GLAGOLITIC 149 



politic has continued in use as an ecclesiastical alphabet in 

 writing the ancient Slavonic. Although the Slavic peoples 

 bordering on the Adriatic Sea were converted to the Roman 

 Rite, they received the privilege, as well as their brethren of 

 the Greek Rite, of having the Mass and the offices of the 

 Church said in their own tongue. Thus the Roman Mass was 

 translated into the Slavonic, and, in order to more fully distin- 

 guish the Western Rite from the Eastern Rite among the Slavic 

 peoples, the use of the Glagolitic alphabet was reserved exclu- 

 sively for the service books of the Roman Rite, just as the 

 Cyrillic was used for the Greek Rite. 



The use of the Glagolitic Missal and office books, while per- 

 mitted in general among the Slavs of Dalmatia and Croatia 

 from the earliest times since the Slavonic became a liturgical 

 language under Pope John VIII, was definitely settled by the 

 Constitution of Urban VIII, dated April 29, 163 1, in which he 

 provided for a new and corrected edition of the Slavic Missal 

 conformable to the Roman editions. In 1648 Innocent X pro- 

 vided likewise for the Slavic Breviary, and by order of Inno- 

 cent XI the new edition of the Roman-Illyrian Breviary was 

 published in 1688. In the preface to this Breviary the Pope 

 speaks of the language and letters employed therein, and gives 

 St. Jerome the credit for the invention of the Glagolitic char- 

 acters : "Quum igitur lUyricarum gentium, quae longe lateque 

 per Europam diffusse sunt, atque ab ipsis gloriosis Apostolorum 

 Principibus Petro et Paulo potissimum Christi fidem edoctae 

 fuerunt libros sanctos jam inde a S. Hieronymi temporibus, ut 

 pervetusta ad nos detulit traditio, vel certe a Pontificatu fel. 

 rec. Joannis Papse VIII, praedecessoris nostri, uti ex ejusdem 

 data super ea re epistola constat, ritu quidem romano, sed 

 idiomate slavonico, et charactere S. Hieronymi vulgo nuncu- 

 pato conscriptos, opportuna recognitione indigere compertum 

 sit." The new edition of the Roman Ritual in Glagolitic form 

 had previously been published in the year 1640. 



The latest editions of the Missal and ritual are those of 

 the Propaganda, "Missale Romanum, Slavica lingua, glagoli- 

 tico charactere" (Rome, 1893), and "Rimski Ritual (Obred- 

 nik) izdan za zapoviedi Sv. Otca Pape Paula V" (Rome, 

 1894). There was a former edition of the Glagolitic Missal, 

 ^'Ordo et Canon Missse, Slavice" (Rome, 1887), but on account 

 of the numerous errors in printing and text it was destroyed, 



