Eloquence had shaken
off the influence of the Church, in which it had found a refuge during
the Middle Ages, and now became an indispensable element and ornament
of all elevated lives. Many of the social hours which are now filled
with music were then given to Latin or Italian oratory, with results
which every reader can imagine.
The social position of the speaker was a matter of perfect
indifference; what was desired was simply the most cultivated
humanistic talent. At the court of Borso of Ferrara, the Duke's
physician, Girolamo da Castello, was chosen to deliver the
congratulatory address on the visits of Frederick III and of Pius II.
Married laymen ascended the pulpits of the churches at any scene of
festivity or mourning) and even on the feastdays of the saints. It
struck the non-Italian members of the Council of Basle as something
strange that the Archbishop of Milan should summon Aeneas Sylvius, who
was then unordained, to deliver a public discourse at the feast of
Saint Ambrose; but they suffered it in spite of the murmurs of the
theologians, and listened to the speaker with the greatest curiosity.
Let us glance for a moment at the most frequent and important occasions
of public speaking.
It was not for nothing, in the first place, that the ambassadors from
one State to another received the title of orators.
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