The faith of our fathers - Carmel Apologetics

376 THE FAITH OF OUR FATHERS.early Church generally wrote in the Latin tongue,which thus became the depository of the treasuresof sacred literature in the Church.lu the fifth century came the dismption of theRoman Empire. New kingdoms began to be formedin Europe out of the ruins of the old empire. The.Latin gradually ceased to be a living tongue amongthe people, and new languages commenced to springTheup like so many shoots from the parent stock.Church, however, retained in her Liturgy, and in theadministration of the Sacraments, the Latin language for very wise reasons, some of which I shallbriefly mention :1. The Catholic Church has always one and thesame faith, the same form of public worship, thesame spiritual government As her doctrine andliturgy are unchangeable, she wishes that the language of her Liturgy should be fixed and uniform.Faith may be called the jewel, and the language isthe casket which contains it. So careful is theChurch of preserving the jewel intact, that she willnot disturb even the casket in which the jewelis set.Living tongues, unlike a dead language,are continually changing in words and in their meaning.The English language, as written four centuriesago, would be now almost as unintelligible to anEnglish reader as the Latin tongue. In an oldBible published in the fourteenth century, St. Paulcalls himself the villain of Jesus Christ. The wordvillain in those days meant a servant, but the term