ghts of the individual, as
against the sovereign power, and accused Ivan of misusing his power.
Ivan, on his side, asserted his omnipotent rights, ascribed to his own
credit all the noteworthy events of his reign, accused Kurbsky of
treason, and demonstrated to the Prince (with abundant Scriptural
quotations), that he had not only ruined his own soul, but also the
souls of his ancestors--a truly Oriental point of view. "If thou art
upright and pious," he writes, "why wert not thou willing to suffer at
the hands of me, thy refractory sovereign lord, and receive from me the
crown of life?... Thou hast destroyed thy soul for the sake of thy body
... and hast waxed wroth not against a man, but against God."

Kurbsky's letters reveal in him a far more cultivated man, with more
sense of decency and self control, and even elegance of diction, than
the Tzar. He even reproaches the latter, in one letter, for his
ignorance of the proper way to write, and for his lack of culture, and
tells him he ought to be ashamed of himself, comparing the Tzar's
literary style with "the ravings of women," and accusing him of writing
"barbarously."

In addition to these letters, Kurbsky wrote a remarkable history of Ivan
the Terrible's reign, entitled, "A History of the Grand Principality of
Moscow, Concerning the Deeds Which We Have Heard from Trustworthy Men,
and Have also Beheld with Our Own Eyes." It is brought down to the year
1578. This history is important as the first work in Russian literature
in which a completely successful attempt was made to write a fluent
historical narrative (instead of setting forth facts in the style of
the Chronicles), and link facts to preceding facts in logical sequence,
deducing effects from causes.

To the reign of Ivan the Terrible belong, also, "A History of the
Kingdom of Kazan," by Priest Ioann Glazatly; and the "Memoirs of Alexei
Adasheff"--the most ancient memoirs in the Russian language.

In the mean time, during this same sixteenth century, a new culture was
springing up in southwestern Russia, and in western Russia, then under
the rule of Poland, and under the influence of the Jesuits. Many
Russians had joined the Roman Church, or the "Union" (1596), by which
numerous eastern orthodox along the western frontier acknowledged the
supremacy of the Pope of Rome, on condition of being allowed to retain
their own rites and vernacular in the church services. In the end, they
were gradually deprived of