The GrandInquisitor

Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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"Quite impossible, as you see, to start withoutan introduction," laughed Ivan. "Well, then, Imean to place the event described in the poemin the sixteenth century, an age—as you musthave been told at school—when it was the greatfashion among poets to make the denizens andpowers of higher worlds descend on earth andmix freely with mortals… In France all the no-taries' clerks, and the monks in the cloisters aswell, used to give grand performances, dra-matic plays in which long scenes were enactedby the Madonna, the angels, the saints, Christ,and even by God Himself. In those days, every-thing was very artless and primitive. An in-stance of it may be found in Victor Hugo'sdrama, Notre Dame de Paris, where, at theMunicipal Hall, a play called Le Bon Jugementde la Tres-sainte et Graceuse Vierge Marie, isenacted in honour of Louis XI, in which theVirgin appears personally to pronounce her'good judgment.' In Moscow, during theprepetrean period, performances of nearly the

same character, chosen especially from the OldTestament, were also in great favour. Apartfrom such plays, the world was overfloodedwith mystical writings, 'verses'—the heroes ofwhich were always selected from the ranks ofangels, saints and other heavenly citizens an-swering to the devotional purposes of the age.The recluses of our monasteries, like the RomanCatholic monks, passed their time in transla-ting, copying, and even producing originalcompositions upon such subjects, and that, re-member, during the Tarter period!… In thisconnection, I am reminded of a poem compiledin a convent—a translation from the Greek, ofcourse—called, 'The Travels of the Mother ofGod among the Damned,' with fitting illustra-tions and a boldness of conception inferior no-wise to that of Dante. The 'Mother of God' visitshell, in company with the archangel Michael asher cicerone to guide her through the legions ofthe 'damned.' She sees them all, and is witnessto their multifarious tortures. Among the many

other exceedingly remarkably varieties of tor-ments—every category of sinners having itsown—there is one especially worthy of notice,namely a class of the 'damned' sentenced togradually sink in a burning lake of brimstoneand fire. Those whose sins cause them to sinkso low that they no longer can rise to the sur-face are for ever forgotten by God, i.e., theyfade out from the omniscient memory, says thepoem—an expression, by the way, of an ex-traordinary profundity of thought, when clo-sely analysed. The Virgin is terribly shocked,and falling down upon her knees in tears be-fore the throne of God, begs that all she hasseen in hell—all, all without exception, shouldhave their sentences remitted to them. Her dia-logue with God is colossally interesting. Shesupplicates, she will not leave Him. And whenGod, pointing to the pierced hands and feet ofher Son, cries, 'How can I forgive His execu-tioners?' She then commands that all the saints,martyrs, angels and archangels, should pros-

trate themselves with her before the Immutableand Changeless One and implore Him tochange His wrath into mercy and—forgivethem all. The poem closes upon her obtainingfrom God a compromise, a kind of yearly res-pite of tortures between Good Friday and Trin-ity, a chorus of the 'damned' singing loudpraises 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 andpasses out of sight. Fifteen centuries have elap-sed since He left the world with the distinctpromise to return 'with power and great glory';fifteen long centuries since His prophet cried,'Prepare ye the way of the Lord!' since He Him-self had foretold, while yet on earth, 'Of that

day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the an-gels of heaven but my Father only.' But Chris-tendom expects Him still. …

"It waits for Him with the same old faith andthe same emotion; aye, with a far greater faith,for fifteen centuries have rolled away since thelast sign from heaven was sent to man,

And blind faith remained aloneTo lull the trusting heart,As heav'n would send a sign no more.

"True, again, we have all heard of miracles be-ing wrought ever since the 'age of miracles'passed away to return no more. We had, andstill have, our saints credited with performingthe most miraculous cures; and, if we can be-lieve their biographers, there have been thoseamong them who have been personally visitedby the Queen of Heaven. But Satan sleepethnot, and the first germs of doubt, and ever-increasing unbelief in such wonders, already

had begun to sprout in Christendom as early asthe sixteenth century. It was just at that timethat a new and terrible heresy first made itsappearance in the north of Germany.*[*Luther's reform] A great star 'shining as itwere a lamp… fell upon the fountains waters'…and 'they were made bitter.' This 'heresy' blas-phemously denied 'miracles.' But those whohad remained faithful believed all the moreardently, the tears of mankind ascended to Himas heretofore, and the Christian world was ex-pecting Him as confidently as ever; they lovedHim and hoped in Him, thirsted and hungeredto suffer and die for Him just as many of themhad done before…. So many centuries hadweak, trusting humanity implored Him, cryingwith ardent faith and fervour: 'How long, OLord, holy and true, dost Thou not come!' Somany long centuries hath it vainly appealed toHim, that at last, in His inexhaustible compas-sion, He consenteth to answer the prayer…. Hedecideth 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, atSeville, during that terrible period of the Inqui-sition, 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 todo with the promised Advent, when, accordingto the programme, 'after the tribulation of thosedays,' He will appear 'coming in the clouds ofheaven.' For, that 'coming of the Son of Man,' aswe are informed, will take place as suddenly 'asthe lightning cometh out of the east and shinetheven unto the west.' No; this once, He desiredto come unknown, and appear among His chil-dren, just when the bones of the heretics, sen-tenced to be burnt alive, had commenced crack-ling at the flaming stakes. Owing to His limit-

less mercy, He mixes once more with mortalsand in the same form in which He was wont toappear fifteen centuries ago. He descends, justat the very moment when before king, courti-ers, knights, cardinals, and the fairest dames ofcourt, before the whole population of Seville,upwards of a hundred wicked heretics are be-ing roasted, in a magnificent auto-da-fe ad ma-jorem Dei gloriam, by the order of the powerfulCardinal Grand Inquisitor.

