One more...I just can't resist.

Sorry for so many posts where I'm talking about historical things.  I usually have a poor memory for these types of things, but if I post them here, there is a better chance that I will retain them.  Plus, they're so darn inspirational!

Here's another passage, from the same book as in the post below, on page 105.  When was the last time you went to a church and the sermon was "racy?" I mainly made some words bigger because it breaks the paragraph up a bit.

While the more learned friars were busy disputing in the schools of Oxford and Cambridge their brethren were busy preaching the Gospel in the towns and villages of England.  At this time a sermon was a rare event in most parish churches, most secular clergy having neither the ability nor the inclination to preach.  The friars, however, were trained preachers who quickly attracted large audiences. Racy, provocative, entertaining, informative, their sermons were packed with illustrations and stories taken from their own experiences or from the book of exempla which were compiled for their use.  It was no wonder that they were popular.  Contrasted with the formal and sometimes rather drab services which the parish churches on Sunday mornings, the pyrotechnics of the friars provided a welcome change.  Religion became more homely, more personal, more vital.   

In the universities and in the country lanes, in city slum and on the village green, in the castles of the rich and the hovels of the poor, everywhere the friars made their influence felt, and the country was the richer and the happier for the new hope and strength which were grafted into its spiritual life.