Content:

The History of the Orthodox Church of our country, which I now present to the Public, is merely a cursory glance at the great events that have marked the plantation and gradual development of this flourishing branch of the Universal Church. By the wise providence of God it was ordained that when the Church of Jerusalem, the Mother of all Churches, was overwhelmed by the invasion of barbarians, the Church of Constantinople should shine out with peculiar lustre in the East, and spread her scions into all the North. And when she again in her turn, though she lost not her inward purity, fell under external calamities, then suddenly, as a sea that bursts its bounds, the Orthodox Faith overflowed and spread itself over the boundless tracts of Russia; and the Eastern Catholic Church may now count her children from the shores of the Adriatic to the bays of the Eastern ocean on the coast of America, from the icefields which grind against the Solovetsky Monastery on its savage islet in the North to the heart of the Arabian and Egyptian deserts, on the verge of which stands the Lavra of Sinai.

This picture, consolatory to every Christian, is more especially calculated to rejoice the heart of a Russian, on account of the mighty destinies, which the Church of our country has either already accomplished, or is still accomplishing, over so vast a field. Let him but cast a look of tenderness on the cradle of our Faith, the ancient City of Kiev; or on Moscow, the elder of our two capitals, the heart of Orthodoxy; let him trace in thought the acts of Prelates such as Cyrill, Peter, Alexis, Cyprian, Jonah, Philip, Job, Hermogenes, Philaret; of Monks and Hermits, like Antony and Theodosius, Sergius, the Zosima, the Cyrill, and others without number, whose names live in that monastic world which has peopled the repose of our forests; of Princes, such as the Vladimirs, the Michaels, or Alexander Nevsky, whose earthly diadems beamed in anticipation of the crowns which they were to receive in Paradise. Then what an army of Martyrs! What a company of women and of men of every age and calling, who, by the holiness of their lives or by their sufferings, have been confessors for the Name of Christ! And in the midst of all these varied scenes, how striking is the unity of the Faith, which has been preserved in such constant purity, that in spite of all circumstances which may have temporarily interrupted external communication between the Churches of Eastern Orthodoxy, they all constitute together in spirit but one whole! When the Church of Georgia, now only a short time back, became an integral portion of the Russian Church and Empire, after having stood alone, cut off and isolated from all other Churches ever since the fourth century, there was not found to have arisen in the course of fifteen hundred years any the slightest difference between them in doctrine, no, nor even in ceremonies; but they agreed in all points with us and with the other Ecumenical Thrones of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem, and with the Churches dependent upon the first of them in Moldavia, Wallachia, Servia, Montenegria, Transylvania, Ulyria, and in a word, throughout all Sclavonia.

In a rapid sketch like the present, which professes only to mark the general outline of the course of Ecclesiastical affairs, I have not thought it necessary to weary the reader with perpetual references to authorities, which for the most part are well known to all; such as The Annals of Nestor and his continuators, collected together by the Patriarch Nikon; The Books of the Genealogies of our Princes, by the Metropolitans Cyprian and Malarias; and The Lives of the Saints. The Church Histories of Plato and Innocentius, the valuable Dictionary of Russian Authors, by the Metropolitan Eugenius, with his Hierarchy of Kiev and all Russia, and the work of the immortal Karamzin, so rich in proofs of the close attention which he had bestowed on Russian history, together with those of other living authors on the same subject, have served me for authorities, and supplied me with most of my materials, down to the times of the Patriarchate.

From this point I have chiefly had recourse either to MSS, which are preserved in the Patriarchal Library at Moscow, or to books published by the Patriarchs. Thus the description of the coming of Jeremiah Patriarch of Constantinople, in order to raise Job to the Patriarchal dignity, with all the circumstances of this event, has been taken from contemporary Acts; and in like manner the whole affair of the trial of the Patriarch Nicon. The different steps successively taken for the correction of the Church books have been accurately described in the Prefaces to the Office-books of Philaret, the Tablets of Nicon, the Staff of Rule and Instruction of Joachim. The Ancient Russian Library, composed almost entirely from MSS of the Patriarchal Vestry, which had been carefully collected by Nicon; The History of the Unia, by Kamensky; Roumanzoff’s Collection of Letters; The Archaeological Acts, full of matter which has been only recently rescued from obscurity; and the most useful Collection of the Laws of the Empire, shed abundant light on the century during which the Patriarchate lasted, and leave nothing to be desired by the historian.

Such are the sources of this imperfect work, which I cast as my mite into the Treasury of the Russian Church.

The Russian Church, like the other Orthodox Churches of the East, had an Apostle for its founder. St. Andrew, the first called of the Twelve, hailed with his blessing long beforehand the destined introduction of Christianity into our country. Ascending up and penetrating by the Dnieper into the deserts of Scythia, he planted the first cross on the hills of Kiev, and ‘see you," said he to his disciples, "these hills? On these hills shall shine the light of Divine grace. There shall be here a great city, and God shall have in it many Churches to His Name." Such are the words of the holy Nestor the Monk and Annalist of the Pechersky monastery that point from whence Christian Eussia has sprung.

But it was only after an interval of nine centuries that the rays of Divine light beamed upon Russia from the walls of Byzantium, in which city the same Apostle St. Andrew had appointed Stachys to be the first Bishop, and so committed as it were to him and to his successors, in the spirit of prescience, the charge of that wide region in which he had himself preached Christ. Hence the indissoluble connection of the Russian with the Greek Church, and the dependence of her Metropolitans during six centuries upon the Patriarchal throne of Constantinople, until, with its consent, she obtained her own equality and independence in that which was accorded to her native Primates.

The Bulgarians of the Danube, the Moravians, and the Slavonians of Illyria, had been already enlightened by holy Baptism about the middle of the ninth century, during the reign of the Greek Emperor Michael, and the Patriarchate of the illustrious Photius. St. Cyrill and St. Methodius, two learned Greek brothers, translated into the Slavonic the New Testament and the books used in Divine service, and according to some accounts even the whole Bible. This translation of the word of God became afterwards a most blessed instrument for the conversion of the Russians, for the missionaries were by it enabled to expound the truths of the gospel to the heathens in their native dialect, and so win for them a readier entrance to their hearts.

So far as we know, it appears that Oskold and Dir, two princes of Kiev and of the companions of Ruric, were the first of the Russians who embraced Christianity. In the year 866 they made their appearance in armed vessels before the walls of Constantinople, when the Emperor was absent, and threw the Greek capital into no little alarm and confusion. Tradition reports that the Patriarch Photius took the virginal robe of the Mother of God from the Blachern Church, and plunged it beneath the waves of the strait, when the sea immediately boiled up from underneath and wrecked the vessels of the heathen. Struck with awe, they believed in that God who had smitten them, and became the first fruits of their people to the Lord. The hymn of victory of the Greek Church "To the protecting Conductress" in honor of the most holy Virgin has remained a memorial of this triumph, and even now among ourselves concludes the Office for the First Hour in the daily Matins, for that was indeed the first hour of salvation to the land of Russia.

It is probable that on their return to their own country the Princes of Kiev sowed there the seeds of Christianity; for, eighty years afterwards, on occasion of a conference for peace between the Prince Igor and certain Byzantine ambassadors, we find mention already of a Church of the Prophet Elias in Kiev where the Christian Varagians swore to the observance of the treaty. Constantine Porphyrogenitus and other Greek annalists even relate that in the lifetime of Oskold there was a Bishop sent to the Russians by the Emperor Basil the Macedonian, and the Patriarch St. Ignathis, and that he made many converts, chiefly in consequence of the miraculous preservation of a volume of the Gospels, which was thrown publicly into the flames and taken out after some time unconsumed. Also in Codinus’ Catalogue of Sees subject to the Patriarch of Constantinople, the Metropolitical See of Russia appears as early as the year 891.

Lastly, it is certain that many of the Varagians who served in the Imperial body-guard were Christians, and that the Greek sovereigns never lost sight of any opportunity of converting them to their own faith, by which they hoped to soften their savage manners. When the Emperor Leo was concluding a peace with Oleg he showed not only his own treasures to the ambassadors of the Russian Prince, but also the splendour of the churches, the holy Relics, the precious Icons, and the Instruments of the Passion of our Lord, if by any means they might catch from them the spirit of the true Faith.

Some such influences as these, while Christianity as yet was only struggling for an uncertain existence at Kiev, produced in good time their effect on the wisest of the daughters of the Slavonians, the widowed Princess Olga, who governed Russia during the minority of her son Sviatoslav. She undertook a voyage to Constantinople for no other end than to obtain a know-edge of the true God, and there she received Baptism at the hands of the Patriarch Polyeuctes, the Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus himself, who admired her wisdom, being her godfather. Nestor draws an affecting picture of the Patriarch foretelling to the newly-illumined Princess the blessings which were to descend by her means on future generations of the Russians, while Olga now become Helena by Baptism, that she might resemble both in name and deed the mother of Constantine the Great, stood meekly bowing down her head and drinking m, as a sponge that is thirsty of moisture, the instructions of the Prelate concerning the canons of the Church, fasting, prayer, almsgiving, and continence, all which she observed with holy exactness on her return to her own country.

There, although in spite of all her entreaties the fierce and warlike Prince Sviatoslaff persisted in refusing to humble his proud heart under the meek yoke of Christ, he had still so much affection for his mother as not only not to persecute such as agreed with her in religion, but even to allow them freely to make open profession of their Faith under the protection of that Princess. He confided his children to her care during his incessant military expeditions, and so enabled her to confirm the saving impressions of Christianity among the people who respected her, and to instil them into the mind of her young grandson Vladimir: for nothing sinks so deep into the heart as the simple and affectionate words of a mother. The Princess had with her a Priest named Gregory, whom she had brought from Constantinople, and by him she was buried after her death in the spot which she had herself appointed, without any of the usual pagan ceremonies. The people by whom she had been surnamed The Wise during life, began to bless her for a Saint after her death, when they came themselves to follow the example of this Morning-Star which had risen and gone before to lead Eussia into the path of salvation.

Nowhere has Christianity ever been less persecuted at its first introduction, than in our own country. The Chronicle speaks of only two Christian Martyrs, the Varagians Theodore and John, who were put to death by the fury of the people, because one of them from natural affection had refused to give up his son, when he had been devoted by the Prince Vladimir to be offered as a sacrifice to Peroun.

Probably the very zeal of this Prince for the heathen deities, to whom he set up statues, and multiplied altars, may have inspired the neighbouring nations with the desire of converting so powerful a ruler to their respective creeds; and thus his blind impulse towards the Deity which was unknown to him, received a true direction. The Mahometan Eulgarians were the first to send ambassadors to him, with the offer of their faith; but the mercy of Providence, for so it plainly was, inspired him to give them a decided refusal, on the ground that he did not choose to comply with some of their regulations; though else a sensual religion might well have enticed a man who was given up to the indulgence of his passions.

The Chazarian jews flattered themselves with the hope of attracting the Prince by boasting of their religion, and the ancient glory of Jerusalem. "But where," demanded the wise grandson of Olga, "is your country?" "It is ruined by the wrath of God for the sins of our fathers," was their answer. Vladimir then said that he had no mind to embrace the Law of a people whom God had abandoned. There came also Western Doctors, from Germany, who would have persuaded Vladimir to embrace Christianity; but their Christianity seemed strange to him, for Russia had hitherto no acquaintance but with Byzantium. "Return home," he said, "our ancestors did not receive this religion from you."

A Greek embassy had the best success of them all. A certain philosopher, a Monk named Constantine, after having exposed the insufficiency of other religions, eloquently set before the Prince those judgments of God which are in all the world, the redemption of the human race by the blood of Christ, and the retribution of the life to come; his discourse powerfully affected the heathen monarch, who was burdened with the heavy sins of a tumultuous youth; and this was particularly the case when the Monk pointed out to him on an Ikon, which represented the last judgment, the different lot of the just and of the wicked. " Good to these on the right hand, but woe to those on the left," exclaimed Vladimir, deeply affected: but sensual nature still struggled in him against heavenly truth. Having dismissed the missionary, or ambassador, with presents, he still hesitated to decide; and wished first to examine further concerning the faith, in concert with the elders of his Council, that all Russia might have a share in his conversion. The Council of the Prince decided to send chosen men to make their observations on each religion on the spot where it was professed; and this public agreement explains in some degree the sudden and general acceptance of Christianity which shortly after followed in Russia. It is probable that not only the Chiefs, but the common people also, were expecting and ready for the change.

