he treasures of sacred literature in the Church.

In the fifth century came the disruption of the Roman Empire. New kingdoms
began to be formed in Europe out of the ruins of the old empire. The Latin
gradually ceased to be a living tongue among the people, and new languages
commenced to spring up like so many shoots from the parent stock. The
Church, however, retained in her Liturgy, and in the administration of the
Sacraments, the Latin language for very wise reasons, some of which I
shall briefly mention:

First--The Catholic Church has always _one and the same faith_, the same
form of public worship, the same spiritual government. As her doctrine and
liturgy are unchangeable, she wishes that the language of her Liturgy
should be fixed and uniform. Faith may be called the jewel, and language
is the casket which contains it. So careful is the Church of preserving
the jewel intact that she will not disturb even the casket in which it is
set. Living tongues, unlike a dead language, are continually changing in
words and meaning. The English language as written four centuries ago
would be now almost as unintelligible to an English reader as the Latin
tongue. In an old Bible published in the fourteenth century St. Paul calls
himself _the villain of Jesus Christ_. The word _villain_ in those days
meant a servant, but the term would not be complimentary now to one even
less holy than the Apostle. This is but one instance, out of many which I
might adduce, to show the mutations which our language has undergone. But
the Latin, being a dead language, is not liable to these changes.

Second--The Catholic Church is spread over the whole world, embracing in
its fold children of all climes and nations, and peoples and tongues under
the sun. How, I ask, could the Bishops of these various countries
communicate with one another in council if they had not one language to
serve as a common medium of communication? It would be simply impossible.
A church that is universal must have a universal tongue; whilst a national
church, or a church whose members speak one and the same language, and
whose doctrines conveniently change to suit the times, can safely adopt
the vernacular tongue in its liturgy.

A few years ago a Convocation was held in England, composed of British and
American Episcopal Bishops. They had no difficulty in communicating with
one another because all spoke their mother tongue. But suppose they had
representatives from Sp