And the accounts of the
conversion
witness to
the same fact.
the same fact.
Cambridge Medieval History - v4 - Eastern Roman Empire
Meantime the Slavs built during the winter
boats, hollowed from one piece of timber, and in spring floated them
down-stream to Kiev, where they sold them to the retinue of the prince
on their return from winter quarters in the lands of the subject tribes.
The courtiers shipped their wares, evidently furs and other taxes in kind
gathered from the tribes, and in June they proceeded by the Dnieper
to the castle or fortress of Vitichev, and thence to Constantinople.
Professor Klyuchevski very acutely recognised that the imposts
which the Prince of Kiev levied as a ruler were at the same time the
articles of his trade. “When he became a ruler as a konung, he as a
Varangian (Varyag) did not cease to be an armed merchant. He shared
the taxes with his retinue, which served him as the organ of administra-
tion and was the ruling class. This class governed in winter, visiting the
country and levying taxes, and in summer trafficked in what was gathered
during the winter. "
The oriental authors give us reports of predatory expeditions of
the Russians to the shores of the Caspian Sea. From the first, under-
taken in 880, all these raids ended in disaster. A particularly audacious
one took place in 944. The Russians arrived with their ships by the
Caspian Sea at the estuary of the river Cyrus, and sailing upstream
invaded the land called by the Arabs Arran (the ancient Albania), which
belonged to the Caliphate. Their first success was the conquest of
Berdaa, the capital of Arran, situated on the river Terter, a southern
tributary of the Cyrus. From Berdaa they ravaged the surrounding
country. The governor of Azarbā'ījān levied a great army which beat
the Russians after losing a first battle, but this defeat was not decisive
enough to induce them to leave the country. Dysentery, however,
spreading rapidly among the Russian army, delivered the Albanians
from their enemies. After depredations which lasted six months the
Russians left the land, returning home with rich spoil.
It is strange that the Russian chronicles are silent about these
invasions of the shores of the Caspian Sea, since there is no reason to
doubt their reality. They are an evidence that the state of Kiev was
## p. 207 (#249) ############################################
Beginnings of Christianity
207
already strong enough in Oleg's time—for the earliest expeditions under-
taken in the tenth century were certainly his--to venture on war not
only against Constantinople but also against the East. The easier there-
fore was it for Igor to undertake such a campaign.
After Igor's death his widow Olga ascended the throne, the first
Christian princess in Russia. Christianity had begun to spread in the
principality of Kiev soon after the first expedition of the Russians against
Constantinople in 860. It is probable that the Prince of Kiev himself at
this time embraced the Christian faith. During Oleg's reign Christianity
suffered a decline, although it did not disappear, as can be inferred from
the register of the metropolitan churches subordinated to the Patriarch
of Constantinople published by the Emperor Leo VI (886–911). In the
treaty of Igor with the Greeks in 945 heathen and Christian Russians
are mentioned, and the Russian Chronicle calls the church of St Elias
(Ilya) in Kiev a cathedral, which implies that there were other churches
in the city. But it seems nevertheless that the Christian faith did not
take strong root among the Russians, and there was hardly an improve-
ment when the Princess Olga embraced Christianity, which happened
probably in 954, three years before her voyage to Constantinople. The
purpose of this visit is not known. Former writers thought Olga went
there to be baptized, but it seems to be nearer the truth that her
journey had only diplomatic aims.
A true type of the adventurous viking was Prince Svyatoslav, son of
Igor and Olga, the first prince of the Varangian dynasty to bear a
Slavonic name. The Chronicle describes him as a gallant, daring man,
undertaking long expeditions to distant lands and neglecting the interests
of his own country. His mind was filled with the plan of transferring the
centre of his state to the Balkan peninsula. He spent the greater part
of his time in foreign lands. He was the first of the Russian princes who
forced the Vyatiches to pay him tribute, whereas they had formerly been
tributary to the Chazars. But before that he tried to break the power
of the Chazars, which from the beginning of the ninth century had been
continually declining. They were pressed in the south by the Arabs and
the Transcaucasian tribes, in the north by the Patzinaks, and in the
west by the Russians. Some tribes had already thrown off their yoke.
Igor himself had cast an eager gaze on the Crimean peninsula and
on the shores of the Sea of Azov, where he would have liked to found a
Russian dominion. His political aims were followed by his successors.
The Chazars hindered these efforts. Svyatoslav therefore in 965 under-
took an expedition against them, and conquered their town Sarkel
(Bêlavêzha, White Town). After the defeat of the Chazars, Svyatoslav
attacked the Ossetes (remnants of the Alans) and the Kasogs (Cherkesses)
and subdued them. By this expedition against the Chazars and the tribes
-
CH. VII.
## p. 208 (#250) ############################################
208
Reign of Svyatoslav
belonging to their dominion, Svyatoslav laid the foundations of Tmuto-
rakanian Russia, which derived its name from its capital Tmutorakan,
the ancient Tamatarcha.
In 967 Svyatoslav undertook an expedition against the Greeks. The
Byzantine Emperor Nicephorus, indignant that the Bulgarian Tsar Peter
had not hindered the Magyars from invading the Balkan peninsula,
waged war against the Bulgars and sent the patrician Calocyrus to Prince
Svyatoslav for assistance. Calocyrus turned traitor. He concluded on his
own account with Svyatoslav a treaty for mutual support. The Russian
prince was to get Bulgaria, and Calocyrus the imperial throne. Svyato-
slav marched into Bulgaria, conquered it, and remained in Pereyaslavets
(Prêslav), the residence of the Tsar. During his absence in 968 the
Patzinaks attacked the land of Kiev, and only a ruse induced them
to leave the beleagured city. Being informed of this menace by the
inhabitants of Kiev, Svyatoslav returned and expelled the Patzinaks,
but he remained at home only to the end of 970, his mother Olga having
died meanwhile in 969. Then he again went to Bulgaria, leaving his
sons as governors, Yaropolk in Kiev and Oleg among the Derevlyans.
When the inhabitants of Novgorod also demanded a prince of their own,
he
gave
them his natural son Vladímir. But the government was in the
hands of the boyars, as all the sons were minors.
In his war with the Greeks Svyatoslav was unfortunate, although he
hired Magyar and Patzinak troops. In a short time he was forced to
make peace with Byzantium (971) and to renew the former treaties, to
which a new clause was added : the Russian prince bound himself not to
encroach on the Greek possessions in the Crimea (opposite the territory
of Cherson) or Bulgaria.
On his return home to Russia Svyatoslav perished (972) in a sudden
attack by Kurya, Prince of the Patzinaks.
The sons of Svyatoslav quarrelled. When Oleg was killed by Yaropolk,
Vladímir, fearing a similar fate, fled to the Swedes, but returned after
three years (980), and getting rid of Yaropolk by the treason of one of
his retinue ascended the throne of Svyatoslav.
Vladímir's retinue composed of heathen Varangians had the principal
share in the victories of their lord. Vladímir therefore manifested his
heathenism with the greatest zeal and erected idols on the hills of Kiev.
He himself also lived the life of a heathen; besides five legal wives he had
many concubines—the annals report 800. He very adroitly got rid of
the turbulent Varangians who had supported him; the more prominent
he won over to his party, the others were dismissed to Constantinople.
His principal aim was to extend and to consolidate the Russian
empire, which since Svyatoslav's time threatened to be dismembered into
minute principalities. In 981 he undertook an expedition against the
Vyatiches, conquered them, and forced them to pay tribute. They
## p. 209 (#251) ############################################
Vladímir the Great
209
again revolted in 982 but were subdued once more. In 984 Vladímir
took the field against the Radimiches, subdued them, and forced them
to pay tribute. The next year he marched against and defeated the
Bulgars, and then concluded a treaty of peace with them. In the last
decade of the tenth century he once more waged a victorious war against
the Bulgars.
In 1006 he concluded with them a commercial treaty, by
which the merchants of either state were allowed to carry on their trade
in the dominions of the other if they were provided with an official seal.
The statement of the Chronicle that Vladímir in 981 took the Polish
castles of Red Russia (the present eastern Galicia) is doubtful, but it is
certain that he fought a war with the Polish King Boleslav the Mighty
(982), which was ended by a treaty, as Boleslav was engaged in a war
with Bohemia. The peace was moreover secured by the marriage of
Svyatopolk, son of Vladímir and Prince of Turov, with a daughter of
Boleslav.
The incessant raids of the Patzinaks were very troublesome to Vladímir.
We read now and again in the annals that the Patzinaks invaded the
Russian country, so that there was constant war with them. These
unceasing inroads of the nomads led Vladímir to build strong fortresses
on the east and south of his territory, and to garrison them with the
best men of the Slavs (of Novgorod), the Kriviches, Chudes, and Vya-
tiches. The Russian princes as a rule subdued the southern tribes by
means of the northern peoples; with their assistance they defended
themselves also against the barbarians of the steppes.
Under Vladímir friendly relations with Byzantium were again inau-
gurated. The first step was made by the Greek Emperor Basil II,
who (in 988) asked Vladímir to assist him against the anti-Emperor
Bardas Phocas. Vladimir promised his help on condition that the
Emperor would give him his sister in marriage. Basil accepted this
condition if Vladímir consented to be baptised: The Russian prince
agreed and sent his army in the spring or summer of 988 to Basil. This
army of 6000 infantry remained in Greece even after Phocas had been
killed, and took part in the Byzantine wars in Asia in 999-1000. From
that time to the last quarter of the eleventh century the Varangians
formed the bodyguard of the Byzantine Emperors. Later on they were
replaced by soldiers from Western Europe, principally Englishmen.
When the Emperor Basil had been delivered from peril, he hesitated
over the fulfilment of his promise to give his sister Anne to Vladimir
to wife. The Russian prince, offended by this delay, attacked the Greek
possessions in the Crimea. He succeeded (989) in taking Cherson after a
long siege. But meanwhile the Greek Emperor was again in difficulties
in his own lands, especially in consequence of a revolt in Bulgaria, so
that he was obliged to regain Vladimir's good will and to send him his
sister Anne, who received Cherson for her dower.
At that time Vladímir was already a Christian, having been baptised
C. MED, H. VOL. IV. CA. VII.
14
## p. 210 (#252) ############################################
210
Russia accepts Christianity
about the beginning of 988. The long intercourse of Russia with Con-
stantinople had prepared a favourable ground for the Christian faith.
Various missionaries came to the prince at short intervals to explain
the advantages of their religion. Finally, he declared for Christianity,
and, having received baptism, he had his twelve sons christened also, and
encouraged the spread of Christianity among the boyars and the people.
Some districts of the Russian empire nevertheless still remained heathen
for a long time. There were pagans among the Vyatiches and Kriviches
in the beginning of the twelfth century, and in Murom even in the
thirteenth century.
