THE BYZANTINE INHERITANCE IN RUSSIA 375
Church and in this field there was no rival to contest the
ecclesiastical supremacy. Greek architects planned and
Greek workmen built the early Russian churches. The
decoration of the churches naturally followed the pattern set
by Constantinople: through mosaics and icons the Greek
view of the ascent by way of the saints and the angelic
hierarchy up to the majesty of Christ as Pantokrator—Lord
of All—was faithfully reproduced. In time Russia would
introduce her own architectural developments such as the
characteristic 'onion dome', but however deeply the Greek
might later be suspected as a renegade from the faith of the
Fathers, the Russian converts did but cling the more
tenaciously to the creed which Greek thinkers had formu-
lated in the Seven Oecumenical Councils.
Yet from the outset—from the conversion of Vladimir,
'the new Constantine'—it was clear that the Christian
Church on Russian soil was a very different thing from the
Church within the Roman Empire. The Christian faith
had penetrated East Roman society from below before it had
been adopted as his personal belief by the first Christian
Emperor. The Church had developed through centuries of
conflict and had in the course of that development secured
the passionate loyalty of the Byzantine people: it had become
an integral part of a long-established social organization. In
Russia Christianity was not thus securely founded in history:
it had no such deep roots. It was an alien religion set against
a pagan world; it had been imposed from above upon Slav
and Northman alike. * There was no wealth of native tradition
to which it could appeal for support. The Christian clergy
was therefore, of necessity, bound in close alliance with the
Great Princes of Kiev. The Church needed the tithe which
the Prince of Kiev granted to it from the revenues of the
State: it was the Prince who founded monasteries and built
churches; the State placed its powers of compulsion at the
service of the bishops who sought to suppress paganism and
to turn the 'double faith' of the converts—half-pagan and
half-Christian—into a complete allegiance to the ethical
demands of the new religion. And since the higher clergy
represented culture, the State for its part needed the advice
of bishops and monks, needed their intermediation in the