Page 102 - the-brothers-karamazov

happen, perhaps the despairing heart of the criminal would
lose its faith and then what would become of him? But the
Church, like a tender, loving mother, holds aloof from active
punishment herself, as the sinner is too severely punished
already by the civil law, and there must be at least someone
to have pity on him. The Church holds aloof, above all, be-
cause its judgment is the only one that contains the truth,
and therefore cannot practically and morally be united to
any other judgment even as a temporary compromise. She
can enter into no compact about that. The foreign crimi-
nal, they say, rarely repents, for the very doctrines of to-day
confirm him in the idea that his crime is not a crime, but
only a reaction against an unjustly oppressive force. Society
cuts him off completely by a force that triumphs over him
mechanically and (so at least they say of themselves in Eu-
rope) accompanies this exclusion with hatred, forgetfulness,
and the most profound indifference as to the ultimate fate
of the erring brother. In this way, it all takes place without
the compassionate intervention of the Church, for in many
cases there are no churches there at all, for though ecclesi-
astics and splendid church buildings remain, the churches
themselves have long ago striven to pass from Church into
State and to disappear in it completely. So it seems at least in
Lutheran countries. As for Rome, it was proclaimed a State
instead of a Church a thousand years ago. And so the crimi-
nal is no longer conscious of being a member of the Church
and sinks into despair. If he returns to society, often it is
with such hatred that society itself instinctively cuts him off.
You can judge for yourself how it must end. In many cases

101