During Vladímir's reign an attempt was also made to win the Russians
over to Rome. With the daughter of Boleslav the Mighty, Reinbern,
Bishop of Kolberg, arrived at the court of Vladímir's son Svyatopolk at
Turov, and tried to sever the young Russian Church from the Eastern
Church. Vladímir, as soon as he was informed of the plans of Reinbern,
imprisoned Svyatopolk, his wife, and the bishop. Thereupon a war broke
out with Boleslav, who hastened to make peace with the Germans (1013),
and having hired troops from them and the Patzinaks set out against
Vladímir. He only devastated the land without gaining further results.
Vladímir died in 1015.
The importance of Vladímir in Russian history is enormous. He
subdued the tribes which had gained their independence under his pre-
decessors; he defended the empire against the barbarians of the steppes ;
he accepted Christianity and introduced Christian reforms. He success-
fully closed the tenth century, the heroic period of Russian history; his
reign was famous for the maritime expeditions against the Greeks, the
inroads beyond the Danube, the occupation of Bulgaria, and the expedi-
tions against the Chazars and Bulgars.
We have yet to say something of the Magyars in their new home in
Hungary.
About the year 895 or 896 the Magyars crossed the northern Car-
pathian Mountains, and endeavoured in the first place to occupy the
lands near the upper course of the river Theiss. The progressive occupa-
tion of the territories of later Hungary was made easy to the Magyars
by the circumstance that the new political formations, which had begun to
arise here, were feeble and of no long duration. The north-western part
of later Hungary, inhabited at that time by Slovaks, was a constituent
part of the Great Moravian realm, which extended as far as the river
Theiss and probably some distance to the south between this river and the
Danube. After the death of Svatopluk (894), the Magyars had nothing
to fear from the Great Moravian state, which was now governed by his
discordant sons. During their quarrels it was an easy matter for the
Magyars to occupy the northern part of the territory between the Theiss
and the Danube. This is the only possible explanation of their being
## p. 211 (#253) ############################################
The Magyars in Hungary
211
able to penetrate without opposition into Pannonia, and to undertake
their predatory invasions into Italy. In Lower Pannonia there arose
by the first half of the ninth century the Slavonic principality of Pribina
(840) under the suzerainty of the Franks, with his capital of Blatno
(Urbs paludum, Mosaburch) near where the river Zala flows into the
lake of Blatno (Balaton). The limits of Pribina's principality can only
be given approximately. To the north-west it extended to the river
Raab, to the south-west to Pettau, to the south as far as the Drave,
and to the north and east about to the Danube. With the Slavs there
also lived German colonists from Bavaria in scattered settlements in this
principality. The country between the Danube and the Raab was
settled by Germans, who there formed the majority of the population.
In ecclesiastical affairs Pannonia was divided after 829 between the
bishoprics of Salzburg and Passau. During the reign of Kocel (861-874),
Pribina's successor, the Moravo-Pannonian Slavonic archbishopric was
founded about 870 and St Methodius installed in the see. After Kocel's
death Lower Pannonia was again governed by German officials. Only
after the arrival of the Magyars in Hungary, King Arnulf in 896 in-
vested the Croatian prince Braslav, reigning between the rivers Drave
and Save, with the south-western part of Pannonia as a fief.
The most ancient Hungarian chronicler, the so-called Anonymus regis
Belae notarius, gives us some, not altogether reliable, accounts of the
political divisions in the other parts of Hungary and in Transylvania.
If we supplement the account of the Anonymus with those of the Frankish
authors, we can conclude that in the eastern half of Hungary beyond the
river Theiss, and perhaps in Transylvania, there were at the end of the
ninth century some feeble principalities probably tributary to the Bulgars,
and that these were neither old enough nor sufficiently developed to stop
the progress of the warlike Magyar tribes. It is certain that in the lands
beyond the Theiss as well as in the so-called Black Hungary (Transyl-
vania) there were numerous Slavonic inhabitants, and even now we can
find traces of them in the place-names.
We have hardly any other accounts of the Magyars, during the first
fifty years after the occupation of Hungary, than that they raided the
neighbouring countries. As early as 898 a scouting party of Magyars
came into north-eastern Italy to the river Brenta, and the following year
the Magyars made a new invasion, and overflowed the plain of Lombardy,
plundering and burning the land. For a whole year, until the spring
of 900, they devastated Italy, and King Berengar only induced them to
leave the country by presents, even giving hostages. On their return
they devastated the greater part of Pannonia belonging to the German
kingdom, and immediately afterwards, in the middle of the year 900, the
whole Magyar nation crossed the Danube and occupied Lower Pannonia
as far as the river Raab. That it was possible to do so without serious
opposition from the Germans may be explained by the foolish policy
CH. VA.
14-2
## p. 212 (#254) ############################################
212
The Magyar raids
of Bavaria. Liutpold of Bavaria, founder of the dynasty of Wittelsbach,
preferred to be at enmity with the Great Moravian state rather than to
oppose the Magyars. But no sooner had the Magyars conquered Pannonia,
than they appeared in Bavaria beyond the Inn. The Bavarians only suc-
ceeded in destroying a part of the Magyars ; the others escaped with a
rich booty. The Bavarians did not make peace with Moravia until 901,
when it had become too late.
In 906 the Magyars overthrew the Great Moravian state. The
Bavarians in 907 invaded the Magyar territory, but were defeated, and
after that Upper Pannonia was also conquered by the Magyars. Under
Árpád's successors the Magyars constantly made predatory incursions,
and penetrated still farther to the west. Nobody opposed their pro-
gress, because the former provinces of the Frankish Empire were in
decline. The weapons of the Germans were clumsy: heavy armour,
a heavy helmet, a great shield, and a long sword. The Magyars on the
contrary appeared suddenly on their swift horses and poured showers
of arrows upon their enemies, causing great disorder among them and
turning them to flight. The foe seldom succeeded in surprising the
Magyars before they had arrayed themselves for battle, because their
scouts were exceedingly wary and vigilant. A frequent military ruse of
the Magyars was to feign a flight in order to entice the enemy into pur-
suit. Suddenly they would turn and frighten the pursuers so thoroughly
by a flood of arrows that it was an easy matter for their reserves to
attack and destroy the baffled foe. The Magyars lacked skill only in
taking castles and fortresses; in Germany and Italy therefore the in-
habitants began quickly to fortify their towns.
The history of these western invasions, ending with the decisive
defeat (955) on the Lechfeld, has been told in the preceding volume of
this work. The turn of the Balkan peninsula came comparatively late.
It was after their defeat in Saxony in 933 that the Magyars turned their
attention in this direction. In the spring of 934 they invaded Thrace
in company with Patzinaks with a force which penetrated to Constanti-
nople. Masóūdi gives us a somewhat confused report of this incursion,
declaring that four tribes were allied against the Greeks, although it
seems that only the Magyars with the Patzinaks were the invaders.
Marquart thinks that by the town Walandar, conquered at this time by
the barbarian armies, Develtus near the modern Burgas is meant. It
seems that since 934 the Magyars regularly demanded tribute from the
Greeks, at first every nine and later on every five years. In 943 they
came again, and the Emperor Romanus Lecapenus appointed the
patrician Theophanes, as he had done in 934, to negotiate with them.
Theophanes succeeded in concluding a truce for five years, for which
both parties gave hostages. It is probable that about this time the
Byzantines tried, but in vain, to gain the Magyars for allies against the
Patzinaks. After that the Magyars invaded the Balkan peninsula several
## p. 213 (#255) ############################################
The Magyars become a settled people
213
times, especially in 959 and 962. In 967 a band of Magyars joined the
Russian prince Svyatoslav when he attacked Bulgaria.
After the Lechfeld, however, the aggressiveness of the Magyars
considerably declined. Western Europe now remained safe from their
predatory inroads, and at last even the expeditions against the Balkan
peninsula ceased. During the three-quarters of a century in which the
Magyars had occupied their new homes in Hungary, political and other
conditions had greatly changed. In the first place the neighbours of the
Magyars had grown much stronger. This is true principally of the
Germanic Empire, which, under the dynasty of Saxon kings, was far more
powerful than under the later Carolingians. In the south the Greek
Empire stretched as far as the Danube, and completely checked any new
Magyar expeditions to the Balkan peninsula. In course of time even the
mode of life of the leading Magyars had somewhat changed. Not only
Prince Géza but also several chieftains ceased to live in tents, preferring
castles for their abodes. This change was caused by the Christian religion,
which in the meanwhile had spread in the neighbouring countries and
extended its influence also among the inhabitants of Hungary, especially
in ancient Pannonia, where a great portion of the Germans and Slavs were
Christians. Through these Christian inhabitants the Magyars became
acquainted with a peaceful manner of life, with agriculture and trade.
During the three-quarters of a century even the ethnic character of the
inhabitants underwent a great modification. The Magyars, who were not
very numerous even at the time of their occupation of Hungary, did not
increase considerably because of their frequent predatory expeditions into
foreign lands. Only the first generation was able to gain victories abroad,
in fact while the military tactics of the Magyars were unknown. The
second generation met with repeated calamities. Many Magyars perished
these expeditions ; only a small band returned from the battle of the
Lechfeld. The decrease of the Magyar element was unavoidably followed
by a great intermixture of the remaining population, which also caused a
change in the character of the nation.
In short, since the accession of Géza as Prince of the Magyars, about
970, there begins a radical change in the history of the Magyars. Géza
was the first ruler who was judicious enough to see that his people could
hold its own among other nations if it would live with them in peace
and if it would accept Christianity. Immediately after his accession to the
throne he sent messengers to the Emperor Otto I in 973 to initiate friendly
relations with Gerinany. That he resolved on this course of action must
be attributed to the influence of his wife Adelaide, a princess of Polish
blood and a fervent Christian. By her recommendation St Vojtěch
(Adalbert), Bishop of Prague and a distant relative of hers, was called
to Hungary. About 985 he converted to the Christian faith not only
Géza but also his ten-year-old son Vajk, to whom the name Stephen
was given in baptism. Ten years later (995) Benedictine monks from
CA. VU.
## p. 214 (#256) ############################################
214
Christianisation of Hungary
Bohemia came to Hungary and settled, as it seems, in the monastery of
Zobor upon the Nyitra. This Christianisation was moreover very much
furthered by Géza having chosen Gisela, a princess of the German
imperial dynasty, as a bride for his son Stephen (996). The work begun
by Géza was brought to a good end by Stephen, who was canonised for
his apostolic zeal. Stephen, immediately after his accession to the throne
(997), ordered his subjects to accept Christianity. To set a good example
he liberated his slaves. He visited his lands and everywhere preached the
new religion. He called in foreign priests, especially Slavs, to assist him.
Etymological researches have proved that the ecclesiastical terminology
of the Magyars is to a considerable degree of Slavonic origin. This alone
would lead to the indubitable conclusion that the first missionaries of
the Gospel among the Magyars were to a great extent Slavs belonging
to the Roman obedience.
