The Antibarbarian, Treatise · Chapter 12
CHAP. XII. By what meanes the Latine tongue is brought into divine ſervice in France and in Spaine.
FRom the Eaſt Du Perron paſſeth on to the Weſt, and ſaith, that thorowout all the Weſt the ſervice was done in Latine: for whereſoever the publike ſervice was done in Latine, there alſo were preached the Sermons in the ſame tongue: and the Letany was there underſtood by women and children. It will not bee found that in times paſt, the ſervice hath beene in Latine in any Countrey. Where the Latine was not underſtood thus amongſt rhe Gauls the ſervice was done in Latine, becauſe the Latine was there more uſed then the ancient French tongue, which was ſo aboliſhed by little and little, in ſuch ſort, that the Gaules were called Romanes, and are ſo ordinarily called by Gregorie of Tours, and diſtinguiſhed by that name from the Franks and Burgunians, which were ſtrangers. and the tongue of the Countrey was called Roman: different from the tongue of the Court, which was high-Dutch, ſuch as is ſpoken in Guelders and Iubiers. This difference continued ſtill unto the time of Charlemagne. For in the third Councill of Tours held under his raigne, in the yeare 812. Chap. 17. there is commandement given to every Biſhop to haveaEt ut eaſdem homilias quiſque apertè trāsferre ſtudeat in ruſticam Romanam linguam aut Theotiſcam quo facilius cuncti poſſint intelligere quae dicantur. Homilies or Sermons in two tongues, to wit, in the countrey Romane tongue, that is the tongue of the common people, and in the Theotisk or Tudesk, that is to ſay, in the high-Dutch tongue, to the end that all might underſtand the Sermons. Now this was the time wherein the French-Church began by the violence of this King, to receive the Romiſh ſervice, notwithſtanding the reſiſtance of the Clergie, who before that had the Ambroſian ſervice, and was not in any thing ſubject to the Biſhop of Rome.
VnderUnder the Empire of Marcus Aurelius about the yeare of our Lord 168. the Chriſtian Religion began to ſpread it ſelfe amongſt the Gaules, and then firſt began there to be Martyrs, as ſaith Sulpitius Severus a Gaulois Author, neere about that time in his 2. booke of his ſacred Hiſtorie,bSub Aurelio deinde Antonini ſilio perſecutio iquinta agitata. Ac tum primum intra Gallias martyria viſa, ſerius trans Alpes Dei religione tranſgreſſa. under Aurelius (ſaith he) the Sonne of Antoninus the fift perſecution was raiſed up, and then firſt were ſeene Martyrs in France, the Religion of God having very ſlowly paſſed over the Alps. At this time the Latine tongue was ſo familiar amongſt the Gaules, that it was more uſed then the old Gaulois, and the language of the Countrey was called Roman, and the French Romans, as we have ſaid. Beſides it is to be preſumed that this Latine of the Gaules or old French-men was not ſo poliſhed nor ſo congruous as that of the towne of Rome. Whereupon alſo Pacatus in a Panegirick to Theodoſius, Tum difficilius pro genita atquae haereditaria orā di facilitate non eſſe faſtidio rudē hunc & incultum Trā ſalpini ſermonis horrorem.excuſeth himſelfe in that he ſpake not Latine ſo well as they that were borne in Italie. Then were the contracts and lawpleas, and all the acts of juſtice done in Latine. The Gottick lawes which were obſerved from the ſtraits of Gibraltar unto the river of Loyre abridged by the Code of Theodoſius by the Kings of the Viſigots were Latines, as teacheth Fauchet the moſt learned French Antiquarie that wee have, in the life of King Clovis.
In the yeare of our Lord 252. under the Emperour Decius, according as obſerveth Gregorie of Tours in the firſt booke of his Hiſtorie, Gratian came to Tours to preach the Goſpell amongſt the Pagans, and Saturnine to Tholouſe, and Dionyſius to Paris, where he was Biſhop, and there ſuffered Martyrdome. This is he, whom they falſely ſurname Dionyſius Areopagita. Saturnine was caſt downe headlong from the Capitoll of Tholouſe. Theſe mens tongues being Latine, and preaching to a people that ſpake Latine, it is no marvaile if they eſtabliſhed the ſervice in Latine: not after the Romiſh manner, but with diverſe Ceremonies, according to the neceſſitie of the times, and decenſie of the places, to reclaime and civilize the Pagans. Which diverſitie continued untill the Ambroſian ſervice was received by the Gaules, which amongſt them bore the ſway untill the time of Charlemaigne, who brought in the Romiſh ſervice.
