CHAPTER XCIX.

The Patriarchal Library.

HE original nucleus of what is now the Patri

THE

archal Library, was a Greek MS., brought by Sophia from Greece and Italy, when she became the wife of John III., Basilivich. The richness of it is said to have been such as to strike with amazement the learned Greek Maximus, sent for from Mount Athos, by Basil, the son of Sophia, to sort and arrange the MSS. To this collection was added, afterwards, another, made by the Patriarch Nicon, who sent the monk Arsenius Souchanoff to Mount Athos, and to the East, with directions to search all the monasteries, and to bring back whatever he could procure in the way of valuable books and MSS. Souchanoff accordingly collected as many as 500 Greek books from Mount Athos, and received from the Greek Patriarchs an addition of 200 more. It is to be regretted, indeed, that much has been lost, and that what remains has never yet been systematically arranged;

but still enough remains to constitute one of the richest collections known; and it is said that when the MSS. were catalogued by Professor Mattei, he showed an astonishment not unlike that of Maximus, at the rarity and number of the treasures before him. It may not be out of place here to acknowledge the liberality and courtesy with which a collation of some MSS. of St. Chrysostom has recently been supplied from this library to certain members of the University of Oxford, the collators, M. M. Kyriakoff and another, declining to receive anything else for their trouble than a copy of the New Edition of that particular work of St. Chrysostom whenever it shall appear.

CHAPTER C.

Other Treasures of the Patriarchal and other

A

Churches.

FTER repassing into the hall, the Archiman

drite showed me the Church or Chapel, which was attached to the Patriarchal Lodgings. It adjoins the hall, and in passing the hall, if I remember rightly, I saw the huge vessels used for the mixing and boiling of the Holy Chrism, viz. a tun of silver, for mixing it, weighing 8 poods' 19 lbs., besides 6 lbs. 36 zolotniks of gold with which it is gilded. The cover of this tun, on the top of which there is a representation of Samuel anointing Saul, weighs besides 2 poods 35 lbs. of silver, and is gilt with 4 zol. of gold. Then there were two great vessels or cauldrons for boiling the chrism, weighing each about 5 poods, 24 lbs. of silver, and gilt with 4 lbs. each of gold. In all about 780 lbs. of silver avoirdupois, and 19 lbs. of gold.

[A pood = 40 pounds, or 36 lbs. avoirdupois ; a zolotnik = somewhat less than 2 drams avoirdupois.]

I pass over much that I saw in the Patriarchal Church, and in the Church of the Archangel, where Grand Princes and Tsars were buried. There they showed me the shrine of Demetrius, the last of the line of Ruric, who was murdered at the age of eight years. It was most richly adorned and palled with a fringe of the Imperial or Tsarish ermine. They also showed me the two tombs of the brothers John and Theodore Alexiavich, tombs remarkable for the incredible richness of their palls or coverings, wrought by their sister the Empress Elizabeth. They were literally covered with studs of solid silver, pearls, and huge emeralds, one of which the monk said was worth at least 25,000 roubles (50007.). There was gold and pearls without end. The royal doors seemed to be of sheets of solid gold. This church is rather a burying-place of the Tsars than a place for public worship.

CHAPTER CI.

The Emperor, with his Son and Heir and

Daughter-in-law.

ALSO, there is much to be told of the old Tartar

palace, which was built upon the site of the former lodging of the Metropolitans, and contained in it seven small churches, which formed quite a labyrinth. These the Archimandrite showed me, and then conducted me by a narrow passage and staircase straight down opposite to the western gate of the Cathedral of the Assumption, just at the moment that the Emperor with his son and daughter-in-law drove up, and, alighting, walked by a platform from the Church of the Archangel to the southern door of the Assumption, where they were received by the Metropolitan and clergy with the cross and holy water.

The enthusiasm of the multitude was unbounded; and certainly, after what I then witnessed, I could not but understand the feeling of those Russians, who wonder how their sovereigns can endure to labour for that which satisfieth not at Petersburg, when they