The Word and its diffusion

Abstract

In the late twelfth century, the church formulated a pastoral mission which sought to Christianise Europe anew and, through preaching, to diffuse the word of God to all the lands that lay on Christendom's frontiers and well beyond. The Cistercian preaching mission to the Cathars signals a volte-face in the history of monastic preaching, but not one that was altogether unfamiliar. Innocent's pontificate was marked by its attentiveness to the laity's need for spiritual nourishment, the ministry of the word through preaching. Words, even Bernardino's persuasive words, were not always enough to lead the public away from vices. Observant Franciscans were masters of a genre which fused together image, word and gesture in a spectacular new way. As preaching events developed into spectacles, so the theatre of preaching evolved to accommodate the diffusion of the Word. With the advent of printing in the fifteenth century, sermon collections, among the first texts to be printed, were initially printed in Latin editions.

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