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in this diocese: in 1607, 1621. 1641, 1684, 1720, and .1726; and in the eighteenth century it had 183 •churches. The city of Lutsk itself 0>e8 back to the time of Vladimir the Great in 1000. It was made the see of an Orthodox bishop in 1288, and it was Cyril Terletzki, Exarch and Bishop of Lutzk, who afiBxed the first s^nature to the act of union at the Synod of Biest on 24 June, 1590, and who went to Rome to make his profession of union. In 1350 Lutzk was taken by the Lithuanians, and became a flourishing city. It was afterwards annexed to Poland, and in 1600 the Jews took possession of the city and have ever since held it. At present it has 19,000 inhabi- tants, of whom 12,000 are Jews. Volhynia was an- nexed to Russia in 1792, at the Second Partition of Poland, and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lutzk was suppressed. It remained however a Greek Catholic diocese until 1839. Under Emperor Paul I in 1798 the Diocese of Lutzk was restored, and embraces the whole of the Province of Volhynia, although Zhitomir, the capital city, lies at the eastern border, near the Province of Kieff. The see has been kept vacant for long intervals during the past centunr. The statistics of &e Diocese of Lutzk (1909) are: Catholics, 279.157 (Orthodox, 2,106,960); secular priests, 84; regulars, 6; parish churches, 81.

Zhitomir is situated on the River Teterev, about ten miles from the frontier of the Government of Kieff. It is ^id to have been founded by Zhitomir, one of the followers of Rurik. In the thirteenth centurv it was taken by the Tatars and was afterwards subject to Lithuania and Poland. It was annexed to Russia in 1778. The city now has a population of 65,000. The Diocese of Zhitomir is really that of Kieff. Whep Kieff and Zhitomir were annexed to Russia, the Cath- olic diocese was suppressed, and the Bishop of Kieff was expelled, but in 1798 when Pius VI, in the Bull "Maximis undique press!'*, re-established the Diocese of Kieff, it was transferred by the request of the Rus- sian authorities to Zhitomir, and then later united to Lutzk, in order that no Latin bishop should dispute the See of Kieff with the Orthodox bishop. Theoret- ically, an auxiliary bishop may- reside at Kieff, but none has been allowed for many decades. The dioc- esan bishop of the united sees resides at Zhitomir. 'Hie present (1909) statistics for the Diocese of Zhito- mir, which includes a slight strip of Volhynia and the whole of the Government of Kieff, are: Catholics, 220,893 (Orthodox, 2,988,694), with one regular and 105 secular clergy, 70 parish churches, and one semi- nary. The Latin Bishopric of Kieff is first mentioned in 1321, just after the Lithuanians conquered this part of Little Russia, when Pope John XaII made Hein- rich von Porvalle, a Dominican, its first Hshop. The next bishop was Jacob, also a Dominican. Naturally the earlier Xatin bishops of Kieff were travelling mis- sionary bishops, establishing churches and ecclesias- tical institutions of the Latin Rite throughout the land. Clement (d. 1473) is said to have been the first Latin bishop to fix his see permanently within the city of Kieff, where he built a cathedral. In the previous century the Dominicans had built a fine monastery in the lower portion of Kieff called Podol, which was for a long time the finest Roman church in that part of Russia. Bishop Alexander Sokolowsky (1613-1645) had great success in establishingLatin churches, and in 1640 established a deanery atTchernigoff. In 1626 Bishop John Osga commenced to build an additional cathedral in Zhitomir, which was consecrattod by his successor Gaetan Soltyk in 1751, and it is the present cathedral. Two provmcial fi^ods were held in this diocese: one in 1640 at Kieff, and the other in 1762 in Zhitomir.

The city of Kieff, "the mother of all the cities of Russia", is really the cnuile of Christianity in the Bussian Empire. It is said to have been founded by ISii 3Dd his PT0t]i^T9 Sbcbek and Khbriv, who w^re

Poli^ni, the forefathers of the modern Poles; and was taken in conquest by the followers of Rurik in their search for a southern kingdom. Oleg, the successor of Rurik, came to Kieff in 882 and made it his capital. St. Olga was here converted to Christianity, although she was baptised in Constantinople. Later, her suc- cessor St. Vladimir, on his conversion to Christianitjr, married Anna^ the sister of the Greek emperors, Basil and Constantme, and on his return from Constanti- nople in 988 actiyelv set about the conversion of the inhabitants of Kieff, who threw their heathen idols, Perun and the others, into the Dnieper and were bap- tised as Christians, thus founding the first Christian community within the present confines of Russia. Kieff became under him and his successors the great capital of Russia; it possessed the first Christian church, the first Christian school, and the first library in Russia. It passed through great vicissitudes; for three hundred and seventynsix years it was an inde- pendent Russian city, for eighty years it was subject to the Tatars and Mongols, for two hundred and f wty- nine years it belonged to the Lithuanian Principality, and for ninety-eight years it w^as a part of the King- dom of Poland. It was finally annexed to the present Russian Empire in 1667. Under the Lithuanian rule it rose to great prosperity, and obtained the Magde- b\urp; rights of a free city in 1499, which it enjcnred until they were abolished in 1835. Naturally Kieff became the see of the first Christian bishop in Russia. Michael, who baptized Vladimir, 'was sent as the chief missionary to the Russians, and became the first Met- ropolitan of Kieff (988-992). His successors, Leontius, Jonn I, and Theopempt, were also Greeks, but in 1051 Hilarion, the first Russian bishop, was advanced to the dignity of metropolitan, with seven bishops under him. In 1240 the Tatars took the city of Kieff, pil- laged it, and established Moslem rule in one of the great shrines of Christendom. The taking of Kieff by the Tatars drove the Russians northwai^s and cast- wards; in 1316 the Metropolitan of Kieff changed his see to Moscow, and thereafter the Church of Russia was ruled from that city. In 1414, after the change of the metropolitan see to Moscow, the seven Russian bishops of the south chose a new Metropolitan of Kieff, who ruled over these southern dioceses. Thus the Russian Church was divided into two great jurisdic- tions: Moscow and Kieff. Kieff, being of the Greek Rite, was naturally dependent upon Constantinople, the Church of its origin, and gradually followed it into schism. Yet for a long time after the break between Rome and Constantinople it remained in unity with the Holy See. The first four metropolitans of Kieff were Catholics and in union with Home. Hilarion embraced schismatic \'iews strongly tinctured with na- tionalism, but his successor George was in correspond- ence with Pope Gregory VII, while Ephraem (1090- 1096) was the Metropolitan of Kieff who established in Russia the feast of the translation of the relics of St. Nicholas (9 May) w^hich was instituted by Pope Urban II, but which was indignantly rejected ty the Greeks of Constantinople and the Eaist. During the following century the metropolitans of Kieff followed the schism more closely, yet three or four of them remained in close relation with the Holy See. Maximus (1283- 1305) was a Catholic metropolitan, Cyprian (1389;- 1406) also had close relations with the Roman authori- ties, while Gregory I (1416-1419) was strongly inclined towards imion with Rome. From 1438 to 1442 the Council of Florence was held for the reunion of Chris- tendom. Isidore, Metropolitan of Kieff (1437-1448), with five other Russian bishops, attended the council, signed the act of union^nd became one of its greatest advocates. Gregory 11 (1458-1472), his successor, was consecrated m Rome in the presence of Pope Pius II. and was also an earnest supporter of the union. Misael (1474-1477) and Simeon (1477-1188) were also Catholics. Joseph II (1498-1517) likewise ad-