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 Mojmir's nephew, Rostislav, ruler of the land. Moravia having been forced to acknowledge German supremacy, the German army now attacked Bohemia. The Bohemians, however, were successful in their resistance, and defeated the invading army. From this time forth war raged between Germany and Bohemia for thirty years. The vague and contradictory reports of battles that have reached us are of no interest to English readers. It is of more interest to turn our attention to an event of immense importance to Bohemia that occurred about this time, namely, the conversion of the country to Christianity.

It is probable that Christianity penetrated into Moravia earlier than into Bohemia, and Palacký gives documentary evidence that as early as the year 836 a Christian church was consecrated at Neutra in Moravia by the Archbishop of Salzburg. In 884 we read that fourteen Bohemian nobles appeared at the court of King Louis "the German" at Regensburg, and that they were baptized on the 1st of January, 845. It is very probable that these nobles had been obliged to fly from Bohemia in consequence of one of the many feuds that then desolated the country, and that they hoped by accepting the Christian faith to secure German aid against their internal enemies.

Christianity introduced through the agency of Germany was not likely to gain many adherents, as the Christian faith was necessarily in the eyes of the Bohemians connected with the hostile German race. It was from the east that Christianity completely and permanently penetrated into Moravia and Bohemia. In 862 the Moravian Prince Rostislav, who, though invested with sovereignty by the Germans had soon renewed the national feuds with them, sent a mission to the court of the Greek Emperor at Constantinople, asking him to send Christian teachers of the Slavonic race to Moravia.

The envoys thus addressed Michael, the then ruler of the Eastern empire: "Our people have rejected paganism and already observe Christian law. But we have no teachers who can in our own language teach us the true Christian faith, so that other countries, seeing this, may follow our example. Send then, O Emperor, such a bishop or teacher, you from whom all good law proceeds." It is probable