Page:The Spirit of Russia by T G Masaryk, volume 1.pdf/62

36 for it was introduced into Russia as a state church and operated throughout in this capacity. After their conversion the Russians were educated by Greeks who had deliberately severed themselves from Rome. Byzantium had been ravaged on several occasions by the pagan Russians, and for this reason the Christianisation of these Slav enemies was politically important, all the more because the Arabs and the Turks had begun to encroach upon the Byzantine dominions. The positively draconian subjugation of the Bulgars gave a striking demonstration of Byzantium's attitude towards the Slavs. We must not forget that Byzantium never ceased to aim at the expansion of its power. It is sometimes ignored that at the time of the Russian conversion the eastern Roman empire embraced, not merely Asia Minor and the Black Sea region, but in addition considerable domains in Italy and even in Africa. Down to the day of destruction, this imperialist policy was never abandoned by Byzantium, and it was a policy in which the patriarchate of Constantinople collaborated.

In Kiev the Byzantine princes of the church constituted a state within the state. The metropolitan of Kiev was appointed by the patriarch of Constantinople, whereas in Byzantium the bishops were elected by their own colleagues. Kiev was no more than a dependency of Byzantium, and among the Greek bishops the Kievic metropolitan occupied the, seventy-first place. The Russian hierarchy always remained Greek. Among the three-and-twenty metropolitans of Kiev in the days before the Tatar dominion; three only were Russians, and three southern Slavs, the remaining seventeen being Byzantines. Many of the priests and monks were likewise Greeks.

Nor must we underestimate the influence of the chroniclers and of all those who were able to write, most of whom, having had a Greek education, diffused and confirmed the ideas and ideals of Byzantium.

Guided by cultured hierarchs, the church and its organisation soon became a model which princely administration strove to imitate. The Byzantines brought to Russia the idea and the practice of law and the legal code; they introduced a regular system of legal procedure; and, above all, ecclesiastical centralisation set an example to princely policy. From early days the church was the ally of the grand prince. In many cases the grand prince was a tool of the metropolitans