stoop to labour, than idly to waste their substance and their time in drinking, playing, and so on; for beer and mead are forbidden to the common people, except on some of the more solemn feast days, such as Christmas Day, Easter Day, Whit Sunday, and some others, when they are permitted to drink them, so that, on these days, they abstain from labour, not for divine worship, but rather for the sake of the drink.

They keep the feast of the Trinity on Monday during the feast of Pentecost, and on the eighth day of Pentecost they keep the feast of All Saints; but they do not observe the day of Corpus Christi as we do.

In taking oaths and swearing, they seldom use the name of God; but when they swear, they confirm what they have said or promised by kissing the cross. Their common imprecation is like that of the Hungarians, "May a dog defile thy mother", etc. Whenever they sign themselves with the sign of the cross, they do it with the right hand, that they may first touch the forehead, then the breast, then the right, and lastly the left side of the breast, in the form of a cross; but if any one guide his hand otherwise, they do not regard him as a follower of the same creed,' but as a stranger; for I remember that I myself, being ignorant of this ceremony, and guiding my hand otherwise, was noticed and reproached with this appellation.

Purgatory.

They do not believe in Purgatory, but say that every one who is dead receives a place according to his desert; that to the pious is ordained a bright abode with the peaceful angels, and to the ungodly, a gloomy place beset with black darkness, with the angels of terror, where they await the last

1 Domestico fidei suæ.

judgment; and, that from the angelic realms of peace, the souls there experience the favour of God, and always long for the final judgment; but the others contrariwise. Nor do they think that the soul, when separated from the body, is exposed to punishment; for as the soul had contaminated itself in the body, they think it must be expiated with the body. They do, however, believe that, by performing sacred funereal rights for the dead, they may obtain a more tolerable place for their souls, in which they may, with the greater ease, wait for the judgment to come. No one sprinkles himself with holy water, but is sprinkled by the priest. They do not consecrate cemeteries for burying bodies in, but say that the earth itself is consecrated by anointed and consecrated bodies, and not the bodies by the earth.

The Worship of Saints.

They reverence Nicolas of Bari' as first among the saints, and preach daily of his numerous miracles, one of which, which happened a few years ago, I have thought right to relate. One Michael Kysaletski, a large and powerful man, in one of the engagements with the Tartars, pursued a certain renowned Tartar, who fled from him, and when he found he could not catch him, however much he spurred his horse, he said, "O Saint Nicolas, bring me up with this hound!" The Tartar hearing this, cried out in affright, "O Saint Nicolas, if this man catch me by thy assistance, thou wilt perform no miracle; but if thou rescuest me who am a stranger to thy faith from his pursuit, thy renown will be

1 St. Nicolas, Bishop of Myra in Lycia, called by Herberstein, Barensis, from Bari in Apuglia, where he was buried, and where his body is said to be still preserved. He is the patron saint of Russia.

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great." They say that Michael's horse immediately stopped, and the Tartar escaped; and that every year of his life afterwards the Tartar made an offering to Saint Nicolas of certain measures of honey on account of his rescue, and as many measures to Michael likewise in memory of his delivery, with the addition of a robe of honour made of marten skins.

Fasting.

They fast in Lent seven consecutive weeks. The first week they use preparations of milk or a sort of cheese, which they call Syrna, but in the other weeks they all, with the exception of foreigners, abstain even from fish. Some take food on the Sundays and Saturdays, and abstain from all food the other days: some take food on Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, and abstain the remaining three days. There are many who content themselves with a piece of bread taken with water on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. They do not observe the other fasts throughout the year so strictly, but they fast from the eighth day after Pentecost, which is their All Saints' Day, till the holidays of St. Peter and St. Paul, and this is called the fast of St. Peter. Then they have the fast of the Blessed Virgin from the first of August until the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. Also the fast of St. Philip, six weeks in Advent, which is called St. Philip's fast, because the beginning of that fast happens on the feast of St. Philip according to their calendar. Moreover, if the feast of St. Peter and St. Paul, and that of the Assumption, fall on Wednesday or Friday, then they do not eat meat on that day. They do not keep the vigil of any Saint with fasting except the beheading of St. John, which they observe yearly on the 29th of August. If, moreover, any Saint's day, such as the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary, hap

pen in the great fast of Lent, they eat fish on that day. But the monks have many more severe and trying fasts imposed upon them, for they are obliged to content themselves with an acid drink, called kwas, and water mixed with yeast. The priests also are prohihited the use of warm water and beer at that time, although now all the laws and statutes are becoming lax and are abused. Moreover, besides the time of fasting, they eat meat on the Sabbath, but abstain on Wednesday. The teachers whom they follow are Basil the Great, Gregory, and John Chrysostom, whom they call Slatousta, i.e., golden mouth. They have no preachers. They think it enough to have been present at the service, and to have heard the words of the Gospel, the Epistles, and other teachers, which the priest recites in the vernacular. For this purpose, as they think that they avoid various opinions and heresies which often arise out of sermons, the festivals of the following week are announced on the Lord's Day, and they repeat the public confession. Moreover, whatever they see that the prince himself thinks and believes, that they set down to be right, and to be followed. in all things.

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I heard at Moscow that the patriarch of Constantinople, at the request of the prince of Russia himself, sent certain monk named Maximilian to reduce judiciously into order all the books and canons, and all the statutes appertaining to the faith; and when he had done so, and when having corrected many most serious errors, he pronounced in the presence of the prince, that he who did not follow the Roman or Greek ritual, was evidently a schismatic when, I say, he said this, not long after (although the prince treated him with the greatest kindness) he is said to have disappeared, and many think he was drowned. It was in the third year of my residence at Moscow that one Marcus, a Greek merchant from Caffa, was reported to have said this, and he also was seized (although the Turkish

ambassador at the time interceded for him even with somewhat unworthy petitions) and put out of the way. Georgius, a Greck, surnamed the "Little", who was the prince's treasurer, chancellor, and chief counsellor, was immediately removed from all his posts which he held, and lost the prince's favour, because he encouraged and defended the same cause. But as the prince could by no means dispense with his assistance, he was again restored to favour, and placed in a different office, for he was a man of remarkable learning and extensive experience. He had come to Moscow with the prince's mother; and the prince respected him so much, that on one occasion when he had summoned him, and found that he was sick, he ordered some of his counsellors of the first rank to fetch him in a sedan to his own residence. But when he reached the palace, he refused to be carried up so many steep steps, and being taken out of the sedan, he commenced ascending slowly up to the prince. When the prince accidentally saw this, he began to be extremely angry, and commanded that he should be brought up to him in a litter; and after he had consulted him, and his business was over, he ordered that he should be carried down the steps in a litter, and that he should be carried up and down ever afterwards.

The principal care of the monks is to convert all men whatsoever to their own creed. The hermit monks have already brought over to the faith of Christ a great part of those who were idolaters through daily and industriously disseminating the word of God amongst them. Even now they go to various countries in the north and east, which they can only reach by the greatest toil, at the risk of both fame and life, and without hope of the least personal advantage; nor do they seek it, for they have an eye to this one thing only, viz., that they may be able to do an acceptable service to God, and to recall into the right path the souls of many who have gone astray (sometimes confirming the doc