The power of bishops and preachers words in the lands of Castile between the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries

Abstract

From the middle of the 14th century and the beginning of the 15th, the production of vernacular works that taught the clergy of the Crown of Castile to use their speech as a means of teaching and amendment increased considerably . With interest in the confluences between synods and public preaching, this study aims to examine the importance of the words of preachers and diocesan prelates as a reforming vehicle . In the field of interrelationships between these speeches, the present proposal will also describe the attention given by these churchmen to the role of adjectives, such as “ugly” and “dishonest”, to highlight actions to be avoided . Exploring constitutions and sermons elaborated between the end of the 14th century and the beginning of the 15th, it is a question of the extent to which these two genres singularized a modality of direct discourse believed to be inspired by divine grace and capable to correct a given audience .