Ecclesiastical Latin, also called Church Latin or Liturgical Latin, is a form of
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
developed to discuss
Christian thought
Christian theology is the theology of Christian belief and practice. Such study concentrates primarily upon the texts of the Old Testament and of the New Testament, as well as on Christian tradition. Christian theologians use biblical exeg ...
in
Late Antiquity and used in Christian
liturgy,
theology, and church administration down to the present day, especially in the
Catholic Church. It includes words from
Vulgar Latin and
Classical Latin (as well as
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
and
Hebrew) re-purposed with Christian meaning.
It is less stylized and rigid in form than Classical Latin, sharing vocabulary, forms, and syntax, while at the same time incorporating informal elements which had always been with the language but which were excluded by the literary authors of Classical Latin.
Its pronunciation was partly standardized in the late 8th century during the
Carolingian Renaissance as part of
Charlemagne's educational reforms, and this new letter-by-letter pronunciation, used in France and England, was adopted in Iberia and Italy a couple of centuries afterwards. As time passed, pronunciation diverged depending on the local vernacular language, giving rise to even highly divergent forms such as the
traditional English pronunciation of Latin, which has now been largely abandoned for reading Latin texts. Within the
Catholic Church and in certain
Protestant
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...
churches, such as the
Anglican Church
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the ...
, a pronunciation based on modern
Italian phonology
The phonology of Italian describes the sound system—the phonology and phonetics—of Standard Italian and its geographical variants.
Consonants
Notes:
* Between two vowels, or between a vowel and an approximant () or a liquid (), co ...
, known as Italianate Latin, became common by the 20th century.
Ecclesiastical Latin was the language of
liturgical rites in the
Latin Church, as well as the
Anglican Church
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the ...
,
Lutheran Church,
Methodist Church, and in the
Western Rite
Latin liturgical rites, or Western liturgical rites, are Catholic rites of public worship employed by the Latin Church, the largest particular church ''sui iuris'' of the Catholic Church, that originated in Europe where the Latin language once ...
of the
Eastern Orthodox Church.
Today, ecclesiastical Latin is primarily used in official documents of the Catholic Church, in the
Tridentine Mass, and it is still learned by clergy.
The Ecclesiastical Latin that is used in theological works, liturgical rites and dogmatic proclamations varies in style: syntactically simple in the
Vulgate Bible
The Vulgate (; also called (Bible in common tongue), ) is a late-4th-century Latin translation of the Bible.
The Vulgate is largely the work of Jerome who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Gospels us ...
, hieratic (very restrained) in the
Roman Canon of the
Mass, terse and technical in
Thomas Aquinas's , and
Ciceronian
Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the esta ...
(syntactically complex) in
Pope John Paul II's encyclical letter .
Usage
Late antique usage
The use of Latin in the Church started in the late fourth century
[Collins, ''Primer of Ecclesiastical Latin'', pg. vi] with the split of the Roman Empire after
Emperor Theodosius
Theodosius I ( grc-gre, Θεοδόσιος ; 11 January 347 – 17 January 395), also called Theodosius the Great, was Roman emperor from 379 to 395. During his reign, he succeeded in a crucial war against the Goths, as well as in two ...
in 395. Before this split, Greek was the primary language of the Church as well as the language of the
eastern half of the Roman Empire. Following the split, early theologians like
Jerome translated Greek and Hebrew texts into Latin, the dominant language of the
Western Roman Empire. The loss of Greek in the Western half of the Roman Empire, and the loss of Latin in the Eastern half of the Roman Empire were not immediate, but changed the culture of language as well as the development of the Church. What especially differentiates Ecclesiastical Latin from Classical Latin is its utility as a language for translating, since it borrows and assimilates constructions and borrows vocabulary from the
''koine'' Greek, while adapting the meanings of some Latin words to those of the ''koine'' Greek originals, which are sometimes themselves translations of Hebrew originals.
Medieval usage
At first there was no distinction between Latin and the actual Romance vernacular, the former being just the traditional written form of the latter. For instance, in ninth-century Spain was simply the correct way to spell , meaning 'century'. The writer would not have actually read it aloud as any more than an English speaker today would pronounce ⟨knight⟩ as .
