That is all true, hosepipe, but their spoken languages were not developed enough to be used for anything short of folk poetry. Germany did not have a literary German language when Luther was translating the Bible from Greek and literally creating new German compound words that didn't exist beforehand, and with that the German literary language.
Sure, the Italians spoke Italian, but what did they write in it? Very little until after the Renaissance. None of the vernaculars was sophisticated enough to express biblical concepts; they were the tongues of peasants whose vocabularies were greatly impoverished and whose grammar was pretty much whatever they wanted it to be (sort of like modern American English!).
You can pretty much tell the extent of the Saxon dictionary by lookng for German words in the English language. If you come up with more than 500 words, you are good. You know, words such as man, house, ax, ox...
The Church did not lock up the Bible with Latin; there was no other alternative. And the reason colloquial language bible were not allowed is because vernacular was a vulgar language the way our street slang is, in addition to being impoverished in phraseology and grammar.
Part of the problem with the Bible is that even literary Latin, which was derived from Greek, does not fully convey the same concepts as the koine Greek. And Latin is a liturgical language!
The world languages are being challenged to come up with their own computer phraseology which was developed in English, or simply to bastardize the language by accepting them, no matter how awkward and unintelligible they may be.
This is because many languages are incapable of creating their own words that are not only equivalent in meaning, but in brevity and clarity. besides, such words make it impossible to 'chat' with others about anything hi-tech, medicine, etc.
Same with the greek.. The greek language did not have a corresponding word for the hebrew "holy" or the hebrew messiah(i.e. Jesus the Christ).. They had to morph a word which meant a good fellow(man) into Christ.. as well as other words and concepts.. Paul was good at this since he spoke several languages and was schooled in logic by the Rabbis.. He was more "wordly" than the other Apostles..
[ Sure, the Italians spoke Italian, but what did they write in it? ]
Kosta really, surely you know few could even write.. anywhere even in Isreal.. Especially during the dark ages.. In Europe some could barely write.. to transact business but little more.. When colleges for average people were started (by christians) in the United States it shook the world,.. And many others started doing it... slowly of course..
Much of the New Testament was written in Joiner greek (vernacular greek).. Not the greek of debate and sophistry.. Do see a message here?.. The Bible has since been translated into hundreds of vernacular languages.. Since when?.. Since the reformers made the Bible available to all.. Else it might have never been..
Not only that but written and verbal greek is so rich it takes many sentences sometimes to translate one greek word.. With the additional tenses and construction of the "words".. But you can get the sense of it all by translating one english word for one greek word, although not usually completely accurate.. Thats why even primitive languages can get the sense of the gospel.. in their own language.. Since thats the only language they speak.. Even some translators have to create an alphabet to even write it down.. or translate it..
Locking the Bible up in Latin was a travesty.. COuld have been for Job Security.. or not.. But I think so.. Millions of people worldwide have learned to read just so they could read the Bible.. even today that happens.. Happened in Germany too because of Luthers work.. many learned to read just for that purpose..