<JqS COXK'8 TRAVELS IN RUSSIA .

.and of lils fun Vafili Ivanovitch, \vho fucceeded him in the throne, and expired in

- 1 5 ^ 3 -

In a frnall chapel adjoining to thefe tombs is the fepulchre of Ivan Vaffihe-vitch II. *, fon and fucceffor of Vaffili Ivanovitch. This Sovereign is brandedby many writers with the name of tyrant, and reprefented as the mod odious mond&rthat ever difgraced human nature. In delineating, however, his general chara&er,they are fometimes guilty of falfehood f, and often of exaggeration ; and feem totallyto forget many great qualities which he certainly poffeffed. Though we Ihould notgive implicit credit to many idle reports of his favagenefs and inhumanity, yet it wouldbe equally abfurd, and contrary to hillorical evidence, to deny or attempt to apologifefor many cruelties J a&ually committed by this monarch, who, like Peter the Great ,did not reckon clemency among the number of his virtues.

But while we regard the ferocity of his temper with abhorrence, we cannot refufe the-tribute of admiration to his political charafter. fie raifed the fuperftruchire of theRuffian grandeur, of which his grandfather laid the foundation. Inftead of a defultorymilitia, collected in halle, and always impatient to difband, he inftituted a Handingarmy ; he abolifhed the ufe of the bow, hitherto the principal weapon among the Ruf-fians ; he trained them to fire-arms, and introduced a more regular difcipline. Bymeans of this formidable body, he extended his dominions on all fides, conquered the.kingdoms of Cafan and Afiracan, and rendered the Ruffian name refpedtable to the-difiant powers of Europe . Pie gave to his fubjedts the firft code of written laws; heHnvited foreign artifts § to Mofcow, introduced printing into Ruffia, promoted com-merce, and regulated the duties of export and import; he permitted Englifh merchantsto eflablifh factories within his dominions, and, with a liberality not always pra&ifedby more enlightened fovereigns, granted to them the free exercife of their religion :he had even formed the defign, which death alone prevented, of inflituting various femi-naries for the cultivation of the Latin and German languages.

Ivan Vaffilievitch II. died in 1584, in an agony of grief at the death of his eldedion Ivan, whofe remains are placed contiguous to thofe of his father. Hiltorians haverecorded, that this Prince received his death from the perfon to whom he was indebted.for his life, by an unfortunate blow on the temple. The enemies of the Tzar imputedthis melancholy cataftrophe to defign; while his apologifts flrenuoufly laboured to re-

* Called, by the Englifh writers, John Bafilovitz.

-j- Thus fome writers affert, that when he walked out, or made a progrefs through his own dominions,if he met any one whofe mien difpleafed him, he would command his head to be rtruck off, or do it him--felf. Others as abfurdly relate, that he would order bears to be let loofe upon a crowd of people af-fembled in the itreets of Mofcow, and diverted himfelf with the cries and agonies of the perfons devoured4jy thofe ferocious animals. Olearius informs us, that Ivan wantonly commanded the eyes of the archi.-tedl, who built the church.of the Holy Trinity at Mofcow, to be put out, that he might never conllrudtany building of fuperior beauty. Thefe incredible tales confute themfelves ; but the following charge weare able to contradidt from our own hiftory. Ivan is laid to have ordered the hat of the Eiijjlifh ambaf--fador, Sir Jerome Bowes, to be nailed to his hyad, becaufe he refilled to take, it off hi his prefence.This report was occafioned by the exaggerated account of a mifunderfianding between the Tzar and SirJerome Bowes, which is related in the ambaffador’s difpatches. Hackluyt’s Collection of Voyages, vol. 1*p. 460, See.

p Inftances of which the reader will find in the 6th chap, of this book, and the 2 d of book iv.

f Above three hundred artifts of all profefiions, namely, painters, fculptors, architects, watch-makers,bell-foundtrs, miners, armourers, llationers, mafons, &c. already arrived at Lubee in their way to Mof-cow, but were pi evented from proceeding by the intrigues of the inhabitants of Luhec, and the nativesofiivonia. See Bachmeilter’s Effai fur la Bib. &c. p. 32.

6t