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036 - Book Five Chapter Five Part One · Brothers Karamazov

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  Speaker 1: Chapter thirty six of The Brother's Kamtsov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky,
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  Speaker 1: translated by Constance Garnet. This LibriVox recording is in the
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  Speaker 1: public domain recording by Tony Addison, Chapter five, The Grand Inquisitor,
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  Speaker 1: Part one. Even this must have a preface, that is
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  Speaker 1: a literary preface, laughed Ivan, and I am a poor
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  Speaker 1: hand at making one. You see, my action takes place
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  Speaker 1: in the sixteenth century, and at that time, as you
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  Speaker 1: probably learnt at school, it was customary in poetry to
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  Speaker 1: bring down heavenly powers on earth, and not to speak
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  Speaker 1: of Dante. In fra clerks as well as the monks
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  Speaker 1: in the monasteries. He used to give regular performances in
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  Speaker 1: which the Madonna, the Saints, the angels, Christ, and God
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  Speaker 1: himself were brought on the stage. In those days it
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  Speaker 1: was done in all simplicity. In Victor Hugo's Notre Dame
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  Speaker 1: de Paries, an edifying and gratuitous spectacle was provided for
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  Speaker 1: the people in the Hotel de Ville of Paris in
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  Speaker 1: the reign of Louis the eleventh, in honor of the
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  Speaker 1: birth of the Dupain. It was called lebon ugamar A
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  Speaker 1: de la Treis Saint a Goaciel's vielge Marie, and she
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  Speaker 1: appears herself on the stage and pronounces her barn Ugama.
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  Speaker 1: Similar plays, cheaply from the Old Testament, were occasionally performed
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  Speaker 1: in Moscow too, up to the times of Beat to
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  Speaker 1: the Great. But besides plays, there were all sorts of
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  Speaker 1: legends and ballads scattered about the world in which the
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  Speaker 1: saints and angels and all the powers of heaven took
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  Speaker 1: part when required. In our monasteries, the monks busied themselves
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  Speaker 1: in translating, copying, and even composing such poems, and even
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  Speaker 1: under the tatars there is, for instance, one such poem,
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  Speaker 1: of course, from the Greek, the Wanderings of Our Lady
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  Speaker 1: through Hell, with descriptions as bold as danties. Our lady
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  Speaker 1: visits Hell, and the archangel Michael leads her through the torments.
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  Speaker 1: She sees the sinners and their punishment. There she sees,
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  Speaker 1: among others, one noteworthy set of sinners in a burning lake.
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  Speaker 1: Some of them sink to the bottom of the lake
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  Speaker 1: so that they can't swim out. And these God forgets
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  Speaker 1: an expression of extraordinary depth and force, and so our lady,
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  Speaker 1: shocked and weeping, falls before the throne of God and
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  Speaker 1: begs for mercy for all in Hell, for all she
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  Speaker 1: has seen there indiscriminately. Her conversation with God is immensely interesting.
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  Speaker 1: She beseeches him she will not desist, And when God
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  Speaker 1: points to the hands and feet of her son nailed
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  Speaker 1: to the cross, and asks how can I forgive his tormentors,
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  Speaker 1: she bids all the saints, all the artyrs, all the
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  Speaker 1: angels and archangels to fall down with her and pray
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  Speaker 1: for mercy on all without distinction. It ends by her
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  Speaker 1: winning from God a respite of suffering every year from
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  Speaker 1: Good Friday till Trinity Day, and the sinners at once
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  Speaker 1: raise a cry of thankfulness from Hell, chanting, thou art
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  Speaker 1: just o Lord in this judgment. Well, my poem would
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  Speaker 1: have been of that kind if it had appeared at
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  Speaker 1: that time. He comes on the scene in my poem,
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  Speaker 1: But he says, nothing, only appears and passes on. Fifteen
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  Speaker 1: centuries have passed since he PROMI to come in his glory,
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  Speaker 1: fifteen centuries since his prophet wrote, behold, I come quickly
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  Speaker 1: of that day and that hour. Knoweth no man, neither
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  Speaker 1: the Son but the Father, as he himself predicted on
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  Speaker 1: earth but humanity awaits him with the same faith and
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  Speaker 1: with the same love, oh, with greater faith. But it
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  Speaker 1: is fifteen centuries since man has ceased to see signs
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  Speaker 1: from heaven. No signs from heaven come today to add
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  Speaker 1: to what the heart doth say. There was nothing left
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  Speaker 1: but faith in what the heart doth say. It is true.
