Chapter LV: The Bulgarians, The Hungarians And The Russians.—Part

III.

But the same communication which had been opened for the benefit,
was soon abused for the injury, of mankind. In a period of one
hundred and ninety years, the Russians made four attempts to
plunder the treasures of Constantinople: the event was various,
but the motive, the means, and the object, were the same in these
naval expeditions. 56 The Russian traders had seen the
magnificence, and tasted the luxury of the city of the Caesars. A
marvellous tale, and a scanty supply, excited the desires of
their savage countrymen: they envied the gifts of nature which
their climate denied; they coveted the works of art, which they
were too lazy to imitate and too indigent to purchase; the
Varangian princes unfurled the banners of piratical adventure,
and their bravest soldiers were drawn from the nations that dwelt
in the northern isles of the ocean. 57 The image of their naval
armaments was revived in the last century, in the fleets of the
Cossacks, which issued from the Borysthenes, to navigate the same
seas for a similar purpose. 58 The Greek appellation of monoxyla,
or single canoes, might justly be applied to the bottom of their
vessels. It was scooped out of the long stem of a beech or
willow, but the slight and narrow foundation was raised and
continued on either side with planks, till it attained the length
of sixty, and the height of about twelve, feet. These boats were
built without a deck, but with two rudders and a mast; to move
with sails and oars; and to contain from forty to seventy men,
with their arms, and provisions of fresh water and salt fish. The
first trial of the Russians was made with two hundred boats; but
when the national force was exerted, they might arm against
Constantinople a thousand or twelve hundred vessels. Their fleet
was not much inferior to the royal navy of Agamemnon, but it was
magnified in the eyes of fear to ten or fifteen times the real
proportion of its strength and numbers. Had the Greek emperors
been endowed with foresight to discern, and vigor to prevent,
perhaps they might have sealed with a maritime force the mouth of
the Borysthenes. Their indolence abandoned the coast of Anatolia
to the calamities of a piratical war, which, after an interval of
six hundred years, again infested the Euxine; but as long as the
capital was respected, the sufferings of a distant province
escaped the notice both of the prince and the historian. The
storm which had swept along from the Phasis and Trebizond, at
length burst on the Bosphorus of Thrace; a strait of fifteen
miles, in which the rude vessels of the Russians might have been
stopped and destroyed by a more skilful adversary. In their first
enterprise 59 under the princes of Kiow, they passed without
opposition, and occupied the port of Constantinople in the
absence of the emperor Michael, the son of Theophilus. Through a
crowd of perils, he landed at the palace-stairs, and immediately
repaired to a church of the Virgin Mary. 60 By the advice of the
patriarch, her garment, a precious relic, was drawn from the
sanctuary and dipped in the sea; and a seasonable tempest, which
determined the retreat of the Russians, was devoutly ascribed to
the mother of God. 61 The silence of the Greeks may inspire some
doubt of the truth, or at least of the importance, of the second
attempt by Oleg, the guardian of the sons of Ruric. 62 A strong
barrier of arms and fortifications defended the Bosphorus: they
were eluded by the usual expedient of drawing the boats over the
isthmus; and this simple operation is described in the national
chronicles, as if the Russian fleet had sailed over dry land with
a brisk and favorable gale. The leader of the third armament,
Igor, the son of Ruric, had chosen a moment of weakness and
decay, when the naval powers of the empire were employed against
the Saracens. But if courage be not wanting, the instruments of
defence are seldom deficient. Fifteen broken and decayed galleys
were boldly launched against the enemy; but instead of the single
tube of Greek fire usually planted on the prow, the sides and
stern of each vessel were abundantly supplied with that liquid
combustible. The engineers were dexterous; the weather was
propitious; many thousand Russians, who chose rather to be
drowned than burnt, leaped into the sea; and those who escaped to
the Thracian shore were inhumanly slaughtered by the peasants and
soldiers. Yet one third of the canoes escaped into shallow water;
and the next spring Igor was again prepared to retrieve his
disgrace and claim his revenge. 63 After a long peace, Jaroslaus,
the great grandson of Igor, resumed the same project of a naval
invasion. A fleet, under the command of his son, was repulsed at
the entrance of the Bosphorus by the same artificial flames. But
in the rashness of pursuit, the vanguard of the Greeks was
encompassed by an irresistible multitude of boats and men; their
provision of fire was probably exhausted; and twenty-four galleys
were either taken, sunk, or destroyed. 64

