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THE BYZANTINES. 105 pels US to accord the monastic orders the just / praise which is their due for spreading Chris- tianity and Christian civilization among the bar- barous nations, since while they preached the Gospel they taught letters and art. The Sla- vonic language was reduced to writing by the two Greek monks Cyril and Methodius, and Greek monks were the teachers of Ulphilas, the prin cipal apostle and civilizer of the Goths. . "The free Greece of to-day, moreover," says Bikelas, " can never forget her everlasting debt to the monasteries of her church, which were centres of national life and national culture, as well as of national religion during the ages or her bondage." On the whole, the administration of the finances of the Byzantines was economical. Ex- cellent statesmen and financiers succeeded, dur- ing the good times of the empire, in accumulat- ing larger sums in the treasury than any other power during the earlier part of the Middle Ages. Nothwithstanding this, there were pe- riods of senseless extravagance and unscrupu- lous corruption. But even in this direction a bad government could not go too far, because of the development of principles which nobody could overstep without danger to himself. For