“Tribute is another thing,” continued Albert. “God himself established that all who are under authority shall pay tribute to their rulers. Render unto Cæsar the things which are Cæsar’s.” Recently this tribute had been stopped, but the archbishop declared that he was not to blame. The Livonians were now begging him to free them from the yoke of Russia. This was not pleasant for Vladimir to hear. He began with angry words to threaten. He would burn Riga; he would not let his land be trampled by foreign intruders; he would level their cities to the earth. The meeting came very near ending in a battle, and nothing was accomplished.
After Vladimir’s return to Polotsk, he grew very sad. His warriors said not a word, but he heard the reproach: “Think what thou hast done in giving the Germans such power. What answer canst thou render to God for their crimes?” The people were silent, but the prince saw that they were thinking day and night of how they could avoid falling into the power of the foreigner. In this sorrow Vladimir continued, till at last every one was roused and made happy by the great success of Novgorod. [[217]]
About the time that Mystislav the Gallant came back to Novgorod in 1214, the insolence of the tribes incited by the archbishop had become unendurable. Mystislav at once led his warriors into that country, and went twice from side to side through the whole region. When he had finished the people bowed down to him, and began as before to send tribute to Novgorod. In 1216 Mystislav left Novgorod, but an example had been given, and Vladimir of Polotsk recovered his courage. Soon there was at Polotsk an immense congregation of warriors,—many Russians and a multitude of Livs. The army was ready to move, but as Vladimir was about to embark he stumbled in stepping from the shore to the boat, fell into the water, and died suddenly. That ended the expedition.
Saved from Polotsk, the knights did not escape defeat from Novgorod. They had subjected again the places won by Mystislav, but Novgorod recovered them.
With the death of Vladimir of Polotsk, that principality ceased, as one might say, to exist. In that region Russians and Lithuanians had so assimilated that they were difficult to distinguish.
Vladimir was without a successor. After his death, where the German domain ended, the Lithuanian began. There was now an independent Livonia, and the Germans were seeking to include that region where they had built the castle of Fellin, a region which the Danes admired as the Revel coast. This was the Estland, or the Esthonia of Rome.
After Mystislav the Gallant had shaken the power of the Vladimir principality by the battle of Lipetsk, and vanished forever from Novgorod, there was an interval of quiet, beginning with 1218, which greatly favored the Germans in their efforts to obtain Esthonia. But the Danish king was equally anxious to get possession of this country, or, according to his biographer, he wanted to purify his conscience from sin and show his devotion to the Riga Mother of God; therefore he disembarked on the coast of Livonia a numerous army.
The Danes and the Riga Germans now did their best to excel each other at baptizing. Villages and settlements trembled at the appearance of the “cross-bearers.” Wherever there was a battle the conquerors became executioners, and in retaliation, whenever a soldier of the cross fell into the hands of the natives, they burned [[218]]him alive as an offering to their god; sometimes they flayed a cross out of the flesh of his back before burning him.
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.”