"He comes silently and unannounced; yet all—how strange—yea, all recognize Him, at once!The population rushes towards Him as if pro-pelled by some irresistible force; it surrounds,throngs, and presses around, it follows Him….Silently, and with a smile of boundless compas-sion upon His lips, He crosses the dense crowd,and moves softly on. The Sun of Love burns inHis heart, and warm rays of Light, Wisdomand Power beam forth from His eyes, and pourdown their waves upon the swarming multi-

tudes of the rabble assembled around, makingtheir hearts vibrate with returning love. Heextends His hands over their heads, blessesthem, and from mere contact with Him, aye,even with His garments, a healing power goesforth. An old man, blind from his birth, cries,'Lord, heal me, that I may see Thee!' and thescales falling off the closed eyes, the blind manbeholds Him… The crowd weeps for joy, andkisses the ground upon which He treads. Chil-dren strew flowers along His path and sing toHim, 'Hosanna!' It is He, it is Himself, they sayto each other, it must be He, it can be noneother but He! He pauses at the portal of the oldcathedral, just as a wee white coffin is carriedin, with tears and great lamentations. The lid isoff, and in the coffin lies the body of a fair-child, seven years old, the only child of an emi-nent citizen of the city. The little corpse liesburied in flowers. 'He will raise the child tolife!' confidently shouts the crowd to the weep-ing mother. The officiating priest who had

come to meet the funeral procession, looks per-plexed, and frowns. A loud cry is suddenlyheard, and the bereaved mother prostrates her-self at His feet. 'If it be Thou, then bring backmy child to life!' she cries beseechingly. Theprocession halts, and the little coffin is gentlylowered at his feet. Divine compassion beamsforth from His eyes, and as He looks at thechild, His lips are heard to whisper once more,'Talitha Cumi' - and 'straightway the damselarose.' The child rises in her coffin. Her littlehands still hold the nosegay of white roseswhich after death was placed in them, and,looking round with large astonished eyes shesmiles sweetly …. The crowd is violently ex-cited. A terrible commotion rages among them,the populace shouts and loudly weeps, whensuddenly, before the cathedral door, appearsthe Cardinal Grand Inquisitor himself…. He istall, gaunt-looking old man of nearly four-scoreyears and ten, with a stern, withered face, anddeeply sunken eyes, from the cavity of which

glitter two fiery sparks. He has laid aside hisgorgeous cardinal's robes in which he had ap-peared before the people at the auto da-fe ofthe enemies of the Romish Church, and is nowclad in his old, rough, monkish cassock. Hissullen assistants and slaves of the 'holy guard'are following at a distance. He pauses beforethe crowd and observes. He has seen all. Hehas witnessed the placing of the little coffin atHis feet, the calling back to life. And now, hisdark, grim face has grown still darker; hisbushy grey eyebrows nearly meet, and hissunken eye flashes with sinister light. Slowlyraising his finger, he commands his minions toarrest Him….

"Such is his power over the well-disciplined,submissive and now trembling people, that thethick crowds immediately give way, and scat-tering before the guard, amid dead silence andwithout one breath of protest, allow them to laytheir sacrilegious hands upon the stranger and

lead Him away…. That same populace, like oneman, now bows its head to the ground beforethe old Inquisitor, who blesses it and slowlymoves onward. The guards conduct their pris-oner to the ancient building of the Holy Tribu-nal; pushing Him into a narrow, gloomy,vaulted prison-cell, they lock Him in and re-tire….

"The day wanes, and night—a dark, hot breath-less Spanish night —creeps on and settles uponthe city of Seville. The air smells of laurels andorange blossoms. In the Cimmerian darkness ofthe old Tribunal Hall the iron door of the cell issuddenly thrown open, and the Grand Inquisi-tor, holding a dark lantern, slowly stalks intothe dungeon. He is alone, and, as the heavydoor closes behind him, he pauses at thethreshold, and, for a minute or two, silentlyand gloomily scrutinizes the Face before him.At last approaching with measured steps, he

sets his lantern down upon the table and ad-dresses Him in these words:

"'It is Thou! … Thou!' … Receiving no reply, herapidly continues: 'Nay, answer not; be silent!… And what couldst Thou say? … I know buttoo well Thy answer…. Besides, Thou hast noright to add one syllable to that which was al-ready uttered by Thee before…. Why shouldstThou now return, to impede us in our work?For Thou hast come but for that only, and Thouknowest it well. But art Thou as well aware ofwhat awaits Thee in the morning? I do notknow, nor do I care to know who thou mayestbe: be it Thou or only thine image, to-morrow Iwill condemn and burn Thee on the stake, asthe most wicked of all the heretics; and thatsame people, who to-day were kissing Thy feet,to-morrow at one bend of my finger, will rushto add fuel to Thy funeral pile… Wert Thouaware of this?' he adds, speaking as if in solemnthought, and never for one instant taking his

piercing glance off the meek Face beforehim."….

"I can hardly realize the situation described—what is all this, Ivan?" suddenly interruptedAlyosha, who had remained silently listeningto his brother. "Is this an extravagant fancy, orsome mistake of the old man, an impossiblequid pro quo?"

