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From: ljr@cobra.jpl.nasa.gov (Larry J Romans)
Subject: Re: XX cty glagolitic
Message-ID: <1995Apr28.101448.3718@llyene.jpl.nasa.gov>
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Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California
References: <MACRAKIS.95Mar23160231@lakatos.osf.org> <3nfr7t$hji@info.epfl.ch> <3ngk0r$1l9@ixnews3.ix.netcom.com> <3no6sa$4v9@info.epfl.ch>
Date: Fri, 28 Apr 1995 10:14:48 GMT
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In article <3no6sa$4v9@info.epfl.ch>, Bora  <bora@circhp.epfl.ch> wrote:
>                         ...  It is only that I belive that 
>all the other languages except Latin and all the other scripts 
>except the Latin were (had been) banned by Vatican. ...
>             ...  I do belive that Vatican would accept any 
>language as a lithurgic language today, but I only wandered 
>whether Church Slavonic survived the times when it was banned.


Dear Bora --

You raise some interesting issues about Church Slavonic and its
treatment by the Roman church.  Here is a bit of material bearing
on your questions.  It's an fascinating story...

Best regards, Larry Romans

--

[ from: "The Church Slavonic language question: an overview (IX-XX centuries)
  in "Aspects of the Slavic language question," eds. Riccardo Picchio and
  Harvey Goldblatt, Yale, distributed by Slavica Publishers, 1984. ]

In the Roman sector of the Slavic world the use of Church Slavonic, and
indeed of any vernacular, for ecclesiastical and liturgical purposes was
proscribed by the papacy during the late eleventh and the entire twelfth
centuries. ... Only in that part of Croatia which was under Venetian
suzerainity or protection, and which thus was largely insulated against
the Gregorian reforms, did the use of Church Slavonic as a liturgical
language continue to flourish.

In the early thirteenth century the papacy reversed its policy, and at
the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) expressly approved the use of diverse
rites and liturgical languages. ... Seizing the opportunity, two Croatian
bishops petitioned Pope Innocent IV for formal approbation of their use
of Church Slavonic as a liturgical language.  The first of these petitions
introduces the curious theory that the Church Slavonic alphabet had been
invented by no less a saint than Jerome himself.  This theory, which rests
on ancient testimony that Jerome, a Dalmatian himself, had translated the
Gospels into the language of his countrymen, but which loses sight of the
fact that in the fourth century there were no Slavs in Dalmatia, was no
doubt originally devised for export, not for internal consumption: the
Glagolitic missals and breviaries continued to reckon Constantine (Cyril)
and Methodius among the saints, and the services in their honor which are
found in these books make it clear that they were the true creators of
Slavic literacy.  In any case, the pope did formally approve tha use of
Church Slavonic as a liturgical language in the dioceses of the two
Croatian bishops, and during the fourteenth century extended this approval
to certain specified places in Bohemia and in Poland.

...

