E SACRIFICE OF THE MASS

APPENDIX. 185
was not lawful for a Catholic to hold that Mass should
be said only in the vulgar tongue. It is hardly possible
for the voice of authority to speak with more studied
moderation.
For well-nigh two thousand years the Church has
been using Latin in that rite which counts far more
members than all others together. It remains for us
to give the reasons which justify her in adopting and
retaining that language. It is not denied that the
Apostles not only preached but celebrated the sacred
rites in the vernacular. It is not maintained that
St. Peter used Latin in the Church services. He may
have done so ; but that is all we can say, for at that
time in Rome there was a Greek-speaking community.
The New Testament (except perhaps St. Matthew and
the Epistle to the Hebrews) was written in Greek,
and this fact seems to show that the educated and
influential members of the Church were more familiar
with Greek than Latin. It is also probable that in the
West the first missionaries spoke mainly Greek, which
was the language of the educated class throughout
Europe. The Greek inscriptions on the tombs of
Popes Fabian (251), Lucius (252), and Eutychianus
(275), prove that Greek was the official language of the
Holy See at that time, as De Rossi, a great authority
on the subject, points out. We may perhaps take the
conversion of Constantine (325), as about the date when
Greek ceased to be the language of the Church in
Rome.
in the
Survivals of the days when Greek was used
Liturgy of the Roman Church, may be seen
in the Kyrie Eleison said at all Masses, in the Trisagion
on Good Friday, Agios o Theos, Agios ischyros, Agios
athanatos, eleison imas ; and in the singing of the Epistle
and Gospel in Latin and Greek during the Pope s