The Latin Language and Christianity

This monograph establishes the directional bearing which Latin has given to the Church through each successive age from the 1st century to the 20th. Lingua Latina has served as nothing less than the transport vehicle of Christianity itself. So densely has history woven the strands of Latin into the texture of Christianity, that any attempt to detach the language is to remove the backing from the tapestry. The conclusion of the monograph will indicate that any attempt to detach the faith from this groundline, so historically valid, would amount to nothing less than a departure of the Church from its magnetic north.


“[This book] is the last in a succession of monographs by Paul Berry. The single theme running through the series has been the inseparable relationship between Roman history and the Roman Church. In this concluding work of the set, the unbroken thread of Lingua Latina is traced to its historic inception, straight as a surveyor’s cord, from the 1st century to the 20th century. The evidence is taken from Roman archaeology, Latin fragments, personal correspondence, funerary stones, literary comment, secular historians, civic inscriptions, and Pompeian remainders….Ultimately, the purpose of this monograph is to draw attention to the fact that such frail remainders have actually survived to the present….fully illustrated throughout, and it becomes a tribute to the invincible spine of Lingua Latina.” – Geoffrey D. Smith, PhD, Director, Rare Books and Manuscripts Library, Ohio State University

Table of Contents

Table of Contents:
1. The Roman Alphabet
2. The Roman Language
3. The 1st Century
4. The 2nd Century
5. The 3rd.Century
6. The 4th Century
7. The 5th Century
8. The 6th Century
9. The 7th Century
10. The 8th Century
11. The 9th Century
12. The 10th Century
13. The 11th Century
14. The 12th Century
15. The 13th Century
16. The 14th Century
17. The 15th Century
18. The 16th Century
19. The 17th Century
20. The 18th Century
21. The 19th Century
22. The 20th Century
Bibliography, Index