Erasmus’ “radical orientation towards continuities,” coupled with a series of congruent physical and philosophical circumstances, suggests a possible relationship between certain medieval artes praedicandi and the Ecclesiastes sive de Ratione Concionandi. By exploring the parallels between these texts, especially in the areas of sermon structure and function, the meaning of amplification and allegory, and specifically used terminology, this study extends the parameters of continuity by allowing the earlier allusive material to enrich one’s understanding of the great Renaissance sermon manual. Thus, Erasmus’ achievement can be viewed, not as a miraculous aberration, but as part of a long and variegated preaching tradition.

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

• Kilcoyne, F. P., Jennings, M., (2025), "Rethinking "Continuity": Erasmus' Ecclesiastes and the Artes Praedicandi", HSSCommons: (DOI: )

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1. Renaissance and Reformation

Original publication: Kilcoyne, Francis P.; Jennings, Margaret. "Rethinking "Continuity": Erasmus' Ecclesiastes and the Artes Praedicandi." Renaissance and Reformation 33 (4): 2010. 5-24. DOI: 10.33137/rr.v33i4.11372. This material has been re-published in an unmodified form on the Canadian HSS Commons with the permission of Iter Canada / Renaissance and Reformation. Copyright © the author(s). Their work is distributed by Renaissance and Reformation under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. For details, see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/.