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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/8578-8.txt b/8578-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1815af1 --- /dev/null +++ b/8578-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1343 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Grand Inquisitor, by Feodor Dostoevsky + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Grand Inquisitor + +Author: Feodor Dostoevsky + +Translator: H. P. Blavatsky + +Posting Date: June 28, 2010 [EBook #8578] +Release Date: July, 2005 +First Posted: July 25, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GRAND INQUISITOR *** + + + + +Produced by Jake Jaqua. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + + + + +THE GRAND INQUISITOR + + +By + +Feodor Dostoevsky + +(Translation by H.P. Blavatsky) + + +[Dedicated by the Translator to those sceptics who clamour so +loudly, both in print and private letters--"Show us the +wonder-working 'Brothers,' let them come out publicly--and we will +believe in them!"] + + +[The following is an extract from M. Dostoevsky's celebrated +novel, The Brothers Karamazof, the last publication from the pen +of the great Russian novelist, who died a few months ago, just as +the concluding chapters appeared in print. Dostoevsky is +beginning to be recognized as one of the ablest and profoundest +among Russian writers. His characters are invariably typical +portraits drawn from various classes of Russian society, +strikingly life-like and realistic to the highest degree. The +following extract is a cutting satire on modern theology +generally and the Roman Catholic religion in particular. The idea +is that Christ revisits earth, coming to Spain at the period of +the Inquisition, and is at once arrested as a heretic by the +Grand Inquisitor. One of the three brothers of the story, Ivan, a +rank materialist and an atheist of the new school, is supposed to +throw this conception into the form of a poem, which he describes +to Alyosha--the youngest of the brothers, a young Christian +mystic brought up by a "saint" in a monastery--as follows: +(--Ed. Theosophist, Nov., 1881)] + + + + + +"Quite impossible, as you see, to start without an introduction," +laughed Ivan. "Well, then, I mean to place the event described in +the poem in the sixteenth century, an age--as you must have been +told at school--when it was the great fashion among poets to +make the denizens and powers of higher worlds descend on earth +and mix freely with mortals... In France all the notaries' +clerks, and the monks in the cloisters as well, used to give +grand performances, dramatic plays in which long scenes were +enacted by the Madonna, the angels, the saints, Christ, and even +by God Himself. In those days, everything was very artless and +primitive. An instance of it may be found in Victor Hugo's drama, +Notre Dame de Paris, where, at the Municipal Hall, a play called +Le Bon Jugement de la Tres-sainte et Gracičuse Vierge Marie, is +enacted in honour of Louis XI, in which the Virgin appears +personally to pronounce her 'good judgment.' In Moscow, during +the prepetrean period, performances of nearly the same character, +chosen especially from the Old Testament, were also in great +favour. Apart from such plays, the world was overflooded with +mystical writings, 'verses'--the heroes of which were always +selected from the ranks of angels, saints and other heavenly +citizens answering to the devotional purposes of the age. The +recluses of our monasteries, like the Roman Catholic monks, +passed their time in translating, copying, and even producing +original compositions upon such subjects, and that, remember, +during the Tarter period!... In this connection, I am reminded of +a poem compiled in a convent--a translation from the Greek, of +course--called, 'The Travels of the Mother of God among the +Damned,' with fitting illustrations and a boldness of conception +inferior nowise to that of Dante. The 'Mother of God' visits +hell, in company with the archangel Michael as her cicerone to +guide her through the legions of the 'damned.' She sees them all, +and is witness to their multifarious tortures. Among the many +other exceedingly remarkably varieties of torments--every +category of sinners having its own--there is one especially +worthy of notice, namely a class of the 'damned' sentenced to +gradually sink in a burning lake of brimstone and fire. Those +whose sins cause them to sink so low that they no longer can rise +to the surface are for ever forgotten by God, i.e., they fade out +from the omniscient memory, says the poem--an expression, by the +way, of an extraordinary profundity of thought, when closely +analysed. The Virgin is terribly shocked, and falling down upon +her knees in tears before the throne of God, begs that all she +has seen in hell--all, all without exception, should have their +sentences remitted to them. Her dialogue with God is colossally +interesting. She supplicates, she will not leave Him. And when +God, pointing to the pierced hands and feet of her Son, cries, +'How can I forgive His executioners?' She then commands that all +the saints, martyrs, angels and archangels, should prostrate +themselves with her before the Immutable and Changeless One and +implore Him to change His wrath into mercy and--forgive them +all. The poem closes upon her obtaining from God a compromise, a +kind of yearly respite of tortures between Good Friday and +Trinity, a chorus of the 'damned' singing loud praises to God +from their 'bottomless pit,' thanking and telling Him: + + Thou art right, O Lord, very right, + Thou hast condemned us justly. + +"My poem is of the same character. + +"In it, it is Christ who appears on the scene. True, He says +nothing, but only appears and passes out of sight. Fifteen +centuries have elapsed since He left the world with the distinct +promise to return 'with power and great glory'; fifteen long +centuries since His prophet cried, 'Prepare ye the way of the +Lord!' since He Himself had foretold, while yet on earth, 'Of +that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven +but my Father only.' But Christendom expects Him still. ... + +"It waits for Him with the same old faith and the same emotion; +aye, with a far greater faith, for fifteen centuries have rolled +away since the last sign from heaven was sent to man, + + And blind faith remained alone + To lull the trusting heart, + As heav'n would send a sign no more. + +"True, again, we have all heard of miracles being wrought ever +since the 'age of miracles' passed away to return no more. We +had, and still have, our saints credited with performing the most +miraculous cures; and, if we can believe their biographers, there +have been those among them who have been personally visited by +the Queen of Heaven. But Satan sleepeth not, and the first germs +of doubt, and ever-increasing unbelief in such wonders, already +had begun to sprout in Christendom as early as the sixteenth +century. It was just at that time that a new and terrible heresy +first made its appearance in the north of Germany.* [*Luther's +reform] A great star 'shining as it were a lamp... fell upon the +fountains waters'... and 'they were made bitter.' This 'heresy' +blasphemously denied 'miracles.' But those who had remained +faithful believed all the more ardently, the tears of mankind +ascended to Him as heretofore, and the Christian world was +expecting Him as confidently as ever; they loved Him and hoped in +Him, thirsted and hungered to suffer and die for Him just as many +of them had done before.... So many centuries had weak, trusting +humanity implored Him, crying with ardent faith and fervour: 'How +long, O Lord, holy and true, dost Thou not come!' So many long +centuries hath it vainly appealed to Him, that at last, in His +inexhaustible compassion, He consenteth to answer the prayer.... +He decideth that once more, if it were but for one short hour, +the people--His long-suffering, tortured, fatally sinful, his +loving and child-like, trusting people--shall behold Him again. +The scene of action is placed by me in Spain, at Seville, during +that terrible period of the Inquisition, when, for the greater +glory of God, stakes were flaming all over the country. + + Burning wicked heretics, + In grand auto-da-fes. + +"This particular visit has, of course, nothing to do with the +promised Advent, when, according to the programme, 'after the +tribulation of those days,' He will appear 'coming in the clouds +of heaven.' For, that 'coming of the Son of Man,' as we are +informed, will take place as suddenly 'as the lightning cometh +out of the east and shineth even unto the west.' No; this once, +He desired to come unknown, and appear among His children, just +when the bones of the heretics, sentenced to be burnt alive, had +commenced crackling at the flaming stakes. Owing to His limitless +mercy, He mixes once more with mortals and in the same form in +which He was wont to appear fifteen centuries ago. He descends, +just at the very moment when before king, courtiers, knights, +cardinals, and the fairest dames of court, before the whole +population of Seville, upwards of a hundred wicked heretics are +being roasted, in a magnificent auto-da-fe ad majorem Dei +gloriam, by the order of the powerful Cardinal Grand Inquisitor. + +"He comes silently and unannounced; yet all--how strange--yea, +all recognize Him, at once! The population rushes towards Him as +if propelled by some irresistible force; it surrounds, throngs, +and presses around, it follows Him.... Silently, and with a smile +of boundless compassion upon His lips, He crosses the dense +crowd, and moves softly on. The Sun of Love burns in His heart, +and warm rays of Light, Wisdom and Power beam forth from His +eyes, and pour down their waves upon the swarming multitudes of +the rabble assembled around, making their hearts vibrate with +returning love. He extends His hands over their heads, blesses +them, and from mere contact with Him, aye, even with His +garments, a healing power goes forth. An old man, blind from his +birth, cries, 'Lord, heal me, that I may see Thee!' and the +scales falling off the closed eyes, the blind man beholds Him... +The crowd weeps for joy, and kisses the ground upon which He +treads. Children strew flowers along His path and sing to Him, +'Hosanna!' It is He, it is Himself, they say to each other, it +must be He, it can be none other but He! He pauses at the portal +of the old cathedral, just as a wee white coffin is carried in, +with tears and great lamentations. The lid is off, and in the +coffin lies the body of a fair-child, seven years old, the only +child of an eminent citizen of the city. The little corpse lies +buried in flowers. 'He will raise the child to life!' confidently +shouts the crowd to the weeping mother. The officiating priest +who had come to meet the funeral procession, looks perplexed, and +frowns. A loud cry is suddenly heard, and the bereaved mother +prostrates herself at His feet. 'If it be Thou, then bring back +my child to life!' she cries beseechingly. The procession halts, +and the little coffin is gently lowered at his feet. Divine +compassion beams forth from His eyes, and as He looks at the +child, His lips are heard to whisper once more, 'Talitha +Cumi'--and 'straightway the damsel arose.' The child rises in her +coffin. Her little hands still hold the nosegay of white roses +which after death was placed in them, and, looking round with +large astonished eyes she smiles sweetly .... The crowd is +violently excited. A terrible commotion rages among them, the +populace shouts and loudly weeps, when suddenly, before the +cathedral door, appears the Cardinal Grand Inquisitor himself.... +He is tall, gaunt-looking old man of nearly four-score years and +ten, with a stern, withered face, and deeply sunken eyes, from +the cavity of which glitter two fiery sparks. He has laid aside +his gorgeous cardinal's robes in which he had appeared before the +people at the auto da-fe of the enemies of the Romish Church, and +is now clad in his old, rough, monkish cassock. His sullen +assistants and slaves of the 'holy guard' are following at a +distance. He pauses before the crowd and observes. He has seen +all. He has witnessed the placing of the little coffin at His +feet, the calling back to life. And now, his dark, grim face has +grown still darker; his bushy grey eyebrows nearly meet, and his +sunken eye flashes with sinister light. Slowly raising his +finger, he commands his minions to arrest Him.... + +"Such is his power over the well-disciplined, submissive and now +trembling people, that the thick crowds immediately give way, and +scattering before the guard, amid dead silence and without one +breath of protest, allow them to lay their sacrilegious hands +upon the stranger and lead Him away.... That same populace, like +one man, now bows its head to the ground before the old +Inquisitor, who blesses it and slowly moves onward. The guards +conduct their prisoner to the ancient building of the Holy +Tribunal; pushing Him into a narrow, gloomy, vaulted prison-cell, +they lock Him in and retire.... + +"The day wanes, and night--a dark, hot breathless Spanish +night--creeps on and settles upon the city of Seville. The air smells +of laurels and orange blossoms. In the Cimmerian darkness of the +old Tribunal Hall the iron door of the cell is suddenly thrown +open, and the Grand Inquisitor, holding a dark lantern, slowly +stalks into the dungeon. He is alone, and, as the heavy door +closes behind him, he pauses at the threshold, and, for a minute +or two, silently and gloomily scrutinizes the Face before him. At +last approaching with measured steps, he sets his lantern down +upon the table and addresses Him in these words: + +"'It is Thou! ... Thou!' ... Receiving no reply, he rapidly +continues: 'Nay, answer not; be silent! ... And what couldst Thou +say? ... I know but too well Thy answer.... Besides, Thou hast no +right to add one syllable to that which was already uttered by +Thee before.... Why shouldst Thou now return, to impede us in our +work? For Thou hast come but for that only, and Thou knowest it +well. But art Thou as well aware of what awaits Thee in the +morning? I do not know, nor do I care to know who thou mayest be: +be it Thou or only thine image, to-morrow I will condemn and burn +Thee on the stake, as the most wicked of all the heretics; and +that same people, who to-day were kissing Thy feet, to-morrow at +one bend of my finger, will rush to add fuel to Thy funeral +pile... Wert Thou aware of this?' he adds, speaking as if in +solemn thought, and never for one instant taking his piercing +glance off the meek Face before him.".... + +"I can hardly realize the situation described--what is all +this, Ivan?" suddenly interrupted Alyosha, who had remained +silently listening to his brother. "Is this an extravagant fancy, +or some mistake of the old man, an impossible quid pro quo?" + +"Let it be the latter, if you like," laughed Ivan, "since modern +realism has so perverted your taste that you feel unable to +realize anything from the world of fancy.... Let it be a quid pro +quo, if you so choose it. Again, the Inquisitor is ninety years +old, and he might have easily gone mad with his one idee fixe of +power; or, it might have as well been a delirious vision, called +forth by dying fancy, overheated by the auto-da-fe of the hundred +heretics in that forenoon.... But what matters for the poem, +whether it was a quid pro quo or an uncontrollable fancy? The +question is, that the old man has to open his heart; that he must +give out his thought at last; and that the hour has come when he +does speak it out, and says loudly that which for ninety years he +has kept secret within his own breast." + +"And his prisoner, does He never reply? Does He keep silent, +looking at him, without saying a word?" + +"Of course; and it could not well be otherwise," again retorted +Ivan. "The Grand Inquisitor begins from his very first words by +telling Him that He has no right to add one syllable to that which +He had said before. To make the situation clear at once, the above +preliminary monologue is intended to convey to the reader the very +fundamental idea which underlies Roman Catholicism--as well as I +can convey it, his words mean, in short: 'Everything was given +over by Thee to the Pope, and everything now rests with him alone; +Thou hast no business to return and thus hinder us in our work.' +In this sense the Jesuits not only talk but write likewise. + +"'Hast thou the right to divulge to us a single one of the +mysteries of that world whence Thou comest?' enquires of Him my +old Inquisitor, and forthwith answers for Him. 'Nay, Thou has no +such right. For, that would be adding to that which was already +said by Thee before; hence depriving people of that freedom for +which Thou hast so stoutly stood up while yet on earth.... +Anything new that Thou would now proclaim would have to be +regarded as an attempt to interfere with that freedom of choice, +as it would come as a new and a miraculous revelation superseding +the old revelation of fifteen hundred years ago, when Thou didst +so repeatedly tell the people: "The truth shall make you free." +Behold then, Thy "free" people now!' adds the old man with sombre +irony. 'Yea!... it has cost us dearly.' he continues, sternly +looking at his victim. 'But we have at last accomplished our +task, and--in Thy name.... For fifteen long centuries we had to +toil and suffer owing to that "freedom": but now we have +prevailed and our work is done, and well and strongly it is done. +....Believest not Thou it is so very strong? ... And why should +Thou look at me so meekly as if I were not worthy even of Thy +indignation?... Know then, that now, and only now, Thy people +feel fully sure and satisfied of their freedom; and that only +since they have themselves and of their own free will delivered +that freedom unto our hands by placing it submissively at our +feet. But then, that is what we have done. Is it that which Thou +has striven for? Is this the kind of "freedom" Thou has promised +them?'" + +"Now again, I do not understand," interrupted Alyosha. "Does the +old man mock and laugh?" + +"Not in the least. He seriously regards it as a great service +done by himself, his brother monks and Jesuits, to humanity, to +have conquered and subjected unto their authority that freedom, +and boasts that it was done but for the good of the world. 'For +only now,' he says (speaking of the Inquisition) 'has it become +possible to us, for the first time, to give a serious thought to +human happiness. Man is born a rebel, and can rebels be ever +happy?... Thou has been fairly warned of it, but evidently to no +use, since Thou hast rejected the only means which could make +mankind happy; fortunately at Thy departure Thou hast delivered +the task to us.... Thou has promised, ratifying the pledge by Thy +own words, in words giving us the right to bind and unbind... and +surely, Thou couldst not think of depriving us of it now!'" + +"But what can he mean by the words, 'Thou has been fairly +warned'?" asked Alexis. + +"These words give the key to what the old man has to say for his +justification... But listen-- + +"'The terrible and wise spirit, the spirit of self annihilation +and non-being,' goes on the Inquisitor, 'the great spirit of +negation conversed with Thee in the wilderness, and we are told +that he "tempted" Thee... Was it so? And if it were so, then it is +impossible to utter anything more truthful than what is contained +in his three offers, which Thou didst reject, and which are +usually called "temptations." Yea; if ever there was on earth a +genuine striking wonder produced, it was on that day of Thy three +temptations, and it is precisely in these three short sentences +that the marvelous miracle is contained. If it were possible that +they should vanish and disappear for ever, without leaving any +trace, from the record and from the memory of man, and that it +should become necessary again to devise, invent, and make them +reappear in Thy history once more, thinkest Thou that all the +world's sages, all the legislators, initiates, philosophers and +thinkers, if called upon to frame three questions which should, +like these, besides answering the magnitude of the event, express +in three short sentences the whole future history of this our +world and of mankind--dost Thou believe, I ask Thee, that all +their combined efforts could ever create anything equal in power +and depth of thought to the three propositions offered Thee by the +powerful and all-wise spirit in the wilderness? Judging of them by +their marvelous aptness alone, one can at once perceive that they +emanated not from a finite, terrestrial intellect, but indeed, +from the Eternal and the Absolute. In these three offers we find, +blended into one and foretold to us, the complete subsequent +history of man; we are shown three images, so to say, uniting in +them all the future axiomatic, insoluble problems and +contradictions of human nature, the world over. In those days, the +wondrous wisdom contained in them was not made so apparent as it +is now, for futurity remained still veiled; but now, when fifteen +centuries have elapsed, we see that everything in these three +questions is so marvelously foreseen and foretold, that to add to, +or to take away from, the prophecy one jot, would be absolutely +impossible! + +"'Decide then thyself.' sternly proceeded the Inquisitor, 'which +of ye twain was right: Thou who didst reject, or he who offered? +Remember the subtle meaning of question the first, which runs +thus: Wouldst Thou go into the world empty-handed? Would Thou +venture thither with Thy vague and undefined promise of freedom, +which men, dull and unruly as they are by nature, are unable so +much as to understand, which they avoid and fear?--for never was +there anything more unbearable to the human race than personal +freedom! Dost Thou see these stones in the desolate and glaring +wilderness? Command that these stones be made bread--and mankind +will run after Thee, obedient and grateful like a herd of cattle. +But even then it will be ever diffident and trembling, lest Thou +should take away Thy hand, and they lose thereby their bread! +Thou didst refuse to accept the offer for fear of depriving men +of their free choice; for where is there freedom of choice where +men are bribed with bread? Man shall not live by bread +alone--was Thine answer. Thou knewest not, it seems, that it was +precisely in the name of that earthly bread that the terrestrial +spirit would one day rise against, struggle with, and finally +conquer Thee, followed by the hungry multitudes shouting: "Who is +like unto that Beast, who maketh fire come down from heaven upon +the earth!" Knowest Thou not that, but a few centuries hence, and +the whole of mankind will have proclaimed in its wisdom and +through its mouthpiece, Science, that there is no more crime, +hence no more sin on earth, but only hungry people? "Feed us +first and then command us to be virtuous!" will be the words +written upon the banner lifted against Thee--a banner which +shall destroy Thy Church to its very foundations, and in the +place of Thy Temple shall raise once more the terrible Tower of +Babel; and though its building be left unfinished, as was that of +the first one, yet the fact will remain recorded that Thou +couldst, but wouldst not, prevent the attempt to build that new +tower by accepting the offer, and thus saving mankind a +millennium of useless suffering on earth. And it is to us that +the people will return again. They will search for us catacombs, +as we shall once more be persecuted and martyred--and they will +begin crying unto us: "Feed us, for they who promised us the fire +from heaven have deceived us!" It is then that we will finish +building their tower for them. For they alone who feed them shall +finish it, and we shall feed them in Thy name, and lying to them +that it is in that name. Oh, never, never, will they learn to +feed themselves without our help! No science will ever give them +bread so long as they remain free, so long as they refuse to lay +that freedom at our feet, and say: "Enslave, but feed us!" That +day must come when men will understand that freedom and daily +bread enough to satisfy all are unthinkable and can never be had +together, as men will never be able to fairly divide the two +among themselves. And they will also learn that they can never be +free, for they are weak, vicious, miserable nonentities born +wicked and rebellious. Thou has promised to them the bread of +life, the bread of heaven; but I ask Thee again, can that bread +ever equal in the sight of the weak and the vicious, the ever +ungrateful human race, their daily bread on earth? And even +supposing that thousands and tens of thousands follow Thee in the +name of, and for the sake of, Thy heavenly bread, what will +become of the millions and hundreds of millions of human beings +to weak to scorn the earthly for the sake of Thy heavenly bread? +Or is it but those tens of thousands chosen among the great and +the mighty, that are so dear to Thee, while the remaining +millions, innumerable as the grains of sand in the seas, the weak +and the loving, have to be used as material for the former? No, +no! In our sight and for our purpose the weak and the lowly are +the more dear to us. True, they are vicious and rebellious, but +we will force them into obedience, and it is they who will admire +us the most. They will regard us as gods, and feel grateful to +those who have consented to lead the masses and bear their burden +of freedom by ruling over them--so terrible will that freedom at +last appear to men! Then we will tell them that it is in +obedience to Thy will and in Thy name that we rule over them. We +will deceive them once more and lie to them once again--for +never, never more will we allow Thee to come among us. In this +deception we will find our suffering, for we must needs lie +eternally, and never cease to lie! + +"Such is the secret meaning of "temptation" the first, and that +is what Thou didst reject in the wilderness for the sake of that +freedom which Thou didst prize above all. Meanwhile Thy tempter's +offer contained another great world-mystery. By accepting the +"bread," Thou wouldst have satisfied and answered a universal +craving, a ceaseless longing alive in the heart of every +individual human being, lurking in the breast of collective +mankind, that most perplexing problem--"whom or what shall we +worship?" There exists no greater or more painful anxiety for a +man who has freed himself from all religious bias, than how he +shall soonest find a new object or idea to worship. But man seeks +to bow before that only which is recognized by the greater +majority, if not by all his fellow-men, as having a right to be +worshipped; whose rights are so unquestionable that men agree +unanimously to bow down to it. For the chief concern of these +miserable creatures is not to find and worship the idol of their +own choice, but to discover that which all others will believe +in, and consent to bow down to in a mass. It is that instinctive +need of having a worship in common that is the chief suffering of +every man, the chief concern of mankind from the beginning of +times. It is for that universality of religious worship that +people destroyed each other by sword. Creating gods unto +themselves, they forwith began appealing to each other: "Abandon +your deities, come and bow down to ours, or death to ye and your +idols!" And so will they do till the end of this world; they will +do so even then, when all the gods themselves have disappeared, +for then men will prostrate themselves before and worship some +idea. Thou didst know, Thou couldst not be ignorant of, that +mysterious fundamental principle in human nature, and still thou +hast rejected the only absolute banner offered Thee, to which all +the nations would remain true, and before which all would have +bowed--the banner of earthly bread, rejected in the name of +freedom and of "bread in the kingdom of God"! Behold, then, what +Thou hast done furthermore for that "freedom's" sake! I repeat to +Thee, man has no greater anxiety in life than to find some one to +whom he can make over that gift of freedom with which the +unfortunate creature is born. But he alone will prove capable of +silencing and quieting their consciences, that shall succeed in +possessing himself of the freedom of men. With "daily bread" an +irresistible power was offered Thee: show a man "bread" and he +will follow Thee, for what can he resist less than the attraction +of bread? But if, at the same time, another succeed in possessing +himself of his conscience--oh! then even Thy bread will be +forgotten, and man will follow him who seduced his conscience. So +far Thou wert right. For the mystery of human being does not +solely rest in the desire to live, but in the problem--for what +should one live at all? Without a clear perception of his reasons +for living, man will never consent to live, and will rather +destroy himself than tarry on earth, though he be surrounded with +bread. This is the truth. But what has happened? Instead of +getting hold of man's freedom, Thou has enlarged it still more! +Hast Thou again forgotten that to man rest and even death are +preferable to a free choice between the knowledge of Good and +Evil? Nothing seems more seductive in his eyes than freedom of +conscience, and nothing proves more painful. And behold! instead +of laying a firm foundation whereon to rest once for all man's +conscience, Thou hast chosen to stir up in him all that is +abnormal, mysterious, and indefinite, all that is beyond human +strength, and has acted as if Thou never hadst any love for him, +and yet Thou wert He who came to "lay down His life for His +friends!" Thou hast burdened man's soul with anxieties hitherto +unknown to him. Thirsting for human love freely given, seeking to +enable man, seduced and charmed by Thee, to follow Thy path of +his own free-will, instead of the old and wise law which held him +in subjection, Thou hast given him the right henceforth to choose +and freely decide what is good and bad for him, guided but by +Thine image in his heart. But hast Thou never dreamt of the +probability, nay, of the certainty, of that same man one day +rejected finally, and controverting even Thine image and Thy +truth, once he would find himself laden with such a terrible +burden as freedom of choice? That a time would surely come when +men would exclaim that Truth and Light cannot be in Thee, for no +one could have left them in a greater perplexity and mental +suffering than Thou has done, lading them with so many cares and +insoluble problems. Thus, it is Thyself who hast laid the +foundation for the destruction of Thine own kingdom and no one +but Thou is to be blamed for it. + +"'Meantime, every chance of success was offered Thee. There are +three Powers, three unique Forces upon earth, capable of +conquering for ever by charming the conscience of these weak +rebels--men--for their own good; and these Forces are: Miracle, +Mystery and Authority. Thou hast rejected all the three, and thus +wert the first to set them an example. When the terrible and +all-wise spirit placed Thee on a pinnacle of the temple and said unto +Thee, "If Thou be the son of God, cast Thyself down, for it is +written, He shall give His angels charge concerning Thee: and in +their hands they shall bear Thee up, lest at any time Thou dash +Thy foot against a stone!"