The Kreutzer Sonata and Other Stories

rance of believers, as well as of unbelievers, that they apprehend it-The apprehension of Christianity for believers is concealed by the Church-The apprehension of Christianity-Its essence and its unl

lished by Christ-Definition of Churches according to the Catechism-There are various Churches, ever antagonistic to one another-Where is heresy?-The work of Mr. Arnold concerning heresies-Heresies are the sign of activity in the Churches-Churches always divide mankind, and are ever inimical to Christianity-In what the activity of the Russ

l and secular writers, who deny the possibility of apprehending it in its actual meaning, have convinced me that while the minority has not only always possessed a true conception of this doctrine, and that this conception has grown steadily more and more

test recesses of the human understanding, when, as Christ said, they proclaim from the roofs that which He whispered in the ear; when this doctrine penetrates every phas

of Christ so completely, unquestionably, and finally, that it can have no other meaning but the one which they attribute to

er cannot add one single drop t

had no previous conception in regard to them; but it is impossible to explain to the clevere

rine of that kind, known for ages, and never to be questioned in its mo

ook upon it as an affair of the past, a manifestation of the demand of humanity for a belief in the supernatural, as an historical fact, which has found its fullest expression in Catholicism, Or

by considerin

there appeared a strange and novel doctrine, unlike any

for the Hebrew world, from whose midst it had sprung, as well as

precepts and creeds of former times, this doctrine presented only an image of interior perfection, truth, and love in the person of Christ, and the attainment of this interior perfection possible for men, and, as a consequence, of the outward perfection foretold by the prophets: the coming of the Kingdom of God, when all enmity shall cease, when every man will hear the word of

w of the doctrine, whether it be of God, o

n? And if I say the truth, why do

, a man that hath told you

th, and the truth shall ma

be made plain by the Spirit of Truth. Do as I command

therewith. The whole substance consisted in learning the truth and in followin

zation of the Kingdom of God. In order to fulfil the doctrine it needs but to take Christ for our model, and to advance in the direction of interior perfection by the road which has been pointed out to us, as well as in that of exterior perfection, which

he stagnation of the righteous Pharisee. The shepherd rejoices more over the one sheep which was lost and is found than over the ninety and nine wh

exterior perfection, and therefore it has no significance in itself. The progress of this movement t

kingdom of God." "Rejoice not that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven." "

as in a more and more keen realization of the Kingdom of God in the world around us. It is evident that the doctrine that appeared in the midst of the Hebrew and pagan world could not be accepted by the major

rld-conception and that of the Hebrew and pagan peoples mutually acted and reacted upon each other, and the Christian principle being the more vital, it penetrated deeper and deeper into the Hebrew and pagan principles tha

s apprehension of Christianity, as must always be

s true meaning. Thus it was from the very beginning of Christianity. And it was then that certain men came to the front who af

apprehension in the first place, and of

hority, not because it satisfies the demands of reason and of human nature in general, but because of the miraculous character of its transmission, which is supposed

the more mysterious it appeared, and the greater need was there for visible proof of its authenticity. The rule for doing unto others as you would wish them to do unto you, called for no miracu

miraculous it became, the farther it was from its original meaning; and the more complicated, mystical, and remote from its

the Acts, and the Epistles how the misapprehension of the doctrine calle

consult with the elders in regard to the question that had arisen as to whether the unc

t is said distinctly: "Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man." And therefore the question in regard to

isconception of the doctrine, it was that in this assembly for the first time, according to the description given in the Acts, were uttered those awful words, productive of so much harm, by which the truth of certain propositions has

but the Acts were written much later than either.] But the descent of the Holy Ghost must also be proved, though it would be difficult to say why a fiery tongue hovering over a man's head should be a proof of the truth of what he says any more than the miracles, the cures, the resurrections, the martyrdoms, and all the rest of those persuasive miracles

persons, as in Orthodoxy, or in a book, as in Protestantism. The more widely spread Christianity became, and the larger the number of uninstructed men it received, the less it was understood, the more the infallibility of its conceptions was insisted upon, and the more slender grew the possibility of understanding its true meaning. Already, about the time of Constantine, the entire conception of the doctrine amounted to the résumé formulate

