et, impression in the minds of the prince and people: the Greek
missionaries continued to preach, to dispute, and to baptize: and the
ambassadors or merchants of Russia compared the idolatry of the woods
with the elegant superstition of Constantinople. They had gazed with
admiration on the dome of St. Sophia: the lively pictures of saints
and martyrs, the riches of the altar, the number and vestments of the
priests, the pomp and order of the ceremonies; they were edified by the
alternate succession of devout silence and harmonious song; nor was it
difficult to persuade them, that a choir of angels descended each day
from heaven to join in the devotion of the Christians. [76] But the
conversion of Wolodomir was determined, or hastened, by his desire of a
Roman bride. At the same time, and in the city of Cherson, the rites of
baptism and marriage were celebrated by the Christian pontiff: the city
he restored to the emperor Basil, the brother of his spouse; but the
brazen gates were transported, as it is said, to Novogorod, and erected
before the first church as a trophy of his victory and faith. [77] At
his despotic command, Peround, the god of thunder, whom he had so long
adored, was dragged through the streets of Kiow; and twelve sturdy
Barbarians battered with clubs the misshapen image, which was
indignantly cast into the waters of the Borysthenes. The edict of
Wolodomir had proclaimed, that all who should refuse the rites of
baptism would be treated as the enemies of God and their prince; and the
rivers were instantly filled with many thousands of obedient Russians,
who acquiesced in the truth and excellence of a doctrine which had been
embraced by the great duke and his boyars. In the next generation, the
relics of Paganism were finally extirpated; but as the two brothers
of Wolodomir had died without baptism, their bones were taken from the
grave, and sanctified by an irregular and posthumous sacrament.

[Footnote 73: Phot. Epistol. ii. No. 35, p. 58, edit. Montacut. It was
unworthy of the learning of the editor to mistake the Russian nation,
for a war-cry of the Bulgarians, nor did it become the enlightened
patriarch to accuse the Sclavonian idolaters. They were neither Greeks
nor Atheists.]

[Footnote 74: M. Levesque has extracted, from old chronicles and modern
researches, the most satisfactory account of the religion of the Slavi,
and the conversion of Russia, (Hist. de Russie, tom. i. p. 35-54, 59,
92, 92, 113