h the Tatars on the field of Kulikovo,
on the Don, in 1370, under Dmitry Donskoy (Dmitry of the Don), Prince of
Moscow, is, that they are imitated, in style and language, from the
famous "Word Concerning Igor's Raid."

Among the many purely secular tales of the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries preserved in manuscript, not one has anything in common with
Russian national literature. All are translations, or reconstructions of
material derived from widely divergent sources, such as the stories of
Alexander of Macedon, of the Trojan War, and various Oriental tales.
About the middle of the sixteenth century, Makary, metropolitan of
Moscow, collected, in twelve huge volumes, the Legends (or Spiritual
Tales) of the Saints, under the title of Tchetya Minaya--literally,
Monthly Reading. It was finished in 1552, and contains thirteen hundred
Lives of Saints.

QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW

1. What was the effect of the Tatar raids upon Kieff?

2. What striking illustration have we of the weak religious
literature of this time?

3. What were the "decorated narratives"? To what famous epic
are they similar in style?

4. What foreign character have the secular tales of this
period?

5. What famous collection of Legends of the Saints was made in
the sixteenth century?

CHAPTER IV

THIRD PERIOD, FROM THE TIME OF IVAN THE TERRIBLE, 1530, TO THE MIDDLE OF
THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

Political events had tended to concentrate absolute power in the hands
of the Grand Princes of Moscow, beginning with Ivan III. But no
counterbalancing power had arisen in Russian society; there was no
independent life, no respect for the individual, no public opinion to
counteract the abuse of power. In the beginning of the sixteenth
century, Russian society had reached the extreme limits of development
possible to it under its unfavorable conditions. The time for the
Russian Renaissance had arrived. It is well to remember that at this
time in other parts of Europe also the spirit of despotism and
intolerance was holding individual liberty in check. This was the age of
Henry VIII., of Catherine de Medici, of the Inquisition, and of the
Massacre of St. Bartholomew.

In this century of transition, the sixteenth, the man who exerted over
the spirit of the age more influence than any other was Maxim the Greek
(1480-1556), a learned scholar, a monk of Mt. Athos, educated chiefly in
Italy. He was invit