The Brothers Karamazov
its jurisdiction.’
‘I’m sorry I have not read your article, but I’ve heard of it,’
said the elder, looking keenly and intently at Ivan.
‘He takes up a most interesting position,’ continued the
Father Librarian. ‘As far as Church jurisdiction is concerned
he is apparently quite opposed to the separation of Church
from State.’
‘That’s interesting. But in what sense?’ Father Zossima
asked Ivan.
The latter, at last, answered him, not condescendingly,
as Alyosha had feared, but with modesty and reserve, with
evident goodwill and apparently without the slightest ar-
rierepensee
‘I start from the position that this confusion of elements,
that is, of the essential principles of Church and State, will,
of course, go on for ever, in spite of the fact that it is impos-
sible for them to mingle, and that the confusion of these
elements cannot lead to any consistent or even normal
results, for there is falsity at the very foundation of it. Com-
promise between the Church and State in such questions
as, for instance, jurisdiction, is, to my thinking, impossi-
ble in any real sense. My clerical opponent maintains that
the Church holds a precise and defined position in the State.
I maintain, on the contrary, that the Church ought to in-
clude the whole State, and not simply to occupy a corner
in it, and, if this is, for some reason, impossible at present,
then it ought, in reality, to be set up as the direct and chief
aim of the future development of Christian society!’
‘Perfectly true,’ Father Paissy, the silent and learned