464
in this diocese: in 1607, 1621. 1641, 1684, 1720, and
.1726; and in the eighteenth century it had 183
•churches. The city of Lutsk itself 0>e8 back to the
time of Vladimir the Great in 1000. It was made the
see of an Orthodox bishop in 1288, and it was Cyril
Terletzki, Exarch and Bishop of Lutzk, who afiBxed
the first s^nature to the act of union at the Synod of
Biest on 24 June, 1590, and who went to Rome to
make his profession of union. In 1350 Lutzk was
taken by the Lithuanians, and became a flourishing
city. It was afterwards annexed to Poland, and in
1600 the Jews took possession of the city and have
ever since held it. At present it has 19,000 inhabi-
tants, of whom 12,000 are Jews. Volhynia was an-
nexed to Russia in 1792, at the Second Partition of
Poland, and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lutzk was
suppressed. It remained however a Greek Catholic
diocese until 1839. Under Emperor Paul I in 1798
the Diocese of Lutzk was restored, and embraces the
whole of the Province of Volhynia, although Zhitomir,
the capital city, lies at the eastern border, near the
Province of Kieff. The see has been kept vacant for
long intervals during the past centunr. The statistics
of &e Diocese of Lutzk (1909) are: Catholics, 279.157
(Orthodox, 2,106,960); secular priests, 84; regulars,
6; parish churches, 81.
Zhitomir is situated on the River Teterev, about ten miles from the frontier of the Government of Kieff. It is ^id to have been founded by Zhitomir, one of the followers of Rurik. In the thirteenth centurv it was taken by the Tatars and was afterwards subject to Lithuania and Poland. It was annexed to Russia in 1778. The city now has a population of 65,000. The Diocese of Zhitomir is really that of Kieff. Whep Kieff and Zhitomir were annexed to Russia, the Cath- olic diocese was suppressed, and the Bishop of Kieff was expelled, but in 1798 when Pius VI, in the Bull "Maximis undique press!'*, re-established the Diocese of Kieff, it was transferred by the request of the Rus- sian authorities to Zhitomir, and then later united to Lutzk, in order that no Latin bishop should dispute the See of Kieff with the Orthodox bishop. Theoret- ically, an auxiliary bishop may- reside at Kieff, but none has been allowed for many decades. The dioc- esan bishop of the united sees resides at Zhitomir. 'Hie present (1909) statistics for the Diocese of Zhito- mir, which includes a slight strip of Volhynia and the whole of the Government of Kieff, are: Catholics, 220,893 (Orthodox, 2,988,694), with one regular and 105 secular clergy, 70 parish churches, and one semi- nary. The Latin Bishopric of Kieff is first mentioned in 1321, just after the Lithuanians conquered this part of Little Russia, when Pope John XaII made Hein- rich von Porvalle, a Dominican, its first Hshop. The next bishop was Jacob, also a Dominican. Naturally the earlier Xatin bishops of Kieff were travelling mis- sionary bishops, establishing churches and ecclesias- tical institutions of the Latin Rite throughout the land. Clement (d. 1473) is said to have been the first Latin bishop to fix his see permanently within the city of Kieff, where he built a cathedral. In the previous century the Dominicans had built a fine monastery in the lower portion of Kieff called Podol, which was for a long time the finest Roman church in that part of Russia. Bishop Alexander Sokolowsky (1613-1645) had great success in establishingLatin churches, and in 1640 established a deanery atTchernigoff . In 1626 Bishop John Osga commenced to build an additional cathedral in Zhitomir, which was consecrattod by his successor Gaetan Soltyk in 1751, and it is the present cathedral. Two provmcial fi^ods were held in this diocese: one in 1640 at Kieff, and the other in 1762 in Zhitomir.