56 (return) [ The wars of the Russians and Greeks in the ixth,
xth, and xith centuries, are related in the Byzantine annals,
especially those of Zonaras and Cedrenus; and all their
testimonies are collected in the Russica of Stritter, tom. ii.
pars ii. p. 939-1044.]

57 (return) [ Cedrenus in Compend. p. 758]

58 (return) [ See Beauplan, (Description de l’Ukraine, p. 54-61:
) his descriptions are lively, his plans accurate, and except the
circumstances of fire-arms, we may read old Russians for modern
Cosacks.]

59 (return) [ It is to be lamented, that Bayer has only given a
Dissertation de Russorum prima Expeditione Constantinopolitana,
(Comment. Academ. Petropol. tom. vi. p. 265-391.) After
disentangling some chronological intricacies, he fixes it in the
years 864 or 865, a date which might have smoothed some doubts
and difficulties in the beginning of M. Leveque’s history.]

60 (return) [ When Photius wrote his encyclic epistle on the
conversion of the Russians, the miracle was not yet sufficiently
ripe.]

61 (return) [ Leo Grammaticus, p. 463, 464. Constantini
Continuator in Script. post Theophanem, p. 121, 122. Symeon
Logothet. p. 445, 446. Georg. Monach. p. 535, 536. Cedrenus, tom.
ii. p. 551. Zonaras, tom. ii. p. 162.]

62 (return) [ See Nestor and Nicon, in Leveque’s Hist. de Russie,
tom. i. p. 74-80. Katona (Hist. Ducum, p. 75-79) uses his
advantage to disprove this Russian victory, which would cloud the
siege of Kiow by the Hungarians.]

63 (return) [ Leo Grammaticus, p. 506, 507. Incert. Contin. p.
263, 264 Symeon Logothet. p. 490, 491. Georg. Monach. p. 588,
589. Cedren tom. ii. p. 629. Zonaras, tom. ii. p. 190, 191, and
Liutprand, l. v. c. 6, who writes from the narratives of his
father-in-law, then ambassador at Constantinople, and corrects
the vain exaggeration of the Greeks.]

64 (return) [ I can only appeal to Cedrenus (tom. ii. p. 758,
759) and Zonaras, (tom. ii. p. 253, 254;) but they grow more
weighty and credible as they draw near to their own times.]

Yet the threats or calamities of a Russian war were more
frequently diverted by treaty than by arms. In these naval
hostilities, every disadvantage was on the side of the Greeks;
their savage enemy afforded no mercy: his poverty promised no
spoil; his impenetrable retreat deprived the conqueror of the
hopes of revenge; and the pride or weakness of empire indulged an
opinion, that no honor could be gained or lost in the intercourse
with Barbarians. At first their demands were high and
inadmissible, three pounds of gold for each soldier or mariner of
the fleet: the Russian youth adhered to the design of conquest
and glory; but the counsels of moderation were recommended by the
hoary sages. “Be content,” they said, “with the liberal offers of
Caesar; is it not far better to obtain without a combat the
possession of gold, silver, silks, and all the objects of our
desires? Are we sure of victory? Can we conclude a treaty with
the sea? We do not tread on the land; we float on the abyss of
water, and a common death hangs over our heads.” 65 The memory of
these Arctic fleets that seemed to descend from the polar circle
left deep impression of terror on the Imperial city. By the
vulgar of every rank, it was asserted and believed, that an
equestrian statue in the square of Taurus was secretly inscribed
with a prophecy, how the Russians, in the last days, should
become masters of Constantinople. 66 In our own time, a Russian
armament, instead of sailing from the Borysthenes, has
circumnavigated the continent of Europe; and the Turkish capital
has been threatened by a squadron of strong and lofty ships of
war, each of which, with its naval science and thundering
artillery, could have sunk or scattered a hundred canoes, such as
those of their ancestors. Perhaps the present generation may yet
behold the accomplishment of the prediction, of a rare
prediction, of which the style is unambiguous and the date
unquestionable.

