LATIN: OR THE EMPIRE OF A SIGN
The "Latin Stronghold:" the Church
by Francoise Waquet
Although the expression "stronghold of Latin" was used by Ferdinand Brunot, from whom I have borrowed it, in reference to the eighteenth century alone, it possesses nevertheless a wider validity: Latin remained the liturgical language of the Catholic Church, in which it performed the sacrifice of the mass and administered the sacraments, until the Vatican II council. It was the inheritance of a historical situation, an ancient practice which had been ratified at the Council of Trent. ...