"Let it be the latter, if you like," laughed Ivan,"since modern realism has so perverted yourtaste that you feel unable to realize anythingfrom the world of fancy…. Let it be a quid proquo, if you so choose it. Again, the Inquisitor isninety years old, and he might have easily gonemad with his one idee fixe of power; or, itmight have as well been a delirious vision,called forth by dying fancy, overheated by theauto-da-fe of the hundred heretics in that fore-noon…. But what matters for the poem,whether it was a quid pro quo or an uncontrol-lable fancy? The question is, that the old man

has to open his heart; that he must give out histhought at last; and that the hour has comewhen he does speak it out, and says loudly thatwhich for ninety years he has kept secret withinhis own breast."

"And his prisoner, does He never reply? DoesHe keep silent, looking at him, without sayinga word?"

"Of course; and it could not well be otherwise,"again retorted Ivan. "The Grand Inquisitor be-gins from his very first words by telling Himthat He has no right to add one syllable to thatwhich He had said before. To make the situa-tion clear at once, the above preliminary mono-logue is intended to convey to the reader thevery fundamental idea which underlies RomanCatholicism—as well as I can convey it, hiswords mean, in short: 'Everything was givenover by Thee to the Pope, and everything nowrests with him alone; Thou hast no business toreturn and thus hinder us in our work.' In this

sense the Jesuits not only talk but write like-wise.

"'Hast thou the right to divulge to us a singleone of the mysteries of that world whence Thoucomest?' enquires of Him my old Inquisitor,and forthwith answers for Him. 'Nay, Thou hasno such right. For, that would be adding to thatwhich was already said by Thee before; hencedepriving people of that freedom for whichThou hast so stoutly stood up while yet onearth…. Anything new that Thou would nowproclaim would have to be regarded as an at-tempt to interfere with that freedom of choice,as it would come as a new and a miraculousrevelation superseding the old revelation offifteen hundred years ago, when Thou didst sorepeatedly tell the people: "The truth shallmake you free." Behold then, Thy "free" peoplenow!' 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 na-me…. For fifteen long centuries we had to toiland suffer owing to that "freedom": but now wehave prevailed and our work is done, and welland strongly it is done. ….Believest not Thou itis so very strong? … And why should Thoulook at me so meekly as if I were not worthyeven of Thy indignation?… Know then, thatnow, and only now, Thy people feel fully sureand satisfied of their freedom; and that onlysince they have themselves and of their ownfree will delivered that freedom unto our handsby placing it submissively at our feet. But then,that is what we have done. Is it that whichThou has striven for? Is this the kind of "free-dom" Thou has promised them?'"

"Now again, I do not understand," interruptedAlyosha. "Does the old man mock and laugh?"

"Not in the least. He seriously regards it as agreat service done by himself, his brothermonks and Jesuits, to humanity, to have con-

quered and subjected unto their authority thatfreedom, and boasts that it was done but for thegood of the world. 'For only now,' he says(speaking of the Inquisition) 'has it become pos-sible to us, for the first time, to give a seriousthought to human happiness. Man is born arebel, and can rebels be ever happy?… Thouhas been fairly warned of it, but evidently to nouse, since Thou hast rejected the only meanswhich could make mankind happy; fortunatelyat Thy departure Thou hast delivered the taskto us…. Thou has promised, ratifying the pled-ge by Thy own words, in words giving us theright to bind and unbind… and surely, Thoucouldst not think of depriving us of it now!'"

"But what can he mean by the words, 'Thou hasbeen fairly warned'?" asked Alexis.

"These words give the key to what the old manhas to say for his justification… But listen—

"'The terrible and wise spirit, the spirit of selfannihilation and non-being,' goes on the In-quisitor, 'the great spirit of negation conversedwith Thee in the wilderness, and we are toldthat he "tempted" Thee… Was it so? And if itwere so, then it is impossible to utter anythingmore truthful than what is contained in histhree offers, which Thou didst reject, and whichare usually called "temptations." Yea; if everthere was on earth a genuine striking wonderproduced, it was on that day of Thy threetemptations, and it is precisely in these threeshort sentences that the marvelous miracle iscontained. If it were possible that they shouldvanish and disappear for ever, without leavingany trace, from the record and from the mem-ory of man, and that it should become neces-sary again to devise, invent, and make themreappear in Thy history once more, thinkestThou that all the world's sages, all the legisla-tors, initiates, philosophers and thinkers, ifcalled upon to frame three questions which

should, like these, besides answering the mag-nitude of the event, express in three short sen-tences the whole future history of this ourworld and of mankind—dost Thou believe, Iask Thee, that all their combined efforts couldever create anything equal in power and depthof thought to the three propositions offeredThee by the powerful and all-wise spirit in thewilderness? Judging of them by their marvel-ous aptness alone, one can at once perceive thatthey emanated not from a finite, terrestrial in-tellect, but indeed, from the Eternal and theAbsolute. In these three offers we find, blendedinto one and foretold to us, the complete sub-sequent history of man; we are shown threeimages, so to say, uniting in them all the futureaxiomatic, insoluble problems and contradic-tions of human nature, the world over. In thosedays, the wondrous wisdom contained in themwas not made so apparent as it is now, for futu-rity remained still veiled; but now, when fifteencenturies have elapsed, we see that everything

in these three questions is so marvelously fore-seen and foretold, that to add to, or to takeaway from, the prophecy one jot, would beabsolutely impossible!

