traurigcamper

Annulled by order of High Pontiff Caius II - 2080

Full Name of Man - Kepha bar Merle Date of Birth of Man - 2051 Name of Woman - Seneca Date of Birth of Woman - N/A Location of Ceremony - March of Avistra Date of Ceremony (Year) - 2075 Name of Clergyman who performed ceremony - Fr. Florian

Full Name of Man - Kestrel Altwegg Date of Birth of Man - 2051 Name of Woman - Micah Finley von Rhoswald Date of Birth of Woman - 2050 Location of Ceremony - March of Avistra Date of Ceremony (Year) - 2074 Name of Clergyman who performed ceremony - Fr. Florian

Full Name of Man - Finn de Châtillon Date of Birth of Man - 2036 Name of Woman - Maria von Rhoswald Date of Birth of Woman - 2036 Location of Ceremony - Cathedral of the Fifty Skulls, St. Godwinsburg, Alba Date of Ceremony (Year) - 2069 Name of Clergyman who performed ceremony - Fr. Florian

De Oboedientia et Errore Compulsionis On Obedience and the Error of Compulsion By Father Florian ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Dear Brothers and Laymen, Among the gravest errors committed in matters of faith is the conflation of obedience with compulsion. I can imagine many priests that would force or coerce our faith onto others, shouting in jubilation that they had saved a man's soul and brought him onto the righteous path of the Lord. Yet what I would have to ask myself if I were faced with such a situation is: Would this man be a faithful and obedient servant? To that, I believe the answer is no. Obedience to the Lord, if it is to be meaningful, must be freely rendered. Where there is no freedom to refuse, there can be no obedience, only submission. And submission, though it may very well resemble faith in form, lacks it in substance. For the Lord does not require coerced fidelity, as coerced fidelity is no fidelity at all. He who is most high has no need to extract loyalty through threat, nor to bind the conscience through fear. Indeed, if the Lord desired such, He would have fashioned man otherwise. That He did not is itself revelatory. The mere existence of conscience testifies that the Lord wills not merely action and compliance but truth and willing, virtuous servants. Yet still, some of my brothers argue that divine authority necessitates compulsion, that the Lord’s sovereignty would be diminished were man permitted to refuse Him. To this I say: Authority that depends upon coercion is already weak. And who is anyone to say the authority of our Lord GOD is weak? His authority is not enforced by fear of punishment. It is sustained, as I have said, by the reality of truth. He does not command as a tyrant commands, but as reality itself commands: irresistibly to those who see it and yet never violently to those who turn away. Verily, brother, the Lord GOD has given no compulsion in faith. Spirit 1:3 Thus, when the faithful speak of obedience, they must take care not to speak as though GOD were a despot demanding proof through compulsion or even suffering. The Lord is not appeased by grief or placated by sacrifice or deeds offered under duress. He is honoured only when man sees the cost of obedience clearly and consents nonetheless. Naturally the Church, in her instruction and discipline, should reflect this principle. Take the example of a young man who comes to confession, distraught and unsure of whether or not he should join our Holy Mother Church as a priest. To this I say: The confessor (or the priest), though vested with authority, must never usurp the conscience of the penitent (or layman). He is not appointed to decide and certainly never to compel but to witness and