KHLYSTY. See RUSSIA, III., § 4.

KIDRON: A valley or ravine east of Jerusalem, now known as Wadi Sitti Maryam ("Valley of St. Mary"). At present it is always dry except occasionally after severe rains in the winter (see JERUSALEM). The name (Hebr. kidhron) occurs eleven times in the Old Testament and once (John xviii. 1) in the New Testament, where the A. V. has "the brook Cedron" (following the Greek form, kedron), the R. V. "the brook Kidron." The marginal reading of the R. V., "of the Cedars," is a possible translation of the Greek, but not applicable to a Hebrew word; kidhron is usually referred to the root kadhar, " to be dark, gloomy."

KIEF, kî'ef (KIEW, KIJEW): A city of Russia, on the Dnieper, noted in ecclesiastical history as an ancient metropolitan see, the cradle of the Russian Church. In 1320 it came into the possession of the Lithuanians, and thus in 1386 became part of the kingdom of Poland, which ceded it to Russia in 1686. Greek missionaries were the first to preach Christianity in this region, and Christians are found there as early as the beginning of the tenth century. After the conversion of Vladimir in 988, the Greek patriarch sent thither the first archbishop, Michael, a Syrian by birth (988-992). Under the episcopate of Theopemptus (1035-47) the great cathedral of St. Sophia was built, and the province then included twelve dioceses, to which Smolensk was added in 1137. Early in the twelfth century the relations of the see with Rome became more and more strained. Under Matthew (1200-20) Kief was destroyed by the Mongolian invaders, and in 1299 the see was formally transferred to Vladimir, and under Peter (1308-26) to Moscow, the old title being still retained of "metropolitan of Kief and all Russia." Under Gregory I. (1416-19) the Ruthenian Church was completely separated from Moscow and Constantinople, and he seems to have been disposed to promote a reunion with Rome and to have attended the Council of Constance. Isidore (1437-58) took more decisive steps in the same direction, labored diligently for the reunion scheme of the Council of Ferrara-Florence, and died a cardinal and (Latin) patriarch-elect of Constantinople in 1463. But the reunion project found little favor among the people, and a state of schism and conflict followed, the union being wholly dissolved at the death of Joseph II. (1498-1517) under the influence of Helen, the Russian wife of King Alexander II., who instigated the employment of harsh measures against its adherents. In 1595, however, the metropolitan of Kief with all his eight suffragans, decided once more to look to Rome for help against the disorders of the times, and Clement VIII. received them, permitting them to retain their own ecclesiastical language and customs. By the influence of Moscow a rival line of Greek metropolitans was kept up until 1707 without a break. The successive divisions of Poland and the anti-Roman influence of the Empress Catherine II. tended to weaken the position of the Uniat Church in the eighteenth century, and under Russian pressure in 1839 most of its adherents returned to the communion of Moscow. In 1771 they had numbered twelve millions; in 1834 scarcely a million and a half were left.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: M. Le Quien, Oriens Christianus, i. 1257-1282, iii. 1127 sqq., Paris, 1740; C. G. Friese, De episcopatu Kiovensi, Warsaw, 1763; L. Lescoeur, L'Église

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catholique en Pologne, Paris, 1860; A. Pichler, Geschichte der kirchlichen Trennung, ii. 1 sqq., Munich, 1864; J. Pelesz, Geschichte der Union der ruthenischen Kirche mit Rom, 2 vols., Vienna, 1878-80; L. K. Goetz, Das Kiever Höhlenkloster als Kulturzentrum des vormongolischen Russlands, Passau, 1904; KL, vii. 428-446 (a full article). Further material will be found in the literature under POLAND; RUSSIA. On the two councils of the Eastern Church held there consult: E. H. Landon, Manual of Councils, London, 1846; A. N. Mouravieff, Hist. of the Church of Russia, pp. 35, 179, Oxford, 1842.