EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION "MOGILEV STATE
UNIVERSITY IM. A.A. KULESHOV"

Faculty of Economics and Law
Department of Law

ABSTRACT
In Latin
Latin in the Middle Ages - the language of the scholastics and vagantes

Completed by a 2nd year student
correspondence department
group P-094
Trimonov D.V.
Record book No. 09815

Checked:
Efremova N.V.

Mogilev 2011
CONTENT

Introduction1. Scholasticism
2. Vagantas
Conclusion
List of sources used

Introduction

In the 13th century, the influence of the church on the worldview of medieval people gradually weakened. A secular culture began to develop. School education spread in Europe, universities appeared, and a system of scholastic education was created. An urban culture with its secular character and realistic tendencies was taking shape. All this led to the emergence of opposition to the ideological influence of the church.
During the Middle Ages there were several types of schools in Western Europe. Church and monastic schools trained clergy; all education in them was limited to the study of prayers and texts of the Holy Scriptures in Latin, in which the services were performed. Another type of school was created at the episcopal departments; here the “seven liberal arts” were studied. In the 13th century Universities sometimes arose from episcopal schools (if the schools had major professors of theology, philosophy, medicine and Roman law). In 1200, the University of Paris was founded in France, which had four faculties.
In the 13th century universities also appeared in other countries: Oxford and Cambridge in England, Salamanca in Spain, Naples in Italy. In the XIV century. Universities were founded in the Czech Republic (Prague), Poland (Krakow), Germany (Heidelberg, Cologne and Erfurt). At the end of the 15th century. There were 65 universities in Europe. Most of them were established with the sanction of the Roman Curia. Education at universities took the form of lectures. Professors (masters) read and commented on the works of authoritative church and ancient authors. Public debates were held on topics of theological and philosophical nature, in which professors participated. Students often performed at them. Teaching in medieval universities was conducted in Latin.

Scholasticism
Medieval university science was called scholasticism (from the word schola-school); Scholasticism was most clearly reflected in medieval theology. Scholasticism did not set a goal to discover something new, but only systematized what was in the Holy Scriptures and was the content of the Christian faith. She sought to rely on authorities, and the scholastics sought to confirm the provisions of the Holy Scriptures and sacred tradition with references not only to church authorities, but also to ancient philosophers, mainly Aristotle. From him the medieval scholastics borrowed the very form of logical presentation in the form of complex judgments and conclusions; hence the disdainful attitude towards experience and dogmatism in conclusions. One of the founders of early scholasticism was Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1108), who placed faith above knowledge and reduced philosophy to theology.
Nevertheless, the activity of the scholastics had a positive significance: it contributed to the development of formal logic; All university programs included compulsory study of Aristotle. The scholastics tried to resolve some important problems of knowledge; they resumed the study of the ancient heritage and introduced Western Europe to the works of ancient Greek and Arab scientists. Finally, they turned to the human mind, and not just to faith, and sought to understand many issues of philosophy and theology from the standpoint of study, reasoning, and understanding. The problem of knowledge back in the XI-XII centuries. caused heated debate between various groups of scholastics, called realists and nominalists; the main dispute concerned the nature of general concepts (universals). Some scholastics expressed the idea that in the world there are only isolated things and phenomena (res), accessible...

