The Library
1577 works catalogued century by century, from the literature the Bible was written among to the present — each with a note on what it is, why it lasted, and where to read it.
1–100
1 work
c. 90–125; survives in fragments
Greek
Kerygma Petrou
Attributed to Peter
A missionary sermon in Peter's name, preserved in a handful of quotations by Clement of Alexandria. It sets Christians apart as a third people who worship neither as the Greeks, who serve wood and stone, nor as the Jews, who serve angels and months and moons.
201–300
2 works
c. 239–242
Greek
Origen of Alexandria · c. 185 – c. 253
Twenty sermons taken down by shorthand writers as Origen preached at Caesarea, wrestling with a God who says he repents, who deceives the prophet, and who hands his own people over — and refusing every easy way out of the difficulty.
c. 245–250; recovered in Munich in 2012
Greek
Origen of Alexandria · c. 185 – c. 253
Twenty-nine sermons on the Psalms, preached at Caesarea and read for centuries as the work of someone else. On Psalm 36 he tells his congregation that the man who is angry and does not sin is rarer than the man who does not become angry at all.
301–400
6 works
c. 386
Greek
De Sacerdotio
John Chrysostom · c. 347–407
A dialogue defending the author's own flight from ordination, which turns into an unsparing account of what pastoral office demands and how easily preaching curdles into performance.
386–387
Greek
John Chrysostom · c. 347 – 407
Twelve sermons preached at Antioch against Eunomians who claimed to know God's essence. Chrysostom points at the seraphim, who cover their faces, and asks what a man is doing measuring what angels will not look at directly — then closes each sermon by begging his congregation not to leave before the prayers.
387
Greek
John Chrysostom · c. 347–407
Twenty-one sermons preached to a terrified Antioch after a riot toppled the imperial statues and the city awaited punishment, holding the congregation together week by week.
c. 386–390
Latin
Ambrose of Milan · c. 339 – 397
Nine sermons on the six days, preached in Holy Week and following Basil closely while filling the natural history with Ambrose's own enthusiasms — the habits of bees, the cunning of the crab that drops a pebble into the oyster's shell, the pelican, and the phoenix as a figure of the resurrection.
c. 386–389
Greek
John Chrysostom · c. 347 – 407
Sixty-seven sermons working through Genesis at Antioch, reading it as history rather than allegory and returning constantly to the idea of condescension — that scripture speaks of God walking in the garden the way an adult speaks to a child, stooping to be understood.
c. 391–393
Greek
John Chrysostom · c. 347 – 407
Thirty-two sermons on Romans, insisting throughout that grace does not remove the will but frees it, and that Paul's hardest chapters are about God's dealings with two peoples rather than about the fate of individuals.
401–500
2 works
c. 391–430
Latin
Augustine of Hippo · 354–430
Some nine hundred surviving sermons taken down by stenographers as he preached, ranging from great feasts to ordinary weekdays, and often interrupted by the congregation.
397–426
Latin
De Doctrina Christiana
Augustine of Hippo · 354–430
How to read the Bible and how to preach it: signs and things, the rule of love as the test of any interpretation, and a final book on using classical rhetoric without being used by it.
501–600
3 works
c. 572
Latin
De Correctione Rusticorum
Martin of Braga · c. 520–580
A sermon for country people explaining, in simple terms, why the days of the week are named after demons and why charms and auguries should be abandoned.
590
Latin
Regula Pastoralis
Gregory the Great · c. 540–604
Who should take pastoral charge, how he should live, and — in the long third part — how the same truth must be spoken differently to the poor and the rich, the joyful and the grieving, the reticent and the talkative.
590–592
Latin
Gregory the Great · c. 540–604
Forty sermons on the gospel readings of the Roman year, preached during plague and siege, several of them dictated when he was too ill to speak.
901–1000
1 work
c. 990–995
Old English
Ælfric of Eynsham · c. 955–c. 1010
Two series of sermons for the church year in clear rhythmic English, written because the author had seen much error in English books read by unlearned men.
