THE WEALTH OF NATIONS.

719

The present universities of Europe were originally, thegreater part of them, ecclesiastical corporations; institutedfor the education of churchmen. They were founded by theauthority of the pope, and were so entirely under his imme-diate protection, that their members, whether masters orstudents, had all of them what was then called the benefitof clergy, that is, were exempted from the civil jurisdiction ofthe countries in which their respective universities were situ-ated, and were amenable only to the ecclesiastical tribunals.What was taught in the greater part of those universitieswas suitable to the end of their institution, either theology,or something that was merely preparatory to theology.

When Christianity was first established by law, a corruptedLatin had become the common language of all the westernparts of Europe . The service of the church accordingly, andthe translation of the Bible which was read in churches, wereboth in that corrupted Latin ; that is, in the common lan-guage of the country. After the irruption of the barbarousnations who overturned the Roman empire, Latin graduallyceased to be the language of any part of Europe . But thereverence of the people naturally preserves the establishedforms and ceremonies of religion, long after the circumstanceswhich first introduced and rendered them reasonable are nomore. Though Latin , therefore, was no longer understoodany where by the great body of the people, the whole ser-vice of the church still continued to be performed in thatlanguage. Two different languages were thus establishedin Europe , in the same manner as in ancient Egypt; a lan-guage of the priests, and a language of the people ; a sacredand a profane; a learned and an unlearned language. Butit was necessary that the priests should understand some-thing ol that sacred and learned language in which they wereto officiate; and the study of the Latin language thereforemade, from the beginning, an essential part of universityeducation.

It was not so with that either of the Greek, or of the He-brew language. The infallible decrees of the church hadpronounced the Latin translation of the Bible , commonlycalled the Latin Vulgate , to have been equally dictated bydivine inspiration, and therefore of equal authority with theGreek and Hebrew originals. The knowledge of those twolanguages, therefore, not being indispensably requisite to achurchman, the study of them did not for a long time make