Iudaes

The Vice Chancellor nodded in approval at seeing the response, "An error handled through humility. A good thing. May we work in unity now that this is rectified to ensure a most peaceful transition as we ready the Church to once more guide it's flock through the Prophetic Authority of the Laurel." he said to a nearby Acolyte before placing the notice down and returning to work in his small office at the Basilica.

In the next few days after his death, Cardinal St. Julia found himself gazing down the hall to the room near his, that of the Pontiff in the Papal Apartments. He had been a Pontiff, a father, and a friend and in this, Manfried's mourning swelled thricefold. Nevertheless, the aging Cardinal continued with his work, specifically a Thesis, the longest of his he would have written which he had been scribing for weeks. In one of the nights after the Pontiff's death, his ink stained fingers paused in their movement across the page. Instead the quill was placed down and betwixt those fingers, he took up another piece of parchment. In the stack, he placed it near the fore of the written work and onto it, he wrote, "Dedicated to the late Vicar, His Holiness James II -- A Pontiff, A Father, A Friend -- “May you watch over the Church, Holy Father, for you are ever in our memory.” " And with that done, he turned the pages to continue his work, dedicated to that Pontiff, that Father, that Friend.

Cardinal St. Julia crosses himself before the ballot box, saying a short prayer before placing said ballot in.

"Aye." Manfried says.

Cardinal St. Julia would smile proudly as he looked upon the announcement of the Bishopric, soon sending a letter of congratulations, along with a few gifts, to the newly made Bishop of Hyspia, a man he had ordained and worked alongside for many years in his own Metropolitanate of Helena, now Archdiocese of Godvinus.

At the Holy Father's words, Cardinal St. Julia would bow his head in prayer for his sick brother, the good Tractarian, Father Pius.

The Archbishop of Godvinus would descend from his office in the upper levels of the Basilica, finding himself on the ground floor among his brothers. His finger tips stained with ink and eyes marked with dark circles after many sleepless nights, he would genuflect before the High Pontiff, refraining from kissing his ring and therefore marking the Holy Father's hand too with the ink. Nevertheless, he soon found a seat where one was left before his tired gaze drew over the papers before him, marked with the Pontifical seal. After an hour or two passed of reading and analyzing the document along with discussion with the fellows of Priesthood nearby, Cardinal St. Julia made his comment, "I would have to agree with Cardinal Reimar on the matter. However, I lean more so in favor of the age of majority remaining sixteen. I believe it best to retain the precedent set by the authors High Pontiff Daniel VI and High Pontiff Pontian III of the last iteration of Canon Law. Otherwise, I have no other qualms and approve of the document in it's current state with the hope that the age of majority be edited to reflect such. It has my vote in favor."

