"The incarnation of the moon god came silently to this city of religious terror, but strangely enough, all the people knew him, and the people rushed towards him with an unstoppable force, surrounded him, followed him, and walked silently among the growing crowd with a smile on his face, the light of love burning in his heart, and the sparkle of light, wisdom, and strength in his eyes sprinkled on the people. He stretched out his hand and blessed them by touching their clothes, and the path he walked was kissed by the weeping people, and many were cheering and singing for him, and the people said, 'It must be him!' There is no one but our lord! ’”

At this time, the chief inquisitor of the Church of the Luna, the chief inquisitor himself, passed by the square outside the church, he was nearly ninety years old, tall and straight, with a pair of eyes sunken on his thin face, but he was bright. He took in everything, couldn't help but lock his white eyebrows, his eyes showed a fierce light, and he stretched out a finger to signal the guards to arrest the man. ”

"The captured were held in a gloomy vaulted cell of the old Inquisition, where the days passed and the hot nights were breathless. In the darkness, when the prison was opened, the Inquisitor himself came quietly with the lamp, and alone, and the door was closed, and he looked at the prisoner intently, and then approached gently, put the lamp on the table, and said: 'Is it you, the one in heaven?' Before the man could reply, he continued, 'It is better not to answer, for I know what you have said, and you are no longer in a position to make any changes or additions to what you have said.' Why are you holding us back? You know very well that you are holding us back. Do you know what your tomorrow will bring? Tomorrow I will give a verdict, you will be burned as a cultist, and those who love you today will go and kill you tomorrow, you should know. ’”

"The prisoner, the incarnation of the moon god, did not refute the blasphemous words and deeds of the Inquisition?" Palatina, who was sitting next to Roland, couldn't help but interject and ask.

Roland shook his head lightly, with a solemn expression: "He didn't say a word, as if he agreed with the old judge's affirmation that he was no longer qualified to speak in the world." After all, it was the moon god who advised the gods not to show their divine power in the world, and if he spoke, it would be tantamount to breaking this oath. ”

"'You have no right to divulge the secrets of heaven to us, you are not qualified to make any changes or additions to what you have said, you have tried to free mortals from the bondage of divine power, to make us master free will, to think that we are the spirits of all things, and now you have seen these free men', the old priest smiled sarcastically, 'now these people think that they are now the freeest, but in fact they themselves put their freedom at our feet, this should be the result of our efforts, is this the freedom you want?' ”

"'A terrible devil once spoke to you in the wilderness, and the Gospels say as if he had 'tempted' you, right? But it doesn't get much truer than everything he's ever hinted at you with three questions. Truth be told, if there ever was a truly earth-shattering miracle in the world, it was on the day of these three temptations. The three questions of the devil summarize the entire history of the human world, and summarize and predict all future events, and they bring together the historical contradictions that mankind has not resolved. ’”

"'There are only three forces in the world that can conquer the conscience of the masses and benefit them: miracles, secrets, and authority. The devil's temptation of you contains all three of these powers, all of which you have rejected, but is your decision really correct? ’”

"'Now recall the first question, do you see the stones in the barren wilderness?' If you can turn them into bread, humans will probably follow you like a grateful and tame flock, but you don't want them to lose their freedom, so you don't accept this advice because you think, 'If a person is bought by bread or charism, this is not true faith at all.'" You say, 'Man cannot live on bread alone,' you say, 'Free will is more important than having a full stomach,' but do you know that just for a little bread on the earth, it is likely that everyone will follow the devil against you, help the devil fight you, defeat you, and then people will run after the devil and shout, "Who can compare with this great man?" He brought us fire from heaven! "Do you know that in a few centuries mankind will declare that there will be no sin in the world, only the hungry, 'food and clothing and shame' - they will carry such a banner against you? Your temple will be destroyed by this slogan, and people will shout to the heavens: "Whoever gives us food, we will go with him!" And in the name of God, only God's church on earth, only church leaders like me, without us, the poor, who make up the majority of the human race, would never have had enough to eat! Eventually, people will put freedom at our feet and say to us, "If you feed us, you'd rather let you enslave us." "Finally they will understand that freedom and bread cannot be both, because they do not know how to distribute wealth fairly at any time!"

"God has promised the believers the bread of heaven, the destination of the soul, but I repeat, in the eyes of a rabble who never know how to learn well and do not know how to several, can that bread be compared to the bread of the earth? Even if thousands, tens of thousands, of true believers go with you for the bread of heaven, what about the billions of people who will not give up the bread of the earth for the bread of heaven? Do you only value the tens of thousands of strong souls, but the weak who are so many and love you deserve to be unlucky? ”

"The weak will not be redeemed from you, and they will bow down to us and worship us as gods, and in the end they will think that it is terrible to be free, and we will become their leaders, and we will be willing to endure freedom and enslave them, but we will let them know that we obey you and rule in your name, and the root of our suffering is this deception, because we have to lie in order to make bread for the majority! What is a miracle? Producing more bread until the hungry people of the world are fed is the greatest miracle of all, and this is the miracle that we, the elite of the Church, are committed to doing on earth under your banner! ”

PS. The chapter "Inquisitor" is inspired by Dostoevsky's famous book "The Brothers Karamazov", and part of the content is taken from the original book, and moderately rewritten according to personal understanding and the needs of the plot.

If you are interested in the content of this chapter, I recommend reading the original book "The Brothers Karamazov".

Please remember that the first domain name of this book is .. Literature Museum mobile version reading website: m.