st been
made known to Christian lands, and confirm in them a true and unfailing
faith; and assist me, O Lord, against my enemy that opposes me, that,
trusting in thee and in thy power, I may overcome all his wiles."

Vladimir erected the first church--that of St. Basil, after whom he was
named--on the very mount which had formerly been sacred to Peroun,
adjoining his own palace. Thus was Russia enlightened.

So sudden and ready a conversion of the inhabitants of Kieff might well
seem improbable--that is, unless effected by violence--did we not attend
to the fact that the Russians had been gradually becoming enlightened
ever since the times of Oskold, for more than a hundred years, by means
of commerce, treaties of peace, and relations of every kind with the
Greeks, as well as with the Bulgarians and Slavonians of kindred origin
with ourselves, who had already been long in possession of the Holy
Scriptures in their own language. The constant endeavors of the Greek
emperors for the conversion of the Russians by means of their
ambassadors and preachers, the tolerance of the princes, the example and
protection of Olga, and the very delay and hesitation of Vladimir in
selecting his religion must have favorably disposed the minds of the
people toward it; especially if it be true, as has been asserted, that
Russia had already had a bishop in the time of Oskold. In a similar way,
though under different circumstances, in the vast Roman Empire, the
conversion of Constantine the Great suddenly rendered Christianity the
dominant religion, because, in fact, it had long before penetrated among
all ranks of his subjects.

Vladimir engaged zealously in building churches throughout the towns and
villages of his dominions, and sent priests to preach in them. He also
founded many towns all around Kieff, and so propagated and confirmed the
Christian religion in the neighborhood of the capital, from whence the
new colonies were sent forth. Neither was he slow in establishing
schools, into which he brought together the children of the boyars,
sometimes even in spite of the unwillingness of their rude parents. In
the mean time the Metropolitan with his bishops made progresses into the
interior of Russia, to the cities of Rostoff and Novgorod, everywhere
baptizing and instructing the people. Vladimir himself, for the same
good end, went in company with other bishops to the district of Souzdal
and to Volhynia. The boyars on the Volga and some