And the accounts of the conversion witness to
the same fact.
Bohemian priests took a prominent share in the spreading of the
Christian faith in Hungary. In the first place Radla, the former com-
panion of St Vojtěch, must be named, who worked in the Hungarian
realm from 995 to about 1008; then Anastasius, formerly Abbot at
Břevnov near Prague in Bohemia, later of St Martin's in Hungary, and
finally Archbishop of Gran (Esztergom) from 1001-1028. Also Astrik,
Abbot of Pécsvárad and later Archbishop of Kalocsa, who had been at
first one of the priests of St Vojtěch and then an abbot in Poland,
excelled among the Slav preachers of the faith in Hungary. Further,
St Gerard, tutor of Stephen's son Emeric, and later Bishop of Csanád,
was a signal propagator of Christianity in Hungary. St Stephen
himself founded several bishoprics and monasteries : besides the arch-
bishoprics of Esztergom and Kalocsa, he instituted the bishoprics of
Veszprém, Pécs (Fünfkirchen), Csanád, Vácz (Waitzen), Raab (Györ),
Eger (Erlau), and Nagy-Várad (Grosswardein) and Gyulafehérvár (Karls-
burg) in Transylvania.
It was the greatest political success of St Stephen that he secured for
his lands a complete independence in their ecclesiastical and secular rela-
tions. He sent an embassy to Pope Sylvester II to obtain for the
Hungarian ruler a royal crown and papal sanction for the ecclesiastical
organisation. The Pope complied with both requests, and sent to
St Stephen not only the royal crown but also an apostolic cross. Stephen
had himself solemnly crowned as king in 1001.
St Stephen only succeeded with difficulty in controlling the refractory
chieftains of the tribes. One of them, for instance, Kopány, chief of
Somogy (Shümeg) and cousin to St Stephen, headed a revolt in favour
of heathenism, but was defeated. Prokuy also, a maternal relative of
St Stephen, prince in the territories on both sides of the Theiss, belonged
to the turbulent element which hated Christianity. St Stephen sub-
dued him too, and removed him from his government. In Hungary itself,
## p. 215 (#257) ############################################
St Stephen
215
in the south-eastern corner of the land bordered by the rivers Maros,
Theiss, and Danube, and by Transylvania, there lay the principality of
Aytony (Akhtum). This small principality was also overthrown by
St Stephen about 1025.
St Stephen also organised the administration of the land after foreign
models, partly German and partly Slav. He arranged his court after the
German fashion, and divided his lands into counties (comitatus), appointing
as their governors officials called in Latin comites, in Magyar ispanok
(from the Slavonic župan). He likewise followed foreign and especially
German examples in legislative matters, endeavouring to remodel his
state entirely in a European fashion, and to make it into an orderly
land. He died in 1038. His fame as the second founder and moulder of
the Magyar kingdom is immortal. By bringing his savage barbaric nation
into the community of Christendom, he saved the Magyars from a ruin
which otherwise they could not have escaped.
(B)
CONVERSION OF THE SLAVS.
In the numerous records of missionary activity in the Christian
Church of Eastern and Western Europe there is one chapter which,
owing to special circumstances, has attained the greatest importance in
the history of the world. It deals with an incident which happened
more than a thousand
years ago, the
consequences
of which have endured
to this day, and it reveals the characteristic features of Christianity
in the East and South-East of Europe. It arose in connexion with two
brothers, Cyril and Methodius, who lived in the ninth century at Salonica,
and are still venerated by more than a hundred million Slavs as apostles
to their race and as creators of the language of their ritual, the
language which was for many centuries the medium of literary activity,
of the public life of the community, as well as of Church functions.
According to the point of view of individual scholars this historical
event has been very differently criticised and appreciated. Some modern
writers condemn it because it was chiefly the predominance of the language
of the Slav Church, based on a Byzantine model, that separated Eastern
Europe from the civilisation of Western Europe, and was principally to
blame for the unequal progress in the development of Eastern civilisa-
tion in comparison with Western. Other writers cannot praise it suf-
CH. VII.
## p. 216 (#258) ############################################
216
Sources for the history of Cyril and Methodius
ficiently because, as it led to the separation of the Slavonic East and
South-East of Europe from the Latin West, they recognise it as one of
the chief causes of the preservation of national characteristics, even
indeed of political independence.
Much has been written in modern times concerning Cyril and
Methodius. There exists a rich literature concerning them in all Slavonic
languages, in German, French, Italian, and recently also in English.
Our view of the career of the Brothers, especially of their activity
among the Slav peoples, depends on the degree of credence to be attached
to the souroes. The chief sources are the various Slav, Latin, and Greek
legends, the critical examination of which offers many difficulties. So
far, at least, no results have obtained general acceptance. Most scholars,
however, are of opinion that the two Slav (the so-called Pannonian)
Legends, Vita Cyrilli and Vita Methodii, are of great historical importance
and credible in a high degree. Where they agree with the ancient but
shorter Latin legend, the so-called Translatio S. Clementis, no doubt is cast
on the double tradition. This is the view we shall follow in this chapter.
Of utmost importance, of course, are the statements of the Popes and
of Anastasius, the librarian of the Vatican, but unfortunately they
only refer to single incidents in the life and work of Cyril and
Methodius.
All sources agree in giving Salonica as the birthplace of the two
brothers, who were of distinguished lineage. The name of their father
was Leo. He held the appointment of Drungarius. We only meet with
their mother's name, Mary, in later sources. According to the Pannonian
Legend, Constantine is said to have been the youngest of seven children.
As he was forty-two years old when he died (869), we must place his
birth in the year 827. Of Methodius we only know that he was the
elder, but no mention is made of his age in the Pannonian Vita Methodii
when the year of his death (885) is referred to. Bearing in mind the
subsequent events of his life and his relations to his younger brother, we
might be inclined to allow a difference of ten years between the two
brothers, which would therefore make 817 the year when Methodius
was born. With regard to the younger brother, all information points
to the belief that he only assumed the name of Cyril shortly before his
death at Rome. It is, however, a moot point whether Methodius did
not also bear a different name at first, which he only changed to that by
which he is known to us, when he retired into the monastery on
Mt Olympus in Bithynia.
The Latin Translatio, which treats only of Constantine, relates but
little concerning his youth. He is said to have exhibited marked talent
and as a boy to have been taken by his parents to Constantinople,
where he excelled in piety and wisdom and became a priest. We learn
a great deal more concerning the two brothers from the Pannonian Legends
which, with the exception of a few decorative details, appear quite
## p. 217 (#259) ############################################
Constantine's youth at Constantinople
217
credible, and to be based in every particular upon an intimate knowledge
of the circumstances.
The Vita Methodii tells us that he at first devoted himself to a
secular career. Of stalwart build, benefiting by the universal admira-
tion of his fellow-citizens for his parents, he is said to have gained
great esteem among the lawyers of the town of his birth, probably as
a clever jurist. In consequence of his talent in this practical direction,
he attracted the attention of the Emperor Michael III and of Theodora,
who entrusted him with the administration of a Slavonic “principality. ”
The Slavonic word kneză (prince) corresponds with the Greek ápxwv,
and Methodius was thus appointed an archon, but it is unknown where
his Slavonic government (ápxovtía) was situated, whether in Macedonia
or Thessaly. It cannot have been an important one. According to
the Legend, he administered this office for many years"; if he received
it when he was twenty-eight years of age and occupied it ten years, we
might assume that he was archon between 845 and 855, which is consistent
with what comes later. The reason given for his resolve to abandon
the secular career was that he experienced numerous difficulties. Tired
of office, he retired into a monastery on Mt Olympus in Bithynia, as is
now generally accepted, and became a monk.
Quite different, however, according to the Pannonian Legend devoted
to the life of Constantine, was the youth of the younger brother. In this
legend his preference for the study of philosophy was clothed in the form
of a poetical account of a dream he had in his seventh year, according to
which the strategus of his native town brought before him the most
beautiful maidens of Salonica, from whom he was to select a bride, and
he gave the preference to “Sophia," i. e. philosophy; that is why he was
called ó piloo odos—a title he probably received subsequently in Con-
stantinople as professor of philosophy. Legend states that he was the
best scholar in the school and conspicuous by his extraordinary memory.
Another poetic story marks his love of solitude. Once when out hawking,
the wind carried the falcon away from him. This he interpreted as an
intimation from Heaven to abandon all worldly pleasures and devote
himself entirely to study. It sounds quite credible that in his earliest
youth he preferred to read the works of Gregory Nazianzen, in which,
however, he lacked the instruction of a master. If the Legend is correct, his
father died when Constantine was fourteen; that would be in 841-842.
If this bereavement did not actually cause the youth to go to Constan-
tinople to pursue higher studies, it at least hastened his decision. The
1 It is difficult to sustain the opinion that Clement the Slav is the author of these
two legends. See my notes in the Archiv für slav. Philologie, Vol. xxvii. 1905,
pp. 384-395.
2 See Malyszevski, pp. 441-479, concerning Olympus in Asia Minor and the
sojourn there of the two brothers. This happened, as before stated, in the year 855.
If we knew that Theoctistus the Logothete was the patron of Methodius also, we
could connect his retirement from office with the death of Theoctistus in 856.
CH. VII.
## p. 218 (#260) ############################################
218
Constantine's disputations
legendary narrative connects it with his call to the capital by Theoctistus
the Logothete. Here he was to be associated with the young Emperor
Michael III; but the idea of an actual joint education is scarcely
reasonable in view of the difference in their ages of about twelve years.
Among the best masters in Constantinople are enumerated Leo and
Photius, and the chief subjects were grammar, rhetoric, dialectic, arith-
metic, geometry, astronomy, philosophy, and music. Homer is also said
to have been read. Constantine's modesty
Constantine's modesty was coupled with quickness of
perception and intense diligence. By means of these rare qualities he is
said to have gained the confidence of the Logothete to such an extent
that he introduced him into the imperial palace. The Logothete, in
fact, wanted him to marry his god-daughter and held out to him the
prospect of a brilliant career, that of strategus. But the pure asceticism
of Constantine's nature found its worthy object in a spiritual vocation.
He was ordained priest. In order, however, to chain him to Constanti-
nople, he was appointed librarian of St Sophia, under the Patriarch,
possibly Ignatius; but this post, which brought him into intimate rela-
tions with the Patriarch, was too public for him. According to the
Legend, he fled to a neighbouring monastery, where he is said to have
remained concealed for six months. When he was discovered he was
made professor of philosophy. Possibly all this happened in the year
850, or even later, as Constantine was then only twenty-three. This is
also supposed to be the date of the discussion which Constantine is said
to have had with John, who was deprived of his patriarchal dignity on
account of his iconoclastic views. This John, the Grammaticus, was
deposed in 843, but he was certainly alive in 846. In the Legend he is
represented, during his dispute with Constantine, as an old man opposed
to a young one. It is doubtful whether the disputation took place at the
request of the Emperor and many patricians in so solemn a form as
recounted in the Legend, since the latter always emphasises Constantine's
intellectual superiority in argument. As a matter of fact, shortly after-
wards, in the twenty-fourth year of his life, that is in 851–852, according
to the Legend, a new burden was imposed upon this zealous fighter for
the Orthodox faith.
