Page:The Greek and Eastern churches.djvu/424

398 had staked his head in undertaking the case—was publicly executed for not saving the life of Ivan's eldest son whom he was called in to cure; another—a German—for failing in his treatment of a Tartar prince at court, was put to the torture by the chief's son, who would have let him off alive for a ransom. The grand duke, to use the chronicler's title, would not allow this; so "they took him to the river Moska, under the bridge in winter, and cut him to pieces with a knife, like a sheep." The decay of morals is further reflected in the Sudebuik, a code of laws which Ivan issued in the year 1497 and which marks the second stage in Russian jurisprudence, the first being seen in the Russkaya Pravada. Clearly the rise of the tsardom and the consolidation of Russia into a great empire, while indicative of a kind of progress, and while really associated with a certain spread of culture, must not be confounded with an advance of the people in those higher things that make for a nation's real greatness; nor may the corresponding development of the Church be taken as a proof that the spirit of Christianity was becoming a power in the land.

Ivan was followed by his son Basil ( 1505), and he in turn by his son Ivan, known as "Ivan the Terrible." This strong, capable ruler was the first to definitely and persistently denominate himself tsar, and so make a bold, open claim to be the heir of the Roman Cæsars, or at least their equal. His grandfather had only used the title casually and tentatively. Ivan had no hesitation about the adoption of it.

Ivan was but a child ten years old when his father died ( 1533), and the government was administered first by his mother and then by the boyars, till he was able to take it up himself. For a time he ruled well under the guidance of an old priest of Novgorod, named