Anyone who studied at a medieval school certainly had to study Latin, which was considered the basis of all sciences. In many schools, however, they were limited to the 1st and 2nd declensions, as medieval authors mockingly report. Latin was not a foreign language, but you couldn’t call it dead either: in the Middle Ages they spoke, sang, wrote poetry, and it changed and developed, absorbing new words and changing the meaning of old ones - it was rather a universal language. Without Latin it was impossible to become a scribe; without Latin you could not understand church books and church services; without Latin you could not read the law. So those who came to the university had to know Latin, especially since the universities gathered students from all over the world. People from one country formed fraternities - “nations”, but lectures still had to be listened to in Latin, and they were read quickly - for example, the council of the University of Paris forbade teachers to read lectures, as if dictating, slowly, so that students would learn to think and immediately analyze what they heard material. The professor also wandered from country to country, from city to city. Famous jurists who taught at the University of Bologna, Peter the Spaniard and John de Deus, arrived here from Lisbon; John Garland, an Englishman, taught in Paris; Louis Vives read at the University of Louvain, and then was a teacher of the children of the English king. And the German emperor and Spanish king Charles V insisted that his son, the future Philip II, learn Latin, since it is the language of international communication.
But not only the desire for science, but also everyday life pushed me to know other languages. In the cities there were entire neighborhoods of merchants and artisans who arrived from other countries. And in some lands the languages ​​coexisted so closely that the inhabitants of the cities were, in fact, bilingual, fluent in several languages.
The instability of borders and frequent conquests led to the fact that it happened that the ruling stratum spoke one language, and the commoners - another. This was the case in England after 1066, where the Normans brought Old French; in the West Slavic lands colonized by Germany; in Portugal after its capture by Spain in 1581.
Despite the difficulties of the journey, troubadours - poets, musicians, singers - traveled to the roads of Europe from estate to estate, from court to court. They performed their albums at court receptions, introducing listeners to their language. Thus, the Provencal troubadours brought their language to Catalan poetry, the Portuguese - to Castilian. Don't forget about other travelers - merchants. Pilgrims also unwittingly learned languages, since their path to the Holy Land ran through different countries. They were helped in this by special books, which contained phrases from everyday life in the language of the peoples through whose lands they passed.
New prospects for learning languages ​​opened up during the era of great geographical discoveries, when Europeans encountered unknown peoples and their languages. The first who began to study them properly were missionaries.