65 (return) [ Nestor, apud Leveque, Hist. de Russie, tom. i. p.
87.]

66 (return) [ This brazen statue, which had been brought from
Antioch, and was melted down by the Latins, was supposed to
represent either Joshua or Bellerophon, an odd dilemma. See
Nicetas Choniates, (p. 413, 414,) Codinus, (de Originibus C. P.
p. 24,) and the anonymous writer de Antiquitat. C. P. (Banduri,
Imp. Orient. tom. i. p. 17, 18,) who lived about the year 1100.
They witness the belief of the prophecy the rest is immaterial.]

By land the Russians were less formidable than by sea; and as
they fought for the most part on foot, their irregular legions
must often have been broken and overthrown by the cavalry of the
Scythian hordes. Yet their growing towns, however slight and
imperfect, presented a shelter to the subject, and a barrier to
the enemy: the monarchy of Kiow, till a fatal partition, assumed
the dominion of the North; and the nations from the Volga to the
Danube were subdued or repelled by the arms of Swatoslaus, 67 the
son of Igor, the son of Oleg, the son of Ruric. The vigor of his
mind and body was fortified by the hardships of a military and
savage life. Wrapped in a bear-skin, Swatoslaus usually slept on
the ground, his head reclining on a saddle; his diet was coarse
and frugal, and, like the heroes of Homer, 68 his meat (it was
often horse-flesh) was broiled or roasted on the coals. The
exercise of war gave stability and discipline to his army; and it
may be presumed, that no soldier was permitted to transcend the
luxury of his chief. By an embassy from Nicephorus, the Greek
emperor, he was moved to undertake the conquest of Bulgaria; and
a gift of fifteen hundred pounds of gold was laid at his feet to
defray the expense, or reward the toils, of the expedition. An
army of sixty thousand men was assembled and embarked; they
sailed from the Borysthenes to the Danube; their landing was
effected on the Maesian shore; and, after a sharp encounter, the
swords of the Russians prevailed against the arrows of the
Bulgarian horse. The vanquished king sunk into the grave; his
children were made captive; and his dominions, as far as Mount
Haemus, were subdued or ravaged by the northern invaders. But
instead of relinquishing his prey, and performing his
engagements, the Varangian prince was more disposed to advance
than to retire; and, had his ambition been crowned with success,
the seat of empire in that early period might have been
transferred to a more temperate and fruitful climate. Swatoslaus
enjoyed and acknowledged the advantages of his new position, in
which he could unite, by exchange or rapine, the various
productions of the earth. By an easy navigation he might draw
from Russia the native commodities of furs, wax, and hydromed:
Hungary supplied him with a breed of horses and the spoils of the
West; and Greece abounded with gold, silver, and the foreign
luxuries, which his poverty had affected to disdain. The bands of
Patzinacites, Chozars, and Turks, repaired to the standard of
victory; and the ambassador of Nicephorus betrayed his trust,
assumed the purple, and promised to share with his new allies the
treasures of the Eastern world. From the banks of the Danube the
Russian prince pursued his march as far as Adrianople; a formal
summons to evacuate the Roman province was dismissed with
contempt; and Swatoslaus fiercely replied, that Constantinople
might soon expect the presence of an enemy and a master.

67 (return) [ The life of Swatoslaus, or Sviatoslaf, or
Sphendosthlabus, is extracted from the Russian Chronicles by M.
Levesque, (Hist. de Russie, tom. i. p. 94-107.)]

