RHETORIC, POLITICS and PROPAGANDA Malte Prietzel
RHETORIC, POLITICS AND PROPAGANDA GUILLAUMEFILLASTRE'S SPEECHES Malte Prietzel 'So the bishop of Tournai sang the high mass. Afterwards, he pronounced a little sermon to the greatest praise of the deceased lord and with the inten tion to urge everybody to pray for his soul, so that God, by his holy mercy, would receive it in his holy paradise' .1 With these words, Jean de Wavrin summarised the funeral oration which Guillaume Fillastre, bishop of Tour nai, had pronounced at the obsequies of Philip the Good in June 1467. Another witness, Jacques Du Clercq, also mentioned this speech, calling it 'a very remarkable sermon' _2 An official report judged that 'the bishop of Tournai held a speech in a very remarkable way and to the highest praise of the deceased lord' .3 1 Si chanta l'evesque de Tournay !a grant messe, aprez laquele il fist une petite collation a !a loenge du trespasse, adfin de chascun plus esmouvoir a pryer pour son arne que Dieu par sa sainte grace vceille avoir en son saint paradis. Amen. Jehan de Wavrin, seigneur du Forestel, Recueil des chroniques et anchiennes istoires de Ia grant Bretaigne, apresent nomme Engleterre, eds. Sir W. Hardy and E. L. C. P. Hardy, Rerum britannicarum medii aevi scriptores 39, vol. 5 (London, 1891), p. 539. -The text of this oration is not extant, but probably a chapter in Fillastre's first 'Book of the Golden Fleece' is based on it. Guillaume Fillastre, 'Uber Herzog Philipp den Guten von Burgund. Text und Kommentar', ed. M. Priet zel, in: Francia 24/1 (1997), pp.
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