Medieval Latin: Observations and Reflections Part One Man muß das Mittellatein historisch zu verstehen suchen (K. Strecker) In this series of essays we intend to examine some aspects of the history of the Latin language in the Middle Ages. The first essay is devoted to the book “Introduction to Medieval Latin” by Karl Strecker. We used the second edition of this manual, published in 1929.1 Based on the observations of a German historian and source specialist, we will reflect on specific issues of medieval Latin orthography, morphology, and syntax. Note that one of Strecker’s main goals was to provide a bibliography on various issues of medieval Latin philology that was current at the time of the book’s publication. We do not touch on this bibliography here, referring interested readers to the original source, as well as to one of the subsequent essays in our series, which will focus specifically on the history of the study of medieval Latin in the late 19th - 20th centuries. Our order of consideration of the departments of the history of language will be somewhat different than Strecker’s, more appropriate to our tasks. It is planned to devote a separate essay to vocabulary, in which, as a starting point, in addition to Strecker’s manual, it is intended to involve the works of some other researchers. First of all, let us turn to spelling, which seems extremely important for medieval Latin, but to which Strecker devoted only one page. Most medieval texts are documents and manuscripts. Being a specialist in 1 Strecker K. Einführung in das Mittellatein. Berlin, 1929. The last one is a German historian and writes exclusively about the spelling of manuscripts. The author’s first remark is that it varies greatly depending on the chronological and geographical location of the manuscript under study, just as, let us generalize for him, all phenomena of medieval Latin vary greatly. However, Strecker rightly clarifies, universal mechanisms of orthographic variation can also be discovered, common, for example, to Spanish and Irish manuscripts. In Italy, since the early Middle Ages, the influence of the folk language on the literary language has been noted. The author does not ask why this is so, but the main reason was the proximity of languages. That is why in the Romance world we will much more often find the influence of the morphology and syntax of folk dialects on the Latin substratum. This phenomenon widely affected spelling, as well as pronunciation, as evidenced by some rhymes allowed in medieval Latin poetry2. Using observations of the figured verses of the Carolingian period, Strecker concludes that their orthography did not differ much from the restored orthography of the Latin classics of the Golden Age that is familiar to us. Forms with contracted diphthongs and the opposite phenomenon of hypercorrection, observed, say, in Rabanus the Maurus (que instead of quae, Egyptus instead of Aegyptus and, conversely, aecclesia instead of ecclesia or praessus instead of pressus) are harbingers of a widely spread in the manuscripts of the 11th-13th centuries . mixing diphthongs and monophthongs corresponding to them in timbre. Only humanists restored the true state of affairs. Strecker's observation is pure truth, but the noted fact cannot be considered in isolation, taking into account only commonly used texts. In the vernacular, as is known, in the language 2 Strecker's examples: abscondi-profundi, amicus-antiquus, dimis-sum-ipsum, intus-cinctus, amnis-annis. 2 inscriptions on tombstones, in peripheral manuscripts of Latin classics, a mixture of vowels in the sequence: (eu) = e = ae = oe = / i = y = u = (au) = o, that is, all diphthongs and all vowel sounds, dol - short and short, except for a, is a common phenomenon covering all eras, almost as universal as the doubling of single consonants between vowels or, conversely, the use of one consonant instead of a double one. In this light, the observation that spellings like Talia instead of Thalia in the same Rabanus the Maurus reflects a later tendency towards complete mutual confusion of t and th, f and ph, p and ph, ti and ci seems somewhat limited in this light. Strecker then gives numerous examples of such mixtures from later literature. In this case, the German historian clearly connects together a number of phonetic and purely orthographic phenomena that have different origins. Let's talk about this in more detail, using Strecker's examples. In the phonological system of the ancient Greek language, there was a contrast between aspirated and voiceless stop consonant phonemes, which formed pairs π-φ (p-ph), κ-χ (c-ch), τ-θ (t-th), smooth ρ (r) always was aspirated (rh). The hardening of aspirates is a characteristic phenomenon in the history of many languages, therefore the cases of writing p instead of ph, s instead of ch, t instead of th and vice versa are the result of mixing stop and aspirated phonemes of the Greek language in the Latin language, mainly medieval . The transfer of this process to the actual Latin words is a secondary phenomenon; the spelling r instead of rh is also a secondary phenomenon, which became a logical continuation of the above. These include the cases cited by Strecker of writing Talia instead of Thalia, choruscare instead of coruscare (proper Latin), pasca instead of pascha, crisma instead of chrisma, scisma instead of schisma, Phitagoras instead of Pythagoras (here there are also 3 aspiration-occlusion metatheses), Protheus instead of Proteus, thaurus instead of taurus, eptathecus instead of heptateuchus (again metathesis of aspiration-occlusion), spera instead of sphaera, emisperium instead of hemisphaerium, antleta instead of athleta. As you can see, all the examples are Greek, except for coruscare, which is highly characteristic and confirms our thesis. In contrast to the listed cases, writing f instead of ph and vice versa is a phenomenon of a different order. In the Greek language there was no sound analogous to the Latin [f], if we exclude the sound [w], which was designated in the Eastern alphabets by the digamma (Ϝ). Therefore, the transition of an aspirate (φ) into a voiceless fricative [f] is actually a Latin innovation, the manifestation of which dates back to the late period of the history of the Latin language (180-600 AD). Initially, it also covered only Greek words, because, of course, the letter combination ph was found only in them, but subsequently the opposite phenomenon of hypercorrection also captured the Latin words themselves. In Strecker we find the following medieval examples: Feton = Phaeton, cifus = scyphus, fantasma = phantasma, filomena = philomela, fisica = physica, prophanus = profanus. Another late Latin innovation was the funny ti and ci before a vowel. The transition of a voiceless stop [t] before a front one into an affricate corresponding in position is as typical a phonetic process as the hardening of aspirates. In Latin, this happened before the subsequent vowel, that