68 (return) [ This resemblance may be clearly seen in the ninth
book of the Iliad, (205-221,) in the minute detail of the cookery
of Achilles. By such a picture, a modern epic poet would disgrace
his work, and disgust his reader; but the Greek verses are
harmonious—a dead language can seldom appear low or familiar; and
at the distance of two thousand seven hundred years, we are
amused with the primitive manners of antiquity.]

Nicephorus could no longer expel the mischief which he had
introduced; but his throne and wife were inherited by John
Zimisces, 69 who, in a diminutive body, possessed the spirit and
abilities of a hero. The first victory of his lieutenants
deprived the Russians of their foreign allies, twenty thousand of
whom were either destroyed by the sword, or provoked to revolt,
or tempted to desert. Thrace was delivered, but seventy thousand
Barbarians were still in arms; and the legions that had been
recalled from the new conquests of Syria, prepared, with the
return of the spring, to march under the banners of a warlike
prince, who declared himself the friend and avenger of the
injured Bulgaria. The passes of Mount Haemus had been left
unguarded; they were instantly occupied; the Roman vanguard was
formed of the immortals, (a proud imitation of the Persian
style;) the emperor led the main body of ten thousand five
hundred foot; and the rest of his forces followed in slow and
cautious array, with the baggage and military engines. The first
exploit of Zimisces was the reduction of Marcianopolis, or
Peristhlaba, 70 in two days; the trumpets sounded; the walls were
scaled; eight thousand five hundred Russians were put to the
sword; and the sons of the Bulgarian king were rescued from an
ignominious prison, and invested with a nominal diadem. After
these repeated losses, Swatoslaus retired to the strong post of
Drista, on the banks of the Danube, and was pursued by an enemy
who alternately employed the arms of celerity and delay. The
Byzantine galleys ascended the river, the legions completed a
line of circumvallation; and the Russian prince was encompassed,
assaulted, and famished, in the fortifications of the camp and
city. Many deeds of valor were performed; several desperate
sallies were attempted; nor was it till after a siege of
sixty-five days that Swatoslaus yielded to his adverse fortune.
The liberal terms which he obtained announce the prudence of the
victor, who respected the valor, and apprehended the despair, of
an unconquered mind. The great duke of Russia bound himself, by
solemn imprecations, to relinquish all hostile designs; a safe
passage was opened for his return; the liberty of trade and
navigation was restored; a measure of corn was distributed to
each of his soldiers; and the allowance of twenty-two thousand
measures attests the loss and the remnant of the Barbarians.
After a painful voyage, they again reached the mouth of the
Borysthenes; but their provisions were exhausted; the season was
unfavorable; they passed the winter on the ice; and, before they
could prosecute their march, Swatoslaus was surprised and
oppressed by the neighboring tribes with whom the Greeks
entertained a perpetual and useful correspondence. 71 Far
different was the return of Zimisces, who was received in his
capital like Camillus or Marius, the saviors of ancient Rome. But
the merit of the victory was attributed by the pious emperor to
the mother of God; and the image of the Virgin Mary, with the
divine infant in her arms, was placed on a triumphal car, adorned
with the spoils of war, and the ensigns of Bulgarian royalty.
Zimisces made his public entry on horseback; the diadem on his
head, a crown of laurel in his hand; and Constantinople was
astonished to applaud the martial virtues of her sovereign. 72

69 (return) [ This singular epithet is derived from the Armenian
language. As I profess myself equally ignorant of these words, I
may be indulged in the question in the play, “Pray, which of you
is the interpreter?” From the context, they seem to signify
Adolescentulus, (Leo Diacon l. iv. Ms. apud Ducange, Glossar.
Graec. p. 1570.) * Note: Cerbied. the learned Armenian, gives
another derivation. There is a city called Tschemisch-gaizag,
which means a bright or purple sandal, such as women wear in the
East. He was called Tschemisch-ghigh, (for so his name is written
in Armenian, from this city, his native place.) Hase. Note to Leo
Diac. p. 454, in Niebuhr’s Byzant. Hist.—M.]

