Table Of ContentRHETORIC AND HOMILETICS
IN FOURTH-CENTIJRY CHRISTIAN LITERATURE
AMERICAN PHILOLOGICAL AssoCIATION
American Classical Studies
Series Editor
Matthew S. Santirocco
Number26
Rhetoric and Homiletics
in Fourth-Century Christian Literature
by
Steven M. Oberhelman
Steven M. Oberhelman
RHETORIC AND HOMILETICS
IN FOURTH-CENTURY
CHRISTIAN LITERATURE
Prose Rhythm, Oratorical Style,
and Preaching in the Works
of Ambrose, Jerome, and Augustine
Scholars Press
Atlanta, Georgia
RHETORIC AND HOMILETICS
IN FOURTH-CENTURY CHRISTIAN LITERATURE
Steven M. Oberhelman
e
1991
The American Philological Association
Library of Congress CataloglngI n Publkatlon Data
Oberhelman, Steven M.
Rhetoric and homiletics in fourth--centmyC hristian literatme /
Steven M. Oberhelman.
p. cm. - (American classical studies ; no. 26)
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 1-S5540-617-3 (alk. paper). - ISBN 1-S5S40-618-1 (pbk. :
alk. paper)
1. Latin language, Postclassical-Metrics and rhythmics.
2. Christian literature, Early-Latin authors-History and
criticism. 3. Sermons, Early Christian-History and criticism.
4. Latin prose literature-History and criticism. S. Rhetoric,
Ancient. I. Title. II. Series.
P A2307 .024 1991
878'.00809'382-dc20 91-23937
CIP
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
§
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction 1
Chapter I: Methodology 5
Chapter II: Prose Rhythm in the Ambrosian Corpus 21
Chapter III: Prose Rhythm in Selected Works of Jerome 63
Chapter IV: Prose Rhythm in Selected Works of Augustine 89
Chapter V: Homiletic Preaching and Rhetoric 101
Chapter VI: Conclusion 121
Bibliography of Works Cited 127
Index 151
Table I: Prose Rhythm in Control Texts 159
Table II: Prose Rhythm in the Ambrosian Corpus 181
Table III: Prose Rhythm in Selected Works of Jerome 190
Table IV: Prose Rhythm in Selected Works of Augustine 196
INTRODUCTION
In a recent series of articles, I have investigated the prose rhythms of
Latin texts of the later Roman empire, namely, from the mid-second through
mid-fifth century. 1 I offered firm conclusions concerning the rhythmical
1 See the nine articles listed under Oberhelman in the bibliography; the method
of their citation in the text and notes will conform to the abbreviations given there. Five
of those papers were co-authored with Ralph G. Hall, to whom I remain indebted, as I
hope I make clear below.
I will not discuss here ancient and modem theories on Latin prose rhythm; I have
forthcoming a lengthy study in Aufstiegu nd Niedtrgangd er rDmisdzmW elt,T eilband Il, 35,
in which I examine the ancient evidence and critique the many methods proffered by
nineteenth- and twentieth-century scholars. Let me state here the important bibliography.
Ancient testimoniai n Bomecque (1907)a nd Oark (1909).S urveys of modem scholarship
in Novotny (1929);W ilkinson (1963) 135.88,2 37-42;a nd Aili (1979)c hapters 1-2. The best
works on classical Latin prose rhythm are, in my opinion, De Groot (1921) and (1926);
Primmer (1968); and Aili (1979).D angel (1984, 387-90) gives excellent bibliography and
review of the history of the problem.
Throughout this book I will examine only the clausulae, that is, sentence-closings,
since no one has worked out to my satisfaction a solid working model for proving a
relationship between prose rhythm and colometry. Good discussions of the problem of
cola and commata are Volkmann (1885)5 05-19;Z .ander (1910) 1.186-219;F raenkel (1965);
and Habinek (1985)1 -41.E fforts in the area of colometry are, to name but a few, Laurand
(1907);Z ielinski (1914);B roadhead (1922);N ovotny (1929);F raenkel (1932)1 97-213,( 1933)
319-54,( 1965),( 1968);S chmid (1959);P rimmer (1968),w hose exceedingly complex theories
are nicely explained by Aili (1979)c hapter 1; and Habinek (1985),w ho amplifies, corrects,
and builds on Fraenkel.
Regarding sentence rhythm, all we can say with complete confidence is that the
ancient audiences and rhetors knew that the closure of the sentence attracted rhythm and
that it was there that rhythmical patterns-if they were used consciously by the
author-appeared. Too great a concern by modem scholars for discovering rhythm in cola
and commata may well obscure the simple issue of whether an author sought accentual
and/or metrical rhythms in his work; not all ancient authors, as I see it from my reading
of primary and secondary sources, were so careful with internal rhythms. Cf.
Oberhelman/Hall CQ (1986) for an analysis of the often considerable differences in
rhythmical levels between internal and final-stop positions in the works of third- and
fourth-century authors.