--for thus Thy faith in Thy father +should have been made evident, Thou didst refuse to accept his +suggestion and didst not follow it. Oh, undoubtedly, Thou didst +act in this with all the magnificent pride of a god, but then +men--that weak and rebel race--are they also gods, to understand +Thy refusal? Of course, Thou didst well know that by taking one +single step forward, by making the slightest motion to throw +Thyself down, Thou wouldst have tempted "the Lord Thy God," lost +suddenly all faith in Him, and dashed Thyself to atoms against +that same earth which Thou camest to save, and thus wouldst have +allowed the wise spirit which tempted Thee to triumph and +rejoice. But, then, how many such as Thee are to be found on this +globe, I ask Thee? Couldst Thou ever for a moment imagine that +men would have the same strength to resist such a temptation? Is +human nature calculated to reject miracle, and trust, during the +most terrible moments in life, when the most momentous, painful +and perplexing problems struggle within man's soul, to the free +decisions of his heart for the true solution? Oh, Thou knewest +well that that action of Thine would remain recorded in books for +ages to come, reaching to the confines of the globe, and Thy hope +was, that following Thy example, man would remain true to his +God, without needing any miracle to keep his faith alive! But +Thou knewest not, it seems, that no sooner would man reject +miracle than he would reject God likewise, for he seeketh less +God than "a sign" from Him. And thus, as it is beyond the power +of man to remain without miracles, so, rather than live without, +he will create for himself new wonders of his own making; and he +will bow to and worship the soothsayer's miracles, the old +witch's sorcery, were he a rebel, a heretic, and an atheist a +hundred times over. Thy refusal to come down from the cross when +people, mocking and wagging their heads were saying to Thee--"Save +Thyself if Thou be the son of God, and we will believe in +Thee," was due to the same determination--not to enslave man +through miracle, but to obtain faith in Thee freely and apart +from any miraculous influence. Thou thirstest for free and +uninfluenced love, and refuses the passionate adoration of the +slave before a Potency which would have subjected his will once +for ever. Thou judgest of men too highly here, again, for though +rebels they be, they are born slaves and nothing more. Behold, +and judge of them once more, now that fifteen centuries have +elapsed since that moment. Look at them, whom Thou didst try to +elevate unto Thee! I swear man is weaker and lower than Thou hast +ever imagined him to be! Can he ever do that which Thou art said +to have accomplished? By valuing him so highly Thou hast acted as +if there were no love for him in Thine heart, for Thou hast +demanded of him more than he could ever give--Thou, who lovest +him more than Thyself! Hadst Thou esteemed him less, less wouldst +Thou have demanded of him, and that would have been more like +love, for his burden would have been made thereby lighter. Man is +weak and cowardly. What matters it, if he now riots and rebels +throughout the world against our will and power, and prides +himself upon that rebellion? It is but the petty pride and vanity +of a school-boy. It is the rioting of little children, getting up +a mutiny in the class-room and driving their schoolmaster out of +it. But it will not last long, and when the day of their triumph +is over, they will have to pay dearly for it. They will destroy +the temples and raze them to the ground, flooding the earth with +blood. But the foolish children will have to learn some day that, +rebels though they be and riotous from nature, they are too weak +to maintain the spirit of mutiny for any length of time. Suffused +with idiotic tears, they will confess that He who created them +rebellious undoubtedly did so but to mock them. They will +pronounce these words in despair, and such blasphemous utterances +will but add to their misery--for human nature cannot endure +blasphemy, and takes her own revenge in the end. + +"'And thus, after all Thou has suffered for mankind and its +freedom, the present fate of men may be summed up in three words: +Unrest, Confusion, Misery! Thy great prophet John records in his +vision, that he saw, during the first resurrection of the chosen +servants of God--"the number of them which were sealed" in their +foreheads, "twelve thousand" of every tribe. But were they, +indeed, as many? Then they must have been gods, not men. They had +shared Thy Cross for long years, suffered scores of years' hunger +and thirst in dreary wildernesses and deserts, feeding upon +locusts and roots--and of these children of free love for Thee, +and self-sacrifice in Thy name, Thou mayest well feel proud. But +remember that these are but a few thousands--of gods, not men; +and how about all others? And why should the weakest be held +guilty for not being able to endure what the strongest have +endured? Why should a soul incapable of containing such terrible +gifts be punished for its weakness? Didst Thou really come to, +and for, the "elect" alone? If so, then the mystery will remain +for ever mysterious to our finite minds. And if a mystery, then +were we right to proclaim it as one, and preach it, teaching them +that neither their freely given love to Thee nor freedom of +conscience were essential, but only that incomprehensible mystery +which they must blindly obey even against the dictates of their +conscience. Thus did we. We corrected and improved Thy teaching +and based it upon "Miracle, Mystery, and Authority." And men +rejoiced at finding themselves led once more like a herd of +cattle, and at finding their hearts at last delivered of the +terrible burden laid upon them by Thee, which caused them so much +suffering. Tell me, were we right in doing as we did. Did not we +show our great love for humanity, by realizing in such a humble +spirit its helplessness, by so mercifully lightening its great +burden, and by permitting and remitting for its weak nature every +sin, provided it be committed with our authorization? For what, +then, hast Thou come again to trouble us in our work? And why +lookest Thou at me so penetratingly with Thy meek eyes, and in +such a silence? Rather shouldst Thou feel wroth, for I need not +Thy love, I reject it, and love Thee not, myself. Why should I +conceal the truth from Thee? I know but too well with whom I am +now talking! What I had to say was known to Thee before, I read +it in Thine eye. How should I conceal from Thee our secret? If +perchance Thou wouldst hear it from my own lips, then listen: We +are not with Thee, but with him, and that is our secret! For +centuries have we abandoned Thee to follow him, yes--eight +centuries. Eight hundred years now since we accepted from him the +gift rejected by Thee with indignation; that last gift which he +offered Thee from the high mountain when, showing all the +kingdoms of the world and the glory of them, he saith unto Thee: +"All these things will I give Thee, if Thou will fall down and +worship me!" We took Rome from him and the glaive of Caesar, and +declared ourselves alone the kings of this earth, its sole kings, +though our work is not yet fully accomplished. But who is to +blame for it? Our work is but in its incipient stage, but it is +nevertheless started. We may have long to wait until its +culmination, and mankind have to suffer much, but we shall reach +the goal some day, and become sole Caesars, and then will be the +time to think of universal happiness for men. + +"'Thou couldst accept the glaive of Caesar Thyself; why didst +Thou reject the offer? By accepting from the powerful spirit his +third offer Thou would have realized every aspiration man seeketh +for himself on earth; man would have found a constant object for +worship; one to deliver his conscience up to, and one that should +unite all together into one common and harmonious ant-hill; for +an innate necessity for universal union constitutes the third and +final affliction of mankind. Humanity as a whole has ever aspired +to unite itself universally. Many were, the great nations with +great histories, but the greater they were, the more unhappy they +felt, as they felt the stronger necessity of a universal union +among men. Great conquerors, like Timoor and Tchengis-Khan, +passed like a cyclone upon the face of the earth in their efforts +to conquer the universe, but even they, albeit unconsciously, +expressed the same aspiration towards universal and common union. +In accepting the kingdom of the world and Caesar's purple, one +would found a universal kingdom and secure to mankind eternal +peace. And who can rule mankind better than those who have +possessed themselves of man's conscience, and hold in their hand +man's daily bread? Having accepted Caesar's glaive and purple, we +had, of course, but to deny Thee, to henceforth follow him alone. +Oh, centuries of intellectual riot and rebellious free thought +are yet before us, and their science will end by anthropophagy, +for having begun to build their Babylonian tower without our help +they will have to end by anthropophagy. But it is precisely at +that time that the Beast will crawl up to us in full submission, +and lick the soles of our feet, and sprinkle them with tears of +blood and we shall sit upon the scarlet-colored Beast, and +lifting up high the golden cup "full of abomination and +filthiness," shall show written upon it the word "Mystery"! But +it is only then that men will see the beginning of a kingdom of +peace and happiness. Thou art proud of Thine own elect, but Thou +has none other but these elect, and we--we will give rest to +all. But that is not the end. Many are those among thine elect +and the laborers of Thy vineyard, who, tired of waiting for Thy +coming, already have carried and will yet carry, the great fervor +of their hearts and their spiritual strength into another field, +and will end by lifting up against Thee Thine own banner of +freedom. But it is Thyself Thou hast to thank. Under our rule and +sway all will be happy, and will neither rebel nor destroy each +other as they did while under Thy free banner. Oh, we will take +good care to prove to them that they will become absolutely free +only when they have abjured their freedom in our favor and submit +to us absolutely. Thinkest Thou we shall be right or still lying? +They will convince themselves of our rightness, for they will see +what a depth of degrading slavery and strife that liberty of +Thine has led them into. Liberty, Freedom of Thought and +Conscience, and Science will lead them into such impassable +chasms, place them face to face before such wonders and insoluble +mysteries, that some of them--more rebellious and ferocious than +the rest--will destroy themselves; others--rebellious but +weak--will destroy each other; while the remainder, weak, helpless +and miserable, will crawl back to our feet and cry: "'Yes; right +were ye, oh Fathers of Jesus; ye alone are in possession of His +mystery, and we return to you, praying that ye save us from +ourselves!" Receiving their bread from us, they will clearly see +that we take the bread from them, the bread made by their own +hands, but to give it back to them in equal shares and that +without any miracle; and having ascertained that, though we have +not changed stones into bread, yet bread they have, while every +other bread turned verily in their own hands into stones, they +will be only to glad to have it so. Until that day, they will +never be happy. And who is it that helped the most to blind them, +tell me? Who separated the flock and scattered it over ways +unknown if it be not Thee? But we will gather the sheep once more +and subject them to our will for ever. We will prove to them +their own weakness and make them humble again, whilst with Thee +they have learnt but pride, for Thou hast made more of them than +they ever were worth. We will give them that quiet, humble +happiness, which alone benefits such weak, foolish creatures as +they are, and having once had proved to them their weakness, they +will become timid and obedient, and gather around us as chickens +around their hen. They will wonder at and feel a superstitious +admiration for us, and feel proud to be led by men so powerful +and wise that a handful of them can subject a flock a thousand +millions strong. Gradually men will begin to fear us. They will +nervously dread our slightest anger, their intellects will +weaken, their eyes become as easily accessible to tears as those +of children and women; but we will teach them an easy transition +from grief and tears to laughter, childish joy and mirthful song. +Yes; we will make them work like slaves, but during their +recreation hours they shall have an innocent child-like life, +full of play and merry laughter. We will even permit them sin, +for, weak and helpless, they will feel the more love for us for +permitting them to indulge in it. We will tell them that every +kind of sin will be remitted to them, so long as it is done with +our permission; that we take all these sins upon ourselves, for +we so love the world, that we are even willing to sacrifice our +souls for its satisfaction. And, appearing before them in the +light of their scapegoats and redeemers, we shall be adored the +more for it. They will have no secrets from us. It will rest with +us to permit them to live with their wives and concubines, or to +forbid them, to have children or remain childless, either way +depending on the degree of their obedience to us; and they will +submit most joyfully to us the most agonizing secrets of their +souls--all, all will they lay down at our feet, and we will +authorize and remit them all in Thy name, and they will believe +us and accept our mediation with rapture, as it will deliver them +from their greatest anxiety and torture--that of having to +decide freely for themselves. And all will be happy, all except +the one or two hundred thousands of their rulers. For it is but +we, we the keepers of the great Mystery who will be miserable. +There will be thousands of millions of happy infants, and one +hundred thousand martyrs who have taken upon themselves the curse +of knowledge of good and evil. Peaceable will be their end, and +peacefully will they die, in Thy name, to find behind the portals +of the grave--but death. But we will keep the secret inviolate, +and deceive them for their own good with the mirage of life +eternal in Thy kingdom. For, were there really anything like life +beyond the grave, surely it would never fall to the lot of such +as they! People tell us and prophesy of Thy coming and triumphing +once more on earth; of Thy appearing with the army of Thy elect, +with Thy proud and mighty ones; but we will answer Thee that they +have saved but themselves while we have saved all. We are also +threatened with the great disgrace which awaits the whore, +"Babylon the great, the mother of harlots"--who sits upon the +Beast, holding in her hands the Mystery, the word written upon +her forehead; and we are told that the weak ones, the lambs shall +rebel against her and shall make her desolate and naked. But then +will I arise, and point out to Thee the thousands of millions of +happy infants free from any sin. And we who have taken their sins +upon us, for their own good, shall stand before Thee and say: +"Judge us if Thou canst and darest!" Know then that I fear Thee +not. Know that I too have lived in the dreary wilderness, where I +fed upon locusts and roots, that I too have blessed freedom with +which thou hast blessed men, and that I too have once prepared to +join the ranks of Thy elect, the proud and the mighty. But I +awoke from my delusion and refused since then to serve insanity. +I returned to join the legion of those who corrected Thy +mistakes. I left the proud and returned to the really humble, and +for their own happiness. What I now tell thee will come to pass, +and our kingdom shall be built, I tell Thee not later than +to-morrow Thou shalt see that obedient flock which at one simple +motion of my hand will rush to add burning coals to Thy stake, on +which I will burn Thee for having dared to come and trouble us in +our work. For, if there ever was one who deserved more than any +of the others our inquisitorial fires--it is Thee! To-morrow I +will burn Thee. Dixi'." + +Ivan paused. He had entered into the situation and had spoken +with great animation, but now he suddenly burst out laughing. + +"But all that is absurd!" suddenly exclaimed Alyosha, who had +hitherto listened perplexed and agitated but in profound silence. +"Your poem is a glorification of Christ, not an accusation, as +you, perhaps, meant to be. And who will believe you when you +speak of 'freedom'? Is it thus that we Christians must understand +it? It is Rome (not all Rome, for that would be unjust), but the +worst of the Roman Catholics, the Inquisitors and Jesuits, that +you have been exposing! Your Inquisitor is an impossible +character. What are these sins they are taking upon themselves? +Who are those keepers of mystery who took upon themselves a curse +for the good of mankind? Who ever met them? We all know the +Jesuits, and no one has a good word to say in their favor; but +when were they as you depict them? Never, never! The Jesuits are +merely a Romish army making ready for their future temporal +kingdom, with a mitred emperor--a Roman high priest at their +head. That is their ideal and object, without any mystery or +elevated suffering. The most prosaic thirsting for power, for the +sake of the mean and earthly pleasures of life, a desire to +enslave their fellow-men, something like our late system of +serfs, with themselves at the head as landed proprietors--that +is all that they can be accused of. They may not believe in God, +that is also possible, but your suffering Inquisitor is simply--a +fancy!" + +"Hold, hold!" interrupted Ivan, smiling. "Do not be so excited. A +fancy, you say; be it so! Of course, it is a fancy. But stop. Do +you really imagine that all this Catholic movement during the +last centuries is naught but a desire for power for the mere +purpose of 'mean pleasures'? Is this what your Father Paissiy +taught you?" + +"No, no, quite the reverse, for Father Paissiy once told me +something very similar to what you yourself say, though, of +course, not that--something quite different," suddenly added +Alexis, blushing. + +"A precious piece of information, notwithstanding your 'not +that.' I ask you, why should the Inquisitors and the Jesuits of +your imagination live but for the attainment of 'mean material +pleasures?' Why should there not be found among them one single +genuine martyr suffering under a great and holy idea and loving +humanity with all his heart? Now let us suppose that among all +these Jesuits thirsting and hungering but after 'mean material +pleasures' there may be one, just one like my old Inquisitor, who +had himself fed upon roots in the wilderness, suffered the +tortures of damnation while trying to conquer flesh, in order to +become free and perfect, but who had never ceased to love +humanity, and who one day prophetically beheld the truth; who saw +as plain as he could see that the bulk of humanity could never be +happy under the old system, that it was not for them that the +great Idealist had come and died and dreamt of His Universal +Harmony. Having realized that truth, he returned into the world +and joined--intelligent and practical people. Is this so +impossible?" + +"Joined whom? What intelligent and practical people?" exclaimed +Alyosha quite excited. "Why should they be more intelligent than +other men, and what secrets and mysteries can they have? They +have neither. Atheism and infidelity is all the secret they have. +Your Inquisitor does not believe in God, and that is all the +Mystery there is in it!" + +"It may be so. You have guessed rightly there. And it is so, and +that is his whole secret; but is this not the acutest sufferings +for such a man as he, who killed all his young life in asceticism +in the desert, and yet could not cure himself of his love towards +his fellowmen? Toward the end of his life he becomes convinced +that it is only by following the advice of the great and terrible +spirit that the fate of these millions of weak rebels, these +'half-finished samples of humanity created in mockery' can be +made tolerable. And once convinced of it, he sees as clearly +that to achieve that object, one must follow blindly the guidance +of the wise spirit, the fearful spirit of death and destruction, +hence accept a system of lies and deception and lead humanity +consciously this time toward death and destruction, and moreover, +be deceiving them all the while in order to prevent them from +realizing where they are being led, and so force the miserable +blind men to feel happy, at least while here on earth. And note +this: a wholesale deception in the name of Him, in whose ideal +the old man had so passionately, so fervently, believed during +nearly his whole life! Is this no suffering? And were such a +solitary exception found amidst, and at the head of, that army +'that thirsts for power but for the sake of the mean pleasures of +life,' think you one such man would not suffice to bring on a +tragedy? Moreover, one single man like my Inquisitor as a +principal leader, would prove sufficient to discover the real +guiding idea of the Romish system with all its armies of Jesuits, +the greatest and chiefest conviction that the solitary type +described in my poem has at no time ever disappeared from among +the chief leaders of that movement. Who knows but that terrible +old man, loving humanity so stubbornly and in such an original +way, exists even in our days in the shape of a whole host of such +solitary exceptions, whose existence is not due to mere chance, +but to a well-defined association born of mutual consent, to a +secret league, organized several centuries back, in order to +guard the Mystery from the indiscreet eyes of the miserable and +weak people, and only in view of their own happiness? And so it +is; it cannot be otherwise. I suspect that even Masons have some +such Mystery underlying the basis of their organization, and that +it is just the reason why the Roman Catholic clergy hate them so, +dreading to find in them rivals, competition, the dismemberment +of the unity of the idea, for the realization of which one flock +and one Shepherd are needed. However, in defending my idea, I +look like an author whose production is unable to stand +criticism. Enough of this." + +"You are, perhaps, a Mason yourself!" exclaimed Alyosha. "You do +not believe in God," he added, with a note of profound sadness in +his voice. But suddenly remarking that his brother was looking at +him with mockery, "How do you mean then to bring your poem to a +close?" he unexpectedly enquired, casting his eyes downward, "or +does it break off here?" + +"My intention is to end it with the following scene: Having +disburdened his heart, the Inquisitor waits for some time to hear +his prisoner speak in His turn. His silence weighs upon him. He +has seen that his captive has been attentively listening to him +all the time, with His eyes fixed penetratingly and softly on the +face of his jailer, and evidently bent upon not replying to him. +The old man longs to hear His voice, to hear Him reply; better +words of bitterness and scorn than His silence. Suddenly He +rises; slowly and silently approaching the Inquisitor, He bends +towards him and softly kisses the bloodless, four-score +and-ten-year-old lips. That is all the answer. The Grand Inquisitor +shudders. There is a convulsive twitch at the corner of his +mouth. He goes to the door, opens it, and addressing Him, 'Go,' +he says, 'go, and return no more... do not come again... never, +never!' and--lets Him out into the dark night. The prisoner +vanishes." + +"And the old man?" + +"The kiss burns his heart, but the old man remains firm in his +own ideas and unbelief." + +"And you, together with him? You too!" despairingly exclaimed +Alyosha, while Ivan burst into a still louder fit of laughter. + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Grand Inquisitor, by Feodor Dostoevsky + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GRAND INQUISITOR *** + +***** This file should be named 8578-8.txt or 8578-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/8/5/7/8578/ + +Produced by Jake Jaqua. HTML version by Al Haines. + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Grand Inquisitor + +Author: Feodor Dostoevsky + +Translator: H. P. Blavatsky + +Posting Date: June 28, 2010 [EBook #8578] +Release Date: July, 2005 +First Posted: July 25, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GRAND INQUISITOR *** + + + + +Produced by Jake Jaqua. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + +</pre> + + +<BR><BR> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +THE GRAND INQUISITOR +</H1> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +By +</H3> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +Feodor Dostoevsky +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +(Translation by H.P. Blavatsky) +</H3> + +<BR> + +<P> +[Dedicated by the Translator to those sceptics who clamour so +loudly, both in print and private letters—"Show us the +wonder-working 'Brothers,' let them come out publicly—and we will +believe in them!"] +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +[The following is an extract from M. Dostoevsky's celebrated +novel, The Brothers Karamazof, the last publication from the pen +of the great Russian novelist, who died a few months ago, just as +the concluding chapters appeared in print. Dostoevsky is +beginning to be recognized as one of the ablest and profoundest +among Russian writers. His characters are invariably typical +portraits drawn from various classes of Russian society, +strikingly life-like and realistic to the highest degree. The +following extract is a cutting satire on modern theology +generally and the Roman Catholic religion in particular. The idea +is that Christ revisits earth, coming to Spain at the period of +the Inquisition, and is at once arrested as a heretic by the +Grand Inquisitor. One of the three brothers of the story, Ivan, a +rank materialist and an atheist of the new school, is supposed to +throw this conception into the form of a poem, which he describes +to Alyosha—the youngest of the brothers, a young Christian +mystic brought up by a "saint" in a monastery—as follows: +(—Ed. Theosophist, Nov., 1881)] +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<P> +"Quite impossible, as you see, to start without an introduction," +laughed Ivan. "Well, then, I mean to place the event described in +the poem in the sixteenth century, an age—as you must have been +told at school—when it was the great fashion among poets to +make the denizens and powers of higher worlds descend on earth +and mix freely with mortals... In France all the notaries' +clerks, and the monks in the cloisters as well, used to give +grand performances, dramatic plays in which long scenes were +enacted by the Madonna, the angels, the saints, Christ, and even +by God Himself. In those days, everything was very artless and +primitive. An instance of it may be found in Victor Hugo's drama, +Notre Dame de Paris, where, at the Municipal Hall, a play called +Le Bon Jugement de la Tres-sainte et Gracičuse Vierge Marie, is +enacted in honour of Louis XI, in which the Virgin appears +personally to pronounce her 'good judgment.' In Moscow, during +the prepetrean period, performances of nearly the same character, +chosen especially from the Old Testament, were also in great +favour. Apart from such plays, the world was overflooded with +mystical writings, 'verses'—the heroes of which were always +selected from the ranks of angels, saints and other heavenly +citizens answering to the devotional purposes of the age. The +recluses of our monasteries, like the Roman Catholic monks, +passed their time in translating, copying, and even producing +original compositions upon such subjects, and that, remember, +during the Tarter period!... In this connection, I am reminded of +a poem compiled in a convent—a translation from the Greek, of +course—called, 'The Travels of the Mother of God among the +Damned,' with fitting illustrations and a boldness of conception +inferior nowise to that of Dante. The 'Mother of God' visits +hell, in company with the archangel Michael as her cicerone to +guide her through the legions of the 'damned.' She sees them all, +and is witness to their multifarious tortures. Among the many +other exceedingly remarkably varieties of torments—every +category of sinners having its own—there is one especially +worthy of notice, namely a class of the 'damned' sentenced to +gradually sink in a burning lake of brimstone and fire. Those +whose sins cause them to sink so low that they no longer can rise +to the surface are for ever forgotten by God, i.e., they fade out +from the omniscient memory, says the poem—an expression, by the +way, of an extraordinary profundity of thought, when closely +analysed. The Virgin is terribly shocked, and falling down upon +her knees in tears before the throne of God, begs that all she +has seen in hell—all, all without exception, should have their +sentences remitted to them. Her dialogue with God is colossally +interesting. She supplicates, she will not leave Him. And when +God, pointing to the pierced hands and feet of her Son, cries, +'How can I forgive His executioners?' She then commands that all +the saints, martyrs, angels and archangels, should prostrate +themselves with her before the Immutable and Changeless One and +implore Him to change His wrath into mercy and—forgive them +all. The poem closes upon her obtaining from God a compromise, a +kind of yearly respite of tortures between Good Friday and +Trinity, a chorus of the 'damned' singing loud praises to God +from their 'bottomless pit,' thanking and telling Him: +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + Thou art right, O Lord, very right,<BR> + Thou hast condemned us justly.<BR> +</P> + +<P> +"My poem is of the same character. +</P> + +<P> +"In it, it is Christ who appears on the scene. True, He says +nothing, but only appears and passes out of sight. Fifteen +centuries have elapsed since He left the world with the distinct +promise to return 'with power and great glory'; fifteen long +centuries since His prophet cried, 'Prepare ye the way of the +Lord!' since He Himself had foretold, while yet on earth, 'Of +that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven +but my Father only.' But Christendom expects Him still. ... +</P> + +<P> +"It waits for Him with the same old faith and the same emotion; +aye, with a far greater faith, for fifteen centuries have rolled +away since the last sign from heaven was sent to man, +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + And blind faith remained alone<BR> + To lull the trusting heart,<BR> + As heav'n would send a sign no more.<BR> +</P> + +<P> +"True, again, we have all heard of miracles being wrought ever +since the 'age of miracles' passed away to return no more. We +had, and still have, our saints credited with performing the most +miraculous cures; and, if we can believe their biographers, there +have been those among them who have been personally visited by +the Queen of Heaven. But Satan sleepeth not, and the first germs +of doubt, and ever-increasing unbelief in such wonders, already +had begun to sprout in Christendom as early as the sixteenth +century. It was just at that time that a new and terrible heresy +first made its appearance in the north of Germany.* [*Luther's +reform] A great star 'shining as it were a lamp... fell upon the +fountains waters'... and 'they were made bitter.' This 'heresy' +blasphemously denied 'miracles.' But those who had remained +faithful believed all the more ardently, the tears of mankind +ascended to Him as heretofore, and the Christian world was +expecting Him as confidently as ever; they loved Him and hoped in +Him, thirsted and hungered to suffer and die for Him just as many +of them had done before.... So many centuries had weak, trusting +humanity implored Him, crying with ardent faith and fervour: 'How +long, O Lord, holy and true, dost Thou not come!' So many long +centuries hath it vainly appealed to Him, that at last, in His +inexhaustible compassion, He consenteth to answer the prayer.... +He decideth that once more, if it were but for one short hour, +the people—His long-suffering, tortured, fatally sinful, his +loving and child-like, trusting people—shall behold Him again. +The scene of action is placed by me in Spain, at Seville, during +that terrible period of the Inquisition, when, for the greater +glory of God, stakes were flaming all over the country. +</P> + +<P CLASS="poem"> + Burning wicked heretics,<BR> + In grand auto-da-fes.<BR> +</P> + +<P> +"This particular visit has, of course, nothing to do with the +promised Advent, when, according to the programme, 'after the +tribulation of those days,' He will appear 'coming in the clouds +of heaven.' For, that 'coming of the Son of Man,' as we are +informed, will take place as suddenly 'as the lightning cometh +out of the east and shineth even unto the west.' No; this once, +He desired to come unknown, and appear among His children, just +when the bones of the heretics, sentenced to be burnt alive, had +commenced crackling at the flaming stakes. Owing to His limitless +mercy, He mixes once more with mortals and in the same form in +which He was wont to appear fifteen centuries ago. He descends, +just at the very moment when before king, courtiers, knights, +cardinals, and the fairest dames of court, before the whole +population of Seville, upwards of a hundred wicked heretics are +being roasted, in a magnificent auto-da-fe ad majorem Dei +gloriam, by the order of the powerful Cardinal Grand Inquisitor. +</P> + +<P> +"He comes silently and unannounced; yet all—how strange—yea, +all recognize Him, at once! The population rushes towards Him as +if propelled by some irresistible force; it surrounds, throngs, +and presses around, it follows Him.... Silently, and with a smile +of boundless compassion upon His lips, He crosses the dense +crowd, and moves softly on. The Sun of Love burns in His heart, +and warm rays of Light, Wisdom and Power beam forth from His +eyes, and pour down their waves upon the swarming multitudes of +the rabble assembled around, making their hearts vibrate with +returning love. He extends His hands over their heads, blesses +them, and from mere contact with Him, aye, even with His +garments, a healing power goes forth. An old man, blind from his +birth, cries, 'Lord, heal me, that I may see Thee!' and the +scales falling off the closed eyes, the blind man beholds Him... +The crowd weeps for joy, and kisses the ground upon which He +treads. Children strew flowers along His path and sing to Him, +'Hosanna!' It is He, it is Himself, they say to each other, it +must be He, it can be none other but He! He pauses at the portal +of the old cathedral, just as a wee white coffin is carried in, +with tears and great lamentations. The lid is off, and in the +coffin lies the body of a fair-child, seven years old, the only +child of an eminent citizen of the city. The little corpse lies +buried in flowers. 'He will raise the child to life!' confidently +shouts the crowd to the weeping mother. The officiating priest +who had come to meet the funeral procession, looks perplexed, and +frowns. A loud cry is suddenly heard, and the bereaved mother +prostrates herself at His feet. 'If it be Thou, then bring back +my child to life!' she cries beseechingly. The procession halts, +and the little coffin is gently lowered at his feet. Divine +compassion beams forth from His eyes, and as He looks at the +child, His lips are heard to whisper once more, 'Talitha +Cumi'—and 'straightway the damsel arose.' The child rises in her +coffin. Her little hands still hold the nosegay of white roses +which after death was placed in them, and, looking round with +large astonished eyes she smiles sweetly .... The crowd is +violently excited. A terrible commotion rages among them, the +populace shouts and loudly weeps, when suddenly, before the +cathedral door, appears the Cardinal Grand Inquisitor himself.... +He is tall, gaunt-looking old man of nearly four-score years and +ten, with a stern, withered face, and deeply sunken eyes, from +the cavity of which glitter two fiery sparks. He has laid aside +his gorgeous cardinal's robes in which he had appeared before the +people at the auto da-fe of the enemies of the Romish Church, and +is now clad in his old, rough, monkish cassock. His sullen +assistants and slaves of the 'holy guard' are following at a +distance. He pauses before the crowd and observes. He has seen +all. He has witnessed the placing of the little coffin at His +feet, the calling back to life. And now, his dark, grim face has +grown still darker; his bushy grey eyebrows nearly meet, and his +sunken eye flashes with sinister light. Slowly raising his +finger, he commands his minions to arrest Him.... +</P> + +<P> +"Such is his power over the well-disciplined, submissive and now +trembling people, that the thick crowds immediately give way, and +scattering before the guard, amid dead silence and without one +breath of protest, allow them to lay their sacrilegious hands +upon the stranger and lead Him away.... That same populace, like +one man, now bows its head to the ground before the old +Inquisitor, who blesses it and slowly moves onward. The guards +conduct their prisoner to the ancient building of the Holy +Tribunal; pushing Him into a narrow, gloomy, vaulted prison-cell, +they lock Him in and retire.... +</P> + +<P> +"The day wanes, and night—a dark, hot breathless Spanish +night—creeps on and settles upon the city of Seville. The air smells +of laurels and orange blossoms. In the Cimmerian darkness of the +old Tribunal Hall the iron door of the cell is suddenly thrown +open, and the Grand Inquisitor, holding a dark lantern, slowly +stalks into the dungeon. He is alone, and, as the heavy door +closes behind him, he pauses at the threshold, and, for a minute +or two, silently and gloomily scrutinizes the Face before him. At +last approaching with measured steps, he sets his lantern down +upon the table and addresses Him in these words: +</P> + +<P> +"'It is Thou! ... Thou!' ... Receiving no reply, he rapidly +continues: 'Nay, answer not; be silent! ... And what couldst Thou +say? ... I know but too well Thy answer.... Besides, Thou hast no +right to add one syllable to that which was already uttered by +Thee before.... Why shouldst Thou now return, to impede us in our +work? For Thou hast come but for that only, and Thou knowest it +well. But art Thou as well aware of what awaits Thee in the +morning? I do not know, nor do I care to know who thou mayest be: +be it Thou or only thine image, to-morrow I will condemn and burn +Thee on the stake, as the most wicked of all the heretics; and +that same people, who to-day were kissing Thy feet, to-morrow at +one bend of my finger, will rush to add fuel to Thy funeral +pile... Wert Thou aware of this?' he adds, speaking as if in +solemn thought, and never for one instant taking his piercing +glance off the meek Face before him.".... +</P> + +<P> +"I can hardly realize the situation described—what is all +this, Ivan?" suddenly interrupted Alyosha, who had remained +silently listening to his brother. "Is this an extravagant fancy, +or some mistake of the old man, an impossible quid pro quo?" +</P> + +<P> +"Let it be the latter, if you like," laughed Ivan, "since modern +realism has so perverted your taste that you feel unable to +realize anything from the world of fancy.... Let it be a quid pro +quo, if you so choose it. Again, the Inquisitor is ninety years +old, and he might have easily gone mad with his one idee fixe of +power; or, it might have as well been a delirious vision, called +forth by dying fancy, overheated by the auto-da-fe of the hundred +heretics in that forenoon.... But what matters for the poem, +whether it was a quid pro quo or an uncontrollable fancy? The +question is, that the old man has to open his heart; that he must +give out his thought at last; and that the hour has come when he +does speak it out, and says loudly that which for ninety years he +has kept secret within his own breast." +</P> + +<P> +"And his prisoner, does He never reply? Does He keep silent, +looking at him, without saying a word?" +</P> + +<P> +"Of course; and it could not well be otherwise," again retorted +Ivan. "The Grand Inquisitor begins from his very first words by +telling Him that He has no right to add one syllable to that which +He had said before. To make the situation clear at once, the above +preliminary monologue is intended to convey to the reader the very +fundamental idea which underlies Roman Catholicism—as well as I +can convey it, his words mean, in short: 'Everything was given +over by Thee to the Pope, and everything now rests with him alone; +Thou hast no business to return and thus hinder us in our work.' +In this sense the Jesuits not only talk but write likewise. +</P> + +<P> +"'Hast thou the right to divulge to us a single one of the +mysteries of that world whence Thou comest?' enquires of Him my +old Inquisitor, and forthwith answers for Him. 'Nay, Thou has no +such right. For, that would be adding to that which was already +said by Thee before; hence depriving people of that freedom for +which Thou hast so stoutly stood up while yet on earth.... +Anything new that Thou would now proclaim would have to be +regarded as an attempt to interfere with that freedom of choice, +as it would come as a new and a miraculous revelation superseding +the old revelation of fifteen hundred years ago, when Thou didst +so repeatedly tell the people: "The truth shall make you free." +Behold then, Thy "free" people now!' adds the old man with sombre +irony. 'Yea!... it has cost us dearly.' he continues, sternly +looking at his victim. 'But we have at last accomplished our +task, and—in Thy name.... For fifteen long centuries we had to +toil and suffer owing to that "freedom": but now we have +prevailed and our work is done, and well and strongly it is done. +....Believest not Thou it is so very strong? ... And why should +Thou look at me so meekly as if I were not worthy even of Thy +indignation?... Know then, that now, and only now, Thy people +feel fully sure and satisfied of their freedom; and that only +since they have themselves and of their own free will delivered +that freedom unto our hands by placing it submissively at our +feet. But then, that is what we have done. Is it that which Thou +has striven for? Is this the kind of "freedom" Thou has promised +them?'" +</P> + +<P> +"Now again, I do not understand," interrupted Alyosha. "Does the +old man mock and laugh?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not in the least. He seriously regards it as a great service +done by himself, his brother monks and Jesuits, to humanity, to +have conquered and subjected unto their authority that freedom, +and boasts that it was done but for the good of the world. 'For +only now,' he says (speaking of the Inquisition) 'has it become +possible to us, for the first time, to give a serious thought to +human happiness. Man is born a rebel, and can rebels be ever +happy?... Thou has been fairly warned of it, but evidently to no +use, since Thou hast rejected the only means which could make +mankind happy; fortunately at Thy departure Thou hast delivered +the task to us.... Thou has promised, ratifying the pledge by Thy +own words, in words giving us the right to bind and unbind... and +surely, Thou couldst not think of depriving us of it now!'" +</P> + +<P> +"But what can he mean by the words, 'Thou has been fairly +warned'?" asked Alexis. +</P> + +<P> +"These words give the key to what the old man has to say for his +justification... But listen— +</P> + +<P> +"'The terrible and wise spirit, the spirit of self annihilation +and non-being,' goes on the Inquisitor, 'the great spirit of +negation conversed with Thee in the wilderness, and we are told +that he "tempted" Thee... Was it so? And if it were so, then it is +impossible to utter anything more truthful than what is contained +in his three offers, which Thou didst reject, and which are +usually called "temptations." Yea; if ever there was on earth a +genuine striking wonder produced, it was on that day of Thy three +temptations, and it is precisely in these three short sentences +that the marvelous miracle is contained. If it were possible that +they should vanish and disappear for ever, without leaving any +trace, from the record and from the memory of man, and that it +should become necessary again to devise, invent, and make them +reappear in Thy history once more, thinkest Thou that all the +world's sages, all the legislators, initiates, philosophers and +thinkers, if called upon to frame three questions which should, +like these, besides answering the magnitude of the event, express +in three short sentences the whole future history of this our +world and of mankind—dost Thou believe, I ask Thee, that all +their combined efforts could ever create anything equal in power +and depth of thought to the three propositions offered Thee by the +powerful and all-wise spirit in the wilderness? Judging of them by +their marvelous aptness alone, one can at once perceive that they +emanated not from a finite, terrestrial intellect, but indeed, +from the Eternal and the Absolute. In these three offers we find, +blended into one and foretold to us, the complete subsequent +history of man; we are shown three images, so to say, uniting in +them all the future axiomatic, insoluble problems and +contradictions of human nature, the world over. In those days, the +wondrous wisdom contained in them was not made so apparent as it +is now, for futurity remained still veiled; but now, when fifteen +centuries have elapsed, we see that everything in these three +questions is so marvelously foreseen and foretold, that to add to, +or to take away from, the prophecy one jot, would be absolutely +impossible! +</P> + +<P> +"'Decide then thyself.' sternly proceeded the Inquisitor, 'which +of ye twain was right: Thou who didst reject, or he who offered? +Remember the subtle meaning of question the first, which runs +thus: Wouldst Thou go into the world empty-handed? Would Thou +venture thither with Thy vague and undefined promise of freedom, +which men, dull and unruly as they are by nature, are unable so +much as to understand, which they avoid and fear?—for never was +there anything more unbearable to the human race than personal +freedom! Dost Thou see these stones in the desolate and glaring +wilderness? Command that these stones be made bread—and mankind +will run after Thee, obedient and grateful like a herd of cattle. +But even then it will be ever diffident and trembling, lest Thou +should take away Thy hand, and they lose thereby their bread! +Thou didst refuse to accept the offer for fear of depriving men +of their free choice; for where is there freedom of choice where +men are bribed with bread? Man shall not live by bread +alone—was Thine answer. Thou knewest not, it seems, that it was +precisely in the name of that earthly bread that the terrestrial +spirit would one day rise against, struggle with, and finally +conquer Thee, followed by the hungry multitudes shouting: "Who is +like unto that Beast, who maketh fire come down from heaven upon +the earth!" Knowest Thou not that, but a few centuries hence, and +the whole of mankind will have proclaimed in its wisdom and +through its mouthpiece, Science, that there is no more crime, +hence no more sin on earth, but only hungry people? "Feed us +first and then command us to be virtuous!" will be the words +written upon the banner lifted against Thee—a banner which +shall destroy Thy Church to its very foundations, and in the +place of Thy Temple shall raise once more the terrible Tower of +Babel; and though its building be left unfinished, as was that of +the first one, yet the fact will remain recorded that Thou +couldst, but wouldst not, prevent the attempt to build that new +tower by accepting the offer, and thus saving mankind a +millennium of useless suffering on earth. And it is to us that +the people will return again. They will search for us catacombs, +as we shall once more be persecuted and martyred—and they will +begin crying unto us: "Feed us, for they who promised us the fire +from heaven have deceived us!" It is then that we will finish +building their tower for them. For they alone who feed them shall +finish it, and we shall feed them in Thy name, and lying to them +that it is in that name. Oh, never, never, will they learn to +feed themselves without our help! No science will ever give them +bread so long as they remain free, so long as they refuse to lay +that freedom at our feet, and say: "Enslave, but feed us!" That +day must come when men will understand that freedom and daily +bread enough to satisfy all are unthinkable and can never be had +together, as men will never be able to fairly divide the two +among themselves. And they will also learn that they can never be +free, for they are weak, vicious, miserable nonentities born +wicked and rebellious. Thou has promised to them the bread of +life, the bread of heaven; but I ask Thee again, can that bread +ever equal in the sight of the weak and the vicious, the ever +ungrateful human race, their daily bread on earth? And even +supposing that thousands and tens of thousands follow Thee in the +name of, and for the sake of, Thy heavenly bread, what will +become of the millions and hundreds of millions of human beings +to weak to scorn the earthly for the sake of Thy heavenly bread? +Or is it but those tens of thousands chosen among the great and +the mighty, that are so dear to Thee, while the remaining +millions, innumerable as the grains of sand in the seas, the weak +and the loving, have to be used as material for the former? No, +no! In our sight and for our purpose the weak and the lowly are +the more dear to us. True, they are vicious and rebellious, but +we will force them into obedience, and it is they who will admire +us the most. They will regard us as gods, and feel grateful to +those who have consented to lead the masses and bear their burden +of freedom by ruling over them—so terrible will that freedom at +last appear to men! Then we will tell them that it is in +obedience to Thy will and in Thy name that we rule over them. We +will deceive them once more and lie to them once again—for +never, never more will we allow Thee to come among us. In this +deception we will find our suffering, for we must needs lie +eternally, and never cease to lie! +</P> + +<P> +"Such is the secret meaning of "temptation" the first, and that +is what Thou didst reject in the wilderness for the sake of that +freedom which Thou didst prize above all. Meanwhile Thy tempter's +offer contained another great world-mystery. By accepting the +"bread," Thou wouldst have satisfied and answered a universal +craving, a ceaseless longing alive in the heart of every +individual human being, lurking in the breast of collective +mankind, that most perplexing problem—"whom or what shall we +worship?" There exists no greater or more painful anxiety for a +man who has freed himself from all religious bias, than how he +shall soonest find a new object or idea to worship. But man seeks +to bow before that only which is recognized by the greater +majority, if not by all his fellow-men, as having a right to be +worshipped; whose rights are so unquestionable that men agree +unanimously to bow down to it. For the chief concern of these +miserable creatures is not to find and worship the idol of their +own choice, but to discover that which all others will believe +in, and consent to bow down to in a mass. It is that instinctive +need of having a worship in common that is the chief suffering of +every man, the chief concern of mankind from the beginning of +times. It is for that universality of religious worship that +people destroyed each other by sword. Creating gods unto +themselves, they forwith began appealing to each other: "Abandon +your deities, come and bow down to ours, or death to ye and your +idols!" And so will they do till the end of this world; they will +do so even then, when all the gods themselves have disappeared, +for then men will prostrate themselves before and worship some +idea. Thou didst know, Thou couldst not be ignorant of, that +mysterious fundamental principle in human nature, and still thou +hast rejected the only absolute banner offered Thee, to which all +the nations would remain true, and before which all would have +bowed—the banner of earthly bread, rejected in the name of +freedom and of "bread in the kingdom of God"! Behold, then, what +Thou hast done furthermore for that "freedom's" sake! I repeat to +Thee, man has no greater anxiety in life than to find some one to +whom he can make over that gift of freedom with which the +unfortunate creature is born. But he alone will prove capable of +silencing and quieting their consciences, that shall succeed in +possessing himself of the freedom of men. With "daily bread" an +irresistible power was offered Thee: show a man "bread" and he +will follow Thee, for what can he resist less than the attraction +of bread? But if, at the same time, another succeed in possessing +himself of his conscience—oh! then even Thy bread will be +forgotten, and man will follow him who seduced his conscience. So +far Thou wert right. For the mystery of human being does not +solely rest in the desire to live, but in the problem—for what +should one live at all? Without a clear perception of his reasons +for living, man will never consent to live, and will rather +destroy himself than tarry on earth, though he be surrounded with +bread. This is the truth. But what has happened? Instead of +getting hold of man's freedom, Thou has enlarged it still more! +Hast Thou again forgotten that to man rest and even death are +preferable to a free choice between the knowledge of Good and +Evil? Nothing seems more seductive in his eyes than freedom of +conscience, and nothing proves more painful. And behold! instead +of laying a firm foundation whereon to rest once for all man's +conscience, Thou hast chosen to stir up in him all that is +abnormal, mysterious, and indefinite, all that is beyond human +strength, and has acted as if Thou never hadst any love for him, +and yet Thou wert He who came to "lay down His life for His +friends!" Thou hast burdened man's soul with anxieties hitherto +unknown to him. Thirsting for human love freely given, seeking to +enable man, seduced and charmed by Thee, to follow Thy path of +his own free-will, instead of the old and wise law which held him +in subjection, Thou hast given him the right henceforth to choose +and freely decide what is good and bad for him, guided but by +Thine image in his heart. But hast Thou never dreamt of the +probability, nay, of the certainty, of that same man one day +rejected finally, and controverting even Thine image and Thy +truth, once he would find himself laden with such a terrible +burden as freedom of choice? That a time would surely come when +men would exclaim that Truth and Light cannot be in Thee, for no +one could have left them in a greater perplexity and mental +suffering than Thou has done, lading them with so many cares and +insoluble problems. Thus, it is Thyself who hast laid the +foundation for the destruction of Thine own kingdom and no one +but Thou is to be blamed for it. +</P> + +<P> +"'Meantime, every chance of success was offered Thee. There are +three Powers, three unique Forces upon earth, capable of +conquering for ever by charming the conscience of these weak +rebels—men—for their own good; and these Forces are: Miracle, +Mystery and Authority. Thou hast rejected all the three, and thus +wert the first to set them an example. When the terrible and +all-wise spirit placed Thee on a pinnacle of the temple and said unto +Thee, "If Thou be the son of God, cast Thyself down, for it is +written, He shall give His angels charge concerning Thee: and in +their hands they shall bear Thee up, lest at any time Thou dash +Thy foot against a stone!"