The Greek Emperors did not fail to profit by this favourable opportunity; and the Patriarch himself in person celebrated the Divine Liturgy in the church of St. Sophia, with the utmost possible magnificence, before the astonished ambassadors of Vladimir. The sublimity and splendor of the service forcibly struck them; but we may not ascribe to the mere external impression that softening of the hearts of these heathens, on which depended the conversion of a whole nation. From the very earliest times of the Church, extraordinary signs of God’s power have constantly gone hand in hand with that apparent weakness of man by which the Gospel was preached: and so also the Byzantine Chronicle relates of the Russian ambassadors, "That during the Divine Liturgy, at the time of carrying the Holy Gifts in procession to the Throne or altar and singing the Cherubic hymn, the eyes of their spirits were opened, and they saw, as in an ecstasy, Glittering youths who joined in singing the Hymn of the Thrice Holy. Being thus fully persuaded of the truth of the orthodox faith, they returned to their own country already Christians in heart; and without saying a word before the Prince in favor of the other religions, they declared thus concerning the Greek: "When we stood in the temple we did not know where we were, for there is nothing else like it upon earth: there in truth God has His dwelling with men; and we can never forget the beauty we saw there. No one who has once tasted sweets, will afterwards take that which is bitter: nor can we now any longer abide in heathenism." Then the Boyars said to Vladimir, If the religion of the Greeks had not been good, your grandmother Olga, who was the wisest of women, would not have embraced it. The weight of the name of Olga decided her grandson, and he said no more in answer than these words, "Where shall we be baptized?"

But Vladimir, led by a sense which had not yet been purged by Grace, thought it best to follow the custom of his ancestors, who made warlike descents upon Constantinople, and so win to himself, sword in hand, his new religion. He embarked his warriors on board their vessels, and attacked Cherson in the Tauride, a city, which was subject to the Emperors. After a long and unsuccessful siege, a certain priest, named Anastasius by means of an arrow shot from the town, informed the Prince that the fate of the besieged depended upon his cutting off the aqueducts, which supplied them with water. Vladimir in great joy made a vow that he would be baptized if he gained possession of the town: and he did gain possession of it. Then he sent to demand from the Greek Emperors the hand of their sister Anna, and they in answer proposed as a condition that he should embrace Christianity; for though they themselves desired an alliance with so powerful a prince, they at the same time took care to follow the prudent and pious policy of their predecessors, who had ever sought to bring their fierce neighbours under the humanizing influence of the Faith. The Prince declared his consent; because, in his own words, " He had long since examined, and conceived a love for the Greek Law."

It was her faith alone, which influenced the Princess to sacrifice herself at once for the temporal interests of her own country, and for the eternal welfare of a strange people. Accompanied by a venerable body of clergy, she sailed for Kherson, and on her arrival induced the Prince to hasten his baptism; for it was so ordered, says the pious Annalist, by the wisdom of God, that the sight of the Prince was at that much affected by a complaint of the eyes: but at the that the Bishop of Cherson laid his hands upon him, when he had risen up out of the bath of regeneration Vladimir suddenly received not only spiritual illumination but also the bodily sight of his eyes, and cried out, "Now I have seen the true God."

Many of the Prince’s suite were so struck by his miraculous recovery, that they followed his example, and were baptized in like manner; and these were doubtless afterwards zealous for the introduction of Christianity into their country. The baptism and marriage of Vladimir were both celebrated in the church of the Most Holy Mother of God; and hence no doubt arose his peculiar zeal for the most pure Virgin, to whose honor he afterwards erected a cathedral church in his own city of Kiev. In Cherson itself he built a church, in the name of his angel or patron St. Basil; and taking with him the relics of St. Clement, Bishop of Rome, and his disciple Thebas, with church vessels and ornaments, and Ikons, he restored the city to be again under the power of the Emperors, and returned to Kiev, accompanied by the Princess their daughter, and her Greek Ecclesiastics.

Nestor makes no mention of any of the Bishops and (St. Michael, first Metropolitan) Priests from Constantinople and Cherson who followed in the train of the Prince, excepting only of one, Anastasius, the Priest who had rendered him such good service during the siege; but the Books of the Genealogies give the name of Michael, a Syrian by birth, and of six other Bishops who were sent together with him to Cherson by the Patriarch Nicholas Chrysoberges. Some have ventured to suppose that Michael was the name of the Bishop of the times of Oskold; but Nestor says nothing about him: and thus much only is certain, that he stands the first in the list of the Metropolitans of Russia.

After his return to Kiev the Great Prince caused his twelve sons to be baptized, and proceeded to destroy the monuments of heathenism. He ordered Peroun to be thrown into the Dnieper. The people at first followed their idol, as it was borne down the stream, but were soon quieted when they saw that the statue had no power to help itself. And Vladimir "being surrounded and supported by believers his own domestic circle, and encouraged by seeing that his Boyars and Suite were prepared and ready to embrace the faith, made a proclamation to the people, "That whoever, on the morrow, should not repair to the river, whether rich or poor, he should hold him for his enemy." At the call of their respected Lord all the multitude of the citizens in troops, with their wives and children, flocked to the Dnieper; and without any manner of opposition received holy Baptism as a nation, from the Greek Bishops and Priests. Nestor draws a touching picture of this baptism of a whole people at once. " Some stood in the water up to their necks, others up to their breasts, holding their young children in their arms; the Priests read the prayers from the shore, naming at once whole companies by the same name." He who was the means of thus bringing them to salvation, filled with a transport of joy at the affecting sight, cried out to the Lord, offering and commending into His hands himself and his people; "O great God! who hast made Heaven and Earth, look down upon these Thy new people. Grant them, O Lord, to know Thee the true God, as Thou hast been made known to Christian lands, and confirm in them a true and unfailing faith; and assist me, O Lord, against my enemy that opposes me, that trusting in Thee, and in Thy power, I may overcome all his wiles." Vladimir erected the first church, that of St. Basil, after whom he was named, on the very mount which had formerly been sacred to Peroun, adjoining his own palace. Thus was Russia Enlightened.

So sudden and ready a conversion of the inhabitants of Kiev might well seem improbable, that is, unless effected by violence, did we not attend to the fact that the Russians had gradually becoming enlightened ever since the times of for more than a hundred years, by means of commerce, treaties of peace, and relations of every kind with the Greeks, as well as with the Bulgarians and Slavonians of origin with ourselves, who had already been long in possession of the holy Scriptures in their own language. The constant endeavours of the Greek Emperors, for the conversion of the Russians by means of their ambassadors and preachers, the tolerance of the Princes, the example and protection of Olga, and the very delay and hesitation of Vladimir in selecting his religion, must have favourably disposed the minds of the people towards it; especially if it be true, as has been asserted, that Russia had already had a Bishop in the time of Oskold. In a similar way, though under different circumstances, in the vast Roman empire, the conversion of Constantine the Great suddenly rendered Christianity the dominant religion, because, in fact, it had long before penetrated among all ranks of his subjects.

Vladimir engaged zealously in building churches throughout the towns and villages of his dominions, and sent Priests to preach in them. He also founded many towns all around Kiev, and so propagated and confirmed the Christian religion in the neighborhood of the capital, from whence the new colonies were sent forth. Neither was he slow in establishing schools, into which he brought together the children of the Boyars, sometimes even in spite of the unwillingness of their rude parents. In the mean time the Metropolitan, with his Bishops, made progresses into the interior of Russia, to the cities of Rostoff and Novogorod, everywhere baptizing and instructing the people. Vladimir himself, for the same good end, went in company with other Bishops to the district of Souzdal and to Volhynia. The Boyars on the Volga and some of the Pechenegian Princes embraced the gospel of salvation together with his subjects, and rejoiced to be admitted to holy Baptism.

The pious Prince wished to see in his own capital a magnificent temple in honour of the Birth of the most holy Virgin, to be a likeness and memorial of that at Cherson, in which he himself had been baptized; and the year after his conversion he sent to Greece for builders, and laid the foundation of the first stone cathedral in Russia, on the very same spot where the Varagian martyrs had suffered. But the first metropolitan was not to live to its completion only his holy remains were buried in it, and were thence translated afterwards to the Pecherskay Lavra. Another metropolitan, Leontius, a Greek by birth, sent by the same patriarch Nicholas, consecrated the new temple, to the great satisfaction of Vladimir, who made a vow to endow it with the tenth part of all his revenues; and from hence it was called The Cathedral of the Tithes.

These tithes, according to the ordinance ascribed to Prince Vladimir, consisted of the fixed quota of corn, cattle, and the profits of trade, for the support of the clergy and the poor; and besides this there was a further tithe collected from every cause which was tried; for the right of judging causes was granted to the bishops and the metropolitan, and they judged according to the Nomocanon, The canons of the holy councils and the Greek ecclesiastical laws, together with the holy Scriptures, were taken from the very first as the basis of all ecclesiastical administration in Russia; and together with them there came into use some portions also of the civil law of the Greeks, through the influence of the Church The care of the new temple and the collection of the tithes for its support was entrusted to a native of Cherson named Anastasius, who enjoyed the confidence of Vladimir and his successors.

The light of Christianity had now been diffused throughout the whole of Russia; but still the faith was nowhere as yet firmly established, because there were no bishops regularly settled in the towns. The Metropolitan Leontius formed the first five dioceses, and appointed Joachim of Cherson to be bishop of Novogorod, Theodorus of Rostoff, Neophytus of Chernigoff, Stephen the Volhynian of Vladimir, and Nicetas of Belgorod. Assisted by Dobrina, the uncle of the Great Prince, who had long governed in Novogorod, the new Bishop Joachim threw the statue of Peroun into the Voljov, and broke down the idolatrous altars without any opposition on the part of the citizens; for they too, like the inhabitants of from their comparative degree of civilization and from their relations of intercourse with the Greeks were in all probability already favourably disposed for the reception of Christianity. Tradition asserts, that even as far back as the time of St. Olga, the Hermits Sergius and Germanus lived upon the desolate island of Balaam in the lake Ladoga, and that from thence St. Abramius went forth to preach Christ to the savage inhabitants of Rostoff.

The attempt to found a diocese at Rostoff was less successful. The first two bishops, Theodore and Hilarion, were driven away by the fierce tribes of the forest district of Meri, who held obstinately to their idols in spite of the zeal of Abramius. It cost the two succeeding bishops, St. Leontius and St. Isaiah, many years of extraordinary labor and exertion, attended frequently by persecutions, before they at length succeeded in establishing Christianity in that savage region, from whence it spread itself by degrees into all the surrounding districts.

Thus Vladimir, having piously observed the commandments of Christ during the course of his long reign, had the consolation of seeing before his death the fruits of his own conversion in all the wide extent of his dominions. He departed this life in peace at Kiev, and was soon reckoned with his grandmother Olga amongst the guardian saints of Russia. John, the third metropolitan (1015), who had been sent from Constantinople upon the death of Leontius, buried the prince in the Church of the Tithes, which he had built, near the tomb of the Grecian princess his wife, and the uncorrupted relics of St. Olga were translated to the same spot.

Family quarrels broke out amongst the sons of St. Vladimir. After his decease the eldest brother Sviatopolk endeavoured by his intrigues to appropriate to himself the appanages of his younger brothers, and succeeded in treacherously murdering three of them. But the death or rather martyrdom of Boris and Gleb recoiled upon his own head, and crushed under him his bloody throne, which passed to Yaroslav prince of Novogorod the avenger of his brethren.

The untimely end of the young princes, who tenderly loved each other, is described in an affecting manner by Nestor. The murderous sword cut them off both together while in the act of prayer: both together as pure sacrifices, sprinkled with their own innocent blood, they presented themselves before the Lord; and the Church being assured of their sanctity by the incorruption of their virgin bodies and by many signs of healing, soon began to ask their assistance in her prayers.

