138 FOURTH PEKIOD. A. D. 590-1049.
called from Germany, did not understand the language of the people, the king himself travelled about from town to town, preached, prayed, and exhorted all to keep the Lord's Day, the fast, and other Christian duties. Nevertheless, it took a long time before Christianity really took' hold of the Magyars, chiefly on account of the deep gulf created between the priests and their flocks, partly by the difference of language, partly by the exceptional position which Stephanus had given the clergy in the community, and which the clergy soon learned to utilize for selfish purposes. Twice during the eleventh century there occurred heavy relapses into paganism; in 1045, under King Andreas, and in 1060, under King Bela.
§ 37. The Christianization of Russia.
NESTOR (monk of Kieff, the oldest Russian annalist, d. 1116) : Annales, or Chronicon (from the building of the Babylonian tower to 1093). Continued by NIPHONTES (Nifon) from 1116-1157, and by others to 1676. Complete ed. in Russ by Pogodin, 1841, and with a Latin version and glossary by Fr. Miklosisch, Vindobon, 1860. German translation by Schldzer, Gottingen, 1802-'9, 5 vols. (incomplete).
J. G. STRITTER : Memories populorum olim ad Danubium, etc.., incolentium ex Byzant. Script. Petropoli, 1771. 4 vols. A collection of the Byzantine sources.
N. M. KARAMSIN : History of Russia, 12 vols. St. Petersburg, 1816-29, translated into German and French.
PH. STRAHL: Beitrdgezur russ. Kirchen-Geschichte (vol. I.). Halle, 1827; and Geschichte d. russ Kirche (vol. I.). Halle, 1830 (incomplete).
A. N. MOURAVIEFF (late chamberlain to the Czar and Under-Procurator of the Most Holy Synod) : A History of the Church of Eussia (to the founding of the Holy Synod in 1721). St. Petersburg, 1840, translated into English by Rev. R. W. Blackmore. Oxford, 1862.
A. P. STANLEY : Lectures on the Eastern Church. Lee. IX.-XII. Lon don, 1862.
L. BOISSARD: Ueglise de Eussie. Paris, 1867, 2 vols.
The legend traces Christianity in Eussia back to the Apostle St. Andrew, who is especially revered by the Eussians. Mouravieif commences his history of the Eussian church with these words : " The Eussian church, like the other Orthodox churches of the East, had an apostle for its founder. St. Andrew, the
$37. THE CHRISTIANIZATION OF RUSSIA. 139
first called of the Twelve, hailed with his blessing long before hand the destined introduction of Christianity into our country. Ascending up and penetrating by the Dnicpr into the deserts of Scythia, lie planted the first cross on the hills of KiefF, and 'See you/ said he to his disciples, ' those hills ? On those 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 that point from whence Chris tian Russia has sprung."
This tradition is an expansion of the report that Andrew labored and died a martyr in Scythia,1 and nothing more.
In the ninth century the Russian tribes, inhabiting the Eastern part of Europe, were gathered together under the rule of Ruric, a Varangian prince,2 who from the coasts of the Baltic penetrated into the centre of the present Russia, and was voluntarily accepted, if not actually chosen by the tribes as their chief. He is regarded as the founder of the Russian empire, A. D. 862, which in 1862 celebrated its millennial anniversary. About the same time or a little later the Russians became somewhat acquainted with Christianity through their connections with the Byzantine em pire. The Eastern church, however, never developed any great missionary activity, and when Photius, the patriarch of Constantinople, in his circular letter against the Roman see, speaks of the Russians as already converted at his time (867), a few years after the founding of the empire, he certainly exagge rates. When, in 945, peace was concluded between the Russian grand-duke, Igor, and the Byzantine emperor, some of the Rus sian soldiers took the oath in the name of Christ, but by far the greatest number swore by Perun, the old Russian god. In KiefF, on the Dnicpr, the capital of the Russian realm, there was at that time a Christian church, dedicated to Elijah, and in 955 the grand-duchess, Olga, went to Constantinople and was baptized.
1 Euseb. III. 1.
3 The Varangians were a tribe of piratical Northmen who made the Slavs and Finns tributary.