The spoken version of Ecclesiastical Latin was created later during the
Carolingian Renaissance. The English scholar
Alcuin
Alcuin of York (; la, Flaccus Albinus Alcuinus; 735 – 19 May 804) – also called Ealhwine, Alhwin, or Alchoin – was a scholar, clergyman, poet, and teacher from York, Northumbria. He was born around 735 and became the student o ...
, tasked by
Charlemagne with improving the standards of Latin writing in France, prescribed a pronunciation based on a fairly literal interpretation of Latin spelling. For example, in a radical break from the traditional system, a word such as ⟨⟩ 'orchard' now had to be read aloud precisely as it was spelled rather than (later spelled as
Old French ). The Carolingian reforms soon brought the new Church Latin from France to other lands where Romance was spoken.
Usage during the Reformation and in modern Protestant churches
The use of Latin in the Western Church continued into the
Early modern period. One of
Martin Luther's tenets during the
Reformation was to have services and religious texts in the
common tongue, rather than Latin, a language that at the time, many did not understand. Protestants refrained from using Latin in services, however Protestant clergy had to learn and understand Latin as it was the language of higher learning and theological thought until the 18th century. After the
Reformation, in the
Lutheran churches, Latin was retained as the language of the Mass for weekdays, although for the Sunday Sabbath, the
Deutsche Messe
''Deutsche Messe'' ("German Mass"; full title: , "German Mass and Order of Worship") was published by Martin Luther in 1526. It followed his work '' Formula missae'' from the year 1523, pertaining to the celebration of a Latin mass. Both of these ...
was to be said.
In
Geneva, among the
Reformed churches
Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Calv ...
, "persons called before the
consistory
Consistory is the anglicized form of the consistorium, a council of the closest advisors of the Roman emperors. It can also refer to:
*A papal consistory, a formal meeting of the Sacred College of Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church
* Consistor ...
to prove their faith answered by reciting the ''Paternoster'', the ''Ave Maria'', and the ''Credo'' in Latin."
In the
Anglican Church
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the ...
, the
Book of Common Prayer was published in Latin, alongside English.
John Wesley, the founder of the
Methodist churches, "used Latin text in doctrinal writings",
as Martin Luther and
John Calvin did in their era.
In the training of Protestant clergy in
Württemberg, as well as in the
Rhineland, universities instructed divinity students in Latin and their examinations were conducted in this language.
The University of Montauban, under Reformed auspices, required that seminarians complete two theses, with one being in Latin; thus Reformed ministers were "Latinist by training", comparable to Catholic seminarians.
Modern Catholic usage
Ecclesiastical Latin continues to be the official language of the Catholic Church. The
Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) decreed that the
Mass would be translated into
vernacular languages. The Church produces liturgical texts in Latin, which provide a single clear point of reference for translations into all other languages. The same holds for the texts of
canon law.
Pope Benedict XVI gave his unexpected
resignation speech in Latin.
The Holy See has for some centuries usually drafted documents in a modern language, but the authoritative text, published in the ''
Acta Apostolicae Sedis
''Acta Apostolicae Sedis'' ( Latin for "Acts of the Apostolic See"), often cited as ''AAS'', is the official gazette of the Holy See, appearing about twelve times a year.Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (Oxford University Press 2005 ...
'', is usually in Latin. Some texts may be published initially in a modern language and be later revised, according to a Latin version (or “editio typica”), after this Latin version is published. For example, the
Catechism of the Catholic Church was drafted and published, in 1992, in French. The Latin text appeared five years later, in 1997, and the French text was corrected to match the Latin version, which is regarded as the official text. The Latin-language department of the Vatican Secretariat of State (formerly the ''Secretaria brevium ad principes et epistolarum latinarum'') is charged with the preparation in Latin of papal and curial documents. Sometimes, the official text is published in a modern language, e.g., the well-known edict ''
Tra le sollecitudini'' (1903) by
Pope Pius X (in Italian) and ''
Mit brennender Sorge
''Mit brennender Sorge'' ( , in English "With deep anxiety") ''On the Church and the German Reich'' is an encyclical of Pope Pius XI, issued during the Nazi era on 10 March 1937 (but bearing a date of Passion Sunday, 14 March)."Church and st ...
