Art. 3. Sect. 28. Adding withal, that it was necessary in the Primitive times that it should be so; and granting that it were still better that the people had their Service in their own vulgar Tongue for their better understanding of it? Sect. 33. Having thus Consitentes reos, we need seek no further, and yet a further search will not be unprofitable. And on that search it will be found that the converted Jews did celebrate their divine Offices (Tractatus & oblationes, as the Father hath it) most commonly in the Syriack, and sometimes in the Hebrew tongue, the natural Languages of that people; as is affirmed by S. Ambrose in 1. ad Cor. cap. 14. and out of him by Durand in his Rationale Divinerum. Eckius a great stickler of the Popes, affirmeth in his Common places, that the Indians have their Service in the Indian tongue; and that S. Hierome having translated the whole Bible into the Dalmatick, procured that the Service should be celebrated in that Language also. The like S. Hierome himself, in his Epistle to Heliodorus, hath told us of the Bessi a Sarmatian people: The like S. Basil in his Epistle to the Neo-caesareans, assures us for the Aegyptians, Libyans, Palestinians, Phenicians, Arabians, Syrians, and such as dwell about the banks of the River Euphrates. The Aethiopians had their Missal, the Chaldeans theirs; each in the language of their Countreys, which they still retain. So had the Moscovites of old, and all the scattered Churches of the Eastern parts, which they continue to this day.
But nothing is more memorable in this kind then that which Aeneas Silvius tells of the Sclavonians, who being converted to the Faith, made suit unto the Pope to have the publick Service in their natural Tongue; but some delay being made therein by the Pope and Cardinals, a voice was heard, seeming to have come from Heaven, pray∣ing, Omnis Spiritus laudet Dominum, & omnis lingua confiteatur ei: Whereupon their desires were granted without more dispute. Touching which grant, there is extant an Epistle from Pope John VIII. to Sfentopulcher King of the Moravian Sclaves, anno 888 at what time both the Latine Service and the Popes Authority were generally received in those parts of Europe. Which Letter of Pope John VIII. together with the Story above mentioned, might probably be a chief inducement to Innocent III. to set out a Decree in the Lateran Council, importing that in all such Cities in which there was a concourse of divers nations, and consequently of different Languages, (as in most Towns of Trade there doth use to be) the Service should be said, and Sacraments administred, Secun∣dum diversitates nationum & linguarum, according to the difference of their Tongues and Nations. And though Pope Gregory VII. a turbulent and violent man, about 200 years after the Concession made by John VIII. in his Letter to Ʋratislaus King of Bo∣hemia, laboured the cancelling of that priviledge, and possibly might prevail therein as the times then were; yet the Liburnians, and Dalmatians, two Sclavonian Nations, and bordering on Italy (the Popes proper seat) do still enjoy the benefit of that Indul∣gence, and celebrate their Liturgy in their own Language to this very day. So that the wonder is the greater, that those of Rome should stand so stifly in defence of the Latine Service, which the common people understand not, and therefore cannot knowingly, and with faith say Amen unto it. For though the Latine Tongue was Vulgar in a manner to those Western Nations, amongst whom the Latine Service was first received, and for that cause received because Vulgar to them: Yet when upon the inundation of the barbarous Nations, the Latine tongue degenerated into other Languages, as in France, Italy, and Spain; or else was quite worn out of knowledge, as in Britain, Belgium, and some parts of the modern Germany, in which before it had been commonly understood; it was both consonant to Piety and Christian Prudence, that the Language of the common Liturgies should be altered also. The people other∣wise either in singing David's Psalms, or repeating any parts of the daily Office, must needs be like those Romans or Italians which S. Ambrose speaks of; who loved to sing Greek songs by rote (as we use to say) out of a meer delight which they had to the sound of the words; nescientes tamen quid dicant, not understanding one word which they said or sung.
The blame and guilt of Innovation being taken off, we must next examine the effects and dangerous consequents; more visibly discerned at this time in the Church of England, than was or could have been believed when they were first intimated. A∣mongst these they reckon in the first place the increase of Heresies, occasioned by the mistaking of the true sense and meaning of the Holy Scripture; and to that end it is said by Bellarmine, that the people would not only receive no good by having the Scripture read publickly unto them in their national Languages, sed etiam caperet detrimentum, but on the contrary are like to receive much hurt. However,