In Moravia,
Pannonia, and Illyria, the Slavonic worship was, after some struggle,
supplanted by the Latin; in the two latter countries, however, the
language was retained, and the occidental church service conducted in
the Slavic language; i.e. in a language which at that time was
perfectly intelligible to the Illyrians.
It appears that the priests of this part of the country had never
adopted the alphabet, which Cyril invented for the benefit of their
brethren in Pannonia or Bulgaria;[15] who, less advanced in
civilization than the tribes bordering on Italy, could as yet neither
write nor read; while the latter were already in possession of an
alphabet of an ancient and mysterious origin. For the first appearance
of the Glagolitic letters, (_glagol_ signifies in Slavic _word_, or
rather _verb_,) is still buried in perfect darkness. An almost
fabulous antiquity has been ascribed to this alphabet by various old
writers. According to some it was derived from the Goths or Getae;
according to others, from the Phrygians and Thracians; and a very
common tradition made St. Jerome, who was a native of Dalmatia, the
inventor of it. The sounder criticism of our age seems at last to have
proved that all these opinions were untenable.
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