The city of Kieff, "the mother of all the cities of Russia", is really the cnuile of Christianity in the Bussian Empire. It is said to have been founded by ISii 3Dd his PT0t]i^T9 Sbcbek and Khbriv, who w^re
Poli^ni, the forefathers of the modern Poles; and was
taken in conquest by the followers of Rurik in their
search for a southern kingdom. Oleg, the successor of
Rurik, came to Kieff in 882 and made it his capital.
St. Olga was here converted to Christianity, although
she was baptised in Constantinople. Later, her suc-
cessor St. Vladimir, on his conversion to Christianitjr,
married Anna^ the sister of the Greek emperors, Basil
and Constantme, and on his return from Constanti-
nople in 988 actiyelv set about the conversion of the
inhabitants of Kieff, who threw their heathen idols,
Perun and the others, into the Dnieper and were bap-
tised as Christians, thus founding the first Christian
community within the present confines of Russia.
Kieff became under him and his successors the great
capital of Russia; it possessed the first Christian
church, the first Christian school, and the first library
in Russia. It passed through great vicissitudes; for
three hundred and seventynsix years it was an inde-
pendent Russian city, for eighty years it was subject
to the Tatars and Mongols, for two hundred and f wty-
nine years it belonged to the Lithuanian Principality,
and for ninety-eight years it w^as a part of the King-
dom of Poland. It was finally annexed to the present
Russian Empire in 1667. Under the Lithuanian rule
it rose to great prosperity, and obtained the Magde-
b\urp; rights of a free city in 1499, which it enjcnred
until they were abolished in 1835. Naturally Kieff
became the see of the first Christian bishop in Russia.
Michael, who baptized Vladimir, 'was sent as the chief
missionary to the Russians, and became the first Met-
ropolitan of Kieff (988-992) . His successors, Leontius,
Jonn I, and Theopempt, were also Greeks, but in 1051
Hilarion, the first Russian bishop, was advanced to
the dignity of metropolitan, with seven bishops under
him. In 1240 the Tatars took the city of Kieff, pil-
laged it, and established Moslem rule in one of the
great shrines of Christendom. The taking of Kieff by
the Tatars drove the Russians northwai^s and cast-
wards; in 1316 the Metropolitan of Kieff changed his
see to Moscow, and thereafter the Church of Russia
was ruled from that city. In 1414, after the change
of the metropolitan see to Moscow, the seven Russian
bishops of the south chose a new Metropolitan of Kieff,
who ruled over these southern dioceses. Thus the
Russian Church was divided into two great jurisdic-
tions: Moscow and Kieff. Kieff, being of the Greek
Rite, was naturally dependent upon Constantinople,
the Church of its origin, and gradually followed it into
schism. Yet for a long time after the break between
Rome and Constantinople it remained in unity with
the Holy See. The first four metropolitans of Kieff
were Catholics and in union with Home. Hilarion
embraced schismatic \'iews strongly tinctured with na-
tionalism, but his successor George was in correspond-
ence with Pope Gregory VII, while Ephraem (1090-
1096) was the Metropolitan of Kieff who established in
Russia the feast of the translation of the relics of St.
Nicholas (9 May) w^hich was instituted by Pope Urban
II, but which was indignantly rejected ty the Greeks
of Constantinople and the Eaist . During the following
century the metropolitans of Kieff followed the schism
more closely, yet three or four of them remained in
close relation with the Holy See. Maximus (1283-
1305) was a Catholic metropolitan, Cyprian (1389;-
1406) also had close relations with the Roman authori-
ties, while Gregory I (1416-1419) was strongly inclined
towards imion with Rome. From 1438 to 1442 the
Council of Florence was held for the reunion of Chris-
tendom. Isidore, Metropolitan of Kieff (1437-1448),
with five other Russian bishops, attended the council,
signed the act of union^nd became one of its greatest
advocates. Gregory 11 (1458-1472), his successor,
was consecrated m Rome in the presence of Pope Pius
II. and was also an earnest supporter of the union.
Misael (1474-1477) and Simeon (1477-1188) were
also Catholics. Joseph II (1498-1517) likewise ad-