is, in positions where [i] was obviously short according to the rule that the vowel before the vowel was shortened. It is possible that the short [i] was more anterior in articulation than the corresponding long one, which is the root of the phenomenon. This phenomenon did not cover words where ti was preceded by [t] or [s], that is, one of the two elements of a potential affricate, which prevented its formation according to the principle of dissimilation. In addition, in Gothic the confusion of c and t was facilitated by their similar style. Strecker's examples: precium = pretium, accio = actio, Gretia = Graecia, fatio = facio. The German historian’s general list of spelling irregularities also includes cases where spelling variation is explained by metathesis, although he does not use such a concept. These are antestis instead of antistes (obviously under the influence of the word ante), hanelare instead of anhelare, the above Phitagoras instead of Pythagoras, eptathecus instead of heptateuchus, spalmus instead of psalmus, fragrare and fraglare instead of flagrare, neupma instead of pneuma. The most frequent and known from inscriptions from the second century BC remain in Strecker’s list: writing e instead of ae, oe and vice versa, as well as interchanges of vowels and diphthongs i/y, a/au, i/e and others, in accordance with the above sequence of spelling variation: tropeum = tropaeum, Pheton = Phaeton, Danem = Danaem (here at the junction of morphemes), mestus = maestus; cenobium = coenobium, cęmens = coemens (here at the junction of morphemes, as the spelling with cedilla reminds us); limpha = lympha, sidera = sidera; agurium = augurium, agustus = augustus, ascultare = auscultare (restoring the internal form of the word also gives bizarre morphological variants: abscultare, obscultare); analetica = analytica (through the analitica stage), yconomus, iconomus = oeconomus (through the economus stage), Ysopus = Aesopus (through the Esopus, Isopus stages), emunitas = immunitas. Interchanges between labiovelar qu and velar c have been known since ancient times, so one should not follow Strecker in seeing something specifically medieval in the spellings scalores instead of squalores, doctilocus instead of doctiloquus and the like. Likewise, the phenomenon of the disappearance or, conversely, of a hypercorrectional insertion [h] at the beginning of a word before a vowel or in the middle of a word between two vowels was still ancient, although in the Middle Ages this phenomenon became widespread, becoming more complicated by purely orthographic by varying the spellings h = ch = c, for example, habundare instead of abundare, veit instead of vehit, hortus instead of ortus, abhominari instead of abominari (here, obviously, the meaning of the word played a role, forcing it to be associated not with omen, but with homo), agiographus instead hagiographus; michi = mihi, nichil, nicil = nihil. Finally, a purely medieval phenomenon was the mixing of final voiced and voiceless stops, especially [d] and [t], this manifested itself in spellings like capud instead of caput, inquid instead of inquit, adque instead of atque. The few remaining examples of Strecker relate, rather, to the peculiarities of vocabulary and morphology, rather than to spelling itself, so we omit them here and move on to the section on prosody, stress and pronunciation in medieval Latin, also very briefly outlined by the German historian. ke. Since prosody in the Middle Ages was studied according to classical models, primarily from poetry, it remained quite conservative. Although there are many deviations from the norms of the classics, they are difficult to generalize and should be studied in relation to each specific author, because they are very different in different texts. Strecker gives the following typical examples of errors in longitudes: fortuĭto, bĭduum, gentĭlis, rēnuo, gratĭs, crědulus, laudăbilis, iŭgis, fluěbat. In general, the author of the manual notes, in the XII-XIII centuries. lengths and brevities were observed significantly better than in earlier eras, which, we assume, was due to the so-called. Renaissance of the 12th century. The stresses in biblical proper names were interpreted in a very diverse manner, and this is not surprising due to their foreignness to both the Latin and Greek languages, and folk languages. Poor knowledge of the Greek language in medieval Western Europe led to the fact that brevity and length, as well as the associated stress in words of Greek origin, were often violated. The same words were emphasized either according to the Greek original, or according to the Latin borrowing, or contrary to all the rules. This is evidenced by cases such as éremus, ídolum, paráclitus, comedía, sophía and sophia, poetría and poétria, parádisus and paradísus, Égyptus and Egýptus. In poetry there is often a very free use of longitudes and shortnesses in Greek words: anathēma, bibliothěca, cātholicus, ecclěsia, erěmīta, mōnachus, phīlosophīa, prŏto-plastus, Theōphilus and Thēophilus. Let us add that stress transfer is sporadically observed in Latin words, especially those containing the muta cum liquida group: muliéris, tenébrae, cathédra (of course, Greek), intégrum. In the early Middle Ages, Strecker notes, the diphthongs au, eu were often chanted in two syllables, which, we add, was a continuation of the ancient trend, according to which eu in poetry and when it was a junction of morphemes was also chanted in two syllables. Let's move on to morphology. Late antique and medieval Latin morphology is usually described as a set of deviations from classical morphology; Strecker follows this path, noting the uneven distribution of morphological variability across eras: before 800 it is very large, starting from the 12th century. decreases significantly, in the interval it is moderately distributed. Avoiding the formulation of general patterns, the German historian gives individual examples. Let's look at them in groups, trying to trace general trends. In declension there is a mixture of different types. Third instead of second: dia- 7 conem, diaconibus. Second instead of pronominal: Dat. illo, nullo. Confusion of neuter pronoun endings –um and –d: ipsud. Universal for medieval Latin was the ending of the ablative singular of the comparative degree of adjectives according to the vowel type –i: maiori. Analytical comparative forms are becoming widespread instead of synthetic ones: magis regulares, plus communem, they are combined: magis incensior, irregular forms are formed instead of suppletive ones: bonissimus. The comparative degree is used instead of the superlative: de omnibus meliores, especially often also instead of the positive: devotius orare. Violations of ancient grammar are manifested in the transition of nouns to another gender (locellum instead of loquela, frons - m instead of f), the use of the singular in pluralia tantum (cuna instead of cunae [this is still ancient], insidia instead of