1
2 Rhetorica nd Homiletics
practices of twenty-six authors. No observations on the writings of the
Christian authors Ambrose, Jerome, and Augustine were made, however,
since no discernible pattern of usage was evidenced at that time by the data:
the type of rhythm in some texts-accentual schemes or a combination of
metrical and accentual patterns-and the absence of rhythm in other texts
varied considerably among the dozen or so works that I had sampled. 2 It
seemed best, therefore, to defer any judgment until I could make a much
larger sampling of these writers• corpora and relate the prose rhythms to
critical factors like audience, authorial purpose, chronology, method of
composition, and theme.3
In this book, I will examine the prose rhythms in all works-genuine,
disputed, and spurious-of the Ambrosian corpus and then in selected works
of Jerome and Augustine. I will be concerned with the following issues: Does
the content of a text-say, scriptural commentary, preached sermon,
panegyric sermon, or polemic-require a certain rhythmical style unique to
that genre? Does the audience of a text-pagans, the Christian intelligentsia,
clergy, or friends and family-affect the presence and use of rhythm? What
effect do stenography and dictation exert on rhythmical style? Most
importantly, how does rhythm relate to the Christians' attitudes toward
rhetoric? After all, it is well known that Western Christian writers, beginning
with Tertullian, were not consistent in their views toward classical learning
and rhetoric: even as they railed against pagan culture, they gave full rein
to the stylistic flourishes and rhetorical trappings taught by that very culture.
Of course, this is a broad generalization of a most complex issue, as I will
demonstrate below.• But it cannot be questioned that while these Christian
authors were continually claiming "res, non verba,"t hat is, the primacy of
expressing Christian truth in clear, simple language without rhetorical
embellishments, a major feature of their works is an exquisite prose style that
is reminiscent of classical pagan authors and reflective of contemporary
pagan schools of rhetoric.5
2 See the tables in Oberhelman/Hall CPh (1984 and 1985) and Oberhelman CPh
(1988); Oberhelman/Hall CQ (1985 and 1986) and Oberhelman CQ (1988); and
Oberhelman/Hall Augustiniana.
3 For discussion on these church Fathers, see Oberhelman/Hall CPh (1984) 129.30
and (1985) 225-26; Oberhelman CPh (1988) 147-48; Oberhelman CQ (1988) 238-41.
4 See Chapters V and VI of this book. The best and most recent work on this
subject is Kaster (1988) 70.95, who gives extensive and important bibliography and who
should now be supplemented by Spence (1988) and by Roberts (1989), especially pp.
122-47.
5 See, for example, Oberhelman/Hall CQ (1986) 519-26, where the rhythmical styles
of Minucius, Cyprian, and Arnobius are contrasted in detail to those of Symmachus and
Palladius (tabular data on pp. 509-18). In that article, Hall and I show that these
Introduction 3
Another issue that will be addressed was raised in my earlier studies
of Ambrose, Jerome, and Augustine: because the data there seemed to imply
that these authors' prose rhythms, although definitely present, were not so
effusive as what may be observed in the writings of Cyprian, Minucius, and
Arnobius,6 does this imply that later Christians revised their thinking on the
priority of stylistic ornaments in their compositions, that is, that they began
to take more seriously the dictum "res, non verba"i nstead of the "res verbaque"
so obvious in earlier fathers? Or should we consider that this more reserved,
moderate use of rhythm was a restoration of the clausular practices of
Cicero, the Christians' model of excellence, who advocated and employed
a rich variety of rhythms? Or does this newer style reflect the adoption of
a style-referred to by Eastern and W estem Christian writers but not
developed until Augustine in his De dnctrinac hristiana-which imitates the
scriptures in expression and language?
I will address these issues, first, as they pertain to the prose rhythms
in Ambrose's corpus. Ambrose's rhythmical practices will then serve as a
model for evaluating the rhythms in representative works of Jerome and
Augustine. The results, it is hoped, will help us to reach a better
understanding of the intricate, and all too often puzzling, relations between
rhetoric, style, and Christianity in the works of the church fathers of the late
Roman Empire.
This book is the culmination of nine years of work on prose rhythm
in late imperial Latin literature. The first four years involved collaboration
with Ralph G. Hall, and produced five articles and the incipient statistical
methodologies. Although I have since progressed far beyond those
preliminary efforts, as this book and recent articles demonstrate clearly, I
must acknowledge what was a most delightful, fruitful, and satisfying
collaboration. Hall's patience restrained my at times impetuous exuberance;
his infallible and meticulous eye for detail corrected errors, thereby setting
me again on the proper track; and his sensitive and adroit handling of the
written text proved an excellent counterbalance to my fascination of the
statistical formula.
