PROKOPOVICH, FEOFAN

Russian Orthodox archbishop, theologian; b. Kiev, June 8, 1681; d. St. Petersburg, Sept. 9,1736. After studying theology in the Academy of Kiev he became a Catholic (1698) and joined the Basilian monks. During his graduate studies in Rome he was accepted as a member of the Society of Jesus. Instead of entering the order, however, he returned to Kiev and reverted to Orthodoxy. In 1704 he became a professor at the Kiev Academy and served as its rector (1711–16). Although Stefan accused him of Calvinism, he became bishop of Pskov (1720) and archbishop of Novgorod (1725). He was a close adviser of Emperor Peter I (the Great), who used him as his principal theorist on ecclesiastical policies. Prokopovich supported Peter's creation of the holy synod (1721) and became its first vice president. The Holy Synod replaced the patriarchate as the governing body of the Russian Orthodox Church, which it subjected almost completely to state control. For his role in this change Prokopovich has been called the father of Russian caesaro-papism. He published numerous literary, philosophical, and theological works, mostly in Latin. Their influence lasted until 1836, when the reaction in favor of traditional Orthodox beliefs began. His work on ecclesiastical regulation, published in conjunction with the Czar in 1720, urged the Church's subjection to the State. In a treatise on the justice of the emperor's decision (1721), Prokopovich combined Western ideas on absolute power with Byzantine theocratic concepts. His views on the procession of the Holy Spirit, the cult of images, and the Blessed Virgin conformed to those of Orthodoxy, but his teachings on grace, free, will, justification, and ecclesiology showed strong Lutheran influences. The seminary that Prokopovich started in St. Petersburg, patterned on the Protestant one in Halle, became a center for spreading his ideas.

[j. papin]