Procopious, Andreas, the Great

PROCOPIUS, ANDREAS, THE GREAT: Bohemian priest; b. in Bohemia about 1380; d. at Lipau, near Böhmisch-Brod (20 m. e. of Prague), May 30, 1434. On the death of Zizka, in 1424, he succeeded him as leader of the Hussite army. He was sprung from the lower nobility, and had been a follower of John Huss (see Huss, John, Hussites). As a priest he never bore arms; but he learned warfare under Zizka, and conducted campaigns with consummate skill. He was more of a statesman than Zizka, and his policy was to terrify Europe into peace with Bohemia. In 1426 he invaded Saxony, and defeated the Germans at Aussig. In 1427 he turned to flight a vast host of Crusaders at Tachau, and in 1431 he routed the forces of Germany at Tauss. These victories rendered inevitable the assembling of the Council of Basel. In Jan., 1433, Procopius and fourteen other Bohemian leaders came to Basel to confer with the council (see Basel, Council of). Bohemia, anxious to present a united front to the council, strove to reduce the town of Pilsen, which still held to Roman Catholicism. The siege did not succeed, a mutiny against Procopius arose in the army, and he retired from the management of affairs in Sept., 1433. Soon after this, the Bohemian Diet accepted the "compacts" of the council. The idea of peace spread rapidly; and a party in favor of the restoration of Sigismund as king of Bohemia began to form. Procopius roused himself to oppose the royalist league. In May, 1434, the royalist army met the Taborites, under Procopius, at Lipau, and after a desperate fight, he was defeated and killed.

Bibliography: Creighton, Papacy, ii. 188–262; F. Palacky, Geschichte von Böhmen, vol. iii., Prag., 1850; idem, Urkundliche Beiträge zur Geschichte des Hussitenkriegs, 1419–36, 2 vols., ib. 1873–74; C. Höfler, Geschichteschreiber der hussitischen Bewegung, 3 vols., Vienna, 1856–66; E. H. Gillett, Life and Times of John Huss, vol. i. passim, Philadelphia, 2661861. Sidelights from the papal tide are cast by Pastor, Popes, vol. I.