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Christianity; and, at her own desire, baptized into its faith, by the name of Helena. On her return, she used all the influence in her power to introduce the new religion into Russia; but her exertions, though incessantly employed for upwards of fourteen years, proved insufficient to withdraw her son, the Grand Prince Svetoslaff, from the worship of Perun. Her conduct and conversation, however, seem to have made a due impression on the mind of her grandson Vladimir, who, after her death, embraced the Christian religion, and publicly professed it, by being baptized in 988. This prince was the instrument of effectually bringing over his subjects to the profession of Christianity; and, from that period, the Catholic and Apostolical faith of the Eastern or Greek Church, together with all its ordinances, rites, and ceremonies, have been preserved among this people, nearly in the same state in which they were at first received and established. The Roman Pontiffs, indeed, have at different times attempted to impose their creed on the Russians; but every such attempt has invariably proved abortive: and, to this day, they remain stedfast in the faith of their ancestors.*

*It is not to be denied, that some of the Roman Catholic doctrines, particularly that of transubstantiation, have crept into the Greek church. Most probably this doctrine was in

On Christianity becoming the religion of the Russians, their princes began to have a more immediate intercourse with the sovereigns of other Christian kingdoms: and, in order to promote the diffusion of knowledge and civilization among their subjects, they invited learned foreigners to settle in their dominions. Of such as accepted their invitations, the greater number were Greeks from Constantinople, who not only assisted in establishing and organizing schools, but zealously propagated the Christian faith throughout the empire, and generally occupied the chief offices in the newly formed church.

By the labours of such men, under the direction and authority of the Grand Princes, many useful books were translated out of the Greek into the Slavonian language, and many schools founded in different parts of the country, in which the youth were instructed in the principles of Christianity, and other branches of useful knowledge. In the 12th century, among

troduced by the Catholic priests of the middle ages, the tendency of whose sophistical reasonings, the Greek priests were too illiterate to detect; for it is quite indisputable, that transubstantiation formed no part of the faith of the primitive Greek church, though it is now admitted not only among the Russians, but also in the Eastern churches. See, on this subject, Dr Covel's Account of the Greek Church, printed in 1722.

many others, there were two institutions of this kind, one in Kieff, and the other in Smolensk, in which both Greek and Latin were taught; and even several of the Russian princes of that time spoke and wrote these languages. The names of Yaraslaff of Galitsia, Roman of Smolensk, Svetopolk of Novogorod, and Constantine of White Russia, are honourably recorded in the Russian annals, as patronizers of learning and the sciAbout this same period, there was a pretty extensive library collected at Vladimir, for the purpose of promoting civilization, which was afterwards destroyed by accidental fire.*

ences.

In the thirteenth century, however, the irruption of the Mongol Tartars, who penetrated westward even as far as Novogorod, swept away all these hopeful appearances, and, for upwards of 200 years, put a stop to all the benevolent exertions of the Russian princes to civilize their subjects. It was only, indeed, on their deliverance from the Tartar yoke by Ioan Vasillivitch, in the middle of the sixteenth century, that attempts again began to be made to diffuse learning; and not till the accession of the present

* For some of these, and also for a number of other parti culars contained in this Memoir, I am indebted to a ce lebrated statistical work in the Russ language, by Professo. Ziablofsky, published in 1808.

dynasty of Romanoff to the throne in 1613, that general civilization became an object of the first importance with government.

It is not my intention, however, in this place, to give an account of what has been done of late years by the powerful sovereigns of this mighty empire, to promote general civilization among upwards of forty-four millions of the human race, under their government; but, as a proper introduction to a statement of the doctrine held by the Russian Church, I propose merely to give a concise account of the present state of the clerical schools of the clergy themselves-the churches and service-monasteries, and form of ecclesiastical government.

1. The Schools of the clergy, or spiritual schools, as they are called, belong to the most ancient institutions for learning in Russia; for, during the dark ages, as in other countries of Europe, any degree of literary knowledge which existed amongst the Russians, was confined solely to the clergy: and, till the establishment of the public schools in the beginning of last century, they were the only seminaries of education in the empire.

The chief object of these schools is to train up a sufficient number of young men for the priestly

office; and, from the time of Peter the Great, none have been admitted into them except sons of the clergy.

In the earliest of the spiritual schools that were founded at the introduction of Christianity, the Greek and Slavonian languages, and the writings of the Greek fathers, were the principal subjects of study; but, on the foundation of an academy at Kieff, after the manner of the Polish schools, the Latin became the classical language, and the scholars were taught grammar, rhetoric, philosophy, and divinity. The same course of education was also adopted in the spiritual academy of Moscow, and continued in it till the end of the 16th century.

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The state of these schools was much improved by the wise arrangements made by Peter the Great, which were calculated to procure to the sons of the clergy a degree of learning unknown among their fathers. His successors have also considered the proper education of the clergy as an object of the first importance for promoting the civilization and prosperity of their subjects; and hence, since his time, various changes and regulations have been introduced into the clerical schools. Thus, in 1788, the two seminaries of Novogorod and Alexandroff* were united, and * This academy is attached to the monastery of St Alexander

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