"'Decide then thyself.' sternly proceeded theInquisitor, 'which of ye twain was right: Thouwho didst reject, or he who offered? Rememberthe subtle meaning of question the first, whichruns thus: Wouldst Thou go into the worldempty-handed? Would Thou venture thitherwith Thy vague and undefined promise offreedom, which men, dull and unruly as theyare by nature, are unable so much as to under-stand, which they avoid and fear?—for neverwas there anything more unbearable to thehuman race than personal freedom! Dost Thousee these stones in the desolate and glaringwilderness? Command that these stones bemade bread—and mankind will run after Thee,obedient and grateful like a herd of cattle. Buteven then it will be ever diffident and trem-

bling, lest Thou should take away Thy hand,and they lose thereby their bread! Thou didstrefuse to accept the offer for fear of deprivingmen of their free choice; for where is there free-dom of choice where men are bribed withbread? Man shall not live by bread alone— wasThine answer. Thou knewest not, it seems, thatit was precisely in the name of that earthlybread that the terrestrial spirit would one dayrise against, struggle with, and finally conquerThee, followed by the hungry multitudes shou-ting: "Who is like unto that Beast, who makethfire come down from heaven upon the earth!"Knowest Thou not that, but a few centurieshence, and the whole of mankind will haveproclaimed in its wisdom and through itsmouthpiece, Science, that there is no more cri-me, hence no more sin on earth, but only hun-gry people? "Feed us first and then commandus to be virtuous!" will be the words writtenupon the banner lifted against Thee—a bannerwhich shall destroy Thy Church to its very

foundations, and in the place of Thy Templeshall raise once more the terrible Tower of Ba-bel; and though its building be left unfinished,as was that of the first one, yet the fact will re-main recorded that Thou couldst, but wouldstnot, prevent the attempt to build that new to-wer by accepting the offer, and thus savingmankind a millennium of useless suffering onearth. And it is to us that the people will returnagain. They will search for us catacombs, as weshall once more be persecuted and martyred—and they will begin crying unto us: "Feed us,for they who promised us the fire from heavenhave deceived us!" It is then that we will finishbuilding their tower for them. For they alonewho feed them shall finish it, and we shall feedthem in Thy name, and lying to them that it isin that name. Oh, never, never, will they learnto feed themselves without our help! No sci-ence will ever give them bread so long as theyremain free, so long as they refuse to lay thatfreedom at our feet, and say: "Enslave, but feed

us!" That day must come when men will under-stand that freedom and daily bread enough tosatisfy all are unthinkable and can never be hadtogether, as men will never be able to fairlydivide the two among themselves. And theywill also learn that they can never be free, forthey are weak, vicious, miserable nonentitiesborn wicked and rebellious. Thou has promisedto them the bread of life, the bread of heaven;but I ask Thee again, can that bread ever equalin the sight of the weak and the vicious, theever ungrateful human race, their daily breadon earth? And even supposing that thousandsand tens of thousands follow Thee in the nameof, and for the sake of, Thy heavenly bread,what will become of the millions and hundredsof millions of human beings to weak to scornthe earthly for the sake of Thy heavenly bread?Or is it but those tens of thousands chosenamong the great and the mighty, that are sodear to Thee, while the remaining millions,innumerable as the grains of sand in the seas,

the weak and the loving, have to be used asmaterial for the former? No, no! In our sightand for our purpose the weak and the lowly arethe more dear to us. True, they are vicious andrebellious, but we will force them into obedi-ence, and it is they who will admire us themost. They will regard us as gods, and feelgrateful to those who have consented to leadthe masses and bear their burden of freedom byruling over them—so terrible will that freedomat last appear to men! Then we will tell themthat it is in obedience to Thy will and in Thyname that we rule over them. We will deceivethem once more and lie to them once again—for never, never more will we allow Thee tocome among us. In this deception we will findour suffering, for we must needs lie eternally,and never cease to lie!

"Such is the secret meaning of "temptation" thefirst, and that is what Thou didst reject in thewilderness for the sake of that freedom which

Thou didst prize above all. Meanwhile Thytempter's offer contained another great world-mystery. By accepting the "bread," Thouwouldst have satisfied and answered a univer-sal craving, a ceaseless longing alive in theheart of every individual human being, lurkingin the breast of collective mankind, that mostperplexing problem—"whom or what shall weworship?" There exists no greater or more pain-ful anxiety for a man who has freed himselffrom all religious bias, than how he shall soon-est find a new object or idea to worship. Butman seeks to bow before that only which isrecognized by the greater majority, if not by allhis fellow-men, as having a right to be wor-shipped; whose rights are so unquestionablethat men agree unanimously to bow down to it.For the chief concern of these miserable crea-tures is not to find and worship the idol of theirown choice, but to discover that which all oth-ers will believe in, and consent to bow down toin a mass. It is that instinctive need of having a

worship in common that is the chief sufferingof every man, the chief concern of mankindfrom the beginning of times. It is for that uni-versality of religious worship that people de-stroyed each other by sword. Creating godsunto themselves, they forwith began appealingto each other: "Abandon your deities, come andbow down to ours, or death to ye and youridols!" And so will they do till the end of thisworld; they will do so even then, when all thegods themselves have disappeared, for thenmen will prostrate themselves before and wor-ship some idea. Thou didst know, Thou couldstnot be ignorant of, that mysterious fundamen-tal principle in human nature, and still thouhast rejected the only absolute banner offeredThee, to which all the nations would remaintrue, and before which all would have bowed—the banner of earthly bread, rejected in thename of freedom and of "bread in the kingdomof God"! Behold, then, what Thou hast donefurthermore for that "freedom's" sake! I repeat

