Things Your Persona Might Have Known
Latin (Impress your friends!)
by Nicolaa de Bracton of Leicester
Latin was the learned language of the Middle Ages. A good priest
should know his Latin, by the canons of the Fourth Lateran
Council(1215).; that this was included at all makes it clear that
many priests, especially in outlying areas, did not understand the
words ofthe Mass they sang each day. Latin was also the language
of the schools, and since one usually entered minor orders (which
did not involve celibacy) in the early years of the universities,
by the1300's the word "clerk" (clericus )had come to mean one who
had attended university or was otherwise educated and thus knew
Latin; hence, the later meaning of "clerk" as "secretary". As late
as the 16th century one could claim benefit of clergy (and thus
trial under ecclesiastical law, where penalties usually involved
penance rather than execution or large fines) by reading a verse
of Latin from theBible, even if one was a great duke or a
merchant.
How about everyone else? There were certainly a few people
besides monks, priests, and bishops who knew Latin: on the
Continent, notaries (those who drew up documents such as charters)
knew Latin, though they were laymen. Children educated in noble
households might also learn some Latin. By 1500, the humanist
movement had insured that Latin literacy was beginning to spread
out of the ranks of churchmen and into the circles of gentle
society. However, there were always a few things that everyone (at
least in Christian Europe before the Reformation) knew in Latin.
These were the Pater Noster ("Our Father) and the Ave Maria ("Hail
Mary") That these were proscribed as penance for all levels of
society is ample proof of this.
Pater noster qui es in coelis
Sanctificetur nomen tuum
Adveniat regnum tuum
Fiat voluntas tua et in terra sicut in coelo
Panem nostrum supersubstantialem da nobis hodie
Et dimitte nobis debita nostra sicut et dimittemus debitoribus
nostris
Et ne nos inducas in tentationem, sed libera nos a malo.
Amen.
(Note: This version does not include the last line currently
included by Protestants into the Lord's Prayer, which goes "For
Thine is the Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory Forever.")
Ave Maria, gratia plena
Dominus tecum
Benidicta tu in mulieribus
Et benedictus fructus ventris tui.
(Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord be with you. Blessed are
you among women, and blessed be the fruit of your womb).
A note on pronunciation: There are no silent vowels in Latin.
Most vowels are prononced similarly to those in English. "Coe" is
pronouced as "Che". "Tio" is pronounced "tsio".
Copyright 1994 by Susan Carroll-Clark, 53 Thorncliffe Park Dr.
#611, Toronto, Ontario M4H 1L1 CANADA. Permission granted for
republication in SCA-related publications, provided author is
credited and receives a copy.