Annotation CCLXIII

”If I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is without fruit. But how shall he who supplies the place of the unlearned say ‘Amen’ to thy blessing? — since he knows not what thou sayest.” — 1 Corinthians 14:14-16

Whether the Mass and public prayers ought to be said in the vernacular tongue.

Thomas Cajetan, in the commentaries: “FROM THIS doctrine of Paul,” he says, “it is held that it is better for the edification of the Church that the public prayers, which are said in the hearing of the people, be said in a tongue common to the clerics and the people, than [that they] be said in Latin.” This opinion Ambrose of Compsa, [in] the book of Annotations, condemns in these words: “I MARVELED that Cajetan was not deterred by the fruit [outcome] of a tradition of this kind — which was first devised by Luther, nay by the devil, speaking in Luther; who, by this cunning, has now made plebeian and rude men [into] theologians, and has so far advanced [it], that those who, in their [own] ignorance, were easily upheld in the faith of the Church, have now, in that wisdom of their own, miserably fallen from the bosom of Christ. That this counsel, therefore, comes not from the Spirit of truth, this was argument enough — that it proceeded from those who are driven by the spirit of error. But [as to] that which the Apostle desires — that [those things] which are brought forth in the churches be understood — he does not compel [us] to believe that they must be understood by all: for there is no detriment [in the fact] that individuals cannot answer ‘Amen’ upon the blessing. For the Church wisely provides, that the ministers answer in the stead of the whole people: nay, this is [that] which the Apostle there says, when he subjoins, ‘How shall he who supplies the place of the unlearned, or the untaught, say “Amen” upon thy blessing?’ Behold, [it means] that there were [those] who supplied the place of the common folk, and answered — [those] who had to understand the [things] which were being said. That, therefore, was rather to be blamed: that not only they who supply the place of the unlearned, for the most part understand not what is prayed; but also, very often, not even the presbyters themselves, or the deacons, who pray or read [understand]. But here there is an abuse, and [something] contrary to that which the ecclesiastical canons too enjoin — which [abuse] certainly ought to be amended.”

THESE [things] Ambrose [says] against the opinion of Cajetan: to whom Basil, Chrysostom, and Theophylact seem, in a certain manner, to have said similar [things], in the subjoined opinions.

Basil, in the book of Questions from various passages of Scripture, question 278, speaks thus: “HOW does the spirit of someone, as Paul says, pray, but the mind is fruitless? I answer: this was said of those who utter prayers in a tongue unknown to the hearers. For since the words of the prayer are unknown to those present, the mind of the one praying is fruitless, since no one takes utility [profit from it]: but when those present have understood the

—prayer, able to profit the hearers; then he who prays has fruit, in that those who take utility are rendered better.”

Chrysostom, [in] the thirty-fifth homily on the first [epistle] to the Corinthians, writes [things] consonant with Basil, saying: “BY ‘the UNLEARNED [idiota]’ he calls the promiscuous [common] people, and shows [that] it is no light inconvenience, if [one] cannot say ‘Amen.’ But [that] which he says is of this kind: If thou give thanks in a foreign tongue, which thou thyself neither understandest, nor interpretest to the rest — the plebeian [common man] cannot subjoin ‘Amen’: and, hearing that ‘unto the ages of ages,’ which is the end of the prayers, he will not say ‘Amen.’”

Theophylact, in the commentaries, repeats these same words of Chrysostom.

THOSE who maintain that the sacred masses, psalms, hymns, and other prayers are to be recited in the churches in the vernacular tongue of each nation — that they may be understood by the whole multitude of the people — are wont to use these authorities. To whom it must be answered [that] Basil speaks not of those who recite psalms, or prayers, or masses in the temple [church], but of those who, in the church, hold [give] orations to the people, and make words concerning sacred matters. For this, with him, is “to pray”: [namely] also “to speak to the assembly.” So also Chrysostom, by that [one] whom Paul calls “the unlearned,” understands not the promiscuous [common] people, as the Latin interpreter [translator] renders [it], but the ecclesiastical minister, who supplies the place of the unlearned [and] not-understanding [people], and answers “Amen” for the whole church of the illiterate. This [minister] Chrysostom calls “layman” — that is, “of the people,” or “plebeian” — saying: Ἰδιώτην ἢ … Λαϊκὸν λέγει [“He says ‘unlearned,’ or rather ‘layman’”]. Since, therefore, from the opinions of these authors it cannot be gathered that the sacred liturgies, and the other divine praises, are to be pronounced in the peculiar [particular] speech of each nation, [those] are justly to be condemned who, on the authority of those [fathers], endeavor to overturn and abrogate the most ancient tradition of the Church — not only received by long custom, but also confirmed by prudent reason. For it seemed [good] to the pastors of the Church, that the offices of the masses and of the divine praises be celebrated especially in those languages in which they were first published by their authors — namely, by the holy Apostles, and their disciples and successors — both on account of the exceptional observance [reverence] which is owed to them, and on account of the greater veneration of the sacred mysteries: lest profane and impure men be able, in the marketplace and at the crossroads, to deride the oracles of the divine scripture and the mystical words of the sacraments — [things] worthy of all reverence and silence — and to turn [them] into mockery. But if anyone, not content enough with these, should desire to know still other causes of this matter, John Eck [Ecckius] is to be read by him, [in] title 37 of the Commonplaces.