maintain it--the papal supremacy, the monastic
institutions, and the use of a Latin liturgy. 1. A continual intercourse
was kept up, in consequence of the first, between Rome and the several
nations of Europe; her laws were received by the bishops, her legates
presided in councils; so that a common language was as necessary in the
church as it is at present in the diplomatic relations of kingdoms. 2.
Throughout the whole course of the middle ages there was no learning,
and very little regularity of manners, among the parochial clergy.
Almost every distinguished man was either the member of a chapter or of
a convent. The monasteries were subjected to strict rules of discipline,
and held out, at the worst, more opportunities for study than the
secular clergy possessed, and fewer for worldly dissipations. But their
most important service was as secure repositories for books. All our
manuscripts have been preserved in this manner, and could hardly have
descended to us by any other channel; at least there were intervals when
I do not conceive that any royal or private libraries existed.[517] 3.
Monasteries, however, would probably have contributed very little
towards the preservation of learning, if the Scriptures and the liturgy
had been translated out of Latin when that language ceased to be
intelligible. Every rational principle of religious worship called for
such a change; but it would have been made at the expense of posterity.
One might presume, if such refined conjectures were consistent with
historical caution, that the more learned and sagacious ecclesiastics of
those times, deploring the gradual corruption of the Latin tongue, and
the danger of its absolute extinction, were induced to maintain it as a
sacred language, and the depository, as it were, of that truth and that
science which would be lost in the barbarous dialects of the vulgar.
But a simpler explanation is found in the radical dislike of innovation
which is natural to an established clergy. Nor did they want as good
pretexts, on the ground of convenience, as are commonly alleged by the
opponents of reform. They were habituated to the Latin words of the
church-service, which had become, by this association, the readiest
instruments of devotion, and with the majesty of which the Romance
jargon could bear no comparison. Their musical chants were adapted to
these sounds, and their hymns depended, for metrical effect, on the
marked accents and powerful rhyme