Terran Patriarchal Church

Church Overview [edit] Deltarian Popes [edit] Pope Peter I

The first Deltarian Pope was initially a Tokundian serf from Doron Akigo, named Radoslav Volic, who declared himself the Supreme Pontiff of the Terran Catholic Church as a form of protest against both the Deltarian New Traditions Campaign and Absolver Personality Cults, as well as the strong climate of Anti-Tokundian sentiment in his native land. Declaring all previous Popes tenures to have been nullified by the institution of the High Synod, he declared himself Papez Petr I, and instantly became a local celebrity amongst the heavily Catholic population of the Povicskovo fief. His immense popularity brought him to the attention of his ruling Markiz within a month, and was summarily executed for treason. [edit] Pope Pius I

Pope Pius was the first Pope to be elected with the approval of the Deltarian Government. The Absolvers realised that very few people genuinely revered them as the Gods they claimed to be, and Vojvoda Mojmir Bátory set about lobbying for the reinstatement the Catholic belief system in a nation largely comprised of lapsed Catholics. Approval was given by Absolver Black, and the rest of Aristocracy, and the New Traditions campaign was unofficially suspended. Mojmir Bátory accepted the offer of the Deltarian Papacy, and changed his name to Pius I. He was the shortest reigning Pope in the history of the Terran Catholic Church, being pronounced dead twenty-eight minutes after his coronation, during the drafting of his first set of Papal edicts. [edit] Pope Pius II

Pius I's only son, L'ubomir Bátory was also the only witness to his fathers death. From his account, the late Pope was overcome with a fit of depression, and committed suicide by stabbing himself in the heart, face and throat, several dozen times. As he took his final breaths, his dying wish was that L'ubomir would inheret the Papacy, and continue the Bátory bloodline. L'ubomire reluctantly accepted, and after a 30-day period of national mourning, he was proclaimed Pope Pius II, in honour of his father. Pius II brought about many administrative changes in his edicts, declaring Castle Kachetovo in, Darali, to be the new Vatikan and Holy See. He excommunicated the High Synod, several of whom he recommunicated after displaying what he considered to be 'heartfelt penitance'. He served for eighteen years, before voluntarily abdicating the Papacy in favour of his archrival, Igor Nádašdy. In his retirement he married Barona Ivanka Nádašyova, his childhood sweetheart, and later died of natural causes. Eight months after his death he was made the first victim of the infamous Cadaver Synods. [edit] Pope Innocent I

Jana's half-brother and father, Igor Nádašdy [edit] Pope Jana

Innocent's half-sister and daughter, Annamária Nádašdy [edit] History of the Church [edit] Early Years

Although there are few records that describe the earliest incarnations of the Catholic Church, historians generally believe that the Catholic Church of Terra was first founded in what is now modern-day Quanzar, fifteen to twenty years after the death of their prophet, Jesus Christ. The Church was thought to have been founded by the apostle, Peter, who was retrospectively given the title of Pope by the medieval Dorvikian Pope Clement XII, and later stripped of that title by the Deltarian Pope Peter I. [edit] Medieval Period [edit] The Great Schism

schism between the Terran Catholic Church and the Catholic Church of Terra, presumably over the Catholic Church of Terra's progressiveness - perhaps a Martin Luther style affair, an argument over whether or not the Bible should be translated into langauges people could actually read [edit] Abolition of the Papacy

During what are considered 'The Years of Enlightenment', the decision was made by high-ranking Church officials to abolish the Papacy, transferring the ultimate authority over all church rulings to an elected synod of archbishops and cardinals, from Catholic nations all over Terra. This was an extremely unpopular move amongst many of the devout Catholics ; who preferred a deified figurehead of divine authority to an elected boardroom of bishops squabbling over the word of God, which they found to be blasphemous and disenheartening. Despite this, the bishops held fast to uphold a democratic synod over the Church, even in the face of dwindling church attendance and membership rates. [edit] Deltarian Revival

Deltarian revival of the unpopular Terran Catholic Church