to Thee, man has no greater anxiety in life thanto find some one to whom he can make overthat gift of freedom with which the unfortunatecreature is born. But he alone will prove capa-ble of silencing and quieting their consciences,that shall succeed in possessing himself of thefreedom of men. With "daily bread" an irre-sistible power was offered Thee: show a man"bread" and he will follow Thee, for what canhe resist less than the attraction of bread? But if,at the same time, another succeed in possessinghimself of his conscience—oh! then even Thybread will be forgotten, and man will followhim who seduced his conscience. So far Thouwert right. For the mystery of human beingdoes not solely rest in the desire to live, but inthe problem—for what should one live at all?Without a clear perception of his reasons forliving, man will never consent to live, and willrather destroy himself than tarry on earth,though he be surrounded with bread. This isthe truth. But what has happened? Instead of

getting hold of man's freedom, Thou has enlar-ged it still more! Hast Thou again forgotten thatto man rest and even death are preferable to afree choice between the knowledge of Goodand Evil? Nothing seems more seductive in hiseyes than freedom of conscience, and nothingproves more painful. And behold! instead oflaying a firm foundation whereon to rest oncefor all man's conscience, Thou hast chosen tostir up in him all that is abnormal, mysterious,and indefinite, all that is beyond humanstrength, and has acted as if Thou never hadstany love for him, and yet Thou wert He whocame to "lay down His life for His friends!"Thou hast burdened man's soul with anxietieshitherto unknown to him. Thirsting for humanlove freely given, seeking to enable man, se-duced and charmed by Thee, to follow Thypath of his own free-will, instead of the old andwise law which held him in subjection, Thouhast given him the right henceforth to chooseand 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 dayrejected finally, and controverting even Thineimage and Thy truth, once he would find him-self laden with such a terrible burden as free-dom of choice? That a time would surely comewhen men would exclaim that Truth and Lightcannot be in Thee, for no one could have leftthem in a greater perplexity and mental suffer-ing than Thou has done, lading them with somany cares and insoluble problems. Thus, it isThyself who hast laid the foundation for thedestruction of Thine own kingdom and no onebut Thou is to be blamed for it.

"'Meantime, every chance of success was of-fered Thee. There are three Powers, threeunique Forces upon earth, capable of conquer-ing for ever by charming the conscience ofthese weak rebels—men—for their own good;and these Forces are: Miracle, Mystery and Au-

thority. Thou hast rejected all the three, andthus wert the first to set them an example.When the terrible and all- wise spirit placedThee on a pinnacle of the temple and said untoThee, "If Thou be the son of God, cast Thyselfdown, for it is written, He shall give His angelscharge concerning Thee: and in their handsthey shall bear Thee up, lest at any time Thoudash Thy foot against a stone!"—for thus Thyfaith in Thy father should have been made evi-dent, Thou didst refuse to accept his suggestionand didst not follow it. Oh, undoubtedly, Thoudidst act in this with all the magnificent prideof a god, but then men —that weak and rebelrace—are they also gods, to understand Thyrefusal? Of course, Thou didst well know thatby taking one single step forward, by makingthe slightest motion to throw Thyself down,Thou wouldst have tempted "the Lord ThyGod," lost suddenly all faith in Him, anddashed Thyself to atoms against that sameearth which Thou camest to save, and thus

wouldst have allowed the wise spirit whichtempted Thee to triumph and rejoice. But, then,how many such as Thee are to be found on thisglobe, I ask Thee? Couldst Thou ever for amoment imagine that men would have thesame strength to resist such a temptation? Ishuman nature calculated to reject miracle, andtrust, during the most terrible moments in life,when the most momentous, painful and per-plexing problems struggle within man's soul, tothe free decisions of his heart for the true solu-tion? Oh, Thou knewest well that that action ofThine would remain recorded in books for agesto come, reaching to the confines of the globe,and Thy hope was, that following Thy example,man would remain true to his God, withoutneeding any miracle to keep his faith alive! ButThou knewest not, it seems, that no soonerwould man reject miracle than he would rejectGod likewise, for he seeketh less God than "asign" from Him. And thus, as it is beyond thepower of man to remain without miracles, so,

rather than live without, he will create for him-self new wonders of his own making; and hewill bow to and worship the soothsayer's mira-cles, the old witch's sorcery, were he a rebel, aheretic, and an atheist a hundred times over.Thy refusal to come down from the cross whenpeople, mocking and wagging their heads weresaying to Thee— "Save Thyself if Thou be theson of God, and we will believe in Thee," wasdue to the same determination—not to enslaveman through miracle, but to obtain faith inThee freely and apart from any miraculous in-fluence. Thou thirstest for free and uninflu-enced love, and refuses the passionate adora-tion of the slave before a Potency which wouldhave subjected his will once for ever. Thoujudgest of men too highly here, again, forthough rebels they be, they are born slaves andnothing more. Behold, and judge of them oncemore, now that fifteen centuries have elapsedsince that moment. Look at them, whom Thoudidst try to elevate unto Thee! I swear man is

weaker and lower than Thou hast ever imag-ined him to be! Can he ever do that which Thouart said to have accomplished? By valuing himso highly Thou hast acted as if there were nolove for him in Thine heart, for Thou hast de-manded of him more than he could ever give—Thou, who lovest him more than Thyself!Hadst Thou esteemed him less, less wouldstThou have demanded of him, and that wouldhave been more like love, for his burden wouldhave been made thereby lighter. Man is weakand cowardly. What matters it, if he now riotsand rebels throughout the world against ourwill and power, and prides himself upon thatrebellion? It is but the petty pride and vanity ofa school-boy. It is the rioting of little children,getting up a mutiny in the class-room and driv-ing their schoolmaster out of it. But it will notlast long, and when the day of their triumph isover, they will have to pay dearly for it. Theywill destroy the temples and raze them to theground, flooding the earth with blood. But the

foolish children will have to learn some daythat, rebels though they be and riotous fromnature, they are too weak to maintain the spiritof mutiny for any length of time. Suffused withidiotic tears, they will confess that He who cre-ated them rebellious undoubtedly did so but tomock them. They will pronounce these wordsin despair, and such blasphemous utteranceswill but add to their misery—for human naturecannot endure blasphemy, and takes her ownrevenge in the end.

