Page:General History of Europe 1921.djvu/362

CHAPTER XXI BOOKS AND SCIENCE IN THE MIDDLE AGES I. How THE MODERN LANGUAGES ORIGINATED 432. General Use of Latin in the Middle Ages. We should leave the Middle Ages with a very imperfect notion of them if we did not now stop to consider what people were thinking about during that period, what they had to read, and what they believed about the world in which they lived. To begin with, the Middle Ages differed from our own time in the very general use then made of Latin, both in writing and speaking. The language of the Roman Empire continued to be used in the thirteenth century, and long after. The professors in the universities lectured in Latin, and state papers, treaties, and legal documents were drawn up in the same language. The ability of every educated person to make use of Latin, as well as of his native tongue, was a great advantage at a time when there were many obstacles to intercourse among the various nations. It helps to explain, for example, the remarkable way in which the Pope kept in touch with all the clergymen of Western Christendom, and the ease with which students, friars, and merchants could wander from one country to another. There is no more inter- esting or important revolution than that by which the languages of the people in the various European countries gradually pushed aside the ancient tongue and took its place, so that even scholars scarcely ever think now of writing books in Latin. In order to understand how it came about that two languages, the Latin and the native speech, were both commonly used in all the countries of western Europe all through the Middle Ages, we must glance at the origin of the modern languages. These all fall into two quite distinct groups, the Germanic and the Romance. 264