Trieste and Laibach, _Primus Trubar_, published successively the New
Testament, Psalter and Catechism in the vulgar Slovene language. It
produced the greatest imaginable excitement amongst the Slovene clergy and
people. Christ and the Prophets spoke for the first time to the people in
mountainous Carniola and Istria in a language that the people could
understand. A minority of the clergy shared the popular excitement, whereas
the majority was filled with fury against the innovator. But Trubar went
his way courageously and continued to publish and republish the sacred
books in the Slovene tongue. The affair had the usual ending: the violent
persecution of the disturbers of the _semper eadem_, and the victory of the
persecuted cause. Trubar died in exile from his country, his books were
burnt, the churches in which his books had been read pulled down, and the
people who dared to speak with Christ and the Prophets in their native
language terrified. At the same time, the Turks, after having devastated
Serbia and Croatia, descended on Slovenia with the sword, burning pulling
down, and terrifying everywhere.

Yet the great question of the ecclesiastical language could not be stifled.
Even before and after Trubar, the Slavs on the Adriatic coast of Dalmatia
and Istria insisted on the so-called _Glagoliza_ as the language which
should be used in the divine service. _Glagoliza_ is not the common
language of the Croats and Slovenes, but it is an old and sacred form of
the same tongue. Rome opposed for a long time, declined afterwards, opposed
or half-opposed again, till the question is to-day brought to a very acute
phase. Pope Paul V permitted the use of the _Glagoliza_ in the Church. This
permission was repeated by John VIII. and Urban VIII. There was printed a
_Missale Romanum, slavicâ linguâ, glagolitico charactere_ (Rome, 1893).
Still, one can say that although it is theoretically allowed, it is
practically forbidden. It is used to-day in some new places, like Krk,
Cherso, Zara, Sebenico, in Senj, Spalato, etc. But the fact remains that