Text

501 Text|          as it were, stones at the sky.... ~We have never spilled
502 Text|            not ashamed before your slave who preserved his piety
503 Text|           my race: for we have not snatched the realm from anyone, but
504 Text|            this. And this epistle, soaked in my tears, will I order
505 Text|           many tears, and to utter sobs and have anguish of my soul... ~
506 Text|           in the end! Why have you sold your soul for your body'
507     | some
508 Text|        eternity but now as Father, Son and Holy Ghost, has neither
509 Text|           a great victory over the sons of Hagar beyond the Don,
510 Text|        think not upon us with your sophistic thoughts, as though we had
511 Text|      hearts, and that by a similar sorcery she had put Moscow on fire,
512 Text|          is already afflicted with sores. But to you, O tsar, was
513 Text|           as a witness, and I have sought and pried within my thoughts,
514 Text|    servants of God's Word, until a spark of piety has fallen upon
515 Text|            our sins, a fire having spread, by God's will, the royal
516 Text|            may see them. We do not stain the thresholds of the churches
517 Text|           one no longer wishing to stand before the impartial judge,
518 Text|        Jesus Christ the victorious standard of God's only Word and the
519 Text|     capital city of Moscow, on the steps of our imperial threshold,
520 Text|   underfoot and pierced with sharp sticks, and transferred it to the
521 Text|        words, hurling, as it were, stones at the sky.... ~We have
522 Text|           far distant towns have I stood in arms against your foes
523 Text|          and, furthermore, burning stoves. ~And I wanted to relate
524 Text|        with ornaments, so that all strangers may see them. We do not
525 Text|           forth miraculous healing streams, as you, O tsar, know well.. ~
526 Text|           one not to laugh at such stupidity? Why should we be incendiaries
527 Text|          their heroic bravery made subject to you in all things those
528 Text|           the strong in Israel and subjected to various forms of death
529 Text|         true, such dogs everywhere suffer capital punishment. . . . ~
530 Text|            But, to conclude, I can summarize them all thus: of everything
531 Text|      proper that any Mass shall be sung after you. In our patrimony,
532 Text|            have I toiled with much sweat and patience; and always
533 Text|          of blood, , but with much sweating and toiling have I been
534 Text|            the grave sweet odours, sweeter than aromatics, and, by
535 Text|     flatterers and comrades of the table, your quarrelsome boyars,
536 Text|              It had pleased God to take away our mother, the pious
537     | taking
538 Text|         nor did I beseech you with tearful plaint; nor yet did I win
539 Text|        pride you may boast in this temporal, fleeting life, devising
540 Text|      Ammonite and a bastard to the tenth generation shall not enter
541 Text|            place on the day of the terrible judgment? Even if you should
542     | therefore
543     | therein
544     | thereupon
545 Text|           I shall mention just one thing: once in my childhood we
546 Text|          the steps of our imperial threshold, in the year from the creation
547 Text|            me! And what iniquitous tissues of lies have you not woven
548 Text|           born in adultery and who today whispers falsehoods in the
549     | together
550 Text|       throughout many years have I toiled with much sweat and patience;
551 Text|         but with much sweating and toiling have I been burdened by
552 Text|     peoples. And I have not let my tongue say more than this on all
553     | too
554 Text|           Princes Vasilii and Ivan took it upon themselves to have
555 Text|        especially the vainglorious tormentors, and who unhesitatingly
556 Text|           lives for you unheard-of torments and persecutions and death,
557 Text|          life, devising vessels of torture against the Christian race,
558 Text|       attacked towns and villages, tortured the people most cruelly,
559 Text|            with us nowadays. . . . Tortures and persecutions and deaths
560 Text|             Written in Wolmar, the town of my master, King Augustus
561 Text|           forgotten everything and traitorously, like a dog, have you transgressed
562 Text|        holy edifices, vilified and trampled the holy vessels and images,
563 Text|         race, yea, and abusing and trampling on the Angelic Form, O with
564 Text|     pierced with sharp sticks, and transferred it to the great treasure,
565 Text| traitorously, like a dog, have you transgressed the oath and have gone over
566 Text|         Comrades, Concerning Their Treacheries. ~Our God, the Trinity,
