From the castle of Fellin and along the Revel coast regions, the country had gibbets thickly planted over it. From dread of the terrible sword and gibbet of the intruder, the people were anxious for baptism. The Riga Germans had many priests, the Danes only a few; but when the Danes lacked priests they used lay baptism. They collected the people in a crowd, and baptized them all together. It happened frequently that when the German knights came, people fell on their knees and cried: “We are baptized already.” There were cases where the two crowds of missionaries met, and one took its converts from the other by force of arms. The hatred of the baptizers for each other became so great that the archbishop went to Rome to complain of the Danes, but he found there envoys from the Danish king on a similar errand. The Pope confirmed the Revel coast to the Danish king; afterward, however, the whole land went to Riga. The Kors and Livs had not been able to save themselves under the protection of Polotsk, neither were these tribes protected by Novgorod. In five or six years, that is between 1218 and 1224, their evil fate was settled. During that period princes changed several times in Novgorod; and the Pskoff men gravely considered in their meetings the question of making an alliance with Riga. Complaint against Novgorod was general. “Our Novgorod brothers,” said they, “come to take tribute of rebellious tribes and then go home quickly; when they are gone we suffer doubly on their account. A bad peace with Germans is better than such brotherly assistance.” At this period Lithuanians were troubled greatly by refugees of their own stock, who had been driven out of Prussia. These people, urged by the Livonian knights, made raids against Novgorod. Warring continually with its new enemy, Novgorod was not able to properly defend its possessions on the coast, and so asked aid of Yuri of Vladimir. Yuri sent Sviatoslav, his brother, with troops. There was a battle at Wenden, the knights were defeated, and the castle was besieged, but the Grand Master succeeded in bringing in reinforcements, and the Russians, satisfied with their booty, withdrew. The Letts, who were obedient to the Germans and under their lead, now threatened Pskoff. The whole country about there, called Esthonia by the Germans, consisted of warring fragments now under German, and now under Russian command. Odempe, Izborsk, and Yurieff passed from hand to hand. The people suffered from the Russians because they yielded to the Germans, and from the Germans because they went back to the Russians. It would be impossible to count all the campaigns and raids of that troubled time. The archbishop was hated for his cruelty. Populations whom he came to convert were filled with terror by his presence; they submitted to baptism, but they washed it away quickly when he was gone.