Did priests preach in Latin before the Protestant Reformation?

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ellammcg

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A staunchly anti-Catholic student is precepting where I work. He stated that in addition to the Bible, that the entire Mass (including the homily) was in Latin. If, in fact, the homily was in Latin, how were people to know what was being said? I’ve read that only the elite were literate and that they could read and write in Latin but I am not very familiar of the situation with the common folk.
 
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I believe he is wrong. The homily was always in the vernacular. I don’t have a reference offhand to back this up, but I expect other commenters will be able to provide one.
 
I think previously the word sermon was used and that could be a talk about any religious topic not necessarily related to the readings/gospel whereas the homily is a talk related to the readings/gospel.
As far as I know even when the Mass was in Latin the sermon/homily and any announcements would be in the vernacular. It simply would make no sense to have that in Latin too.
 
“Macaronic” is a word I like! (In the second paragraph of the text you link to.)
 
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He is right and wrong.

The entire Mass was in Latin - but any of the parishoners who were literate would have understood Latin. Even those who didn’t would be familiar enough with Latin to know what was going on in general.

The homily was always given in the vernacular - so when the People spoke Latin (say from the 3rd-7th century) the homily was in Latin.

Where the people spoke other than Latin, say Old English, the homily was in Old English.

The Bible reading was in Latin, but often it would be read again in vernacular either in full or in part during the vernacular homily.
 
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