The mysterious character of the eucharist was changed into the miraculous and even the
magical with the spread of the belief in the doctrine of transubstantiation. But the doctrine was
contested in two controversies before it triumphed in the eleventh century.^428
The language of the mass was Greek in the Eastern, Latin in the Western church. The Latin
was an unknown tongue to the barbarian races of Europe. It gradually went out of use among the
descendants of the Romans, and gave place to the Romanic languages. But the papal church,
sacrificing the interests of the people to the priesthood, and rational or spiritual worship^429 to external
unity, retained the Latin language in the celebration of the mass to this day, as the sacred language
of the church. The Council of Trent went so far as to put even the uninspired Latin Vulgate practically
on an equality with the inspired Hebrew and Greek Scriptures.^430
§ 93. The Sermon.
As the chief part of divine service was unintelligible to the people, it was all the more important
to supplement it by preaching and catechetical instruction in the vernacular tongues. But this is the
weak spot in the church of the middle ages.^431
Pope Gregory I. preached occasionally with great earnestness, but few popes followed his
example. It was the duty of bishops to preach, but they often neglected it. The Council of Clovesho,
near London, which met in 747 under Cuthbert, archbishop of Canterbury, for the reformation of
abuses, decreed that the bishops should annually visit their parishes, instruct and exhort the abbots
and monks, and that all presbyters should be able to explain the Apostles’ Creed, the Lord’s Prayer,
the mass, and the office of baptism to the people in the vernacular.^432 A Synod of Tours, held in
the year 813, and a Synod of Mainz, held under Rabanus Maurus in 847, decreed that every bishop
should have a collection of homilies and translate them clearly "in rusticam Romanam linguam aut
Theotiscam, i.e. into French (Romance) or German," "in order that all may understand them."^433
The great majority of priests were too ignorant to prepare a sermon, and barely understood
the Latin liturgical forms. A Synod of Aix, 802, prescribed that they should learn the Athanasian
and Apostles’ Creed, the Lord’s Prayer with exposition, the Sacramentarium or canon of the mass,
(^428) See the next chapter, on Theological Controversies.
(^429) Comp.λογικὴ λατρεία, Rom. 12:1.
(^430) Sess. IV. (April 8, 1546):"Sacrosancta Synodus ... statuit et declarat, ut haec ipsa vetus et vulgata editio, quiae longo
tot saeculorum usu in ipsa ecclesia probata est, in publicis lectionibus, disputationibus, praedicationibus et expositionibus pro
authentica habeatur;. et ut nemo illam rejicere quovis praetextu audeat vel praesumat!" The Council made provision for an
authoritative revision of the Vulgate (April 8, 1546); but when the edition of Pope Sixtus V. appeared in 1589 and was enjoined
upon the church "by the fullness of apostolic power," it was found to be so full of errors and blunders that it had to be cancelled,
and a new edition prepared under Clement VIII. in 1592, which remains the Roman standard edition to this day.
(^431) As it is to-day in strictly Roman Catholic countries; with this difference, that what was excusable in a period of heathen
and semi-heathen ignorance and superstition, is inexcusable in an age of advanced civilization furnished with all kinds of
educational institutions and facilities.
(^432) See the acts of this council in Haddan and Stubbs, Councils and Eccles. Doc. 360-376, and the letter of Boniface to
Cuthbert, giving an account of a similar council in Germany, and recommending measures of reform in the English church, p.
376-382.
(^433) A similar canon was passed by other councils. See Hefele III. 758, 764, and IV. 89, 111, 126, 197, 513, 582; Mansi
XIV. 82 sqq.