Wisdom" of God.

{139}

[Sidenote: and the Greek Empire.]

All the Greek Empire had now fallen into the hands of the Turks, except
the small mountainous district of Albania, which held out until the
death of George Castriota (dreaded by the Turks under the name of
Scanderbeg), A.D. 1467. The rocky strip of land known as Montenegro
has been enabled to maintain an unbroken independence.

[Sidenote: State of the Church of Greece under Turkish rule.]

The Church of Greece was now no longer the dominant and recognized
religion of the country, but it was not extinguished. The numerous
mountain monasteries, inaccessible from their construction and
position, were the chief strongholds of the Christian Faith; and so,
"cast down, but not destroyed," the Church in Greece struggled on,
until, after nearly three centuries of Turkish rule, Greece itself once
more became a Christian kingdom.

Section 9. The Church of Russia.

[Sidenote: Decay of the Church after its first planting in Russia.]

The Church, founded in the South of Russia by St. Andrew, appears not
to have spread to the other parts of this vast country, and to have
died out, perhaps under the influence the hordes of barbarians who
poured westward from Asia to Europe.

[Sidenote: Foundation of the present Church.]

The Church of Russia, as it now exists, owes its foundation chiefly to
Greek Missionaries, who began their labours about A.D. 866, amongst the
tribes bordering on the dominions of the Eastern Empire. Before the
middle of the next century Christianity had gained a footing in the
ancient capital of Kiev, and about A.D. 933 the Princess Olga was
baptized at {140} Constantinople. [Sidenote: It flourishes under
Vladimir.] In the reign of her grandson, Vladimir (A.D. 986-A.D. 1014),
the Church made great progress in Russia. Vladimir made a public
recognition of Christianity, and by his marriage with the sister of the
Greek Emperor strengthened the links which bound Russia to
Constantinople. The Greek missionaries were aided in their labours,
churches and bishoprics were founded, and the Holy Scriptures and
Service Books translated into the native Sclavonic language; the Greek
monks, Cyril and Methodius, who have been already mentioned as
instrumental in the conversion of Bohemia and Moravia, taking also an
active share in the Christianizing of Russia. [Sidenote: Independence
of the Russian Church,] In the reigns of Yaroslav and his successor
(A