Folia Theologica 17. (2006)

Uwe Michael Lang: Early Christian Latin as a Liturgical Language

FOLIA THEOLOGICA 17 (2006)

125

Uwe Michael LANG

EARLY CHRISTIAN LATIN AS A LITURGICAL LANGUAGE

1. Introduction: Language and Faith

Towards the end of his life, in the year 426, St Augustine read through his earlier writings and put together a substantial work of revisions, known as Retractationes. In its prologue, Augustine notes in particular that he did not want to leave unedited the works he composed as a catechumen. These were already written under Christian inspiration, but are still indebted to the literary forms of the secular schools.1 What Augustine finds inappropriate in his early works becomes clear in the first four chapters of the Retractationes. He especially objects to his use of terms words such as fortuna and omen in his dialogues Contra academicos, De beata vita and De ordine, written in his country retreat Cassiciacum where he was preparing for baptism.2 3 During his remarkable career as a preacher and author of many theological writings, Augustine realised that the Church had her own way of speaking, which he coined 'ecclesiastica loquendi consuetudo' or 'ritus loquendi ecclesiasticus'.3 By the early fifth century, here was a well-estab1 Augustine, Retractationes, prol. 3: nec ilia sane praetereo quae catechumenus iam, licet relicta spe quam terrenam gerebam, sed adhuc saecularium litterarum inflatus consuetudine scripsi.

2 Augustine, Retractationes, 1.1-4. Cf. C. MOHRMANN, ‘Comment saint Augustin s’est familiarisé avec le latin des chrétiens’, Etudes sur le latin des chrétiens. Tome I: Etudes sur le latin des chrétiens (Storia e letteratura, 65), Roma: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 21961 (ristampa anastatica, 1994), pp. 383-389 (originally published in: Augustinus Magister 1. Congrès International Augustinen, Paris 1954, pp. 111-116). Mohrmann also notes delevopments in Augustine’s syntax and grammar, see C. MOHRMANN, ‘Saint Augustin écrivain’, Etudes sur le latin des chrétiens. Tome II: Latin chrétien et médiéval (Storia e letteratura, 87), Roma: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 1961, pp. 247-275 (originally published in Recherches Augustiniennes 1 £ 1958], pp. 43-66).

3 Augustine, Enarrationes in psalmos 93,3; De Civitate Dei X,21; see C. MOHRMANN, ‘Le latin commun et le latin des chrétiens’, C. Mohrmann, Etudes sur le latin des chrétiens. Tome III: Latin chrétien et liturgique (Storia