aptized by the patriarch of Constantinople (A.D. 861),
the king asked the Greek emperor to send him a painter to adorn the
walls of his palace; and that a monk named Methodius was sent
accordingly, for in those times monks were the only persons who
practised such arts as painting. The king desired him to paint a hall in
the palace with subjects of a terrible kind, by which he meant that the
pictures should be taken from the perils of hunting. But, instead of
such subjects, Methodius painted the last judgment, as being the most
terrible of all things; and the king, on seeing the picture of hell with
its torments, and being told that such would be the future place of the
heathen, was so terrified that he gave up the idols which he had kept
until then, and that many of his subjects were also moved to seek
admission into the Church.

Although the conversion of Bulgaria had been the work of Greek
missionaries, the popes afterwards sent some of their clergy into the
country, and claimed it as belonging to them; and this was one of the
chief causes why the Greek and the Latin churches separated from each
other, so that they have never since been really reconciled.

(2.) It is not certain whether the painter Methodius was the same with a
monk of that name, who, with his brother, named Cyril, brought about the
conversion of Moravia (A.D. 863). These missionaries went about their
work in a different way from what was common; for it had been usual for
the Greek clergy to use the Greek language, and for the Western clergy
to use the Latin, in their church-service and in other things relating
to religion; but instead of this, Cyril and Methodius learnt the
language of the country, and translated the church-services, with parts
of the holy Scriptures, into it, so that all might be understood by the
natives. In Moravia, too, there was a quarrel between the Greek and the
Latin clergy; but, although the popes usually insisted that the services
of the Church should be either in Latin or in Greek (because these were
two of the languages which were written over the Saviour's cross), they
were so much pleased with the success of Cyril and Methodius, that they
allowed the service of the Moravian Church to be still in the language
of the country.

(3.) Soon after the conversion of the Moravians, the duke of Bohemia
paid a visit to their king, Swatopluk, who received him with great
honour, but at dinner set him and his followers to sit on th