PRIMA MINOR BULLA, DE GODVINUS THE FIRST MINOR BULL OF GODVINUS 11th of Harren’s Folly, 1798 From the desk of His Eminence Manfried, Cardinal St. Julia, Archbishop of Godvinus, Archbishop Metropolitan of Providence, Prelate for the Canonist Priesthood, and Legate to the Holy Orenian Empire. TABLE OF CONTENTS ┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓ SECTION I - Greetings and Benediction SECTION II - Organization of Providence SECTION III - Organization of Dobrov SECTION IV - Organization of Esbec SECTION V - Plans for Sutica SECTION VI - The Recruitment Drive SECTION VII - The Placement of the Wigbrechtians SECTION VIII - Message of Goodwill and Conclusion ┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛ I Oh Lord, God on high. We, Your humble servants vow to remain eternally loyal to You, eternally devout in our worship and eternally steadfast in our service. We, Your faithful, accepted into the loving bosom of Your light through Your mercy, shall be molded by Your scripture, the Holy Scrolls, forever to hear it as the one truth, the only truth, the eternal and unchanging truth. We shall serve as the pillars of this great path we tread, readied by the wombs of our mothers, carried into this terra by the blessings You have imparted upon those who follow in the footsteps of Saint Julia, Lord Godani. We, the pious, the devout, the faithful shall mold this world in the image of virtue, just as we are molded by the Scrolls You had imparted upon the Exalted, ever to be cherished and adhered to as the servants of You, Our Lord. We make this solemn vow in communion with the blessed Church of Canon. May we be made worthy of the Seven Skies through the scripture and holy teachings gifted to us by You, God. In Nomine Patris, Amen! Greetings and Benediction, brothers and sisters. May the utmost of God’s blessings eternally reach you and may the Saints intercede on the behalf of you and your’s as we walk the path of virtue and righteousness in the name of our Lord, the Almighty and Eternal, God. II It is with great pride that we of the Archdiocese of Godvinus hold the capital of the Holy Orenian Empire as the episcopal seat of our Archbishopric. With this said, the administration of the Archdiocese will be operated within the walls of Providence and such meetings in regards to the workings of the Archdiocese thereof will be held within the Basilica of the Ascent of Exalted Godfrey. Too shall the majority of the recruitment for the Archdiocese be performed here, such Acolytes of the Church then assigned to Providence or the various other settlements which find themselves under our purview. PROVIDENCE ROSTER: His Eminence, Manfried Cardinal St. Julia His Grace, Coadjutor Bishop Bram Father Pelagius III With the expansion of the once Metropolitanate of Helena into the Archdiocese of Godvinus, it is the necessary duty of our office as endowed unto us by the Apostolic Seal of His Holiness to organize the newly added settlements under our care. Therefore, with our seal placed upon this document, we hereby do affirm Father Dima as a Father of Dobrov and currently the sole Priest there due to his relations to the ruling family and therefore his familiarity with the lands under their control. He is charged with administering mass and the Sacraments in Dobrov and caring for his flock with the tender care of a father. He is too charged to reach out to prospective candidates for the Priesthood and encourage them to travel to Providence for further recruitment and training or train them in Dobrov itself if his schedule permits. He shall be where the seed of the church within Dobrov sprouts from and we congratulate him on his ordination and appointment. DOBROV ROSTER: Father Dima IV The organization of the province of Esbec is currently underway and we stress the further importance for the recruitment of new Acolytes in the Archdiocese so as to fill our provinces with Priests capable of administering to our most beloved flock. Once roads are constructed for safe travel between the seat of the Archdiocese and Esbec, a trip to the settlement of Esbec by I, the Archbishop, will be made so as to acquaint myself with the good people of the province and perform any necessary Sacraments at that time. We hope that soon enough, our Archdiocese’s lands may be filled with the men of the cloth needed to fully function in our mission to spread the word of God throughout our episcopal territories. V With the Vice Chancellor of God’s Church reaffirmed as Bishop of Sutica by His Holiness, it is our goal in the coming years to begin the work of the Church within the walls of Sutica once again. Therefore, it is our hope that in the coming weeks and months, we may meet with those in government and administration of the Kingdom so as to strengthen the episcopal seat of His Eminence, Amadeus Cardinal Sutica and once again see the word of God preached within Sutican borders. In this effort, the Archbishopric of Godvinus will be working closely with the Bishopric of Sutica to see the preferred conclusion to this matter which shall be discussed in detail between relevant parties in time. SUTICAN ROSTER: His Eminence, Amadeus Cardinal Sutica VI ((Ascension to the Cloth Page)) It is in these first few years of our time in Almaris that the Archdiocese prepares it’s administration for a revitalization of our efforts in service to God. Yet, while it is through the hands of one that much can be achieved, it is only through the hands of the many that God’s vision can be fulfilled. It is through the cooperation of the nations that we defeated the Inferi. Through the cooperation of our peoples that we endured the travels from Arcas to Almaris and it is through the efforts of all the virtuous that Iblees’s defeat will be brought about as foretold in the Scroll of Auspice. So too then is it through the efforts of masses of Priests that service to God through the Church can be fulfilled. That His word can be safeguarded and that the Sacraments may be administered and the flocks of Almaris guided by their shepherds. With that said, it is the Archdiocese of Godvinus that is in need of budding Priests. Of Acolytes who wish to devote themselves to this life of humble servitude to the Lord Almighty and to the station of most import, being a shepherd over mankind. It is through the Priest that a settlement can be guided but it is through him and his fellow brothers of cloth that the Church can function and the wheels of the many dioceses can turn. Therefore, we of the administration of this Archdiocese ask those who wish to join us in this blessed mission to approach one of us or correspond with us through letter. It is through the hands of the many that we may endure and it is through the hands of the many that we may serve. VII It is natural with our Coadjutor Bishop being the Abbot of the Wigbrechtians that the Metropolitanate of Providence would be meant to be a great headquarters for their esteemed monastic order. Therefore, it is our pleasure to assist the Wigbrechtian Order in their efforts to find a suitable home for their members stationed in the city of Providence and too look forward to working closely with their members in order to bring about the great charitable efforts which the order has grown famed for. It is our hope that in their devotion to the monastic way of life and the values of humility and altruism that the poor shall be lifted up from their states of poverty and the people of Providence, wealthy or poor will be lifted up in spiritual virtue. We look forward to working alongside you. VIII This is our Archdiocese’s first Bull here in Almaris and I pray that it shall mark a beginning of great progress and acts of great godliness. That it shall spark a sense of virtue and a movement forward. It has been two years since our move here from Arcas to this new continent of His Creation and even after the span of two years, we are still adapting. It is still necessary to get used to this new way of things and it is the Mother Church, filled to the brim with the spiritual Fathers of our Lord’s children that shall help us adapt through the goodness of God. It is in God that all things move and live and have their being and so, it is through God that we shall endure; just as the first of His Creation endured during the assault of Iblees or the virtuous dead in ages to come during the Denier’s final breaths. It is through God that we shall move on and I hope that we may deliver the virtue of God; His love and His care to His most good and godly children. May He bless you all with health, wisdom, and strength and may we all move forwards with the spirit of endurance through the Church. SIGNED WITH THE LOVE OF A FATHER, YOUR SERVANT Fr. Manfried ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ A reminder would be sent alongside the Bull that this is not the equivalent of a Golden Bull issued by the High Pontiff and is instead a Bull sent by the head of a diocese to report on the progress and occurrences within the diocese thereof.