r have founded anything like the Church in its ecclesiastical sense. There is a distinct and evident warning in the New Testament against the Church, as an outside authority, in the passage which bids the disciples of Christ call no man father or master. But nowhere is there a word in regard to the establishment of what the ecclesiastics call the Church. The word "church" is

ause nothing like our Church, as we know it in these days, with the sacraments, the hierarchy, and above all the esta

the same word that Christ used in regard to another thing, by no mean

so plainly and clearly, and would have given, apart from all stories of miracles which are repeated with every variety of superstition, such signs as would lea

erre et soumise à l'autorité de pasteurs légitimes, principalement notre S.-P. le pape,"-meaning by "pasteurs légitimes,"

rine and the sacraments under the government and direction of a hierarchy established by the Lord,"-those words, "est

st, by means of the Bible and the sacraments, offers, communicates, and dispenses the divine salvation,"-meaning by that, that th

ox it is identified with the institution of the Eastern and Russian hierarchy.[4] For Lutherans the

he word "church" in the singular, as though there had never been but one church. This is quite unfair. The Church, whic

o occasion for calling itself a church. It was only when it separated into two hostile parties

es, while each one claimed infallibility for itself and decl

dmission of the uncircumcised, and we know it only because there wa

ches, namely, the Greek Orthodox and the Lutheran, each one asserting its own infallibility, and thus disowning all o

s, each one of whom maintains itself to be the true Church established by Christ, declaring a

est number of communicants, the Catholic, the Orthodox,

es, et schismatiques."[5] By schismatics it means the so-called Orthodox, and by heretics the Lu

remained in perfect union with the universal Church. As to the Roman Church and the Protestant creeds" (they are n

cs and the Protestants are outside of th

s in ihr das Wort Gottes lauter und rein ohne Menschenzusetzung gelehr

the teaching of Christ and the apostles, as the Catholic and Greek Churc

claim that the Holy Ghost manifests itself to them (and they have the same right to assert this as have the prevailing religions of the present day); all the de

that during the separation of their Church from the Catholic, the Holy Ghost left the Catholic Church and entered into their own. And this is exactly what they do say. Every church professes to derive its creed by an unbroken tradition from Christ and t

act definition of what is called a church (not the imaginary church which we may desire, but the actual church which has really existed). The Church is a body of men which lays claim to the exclusive possession of the truth. All these various societies which were afterward transformed by State authority into powerful organizations have really been the chief obstacles

taught to despise heresy, it is nevertheless in that which men call heresy that true progress, that is, true Christianity, was manifested,

ll others calls for an exact definition, for every theologian speaks of the true doctrine in the midst of th

will quote the opinion of a learned Christian historian, E. de Pressensé in "Histoire du Dogme," with

ere so actively resisted by the early Fathers. The very name of heresy seems an attack upon liberty of conscience a

e right to see in this, not a definite system devised and formulated by the representatives of a school, but faith itself in its most unerring instinct and spontaneous manifestation? If this very unanimity which is revealed in the essential matters of faith is found to be antagonistic to certain tendencies, have we not the right to infer that these tendencies disagreed with the fundamental principles of Christianity? Will not this supposition become a certainty if we recognize in the doctrine rejected by the Church the characteristic features of one of the religions of the past? If we admit that gnosticism or ebionitism

at any given time, is a heresy. At a certain time and in a certain place men make a certain profession, but this profession c

istory of the Church a consistent explanation of the faith it professes, and apply all the arguments to it

to any opinion contradicting any part of the doctrine professed by the society. A more specific meaning is an

which treats of this subject, and points out the illegality, the perversity, the lack of sense, and the cruelty of employing the word

the methods for making heretics, he asks in one of the questions (the 7th): "Does not all history tend to show us that the greatest makers of heretics, the adepts in the art, were those very wiseacres from whom the Father concealed his secrets-that is, the hypocrites, the Pharisees, and the Scribes, or utterly godless and evil-minded men? (Question 20-21) And in the corrupted times of Christianity did not the hypocrites and envious ones reject the very men, talented and especially indorsed by the Lord, who would have been highly esteemed in periods of pure Christianity? (21) And, on the other hand, would not those men who during the decade

heresies in the early times of Christianity, because Christians judged each other, not by their words, but by their hearts and by their deeds, enjoying a perfect freedom of expression, without the fear of being called heretic?" "Was it not one of the convenient and eas

amples here quoted bear testimony" (that is to say, in the history of the Church and of heresies), "that there has never been

