But, as everybody knows, the English people soon changed their religion and became Christians; and any student of the English language would soon guess this, even if he knew nothing of English history. He would be able to guess, too, that the English got their Christianity from a people who spoke Latin, for so many of the English words connected with religion come from the Latin language. It was, of course, the Roman monk St. Augustine who brought the Christian religion to the English. Latin was the language of the Romans. The word _religion_ itself is a Latin word meaning reverence for the gods; and _Mass_, the name given to the chief service of the Catholic religion, comes from the Latin _missa_, taken from the words, _Ite missa est_ ("Go; the Mass is ended"), with which the priest finishes the Mass. _Missa_ is only a part of the verb _mittere_, "to finish."
The words _priest_, _bishop_, _monk_, _altar_, _vestment_, and many others, came into the English language from the Latin with the Christian religion.
Even, again, if a student of the English language knew nothing about the invasions of England by the fierce Danes, he might guess something about them from the fact that there are many Danish words in the English language, and especially the names of places. Such common words as _husband_, _knife_, _root_, _skin_, came into English from the Danish.
But many more words were added to the English language through the Norman Conquest. It is quite easy to see, from the great number of French words in the English language, that France and England must at one time have had a great deal to do with each other. But it was the English who used French words, and not the French who used English. This was quite natural when a Norman, or North French, duke became king of England, and Norman nobles came in great numbers to live in England and help to rule her.
Sir Walter Scott, in his great book "Ivanhoe," makes one man say that all the names of living animals are English, like _ox_, _sheep_, _deer_, and _swine_, but their flesh when it becomes meat is given French names--_beef_, _mutton_, _venison_, and _pork_. The reason for this is easy to see: Englishmen worked hard looking after the animals while they were alive, and the rich Normans ate their flesh when they were dead.