The long reign of the great Yaroslav, notwithstanding his foreign wars with Boleslaus king of Poland, with the Greeks, the Pechenegians, and other neighboring nations, and notwithstanding his domestic quarrel with his brother Mistislav of Tmoutaracan, was decidedly the most flourishing period of antiquity for Russia, which was at length under his powerful sceptre, Christianity was all established far and wide, as he himself was filled with the " spirit of piety, and was ever anxious for the good of the Church. His two ordinances which are extant, the one exempting the spirituality from all civil duties and payments, the other confirming to the bishops the right granted them by St. Vladimir of judging in all causes of marriage, inheritance, and sacrilege, as well as in all that related to the external or internal discipline of the Church, bear witness to Yaroslaffs good disposition in spiritual matters. Whilst he was desirous to secure the interests of his people by the enactment of a body of civil law, he gave no less attention to the subject of ecclesiastical legislation; and by his orders the Nomocanon was translated from the Greek, that our native bishops, now beginning to succeed into the places of those who had come at first from Constantinople, might be able to guide themselves by its rules. He himself gave much time and pains to the study and translation of a variety of Church books which he had collected into a library on the spot where the metropolitan resided; and he set up schools in Kiev and Novogorod for the education of those of the children of clergy or laity who might be preparing themselves for holy orders.

Three magnificent monuments of the glorious times of Yaroslav still remain to us; the cathedral of St. Saviour, which was founded at Chernigov by the Prince Mistislav, and is the most ancient of all the sacred edifices of Russia; the temple of St. Sophia in Novogorod, erected by Vladimir, son of Yaroslav, who died while only a youth, and was buried there together with his mother; this church has not suffered materially either from wars or time, but has been preserved in all its grandeur, as a jewel above price to our country; lastly, in Kiev there is the metropolitical church of St. Sophia, which was built by the Great Prince Yaroslav himself on the spot where he had gained the victory over the Pechenegians. The high-sounding name of St. Sophia pleased the prince, who wished to reproduce in his own capital the monuments of Byzantium, and was delighted that even in his time it already enjoyed the reputation of being a second Constantinople. He had called one of its gates The Golden, as if in memory of those gates at Constantinople, on which his ancestor Oleg had hung his victorious shield; but Yaroslav still more ardently desired that that temple of the Divine Wisdom, St. Sophia, in which his father’s ambassadors had first believed on the true God, should be copied at least in name, if not altogether in structure in his two capitals of Kiev and Novogorod, as Vladimir had erected the cathedral of the most holy Virgin in memory of that at Cherson in which he was baptized. The Metropolitan Theopemptus, who had been sent by the Patriarch Alexis Studites, consecrated the cathedral of St. Sophia, and it has stood even to our own times, together with the marble tomb of its founder, through all the storms of the Mongolian invasion, and the frequent sackings of Kiev. It is not indeed, it is true, in so perfect a state of preservation as that at Novogorod, but still it retains its original form and appearance, at least up to the arches, whilst the church of the Tithes, on the contrary, has been leveled to its foundations.

Theopemptus is the first of the metropolitans who is mentioned in the Chronicle of Nestor, which is silent respecting his three predecessors and speaks only of bishops, possibly because the title of metropolitan came more into popular use after the foundation of the metropolitical residence adjoining the church of St. Sophia. We must attribute it to the resentment which Yaroslaff entertained against the Emperor Constantine Monomachus for having put out the eyes of the Russian prisoners, that on the conclusion of his last war with the Greeks, the Great Prince called together the Russian bishops to elect a new metropolitan from among themselves in the room of Theopemptus who was dead, without taking any notice of the patriarch, pious Priest Hilarion was chosen and consecrated by the synod: but this temporary infraction of ecclesiastical order was speedily made good by a benedictory letter which Hilarion sought and obtained from the Patriarch. Michael Cerularius. During the time that this prelate occupied the metropolitical throne, there came three Greek chanters from Constantinople and introduced the Church song called The Domestic for eight voices or tones, which in several places is still preserved in all its ancient simplicity. Yaroslaff also in his time founded two monasteries in Kiev, one for men by the name of his own angel St. George near the Golden gates, the other for women, which he called after St. Irene the angel of his consort.

Notwithstanding that the foundation of the Vidoubetz Monastery is ascribed to the first Metropolitan Michael, and notwithstanding that there were other religious houses in Kiev, founded by the zeal of the boyars, still to a simple and obscure hermit belongs the glory of having been the father of religious celibacy in Russia, and of having made his own poor retreat a nursery for the monastic life: and this during a period both of many external alarms, and of civil feuds caused by the three sons of Yaroslav, who purpled with gore the soil of Russia, which was only preserved by the prayers of St. Anthony and St. Theodosius. "Many monasteries," says Nestor, as he is describing the origin of the Pecherskay Lavra, "have been founded by princes and nobles, and by wealth, but they are not such as those which have been founded by tears, and fasting, and prayer, and vigil; Anthony had neither gold nor silver, but he procured all by prayer and fasting."

It is very remarkable that at the beginning of monasticism in our country there should have been a recurrence of the names of those great Hermits Hilarion, Anthony, and Theodosius, who once flourished in the deserts of Palestine and Egypt, and were now reflected, as in a mirror, in the pure lives of their Russian imitators and namesakes. The Metropolitan Hilarion when he was as yet only priest of the Church of the holy Apostles in Berestov, the favourite residence of the Princes Vladimir and Yaroslav, was accustomed to retire for seclusion and prayer into the silent forest on the beautiful banks of the Dnieper; and there, having taken an affection to a certain picturesque site on a hill, he dug himself out a dark cave or Pesch, the germ of the future Lavra, and of all the religious houses of Russia. Not long afterwards another hermit came and settled himself in it, for the place was already consecrated by the holy life of Hilarion.

An individual named Anthony, a native of Lubetch, travelling abroad, visited Mount Athos, and conceived a desire to finish his days there in the monastic state: but the hegumen who gave him the tonsure, as if foreseeing his high vocation, enjoined on him to return to his own country. The humble Anthony obeyed, and brought with him the blessing of the Holy Mountain. He went over all the monasteries of Kiev; but his soul, thirsting for contemplation, could find no resting-place for itself anywhere but in the deserted cave of Hilarion. There Anthony established himself; though during the forty years continuance of his spiritual course he was twice driven away by the disturbances caused him by the princes and boyars, who soon discovered that he was living among the woods in the neighborhood of Kiev. The Great Prince himself, Isyaslav the son of Yaroslav, on one occasion paid him a visit with his suite; and the hermit foretold to him, and to his two brothers, their disastrous defeat by the Poloftsi, on the banks of the Alta. Twelve disciples having collected themselves together about him, he set Barlaam over them as hegumen, and gave them his blessing to begin building a wooden church, to be called after the Rest or Assumption of the Mother of God, on the site of the former one, which was under ground: but he himself, to avoid the interruptions and disquietudes of governing, shut himself up in another cell, which he had excavated at a little distance, and there spent the rest of his days in prayer. But in the mean time, before this took place, when the Great Prince had taken the Hegumen Barlaam to preside over his newly-founded Monastery of Demetrius, Anthony proposed to the brethren for their superior the humble Theodosius, to whom was to belong, the glory of finally establishing the monastery, and of completing the blessed beginning of Anthony.

Theodosius seeing the brethren continually multiplying around him and already amounting to a hundred, wrote out for them the Rule of the Studium Monastery, the strictest of all in Constantinople, which a monk, who came with George the new metropolitan, had brought with him from that city. The manner in which the monks were to chant, the bowings and prostrations, the reading, and the whole order of Church service, and even their diet, was fixed by this Rule; Theodosius added to it a supplement which consisted of spiritual instructions of his own, on praying without ceasing on the means of preserving one’s self from evil thoughts, on mutual charity, obedience, and diligence in labor; and it passed afterwards as a model into all the religious houses of our country, many of which were founded by monks from the Pechersky, whilst the rest looked up to it and sought to imitate so illustrious an example. In this manner the blessing of Athos was spread abroad from it on all sides, together with the Rule of Studium. The annalist Nestor, who has preserved to us in his simple but authentic narrative the traditions of the sacred antiquity of Russia, was an eyewitness of the life and actions of Theodosius, when he established the Lavra, and entered himself into its retirement in the seventeenth year of his age, so making it the cradle of our history.

The Princes Isyaslav, Sviatoslav, and Vsevolod, who successively ascended the throne of Kiev, were all full of veneration for the holy recluse Theodosius, and paid attention to his godly instructions, although he hesitated not to rebuke one of them, Sviatoslav, for unjustly usurping his brother’s throne. With his assistance, Theodosius procured skilful architects from Greece, and founded the spacious stone Church of the Assumption in the place of the original poor one of wood. But like nearly all great founders, who have seldom been permitted to see the outward magnificence of their foundations, Theodosius was obliged to content himself with the inward beauty of the Lavra, and departed to his rest in the cells which he had dug out with Anthony. His successors Stephen, and Nikon, the great assistant of Anthony, continued the building, which was finished by the Hegumen John, and consecrated before the end of the reign of the Great Prince Vsevolod by the Metropolitan John III. By order of the same hegumen the annalist Nestor opened the cell or cave in which were the uncorrupted relics of Theodosius, and an assembly of bishops and princes solemnly translated them into the new temple. The names of Anthony and Theodosius began to be invoked in prayer from the time of the reign of Sviatopolk as the guardians of Kiev, and the fathers of all who lived a life of religious retirement in our country; for the Lavra shot its roots deep into the soil of Russia, and its beneficent influence showed itself not only in monastic seclusion, but also in the halls of princes, and on the thrones of prelates. It gave its monks to the Church; Stephen to be bishop of Belgorod, St. Isaiah to be the first illuminator of Rostov, St. Nicetas to be Lord of Novogorod, and, according to some accounts, Ephraim to be metropolitan of all Russia. Some of them preached the name of Christ to the heathen, and died the death of martyrs; as Gerasimus, the first illuminator of the savage Vess in the northern quarters, as Kouksha and Pimen, who suffered for the word of God on the banks of the Oka, while engaged in the conversion of the Yiatichi. Others, whose names are too many to be reckoned, and whose uncorrupted bodies still tenant the same caves, supplied examples in their seclusion of the practice of all the virtues. Among these latter was a son of Nicolas prince of Chernigoff, who was surnamed The Devout from his sanctity and humility. He however was not the first of Russian Princes who adopted the monastic life: Soudeslaff, the unfortunate son of the great Vladimir, who was thrown into prison at Pskoff by his brother Yaroslaff, and after twenty-eight years confinement was set at liberty by his nephews, received the tonsure in the monastery at Kiev before any other of his rank, and so became the first of the line of princely recluses in our country. But I have been seduced by the glories of the Pechersky into a digression from the regular course of ecclesiastical events.

The Metropolitan George, who was sent by the Patriarch John Xiphilinus early in the reign of Isyaslav, translated with much solemnity the holy relics of the Princes Boris and Gleb (George 1072) to the new church of Vishgorod, which had been built on purpose to receive them. The faith of this prelate in the sanctity of the royal martyrs had been but wavering at first, but his doubts were altogether overcome by a miracle which was wrought over their remains, and he then instituted a festival to their honor. In the account of this translation we find mention made in the Chronicles for the first time of the following bishops; Michael of Yuriev, Peter of Pereyaslov, and John of Colma; and we may conclude that these three new dioceses were constituted about the same period, in consequence of the continually increasing spread of Christianity in the South of Russia.

The meek and timid George retired to Constantinople to escape from the civil feuds of Isyaslaff and his brethren, during the continuance of which his flock was exposed to the invasion of Boleslaus king of Poland, and to the encroachments of Rome: for the ambitious pope, Gregory the Seventh, offered military support to Isyaslaff, and stipulated that in return he should make his submission to the Roman See: and this was the first attempt of the Western pontiffs upon Russia. But Isyaslav having regained his throne without foreign assistance, disappointed the schemes of Gregory, and being confirmed in the Faith of his fathers by Theodosius the zealous and orthodox hegumen of the Pechersky, persevered, in it to the end of his troubled life. Another great luminary was now ready to appear in the person of the Metropolitan John II (1080), who was appointed by the Patriarch Eustratius, and fed as a shepherd the Church of Russia for nine years. Nestor speaks of him with particular affection, describing him as a man well skilled in learning, very charitable to orphans and widows, courteous to rich and poor alike, humble, silent, and reserved, visiting the afflicted, and ministering to them consolation out of the holy Scriptures. In the MS. copies of the Kormchay, or Russian Nomocanon, there is preserved a composition of his with the title of " Rule of the Church for sundry cases of conscience."

