Late antique usage The use of Latin in the Church started in the late fourth century with the split of the Roman Empire after
Emperor Theodosius in 395. Before this split, Greek was the primary language of the Church (the
New Testament was written in Greek and the
Septuagint – a Greek translation of the Hebrew bible – was in widespread use among both Christians and
Hellenized Jews) as well as the language of the
eastern half of the Roman Empire. Following the split, early theologians like
Jerome translated Greek and Hebrew texts into Latin, the dominant language of the
Western Roman Empire. The loss of Greek in the Western half of the Roman Empire, and the loss of Latin in the Eastern half of the Roman Empire were not immediate, but changed the culture of language as well as the development of the Church. What especially differentiates Ecclesiastical Latin from Classical Latin is the consequences of its use as a language for translating, since it has borrowed and assimilated constructions and vocabulary from the
koine Greek, while adapting the meanings of some Latin words to those of the
koine Greek originals, which are sometimes themselves translations of Hebrew originals. The spoken version of Ecclesiastical Latin was created later during the
Carolingian Renaissance. The English scholar
Alcuin, tasked by
Charlemagne with improving the standards of Latin writing in France, prescribed a pronunciation based on a fairly literal interpretation of Latin spelling. For example, in a radical break from the traditional system, a word such as ⟨⟩ 'orchard' now had to be read aloud precisely as it was spelled rather than (later spelled as
Old French ). The Carolingian reforms soon brought the new Church Latin from France to other lands where Romance was spoken.
Usage during the Reformation and in modern Protestant churches The use of Latin in the Western Church continued into the
Early modern period. One of
Martin Luther's tenets during the
Reformation was to have services and religious texts in the
common tongue, rather than Latin, a language that at the time, many did not understand. Protestants refrained from using Latin in services, however Protestant clergy had to learn and understand Latin as it was the language of higher learning and theological thought until the 18th century. After the
Reformation, in the
Lutheran churches, Latin was retained as the language of the Mass for weekdays, although for the Sunday Sabbath, the
Deutsche Messe was to be said. In the
Anglican Church, the
Book of Common Prayer was published in Latin, alongside English. The Church produces liturgical texts in Latin, which provide a single clear point of reference for translations into all other languages. The same holds for the texts of
canon law. The Holy See has for some centuries usually drafted documents in a modern language, but the authoritative text, published in the
Acta Apostolicae Sedis, is usually in Latin. Some texts may be published initially in a modern language and be later revised, according to a Latin version (or "editio typica"), after this Latin version is published. For example, the
Catechism of the Catholic Church was drafted and published, in 1992, in French. The Latin text appeared five years later, in 1997, and the French text was corrected to match the Latin version, which is regarded as the official text. The Latin-language department of the Vatican Secretariat of State (formerly the
Secretaria brevium ad principes et epistolarum latinarum) is charged with the preparation in Latin of papal and curial documents. Sometimes, the official text is published in a modern language, e.g., the well-known edict
Tra le sollecitudini (1903) by
Pope Pius X (in Italian) and
Mit brennender Sorge (1937) by
Pope Pius XI (in German). ==Comparison with Classical Latin==