trine of Christ by death), and to bring them in as gain to Christ.

The principal monastery in Moscow is that of the Holy Trinity,' which is twelve German miles to the west of Moscow, where St. Sergius was buried, and is said to perform many miracles. He is honoured by the prayers of a wonderful assemblage of nations and peoples. The prince himself often goes there and takes a meal at the expense of the monastery; but the common people only go on certain annual occasions. There is said to be a copper cauldron there, in which certain food-especially herbs-is cooked, and whether few or many go there, there is always enough food remaining in it to feed the inmates of the monastery, so that there is never either a deficiency nor a surplus.

The Muscovites boast that they are the only true Christians, and condemn us as deserters from the Primitive Church, and from the old sacred institutions. But if any one of our religion of his own accord goes over to the Muscovites, or even flees to them against the will of his master, as though for the sake of learning and embracing their religion, they say that he ought not to be let go or restored to his master, even if he should demand him back, a fact which came to my knowledge in a certain instance which I have thought right to insert here. A certain leading citizen of Cracow, when I was starting for Moscow, recommended and delivered to me, almost against my will, a not ill-educated young man named Erasmus, of the respectable family of the Bethmans. He was, however, so given to drinking, that he would sometimes be intoxicated even to madness, and compelled me, by his repeated drunkenness, to have him put in the stocks. Over

This monastery, which is named the "Laurel of St. Sergius, under the invocation of the Blessed Trinity", is the richest in all Russia, and perhaps in the whole world, and one of the most remarkable for the great historical events associated with it, both as to the important services rendered by it to the country, and the illustrious men it has produced.

come then by a sense of his error, he ran away from the city of Moscow one night, accompanied by three of the citizens and my Polish coachman. He swam across the river Occa, and proceeded towards Azov. When the prince learned this, he immediately sent his couriers, whom they call Gonecz, in every direction, to bring them back. These men fell in with the out-liers who were stationed in those parts to guard against the continual incursions of the Tartars, and explaining the case to them, made them also ride about in search of the fugitives; and they met a man who said that five men, availing themselves of the cover of the night, had compelled him to show them the right road for Azov. The out-liers, therefore, following close upon their footsteps, at nightfall saw a fire which they had lighted; and while their horses were wandering on the pastures in the neighbourhood of the place where they were about to spend the night, they crept up silently like serpents and drove them further away. When, therefore, my coachman rose up and went to bring back the horses which had strayed, the men rushed upon him from the grass, and threatened him with death if he uttered the least sound, and thus they kept him bound. Again they drove the horses farther, and as one and another and a third tried to bring them back, they were all by turns in the same manner taken in the snare, Erasmus only excepted, who, when they rushed upon him, drew his weapon and defended himself, and called to Stanislaus, which was the name of my coachman. When the latter answered that he was taken and bound, Erasmus said, "Since you are taken, I neither care for freedom nor life," and thus surrendered himself when only about two days journey from Asov. When the prisoners were brought back, I asked the prince to restore me my men, but he replied that it was not lawful for any one to render up a man who had gone over to the Muscovites for the sake of learning the true religion, which, as I have said, they preach that they alone maintain. He did, however,

shortly afterwards restore me my coachman; and when he refused to give up Erasmus, I told the purveyor who had been attached to my household, and whom they call pristav', that men would both think and speak ill of the prince if he took away the servants of ambassadors. In order that neither the prince nor I should be blamed, I asked him to allow him to come before me in the presence of the prince's counsellors that I myself might understand his wish on the subject. The prince agreed to this, and it was done; and when I asked Erasmus whether he wished to remain with the prince on the score of religion, he answered, "Yes"; upon which I said, “If you have made your bed well, well may you lie on it." Afterwards a certain Lithuanian, who had attached himself to the family of Count Nugarol, dissuaded him from his purpose, when his reply was that he dreaded to encounter my severity. The Lithuanian then asked him if he would come back if the count would receive him into his family, to which he consented. When the count heard of the matter, he asked me if I would agree to the arrangement. I replied that he was free to act as he pleased in the matter for me; for I myself wished it to be so, lest the relatives of the young man should interpret the matter otherwise than as it really occurred.