"'And thus, after all Thou has suffered for man-kind and its freedom, the present fate of menmay be summed up in three words: Unrest,Confusion, Misery! Thy great prophet Johnrecords in his vision, that he saw, during thefirst resurrection of the chosen servants ofGod—"the number of them which were sealed"in their foreheads, "twelve thousand" of everytribe. But were they, indeed, as many? Thenthey must have been gods, not men. They had

shared Thy Cross for long years, suffered sco-res of years' hunger and thirst in dreary wil-dernesses and deserts, feeding upon locustsand roots—and of these children of free love forThee, and self-sacrifice in Thy name, Thou ma-yest well feel proud. But remember that theseare but a few thousands—of gods, not men;and how about all others? And why should theweakest be held guilty for not being able toendure what the strongest have endured? Whyshould a soul incapable of containing such ter-rible gifts be punished for its weakness? DidstThou really come to, and for, the "elect" alone?If so, then the mystery will remain for evermysterious to our finite minds. And if a mys-tery, then were we right to proclaim it as one,and preach it, teaching them that neither theirfreely given love to Thee nor freedom of con-science were essential, but only that incompre-hensible mystery which they must blindly obeyeven 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 findingthemselves led once more like a herd of cattle,and at finding their hearts at last delivered ofthe 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 weshow our great love for humanity, by realizingin such a humble spirit its helplessness, by somercifully lightening its great burden, and bypermitting and remitting for its weak natureevery sin, provided it be committed with ourauthorization? For what, then, hast Thou comeagain to trouble us in our work? And why loo-kest Thou at me so penetratingly with Thymeek eyes, and in such a silence? Rathershouldst Thou feel wroth, for I need not Thylove, I reject it, and love Thee not, myself. Whyshould I conceal the truth from Thee? I knowbut too well with whom I am now talking!What I had to say was known to Thee before, Iread it in Thine eye. How should I conceal from

Thee our secret? If perchance Thou wouldsthear it from my own lips, then listen: We arenot with Thee, but with him, and that is oursecret! For centuries have we abandoned Theeto follow him, yes—eight centuries. Eight hun-dred years now since we accepted from him thegift rejected by Thee with indignation; that lastgift which he offered Thee from the high moun-tain when, showing all the kingdoms of theworld and the glory of them, he saith untoThee: "All these things will I give Thee, if Thouwill fall down and worship me!" We took Romefrom him and the glaive of Caesar, and de-clared ourselves alone the kings of this earth,its sole kings, though our work is not yet fullyaccomplished. But who is to blame for it? Ourwork is but in its incipient stage, but it is never-theless started. We may have long to wait untilits culmination, and mankind have to suffermuch, but we shall reach the goal some day,and become sole Caesars, and then will be thetime to think of universal happiness for men.

"'Thou couldst accept the glaive of Caesar Thy-self; why didst Thou reject the offer? By accept-ing from the powerful spirit his third offerThou would have realized every aspirationman seeketh for himself on earth; man wouldhave found a constant object for worship; oneto deliver his conscience up to, and one thatshould unite all together into one common andharmonious ant-hill; for an innate necessity foruniversal union constitutes the third and finalaffliction of mankind. Humanity as a whole hasever aspired to unite itself universally. Manywere, the great nations with great histories, butthe greater they were, the more unhappy theyfelt, as they felt the stronger necessity of a uni-versal union among men. Great conquerors,like Timoor and Tchengis-Khan, passed like acyclone upon the face of the earth in their ef-forts to conquer the universe, but even they,albeit unconsciously, expressed the same aspi-ration towards universal and common union.In accepting the kingdom of the world and

Caesar's purple, one would found a universalkingdom and secure to mankind eternal peace.And who can rule mankind better than thosewho have possessed themselves of man's con-science, and hold in their hand man's dailybread? Having accepted Caesar's glaive andpurple, we had, of course, but to deny Thee, tohenceforth follow him alone. Oh, centuries ofintellectual riot and rebellious free thought areyet before us, and their science will end by an-thropophagy, for having begun to build theirBabylonian tower without our help they willhave to end by anthropophagy. But it is pre-cisely at that time that the Beast will crawl upto us in full submission, and lick the soles ofour feet, and sprinkle them with tears of bloodand we shall sit upon the scarlet-colored Beast,and lifting up high the golden cup "full ofabomination and filthiness," shall show writtenupon it the word "Mystery"! But it is only thenthat men will see the beginning of a kingdom ofpeace and happiness. Thou art proud of Thine

own elect, but Thou has none other but theseelect, and we—we will give rest to all. But thatis not the end. Many are those among thineelect and the laborers of Thy vineyard, who,tired of waiting for Thy coming, already havecarried and will yet carry, the great fervor oftheir hearts and their spiritual strength intoanother field, and will end by lifting up againstThee Thine own banner of freedom. But it isThyself Thou hast to thank. Under our rule andsway all will be happy, and will neither rebelnor destroy each other as they did while underThy free banner. Oh, we will take good care toprove to them that they will become absolutelyfree only when they have abjured their freedomin our favor and submit to us absolutely. Thin-kest Thou we shall be right or still lying? Theywill convince themselves of our rightness, forthey will see what a depth of degrading slaveryand strife that liberty of Thine has led theminto. Liberty, Freedom of Thought and Con-science, and Science will lead them into such

