ed
according to native rites and in the local idiom. To this exclusive
predominance of Latin is due the fact that it remained the only liturgic
language of the Occidental church, which here as in many other cases
perpetuated a preexisting condition and maintained a unity previously
established. By imposing her speech upon the inhabitants of Ireland and
Germany, Christian Rome simply continued the work of assimilation in the
barbarian provinces subject to her influence that she had begun while
pagan.[1]

In the Orient, however, the churches that are separate from the Greek
orthodoxy use, even to-day, a variety of dialects calling to mind the great
diversity of races formerly subject to Rome. In those times twenty
varieties of speech translated the religious thought of the peoples joined
under the dominion of the Caesars. At the beginning of our era Hellenism had
not yet conquered the uplands of Anatolia,[2] nor central Syria, nor the
divisions of Egypt. Annexation to the empire might retard and in certain
regions weaken the power of expansion of Greek civilization, {22} but it
could not substitute Latin culture for it[3] except around the camps of the
legions guarding the frontier, and in a very few colonies. It especially
benefitted the individuality of each region. The native religions retained
all their prestige and independence. In their ancient sanctuaries that took
rank with the richest and most famous of the world, a powerful clergy
continued to practise ancestral devotions according to barbarian rites, and
frequently in a barbarian tongue. The traditional liturgy, everywhere
performed with scrupulous respect, remained Egyptian or Semitic, Phrygian
or Persian, according to the locality.

Neither pontifical law nor augural science ever obtained credit outside of
the Latin world. It is a characteristic fact that the worship of the
deified emperors, the only official worship required of every one by the
government as a proof of loyalty, should have originated of its own accord
in Asia, received its inspiration from the purest monarchic traditions, and
revived in form and spirit the veneration accorded to the Diadochi by their
subjects.

Not only were the gods of Egypt and Asia never supplanted like those of
Gaul or Spain, but they soon crossed the seas and gained worshipers in
every Latin province. Isis and Serapis, Cybele and Attis, the Syrian Baals,
Sabazius and Mithra were honored by brotherhoods of believers as