'' (1937) by
Pope Pius XI (in German).
Comparison with Classical Latin
There are not many differences between Classical Latin and Church Latin. One can understand Church Latin knowing the Latin of classical texts, as the main differences between the two are in pronunciation and spelling, as well as vocabulary.
In many countries, those who speak Latin for liturgical or other ecclesiastical purposes use the pronunciation that has become traditional in Rome by giving the letters the value they have in modern
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
but without distinguishing between
open and close "E" and "O". "AE" and "OE" coalesce with "E". "C" and "G" before "AE", "OE", "E" and "I" are pronounced (English "CH") and (English "J"), respectively. "TI" before a vowel is generally pronounced (unless preceded by "S", "T" or "X"). Such speakers pronounce consonantal "V" (not written as "U") as as in English, not as Classical . Like in Classical Latin, double consonants are pronounced with
gemination.
The distinction in Classical Latin between long and short vowels is ignored, and instead of the '
macron' or '
apex
The apex is the highest point of something. The word may also refer to:
Arts and media Fictional entities
* Apex (comics), a teenaged super villainess in the Marvel Universe
* Ape-X, a super-intelligent ape in the Squadron Supreme universe
*Apex, ...
', lines to mark the long vowel, an acute accent is used for stress. The first syllable of two-syllable words is stressed; in longer words, an acute accent is placed over the stressed vowel: adorémus 'let us adore'; Dómini 'of the Lord'.
Language materials
The complete text of the Bible in Latin, the revised Vulgate, appears at Nova Vulgata - Bibliorum Sacrorum Editio.
New Advent gives the entire Bible, in the Douay version, verse by verse, accompanied by the Vulgate Latin of each verse.
In 1976, the
Latinitas Foundation (''Opus Fundatum Latinitas'' in Latin) was established by
Pope Paul VI to promote the study and use of Latin. Its headquarters are in
Vatican City. The foundation publishes an
eponymous quarterly in Latin. The foundation also published a 15,000-word Italian-Latin ''
Lexicon Recentis Latinitatis'' (''Dictionary of Recent Latin''), which provides Latin coinages for modern concepts, such as a bicycle (''birota''), a cigarette (''fistula nicotiana''), a computer (''instrumentum computatorium''), a cowboy (''armentarius''), a motel (''deversorium autocineticum''), shampoo (''capitilavium''), a strike (''operistitium''), a terrorist (''tromocrates''), a trademark (''ergasterii nota''), an unemployed person (''invite otiosus''), a waltz (''chorea Vindobonensis''), and even a miniskirt (''tunicula minima'') and hot pants (''brevissimae bracae femineae''). Some 600 such terms extracted from the book appear on a page of the Vatican website. The Latinitas Foundation was superseded by the
Pontifical Academy for Latin
The Pontifical Academy for Latin ( lat, Pontificia Academia Latinitatis) is an organization established in 2012 to promote appreciation for the Latin language and culture. The Academy replaced the Latinitas Foundation, which Pope Paul VI erected i ...
( lat, Pontificia Academia Latinitatis) in 2012.
Current use
Latin remains the official language of the
Holy See and the
Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. Until the 1960s and still later in Roman colleges like the Gregorian, Catholic
priests studied theology using Latin textbooks and the language of instruction in many
seminaries
A seminary, school of theology, theological seminary, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called ''seminarians'') in scripture, theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as clergy, ...
was also Latin, which was seen as the language of the Church Fathers. The use of Latin in
pedagogy and in theological research, however, has since declined. Nevertheless,
canon law requires for seminary formation to provide for a thorough training in Latin, though "the use of Latin in seminaries and pontifical universities has now dwindled to the point of extinction."
Latin was still spoken in recent international gatherings of Catholic leaders, such as the
Second Vatican Council, and it is still used at
conclaves
A papal conclave is a gathering of the College of Cardinals convened to elect a bishop of Rome, also known as the pope. Catholics consider the pope to be the apostolic successor of Saint Peter and the earthly head of the Catholic Church.
Co ...
to elect a new
Pope. The Tenth Ordinary
General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops
In the Catholic Church, the Synod of Bishops, considered as an advisory body for the pope, is one of the ways in which the bishops render cooperative assistance to him in exercising his office. It is described in the 1983 Code of Canon Law as " ...
in 2004 was the most recent to have a Latin-language group for discussions.
