TITLE PAGE
INTRODUCTION
GLAGOLITIC PAST
1483 MISSAL
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Grgur of Nin (in office 900-929) was one of the most important Glagolitic bishops governing from the bishopy of Nin. He was a chancellor of first Croatian king Tomislav. He is celebrated as one of the staunchest defenders of Old-Slavic language and Glagolitic script, and their use in the liturgy of the Croatian church. The picture shows the statue standing in Split by the Diocletian palace complex. The sculptor Ivan Meštrovic (1883-1962) made two other variations of the statue, which are now in Varaždin and Nin.
GLAGOLITIC LITURGY
The Glagolitic liturgy is performed in Old Slavic, the base language for all Slavic languages. With time, individual Slavic languages diverged and Old Slavic was used only in its fossilized and formalized form in the church liturgy. However, in the early Middle Ages, it was instrumental in the preservation of a distinct Slavic culture. The relationship between the Croatian Glagolitic clergy and Roman See was a rather uneasy one. In the 10th century, the Slavic language and the use of Glagolitic scriptures was officially forbidden. In spite of this, glagolism survived aided by silent support of the local (Croatian) nobility and the political sensitivity of the region.
There are arguments among the Croatian scholars why this situation persisted for centuries, to the point that Pope Innocent IV (d. 1254) gives up and, in the year 1248, gives special dispensation to the Croatian Church for the use of Glagolitic script and language on the territories of Croatia, Dalmatia, and Bosnia (Jakšić 2002, p. 2). Japundžić (1998) is of the opinion that this is due to early Christianization of the territory, therefore before Latin language become official liturgical language, and that the Croatian Church simply continued with the older tradition (p. 19). An other school of historians emphasized the ignorance and illiteracy of the Glagolitic clergy in Latin, and that the Church was continuously short on priests, so it preferred any kind of spiritual guidance to no guidance at all. Furthermore, glagoljaši were present mainly in rural areas, and churches in the rich and influential coastal cities held their services in Latin.
The church council held in Split, in the year 925, tried to remedy the situation by specifying that knowledge of Latin was necessary for promotion to the priesthood. It dispensed with this requirement for monks and lower clerics because it was presumed that do not actively work with the parishioners. This situation radically changed with arrival of Franciscans of Third Order and Pavlins, but by then, the precedent was established (Bogović 1994, 9-10). It is also important to note that the Glagolitic liturgy did not otherwise differ radically from the services of the Catholic (Roman) Church, so the Glagolitic liturgy was never perceived as a heresy.
Recently, scholars attack this image of illiterate Glagolitic priests, pointing out that there were a number of highly educated church officials who used Latin for their communication with Rome or the ruling court. Most of the Glagolitic books were translations from Latin originals, showing that local translators had quite an adequate knowledge of Latin literature and language. In addition, these translations were into Old Slavic, by 13th century as obsolete and strange as Latin, therefore requiring extensive scholarship by itself. Thus, persistence in Glagolitic and Old Slavic would have more to do with the tradition than the linguistic ignorance or illiteracy of the clergy.
Monasteries of various orders, dispersed throughout the islands of the Adriatic coast, have in their libraries a mixture of Latin and Glagolitic books, showing that the Glagolitic clergy was not as isolated as it appeared. The notary of the Dubrovnik Republic issued legal documents in Latin as well as in Glagolitic script. The texts of these documents are in vernacular, Latin, or the local Italian dialect. Therefore, the use of Glagolitic writing was a conscious step toward the preservation of linguistic and cultural specificum of Croatian ethnicity against latinisation, rather than a stubborn persistence in "backward" ways (Damjanović 1993, pp. 94-99).
GLAGOLITIC SCRIPT
PRINTING OF THE GLAGOLITIC BOOKS
Bibliography
Bogović, M. (1994). Glagoljica u Senju. Senj: Jadranska tiskara d.o.o.
Glagolitic in Senj.
Damjanović, S. (1993). Hrvatski glagoljaši i počeci hrvatskoga književnog jezika. Croatica. Prinosi proučavanju hrvatske književnosti, XXII/XXIV(37/38/39), 93-105.
Jakšić, M. (2002). Senjske inkunabule i Senjska tiskara.
Retrieved November 26, 2005, from
http://www.hr/darko/etf/senj.html
Japundžić, M. (1998). The Croatian Glagolitic Heritage.
Retrieved November 25, 2005, from
http://www.croatianstudies.org/index.php?action=page&id=55
Written by Vlasta Radan.
Last update April 10, 2006.