When was the last time people fluently spoke Latin? And when exactly did it die out?

by [deleted]

I think I've heard before that in the 14th - 17th centuries people would speak Latin fluently (some books would even be written in it) but who was the last group of people to speak it fluently?

Searocksandtrees

hi! there's lots to talk about here between Classic Latin and Vulgar Latin, whether you mean native vs simply fluent speakers, and when one considers a language to be no longer "Latin", but fyi, you can get started in the FAQ

and a few recent posts which may be interesting