Other debts must be paid, even if only in words. Robert Kaster has
been mentor and friend since 1983, when as editor of ClassicalP hilologyh e
received a rather amateurish manuscript that dealt with inductive statistics
Christians' prose rhythms are just as pedantic and excessive as the rhythms in the
speeches and letters of Symmachus, the pagan party's spokesperson in the fight to retain
the Altar of Victory, an episode that is far too exaggerated in importance by modem
scholars: see Cameron (1976) 1 n. 1 and Matthews (1975)2 10..11.C ameron's article throws
into complete doubt the formulation of pagan versus Christian and the stereoptype "circle
of Symmachus." Cf. Fontaine (1976a), especially p. 465, and Chapter VI below.
6 Cf. the tables in Oberhelman/Hall CPh (1984 and 1985) and Oberhelman CPh
(1988) and CQ (1988).
4 Rhetorica nd Homiletics
and late Latin prose rhythm. Ever since and without hesitation he has been
willing to grant advice, criticism, and encouragement; my gratitude is
surpassed only by my admiration for his own work. Tore Janson and
Laurence Stephens have offered invaluable assistance on technical problems,
and helped to redefine and reconceptualize my statistical models at critical
junctures of my studies. I owe much of Chapter ID and all of Chapter V to
a splendid summer I spent in 1990 with Alan Cameron at Columbia
University; I still marvel at his wondrous blend of kindness, humanity,
intellect, and knowledge. Both he and Jacques Fontaine have revealed to me
through their superb and ground-breaking work a whole new perspective
on late Latin literary style and genres and on the relations between pagans
and Christians in the fourth century. The anonymous referees have vastly
improved the manuscript by their constructive and insightful comments; any
publishing scholar should have the good fortune to receive referees such as
these. Matthew Santirocco has attended to this book with the best care and
supervision over the past eighteen months, and I am obliged to his ever
reliable editorial advice. Daniel Fallon, Dean of Liberal Arts at Texas A&M
University, provided monies for the summer months of 1988, at which time
I was able to write the first two chapters, while funds from the National
Endowment for the Humanities permitted a massive and thorough revision
of the book. The staffs at the Library of Congress and at the libraries at
Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, University of Texas at Austin,
Columbia University, and Union Theological Seminary, as well as the
interlibrary loan department at Texas A&M University, deserve plaudits for
tolerating my work habits and incessant requests. When asked on what is an
almost daily basis, Janet Ray and Lori Lieder have helped with computer
hardware and software matters with kindness and forbearance. Finally, my
warmest thanks of appreciation and love to my spouse Laurie and my
children Jessica and Matthew for unceasing support during the three years
of the writing of this book, and for understanding that my word processor
often claimed my time and attention, but never my priorities.
CHAPTER I
METHODOWGY
In the first two centuries A.O., the Asiatic rhythms of Cicero evolved
into a narrowly defined canon.1 Although Cicero himself employed a rich
diversity of metrical patterns, subsequent writers imitated, to the point of
slavishness, his cretic and trochaic combinations, in particular, the
cretic-trochee, dicretic, ditrochee, paean-trochee, and trochee-cretic.
Resolutions of these patterns were permitted: for example, the paeon-cretic
was a resolution of the dicretic, while the cretic-tribrach equalled the
cretic-trochee.
During the first half of the third century, the clausula no longer was
constructed solely from metrical considerations, but began to accommodate
word-accent. North African authors, beginning with Minucius Felix and
Cyprian, both of whom were products of the rhetorical schools,2 now used
a system of prose rhythms in which the coincidence of word-accent and the
ictus of Asiatic metrical patterns was sought. The cretic-trochee was
reformulated as a cluster of words comprised of a paroxytone followed by
a paroxytone trisyllable: nwvb-e iussfsti and s6rte versdri. Other clusters were
allowed, provided that the ictus of the cretic and trochaic units coincided
with the accents: a proparoxytone before a paroxytone disyllable (tfrbori
vftae); a paroxytone followed by a monosyllable and paroxytone disyllable
(tdntus est mundus); or, if something like a secondary accent may be assumed,
a paroxytone pentasyllable (sentieb4.tur3) .In Cicero's prose, by contrast, the
1 Although some of the following material may be found in the six papers
published in CPh and CQ, this is my fullest discussion yet on the subject. Moreover, I
offer here much new material, especially regarding the mechanisms of change from
metrical prose to accentuaVmetrical prose to accent-only prose.
2 For Minucius Felix, see De Labriolle (1940) 1.6--7.J erome tells us (Commentariai n
lonam prophetam3 .6) that Cyprian taught rhetoric at Carthage; cf. De Labriolle (1940)
1.196-98 and Monceaux (1901) 2.203.
3 A few other word<lusters are possible (for example, n6n volunMte and /fibulae n6n
sunt), but these are quite rare. The accentual scheme of 60060, regardless of caesura, is
called cursus planus: Lindholm (1963) 15 and 17 and Valois (1881) 193. The fullest, though
5
