FATHER GERÁSIM. Excuse me. When Pilate[32] said, "I adjure thee by the living God," Christ accepted his oath by replying "I am." [32] Father Gerásim attributes to Pilate what was said by Caiaphas the high priest. NICHOLAS IVÁNOVICH. Dear me! What are you saying? That is really absurd. FATHER GERÁSIM. That is why the Church does not permit everyone to interpret the Gospel, lest he should go astray, but like a mother caring for her child gives him an interpretation suitable to his strength. No, let me finish! The Church does not lay on its children burdens too heavy for them to bear, but demands that they should keep the Commandments: love, do no murder, do not steal, do not commit adultery. NICHOLAS IVÁNOVICH. Yes! Do not kill me, do not steal from me my stolen goods. We have all robbed the people, we have stolen their land and have then made a law forbidding them to steal it back; and the Church sanctions all these things. FATHER GERÁSIM. Heresy and spiritual pride are speaking through you. You ought to conquer your intellectual pride. NICHOLAS IVÁNOVICH. It is not pride. I am only asking you what should I do according to Christ's law, when I have become conscious of the sin of robbing the people and enslaving them by means of the land. How am I to act? Continue to own land and to profit by the labour of starving men: putting them to this kind of work [points to Servant who is bringing in the lunch and some wine], or am I to return the land to those from whom my ancestors stole it? FATHER GERÁSIM. You must act as behoves a son of the Church. You have a family and children, and you must keep and educate them in a way suitable to their position. NICHOLAS IVÁNOVICH. Why? FATHER GERÁSIM. Because God has placed you in that position. If you wish to be charitable, be charitable by giving away part of your property and by visiting the poor. NICHOLAS IVÁNOVICH. But how is it that the rich young man was told that the rich cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven? FATHER GERÁSIM. It is said, "If thou wouldest be perfect." NICHOLAS IVÁNOVICH. But I _do_ wish to be perfect. The Gospels say, "Be ye perfect as your Father in Heaven ..." FATHER GERÁSIM. But we have to understand in what connection a thing is said. NICHOLAS IVÁNOVICH. I do try to understand, and all that is said in the Sermon on the Mount is plain and comprehensible. FATHER GERÁSIM. Spiritual pride. NICHOLAS IVÁNOVICH. Where is the pride, since it is said that what is hidden from the wise is revealed to babes? FATHER GERÁSIM. Revealed to the meek, but not to the proud. NICHOLAS IVÁNOVICH. But who is proud? I, who consider myself a man like the rest of mankind, and one who therefore must live like the rest by his own labour and as poorly as his brother men, or those who consider themselves to be specially selected sacred people, knowing the whole truth and incapable of error; and who interpret Christ's words their own way?