The prince was not only the head of the executive, but the right arm of the general assembly (_vetche_), which still arrogated to itself the right of deciding on peace and war. He exercised judicial functions, pronouncing sentence on the findings arrived at by the jurors[525] who decided civil and criminal suits, and levying the fine adjudged, which he appropriated to the maintenance of his dignity. The Russian princes of the tenth century held a position analogous to that occupied by the podestà of the Italian republic; and, indeed, the political evolution of the two countries for many years proceeded on parallel lines. It was reserved for Christianity, which had played so vast a part in the disintegration of the Roman Empire, to modify profoundly the relations between prince and city. The form in which this highly militant creed reached the cities of Russia was that which had ruled supreme in Byzantium. It was first preached in northern countries in the ninth century by two monks named Cyrillus and Methodus, who are still venerated as the “Apostles of the Slavs.” They are also regarded as the founders of the national literature, for they reduced the melodious accents of the Slavonic tongue to writing, and translated into it the Holy Writings and the Byzantine ritual. The seed thus sown fell upon fruitful soil; for the impulsive, dreamy character of the Slavs, a heritage from their remote Indian ancestors, was powerfully attracted by the gorgeous and rather sensual rites whose glory is still faintly shadowed in the desecrated splendours of St. Sophia. Russia soon swarmed with missionaries preaching a creed which appeals with greater force than any other to the idiosyncrasies of Aryans. The princes themselves were carried away by the movement, and paused in their career of tyranny and bloodshed to bow before the emblems of peace and goodwill to men.