56.

 And here we may set down some passages from his writings which will serve to show to what an extent he shrank from that declamatory kind of eloquence which simply aims at winning empty applause by an equally empty and noisy flow of words. He says to Nepotian:
I do not want you to be a declaimer or a garrulous brawler; rather be skilled in the Mysteries, learned in the Sacraments of God. To make the populace gape by spinning words and speaking like a whirlwind is only worthy of empty-headed men.[¹⁰³]

And once more:
Students ordained at this time seem not to think how they may get at the real marrow of Holy Scripture, but how best they may make peoples' ears tingle by their flowery declamations![¹⁰⁴]

Again:
I prefer to say nothing of men who, like myself, have passed from profane literature to Biblical study, but who, if they happen once to have caught men's ears by their ornate sermons, straightway begin to fancy that whatsoever they say is God's law. Apparently they do not think it worth while to discover what the Prophets and Apostles really meant; they are content to string together texts made to fit the meaning they want. One would almost fancy that instead of being a degraded species of oratory, it must be a fine thing to pervert the meaning of the text and compel the reluctant Scripture to yield the meaning one wants![¹⁰⁵]