E SACRIFICE OF THE MASS

APPENDIX. 191
to me the point of this distinction. The Chinese
of the people is a fluctuating language, comparable
in this respect with the vernacular tongues of European
nations. The learned Chinese, or if we may be
allowed the expression, the classical Chinese, is a
language of ancient origin, going back to the time of
Confucius (B.C. 500), stable in its forms and in the
meanings attached to them, and bearing the same
relation to modern Chinese, as ancient Latin to modern
Italian.
It has been stated in an earlier part of this article
that six different languages are at the present moment
in the East sanctioned by the Holy See in the celebra
tion of Mass. Not one of these languages, so I am
assured by an Oriental scholar, is the vernacular of the
country. To take two familiar instances. In the
Russian liturgy the language is not modern Russian
but Slavonic of the time of St. Cyril and St. Methodius
in the ninth century. Mass in Coptic is less understood
than Mass in Latin ; not only has Coptic no affinity
with the Arabic spoken by the people, but many of
the Coptic priests can hardly read the Coptic Missal.
Here is the case of a language unintelligible not only
to the people but even to the priests, still kept in the
liturgy with the sanction of authority. It can hardly
be asserted that the Church favours the vernacular in
her liturgy.
Lastly : if the Church s liturgy
vernacular, where shall we end ? The people may then
is to be said in the
fairly claim Mass in their local dialects which may be
described as their vernacular. We must have at least
two liturgies in Italy and France. For the Piedmontese
peasant cannot understand the language of an educated
Italian, and the rustics in the South of France cannot