CHAPTER II
THE MONGOLIAN INVASION OF RUSSIA
(Books named in Chapter I.)
The history of the foundation and establishment of the Church in Russia must be read with caution, since it rests on legends and traditions from one or two centuries before the age of the first chronicles. But in the year 1073, Nestor, the traditional father of Russian history, came to the monastery at Kiev.[1] From this time onwards there are contemporary records. Nestor's own chronicle is continued to a.d. 1113, and it is followed by other chronicles. At this point, therefore, we pass from more or less uncertain popular stories of the early Church in Russia to documentary evidence.
At this very time we also enter on a gloomy period of Russian history, consisting of two troublous centuries—first, the twelfth century, when Russia was torn with internecine strife; second, the thirteenth century, when she was swept and scoured and bled almost to death by a wave of invasion of Tartar tribesmen from the steppes of central Asia.
In the midst of the petty quarrels of the princelings who checked the progress of their country by their ambitions and jealousies, the Church had its own difficulties to contend with. The metropolitan George, who had been appointed in the year 1072, was a man of a gentle, timorous disposition, and he retired to Constantinople feeling unequal to his task in face of the troubles of the times. The Church was now dragged into the vortex of political
- ↑ Nestor, x.
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