The Neolithic Hypothesis (Latin et al.)

[JoatSimeon at aol.com]

>X99Lynx at aol.com writes:

>Church Slavonic was developed as a missionary tool for converting Slavs to
>eastern Christianity

-- Old Church Slavonic is simply what was spoken by the Slavs with whom the
Byzantines were most familiar.  At that point the Slavic peoples all spoke
dialects of one language.

>This use of the vernacular for liturgy however ran right up against the
>German and Italian bishops who were introducing the same vernacular in Latin

-- the Roman Church did not use a vernacular liturgy; it used Latin, which was
equally foreign to everybody.

>And this may have accounted for why the German bishops were able to prevail
>against the Greeks in the Slavic west, despite the Greek trump card of being
>able to transmit the religion in the vernacular.

-- try being closer to Germany and more exposed to the military and political
power of the German rulers.