However they seldom flee to the Russians unless when there is no place to live in, and no security elsewhere. Such was the case in my time with one Severinus Nordwed, admiral of the sea to Christian, king of Denmark, a warlike man indeed, but accustomed to invoke the auspices of the devil upon all his undertakings, of whom I have heard many things which in prudence I leave unsaid. When he saw that the king was hated on account of his cruelty at Holmia (which is the capital of Sweden, and called in their own language Stockholm), and that he of his own accord left his kingdom, Severinus took possession of a certain place in the island of Gothland (which is twelve German miles in extent), from which he daily infested the Baltic Sea, sparing nobody, and

plundering alike both friends and enemies. At length being afraid that all would be opposed to him as to some common plague, and seeing that there was no place in which he could be safe from snares, he took to himself a certain number of freebooters and fled to the prince of Moscow, and came with certain ships into the river Narva to Ivanogorod, a fortress of the prince of Russia; thence by a land journey he came to Moscow the same year that I was there. Being discharged at the request of the emperor Charles V, he died in his service, pierced through with a cannon ball at the siege of Florence, a city of Italy.

Concerning Tithes.

Vladimir, who was initiated into the mysteries of the lifegiving font in the year 6496 (A. D. 987), instituted, in conjunction with the metropolitan see, tithes of all things to be given on behalf of the poor, orphans, the sick, the aged, strangers, prisoners, as well as for the burial of the poor; for the assistance also of those who had a numerous offspring, or who had lost their property by fire,-in short, for the relief of the necessities of all the wretched, for the churches of poor monasteries, and chief of all, for the solace of the dead and of the living. The same Vladimir subjected all abbots, presbyters, deacons, and the whole establishment of the clergy, to spiritual power and jurisdiction, as well as monks, nuns, and those women who make proscura for the services, and are called proscurnicæ,' also

1 These words, proscura and proscurnica, appear to have been taken by Herberstein from hearsay, as from the description contained in the following paragraph, "proseura" is evidently written in error for "prosphora", the usual term for the loaves offered in the sacrament.

the wives and daughters of priests, physicians, widows, midwives, and those who have been the subjects of a miracle from any of the saints, or those who have received manumission for the salvation of any soul; lastly, all the servants of .monasteries and hospitals, and those who make the clothes of the monks. Whatever difference or disagreement, therefore, arises among the aforesaid persons, the bishop himself has power, as a competent judge, to decide upon and settle it; but if any controversy arise between these and laymen, it is decided by common law.

The proscurnicæ are women who, being past child-bearing, make the bread for the sacrifice, which bread is called proscura.

It is the duty of the bishops to adjudge divorces, not only among the Knesi and Boyars, but all laymen who keep concubines. It also appertains to the episcopal jurisdiction to decide if at any time a wife does not obey her husband; if any one be taken in adultery or fornication; if a man marry a woman who is a blood-relation; or if any married person plot any injury to his or her husband or wife. Also in cases of divination, incantations, poisonings, quarrels about heresy or fornication; or if a son injure his parents, or beat his sisters too severely. Moreover, they have the punishment of sodomites, sacrilegious persons, spoilers of the dead, and of such as tear away anything from the images of saints or from crucifixes for the sake of incantations, as well as of persons who either bring a dog, a bird, or any other unclean animal, into any sacred edifice, or who eat such things. In these cases, they have the ordering and appointing the measure of punishment for each. Let no one, however, be surprised, if he find the foregoing details differ in any way from the canons and traditions themselves, for some of them have been changed in some respects, not so much from age as that they have been allowed to become corrupted and vitiated for the sake of money.

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