Although Latin is the traditional liturgical language of the
Western (Latin) Church, the liturgical use of the vernacular has predominated since the liturgical reforms that followed the Second Vatican Council:
liturgical law for the
Latin Church states that
Mass may be celebrated either in Latin or another language in which the liturgical texts, translated from Latin, have been legitimately approved. The permission granted for continued use of the
Tridentine Mass in its 1962 form authorizes use of the vernacular language in proclaiming the Scripture readings after they are first read in Latin.
[ Motu_proprio_''Summorum_Pontificum'',_article_6]
In_historic_Protestant_churches,_such_as_the_
Motu_proprio_''Summorum_Pontificum'',_article_6
In_historic_Protestant_churches,_such_as_the_Anglican_Communion">Summorum_Pontificum.html"_;"title="Motu_proprio_''Summorum_Pontificum">Motu_proprio_''Summorum_Pontificum'',_article_6
In_historic_Protestant_churches,_such_as_the_Anglican_Communion_and_World_Lutheran_Federation.html" ;"title="Anglican_Communion.html" ;"title="Summorum_Pontificum.html" ;"title="Motu proprio ''Summorum Pontificum">Motu proprio ''Summorum Pontificum'', article 6
In historic Protestant churches, such as the Anglican Communion">Summorum_Pontificum.html" ;"title="Motu proprio ''Summorum Pontificum">Motu proprio ''Summorum Pontificum'', article 6
In historic Protestant churches, such as the Anglican Communion and World Lutheran Federation">Lutheran churches, Ecclesiastical Latin is occasionally employed in sung celebrations of the
Mass.
Church Latin kana
In the hymnbook used in the Catholic Church in Japan, there are some special kana characters. To represent the sound in the Latin language, the R column kana letters with ゜(the dakuten and handakuten, handakuten diacritic) are used (such as for
a for
e for
i for
oand for
u.
References
Citations
Sources
*
* (A course in ecclesiastical Latin.)
Further reading
*''A Primer of Ecclesiastical Latin'' by John F. Collins, (
Catholic University of America Press
The Catholic University of America Press, also known as CUA Press, is the publishing division of The Catholic University of America. Founded on November 14, 1939, and incorporated on July 16, 1941,Roy J. Deferrari ''Memoirs of the Catholic Unive ...
, 1985) . A learner's first textbook, comparable in style, layout, and coverage to ''
Wheelock's Latin
''Wheelock's Latin'' (originally titled ''Latin'' and later ''Latin: An Introductory Course Based on Ancient Authors'') is a comprehensive beginning Latin textbook. Chapters introduce related grammatical topics and assume little or no prior knowl ...
'', but featuring text selections from the liturgy and the Vulgate: unlike Wheelock, it also contains translation and composition exercises.
*
*
*
External links
Latin and the Catholic Church
*
in Latin here
*
* Fr. Nikolaus Gihr,
The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass'
The Language Used in the Celebration of the Holy Mass
Bibles
NewAdvent.orgSide-by-side comparisons of the Ancient Greek, English, and Latin Vulgate Bibles.
''Ordo Missae'' of the 1970 Roman Missal Latin and English texts, rubrics in English only
Side-by-side of the Vulgate Latin and English
*
Parallel Latin-English Psalter'
Breviaries
''Divinum Officium''Latin-English pre-Vatican-II Breviary
Other documents
*
��Multi-language Catholic eBook database of all the writings of Holy Popes, Councils, Church Fathers and Doctors, and Allied Auctors. Retrieved November 2018.
*
��a collection of ecclesiastical Latin texts by Christian authors. Retrieved November 2018.
Latin Logos Library��contains Classical, Medieval, and Ecclesiastical texts.
��a collection of ecclesiastical Latin. Retrieved November 18.
with interlinear Latin-English translations
Course
an ecclesiastical Latin course. Retrieved November 2018.
Retrieved November 2018.
Retrieved November 2018.
{{Authority control
Languages attested from the 4th century
Latin language
Forms of Latin
Christian liturgical languages
Latin liturgical rites
Latin Church
Western Christianity
Languages of Vatican City