Robert Nisbet Bain, 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, Volume 22… (1911)
“ Penetrated by the conviction that ignorance was the worst of the inveterate evils of old Russia, a pitiless enemy of superstition of every sort, a reformer by nature, overflowing with energy and resource, and with a singularly lucid mind armed at all points by a far reaching erudition, Prokopovich was the soul of the reforming party after the death of Peter the Great. To him also belongs the great merit of liberating Russian preaching from the fetters of Polish turgidity and affectation by introducing popular themes and a simple style into Orthodox pulpit eloquence. ”