The Franks being entred France, and having made themſelves maſters unto the river of Loire: (for the reſt unto the Pirene was held by the Viſigots, unto the time of Clovis, who left not the Viſigots, that raigned alſo in Spaine, any more but Languedoc, which the Romanes called Septimania, Fauchet in the life of Cloves. chap. 15.and a ſmall part of Guien) the Latine or Romane tongue was corrupted, and fell from her puritie, yet for all that not in ſuch ſort that divine ſervice which was done in Latine, was not ſtill underſtood. Wee have formerly heard the witneſſe of Sulpitius Severus in the life of Saint Martin, reciting that one of the people taking up the Pſalter in the place of the abſent Deacon or Reader began to reade the 8. Pſalme, wherein there is, ut deſtruas inimicum & defenſorem: which raiſed ſuch a ſhout of the people againſt one called Defenſor, who oppoſed himſelfe againſt the election of Martin unto the Biſhopricke.
Proſper of Aquitan writ about the yeare of our Lord, 450. He in 1. booke of the contemplative life Chap. 23 will have the preachers language to bee ſimple and plaine, ſit ſimplex & apertus etiamſi minus Latinus, diſciplinatus tamen & gravis, let it be ſimple and open, although it be not ſo good latine, yet let it be regular and grave, that it may not hinder any, though he be ignorant to underſtand it. Now he ſpeakes of the people of Guien.
Much about the ſame time lived Sidonius Apolinaris Biſhop of Clermunt in Auvernie, who maried the daughter of the Emperour Avitus, by whom hee had children. This Biſhop,Vt niſi vel pauciſſimi quique meram Latiaris linguae pro prietatem de trivialium barbariſmorum rubigine vindicav eris, eam brevi abolitam defleamus. who writ all his letters in Latine, preacht alſo in Latine. In the tenth Epiſtle of the ſecond booke, hee complaines that in his time amongſt the common people the puritie and proprietie of the Latine tongue fell away, and degenerated into Barbariſme; and in his Epiſtle to Perpetuus Pope (for ſo then were ſtiled all the Biſhops a little more reſpected then the common ſort of Biſhops) which is the ninth of the ſeaventh booke there is a Latine Sermon made by the ſaid Sidonius to the people of Bourges, an undoubted proofe that the people of Bourges underſtood the Latine.
Now albeit that the medley of the Viſigots and of the Franks among the Gaules, had altered the latine tongue yet ſo it was that the Latine could not thereby be utterly rooted out, but rather the Kings of the Franks, whoſe language was that of Guelders, to accommodate themſelves unto, and to comply with their people, learned the Latine tongue, as witneſſeth Fortunatus, ſpeaking of King Aribert.
Cum ſis progenitus clara de gente Sicamber,
Floret in eloquio lingua Latina tuo.
