Already at the time, words with Latin origins were numerous —there were roughly 150 of them . M any actually derived from Greek: altar, mass, priest, psalm, pear, etc. Most of these words—often religious terms— were introduced through the spread of Christianity. At this time, members of the clergy and scholars used Latin, and scientists readily used Greek. This Latinization of English enriched the language with many words and gave a " Mediterranean flavour" to the " Nordic language," or a "Latin flavour" to the " G ermanic language.