One of the most important achievements of the Reformation was Martin Luther's translation of the Bible into the vernacular. Believers no longer had to read Latin to understand the word of God. However, the language of instruction in monastery schools like Bebenhausen remained Latin.
Until the Reformation, the service was in Latin.
For centuries, Latin was the language of the liturgy and of literature. In the time of the Renaissance and of humanism, a shift towards popular speech began. Scholars increasingly wrote their works in the languages of their native countries. Particularly for religion, national languages increased in importance. Sermons began to be held in German, French, Dutch, or Hungarian. The Reformation would not have succeeded without the deliberate use of national languages.
He didn't invent the vernacular, but he distributed it widely: Luther
Martin Luther's German translation of the Bible had a huge influence on the German language. Because it had a huge audience, it shaped many metaphors and figures of speech. However, it took three to four centuries before Luther's German was the language of all Germany. It was only gradually that writers, scholars, and priests used this form of German in their texts and children learned to write it in schools. In the 19th century, a common spoken German language also developed, notwithstanding dialects.
As a Reformer, Melanchthon used and supported the vernacular.
From the viewpoint of Reformers, Christians should be able to read, because the decisive source of faith was the Bible. This triggered a strong push for literacy in Germany. Reformers, such as Phillip Melanchthon, worked to found schools. In Württemberg, the "Great Church Order" of 1559 introduced the obligation to attend school, though this only applied for the male part of the population. In 1645, Johann Valentin Andreae extended mandatory schooling to the general population in Württemberg as was the first country in Europe to do so.
The monastery school in Bebenhausen was also open to poorer boys.
With his "Great Church Order" of 1559, Duke Christoph von Württemberg had monastery schools established in the 13 monasteries of Württemberg, including Bebenhausen Monastery. The schools were intended to train future Protestant pastors for service in schools or churches. For the first time, even boys from poorer families were given a chance at an education. After attending the monastery school, they studied theology at the Protestant seminary in Tübingen.
In monastery schools, the language of instruction was Latin, and it remained so for a long time. The use of Latin was mandatory during the service and in private conversations. Lessons in Latin were part of the schedule and, to improve their Latin, students put on Latin plays. In private letters to their parents, the students of the monastery typically used German.
Latin was also the language of instruction in the monastery school of Bebenhausen.
