Book of Collections on the Art of Preaching

is to make the listeners docile.

The second is the supplication, by which we implore divine help. Its duty is to make the listeners devout and capable of divine gifts.

Proem

The third part is called prohœmion prelude in Greek, that is, a prelude, drawn from the custom of musicians who are accustomed to show an artful preparation before beginning a song. For "pro" is the same as "before," and "oeme" means "song," which we can call the preface. Its duty is to conciliate the minds of the listeners to us with attention and benevolence.

Insinuation

WE WILL HAVE THEM ATTENTIVE if we promise that we are going to speak about great, new, or unusual things, or about those things that pertain to Christian matters, to the salvation of the soul, to the turning away of divine anger, to the appeasement of the almighty God, and to the fulfillment of our vows, and if we exhort with exciting words that they listen attentively.

BENEVOLENCE is captured from our own person, from that of the listeners, from that of the adversaries, and from the thing itself, provided it is done without arrogance. We praise other things wisely, without adulation. When we move the hatred, envy, or contempt of enemies, we propose the matter in such a way that the listener's mind is led from that which it hates to that which it loves.

All this is done secretly by insinuation through dissimulation, by the interjection of words apt for moving benevolence.

THE INTRODUCTION should be taken from the heart of the matter, so that it properly coheres with the reading and appears to be born from the cause itself—not vulgar, not common, not...