which is the most
striking. But the time is needed as well as the man. So much we see
again and again, however cursorily we study the evangelising work of
this age.

In missions the ninth century carried out what the eighth neglected or
was unable to accomplish. The {124} wars against the Finnish
Bulgarians from 755 onwards brought the Church as well as the State
into grave danger, or rather were defensive of each. [Sidenote: The
conversion of the Bulgarians.] In the eighth century there were several
isolated conversions, including a whole family of boiars from whom
sprang the recluse, saint Joannicius; but there was no general
movement. The Bulgarians remained enemies of Christianity and
destroyers of all Roman civilisation: S. Theodore of the Studium
declared that it was criminal sacrilege to exchange hostages with them.
But gradually the geographical nearness brought closer connection;
barbarians enlisted in the Roman armies; at last illustrious prisoners
in Constantinople were the cause of light being brought to their own
land. Boris, the Bulgarian king, obtained teachers from the New Rome,
and applied also to Pope Nicolas I. (858-67) for instruction. In 864
the Bulgarians accepted the faith, and the contest for patriarchal
rights over them was hotly pressed between Nicolas and Photius,
Patriarch of Constantinople (857-86). In the end, after receiving
answers from the pope to 106 questions, and after being treated with
too little consideration by Hadrian II. (867-72), Boris decided to
accept an archbishop from Constantinople in 870, and ten bishoprics
were founded.

[Sidenote: The conversion of the Slavs.]

But the great work of Cyril and Methodius was not directly concerned
with the Bulgarian conversion. In Pannonia and Moravia and Croatia
they were the great missionaries to the Slavs. Cyril invented a
Slavonic alphabet, and was able to preach to the Slavs everywhere in
their own tongue; and in Serbia a flourishing Church sprang {125} up
which retained the Slavonic rite. Early in the tenth century many
Slavonian priests were ordained by the Bishop of Nona, himself a Slav
by birth. But these districts were weakened by incessant strife, and
their contests with the East were often fomented by the popes. Their
Christianity was distinctly Byzantine; but they were never able to be a
real strength to the emperor or the Orthodox Church.

[Sidenote: Poland.]

Poland, on the other hand, and later, receive