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  Speaker 1: There were many miracles in those days. There were saints
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  Speaker 1: who performed miraculous cures. Some holy people, according to their biographers,
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  Speaker 1: were visited by the Queen of Heaven herself. But the
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  Speaker 1: devil did not slumber, and doubts were already arising among
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  Speaker 1: men of the truth of these miracles. And just then
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  Speaker 1: there appeared in the north of Germany a terrible new heresy.
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  Speaker 1: A huge star, like to a torch, that is, to
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  Speaker 1: a church, fell on the sources of the waters, and
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  Speaker 1: they became bitter. These heretics began blasphemously denying miracles, but
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  Speaker 1: those who remained faithful were all the more ardent in
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  Speaker 1: their faith. The tears of humanity arose up to him
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  Speaker 1: as before, awaited his coming, loved him, hoped for him,
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  Speaker 1: yearned to suffer and die for him. As before, and
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  Speaker 1: so many ages mankind had prayed with faith and fervor.
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  Speaker 1: O Lord, our God hastened thy coming. So many ages
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  Speaker 1: called upon him that, in his infinite mercy, he deigned
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  Speaker 1: to come down to his servants. Before that day he
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  Speaker 1: had come down, he had visited some holy men, martyrs
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  Speaker 1: and hermits, as is written in their lives. Among us Tauche,
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  Speaker 1: with absolute faith in the truth of his words, bore
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  Speaker 1: witness that, bearing the cross in slavish dress, weary and warm,
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  Speaker 1: the heavenly King our mother Russia, came to bless and
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  Speaker 1: through our land when wandering, And that certainly was so,
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  Speaker 1: I assure you, and behold, he deigned to appear for
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  Speaker 1: a moment to the people, to the tortured, suffering people,
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  Speaker 1: sunk in iniquity, but loving him like children. My story
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  Speaker 1: is laid in Spain, in Seville, in the most terrible
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  Speaker 1: time of the Inquisition, when fires were lighted every day
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  Speaker 1: to the glory of God, and in the splendid Otto
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  Speaker 1: d'afay the wicked heretics were burned. Oh, of course, this
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  Speaker 1: was not the coming in which He will appear, according
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  Speaker 1: to his promise, at the end of time, in all
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  Speaker 1: his heavenly glory, and which will be sudden as lightning,
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  Speaker 1: flashing from east to west. No, he visited his children
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  Speaker 1: only for a moment, and there where the flames were
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  Speaker 1: crackling round the heretics. In his infinite mercy, he came
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  Speaker 1: once more among men, in that human shape in which
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  Speaker 1: he walked among men for three years fifteen centuries ago.
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  Speaker 1: He came down to the hot pavements of the southern
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  Speaker 1: town in which, on the day before, almost a hundred
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  Speaker 1: heretics had ad Majoram Gloriam Dai being burnt by the Cardinal,
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  Speaker 1: the Grand Inquisitor, in a magnificent auto d'a fay. In
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  Speaker 1: the presence of the King, the court, the knights, the cardinals,
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  Speaker 1: the most charming ladies of the court, and the whole
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  Speaker 1: population of Seville, he came softly, unobserved, and yet strange
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  Speaker 1: to say, every one recognized him. That might be one
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  Speaker 1: of the best passages in the poem. I mean, why
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  Speaker 1: they recognized him. The people are irresistibly drawn to him.
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  Speaker 1: They surround him, they flock about him, follow him. He
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  Speaker 1: moves silently in their midst, with a gentle smile of
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  Speaker 1: infinite compassion. The sun of love burns in his heart.
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  Speaker 1: Light and power shine from his eyes, and their radiance
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  Speaker 1: shed on the people stirs their hearts with responsive love.