Church shall exist it will never change. Where the Church exists there must also exist the idea of heresy. The Church is a body of men c

ing apprehension of the doctrine. Each advance that has been made toward the comprehension and the practice of the doctrine has been accomplishe

doctrine of Christ to its fullest extent; still less could he affirm this in regard to any body of men. To whatsoever state of comprehension and perfection he may have arrived, he must always feel the inadequacy both of his conception and of its application, and must

le, to the doctrine of Christ. It is not without reason that Voltaire called it "l'infame"; it is not without reason that all so-called Christian sects believe

of bodies of men claiming infallibility, they are anti-Christian institutions. Between churches in the ecclesiastical sense and Christianity, not only is there nothing in common except the n

rs at the same time; he must cho

tor between God and man. All this is untrue. So far from fostering the spirit of unity, the churches have ever been the fruitful source of human enmity, of hatred, wars, conflicts, inquisitions, Eves of St. Bartholomew, and so on; neither do the churches act as the mediators between God and man,-an office, moreover, quite unnecessary, and directly forbidden by Christ himself, who has revealed his doctrine unto each individual; it is but the dead formula, and

other Christian preachers, could be inimical to it." One would like to say, "The churches may have gone astray from Christianity, may have committed errors, but they cannot have been hostile to it." But one must first see the fruit before he can know the tree, as Christ has taught, and one sees that their fruits were evil, that the result of their works has been the distortion of Christianity; and one cannot help concluding that, however virtuous the men may have been, the cause of the ch

any event, but little known to us? The churches, with their principles and their works, are not of the

hat is their work in the Greek, the Catholic, and in all the Prot

is visible to all. It is a factor of primary impor

stitution which labors with so much zeal, that institution which numbers amo

tiquated, time-worn beliefs which have lost all significance, and which were formerly professed by foreigners, with whom we had nothin

literal sense of the word: the veneration of holy relics and holy images, the sacrifices offered to them in the faith that they will hear and grant prayers. I will pass over in silence what is written in the ecclesiastical magazines by the clergy who possess a semblance of learning and liberality, and will speak o

ting of the sponsors at the imaginary devil. All this is necessary to cleanse the child, and make a Christian of him. Then the parents are told that the child must receive the holy sacrament-that is, he is to swallow, in the form of bread and wine, a particle of the body of Christ, by which means the child will receive the blessing of Christ, and so on. Then they are told that as the child grows it must be taught to pray, which means that he is to stand in front of boards upon which the faces of Christ, the Virgin, and the saints are painted, bow his head and body, while with his right hand, his fingers being folded in a peculiar manner, he touches his forehead, his shoulders, and his stomach, and utters certain Slavonic words, the commonest of which, those which all children learn, are the following: "Mother of God, ... Virgin, rejoice," etc

sins to a stranger will have a purifying effect on a man; then he is to swallow a spoonful of bread and wine, which will purify him still more. Moreover, men are told that if a man and woman desire to have their sexual relation sanctifie

imes a year boards upon which are painted the images of the saints, and to carry them on towels through fields and houses. Before death a man must without fail receive a spoonful of bread and wine; and if there be time to be anointed with oil, that is still better, for it insu

that the greatest amount of happiness may be secured in the next world by bequeathing money for churches and monasteries, thereby obligi

near these objects, as one must be in kissing them, placing tapers before them, c

r the garb of a Christian religion, has been energetically taught to the people fo

ere. This is not the truth. Throughout Russia, and lately with increased energy, the entire Russian clergy teaches this faith, and this alone. Nothing else is taught. Men may write about other do

