Peter Mogila

1596-1646. Metropolitan of Kiev. From a noble Moldavian family, he studied in Poland and perhaps at Paris, returned to take monastic vows, became abbot of a Kiev monastery in 1627, and was elected metropolitan in 1633. To him the Russian Orthodox Church owes a more progressive attitude toward education of both clergy and laity. He came under criticism because his policies involved Western emphases, including the teaching of Thomist thought. On the other hand, it was he who produced the Orthodox Confession of the Catholic and Apostolic Eastern Church which, accepted by Orthodox patriarchs and endorsed by the 1672 Synod of Jerusalem, outlines Eastern Orthodox doctrine against Roman Catholic and Protestant claims.