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all four distinctions of the Þorlákr sermon can be found here, and they
are at least partially accompanied by the same biblical quotations (Ex 20:12
and Sir 38:1). In addition, we find the same rhetorical device “sed heu” in
the commentary under the honoration of a saint, as is employed in the
Þorlákr sermon in the third subdivision on the honoration of a master by
his students.
Distinctiones as a genre were among the most popular preaching aids
of their time.38 However, it is a genre in which it is almost always im-
possible to trace intertextuality between individual sermons due to the
frequency of the associated quotations.39 In the case under consideration,
equivalent quotations cannot prove that the Þorlákr sermon was based
on the Commentary on the Pauline Epistles, since the overlapping text
is not extensive enough to build an argumentation on. But the quotations
do illustrate that the sermon’s author used a known cluster of quotations
to base his sermon on, as the verses were very much intertwined in con-
temporary theological thinking. this cluster would have served as a point
of departure for determining the four subdivisions. for each subdivision,
the author would then have collected texts from other sermons, probably
adjusting some words, rearranging them or even adding passages of his
own. Such compilatory license or working methods also make it difficult
to track down sources for individual passages. It must be noted that there
are several sermons in nicolas de Gorran’s Themata sermonum that draw
on the biblical authorities listed in his commentary on 1 tim. for instance,
De pluribus apostolis 5 employs Ps 138:17 as a theme, and the sermon ends
with Est 6:11, which is the theme of the Þorlákr sermon.40
the most likely scenario, then, is that the Þorlákr sermon was compiled
from various sources employing the usual copy-paste technique found in
medieval sermon composition. Monica Hedlund found that Johannes
Borquardi, who worked at Vadstena abbey from 1428 to 1447, drew on
38 Phyllis B. roberts, “the Ars Praedicandi and the Medieval Sermon,” Preacher, Sermon, and
Audience in the Middle Ages, ed. C. a. Muessig, (Leiden: Brill, 2002), 47.
39 Cf. Silvia Serventi, “Did Giordano da Pisa use the Distinctiones of nicolas Gorran?,”
Constructing the Medieval Sermon, ed. roger andersson, (turnhout: Brepols, 2007), esp.
94.
40 nicolaus Gorranus, Fundamentum aureum omnium anni sermonum magistri N. de Gorra
ordinis praedicatorum tam fructuose tamque curiose distinctum ut cum omnibus anni euangeliis
et epistulis sanctorum etiam historias: generaliterque occurrentes materias plene pulcerrimeque
sustineat atque distinguat. (Paris: de la Barre, 1509), fol. clxxxi col. 4–clxxxii col. 1.