In Catharum (Epigr. XVI)
The Arrogance of Linguistic Purity
The author challenges the critic's disdain for classical languages by highlighting the hypocrisy of rejecting the very tongues in which the Gospel was recorded.
Why do you consider the Latin language so profane? Do our own times approve of what the ages before us approved? Why do you condemn polished Greek, and all of Hellas, in which the covenants of the slain God are nonetheless written? I suppose you chant only in Hebrew and make a racket about it; that's the only language that suits your nose.
Read the original Latin
Cur Latiam linguam reris nimis esse profanam? Quam praemissa probant secula, nostra probant? Cur teretem Graecam damnas, atque Hellada totam, Qua tamen occisi foedera scripta Dei? Scilicet Hebraeam cantas, et perstrepis unam: Haec facit ad nasum sola loquela tuum.
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