hedge sermon

English

WOTD – 11 December 2016

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Sermon of St. John the Baptist (1566, detail), Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, Hungary. Some scholars contend that the painting depicts a clandestine sermon held by the Protestant reformers of that time.

Etymology

Calque of Dutch hagenpreek, from hage (“hedge”) + preek (“sermon”).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈhɛdʒ ˌsɝmən/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: hedge ser‧mon

Noun

hedge sermon (plural hedge sermons)

1. (Christianity, historical) An open-air religious service held by Calvinists in the Low Countries during the Reformation, typically in rural areas beyond the reach of civic authorities.
   • 1999, Geert Mak; Philipp Blom, transl., Amsterdam: A Brief Life of the City, London: Harvill Press, ISBN 978-1-86046-598-7; republished London: Vintage Books, 2001, ISBN 978-1-86046-789-9, page 82:

     Fearing an escalation of the unrest, the city administrators made some important concessions to the Protestants: the Catholic churches were closed after the removal of all religious images; the Calvinists were permitted to hold their hedge sermons, albeit only outside the city […].

   • 2008, Peter J. Arnade, Beggars, Iconoclasts, and Civic Patriots: The Political Culture of the Dutch Revolt, Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, →ISBN, page 71:

     The first so-called hedge sermon was held in the cemetery of Boeschepe in the always turbulent Flemish Westkwartier on Sunday morning, July 12, timed to coincide with mass.

   • 2008, James D[onald] Tracey, The Founding of the Dutch Republic: War, Finance, and Politics in Holland, 1572–1588, Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN:

     Even after the iconoclasm that began on 10 August, many in the Netherlands hoped to see freedom of worship for all, without public violence, hedge-sermons, or the burning of heretics.

Related terms

• hedge parson
• hedge priest