insidiae). Among verbs, Strecker points out, deviations from the classical norm are more frequent. Fugio passes from the third conjugation to the fourth, odi from the defective also becomes a verb of the fourth conjugation: odio, odire. Third instead of second: resplendit. Replacing the basis of the perfect with the basis of the infect: linquerat, cernisti. Original tultus instead of ablatus. The future according to type I-II conjugations for the verb of the third conjugation: faciebo. Regular formation of forms in irregular verbs: exiebant instead of exibant, iuvavi instead of iuvi. There are depositional forms instead of non-deferential ones and vice versa, active participles instead of passive ones and vice versa. Descriptive constructions became favorite in the medieval period, which reflects the general movement of Latin from synthetism to analyticism. Moreover, not only sum can act as an auxiliary verb in them, as was the case in the classics, but also others, for example fio, evenio. As a result, one can find the following constructions: utens sum, locutus fui, assatus fieret, fit sepultus, interfectus evenerit, cenaturi erunt, refecturus fuero. It is interesting to note Strecker’s observation that the present participle is often replaced by the ablative gerund: gratulando rediit, and the gerund is finally interpreted as a passive participle of the future, sometimes being mixed in meaning with the active one. Impersonal verbs are periodically used as personal verbs: penites, pigeamus. To summarize, we can say that Strecker’s heterogeneous observations generally indicate a mixture of various grammatical types in medieval Latin, a phenomenon characteristic of the history of many living languages, which, however, did not give rise to a stable trend in medieval Latin that would force change the entire language system, as happened, for example, in the Romance languages ​​inherited from Latin. Strecker collected very different phenomena under the heading “Syntax.” Some, on the contrary, ended up in other sections from syntax. According to our observations, the use of the infinitive of a verb in the meaning of an indeclinable noun (vestrum velle meum est, pro posse et nosse, sine mandere), mentioned among morphological irregularities, is a feature that is sporadically found in classical authors, lived through the entire Middle Ages and remained among humanists and later, the verb volo was especially often used in this way. Strecker's "Syntax" includes a number of observations on the functions and meaning of pronouns in medieval Latin. Firstly, the difference in the use of demonstrative pronouns is, ea, id and hic, haec, hoc is lost, the first of which meant in the classical language “this, that”, and the second - “last mentioned”. Let us add that this was only part of the general tendency of medieval Latin to mix up all demonstrative pronouns, and with them the relative qui. As Strecker himself rightly writes, ille = iste = ipse = idem = is. In addition, in oblique cases the interchange his = hiis = iis = eis is due to the orthographic reasons outlined above. Secondly, instead of demonstrative pronouns, clericalisms with the meaning “above mentioned” are often used: praesens, praedictus, praefatus, supranominatus, memoratus and the like. As is known from the literature, this feature was borrowed by medieval Latin from the language of the late Roman imperial office. Thirdly, the system of possessive pronouns is destroyed. The adjective proprius can be used instead of any of them. “My”, “yours”, “his” are replaced by “yours”, and also vice versa: milites se prodiderunt, pater suus. Instead of a possessive pronoun, the personal genitive case is used (in fairness, we note that this happened periodically in antiquity): ira tui, nostri deliciae. Fourthly, indefinite pronouns are mixed: quis-que = quisquis, quivis. Fifthly, pseudo-articles appear: definite: ille, iste, indefinite: quidam, unus (note that this phenomenon is especially characteristic of the Romance world and is associated with the influence of folk languages). When forming a comparison, quam (also quantum) is often used in the meaning of “very”, “more”, as well as the prefix per- and the words nimis, nimium: quam cito, quam strennuiter, quam latenter, quantum religiosius, quam plures = quam plurimi , perplures, perplurimus, per-maximus, nimis magnus. Similar constructions: satis firmus, bene felix, multum terribilis, infinitum altus, praepulcher, tam lucidissimus. In general, medieval Latin treated degrees of comparison and comparative constructions very freely, as well as prepositions, which we will consider when talking about innovations in the field of vocabulary. As is well known, already the early Middle Ages introduced great confusion in the use of conjunctions, especially double ones. The main tendency was to identify the meaning of various conjunctions, as the examples cited by Strecker demonstrate. In the meaning of the conjunction “and”, in addition to et, ac / atque and postpositive -que, vel, seu / sive, quin, quoque, etiam, nihilominus, pariter, pariterque, simul, necnon, necne, as well as -que are also used , but not postpositive, but like et; aut-aut = et-et. Much more often than in antiquity, coordinating conjunctions are used at the beginning of a sentence to connect two adjacent phrases or periods. According to Wackernagel’s law, formulated primarily for classical languages, they, as a rule, are placed in second place in the sentence and represent clitics. So they used nam, namque, enim, etenim, autem, vero, itaque, igitur, siquidem. Use sed and at at the beginning of a sentence. The replacement of the temporary conjunction cum with the conjunction dum, used with both the indicative and the conjunctive of the verb, is becoming widespread. New subordinating conjunctions arise, for example, noted by Strecker “immediately as”: mox ut, mox ubi, statim ubi. Under the influence of the language of the Bible (see the second essay in our series), the replacement of the classical accusativus cum in-finitivo with subordinate clauses with conjunctions quod, quia, quoniam, qualiter becomes universal. The desire to diversify conjunctions of the same meaning is also manifested in the fact that to indicate the goal, in addition to the classical ut (finale), quo, quatenus (quatinus), quod, quoad, qualiter are also widely used. Having begun this essay, which contains a brief commented retelling of the classical manual on medieval Latin, as well as a generalization and clarification of Strecker’s observations accessible to us, with a quote from his manual, I would like to end it with a very revealing quote from the same: “So, It is impossible to write a unified grammar of the medieval Latin language, and it is impossible to answer in general terms the often heard question “Is such and such a phenomenon Middle Latin?” On the other hand, the opinion that medieval Latin had no rules at all must disappear.”3 3 Ibid., S. 27. 12

