Chapter 43 Part 1 - Forty

No one present, from the priest and the warden to Maslova, could have imagined that Jesus himself, whom the priest repeated hoarsely and praised in all kinds of strange words, just forbade everything that was done here.He not only forbade this meaningless babbling and sacrilegious spells of bread and wine by priests who pretended to be masters; Pray alone.He even forbade people to build churches, said they were going to be destroyed, and said that people should not pray in churches, but in their hearts and truths.The chief thing is that he forbids not only the trial, imprisonment, torture, insult, and punishment of men, as is done here, but also any violence against men, and says that he has come to free all prisoners and set them free.

None of the people present thought that what was done here was the most serious blasphemy, and what was done in the name of Christ was a mockery of Christ himself.It never occurred to anyone that the priest, holding up a kissable gilt cross with enamel medallions at its ends, was nothing but the image of the gallows on which Christ was crucified, and that he was hanged because he forbade the doing things.No one thought that when the priests ate the bread and drank the wine, they thought they were eating the body and blood of Christ. In fact, they were eating and drinking the flesh and blood of Christ, but it was not because they ate the bread and drank the wine. Because they not only confuse those "weak people" who are considered by Christ to be the same as themselves, but also deprive them of the greatest happiness, make them suffer the most cruel torture, and prevent people from knowing the gospel that Christ brought to them.

The priest does all this with peace of mind, because he has been taught in this way from childhood that this is the only true faith, professed by the saints of old, and professed by the priests and secular rulers of the present day.He did not believe that the bread turned into the body, that many empty words were good for the soul, or that he actually ate a piece of God's flesh.Such things are unreliable.He believed only that it must be so.What made him establish this kind of confidence was mainly because he had earned money from this kind of worship for eighteen years, supported his family, sent his son to middle school, and sent his daughter to seminary school.The man of the scriptures believes in the same way, and more firmly than the priest, for he has completely forgotten the substance of the doctrine, and knows only that there is a price for incense, memorials, chanting, common prayers and prayers with hymns , all true Christians are willing to pay, so whether he cries "Forgive, Forgive," or sings hymns, or reads scriptures, he is always calm and confident that it must be done, just like selling firewood. , Flour is the same as potatoes.As for the warden and the wardens, although they never knew or studied the dogma and the significance of the various sacraments of the church, they believed that such a faith was necessary, since both the highest authorities and the tsar himself believed in it.Besides this, they felt, though vaguely, because they themselves could not explain how, that this belief justified their cruel duties.Without this kind of belief, I am afraid it would be difficult or even impossible to torture people with peace of mind like now.The warden is kind by nature, and it would be impossible for him to live like this if he had not received support from this belief.It was because of this support that he was able to stand there as if he were standing upright, bowing down, crossing himself, and getting emotional when they sang "Those Angels of Wisdom," while giving communion to the children. When it was time, she went forward, picked up a communion child in her arms, and lifted him high.

Among the prisoners, there were only a few who saw that this kind of thing was purely a hoax, used to fool this type of believer, and they were secretly amused.Most people believe that such gold-clad icons, candles, gold cups, vestments, crosses, and the repeated "Dear and Dear Jesus" and "Forgive" and "Death" illustrate the "clearness between man and nature". ", "Use it to control the destiny", etc., all contain mysterious power, relying on this power, you can get many benefits in this life and the next life. Although most people have made some attempts, they want to rely on prayer, prayer, Candles, gaining benefits in this world, but getting nothing, and their prayers were not fulfilled, but everyone still firmly believed that the failure was accidental. Since this practice is approved by learned people and archbishops, it is always very good. Reasonable. Even if it doesn't work in this life, it will definitely work in the next life.

Maslova believed so too.She was at church, like everyone else, with a mixture of reverence and boredom.At first she stood in the middle of the crowd behind the partition, invisible to anyone except her fellow cellmates.Then the communicators moved forward, and she and Fedosya moved forward together, and saw the warden, and a little peasant with light brown hair among the guards behind the warden. Hair, with a pale beard.This man was Fedosya's husband.He was staring intently at his wife.Maslova kept looking at him during the hymns and whispering to Fedosya, and she did the same until the crossing and prostration.