Yet, in spite of these edifying memories, it would be difficult to explain the frivolity, absurdity and malice that were manifested beside the coffin of Father Zossima.It is my private opinion that several different causes were simultaneously at work, one of which was the deeply rooted hostility to the institution of elders as a pernicious innovation, an antipathy hidden deep in the hearts of many of the monks.Even more powerful was jealousy of the dead man's saintliness, so firmly established during lifetime that it was almost a forbidden thing to question it.For though the late elder had won over many hearts, more by love than by miracles, and had gathered round him a mass of loving adherents, none the less, in fact, rather the more on that account he had awakened jealousy and so had come to have bitter enemies, secret and open, not only in the monastery but in the world outside it.He did no one any harm, but "Why do they think him so saintly?" And that question alone, gradually repeated, gave rise at last to an intense, insatiable hatred of him.
That, I believe, was why many people were extremely delighted at the smell of decomposition which came so quickly, for not a day had passed since his death.At the same time there were some among those who had been hitherto reverently devoted to the elder, who were almost mortified and personally affronted by this incident.This was how the thing happened.
As soon as signs of decomposition had begun to appear, the whole aspect of the monks betrayed their secret motives in entering the cell.They went in, stayed a little while and hastened out to confirm the news to the crowd of other monks waiting outside.Some of the latter shook their heads mournfully, but others did not even care to conceal the delight which gleamed unmistakably in their malignant eyes.And now no one reproached them for it, no one raised his voice in protest, which was strange, for the majority of the monks had been devoted to the dead elder.But it seemed as though God had in this case let the minority get the upper hand for a time.
Visitors from outside, particularly of the educated class, soon went into the cell, too, with the same spying intent.Of the peasantry few went into the cell, though there were crowds of them at the gates of the hermitage.After three o'clock the rush of worldly visitors was greatly increased and this was no doubt owing to the shocking news.People were attracted who would not otherwise have come on that day and had not intended to come, and among them were some personages of high standing.But external decorum was still preserved and Father Paissy, with a stern face, continued firmly and distinctly reading aloud the Gospel, apparently not noticing what was taking place around him, though he had, in fact, observed something unusual long before.But at last the murmurs, first subdued but gradually louder and more confident, reached even him."It shows God's judgment is not as man's," Father Paissy heard suddenly.
The first to give utterance to this sentiment was a layman, an elderly official from the town, known to be a man of great piety.But he only repeated aloud what the monks had long been whispering.They had long before formulated this damning conclusion, and the worst of it was that a sort of triumphant satisfaction at that conclusion became more and more apparent every moment.Soon they began to lay aside even external decorum and almost seemed to feel they had a sort of right to discard it.
"And for what reason can this have happened," some of the monks said, at first with a show of regret; "he had a small frame and his flesh was dried up on his bones, what was there to decay?""It must be a sign from heaven," others hastened to add, and their opinion was adopted at once without protest.For it was pointed out, too, that if the decomposition had been natural, as in the case of every dead sinner, it would have been apparent later, after a lapse of at least twenty-four hours, but this premature corruption "was in excess of nature," and so the finger of God was evident.It was meant for a sign.This conclusion seemed irresistible.
Gentle Father Iosif, the librarian, a great favourite of the dead man's, tried to reply to some of the evil speakers that "this is not held everywhere alike," and that the incorruptibility of the bodies of the just was not a dogma of the Orthodox Church, but only an opinion, and that even in the most Orthodox regions, at Athos for instance, they were not greatly confounded by the smell of corruption, and there the chief sign of the glorification of the saved was not bodily incorruptibility, but the colour of the bones when the bodies 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 innovation, no use listening to it," the monks decided."We stick to the old doctrine;there are all sorts of innovations nowadays, 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.