- Title Pages
- Abbreviations
- 22 From Baptism to the Requiescat in Pace
- 23 Liturgical Worship
- 24 Sermons
- 25 The Curé's Prône and Parish Missions
- 26 Religious Practice
- 27 On the Margins of Official Religion
- 28 Confraternities
- 29 Popular Religion and Clerical Reformers
- 30 The Dark Side of the Supernatural
- 31 The Confessional
- 32 Commercial Loans and Lotteries
- 33 Sexual Passion
- 34 The Theatre
- 35 The Jansenist Quarrel
- 36 Unigenitus
- 37 The Appeal to a General Council
- 38 From the Regent to Fleury
- 39 The Changing Face of Jansenism
- 40 Fleury's Repression and the Interventions of the Parlement
- 41 The Mid‐Century Crisis
- 42 The Jesuits of France
- 43 The Fall of the Jesuits
- 44 The Huguenots: The Great Persecution
- 45 Cruelty and Compromise, 1700–1774
- 46 Lutherans and Jews: Routine Intolerance
- 47 Towards a Grudging Toleration, 1774–1789
- 48 The Twilight of Jansenism
- 49 The Political Role of the Bishops
- 50 The Revolt of the Curés
- General Index
Sermons
Sermons
- Chapter:
- (p.58) 24 Sermons
- Source:
- Church and Society in Eighteenth-Century France Volume 2: The Religion of the People and the Politics of Religion
- Author(s):
John McManners
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
The people of eighteenth‐century France could attend ‘sermons innumerable’, not only at religious festivals but also for every civic and national occasion. An abundance of technical advice and models to follow were available to preachers, imposing length and structure and suggesting how to fulfil the needs and desires of audiences, using sermons written out in advance and learnt by heart. It was agreed that the reign of Louis XIV had been the great age of the sermon, making a direct appeal to the heart, but the eighteenth century did not produce great orators to rival those of the late seventeenth. As the century wore on, the principal tendency came to be to concentrate on questions of morality and humanitarian generosity, reflecting both the influence of the Enlightenment and of the Counter‐Reformation desire to bring conduct into line with belief.
Keywords: Enlightenment, morality, preaching, rhetoric
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- Title Pages
- Abbreviations
- 22 From Baptism to the Requiescat in Pace
- 23 Liturgical Worship
- 24 Sermons
- 25 The Curé's Prône and Parish Missions
- 26 Religious Practice
- 27 On the Margins of Official Religion
- 28 Confraternities
- 29 Popular Religion and Clerical Reformers
- 30 The Dark Side of the Supernatural
- 31 The Confessional
- 32 Commercial Loans and Lotteries
- 33 Sexual Passion
- 34 The Theatre
- 35 The Jansenist Quarrel
- 36 Unigenitus
- 37 The Appeal to a General Council
- 38 From the Regent to Fleury
- 39 The Changing Face of Jansenism
- 40 Fleury's Repression and the Interventions of the Parlement
- 41 The Mid‐Century Crisis
- 42 The Jesuits of France
- 43 The Fall of the Jesuits
- 44 The Huguenots: The Great Persecution
- 45 Cruelty and Compromise, 1700–1774
- 46 Lutherans and Jews: Routine Intolerance
- 47 Towards a Grudging Toleration, 1774–1789
- 48 The Twilight of Jansenism
- 49 The Political Role of the Bishops
- 50 The Revolt of the Curés
- General Index