But thorow laps of time the Latine being abaſtardiſed amongſt the Gauls, and the Thioiſe aboliſht, the Romane was corrupted in ſuch ſort, that it became another tongue from the Latine. And alreadie in the time of the ſecond race of our Kings the tongue of the Countrey was no more Latine: and nevertheleſſe thorow the negligence of Biſhops, and by the ignorance of people, there was no care taken to put the divine ſervice into the vulgar tongue. One might ſee that then the ſtuddie of the Biſhops was to adorne their Churches, and to heape together reliques, and to finde out men that had a faire Organe to diverſifie and deſcant on a Church ſong and make their voices ſound out the loudeſt. Images were not as yet received into them, nor the ſingle life of the Clergie, nor the power of the Popes, nor Purgatorie, nor Romiſh indulgences. But the Warres of the French in Italie againſt the Lumbards in the time of Pepin, and of his Sonne Charlemagne, brought a ſtrait communion betweene our Kings and the Biſhop of Rome, who in that warre uſed all his power, and was a mortall enemy of the Lumbards: Whence it fell out that Pepin, and after him Charles his Sonne, and Lewis le Debonnaire, Charles his Sonne, beſtowed on the Biſhops of Rome great preſents, and gave them all the lands and poſſeſſions, which the Pope holdeth at this day in Italie: reſerving nevertheleſſe the Royaltie. VntoUnto theſe benefits Charlemaigne added this: That at the requeſt of Pope Adrian I.See Durand in the 5. book of his Ratioonal chap. 2. and Fauchet in 7. booke of his french Antiquities in the yeare. 796. hee aboliſhed out of the Kingdome of France the Ambroſian Service, and eſtabliſhed therein by force, and Maugre the Clergie of France, the Romiſh or Gregorian ſervice. By this change the Latine tongue in the publike ſervice was fully eſtabliſhed: for that which was but done formerly thorow the negligence of the Biſhops of France, from thenceforth was done by law, according as the ſervitude increaſed, from age to age. It would be now a crime of Hereſie, and a manifeſt rebellion againſt the papall Sea, to goe about to have divine ſervice in any other tongue, then in the Latine or Romane. At this day one of the moſt eſſentiall Marks of the Romiſh Hierarchie, is the Romiſh language. And I wot not, whether it was by chance, or by conjecture, or by inſpiration, that Ireneus above fourteene hundred yeares agoe, in this word Latine, found out the name of Antichriſt, and the number of ſix hundred ſixtie ſix.
The like matters happened in Spaine, where the Latine tongue became ſo frequent and ſo familiar, that in the times of the Emperours Domitian and Trajan, and a long time after them, the Latine tongue was there as familiar, as at Rome, except in Arragon, and in the Cantabrick Mountaines, which is the countrey of Biſcay and in Galicia. Seneca and Quintilian and Martiall, excellent Authors of the Laine tongue, were Spaniards; The Father and the Mother of Martial were called Fronto and Flacilla, which are Romane names, as alſo the names of Martial and of Quintilian, an evident ſigne, that the language was there Romane. Whereupon we need not wonder, if when the Chriſtian religion thither entred, the ordinarie ſervice was done in Latine, not for all that, after the forme, nor by the ordinance of the Biſhop of Rome, who indeed there was reſpected, by reaſon of the dignitie of the Cittie, but had not there any power, nor juriſdiction.
In the yeare of our Lord' 408. Genſeric King of the Vā dals Conquered Spaine upon the Romane Empire, which a while after he left to paſſe over into Africa, and left the place to the Viſigots, who raigning formerly in Aquitane, made themſelves maſters of Spaine in the yeare of our Lord, 417. The lawes of the Viſigots were Latine: and although their tongue was Gotick, yet did they accommodate themſelves to the Latine: Whence likewiſe their Councills and generall Aſſemblies were made in Latine. The office or ordinarie ſervice of the Orthodox Spaniards (for the Viſigots at the beginning were Arians) was called the Moſarabicke, or Toletain office: whereof may be ſeene an abridgement in Iſidore in his firſt booke of Eccleſiaſtick offices, which Iſidore borne in Sevill writ in the yeare of our Lord about 630.
In the yeare 713. the Saraſins aboliſhed in Spaine the kingdome of the Goths, ſlue their King Roderick in battell, and extinguiſhed in the moſt part of Spaine the Chriſtian Religion. And held Spaine for many ages, untill that the reſidue of the Chriſtians, which were retired & fled into the Moūtains having recollected their forces in the end, drove out the Mores, and replaced againe the Chriſtian Religion in Spaine, and eſtabliſhed many pettie kingdomes. Their ſervice was done yet in Latine, according to the ancient forme, albeit by reaſon of the mixture of the Saraſins they had loſt the uſe of the Latine tongue. Their office or ſervice was the ancient, to wit the Mozorabick office: which ſtill continued in Spaine, untill about the yeare of our Lord, 1080. in the which King Alphonſus to gratifie Pope Gregorie the VII.Roderick Archbiſhop of Toledo. lib. 6. chap. 25. and 26. by ſtrong hand, and Maulgre the eſtates of the Countrey eſtabliſhed in Spaine the Romiſh ſervice, then the Latine tongue which heretofore was uſed by cuſtome, was now eſtabliſhed by law. And ſo hath continued unto this day.