Page:The Classical Heritage of the Middle Ages.djvu/220

 202 THE CLASSICAL HERITAGE [chap. A language, when required to express the thought and feeling of a new religion, will suffer change. In the works of Christian prose writers from the close of the second century onward, the written Latin lan- guage passed through changes from which it emerged Christianized.^ Many popular words were admitted to literary use, and new words were formed after the analogy of the usages of popular speech; again, new words were formed or old ones altered in their mean- ing in order to translate Greek (Christian) words, and phrases were constructed in imitation of Greek idioms ; Semitic words and idioms were introduced ; and finally, the balanced periods of classical composition were re- placed by a style and order of words suggesting the formative stages of the Romance tongues. A permanent separation from the classical Latin language was thus brought about, and a Christian diction was evolved which could express Christian thoughts and give voice to Christian feeling, — the passion of Augustine's Confessions could not have been put into the balanced periods of Cicero. A new diction and a new style had risen, Augustine himself being a potent influence. Still further declassicizing, bar- barizing. Christianizing of Latin will be needed before Latin will voice the feeling of the De Imitationej or of the well-nigh singing lyric passages in the early Latin lives of St. Francis.'' ib., Ep. 49, 4; Augustine, on Psalm xxxvi, v. 26; Sulpicius Severus, Vita Martini, praef.; Gregory the Great, preface to Moralia), are collected in Norden, AntiTce Kunstprosa, pp. 529-535. 1 Cf. Ozanam, La civilisation au F« siecle, II, pp. 134-167. 2 Cf. T. Celano, Vita Prima, Cap. X, ed. Amoni (Rome, 1880) ; Legenda Trium Sociorum, ed. Amoni (Rome, 1880) ; Legenda