— 1 1 16. The following account is taken partly from the lecture on the Russian Church in Dean Stanley's Eastern Church, and partly from Motmmeff s History of the Russian Church.] The Russian Church, it is proudly boasted, had an Apostle for its founder. S. Andrew is thought to have preached the Gospel there. Ascending the Dnieper, into the deserts of Scythia, he is said to have pointed to the rising ground where now stands the holy city of Kieff, and to have said, “ See you these hills ? On them shall shine forth the Grace of God.” But nine centuries of darkness covered those hills, ere the promised light broke on them.
Vladimir, grandson of Olga, came to the Russian throne in 980. He was a ferocious barbarian; and the only Christian martyrs of which early Russian history can boast were slain in his reign, Theodore and John, who were put to death because one of them refused to give up his son to be sacrificed by Vladimir to the thunder-god Perun.
To him, in the year 986, came envoys from the different religions of the then known world. First came the Bulgarian Mussulmans of the Volga. I( Wise and prudent prince as those art, thou knowest neither law nor religion. Believe in ours, and honour Mahomet.”
“ In what does your religion consist ?” asked Vladimir. “ We believe in God,” they replied, “but we believe also in what the Prophet teaches. Be circumcised, abstain from pork, drink no wine; and after death choose out of seventy beautiful wives the most beautijwiy ful.” Vladimir listened to them for the last reason. But that which he did not like was abstinence from pork, and above all the prohibition of drinking. “ Drinking is the great delight of Russians,” he said, “we cannot live without it.”
Next came the representatives of Western Christendom. “Whence came they?” “From the Pope.” “ What was their message ?” “ The Pope begs us tell you, your country is like ours, but not your religion. Ours is the right. We fear God, who made heaven and earth, the stars and the moon, and every living creature, whilst your gods are of wood ?” “ What does your law command ?” asked Vladimir. “We fast,” they said, “ to the best of our power; and when anyone eats or drinks, he does it in honour of God, as we have been told by our master, S. Paul.”
“ Go home again,” said Vladimir. “ Our fathers did not believe in your religion, nor receive it from the Pope.” Next, on being informed of this, came some Jews who lived among the Khozars. “We have heard say that the Mahometans and the Christians have tried to persuade you to adopt their belief. The Christians believe in Him whom we have crucified. We believe in one God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” “In what does your law consist ?” asked Vladimir. “ Our law requires circumcision, prohibits pork and hare, and enjoins observance of the Saturday.” “Where is then your country!” “At Jerusalem.” “ What is Jerusalem ?” “ God was wrath with our forefathers; he dispersed us for our sins throughout the world, and our country has fallen into the hands of Christians.”
“What !” said Vladimir, “you wish to teach others — you whom God has rejected and dismissed ? If God had loved you and your law he would never have scattered you abroad; do you wish, perhaps, that we should suffer the same ?”
In each of these answers we detect the characteristic temper of the Russian, his love of drinking, his tenacity of ancestral customs, his belief in the Divine right of success.
Another agency now appears on the scene. It is not a nameless barbarian as before. It is, so the chronicler tells us, “ a philosopher from Greece.” The glory of Grecian culture still hung about its ancient seats, and the fittest harbinger of Christian truth, even in dealing with the savage Vladimir, was thought to be a Greek; a monk, Constantine, esteemed a philosopher. “ We have heard,” said he, u that the Mahometans have sent to lead you to adopt their belief. Their religion and their practices are abominations in the face of heaven and earth, and call for judgment. This is what they do who call Mahomet a prophet.”
This calls forth the first moral spark that we have seen in Vladimir’s mind. He spat upon the ground and said, 11 This is shameful.”
“ We have also heard,” said the philosopher, “ that messengers have come from Rome to teach you. Their usages somewhat differ from ours. They celebrate the mass with unleavened bread, therefore they have not the true religion.”
Such was the point on which the two greatest Churches of the world had been torn asunder, and into which Vladimir did not enquire further. He then took up the word himself, and said: “ I have also had Jews here who said that the Germans and Greeks believe on Him whom they crucified.”
S. Vladimir. The philosopher assented. “ Why was He crucified ?” asked Vladimir. “ If you will listen,” replied the philosopher, “ I will tell you.”
