The Novelty of Popery Opposed to the Antiquity of True Christianity, Book 7 · Treatise · Chapter 14
CHAP. XIV. Of AFRICA, and how the Service in the Latin Tongue came to it.
OF Africa (a)Lib. 6. cap. 1. p. 1091.M. Du Perron ſpeaks thus,(b)Aug. de doctrina Chriſtiana, l. 2. cap. 13. St. Auſtin affirmeth, that the cuſtom that was among the people to pronounce when they ſung the Pſalms, Floret ſanctificatio mea, inſtead of Florebit, was ſo rooted by long uſe among the people, that there was no poſſibility to root it out. And yet it is certain that the Latin Tongue was nowhere vulgar but in Italy, and in the Towns of the Roman Colonies ſcattered here and there in the Empire, ſuch as was Carthage in Africk, where the Latin Tongue was vulgar. Whence it is that Auſtin that Countryman ſaith, that he learned Latin among the careſſes of his Nurſes.
This Prelat doth according to his cuſtom, which is to prove a thing which is not in queſtion. He ſaith that the Latin tongue was not vulgar in Africk, but that is not the queſtion. We diſpute not here of the vulgar tongue, but of the tongue underſtood by the people. It is not material whether Latin was or was not vulgar in Africk; the queſtion is, whether it was underſtood. In that part of Africk which he marketh, the Liturgy was ſaid in Latin, becauſe it was there more common and better underſtood by the people then the Punick language, which was the old vulgar tongue. It is much already that the Cardinal grants that Latin was the vulgar tongue of Carthage, the capital City of Africk. The ſame he confeſſeth of the Cities of Africk that were Colonies. Now the vulgar tongue of the capital City of the Country being Latin, where the Court of the Proconſul was, and the Imperial Officers, where the cauſes were judged in Latin, and where an innumerable multitude of people reſorted; many other Towns beſides being Roman Colonies, and over all the Towns thoſe whom the Romans called Curiales, the Grecians foreign, and which they call in France les gens du Roy, the Kings men, being Latins, it is no wonder if all the people of the Country uſed themſelves to ſpeak Latin, and if Latin was more familiar with them then their old vulgar Punick tongue. Wherefore as in Carthage, ſo in Bona, and other Towns of Africk ſubject unto the Romans, not only the Liturgy, but the Sermons were in Latin. It was in Latin that Cyprian, and Aurelius, and Auſtin preached.
Auſtin being born in the Town of Thagaſta, or Tegeſta in Numidia, where the people were half barbarous and remote from Carthage, (c)Aug. 1. Confeſ. c. 14. Latina didici ſine ullo metu atque cruciatu inter etiam blandimenta nutricum, & joca arridentium.yet ſaith that he had learned Latin among the careſſes of his Nurſes, becauſe his Father was a Curial and an Imperial Officer; as Poſidonius relateth in Auſtins life. Wherefore alſo in Auſtins Books there are many paſſages whereby it appeareth, that the African people underſtood Latin better then Punick. As in the 26. Sermon of the words of the Apoſtle he ſpeaks thus to the people,(d)Serm. 26. de verbis Apoſtoli. Proverbium notum eſt Panicum quod quidem Latine vobis dicam quia Punice non omnes noſtis. There is a common Punick Proverb, which I will tell you in Latin, becauſe you do not all underſtand the Punick. And upon the 50. Pſalm. We know all that in Latin they ſay neither ſanguines, nor ſanguina. And in the ſecond Book of Chriſtian Doctrine, Chap. 10.(e)Cum dicimus bovem, intelligimus pecus quod omnes nobiſcum Latinae linguae homines hoc nomine vocant. Cum dicimus bovem, when we ſay an Oxe, we underſtand that beaſt which all that are with us Latins by language call by that name. And in the firſt Book of Retractations, Chap. 20.(f)Volens cauſam Donatiſtarum ad ipſius humillimi vulgi et omnino imperitorum et idiotarum netitiam pervenire, et eorum quantum fieri poſſet per nos inhaerere memoriae, Pſalmum qui eis cantaretur per litteras Latinas feci. Deſiring that the cauſe of the Donatiſts ſhould come to the knowledge of the common people, and of the moſt ignorant and idiots, and that by our means it ſhould be fixt in their memory as much as it is poſſible, I have put a Pſalm in Latin letters to ſing unto them.
By all theſe inſtances it is made as clear as the bright day, that the ancient Church in Greece, Egypt, Aſia, Armenia, Ethiopia, Africa, ſubject to the Romans, Italy, Gaules, Spain and England, Divine Service was ſaid in a tongue underſtood by the people: Which M. Du Perron doth tacitly acknowledge; for he doth not ſay that in thoſe Churches the Service was ſaid in an unknown tongue, but only affirmeth that it was ſaid in another tongue then the vulgar: Which yet is falſe of Italy, of Greece, of the moſt part of Natolia, of the City of Carthage, and of all the Roman Colonies of Africk. But it is true of all Churches without exception, that their Sermons and their Liturgy were in the ſame language.
THE END.