Page:The Classical Heritage of the Middle Ages.djvu/224

 206 THE CLASSICAL HERITAGE [chap. sented ideas novel to the pagan world, i.e. they rep- resented disapprovals which were new ; likewise peccator — paganism had not the Hebraic and Chris- tian conception of sin; compassio (Greek avfiirdOeui) was a quality incarnate with Christ — quite differ- ent from Virgil's saddened pity for all life; dilectio was a sort of love different from amor; creatura stood for a Christian (and Hebraic) conception not existing in the pagan world, whose gods were not creators ; resurrectio, revelatiOj sanctificatioy were thoughts first definite with Christianity; spiritalUas — there had been nothing in the pagan world corresponding to this quality of the Christian soul ; salvator — nor had there been a Saviour before Christ; with reference to Him, the conception of temporal preservation changed to that of eternal salvation and was spirit- ualized ; a Christian word was needed to express this. A mass of words came into Latin with the growth of monasticism. Some of these were taken from the Greek,^ and some were newly coined Latin equiva- lents. A number of them had originally passed over into the Christian Greek vocabulary from Stoicism and Neo-platonism. Classical writers were on the verge of using many of these words, and used words from the same roots. But in Christianity the novel forms, as well as many words previously in classical use, gained new and spiritual significance. The whole matter represents a Christianizing and spiritualizing of the Latin lan- guage, and may be compared with the Christian transformation of the Teutonic tongues. 1 See, e.g., Cassian's list of monastic vices, ante, p. 162.