This time it was a mission to the Saracens. The Translatio S.
Clementis knows nothing of it. However, although the Pannonian Legend
does not say from whom the invitation emanated and what was the
destination of the journey, whether to Melitene or to Baghdad, still it
gives some very precise particulars which seem to have an historical basis.
It alleges that Constantine was invited by the Emperor to defend the
doctrine of the Trinity in a disputation with the Saracens, and was
accompanied on the journey by two men, Asicritus and George. No other
evidence of this legendary disputation is known, but in Arabic sources
(Tabarī) mention is made of an embassy of the Byzantines to the Saracens
for the purpose of an armistice and exchange of prisoners, at the head of
## p. 219 (#261) ############################################
Relations with Photius: mission to the Chazars
219
which was a certain George, who was accompanied by many patricians and
servants, numbering nearly fifty persons. This embassy, it is true, only
took place in 855, but it is nevertheless possible that the story in the
Legend refers to this fact; only the Legend made Constantine, accompanied
by George, the principal figure and, in the interest of the disputation,
entirely omitted all the other particulars? .
On his return to Constantinople, Constantine, following the bent of
his ascetic inclinations, retired to some solitary spot and then into the
monastery on Olympus, where his brother had already taken up his abode
as a monk. Thus the brothers after long separation met under one
and the same roof in 856-858, both devoted to their pious inclinations.
It is noticeable that the Legend refers in both cases to their preference
for religious books and intellectual occupation. Concerning Constantine,
who was an old friend of Photius, an episode is related by Anastasius,
the Roman librarian, which happened about this time; indeed, some
believe that Photius was really Asicritus who, together with George,
according to the Legend, accompanied Constantine on his journey to
the Saracens. In this case, the episode related by Anastasius might
have happened about this date. Constantine criticised some remarks of
Photius, chiefly directed against the Patriarch Ignatius.
It is impossible to say how long Constantine lived in the monastery
with his brother. He now proposed to undertake a new missionary
journey, this time in the company of Methodius. Not only the Pannonian
Legend and the Translatio S. Clementis, but also Anastasius the librarian,
confirm the statement that the new journey was to be into the land of the
Chazars. They also agree that an embassy had come from that country
to Constantinople with a specific request for help in their predicament.
It
appears that they believed in God but were otherwise pagans,
being urged on the one hand by the Jews on the other by the Saracens to
accept their faith. They therefore prayed for an able missionary to
explain the Christian faith to them. The Pannonian Legend, which
again lays stress on Constantine's dialectical powers, adds at the same
time the promise that, if the Christian missionary proved victorious over
the Jews and Muslims, all the Chazars would become Christians. The
Translatio only states the final result of the mission, that Constantine was
in fact successful, and that he gained over the Chazars to the Christian faith.
The Translatio does not go into details, while in the Pannonian Legend
the principal subject is the very detailed report of the disputation. It is
said that Constantine himself wrote a treatise in Greek on the whole of
the polemical interview, and his brother is said to have divided it into
eight parts (Wóyou) and to have translated it into Slavonic. We know
1 This is the version of the Archiv für slav. Philologie, xxv. 549, in which,
however, if we believe it all, there is much of the fantastical connected with the
journey. For reference to the Greek embassy, see Vasil'ev, Vizantiya i Iraby,
St Petersburg, 1900, pp. 179-180.
and were
CH. VII.
## p. 220 (#262) ############################################
220
Discovery of the relics of St Clement
neither the Greek original nor the Slavonic version, and yet it is difficult
to regard it all as an invention. Perhaps the full text as preserved to us
in the Legend is actually an extract from the Slavonic version.
Whilst the disputation with the Jews and the Muslims takes up very
considerable space in the Pannonian Legend, the discovery of the relics
of St Clement is only mentioned with a reference to the story of their
discovery as narrated by Constantine. This reference lends additional
credibility to the Legend, as we know now from the letter of Anastasius
to Gauderic that Constantine himself really did write a brevis historia of
the incident in Greek. A full account of the discovery of the relics is
given by the Translatio S. Clementis.
The marked importance attached to the participation of Constantine
in the mission to the Chazars explains why the Legend has introduced
into the narrative all manner of incredible features to shew the ease with
which he acquired foreign languages, the irresistible power of his eloquence,
and his success in conversions. The author of the Legend in singing the
praises of his hero was led into great exaggerations. Constantine is said
to have acquired not less than four languages during his short stay in
Cherson-Hebrew, Samaritan, Chazar, and Russian. From the fact that
the last-named language is mentioned, some Russian authorities have
been led to make very bold inferences, as if Constantine in the Crimea
had not only become acquainted with Russian (i. e. the Slavonic language)
but had even derived from it his Glagolitic alphabet. The language
of the Translatio S. Clementis is more moderate on this point, and only
refers to his learning one language, that of the Chazars.
The journey to the Chazars took place probably about the year
860–861, since he must have returned home, as the Legend also says, to
make his report to the Emperor; at that time he must have written the
Brevis Historia, the Wóyos ravnyupuxós (Sermo Declamatorius), and the
Canon consisting of tropes and odes in honour of the discovery of the
relics of St Clement, all in Greek and mentioned by Anastasius in his
letter to Gauderic. There is some ground for believing that the Legend
preserved in the Slavonic language concerning the translation of the
relics of St Clement is in some way connected with the Brevis Historia
and Sermo Declamatorius mentioned by Anastasius. In addition to these
subjects, he was also engaged in learned archaeological questions, as is
proved by the interpretation, referred to in the Legend, of the Hebrew
inscription on a valuable cup in the cathedral of St Sophia. The state-
ment also seems credible that Methodius, as a reward for services rendered
to his brother on the journey, was appointed Igumen (abbot) of the rich
1 There is a considerable literature on the question. Cf. Dr Franko, St Clement
in Cherson (in Little Russian), Lemberg, 1906, and also Archiv für slav. Philologie,
vol. xxvII. , who minimises unduly the credibility of the Legends and even of
Anastasius.
2 See Bibliography to this Chapter, Sources.
## p. 221 (#263) ############################################
The invitation to Moravia
221
and important monastery of Polychronium, after having declined the
dignity of a proffered archbishopric.
The activity of the two brothers so far had no influence at all upon
the Slav peoples, except perhaps when Methodius in his younger days
was an archon. The history of the Church and civilisation of the Slavs
is affected only by the last stage of Constantine's life. The Pannonian
Legend (Vita Cyrilli), dedicated to his memory, is so little national or
Slavophil in character that it devotes only the last quarter of the whole
book to the description of a period fraught with such consequences for
the Slavs. In order correctly to gauge the historical value of the Legend
we should not lose sight of the foregoing fact. The author of the Legend
is full of admiration for Constantine as a man of great Byzantine learning,
of enthusiasm and zeal for his faith, especially in the direction of
missionary activity, and devoted to the glory of the Byzantine Empire;
he does not present him as a conspicuous Slavophil. That is also the
reason why this legend is to be preferred to many later ones which, in-
Auenced by later events, divert the activities of the two brothers from
the very beginning into Slav and especially Bulgarian channels; such are
the so-called Salonica Legend and the Obdormitio S. Cyrilli and some
others.
The Pannonian Legends place the next sphere of activity of the two
brothers in Moravia, that is to say in a Slav land in which the missionaries
from the neighbouring German dioceses of Salzburg and Passau had already
sown the first seeds of Christianity, although perhaps without much
success as yet. Indeed, according to the Translatio S. Clementis, the
Moravian prince received the news of Constantine's great success in
the land of the Chazars, and was thereby induced to address his petition
to Constantinople for a capable missionary for his own country. The
Pannonian Legend does not insist on this connexion of events, and modern
historians associate the decision of the Moravian Prince Rostislav with
the political situation of his state; after having attained political inde-
pendence, it was essential for him to avoid the influence of his powerful
East Frankish neighbour in Church matters also. According to the text
of a letter, not preserved in the original, of Pope Hadrian to the Moravo-
Pannonian princes, it would appear that before Rostislav turned to Con-
stantinople he had made overtures to Rome, but apparently without
success. If we are not to ignore the statement of the Pope entirely, we
may be able to explain the failure of Rostislav in Rome by the pre-
occupation of Pope Nicholas with events in Constantinople and Bulgaria.
All the more willing was the far-seeing Photius, who was then Patriarch
of Constantinople, and whose advice to comply with the wishes of the
Moravian prince was followed by the Emperor Michael III. All legends
agree that the Emperor induced Constantine to undertake the new
mission. The choice is well explained by his successful missions hitherto
and by his intimate relations with Photius. It must have been mooted
CA. VII.
## p. 222 (#264) ############################################
222
The invention of the Slavonic alphabet
not long after Constantine's return from his mission to the Chazars, be-
cause he himself speaks of his fatigue from that journey. We must place
this mission in the year 861, or at the latest in the spring of 862. The
Pannonian Legend relates the event in a very dramatic manner, and gives
some not unimportant details. Amongst other things, the Emperor
Michael is said to have been asked by Constantine whether the Moravian
Slavs possessed letters of the alphabet, i. e. a script for their language.
To this the Emperor is said to have replied that his father and grandfather
had already made the same inquiry, but in vain. From this anecdote we
may at least infer that previous to that time a special Slav script was
unknown. This point of view is also confirmed by the statement of the
learned monk Chrabr, who expressly declares that, prior to the invention
of the Slav script by Constantine, the Slavs were compelled to use Greek
and Latin letters when they wanted to write. In the well-known polemic
against Methodius of the year 870–871, Libellus de conversione Bago-
ariorum et Carantanorum, occurs the phrase noviter inventis Sclavinis
litteris, which does not necessarily mean that Methodius had invented
them, but that they were certainly new in his time.
To sum up, we must accept the almost contemporary tradition,
ignoring the changes introduced by later events, to the effect that Slavonic
script originated with and was fixed by Constantine. And the concrete
occasion, the expressed wish of the Byzantine Emperor and his Court
that Constantine should go to Moravia, is by no means inconsistent with
the fact that he invented an alphabet for this particular purpose. He
not only wanted to preach the Christian faith to the Moravians, but also
to offer them the written Word of God in their own language. According
to Byzantine conceptions, and in view of the many instances of Oriental
Christians who used their own language and alphabet, it was a necessary
and preliminary condition that the Slavs should in the first place possess
a script of their own. The statenient, supported by the Translatio, is
also important, namely, that the translation of the Gospels took place
at this time also.
boats, hollowed from one piece of timber, and in spring floated them
down-stream to Kiev, where they sold them to the retinue of the prince
on their return from winter quarters in the lands of the subject tribes.
