The monks continued to be the leaders in the educational and literary army, and under the stress of circumstances, not only won immense political influence over the life of the people, but also developed a new and special type of literature--political sermons--which attained to particular development in the fourteenth century. Another curious phenomenon was presented by the narratives concerning various prominent personages, which contain precious facts and expressions of contemporary views. The authors always endeavored, after the time-honored fashion of biographers, to exalt and adorn their subjects; so that "decorated narratives," a most apt title for that sort of literature in general, was the characteristic name under which they came to be known. One peculiarity of all of these, it is worth noting, including that which dealt with the decisive battle with the Tatars on the field of Kulikovo, on the Don, in 1370, under Dmitry Donskoy (Dmitry of the Don), Prince of Moscow, is, that they are imitated, in style and language, from the famous "Word Concerning Igor's Raid." Among the many purely secular tales of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries preserved in manuscript, not one has anything in common with Russian national literature. All are translations, or reconstructions of material derived from widely divergent sources, such as the stories of Alexander of Macedon, of the Trojan War, and various Oriental tales. About the middle of the sixteenth century, Makary, metropolitan of Moscow, collected, in twelve huge volumes, the Legends (or Spiritual Tales) of the Saints, under the title of Tchetya Minaya--literally, Monthly Reading. It was finished in 1552, and contains thirteen hundred Lives of Saints. QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 1. What was the effect of the Tatar raids upon Kieff? 2. What striking illustration have we of the weak religious literature of this time? 3. What were the "decorated narratives"? To what famous epic are they similar in style? 4. What foreign character have the secular tales of this period? 5. What famous collection of Legends of the Saints was made in the sixteenth century? CHAPTER IV THIRD PERIOD, FROM THE TIME OF IVAN THE TERRIBLE, 1530, TO THE MIDDLE OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.