316 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1800. 



religion. Accordingly he received, 

 at almost the same time, deputies 

 from the Pope, or rather from some 

 Catholic prince who wished to at- 

 tract him to the church of Rome; 

 persons from Great Bulgaria, ex- 

 horting him to embrace the doc- 

 trines of Mohammed; and, it is 

 even said, that some Jews, esta- 

 blished among the Kozares, came 

 to expound to him the law of Moses. 

 But none of these deputies had any 

 success. A mission more fortunate 

 was that of a Greek, whom the 

 chronicles call a philosopher, and 

 yet perhaps he was not one. If 

 he did not induce Vladimir to em- 

 brace the Greek ritual, at least he 

 succeeded in making him think fa- 

 vourably of it, and returned to his 

 country loaded with presents. 



The discourse of the Greek had 

 made a lively impression on the 

 mind of the prince; and, desirous 

 of gaining farther information con- 

 cerning the various systems of faith, 

 of which the missionary had spoken 

 while recommending his own, he 

 dispatched ten persons, in high re- 

 putation for wisdom, to observe in 

 the countries where each was pro- 

 fessed, the principles and the rites 

 of these different religions. 



These men repaired first to the 

 Bulgarians, eastward of Russia, but 

 they -were not very sensibly struck 

 with the devotion of the Manichees 

 or the Mohammedan worship: 

 thence they proceeded to Germany, 

 coldly considered the ceremonies as 

 performed by some vulgar priest in 

 tawdry trappings in the poor Latin 



churches there, and could take no 

 interest in a sect which shewed so 

 little magnificence, with its motley 

 round of unmeaning gesticulations 

 in its offices of worship. But when 

 these barbarian sages were arrived 

 at Constantinople, when they saw 

 the imposing splendour of religious 

 adoration,amid the gorgeous decora- 

 tions in the proud basilicum of St. 

 Sophia, they feltimmediately touch- 

 ed by celestial grace, and confessed 

 that the people whose religion dis- 

 played such pomp must have the 

 sole possession of the true belief. 



Their imagination still heated 

 with the pompous spectacle of which 

 they had been the astonished be- 

 holders, they returned to Vladimir, 

 speaking with scorn of the Latin 

 ceremonial, and describing with en- 

 thusiasm what they had seen in the 

 imperial city. They thought them- 

 selves, they said, transported into 

 the skies, and requested permission 

 to return to Constantinople to re- 

 ceive the initiatory sacrament into 

 so magnificent a religion. 



The grandeur of their recital 

 made an impression on Vladimir. 

 The boyars of his council, who 

 easily read what was passing in his 

 mind, exclaimed, that the Greek 

 religion must unquestionably be the 

 true one, since the wise deputies 

 had extolled it so much ; and that, 

 if it had not been the best, so pru- 

 dent a princess as Olga would 

 never have embraced it.* 



These arguments determined 

 Vladimir to be baptised; but unfor- 

 tunately he had no Greek priests at 



• This story, in conformity with the chronicles, is not therefore the less doubtful. 

 In a Greek MS. belonging to the Colbertine libiary, published by Bandurius, the 

 'same facts are related at the reign of Basilius the Macedonian. Thus it would re- 

 late to the conversioa of Oskhold and Dir, in whom the first dynasty of the sove- 

 reigns of Kief ended. We have seen that this conversion had but little influence 

 on Russia, which in fact did not become Christian till after the baptism of Vladimir, 