The courtiers shipped their wares, evidently furs and other taxes in kind
gathered from the tribes, and in June they proceeded by the Dnieper
to the castle or fortress of Vitichev, and thence to Constantinople.
Professor Klyuchevski very acutely recognised that the imposts
which the Prince of Kiev levied as a ruler were at the same time the
articles of his trade. “When he became a ruler as a konung, he as a
Varangian (Varyag) did not cease to be an armed merchant. He shared
the taxes with his retinue, which served him as the organ of administra-
tion and was the ruling class. This class governed in winter, visiting the
country and levying taxes, and in summer trafficked in what was gathered
during the winter. "
The oriental authors give us reports of predatory expeditions of
the Russians to the shores of the Caspian Sea. From the first, under-
taken in 880, all these raids ended in disaster. A particularly audacious
one took place in 944. The Russians arrived with their ships by the
Caspian Sea at the estuary of the river Cyrus, and sailing upstream
invaded the land called by the Arabs Arran (the ancient Albania), which
belonged to the Caliphate. Their first success was the conquest of
Berdaa, the capital of Arran, situated on the river Terter, a southern
tributary of the Cyrus. From Berdaa they ravaged the surrounding
country. The governor of Azarbā'ījān levied a great army which beat
the Russians after losing a first battle, but this defeat was not decisive
enough to induce them to leave the country. Dysentery, however,
spreading rapidly among the Russian army, delivered the Albanians
from their enemies. After depredations which lasted six months the
Russians left the land, returning home with rich spoil.
It is strange that the Russian chronicles are silent about these
invasions of the shores of the Caspian Sea, since there is no reason to
doubt their reality. They are an evidence that the state of Kiev was
## p. 207 (#249) ############################################
Beginnings of Christianity
207
already strong enough in Oleg's time—for the earliest expeditions under-
taken in the tenth century were certainly his--to venture on war not
only against Constantinople but also against the East. The easier there-
fore was it for Igor to undertake such a campaign.
After Igor's death his widow Olga ascended the throne, the first
Christian princess in Russia. Christianity had begun to spread in the
principality of Kiev soon after the first expedition of the Russians against
Constantinople in 860. It is probable that the Prince of Kiev himself at
this time embraced the Christian faith. During Oleg's reign Christianity
suffered a decline, although it did not disappear, as can be inferred from
the register of the metropolitan churches subordinated to the Patriarch
of Constantinople published by the Emperor Leo VI (886–911). In the
treaty of Igor with the Greeks in 945 heathen and Christian Russians
are mentioned, and the Russian Chronicle calls the church of St Elias
(Ilya) in Kiev a cathedral, which implies that there were other churches
in the city. But it seems nevertheless that the Christian faith did not
take strong root among the Russians, and there was hardly an improve-
ment when the Princess Olga embraced Christianity, which happened
probably in 954, three years before her voyage to Constantinople. The
purpose of this visit is not known. Former writers thought Olga went
there to be baptized, but it seems to be nearer the truth that her
journey had only diplomatic aims.
A true type of the adventurous viking was Prince Svyatoslav, son of
Igor and Olga, the first prince of the Varangian dynasty to bear a
Slavonic name. The Chronicle describes him as a gallant, daring man,
undertaking long expeditions to distant lands and neglecting the interests
of his own country. His mind was filled with the plan of transferring the
centre of his state to the Balkan peninsula. He spent the greater part
of his time in foreign lands. He was the first of the Russian princes who
forced the Vyatiches to pay him tribute, whereas they had formerly been
tributary to the Chazars. But before that he tried to break the power
of the Chazars, which from the beginning of the ninth century had been
continually declining. They were pressed in the south by the Arabs and
the Transcaucasian tribes, in the north by the Patzinaks, and in the
west by the Russians. Some tribes had already thrown off their yoke.
Igor himself had cast an eager gaze on the Crimean peninsula and
on the shores of the Sea of Azov, where he would have liked to found a
Russian dominion. His political aims were followed by his successors.
The Chazars hindered these efforts. Svyatoslav therefore in 965 under-
took an expedition against them, and conquered their town Sarkel
(Bêlavêzha, White Town). After the defeat of the Chazars, Svyatoslav
attacked the Ossetes (remnants of the Alans) and the Kasogs (Cherkesses)
and subdued them. By this expedition against the Chazars and the tribes
-
CH. VII.
## p. 208 (#250) ############################################
208
Reign of Svyatoslav
belonging to their dominion, Svyatoslav laid the foundations of Tmuto-
rakanian Russia, which derived its name from its capital Tmutorakan,
the ancient Tamatarcha.
In 967 Svyatoslav undertook an expedition against the Greeks. The
Byzantine Emperor Nicephorus, indignant that the Bulgarian Tsar Peter
had not hindered the Magyars from invading the Balkan peninsula,
waged war against the Bulgars and sent the patrician Calocyrus to Prince
Svyatoslav for assistance. Calocyrus turned traitor. He concluded on his
own account with Svyatoslav a treaty for mutual support. The Russian
prince was to get Bulgaria, and Calocyrus the imperial throne. Svyato-
slav marched into Bulgaria, conquered it, and remained in Pereyaslavets
(Prêslav), the residence of the Tsar. During his absence in 968 the
Patzinaks attacked the land of Kiev, and only a ruse induced them
to leave the beleagured city. Being informed of this menace by the
inhabitants of Kiev, Svyatoslav returned and expelled the Patzinaks,
but he remained at home only to the end of 970, his mother Olga having
died meanwhile in 969. Then he again went to Bulgaria, leaving his
sons as governors, Yaropolk in Kiev and Oleg among the Derevlyans.
When the inhabitants of Novgorod also demanded a prince of their own,
he
gave
them his natural son Vladímir. But the government was in the
hands of the boyars, as all the sons were minors.
In his war with the Greeks Svyatoslav was unfortunate, although he
hired Magyar and Patzinak troops. In a short time he was forced to
make peace with Byzantium (971) and to renew the former treaties, to
which a new clause was added : the Russian prince bound himself not to
encroach on the Greek possessions in the Crimea (opposite the territory
of Cherson) or Bulgaria.
On his return home to Russia Svyatoslav perished (972) in a sudden
attack by Kurya, Prince of the Patzinaks.
The sons of Svyatoslav quarrelled. When Oleg was killed by Yaropolk,
Vladímir, fearing a similar fate, fled to the Swedes, but returned after
three years (980), and getting rid of Yaropolk by the treason of one of
his retinue ascended the throne of Svyatoslav.
Vladímir's retinue composed of heathen Varangians had the principal
share in the victories of their lord. Vladímir therefore manifested his
heathenism with the greatest zeal and erected idols on the hills of Kiev.
He himself also lived the life of a heathen; besides five legal wives he had
many concubines—the annals report 800. He very adroitly got rid of
the turbulent Varangians who had supported him; the more prominent
he won over to his party, the others were dismissed to Constantinople.
His principal aim was to extend and to consolidate the Russian
empire, which since Svyatoslav's time threatened to be dismembered into
minute principalities. In 981 he undertook an expedition against the
Vyatiches, conquered them, and forced them to pay tribute. They
## p. 209 (#251) ############################################
Vladímir the Great
209
again revolted in 982 but were subdued once more. In 984 Vladímir
took the field against the Radimiches, subdued them, and forced them
to pay tribute. The next year he marched against and defeated the
Bulgars, and then concluded a treaty of peace with them. In the last
decade of the tenth century he once more waged a victorious war against
the Bulgars.
In 1006 he concluded with them a commercial treaty, by
which the merchants of either state were allowed to carry on their trade
in the dominions of the other if they were provided with an official seal.
The statement of the Chronicle that Vladímir in 981 took the Polish
castles of Red Russia (the present eastern Galicia) is doubtful, but it is
certain that he fought a war with the Polish King Boleslav the Mighty
(982), which was ended by a treaty, as Boleslav was engaged in a war
with Bohemia. The peace was moreover secured by the marriage of
Svyatopolk, son of Vladímir and Prince of Turov, with a daughter of
Boleslav.
The incessant raids of the Patzinaks were very troublesome to Vladímir.
We read now and again in the annals that the Patzinaks invaded the
Russian country, so that there was constant war with them. These
unceasing inroads of the nomads led Vladímir to build strong fortresses
on the east and south of his territory, and to garrison them with the
best men of the Slavs (of Novgorod), the Kriviches, Chudes, and Vya-
tiches. The Russian princes as a rule subdued the southern tribes by
means of the northern peoples; with their assistance they defended
themselves also against the barbarians of the steppes.
Under Vladímir friendly relations with Byzantium were again inau-
gurated. The first step was made by the Greek Emperor Basil II,
who (in 988) asked Vladímir to assist him against the anti-Emperor
Bardas Phocas. Vladimir promised his help on condition that the
Emperor would give him his sister in marriage. Basil accepted this
condition if Vladímir consented to be baptised: The Russian prince
agreed and sent his army in the spring or summer of 988 to Basil. This
army of 6000 infantry remained in Greece even after Phocas had been
killed, and took part in the Byzantine wars in Asia in 999-1000. From
that time to the last quarter of the eleventh century the Varangians
formed the bodyguard of the Byzantine Emperors. Later on they were
replaced by soldiers from Western Europe, principally Englishmen.
When the Emperor Basil had been delivered from peril, he hesitated
over the fulfilment of his promise to give his sister Anne to Vladimir
to wife. The Russian prince, offended by this delay, attacked the Greek
possessions in the Crimea. He succeeded (989) in taking Cherson after a
long siege. But meanwhile the Greek Emperor was again in difficulties
in his own lands, especially in consequence of a revolt in Bulgaria, so
that he was obliged to regain Vladimir's good will and to send him his
sister Anne, who received Cherson for her dower.
At that time Vladímir was already a Christian, having been baptised
C. MED, H. VOL. IV. CA. VII.
14
## p. 210 (#252) ############################################
210
Russia accepts Christianity
about the beginning of 988. The long intercourse of Russia with Con-
stantinople had prepared a favourable ground for the Christian faith.
Various missionaries came to the prince at short intervals to explain
the advantages of their religion. Finally, he declared for Christianity,
and, having received baptism, he had his twelve sons christened also, and
encouraged the spread of Christianity among the boyars and the people.
Some districts of the Russian empire nevertheless still remained heathen
for a long time. There were pagans among the Vyatiches and Kriviches
in the beginning of the twelfth century, and in Murom even in the
thirteenth century.
