Page:The Greek and Eastern churches.djvu/386

360 from the beginning the Church in Russia was a State Church.

The traditional story of the conversion of Vladimir preserved by the chronicler has the picturesque character of an early legend. We must give the first place to the influence of his grandmother, the capable and saintly Olga. Although she had brought him up in the truth of Christ, like Augustine, who had been privileged with the incomparable training of his mother Monica, Vladimir drifted away from the early influence when he attained to manhood and the absorbing interests of ambition. Still, as we follow the tradition, which has nothing improbable in this respect, we learn that he was not satisfied with the religion of his fathers. It represents how one after the other various parties press their religion upon him. First come the Mohammedans of Bulgaria, whose regulations he does not choose to comply with; next the Jews, boasting of the ancient glory of Jerusalem. "But where is your country?" asks the prince. "It was ruined by the wrath of God for the sins of our fathers," they answer. Vladimir will not accept the religion of a people whom their God has abandoned. Then come theologians from Germany with the Roman religion; but this is rejected as different from the religion of Constantinople in which Olga instructed her grandson. A philosopher of the Greek faith, the monk Constantine, has a better reception as he exposes the defects of other religions and eloquently expounds the Christian faith, and he is sent away loaded with presents. The story goes on to describe the extraordinarily cautious methods further employed by Vladimir in the choice of a religion. He discusses the question with his council, which decides to send commissioners, consisting of boyars—nobles of the highest rank—to make their observations of each religion on the spot. The authorities at Constantinople see their opportunity. The patriarch celebrates the Divine liturgy in St. Sophia with the utmost possible magnificence in the presence of the awed and astonished visitors from Russia.