From the Breviary according to the use of the Roman Curia, 1529, the continuation of the sermon for the fifth day in the Octave of All Saints:
It is clear that the most-blessed Apostles of Christ are worthy of a special reverence, whom Christ deigned to have as His close friends above all others, and declare to them most clearly the mysteries of His words; not kings, not senators, not philosophers, but ordinary men, with no knowledge of scholarship, unlearned in grammar, not armed for disputations or puffed up with rhetoric. These did He enlighten with the lights of divine wisdom, and send into the world to preach the law of the Gospel to every creature, and to take like fish in the nets of faith men of very sort, even the kings and philosophers themselves. To these also He gave power over nature, that they might cure it; over demons, that they might cast them out; over the elements, that they might change them; over death, that they might restrain it; over Angels, that they might consecrate the body of the Lord; and that they might bond and loose souls, close and open heaven. And thus, from very few were multiplied the very great hosts of their successors, eloquent teachers (of the Faith). Their outstanding brilliance is declared with subtlety; and the nobility of the lowest sort of men is proclaimed by their great eloquence.
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| St Paul Preaching amid Ruins, by Giovanni Battista Pannini, 1735 |