567 Text|      devised against no one. As to treasons and magic, it is true, such
568 Text|       putting his foot upon it; he treated us not as a parent, but
569 Text|        treasure of our mother they trod underfoot and pierced with
570 Text|      worship of the images and has trodden underfoot all sacred commands,
571 Text|           command of the orthodox, truly Christian autocrat, the
572 Text|           from anyone, we laid our trust in the Holy Virgin, and
573 Text|       Sovereign to All His Russian Tsardom Against Those Who Have Broken
574 Text|         away our mother, the pious Tsarina Elena, from the earthly
575 Text|            and to all the orthodox tsars and protectors of orthodoxy
576 Text|          your grandfather Mikhaylo Tuchkov. The Princes Vasilii and
577 Text|            glory, and never have I turned the back of your regiments
578 Text|            in one year, nor yet in two - but throughout many years
579 Text|          that you yourself are not unaware of them. And furthermore
580 Text|         the court belonging to our uncle Prince Vasilii Shuiskii,
581 Text|        have understanding, may you understand this with your leprous conscience -
582 Text|      fifteen, we, inspired by God, undertook to rule our own realm and,
583 Text|       ruled our realm in peace and undisturbed, according to our will.
584 Text|   vainglorious tormentors, and who unhesitatingly will question them "right
585 Text|            vessels and images, who unites in one person Leo the Isaurian,
586 Text|           according to justice the universe and especially the vainglorious
587 Text|        have I been burdened by you unnecessarily and above my strength! Your
588 Text|            your soul and body, who urge you on to erotic deeds and,
589 Text|         pass over in silence, made use of the favourable opportunity
590 Text|            me they brought up like vagrants and children of the poorest.
591 Text|         glorying, as it were, in a vain victory; those massacred
592 Text|        universe and especially the vainglorious tormentors, and who unhesitatingly
593 Text|           from the Greeks, and the valiant great Tsar who had obtained
594 Text|        Cross, which has never been vanquished, have been given to first
595 Text|          out of it our boyar Iurii Vasil'evich Glinskii, pulled him
596 Text|          were playing, Prince Ivan Vasilievich Shuiskii was sitting on
597 Text|            throne of our Lord, ask vengeance against you; while we who
598 Text|        complete the treachery of a vicious dog ... ~Written in our
599 Text|          their children, act more [viciously] than the priests of Cronus.
600 Text|            you; but only brilliant victories, with the help of the angel
601 Text|       destroyed the holy edifices, vilified and trampled the holy vessels
602 Text|            were then living in the village of Vorobievo; the same traitors
603 Text|         laid our trust in the Holy Virgin, and in the prayers of all
604 Text|         witness. Still more, I was visited with wounds inflicted by
605 Text|       criminal before the blessed, vivifying cross of the Lord, a destroyer
606 Text|          not deign to bestow their voluntary attention upon us, their
607 Text|           living in the village of Vorobievo; the same traitors instigated
608 Text|           foes and I suffered many wants and natural illnesses, of
609 Text|          blood has been spilled in wars with foreigners, and you
610 Text|            you, O tsar and in what way did they, the champions
611 Text|         but were bent on acquiring wealth and glory, and were quarrelling
612     | well
613 Text|         you conceived against your well-wishers and against those who lay
614     | while
615 Text|          for their mean treachery, whispered into the ears of a stupid
616 Text|          in adultery and who today whispers falsehoods in the ears of
617 Text|            seen my parents, and my wife have I not known; but always
618 Text|      tearful plaint; nor yet did I win from you any mercy through
619 Text|           heresy, as one no longer wishing to stand before the impartial
620     | within
621 Text|          angel of the Lord, have I won for your glory, and never
622 Text|           departed from the divine worship of the images and has trodden
623     | would
624 Text|       tissues of lies have you not woven against me! But I cannot
625 Text|          kings rule and the mighty write laws. By our Lord Jesus
626 Text|           I have heard from sacred writings that a destroyer will be
627 Text|           passed to the avenger of wrongs, our ancestor, the great
628 Text|        against the Christian race, yea, and abusing and trampling
629 Text|          two - but throughout many years have I toiled with much
630 Text|      abuses, and endeavouring with zeal to turn light into darkness