At this time Constantinople was the civilized centre of the Christian world and Kiev soon became one of its choicest spiritual and intellectual children. The rulers of Kiev and the upper classes of the population were on a far higher cultural level than were most of the rulers of western Europe. Education flourished. This does not mean that there was anything similar to our modern methods of widespread education and literacy, but larger classes of the population were affected than in the still barbaric countries of the West. The traditional idea that Kiev and Rus’ were backward for the time can hardly be maintained. Kiev and its rulers held an honored place throughout Europe. The members of the royal family married into the family of the Emperors of Constantinople. Other members made matrimonial alliances with the Saxon royal family of England, with the Kings of France, with Poland and Hungary. In the eleventh century, the schism between the Eastern and Western Churches had not yet taken place, although there were strong signs of its approach and nothing but distance existed to keep Kiev and Rus’ from being swept into the general development of European Christian civilization. The Grand Princes of Kiev were incomparably richer than many of the rulers of the West. They had direct connection with Constantinople, the greatest of the Christian markets, and they also could trade with the Eastern lands. Wealth flowed in. The Byliny, the folk epics, which preserved traditions of the greatness of Volodymyr and his court, his associates like Ilya of Murom, Dobrynya Nikitich, and the remainder of the heroes, never weary of speaking of golden Kiev and of the wealth and generosity of Kiev’s ruler. There may be exaggeration but there is enough other available material to show that the rulers and the upper classes imitated as best they could the luxury and splendor of Constantinople and the Byzantine Emperors. The son and successor of Volodymyr, Yaroslav the Wise, (d. 1054) raised the prestige of Kiev and of Rus’ still higher. His lawcode, the Rus’ska Pravda, was excellent for his day. It incorporated what was best of the Slavonic and the Scandinavian traditions. It pictures for us a great state with its urban and rural classes, with trade and commerce, with life good for the nobles but far less so for the lower classes and the indebted peasants, who were burdened with many obligations which they could scarcely meet.