The Medieval Church · c. 863
The Proglas
Constantine-Cyril · c. 826 – 869
What it is
A verse preface to the Slavonic gospels, arguing that a soul without letters is dead, that hearing in a foreign tongue is like hearing a bell of brass, and that it is better to speak five words with understanding than ten thousand in a language nobody knows.
Why it lasted
The first poem in any Slavic language, and a manifesto for vernacular scripture six hundred years before Wycliffe. Its argument from 1 Corinthians 14 is the same one the Reformation would make.
Scripture it works from
Where to read it
This work is in the public domain and can be read in full, free, at the archives below.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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