[46] Ultramontanism: the doctrine of absolute papal supremacy favored by members of the Italian party in the Roman Catholic Church, who were “across the mountains” (ultramontane) from their French opponents, the “Gallican” party. The controversy dates to the 1820s.
[47] a kingdom ...: see John 18:36 for the true sense of these words.
[48] holy gifts: the consecrated bread and wine of the Eucharist.
[49] times and seasons: see Acts 1:7,1 Thessalonians 5:1-2.
[50] Pope Gregory the Seventh: pontificate 1073-85; canonized. One of the greatest and most powerful of the popes of Rome, known for his struggle against the emperor Henry IV, whom he humbled at Canossa.
[51] third temptation of the deviclass="underline" the devil’s third temptation of Christ; see Matthew 4:1-11. A foreshadowing of Ivan Karamazov’s Grand Inquisitor.
[52] December revolution: the coup d’état in 1851 that ended the French Second Republic; a year later Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte was made emperor.
[53] to set. . . in heaven: a conflation of Colossians 3:2 and Philippians 3:20.
[54] regierender Graf von Moor: “reigning Count von Moor.” Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805) wrote his historical drama The Robbers in 1781. There are references to Schiller’s plays and poetry and to the notion from The Robbers of “the great and beautiful” all through B.K.
[55] Anna with swords: the medal of the Order of St. Anne, a military and civil distinction; the swords indicate the colonel’s military status. Decorations worn on the neck were not as “high” as decorations worn on the breast.
[56] across a handkerchief: alludes to Schiller’s play Cabal and Love (1784), in which such a challenge is made.
[57] her who loved much: see Luke 7:47. The passage is grotesquely misinterpreted by Fyodor Pavlovich.
[58] the Church calendar: a yearly listing of saints’ and feast days; in this case it would not prove anything.
[59] obedience: the term for a task imposed on a monk by his superior or spiritual director.
[60] what’s the meaning of this dream: a journalistic commonplace of the 1860s and 1870s, used by Dostoevsky’s ideological adversary M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin among others; a paraphrase of a line from Pushkin’s “The Bridegroom”. “Well then, what is your dream about?” It betrays Rakitin as a “liberal.”
[61] Pushkin . . .: several of Pushkin’s poems celebrate women’s “little feet,” for which the liberals of the 1860s censured him. Rakitin himself will soon “sing” of a woman’s feet (B.K. 4.11.2 and4.11.4).
[62] On the one hand . . .: Rakitin borrows this phrase from Saltykov-Shchedrin’s Unfinished Conversations, pt. 1 (1873);again he labels himself (see Terras, p. 162).
[63] archimandrite: superior of a monastery; now often honorary.
[64] your noble reverence: an absurdly incorrect way to address the superior of a monastery.
[65] von Sohn: see note 2 to page 36 in section 1.2.1.
[66] plus de noblesse que de sincérité: “more nobility than sincerity.” And vice versa.
[67] the Holy Fathers. Fyodor Pavlovich apparently believes that “secret confession” was instituted by the early fathers of the Church, which it was not.
[68] flagellationism: the practice of self-flagellation as a way of purification from sin; never accepted by the Church.
[69] Synod: a council of bishops instituted (contrary to canon law) by Peter the Great (1672-1725) to administer the Russian Orthodox Church, answerable to the tsar himself, who thus became the de facto head of the Church.
[70] Robbers: see note 2 to page 71 in section 1.2.6.
[71] Eliseyev Brothers: famous Petersburg provisioners. The shop has survived intact, is still a provisioners’, and is often still referred to as Eliseyevs’.
[72] seven councils a hyperbolic reference to the seven “ecumenical councils” that were held between 325 and 787 A.D.
[73] six fingers: such malformations, to some minds, implied the work or even the presence of “unclean spirits.” Hence Grigory later calls the child a “dragon.”
[74] the Book of Job: references to the Book of Job appear frequently in B.K. and are a key to one of its themes: the “justification of suffering,” i.e., theodicy.
[75] Isaac the Syrian: see note 7 to page 27 in section 1.1.5.
[76] Flagellants: see note 5 to page 88 in section 1.2.8.
[77] state councillor: rank of the fifth grade in the civil service, corresponding to the military rank of colonel.
[78] Smerdyashchaya: “Stinking [woman]” in Russian. Smerdyakov’s name thus means roughly “(son) of the stinking one.”
[79] Glory ...: the verses are by Dmitri Fyodorovich himself.
[80] Do not believe . . .: from “When from the Darkness of Error”(1865) by Nikolai Nekrasov (1821-78); one of Dostoevsky’s favorite poems, about a rescued prostitute.
[81] the golden fish ...: allusion to the well-known folktale about the magic fish, of which Pushkin made a poetic version, “The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish” (1833).
[82] Oman . . .: the line is Goethe’s, from “The Divine” (1783).
[83] An die Freude: Schiller’s famous ode “To Joy” (1785), from which Dmitri will quote a little further on.
[84] And a ruddy-mugged Silenus: from “Bas-relief” (1842) by Apollon Maikov (1821-79), a friend of Dostoevsky’s.
[85] Darkly hid in cave and cleft...: stanzas 2-4 from Schiller’s “Eleusinian Festival” (1798). The version here is adapted from an anonymous English translation of 1843, as is the version of the ode “To Joy” that follows.
[86] That men to man . . .: from “Eleusinian Festival, ‘ stanza 7.
[87] Joy is the mainspring . . .: Schiller’s “Tojoy,” stanzas 4 and 3.
[88] Paul de Koch (1794-1871), French writer, author of innumerable novels depicting petit bourgeois life, some of which were considered risqué.
[89] There was sweet confusion ...: verses of unknown origin, possibly by Dostoevsky himself (Terras, p. 176).
[90] bring up my life from the Pit: Jonah 2:6 (Revised Standard Version).
[91] Balaam’s ass: Numbers 22:30. The ass of the false prophet Balaam suddenly speaks to its master.
[92] The Lord God created ... :see Genesis 1:3-5,14-17.
[93] falling sickness: Dostoevsky prefers this old term for epilepsy.
[94] Evenings on a Farm near Dikanha: the first book of tales by Nikolai Gogol (1809-52).
[95] Smaragdov’s Universal History: a common Russian textbook of the earlier nineteenth century.
[96] Kramskoy: I. N. Kramskoy (1837-87), well-known Russian painter. The Contem-plator was first exhibited in 1878.