"There will never be his like again in Russia!" exclaims the cotemporary annalist; comparing him perhaps, at the time when he wrote, with his successor John III, a plain, ignorant man, whom Anna, the daughter of the Great Prince Vsevolod, had brought with her from Constantinople, from the Patriarch Nicolas Grammaticus. She afterwards founded a convent for nuns and a school at Kiev. Another of her sisters, Eupraxia, also took the veil and died a nun; which was the less to be wondered at, since their father himself was a man full of piety and of love for the clergy, who was constantly founding monasteries and bestowing rich presents upon churches.

The name of the Metropolitan Ephraim stands on the roll of the prelates of Kiev next after that of John, who died the year after his accession: but the Chronicles do not agree in the accounts they give of him. Some make him to have been a Greek, and sent by the same patriarch as his predecessor; others a Russian, of the suite of Isyaslav, who received the tonsure and became a monk in the caves of Anthony; Nestor says nothing of any Metropolitan Ephraim, but only speaks of a bishop of Pereyaslav of that name as the senior prelate of the synod which translated the remains of St. Theodosius, and as the builder of the celebrated cathedral of St. Michael in Pereyaslav. Perhaps after the death of John III, which took place so soon, there was no other metropolitan sent for some time from Constantinople, and Ephraim, who lived in the neighbouring diocese of Pereyaslav, administered the vacant diocese of Kiev, being respected for his Christian virtues and especially for his charity to the poor; for he had established hospitals with physicians to serve gratuitously in the different towns. His death is supposed to have occurred in the year 1096, when the khan of the Poloftzi, Boniak, suddenly assaulted Kiev, destroyed its suburbs, and burned the Pecherskay Lavra.

But there are yet further difficulties in the Chronicles respecting this Metropolitan Ephraim. According to Nikon’s catalogue, Luke Jedyata, bishop of Novogorod, who had been chosen moreover by the great Yaroslav, was, through the slanders of some of his own household, cited to appear before this metropolitan in his court at Kiev, and was there detained for the space of three years, until his character could be completely cleared: but according to the chronological reckoning, this event ought to be referred to some date before Hilarion had ceased to be metropolitan; and from hence several writers have even ventured to conjecture that Hilarion took the name of Ephraim, together with the Schema, or Great Angelic Habit, and bore it at the time of his death. However that may be, the trial of the bishop of Novogorod, who already at that time had exclusively the title of Lord, on account of his share in the government of this independent town, shows how great was the power of the metropolitan over the bishops who were subject to him throughout the whole of Russia, Their election depended sometimes on the princes, either on the Great Prince or on the inferior appanaged princes, sometimes on the will of the primate, but they were all consecrated by the primate in person, and were subject to his jurisdiction and visitation; in the same way as the metropolitans themselves, who were always appointed at Constantinople, depended in spiritual matters upon the patriarch, and so preserved the infant Church of Russia in unbroken connection with the Church of Greece.

Already in the reign of Sviatopolk the son of Isyaslaff, the eldest of the grandsons of the great Yaroslav, our attention is drawn to those bitter feuds of the appanaged princes, which eventually caused the entire dismemberment of Russia and her subjection to the Mongols. However, notwithstanding the weak and deceitful character of Sviatopolk, the other princes still respected the superior authority of the throne of Kiev, and the rights of primogeniture. For when Oleg of Chernigov, the turbulent son of Sviatoslav, together with his brethren raised an insurrection against the Great Prince, he was put down by the valiant son of Vsevolod, Vladimir Monomachus, who at the same time reconciled the appanaged chieftains at the general session or assize of the princes. His sword, everywhere attended by victory, repelled also the savage enemies of the South of Russia, the Poloftzi, who leading a wandering life on the steppes of the Don and the Black sea, kept the Eastern frontiers in a state of continual alarm by their incursions, until they were themselves destroyed by the Mongols. But the perfidious cruelty of Sviatopolk in putting out the eyes of the Prince Basilko, at the instigation of his relative David prince of Volhynia, roused Monomachus and all the sons of Sviatoslaff to vengeance. They marched up to Kiev behind the walls of which the Great Prince lay trembling; when suddenly there appeared as a peace-maker in the camp of the incensed brethren the new Metropolitan Nicolas: " We beseech thee, O prince," said he, " thee and thy brethren, that ye will not be so unnatural as to ruin your own country of Russia; for know that if ye begin to fight among yourselves, the unbelievers will rejoice, and will take away from us our land, which your fathers and grandfathers won by great toil and valor in all their wars in Russia: they sought even to conquer other countries, but ye now go about to ruin your own."

There remained in Kiev a monument of the reign of Sviatopolk in the monastery of St. Michael with its gilded domes, which he built and named after his angel or patron saint; and in its magnificent church were deposited the relics of the illustrious martyr St. Barbara, which had been brought from Greece by Barbara daughter of the emperor of Constantinople, and first wife to Sviatopolk. There the same holy treasure is even yet preserved. The Metropolitan Nicephorus, a Greek by birth, who had been appointed by the Patriarch Nicolas, consecrated the new church, and during the fifteen years that he sat, showed himself a worthy fellow-laborer to Monomachus. The eloquent and edifying letters, which he addressed to him have been preserved. They were both men of great and enlightened minds, far outshining all their contemporaries, and set as twin models of Christian virtue, the one on the kingly, the other on the episcopal throne. The glory of Vladimir spreading far and wide, procured for him, in addition to the power, the crown and title of King. According to the account given in the Books of the Genealogies, the Greek Emperor Comenes sent him as a present the Crown, the Holy Barma, and the life-giving Cross, the same which are now preserved in the Treasury at Moscow; and Neophytus the metropolitan of Ephesus, who brought these regalia from Constantinople, performed for the first time upon Monomachus, in the cathedral of St. Sophia, the sacred ceremony of Coronation, which was to serve as the model for all subsequent Coronations of Russian Sovereigns.

To Nicephorus is ascribed the formation of a new diocese at Polotsk, where he appointed Mina to be bishop; we cannot however affirm with certainty that he was the first ever consecrated to that See, for it seems very improbable that the principality of Polotsk, which was less dependent than the rest upon Kiev, and ruled as an appanage by powerful princes, the eldest of the whole race of the posterity of St. Vladimir, should have remained so long without having its own separate bishop. The same may be fairly conjectured of Smolensk, one of the most ancient cities in all Russia, whose bishops begin to be reckoned still later, and the Chronicles do not even agree as to their names. Some name Michael or Manuel as the first, who was made bishop by the Metropolitan Michael II; others place two bishops, Ignatius and Lazarus, before Manuel; but Nestor speaks of the formation of the first dioceses in a very general and indeterminate manner. The lips of this father of Russian history closed about the year 1116, and another learned monk, Silvester, hegumen of the Vidoubetz monastery, became the continuator of his Chronicle, and carried it down to the year 1124. From this point the men who succeeded to the same pious work have concealed their names, but the history of Russia still continued to be written by the hand of some unknown monk, in the solitude and quiet of his cell, through all the storms and revolutions of the outer world.

About this same period, during the episcopate of St. Nieetas, who had been a monk of the Pechersky monastery, two celebrated religious houses were founded in Great Novogorod; one, the Yuriev monastery, by the zeal of Prince Mstislav, though some traditions refer its foundation to Yaroslav the Great; the other, that of St. Anthony the Roman, who sailed from the West up the Volkov, and lived as a hermit on its banks near the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin, which he is said to have built. In like manner as in Novogorod and Kiev, so also in many other chief district-towns, wherever the dawn of spiritual enlightenment so much as penetrated, monasteries were gradually formed, which spread it abroad over all the surrounding parts; and the word of God, carried about by holy solitaries, was let fall into the depths of the vales and forests as the quickening seed of a future life, which should bring forth its fruit in due season.

The successor of the wise and learned Nicephorus, (Nicetas 1124) consecrated to be metropolitan by the Patriarch John, buried the Great Monomachus in the cathedral of the Assumption, amidst the tears of Russia. He was also witness of another great calamity, a dreadful conflagration, which destroyed, according to the account of the Chronicles, as many as four hundred churches and chapels in Kiev, which proves to what a flourishing state the capital must have already attained. He sat only for a short time. Michael II (1127), who was sent by the same patriarch during the reign of Mistislav the son of Monomachus, anxiously sought to extinguish those civil feuds, which had arisen. In the first place he appointed a great churchman, Niphont, to be bishop of Novogorod, quelled an insurrection of the people by the threat of his episcopal interdict, and even went thither himself to restrain the tumultuous citizens from going to war with the district of Souzdal; but the threats of Michael and his prophetic denunciations of their defeat were not attended to by the turbulent assembly, and it was only their fulfilment in deed which could reduce the citizens of Novogorod to a temporary calm. Afterwards upon the death of the warlike Great Prince Mistislav, in whom the power of Monomachus was extinguished, the metropolitan reconciled his feeble successors to one another; that is, his brother Yaropolk with his nephews who were in arms against him, and Viacheslav, with the powerful prince of Chernigov Vsevolod, son of Oleg, who had wrested the power and title of Great Prince out of his hands: but wearied at length with the unceasing family quarrels of the princes, he retired to Constantinople, and there ended his days, having retained the dignity of metropolitan of Kiev till his death.

At that time Russia, throughout all her wide extent, exhibited a sad spectacle of disunion. A feud which was to last for a whole century burst forth into a flame between the reigning house of Monomachus, which was supported by the affections of the inhabitants of Kiev and by the popular recollections of the life and exploits of the great Vladimir, and the house of Oleg of Chernigov, which represented the eldest branch, and so had in its favor the right of primogeniture above all the Russian princes. The appanaged princes engaging in the dispute respecting the great princedom, weakened its beneficial influence on the other parts of the state, while the incursions of the Poloftsi kept the whole South of Russia in a state of constant military excitement, until all perished together under the dreadful devastation of the Mongols. In the mean time new and dependent principalities were formed in the West and in the North, and rose into power in proportion as Kiev declined. Vladimirko son of Volodar of Volhynia, partly by force of and partly by his artful policy, founded a powerful principality at Galich, which made rapid advances during the long reign of his successor Yaroslav. Some feeble glimmerings of Christianity began to penetrate into Lithuania from the neighboring principality of Polotsk, which was a constant object of hostility to the house of Monomachus, and gradually fell under its attacks. Novogorod, while contending with the Swedes on its frontier, contributed to the spread of Christianity in the northern districts, and, in its stormy assemblies, made and unmade its own princes, changing according as this or that of the rival houses had the advantage, now inviting a prince of the house of Oleg, and then again inclining to the descendants of Monomachus.

Another germ of the future power of Russia began to form itself in the very heart of its extensive monarchy. A son of Monomachus, Yury Dolgorouky, tired of waiting for the throne of Kiev, applied himself to the extension and improvement of his own patrimony, the district of Souzdal, by the conversion of the heathen, and by building towns, amongst which then first appeared the name of Moscow. Vladimir on the banks of the Kliasma was greatly enlarged during the reign of his valiant son Andrew Bogolubsky, and speedily rose to be the capital of an independent principality, which obtained all the prerogatives of the great princedom under another of his sons, Vsevolod. In the midst of this political dismemberment, the only thing, which served as a pledge for the general unity was the confession of one and the same orthodox faith throughout all the limits of the kingdom. The bishops, as spiritual judges in their dioceses, and the hegumens of the religious houses, which were continually increasing in number through the piety of the princes, who themselves often finished in a cell their troubled days, served as mediators and peacemakers between the contending parties, and in the quality of ambassadors went backwards and forwards without danger between the hostile camps. Their dependence on the metropolitan involuntarily turned towards Kiev the attention of all Russia; while the primates themselves, who were sent to us from Constantinople, derived from that source a degree of learning and enlightenment which rendered our country superior for the time to the whole of contemporary Europe. But the disorders of civil society had their effect also on the affairs of the Church.