70 (return) [ In the Sclavonic tongue, the name of Peristhlaba
implied the great or illustrious city, says Anna Comnena,
(Alexiad, l. vii. p. 194.) From its position between Mount Haemus
and the Lower Danube, it appears to fill the ground, or at least
the station, of Marcianopolis. The situation of Durostolus, or
Dristra, is well known and conspicuous, (Comment. Academ.
Petropol. tom. ix. p. 415, 416. D’Anville, Geographie Ancienne,
tom. i. p. 307, 311.)]

71 (return) [ The political management of the Greeks, more
especially with the Patzinacites, is explained in the seven first
chapters, de Administratione Imperii.]

72 (return) [ In the narrative of this war, Leo the Deacon (apud
Pagi, Critica, tom. iv. A.D. 968-973) is more authentic and
circumstantial than Cedrenus (tom. ii. p. 660-683) and Zonaras,
(tom. ii. p. 205-214.) These declaimers have multiplied to
308,000 and 330,000 men, those Russian forces, of which the
contemporary had given a moderate and consistent account.]

Photius of Constantinople, a patriarch, whose ambition was equal
to his curiosity, congratulates himself and the Greek church on
the conversion of the Russians. 73 Those fierce and bloody
Barbarians had been persuaded, by the voice of reason and
religion, to acknowledge Jesus for their God, the Christian
missionaries for their teachers, and the Romans for their friends
and brethren. His triumph was transient and premature. In the
various fortune of their piratical adventures, some Russian
chiefs might allow themselves to be sprinkled with the waters of
baptism; and a Greek bishop, with the name of metropolitan, might
administer the sacraments in the church of Kiow, to a
congregation of slaves and natives. But the seed of the gospel
was sown on a barren soil: many were the apostates, the converts
were few; and the baptism of Olga may be fixed as the aera of
Russian Christianity. 74 A female, perhaps of the basest origin,
who could revenge the death, and assume the sceptre, of her
husband Igor, must have been endowed with those active virtues
which command the fear and obedience of Barbarians. In a moment
of foreign and domestic peace, she sailed from Kiow to
Constantinople; and the emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus has
described, with minute diligence, the ceremonial of her reception
in his capital and palace. The steps, the titles, the
salutations, the banquet, the presents, were exquisitely adjusted
to gratify the vanity of the stranger, with due reverence to the
superior majesty of the purple. 75 In the sacrament of baptism,
she received the venerable name of the empress Helena; and her
conversion might be preceded or followed by her uncle, two
interpreters, sixteen damsels of a higher, and eighteen of a
lower rank, twenty-two domestics or ministers, and forty-four
Russian merchants, who composed the retinue of the great princess
Olga. After her return to Kiow and Novogorod, she firmly
persisted in her new religion; but her labors in the propagation
of the gospel were not crowned with success; and both her family
and nation adhered with obstinacy or indifference to the gods of
their fathers. Her son Swatoslaus was apprehensive of the scorn
and ridicule of his companions; and her grandson Wolodomir
devoted his youthful zeal to multiply and decorate the monuments
of ancient worship. The savage deities of the North were still
propitiated with human sacrifices: in the choice of the victim, a
citizen was preferred to a stranger, a Christian to an idolater;
and the father, who defended his son from the sacerdotal knife,
was involved in the same doom by the rage of a fanatic tumult.
Yet the lessons and example of the pious Olga had made a deep,
though secret, impression in the minds of the prince and people:
the Greek missionaries continued to preach, to dispute, and to
baptize: and the ambassadors or merchants of Russia compared the
idolatry of the woods with the elegant superstition of
Constantinople. They had gazed with admiration on the dome of St.
Sophia: the lively pictures of saints and martyrs, the riches of
the altar, the number and vestments of the priests, the pomp and
order of the ceremonies; they were edified by the alternate
succession of devout silence and harmonious song; nor was it
difficult to persuade them, that a choir of angels descended each
day from heaven to join in the devotion of the Christians. 76 But
the conversion of Wolodomir was determined, or hastened, by his
desire of a Roman bride. At the same time, and in the city of
Cherson, the rites of baptism and marriage were celebrated by the
Christian pontiff: the city he restored to the emperor Basil, the
brother of his spouse; but the brazen gates were transported, as
it is said, to Novogorod, and erected before the first church as
a trophy of his victory and faith. 77 At his despotic command,
Peround, the god of thunder, whom he had so long adored, was
dragged through the streets of Kiow; and twelve sturdy Barbarians
battered with clubs the misshapen image, which was indignantly
cast into the waters of the Borysthenes. The edict of Wolodomir
had proclaimed, that all who should refuse the rites of baptism
would be treated as the enemies of God and their prince; and the
rivers were instantly filled with many thousands of obedient
Russians, who acquiesced in the truth and excellence of a
doctrine which had been embraced by the great duke and his
boyars. In the next generation, the relics of Paganism were
finally extirpated; but as the two brothers of Wolodomir had died
without baptism, their bones were taken from the grave, and
sanctified by an irregular and posthumous sacrament.

