ABSTRACT
Leo Tolstoy says he was deeply impressed by the Gospel according to Matthew, where, in the current translations, it reads, "in the Bible it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for tooth. Moneta cared as much as Angell did about singling out the difference that separated their respective discourses on peace from Tolstoy's pacifism. In the late 1870s and the first half of the 1880s, Tolstoy, then over 40, was going through a profound spiritual crisis, from which he was uplifted–he would claim several times–by his conversion to Christianity. Non-resistance to evil and acceptance of the consequences–even if also negative–that this entails, are therefore the heart of the Christian message and the fulcrum on which all of Tolstoy's pacifism rests. Patriotism, in short, was the means by which those in power could legitimise themselves to the masses, and justify every evil deed they carried out.
