ed to Russia by Grand Prince Vasily Ivanovitch, for
the purpose of cataloguing a rich store of Greek manuscripts in the
library of the Grand Prince. To his influence is due one of the most
noteworthy books of the sixteenth century, the "Stoglava," or "Hundred
Chapters," a set of regulations adopted by the young Tzar Ivan
Vasilievitch (afterwards known as Ivan the Terrible), the son of Vasily,
and by the most enlightened nobles of his time at a council held in
1551. Their object was to reform the decadent morals of the clergy, and
various ecclesiastical and social disorders, and in particular, the
absolute illiteracy arising from the lack of schools. Another famous
work of the same century is the "Domostroy," or "House-Regulator,"
attributed to Pope (priest) Sylvester, the celebrated confessor and
counselor of Ivan the Terrible in his youth. In an introduction and
sixty-three chapters Sylvester sets forth the principles which should
regulate the life of every layman, the management of his household and
family, his relations to his neighbors, his manners in church, his
conduct towards his sovereign and the authorities, his duties towards
his servants and subordinates, and so forth. The most curious part of
the work deals with the minute details of domestic economy--one
injunction being, that all men shall live in accordance with their means
or their salary--and family relations, in the course of which the
position of woman in Russia of the sixteenth century is clearly defined.
This portion is also of interest as the forerunner of a whole series of
articles in Russian literature on women, wherein the latter are depicted
in the most absurd manner, the most gloomy colors--articles known as
"About Evil Women"--and founded on an admiration for Byzantine
asceticism. In his Household Regulations Sylvester thus defines the
duties of woman:

"She goeth to church according to opportunity and the counsel of her
husband. Husbands must instruct their wives with care and judicious
chastisement. If a wife live not according to the precepts of her
husband, her husband must reprove her in private, and after that he hath
so reproved her, he must pardon her, and lay upon her his further
injunctions; but they must not be wroth one with the other.... And only
when wife, son, or daughter accept not reproof shall he flog them with a
whip, but he must not beat them in the presence of people, but in
private; and he shall not strike them on the ea