mornings, before day; and they do in such sort and with such
observation begin their service, that they will be sure to make an
end of it before day; and about nine of the clock in the morning
they celebrate the Communion. When they have so done they go to
dinner, and after dinner they go again to service, and the like also
after supper; and in the meantime, while they are at dinner, there
is some exposition or interpretation of the Gospel used.

Whensoever any abbot of any monastery dieth, the Emperor taketh all
his household stuff, beasts, flocks of sheep, gold, silver, and all
that he hath, or else he that is to succeed him in his place and
dignity doth redeem all those things, and buyeth them of the Emperor
for money.

Their churches are built of timber, and the towers of their churches
for the most part are covered with shingle boards. At the doors of
their churches they usually build some entrance or porch, as we do,
and in their churchyards they erect a certain house of wood, wherein
they set up their bells--wherein sometimes they have but one, in
some two, and in some also three.

There is one use and custom amongst them which is strange and rare,
yet it is very ridiculous, and that is this: when any man dieth
amongst them they take the dead body and put it in a coffin or
chest, and in the hand of the corpse they put a little scroll, and
in the same there are these words written, that the same man died a
Russian of Russia, having received the faith and died in the same.
This writing or letter they say they send to St. Peter, who,
receiving it (as they affirm), reads it, and by-and-by admits him
into heaven, and that his glory and place is higher and greater than