Isyaslav, successor of Vsevolod the son of Oleg and grandson of Monomachus, having been informed of the death of Michael at a time when the patriarchal throne of Constantinople was vacant, resolved not to have a Greek again for metropolitan, as he was displeased that Michael had absented himself from Russia. Following the example of Yaroslav, he convoked together to Kiev a synod of Russian bishops; Onuphrius of Chernigov, who presided, Theodore of Belgorod, Damian of Yuriev, Theodore of Volhynia, Manuel of Smolensk, and besides these, according to the Chronicle of the Pechersky, the following; Euthymius of Pereyaslov, Cosma of Polotsk, and Joachim of Touroff, which last shows the existence of the new diocese of Touroff. They all agreed to take the election of a metropolitan into their own hands, without the patriarch’s having any participation in the matter. Only one voice, that of St. Niphont of Novogorod, protested strongly against this infraction of Church unity and of the canonical dependence of our hierarchy without which the infant Church of Russia could not rightly subsist. He reminded them of the written engagement they had entered into with Michael, probably on the eve of his departure, that they would not celebrate the Liturgy synodically again in the church of Sophia, so long as they should be without a metropolitan; but his remonstrances were in vain, and he was even confined for a short time in the Pechersky monastery, in consequence of his having refused after the election to hold communication with the new primate.

The choice of the synod fell upon Clement a monk of Smolensk and recluse of the Schema or Great Angelic Habit, and the Bishop Onuphrius proposed, that as a substitute for patriarchal Consecration, they should in ordaining him lay on his head the hand of St. Clement, Pope of Rome, whose relics had been brought from Cherson by Vladimir.

It is remarkable, that both the native Russian metropolitans Hilarion and Clement were chosen from the strictest order of recluses; but their piety could not remedy the irregularity of their appointments. The opinion of St. Niphont, the friend of the Princes Dolgorouky and Sviatoslav of Chernigov, and representative of the powerful state of Novogorod, which made use of him in all her political relations with the princes of both the contending houses, was of great weight: and so much the more so, as the new patriarch of Constantinople, Nicolas Musalon, wrote him letters of thanks and commendation for the zeal which he had shewn in behalf of the Church. For nine years this struggle was continued in the midst of civil dissensions, which ran so high at one time, that not even his sacred character of a monk could preserve the Prince Igor, son of Oleg, from being torn to pieces by the populace of Kiev, on account of the pretensions of his family and their feud with Isyaslav. But when Isyaslaff, in his turn, was compelled to fly into Volhynia, he took Clement with him, while Dolgorouky on his side despatched Niphont on an honorary embassy to the Patriarch Luke Chrysoberges to ask him to create another metropolitan; and during his short reign there arrived in consequence from Constantinople the Metropolitan Constantine, who condemned the acts of Isyaslav and Clement, and even suspended for a time all the clergy whom the latter had ordained. The great Niphont had not however the consolation of seeing in Kiev the canonical primate, though he set out to meet him from Novogorod; he died before his arrival, and was buried in the catacombs of Kiev. His name was added to the catalogue of the saints, and he left behind him the glorious reputation of having been the Defender of all Russia.

But the ecclesiastical dispute did not so end. For when, upon the death of Dolgorouky, Isyaslaff of the house of Oleg, and Rostislav of the house of Monomachus, were contending for Kiev, Mistislav prince of Volhynia, who had not forgiven the Metropolitan Constantine for the synod which condemned his father, expelled him from his see to Chernigoff, of which city he had formerly been bishop. There he ended his days, and showed at his death an example of extraordinary humility, by ordering in his will, that his body should be cast out without the town, as unworthy of burial. The prince Sviatoslav, and Anthony the bishop, did not dare to disobey the will of the deceased; but on the third day, seeing that his remains had not been touched, they buried them honorably in the cathedral of St. Saviour.

While he and Clement were both yet living, a third metropolitan, named Theodore, was sent to Kiev from the same patriarch, at the joint request of the uncle and nephew, the Princes Rostislav and Mistislav, because the former did not recognise the election of Clement as canonical, while the latter had a personal dislike to Constantine. In the mean time, Andrew Bogolubsky, who was striving by all possible means to exalt above the other principalities his own capital, Vladimir, where he had erected a magnificent cathedral of the Mother of God, for the reception of a miraculous Icon brought from Greece, took occasion from the existing differences in the Church to ask for a separate metropolitan for himself from Constantinople. But the Patriarch Luke prudently declined granting his request for fear of breaking the unity of the Russian Church; he consented to no more than that the bishops of Rostoff should in future have their residence at Vladimir, and should gratify the piety of the prince by celebrating a festival in memory of the victory which he obtained over the Bulgarians on the same day with that of the Emperor Manuel over the Saracens. This festival is still observed annually on the first of August.

Nestor bishop of Rostov, who had been deprived of his diocese by the Metropolitan Constantine, was then at Constantinople for the purpose of justifying himself before the patriarch; for, from the unhappy circumstances of the time, the dissensions of the hierarchy had been accompanied by a still greater mischief, in the dissemination of false doctrines among the people. Nestor was unjustly accused of violating the rule of the Church for fasting. He was said to have forbidden men to break their fast even on the festivals of the Nativity and Epiphany, if they fell on the Wednesday or Friday. This uncanonical doctrine, which did not originate with him, was revived by a bishop named Leon, who had come into his diocese during his absence; and Bogolubsky, standing up for the orthodox doctrine, sent Leon first to be tried by the metropolitan in Kiev, and afterwards to Constantinople, where he was condemned by the patriarch himself. But immediately after Leon, there appeared a self-elected pretender to the diocese of Rostov, in the person of Theodore, a monk of the Pechersky, who fraudulently obtained the rank of a bishop at Constantinople; his imposture, however, was soon discovered, and his austerities put an end to by the prince, who despatched the offender to Kiev, where he was put to death for the scandal he had caused in the Church.

The introduction of the rank and title of Archimandrite into the Pechersky monastery, and the giving to the monastery itself the names of Lavra and Stavropegia, by letters procured from the patriarch, is ascribed to the Metropolitan Theodore, and from the first archimandrite of the Pechersky, Akindynus, this new dignity passed into general use in the other Russian monasteries. With the blessing of the same metropolitan, the Prince Bogolubsky established a festival in honour of the memory of Leontius the first bishop of Rostov, whose relics he had disclosed in laying the foundation of his new cathedral.

Clement, who had been metropolitan, was still living in Volhynia at the death of Theodore, and the Great Prince Rostislav, yielding to the entreaty of his nephew Mistislav, had resolved to ask the patriarch to restore him to the metropolitical throne; but his ambassadors met on the road a new metropolitan, John IV, coming to Russia from Constantinople. Rostislav was so much displeased, that it was only the fear of causing a new schism in the Church, joined with the friendly entreaties of the Emperor Manuel, which could induce him to acknowledge the new primate, who, however during the two years of his short administration, won the affections of all men, and left a blessed memory behind him. There has been preserved to us a letter of exhortation, which he wrote to the pope of Rome, probably Alexander III on the peace of the Church; for at that time, as the schism was not of very long standing, there were still mutual attempts made occasionally on both sides to re-establish union. In Novogorod also the memory of John was held sacred; for the Lord Elias, whose monastic name was also John, a man of holy life, was raised, the first of all Russian bishops, to the rank of archbishop by this metropolitan, and the same title descended from him to his brother Gregory, a prelate of equal merit, in whose time the venerable Barlaam founded on the banks of the Volkov his celebrated monastery of Khoutinsk, and afterwards, in like manner, to all the Lords of Novogorod.

The heresy of Leon was revived at Kiev in the time of the Metropolitan Constantine II, who had been elected at the desire of Rostislav from amongst the Russian bishops; for the new prelate himself, from ignorance, held the opinion of Leon respecting the Fasts, and even convoked a synod at Kiev with the design of establishing this doctrine. But two men, who have since become illustrious by their writings, St. Cyrill the eloquent bishop of Touroif, and Polycarp archimandrite of the Pechersky, the continuator of the Lives of the Saints of Kiev or Patericon of Nestor, showed themselves firm defenders of the true belief: the last-mentioned of the two even endured confinement for the word of truth. The pious writer of the contemporary Chronicle says that the city of Kiev itself suffered for the fault of her metropohtan; for in his time and that of the Great Prince Mistislav of Volhynia, who succeeded Rostislav, eleven princes, who acknowledged Bogolubsky as their head, took by storm and sacked this mother of Russian cities, which lost from hence her independence. Her rulers, retaining only the bare title of Great Prince were appointed or displaced, for the most part, according to the pleasure of the princes of Vladimir of Galich, whilst the rival houses of Oleg in Chernigov and of Monomachus in Smolensk ceased not in the mean time to carry on intrigues to possess themselves of that shadow of power which might yet belong to the name.

The metropolitical throne of Kiev remained vacant about ten years after the death of Constantine, when Nicephorus II, a Greek by birth, was at length appointed to fill it by the patriarch Basil. He was a pastor filled with all the virtues of the first Nicephorus his namesake, and with love to his new country; but he labored in vain to put an end to the feuds of its rulers. He even took upon his own soul an oath pledged by the Great Prince Rurie to his son-in-law Romanus of Volhynia, in order that he might be enabled by the breach of it to satisfy Vsevolod the powerful prince of Vladimir, who demanded for himself certain towns, which had been promised to Romanus. At length this Romanus, who was already prince of Galich, got possession of Kiev, and in his treatment of his father-in-law the Great Prince Ruric, set the first example in Russia of forcing a man to receive the monastic tonsure against his will; while Ruric himself, on the other hand, affords a solitary instance of a man putting off from himself the quality of a monk, in that he returned to the world and re-ascended his throne after the death of his enemy. In consequence of these civil feuds, Kiev suffered yet again once more, and having been thus twice sacked she never recovered herself afterwards till her final fall in the great invasion of the Mongols.

The new metropolitan, Matthew, was a witness of this calamity. He was sent from Constantinople shortly before its capture by the crusaders, and did his best, like his predecessors, to mediate between the princes, and succeeded in reconciling the Great Prince Vsevolod, surnamed the Red, with all the descendants of Oleg, to Vsevolod of Vladimir. At this wretched period of dissention, the duty of peacemaker was inseparable from the dignity of the primate. In his time the men of Novogorod interfered for the first time in ecclesiastical affairs, by expelling their Archbishop Metrophanes, and sending to the metropolitan for consecration a monk of the monastery of Khoutinsk, named Anthony; but neither did he please the people. Both Lords submitted themselves to the judgment of the metropolitan, and the first was confirmed in his see, while the bishopric of Peremuishla was given to the other, which however he quit for the episcopal throne of Novogorod, and was a second time expelled from thence, and yet again restored, but after all ended his days in the monastery of Khoutinsk: such was the inconstancy and turbulence of the citizens of Novogorod. This is the earliest occasion on which we find mention made of the diocese of Peremuishla, as well as of several others, Galich, Minsk, Loutsk, and Ostrog. The precise period when these were founded is unknown, but their foundation, whenever it took place, is an evidence of the then flourishing state of the south of Russia.

New dioceses were also formed in the North. Although Riazan depended on the episcopal jurisdiction of Chernigoff, still the Chronicle speaks of a certain bishop of Riazan named Arsenius, who was taken prisoner, together with the princes of that town, by Vsevolod brother of Bogolubsky. The district of Mourom, which afterwards became subject to the bishops of Riazan, had then already been Enlightened by holy Baptism through the zeal of its Prince St. Constantine, of the family of the princes of Chernigov, and of his sons Michael and Theodore. The two sons of Vsevolod also, Constantine and George, having quarreled after the death of their father, were not content to have only one bishop in common between Rostoff and Vladimir ; each wished to have him reside in his own capital; and the Metropolitan Matthew satisfied both of them by erecting a new diocese for Vladimir, to which he consecrated Simon the hegumen of the monastery of the Nativity, a man distinguished by his virtues, and his having written the Lives of the holy recluses of the Pechersky.

