A LARGE DESCRIPTION OF RUSSIA a.d. 



1558. 



and so take it themselves, and give it to others that 



receive with them after the same maner. 



Their ceremonies are al as they say, according to the 

 Greeke Church used at this present day, and they allow 

 no other religion but the Greeks, and their owne : and 

 will not permit any nation but the Greeks to be buried 

 in their sacred burials, or churchyards. 



All their churches are full of images, unto the which 

 the people when they assemble, doe bowe and knocke 

 their heads, as I have before said, that some will have 

 knobbes upon their foreheads with knocking, as great 

 as egges. 



All their service is in the Russe tongue, and they Al their ser- 

 and the common people have no other praiers but this, vice is in their 

 Ghospodi Jesus Christos esine voze ponuloi nashe. m other tongue. 

 That is to say, O Lorde Jesus Christ, sonne of God 

 have mercy upon us : and this is their prayer, so that 

 the most part of the unlearned know neither Pater 

 noster, nor the Beliefe, nor Ten commandements, nor 

 scarcely understand the one halfe of their service which 

 is read in their Churches. 



Of their Baptisme. 



WHen any child is borne, it is not baptized until 

 the next Sunday, and if it chance that it be not 

 baptized then, it must tary until the second Sunday after 

 the birth, and it is lawfull for them to take as many 

 Godfathers and Godmothers as they will, the more the 

 better. 



When they go to the Church, the midwife goeth for- 

 most, carying the childe, & the Godfathers and God- 

 mothers follow into the midst of the Church, where 

 there is a small table ready set, and on it an earthen 

 pot ful of warme water, about the which the Godfathers 

 and Godmothers, with the childe, settle themselves : then 

 the clearke giveth unto every of them a smal waxe candle 

 burning, then commeth the priest, and beginneth to say 

 certaine words, which the Godfathers and Godmothers 



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