Pope Gregory VII in the Focus of F. M. Dostoevsky’s Attention (On the Question of the Personification of the “Roman Idea”)

The article is devoted to the analysis of F. M. Dostoevsky’s perception of one of the most prominent and outstanding pontiffs of the Middle Ages, Pope Gregory VII. The figure of this pontiff acquires significant significance for the writer in confessional, historiosophical, and artistic projections at the same time. Dostoevsky’s anti-Catholic polemics, reflected in the writer’s epistolary, journalism and novelistic writings, focus on denouncing the “Gregorian papacy” — the spirit and mentality that Pope Gregory VII brought to the Catholic Church. In Dostoevsky’s mind, Pope Gregory VII is not only associated with the “Roman idea” of world domination but also actually personifies it, acting as one of the probable prototypes of the Grand Inquisitor in the novel The Brothers Karamazov. A historical perspective examination of the theological-political doctrine of Pope Gregory VII, which became relevant during the pontificate of Pope Pius IX, a contemporary of Dostoevsky, allows us to more deeply understand and comprehend the historiosophical and confessional-polemical layers of the writer’s worldview.