Daily life in Europe in the year 1000 Pognon Edmond

Latin is a single language

Latin is a single language

A unique linguistic feature that distinguishes the Middle Ages is the exclusive role of the Latin language. This language, which, at least since the 6th century, was no longer native to anyone, turned out to be more widespread than any of the living languages; it was spoken fluently by all the ministers of the Church: the white clergy and monks, as well as many other people throughout the Christian West. In addition, it was the only language of culture: all serious teaching was conducted in Latin. A person could not be considered educated if he did not know Latin. For a long time - including in the year 1000 - all records were kept almost exclusively in Latin; the texts in local dialects mentioned above are a rare exception.

Notable laymen also enjoyed the benefits of Latin literacy. Their number varied depending on place and time. Their knowledge was the result of training in schools, which we will talk about later. For now, the most interesting thing is to observe how this linguistic system functioned in different strata of society.

Here is an example: the meeting of Emperor Otto II with Hugo Capet in 981. The German emperor did not know the Romance language spoken by the French king, but he knew Latin. As for Hugo, he could only speak his native language. He brought with him the Bishop of Orleans, Arnoul, who translated the Latin speech of the German emperor into “vulgar language”.

It is clear that the father of the first king of the Capetian dynasty, Hugo the Great, did not bother to send his son to study belles-lettres. In contrast, Hugo Capet himself is already sending his son Robert to school in Reims, where the wise Herbert taught (here we mention him for the first, but not the last time). Thus, the heir of Hugo Capet was supposed to become no less an expert in Latin than a priest or monk. A contemporary of Robert the Pious, William V, Duke of Aquitaine, was also educated, that is, he knew Latin and, according to the testimony of Adhemar of Chabanne, he always devoted part of the night to reading.

It remains to be said that most of the laity did not know Latin. Society as a whole, however, functioned in Latin, and this was not difficult, since everywhere there were representatives of the clergy, that is, people who had been educated in the only institution that was capable of providing education - the Church. And these people took part in various activities. They were ministers, envoys, economists, lawyers, private secretaries. They put their eyes, their pen, their tongue at the disposal of those who hired them, conducted correspondence, and drew up legal acts. And among themselves, especially at the assemblies of bishops, they spoke Latin.

