In the late-medieval Church, preaching was very closely linked to academic theology. The entire range of theological studies, whether they were offered and pursued at universities, monastic houses, or the studia of religious orders, aimed in essence at the training of future preachers. We can safely assume that all authors of the sermons here surveyed had enjoyed some formal training in theology, at least at the undergraduate level. A number of them advanced to the doctorate in theology, where, as formed bachelors, they would have had to lecture on the Bible and on the Sentences, and then, after inception as masters, again give more advanced courses. Thus, of the known sermon writers between 1350 and 1450, FitzRalph, Sheppey, Waldeby, Rimington, Repingdon, Alkerton, and Rypon were all doctors in theology, whereas Brinton held a doctorate in laws.

It is therefore not surprising that sermons could and did occasionally serve as vehicles in which specific theological doctrines might be developed and, as it were, published in full academic form. Thus, FitzRalph together with other theologians preached on the nature of the Beatific Vision before the pope and cardinals at Avignon, and he similarly preached on the Immaculate Conception and on the hotly disputed matter of friars’ privileges both at Avignon and in London. His preaching at St. Paul's Cross in London seems to have marked the beginning of a flourishing use of that pulpit to air theological positions with rational argumentation, proof, and attack on opposite views.