e other had
been already converted to Christianity by German priests, as early as
A.D. 798. In consequence of this, Methodius found the Latin worship
established here, and the Latin language in use. The innovation made
by him, however, was of course greatly favoured by the people; who for
the first time heard the gospel read to them in a language they
understood. But he met with the more opposition from the priests. The
whole jealousy of the Romish church seems to have been awakened by
Methodius' proceedings. He found however a protector in the pope
himself; who feared perhaps an entire alienation of the Slavic
population, and their transition to the Oriental church; but was at
the same time desirous to preserve the whole authority of the Latin
language. In a letter to the Moravian prince Svatopluk, he enjoins
expressly, "that in all the Moravian churches the gospel, for the sake
of the greater dignity, should be read first in Latin, and afterwards
translated into Slavic for the people ignorant of the Latin."

The question, what part of the Scriptures was translated by Cyril
himself, what by his brother, and what supplements were made by their
immediate successors, can now hardly be answered in a satisfactory
manner. The honour of the invention of the alphabet appears to belong
exclusively to Cyril; but in the sacred work of translation, Methodius
was not less active; and his merits in respect to the conversion and
instruction of the Slavi, were more favoured by a longer life.
According to John, exarch of Bulgaria, Cyril translated only
_selections_ from the Gospels and the _Apostle_, as the book of Acts
and the apostolic epistles are together called in Slavic; i.e. a
_Lectionarium_, or extracts from those parts of the Scriptures,
arranged in such a way as to serve as a lesson for every sacred day
through the whole year. The Russians call such a collection
_Aprakoss_, the Greeks [Greek: evangelia, eklogadia]. A work of this
description is the above mentioned Evangelium of Ostromir, of the year
1056, written out expressly for the domestic use of Ostromir.
_posadnik_[13] of Novogorod, a near relation of the grand-duke of
Izjaslav. It is however held to be more probable, that Cyril
translated at first the whole of the Gospels, as still contained in a
Codes of A.D. 1144, in the library of the Synod of Moscow. The
Presbyter of Dioclea, who wrote about A.D. 1161, ascribes to Cyril not
only the translation of the Gospels, but