Editing Homiletics (section)

=== Missionary preaching ===
[[File:V&A - Raphael, St Paul Preaching in Athens (1515).jpg|thumb|St Paul preaching his ''[[Areopagus sermon]]'' in Athens, by [[Raphael]], 1515]]
In missionary preaching the apostles were also assisted, but informally, by the laity, who explained the Christian doctrine to their acquaintances amongst unbelievers who, in their visits to the Christian assemblies, must have heard something of it, e.g., cf. I Cor., xiv, 23-24. This is particularly true of [[Justin Martyr]], who, wearing his philosopher's cloak, went about for that purpose. The sermons to the faithful in the early ages were of the simplest kind, being merely expositions or paraphrases of the passage of scripture that was read, coupled with ''extempore'' effusions of the heart. This explains why there is little or nothing in the way of sermons or homilies surviving from that period. It also explains the strange statement made by [[Sozomen]] (Hist. Eccl., VII, xix), and by [[Cassiodorus]] in his "Tripartite History", which Duchesne <ref>(Christian Worship, p. 171, tr. London, 1903)</ref> apparently accepts, that no one preached at Rome. (Sozomen wrote about the time of Pope [[Xystus III]], in office 432-440) Thomassin's explanation<ref>(Vetus et Nova Eccl. Disciplina, II, lxxxii, 503)</ref> of Sozomen's statement is that there was no preaching in the sense of an elaborate or finished discourse before the time of [[Pope Leo I|Pope Leo]], with the exception, perhaps, of the address on virginity by [[Pope Liberius]] (in office 352-366) to [[Saint Marcellina|Marcellina]], sister of [[Ambrose]], on the occasion of her taking the veil, which is regarded as a private discourse.<ref name=CE/>

And the reason for this he attributes to the stress of persecution. Neander (I, 420, note) says of Sozomen's statement: "The remark could not extend to the early times; but suppose it did, it meant that the sermon was only secondary. Or the fact may have been that this Eastern writer was deceived by false accounts from the West, or it may have been that the sermon in the Western Church did not occupy so important a place as it did in the Greek Church."<ref name=CE/>