he had by this means become thoroughly pale, he would present himself in public.
There are also two other archbishops in the Russian monarch’s dominions in Novogorod, viz., the archbishop of Magrici and of Rostov’; also, the bishops of Tver, Resan, Smolensko, Permia, Susdal, Columna, Tczernigov’, and Sari. All these are subject to the metropolitan of Moscow; but they have certain revenues of their own out of estates and other extraordinary accidentals (as they call them); they have, however, no forts, cities, or other secular administration (as they call it). They abstain constantly from meats. I only found two abbots in Russia, but very many priors of monasteries, all of whom are chosen at the will of the prince himself, whom no one dares resist.
The mode of electing the priors is described in the letters of one Varlamus, prior of the monastery of Hutten, established in the year 7034 [1525], from which I have only selected the leading particulars. In the first place, the brothers of any monastery beseech the Grand Duke to choose a fitting prior to instruct them in divine precepts. After the election, he is compelled, before he is confirmed by the prince, to bind himself by an oath and a bond, that he will live a pious and holy life in that monastery, according to the appointment of the holy fathers,—to appoint all officers with the consent of the elder brothers, according to the custom of their predecessors,—to advance such as are faithful in performing their duties, and to give diligent attention to the welfare of the monastery,—to consult three or four of the elders on important questions of business, and after deliberation to refer the matter to the whole fraternity, and to decide and settle according to their general opinion; not daintily to live in private, but constantly to be at the same table and eat in common with the monks; diligently to collect all the registers and annual returns, and deposit them faithfully in the treasury of the monastery. All these things he promises to observe
