermons 

 upon the resurrection of Christ, God made man is compared to Antaeus, son 

 of the Earth, and like that giant, whom mythology represents as struggling 

 with Hercules, the Saviour is represented as only touching the ground, the 

 better to triumph over Sin, the father of Death. In another sermon the 

 preacher depicts Tartarus as in a state of consternation, and the black 

 wardens of the obscure prisons as struck with dismay at the arrival of the 

 Son of God, " who comes there to command, and not to suffer." 



These ancient sermons form, together with the legends of the saints, the 

 most important part of the literature of the barbarous ages. From the fourth 

 to the"" seventh century, in Roman Gaul, the Church had no lack of brilliant 

 orators (Fig. 395). In the first rank stood St. Hilary of Poitiers, whom 

 St. Jerome surnamed the " Rhone of eloquence," so rapid and majestic was 

 his speech, and St. Martin of Tours, who was the most perfect model of 

 Christian charity ; he who said to his congregation, which consisted of herds- 

 men and shepherds, " See this sheep which has come back from the shearing. 

 She has fulfilled the commands of the gospel ; she has given part of her 

 garments to clothe the naked. Go ye and do likewise." And he set them 

 an example by dividing his cloak, and giving half to a poor man who was 

 shivering with cold. In the fifth century appeared St. Eucher, whose learn- 

 ing was as great as his eloquence ; St. Paulinus, who has left us a magnificent 

 sermon upon almsgiving ; St. Hilary, St. Mamertus, and St. Valerian, whose 

 speeches are filled with the purest sentiments of Christianity, ardent love 

 for his neighbour, and boundless charity. In the sixth century we have 

 the famous St. Cassarius of Aries, who, while preaching the purest and most 