The metropolitan Cyrill, who succeeded Matthew, was thus sent from Nice, where the emperors and patriarchs had taken up their temporary residence after their expulsion from Constantinople by the Latins. The cruel yoke, which weighed so heavily on the Greek empire, threw its shadow also even over our own country; for the Roman pontiffs began to act upon our frontiers through the arms of the Western Christians. The papal legate offered to Romanus prince of Galich the protection of the apostolic sword; but the chieftain pointing to his own proudly asked, "Has the pope any sword like this?" However, his youthful sons had already been driven out by Coloman king of Vengria and a Latin archbishop established in Galich. Mistislav, the enterprising son of the valiant prince of Novogorod St. Mistislav, took Galich by storm, and drove out the Roman clergy, but they speedily re-established themselves in this border district of Russia. In Novogorod too, the successors of St. Mistislaff, in conjunction with the princes of Pskov and Polotsk, were obliged to contend with a new enemy, who had established himself on the neighboring coasts of the Baltic. Bishop Albert had founded in Riga a new Order of Brethren of the Sword, who, uniting themselves afterwards with the powerful fraternity of the Teutonic Brethren, threatened our western provinces, and converted by force of arms the savage Lithuanians, who on the other side of their country, where they bordered upon Russia, were gradually enlightened by the mildest means.

Another most dreadful storm now came up from the East upon Russia, which was destined to groan under it for two hundred years the Mongols appeared! The Polovzi, flying from before them, brought word that the barbarians had poured in upon their steppes, and our southern princes formed a coalition to repel the unknown enemy. A bloody battle was fought on the river Kalka. Three princes of the name of Mistislav sustained it with desperate valor; but two, the Great Prince and the prince of Chernigov, fell in the action, while the third, the prince of Galich, was compelled to fly with a younger son of Romanus, the illustrious Daniel, to his own capital, where he ended his troubled days in the habit of a monk. The barbarians retired; for this was only their advanced guard; but other innumerable hosts gathered themselves together in Central Asia under the command of Batius, the grandson of Ghenghis Khan, so as to fall upon Russia at an interval of twelve years after the bloody battle on the Kalka. Unhappily all this time was lost in internal feuds between the southern and the northern principalities, and the virtuous metropolitan Cyrill went twice to Vladimir to reconcile the Great Prince with the masters of Kiev, and with the princes of Koursk. The invasion of Batius reduced all to peace under the ashes of their ruined cities.

Riazan was the first to suffer; her princes, Oleg and Theodore, died the death of martyrs. When Vladimir was besieged, the Bishop Metrophanes, with the consort of the Great Prince, her daughters-in-law, and the boyars, shut themselves up in the cathedral church; there they all received the Holy Mysteries and the Schema, in token of preparation for death, from the bishop, and from the Lord the crown of martyrdom, amidst the smoke and flames of the burning temple. George himself fell in battle on the banks of the Siti, while his nephew, Prince Basilko, became a martyr for the Name of Christ. All the towns of the districts of Rostov and Souzdal were sacked and pillaged; an invisible hand protected Novogorod and Pskov. Kozelesk, which was well defended by its youthful prince, suffered last of all, as Batius was on his march back from desolating the North.

After a year came the turn of Southern Russia. Pereyaslavla perished with its Bishop Simeon; Porphyry of Chernigov was let go alive by the conqueror from his ravaged diocese. The Mongols surrounded Kiev, and struck with its antique beauty, offered to spare it, if it would surrender; but in the absence of all the Russian princes it was heroically defended by Demetrius, a boyar of Daniel prince of Galich. As became the mother and head of Russian cities, Kiev gave a lesson to all Russia in preferring a glorious end to the disgrace of slavery. After a bloody siege, its walls and even every individual church was converted into a fortress by the despair of the citizens; but the cathedral of St. Sophia, the church of the Tithes, the monastery of St. Michael, and the Pecherskay Lavra, were taken one by one: they were given up to desolation; and it is probable that the Metropolitan Joseph, the unfortunate successor of Cyrill, perished with the rest in this general and fearful destruction, as there is no mention made of him afterwards in the Chronicles.

While our afflicted country presented nothing to the view, but smoking ruins on all sides, out of which the inhabitants had fled into the woods, by the mercy of Providence there arose to succor her two valiant princes, Yaroslav of Novogorod in the North, the brother of the Great Prince Vsevolod who had just perished, and Daniel of Galich in the South. These began to collect the people together, to rebuild and wall the towns, and raise the temples from their ashes, and they roused Russia from that state of stupor into which she had fallen after the horrors of the Mongols. Daniel, whose principality had not been so entirely ruined, and who was further removed from the Golden Horde of Batius, which had established itself on the banks of the Volga, had less to fear in what he did, and was the last of all the princes to give in his submission to the khan, whose yoke he was ever meditating to throw off. But Yaroslav, whose towns had nearly all been reduced to ashes, was obliged to be the first to take upon himself the heavy yoke of the Mongols, who had settled in his neighborhood, and go and make interest at the Horde to obtain for himself the title of Great Prince. There he found others also of the Russian princes; and in the midst of their involuntary abasement, it is agreeable to contemplate the Christian heroism of Michael of Chernigov and his faithful Boyar Theodore, who received the crown of martyrdom at the hands of the enraged khan for their bold confession of the Name of Christ. Some years later, another victorious confessor, Rotnanus prince of Riazan, suffered in the same manner in the Horde, and shed his blood as a martyr for the redemption of his country and for the glory of God.

The prudent Yaroslav was succeeded by a son still more distinguished than himself for bravery and virtue, Alexander, the hero of the Neva: he was prince in Novogorod, and was the firmest defense of Russia, beating off the Swedes (1241) in a bloody battle on the banks of the Neva, and the Brethren of the Sword under the walls of Pskov. And now that the attempts made to convert Russia by force of arms had proved fruitless, the pope, Innocent IV, began to employ other means. Seeing the distressed condition of the Eastern Church, the patriarchs of Constantinople living as exiles at Nice, and Russia having been now already ten years without a metropolitan, the Roman pontiff sent to David of Galich the present of a regal crown, together with the proposition of a union of the Churches, and a crusade against the Mongols. The papal legates visited also the court of Alexander, and addressed him with flattering speeches; but the saint of the Neva refused decidedly either to receive their letters or listen to their solicitations. Daniel, however, owing to the neighborhood of Vengria and Poland, acted more cautiously. He accepted the crown, and the title of King of Galich, but put off the proposition for a union of the Churches till there should be an oecumenical council; while in the mean time he sent Cyrill, a Russian whom he had selected, to Nice to the Patriarch Manuel II, to be consecrated to the dignity of Metropolitan of Kiev.

Never was there a more happy choice of a pastor. None but a truly Russian heart like that of Cyrill, could so lovingly have taken upon itself all the wounds of its country, or labored so zealously as he did for their cure. During the course of his thirty years’ administration, going about from one ruined city to another, he not only externally, but internally also and spiritually, repaired and re-edified the Church. As for himself, he certainly found no repose on the throne of ruined Kiev; and from his time to the establishment of two separate metropolitical sees; the life of the Russian primates continued to be most laborious, and it was chiefly by their travels and visitations, that the divided and often discordant portions over so vast a space, were kept together as one whole.

From the ruins of the ancient capital, Cyrill went to the wasted towns of Chernigov and Riazan, and to the new capital, which was scarcely yet restored. In Novogorod, which had escaped altogether, he found the Great Prince; and there he exercised for the first time his spiritual authority, by consecrating Dalmas as archbishop, in the room of the charitable Spiridion deceased. On another occasion, and in the capital itself, he had the happiness of going forth in joyful procession to meet Alexander, when he returned from the great Horde, which had been wandering in Central Asia, bringing back with him a peace, which continued only during his short and prudent reign.

Foreseeing that Sarai, the capital of the Golden Horde upon the Volga, must be for many years a central point and place of meeting for the Russian princes, the metropolitan took advantage of the favourable disposition which the heathen khans manifested towards the clergy; for they not only did not require that they should be included in the census of the people, but even exempted from all imposts every man "who," to use their own expression, " looketh to the Lord God and serveth God-his Churches." He appointed Metrophanes to Sarai to be the first Bishop of Sarai and Podonsk, and to his successor Theognostes he gave the additional title of Pereyaslav, that the memory of this ancient Russian diocese, which, with many others, now no longer existed since the desolating invasion, might not be lost. Theognostes succeeded in gaining the confidence of the khans to such a degree, that Mangou-Temir, who reigned after Batius, selected him as his ambassador to the patriarch of Constantinople, when the Metropolitan Cyrill was sending him in his own name to that capital. What the object of this mission was/is unknown.

Upon the blessed decease of St. Alexander, who at the hour of death exchanged his princely mantle for the humble monastic Schema, the Metropolitan Cyrill; amidst the lamentations of all his country, went out in procession to meet the incorrupt remains of their beloved prince, now brought back dead from the Horde to that same capital, where he had before so joyfully received him. Yaroslav prince of Tver succeeded his brother; and in compliance with his wishes, the primate erected a new see in Tver, his paternal inheritance, and consecrated the virtuous Simeon to be its first bishop. He also performed another service for Yaroslav, as a faithful subject to his lord, in reconciling him with the citizens of Novogorod, who had expelled him, and who were now become very powerful from their extensive commerce, and from their union with the Hanseatic League. The fear of an episcopal interdict overawed their turbulent assembly.

But the most important as well as the most beneficial act of Cyrill’s long administration, was his convocation of a synod at Vladimir, on the occasion of the Consecration of Serapion, archimandrite of the Pechersky, to be bishop of the capital, for the purpose of restoring the discipline of the Church, which had suffered from the civil calamities of the times.

Dalmas, Lord of Novogorod, St. Ignatius the illustrious pastor of Rostov, Theognostes bishop of Sarai, and Simeon bishop of Polotsk, were present at the synod, and with one consent determined to enforce a strict examination into the fashion of life and age of all inferior clerks and laymen, before their Consecration to Holy Orders, and to root out all simoniacal practices in conferring such promotion. The synod applied itself also to the correction of abuses connected with some of the ceremonies of the Church, and touched on the administration of the mysteries themselves. It forbade the mixing of the holy chrism with oil, and the practice of using affusion instead of trine immersion in holy Baptism, which was probably creeping into our Churches through Galich from the West.

The Metropolitan Cyrill, as a true Russian, wished that the canons of the holy Fathers, the foundation of all ecclesiastical discipline, should not be, to use his own expression, "veiled, to us, as by a cloud, under the wisdom of the Greek tongue, but that they should shine clear and enlighten all with rational light:" accordingly he assiduously employed himself in their translation, and his useful labor has come down to our own times. This sage prelate died in Periaslav-Zalessky, full of days and good works, during the unfortunate reign of Demetrius the son of Alexander Nevsky. His funeral was chanted where he died by an assembled company of bishops, but his sacred remains were removed to the ancient capital. Cyrill II was the last of the metropolitans of all Russia who was buried in the cathedral of St. Sophia, and worthily terminated that line of the tombs of our prelates, which had commenced from St. Michael.

For two years the Church remained in a widowed state after the death of Cyrill, from her wish to avoid having any relations with the Patriarch John Bekkus; for though, since the year 1264, the Emperor Michael Palgeologus had recovered his capital from the crusaders, yet both he himself and that patriarch were favorably inclined towards the doctrines of Rome. At length Joseph, having been restored to the patriarchal throne of Constantinople, sent into Russia as metropolitan Maximus, a Greek by birth, who during his primacy of twenty-two years exerted himself like his predecessor to establish order and discipline in the Church, and peace amongst the princes. The bloody quarrels of Demetrius and Andrew, the sons of Nevsky, brought new swarms of Tartars upon our unhappy country, and a feud broke out between the other branches of the same house, which recalled to mind the long rivalry between the descendants of Oleg and Monomachus.

Maximus was the first of the Russian metropolitans who went to the Horde; and though no Letters of privilege from the khans running in his name have been preserved, we have every reason to conclude that he met with an honorable reception. The Mongols, while yet in a state of heathenism, looked with more favor on Christianity, than did the fierce followers of the Koran, and even when eventually converted to Mahometanism, they still maintained their former prudent policy. By protecting the Clergy they pleased the people, who were persuaded to submit and to be patient as the only way of avoiding the heaviest and most fearful calamities. Maximus on his return from the Horde, called together in Kiev a synod of the bishops beyond the Dnieper, the acts of which have not come down to us, but it was probably held with a view to prepare them for his final removal to Vladimir. Seeing the complete desolation of Kiev and all the southern parts, he transferred the ancient metropolitical throne to the new capital, still keeping the former title of metropolitan of Kiev and of all Russia; at the same time he took under his own administration the diocese of Vladimir itself, and translated Simeon, who had been its bishop, to Rostoff; while Souzdal, which had belonged to Vladimir, together with Nijny Novogorod, were erected into a separate diocese. But the residence of the metropolitans in Vladimir was only for a short period; Maximus is the only one of all the Russian primates who was interred in the glorious cathedral of Bogolubsky. Immediately after his time his successors established themselves in Moscow; for Vladimir ceased to be the capital, as the Great Princes did not like it for a residence, but allowed themselves to live in their own appanages, each striving to increase his own paternal inheritance.

