The Brothers Karamazovies have lain many years in the earth and have decayed in it.
‘And if the bones are yellow as wax, that is the great sign that
the Lord has glorified the dead saint, if they are not yellow
but black, it shows that God has not deemed him worthy
of such glory — that is the belief in Athos, a great place,
which the Orthodox doctrine has been preserved from of
old, unbroken and in its greatest purity,’ said Father Iosif
in conclusion.
But the meek Father’s words had little effect and even
provoked a mocking retort. ‘That’s all pedantry and inno-
vation, no use listening to it,’ the monks decided. ‘We stick
to the old doctrine; there are all sorts of innovations nowa-
days, are we to follow them all?’ added others.
‘We have had as many holy fathers as they had. There
they are among the Turks, they have forgotten everything.
Their doctrine has long been impure and they have no bells
even, the most sneering added.
Father Iosif walked away, grieving the more since he
had put forward his own opinion with little confidence as
though scarcely believing in it himself. He foresaw with dis-
tress that something very unseemly was beginning and that
there were positive signs of disobedience. Little by little, all
the sensible monks were reduced to silence like Father Iosif.
And so it came to pass that all who loved the elder and had
accepted with devout obedience the institution of the elder-
ship were all at once terribly cast down and glanced timidly
in one another’s faces, when they met. Those who were hos-
tile to the institution of elders, as a novelty, held up their
heads proudly. ‘There was no smell of corruption from the