2 34. CIIIUSTIAN1ZAT10N OF MORAVIA, ETC. 133
Latiii language, began to work beside the Slavic priests who rep resented Greek doctrines and rites and used the native language, and when finally the Polish church was placed wholly under the authority of Rome, this was not due to any spontaneous move ment within the church itself, such as Polish chroniclers like to represent it, but to the influence of the German emperor and the German church. Under Mieezyslav's son, Boleslav Chrobry, the first king of Poland and one of the most brilliant heroes of Polish history, Poland, although christianized only on the surface, became itself the basis for missionary labor among other Slavic tribes. It was Boleslav who sent Adalbert of Prague among the Wends, and when Adalbert here was pitifully martyred, Boleslav ransomed his remains, had them buried at Gnesen (whence they afterwards were carried to Prague), and founded here an archiepiscopal see, around which the Polish church was finally consolidated. The Christian mission, however, was in the hands of Boleslav, just as it often had been in the hands of the German emperors, and sometimes even in the hands of the Pope himself, nothing but a political weapon. The mass of the population of his own realm was still pagan in their very hearts. Annually the Poles assembled on the day on which their idols had been thrown into the rivers or burnt, and celebrated the memory of their gods by dismal dirges,1 and the simplest rules of Christian morals could be enforced only by the application of the most barbarous punishments. Yea, under the political disturbances which occurred after the death of Mieczyslav II., 1034, a general outburst of heathenism took place throughout the Polish kingdom, and it took a long time before it was fully put down.
1 Grimm : Deutsclie Mythologie, II. 733.
134 FOUKTH PEKIOD. A.D. 590-1049.
§ 35. The Conversion of the Bulgarians.
CONSTANTINTJS PoRPHYROGENiTUS : Life of Bosilius Macedo, in Hist.
Byzant. Continuatores post Theophanem. Greek and Latin, Paris, 1685. PHOTII Epistola, ed. fiichard. Montacutius. London, 1647. NICHOLAS I.: Responsaad Consulta Bulgarorum, in MANSI: Coll. Condi.,
Tom. XV., pp. 401-434; and in HAEDUIN: Coll Condi., V., pp.
353-386. A. PICHLER : Geschichte der kirchlichen Trennung zwischen dem Orient und
Occident. Miinchen, 1864, I., pp. 192 sqq. Comp. the biographies of CYEILLUS and METHODIUS, mentioned in \ 34,
p. 128.
The Bulgarians were of Turanian descent, but, having lived for centuries among Slavic nations, they had adopted Slavic language, religion, customs and habits. Occupying the plains between the Danube and the Balkan range, they made frequent inroads into the territory of the Byzantine empire. In 813 they conquered Adrianople and carried a number of Christians, among whom was the bishop himself, as prisoners to Bulgaria. Here these Christian prisoners formed a congregation and began to labor for the conversion of their captors, though not with any great success, as it would seem, since the bishop was martyred. But in 861 a sister of the Bulgarian prince, Bogoris, who had been carried as a prisoner to Constantinople, and educated there in the Christian faith, returned to her native country, and her exertions for the conversion of her brother at last succeeded.
Methodius was sent to her aid, and a picture he painted of the last judgment is said to have made an overwhelming impression on Bogoris, and determined him to embrace Christianity. He was baptized in 863, and entered immediately in correspondence with Photius, the patriarch of Constantinople. His baptism, however, occasioned a revolt among his subjects, and the hor rible punishment, which he inflicted upon the rebels, shows how little as yet he had understood the teachings of Christianity.
Meanwhile Greek missionaries, mostly monks, had entered the country, but they were intriguing, arrogant, and produced nothing
$ 36. THE CONVERSION OF THE MAGYARS. 135
but confusion among the people. In 805 Bogoris addressed him self to Pope Nicolas I., asking for Roman missionaries, and laying before the Pope one hundred and six questions con cerning Christian doctrines, morals and ritual, which he wished to have answered. The Pope sent two bishops to Bulgaria, and gave Bogoris very elaborate and sensible answers to his questions.
Nevertheless, the Roman mission did not succeed either. The Bulgarians disliked to submit to any foreign authority. They desired the establishment of an independent national church, but this was not to be gained either from Rome or from Constantinople. Finally the Byzantine emperor, Basilius Macedo, succeeded in establishing Greek bishops and a Greek archbishop in the country, and thus the Bulgarian church came under the authority of the patriarch of Constantinople, but its history up to this very day has been a continuous struggle against this authority. The church is now ruled by a Holy Synod, with an independent exarch.
Fearful atrocities of the Turks against the Christians gave rise to the Russo-Turkish war in 1877, and resulted in the in dependence of Bulgaria, which by the Treaty of Berlin in 1878 was constituted into "an autonomous and tributary principality under the suzerainty of the Sultan/7 but with a Christian government and a national militia. Religious proselytism is prohibited, and religious school-books must be previously exam ined by the Holy Synod. But Protestant missionaries are at work among the people, and practically enjoy full liberty.