73 (return) [ Phot. Epistol. ii. No. 35, p. 58, edit. Montacut.
It was unworthy of the learning of the editor to mistake the
Russian nation, for a war-cry of the Bulgarians, nor did it
become the enlightened patriarch to accuse the Sclavonian
idolaters. They were neither Greeks nor Atheists.]

74 (return) [ M. Levesque has extracted, from old chronicles and
modern researches, the most satisfactory account of the religion
of the Slavi, and the conversion of Russia, (Hist. de Russie,
tom. i. p. 35-54, 59, 92, 92, 113-121, 124-129, 148, 149, &c.)]

75 (return) [ See the Ceremoniale Aulae Byzant. tom. ii. c. 15,
p. 343-345: the style of Olga, or Elga. For the chief of
Barbarians the Greeks whimsically borrowed the title of an
Athenian magistrate, with a female termination, which would have
astonished the ear of Demosthenes.]

76 (return) [ See an anonymous fragment published by Banduri,
(Imperium Orientale, tom. ii. p. 112, 113, de Conversione
Russorum.)]

77 (return) [ Cherson, or Corsun, is mentioned by Herberstein
(apud Pagi tom. iv. p. 56) as the place of Wolodomir’s baptism
and marriage; and both the tradition and the gates are still
preserved at Novogorod. Yet an observing traveller transports the
brazen gates from Magdeburgh in Germany, (Coxe’s Travels into
Russia, &c., vol. i. p. 452;) and quotes an inscription, which
seems to justify his opinion. The modern reader must not confound
this old Cherson of the Tauric or Crimaean peninsula, with a new
city of the same name, which has arisen near the mouth of the
Borysthenes, and was lately honored by the memorable interview of
the empress of Russia with the emperor of the West.]

