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Magnush, King of the Sveden, sent to the men of Novgorod saying: " Send your philosophers to a conference, and I will send my own philosophers, that they may discuss about faith; they will ascertain whose faith is the better; if your faith is the better, then I will go into your faith, but if our faith is the better, you will go into our faith, and we shall all be as one man. But if you do not agree to uniformity, then I will come against you with all my forces. And Vladyka VasiU and Posadnik Fedor Danilovich and the Tysyatski Avraam and all the men of Novgorod having taken counsel together, repHed to Magnush: " If thou wishest to know whose is the better faith, ours or yours, send to Tsargrad (Constantinopole) to the Patriarch, for we received the Orthodox faith from the Greeks; but with thee we will not dispute about the faith. As to what grievances there may be between us, we will send about that to thee to the conference." And the men of Novgorod sent to Magnush the Tysyatski Avraam, Kuzma Tverdislav, and other Boyars. And Avraam and the others arriving at Orekhovets wished to go to Magnush, but Magnush was then on Berezov* island with all his forces. And the men of Orekhov beat with their foreheads to Avraam not to leave their town, but Kuzma Tverdislav with others went to Magnush; and Magnush replied to Kuzma: " I have no grievance whatever against you "; but he said thus: " Adopt my faith, or I will march against you with my whole force "; and he dismissed Kuzma and the others. On their return to Orekhovets they all shut themselves in the town, and Magnush came up against the town with his whole force, and began baptizing the Izhera people into his own faith, and let loose his troops among those who refused baptism. And hearing that the king had turned his force on the Izhera people, the men of Novgorod sent Ontsifor Lukinits, Yakov Khotov and Mikhail Fefilatov against them with a small company and through the prayers of the Holy Mother of God, and with the help of St. Sophia and of the holy Martyrs Boris and Gleb, God aided Ontsifor; they killed 500, and others they took alive, and executed the traitors, and the men of Novgorod returned all well, having lost only three men.

• And Posadnik Fedor Danilovich with the lieutenants of the Veliki Knyaz and all the men of Novgorod and of Pskov, with the whole of the Novgorod district and a few men of Novi-torg went to Ladoga, and to Knyaz Simeon Ivanovich they sent envoys, saying: " Come to us, Sire, to defend thy patrimony according to thy kissing of the Cross ; the king of he Sveden coming against us. " And the 'Veliki Knyaz Simeon replied to the men of Novgorod: " I come gladly to you." And after long delay the Knyaz went to Novgorod; but on reaching [the village of] Sitno from Torzhok, he turned back to Moscow, and sent his brother Ivan to Novgorod. And Knyaz Ivan came to Novgorod but did not go to the men of Novgorod at Ladoga. In the meanwhile King Magnush captured the town of Orekhovets on Transfiguration Day, and he seized Avraam and Kuzma with eight other Boyars, and let all the others go out of the town, and himself went away from it, leaving a force behind in Orekhovets. And Knyaz Ivan hearing of the capture of Orekhovets, by the Germans, went back from Novgorod without the benediction of the Vladyka, and not listening to the petition of the men of Novgorod. And the men of Novgorod went from Ladoga, and halted by Orekhovets.

• Fire in Novgorod

• The same autumn the men of Novgorod halted by Orekhov, investing it from our Lady's Fast (August) till the Great Fast [Lent] ; then on Monday before Easter they approached the town with siege-engines, and on the dawn of Tuesday in Passion Week they took the town by the grace of God and the mediation of St. Sophia, through the prayers of the Most Holy Mother of God our Sovereign Lady, and by the power of the Honourable Cross, in which we repose our trust, also with the aid of the sacred Martyrs Boris and Gleb, on Tuesday, the day of Commemoration of the discovery of the sacred and honourable Head of loan the Forerunner (March 9), and they slew the Germans and took others alive, and set their brothers of Novgorod, Yakov Khotov and Olexander Borisovich in Orekhov.

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