“ With pleasure,” replied Valdimir. And the philosopher then proceeded to relate all the Divine acts and deeds from the beginning of the world; the whole course, we may say, of ecclesiastical history, coming to a characteristic close in the Seventh General Council. He then defined the true faith, and spoke of the future reward of the just and the punishment of the impious, and at the same time showed to Vladimir a picture of the Last Judgment. Then showing him on the right the just, who, filled with joy, were entering Paradise, he made him remark on the left the sinners who were going to hell. Vladimir, as he looked at the picture, heaved a sigh, “ Happy are those who are on the right; woe to the sinners who are on the left.” “If you wish,” said the philosopher, “ to enter with the just who are on the right, consent to be baptized.” Vladimir reflected profoundly, and said, “ I will wait yet a little while.” It was like our English Ethelbert musing and pausing after hearing S. Augustine, and postponing a decision till he was thoroughly convinced. Vladimir loaded the philosopher with presents and sent him away. Next year he sent for the nobles and elders. Through the long dark winter, the thoughts of the deputation, and what he had heard, had been working in his barbarian mind. He told them of the different interviews. “You know, O Prince!” they said, “ that no one talks evil of his religion, but that all praise their own. If you wish to know the exact truth, you have wise men; send them to examine the faith of each, and their modes of worship.” We need not follow them throughout their journey. They reported that the Mussulmans prayed with their heads covered, and that their stench was insupportable; and that the German and Roman churches had no ornaments nor beauty, though better than the Mussulman mosques. But the nobles insisted that the decision should not be made without knowing first what was the Greek religion; and accordingly the envoys proceeded to the city of Constantinople. What that great city was, at that period, the splendour of its ceremonial, both of Church and State, even in the most minute detail, is known to us from the nearly contemporary account of the German embassy from Otto. Basil Porphyrogenitus, himself a hagiographer, the compiler of the Menology so often referred to on these pages, was then on the throne with his brother Constantine. He knew the influence of solemn and splendid worship on the mind. lt Let the ambassadors see,” he said, u the glory of our God.” The service was that of a high festival, either of S. John Chrysostom, or of the Death of the Virgin. It was in the church— magnificent even now in its fallen, scraped and whitewashed state, then all gorgeous with gold and mosaics — of the Eternal Wisdom. Even had they been as far as Rome itself, they would have seen nothing equal to it. S. Peter's, as it now is, was far in the future. Cologne Cathedral was not yet bom. The boast of Justinian [Byzantine emperor 527–565] was still the masterpiece of Christian architecture.
The Russian envoys were placed in a convenient position. The incense smoked, the whole mighty concourse rolled forth in thunder the vernacular hymns and familiar psalms; the patriarch [the title of the bishops of the great ancient sees: Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem] blazed in his most gorgeous vestments. One incident is preserved in a Byzantine annalist which the Russian chronicler has JoJy is-].S’. Vladimir.
omitted. “ The Russians were struck,” he says, " by the multitude of lights and the chanting of the hymns; but what most filled them with astonishment was the appearance of the deacons and subdeacons issuing from ~ the sanctuary, with torches in their hands,” and, as we happen to know from an earlier source, with white fluttering sleeves, like wings, at whose presence the people fell on their knees and cried “ Kyrie eleison !” It was the procession to the altar of the Holy Gifts, and the singing of the Cherubic hymn.
The Russians took their guides by the hand, and said, a All that we have seen is awful and majestic; but this is supernatural. We have seen young men with wings, in dazzling robes, who, without touching the ground, chanted in the air, Holy ! holy ! holy ! and this is what has most surprised us.” The guides replied, “ What ! do you not know that angels came down from heaven to mingle in our services ?” “ You are right,” said the simple-minded Russians; “ we need no further proof; send us home again.”
It is the striking instance of the effect produced on a barbarous people by the union of religious awe and outward magnificence; and the dexterity with which the Byzantine courtiers turned the credulity of the Russian envoys to account, illustrates the origin of many of the miracles of the Middle Ages, — a mistake fostered, not by deliberate imposture, but by the difficulty of resisting the temptation to allow the mistake to remain uncorrected, when it apparently conduced to edification. On the return of the envoys to Vladimir, “ We knew not,” said they, “ whether we were not in heaven; in truth, it would be impossible on earth to find such wealth and magnificence. We cannot describe to you 366 Lives 0/ the Saints. ijuiy 15 what we have seen. We can only believe that there, in all likelihood, one is in the presence of God, and that the worship of other countries is there entirely eclipsed. We shall never forget so much grandeur. One who has once tasted sweets, will not afterwards take what is bitter; we can no longer abide in heathenism.” Then the Boyars said to Vladimir, u 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 overpowered his remaining scruples, and he said no more in answer than, “ Where shall we be baptized ?”
