CHRISTIAN LATIN. - It is the special language (group language) of Christians, formed within the framework of late Latin in the early Christian communities. With the expansion of Christianity it gradually became the common language of the Latin peoples, and from it the Romance languages arose.
I. EVOLUTION
Once the Christian message had crossed the frontiers of Palestine, it was at first formulated in Greek, which was initially the ecumenical language of Christianity.
The ancient Greek Christian texts coming from Rome and from the oldest communities of Gaul attest that the primitive communities of the West were Greek. On the other hand, the oldest Christian documents of North Africa were originally composed in Latin; but since the Latin texts of Africa are saturated with Greek elements, one must suppose not only a Greek preaching but also an initial Greek phase of the African Church as well. It was long believed that the latinization of the Christian communities took place first of all in the Church of North Africa and that this then contributed greatly to latinizing the Church of Rome. Now, however, it is becoming increasingly evident that the process of latinization of the community of Rome was already under way toward the middle of the 2nd century, which means that we are faced with a contemporaneous evolution in Africa and in Rome. Toward the middle of the 2nd century, in fact, in Rome they began to translate into Latin the Bible and other Christian texts written originally in Greek, for example, the first epistle of St. Clement. As for the liturgical language, it seems that the Roman Church did not resolve until quite late to latinize the liturgy entirely, especially the eucharistic liturgy (middle of the 4th century).
The process of differentiation of the Christian idiom occupied the course of some generations, gradually changing within Christian circles the physiognomy of the Latin language. In this process of differentiation, which is moreover characterized by a rapprochement with the popular language, the oldest versions of the Bible played a very important part. After the creative period of the first two centuries, in which Christian Latin was formed and stabilized, one can discern a kind of slowing down in the evolution, which is at the same time a consolidation. Then, during the second half of the 4th century, after the peace of Constantine, we witness once again a creative activity, but in this case it is rather a learned creation of technical theological terms, which come to be added to the popular formations of the first Christian centuries. In the 5th century, then, a kind of linguistic conservatism prevails which, while preserving the heritage of the first Christian centuries, orients itself toward more traditional norms.
This evolution is the consequence of the social and cultural emancipation of the Christian communities, which brings with it a certain linguistic normativism, taught by the school. In this way a certain Christian humanism makes its appearance, a fortunate combination of linguistic and stylistic elements coming from the literary tradition of Rome and of specifically Christian elements, which stands at the basis of Christian literature at its apogee.
II. CHARACTERISTIC TRAITS
Christianity gathered its first adherents chiefly from among the urban proletariat. It follows that, at the decisive moment of the first formation of the idiom, the tendencies of the common people prevailed, and this not only because of the social rank of the first Christians, but also for a cause of a psychological order: namely, that the Christians decisively rejected the exclusivism and the prescriptivism of cultivated Latin, which were the consequence of a certain exaggeration of the value attributed to careful literary form. A certain utilitarianism takes the place of the reverential conservatism that regulated the life of the language in cultivated pagan circles.
The first evolution of the Latin of the Christians is thus characterized by a democratic tendency, which manifests itself especially in the ancient versions of the Bible, which in turn exercised an intense and lasting influence on the language with which Christian circles communicated. In the course of the 2nd and 3rd centuries a whole technical vocabulary of the Christians is elaborated, which will remain in use until the end of the Latin period, will pass into the Romance languages, will be maintained in medieval Latin and will serve as a model for the languages of all peoples who would adopt Christianity, preached by the Church of the Latin tongue. Now, to understand it well one must realize the fact that, originally, Christianity was preached in Greek and that Christian ideas and institutions penetrated the West with Greek names. Behind every technical term of the two centuries there hides or shows itself a Greek original.
In latinizing the most ancient technical vocabulary three processes were applied: either the Greek word was borrowed, or a new word was created, or a new sense was given to words already existing in Latin. It can be said in general that the more or less concrete things or institutions kept their foreign name of origin, making ordinary in Christian circles a whole technical vocabulary taken over by borrowing: for example, the nouns: apostolos, ecclesia, baptisma, catechumenus, diaconus, episcopus, etc.; the verbs: baptizare, blasphemare, prophetare, etc. There are then certain categories of ideas that from the beginning were instead interpreted with purely Latin words, whether by lexicological neologisms or by semasiological neologisms: thus the notions in close relation with Christian doctrine have almost always found a Latin interpretation, for example, the whole vocabulary of Christian charity (caritas, dilectio, etc.) is Latin. The same happens for the vocabulary of salvation and redemption (salus, salutare, salvare, salvator, etc.), and for that of the opposition between flesh and spirit (spiritualis, carnalis, etc.). Later the theological and dogmatic terminology will be almost exclusively Latin. Very often, moreover, no new words were created, but the common language itself offered a starting point, and then a shift of sense was sufficient to interpret a Christian idea. The words pax, confiteri, salus, gratia, caro have adopted a new sense.
