1816.] Formation of the Romance and other Languagesfrom the Latin. 401 



been pronounced tliiougii ignorance of 

 the language, and notHuongh the spiiit 

 ol Ijcresv. ( Epist. 134 Zachar. rever. 



they learnt also to think, to feel, and 

 judge h'ke thciu ; it opened to them also 

 the path to civic honours and literary 

 fame, and thus became a real benefit to 

 them. In a lillle time, Spain and Trans- 

 alpine and Cisalpine Gaul furnished 

 tlie .senate, the government, the anny, 

 and literature, with illustrious persons, 

 •\vho.se talents contributed to maintain 

 the glory and renown of their adopted 

 Country. 



In spile of the ravages of man and 

 time, we possess the prtcious works of 

 a great number of writers, born in conn- 

 ti'ies which, previously to being subject 

 to the Romans, possessed only idioms, 

 of which no monument has come- down 

 to ns. It was to the language of the 

 conquerors that these writers owed their 

 success, and, perhaps, even their talents. 

 Spain boasted of having given birth to 

 the two Senecas, Lucan, Poni|)onius 

 Mela, Columella, Martial, Siiius Itali- 

 CHS, &c. and Gaul produced her Corne- 

 lius Gallus, Petrouius, Lactantius, Au- 

 lonius, &c. 



M^ith the scat of empire the sun of 

 Latui eloquence set ; but, by a revolu- 

 tion, singular in every way, the metro- 

 polis of the heathen world became that 

 of Christianity, and the Latin language 

 was in some measme preserved by the 

 fatlicrs of the church. Gregory I. call- 

 ed Gregory the Great and St. Gregory, 

 affected a sovereign contempt for Latin 

 grammar; the following is an extract 

 from one of his letters : — " Epistola te- 

 nor enunciat, non metacismi coUisioiieni 

 fugio, non barbarismi cmifnsionem devito ; 

 hiatus motiisfjue etiam et prtrpositSmmm 

 casus servare contcmno, quia iudigwtm 

 vehementer existimo vt verba, ccelestis ora- 

 ciili rcstriiigam subregnlis Dmiali ; neque 

 eiiim live ab ullis interpretibits in serip- 

 turcp sancttv anctnritaie servata sunt." 



The spirit of Gregory has been here- 

 ditarily preserved by his descendants to 

 the present day. When the sacred 



flame of Latin eloquence was confided 

 to such hands, can we wonder that all 

 traces of pure Latinity are lost ! 



Dining the pontific-atc ol' Zachary, a 

 priest was .so ignorant of Lalin, tiiat he 

 did not even know how to express the for- 

 mula of baptism. The pope had to pro- 

 nounce on the validity of this sacrament, 

 C'onfert-ed in these terms, '^Ego te baptiso 

 innoniine patri \ rtfeli.x et spiritiis saneti. 

 — St. lioniface, bisho)) of Mcntz, order- 

 ed the child to be rcbaptized, but the 

 infallible pope decided that the baptism 

 was valid if the sacramental words Lad 



MoKTHLV Mac, No. 201. 



et sanct.frat. honifacio coepisc.) 



In the sixth century, horn various 

 causes, tlie Latin language had fallen 

 into a state of corruption, perhaps 

 irreparable. In addition to the Go- 

 thic terms they were obliged to Lati- 

 nize, they adopted a general transmuta- 

 tion of vowels, as e for i, i for E, o for 

 U, and u for o ; thus, in tlie charter of 

 Clothaire II. we find Basileca, Fage- 

 nam, Civetatis, Nonieno, &^c. ; in those 

 of Dagobert I. and Clothaire II. Pk', 

 nius, li/cto tramite, Dcbniiit, Chinen- 

 ciae, &c.; in those of Dagfbert I. and 

 Clovis II. Volomus, Locrari, Pecoliari, 

 Poslolatiu-, Miracola, &c.; and in those 

 of Clovis II. and Clothaire II. Negii- 

 tiantc, Ni/scetur, Respansis, N«s, "Vic- 

 tifriae, Tenip?tre, &c. &,c. All these ex- 

 amples are taken from the records of the 

 sixth century. 



What tended to increase the difficul- 

 ty of understanding and speaking Latin 

 was the almost continued violation of 

 the rules of grammar, for example, 

 the prepositions were frequently arbitra- 

 rily employed to govern the cases. 'I'he 

 general rule of grammar, which sub- 

 jects the adjective to agree with the 

 number, gender, and case of the sub- 

 stantive, was also most grossly violated. 

 Sometimes the subject was not even put 

 in the nominative. Nor was the go- 

 vernment of verbs and nouns better ob- 

 served. It was also tiie same with the 

 rule which demands the ablative, whe- 

 ther as absolute, or as designing time 

 and place. 



To express the relations bcfwecB 

 nouns, recourse was had in the first 

 place to the prepositions de and ad. 

 Instead of the genitive, which they 

 knew not how to tbrni in Latin, de was 

 adopted, and, instead of the dative ler« 

 miiiation, ad ; and, once adopting these 

 signs, tlipy gave an arbitrary tcrminatioti 

 to the nouns which they preceded; and, 

 whatever were these desinences, the de 

 and ttd invariably marked the genitive 

 and dative cases. The auxiliary aid of 

 these prepositions abounds in the charts 

 and diplomas of the sixth, seventh, 

 eighth, ninth, and tenth, centuries, and 

 added a new character of degradation to 

 the I^atin, already subject to the viola- 

 tion of almost every rule of grannnnr. 

 Tlic l^atin became thus an unintelligi- 

 ble jargon, every one's language being 

 iu the ratio of liis iguoiance ; uccessitv 

 3 F set 



