100 The Brothers Karamazovthe security of society is not preserved, for, although the
obnoxious member is mechanically cut off and sent far
away out of sight, another criminal always comes to take
his place at once, and often two of them. If anything does
preserve society, even in our time, and does regenerate and
transform the criminal, it is only the law of Christ speaking
in his conscience. It is only by recognising his wrongdoing
as a son of a Christian society — that is, of the Church —
that he recognises his sin against society — that is, against
the Church. So that it is only against the Church, and not
against the State, that the criminal of to-day can recognise
that he has sinned. If society, as a Church, had jurisdiction,
then it would know when to bring back from exclusion and
to reunite to itself. Now the Church having no real jurisdic-
tion, but only the power of moral condemnation, withdraws
of her own accord from punishing the criminal actively. She
does not excommunicate him but simply persists in mother-
ly exhortation of him. What is more, the Church even tries
to preserve all Christian communion with the criminal.
She admits him to church services, to the holy sacrament,
gives him alms, and treats him more a captive than as a
convict. And what would become of the criminal, O Lord,
if even the Christian society- that is, the Church — were to
reject him even as the civil law rejects him and cuts him off?
What would become of him if the Church punished him
with her excommunication as the direct consequence of the
secular law? There could be no more terrible despair, at least
for a Russian criminal, for Russian criminals still have faith.
Though, who knows, perhaps then a fearful thing would