—for thus Thy faith in Thy father +should have been made evident, Thou didst refuse to accept his +suggestion and didst not follow it. Oh, undoubtedly, Thou didst +act in this with all the magnificent pride of a god, but then +men—that weak and rebel race—are they also gods, to understand +Thy refusal? Of course, Thou didst well know that by taking one +single step forward, by making the slightest motion to throw +Thyself down, Thou wouldst have tempted "the Lord Thy God," lost +suddenly all faith in Him, and dashed Thyself to atoms against +that same earth which Thou camest to save, and thus wouldst have +allowed the wise spirit which tempted Thee to triumph and +rejoice. But, then, how many such as Thee are to be found on this +globe, I ask Thee? Couldst Thou ever for a moment imagine that +men would have the same strength to resist such a temptation? Is +human nature calculated to reject miracle, and trust, during the +most terrible moments in life, when the most momentous, painful +and perplexing problems struggle within man's soul, to the free +decisions of his heart for the true solution? Oh, Thou knewest +well that that action of Thine would remain recorded in books for +ages to come, reaching to the confines of the globe, and Thy hope +was, that following Thy example, man would remain true to his +God, without needing any miracle to keep his faith alive! But +Thou knewest not, it seems, that no sooner would man reject +miracle than he would reject God likewise, for he seeketh less +God than "a sign" from Him. And thus, as it is beyond the power +of man to remain without miracles, so, rather than live without, +he will create for himself new wonders of his own making; and he +will bow to and worship the soothsayer's miracles, the old +witch's sorcery, were he a rebel, a heretic, and an atheist a +hundred times over. Thy refusal to come down from the cross when +people, mocking and wagging their heads were saying to Thee—"Save +Thyself if Thou be the son of God, and we will believe in +Thee," was due to the same determination—not to enslave man +through miracle, but to obtain faith in Thee freely and apart +from any miraculous influence. Thou thirstest for free and +uninfluenced love, and refuses the passionate adoration of the +slave before a Potency which would have subjected his will once +for ever. Thou judgest of men too highly here, again, for though +rebels they be, they are born slaves and nothing more. Behold, +and judge of them once more, now that fifteen centuries have +elapsed since that moment. Look at them, whom Thou didst try to +elevate unto Thee! I swear man is weaker and lower than Thou hast +ever imagined him to be! Can he ever do that which Thou art said +to have accomplished? By valuing him so highly Thou hast acted as +if there were no love for him in Thine heart, for Thou hast +demanded of him more than he could ever give—Thou, who lovest +him more than Thyself! Hadst Thou esteemed him less, less wouldst +Thou have demanded of him, and that would have been more like +love, for his burden would have been made thereby lighter. Man is +weak and cowardly. What matters it, if he now riots and rebels +throughout the world against our will and power, and prides +himself upon that rebellion? It is but the petty pride and vanity +of a school-boy. It is the rioting of little children, getting up +a mutiny in the class-room and driving their schoolmaster out of +it. But it will not last long, and when the day of their triumph +is over, they will have to pay dearly for it. They will destroy +the temples and raze them to the ground, flooding the earth with +blood. But the foolish children will have to learn some day that, +rebels though they be and riotous from nature, they are too weak +to maintain the spirit of mutiny for any length of time. Suffused +with idiotic tears, they will confess that He who created them +rebellious undoubtedly did so but to mock them. They will +pronounce these words in despair, and such blasphemous utterances +will but add to their misery—for human nature cannot endure +blasphemy, and takes her own revenge in the end. +</P> + +<P> +"'And thus, after all Thou has suffered for mankind and its +freedom, the present fate of men may be summed up in three words: +Unrest, Confusion, Misery! Thy great prophet John records in his +vision, that he saw, during the first resurrection of the chosen +servants of God—"the number of them which were sealed" in their +foreheads, "twelve thousand" of every tribe. But were they, +indeed, as many? Then they must have been gods, not men. They had +shared Thy Cross for long years, suffered scores of years' hunger +and thirst in dreary wildernesses and deserts, feeding upon +locusts and roots—and of these children of free love for Thee, +and self-sacrifice in Thy name, Thou mayest well feel proud. But +remember that these are but a few thousands—of gods, not men; +and how about all others? And why should the weakest be held +guilty for not being able to endure what the strongest have +endured? Why should a soul incapable of containing such terrible +gifts be punished for its weakness? Didst Thou really come to, +and for, the "elect" alone? If so, then the mystery will remain +for ever mysterious to our finite minds. And if a mystery, then +were we right to proclaim it as one, and preach it, teaching them +that neither their freely given love to Thee nor freedom of +conscience were essential, but only that incomprehensible mystery +which they must blindly obey even against the dictates of their +conscience. Thus did we. We corrected and improved Thy teaching +and based it upon "Miracle, Mystery, and Authority." And men +rejoiced at finding themselves led once more like a herd of +cattle, and at finding their hearts at last delivered of the +terrible burden laid upon them by Thee, which caused them so much +suffering. Tell me, were we right in doing as we did. Did not we +show our great love for humanity, by realizing in such a humble +spirit its helplessness, by so mercifully lightening its great +burden, and by permitting and remitting for its weak nature every +sin, provided it be committed with our authorization? For what, +then, hast Thou come again to trouble us in our work? And why +lookest Thou at me so penetratingly with Thy meek eyes, and in +such a silence? Rather shouldst Thou feel wroth, for I need not +Thy love, I reject it, and love Thee not, myself. Why should I +conceal the truth from Thee? I know but too well with whom I am +now talking! What I had to say was known to Thee before, I read +it in Thine eye. How should I conceal from Thee our secret? If +perchance Thou wouldst hear it from my own lips, then listen: We +are not with Thee, but with him, and that is our secret! For +centuries have we abandoned Thee to follow him, yes—eight +centuries. Eight hundred years now since we accepted from him the +gift rejected by Thee with indignation; that last gift which he +offered Thee from the high mountain when, showing all the +kingdoms of the world and the glory of them, he saith unto Thee: +"All these things will I give Thee, if Thou will fall down and +worship me!" We took Rome from him and the glaive of Caesar, and +declared ourselves alone the kings of this earth, its sole kings, +though our work is not yet fully accomplished. But who is to +blame for it? Our work is but in its incipient stage, but it is +nevertheless started. We may have long to wait until its +culmination, and mankind have to suffer much, but we shall reach +the goal some day, and become sole Caesars, and then will be the +time to think of universal happiness for men. +</P> + +<P> +"'Thou couldst accept the glaive of Caesar Thyself; why didst +Thou reject the offer? By accepting from the powerful spirit his +third offer Thou would have realized every aspiration man seeketh +for himself on earth; man would have found a constant object for +worship; one to deliver his conscience up to, and one that should +unite all together into one common and harmonious ant-hill; for +an innate necessity for universal union constitutes the third and +final affliction of mankind. Humanity as a whole has ever aspired +to unite itself universally. Many were, the great nations with +great histories, but the greater they were, the more unhappy they +felt, as they felt the stronger necessity of a universal union +among men. Great conquerors, like Timoor and Tchengis-Khan, +passed like a cyclone upon the face of the earth in their efforts +to conquer the universe, but even they, albeit unconsciously, +expressed the same aspiration towards universal and common union. +In accepting the kingdom of the world and Caesar's purple, one +would found a universal kingdom and secure to mankind eternal +peace. And who can rule mankind better than those who have +possessed themselves of man's conscience, and hold in their hand +man's daily bread? Having accepted Caesar's glaive and purple, we +had, of course, but to deny Thee, to henceforth follow him alone. +Oh, centuries of intellectual riot and rebellious free thought +are yet before us, and their science will end by anthropophagy, +for having begun to build their Babylonian tower without our help +they will have to end by anthropophagy. But it is precisely at +that time that the Beast will crawl up to us in full submission, +and lick the soles of our feet, and sprinkle them with tears of +blood and we shall sit upon the scarlet-colored Beast, and +lifting up high the golden cup "full of abomination and +filthiness," shall show written upon it the word "Mystery"! But +it is only then that men will see the beginning of a kingdom of +peace and happiness. Thou art proud of Thine own elect, but Thou +has none other but these elect, and we—we will give rest to +all. But that is not the end. Many are those among thine elect +and the laborers of Thy vineyard, who, tired of waiting for Thy +coming, already have carried and will yet carry, the great fervor +of their hearts and their spiritual strength into another field, +and will end by lifting up against Thee Thine own banner of +freedom. But it is Thyself Thou hast to thank. Under our rule and +sway all will be happy, and will neither rebel nor destroy each +other as they did while under Thy free banner. Oh, we will take +good care to prove to them that they will become absolutely free +only when they have abjured their freedom in our favor and submit +to us absolutely. Thinkest Thou we shall be right or still lying? +They will convince themselves of our rightness, for they will see +what a depth of degrading slavery and strife that liberty of +Thine has led them into. Liberty, Freedom of Thought and +Conscience, and Science will lead them into such impassable +chasms, place them face to face before such wonders and insoluble +mysteries, that some of them—more rebellious and ferocious than +the rest—will destroy themselves; others—rebellious but +weak—will destroy each other; while the remainder, weak, helpless +and miserable, will crawl back to our feet and cry: "'Yes; right +were ye, oh Fathers of Jesus; ye alone are in possession of His +mystery, and we return to you, praying that ye save us from +ourselves!" Receiving their bread from us, they will clearly see +that we take the bread from them, the bread made by their own +hands, but to give it back to them in equal shares and that +without any miracle; and having ascertained that, though we have +not changed stones into bread, yet bread they have, while every +other bread turned verily in their own hands into stones, they +will be only to glad to have it so. Until that day, they will +never be happy. And who is it that helped the most to blind them, +tell me? Who separated the flock and scattered it over ways +unknown if it be not Thee? But we will gather the sheep once more +and subject them to our will for ever. We will prove to them +their own weakness and make them humble again, whilst with Thee +they have learnt but pride, for Thou hast made more of them than +they ever were worth. We will give them that quiet, humble +happiness, which alone benefits such weak, foolish creatures as +they are, and having once had proved to them their weakness, they +will become timid and obedient, and gather around us as chickens +around their hen. They will wonder at and feel a superstitious +admiration for us, and feel proud to be led by men so powerful +and wise that a handful of them can subject a flock a thousand +millions strong. Gradually men will begin to fear us. They will +nervously dread our slightest anger, their intellects will +weaken, their eyes become as easily accessible to tears as those +of children and women; but we will teach them an easy transition +from grief and tears to laughter, childish joy and mirthful song. +Yes; we will make them work like slaves, but during their +recreation hours they shall have an innocent child-like life, +full of play and merry laughter. We will even permit them sin, +for, weak and helpless, they will feel the more love for us for +permitting them to indulge in it. We will tell them that every +kind of sin will be remitted to them, so long as it is done with +our permission; that we take all these sins upon ourselves, for +we so love the world, that we are even willing to sacrifice our +souls for its satisfaction. And, appearing before them in the +light of their scapegoats and redeemers, we shall be adored the +more for it. They will have no secrets from us. It will rest with +us to permit them to live with their wives and concubines, or to +forbid them, to have children or remain childless, either way +depending on the degree of their obedience to us; and they will +submit most joyfully to us the most agonizing secrets of their +souls—all, all will they lay down at our feet, and we will +authorize and remit them all in Thy name, and they will believe +us and accept our mediation with rapture, as it will deliver them +from their greatest anxiety and torture—that of having to +decide freely for themselves. And all will be happy, all except +the one or two hundred thousands of their rulers. For it is but +we, we the keepers of the great Mystery who will be miserable. +There will be thousands of millions of happy infants, and one +hundred thousand martyrs who have taken upon themselves the curse +of knowledge of good and evil. Peaceable will be their end, and +peacefully will they die, in Thy name, to find behind the portals +of the grave—but death. But we will keep the secret inviolate, +and deceive them for their own good with the mirage of life +eternal in Thy kingdom. For, were there really anything like life +beyond the grave, surely it would never fall to the lot of such +as they! People tell us and prophesy of Thy coming and triumphing +once more on earth; of Thy appearing with the army of Thy elect, +with Thy proud and mighty ones; but we will answer Thee that they +have saved but themselves while we have saved all. We are also +threatened with the great disgrace which awaits the whore, +"Babylon the great, the mother of harlots"—who sits upon the +Beast, holding in her hands the Mystery, the word written upon +her forehead; and we are told that the weak ones, the lambs shall +rebel against her and shall make her desolate and naked. But then +will I arise, and point out to Thee the thousands of millions of +happy infants free from any sin. And we who have taken their sins +upon us, for their own good, shall stand before Thee and say: +"Judge us if Thou canst and darest!" Know then that I fear Thee +not. Know that I too have lived in the dreary wilderness, where I +fed upon locusts and roots, that I too have blessed freedom with +which thou hast blessed men, and that I too have once prepared to +join the ranks of Thy elect, the proud and the mighty. But I +awoke from my delusion and refused since then to serve insanity. +I returned to join the legion of those who corrected Thy +mistakes. I left the proud and returned to the really humble, and +for their own happiness. What I now tell thee will come to pass, +and our kingdom shall be built, I tell Thee not later than +to-morrow Thou shalt see that obedient flock which at one simple +motion of my hand will rush to add burning coals to Thy stake, on +which I will burn Thee for having dared to come and trouble us in +our work. For, if there ever was one who deserved more than any +of the others our inquisitorial fires—it is Thee! To-morrow I +will burn Thee. Dixi'." +</P> + +<P> +Ivan paused. He had entered into the situation and had spoken +with great animation, but now he suddenly burst out laughing. +</P> + +<P> +"But all that is absurd!" suddenly exclaimed Alyosha, who had +hitherto listened perplexed and agitated but in profound silence. +"Your poem is a glorification of Christ, not an accusation, as +you, perhaps, meant to be. And who will believe you when you +speak of 'freedom'? Is it thus that we Christians must understand +it? It is Rome (not all Rome, for that would be unjust), but the +worst of the Roman Catholics, the Inquisitors and Jesuits, that +you have been exposing! Your Inquisitor is an impossible +character. What are these sins they are taking upon themselves? +Who are those keepers of mystery who took upon themselves a curse +for the good of mankind? Who ever met them? We all know the +Jesuits, and no one has a good word to say in their favor; but +when were they as you depict them? Never, never! The Jesuits are +merely a Romish army making ready for their future temporal +kingdom, with a mitred emperor—a Roman high priest at their +head. That is their ideal and object, without any mystery or +elevated suffering. The most prosaic thirsting for power, for the +sake of the mean and earthly pleasures of life, a desire to +enslave their fellow-men, something like our late system of +serfs, with themselves at the head as landed proprietors—that +is all that they can be accused of. They may not believe in God, +that is also possible, but your suffering Inquisitor is simply—a +fancy!" +</P> + +<P> +"Hold, hold!" interrupted Ivan, smiling. "Do not be so excited. A +fancy, you say; be it so! Of course, it is a fancy. But stop. Do +you really imagine that all this Catholic movement during the +last centuries is naught but a desire for power for the mere +purpose of 'mean pleasures'? Is this what your Father Paissiy +taught you?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, no, quite the reverse, for Father Paissiy once told me +something very similar to what you yourself say, though, of +course, not that—something quite different," suddenly added +Alexis, blushing. +</P> + +<P> +"A precious piece of information, notwithstanding your 'not +that.' I ask you, why should the Inquisitors and the Jesuits of +your imagination live but for the attainment of 'mean material +pleasures?' Why should there not be found among them one single +genuine martyr suffering under a great and holy idea and loving +humanity with all his heart? Now let us suppose that among all +these Jesuits thirsting and hungering but after 'mean material +pleasures' there may be one, just one like my old Inquisitor, who +had himself fed upon roots in the wilderness, suffered the +tortures of damnation while trying to conquer flesh, in order to +become free and perfect, but who had never ceased to love +humanity, and who one day prophetically beheld the truth; who saw +as plain as he could see that the bulk of humanity could never be +happy under the old system, that it was not for them that the +great Idealist had come and died and dreamt of His Universal +Harmony. Having realized that truth, he returned into the world +and joined—intelligent and practical people. Is this so +impossible?" +</P> + +<P> +"Joined whom? What intelligent and practical people?" exclaimed +Alyosha quite excited. "Why should they be more intelligent than +other men, and what secrets and mysteries can they have? They +have neither. Atheism and infidelity is all the secret they have. +Your Inquisitor does not believe in God, and that is all the +Mystery there is in it!" +</P> + +<P> +"It may be so. You have guessed rightly there. And it is so, and +that is his whole secret; but is this not the acutest sufferings +for such a man as he, who killed all his young life in asceticism +in the desert, and yet could not cure himself of his love towards +his fellowmen? Toward the end of his life he becomes convinced +that it is only by following the advice of the great and terrible +spirit that the fate of these millions of weak rebels, these +'half-finished samples of humanity created in mockery' can be +made tolerable. And once convinced of it, he sees as clearly +that to achieve that object, one must follow blindly the guidance +of the wise spirit, the fearful spirit of death and destruction, +hence accept a system of lies and deception and lead humanity +consciously this time toward death and destruction, and moreover, +be deceiving them all the while in order to prevent them from +realizing where they are being led, and so force the miserable +blind men to feel happy, at least while here on earth. And note +this: a wholesale deception in the name of Him, in whose ideal +the old man had so passionately, so fervently, believed during +nearly his whole life! Is this no suffering? And were such a +solitary exception found amidst, and at the head of, that army +'that thirsts for power but for the sake of the mean pleasures of +life,' think you one such man would not suffice to bring on a +tragedy? Moreover, one single man like my Inquisitor as a +principal leader, would prove sufficient to discover the real +guiding idea of the Romish system with all its armies of Jesuits, +the greatest and chiefest conviction that the solitary type +described in my poem has at no time ever disappeared from among +the chief leaders of that movement. Who knows but that terrible +old man, loving humanity so stubbornly and in such an original +way, exists even in our days in the shape of a whole host of such +solitary exceptions, whose existence is not due to mere chance, +but to a well-defined association born of mutual consent, to a +secret league, organized several centuries back, in order to +guard the Mystery from the indiscreet eyes of the miserable and +weak people, and only in view of their own happiness? And so it +is; it cannot be otherwise. I suspect that even Masons have some +such Mystery underlying the basis of their organization, and that +it is just the reason why the Roman Catholic clergy hate them so, +dreading to find in them rivals, competition, the dismemberment +of the unity of the idea, for the realization of which one flock +and one Shepherd are needed. However, in defending my idea, I +look like an author whose production is unable to stand +criticism. Enough of this." +</P> + +<P> +"You are, perhaps, a Mason yourself!" exclaimed Alyosha. "You do +not believe in God," he added, with a note of profound sadness in +his voice. But suddenly remarking that his brother was looking at +him with mockery, "How do you mean then to bring your poem to a +close?" he unexpectedly enquired, casting his eyes downward, "or +does it break off here?" +</P> + +<P> +"My intention is to end it with the following scene: Having +disburdened his heart, the Inquisitor waits for some time to hear +his prisoner speak in His turn. His silence weighs upon him. He +has seen that his captive has been attentively listening to him +all the time, with His eyes fixed penetratingly and softly on the +face of his jailer, and evidently bent upon not replying to him. +The old man longs to hear His voice, to hear Him reply; better +words of bitterness and scorn than His silence. Suddenly He +rises; slowly and silently approaching the Inquisitor, He bends +towards him and softly kisses the bloodless, four-score +and-ten-year-old lips. That is all the answer. The Grand Inquisitor +shudders. There is a convulsive twitch at the corner of his +mouth. He goes to the door, opens it, and addressing Him, 'Go,' +he says, 'go, and return no more... do not come again... never, +never!' and—lets Him out into the dark night. The prisoner +vanishes." +</P> + +<P> +"And the old man?" +</P> + +<P> +"The kiss burns his heart, but the old man remains firm in his +own ideas and unbelief." +</P> + +<P> +"And you, together with him? You too!" despairingly exclaimed +Alyosha, while Ivan burst into a still louder fit of laughter. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Grand Inquisitor, by Feodor Dostoevsky + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GRAND INQUISITOR *** + +***** This file should be named 8578-h.htm or 8578-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/8/5/7/8578/ + +Produced by Jake Jaqua. HTML version by Al Haines. + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Grand Inquisitor + +Author: Feodor Dostoevsky + +Translator: H. P. Blavatsky + +Posting Date: June 28, 2010 [EBook #8578] +Release Date: July, 2005 +First Posted: July 25, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GRAND INQUISITOR *** + + + + +Produced by Jake Jaqua. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + + + + +THE GRAND INQUISITOR + + +By + +Feodor Dostoevsky + +(Translation by H.P. Blavatsky) + + +[Dedicated by the Translator to those sceptics who clamour so +loudly, both in print and private letters--"Show us the +wonder-working 'Brothers,' let them come out publicly--and we will +believe in them!"] + + +[The following is an extract from M. Dostoevsky's celebrated +novel, The Brothers Karamazof, the last publication from the pen +of the great Russian novelist, who died a few months ago, just as +the concluding chapters appeared in print. Dostoevsky is +beginning to be recognized as one of the ablest and profoundest +among Russian writers. His characters are invariably typical +portraits drawn from various classes of Russian society, +strikingly life-like and realistic to the highest degree. The +following extract is a cutting satire on modern theology +generally and the Roman Catholic religion in particular. The idea +is that Christ revisits earth, coming to Spain at the period of +the Inquisition, and is at once arrested as a heretic by the +Grand Inquisitor. One of the three brothers of the story, Ivan, a +rank materialist and an atheist of the new school, is supposed to +throw this conception into the form of a poem, which he describes +to Alyosha--the youngest of the brothers, a young Christian +mystic brought up by a "saint" in a monastery--as follows: +(--Ed. Theosophist, Nov., 1881)] + + + + + +"Quite impossible, as you see, to start without an introduction," +laughed Ivan. "Well, then, I mean to place the event described in +the poem in the sixteenth century, an age--as you must have been +told at school--when it was the great fashion among poets to +make the denizens and powers of higher worlds descend on earth +and mix freely with mortals... In France all the notaries' +clerks, and the monks in the cloisters as well, used to give +grand performances, dramatic plays in which long scenes were +enacted by the Madonna, the angels, the saints, Christ, and even +by God Himself. In those days, everything was very artless and +primitive. An instance of it may be found in Victor Hugo's drama, +Notre Dame de Paris, where, at the Municipal Hall, a play called +Le Bon Jugement de la Tres-sainte et Gracieuse Vierge Marie, is +enacted in honour of Louis XI, in which the Virgin appears +personally to pronounce her 'good judgment.' In Moscow, during +the prepetrean period, performances of nearly the same character, +chosen especially from the Old Testament, were also in great +favour. Apart from such plays, the world was overflooded with +mystical writings, 'verses'--the heroes of which were always +selected from the ranks of angels, saints and other heavenly +citizens answering to the devotional purposes of the age. The +recluses of our monasteries, like the Roman Catholic monks, +passed their time in translating, copying, and even producing +original compositions upon such subjects, and that, remember, +during the Tarter period!... In this connection, I am reminded of +a poem compiled in a convent--a translation from the Greek, of +course--called, 'The Travels of the Mother of God among the +Damned,' with fitting illustrations and a boldness of conception +inferior nowise to that of Dante. The 'Mother of God' visits +hell, in company with the archangel Michael as her cicerone to +guide her through the legions of the 'damned.' She sees them all, +and is witness to their multifarious tortures. Among the many +other exceedingly remarkably varieties of torments--every +category of sinners having its own--there is one especially +worthy of notice, namely a class of the 'damned' sentenced to +gradually sink in a burning lake of brimstone and fire. Those +whose sins cause them to sink so low that they no longer can rise +to the surface are for ever forgotten by God, i.e., they fade out +from the omniscient memory, says the poem--an expression, by the +way, of an extraordinary profundity of thought, when closely +analysed. The Virgin is terribly shocked, and falling down upon +her knees in tears before the throne of God, begs that all she +has seen in hell--all, all without exception, should have their +sentences remitted to them. Her dialogue with God is colossally +interesting. She supplicates, she will not leave Him. And when +God, pointing to the pierced hands and feet of her Son, cries, +'How can I forgive His executioners?' She then commands that all +the saints, martyrs, angels and archangels, should prostrate +themselves with her before the Immutable and Changeless One and +implore Him to change His wrath into mercy and--forgive them +all. The poem closes upon her obtaining from God a compromise, a +kind of yearly respite of tortures between Good Friday and +Trinity, a chorus of the 'damned' singing loud praises to God +from their 'bottomless pit,' thanking and telling Him: + + Thou art right, O Lord, very right, + Thou hast condemned us justly. + +"My poem is of the same character. + +"In it, it is Christ who appears on the scene. True, He says +nothing, but only appears and passes out of sight. Fifteen +centuries have elapsed since He left the world with the distinct +promise to return 'with power and great glory'; fifteen long +centuries since His prophet cried, 'Prepare ye the way of the +Lord!' since He Himself had foretold, while yet on earth, 'Of +that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven +but my Father only.' But Christendom expects Him still. ... + +"It waits for Him with the same old faith and the same emotion; +aye, with a far greater faith, for fifteen centuries have rolled +away since the last sign from heaven was sent to man, + + And blind faith remained alone + To lull the trusting heart, + As heav'n would send a sign no more. + +"True, again, we have all heard of miracles being wrought ever +since the 'age of miracles' passed away to return no more. We +had, and still have, our saints credited with performing the most +miraculous cures; and, if we can believe their biographers, there +have been those among them who have been personally visited by +the Queen of Heaven. But Satan sleepeth not, and the first germs +of doubt, and ever-increasing unbelief in such wonders, already +had begun to sprout in Christendom as early as the sixteenth +century. It was just at that time that a new and terrible heresy +first made its appearance in the north of Germany.* [*Luther's +reform] A great star 'shining as it were a lamp... fell upon the +fountains waters'... and 'they were made bitter.' This 'heresy' +blasphemously denied 'miracles.' But those who had remained +faithful believed all the more ardently, the tears of mankind +ascended to Him as heretofore, and the Christian world was +expecting Him as confidently as ever; they loved Him and hoped in +Him, thirsted and hungered to suffer and die for Him just as many +of them had done before.... So many centuries had weak, trusting +humanity implored Him, crying with ardent faith and fervour: 'How +long, O Lord, holy and true, dost Thou not come!' So many long +centuries hath it vainly appealed to Him, that at last, in His +inexhaustible compassion, He consenteth to answer the prayer.... +He decideth that once more, if it were but for one short hour, +the people--His long-suffering, tortured, fatally sinful, his +loving and child-like, trusting people--shall behold Him again. +The scene of action is placed by me in Spain, at Seville, during +that terrible period of the Inquisition, when, for the greater +glory of God, stakes were flaming all over the country. + + Burning wicked heretics, + In grand auto-da-fes. + +"This particular visit has, of course, nothing to do with the +promised Advent, when, according to the programme, 'after the +tribulation of those days,' He will appear 'coming in the clouds +of heaven.' For, that 'coming of the Son of Man,' as we are +informed, will take place as suddenly 'as the lightning cometh +out of the east and shineth even unto the west.' No; this once, +He desired to come unknown, and appear among His children, just +when the bones of the heretics, sentenced to be burnt alive, had +commenced crackling at the flaming stakes. Owing to His limitless +mercy, He mixes once more with mortals and in the same form in +which He was wont to appear fifteen centuries ago. He descends, +just at the very moment when before king, courtiers, knights, +cardinals, and the fairest dames of court, before the whole +population of Seville, upwards of a hundred wicked heretics are +being roasted, in a magnificent auto-da-fe ad majorem Dei +gloriam, by the order of the powerful Cardinal Grand Inquisitor. + +"He comes silently and unannounced; yet all--how strange--yea, +all recognize Him, at once! The population rushes towards Him as +if propelled by some irresistible force; it surrounds, throngs, +and presses around, it follows Him.... Silently, and with a smile +of boundless compassion upon His lips, He crosses the dense +crowd, and moves softly on. The Sun of Love burns in His heart, +and warm rays of Light, Wisdom and Power beam forth from His +eyes, and pour down their waves upon the swarming multitudes of +the rabble assembled around, making their hearts vibrate with +returning love. He extends His hands over their heads, blesses +them, and from mere contact with Him, aye, even with His +garments, a healing power goes forth. An old man, blind from his +birth, cries, 'Lord, heal me, that I may see Thee!' and the +scales falling off the closed eyes, the blind man beholds Him... +The crowd weeps for joy, and kisses the ground upon which He +treads. Children strew flowers along His path and sing to Him, +'Hosanna!' It is He, it is Himself, they say to each other, it +must be He, it can be none other but He! He pauses at the portal +of the old cathedral, just as a wee white coffin is carried in, +with tears and great lamentations. The lid is off, and in the +coffin lies the body of a fair-child, seven years old, the only +child of an eminent citizen of the city. The little corpse lies +buried in flowers. 'He will raise the child to life!' confidently +shouts the crowd to the weeping mother. The officiating priest +who had come to meet the funeral procession, looks perplexed, and +frowns. A loud cry is suddenly heard, and the bereaved mother +prostrates herself at His feet. 'If it be Thou, then bring back +my child to life!' she cries beseechingly. The procession halts, +and the little coffin is gently lowered at his feet. Divine +compassion beams forth from His eyes, and as He looks at the +child, His lips are heard to whisper once more, 'Talitha +Cumi'--and 'straightway the damsel arose.' The child rises in her +coffin. Her little hands still hold the nosegay of white roses +which after death was placed in them, and, looking round with +large astonished eyes she smiles sweetly .... The crowd is +violently excited. A terrible commotion rages among them, the +populace shouts and loudly weeps, when suddenly, before the +cathedral door, appears the Cardinal Grand Inquisitor himself.... +He is tall, gaunt-looking old man of nearly four-score years and +ten, with a stern, withered face, and deeply sunken eyes, from +the cavity of which glitter two fiery sparks. He has laid aside +his gorgeous cardinal's robes in which he had appeared before the +people at the auto da-fe of the enemies of the Romish Church, and +is now clad in his old, rough, monkish cassock. His sullen +assistants and slaves of the 'holy guard' are following at a +distance. He pauses before the crowd and observes. He has seen +all. He has witnessed the placing of the little coffin at His +feet, the calling back to life. And now, his dark, grim face has +grown still darker; his bushy grey eyebrows nearly meet, and his +sunken eye flashes with sinister light. Slowly raising his +finger, he commands his minions to arrest Him.... + +"Such is his power over the well-disciplined, submissive and now +trembling people, that the thick crowds immediately give way, and +scattering before the guard, amid dead silence and without one +breath of protest, allow them to lay their sacrilegious hands +upon the stranger and lead Him away.... That same populace, like +one man, now bows its head to the ground before the old +Inquisitor, who blesses it and slowly moves onward. The guards +conduct their prisoner to the ancient building of the Holy +Tribunal; pushing Him into a narrow, gloomy, vaulted prison-cell, +they lock Him in and retire.... + +"The day wanes, and night--a dark, hot breathless Spanish +night--creeps on and settles upon the city of Seville. The air smells +of laurels and orange blossoms. In the Cimmerian darkness of the +old Tribunal Hall the iron door of the cell is suddenly thrown +open, and the Grand Inquisitor, holding a dark lantern, slowly +stalks into the dungeon. He is alone, and, as the heavy door +closes behind him, he pauses at the threshold, and, for a minute +or two, silently and gloomily scrutinizes the Face before him. At +last approaching with measured steps, he sets his lantern down +upon the table and addresses Him in these words: + +"'It is Thou! ... Thou!' ... Receiving no reply, he rapidly +continues: 'Nay, answer not; be silent! ... And what couldst Thou +say? ... I know but too well Thy answer.... Besides, Thou hast no +right to add one syllable to that which was already uttered by +Thee before.... Why shouldst Thou now return, to impede us in our +work? For Thou hast come but for that only, and Thou knowest it +well. But art Thou as well aware of what awaits Thee in the +morning? I do not know, nor do I care to know who thou mayest be: +be it Thou or only thine image, to-morrow I will condemn and burn +Thee on the stake, as the most wicked of all the heretics; and +that same people, who to-day were kissing Thy feet, to-morrow at +one bend of my finger, will rush to add fuel to Thy funeral +pile... Wert Thou aware of this?' he adds, speaking as if in +solemn thought, and never for one instant taking his piercing +glance off the meek Face before him.".... + +"I can hardly realize the situation described--what is all +this, Ivan?" suddenly interrupted Alyosha, who had remained +silently listening to his brother. "Is this an extravagant fancy, +or some mistake of the old man, an impossible quid pro quo?" + +"Let it be the latter, if you like," laughed Ivan, "since modern +realism has so perverted your taste that you feel unable to +realize anything from the world of fancy.... Let it be a quid pro +quo, if you so choose it. Again, the Inquisitor is ninety years +old, and he might have easily gone mad with his one idee fixe of +power; or, it might have as well been a delirious vision, called +forth by dying fancy, overheated by the auto-da-fe of the hundred +heretics in that forenoon.... But what matters for the poem, +whether it was a quid pro quo or an uncontrollable fancy? The +question is, that the old man has to open his heart; that he must +give out his thought at last; and that the hour has come when he +does speak it out, and says loudly that which for ninety years he +has kept secret within his own breast." + +"And his prisoner, does He never reply? Does He keep silent, +looking at him, without saying a word?" + +"Of course; and it could not well be otherwise," again retorted +Ivan. "The Grand Inquisitor begins from his very first words by +telling Him that He has no right to add one syllable to that which +He had said before. To make the situation clear at once, the above +preliminary monologue is intended to convey to the reader the very +fundamental idea which underlies Roman Catholicism--as well as I +can convey it, his words mean, in short: 'Everything was given +over by Thee to the Pope, and everything now rests with him alone; +Thou hast no business to return and thus hinder us in our work.' +In this sense the Jesuits not only talk but write likewise. + +"'Hast thou the right to divulge to us a single one of the +mysteries of that world whence Thou comest?' enquires of Him my +old Inquisitor, and forthwith answers for Him. 'Nay, Thou has no +such right. For, that would be adding to that which was already +said by Thee before; hence depriving people of that freedom for +which Thou hast so stoutly stood up while yet on earth.... +Anything new that Thou would now proclaim would have to be +regarded as an attempt to interfere with that freedom of choice, +as it would come as a new and a miraculous revelation superseding +the old revelation of fifteen hundred years ago, when Thou didst +so repeatedly tell the people: "The truth shall make you free." +Behold then, Thy "free" people now!' adds the old man with sombre +irony. 'Yea!... it has cost us dearly.' he continues, sternly +looking at his victim. 'But we have at last accomplished our +task, and--in Thy name.... For fifteen long centuries we had to +toil and suffer owing to that "freedom": but now we have +prevailed and our work is done, and well and strongly it is done. +....Believest not Thou it is so very strong? ... And why should +Thou look at me so meekly as if I were not worthy even of Thy +indignation?... Know then, that now, and only now, Thy people +feel fully sure and satisfied of their freedom; and that only +since they have themselves and of their own free will delivered +that freedom unto our hands by placing it submissively at our +feet. But then, that is what we have done. Is it that which Thou +has striven for? Is this the kind of "freedom" Thou has promised +them?'" + +"Now again, I do not understand," interrupted Alyosha. "Does the +old man mock and laugh?" + +"Not in the least. He seriously regards it as a great service +done by himself, his brother monks and Jesuits, to humanity, to +have conquered and subjected unto their authority that freedom, +and boasts that it was done but for the good of the world. 'For +only now,' he says (speaking of the Inquisition) 'has it become +possible to us, for the first time, to give a serious thought to +human happiness. Man is born a rebel, and can rebels be ever +happy?... Thou has been fairly warned of it, but evidently to no +use, since Thou hast rejected the only means which could make +mankind happy; fortunately at Thy departure Thou hast delivered +the task to us.... Thou has promised, ratifying the pledge by Thy +own words, in words giving us the right to bind and unbind... and +surely, Thou couldst not think of depriving us of it now!'" + +"But what can he mean by the words, 'Thou has been fairly +warned'?" asked Alexis. + +"These words give the key to what the old man has to say for his +justification... But listen-- + +"'The terrible and wise spirit, the spirit of self annihilation +and non-being,' goes on the Inquisitor, 'the great spirit of +negation conversed with Thee in the wilderness, and we are told +that he "tempted" Thee... Was it so? And if it were so, then it is +impossible to utter anything more truthful than what is contained +in his three offers, which Thou didst reject, and which are +usually called "temptations." Yea; if ever there was on earth a +genuine striking wonder produced, it was on that day of Thy three +temptations, and it is precisely in these three short sentences +that the marvelous miracle is contained. If it were possible that +they should vanish and disappear for ever, without leaving any +trace, from the record and from the memory of man, and that it +should become necessary again to devise, invent, and make them +reappear in Thy history once more, thinkest Thou that all the +world's sages, all the legislators, initiates, philosophers and +thinkers, if called upon to frame three questions which should, +like these, besides answering the magnitude of the event, express +in three short sentences the whole future history of this our +world and of mankind--dost Thou believe, I ask Thee, that all +their combined efforts could ever create anything equal in power +and depth of thought to the three propositions offered Thee by the +powerful and all-wise spirit in the wilderness? Judging of them by +their marvelous aptness alone, one can at once perceive that they +emanated not from a finite, terrestrial intellect, but indeed, +from the Eternal and the Absolute. In these three offers we find, +blended into one and foretold to us, the complete subsequent +history of man; we are shown three images, so to say, uniting in +them all the future axiomatic, insoluble problems and +contradictions of human nature, the world over. In those days, the +wondrous wisdom contained in them was not made so apparent as it +is now, for futurity remained still veiled; but now, when fifteen +centuries have elapsed, we see that everything in these three +questions is so marvelously foreseen and foretold, that to add to, +or to take away from, the prophecy one jot, would be absolutely +impossible! + +"'Decide then thyself.' sternly proceeded the Inquisitor, 'which +of ye twain was right: Thou who didst reject, or he who offered? +Remember the subtle meaning of question the first, which runs +thus: Wouldst Thou go into the world empty-handed? Would Thou +venture thither with Thy vague and undefined promise of freedom, +which men, dull and unruly as they are by nature, are unable so +much as to understand, which they avoid and fear?--for never was +there anything more unbearable to the human race than personal +freedom! Dost Thou see these stones in the desolate and glaring +wilderness? Command that these stones be made bread--and mankind +will run after Thee, obedient and grateful like a herd of cattle. +But even then it will be ever diffident and trembling, lest Thou +should take away Thy hand, and they lose thereby their bread! +Thou didst refuse to accept the offer for fear of depriving men +of their free choice; for where is there freedom of choice where +men are bribed with bread? Man shall not live by bread +alone--was Thine answer. Thou knewest not, it seems, that it was +precisely in the name of that earthly bread that the terrestrial +spirit would one day rise against, struggle with, and finally +conquer Thee, followed by the hungry multitudes shouting: "Who is +like unto that Beast, who maketh fire come down from heaven upon +the earth!" Knowest Thou not that, but a few centuries hence, and +the whole of mankind will have proclaimed in its wisdom and +through its mouthpiece, Science, that there is no more crime, +hence no more sin on earth, but only hungry people? "Feed us +first and then command us to be virtuous!" will be the words +written upon the banner lifted against Thee--a banner which +shall destroy Thy Church to its very foundations, and in the +place of Thy Temple shall raise once more the terrible Tower of +Babel; and though its building be left unfinished, as was that of +the first one, yet the fact will remain recorded that Thou +couldst, but wouldst not, prevent the attempt to build that new +tower by accepting the offer, and thus saving mankind a +millennium of useless suffering on earth. And it is to us that +the people will return again. They will search for us catacombs, +as we shall once more be persecuted and martyred--and they will +begin crying unto us: "Feed us, for they who promised us the fire +from heaven have deceived us!" It is then that we will finish +building their tower for them. For they alone who feed them shall +finish it, and we shall feed them in Thy name, and lying to them +that it is in that name. Oh, never, never, will they learn to +feed themselves without our help! No science will ever give them +bread so long as they remain free, so long as they refuse to lay +that freedom at our feet, and say: "Enslave, but feed us!" That +day must come when men will understand that freedom and daily +bread enough to satisfy all are unthinkable and can never be had +together, as men will never be able to fairly divide the two +among themselves. And they will also learn that they can never be +free, for they are weak, vicious, miserable nonentities born +wicked and rebellious. Thou has promised to them the bread of +life, the bread of heaven; but I ask Thee again, can that bread +ever equal in the sight of the weak and the vicious, the ever +ungrateful human race, their daily bread on earth? And even +supposing that thousands and tens of thousands follow Thee in the +name of, and for the sake of, Thy heavenly bread, what will +become of the millions and hundreds of millions of human beings +to weak to scorn the earthly for the sake of Thy heavenly bread? +Or is it but those tens of thousands chosen among the great and +the mighty, that are so dear to Thee, while the remaining +millions, innumerable as the grains of sand in the seas, the weak +and the loving, have to be used as material for the former? No, +no! In our sight and for our purpose the weak and the lowly are +the more dear to us. True, they are vicious and rebellious, but +we will force them into obedience, and it is they who will admire +us the most. They will regard us as gods, and feel grateful to +those who have consented to lead the masses and bear their burden +of freedom by ruling over them--so terrible will that freedom at +last appear to men! Then we will tell them that it is in +obedience to Thy will and in Thy name that we rule over them. We +will deceive them once more and lie to them once again--for +never, never more will we allow Thee to come among us. In this +deception we will find our suffering, for we must needs lie +eternally, and never cease to lie! + +"Such is the secret meaning of "temptation" the first, and that +is what Thou didst reject in the wilderness for the sake of that +freedom which Thou didst prize above all. Meanwhile Thy tempter's +offer contained another great world-mystery. By accepting the +"bread," Thou wouldst have satisfied and answered a universal +craving, a ceaseless longing alive in the heart of every +individual human being, lurking in the breast of collective +mankind, that most perplexing problem--"whom or what shall we +worship?" There exists no greater or more painful anxiety for a +man who has freed himself from all religious bias, than how he +shall soonest find a new object or idea to worship. But man seeks +to bow before that only which is recognized by the greater +majority, if not by all his fellow-men, as having a right to be +worshipped; whose rights are so unquestionable that men agree +unanimously to bow down to it. For the chief concern of these +miserable creatures is not to find and worship the idol of their +own choice, but to discover that which all others will believe +in, and consent to bow down to in a mass. It is that instinctive +need of having a worship in common that is the chief suffering of +every man, the chief concern of mankind from the beginning of +times. It is for that universality of religious worship that +people destroyed each other by sword. Creating gods unto +themselves, they forwith began appealing to each other: "Abandon +your deities, come and bow down to ours, or death to ye and your +idols!" And so will they do till the end of this world; they will +do so even then, when all the gods themselves have disappeared, +for then men will prostrate themselves before and worship some +idea. Thou didst know, Thou couldst not be ignorant of, that +mysterious fundamental principle in human nature, and still thou +hast rejected the only absolute banner offered Thee, to which all +the nations would remain true, and before which all would have +bowed--the banner of earthly bread, rejected in the name of +freedom and of "bread in the kingdom of God"! Behold, then, what +Thou hast done furthermore for that "freedom's" sake! I repeat to +Thee, man has no greater anxiety in life than to find some one to +whom he can make over that gift of freedom with which the +unfortunate creature is born. But he alone will prove capable of +silencing and quieting their consciences, that shall succeed in +possessing himself of the freedom of men. With "daily bread" an +irresistible power was offered Thee: show a man "bread" and he +will follow Thee, for what can he resist less than the attraction +of bread? But if, at the same time, another succeed in possessing +himself of his conscience--oh! then even Thy bread will be +forgotten, and man will follow him who seduced his conscience. So +far Thou wert right. For the mystery of human being does not +solely rest in the desire to live, but in the problem--for what +should one live at all? Without a clear perception of his reasons +for living, man will never consent to live, and will rather +destroy himself than tarry on earth, though he be surrounded with +bread. This is the truth. But what has happened? Instead of +getting hold of man's freedom, Thou has enlarged it still more! +Hast Thou again forgotten that to man rest and even death are +preferable to a free choice between the knowledge of Good and +Evil? Nothing seems more seductive in his eyes than freedom of +conscience, and nothing proves more painful. And behold! instead +of laying a firm foundation whereon to rest once for all man's +conscience, Thou hast chosen to stir up in him all that is +abnormal, mysterious, and indefinite, all that is beyond human +strength, and has acted as if Thou never hadst any love for him, +and yet Thou wert He who came to "lay down His life for His +friends!" Thou hast burdened man's soul with anxieties hitherto +unknown to him. Thirsting for human love freely given, seeking to +enable man, seduced and charmed by Thee, to follow Thy path of +his own free-will, instead of the old and wise law which held him +in subjection, Thou hast given him the right henceforth to choose +and freely decide what is good and bad for him, guided but by +Thine image in his heart. But hast Thou never dreamt of the +probability, nay, of the certainty, of that same man one day +rejected finally, and controverting even Thine image and Thy +truth, once he would find himself laden with such a terrible +burden as freedom of choice? That a time would surely come when +men would exclaim that Truth and Light cannot be in Thee, for no +one could have left them in a greater perplexity and mental +suffering than Thou has done, lading them with so many cares and +insoluble problems. Thus, it is Thyself who hast laid the +foundation for the destruction of Thine own kingdom and no one +but Thou is to be blamed for it. + +"'Meantime, every chance of success was offered Thee. There are +three Powers, three unique Forces upon earth, capable of +conquering for ever by charming the conscience of these weak +rebels--men--for their own good; and these Forces are: Miracle, +Mystery and Authority. Thou hast rejected all the three, and thus +wert the first to set them an example. When the terrible and +all-wise spirit placed Thee on a pinnacle of the temple and said unto +Thee, "If Thou be the son of God, cast Thyself down, for it is +written, He shall give His angels charge concerning Thee: and in +their hands they shall bear Thee up, lest at any time Thou dash +Thy foot against a stone!"