Thus Daniel the son of Alexander, prince of Moscow, in the course of his long and peaceful reign adorned Moscow with temples, and with the monastery of St. Daniel, his angel, where he himself put on the Schema and died. His appanage when he received it from his father was but trifling, but he left it to his son George a flourishing principality; and his confidence in his own strength inspired this haughty prince, who was moreover the brother-in-law of the khan, with that rancorous jealousy against his lawful superior and uncle, Michael of Tver, which was only terminated by the spilling of much princely blood in the Horde, and by the destruction of the family of Tver, even to the third generation. First, Michael himself, by the intrigues of Yury, suffered the death of a martyr, and was added by the Church to the number of the saints; then his son Demetrius fell, after having himself struck down Yury, the murderer of his father, in the very presence of the khan Usbek; and lastly, another son of Michael, Alexander, with his boy Theodore, was executed by order of the same khan, for having dared to put to death at Tver, Shefkal, one of his nobles, and the Tartars, who were endeavoring to introduce Mahometanism. John, surnamed Kalita, the crafty brother of George, availed himself of the opportunity afforded by the fall of the princes of Tver, to obtain from the khan the settlement in his own family of the throne of the Great Princedom.

While the yoke of the Mongols was pressing most heavily on Russia (1308), and the glory of her princes was obscured by disgraceful civil feuds, the holy Metropolitan Peter was a faithful guardian and comforter of his flock. A Yolhynian by birth, he had from his early youth devoted himself to the monastic life, and had presided over the small convent of Ratno, founded by himself in his native district. There the fame of his virtues reached the grandson of Daniel, who with the title of king reigned over all the south-west of Russia and the Lithuanian provinces; for Voesheleg, the son of the heathen chieftain Mindovig, after having embraced Christianity against the will of his father, and propagated it within the sphere of his influence, shut himself up in a monastery, and voluntarily resigned his right of inheritance in favor of his relations, the princes of Galich. But the strength of their empire was short lived: another powerful heathen, Hedimine, established himself in Wilna, and soon wrested Kiev and all the eastern part of the principality out of the hands of the feeble sons of Yury, with whom failed the glorious race of Romanus of Galich, while his western provinces became the inheritance of Poland; and from that time the influence of the Roman Church, assisted by the heathen indifference of Hedimine and his son Olgerd, spread itself through the districts beyond the Dnieper.

Yury, like his great grandfather, wished to have the metropolitan in his own capital; and having heard that a certain hegumen named Gerontius had gone of his own accord from Vladimir to Constantinople with the intention of seeking to be consecrated to the office of primate, he by his entreaties persuaded the humble Peter, for the good of the Church, to go thither too for the same purpose, with a letter from himself to the patriarch. The petitioner of Yury’s choice was consecrated by the most holy Athanasius to be metropolitan of all Russia. But on taking possession of his throne, St. Peter saw that the ancient capital was forgotten by the princes, and that all the life of the empire was now concentrated in the North; and he did not think of preferring the particular advantage of his own native district to the general good of the Church. Like his predecessor Maxinms he removed his residence to Vladimir, though at the same time he did not cease to make journeys in every direction throughout Russia, to reconcile contending princes, to appoint bishops, and to regulate the affairs of the Church. His zeal to compose the differences of the princes of Bransk was very near costing him his life; he only escaped by taking refuge in the cathedral church.

Soon after Peter came to be metropolitan, a circumstance occurred which plainly revealed the depth of his Christian humility. Anthony bishop of Tver and son of the prince of Lithuania, envying his elevation, lodged a slanderous accusation against him with the patriarch, who sent his commissioner to try Peter. A synod met at Periaslav-Zalessky, in which Simeon bishop of Rostoff was present, together with the accuser and a venerable company of clergy and princes. The metropolitan, little caring to be great in this world, spoke thus to the assembly: " I am not better than the Prophet Jonas; if I be the cause of this tempest, cast me out of the ship, and the tumult will be still." But when his innocence could not be hid, the meek prelate revenged himself upon his slanderer by these words: " Peace be with thee, my son! This was no deed of thine, but his, who from the beginning is the envier of the human race, the devil; as for thee, take care of thyself for the future, and for the past may God forgive thee."

Notwithstanding this, on any occasion when not his own person but the Church was in danger of suffering, St. Peter acted with firmness in her defense. Thus he deprived and degraded the guilty bishop of Sarai, and by the threat of ex-communication restrained Demetrius prince of Tver from falling upon Vladimir. He even went to the Horde itself with Michael, the unfortunate father of the same prince, as a true pastor conducting his children. There he obtained the general respect of the Khan Uzbek and the Mongols, who had lately embraced the lying imposture of the Koran; and the certificate which he received of the favourable disposition of Uzbek towards him served afterwards as a pledge to secure the good will of all succeeding khans: Let no one injure the Catholic Church, the Metropolitan Peter, the archimandrites, or the popes in Russia: let their lands be free from all tax and tribute; for all this belongs to God, and these people by their prayers preserve us: let them be under the sole jurisdiction of Peter the metropolitan, agreeably to their ancient laws: let the metropolitan lead his life in quiet and meekness, and let him pray, with a true heart, and without fear, for us and for our children: whosoever shall take any thing from any of the clergy, let him restore it threefold; whosoever shall dare to speak evil of the Russian Faith, whosoever shall injure any church, monastery, chapel, let him be put to death."

The consideration which the primate enjoyed amidst the feuds of the princes of the different appanages, was the preservation of the whole empire, which was united together into one body only by the person of the metropolitan of all Russia. The Great Prince John of Moscow, perceived all the importance of his spiritual authority, when by flattery and entreaties he persuaded the metropolitan to transfer his residence to his beloved patrimony of Moscow, which from that time became the capital. But St. Peter did not comply with the wish of John without the highest motives for doing so: he foresaw the future glory of Moscow while it was then as yet poor, and persuaded the prince to lay in it the foundation of the stone cathedral of the Assumption. "If thou wilt comfort my old age," said he, "if thou wilt build here a temple worthy of the Mother of God, then thou shalt be more glorious than all the other princes, and thy posterity shall become great. My bones shall remain in this city, prelates shall rejoice to dwell in it, and the hands of its princes shall be upon the neck of our enemies!"

Thus in the words of the ancient patriarch Jacob, the man of many labors, who in the hour of death foretold the lion strength of the tribe of Judah, St. Peter, also a man of many labours, when about to depart in peace from his pilgrimage, spoke in the spirit of prescience to John; and his word of commandment was obeyed, his prophecy was fulfilled. In that same temple, in the wall of which he prepared for himself beforehand a tomb, in the view of his uncorrupted remains, and as it were before the face and presence of the prelate himself, are crowned the successors of John, now no longer princes of Moscow only, or Vladimir, but rulers over the ninth part of the globe, which scarcely finds room upon its surface for one such empire as Russia.

It is affecting to every son of the Church and of his country, to observe the blessing of the Mother of God continually resting upon the land of Russia, which has placed itself forever under her protection. The holy College or synod of the Apostles on Mount Sion at the time of her Rest, serves as the foundation and type of all the College or cathedral churches of our country. In the temple of the Mother of God at Cherson St. Vladimir was baptized, and to her honor he built the first cathedral, the cathedral of the Tithes. In the temple of St. Sophia at Constantinople, and on the festival of the "Rest" of the Virgin, who was herself the Temple of the incarnate Wisdom of God, the ambassadors of Vladimir first believed on the Lord, and Yaroslaff the Great built the two cathedrals of St. Sophia in Kiev and in Novogorod his capitals. The hermit Anthony, forming after the model of the Holy Mountain his cavern monastery, the cradle of the religious houses of Russia, consecrated it also to the Rest or Assumption of the Mother of God. Bogolubsky wished to build a new capital in the North, and laid the first stone of the magnificent cathedral of the Assumption in Vladimir, in honor of that Icon of the Blessed Virgin, which was painted by the Evangelist St. Luke. The ancient city of Rostoff is ornamented with a similar temple. Polotsk and Smolensk celebrate their festivals in honor of the most pure Virgin. Lastly, by the will of Providence Moscow is destined to become the head of Russia, and the aged Peter goes to establish himself there, holding as a child to the protection of our Lady, and in no other place than in the temple of her Rest seeks rest for himself, and glory and empire for Russia. By her name the Russian people also strengthened themselves in their battles; the warriors of Kiev, Novogorod, and Polotsk, fought for St. Sophia; the men of Vladimir, and the troops of Rostov, Smolensk, and Moscow, for the house of the most holy Mother of God. This war-cry bore testimony to the piety of our ancestors; the cathedral church was the heart of each of their cities, and its name served as the pledge of victory. " For St. Sophia!" " For the House of the most holy Trinity!" resounded terribly in the ranks of Novogorod and Pskov, when the hero-saints, Nevsky and Dovmont, overthrew the Swedes or the Sword-bearers. At the same time with the cathedral of the Assumption, John also founded in his new capital the temple of St. Saviour "In the Wood" thought to be the oldest of all in Moscow, and the cathedral of the Archangel, where he himself rests in peace. Around this sepulchre of the first Great Prince who was buried there, are ranged the tombs of the long line of his descendants, in genealogical order, a sepulchral chronicle of the Russian monarchy. The Kremlin, which was first built of wood by this same prince, enclosed even then within its crenelated wall the budding strength of Russia, and was as a roll, on which all its sacred history was afterwards to be inscribed.

At the death of St. Peter, who was laid as an immovable foundation-stone of the metropolitical see in Moscow, Theognostes (1328) came from the patriarch as metropolitan, and settled himself in the residence of his predecessor; Kalita alone could afford him a refuge in his peaceful principality: Galich had fallen, Kiev was already in the hands of Hedimine. Though a Greek by birth, Theognostes entered perfectly into the mutual relations of the Great Princes and those of the appanages; and during the whole of his twenty years" episcopate he steadily co-operated with John and his son Simeon the Proud in all their undertakings, by which he greatly assisted them towards the aggrandizement of the principality of Moscow; for the spiritual authority being always on the side of the Great Prince gave him a great preponderance. Thus Theognostes accompanied John in his expedition to Pskov, when it refused to allow the departure of Alexander prince of Tver, though his presence had been required in the Horde, and overcame the resistance of the citizens by the terror of an ecclesiastical interdict, so preventing a renewal of the desolating ravages of the Mongols. On more than one other occasion, the turbulent city of Novogorod was reconciled to the Great Prince through his mediation. But his continual journeys through the widely-separated dioceses of Russia were burdensome to the clergy, and eventually even caused a complaint to be lodged by Moses the Lord of Novogorod with the patriarch.

In ecclesiastical matters Theognostes showed remarkable firmness. When the holy Archbishop Moses, in spite of the entreaties of the popular Assembly, had retired from the throne of St. Sophia, the citizens of Novogorod sent Basil, whom they had elected to supply his place, for Consecration to Vladimir in Volhynia, where the metropolitan then was; the inhabitants of Pskov also, wishing to have a bishop to themselves, sent thither for the same end a certain Arsenius: but notwithstanding all their entreaties, and the requisition of the powerful heathen prince Hedimine, who had become master of Volhynia, Theognostes could not be persuaded to violate the order of the Church. The Lithuanian prince respected the dignity of the metropolitan; he wished however to get possession of the person of the archbishop, but he took to flight, and saved himself by largesse's from the danger of being pursued.

Basil was one of the most illustrious of the Lords of Novogorod, equally skilled in the management of civil and of ecclesiastical affairs. He did much to beautify the cathedral of St. Sophia, and through his relations of friendship with the metropolitan he had nothing to fear in his province from the Great Prince. Magnus, king of Sweden, being very zealous for the conversion of Novogorod to the Latin Church, entreated Basil to hold conference concerning the Faith with his ambassadors; but the Lord prudently declined entering into controversy, and referred them to the patriarch. The Patriarch Philotheus himself, in token of respect for his merit, sent him a blessing of some Vestments covered with crosses, and a white cowl, inasmuch as he had been consecrated to the episcopal order from the White Clergy; and the use of this cowl passed afterwards to the metropolitans, probably when some or other of them were translated to Moscow from having been Lords of Novogorod.

