SLAVONIC LANGUAGE AND LITURGY 183 



the heathen vernacular. In 868 Saints Cyril and Methodius 

 were summoned to Rome by Nicholas I, but arriving there 

 after his death they were heartily received by his successor, 

 Adrian II, who approved of their Slavonic version of the 

 liturgy. St. Cyril died in Rome in 869 and is buried in the 

 Church of San Clemente. St. Methodius was afterwards con- 

 secrated Archbishop of Moravia and Pannonia and returned 

 thither to his missionary work. Later on he was again ac- 

 cused of using the heathen Slavonic language in the celebration 

 of the Mass and in the sacraments. It was a popular idea 

 then, that as there had been three languages, Hebrew, Greek, 

 and Latin, inscribed over Our Lord on the cross, it would be 

 sacrilegious to use any other language in the service of the 

 Church. St. Methodius appealed to the Pope and in 879 he 

 was again summoned to Rome, before John VIII, who after 

 hearing the matter sanctioned the use of the Slavonic language 

 in the Mass and the offices of the Church, saying among other 

 things : "We rightly praise the Slavonic letters invented by 

 Cyril, in which praises to God are set forth, and we order that 

 the glories and deeds of Christ Our Lord be told in that same 

 language. Nor is it in any wise opposed to wholesome doc- 

 trine and faith to say Mass in that same Slavonic language 

 (Nee sanse fidei vel doctrinse aliquid obstat missam in eadem 

 slavonica Hngua canere), or to chant the holy gospels or divine 

 lessons from the Old and New Testaments duly translated 

 and interpreted therein, or the other parts of the divine office : 

 for He who created the three principal languages, Hebrew, 

 Greek and Latin, also made the others for His praise and 

 glory" (Boczek, Codex, tom. I, pp. 43-44)- From that time 

 onward the Slavonic tongue was firmly fixed as a liturgical 

 language of the Church, and was used wherever the Slavic 

 tribes were converted to Christianity under the influence of 

 monks and missionaries of the Greek Rite. The Cyrillic letters 

 used in writing it are adaptations of uncial Greek alphabet, with 

 the addition of a number of new letters to express sounds not 

 found in the Greek language. All Church books in Russia, 

 Servia, Bulgaria, or Austria-Hungary (whether used in the 

 Greek Catholic or the Greek Orthodox Churches) are printed 

 in the old Cyrillic alphabet and in the ancient Slavonic tongue. 

 But even before St. Cyril invented his alphabet for the Sla- 

 vonic language there existed certain runes or native characters 



