a city glistening with the light of holy icons,
fragrant with incense, ringing with praise and holy, heavenly songs.13
In all early Russian writings about a Christian prince "the mention of physical beauty is never lacking. Together with mercy and almsgiving, this is the only constant feature of an ideal prince."14
Literacy was more widespread than is generally realized, among those with a practical need for it; but literature was more remarkable for its aesthetic embellishments than for the content of its ideas. The oldest surviving Russian manuscript, the Ostromir Codex of 1056-7, is a richly colored and ornamented collection of readings from the gospels which were prescribed for church services and arranged according to the days of the week. There^gere no complete versions of the Bible, let alone independent theological syntheses, produced in early Russia. Most of the twenty-two survivr ing manuscript books from the eleventh century and of the eighty-six from
the twelfth15 were collections of readings and sermons assembled for practical guidance in worship and embellished both verbally and visually by Russian copyists. From the beginning there was a special preference not for the great theologians and lawmakers of Byzantium, but for its preachers, like the "golden-tongued" John Chrysostom. Cascading images of the beauties of resurrection swept away all subtlety of thought in the preaching of the greatest Kievan writers: Ilarion of Kiev and Cyril of Turov.
There was, indeed, no independent critical theology of any sophistica-tioa in Old Russia. Even in the later, Muscovite period, "theoretical" was rendered by zritel'ny, "visual," and esteemed teachers were known as smptrelivy, "those who have seen."16 Local and contemporary saints assumed a particular importance in Russian theology. They had performed deeds that men had seen in their own time: Theodosius of Kiev, turning his back on wealth and indeed on asceticism to lead the monastery of the caves into a life of active counsel and charity in the city of Kiev; Abraham of Smolensk, painting as well as teaching about the Last Judgment and bringing rain to the parched steppelands with the fervor of his prayers. Above all stood the first Russian saints, Boris and Gleb, the innocent young sons of Vladimir who accepted death gladly in the political turmoil of Kiev in order to redeem their people through innocent, Christ-like suffering.17
Theology, "the word of God," was found in the lives of saints. If one could not be or know a saint, one could still have living contact through the visual images of the iconographer and the oral reminders of the hagiog-rapher. The holy picture or icon was the most revered form of theological expression in Russia. Indeed, the popular word for "holy" or "saintly" was prepodobny, or "very like" the figures on the icons. But the life of a saint, written to be read aloud "for the good success and utility of those who listen," was also highly valued. The word for monastic novice or apprentice in sainthood was poslushnik, "obedient listener"; as one of the greatest Russian hagiographers explained, f seeing is better than hearing"; but later generations unable to see may stuT"believe even the sound of those who haveTieard, if they have spoken in truth."18
There was a hypnotic quality to the cadences of the church chant; and the hollow, vaselike indentations (golosniki) in the early Kievan churches produced a lingering resonance which obscured the meaning but deepened the impact of the sung liturgy. Pictorial beauty was present not only in mosaics, frescoes, and icons but in the*vestments worn in stately processions and in the ornate cursive writing (skoropis') with which sermons and chronicles later came to be written. The sanctuary in which the priests celebrated mass was the tabernacle of God among men; and the rich incense by the royal"door's, the cloudy pillar through which God came first to Moses,
• u (4
mid now to all men through the consecrated bread brought out by the priest at the climax of each liturgy.
The early Russians were drawn to Christianity by the aesthetic appeal of its liturgy, not the rational shape of its theology. Accepting unquestion-ingly the Orthodox definition of truth, they viewed all forms of expression as equally valid means of communicating and glorifying the faith. Words, , sounds, and pictures were all subordinate and interrelated parts of a common religious culture. In Russia-as distinct from the Mediterranean and Western worlds--"Church art was not added to religion from without, but was an emanation from within."19
The same desire to see spiritual truth in tangible form accounts for the extraordinary sense of history that is a second distinguishing feature of early Russian culture. As with many simple warrior people, religious truth tended to be verified by the concrete test of ability to inspire victory. The miraculous pretensions of Christianity were not unique among world religions; but Orthodox Christianity offered a particularly close identification of charismatic power with historical tradition: an unbroken succession of patriarchs, prophets, and apostles that stretched from creation to incarnation and on to final judgment. A sense of majesty and destiny was imparted by the Church, which had sprung up around the original sees of Christendom, and by the Empire, which centered on the city of Constantine the Great, the man who converted the Roman Empire to Christianity and took part in the first ecumenical council of the Church at Nicaea. Tales of the great empires of the East and of the holy lands were brought back to Kiev by merchants and pilgrims alike; and these were interwoven into the sacred chronicles with no sense of conflict or incongruity. Whereas Western and Northern Europe had inherited a still primitive and uncodified Christianity from the crumbling Roman Empire of the West, Russia took over a finished creed from the still-unvanquished Eastern Empire. All that remained for "a newcomer to accomplish was the last chapter in this pageant of sacred history: "the transformation of the earthly dominion into the ecclesiastical dominion":20 preparation for the final assembly (ekklesia) of saints before the throne of God.
"Because of the lack of rational orlogical elements, ancientRussian theology was entirely historical."21 The writing of sacred history in the form of chronicles was perhaps the most important and distinguished literary activity of the Kievan period. Chronicles were written in Church Slavonic in Kievan Russia I6ng before any were written in Italian or French, and are at least as artistic as the equally venerable chronicles composed in Latin and German. The vivid narrative of men and events in the original "Primary Chronicle" struck the first Western student of Russian chronicles, August
Schlozer, as far superior to any in the medieval West, and helped inspire him to become the first to introduce both universal history and Russian history into the curriculum of a modern university.