Prokopovich, Feofan

Prokopovich, Feofan fāəfänˈ prəkəpôˈvĭch [key], 1681–1736, Russian churchman. He was appointed bishop by Czar Peter I to carry out his ecclesiastic reforms and wrote Spiritual Regulation (1721), which helped strengthen state control of the church. Made archbishop of Novgorod (1724), he implemented Peter's policy, working against scholasticism and clerical ignorance and expanding the rights of Protestants. Prokopovich, a highly cultured man, wrote theological works and fiction and founded the Greco-Slavonic Academy.

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