--for thus Thy faith in Thy father +should have been made evident, Thou didst refuse to accept his +suggestion and didst not follow it. Oh, undoubtedly, Thou didst +act in this with all the magnificent pride of a god, but then +men--that weak and rebel race--are they also gods, to understand +Thy refusal? Of course, Thou didst well know that by taking one +single step forward, by making the slightest motion to throw +Thyself down, Thou wouldst have tempted "the Lord Thy God," lost +suddenly all faith in Him, and dashed Thyself to atoms against +that same earth which Thou camest to save, and thus wouldst have +allowed the wise spirit which tempted Thee to triumph and +rejoice. But, then, how many such as Thee are to be found on this +globe, I ask Thee? Couldst Thou ever for a moment imagine that +men would have the same strength to resist such a temptation? Is +human nature calculated to reject miracle, and trust, during the +most terrible moments in life, when the most momentous, painful +and perplexing problems struggle within man's soul, to the free +decisions of his heart for the true solution? Oh, Thou knewest +well that that action of Thine would remain recorded in books for +ages to come, reaching to the confines of the globe, and Thy hope +was, that following Thy example, man would remain true to his +God, without needing any miracle to keep his faith alive! But +Thou knewest not, it seems, that no sooner would man reject +miracle than he would reject God likewise, for he seeketh less +God than "a sign" from Him. And thus, as it is beyond the power +of man to remain without miracles, so, rather than live without, +he will create for himself new wonders of his own making; and he +will bow to and worship the soothsayer's miracles, the old +witch's sorcery, were he a rebel, a heretic, and an atheist a +hundred times over. Thy refusal to come down from the cross when +people, mocking and wagging their heads were saying to Thee--"Save +Thyself if Thou be the son of God, and we will believe in +Thee," was due to the same determination--not to enslave man +through miracle, but to obtain faith in Thee freely and apart +from any miraculous influence. Thou thirstest for free and +uninfluenced love, and refuses the passionate adoration of the +slave before a Potency which would have subjected his will once +for ever. Thou judgest of men too highly here, again, for though +rebels they be, they are born slaves and nothing more. Behold, +and judge of them once more, now that fifteen centuries have +elapsed since that moment. Look at them, whom Thou didst try to +elevate unto Thee! I swear man is weaker and lower than Thou hast +ever imagined him to be! Can he ever do that which Thou art said +to have accomplished? By valuing him so highly Thou hast acted as +if there were no love for him in Thine heart, for Thou hast +demanded of him more than he could ever give--Thou, who lovest +him more than Thyself! Hadst Thou esteemed him less, less wouldst +Thou have demanded of him, and that would have been more like +love, for his burden would have been made thereby lighter. Man is +weak and cowardly. What matters it, if he now riots and rebels +throughout the world against our will and power, and prides +himself upon that rebellion? It is but the petty pride and vanity +of a school-boy. It is the rioting of little children, getting up +a mutiny in the class-room and driving their schoolmaster out of +it. But it will not last long, and when the day of their triumph +is over, they will have to pay dearly for it. They will destroy +the temples and raze them to the ground, flooding the earth with +blood. But the foolish children will have to learn some day that, +rebels though they be and riotous from nature, they are too weak +to maintain the spirit of mutiny for any length of time. Suffused +with idiotic tears, they will confess that He who created them +rebellious undoubtedly did so but to mock them. They will +pronounce these words in despair, and such blasphemous utterances +will but add to their misery--for human nature cannot endure +blasphemy, and takes her own revenge in the end. + +"'And thus, after all Thou has suffered for mankind and its +freedom, the present fate of men may be summed up in three words: +Unrest, Confusion, Misery! Thy great prophet John records in his +vision, that he saw, during the first resurrection of the chosen +servants of God--"the number of them which were sealed" in their +foreheads, "twelve thousand" of every tribe. But were they, +indeed, as many? Then they must have been gods, not men. They had +shared Thy Cross for long years, suffered scores of years' hunger +and thirst in dreary wildernesses and deserts, feeding upon +locusts and roots--and of these children of free love for Thee, +and self-sacrifice in Thy name, Thou mayest well feel proud. But +remember that these are but a few thousands--of gods, not men; +and how about all others? And why should the weakest be held +guilty for not being able to endure what the strongest have +endured? Why should a soul incapable of containing such terrible +gifts be punished for its weakness? Didst Thou really come to, +and for, the "elect" alone? If so, then the mystery will remain +for ever mysterious to our finite minds. And if a mystery, then +were we right to proclaim it as one, and preach it, teaching them +that neither their freely given love to Thee nor freedom of +conscience were essential, but only that incomprehensible mystery +which they must blindly obey even against the dictates of their +conscience. Thus did we. We corrected and improved Thy teaching +and based it upon "Miracle, Mystery, and Authority." And men +rejoiced at finding themselves led once more like a herd of +cattle, and at finding their hearts at last delivered of the +terrible burden laid upon them by Thee, which caused them so much +suffering. Tell me, were we right in doing as we did. Did not we +show our great love for humanity, by realizing in such a humble +spirit its helplessness, by so mercifully lightening its great +burden, and by permitting and remitting for its weak nature every +sin, provided it be committed with our authorization? For what, +then, hast Thou come again to trouble us in our work? And why +lookest Thou at me so penetratingly with Thy meek eyes, and in +such a silence? Rather shouldst Thou feel wroth, for I need not +Thy love, I reject it, and love Thee not, myself. Why should I +conceal the truth from Thee? I know but too well with whom I am +now talking! What I had to say was known to Thee before, I read +it in Thine eye. How should I conceal from Thee our secret? If +perchance Thou wouldst hear it from my own lips, then listen: We +are not with Thee, but with him, and that is our secret! For +centuries have we abandoned Thee to follow him, yes--eight +centuries. Eight hundred years now since we accepted from him the +gift rejected by Thee with indignation; that last gift which he +offered Thee from the high mountain when, showing all the +kingdoms of the world and the glory of them, he saith unto Thee: +"All these things will I give Thee, if Thou will fall down and +worship me!" We took Rome from him and the glaive of Caesar, and +declared ourselves alone the kings of this earth, its sole kings, +though our work is not yet fully accomplished. But who is to +blame for it? Our work is but in its incipient stage, but it is +nevertheless started. We may have long to wait until its +culmination, and mankind have to suffer much, but we shall reach +the goal some day, and become sole Caesars, and then will be the +time to think of universal happiness for men. + +"'Thou couldst accept the glaive of Caesar Thyself; why didst +Thou reject the offer? By accepting from the powerful spirit his +third offer Thou would have realized every aspiration man seeketh +for himself on earth; man would have found a constant object for +worship; one to deliver his conscience up to, and one that should +unite all together into one common and harmonious ant-hill; for +an innate necessity for universal union constitutes the third and +final affliction of mankind. Humanity as a whole has ever aspired +to unite itself universally. Many were, the great nations with +great histories, but the greater they were, the more unhappy they +felt, as they felt the stronger necessity of a universal union +among men. Great conquerors, like Timoor and Tchengis-Khan, +passed like a cyclone upon the face of the earth in their efforts +to conquer the universe, but even they, albeit unconsciously, +expressed the same aspiration towards universal and common union. +In accepting the kingdom of the world and Caesar's purple, one +would found a universal kingdom and secure to mankind eternal +peace. And who can rule mankind better than those who have +possessed themselves of man's conscience, and hold in their hand +man's daily bread? Having accepted Caesar's glaive and purple, we +had, of course, but to deny Thee, to henceforth follow him alone. +Oh, centuries of intellectual riot and rebellious free thought +are yet before us, and their science will end by anthropophagy, +for having begun to build their Babylonian tower without our help +they will have to end by anthropophagy. But it is precisely at +that time that the Beast will crawl up to us in full submission, +and lick the soles of our feet, and sprinkle them with tears of +blood and we shall sit upon the scarlet-colored Beast, and +lifting up high the golden cup "full of abomination and +filthiness," shall show written upon it the word "Mystery"! But +it is only then that men will see the beginning of a kingdom of +peace and happiness. Thou art proud of Thine own elect, but Thou +has none other but these elect, and we--we will give rest to +all. But that is not the end. Many are those among thine elect +and the laborers of Thy vineyard, who, tired of waiting for Thy +coming, already have carried and will yet carry, the great fervor +of their hearts and their spiritual strength into another field, +and will end by lifting up against Thee Thine own banner of +freedom. But it is Thyself Thou hast to thank. Under our rule and +sway all will be happy, and will neither rebel nor destroy each +other as they did while under Thy free banner. Oh, we will take +good care to prove to them that they will become absolutely free +only when they have abjured their freedom in our favor and submit +to us absolutely. Thinkest Thou we shall be right or still lying? +They will convince themselves of our rightness, for they will see +what a depth of degrading slavery and strife that liberty of +Thine has led them into. Liberty, Freedom of Thought and +Conscience, and Science will lead them into such impassable +chasms, place them face to face before such wonders and insoluble +mysteries, that some of them--more rebellious and ferocious than +the rest--will destroy themselves; others--rebellious but +weak--will destroy each other; while the remainder, weak, helpless +and miserable, will crawl back to our feet and cry: "'Yes; right +were ye, oh Fathers of Jesus; ye alone are in possession of His +mystery, and we return to you, praying that ye save us from +ourselves!" Receiving their bread from us, they will clearly see +that we take the bread from them, the bread made by their own +hands, but to give it back to them in equal shares and that +without any miracle; and having ascertained that, though we have +not changed stones into bread, yet bread they have, while every +other bread turned verily in their own hands into stones, they +will be only to glad to have it so. Until that day, they will +never be happy. And who is it that helped the most to blind them, +tell me? Who separated the flock and scattered it over ways +unknown if it be not Thee? But we will gather the sheep once more +and subject them to our will for ever. We will prove to them +their own weakness and make them humble again, whilst with Thee +they have learnt but pride, for Thou hast made more of them than +they ever were worth. We will give them that quiet, humble +happiness, which alone benefits such weak, foolish creatures as +they are, and having once had proved to them their weakness, they +will become timid and obedient, and gather around us as chickens +around their hen. They will wonder at and feel a superstitious +admiration for us, and feel proud to be led by men so powerful +and wise that a handful of them can subject a flock a thousand +millions strong. Gradually men will begin to fear us. They will +nervously dread our slightest anger, their intellects will +weaken, their eyes become as easily accessible to tears as those +of children and women; but we will teach them an easy transition +from grief and tears to laughter, childish joy and mirthful song. +Yes; we will make them work like slaves, but during their +recreation hours they shall have an innocent child-like life, +full of play and merry laughter. We will even permit them sin, +for, weak and helpless, they will feel the more love for us for +permitting them to indulge in it. We will tell them that every +kind of sin will be remitted to them, so long as it is done with +our permission; that we take all these sins upon ourselves, for +we so love the world, that we are even willing to sacrifice our +souls for its satisfaction. And, appearing before them in the +light of their scapegoats and redeemers, we shall be adored the +more for it. They will have no secrets from us. It will rest with +us to permit them to live with their wives and concubines, or to +forbid them, to have children or remain childless, either way +depending on the degree of their obedience to us; and they will +submit most joyfully to us the most agonizing secrets of their +souls--all, all will they lay down at our feet, and we will +authorize and remit them all in Thy name, and they will believe +us and accept our mediation with rapture, as it will deliver them +from their greatest anxiety and torture--that of having to +decide freely for themselves. And all will be happy, all except +the one or two hundred thousands of their rulers. For it is but +we, we the keepers of the great Mystery who will be miserable. +There will be thousands of millions of happy infants, and one +hundred thousand martyrs who have taken upon themselves the curse +of knowledge of good and evil. Peaceable will be their end, and +peacefully will they die, in Thy name, to find behind the portals +of the grave--but death. But we will keep the secret inviolate, +and deceive them for their own good with the mirage of life +eternal in Thy kingdom. For, were there really anything like life +beyond the grave, surely it would never fall to the lot of such +as they! People tell us and prophesy of Thy coming and triumphing +once more on earth; of Thy appearing with the army of Thy elect, +with Thy proud and mighty ones; but we will answer Thee that they +have saved but themselves while we have saved all. We are also +threatened with the great disgrace which awaits the whore, +"Babylon the great, the mother of harlots"--who sits upon the +Beast, holding in her hands the Mystery, the word written upon +her forehead; and we are told that the weak ones, the lambs shall +rebel against her and shall make her desolate and naked. But then +will I arise, and point out to Thee the thousands of millions of +happy infants free from any sin. And we who have taken their sins +upon us, for their own good, shall stand before Thee and say: +"Judge us if Thou canst and darest!" Know then that I fear Thee +not. Know that I too have lived in the dreary wilderness, where I +fed upon locusts and roots, that I too have blessed freedom with +which thou hast blessed men, and that I too have once prepared to +join the ranks of Thy elect, the proud and the mighty. But I +awoke from my delusion and refused since then to serve insanity. +I returned to join the legion of those who corrected Thy +mistakes. I left the proud and returned to the really humble, and +for their own happiness. What I now tell thee will come to pass, +and our kingdom shall be built, I tell Thee not later than +to-morrow Thou shalt see that obedient flock which at one simple +motion of my hand will rush to add burning coals to Thy stake, on +which I will burn Thee for having dared to come and trouble us in +our work. For, if there ever was one who deserved more than any +of the others our inquisitorial fires--it is Thee! To-morrow I +will burn Thee. Dixi'." + +Ivan paused. He had entered into the situation and had spoken +with great animation, but now he suddenly burst out laughing. + +"But all that is absurd!" suddenly exclaimed Alyosha, who had +hitherto listened perplexed and agitated but in profound silence. +"Your poem is a glorification of Christ, not an accusation, as +you, perhaps, meant to be. And who will believe you when you +speak of 'freedom'? Is it thus that we Christians must understand +it? It is Rome (not all Rome, for that would be unjust), but the +worst of the Roman Catholics, the Inquisitors and Jesuits, that +you have been exposing! Your Inquisitor is an impossible +character. What are these sins they are taking upon themselves? +Who are those keepers of mystery who took upon themselves a curse +for the good of mankind? Who ever met them? We all know the +Jesuits, and no one has a good word to say in their favor; but +when were they as you depict them? Never, never! The Jesuits are +merely a Romish army making ready for their future temporal +kingdom, with a mitred emperor--a Roman high priest at their +head. That is their ideal and object, without any mystery or +elevated suffering. The most prosaic thirsting for power, for the +sake of the mean and earthly pleasures of life, a desire to +enslave their fellow-men, something like our late system of +serfs, with themselves at the head as landed proprietors--that +is all that they can be accused of. They may not believe in God, +that is also possible, but your suffering Inquisitor is simply--a +fancy!" + +"Hold, hold!" interrupted Ivan, smiling. "Do not be so excited. A +fancy, you say; be it so! Of course, it is a fancy. But stop. Do +you really imagine that all this Catholic movement during the +last centuries is naught but a desire for power for the mere +purpose of 'mean pleasures'? Is this what your Father Paissiy +taught you?" + +"No, no, quite the reverse, for Father Paissiy once told me +something very similar to what you yourself say, though, of +course, not that--something quite different," suddenly added +Alexis, blushing. + +"A precious piece of information, notwithstanding your 'not +that.' I ask you, why should the Inquisitors and the Jesuits of +your imagination live but for the attainment of 'mean material +pleasures?' Why should there not be found among them one single +genuine martyr suffering under a great and holy idea and loving +humanity with all his heart? Now let us suppose that among all +these Jesuits thirsting and hungering but after 'mean material +pleasures' there may be one, just one like my old Inquisitor, who +had himself fed upon roots in the wilderness, suffered the +tortures of damnation while trying to conquer flesh, in order to +become free and perfect, but who had never ceased to love +humanity, and who one day prophetically beheld the truth; who saw +as plain as he could see that the bulk of humanity could never be +happy under the old system, that it was not for them that the +great Idealist had come and died and dreamt of His Universal +Harmony. Having realized that truth, he returned into the world +and joined--intelligent and practical people. Is this so +impossible?" + +"Joined whom? What intelligent and practical people?" exclaimed +Alyosha quite excited. "Why should they be more intelligent than +other men, and what secrets and mysteries can they have? They +have neither. Atheism and infidelity is all the secret they have. +Your Inquisitor does not believe in God, and that is all the +Mystery there is in it!" + +"It may be so. You have guessed rightly there. And it is so, and +that is his whole secret; but is this not the acutest sufferings +for such a man as he, who killed all his young life in asceticism +in the desert, and yet could not cure himself of his love towards +his fellowmen? Toward the end of his life he becomes convinced +that it is only by following the advice of the great and terrible +spirit that the fate of these millions of weak rebels, these +'half-finished samples of humanity created in mockery' can be +made tolerable. And once convinced of it, he sees as clearly +that to achieve that object, one must follow blindly the guidance +of the wise spirit, the fearful spirit of death and destruction, +hence accept a system of lies and deception and lead humanity +consciously this time toward death and destruction, and moreover, +be deceiving them all the while in order to prevent them from +realizing where they are being led, and so force the miserable +blind men to feel happy, at least while here on earth. And note +this: a wholesale deception in the name of Him, in whose ideal +the old man had so passionately, so fervently, believed during +nearly his whole life! Is this no suffering? And were such a +solitary exception found amidst, and at the head of, that army +'that thirsts for power but for the sake of the mean pleasures of +life,' think you one such man would not suffice to bring on a +tragedy? Moreover, one single man like my Inquisitor as a +principal leader, would prove sufficient to discover the real +guiding idea of the Romish system with all its armies of Jesuits, +the greatest and chiefest conviction that the solitary type +described in my poem has at no time ever disappeared from among +the chief leaders of that movement. Who knows but that terrible +old man, loving humanity so stubbornly and in such an original +way, exists even in our days in the shape of a whole host of such +solitary exceptions, whose existence is not due to mere chance, +but to a well-defined association born of mutual consent, to a +secret league, organized several centuries back, in order to +guard the Mystery from the indiscreet eyes of the miserable and +weak people, and only in view of their own happiness? And so it +is; it cannot be otherwise. I suspect that even Masons have some +such Mystery underlying the basis of their organization, and that +it is just the reason why the Roman Catholic clergy hate them so, +dreading to find in them rivals, competition, the dismemberment +of the unity of the idea, for the realization of which one flock +and one Shepherd are needed. However, in defending my idea, I +look like an author whose production is unable to stand +criticism. Enough of this." + +"You are, perhaps, a Mason yourself!" exclaimed Alyosha. "You do +not believe in God," he added, with a note of profound sadness in +his voice. But suddenly remarking that his brother was looking at +him with mockery, "How do you mean then to bring your poem to a +close?" he unexpectedly enquired, casting his eyes downward, "or +does it break off here?" + +"My intention is to end it with the following scene: Having +disburdened his heart, the Inquisitor waits for some time to hear +his prisoner speak in His turn. His silence weighs upon him. He +has seen that his captive has been attentively listening to him +all the time, with His eyes fixed penetratingly and softly on the +face of his jailer, and evidently bent upon not replying to him. +The old man longs to hear His voice, to hear Him reply; better +words of bitterness and scorn than His silence. Suddenly He +rises; slowly and silently approaching the Inquisitor, He bends +towards him and softly kisses the bloodless, four-score +and-ten-year-old lips. That is all the answer. The Grand Inquisitor +shudders. There is a convulsive twitch at the corner of his +mouth. He goes to the door, opens it, and addressing Him, 'Go,' +he says, 'go, and return no more... do not come again... never, +never!' and--lets Him out into the dark night. The prisoner +vanishes." + +"And the old man?" + +"The kiss burns his heart, but the old man remains firm in his +own ideas and unbelief." + +"And you, together with him? You too!" despairingly exclaimed +Alyosha, while Ivan burst into a still louder fit of laughter. + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Grand Inquisitor, by Feodor Dostoevsky + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GRAND INQUISITOR *** + +***** This file should be named 8578.txt or 8578.