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282 GERHARD PODSKALSKYgoodness and its reward, and between apostasy and judgment, as being fundamentaltruths of Christianity.B. Imitatio ChristiA second topic, one that takes us perhaps even closer to the center of theChristian gospel, surfaces as early as the eleventh century: the imitation ofthe suffering of Christ, who bears the Cross and who is the meaning of lifefor the layman or the monk called to sanctity. Of course, in Byzantium 52this chosen path to perfection was not always followed under the samerubric, yet it was probably at the focal point of spiritual concerns there,exactly the way it was in the West.Was there among the Rus' any religious evidence of a particular devotionto the Cross that prepared the way spiritually for the imitatiol It isremarkable that in the canonical questions and answers of Kirik the onlyday memorializing Christ that is referred to repeatedly is the Feast of theExaltation of the Cross (September 14/27). 53 Depicted there are these elements:the liturgical rite of the raising of the Cross toward each of the fourpoints of the compass; the marvellous ascent of the relic of the Cross afterits discovery; abstention from fish and meat; and kissing the cross as a signof special devotion (and of daily devotion). Some of these prescriptions aretraced back to Metropolitan Klim Smoliatich. One practice that did notmeet with approval from the church, because of its formulaic nature and therisk of perjury, was the kissing of the cross, 54 which was often done,according to the testimony of the Old Rus' chronicles, to confirm the conclusionof an agreement. Furthermore, in the prologue (short-vita), St.Ol'ga is called a "second Helen" because she is said to have brought backfrom Constantinople the cross that now stands in the right chancel of theCathedral of St. Sophia in Kiev. 55 The Nestor Chronicle, and even more thepolemical literature, denounces the lack of respect, even the contempt, forthe Cross shown by the Latin church. Probably supported (whether consciouslyor not) by a prescription in the Codex Justinianus (I, 8) or in theCanones (can. 73) of the Council in Trullo (691) against chiseling a cross in52A bibliography of works on this ascetic ideal in Byzantium is found in Podskalsky,Christentum,p. 155, fn. 678.53Goetz, Kirchenrechtliche. . .Denkmaler, pp. 234f. (§21), 237 (§25), 247f. (§37), 308f.(Sava §4). For the Byzantine model see J. Ebersolt, Sanctuaires de Byzance (Paris, 1921), pp.7-9 (St. Sophia), pp. 24-26 (other churches).54Goetz, Kirchenrechtliche. . .Denkmaler, p. 378f. (exhortatory sermon by the Novgorodarchbishop Il'ia, §21). A well-preserved pectoral cross ("cross of Jerusalem") apparentlybelonged to the archbishop: see Podskalsky, Christentum, p. 190, fn. 824.55Podskalsky, Christentum, p. 121 (on the edition, see p. 117). On the acquisition of anotherrelic of the cross (beginning of the thirteenth century, Novgorod), see ibid., p. 221, fn. 1003.