And then, filled with a strange barbarous idea, Vladimir armed his hosts and burst upon the Eastern empire, to win his new religion, sword in hand. He embarked his warriors on board their vessels, and attacked Cherson, in Tauris (a.d. 992). After a long and unsuccessful siege, a priest, named Athanasius, shot an arrow out of the town with a message attached to it, informing the Prince that the fate of the besieged depended on their supply of water. Vladimir profited by the traitors hint, cut the aqueducts, and then vowed, if the city fell, that he would receive baptism. The city surrendered. Vladimir then sent to demand from the Emperor Basil the hand of his sister Anne in marriage, under promise of his own conversion, and under the threat of doing to Constantinople as he had done to Cherson. With some difficulty Anne was induced to sacrifice herself to the barbarian prince, in the hope of averting so great a danger, and effecting so great a good. Her sister, Theophano, had already been established on the throne of the German Otho. She acquired a more lasting fame as the channel through which Christianity flowed into Russia.
juiv ii.].S'. Vladimir. 367 Accompanied by a large body of clergy, she sailed for Cherson, and on her arrival induced the Prince to hasten his baptism. He was at this time troubled with inflamed eyes; but at the moment that the bishop of Cherson laid his hands upon him in confirmation, as he rose from the laver of regeneration, Vladimir recovered ease in his eyes, and exclaimed, u Now I have seen the true God I ” 1 The baptism of Vladimir was followed by that of many of his nobles. His baptism and marriage were celebrated in the church of S. Mary, in whose honour he afterwards erected a cathedral in his own city of Kiefif. In Cherson he built a church in honour of S. Basil, whom he took as his patron, and then, laden with the relics [the bodily remains of a saint, or objects they used, kept with honor] of S. Clement, bishop of Rome, and his disciple, Thebas, with church vessels and ornaments, and sacred pictures, he returned to Kieff, accompanied by his wife, Anne, and many Greek ecclesiastics, amongst others, the miserable traitor Anastasius, who had betrayed to him the weakness of the city, and who now dared not remain there without his protector. After his return to Kieff, Vladimir caused his twelve sons to be baptized, and proceeded to destroy the monuments of heathenism. He ordered Perun to be dragged over the hills at the tails of horses, mercilessly to be scourged by twelve mounted pursuers, and thrown into the Dnieper. The people followed the great wooden image as it floated down the sluggish stream; but finding that it swayed helplessly with the current, unable to protect or extricate itself, they abandoned it with contempt, as it sank in the rapids, long afterwards known as the Gulf of Perun.
1 This miracle is not supported by the account of the Metropolitan Plato, who does not mention it. t|nljr«S. The whole people of KiefF were then ordered to prepare for baptism. “ Whosoever shall not, on the morrow, repair to the river, whether he be rich or poor, him shall I hold and treat as an enemy, 7 ’ was the announcement of the despotic prince.
The people flocked with their wives and children to the water, profoundly ignorant of the reason or meaning of the rite, still less aware of the awful responsibilities it entailed. Nestor thus describes the 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. 77 Vladimir looked on, in a transport of joy, crying out and commending to God himself and his people, “ O great God ! who hast made heaven and earth, look down on them 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 by thy power, I may overcome all his wiles. 77 Vladimir erected the first church, dedicated to S. Basil, on the very mound which had formerly been sacred to Perun, near his palace; and so on those hills at last the dawn broke.
Vladimir engaged zealously in building churches throughout the towns and villages of his dominions, and sent priests to preach in them. He founded schools, and forced the Boyars, or nobles, to send their children into them; but had much difficulty in overcoming their repugnanee.
Then Vladimir, at the head of bishops and priests, •S’. Vladimir. |uljr ij.] went into the district of Souzdal and Volhynia, to Christianize it. The Boyars on the Volga, and the hordes on the Steppes between the Abral and the Volga, embraced the Gospel, and were baptized. Dobrina, the uncle of Vladimir, with the priest Anastasius, visited Novgorod, and destroyed the idols there. Vladimir built a church at Kieff in honour of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin, in close resemblance of the cathedral at Cherson, in which he had been baptized; it was erected by Greek builders, and was the first stone church built in Russia. On the consecration of the church, by the Metropolitan Leontius, Vladimir endowed it with the tenth of all his revenues; and from thence it was called the Cathedral of the Tithes. The care of the new church, and the collection of the tithes, he entrusted to Anastasius.
In 996, the Metropolitan Leontius formed the first five dioceses in Russia, Novgorod, Rostoff, Chemigoff, Vladimir, and Belgorod.
In 1015 died Vladimir I., after a long reign. He had received the city and district of Great Novgorod as his appanage, in a.d. 970; and got possession of the whole Russian monarchy on the death of his brother, Yaropolk, in a.d. 980. The contrast between his cruelty and vices as a heathen, and the mildness of his disposition and the purity of his morals after his conversion, is fondly commented on by the Russian annalists. He was buried in a marble coffin in the church of the Tithes, at Kieff, by the side of his wife Anne. He has received in Russia the honourable title of “ Equal to an Apostle.”
