EXEMPLUM

1. Preaching as a Rhetorical Genre

Christian monotheism developed the rhetorical genre of the sermon, in which persuasion is serves religious faith.
Predication is the action name associated with the verb to preach, and the noun preacher. However, predication has not been affected by the pejorative connotations sometimes associated with the words to preach and preacher in contemporary usage.
Predication is homonymous with the word predication which is used in grammar and logic to denote the process by which a predicate (a verbal group) is associated with a subject in a sentence.
Predication is also homonymous with the verb to predicate something upon, meaning to base an action or statement on something: “I predicated my argument upon the facts.” (tfd, Predicate)

As an argumentative genre, preaching fully corresponds to Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca’s definition of argumentation provided by as a discursive effort « to induce or to increase the mind’s adherence to the theses presented for its assent” ([1958]/1969, p. 4).  In this case, the theses are religious beliefs, that are articles of faith from the preacher’s point of view.
If the audience consists of believers, the pastor, then, by preaching to them, the pastor ensures their ongoing training and increases their faith–that is, “their soul’s adherence” to their creed (adapted from Perelman & Olbrechts-Tyteca, [1958], p. 4).n
If the audience consists of nonbelievers, the preacher might preach to inspire the same faith in them. If the audience consists of heretics in a position of strength, rhetoric must give way to dialectic.

Catholic faith doctrines are found in Sacred Scripture, and are commented on by theologians and traditional authorities–the Fathers of the Church. These doctrines are articulated and applied in sermons through various rhetorical techniques, that exist in a sometimes polemical tension between dialectical appeals to reason and enthusiasm for the faith.

2. The exemplum

The exemplum (plural exempla) is a preaching technique developed especially by the Dominican and Franciscan mendicant orders, at the beginning of the thirteenth century. Structurally, the exemplum is a narrative that uses the resources of the fable. This genre is legitimized by the example of Christ himself who preached in parables. The exemplum presents models of behavior to be followed or avoided.

According to Brémond et al., the exemplum is “a short narrative presented as truth and intended to be incorporated into a discourse, usually a sermon, to convey a salutary lesson to an audience” (1982, pp. 37-38)  Brémond distinguishes between metaphorical and metonymical exempla.

2.1 Metonymical Exempla

In such exempla, the story is presented as probable, and there is a certain similarity in status between the characters in the story, and the recipients of the admonition. For instance, the parable of the wicked rich is told to the wealthy, and logicians are told of a colleagues, who is tormented in hell for his sins–that is, his sophisms.

The following exemplum deals with the fate of souls after death, and in particular, purgatory. It contains a “Christian denunciation of vain pagan learning” (Boureau, p. 94), and encourages logicians to convert to  the religious life.

Knowing that sinners are severely punished at the end of their lives can edify us.
According to the Parisian Cantor (= Peter the Chanter, Petrus Cantor), this is what happened in Paris. Master Silo urged one of his colleagues, who was very ill, to come and visit him after his death and to inform him of his fate. A few days later, the man appeared before Master Silo, wearing a parchment cloak covered with sophistic inscriptions and engulfed in flames. The Master asked him who he was. He replied, “I am the one who promised to visit you.” When asked about his destiny, he said, “This cloak weighs me down and oppresses me more than a tower. They force me to wear it because of the vanity I have derived from the sophistry. The flames with which it is filled represent the delicious and varied furs I have worn, and they torment and burn me.” When the Master found this light punishment, the deceased told him to stretch out his hand to test its lightness. As soon as the Master dis so, the man dropped a bead of sweat onto his hand. It pierced the Master’s hand as quickly as an arrow. The Master experienced an extraordinary agony, and the man said to him, “So it is with all my being.”
Fearing the severity of this punishment, the Master decided to leave the world and become a religious man. The next morning, before his assembled disciples, he composed these verses:

To the frogs, I surrender croaking / To the ravens, cawing / To the vain, vanity.
I entrust my fate /To a logic that does not fear the conclusive ‘‘therefore’ of death.

And, abandoning the world, he took refuge in religion.
Jacobus da Varagine, The Golden Legend, written around 1260[1]

The practice of exemplum extends beyond the strictly religious realm. Fontenelle’s « Golden Tooth » is a lay metonymic exemplum that illustrates the fallacy of attributing a cause to a nonexistenf fact, see cause – effect.

2.2 Metaphorical exempla

In the metaphorical exemplum, “the narrative no longer quotes an example of the rule, but a fact that resembles it” (Brémond, ibid.).

It is said that when a hedgehog enters a garden, he takes on a load of apples which it fastens to its spine. When the gardener arrives, the hedgehog tries to escape, but he cannot because of his load, and he is caught with his apples. […] This is what happens to the unfortunate sinner who, when he dies, is carried away with the burden of his sins.
Humbert of Romans, [The Gift of Fear or the Abundance of the Examples], written between 1263 and 1277.[2]

[1] Quoted from Jacques de Voragine, La Légende Dorée. Text presented by A. Boureau. In J.-C. Schmitt (ed.), Prêcher d’exemples [Preaching exempla, Preaching by example]. Paris: Stock, 1985. P. 7.
Jacobus de Voragine, Legenda aurea, The Golden Legend]. Written between 1261 and 1266 (Wikipedia).
[2] Humbert de Romans, Le Don de Crainte ou l’Abondance des Exemples. [The Gift of Fear or the Abundance of Examples.]
Translated from Latin into French by Chr. Boyer. Lyon: PUL. 2003. P. 116.