Why Latin?

[Al B. Sure!]

i never understood how Latin dominated the catholic church for so long until the 60's... how can a religion function when nearly all the believer can't understood the religious text nor the services cause they were all in a dead language known only to the priests? and how did catholics become so fanatical between the 15th and 18th centuries when they couldn't understand anything about their religion?

and why latin of all languages? just because it was the language of Rome? wouldn't Hebrew or Greek have been truer languages as they were the original languages of the bible? latin bibles were nothing but second hand translations...

[Sava]

i never understood how Latin dominated the catholic church for so long until the 60's... how can a religion function when nearly all the believer can't understood the religious text nor the services cause they were all in a dead language known only to the priests? and how did catholics become so fanatical between the 15th and 18th centuries when they couldn't understand anything about their religion?

Because everything the people knew about religion was told to them by the priests. Knowledge is power. They had a monopoly on what was considered to be the truth. Eventually, such abuses gave way to Reformation and Protestantism.

and why latin of all languages? just because it was the language of Rome? wouldn't Hebrew or Greek have been truer languages as they were the original languages of the bible? latin bibles were nothing but second hand translations...

Constantine... Rome... etc... Hebrew was the language of the Jews, and of course, since Christians and Jews slaughtered each other, they couldn't share the same language. Also, the language of Rome was Latin. Greek was considered an ancient language of just another conquered tribe.

You should read more about history Speer, it's quite fascinating. People think of Rome as being ancient history and irrelevant to today... but everything that our world is can be traced to history.

[Shi Huangdi]

*groans*

OK, for one, sermons delivered were in the vernacular. Next, people were cathecized(taught about the faith) in the vernacular. Also, many people knew what the different responses meant.

"and why latin of all languages? just because it was the language of Rome? wouldn't Hebrew or Greek have been truer languages as they were the original languages of the bible? latin bibles were nothing but second hand translations..."

Latin had beeen established as the language of the Church of time, however there is no divine law saying the mass must be in Latin, and as such today we have masses in the vernacular, but even then some eastern catholic churches(such as the assyrian free church) didn't need to use latin.

[MrFun]

Originally posted by Sava
but everything that our world is can be traced to history.

well, duh

[mrmitchell]

sava makes a few very good posts, and this is one of them.

i cant' think of a lot more to say really.

[Shi Huangdi]

"sava makes a few very good posts, and this is one of them. "

no, it isn't.

[MichaeltheGreat]

(a) the "everything the people knew about religion" thing is BS. Latin was a widely taught classical language, and a uniform part of higher education in much of the world until not long ago.

(b) Latin is the single most influential language in the world, not only in the etymology and structure of other languages, but for it's specific modern uses in law, medicine, and other scientific fields.

(c) It was very convenient (still is) if you have a common language background worldwide - in principle, it's no different than air traffic controllers and commercial pilots all using English on an exclusive basis in flight control communications.

[Al B. Sure!]

MtG:

higher education? i'm sure peasants went to the great universities in Milan...

[GePap]

Latin was the laguage of Law, of government, of the Empire and became the language of the Church based out of Rome. MIght as well use Latin, the universal language. In an age when most people could not read eihter, why the hel does it matter if people could not understand parts fot e service either? It was all Greek to them one way or the other.

[mrmitchell]

no, it isn't.

it is when you compare it to the rest of his posts.

[monkspider]

It is wonderful that Protestantism has saved us all from the chains and hellfire of catholicism.

[/end ruffling MTG's feathers]

[Giancarlo]

Originally posted by monkspider
It is wonderful that Protestantism has saved us all from the chains and hellfire of catholicism.

[/end ruffling MTG's feathers]

Zip it.

Some of us are atheist.

[Shi Huangdi]

Originally posted by monkspider
It is wonderful that Protestantism has saved us all from the chains and hellfire of catholicism.

[/end ruffling MTG's feathers]

Heretic.

[monkspider]

Truthfully, I probably probably prefer catholicism to protestantism these days, so I tip my hat to Apoly's catholics.

[Heresson]

Well, in fact, early it was Greek that dominated in the church, both east and west. Only some centuries later did it change to latin. The entire idea was that liturgy can be held only in three languages used in the sign on the cross; Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. Almost no-one knew Hebrew, so Latin and Greek dominated, as they were understandable to all at the time. Only later, when Germanic and Slavic peoples were converted, and latin separated from local speech, it ceased to have bigger sense. Slavs were allowed to have liturgy in their languages by the orthodox, and initially by Rome as well.