Page:Latin prayers not fit for Irishmen.pdf/9

 notes on the 14th chapter of the Corinthians, in the Roman Catholic Testament, say, that Latin is not a strange or unknown tongue, but perhaps the best known in the world. This may be true, but cetainlycertainly [sic] the lower classes of the Irish do not understand it; to them it is a strange tongue, and therefore ought not to be used. The Priests maintain that there is some peculiar charm in the Latin language, which makes a Latin prayer more efficacious than an English one; and many of our poor people believer it is the only language which the devil does not understand. It is in vain to tell us, that the Latin prayers are all translated, and that those who have read their prayer-book know what prayer the Priest is reading. In the first place, none of them were ever translated until the Reformation; and in some countries they are not translated at all. And, in the next place, these translations are not of any use to those who cannot read, and a great proportion of their congregations are of this description.

The Church of Rome has reasons