The metropolitan, striving to eradicate those abuses, which had crept into the monasteries from their subjection to the Tartar yoke, stood up firmly himself in the Horde for the right of the clergy, and even suffered persecution for their sake. It was a curious circumstance that Khanibek the son of Uzbek, demanded of him to be freed from the obligation of those Letters of exemption and privilege, which had been granted by his father to St. Peter; as he wished to impose a tribute on the clergy, but dared not to break his father’s word. The metropolitan here also maintained his high character; by personal gifts he saved himself from the wrath of the khan, while he preserved for the future the privileges of the Church.

The black vomiting, a kind of plague, which raged at this time in Russia and over all Europe, carried off in one year the Great Prince Simeon with his family, the Metropolitan Theognostes, and the Archbishop Basil. In place of Basil the citizens of Novogorod again brought in Moses, though now habited in the Schema, from his retirement. Three bishops assisted at the funeral of the Metropolitan Theognostes, and buried him, near the tomb of his holy predecessor, in the cathedral of the Assumption: these were, Athanasius of Volhynia, who had been expelled from his diocese by the prince of Lithuania; another Athanasius, first bishop of the re-established diocese of Columna; and St. Alexis, of the noble family of Plescheev, who had been for the preceding twelve years vicar to the metropolitan, first in Kiev, and then afterwards in Vladimir and Moscow, during his frequent absences.

Providence, which had chosen Alexis from his early years to be exercised in spiritual labors, strengthened him in his advanced age for the salvation of his country through a stormy period, under the feeble rule of John II, and during 1353 the minority of his son Demetrius. The Horde still threatening in the East; on the West the growing power of Lithuania under Olgerd, who had gradually wrested from us our ancient inheritance; within, the turbulent independence of Novogorod and Pskov, and the rivalry of the three powerful principalities of Tver, Riazan, and Souzdal, the sovereigns of which each assumed the title of Great Prince; such was the political storm which Alexis had to oppose, and during the course of a primacy of twenty-four years he may truly be said to have taken the helm of the empire. He preserved for Demetrius till he came of age that inheritance, which his proud uncle had left to his weak father.

The unlooked-for arrival of Theodoret, a self-elected pretender, sent by the patriarch of Bulgaria, to claim the metro-political chair of Russia, even before Theognostes was yet dead, put it into the mind of that prelate, with the approbation of the Great Prince, to ask the patriarch of Constantinople, Philotheus, to allow him to nominate Alexis as his successor. The consent of the patriarch arrived only after their deaths. But the new metropolitan had scarcely time to return from Constantinople, whither they had summoned him for Institution, when he heard that another metropolitan, named Romanus, had been consecrated for Russia by the will of the same patriarch; and he was obliged to undertake a second toilsome journey into Greece. However there was not one single diocese in Russia which would receive Romanus; he remained in Yolhynia, where the Lithuanian princes had no wish that the pale of their conquests should continue subject to the spiritual authority of the metropolitans of Moscow.

The sanctity of Alexis soon became conspicuous even in the Horde itself. The khan, Khanibek, asked John to send him the chief pastor of Russia, whose prayers, he said, God never refused to grant, that he might heal his consort Taidoula of her sickness; and Alexis, after having prayed at the tomb of the Metropolitan Peter, who had himself had the grace of miracles, departed with a firm faith for the Horde, and healed the sick. Extraordinary favor, and new Letters of privilege and exemption to the clergy, were a proof of the gratitude of the khan; but very soon after this, the troubles which broke out in the Horde on occasion of the murder of Khanibek by his son, obliged the metropolitan to go again to the Mongols. There in the presence of the ferocious Berdibek, he undauntedly maintained the rights of the principality of Moscow; and through the intercession of the mother of the khan, whom he had recovered from her sickness, he was again dismissed with honor.

After this, Alexis never went beyond the limits of the Empire, but within it he was a strict reformer of the morals both of clergy and laity, whom he endeavored to enlighten; at the same time he was peace-maker amongst the princes, and in the absence of Demetrius, who ever had recourse to his prudence for counsel, he presided in the court of the boyars, giving a preponderating influence to the Great Princedom over the other appanages. In vain did Demetrius, prince of Souzdal, who for a time bore the title of Great Prince, invite the prelate to himself to Vladimir; he refused to quit the tomb of The Wonder-worker, that is, of his predecessor St. Peter, and the youthful son of John. He roused the fallen spirits of the citizens of the infant capital on the terrible invasion of Olgerd, and by this unlooked-for firmness frustrated his ambitious plans. The former capital of Kiev also, then subject to a foreign prince, Alexis would have raised up, if possible, from the desolation of those ruins, under which her ancient glories lay buried. The princes of Tver, who were at variance, the uncle against his nephews, and were dissatisfied with the judgment of Basil their own bishop, betook themselves to the arbitration of Alexis; and he kept with him at his court, as a pledge, a young relative of theirs, whom Demetrius had redeemed from captivity in the Horde. He interfered with equal authority and effect in a family feud between the two brother princes of Souzdal, the younger of whom had unfairly got possession of Nijny Novogorod: in order to compel them to be reconciled, he laid an interdict upon their capital by the lips of the meek hermit Sergius.

With the name of Sergius a new monastic world opens itself in the North. The commencement of his lonely hermitage in the woods near Moscow, is a point of as much importance in our history as the excavation of the caves of Anthony on the banks of the Dnieper; for he was destined to divide with Anthony the glory of having been the father of monasticism in Russia. Sergius was born in Rostov; when yet quite young he left the house of his parents, and together with his brother Stephen, settled himself in the thick woods in the neighborhood of Radonege, where, however, he was soon left by his brother. In this wild solitude he resisted all manner of temptations, and lived among the wild beasts of the forest, until the report of his holy life drew disciples around him: they compelled him to go to Peryaslavl-Zalessky, to receive the holy order of priesthood from Athanasius, the bishop of Volhynia, who lived there. Sergius built by his own labor in the midst of the forest a wooden church, by the name of The Source of Life, the ever-blessed Trinity, which has since grown into that glorious Lavra, whose destiny has become inseparable from the destinies of the capital, and from whence on so many occasions the salvation of all Russia has proceeded.

Prelates and princes applied to Sergius not only for the sake of his spiritual instructions, but also to receive from him teachers, who had been trained to perfection by his converse in solitude, and who in their turn might be capable of influencing others by their good example: for from the appearance of Sergius there began among us, as it were, a second era and development of monasticism; and in the fullness of its light our unhappy country, which had been suffering so long under the plague of the Tartars, revived. Thus at the request of Vladimir the brother of the Great Prince, Athanasius, a disciple of Sergius, founded the Visotsky monastery at Serpouchov; and another of his pupils, Sabba, laid the foundation of the convent of Svenigorod, while his nephew Theodore laid that of the Simonov in Moscow. The Saint himself chose the site for him, on the picturesque banks of the river, within view of the capital; and gave the Great Prince his blessing to begin building at Columna the Goloutvin monastery, as a memorial of the victory, which he had gained upon the Don. At the very moment of that decisive battle, which first shook the empire of the Mongols over Russia, the aged saint was supporting Demetrius by his prayer; his two monks, Peresvet and Osliab, fought in the ranks, with the Schema under their coats of mail; and Peresvet began the engagement by a single combat with a gigantic Tartar, the champion of the Horde. He sealed with his blood the approaching deliverance of Russia, and was the precursor of those hero-monks of the Trinity Lavra, who so gloriously distinguished themselves in other days of no less danger and distress to their country. The bodies of Peresvet and Osliab were laid as the foundation of the Simonov monastery, when it was first built, on the original site.

The Metropolitan Alexis himself founded many monasteries; the magnificent Choudov, in the centre of the Kremlin; and, without its walls, one for nuns, by the name of his angel; another at Vladimir, the former capital, called after the Emperor Constantine; and a fourth in Nijny Novogorod, on the banks of the Volga, called the Pechersky or Cave monastery, in memory of the caves of Anthony upon the Dnieper; and he too, like others, applied to Sergius to give him one of his disciples, when he was founding the Andro-nieif monastery in Moscow, in fulfillment of a vow which he had made during his tempestuous voyage to Constantinople. But when the primate, being now eighty-four years of age, and full of energy to the last, perceived his end to be approaching, and wished to give Sergius his blessing and appoint him to be his successor, the humble monk, in great alarm, declared that he could not accept nor wear the costly Panagia, which the primate had sent him from his own person. "From my youth upwards," he answered humbly, " I have never possessed nor worn gold, and now much more in my old age I am anxious to remain in poverty." St. Alexis had good reason for wishing to lose no time in choosing himself a successor beforehand; for even during his life the same Patriarch Philotheus, who has been mentioned above, had consecrated another metropolitan named Cyprian, a Serbian by birth, probably in the room of Romanus, who was deceased; but he was not acknowledged by Demetrius; so he remained in Kiev, where he resided till the death of his predecessor, and during those disturbances of the Church which broke out after it.

Scarcely had the incorrupt remains of St. Alexis been deposited in the Choudov monastery of his own foundation, when Mitai, archimandrite of the Simonoff and confessor to the Great Prince, who had originally belonged to the White or Secular Clergy, and had only recently received the tonsure, presuming upon his favor in high quarters, boldly took possession of the metropolitical palace, and began to regulate the affairs of the Church as if he were now himself the primate. He demanded his own Consecration in Moscow from a synod of Russian bishops; but Dionysius of Souzdal and St. Sergius strenuously opposed this infraction of ecclesiastical order, especially as Alexis himself, before his death, notwithstanding the entreaties of Demetrius, had absolutely refused to give his benediction to Mitai as his successor.

Sergius had tried to turn the attention of the Great Prince upon Dionysius, as having been the favorite disciple of the deceased metropolitan, to whom he had in times past intrusted his Pechersky monastery; and to save him from the persecutions of the pretender Mitai, and from bonds and imprisonment, he even became himself surety for him, and took him into his own keeping. Dionysius, however, did not reverence as he ought to have done the aged saint, but made his escape and fled secretly to Constantinople. On this Mitai also, fearing lest the patriarch should invest his rival with the dignity of metropolitan, set forth and sailed with a splendid retinue for the same destination, but died at sea within view of the Grecian capital. The Archimandrite Pimen, who attended him, made his own advantage of the letters of the Great Prince to the emperor and the Patriarch Nilus, and fraudulently obtained Consecration. Demetrius, enraged at this villainous proceeding, put him into confinement at Tver; and sent the Archimandrite Theodore, the nephew of St. Sergius, to Kiev, to invite Cyprian to take possession of the metropolitical throne of all Russia.

This occurred in the year of the celebrated battle with Mamai, which covered with eternal glory the hero of the Don. The victory of Koulikov came after a century and a half as the avenging reverberation of the disastrous slaughter on the Kalka; but still Russia had not as yet any rest from calamity. Two years after this the destructive invasion of the Khan Toktamuish again covered her eastern provinces with desolation, and the children of the traitor Oleg, prince of Riazan, introduced the Tartars into the Kremlin of Moscow, which had been left by the Great Prince and the metropolitan. Cyprian’s absenting himself from the seditious capital just before the invasion, and his residence at Tver with the Prince Michael, son of Alexander, the rival of Demetrius, excited the displeasure of the Great Prince, and obliged him to remove back again to Kiev. Pimen was taken out of confinement, and occupied his place in Moscow, though for no long period, as he was obliged to go to Constantinople, at the citation of the patriarch, to be there judged with Cyprian, who refused to yield up to him his right.

In the mean time a third metropolitan appeared; Dionysius, who had been consecrated bishop of Souzdal by St. Alexis, obtained in Constantinople the rank of archbishop, and notwithstanding that his having gone thither unsent was against him, he nevertheless, by his pastoral virtues and by his eloquence, obtained the respect both of the Great Prince and of the people, and they devoutly received at his hands the holy Icons and relics which he had brought from the East. He quieted the discontent of the clergy and laity of