PROCOPIO the GREAT. – Commander of the Hussites, b. c. 1380, d. at Lipany on 30 May 1434.
Having been ordained a priest, he sided with the more radical party of the Hussites (the Taborites), though desirous of uniting the best energies of the various branches of the sect. In 1421 he was suspected of being a “Picard” (i.e., of denying Transubstantiation); in 1426 (after Zizka’s death in 1424) he was elected commander of the Taborites. Having made several incursions into the surrounding regions, he forced the Council of Basel to negotiate with the Hussites and therefore
took personal part in the legation sent to Basel and was on good terms with the cardinal legate G. Cesarini; he also negotiated with the conciliar legates in Prague, but dissatisfied he ended the talks by besieging the city of Plzeň, considered the bastion of the Catholics. Later, ill-treated by the Taborites, he temporarily drew closer to the more moderate party of the Prague Hussites, but when these united with the nobility and the Catholics to make peace with the Church, P. rallied the radical parties (Taborites and Orphans [Ortani]) against them, and with them was defeated and killed at the battle of Lipany.