Ivan's Poem 'The Grand Inquisitor'

A poem titled “The Grand Inquisitor” explained by Ivan is a poem that takes place in the sixteenth century in a town in Spain. The arrival of Christ happens and people gather around and see him perform. He beings to heal the sick, while preforming his miracles, he gets interrupted by the arrival of the Grand Inquisitor and he commands his guards to arrest Christ. The Grand Inquisitor, visits Christ’s cell and explains why he has become a prisoner and that he can no longer perform his works, the reason being is because his work is of the opposite of the Church. He reminds Christ the time in the Bible where the Devil presented him with three temptations, and how he rejects the three. The Inquisitor says that because of Christ rejecting those three temptations, he committed that human

The inquisitor is referring to the temptation that Satan offered Christ, and that Christ rejected. The Grand Inquisitor sees Christ’s rejection of the temptations of Satan responsible for placing the liability of free will on mankind and for taking away the comfort of solidity and security. He says when Satan tempted Christ to make bread from stones, Christ should have done so, and should have brought the bread back to the people so that they would follow him in order to win the security of being fed. Christ’s response-that man does not live by bread, but by the word of God-which gives men the freedom to choose whether to follow Christ or not, without buying faith with security. The Grand Inquisitor sees it, Christ has actually done mankind a disservice by keeping people from obtaining security. Most people he says, are too weak to tolerate the burden of free will. As the outcome, he says that “the one who questioned you then,” sense Satan, was right and Christ was wrong. Ivan believes that mankind is not competent to handle the magnificent trouble of free will, and should have given a leader to obey