Folia Theologica 17. (2006)
Uwe Michael Lang: Early Christian Latin as a Liturgical Language
144 U. M. LANG conversion of the aristocratie elites. Part of this attempt was the appropriation of public space through extensive building projects. After the Emperors of the Constantinian dynasty had taken the lead with the monumental basilicas of the Lateran and St Peter's, as well as the cemetery basilicas outside the city walls, the popes continued this building programme that was to make Rome into a city dominated by churches. Perhaps Damasus' most prestigious project was the construction of a new basilica dedicated to St Paul's on the Via Ostiensis, replacing the small Constantinian edifice by a new church that would match the size of St Peter's.45 Another important aspect was the appropriation of public time with a cycle of Christian feasts throughout the year replacing pagan celebrations (see the Philocalian calendar of the year 354). The creation of liturgical Latin was part of this effort to evangelize Roman culture and attract the influential elites of the Empire to the Christian faith. It would be far off the mark to consider this process as an adoption of the 'vernacular' language in the liturgy. The Latin of the Roman Canon, of the collects and prefaces of the Mass was removed from idiom of the ordinary people. It was a highly stylised language that would have been difficult to understand by the average Roman Christian of the fifth century or later, given especially that the rate of literacy was very low compared to our times.46 And we should also remember that the adoption of Latinitas in the West made the liturgy more accessible to the people of Milan or Rome, but not necessarily to those whose native language was Celtic or Gothic. It was by no means a foregone conclusion that the whole Western church would adopt Latin as its liturgical language. There were native languages in the Western Empire, such as Gothic, Celtic, Iberic or Punic. It is possible to imagine a Western Church with local languages in its liturgy, as in the East, where, in addition to 45 See now the beautifully illustrated volume of H. BRANDENBURG, Die frühchristlichen Kirchen in Rom, Regensburg: Schnell und Steiner, “2005. 46 MOHRMANN, Liturgical Latin, pp. 53-54; see also M. KLÖCKENER, “Zeitgemäßes Beten. Meßorationen als Zeugnisse einer sich wandelnden Kultur und Spiritualität’, in R. MESSNER - E. NAGEL - R. PACIK, Bewahren und Erneuern. Studien zur Meßliturgie. Festschrift für Hans Bernhard Meyer SJ zum 70. Geburtstag (Innsbrucker theologische Studien 42), Innsbruck - Wien 1995, pp. 114-142, at pp. 126-127.
