The introduction of Latin classes in some of England’s finest cathedrals has tapped into an unexpected enthusiasm for resuscitating a subject that many have considered to be “dead as dead can be”.
At least half a dozen cathedrals have run short courses in Latin this year, with participants aged 12 to over 80.
St Albans Cathedral is gearing up for two-week long summer schools in Latin and New Testament Greek following the success of short courses and study days over the past couple of years.
Gloucester Cathedral is planning several weekend courses in the coming months. Tutor George Sharpley has taught beginners’ classes in Latin at Lincoln, Southwark, Chichester, Exeter and Ely cathedrals, as well as Gloucester.
Sharpley launched his Latin in the Cloisters series this year. “I’d been reading about Charlemagne and the Latin schools he started in cathedrals and monasteries 1,200 years ago. It seemed a good time to echo that,” he said.
In the first four months of this year, he taught 11 day courses. “One was quiet, but at the rest we had to turn people away. It was a step into the unknown, but the response has been pretty good. I get very excited about Latin, so I’m not surprised others do too.”
Participants have been mixed, said Sharpley. “There are retired people and young people. Some have never learned any Latin. Many are simply curious.”
At St Albans, Clare Coombe, the cathedral’s adult learning officer and a classicist, has found a similar range of participants. A five-week course of evening classes that ended last week included a 12-year-old and several people who were not native English speakers.
“I was surprised at the mix of nationalities – French, German, Croatian. But Latin is part of our European heritage,” she said.
“Sometimes people are interested because they’ve heard Latin said at mass or they want to be able to read inscriptions on tombs in the cathedral. And people who are not generally good at languages are often quite good at Latin.”
Sharpley’s one-day beginners’ courses start with a look at the Latin roots of English words. “By lunchtime, they’re able to read a line or two of Virgil.”
But, he adds, “the Latin of Ovid and Virgil was a language to be heard, not studied in books in solitude. It’s a very lively language, one for the ear. It makes a connection, it turns lights on. Every few minutes, someone has an ‘aha’ moment when they realise Latin is part of our language today.”