A postil or postill (; ) was originally a term for
Bible
The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...
commentaries. It is derived from the
Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
("after these words from Scripture"),
referring to biblical readings. The word first occurs in the chronicle (with reference to examples of 1228 and 1238) of
Nicolas Trivetus, but later it came to mean only
homiletic exposition, and thus became synonymous with the
homily in distinction from the thematic sermon. Finally, after the middle of the fourteenth century, it was applied to an annual cycle of homilies.
Early Lutheran postils
From the time of
Martin Luther
Martin Luther ( ; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, Theology, theologian, author, hymnwriter, professor, and former Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinian friar. Luther was the seminal figure of the Reformation, Pr ...
, who published the first part of his postil under the title (Wittenberg, 1521), every annual cycle of sermons on the lessons, whether consisting of homilies or formal sermons, is termed a ''postil''. A few of the most famous
Lutheran
Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...
postils are those of M. Luther (, Wittenberg, 1527; , 1542, 1549),
P. Melanchthon (, Germ., Nuremberg, 1549; Lat., Hanover, 1594),
M. Chemnitz (', Magdeburg, 1594),
L. Osiander (, Tübingen, 1597), and
J. Arndt (', Leipzig, 1616).
[
]
Catholic postils
By 1530 postils were commonly used in Catholic preaching, at least in Germany. The two (in Latin) by Thomas Stapleton proved popular. Frymire has tabulated the development from 1520 (Catholic and Lutheran).
Later postils
The term ''postil'' fell into disuse during the period of Pietism
Pietism (), also known as Pietistic Lutheranism, is a movement within Lutheranism that combines its emphasis on biblical doctrine with an emphasis on individual piety and living a holy Christianity, Christian life.
Although the movement is ali ...
and the Enlightenment, but was revived by Claus Harms (, Kiel, 1812; , 1815). It has again become common through W. Löhe (', Frommel 1848; , 1858), and M. Stuttgart (, Bremen, 1882, 1890; ', 1887–88; , 1890).[
Reformed Churches, which disregard a regular series of lessons, have no postils; in the ]Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
the term has been kept, especially through Leonard Goffiné ( (Mainz, 1690; popular, illustrated ed., reissued twenty-one times by H. Herder, Freiburg-im-Breisgau, 1875–1908; Eng. transl., T. Noethen, New York, n.d.).[
]
See also
* Homiliarium
*Marginalia
Marginalia (or apostils) are marks made in the margin (typography), margins of a book or other document. They may be scribbles, comments, gloss (annotation), glosses (annotations), critiques, doodles, drolleries, or illuminated manuscript, ...
Notes
References
*
*
;Attribution
*
{{Lutheran Divine Service
History of Lutheranism
Homiletics