Page:Latin prayers not fit for Irishmen.pdf/7

 in each country public prayers were in the common tongue. The Council of Lateran made an order in the year 1215, that as there were in many places mixed people of divers languages and customs, the Bishops should take care to provide fit men to perform divine service among them, according to this difference of rites and languages. Nicholas de Lyra, and Thomas Aquinas, both celebrated, and of high authority in the Church of Rome, have written against prayer in an unknown tongue; and Cardinal Cajetan has confessed that " prayer ought to be in a known tongue." Here are Christian Fathers, Catholic Doctors, Councils, and Cardinals, all declaring, that public prayers should be understood by the congregation; and therefore that Latin prayers are not fit for Irishmen.

The custom of praying in Latin was confirmed by the Council of Trent, which sat after the Reformation. Fearing that they might seem to oppose the infallibility of their church, if they made any alterations, or condemned any thing which had formely been