Medieval sermons can be divided into two basic genres depending on the audience: scholarly texts and other for illiterates. There are many dissertations on the latter (for instance works of Aron Guriewicz, Teresa Szostak, Bronislaw Geremek, Jerzy Wolny etc.) but not much about the first one. The main aim of this treatise is an attempt to answer the question: what are the elementary characteristics of the medieval scholarly sermons. The rhetorical analysis (with special regard to inventio and argumentatio) of one typical scholarly sermon (De sancto Michaele by Jacobus de Paradiso) shows differences and similarities between those two genres mentioned above. Moreover, it is helpful in discovering basic transformations of the art of preaching.