ABSTRACT
It is a characteristic of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries that preaching was taken very seriously, and this was indeed a period of great preachers, with Dominicans, Franciscans, Carmelites and Augustinians dominating and competing in the field. In the 1450s at Lyons in France the city government invited the local Carmelites and Dominicans to submit nominations for Lenten preachers; the latter won the assignment. Elsewhere the Orders took turns during Lent or Advent; the first Sunday was given to the Dominicans, the second to the Franciscans, the third to the Augustinians and the fourth to the Carmelites. In Florence, Italy, things were different again; the Franciscans directed their attention and preaching to the proletariat, while the Dominicans turned to the popolo grasso.1
