No, the first masses was in Greek. Kylie Eleison, Lord Have Mercy, is a remnant from that time. Greek was the language of the educated classes, emperor Marcus Aurelius for example wrote his meditations in Greek, although the state language was Latin.
Anyways, the enforcement of one single language is not sufficient protection against heresy anyway & I personally don’t think the Catholic Church will reinstate the Tridentine mass in Latin. All it really does is that it separates theology & liturgy from the masses of the faithful & establishes a kind of aristocracy 'cuz you have to know Latin to know the mass.
Isn’t the protection from heresy established by an official catechism sufficient? If someone diverges from the official catechism, he or she is in heresy.
The whole of the eastern church celebrated their masses in the vernacular language; this was the norm of the church everywhere except for the churches in the roman rite. Celebrating mass in the language of the people inculcates the faith into the people. Perhaps that’s why countries like Greece or Russia could never become Protestant, eventhough they’ve had Calvinist patriarchs & Protestant Tsars: because everyone knew the Divine Liturgy in the language of the common people.
Translation was ideally done by monastics who many times became saints. Thus the people prayed what this particular person prayed, whose they know, from the authority of their bishop & witness of their parents, was a saint.
Besides, the Catholic Church has an authority system that can guarantee the translation is free from error.
Saint Peter most likely celebrated the mass either in Aramaic or Greek. Greek was the international language spoken in the Mediterranean world since the days of Alexander. The apostles probably spoke Greek & Saint Paul is quoting from the Old Testament as it reads in the Greek Septuagint translation. Latin was the language of Law & State for the Roman Empire up until the time when Constantine transferred the Capital from Rome to Constantinople, where Greek was spoken. Though Latin was used in legislation for a few centuries more.
We do not bring forth mere sounds without signification, but along with the sounds we signify conceptions. Because of this, I have often found the godbearing fathers to run counter to one another in sound, but never in meaning; for the mystery of our salvation does not consist in syllables, but in notions and realities. Those whose minds are set upon the notions make peace, while, by the realities, they establish souls in the truth.
- Saint Maximus the Confessor
