User:Loukas ath/Παναγιώτης Σοφιανόπουλος

The modernist ideas of Sofianopoulos provoked the reaction of the social elite and the Church. Due to the fact that he published articles that violated the Press Law, he was involved in several legal disputes. Indeed, in 1838, because of an article in issue 25 of the Proodos which was considered to be directed against King Otto and the government, he was sentenced to a seven-month imprisonment and a fine of 500 drachmas. After his appeal was dismissed he served his sentence in the prisons of Athens and Nafplio. Later, in May 1844, the Holy Synod excommunicated his book The Evangelism of progress on the grounds that it contained expressions offensive to the doctrine of orthodoxy, the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary.