Nearly all the pastors of the churches were Greeks from Constantinople, and Yaroslaf, apprehensive that the Greeks might acquire too much influence in the empire, made great efforts to raise up Russian ecclesiastics, and to place them in the most important posts.

At length the last hours of the monarch arrived, and it was evident that death was near.

He assembled his children around his bed, four sons and five daughters, and thus affectingly addressed them: "I am about to leave the world.

I trust that you, my dear children, will not only remember that you are brothers and sisters, but that you will cherish for each other the most tender affection.

Ever bear in mind that discord among you will be attended with the most funereal results, and that it will be destructive of the prosperity of the state.