A certain monk was nailing a protest upon the door of the Church at Wittenburg which would tax to the uttermost his energies.

As from time to time travelers brought back tales of the splendor of the Muscovite court, Europe was more than ever afraid of such neighbors.

What might these powerful barbarians not do, if they adopted European methods! More stringent measures were enforced.

They must not have access to the implements of civilization, and Sigismund, King of Poland, threatened English merchants on the Baltic with death.
It is a singular circumstance that although, up to the time of Ivan the Great, Russia had apparently not one thing in common with the states of Western Europe, they were still subject to the same great tides or tendencies and were moving simultaneously toward identical political conditions.

An invisible but compelling hand had been upon every European state, drawing the power from many heads into one.