Article 2-Educational Subjects

Language Learning

¹⁴⁸ When Christianity was first established by law, a corrupted Latin had become the common language of Western Europe.

Church services and the Bible translations read in churches were both in that corrupted Latin.

After demise of the Roman empire, Latin gradually ceased to be the language of Europe.

But the people’s reverence naturally preserves the established forms and ceremonies of religion long after the reasons for their establishment have disappeared.

• Church services still continued in Latin even though the people no longer understood Latin.

Thus, 2 languages were established in Europe, in the same way as in ancient Egypt:

• a sacred, learned language of the priests, and
• a profane, unlearned language of the people.

Thus, the study of the Latin made an essential part of university education of the priests from the beginning.

¹⁴⁹ It was not so with the Greek or Hebrew languages.

The Latin translation of the Bible is commonly called the Latin Vulgate.

• The infallible church decrees made that version dictated by divine inspiration.
• It therefore was of equal authority with the Greek and Hebrew originals.

The knowledge and study of Greek and Hebrew was not required for churchmen.

• For a long time, their study was not necessary in common university education.
• There are some Spanish universities where the study of Greek was never done.

The first reformers found the Greek text of the new testament, and the Hebrew text of the old testament, more favourable than the Latin Vulgate translation.

The Latin version was gradually accommodated to support the Catholic church’s doctrines.

• They exposed the many errors of that translation, which the Roman Catholic clergy defended or explained.

But this could not be done well without knowledge of those 3 languages.

• Their study was therefore gradually introduced into most universities.
• Some of those universities embraced while some rejected the doctrines of the reformation.

The Greek language was connected with classical learning which was first principally cultivated by Catholics and Italians.

• It came into fashion around the same time the doctrines of the reformation began.

In most universities, Greek was taught:

• before philosophy, and
• as soon as the student had made some progress in Latin.

The Hebrew language had no connection with classical learning except in the holy Scriptures.

• No esteemed book was written in it.
• Its study only commenced after the study of philosophy when the student entered the study of theology.

¹⁵⁰ Originally, the first rudiments of Greek and Latin were taught in universities.

• In others, the student is expected to have previously learned those languages.
• The study of both makes a very considerable part of university education everywhere.