Page:Lectures on The Historians of Bohemia by Count Lutzow (1905).djvu/15

 belongs to the tenth century, and is the oldest historical work written in Bohemia and by a Bohemian.

It is unnecessary to refer here in detail to the controversy that has arisen, and it will be sufficient to state that Dr. Pekář has, I think, proved his case. The legend, which has been four times published, firstly in 1677 by the learned Jesuit Balbinus, and lastly by Dr. Pekář two years ago, has great historical value. It contains one of the earliest accounts of the conversion of Moravia to the Christian faith. This is a matter of great importance, as the fact that Bohemia and Moravia first received Christianity from the East, and long maintained a connexion with the East, is strongly urged by Slavic writers and strongly opposed by German historians.

I will quote a portion of Kristián’s account. ‘It is believed,’ he writes, ‘and indeed known that Moravia, a Slavic country, early obtained the faith of Christ, but the Bulgarians had long before received that grace; for one Cyrillus, Greek by birth, learned in Latin as well as in Greek writings, after the conversion of the Bulgarians came in the name of the Holy Trinity and the indivisible God to the people of Moravia for the purpose of preaching there also the faith of Our Lord Jesus Christ. And when he had won them for Christ he, by the grace of God, invented new characters and translated into the Slavonic tongue the Old and New Testaments, as well as other Greek and Latin works. He also decreed that mass and the canonical horary prayers should be read in the vulgar tongue; and this has been continued in Slavic countries up to the present time, whereby many souls have been won for Our Lord Christ.’