‘The foundation in the thirteenth century of the two great orders of Franciscans and Dominicans, the latter par excellence the ordo praedicatorum, gave an enormous impulse to preaching.’ It was largely responsible for the abundant production of sermons and arts of sermon-making in the centuries that follow. More than two hundred manuscripts of the period from 1200 to 1500 contain arts of preaching, artes praedicandi. Some have been traditionally associated with the names of certain great Churchmen and Schoolmen, St. Bonaventure, St. Thomas, Albert the Great; we have the names of nineteen authors in the thirteenth century, thirty-six in the fourteenth, twenty-seven in the fifteenth, and as many more manuscripts are anonymous. A glance at Professor Caplan's list of authors on pages 38, 39, of his Hand-List will show that the great majority of known authors were members of an Order.