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/8/5/7/8578/ + +Produced by Jake Jaqua. HTML version by Al Haines. + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Blavatsky) + + +[Dedicated by the Translator to those sceptics who clamour so +loudly, both in print and private letters--"Show us the wonder- +working 'Brothers,' let them come out publicly--and we will +believe in them!"] + + +[The following is an extract from M. Dostoevsky's celebrated +novel, The Brothers Karamazof, the last publication from the pen +of the great Russian novelist, who died a few months ago, just as +the concluding chapters appeared in print. Dostoevsky is +beginning to be recognized as one of the ablest and profoundest +among Russian writers. His characters are invariably typical +portraits drawn from various classes of Russian society, +strikingly life-like and realistic to the highest degree. The +following extract is a cutting satire on modern theology +generally and the Roman Catholic religion in particular. The idea +is that Christ revisits earth, coming to Spain at the period of +the Inquisition, and is at once arrested as a heretic by the +Grand Inquisitor. One of the three brothers of the story, Ivan, a +rank materialist and an atheist of the new school, is supposed to +throw this conception into the form of a poem, which he describes +to Alyosha--the youngest of the brothers, a young Christian +mystic brought up by a "saint" in a monastery--as follows: +(--Ed. Theosophist, Nov., 1881)] + + + + + +"Quite impossible, as you see, to start without an introduction," +laughed Ivan. "Well, then, I mean to place the event described in +the poem in the sixteenth century, an age--as you must have been +told at school--when it was the great fashion among poets to +make the denizens and powers of higher worlds descend on earth +and mix freely with mortals... In France all the notaries' +clerks, and the monks in the cloisters as well, used to give +grand performances, dramatic plays in which long scenes were +enacted by the Madonna, the angels, the saints, Christ, and even +by God Himself. In those days, everything was very artless and +primitive. An instance of it may be found in Victor Hugo's drama, +Notre Dame de Paris, where, at the Municipal Hall, a play called +Le Bon Jugement de la Tres-sainte et Graceuse Vierge Marie, is +enacted in honour of Louis XI, in which the Virgin appears +personally to pronounce her 'good judgment.' In Moscow, during +the prepetrean period, performances of nearly the same character, +chosen especially from the Old Testament, were also in great +favour. Apart from such plays, the world was overflooded with +mystical writings, 'verses'--the heroes of which were always +selected from the ranks of angels, saints and other heavenly +citizens answering to the devotional purposes of the age. The +recluses of our monasteries, like the Roman Catholic monks, +passed their time in translating, copying, and even producing +original compositions upon such subjects, and that, remember, +during the Tarter period!... In this connection, I am reminded of +a poem compiled in a convent--a translation from the Greek, of +course--called, 'The Travels of the Mother of God among the +Damned,' with fitting illustrations and a boldness of conception +inferior nowise to that of Dante. The 'Mother of God' visits +hell, in company with the archangel Michael as her cicerone to +guide her through the legions of the 'damned.' She sees them all, +and is witness to their multifarious tortures. Among the many +other exceedingly remarkably varieties of torments--every +category of sinners having its own--there is one especially +worthy of notice, namely a class of the 'damned' sentenced to +gradually sink in a burning lake of brimstone and fire. Those +whose sins cause them to sink so low that they no longer can rise +to the surface are for ever forgotten by God, i.e., they fade out +from the omniscient memory, says the poem--an expression, by the +way, of an extraordinary profundity of thought, when closely +analysed. The Virgin is terribly shocked, and falling down upon +her knees in tears before the throne of God, begs that all she +has seen in hell--all, all without exception, should have their +sentences remitted to them. Her dialogue with God is colossally +interesting. She supplicates, she will not leave Him. And when +God, pointing to the pierced hands and feet of her Son, cries, +'How can I forgive His executioners?' She then commands that all +the saints, martyrs, angels and archangels, should prostrate +themselves with her before the Immutable and Changeless One and +implore Him to change His wrath into mercy and--forgive them +all. The poem closes upon her obtaining from God a compromise, a +kind of yearly respite of tortures between Good Friday and +Trinity, a chorus of the 'damned' singing loud praises to God +from their 'bottomless pit,' thanking and telling Him: + +Thou art right, O Lord, very right, +Thou hast condemned us justly. + +"My poem is of the same character. + +"In it, it is Christ who appears on the scene. True, He says +nothing, but only appears and passes out of sight. Fifteen +centuries have elapsed since He left the world with the distinct +promise to return 'with power and great glory'; fifteen long +centuries since His prophet cried, 'Prepare ye the way of the +Lord!' since He Himself had foretold, while yet on earth, 'Of +that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven +but my Father only.' But Christendom expects Him still. ... + +"It waits for Him with the same old faith and the same emotion; +aye, with a far greater faith, for fifteen centuries have rolled +away since the last sign from heaven was sent to man, + +And blind faith remained alone +To lull the trusting heart, +As heav'n would send a sign no more. + +"True, again, we have all heard of miracles being wrought ever +since the 'age of miracles' passed away to return no more. We +had, and still have, our saints credited with performing the most +miraculous cures; and, if we can believe their biographers, there +have been those among them who have been personally visited by +the Queen of Heaven. But Satan sleepeth not, and the first germs +of doubt, and ever-increasing unbelief in such wonders, already +had begun to sprout in Christendom as early as the sixteenth +century. It was just at that time that a new and terrible heresy +first made its appearance in the north of Germany.* [*Luther's +reform] A great star 'shining as it were a lamp... fell upon the +fountains waters'... and 'they were made bitter.' This 'heresy' +blasphemously denied 'miracles.' But those who had remained +faithful believed all the more ardently, the tears of mankind +ascended to Him as heretofore, and the Christian world was +expecting Him as confidently as ever; they loved Him and hoped in +Him, thirsted and hungered to suffer and die for Him just as many +of them had done before.... So many centuries had weak, trusting +humanity implored Him, crying with ardent faith and fervour: 'How +long, O Lord, holy and true, dost Thou not come!' So many long +centuries hath it vainly appealed to Him, that at last, in His +inexhaustible compassion, He consenteth to answer the prayer.... +He decideth that once more, if it were but for one short hour, +the people--His long-suffering, tortured, fatally sinful, his +loving and child-like, trusting people--shall behold Him again. +The scene of action is placed by me in Spain, at Seville, during +that terrible period of the Inquisition, when, for the greater +glory of God, stakes were flaming all over the country. + +Burning wicked heretics, +In grand auto-da-fes. + +"This particular visit has, of course, nothing to do with the +promised Advent, when, according to the programme, 'after the +tribulation of those days,' He will appear 'coming in the clouds +of heaven.' For, that 'coming of the Son of Man,' as we are +informed, will take place as suddenly 'as the lightning cometh +out of the east and shineth even unto the west.' No; this once, +He desired to come unknown, and appear among His children, just +when the bones of the heretics, sentenced to be burnt alive, had +commenced crackling at the flaming stakes. Owing to His limitless +mercy, He mixes once more with mortals and in the same form in +which He was wont to appear fifteen centuries ago. He descends, +just at the very moment when before king, courtiers, knights, +cardinals, and the fairest dames of court, before the whole +population of Seville, upwards of a hundred wicked heretics are +being roasted, in a magnificent auto-da-fe ad majorem Dei +gloriam, by the order of the powerful Cardinal Grand Inquisitor. + +"He comes silently and unannounced; yet all--how strange--yea, +all recognize Him, at once! The population rushes towards Him as +if propelled by some irresistible force; it surrounds, throngs, +and presses around, it follows Him.... Silently, and with a smile +of boundless compassion upon His lips, He crosses the dense +crowd, and moves softly on. The Sun of Love burns in His heart, +and warm rays of Light, Wisdom and Power beam forth from His +eyes, and pour down their waves upon the swarming multitudes of +the rabble assembled around, making their hearts vibrate with +returning love. He extends His hands over their heads, blesses +them, and from mere contact with Him, aye, even with His +garments, a healing power goes forth. An old man, blind from his +birth, cries, 'Lord, heal me, that I may see Thee!' and the +scales falling off the closed eyes, the blind man beholds Him... +The crowd weeps for joy, and kisses the ground upon which He +treads. Children strew flowers along His path and sing to Him, +'Hosanna!' It is He, it is Himself, they say to each other, it +must be He, it can be none other but He! He pauses at the portal +of the old cathedral, just as a wee white coffin is carried in, +with tears and great lamentations. The lid is off, and in the +coffin lies the body of a fair-child, seven years old, the only +child of an eminent citizen of the city. The little corpse lies +buried in flowers. 'He will raise the child to life!' confidently +shouts the crowd to the weeping mother. The officiating priest +who had come to meet the funeral procession, looks perplexed, and +frowns. A loud cry is suddenly heard, and the bereaved mother +prostrates herself at His feet. 'If it be Thou, then bring back +my child to life!' she cries beseechingly. The procession halts, +and the little coffin is gently lowered at his feet. Divine +compassion beams forth from His eyes, and as He looks at the +child, His lips are heard to whisper once more, 'Talitha Cumi' - +and 'straightway the damsel arose.' The child rises in her +coffin. Her little hands still hold the nosegay of white roses +which after death was placed in them, and, looking round with +large astonished eyes she smiles sweetly .... The crowd is +violently excited. A terrible commotion rages among them, the +populace shouts and loudly weeps, when suddenly, before the +cathedral door, appears the Cardinal Grand Inquisitor himself.... +He is tall, gaunt-looking old man of nearly four-score years and +ten, with a stern, withered face, and deeply sunken eyes, from +the cavity of which glitter two fiery sparks. He has laid aside +his gorgeous cardinal's robes in which he had appeared before the +people at the auto da-fe of the enemies of the Romish Church, and +is now clad in his old, rough, monkish cassock. His sullen +assistants and slaves of the 'holy guard' are following at a +distance. He pauses before the crowd and observes. He has seen +all. He has witnessed the placing of the little coffin at His +feet, the calling back to life. And now, his dark, grim face has +grown still darker; his bushy grey eyebrows nearly meet, and his +sunken eye flashes with sinister light. Slowly raising his +finger, he commands his minions to arrest Him.... + +"Such is his power over the well-disciplined, submissive and now +trembling people, that the thick crowds immediately give way, and +scattering before the guard, amid dead silence and without one +breath of protest, allow them to lay their sacrilegious hands +upon the stranger and lead Him away.... That same populace, like +one man, now bows its head to the ground before the old +Inquisitor, who blesses it and slowly moves onward. The guards +conduct their prisoner to the ancient building of the Holy +Tribunal; pushing Him into a narrow, gloomy, vaulted prison-cell, +they lock Him in and retire.... + +"The day wanes, and night--a dark, hot breathless Spanish night +--creeps on and settles upon the city of Seville. The air smells +of laurels and orange blossoms. In the Cimmerian darkness of the +old Tribunal Hall the iron door of the cell is suddenly thrown +open, and the Grand Inquisitor, holding a dark lantern, slowly +stalks into the dungeon. He is alone, and, as the heavy door +closes behind him, he pauses at the threshold, and, for a minute +or two, silently and gloomily scrutinizes the Face before him. At +last approaching with measured steps, he sets his lantern down +upon the table and addresses Him in these words: + +"'It is Thou! ... Thou!' ... Receiving no reply, he rapidly +continues: 'Nay, answer not; be silent! ... And what couldst Thou +say? ... I know but too well Thy answer.... Besides, Thou hast no +right to add one syllable to that which was already uttered by +Thee before.... Why shouldst Thou now return, to impede us in our +work? For Thou hast come but for that only, and Thou knowest it +well. But art Thou as well aware of what awaits Thee in the +morning? I do not know, nor do I care to know who thou mayest be: +be it Thou or only thine image, to-morrow I will condemn and burn +Thee on the stake, as the most wicked of all the heretics; and +that same people, who to-day were kissing Thy feet, to-morrow at +one bend of my finger, will rush to add fuel to Thy funeral +pile... Wert Thou aware of this?' he adds, speaking as if in +solemn thought, and never for one instant taking his piercing +glance off the meek Face before him.".... + +"I can hardly realize the situation described--what is all +this, Ivan?" suddenly interrupted Alyosha, who had remained +silently listening to his brother. "Is this an extravagant fancy, +or some mistake of the old man, an impossible quid pro quo?" + +"Let it be the latter, if you like," laughed Ivan, "since modern +realism has so perverted your taste that you feel unable to +realize anything from the world of fancy.... Let it be a quid pro +quo, if you so choose it. Again, the Inquisitor is ninety years +old, and he might have easily gone mad with his one idee fixe of +power; or, it might have as well been a delirious vision, called +forth by dying fancy, overheated by the auto-da-fe of the hundred +heretics in that forenoon.... But what matters for the poem, +whether it was a quid pro quo or an uncontrollable fancy? The +question is, that the old man has to open his heart; that he must +give out his thought at last; and that the hour has come when he +does speak it out, and says loudly that which for ninety years he +has kept secret within his own breast." + +"And his prisoner, does He never reply? Does He keep silent, +looking at him, without saying a word?" + +"Of course; and it could not well be otherwise," again retorted +Ivan. "The Grand Inquisitor begins from his very first words by +telling Him that He has no right to add one syllable to that which +He had said before. To make the situation clear at once, the above +preliminary monologue is intended to convey to the reader the very +fundamental idea which underlies Roman Catholicism--as well as I +can convey it, his words mean, in short: 'Everything was given +over by Thee to the Pope, and everything now rests with him alone; +Thou hast no business to return and thus hinder us in our work.' +In this sense the Jesuits not only talk but write likewise. + +"'Hast thou the right to divulge to us a single one of the +mysteries of that world whence Thou comest?' enquires of Him my +old Inquisitor, and forthwith answers for Him. 'Nay, Thou has no +such right. For, that would be adding to that which was already +said by Thee before; hence depriving people of that freedom for +which Thou hast so stoutly stood up while yet on earth.... +Anything new that Thou would now proclaim would have to be +regarded as an attempt to interfere with that freedom of choice, +as it would come as a new and a miraculous revelation superseding +the old revelation of fifteen hundred years ago, when Thou didst +so repeatedly tell the people: "The truth shall make you free." +Behold then, Thy "free" people now!' adds the old man with sombre +irony. 'Yea!... it has cost us dearly.' he continues, sternly +looking at his victim. 'But we have at last accomplished our +task, and--in Thy name.... For fifteen long centuries we had to +toil and suffer owing to that "freedom": but now we have +prevailed and our work is done, and well and strongly it is done. +....Believest not Thou it is so very strong? ... And why should +Thou look at me so meekly as if I were not worthy even of Thy +indignation?... Know then, that now, and only now, Thy people +feel fully sure and satisfied of their freedom; and that only +since they have themselves and of their own free will delivered +that freedom unto our hands by placing it submissively at our +feet. But then, that is what we have done. Is it that which Thou +has striven for? Is this the kind of "freedom" Thou has promised +them?'" + +"Now again, I do not understand," interrupted Alyosha. "Does the +old man mock and laugh?" + +"Not in the least. He seriously regards it as a great service +done by himself, his brother monks and Jesuits, to humanity, to +have conquered and subjected unto their authority that freedom, +and boasts that it was done but for the good of the world. 'For +only now,' he says (speaking of the Inquisition) 'has it become +possible to us, for the first time, to give a serious thought to +human happiness. Man is born a rebel, and can rebels be ever +happy?... Thou has been fairly warned of it, but evidently to no +use, since Thou hast rejected the only means which could make +mankind happy; fortunately at Thy departure Thou hast delivered +the task to us.... Thou has promised, ratifying the pledge by Thy +own words, in words giving us the right to bind and unbind... and +surely, Thou couldst not think of depriving us of it now!'" + +"But what can he mean by the words, 'Thou has been fairly +warned'?" asked Alexis. + +"These words give the key to what the old man has to say for his +justification... But listen-- + +"'The terrible and wise spirit, the spirit of self annihilation +and non-being,' goes on the Inquisitor, 'the great spirit of +negation conversed with Thee in the wilderness, and we are told +that he "tempted" Thee... Was it so? And if it were so, then it is +impossible to utter anything more truthful than what is contained +in his three offers, which Thou didst reject, and which are +usually called "temptations." Yea; if ever there was on earth a +genuine striking wonder produced, it was on that day of Thy three +temptations, and it is precisely in these three short sentences +that the marvelous miracle is contained. If it were possible that +they should vanish and disappear for ever, without leaving any +trace, from the record and from the memory of man, and that it +should become necessary again to devise, invent, and make them +reappear in Thy history once more, thinkest Thou that all the +world's sages, all the legislators, initiates, philosophers and +thinkers, if called upon to frame three questions which should, +like these, besides answering the magnitude of the event, express +in three short sentences the whole future history of this our +world and of mankind--dost Thou believe, I ask Thee, that all +their combined efforts could ever create anything equal in power +and depth of thought to the three propositions offered Thee by the +powerful and all-wise spirit in the wilderness? Judging of them by +their marvelous aptness alone, one can at once perceive that they +emanated not from a finite, terrestrial intellect, but indeed, +from the Eternal and the Absolute. In these three offers we find, +blended into one and foretold to us, the complete subsequent +history of man; we are shown three images, so to say, uniting in +them all the future axiomatic, insoluble problems and +contradictions of human nature, the world over. In those days, the +wondrous wisdom contained in them was not made so apparent as it +is now, for futurity remained still veiled; but now, when fifteen +centuries have elapsed, we see that everything in these three +questions is so marvelously foreseen and foretold, that to add to, +or to take away from, the prophecy one jot, would be absolutely +impossible! + +"'Decide then thyself.' sternly proceeded the Inquisitor, 'which +of ye twain was right: Thou who didst reject, or he who offered? +Remember the subtle meaning of question the first, which runs +thus: Wouldst Thou go into the world empty-handed? Would Thou +venture thither with Thy vague and undefined promise of freedom, +which men, dull and unruly as they are by nature, are unable so +much as to understand, which they avoid and fear?--for never was +there anything more unbearable to the human race than personal +freedom! Dost Thou see these stones in the desolate and glaring +wilderness? Command that these stones be made bread--and mankind +will run after Thee, obedient and grateful like a herd of cattle. +But even then it will be ever diffident and trembling, lest Thou +should take away Thy hand, and they lose thereby their bread! +Thou didst refuse to accept the offer for fear of depriving men +of their free choice; for where is there freedom of choice where +men are bribed with bread? Man shall not live by bread alone-- +was Thine answer. Thou knewest not, it seems, that it was +precisely in the name of that earthly bread that the terrestrial +spirit would one day rise against, struggle with, and finally +conquer Thee, followed by the hungry multitudes shouting: "Who is +like unto that Beast, who maketh fire come down from heaven upon +the earth!" Knowest Thou not that, but a few centuries hence, and +the whole of mankind will have proclaimed in its wisdom and +through its mouthpiece, Science, that there is no more crime, +hence no more sin on earth, but only hungry people? "Feed us +first and then command us to be virtuous!" will be the words +written upon the banner lifted against Thee--a banner which +shall destroy Thy Church to its very foundations, and in the +place of Thy Temple shall raise once more the terrible Tower of +Babel; and though its building be left unfinished, as was that of +the first one, yet the fact will remain recorded that Thou +couldst, but wouldst not, prevent the attempt to build that new +tower by accepting the offer, and thus saving mankind a +millennium of useless suffering on earth. And it is to us that +the people will return again. They will search for us catacombs, +as we shall once more be persecuted and martyred--and they will +begin crying unto us: "Feed us, for they who promised us the fire +from heaven have deceived us!" It is then that we will finish +building their tower for them. For they alone who feed them shall +finish it, and we shall feed them in Thy name, and lying to them +that it is in that name. Oh, never, never, will they learn to +feed themselves without our help! No science will ever give them +bread so long as they remain free, so long as they refuse to lay +that freedom at our feet, and say: "Enslave, but feed us!" That +day must come when men will understand that freedom and daily +bread enough to satisfy all are unthinkable and can never be had +together, as men will never be able to fairly divide the two +among themselves. And they will also learn that they can never be +free, for they are weak, vicious, miserable nonentities born +wicked and rebellious. Thou has promised to them the bread of +life, the bread of heaven; but I ask Thee again, can that bread +ever equal in the sight of the weak and the vicious, the ever +ungrateful human race, their daily bread on earth? And even +supposing that thousands and tens of thousands follow Thee in the +name of, and for the sake of, Thy heavenly bread, what will +become of the millions and hundreds of millions of human beings +to weak to scorn the earthly for the sake of Thy heavenly bread? +Or is it but those tens of thousands chosen among the great and +the mighty, that are so dear to Thee, while the remaining +millions, innumerable as the grains of sand in the seas, the weak +and the loving, have to be used as material for the former? No, +no! In our sight and for our purpose the weak and the lowly are +the more dear to us. True, they are vicious and rebellious, but +we will force them into obedience, and it is they who will admire +us the most. They will regard us as gods, and feel grateful to +those who have consented to lead the masses and bear their burden +of freedom by ruling over them--so terrible will that freedom at +last appear to men! Then we will tell them that it is in +obedience to Thy will and in Thy name that we rule over them. We +will deceive them once more and lie to them once again--for +never, never more will we allow Thee to come among us. In this +deception we will find our suffering, for we must needs lie +eternally, and never cease to lie! + +"Such is the secret meaning of "temptation" the first, and that +is what Thou didst reject in the wilderness for the sake of that +freedom which Thou didst prize above all. Meanwhile Thy tempter's +offer contained another great world-mystery. By accepting the +"bread," Thou wouldst have satisfied and answered a universal +craving, a ceaseless longing alive in the heart of every +individual human being, lurking in the breast of collective +mankind, that most perplexing problem--"whom or what shall we +worship?" There exists no greater or more painful anxiety for a +man who has freed himself from all religious bias, than how he +shall soonest find a new object or idea to worship. But man seeks +to bow before that only which is recognized by the greater +majority, if not by all his fellow-men, as having a right to be +worshipped; whose rights are so unquestionable that men agree +unanimously to bow down to it. For the chief concern of these +miserable creatures is not to find and worship the idol of their +own choice, but to discover that which all others will believe +in, and consent to bow down to in a mass. It is that instinctive +need of having a worship in common that is the chief suffering of +every man, the chief concern of mankind from the beginning of +times. It is for that universality of religious worship that +people destroyed each other by sword. Creating gods unto +themselves, they forwith began appealing to each other: "Abandon +your deities, come and bow down to ours, or death to ye and your +idols!" And so will they do till the end of this world; they will +do so even then, when all the gods themselves have disappeared, +for then men will prostrate themselves before and worship some +idea. Thou didst know, Thou couldst not be ignorant of, that +mysterious fundamental principle in human nature, and still thou +hast rejected the only absolute banner offered Thee, to which all +the nations would remain true, and before which all would have +bowed--the banner of earthly bread, rejected in the name of +freedom and of "bread in the kingdom of God"! Behold, then, what +Thou hast done furthermore for that "freedom's" sake! I repeat to +Thee, man has no greater anxiety in life than to find some one to +whom he can make over that gift of freedom with which the +unfortunate creature is born. But he alone will prove capable of +silencing and quieting their consciences, that shall succeed in +possessing himself of the freedom of men. With "daily bread" an +irresistible power was offered Thee: show a man "bread" and he +will follow Thee, for what can he resist less than the attraction +of bread? But if, at the same time, another succeed in possessing +himself of his conscience--oh! then even Thy bread will be +forgotten, and man will follow him who seduced his conscience. So +far Thou wert right. For the mystery of human being does not +solely rest in the desire to live, but in the problem--for what +should one live at all? Without a clear perception of his reasons +for living, man will never consent to live, and will rather +destroy himself than tarry on earth, though he be surrounded with +bread. This is the truth. But what has happened? Instead of +getting hold of man's freedom, Thou has enlarged it still more! +Hast Thou again forgotten that to man rest and even death are +preferable to a free choice between the knowledge of Good and +Evil? Nothing seems more seductive in his eyes than freedom of +conscience, and nothing proves more painful. And behold! instead +of laying a firm foundation whereon to rest once for all man's +conscience, Thou hast chosen to stir up in him all that is +abnormal, mysterious, and indefinite, all that is beyond human +strength, and has acted as if Thou never hadst any love for him, +and yet Thou wert He who came to "lay down His life for His +friends!" Thou hast burdened man's soul with anxieties hitherto +unknown to him. Thirsting for human love freely given, seeking to +enable man, seduced and charmed by Thee, to follow Thy path of +his own free-will, instead of the old and wise law which held him +in subjection, Thou hast given him the right henceforth to choose +and freely decide what is good and bad for him, guided but by +Thine image in his heart. But hast Thou never dreamt of the +probability, nay, of the certainty, of that same man one day +rejected finally, and controverting even Thine image and Thy +truth, once he would find himself laden with such a terrible +burden as freedom of choice? That a time would surely come when +men would exclaim that Truth and Light cannot be in Thee, for no +one could have left them in a greater perplexity and mental +suffering than Thou has done, lading them with so many cares and +insoluble problems. Thus, it is Thyself who hast laid the +foundation for the destruction of Thine own kingdom and no one +but Thou is to be blamed for it. + +"'Meantime, every chance of success was offered Thee. There are +three Powers, three unique Forces upon earth, capable of +conquering for ever by charming the conscience of these weak +rebels--men--for their own good; and these Forces are: Miracle, +Mystery and Authority. Thou hast rejected all the three, and thus +wert the first to set them an example. When the terrible and all- +wise spirit placed Thee on a pinnacle of the temple and said unto +Thee, "If Thou be the son of God, cast Thyself down, for it is +written, He shall give His angels charge concerning Thee: and in +their hands they shall bear Thee up, lest at any time Thou dash +Thy foot against a stone!"