monks, and not for the people ; aii assumption which led in the middle age to the notorious papal prohibitions of the Scriptures in the popular tongues. Strictly speaking, the Bible has been made what it was originally intended to be, really a universal book of the people, only by the invention of the art of printing, by the spirit of the Reformation, and by the Bible Societies of modern times. For in the ancient church, and in the middle age, the manuscripts of the Bible were so rare and so dear, and the art of reading was so limited, that the great mass were almost entirely dependent on the fragmentary reading of the Scriptures in public worshij). This fact must be well considered, to forestall too unfavorable a judgment of that early age. The reading of the Scripture was followed by the sermon, based either on the pericope just read, or on a whole book, in consecutive portions. We have from the greatest pulpit ora- tors of antiquity, from Athanasius, Gregory Nazianzen, Basil the Great, Chrysostom, Ambrose, Augustine, connected homilies on Genesis, the Prophets, the Psalms, the Gospels, and the Epistles. But on high festivals a text was always selected suitable and usual for the occasion.' There was therefore in the ancient church no forced conformity to the pericopes ; the advantages of a system of Scripture lessons and a consecutive exposition of entire books of Scripture were combined. The reading of the pericopes belongs properly to the altar-service, ' Comp. Augustine's Expos, in Joh. in pracf. : " Mominit sanctitas vestra, evange- liura secundum Johannem ex ordine lectionum nos solere tractare. Sed quia nunc interposita est solemnitas sanctorum dieruni, quibus certas ex evangelic lectiones oportet recitari, quae ita sunt annuae, ut aliae esse uon possint, ordo ille quern suscc- pcramus, ex necessitate paululum intermissus est, non omissus." § 90. rUBLIC WOESIIIP OF THE LOED's DAT, 473 and must keep its connection with the church year ; preaching belongs to the pulpit, and may extend to the whole compass of the divine word. Pulpit eloquence in the fourth and fifth centuries reached a high point in the Greek church, and is most worthily repre- sented by Gregory IS'azianzen and Chrysostom. But it also often degenerated there into artificial rhetoric, declamatory bombast, and theatrical acting. Hence the abuse of frequent clapping and acclamations of applause among the people.' As at this day, so in that, many went to church not to worship God, but to hear a celebrated speaker, and left as soon as the sermon was done. The sermon, they said, we can hear only in the church, but we can pray as well at home. Chrysostom often raised his voice against this in Antioch and in Constanti- nople. The discourses of the most favorite preachers were often written down by stenographers and multiplied by manu- scripts, sometimes with their permission, sometimes without. In the Western church the sermon was much less developed, consisted in most cases of a