rn 
1888,] 57 [Crane, 
Jacques de Vitry was followed by Etienne de Bourbon, whose collections 
will be examined later in detail, and other writers of this period recom- 
mend the frequent use of evempla.* The abuses which arose from the ex- 
cessive use of ewempla were great, and the Council of Sens in 1528 forbade 
under the pain of interdict ‘those ridiculous recitals, those stories of good 
wives (aniles fabulas) having for their end laughter only.” + These 
exempla at first were probably collected by each preacher for his own use, 
then the collected sermons of such celebrated racconteurs as Jacques de 
Vitry offered an inexhaustible magazine for several generations. Finally 
special collections of these eeempla were made for the express purpose of 
aiding the preacher, and it is to these and similar collections that the re- 
mainder of this article will be devoted. The wealth of material can be in- 
dicated but incompletely in the limited space at our command, and we 
shall therefore select as illustrations a few typical works from the various 
classes into,which the literature of the subject may be divided. In the 
first place stand the collections containing exempla alone, arranged either 
alphabeti ally or topically. We shall make use of one of each class, viz., 
the Promptuarium Huemplorum, and the Speculum Heemplorum, and refer 
briefly to later imitations in the modern languages of these collections. 
In the second place come treatises for the use of preachers, containing 
Stories systematically arranged, but forming only a part of other homi- 
letic material. Three of these works will demand our attention : Etienne 
de Bourbon, De Septem Donis; Peraldus, Summa Virtutwm et Vitiorum - 
and Bromyard, Summa Praedicantium. A. third source of exempla is to 
*L, de la Marche, p. 277, cites Humbertus de Romanis, De Hruditione praedica- 
torum, Bibl, Max. Pat. xxv, 433, We have examined all the similar treatises at 
our disposal, such as Alanus de Insulis, Swnma de arte praedicatoria; Petrus 
Cantor, Verbum Abbreviatum, and Guibert de Nogent Liber quo ordine Sermo 
heri debeat, and only in the first named work have we found a brief reference to 
exempla which we have cited above. 
tL. dela Marche, p. 278. The reader will recall Dante’s passionate outbreak 
Bhai the preaching of his day (Paradise, xxix, 1038-120, Longfellow’s trans 
Florence has not so many Lapi and Bindi 
As fables such as these, that every year 
Are shouted from the pulpit back and forth, 
In such wise that the lambs who do not know, 
Come back from pasture fed upon the wind, 
And not to see the harm doth not excuse them, 
Christ did not to His first disciples say, 
“Go forth, and to the world preach idle tales,” 
But unto them a true foundation gave ; 
And this so loudly sounded from their lips, 
That, in the warfare to enkindle faith, 
They made of the Evangel shields.and lances, 
Now men go forth with jests and drolleries 
To preach, and if but well the people laugh, 
The hood puffs out, and nothing more is asked. 
But in the cowl there nestles such a bird, 
That, if the common people were to see it, 
They would perceive what pardons they confide in, 
PROC. AMER. PHILOS, 800. XxXI. 114. H. PRINTED May 9, 1883. 
