The Language of Preaching in the Twelfth Century

“The Language of Preaching in the Twelfth Century." This article deals with the questions of how sermons were prepared and transmitted in the Middle Ages (especially the twelfth century), how they were preached, to whom they were addressed, and in what language they were delivered. It discusses the conception, delivery, transcription. and preservation of sermons, which often survive in a form very different from the way they were preached. With regard to the audiences of sermons, it studies the type and degree of linguistic divergences and the extent of bilingualism. Some clerics did not understand Latin and some laypeople knew Latin, and both groups seem to have liked some Latin in sermons. The article concludes that sermons were preached not only in Latin to the clergy and in the vernacular to the laity but also (contrary to the view of many scholars) in a mixed, or macaronic, language to mixed audiences. The stories of miraculous understanding of sermons in foreign languages show that the listeners did not always know the language in which the sermon was preached.