EXEMPLUM
1. The predicative rhetorical genre
The classical rhetorical genres, the deliberative, the judicial, the epidictic, all refer to civil life. Christian religious rhetoric has developed a new genre, the sermon, in which persuasion is put at the service of religious faith.
Predication is the action name associated with the verb to preach, and the noun preacher. It has not been affected by the pejorative connotations sometimes associated with these two words in contemporary usage.
It is homonymous with the word predication which is used in grammar and logic to denote the operation by which a predicate (a verbal group) is associated with a subject in a sentence
It is also homonymous with the word to predicate something upon, that is to base an action or statement upon: “I predicated my argument upon the facts.” (tfd, Predicate)
Preaching as an argumentative genre fully corresponds to Perelman & 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). The theses referred to in this case are religious beliefs, which, from the preacher’s point of view are articles of faith. Assuming that the audience consists of believers, the pastor, by preaching to them, ensures their ongoing training and increases their degree of faith, in other words, “the soul’s adherence” to their creed (adapting Perelman & Olbrechts-Tyteca, [1958], p. 4).
If the audience consists of unbelievers, the missionary might preach to them to inspire the same faith. If the audience consists of heretics in a position of strength, rhetoric must give way to dialectic.
The doctrines of the Catholic faith are given in the Sacred Scripture, and commented upon by the authorities, the Fathers of the Church. These contents are articulated and applied in sermons by means of various rhetorical techniques, which have established themselves in a sometimes polemical tension between dialectical appeals to reason and rhetorical enthusiasm for the faith.
2. The exemplum
The exemplum (plural exempla) is an instrument of preaching developed especially by the Dominican and Franciscan mendicant orders, from the beginning of the thirteenth century. Structurally, the exemplum is a narrative that uses the resources of the fable. The genre is legitimized by the example of Christ himself who preached in parables. The exemplum presents models of behavior to be followed or avoided.
The exemplum is “a short narrative given as truth and intended to be inserted into a discourse (usually a sermon) tin order to convince an audience by a salutary lesson” (Brémond & al. 1982, pp. 37-38). Brémond distinguishes between metaphorical and metonymical exempla.
2.1 Metonymical exempla
In such an exempla, the fact is presented as probable. There is then a certain identity of status between the heroes of the anecdote and the recipients of the admonition. The parable of the wicked rich is told to the rich, and the logicians are told the fate of one of their colleagues, who is tormented in hell for his sins, that is, for his sophisms.
The following exemplum deals with the fate of souls after death, and especially with purgatory. The lesson it contains is a “Christian denunciation of vain pagan learning” (Boureau, p. 94), and an invitation to the logicians to convert to the religious life.
For our edification, it may be useful to know that a severe punishment is inflicted on sinners at the end of their lives.
This is what happened in Paris, according to the Parisian Cantor (= Peter the Chanter, Petrus Cantor). 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. The man appeared before him a few days later, wearing a parchment cloak covered with sophistic inscriptions and full of 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 sophisms. The flames with which it is filled represent the delicious and varied furs I have worn, and this flame torments and burns me”. And when the master found this light punishment, the deceased told him to stretch out his hand to test the lightness of the punishment. On the outstretched hand, the man dropped a bead of sweat, which pierced the master’s hand as fast 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 enter religion. And in the 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 goes beyond the strictly religious realm. Fontenelle’s « Golden Tooth » is actually a lay metonymic exemplum illustrating the fallacy of finding a cause for a fact that does not exist, 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” (ibid.).
The hedgehog, it is said, upon entering a garden, takes on a load of apples which he fastens to his spine. When the gardener arrives, the hedgehog wants to run away, but his load prevents him from doing so, and so 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.]
Trans. from Latin into French by Chr. Boyer. Lyon: PUL. 2003. P. 116.