87

In his speculative or doctrinal treatises, William of Auvergne occasionally brings to his readers’ attention the ways in which to approach the themes evoked in his sermon. He seems especially careful to indicate the mechanisms he deems conducive to more attractive and efficient preaching, his contemporaries being, to his mind, often incapable of provoking any real change in their audience. In the De vitiis he presents a number of concrete examples to illustrate how to preach against sin and vice in general. A prolific preacher, the sermons of the bishop of Paris that have been preserved show that the relationships between his theological and homiletical works are indeed numerous and varied. It is only, in fact, by intersecting the speculative works with the sermons that a number of images and similarities appearing in the sermons reveal a theological subtext that are meant to reach an uninformed audience in a more comprehensive manner. A few sermons, however, show William of Auvergne occasionally resorting to pedagogical methods to develop his argument, thus demonstrating that the bishop of Paris was attentive to the complex and subtle relationships that should connect speculative reflection and homiletic action.