1101–1200
3 works
1135–1153
Latin
Sermones super Cantica Canticorum
Bernard of Clairvaux · 1090–1153
Eighty-six sermons that never get past the second chapter, reading the Song as the soul's courtship by the Word and building from it a full account of humility, desire, and the degrees of love.
c. 1170–1180
Old French
Maurice de Sully · c. 1120–1196
Short model sermons in French for parish priests to deliver, explaining the gospel of the day in the plainest possible terms.
c. 1199
Latin
Ars Praedicandi
Alan of Lille · c. 1128–1202
How to construct a sermon: take a text, divide it, support each part with authorities and examples, and adapt the whole to soldiers, married people, judges, or the poor.
1201–1300
2 works
c. 1250–1261
Latin
Stephen of Bourbon · c. 1180–c. 1261
Illustrative stories for preachers gathered by an inquisitor, including his account of peasants venerating a greyhound as a saint and healer of children.
c. 1263–1277
Latin
Humbert of Romans · c. 1200–1277
How to preach to every conceivable audience — sailors, students, lepers, the recently bereaved, women of ill repute, people at a funeral — with material for each.
1301–1400
4 works
c. 1334–1336
Latin
Robert Holcot · c. 1290–1349
A commentary crammed with classical anecdote, moral tales, and cheerful digression, and unusually generous about what pagans could know of God.
c. 1354
Italian
Specchio di vera penitenza
Jacopo Passavanti · c. 1302–1357
Lenten sermons on confession and penance, illustrated with vivid cautionary tales of the damned appearing to the living.
c. 1367–1374
Latin
Libellus de Antichristo
Jan Milíč of Kroměříž · c. 1325–1374
A Prague preacher identifies antichrist not with a future figure but with the corruption present in the church of his own day, and calls for reform beginning with the clergy.
c. 1399–1419
Catalan
Vincent Ferrer · c. 1350–1419
Apocalyptic preaching delivered across Spain, France, and Italy to enormous crowds, announcing that the end was near and calling for repentance and reform.
1401–1500
4 works
c. 1425–1444
Italian
Bernardino of Siena · 1380–1444
Sermons preached in town squares for hours at a stretch and taken down verbatim by listeners — on usury, on gossip, on family life, on the holy name of Jesus.
c. 1440–1456
Latin
John of Capistrano · 1386–1456
The preaching of a friar who crossed central Europe drawing enormous crowds, campaigned against Hussites and Jews, and helped raise the army that relieved Belgrade in 1456.
1494
Italian
Girolamo Savonarola · 1452–1498
Advent sermons preached as the French army entered Italy, reading the prophet's call to rebuild the temple as a summons to remake Florence as a Christian republic.
c. 1478–1510
German
Johann Geiler von Kaysersberg · 1445–1510
Cathedral preaching in Strasbourg full of homely images and blunt criticism of clergy, magistrates, and congregation alike — including a whole sermon cycle on the Ship of Fools.
1501–1600
3 works
1539
French
Marie Dentière · c. 1495–1561
A former abbess turned reformer defends women's right to read and expound scripture, and criticises the Geneva ministers by name for their treatment of her.
c. 1548–1552
English
Hugh Latimer · c. 1487–1555
Plain, funny, furious preaching before the king and at Paul's Cross about enclosures, bribery, absentee clergy, and the poverty of English farmers.
1566
Latin
Heinrich Bullinger · 1504–1575
Written originally as its author's private testament, and adopted across Switzerland, Scotland, Hungary, Poland, and Bohemia within a few years.
1601–1700
4 works
preached c. 1600–1624; published 1629
English
Lancelot Andrewes · 1555–1626
Court sermons of intricate wordplay and close attention to the Greek and Hebrew, including the nativity sermon on the cold coming the wise men had of it.
preached 1615–1631; published 1640
English
John Donne · 1572–1631
One hundred and sixty sermons from St Paul's, on death, resurrection, and mercy, delivered by a former poet and courtier who had come late to orders.
c. 1640–1697
Portuguese
António Vieira · 1608–1697
Preaching in Brazil and Lisbon against the enslavement of Indigenous peoples and the cruelty of colonists, including a sermon preached to fish when the people would not listen.
1666
English
Margaret Fell · 1614–1702
A scriptural argument that women may preach — from the women at the tomb, from Priscilla, and from the claim that in Christ there is neither male nor female.
1801–1900
1 work
1875–1894
English
Charles Haddon Spurgeon · 1834–1892
Friday afternoon talks to the men of Spurgeon's own pastors' college: on private prayer, on choosing a text, on the voice, on when to be brief, and on the fainting fits that visit even successful preachers.
36 of 1577 works