Latin and the Latinate

Latin has always been seen as the language of "education".

Many schools and tutors taught it (and still do). During the Renaissance classical texts in Latin regained interest and emergence - obviously remembering that we were invaded by the Romans also.

 Also, the language of the Church and Law was Latin and these were generally the areas where the most literacy was (most early writers were monks in England) - hence the heavy influence of the latinate in early texts.
 More than half of English is derived from Latin - particularly in our prefixes and suffixes

e.g
 Prefixes - ant- post- pre-
Suffixes -ate -ic -al
Latin origin words -magnificient emotion colossal history vacuum intellect monopoly nation