zechs. It was Methodius, on whom the pope
had conferred the title of Archbishop of Moravia, who baptized the
Bohemian prince Borivoj. For the history of Bohemian Christianity the
earliest authority is Kristian, brother of Duke Boleslav II., in _The
Life of S. Ludmilla and the Martyrdom of S. Wenceslas_. [Sidenote: S.
Wenceslas.] This is an extremely valuable book, not only as a
biography--hagiological, like so much valuable early material for
history, yet truthful--and as a record of manners in the tenth century,
but as containing the account of the conversion of Moravia to
Christianity, which shows that the conversion came first from the East,
and the Church long retained a special connection with the Eastern
peoples, Bulgarians and Greeks. The account of the murder of S.
Wenceslas is of great interest as showing how close was the connection
of religion with family and dynastic feuds. S. Ludmilla was murdered
in 927 by the orders of her daughter-in-law, who remained a pagan; a
year later,[1] her saintly grandson Wenceslas was slain by the men of
his evil brother Boleslav. "Holy Wenceslas, who was soon to be a
victim for the sake of Christ, rose early, wishing, according to his
holy habit, to hurry to the church, that he might remain there for some
time in solitary prayer before the congregation arrived; {129} and
wishing as a good shepherd to hear matins together with his flock, and
join in their song, he soon fell into the snares that had been laid,"
and it was outside the church that he was slain.

[Sidenote: Restoration of Christianity in Bohemia.]

It was not till the invasion of the country by the armies of Otto I. in
938 that Christianity was restored even to full toleration, and only
when Otto came himself in 950 that it was secured. Boleslav II., the
nephew of S. Wenceslas, was named the Pious; and Prague, in 973, was
separated from Regensburg and became a bishopric. While among the
Moravians the Slavonic rite introduced by Methodius was still largely
used, in Bohemia the Roman rite was followed. Voytech (Adalbert), a
Czech, was the second bishop, and to him, in spite of failures and
difficulties, the conversion of Bohemia was largely due. He died a
martyr (as we have said), while preaching to the heathen Prussians, and
for a time darkness again settled over the history of the Czechs.

[Sidenote: The conversion of the Danes]

Meanwhile the current of conversion had spread northwards. It was in
82