Kaiserliche Benediktion an alle ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Reverential Address of July II A Thesis On the Power of the Reverency Scribed by His Worship Aelfric Harhold July 23th, 308 AC ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓ Sɛction I - Greetings And Benediction Sɛction II - Introduction Sɛction III - The Beginning Sɛction IV - The Curacy Sɛction V - The Reverency Itself Sɛction VI - In Conclusion ┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ PROCLAIMING IN PEACE AND COMMUNION SANCTIONED BY HOLY FATHER AELFRIC TO ALL WHO READ THIS ADDRESS GRACE, MERCY AND PEACE ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━|Sɛction I| Oh Lord, Spirit on high, we are but humble servants of Union before you, made worthy of the steps to Your Divine Throne of light only by our acceptance of the holy scripture, Your Creeds. We are to be molded by Your word and to take into mind interpretations made by the holy few who don the cloth. We serve as the pillars of the Great Way, furthering the Great Path till our dying breath as to be offered salvation in the Everwatch and the destined future ahead. We take this solemn vow upon our birth, when our flesh and blood is new and we have been readied by the womb to depart on a great journey towards eternal light. We shall serve You, Spirit Eternal, and His Imperial Holiness. Oratario Paean. Imperial Benediction, brothers and sisters. May the words scribed upon this blessed parchment be offered to you, the servants of the one true Lord and the one true faith, as to bestow the wisdom of many years unto those with many years ahead in service of the Spirit on high, seated upon His Radiant Throne above. May the light of the Spirit sanctify your souls and protrude the darkness of sin which plagues each and every one of us. The utmost of blessings upon you, faithful flock. Signed with the Love of a Father, Aelfric Harhold, Holy Father of the Blessed Unionist Divine, High Reverend-Emeritus of the Holy Synod, Official Member of the Holy Conclave ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━|Sɛction II| The ideal actions of members of the clergy have been a contested topic for decades, with debates between both members of the clergy and the laity growing like a wildfire in the hottest days of July. The image of a man who dons the cloth has certainly been twisted in years past and months to come, at times the laity demonizing the clerics of the Unionist Divine wrongfully, while at other times the clergy could be found feeding into this image of politicized Reverends who care not for the layman but for the power which they hold and wish to retain. While improvement has been seen and will be seen in the months past and months ahead, the growing sickness which has plagued the ranks of the clergy for decades has been seen most recently in it’s most profound form, being the sinful Brothers of Virtue who hid under the noses of the Canonical Courts of the Sancella for years, amassing power as they hid a key Creed from the entirety of the faith. While the actions of other, lone, corrupt Reverends are a mere footnote compared to the Brothers of Virtue, the image of untrustworthy men in some of the most powerful positions of the Archipelago persists to the chagrin of the good majority of holy men in the Unionist Divine. Just as Theomar revealed the First Creed of Ten to enlighten the blind followers of false faiths, so too does a solution become clear on this matter of most import. It is an idea that I have been speaking on for the past days and weeks and one I shall elaborate on in this address. I wish to preface this address with this message however. While I do not believe the involvement of holy men in politics to be inherently negative, in past years it has become clear that such times have passed. While at certain times, a Reverend may need to step in or involve themselves in the political and ruling field, the clergy in this new age of Unionism brought on by such revelations as the Ascension and Tenth Creed must now turn away from the temporal world or more so their involvement in it. As stated, this shall be explained further. I pray that this address shall be received well by both the clergy and laity of Union and may it spread as a message of truth or at the very least a topic of debate for those who view it to either agree or disagree with. May He shine His light down upon you, brothers and sisters. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Saint Manfried instructing seminarians at the Calamberger Dom in his later years. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━|Sɛction III| As any man of the cloth will recall, the years in seminary are times of preparation for the path that lies ahead. Just as the mother’s womb readies the child for the Great Path, so does seminary mold the learner into a future Reverend, guiding him so that one day it shall be he who guides. Preparing a seminarian to bear the cloth is not an easy task and one that takes dozens of months to complete before the student has been sufficiently readied for the Curacy. To be a seminarian requires devotion and one will spend their days learning the necessary skills to administer a flock such as crafting sermons, inspiring listeners, theology and also physical tasks so as to not only ready one’s mind but also their body which breeds persistence for however much you may struggle, you will continue to find something in one’s soul as to carry on in the Spirit’s holy light. The curriculum for a budding holy man however revolves around one thing. Guidance for that is the key role of a Reverend. To guide. There are no political lessons or teachings about governing. You, as a seminarian, are taught purely to guide your future flock. To inspire them as they walk the path and educate them on matters of theology for you are expert in such matters. You are to be a fountain of morality for the children of Union and to watch out for them as a shepherd watches out for his sheep. To correct them when they are wrong and lead them back onto the collective path. My point is, the actions of those such as the Brothers of Virtue did not begin in seminary. Quite the opposite, in fact. In seminary, you are taught to watch over others, not help yourself. Instead, the Brothers of Virtue and other corrupt Reverends developed these goals over time, their self-interest born not out of seminary but out of self-teaching which gradually bred corruption over many decades. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ A Steward looking over the Archives of Saint Vladimir’s Cathedral. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━|Sɛction IV| The Curacy is the beginning of an ordained man’s public service to the laity, parting from the secluded halls of seminaries and entering one of the many Cathedrals or Churches of Union. These years before ascending to the Reverency (if they plan to do so), will be filled with service to the Reverend they shall learn under. While they shall receive instruction from this Reverend, they have learned all they need to know in terms of theology from seminary. In fact, it soon becomes clear to a Curate that their service here is much different from their tenure as a seminarian. There shall be no more classes. There shall be no more essays. Their Curacy is about experience. An excerpt from an encyclical written by High Reverend Faustus V, “A seasoned Curate makes an august Reverend.” A seasoned Curate makes an august Reverend because a seasoned Curate has watched the Father they serve under attentively and therefore has a superior quality of experience that shall serve them well in the years of their own Reverency. However, this quote, while true in most senses, brings issues of its own. What His High Holiness Faustus V refers to as a seasoned Curate comes into question depending on the Reverend they served under, which brings forth more differences between seminary and the Curacy. While as I said, seminary involves the teachings of guidance and theology purely, bare of the individual interpretations of the clergy, Curacy is different. Curates are subject to the individual beliefs of the Reverend they serve under and while seminary does not breed such corruption as seen in the Brothers of Virtue, the Curacy is fully capable of doing so. In fact, that is likely how the Brothers of Virtue grew over time. It began with a small collective of Reverends and soon increased it’s numbers as it’s members received Curates from seminaries around the Archipelago. With their teachings passed onto the next generations of Reverends, so too did these Curates carry these beliefs into their own Reverency and then taught Curates of their own. This is where the source of this corruption is laid bare for all to see. While common politicization of the Reverency can be based out of one’s own interpretation, the Curacy is where true corruption grows into organizations such as the Brothers, permitted to grow and grow and become emboldened, bold enough to attack a Supreme Reverend of Union and hit a fatal blow upon a Holy Father to keep their secrets tightly held and their power and influence sustained to the greatest effect. I will lastly say that the Brothers of Virtue and their level of politicization and corruption serves as an example and politicization also does not immediately lead to corruption. However, political power is usually based off the expectation that it will serve oneself over others and therefore, the Brothers of Virtue serve as a perfect example of self-serving clerics who care not for their flock but for their own power, jeopardizing even the progress of Union by withholding a Creed to further spread their sphere of influence and defend what they have gained. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Saint-Patriarch Theodosius of the Evintarin Church, depicted in art found within the seminaries of the Etosian Church. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━|Sɛction V| With that said, we now arrive at the Reverency itself. The destination of the seminarian, now a Curate, who shall ascend to become one of the movers and shakers of Union, prepared by years of study and experience to become a guide of the people. It is the Reverend who will be offered the rights of the Sacraments, expected to guide his fellow brothers and sisters, allowing them to confess, to hear the word of the Spirit, to correct them before He on high. It is the Reverend who shall be a force to be acknowledged by all, not for his political power but for the power bestowed unto him at his ordainment. When he dons the cloth, granted the vestments of the clergy, his rights serve as an eternal power unlike anything seen in the field of politics. His power is a right, born out of his knowledge, the trust he receives, and the abilities bestowed unto him by the Church. It is he alone who knows the Spirit’s word, he alone who can interpret the Spirit’s word and he alone who is granted the consent by the All Divine to represent Him on this terra which shall soon be His and His alone. The Reverend is a holy man unlike any other and while he may only be human, an Ailor, his duty is self-evident for it is flown from the Radiant Throne above by a soaring stork, landing in the palms of the Mother Church, “You are important servants of Mine, bestowed the inalienable right to impart My blessings upon this terra oh so dear, plunged into darkness by the evil of sin, yet to be saved by the light gifted unto it by you, oh servants of I, your Lord.” Political power is not a one way carriage. It can be gained but it can too easily be lost. Yet as stated, the power of the Reverency is inalienable, to be stripped of the position by the Church and the Church alone, only to be taken away when his Spirit given duty is neglected. “Yet to be saved by the light gifted unto it by you,” You are not a ruler, you are a leader and a guide. Political power, rule, is easily lost. Your status, a Reverend, a guide, is not. Political power bears fruit and much of it, however to take up that fruit, pluck it from such a tree is to fall down a rabbit hole that should be unbeknownst to us, for politics is not our calling. The temporal world is not our calling. The Nobility were given the Divine Right to Rule by the Holy Imperial Spirit. We were bestowed something just as pertinent. As fountains of morality, it is our duty to serve as a check to the temporal world, reminding them of the spiritual so that they too do not fall down the rabbit hole of politics and delve into self-service and corruption. That is our duty. Our inalienable right. We should and must be acknowledged by the worlds not spiritual. However, we must not be so desperate for acknowledgement as to step into a world not our own. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Two brothers, one in the same. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━|Sɛction VI| We come to our conclusion and the question remains. What is the solution? It is something I have said many a time for the past days and weeks. There are two brothers and one brother wishes to climb a tree. He does so and reaches the second highest branch before climbing back down to his own brother. The brother, seeing the other climb the tree, wishes to do so himself and so he does, reaching the highest branch. Another example would be the two brothers and music. One brother sings in the Church choir and the other brother seeing such wishes to sing in the choir as well. There is a pattern here. Brothers wish to do what the other is doing. Whether they wish to join them, do better then them and spark a competition, that is unbeknownst to me. However, just as these brothers wish to do what the other is doing, so too did the Church act as a brother to the State and Nobility. They wished to involve themselves in politics and join such parties in their pursuits. Yet, the Church can never act as a brother. That is not the Church’s calling. Instead, the Church must act as a Father. It must guide the other, not joining them but teaching them and ensuring that they act with good morals in mind and the Spirit’s word kept close to their hearts and souls. That is the duty of the Church, repeated time and time again throughout this address. We must guide. Guide, guide, guide, fellow men of the cloth, and never be a brother. Be a Father. Is that not what we are called after all? ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ May the Spirit above, Upon the radiant Imperial Throne, Protect us against all evil, Until the day where we his faithful, Bring forth Paradise to Aloria, When his light shall shine upon all, Oratario Paean. Spoiler: TLDR TLDR For too long has the Church involved itself in politics. The politicization of the Reverency is something to be avoided and while not inherently negative (Reverends may need to step into political positions in the future if deemed necessary) with the new age of Unionism, it is something that should be avoided. This is a brief summary. If you want a good explanation and argumentation, read the whole thing. The introduction and conclusion can also suffice well enough. Hope you enjoyed reading!
The red-nosed priest would've leaned upon his office chair, glasses hanging down upon his bulbous nose as he read the missive with scholarly interest. The red-nosed priest gave a smile, "Ah... Brother Harhold. I always knew your heart. A compelling read. The City hasn't heard my communiques in a while.. perhaps for good riddance. Brother Harhold always had the softer touch with them..." Leufroy went to pour a glass of red wine and rested once more upon his chair. He leant out for parchment and equipped his quill, dipping it into the ink. Leufroy Louis de Vixe de la Mont Bertu d'Goss would begin writing.