The lexicological differentiation is not limited to technical terms indicating Christian things; in Christian circles, in fact, a good number of new words were formed that do not indicate specifically Christian things, ideas or conceptions, but rather general ideas. This surprising fact cannot be explained except by referring to the very conception of the special language, which implies in itself a differentiation throughout the whole domain of the language, without need of an external necessity for each individual case: of this kind are: appretiare, arrepticus, beatificare, beneplacitum, cohabitare, conrecumbere, cooperatio, cooperator, corruptibilis, fornicari, immacrescibilis, damnator, etc.
Also in the syntactic field one can point out differentiations that are not justified by the concrete need for a technical expression. In this case it is very often a matter of general tendencies of the language which, in the linguistic society of the Christians, led to a special evolution. One could mention, for example, the special use of adjectives of belonging, in place of the genitive, in fixed expressions such as: divina gratia, passio dominica, apostolica praecepta, divina misericordia, etc.; a certain predilection for free and expressive constructions, such as that of the collective singular, the isolated nominative, etc.; the use of certain verbal constructions, such as that of ad with the verba dicendi, of benedicere with the accusative, of the technical use of the phrase credere in. Very often, as in the last of the cases cited, the Latin usage was stimulated by the example of Hebrew or Greek constructions, for example, the periphrasis of the future with the verbs coepi, incipio, the indirect question introduced with si, and, in most cases, with the indicative; the use of the final infinitive; the use of the genitive in expressions such as homo peccati, etc.
III. THE LATIN OF THE CHURCH
It is a particular branch of the Latin of the Christians. The oldest form of the Latin of the Church is found in the Latin of the ancient versions of the Bible, which were composed in a very popular language. The translators, simple people without literary training, drew extensively on the idiom of the people and at the same time practiced an extreme literalism, since they were free of literary concerns, translating word for word, very often preserving the syntactic construction of the Greek original, which had already undergone, in several respects, the influence of Hebrew. Because of the numerous exotic elements of a linguistic and stylistic character, the language of the ancient versions, although extremely popular, had a particular character that clearly distinguished it from the current language of the Christian communities.
These ancient versions generally offended the taste of men of letters because of their popular and at the same time exotic character. Lactantius observes that the vulgar character of the ancient versions scandalized men of letters and that this constituted an insurmountable obstacle for many of them, steeped as they were in the literary culture of the age. Nevertheless, in Christian circles this rude and scarcely literary form was in the end accepted, as was the biblical style. In his Locutiones in Heptateuchum, St. Augustine strives to point out and explain the peculiarities of language and style of the ancient versions, characterizing them as biblical elements, and he acknowledges the existence of a biblical language and style, clearly distinct not only from the common language of educated people but also from the current language of Christians; he accepts them and in his books De doctrina christiana recommends the Bible as an example of Christian eloquence. After Lactantius a shift takes place in the inner sense of the language, and this explains how St. Jerome, a man of letters and a good connoisseur of literary Latin, in revising the ancient versions of the Bible was able to preserve many words and expressions, quite bold and even vulgar. For the contemporaries of St. Jerome, these elements had been ennobled as traditional features of the biblical language.
A more mature form of Christian Latin manifests itself in liturgical Latin. As a consequence of the fact that the Western liturgy, and in particular that of Rome, was latinized at a rather late date, the liturgical Latin of Rome presents, in its oldest form, a highly evolved phase of the Latin of the Christians. For this reason liturgical Latin is clearly distinguished from biblical Latin, which still and always bears certain traces of the oldest versions of the Bible.
The Roman Latin liturgy was able, from its very origins, to draw on all the riches of a mature idiom; its style is an autonomous Roman creation, clearly distinct from the style of Eastern prayer, and it manifests itself first of all in the oldest liturgical texts, such as the canon of the Mass. It underwent different influences in different epochs: Byzantine, Gallican and other influences, but all these influences, which in most cases tend to diminish the very severe and hieratic character of the Roman style in favor of a more mysterious, more poetic, or more affective style, never succeeded in entirely eliminating the character of solemn sobriety, of virile and austere unction of the ancient Roman style. The very solemn and hieratic style of the Canon of the Mass draws on the heritage of the ancient Roman cult; it is related to the style of the ancient national prayer of Rome, from which it took the quest for the grandiose, the verbosity and the juridical precision. Thanks to the fact that the West long remained faithful to the primitive spirit, which left certain liturgical prayers to the improvisation, whether spontaneous or premeditated, of the celebrant, the rise of traditional liturgical forms was made possible; and a formulary and a traditional style were formed for certain types of prayers; for them the "oremus" have a style of their own and the "prefaces" another.
In curial style the Latin of the Church found its most official expression, which consciously distances itself from the popular character of the language commonly used by the Christian communities, and it underwent the influence exercised by the language of Roman law and above all by the style of the official documents of the Empire; it therefore remains faithful to the very severe norms fixed by cultivated Latin.
Bibliography29 works
Cristina Mohrmann