impassable chasms, place them face to face be-fore such wonders and insoluble mysteries, thatsome of them—more rebellious and ferociousthan the rest—will destroy themselves; oth-ers—rebellious but weak —will destroy eachother; while the remainder, weak, helpless andmiserable, will crawl back to our feet and cry:"'Yes; right were ye, oh Fathers of Jesus; ye alo-ne are in possession of His mystery, and wereturn to you, praying that ye save us fromourselves!" Receiving their bread from us, theywill clearly see that we take the bread fromthem, the bread made by their own hands, butto give it back to them in equal shares and thatwithout any miracle; and having ascertainedthat, though we have not changed stones intobread, yet bread they have, while every otherbread turned verily in their own hands intostones, they will be only to glad to have it so.Until that day, they will never be happy. Andwho 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 wewill gather the sheep once more and subjectthem to our will for ever. We will prove tothem their own weakness and make themhumble again, whilst with Thee they havelearnt but pride, for Thou hast made more ofthem than they ever were worth. We will givethem that quiet, humble happiness, which alo-ne benefits such weak, foolish creatures as theyare, and having once had proved to them theirweakness, they will become timid and obedi-ent, and gather around us as chickens aroundtheir hen. They will wonder at and feel a super-stitious admiration for us, and feel proud to beled by men so powerful and wise that a hand-ful of them can subject a flock a thousand mil-lions strong. Gradually men will begin to fearus. They will nervously dread our slightest an-ger, their intellects will weaken, their eyes be-come as easily accessible to tears as those ofchildren and women; but we will teach them aneasy transition from grief and tears to laughter,

childish joy and mirthful song. Yes; we willmake them work like slaves, but during theirrecreation hours they shall have an innocentchild-like life, full of play and merry laughter.We will even permit them sin, for, weak andhelpless, they will feel the more love for us forpermitting them to indulge in it. We will tellthem that every kind of sin will be remitted tothem, so long as it is done with our permission;that we take all these sins upon ourselves, forwe so love the world, that we are even willingto sacrifice our souls for its satisfaction. And,appearing before them in the light of their sca-pegoats and redeemers, we shall be adored themore for it. They will have no secrets from us.It will rest with us to permit them to live withtheir wives and concubines, or to forbid them,to have children or remain childless, either waydepending on the degree of their obedience tous; and they will submit most joyfully to us themost agonizing secrets of their souls—all, allwill they lay down at our feet, and we will au-

thorize and remit them all in Thy name, andthey will believe us and accept our mediationwith rapture, as it will deliver them from theirgreatest anxiety and torture—that of having todecide freely for themselves. And all will behappy, all except the one or two hundred thou-sands of their rulers. For it is but we, we thekeepers of the great Mystery who will be mis-erable. There will be thousands of millions ofhappy infants, and one hundred thousand mar-tyrs who have taken upon themselves the curseof knowledge of good and evil. Peaceable willbe their end, and peacefully will they die, inThy name, to find behind the portals of thegrave—but death. But we will keep the secretinviolate, and deceive them for their own goodwith the mirage of life eternal in Thy kingdom.For, were there really anything like life beyondthe grave, surely it would never fall to the lot ofsuch as they! People tell us and prophesy ofThy coming and triumphing once more onearth; of Thy appearing with the army of Thy

elect, with Thy proud and mighty ones; but wewill answer Thee that they have saved butthemselves while we have saved all. We arealso threatened with the great disgrace whichawaits the whore, "Babylon the great, the mot-her of harlots"—who sits upon the Beast, hold-ing in her hands the Mystery, the word writtenupon her forehead; and we are told that theweak ones, the lambs shall rebel against herand shall make her desolate and naked. Butthen will I arise, and point out to Thee the thou-sands of millions of happy infants free fromany sin. And we who have taken their sinsupon us, for their own good, shall stand beforeThee and say: "Judge us if Thou canst and dar-est!" Know then that I fear Thee not. Know thatI too have lived in the dreary wilderness, whereI fed upon locusts and roots, that I too haveblessed freedom with which thou hast blessedmen, and that I too have once prepared to jointhe ranks of Thy elect, the proud and themighty. But I awoke from my delusion and

refused since then to serve insanity. I returnedto join the legion of those who corrected Thymistakes. I left the proud and returned to thereally humble, and for their own happiness.What I now tell thee will come to pass, and ourkingdom shall be built, I tell Thee not later thanto-morrow Thou shalt see that obedient flockwhich at one simple motion of my hand willrush to add burning coals to Thy stake, onwhich I will burn Thee for having dared to co-me and trouble us in our work. For, if thereever was one who deserved more than any ofthe others our inquisitorial fires—it is Thee! To-morrow I will burn Thee. Dixi'."

Ivan paused. He had entered into the situationand had spoken with great animation, but nowhe suddenly burst out laughing.

"But all that is absurd!" suddenly exclaimedAlyosha, who had hitherto listened perplexedand agitated but in profound silence. "Yourpoem is a glorification of Christ, not an accusa-

tion, as you, perhaps, meant to be. And whowill believe you when you speak of 'freedom'?Is it thus that we Christians must understandit? It is Rome (not all Rome, for that would beunjust), but the worst of the Roman Catholics,the Inquisitors and Jesuits, that you have beenexposing! Your Inquisitor is an impossiblecharacter. What are these sins they are takingupon themselves? Who are those keepers ofmystery who took upon themselves a curse forthe good of mankind? Who ever met them? Weall know the Jesuits, and no one has a goodword to say in their favor; but when were theyas you depict them? Never, never! The Jesuitsare merely a Romish army making ready fortheir future temporal kingdom, with a mitredemperor—a Roman high priest at their head.That is their ideal and object, without any mys-tery or elevated suffering. The most prosaicthirsting for power, for the sake of the meanand earthly pleasures of life, a desire to enslavetheir fellow-men, something like our late sys-

tem of serfs, with themselves at the head aslanded proprietors—that is all that they can beaccused of. They may not believe in God, that isalso possible, but your suffering Inquisitor issimply— a fancy!"

