pro superioribus". They were principally ascetic, and in them he regulated the spiritual training necessary for the preacher. Carolus Regius, S.J., deals in his "Orator Christianus" (1613) with the whole field of homiletics under the grouping: "De concionatore"; "De concione"; "De concionantis prudentiâ et industriâ". Much is to be found in the writings of St. Vincent de Paul, St. Alphonsus Liguori and St. Francis de Sales, especially in his celebrated letter to André Fremiot, Archbishop of Bourges. Among the Dominicans, Alexander Natalis wrote "Institutio concionantium tripartita" (Paris, 1702). In the "Rhetorica ecclesiastica" (1627) of Jacobus de Graffiis is contained a symposium of the instructions on preaching by the Franciscan Francis Panigarola, the Jesuit Francis Borgia and the Carmelite Johannes a Jesu. The "Dialogues" of Fénelon, the works of Père Blaise Gisbert, Amadeus Bajocensis and Guido ab Angelis have already been referred to. In the nineteenth century homiletics took its place as a branch of pastoral theology, and many manuals have been written thereon, for instance in German compendia by Brand, Laberenz, Zarbl, Fluck and Schüch; in Italian by Gotti and Guglielmo Audisio; and many in French and English. Relation to profane rhetoric Some assert the independent character of homiletics and say that it is independent in origin, matter and purpose. The upholders of this view point to passages in Scripture and in the Fathers, notably to the words of Paul; and to the testimony of Cyprian, Arnobius, Lactantius, and to Gregory of Nazianzus, Augustine of Hippo, Jerome and John Chrysostom. The last-named says that the great difference may be summed up in this: that the orator seeks personal glory, the preacher practical good. Paul's own sermons are in many cases replete with oratory, e.g., his sermon on the Areopagus; and the oratorical element generally enters largely into Scripture. Lactantius regretted that there were so few trained preachers, and Gregory, as well as Chrysostom and Augustine, made use of rhetoric in preaching. Gregory censured the use in the pulpit of the eloquence and pronunciation of the theatre. Demetrius, On Style, uses many of the tricks of speech. References Further reading Aleksandrov, Andrian (2014). Post-Constantine Preaching: the Three Holy Hierarchs. - In: The Christian Paradigm of a United Europe. The Historical and Religious Dimension of the Reign of Saint Constantine the Great and his Present Reception. Editor:Sergiu Popescu, Publisher: Mitropolia Oltenia, Regional Development Foundation, pages: 85-104, Digby's "Mores Catholici", vol. II, pp.