Page:Notes upon Russia (volume 1, 1851).djvu/233

Rh judgment; obey the grand duke thy grandfather, and interest thyself with all thy heart about all the truly faithful. We bless thee also, O lord my son, and pray God for thy welfare. Then the metropolitan and the grand dukes arose, and the metropolitan praying, blessed the grand duke and his sons with the cross; and at length, when the liturgy—i.e., the holy service—was finished, the grand duke, the grandfather, withdrew to his own dwelling; but Dimitry, wearing the ducal hat and barma, left the church of the Blessed Virgin, and proceeded, surrounded with a host of boyars and their sons, to the church of Michael the Archangel, at the entrance of which, upon the threshold, he was sprinkled by George, son of the Grand Duke Ivan, with three golden dengs (the deng is one of their coins); and when he had entered the church, the priests singing the litany according to custom, blessed him with the cross, and signed him with the sign of the cross at the tombs and monuments. Then, as he went out of the church, he was again sprinkled by George at the door with golden dengs. He next proceeded straightway to the church of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary, where the priests in the same manner blessed him, and he was sprinkled by George with dengs as before. When all this was finished, Dimitry presented himself to his grandfather and to his mother.

This took place on the 4th of February, anno mundi 7006, anno Domini 1497. There were present at this installation by the grand duke and consecration by Simon the metropolitan—Tychon, Archbishop of Rostov and Yaroslav, Nyphon, Archbishop of Susdal and Toruski, Vasian, Bishop of Tver, Prothasius, Bishop of Rezan and Murom, Afranius, Bishop of Columna, and Euphemius, Bishop of Sarki and Podonski. There were present also many abbots and priors, among the most powerful of whom were Serapian, prior of the monastery of Saints Sergius and Makirius, under the invocation of the Holy Trinity, and the prior of the monas-