--for thus Thy faith in Thy father +should have been made evident, Thou didst refuse to accept his +suggestion and didst not follow it. Oh, undoubtedly, Thou didst +act in this with all the magnificent pride of a god, but then men +--that weak and rebel race--are they also gods, to understand +Thy refusal? Of course, Thou didst well know that by taking one +single step forward, by making the slightest motion to throw +Thyself down, Thou wouldst have tempted "the Lord Thy God," lost +suddenly all faith in Him, and dashed Thyself to atoms against +that same earth which Thou camest to save, and thus wouldst have +allowed the wise spirit which tempted Thee to triumph and +rejoice. But, then, how many such as Thee are to be found on this +globe, I ask Thee? Couldst Thou ever for a moment imagine that +men would have the same strength to resist such a temptation? Is +human nature calculated to reject miracle, and trust, during the +most terrible moments in life, when the most momentous, painful +and perplexing problems struggle within man's soul, to the free +decisions of his heart for the true solution? Oh, Thou knewest +well that that action of Thine would remain recorded in books for +ages to come, reaching to the confines of the globe, and Thy hope +was, that following Thy example, man would remain true to his +God, without needing any miracle to keep his faith alive! But +Thou knewest not, it seems, that no sooner would man reject +miracle than he would reject God likewise, for he seeketh less +God than "a sign" from Him. And thus, as it is beyond the power +of man to remain without miracles, so, rather than live without, +he will create for himself new wonders of his own making; and he +will bow to and worship the soothsayer's miracles, the old +witch's sorcery, were he a rebel, a heretic, and an atheist a +hundred times over. Thy refusal to come down from the cross when +people, mocking and wagging their heads were saying to Thee-- +"Save Thyself if Thou be the son of God, and we will believe in +Thee," was due to the same determination--not to enslave man +through miracle, but to obtain faith in Thee freely and apart +from any miraculous influence. Thou thirstest for free and +uninfluenced love, and refuses the passionate adoration of the +slave before a Potency which would have subjected his will once +for ever. Thou judgest of men too highly here, again, for though +rebels they be, they are born slaves and nothing more. Behold, +and judge of them once more, now that fifteen centuries have +elapsed since that moment. Look at them, whom Thou didst try to +elevate unto Thee! I swear man is weaker and lower than Thou hast +ever imagined him to be! Can he ever do that which Thou art said +to have accomplished? By valuing him so highly Thou hast acted as +if there were no love for him in Thine heart, for Thou hast +demanded of him more than he could ever give--Thou, who lovest +him more than Thyself! Hadst Thou esteemed him less, less wouldst +Thou have demanded of him, and that would have been more like +love, for his burden would have been made thereby lighter. Man is +weak and cowardly. What matters it, if he now riots and rebels +throughout the world against our will and power, and prides +himself upon that rebellion? It is but the petty pride and vanity +of a school-boy. It is the rioting of little children, getting up +a mutiny in the class-room and driving their schoolmaster out of +it. But it will not last long, and when the day of their triumph +is over, they will have to pay dearly for it. They will destroy +the temples and raze them to the ground, flooding the earth with +blood. But the foolish children will have to learn some day that, +rebels though they be and riotous from nature, they are too weak +to maintain the spirit of mutiny for any length of time. Suffused +with idiotic tears, they will confess that He who created them +rebellious undoubtedly did so but to mock them. They will +pronounce these words in despair, and such blasphemous utterances +will but add to their misery--for human nature cannot endure +blasphemy, and takes her own revenge in the end. + +"'And thus, after all Thou has suffered for mankind and its +freedom, the present fate of men may be summed up in three words: +Unrest, Confusion, Misery! Thy great prophet John records in his +vision, that he saw, during the first resurrection of the chosen +servants of God--"the number of them which were sealed" in their +foreheads, "twelve thousand" of every tribe. But were they, +indeed, as many? Then they must have been gods, not men. They had +shared Thy Cross for long years, suffered scores of years' hunger +and thirst in dreary wildernesses and deserts, feeding upon +locusts and roots--and of these children of free love for Thee, +and self-sacrifice in Thy name, Thou mayest well feel proud. But +remember that these are but a few thousands--of gods, not men; +and how about all others? And why should the weakest be held +guilty for not being able to endure what the strongest have +endured? Why should a soul incapable of containing such terrible +gifts be punished for its weakness? Didst Thou really come to, +and for, the "elect" alone? If so, then the mystery will remain +for ever mysterious to our finite minds. And if a mystery, then +were we right to proclaim it as one, and preach it, teaching them +that neither their freely given love to Thee nor freedom of +conscience were essential, but only that incomprehensible mystery +which they must blindly obey even against the dictates of their +conscience. Thus did we. We corrected and improved Thy teaching +and based it upon "Miracle, Mystery, and Authority." And men +rejoiced at finding themselves led once more like a herd of +cattle, and at finding their hearts at last delivered of the +terrible burden laid upon them by Thee, which caused them so much +suffering. Tell me, were we right in doing as we did. Did not we +show our great love for humanity, by realizing in such a humble +spirit its helplessness, by so mercifully lightening its great +burden, and by permitting and remitting for its weak nature every +sin, provided it be committed with our authorization? For what, +then, hast Thou come again to trouble us in our work? And why +lookest Thou at me so penetratingly with Thy meek eyes, and in +such a silence? Rather shouldst Thou feel wroth, for I need not +Thy love, I reject it, and love Thee not, myself. Why should I +conceal the truth from Thee? I know but too well with whom I am +now talking! What I had to say was known to Thee before, I read +it in Thine eye. How should I conceal from Thee our secret? If +perchance Thou wouldst hear it from my own lips, then listen: We +are not with Thee, but with him, and that is our secret! For +centuries have we abandoned Thee to follow him, yes--eight +centuries. Eight hundred years now since we accepted from him the +gift rejected by Thee with indignation; that last gift which he +offered Thee from the high mountain when, showing all the +kingdoms of the world and the glory of them, he saith unto Thee: +"All these things will I give Thee, if Thou will fall down and +worship me!" We took Rome from him and the glaive of Caesar, and +declared ourselves alone the kings of this earth, its sole kings, +though our work is not yet fully accomplished. But who is to +blame for it? Our work is but in its incipient stage, but it is +nevertheless started. We may have long to wait until its +culmination, and mankind have to suffer much, but we shall reach +the goal some day, and become sole Caesars, and then will be the +time to think of universal happiness for men. + +"'Thou couldst accept the glaive of Caesar Thyself; why didst +Thou reject the offer? By accepting from the powerful spirit his +third offer Thou would have realized every aspiration man seeketh +for himself on earth; man would have found a constant object for +worship; one to deliver his conscience up to, and one that should +unite all together into one common and harmonious ant-hill; for +an innate necessity for universal union constitutes the third and +final affliction of mankind. Humanity as a whole has ever aspired +to unite itself universally. Many were, the great nations with +great histories, but the greater they were, the more unhappy they +felt, as they felt the stronger necessity of a universal union +among men. Great conquerors, like Timoor and Tchengis-Khan, +passed like a cyclone upon the face of the earth in their efforts +to conquer the universe, but even they, albeit unconsciously, +expressed the same aspiration towards universal and common union. +In accepting the kingdom of the world and Caesar's purple, one +would found a universal kingdom and secure to mankind eternal +peace. And who can rule mankind better than those who have +possessed themselves of man's conscience, and hold in their hand +man's daily bread? Having accepted Caesar's glaive and purple, we +had, of course, but to deny Thee, to henceforth follow him alone. +Oh, centuries of intellectual riot and rebellious free thought +are yet before us, and their science will end by anthropophagy, +for having begun to build their Babylonian tower without our help +they will have to end by anthropophagy. But it is precisely at +that time that the Beast will crawl up to us in full submission, +and lick the soles of our feet, and sprinkle them with tears of +blood and we shall sit upon the scarlet-colored Beast, and +lifting up high the golden cup "full of abomination and +filthiness," shall show written upon it the word "Mystery"! But +it is only then that men will see the beginning of a kingdom of +peace and happiness. Thou art proud of Thine own elect, but Thou +has none other but these elect, and we--we will give rest to +all. But that is not the end. Many are those among thine elect +and the laborers of Thy vineyard, who, tired of waiting for Thy +coming, already have carried and will yet carry, the great fervor +of their hearts and their spiritual strength into another field, +and will end by lifting up against Thee Thine own banner of +freedom. But it is Thyself Thou hast to thank. Under our rule and +sway all will be happy, and will neither rebel nor destroy each +other as they did while under Thy free banner. Oh, we will take +good care to prove to them that they will become absolutely free +only when they have abjured their freedom in our favor and submit +to us absolutely. Thinkest Thou we shall be right or still lying? +They will convince themselves of our rightness, for they will see +what a depth of degrading slavery and strife that liberty of +Thine has led them into. Liberty, Freedom of Thought and +Conscience, and Science will lead them into such impassable +chasms, place them face to face before such wonders and insoluble +mysteries, that some of them--more rebellious and ferocious than +the rest--will destroy themselves; others--rebellious but weak +--will destroy each other; while the remainder, weak, helpless +and miserable, will crawl back to our feet and cry: "'Yes; right +were ye, oh Fathers of Jesus; ye alone are in possession of His +mystery, and we return to you, praying that ye save us from +ourselves!" Receiving their bread from us, they will clearly see +that we take the bread from them, the bread made by their own +hands, but to give it back to them in equal shares and that +without any miracle; and having ascertained that, though we have +not changed stones into bread, yet bread they have, while every +other bread turned verily in their own hands into stones, they +will be only to glad to have it so. Until that day, they will +never be happy. And who is it that helped the most to blind them, +tell me? Who separated the flock and scattered it over ways +unknown if it be not Thee? But we will gather the sheep once more +and subject them to our will for ever. We will prove to them +their own weakness and make them humble again, whilst with Thee +they have learnt but pride, for Thou hast made more of them than +they ever were worth. We will give them that quiet, humble +happiness, which alone benefits such weak, foolish creatures as +they are, and having once had proved to them their weakness, they +will become timid and obedient, and gather around us as chickens +around their hen. They will wonder at and feel a superstitious +admiration for us, and feel proud to be led by men so powerful +and wise that a handful of them can subject a flock a thousand +millions strong. Gradually men will begin to fear us. They will +nervously dread our slightest anger, their intellects will +weaken, their eyes become as easily accessible to tears as those +of children and women; but we will teach them an easy transition +from grief and tears to laughter, childish joy and mirthful song. +Yes; we will make them work like slaves, but during their +recreation hours they shall have an innocent child-like life, +full of play and merry laughter. We will even permit them sin, +for, weak and helpless, they will feel the more love for us for +permitting them to indulge in it. We will tell them that every +kind of sin will be remitted to them, so long as it is done with +our permission; that we take all these sins upon ourselves, for +we so love the world, that we are even willing to sacrifice our +souls for its satisfaction. And, appearing before them in the +light of their scapegoats and redeemers, we shall be adored the +more for it. They will have no secrets from us. It will rest with +us to permit them to live with their wives and concubines, or to +forbid them, to have children or remain childless, either way +depending on the degree of their obedience to us; and they will +submit most joyfully to us the most agonizing secrets of their +souls--all, all will they lay down at our feet, and we will +authorize and remit them all in Thy name, and they will believe +us and accept our mediation with rapture, as it will deliver them +from their greatest anxiety and torture--that of having to +decide freely for themselves. And all will be happy, all except +the one or two hundred thousands of their rulers. For it is but +we, we the keepers of the great Mystery who will be miserable. +There will be thousands of millions of happy infants, and one +hundred thousand martyrs who have taken upon themselves the curse +of knowledge of good and evil. Peaceable will be their end, and +peacefully will they die, in Thy name, to find behind the portals +of the grave--but death. But we will keep the secret inviolate, +and deceive them for their own good with the mirage of life +eternal in Thy kingdom. For, were there really anything like life +beyond the grave, surely it would never fall to the lot of such +as they! People tell us and prophesy of Thy coming and triumphing +once more on earth; of Thy appearing with the army of Thy elect, +with Thy proud and mighty ones; but we will answer Thee that they +have saved but themselves while we have saved all. We are also +threatened with the great disgrace which awaits the whore, +"Babylon the great, the mother of harlots"--who sits upon the +Beast, holding in her hands the Mystery, the word written upon +her forehead; and we are told that the weak ones, the lambs shall +rebel against her and shall make her desolate and naked. But then +will I arise, and point out to Thee the thousands of millions of +happy infants free from any sin. And we who have taken their sins +upon us, for their own good, shall stand before Thee and say: +"Judge us if Thou canst and darest!" Know then that I fear Thee +not. Know that I too have lived in the dreary wilderness, where I +fed upon locusts and roots, that I too have blessed freedom with +which thou hast blessed men, and that I too have once prepared to +join the ranks of Thy elect, the proud and the mighty. But I +awoke from my delusion and refused since then to serve insanity. +I returned to join the legion of those who corrected Thy +mistakes. I left the proud and returned to the really humble, and +for their own happiness. What I now tell thee will come to pass, +and our kingdom shall be built, I tell Thee not later than +to-morrow Thou shalt see that obedient flock which at one simple +motion of my hand will rush to add burning coals to Thy stake, on +which I will burn Thee for having dared to come and trouble us in +our work. For, if there ever was one who deserved more than any +of the others our inquisitorial fires--it is Thee! To-morrow I +will burn Thee. Dixi'." + +Ivan paused. He had entered into the situation and had spoken +with great animation, but now he suddenly burst out laughing. + +"But all that is absurd!" suddenly exclaimed Alyosha, who had +hitherto listened perplexed and agitated but in profound silence. +"Your poem is a glorification of Christ, not an accusation, as +you, perhaps, meant to be. And who will believe you when you +speak of 'freedom'? Is it thus that we Christians must understand +it? It is Rome (not all Rome, for that would be unjust), but the +worst of the Roman Catholics, the Inquisitors and Jesuits, that +you have been exposing! Your Inquisitor is an impossible +character. What are these sins they are taking upon themselves? +Who are those keepers of mystery who took upon themselves a curse +for the good of mankind? Who ever met them? We all know the +Jesuits, and no one has a good word to say in their favor; but +when were they as you depict them? Never, never! The Jesuits are +merely a Romish army making ready for their future temporal +kingdom, with a mitred emperor--a Roman high priest at their +head. That is their ideal and object, without any mystery or +elevated suffering. The most prosaic thirsting for power, for the +sake of the mean and earthly pleasures of life, a desire to +enslave their fellow-men, something like our late system of +serfs, with themselves at the head as landed proprietors--that +is all that they can be accused of. They may not believe in God, +that is also possible, but your suffering Inquisitor is simply-- +a fancy!" + +"Hold, hold!" interrupted Ivan, smiling. "Do not be so excited. A +fancy, you say; be it so! Of course, it is a fancy. But stop. Do +you really imagine that all this Catholic movement during the +last centuries is naught but a desire for power for the mere +purpose of 'mean pleasures'? Is this what your Father Paissiy +taught you?" + +"No, no, quite the reverse, for Father Paissiy once told me +something very similar to what you yourself say, though, of +course, not that--something quite different," suddenly added +Alexis, blushing. + +"A precious piece of information, notwithstanding your 'not +that.' I ask you, why should the Inquisitors and the Jesuits of +your imagination live but for the attainment of 'mean material +pleasures?' Why should there not be found among them one single +genuine martyr suffering under a great and holy idea and loving +humanity with all his heart? Now let us suppose that among all +these Jesuits thirsting and hungering but after 'mean material +pleasures' there may be one, just one like my old Inquisitor, who +had himself fed upon roots in the wilderness, suffered the +tortures of damnation while trying to conquer flesh, in order to +become free and perfect, but who had never ceased to love +humanity, and who one day prophetically beheld the truth; who saw +as plain as he could see that the bulk of humanity could never be +happy under the old system, that it was not for them that the +great Idealist had come and died and dreamt of His Universal +Harmony. Having realized that truth, he returned into the world +and joined--intelligent and practical people. Is this so +impossible?" + +"Joined whom? What intelligent and practical people?" exclaimed +Alyosha quite excited. "Why should they be more intelligent than +other men, and what secrets and mysteries can they have? They +have neither. Atheism and infidelity is all the secret they have. +Your Inquisitor does not believe in God, and that is all the +Mystery there is in it!" + +"It may be so. You have guessed rightly there. And it is so, and +that is his whole secret; but is this not the acutest sufferings +for such a man as he, who killed all his young life in asceticism +in the desert, and yet could not cure himself of his love towards +his fellowmen? Toward the end of his life he becomes convinced +that it is only by following the advice of the great and terrible +spirit that the fate of these millions of weak rebels, these +'half-finished samples of humanity created in mockery' can be +made tolerable. And once convinced of it, he sees as clearly +that to achieve that object, one must follow blindly the guidance +of the wise spirit, the fearful spirit of death and destruction, +hence accept a system of lies and deception and lead humanity +consciously this time toward death and destruction, and moreover, +be deceiving them all the while in order to prevent them from +realizing where they are being led, and so force the miserable +blind men to feel happy, at least while here on earth. And note +this: a wholesale deception in the name of Him, in whose ideal +the old man had so passionately, so fervently, believed during +nearly his whole life! Is this no suffering? And were such a +solitary exception found amidst, and at the head of, that army +'that thirsts for power but for the sake of the mean pleasures of +life,' think you one such man would not suffice to bring on a +tragedy? Moreover, one single man like my Inquisitor as a +principal leader, would prove sufficient to discover the real +guiding idea of the Romish system with all its armies of Jesuits, +the greatest and chiefest conviction that the solitary type +described in my poem has at no time ever disappeared from among +the chief leaders of that movement. Who knows but that terrible +old man, loving humanity so stubbornly and in such an original +way, exists even in our days in the shape of a whole host of such +solitary exceptions, whose existence is not due to mere chance, +but to a well-defined association born of mutual consent, to a +secret league, organized several centuries back, in order to +guard the Mystery from the indiscreet eyes of the miserable and +weak people, and only in view of their own happiness? And so it +is; it cannot be otherwise. I suspect that even Masons have some +such Mystery underlying the basis of their organization, and that +it is just the reason why the Roman Catholic clergy hate them so, +dreading to find in them rivals, competition, the dismemberment +of the unity of the idea, for the realization of which one flock +and one Shepherd are needed. However, in defending my idea, I +look like an author whose production is unable to stand +criticism. Enough of this." + +"You are, perhaps, a Mason yourself!" exclaimed Alyosha. "You do +not believe in God," he added, with a note of profound sadness in +his voice. But suddenly remarking that his brother was looking at +him with mockery, "How do you mean then to bring your poem to a +close?" he unexpectedly enquired, casting his eyes downward, "or +does it break off here?" + +"My intention is to end it with the following scene: Having +disburdened his heart, the Inquisitor waits for some time to hear +his prisoner speak in His turn. His silence weighs upon him. He +has seen that his captive has been attentively listening to him +all the time, with His eyes fixed penetratingly and softly on the +face of his jailer, and evidently bent upon not replying to him. +The old man longs to hear His voice, to hear Him reply; better +words of bitterness and scorn than His silence. Suddenly He +rises; slowly and silently approaching the Inquisitor, He bends +towards him and softly kisses the bloodless, four-score and-ten- +year-old lips. That is all the answer. The Grand Inquisitor +shudders. There is a convulsive twitch at the corner of his +mouth. He goes to the door, opens it, and addressing Him, 'Go,' +he says, 'go, and return no more... do not come again... never, +never!' and--lets Him out into the dark night. The prisoner +vanishes." + +"And the old man?" + +"The kiss burns his heart, but the old man remains firm in his +own ideas and unbelief." + +"And you, together with him? You too!" despairingly exclaimed +Alyosha, while Ivan burst into a still louder fit of laughter. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of "The Grand Inquisitor" by Feodor +Dostoevsky, by Feodor Dostoevsky + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK "THE GRAND INQUISITOR" *** + +This file should be named inqus10.txt or inqus10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, inqus11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, inqus10a.txt + +Produced by Jake Jaqua + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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