clarify. When a penitent asks: “What must I do?”, the priest errs gravely if he answers with a command. In this example, to command that man’s vocation would mean to destroy it. A vocation chosen under pressure will bear not the fruits of obedience but of resentment, fear, or eventual apostasy. Faith compelled upon a man would certainly have a similar outcome. GOD desires sons and not conscripts. And to those of my brothers who would have the opinion that suffering or pain is what truly strengthens our faith and resolve, it must be said that obedience cannot be reduced to mere endurance of circumstance. There are many who suffer and yet do not obey. And there are many yet who endure and inwardly rebel. A man may be forced into martyrdom and yet curse the Lord in his heart, yet another may be spared suffering and still obey with quiet faithfulness. GOD judges not the spectacle or suffering of a man, but rather what he chooses to do with the freedom he is given. Whereas I say about this freedom: That to obey freely is not to act without restraint nor to dismiss the boundaries of virtue or law. Freedom does not negate law, quite the opposite in fact, it makes law meaningful. Where there is no possibility of refusal, law is nullified. Where there is no alternative but to comply, any virtue dissolves into inevitability. GOD, in granting freedom, grants also the possibility of sin. This is not a defect in creation, rather a condition of virtue. A world in which obedience is unavoidable would be a world without holiness, piety, fidelity, etc. And as I have created for you the struggles of the world, so too do I create the struggles of the spirit. And as I have created the struggles of the world and the spirit, so too do I bring their remedies. For I have given you the pains of the world, and I have given you their cure. And you shall know the trials of this theatre of virtue and know that they shall strengthen you. Virtue 5:5–8 Indeed, the Lord’s holy word itself clarifies. The trials and sufferings of the world are not instruments of forced compliance. What they are are arenas in which obedience may be freely chosen. GOD creates His "theatre", however, He does not dictate the actor’s consent. Indeed, even the saints, those most perfected in all the skies, are praised for their unwavering and, more importantly, willing faithfulness. Will any say that the saints or even the prophets were coerced or compelled into seeking out a life of virtue in the path of our Lord? Nay. They chose of their own accord without need of any compulsion, be it by the sword or something else. Let it therefore be held that for obedience to be truly virtuous, it must be free and that for authority to be truly divine, it must not depend upon coercion. The Lord’s sovereignty is not weakened by man’s freedom. Instead, it is magnified by it. For it is no great thing to command what cannot resist. It is a far greater thing to be obeyed by those who may refuse. Our Church must guard against every doctrine that exalts compulsion as piety. We must never coerce a man before the altar and force submission. Neither should we convert heretics or heathens by the sword. Only a man who truly believes, truly feels the Lord’s love, and truly wishes to give his life to Him, serve Him, praise Him, and pray to only Him, of his free conscience, will be a faithful servant and have GOD smile upon him. Faith that is compelled, that lacks choice, is no faith at all. What is truly faithful is the right use of this choice. And in this, the dignity of man stands, and the glory of our Lord GOD is truly heightened.