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  Speaker 1: He holds out his hands to them, blesses them, and
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  Speaker 1: a healing virtue comes from contact with him, even with
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  Speaker 1: his garments. An old man in the crowd, blind from childhood, cries,
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  Speaker 1: Oh Lord, heal me, and I shall see thee. And
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  Speaker 1: as it were, scales fall from his eyes, and the
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  Speaker 1: blind man sees him. The crowd weeps and kisses the
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  Speaker 1: earth under his feet. Children throw flowers before him, sing
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  Speaker 1: and cry, Hosannah, it is he, It is he, all repeat,
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  Speaker 1: it must be he. It can be no one but him.
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  Speaker 1: He stops at the steps of the Sevil Cathedral at
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  Speaker 1: the moment when the weeping mourners are bringing in a
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  Speaker 1: little open white coffin. In it lies a child of seven,
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  Speaker 1: the only daughter of a prominent citizen. The dead child
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  Speaker 1: lies hidden in flower. He will raise your child, the
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  Speaker 1: crowd shouts to the weeping mother. The priest coming to
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  Speaker 1: meet the coffin, looks perplexed and frowns, But the mother
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  Speaker 1: of the dead child throws herself at his feet with
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  Speaker 1: a wail. If it ist thou raise my child, she cries,
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  Speaker 1: holding out her hands to him. The procession halts, the
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  Speaker 1: coffin is laid on the steps at his feet. He
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  Speaker 1: looks with compassion, and his lips once more softly prenance
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  Speaker 1: maiden arise, and the maiden arises. The little girl sits
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  Speaker 1: up in the coffin and looks round, smiling with wide
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  Speaker 1: open wondering eyes, holding a bunch of white roses they
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  Speaker 1: had put in her hand. There are cries, sobs, confusion
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  Speaker 1: among the people, and at that moment the Cardinal himself,
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  Speaker 1: the Grand Inquisitor, passes by the cathedral. He is an
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  Speaker 1: old man, almost ninety tall and erect, with a withered
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  Speaker 1: face and sunken eyes in which there is still a
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  Speaker 1: gleam of light. He is not dressed in his gorgeous
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  Speaker 1: cardinal's robes, as he was the day before when he
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  Speaker 1: was burning the enemies of the Roman Church. At this
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  Speaker 1: moment he is wearing his coarse old monk's cassock. At
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  Speaker 1: a distance behind him come his gloomy assistants and slaves,
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  Speaker 1: and the Holy Guard. He stops at the sight of
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  Speaker 1: the crowd and watches it from a distance. He sees everything.
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  Speaker 1: He sees them set the coffin down at his feet,
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  Speaker 1: sees the child rise up, and his face darkens. He
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  Speaker 1: nets his thick gray brows, and his eyes gleam with
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  Speaker 1: a sinister fire. He holds out his finger and bids
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  Speaker 1: the guards take him. And such is his power, so
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  Speaker 1: completely of the people cowed into submission and trembling obedience
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  Speaker 1: to him, that the crowd immediately makes way for the gods,
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  Speaker 1: And in the midst of death like silence, they lay
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  Speaker 1: hands on him and lead him away. The crowd instantly
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  Speaker 1: bows down to the earth like one man before the
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  Speaker 1: old Inquisitor. He blesses the people in silence and passes on.
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  Speaker 1: The guards lead their prisoner to the close, gloomy vaulted
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  Speaker 1: prison in the ancient Palace of the Holy Inquisition and
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  Speaker 1: shut him in it. The day passes and is followed
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  Speaker 1: by the dark, burning, breathless night of Seville. The air
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  Speaker 1: is fragrant with laurel and lemon in the pitch darkness.
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  Speaker 1: The iron door of the prison is suddenly opened, and
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  Speaker 1: the Grand Inquisitor himself comes in with a light in
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  Speaker 1: his hand. He is alone. The door is closed at
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  Speaker 1: once behind him. He stands in the doorway and for
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  Speaker 1: a minute or two, gazes into his face at last
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  Speaker 1: he goes up, slowly, sets the light on the table,
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  Speaker 1: and speaks, And of Chapter thirty six