consists so largely in ceremonies should have been introduced most effectively into the country of its most extensive missionary triumphs under the influence of an impressive ceremony. Happily an inducement of a higher order is added as the final consideration which decided the cautious prince to decide for Christianity. The commissioners appealed to the memory of his grandmother Olga, saying, that if the religion of the Greeks had not been good she would not have embraced it. Vladimir was convinced, and simply asked, "Where shall we be baptised."
Another story, if it is more than a saga, does not show us his conversion in so pleasing a light. It would appear that Vladimir was besieging the Tauric town Cherson, then subject to the Greek Empire, when a traitorous priest within the walls sent him a note by means of an arrow, informing him that the way to take the city was to cut off its water supply in the aqueduct. The prince vowed that if he succeeded in taking the town he would be baptised, for was not his friend the priest a Christian? He took the town and kept his vow. Nevertheless, after his conversion Vladimir remained a gross, cruel sensualist, wading through blood to debauchery. He must have had great power at this time, for he was able to force the Emperor Basil to send him Anna, the emperor's sister, for his bride. The princess seems to have gone willingly, with the desire of carrying her religion into heathen Russia. Vladimir was both baptised and married at Cherson (a.d. 988), after which he restored the city to the Greek Empire. Thus again a Christian woman sat at the head of the Russian court and used her high influence to bring the people over to her faith. Anna had a much better opportunity than Olga. The ruler's grandmother had sown the seed; his wife reaped the harvest. In the interval of the two generations missionaries had been pouring over into Russia from the Byzantine Empire. Thus we may believe that Christianity was already working like leaven in the community, slowly permeating the mass, before the prince adopted it and proclaimed it as his own and the national religion. This fact