During Vladímir's reign an attempt was also made to win the Russians
over to Rome. With the daughter of Boleslav the Mighty, Reinbern,
Bishop of Kolberg, arrived at the court of Vladímir's son Svyatopolk at
Turov, and tried to sever the young Russian Church from the Eastern
Church. Vladímir, as soon as he was informed of the plans of Reinbern,
imprisoned Svyatopolk, his wife, and the bishop. Thereupon a war broke
out with Boleslav, who hastened to make peace with the Germans (1013),
and having hired troops from them and the Patzinaks set out against
Vladímir. He only devastated the land without gaining further results.
Vladímir died in 1015.
The importance of Vladímir in Russian history is enormous. He
subdued the tribes which had gained their independence under his pre-
decessors; he defended the empire against the barbarians of the steppes ;
he accepted Christianity and introduced Christian reforms. He success-
fully closed the tenth century, the heroic period of Russian history; his
reign was famous for the maritime expeditions against the Greeks, the
inroads beyond the Danube, the occupation of Bulgaria, and the expedi-
tions against the Chazars and Bulgars.
We have yet to say something of the Magyars in their new home in
Hungary.
About the year 895 or 896 the Magyars crossed the northern Car-
pathian Mountains, and endeavoured in the first place to occupy the
lands near the upper course of the river Theiss. The progressive occupa-
tion of the territories of later Hungary was made easy to the Magyars
by the circumstance that the new political formations, which had begun to
arise here, were feeble and of no long duration. The north-western part
of later Hungary, inhabited at that time by Slovaks, was a constituent
part of the Great Moravian realm, which extended as far as the river
Theiss and probably some distance to the south between this river and the
Danube. After the death of Svatopluk (894), the Magyars had nothing
to fear from the Great Moravian state, which was now governed by his
discordant sons. During their quarrels it was an easy matter for the
Magyars to occupy the northern part of the territory between the Theiss
and the Danube. This is the only possible explanation of their being
## p. 211 (#253) ############################################
The Magyars in Hungary
211
able to penetrate without opposition into Pannonia, and to undertake
their predatory invasions into Italy. In Lower Pannonia there arose
by the first half of the ninth century the Slavonic principality of Pribina
(840) under the suzerainty of the Franks, with his capital of Blatno
(Urbs paludum, Mosaburch) near where the river Zala flows into the
lake of Blatno (Balaton). The limits of Pribina's principality can only
be given approximately. To the north-west it extended to the river
Raab, to the south-west to Pettau, to the south as far as the Drave,
and to the north and east about to the Danube. With the Slavs there
also lived German colonists from Bavaria in scattered settlements in this
principality. The country between the Danube and the Raab was
settled by Germans, who there formed the majority of the population.
In ecclesiastical affairs Pannonia was divided after 829 between the
bishoprics of Salzburg and Passau. During the reign of Kocel (861-874),
Pribina's successor, the Moravo-Pannonian Slavonic archbishopric was
founded about 870 and St Methodius installed in the see. After Kocel's
death Lower Pannonia was again governed by German officials. Only
after the arrival of the Magyars in Hungary, King Arnulf in 896 in-
vested the Croatian prince Braslav, reigning between the rivers Drave
and Save, with the south-western part of Pannonia as a fief.
The most ancient Hungarian chronicler, the so-called Anonymus regis
Belae notarius, gives us some, not altogether reliable, accounts of the
political divisions in the other parts of Hungary and in Transylvania.
If we supplement the account of the Anonymus with those of the Frankish
authors, we can conclude that in the eastern half of Hungary beyond the
river Theiss, and perhaps in Transylvania, there were at the end of the
ninth century some feeble principalities probably tributary to the Bulgars,
and that these were neither old enough nor sufficiently developed to stop
the progress of the warlike Magyar tribes. It is certain that in the lands
beyond the Theiss as well as in the so-called Black Hungary (Transyl-
vania) there were numerous Slavonic inhabitants, and even now we can
find traces of them in the place-names.
We have hardly any other accounts of the Magyars, during the first
fifty years after the occupation of Hungary, than that they raided the
neighbouring countries. As early as 898 a scouting party of Magyars
came into north-eastern Italy to the river Brenta, and the following year
the Magyars made a new invasion, and overflowed the plain of Lombardy,
plundering and burning the land. For a whole year, until the spring
of 900, they devastated Italy, and King Berengar only induced them to
leave the country by presents, even giving hostages. On their return
they devastated the greater part of Pannonia belonging to the German
kingdom, and immediately afterwards, in the middle of the year 900, the
whole Magyar nation crossed the Danube and occupied Lower Pannonia
as far as the river Raab. That it was possible to do so without serious
opposition from the Germans may be explained by the foolish policy
CH. VA.
14-2
## p. 212 (#254) ############################################
212
The Magyar raids
of Bavaria. Liutpold of Bavaria, founder of the dynasty of Wittelsbach,
preferred to be at enmity with the Great Moravian state rather than to
oppose the Magyars. But no sooner had the Magyars conquered Pannonia,
than they appeared in Bavaria beyond the Inn. The Bavarians only suc-
ceeded in destroying a part of the Magyars ; the others escaped with a
rich booty. The Bavarians did not make peace with Moravia until 901,
when it had become too late.
In 906 the Magyars overthrew the Great Moravian state. The
Bavarians in 907 invaded the Magyar territory, but were defeated, and
after that Upper Pannonia was also conquered by the Magyars. Under
Árpád's successors the Magyars constantly made predatory incursions,
and penetrated still farther to the west. Nobody opposed their pro-
gress, because the former provinces of the Frankish Empire were in
decline. The weapons of the Germans were clumsy: heavy armour,
a heavy helmet, a great shield, and a long sword. The Magyars on the
contrary appeared suddenly on their swift horses and poured showers
of arrows upon their enemies, causing great disorder among them and
turning them to flight. The foe seldom succeeded in surprising the
Magyars before they had arrayed themselves for battle, because their
scouts were exceedingly wary and vigilant. A frequent military ruse of
the Magyars was to feign a flight in order to entice the enemy into pur-
suit. Suddenly they would turn and frighten the pursuers so thoroughly
by a flood of arrows that it was an easy matter for their reserves to
attack and destroy the baffled foe. The Magyars lacked skill only in
taking castles and fortresses; in Germany and Italy therefore the in-
habitants began quickly to fortify their towns.
The history of these western invasions, ending with the decisive
defeat (955) on the Lechfeld, has been told in the preceding volume of
this work. The turn of the Balkan peninsula came comparatively late.
It was after their defeat in Saxony in 933 that the Magyars turned their
attention in this direction. In the spring of 934 they invaded Thrace
in company with Patzinaks with a force which penetrated to Constanti-
nople. Masóūdi gives us a somewhat confused report of this incursion,
declaring that four tribes were allied against the Greeks, although it
seems that only the Magyars with the Patzinaks were the invaders.
Marquart thinks that by the town Walandar, conquered at this time by
the barbarian armies, Develtus near the modern Burgas is meant. It
seems that since 934 the Magyars regularly demanded tribute from the
Greeks, at first every nine and later on every five years. In 943 they
came again, and the Emperor Romanus Lecapenus appointed the
patrician Theophanes, as he had done in 934, to negotiate with them.
Theophanes succeeded in concluding a truce for five years, for which
both parties gave hostages. It is probable that about this time the
Byzantines tried, but in vain, to gain the Magyars for allies against the
Patzinaks. After that the Magyars invaded the Balkan peninsula several
## p. 213 (#255) ############################################
The Magyars become a settled people
213
times, especially in 959 and 962. In 967 a band of Magyars joined the
Russian prince Svyatoslav when he attacked Bulgaria.
After the Lechfeld, however, the aggressiveness of the Magyars
considerably declined. Western Europe now remained safe from their
predatory inroads, and at last even the expeditions against the Balkan
peninsula ceased. During the three-quarters of a century in which the
Magyars had occupied their new homes in Hungary, political and other
conditions had greatly changed. In the first place the neighbours of the
Magyars had grown much stronger. This is true principally of the
Germanic Empire, which, under the dynasty of Saxon kings, was far more
powerful than under the later Carolingians. In the south the Greek
Empire stretched as far as the Danube, and completely checked any new
Magyar expeditions to the Balkan peninsula. In course of time even the
mode of life of the leading Magyars had somewhat changed. Not only
Prince Géza but also several chieftains ceased to live in tents, preferring
castles for their abodes. This change was caused by the Christian religion,
which in the meanwhile had spread in the neighbouring countries and
extended its influence also among the inhabitants of Hungary, especially
in ancient Pannonia, where a great portion of the Germans and Slavs were
Christians. Through these Christian inhabitants the Magyars became
acquainted with a peaceful manner of life, with agriculture and trade.
During the three-quarters of a century even the ethnic character of the
inhabitants underwent a great modification. The Magyars, who were not
very numerous even at the time of their occupation of Hungary, did not
increase considerably because of their frequent predatory expeditions into
foreign lands. Only the first generation was able to gain victories abroad,
in fact while the military tactics of the Magyars were unknown. The
second generation met with repeated calamities. Many Magyars perished
these expeditions ; only a small band returned from the battle of the
Lechfeld. The decrease of the Magyar element was unavoidably followed
by a great intermixture of the remaining population, which also caused a
change in the character of the nation.
In short, since the accession of Géza as Prince of the Magyars, about
970, there begins a radical change in the history of the Magyars. Géza
was the first ruler who was judicious enough to see that his people could
hold its own among other nations if it would live with them in peace
and if it would accept Christianity. Immediately after his accession to the
throne he sent messengers to the Emperor Otto I in 973 to initiate friendly
relations with Gerinany. That he resolved on this course of action must
be attributed to the influence of his wife Adelaide, a princess of Polish
blood and a fervent Christian. By her recommendation St Vojtěch
(Adalbert), Bishop of Prague and a distant relative of hers, was called
to Hungary. About 985 he converted to the Christian faith not only
Géza but also his ten-year-old son Vajk, to whom the name Stephen
was given in baptism. Ten years later (995) Benedictine monks from
CA. VU.
## p. 214 (#256) ############################################
214
Christianisation of Hungary
Bohemia came to Hungary and settled, as it seems, in the monastery of
Zobor upon the Nyitra. This Christianisation was moreover very much
furthered by Géza having chosen Gisela, a princess of the German
imperial dynasty, as a bride for his son Stephen (996). The work begun
by Géza was brought to a good end by Stephen, who was canonised for
his apostolic zeal. Stephen, immediately after his accession to the throne
(997), ordered his subjects to accept Christianity. To set a good example
he liberated his slaves. He visited his lands and everywhere preached the
new religion. He called in foreign priests, especially Slavs, to assist him.
Etymological researches have proved that the ecclesiastical terminology
of the Magyars is to a considerable degree of Slavonic origin. This alone
would lead to the indubitable conclusion that the first missionaries of
the Gospel among the Magyars were to a great extent Slavs belonging
to the Roman obedience.
