All that matters is that the old man should speak out, that he should speak openly of what he has thought in silence for ninety years.""And the Prisoner too is silent? Does He look at him and not say a word?""That's inevitable in any case," Ivan laughed again."The old man has told Him He hasn't the right to add anything to what He has said of old.One may say it is the most fundamental feature of Roman Catholicism, in my opinion at least.'All has been given by Thee to the Pope,' they say, 'and all, therefore, is still in the Pope's hands, and there is no need for Thee to come now at all.Thou must not meddle for the time, at least.' That's how they speak and write too-the Jesuits, at any rate.I have read it myself in the works of their theologians.'Hast Thou the right to reveal to us one of the mysteries of that world from which Thou hast come?' my old man asks Him, and answers the question for Him.'No, Thou hast not; that Thou mayest not add to what has been said of old, and mayest not take from men the freedom which Thou didst exalt when Thou wast on earth.
Whatsoever Thou revealest anew will encroach on men's freedom of faith; for it will be manifest as a miracle, and the freedom of their faith was dearer to Thee than anything in those days fifteen hundred years ago.Didst Thou not often say then, "I will make you free"? But now Thou hast seen these "free" men,' the old man adds suddenly, with a pensive smile.'Yes, we've paid dearly for it,' he goes on, looking sternly at Him, 'but at last we have completed that work in Thy name.For fifteen centuries we have been wrestling with Thy freedom, but now it is ended and over for good.Dost Thou not believe that it's over for good? Thou lookest meekly at me and deignest not even to be wroth with me.But let me tell Thee that now, to-day, people are more persuaded than ever that they have perfect freedom, yet they have brought their freedom to us and laid it humbly at our feet.But that has been our doing.Was this what Thou didst? Was this Thy freedom?'""I don't understand again." Alyosha broke in."Is he ironical, is he jesting?""Not a bit of it! He claims it as a merit for himself and his Church that at last they have vanquished freedom and have done so to make men happy.'For now' (he is speaking of the Inquisition, of course) 'for the first time it has become possible to think of the happiness of men.Man was created a rebel; and how can rebels be happy? Thou wast warned,' he says to Him.'Thou hast had no lack of admonitions and warnings, but Thou didst not listen to those warnings;Thou didst reject the only way by which men might be made happy.
But, fortunately, departing Thou didst hand on the work to us.Thou hast promised, Thou hast established by Thy word, Thou hast given to us the right to bind and to unbind, and now, of course, Thou canst not think of taking it away.Why, then, hast Thou come to hinder us?'""And what's the meaning of 'no lack of admonitions and warnings'?"asked Alyosha.
"Why, that's the chief part of what the old man must say.
"'The wise and dread spirit, the spirit of self-destruction and non-existence,' the old man goes on, great spirit talked with Thee in the wilderness, and we are told in the books that he "tempted"Thee.Is that so? And could anything truer be said than what he revealed to Thee in three questions and what Thou didst reject, and what in the books is called "the temptation"? And yet if there has ever been on earth a real stupendous miracle, it took place on that day, on the day of the three temptations.The statement of those three questions was itself the miracle.If it were possible to imagine simply for the sake of argument that those three questions of the dread spirit had perished utterly from the books, and that we had to restore them and to invent them anew, and to do so had gathered together all the wise men of the earth- rulers, chief priests, learned men, philosophers, poets- and had set them the task to invent three questions, such as would not only fit the occasion, but express in three words, three human phrases, the whole future history of the world and of humanity- dost Thou believe that all the wisdom of the earth united could have invented anything in depth and force equal to the three questions which were actually put to Thee then by the wise and mighty spirit in the wilderness? From those questions alone, from the miracle of their statement, we can see that we have here to do not with the fleeting human intelligence, but with the absolute and eternal.For in those three questions the whole subsequent history of mankind is, as it were, brought together into one whole, and foretold, and in them are united all the unsolved historical contradictions of human nature.At the time it could not be so clear, since the future was unknown; but now that fifteen hundred years have passed, we see that everything in those three questions was so justly divined and foretold, and has been so truly fulfilled, that nothing can be added to them or taken from them.
"Judge Thyself who was right- Thou or he who questioned Thee then?
Remember the first question; its meaning, in other words, was this:
"Thou wouldst go into the world, and art going with empty hands, with some promise of freedom which men in their simplicity and their natural unruliness cannot even understand, which they fear and dread- for nothing has ever been more insupportable for a man and a human society than freedom.But seest Thou these stones in this parched and barren wilderness? Turn them into bread, and mankind will run after Thee like a flock of sheep, grateful and obedient, though for ever trembling, lest Thou withdraw Thy hand and deny them Thy bread." But Thou wouldst not deprive man of freedom and didst reject the offer, thinking, what is that freedom worth if obedience is bought with bread? Thou didst reply that man lives not by bread alone.