d domestics of his
patron and perhaps in addition to these, to a few of their neighbours and
as many of the peasantry on the estate as could understand English.(63)
The common people in England were so much accustomed in those days to hear
Latin spoken in the pulpit, that they were sometimes led to undervalue a
preacher who did not make some use of it. When Dr. Pollock, the celebrated
orientalist, was presented to the rectory of Childry, near Oxford, he
considered it to be his duty to adapt his instructions to what he thought
to be the capacity of his rustic parishioners. This made some of them
lament to one of his friends that he was "no Latiner."(64) An unseasonable
display of learning by Dr. Manton, on the other hand, when preaching in
St. Paul's, on some public occasion, instead of awakening admiration,
subjected him to a reproof which he felt very keenly. On returning home in
the evening, a poor man following him, gently pulled him by the sleeve of
his gown, and asked him if he were the gentleman who had preached that day
before my Lord Mayor. He answered he was "Sir," said he, "I came with
earnest desires after the word of God, and hopes of getting some good to
my soul, but I was greatly disappointed, for I could not understand a
great deal of what you said,--you were quite above me." The Doctor replied,
with tears in his eyes, "Friend, if I did not give you a sermon, you have
given me one."(65) Massillon was one of the first French preachers who
abstained, in the pulpit, from the use of citations from profane authors.
In the first sermon of his "Petit Careme," he has a quotation from
Sallust. But he does not name the author, nor does he give the words in
the original. He merely gives the meaning of them, introducing his
quotation in this manner, _as one of the ancients says_, "comme dit un
ancien." This, it is believed, is the only instance of the kind that is to
be found in the sermons of that eloquent preacher.(66)

Some may be desirous to know how it was that a practice so different from
ours, and so much opposed to the good sense and the good taste of modern
times, was formerly so common, or by what arguments it was attempted to be
defended. Abraham Wright, one of the Fellows of St John the Baptist's
College, Oxford, undertook this task. He published a book in 1656, under
this title, "Five Sermons in Five several Styles, or Waies of Preaching."
These different ways of preaching were what he characterized as Bis