In the eastern half of the Balkan Peninsula the Slays had already begun to turn to Christianity before their conquest by the Bulgars. These latter were hostile until Boris, under the influence of his sister and of one Methodius (certainly not the famous one), adopted the new faith and put to the sword those that resisted conversion (A.D. 865). Though his Christianity came from Byzantium, Boris seems to have feared the influence of the Greek clergy and applied to the Pope for teachers, submitting to him a whole series of questions. The Pope sent clergy, but would not grant the Bulgarians as much independence as they asked, and Boris seems to have repented of his application to him.
He raised the question at the Council of Constantinople (A.D. 87o), which decided that Bulgaria was subject to the Eastern Church. Cyril and Methodius.—In the same way Rostislav, prince of Greater Moravia, fearing the influence of Latin missionaries, applied to Byzantium for teachers who should preach in the vulgar tongue (A.D. 861). The emperor chose two brothers, sons of a Thessalonian citizen, Methodius and Constantine (generally known as Cyril by the name he adopted upon becoming a monk).
The former was an organizer, the latter a scholar, a philosopher and a linguist. His gifts had been already exercised in a mission to the Crimea ; he had brought thence the relics of S. Clement, which he finally laid in their resting-place in Rome. But the main reason for the choice was that the Thessalonians, surrounded as they were by Slavonic tribes, were well known to speak Sla vonic perfectly. On their arrival in Moravia the brothers began to teach letters and the Gospel, and also to translate the necessary liturgical books and instruct the young in them. But soon (in 864) Rostislav was attacked by Louis the German and reduced to complete obedience, so that there could be no question of setting up a hierarchy in opposition to the dominant Franks, and the attempts to establish the Slavonic liturgy were strongly op posed. Hearing of the brothers' work Pope Nicholas I. sent for them to come to Rome. On their way they visited with Kocel, a Slavonic prince of Pannonia, about Lake Balaton, and he much favoured the Slavonic books. In Venice the brothers had dis
putes as to the use of Slavonic service-books ; perhaps at this time these found their way to Croatia and Dalmatia.
On their arrival in Rome Nicholas was dead, but Adrian II. was favourable to them and their translations, and had the pupils they brought with them ordained. In Rome Constantine fell ill, took monastic vows and the name of Cyril, and died on the 14th of February 869. Methodius was consecrated archbishop of Pan nonia and Moravia, about 870, but Kocel could not help him much, and the German bishops had him tried and thrown into prison ; also in that very year Rostislav was dethroned by Sveto pluk, who, though he threw off the Frankish yoke, was not stead fast in supporting the Slavonic liturgy. In 873 Pope John VIII. commanded the liberation of Methodius and allowed Slavonic services, and for the next few years the work of Methodius went well. In 879 he was again called to Rome, and in 88o the pope distinctly pronounced in his favour and restored him to his archbishopric, but made a German, Wiching, his suffragan. Me thodius was succeeded by Wiching, who had a new pope, Stephen V. (VI.) on his side. So the Slavonic service-books and those that used them were driven out by Svetopluk and took refuge in Bulgaria, where the ground had been made ready for them. Boris, having decided to abide by the Greek Church, welcomed Clement, Gorazd and other disciples of Methodius. Clement, who was the most active in literary work, laboured in Ochrida and others in various parts of the kingdom.
In spite of the triumph of the Latino-German party, the Slavonic liturgy was not quite stamped out in the west ; it seems to have survived in out-of-the-way corners of Great Moravia until that principality was destroyed by the Magyars. Also during the life of Methodius it appears to have penetrated into Bohemia, Poland and Croatia, but all these countries finally accepted the Latin Church, and so were permanently cut off from the Ortho dox Serbians, Bulgarians and Russians. (X. ; N. B. J.)