, theoretically and practically, by every kind of solemnity, splendor, authority, and violence; the people are compelled to believe i

ct, it is only an external worship in the form of idolatry that is propagated. And let it not be said that the one does not exclude the other, that "All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not" (Matthew xxiii. 3). This is said concerning the Pharisees, who fulfilled all the outward commands of the law, and therefore the words, "whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do," refer to acts of benevolence and cha

ieve that a cruel and unreasonable God had condemned humanity to eternal death and sacrificed his own Son, and who had destined a certain portion of mankind to everlasting torture, cannot believe in a God of love. A man who believes in God, in the Christ who is coming in his glory to judge and punish the dead and the living, cannot believe in a Christ who commands us to turn the other cheek to the offender, who forbids us to sit in judgment, and who bids us to forgive our enemies and to love them. A man who believes in the inspirat

his has always been the faith of the people, and that they will continue to hold it is proved by the whole history of the Russian nation. It would be wrong to deprive them of their traditions." Herein lies the fallacy. The people, it is true, did once upon a time profess something like what is at present professed by the Church; but besides this worship of images and relics, the people had always a profound moral conception of Christianity never possessed by the Church, and only met with in her noblest representatives; but the people, in the better class, and in spite of the obstacles raised by the State and the C

like binding a chicken and trying to put it back into the shell from which it came. I have often been struck by the spectacle, which would be simply absurd

hat they perform miracles? Hundreds and thousands of men ask these questions, and are at a loss for an answer, especially since bishops and metropolitans and other eminent persons kiss both the relics and the miraculo

ays, their religious reviews, and their sermons, consists not only in encouraging the people in a coarse and grotesque idolatry, but in strengthening and promulgatin

monk was offering him a description of relics, of holy days, of miraculous ikons, the Book of Psalms, and the like. I asked the old man if he had a Bible.

nd the remark will be correct, but only so far as it applies to the government, which

ablished Church. Therefore in Russia the government authorities play an important part in demoralizing the people;

ve not at their beck so submissive a government as the Russian, we may be sur

e same object as the Russian Church-namely, to conceal the true meaning of the doctrine of Christ, and to substitute a meaning of its own, which imposes no obligations, which

Wherein does Catholicism differ in its preaching from the Russian Church? The same external worship, the same relics, miracles, and statues, miracle-performi

the Lutheran, or in any other Protestant de

of our time; the same call for idol worship, if not of relics or ikons, at least of the Sabbath and the letter of the Bible; the same endeavor to conceal the re

ng going on in the present "Revivalism," a regenerated Calvinism, which has given birth to the Salvation Army? Inasmuch as the atti

to make every effort to conceal the doctri

, chemistry, cosmography, and history, when for the first time he actually reflects on the faith impressed upon him in his childhood, and maintained by the Church, concerning the creation of the world in six days, the appearance of light before the sun was created, the story of Noah's ark and the animals preserved in i

t these words, but it can never believe in them, because the statements that God dwells in heaven, that the heavens opened and a voice was heard to utter c

created it, that it opened, and that Christ ascended thither,-but for us there is no sense in such ideas. Men of our time can only

in the first place that all the churchmen will not agree to this-on the contrary, the majority insist on taking the Scriptu

increase of culture, the reading of the Bible, and the intercourse among the membe

spirit and truth; or the words, that a Christian should pray not like the heathen in the temples, nor at the corners of streets, but in the secrecy of his closet; or, that a disciple of Christ may call no one father or mother,-one has

th of his religion. It was natural enough for a man who had never met a believer in a creed different from his own, to think that his was the only faith; but an intelligent man has but to encounter-and that is an everyday occurrence-good and bad m

g influences, building temples, saying masses, preaching, instructing, converting, and above all receiving for this the large c

they employ a simple, rude violence, by virtue of the power invested in the Church. People who shrink from an outward observance of faith and who do not c

ut exception, makes the most of the means at its d

ing influence is markedly displayed in the activity of the Salvation Army, which employs novel, and to us abnormal, methods, su

of the Church assumes. Its most malign activity is that which is devoted to deceiving the children-those little ones of whom Jesus has said, "Woe be unto him who tempts the least of these." From the earliest awakening of a child's intelligence he is deceived and formally taught that which his teachers no longer believe themselves, and this goes on until the delusion becomes from habit a part of h

agonistic conceptions that have been taught to him since his childhood, one could never have devis

reed, that is to say, the Church, or those who call themselves its representatives, then he will find no use for the Sermon on the Mount. Hence it is incumbent on the churches to make every effort to obscure the meaning of the Sermon on the Mount and to endeavor to draw the people toward them. It is only due to their intense activity in that direction that the influence of the churches has not decreased. Let the Church but pause in this effort to influence the masses by hypnotizing m