They also spoke to God in Latin. And their prayers were listened to and understood by those people who came to mass or participated in the magnificent liturgical ceremonies performed on major holidays. Even ordinary people listened to Latin speech and singing. Obviously, they did not understand anything, but this, undoubtedly, only gave even greater solemnity to the appeal to the invisible. Based on their sense of the magic of the sacred, they found it quite natural that God should be addressed in a language other than the one spoken in everyday life. It was important not to understand this language ourselves, but for God to understand it. Do you know that our hermits, who lived in monasteries not more than 30 years ago, used to sing psalms in Latin for hours, of which they did not understand a word? This did not prevent them from being consistent and enlightened in their faith.

Thus, if local dialects were infinitely more numerous and varied than today, then for the accomplishment of great things, both divine and human, as well as for matters not entirely great, there was a single language. From this arose a sense of Christian unity. The Western Empire remained only a memory; the formation of European nations was still hidden in the veil of secrecy about the future. There was only a narrow local patriotism, and in particular rivalry flourished, a constant clash of interests that gave rise to bloody conflicts. However, everyone knew that everywhere in the West people turn to God with the same words. This replaced national feelings, and this is what later made possible the emergence of the spirit of the Crusades.

From the book Queen Margot by Dumas Alexander

From the book One Day in Ancient Rome. Everyday life, secrets and curiosities author Angela Alberto

10:00. Latin on the streets of Rome Could we communicate on the streets of Trajan's Rome using the Latin we studied at school? We can't wait to find out this very morning. Let's conduct an experiment: let's go under the porticoes, to a couple of women looking at silks in a shop. These are ladies

From the book Medieval France author Polo de Beaulieu Marie-Anne

Latin is the language of science For the people of the Middle Ages, the Latin language was, first of all, a sacred language: the Bible was written in it, and the church fathers practiced religious worship. In addition, it remained the language of science (until the 18th century) and literary creativity until 1100. Being

From the book Reconstruction of True History author

From the book The Birth of Europe by Le Goff Jacques

Linguistic Europe: Latin and local languages ​​At universities, teaching was conducted in Latin. Latin remained the language of knowledge, and its absolute predominance was reinforced by the fact that the Christian liturgy was also celebrated in Latin. But over the last centuries of existence

From the book Individual and Society in the Medieval West author Gurevich Aron Yakovlevich

3. The language of bureaucracy and the language of autobiography Opitsin appears in many respects as a unique and stand-alone personality. He was in service at the papal court in Avignon, but there is no information about any of his human connections. This is his social loneliness

From the book Rurik. Lost story author Zadornov Mikhail Nikolaevich

History and Latin First of all, I want to express my deepest gratitude to Alexander Gordon, who, with his desire to disgrace our history, aroused serious interest in it. I understand that he wanted to make fun of our Slavic past, which suddenly began

From the book Reconstruction of True History author Nosovsky Gleb Vladimirovich

24. Slavic and Latin From the New Chronology it follows that writing arose more or less simultaneously with the creation of languages. People communicated not only orally, but also in writing. The interlocutors perceived words not only by their sound, but also by their spelling. However, at that time

From the book Secrets of the Pyramids [The Constellation of Orion and the Pharaohs of Egypt] by Bauval Robert

IX UNITED PLAN The first suggestion about the existence of a single plan for the construction of the pyramids was made by John Legon, a private practitioner from Surrey (Great Britain). He substantiated his assumption in an article in the Reports of the Archaeological Society of Staten Islands. In his other article,

author

LATIN AND SECRETS OF THE ETRUSCANS * Mysteries of the French language * Semitic Latin * Slave models * Etruscans * Secrets of the Etruscan language

From the book Invasion. Harsh laws author Maksimov Albert Vasilievich

SEMITIC LATIN The history of the Latin language itself is also unclear. Judge for yourself. First came archaic Latin. From a logical point of view, this is how it should have been. The monuments of archaic Latin include texts of the 3rd–2nd centuries BC. e. (The first inscription in this Latin

From the book The Great Deception. A fictional history of Europe by Topper Uwe

Biblical Latin From the Latin “translation” of the Bible, which, in my opinion, is the original, two images have come down to us: Itala (the modern name - accepted today among theologians - Vetus Latina - old Latin) and the Vulgate of Jerome. The eldest of them, Itala, appeared in