"Hold, hold!" interrupted Ivan, smiling. "Do notbe so excited. A fancy, you say; be it so! Ofcourse, it is a fancy. But stop. Do you reallyimagine that all this Catholic movement duringthe last centuries is naught but a desire for po-wer for the mere purpose of 'mean pleasures'?Is this what your Father Paissiy taught you?"

"No, no, quite the reverse, for Father Paissiyonce told me something very similar to whatyou yourself say, though, of course, not that—something quite different," suddenly addedAlexis, blushing.

"A precious piece of information, notwithstand-ing your 'not that.' I ask you, why should theInquisitors and the Jesuits of your imagination

live but for the attainment of 'mean materialpleasures?' Why should there not be foundamong them one single genuine martyr suffer-ing under a great and holy idea and lovinghumanity with all his heart? Now let us sup-pose that among all these Jesuits thirsting andhungering but after 'mean material pleasures'there may be one, just one like my old Inquisi-tor, who had himself fed upon roots in the wil-derness, suffered the tortures of damnationwhile trying to conquer flesh, in order to be-come free and perfect, but who had neverceased to love humanity, and who one dayprophetically beheld the truth; who saw asplain as he could see that the bulk of humanitycould never be happy under the old system,that it was not for them that the great Idealisthad come and died and dreamt of His Univer-sal Harmony. Having realized that truth, hereturned into the world and joined—intelligentand practical people. Is this so impossible?"

"Joined whom? What intelligent and practicalpeople?" exclaimed Alyosha quite excited."Why should they be more intelligent thanother men, and what secrets and mysteries canthey have? They have neither. Atheism andinfidelity is all the secret they have. Your In-quisitor does not believe in God, and that is allthe 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 isthis not the acutest sufferings for such a man ashe, who killed all his young life in asceticism inthe desert, and yet could not cure himself of hislove towards his fellowmen? Toward the end ofhis life he becomes convinced that it is only byfollowing the advice of the great and terriblespirit that the fate of these millions of weakrebels, these 'half-finished samples of humanitycreated in mockery' can be made tolerable. Andonce convinced of it, he sees as clearly that toachieve that object, one must follow blindly the

guidance of the wise spirit, the fearful spirit ofdeath and destruction, hence accept a system oflies and deception and lead humanity con-sciously this time toward death and destruc-tion, and moreover, be deceiving them all thewhile in order to prevent them from realizingwhere they are being led, and so force the mis-erable blind men to feel happy, at least whilehere on earth. And note this: a wholesale de-ception in the name of Him, in whose ideal theold man had so passionately, so fervently, be-lieved during nearly his whole life! Is this nosuffering? And were such a solitary exceptionfound amidst, and at the head of, that army'that thirsts for power but for the sake of themean pleasures of life,' think you one such manwould not suffice to bring on a tragedy? More-over, one single man like my Inquisitor as aprincipal leader, would prove sufficient to dis-cover the real guiding idea of the Romish sys-tem with all its armies of Jesuits, the greatestand chiefest conviction that the solitary type

described in my poem has at no time ever dis-appeared from among the chief leaders of thatmovement. Who knows but that terrible oldman, loving humanity so stubbornly and insuch an original way, exists even in our days inthe shape of a whole host of such solitary ex-ceptions, whose existence is not due to merechance, but to a well-defined association bornof mutual consent, to a secret league, organizedseveral centuries back, in order to guard theMystery from the indiscreet eyes of the miser-able and weak people, and only in view of theirown happiness? And so it is; it cannot be oth-erwise. I suspect that even Masons have somesuch Mystery underlying the basis of their or-ganization, and that it is just the reason whythe Roman Catholic clergy hate them so, dread-ing to find in them rivals, competition, the dis-memberment of the unity of the idea, for therealization of which one flock and one Shep-herd are needed. However, in defending my

idea, I look like an author whose production isunable to stand criticism. Enough of this."

"You are, perhaps, a Mason yourself!" ex-claimed Alyosha. "You do not believe in God,"he added, with a note of profound sadness inhis voice. But suddenly remarking that hisbrother was looking at him with mockery,"How do you mean then to bring your poem toa close?" he unexpectedly enquired, casting hiseyes downward, "or does it break off here?"

"My intention is to end it with the followingscene: Having disburdened his heart, the In-quisitor waits for some time to hear his pris-oner speak in His turn. His silence weighs uponhim. He has seen that his captive has been at-tentively listening to him all the time, with Hiseyes fixed penetratingly and softly on the faceof his jailer, and evidently bent upon not reply-ing to him. The old man longs to hear Hisvoice, to hear Him reply; better words of bitter-ness and scorn than His silence. Suddenly He

rises; slowly and silently approaching the In-quisitor, He bends towards him and softlykisses the bloodless, four-score and-ten- year-old lips. That is all the answer. The Grand In-quisitor shudders. There is a convulsive twitchat 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 darknight. The prisoner vanishes."

"And the old man?"

"The kiss burns his heart, but the old man re-mains firm in his own ideas and unbelief."

"And you, together with him? You too!" de-spairingly exclaimedAlyosha, while Ivan burst into a still louder fitof laughter.