And the accounts of the conversion witness to
the same fact.
Bohemian priests took a prominent share in the spreading of the
Christian faith in Hungary. In the first place Radla, the former com-
panion of St Vojtěch, must be named, who worked in the Hungarian
realm from 995 to about 1008; then Anastasius, formerly Abbot at
Břevnov near Prague in Bohemia, later of St Martin's in Hungary, and
finally Archbishop of Gran (Esztergom) from 1001-1028. Also Astrik,
Abbot of Pécsvárad and later Archbishop of Kalocsa, who had been at
first one of the priests of St Vojtěch and then an abbot in Poland,
excelled among the Slav preachers of the faith in Hungary. Further,
St Gerard, tutor of Stephen's son Emeric, and later Bishop of Csanád,
was a signal propagator of Christianity in Hungary. St Stephen
himself founded several bishoprics and monasteries : besides the arch-
bishoprics of Esztergom and Kalocsa, he instituted the bishoprics of
Veszprém, Pécs (Fünfkirchen), Csanád, Vácz (Waitzen), Raab (Györ),
Eger (Erlau), and Nagy-Várad (Grosswardein) and Gyulafehérvár (Karls-
burg) in Transylvania.
It was the greatest political success of St Stephen that he secured for
his lands a complete independence in their ecclesiastical and secular rela-
tions. He sent an embassy to Pope Sylvester II to obtain for the
Hungarian ruler a royal crown and papal sanction for the ecclesiastical
organisation. The Pope complied with both requests, and sent to
St Stephen not only the royal crown but also an apostolic cross. Stephen
had himself solemnly crowned as king in 1001.
St Stephen only succeeded with difficulty in controlling the refractory
chieftains of the tribes. One of them, for instance, Kopány, chief of
Somogy (Shümeg) and cousin to St Stephen, headed a revolt in favour
of heathenism, but was defeated. Prokuy also, a maternal relative of
St Stephen, prince in the territories on both sides of the Theiss, belonged
to the turbulent element which hated Christianity. St Stephen sub-
dued him too, and removed him from his government. In Hungary itself,
## p. 215 (#257) ############################################
St Stephen
215
in the south-eastern corner of the land bordered by the rivers Maros,
Theiss, and Danube, and by Transylvania, there lay the principality of
Aytony (Akhtum). This small principality was also overthrown by
St Stephen about 1025.
St Stephen also organised the administration of the land after foreign
models, partly German and partly Slav. He arranged his court after the
German fashion, and divided his lands into counties (comitatus), appointing
as their governors officials called in Latin comites, in Magyar ispanok
(from the Slavonic župan). He likewise followed foreign and especially
German examples in legislative matters, endeavouring to remodel his
state entirely in a European fashion, and to make it into an orderly
land. He died in 1038. His fame as the second founder and moulder of
the Magyar kingdom is immortal. By bringing his savage barbaric nation
into the community of Christendom, he saved the Magyars from a ruin
which otherwise they could not have escaped.
(B)
CONVERSION OF THE SLAVS.
In the numerous records of missionary activity in the Christian
Church of Eastern and Western Europe there is one chapter which,
owing to special circumstances, has attained the greatest importance in
the history of the world. It deals with an incident which happened
more than a thousand
years ago, the
consequences
of which have endured
to this day, and it reveals the characteristic features of Christianity
in the East and South-East of Europe. It arose in connexion with two
brothers, Cyril and Methodius, who lived in the ninth century at Salonica,
and are still venerated by more than a hundred million Slavs as apostles
to their race and as creators of the language of their ritual, the
language which was for many centuries the medium of literary activity,
of the public life of the community, as well as of Church functions.
According to the point of view of individual scholars this historical
event has been very differently criticised and appreciated. Some modern
writers condemn it because it was chiefly the predominance of the language
of the Slav Church, based on a Byzantine model, that separated Eastern
Europe from the civilisation of Western Europe, and was principally to
blame for the unequal progress in the development of Eastern civilisa-
tion in comparison with Western. Other writers cannot praise it suf-
CH. VII.
## p. 216 (#258) ############################################
216
Sources for the history of Cyril and Methodius
ficiently because, as it led to the separation of the Slavonic East and
South-East of Europe from the Latin West, they recognise it as one of
the chief causes of the preservation of national characteristics, even
indeed of political independence.
Much has been written in modern times concerning Cyril and
Methodius. There exists a rich literature concerning them in all Slavonic
languages, in German, French, Italian, and recently also in English.
Our view of the career of the Brothers, especially of their activity
among the Slav peoples, depends on the degree of credence to be attached
to the souroes. The chief sources are the various Slav, Latin, and Greek
legends, the critical examination of which offers many difficulties. So
far, at least, no results have obtained general acceptance. Most scholars,
however, are of opinion that the two Slav (the so-called Pannonian)
Legends, Vita Cyrilli and Vita Methodii, are of great historical importance
and credible in a high degree. Where they agree with the ancient but
shorter Latin legend, the so-called Translatio S. Clementis, no doubt is cast
on the double tradition. This is the view we shall follow in this chapter.
Of utmost importance, of course, are the statements of the Popes and
of Anastasius, the librarian of the Vatican, but unfortunately they
only refer to single incidents in the life and work of Cyril and
Methodius.
All sources agree in giving Salonica as the birthplace of the two
brothers, who were of distinguished lineage. The name of their father
was Leo. He held the appointment of Drungarius. We only meet with
their mother's name, Mary, in later sources. According to the Pannonian
Legend, Constantine is said to have been the youngest of seven children.
As he was forty-two years old when he died (869), we must place his
birth in the year 827. Of Methodius we only know that he was the
elder, but no mention is made of his age in the Pannonian Vita Methodii
when the year of his death (885) is referred to. Bearing in mind the
subsequent events of his life and his relations to his younger brother, we
might be inclined to allow a difference of ten years between the two
brothers, which would therefore make 817 the year when Methodius
was born. With regard to the younger brother, all information points
to the belief that he only assumed the name of Cyril shortly before his
death at Rome. It is, however, a moot point whether Methodius did
not also bear a different name at first, which he only changed to that by
which he is known to us, when he retired into the monastery on
Mt Olympus in Bithynia.
The Latin Translatio, which treats only of Constantine, relates but
little concerning his youth. He is said to have exhibited marked talent
and as a boy to have been taken by his parents to Constantinople,
where he excelled in piety and wisdom and became a priest. We learn
a great deal more concerning the two brothers from the Pannonian Legends
which, with the exception of a few decorative details, appear quite
## p. 217 (#259) ############################################
Constantine's youth at Constantinople
217
credible, and to be based in every particular upon an intimate knowledge
of the circumstances.
The Vita Methodii tells us that he at first devoted himself to a
secular career. Of stalwart build, benefiting by the universal admira-
tion of his fellow-citizens for his parents, he is said to have gained
great esteem among the lawyers of the town of his birth, probably as
a clever jurist. In consequence of his talent in this practical direction,
he attracted the attention of the Emperor Michael III and of Theodora,
who entrusted him with the administration of a Slavonic “principality. ”
The Slavonic word kneză (prince) corresponds with the Greek ápxwv,
and Methodius was thus appointed an archon, but it is unknown where
his Slavonic government (ápxovtía) was situated, whether in Macedonia
or Thessaly. It cannot have been an important one. According to
the Legend, he administered this office for many years"; if he received
it when he was twenty-eight years of age and occupied it ten years, we
might assume that he was archon between 845 and 855, which is consistent
with what comes later. The reason given for his resolve to abandon
the secular career was that he experienced numerous difficulties. Tired
of office, he retired into a monastery on Mt Olympus in Bithynia, as is
now generally accepted, and became a monk.
Quite different, however, according to the Pannonian Legend devoted
to the life of Constantine, was the youth of the younger brother. In this
legend his preference for the study of philosophy was clothed in the form
of a poetical account of a dream he had in his seventh year, according to
which the strategus of his native town brought before him the most
beautiful maidens of Salonica, from whom he was to select a bride, and
he gave the preference to “Sophia," i. e. philosophy; that is why he was
called ó piloo odos—a title he probably received subsequently in Con-
stantinople as professor of philosophy. Legend states that he was the
best scholar in the school and conspicuous by his extraordinary memory.
Another poetic story marks his love of solitude. Once when out hawking,
the wind carried the falcon away from him. This he interpreted as an
intimation from Heaven to abandon all worldly pleasures and devote
himself entirely to study. It sounds quite credible that in his earliest
youth he preferred to read the works of Gregory Nazianzen, in which,
however, he lacked the instruction of a master. If the Legend is correct, his
father died when Constantine was fourteen; that would be in 841-842.
If this bereavement did not actually cause the youth to go to Constan-
tinople to pursue higher studies, it at least hastened his decision. The
1 It is difficult to sustain the opinion that Clement the Slav is the author of these
two legends. See my notes in the Archiv für slav. Philologie, Vol. xxvii. 1905,
pp. 384-395.
2 See Malyszevski, pp. 441-479, concerning Olympus in Asia Minor and the
sojourn there of the two brothers. This happened, as before stated, in the year 855.
If we knew that Theoctistus the Logothete was the patron of Methodius also, we
could connect his retirement from office with the death of Theoctistus in 856.
CH. VII.
## p. 218 (#260) ############################################
218
Constantine's disputations
legendary narrative connects it with his call to the capital by Theoctistus
the Logothete. Here he was to be associated with the young Emperor
Michael III; but the idea of an actual joint education is scarcely
reasonable in view of the difference in their ages of about twelve years.
Among the best masters in Constantinople are enumerated Leo and
Photius, and the chief subjects were grammar, rhetoric, dialectic, arith-
metic, geometry, astronomy, philosophy, and music. Homer is also said
to have been read. Constantine's modesty
Constantine's modesty was coupled with quickness of
perception and intense diligence. By means of these rare qualities he is
said to have gained the confidence of the Logothete to such an extent
that he introduced him into the imperial palace. The Logothete, in
fact, wanted him to marry his god-daughter and held out to him the
prospect of a brilliant career, that of strategus. But the pure asceticism
of Constantine's nature found its worthy object in a spiritual vocation.
He was ordained priest. In order, however, to chain him to Constanti-
nople, he was appointed librarian of St Sophia, under the Patriarch,
possibly Ignatius; but this post, which brought him into intimate rela-
tions with the Patriarch, was too public for him. According to the
Legend, he fled to a neighbouring monastery, where he is said to have
remained concealed for six months. When he was discovered he was
made professor of philosophy. Possibly all this happened in the year
850, or even later, as Constantine was then only twenty-three. This is
also supposed to be the date of the discussion which Constantine is said
to have had with John, who was deprived of his patriarchal dignity on
account of his iconoclastic views. This John, the Grammaticus, was
deposed in 843, but he was certainly alive in 846. In the Legend he is
represented, during his dispute with Constantine, as an old man opposed
to a young one. It is doubtful whether the disputation took place at the
request of the Emperor and many patricians in so solemn a form as
recounted in the Legend, since the latter always emphasises Constantine's
intellectual superiority in argument. As a matter of fact, shortly after-
wards, in the twenty-fourth year of his life, that is in 851–852, according
to the Legend, a new burden was imposed upon this zealous fighter for
the Orthodox faith.
