Collected Shorter Fiction, Volume 2

‘So where is this law written down, then?’

‘In the holy book, in the Gospels. Why don’t you come over to my place on Sunday, so we can talk about it?’

When Sunday came not all the peasants went to the tailor’s house, but three of them did, and he started to read to them.

He read five chapters from the Gospel of Matthew, and then they started to discuss it. They all listened, but only one of them, Ivan Chuyev, really took it in. And he took it in to such an extent that he began trying to live his whole life according to God’s way. And his family too began to live like that. He refused to take the extra land and kept only his proper share.

People began coming regularly to the tailor’s house and to Ivan’s house, and they began to understand, then they really grasped it, and they gave up smoking, and drinking, and swearing and using foul language, and they started helping one another. They also gave up going to church, and they took their household ikons back to the priest. In the end seventeen households, comprising sixty-five people, were involved. The village priest was alarmed and he reported the matter to the bishop. The bishop considered what he should do, and he decided to send to the village Father Misail, who had formerly been a scripture teacher in a grammar school.

XIX

The bishop invited Father Misail to sit down and began telling him about the strange new developments in his diocese.

‘It is all the result of spiritual weakness and ignorance. Now you are a man of learning. I want you to go down there and call the people together and get the matter cleared up.’

‘With your grace’s blessing, I shall certainly try,’ said Father Misail. He was glad to have this commission. Any situation in which he could demonstrate the strength of his faith gave him satisfaction. And in converting others he always managed to persuade himself even more thoroughly that he himself really believed.

‘Please do your best, I am deeply troubled about my little flock,’ said the bishop, unhurriedly accepting in his pudgy white hands the glass of tea which a lay brother had brought him.

‘Why have you brought only one sort of jam? Go and get another,’ he said to the lay brother. ‘I really am deeply, deeply concerned about this matter,’ he continued, addressing Misail.

Misail was glad of this opportunity to show his mettle. However, being a man of modest means he requested his travel expenses in advance, and since he feared that there might be some resistance from the uncouth peasantry, he requested that the governor of the province should be asked to send an instruction to the local police to give him every assistance, should the need arise.

The bishop set up all the arrangements, and Misail, having with the help of the lay brother and the cook assembled the hamper and provisions so necessary for a journey to the back of beyond, set off for his appointed destination. As he started out on this official mission Misail was agreeably aware of the importance of the job he was engaged in, and also of the easing of any doubts he might have had concerning his own faith: he was, on the contrary, fully confident of its authenticity.

His thoughts were centred not on the essence of his faith – this he took to be axiomatic – but on the refutation of these objections which were being made to its outward forms.

XX

The village priest and his wife received Father Misail with great respect, and the day after his arrival they called all the people together in the church. Misail, wearing a brand-new silk cassock and a pectoral cross, his hair well combed, advanced to the ambo;⁸ beside him stood the priest, a little further away the deacons and the choristers, and at the side-doors a few policemen had been stationed. The sectarians had also made their appearance, dressed in dirty, rough sheepskin coats.

After the set prayers were over Father Misail delivered a sermon in which he exhorted those who had fallen away to return to the bosom of Holy Mother Church, threatening them with the pains of hell and promising full absolution to all who repented.

The sectarians did not say anything, but when questioned they did reply.