Father Florian hears the shouts as he is sat at his desk within the chapel, scanning a copy of the decree with a worried expression. He sets the parchment down on top of the pile of others and signs the Lorraine over his chest, letting out a defeated sigh before he descends the ladder to beg the Lord that the fallout is not too severe.

Full Name of Man - Leoni Berezinia Corvus Date of Birth of Man - 2040 Name of Woman - Cordelia Nixie Vale Date of Birth of Woman - 2037 Location of Ceremony - Cathedral of the Fifty Skulls, St. Godwinsburg, Alba Date of Ceremony (Year) - 2066 Name of Clergyman who performed ceremony - Fr. Florian

NAME: Florian VOCATION: Priest TRIBE / CULTURE: Tribe of Horen BIRTH YEAR: 2041 ORDINATION DATE: 2063 ORDINATOR: Bernard II CURRENT DIOCESE: Apostolic See of Lemonshire ASSIGNMENT: Parish Priest for Blackvale and Myrine WRITTEN WORKS (please link): https://www.lordofthecraft.net/forums/topic/264014-acolyte-thesis-on-intercession/ OOC USERNAME: traurigcamper_ DISCORD: traurigcamper

De Intercessione Sancta On the topic of Saintly Intercession By a Humble Servant of the Lord, Brother Florian __________________________________________________________________________ Among the doctrines of our Church, few are as frequently misunderstood as the practice of intercession through the Saints and the Blessed. Some brothers of ours argue the Lord requires the assistance of the Saints to sieve through prayers. This is false. For the Lord is omnipotent and omniscient, He is all seeing and all hearing. He hears all prayers immediately and perfectly, whether uttered by the living or echoed by the Blessed. He does not require the assistance of those lesser than him for any purpose, lest he not will it. For His power is not parted among His many servants, but imitated, and in His multitude of ways, He is above them all. Spirit 5:19 Some scholars claim that invoking the Saints place distance between the faithful and the Lord, that His presence were diluted by additional voices. This is false. The Lord’s nearness is not diminished by many voices, nor is His attention divided by their number. For He who hears all prayer at once cannot be crowded. Yet more say that since the Lord hears all prayers, intercession is redundant. This is false. That the Lord hears all prayers does not render prayer itself unnecessary, nor does it render communal prayer meaningless. The Lord needs no prayer. Yet he commands it. For He does not lack, but man does. Furthermore, there exists the rare opinion that the Saints and Blessed, having ascended the Skies, no longer receive our prayers. This is false. The Skies are not realms of severance. For indeed the Lord did lift the Exalted to the skies nearer to him, just as he receives his most faithful and devoted servants. As the Saints and Exalted are perfected in obedience, it is incoherent to assert that they are rendered indifferent to the struggles of the faithful. So Owyn joined his father’s father in the Sixth Sky. Gospel 5:22 Meanwhile, the heretics and enemies of the faith argue that intercession is idolatry. This is also false. In fact, I argue the opposite. Indeed, the very grammar of prayer testifies against idolatry. The faithful say not “grant us,” but “pray for us”; not “deliver us,” but “entreat the Lord on our behalf.” Such language presupposes the Saint’s inability to act of their own accord. A Saint cannot act lest the Lord will it, a prayer cannot be answered lest the Lord grant it. Thus, both the Saint and the Blessed functions as a supplicant rather than a source. For indeed the Saints are exemplars of virtue. Their proximity to the Lord is a result of their holiness, not its cause. To ask a Saint to intercede is not to bypass God. Rather it is to appeal to a member of the faithful. No different than asking a neighbour to pray for oneself. The Lord, in His mercy, permits the faithful to approach Him supported by the prayers of those who are His most devoted servants. __________________________________________________________________________ Below I have provided examples of prayers to St. Kristoff, Patron Saint of Martyrs, Victims of Strife, and Bishops. The listed prayers explicitly acknowledge the Saints intercessory role. They do not attribute any authority to the Saint, for all authority sits with the Lord alone. One appeals to the Saints merit and virtues, one asks them to bring the request before God. “Saint Kristoff, the foe presses me from all sides. The occasion of sin gathers round about me, and I am too weak to resist alone. Therefore, pray for me to God, to grant me strength in this difficult time; bid Him dry my tears and renew my Faith.” “Saint Kristoff, who died a noble martyr, pray for me. Use the merits of thine own glorious death and advance my cause, and grant me a courageous and faithful end. Amen.” “God, who didst give us Thy humble servant, Kristoff, give us the Grace to imitate his virtues, that, by his example, we may all deserve to live, as he lives, with Thee, in our heavenly home. Amen.” Comprehensive Book of Prayers, Father Humbert Now consider an improper prayer, one that slides toward presumption or misplacement of authority. I shall provide an example of mine own: “Saint Kristoff, I call upon thee to command the Lord to grant me victory over my enemies, that I may triumph by thy own power” This prayer, while plausible in scheme, is misplaced. For one directs the Saint command God, rather than ask. One attributes authority to the Saint, rather than acknowledging that all power belongs to the Lord alone. __________________________________________________________________________ Dear Brothers, the errors addressed herein arise not from intercession itself, but from misunderstandings of the practice. To those who claim that intercession implies divine insufficiency, it must be answered that the Lord’s sufficiency is not threatened by communion. To those who fear distance from God, it must be said that the Lord cannot be crowded. To those who cry idolatry, indeed the grammar of prayer itself stands in rebuke. For the Saints are never asked to grant, but always to pray. Let it therefore be held that intercession is not only permissible but fitting. For in all things it adds glory upon not the Saints, nor the Blessed, but upon the Lord who raised them, He who hears all prayer, He who rules indivisible and supreme above every Sky.