This time it was a mission to the Saracens. The Translatio S.
Clementis knows nothing of it. However, although the Pannonian Legend
does not say from whom the invitation emanated and what was the
destination of the journey, whether to Melitene or to Baghdad, still it
gives some very precise particulars which seem to have an historical basis.
It alleges that Constantine was invited by the Emperor to defend the
doctrine of the Trinity in a disputation with the Saracens, and was
accompanied on the journey by two men, Asicritus and George. No other
evidence of this legendary disputation is known, but in Arabic sources
(Tabarī) mention is made of an embassy of the Byzantines to the Saracens
for the purpose of an armistice and exchange of prisoners, at the head of
## p. 219 (#261) ############################################
Relations with Photius: mission to the Chazars
219
which was a certain George, who was accompanied by many patricians and
servants, numbering nearly fifty persons. This embassy, it is true, only
took place in 855, but it is nevertheless possible that the story in the
Legend refers to this fact; only the Legend made Constantine, accompanied
by George, the principal figure and, in the interest of the disputation,
entirely omitted all the other particulars? .
On his return to Constantinople, Constantine, following the bent of
his ascetic inclinations, retired to some solitary spot and then into the
monastery on Olympus, where his brother had already taken up his abode
as a monk. Thus the brothers after long separation met under one
and the same roof in 856-858, both devoted to their pious inclinations.
It is noticeable that the Legend refers in both cases to their preference
for religious books and intellectual occupation. Concerning Constantine,
who was an old friend of Photius, an episode is related by Anastasius,
the Roman librarian, which happened about this time; indeed, some
believe that Photius was really Asicritus who, together with George,
according to the Legend, accompanied Constantine on his journey to
the Saracens. In this case, the episode related by Anastasius might
have happened about this date. Constantine criticised some remarks of
Photius, chiefly directed against the Patriarch Ignatius.
It is impossible to say how long Constantine lived in the monastery
with his brother. He now proposed to undertake a new missionary
journey, this time in the company of Methodius. Not only the Pannonian
Legend and the Translatio S. Clementis, but also Anastasius the librarian,
confirm the statement that the new journey was to be into the land of the
Chazars. They also agree that an embassy had come from that country
to Constantinople with a specific request for help in their predicament.
It
appears that they believed in God but were otherwise pagans,
being urged on the one hand by the Jews on the other by the Saracens to
accept their faith. They therefore prayed for an able missionary to
explain the Christian faith to them. The Pannonian Legend, which
again lays stress on Constantine's dialectical powers, adds at the same
time the promise that, if the Christian missionary proved victorious over
the Jews and Muslims, all the Chazars would become Christians. The
Translatio only states the final result of the mission, that Constantine was
in fact successful, and that he gained over the Chazars to the Christian faith.
The Translatio does not go into details, while in the Pannonian Legend
the principal subject is the very detailed report of the disputation. It is
said that Constantine himself wrote a treatise in Greek on the whole of
the polemical interview, and his brother is said to have divided it into
eight parts (Wóyou) and to have translated it into Slavonic. We know
1 This is the version of the Archiv für slav. Philologie, xxv. 549, in which,
however, if we believe it all, there is much of the fantastical connected with the
journey. For reference to the Greek embassy, see Vasil'ev, Vizantiya i Iraby,
St Petersburg, 1900, pp. 179-180.
and were
CH. VII.
## p. 220 (#262) ############################################
220
Discovery of the relics of St Clement
neither the Greek original nor the Slavonic version, and yet it is difficult
to regard it all as an invention. Perhaps the full text as preserved to us
in the Legend is actually an extract from the Slavonic version.
Whilst the disputation with the Jews and the Muslims takes up very
considerable space in the Pannonian Legend, the discovery of the relics
of St Clement is only mentioned with a reference to the story of their
discovery as narrated by Constantine. This reference lends additional
credibility to the Legend, as we know now from the letter of Anastasius
to Gauderic that Constantine himself really did write a brevis historia of
the incident in Greek. A full account of the discovery of the relics is
given by the Translatio S. Clementis.
The marked importance attached to the participation of Constantine
in the mission to the Chazars explains why the Legend has introduced
into the narrative all manner of incredible features to shew the ease with
which he acquired foreign languages, the irresistible power of his eloquence,
and his success in conversions. The author of the Legend in singing the
praises of his hero was led into great exaggerations. Constantine is said
to have acquired not less than four languages during his short stay in
Cherson-Hebrew, Samaritan, Chazar, and Russian. From the fact that
the last-named language is mentioned, some Russian authorities have
been led to make very bold inferences, as if Constantine in the Crimea
had not only become acquainted with Russian (i. e. the Slavonic language)
but had even derived from it his Glagolitic alphabet. The language
of the Translatio S. Clementis is more moderate on this point, and only
refers to his learning one language, that of the Chazars.
The journey to the Chazars took place probably about the year
860–861, since he must have returned home, as the Legend also says, to
make his report to the Emperor; at that time he must have written the
Brevis Historia, the Wóyos ravnyupuxós (Sermo Declamatorius), and the
Canon consisting of tropes and odes in honour of the discovery of the
relics of St Clement, all in Greek and mentioned by Anastasius in his
letter to Gauderic. There is some ground for believing that the Legend
preserved in the Slavonic language concerning the translation of the
relics of St Clement is in some way connected with the Brevis Historia
and Sermo Declamatorius mentioned by Anastasius. In addition to these
subjects, he was also engaged in learned archaeological questions, as is
proved by the interpretation, referred to in the Legend, of the Hebrew
inscription on a valuable cup in the cathedral of St Sophia. The state-
ment also seems credible that Methodius, as a reward for services rendered
to his brother on the journey, was appointed Igumen (abbot) of the rich
1 There is a considerable literature on the question. Cf. Dr Franko, St Clement
in Cherson (in Little Russian), Lemberg, 1906, and also Archiv für slav. Philologie,
vol. xxvII. , who minimises unduly the credibility of the Legends and even of
Anastasius.
2 See Bibliography to this Chapter, Sources.
## p. 221 (#263) ############################################
The invitation to Moravia
221
and important monastery of Polychronium, after having declined the
dignity of a proffered archbishopric.
The activity of the two brothers so far had no influence at all upon
the Slav peoples, except perhaps when Methodius in his younger days
was an archon. The history of the Church and civilisation of the Slavs
is affected only by the last stage of Constantine's life. The Pannonian
Legend (Vita Cyrilli), dedicated to his memory, is so little national or
Slavophil in character that it devotes only the last quarter of the whole
book to the description of a period fraught with such consequences for
the Slavs. In order correctly to gauge the historical value of the Legend
we should not lose sight of the foregoing fact. The author of the Legend
is full of admiration for Constantine as a man of great Byzantine learning,
of enthusiasm and zeal for his faith, especially in the direction of
missionary activity, and devoted to the glory of the Byzantine Empire;
he does not present him as a conspicuous Slavophil. That is also the
reason why this legend is to be preferred to many later ones which, in-
Auenced by later events, divert the activities of the two brothers from
the very beginning into Slav and especially Bulgarian channels; such are
the so-called Salonica Legend and the Obdormitio S. Cyrilli and some
others.
The Pannonian Legends place the next sphere of activity of the two
brothers in Moravia, that is to say in a Slav land in which the missionaries
from the neighbouring German dioceses of Salzburg and Passau had already
sown the first seeds of Christianity, although perhaps without much
success as yet. Indeed, according to the Translatio S. Clementis, the
Moravian prince received the news of Constantine's great success in
the land of the Chazars, and was thereby induced to address his petition
to Constantinople for a capable missionary for his own country. The
Pannonian Legend does not insist on this connexion of events, and modern
historians associate the decision of the Moravian Prince Rostislav with
the political situation of his state; after having attained political inde-
pendence, it was essential for him to avoid the influence of his powerful
East Frankish neighbour in Church matters also. According to the text
of a letter, not preserved in the original, of Pope Hadrian to the Moravo-
Pannonian princes, it would appear that before Rostislav turned to Con-
stantinople he had made overtures to Rome, but apparently without
success. If we are not to ignore the statement of the Pope entirely, we
may be able to explain the failure of Rostislav in Rome by the pre-
occupation of Pope Nicholas with events in Constantinople and Bulgaria.
All the more willing was the far-seeing Photius, who was then Patriarch
of Constantinople, and whose advice to comply with the wishes of the
Moravian prince was followed by the Emperor Michael III. All legends
agree that the Emperor induced Constantine to undertake the new
mission. The choice is well explained by his successful missions hitherto
and by his intimate relations with Photius. It must have been mooted
CA. VII.
## p. 222 (#264) ############################################
222
The invention of the Slavonic alphabet
not long after Constantine's return from his mission to the Chazars, be-
cause he himself speaks of his fatigue from that journey. We must place
this mission in the year 861, or at the latest in the spring of 862. The
Pannonian Legend relates the event in a very dramatic manner, and gives
some not unimportant details. Amongst other things, the Emperor
Michael is said to have been asked by Constantine whether the Moravian
Slavs possessed letters of the alphabet, i. e. a script for their language.
To this the Emperor is said to have replied that his father and grandfather
had already made the same inquiry, but in vain. From this anecdote we
may at least infer that previous to that time a special Slav script was
unknown. This point of view is also confirmed by the statement of the
learned monk Chrabr, who expressly declares that, prior to the invention
of the Slav script by Constantine, the Slavs were compelled to use Greek
and Latin letters when they wanted to write. In the well-known polemic
against Methodius of the year 870–871, Libellus de conversione Bago-
ariorum et Carantanorum, occurs the phrase noviter inventis Sclavinis
litteris, which does not necessarily mean that Methodius had invented
them, but that they were certainly new in his time.
To sum up, we must accept the almost contemporary tradition,
ignoring the changes introduced by later events, to the effect that Slavonic
script originated with and was fixed by Constantine. And the concrete
occasion, the expressed wish of the Byzantine Emperor and his Court
that Constantine should go to Moravia, is by no means inconsistent with
the fact that he invented an alphabet for this particular purpose. He
not only wanted to preach the Christian faith to the Moravians, but also
to offer them the written Word of God in their own language. According
to Byzantine conceptions, and in view of the many instances of Oriental
Christians who used their own language and alphabet, it was a necessary
and preliminary condition that the Slavs should in the first place possess
a script of their own. The statenient, supported by the Translatio, is
also important, namely, that the translation of the Gospels took place
at this time also.