In the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries of the Christian
aera, the reign of the gospel and of the church was extended over
Bulgaria, Hungary, Bohemia, Saxony, Denmark, Norway, Sweden,
Poland, and Russia. 78 The triumphs of apostolic zeal were
repeated in the iron age of Christianity; and the northern and
eastern regions of Europe submitted to a religion, more different
in theory than in practice, from the worship of their native
idols. A laudable ambition excited the monks both of Germany and
Greece, to visit the tents and huts of the Barbarians: poverty,
hardships, and dangers, were the lot of the first missionaries;
their courage was active and patient; their motive pure and
meritorious; their present reward consisted in the testimony of
their conscience and the respect of a grateful people; but the
fruitful harvest of their toils was inherited and enjoyed by the
proud and wealthy prelates of succeeding times. The first
conversions were free and spontaneous: a holy life and an
eloquent tongue were the only arms of the missionaries; but the
domestic fables of the Pagans were silenced by the miracles and
visions of the strangers; and the favorable temper of the chiefs
was accelerated by the dictates of vanity and interest. The
leaders of nations, who were saluted with the titles of kings and
saints, 79 held it lawful and pious to impose the Catholic faith
on their subjects and neighbors; the coast of the Baltic, from
Holstein to the Gulf of Finland, was invaded under the standard
of the cross; and the reign of idolatry was closed by the
conversion of Lithuania in the fourteenth century. Yet truth and
candor must acknowledge, that the conversion of the North
imparted many temporal benefits both to the old and the new
Christians. The rage of war, inherent to the human species, could
not be healed by the evangelic precepts of charity and peace; and
the ambition of Catholic princes has renewed in every age the
calamities of hostile contention. But the admission of the
Barbarians into the pale of civil and ecclesiastical society
delivered Europe from the depredations, by sea and land, of the
Normans, the Hungarians, and the Russians, who learned to spare
their brethren and cultivate their possessions. 80 The
establishment of law and order was promoted by the influence of
the clergy; and the rudiments of art and science were introduced
into the savage countries of the globe. The liberal piety of the
Russian princes engaged in their service the most skilful of the
Greeks, to decorate the cities and instruct the inhabitants: the
dome and the paintings of St. Sophia were rudely copied in the
churches of Kiow and Novogorod: the writings of the fathers were
translated into the Sclavonic idiom; and three hundred noble
youths were invited or compelled to attend the lessons of the
college of Jaroslaus. It should appear that Russia might have
derived an early and rapid improvement from her peculiar
connection with the church and state of Constantinople, which at
that age so justly despised the ignorance of the Latins. But the
Byzantine nation was servile, solitary, and verging to a hasty
decline: after the fall of Kiow, the navigation of the
Borysthenes was forgotten; the great princes of Wolodomir and
Moscow were separated from the sea and Christendom; and the
divided monarchy was oppressed by the ignominy and blindness of
Tartar servitude. 81 The Sclavonic and Scandinavian kingdoms,
which had been converted by the Latin missionaries, were exposed,
it is true, to the spiritual jurisdiction and temporal claims of
the popes; 82 but they were united in language and religious
worship, with each other, and with Rome; they imbibed the free
and generous spirit of the European republic, and gradually
shared the light of knowledge which arose on the western world.

78 (return) [ Consult the Latin text, or English version, of
Mosheim’s excellent History of the Church, under the first head
or section of each of these centuries.]

79 (return) [ In the year 1000, the ambassadors of St. Stephen
received from Pope Silvester the title of King of Hungary, with a
diadem of Greek workmanship. It had been designed for the duke of
Poland: but the Poles, by their own confession, were yet too
barbarous to deserve an angelical and apostolical crown. (Katona,
Hist. Critic Regum Stirpis Arpadianae, tom. i. p. 1-20.)]

80 (return) [ Listen to the exultations of Adam of Bremen, (A.D.
1080,) of which the substance is agreeable to truth: Ecce illa
ferocissima Danorum, &c., natio..... jamdudum novit in Dei
laudibus Alleluia resonare..... Ecce populus ille piraticus .....
suis nunc finibus contentus est. Ecce patria horribilis semper
inaccessa propter cultum idolorum... praedicatores veritatis
ubique certatim admittit, &c., &c., (de Situ Daniae, &c., p. 40,
41, edit. Elzevir; a curious and original prospect of the north
of Europe, and the introduction of Christianity.)]

81 (return) [ The great princes removed in 1156 from Kiow, which
was ruined by the Tartars in 1240. Moscow became the seat of
empire in the xivth century. See the 1st and 2d volumes of
Levesque’s History, and Mr. Coxe’s Travels into the North, tom.
i. p. 241, &c.]

82 (return) [ The ambassadors of St. Stephen had used the
reverential expressions of regnum oblatum, debitam obedientiam,
&c., which were most rigorously interpreted by Gregory VII.; and
the Hungarian Catholics are distressed between the sanctity of
the pope and the independence of the crown, (Katona, Hist.
Critica, tom. i. p. 20-25, tom. ii. p. 304, 346, 360, &c.)]