From the book Forgotten Belarus author Deruzhinsky Vadim Vladimirovich

Lithuanian language and “Lithuanian” language

From the book From Mystery to Knowledge author Kondratov Alexander Mikhailovich

One-stop shop? The writing systems of the Mayans, ancient Indians, Chinese, Sumerians, Hittites, and Cretans are built on the same principles. In the monumental art of the most different civilizations, sometimes separated from one another by thousands of kilometers, there are also features of the undoubted

From the book Mazepa's Shadow. Ukrainian nation in the era of Gogol author Belyakov Sergey Stanislavovich

From the book Russian Explorers - the Glory and Pride of Rus' author Glazyrin Maxim Yurievich

“We have a single Motherland - Rus', we are a single people - the Russians, we must have a single Russian Leader.” Rus' can restore the status of a great power only by first achieving the unity of Rus' (Russian land) and the Russian people (Rusichs). Only by uniting into a single power and

For the people of the Middle Ages, the Latin language was, first of all, a sacred language: the Bible was written in it, and the church fathers practiced religious worship. In addition, it remained the language of science (until the 18th century) and literary creativity until 1100. Being a living language, it constantly developed, and although it retained the syntax (in a simplified form) and rhetorical turns of classical Latin, its vocabulary was enriched, expressing the realities medieval period. The first Christian authors, unaware of the linguistic purism of the Latin writers of the Empire, sought to make Latin accessible to the understanding of the general public. And whatever language they used - low Latin, which Augustine spoke and wrote, or village Latin, which was used by ordinary residents, for example Arles - it had to correspond to the goals of introducing the people to religion and culture. In the Carolingian era, Charlemagne unified and corrected the language, by legislative act distinguishing in it scientific Latin and the language of the illiterate population or common Latin (romana lingua rustica), in which he advised preaching sermons (capitulary of 813). After the unrest that swept Europe in the 10th century (raids of the Hungarians, Saracens and Normans), literary creativity in Latin developed until the 12th and 13th centuries. The revival of the 12th century was also facilitated by translations into Latin (between 1120 and 1180) of works by Greek and Arabic authors. These were mainly scientific works on philosophy and the quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy), supplemented by works on astrology and medicine. The Iberian Peninsula was a center, a hotbed of translation activity, where English and French intellectuals commissioned translations. The translated works circulated throughout the Christian world. During this period, in imitation of ancient models, “Alexandria” by Gautier de Chatillon (about 1176) and “Polycraticus” by his friend John of Salisbury were created. But the spirit of the Middle Ages was already established in the romantic mood of the works of Gautier Map (in “Fables of a Courtesan” - De nugis curialium) and in the wealth of lyrical and satirical images of goliards (“Estuans intresecus”, “Dives eram”). Their critical views on contemporary society, on the licentiousness of their lifestyle and depraved morals were many times condemned by the church. In 1227, the Council of Treves prohibited the performance of their songs, parodying the prayers Sanctus and Agnus Dei, holy for Christians, and by the Church Council in Rouen in 1241. they were deprived of the right to wear a tonsure, the highest distinctive sign of the clergy.

In the 13th century, the development of the Latin language continued in theological speculation, legal compilations and scientific treatises. In theology and philosophy, scholastic Latin provided a wide field of activity; while maintaining a strict syntactic structure and the use of suffixes and prefixes, it created neologisms that expressed abstract concepts in logical and speculative conclusions. Subsequently, scholastic Latin would be ridiculed by humanists who advocated strict imitation of ancient models.

During the medieval period, a new type of literati (litteratus) emerged who had a good command of the Latin language, although it must be recognized that they used different forms of Latin, varying depending on the degree of education of the authors and influenced by regional linguistic substrates. The richness of the Latin language lay in the ability to express any ideas and concepts in it. According to J. -I. Tiye-ta, every Latin word “sounded harmoniously in the verses of Virgil, the maxims of Seneca and the prayers of St. Augustine,” which explains the “survival” of this language during the medieval millennium and its claims to universality.

But it should be noted that literary fiction and poetic lyricism were perfectly expressed in “vulgar” languages ​​or local dialects.