Crane.] 58 (March 16, 
be found in collections of sermons made for the benefit of idle or ignorant 
preachers. Two of these collections will be examined: the sermons of 
Herolt, already mentioned as the author of the Promptuarium, and those 
of Pelbartus of Themesvar; and finally a brief reference will be made to 
the class of expository works of which one of the most celebrated, Hol- 
kot, Super Sapientiam, may stand as an example. 
The author of the Promptuarium Hxemplorum was Johannes Herolt, a 
Dominican monk of Basel, who flourished during the first half of the XV 
century.* He whimsically called himself Déscipulus, and his works are 
generally cited under that name. He himself explains it as follows at the 
end of the sermones de tempore: ‘‘Finiunt sermones collecti ex diversis 
sanctorum dietis et ex pluribus libris. Qui intitulantur sermones discipuli 
quod in istis sermonibus non subtilia per modum magistri, sed simplicis 
per modum discipuli conscripsi et collegi.’’ Nothing is known of his 
life. Besides the works we have already mentioned he left a collection 
of sermones super epistolas dominicales, Hruditorium Vitae, 1 Quadrigesi- 
male and a work on the Albigensian war. The Promptuarium be- 
gins with the usual apologetic prologue from which an extract has 
been given above, then follow six hundred and thirty-four ewempla 
with references to two hundred and eighty-three contained in the 
sermons. This large mass of stories is arranged alphabetically by topics, 
e. g. Abstinentia, Accedia, Adulterium, Amicitia, Acqua benedicta, Baptis- 
mus, ete., and reference is also facilitated by a copious index. Before ex- 
amining the collection in detail, it may be well to consider briefly its 
* Scanty notices of him will be foundin Fabricius, Bib. lat. med. (Florence, 1858), 
sub verb, Discipulus, Griesse, Lehrbuch einer Liter irgeschichte, ii, 2,1, p. 169, Cruel, 
p, 480, and Val, Schmidt in his edition of the Disciplina Clericalis, Berlin, 1827, p. 
99, note 3. The date of the composition of his sermons is given in Sermo DXXX V 
(in Dominica secunda post octavas Trinitatis): a Christo autem transacti sunt mille 
quadrigenti decem et octo anni, but in the VI of the Sermones de Sanc , he men- 
tions as heretics, Huss, Jerome, and Procopius, the latter of whom did not 
assume the leadership of the Hussites until 1424, and was not killed until 1484 in 
the battle of Boomischbrod. This discrepancy can easily be explained on the 
supposition that Herolt inserted in his collection his earlier sermons, and either 
forgot to change the first date or purposely left it (Cruel, p. 480), The collection 
was probably published between 1435-40, and this will also be the date of the 
Promptuarium, as constant reference is made to it in the sermons and vice 
versd, and its object was undoubtedly to afford the preachers who used the ser- 
mons, a@ wider range of exempla, We do not know whether any edition of the 
Promptuariuwm appeared separate from the sermons, but imagine not. The 
enormous popularity of the work (including both in one) may be seen by a 
glance at Hain and Panzer. The former mentions twenty-nine editions with 
place and date, and seven without, before 1500; the latter, fifteen editions after 
the above date, The edition cited in this article is Argentine, 1495, M, Flach, 
fol, (Hain, No. 8505), It contains the sermons which will be mentioned later, 
the Promptuarium, and a collection of miracles of the Virgin, fllling thirty-one 
pages. There is an old French translation of the Promptuarium, Fleur des Com- 
mandements de Dieu, Rouen, 1496, Paris, 1525, 1536, 1539, and a later arrangement 
by another Dominican, Aug.-Vind,, 1728, 4to, Discipulus Redivivus, ete., collecta 
a Bonay. Elers, Ord. Pr. 