Accepted and assigned to the Archdiocese of Jorenus, the Bishopric of Petrovic (New Reza). Please contact me at _GoldWolf_#9851 over discord. @Papa Liam

Accepted and assigned to the Helena Diocese.

Accepted. Friend me over discord at _GoldWolf_#9851 so we can talk please.

((Specifically looking for Acolytes for the Helena Diocese, as well as any interested in Kaedrin. Archdiocese of Jorenus (Haense) is generally full so a limited number of Acolytes will be sent there. Please join!))

Accepted. I’ll be in contact with you over discord in a bit.

You are accepted. You are accepted. Both of you, please contact me over discord at _GoldWolf_#9851

Accepted. I’ll contact you through discord.

THE ASCENSION TO THE CLOTH Recruitment of a New Generation of Priests With the Permit of the High Pontiff His Holiness James II Overseen by Prelate Manfried Cardinal St. Julia You find yourself enveloped in serene silence as you enter the Basilica of the Final Revelation, the home of the Prelate for the Priesthood. To your surprise, despite the silence, a few parishioners dot the rows of pews, their knees upon the ground and their elbows raised high above the back of the pew before them in prayer. And too, at the altar kneels an aging Priest, joining in prayer along with the laymen behind him. The silence is broken as your footsteps echo throughout the pristine halls of the Basilica, to which the parishioners do not bat an eye, besides the small child who kneels next to his mother, looking to you in some desperate search to end his boredom. As you approach the Father at the altar, he turns at your footsteps, a small smile befalling his once solemn visage as he looks you up and down before rising and moving to receive you. With open arms, a “Brother.” escapes his lips before his hands fall to his sides and a nod is offered. You soon explain to him your wish to join the Priesthood, to which his smile merely brightens with each word. He dips his head once more and with a gesture, he leads you quietly up to the higher levels of the Basilica, to which the distracted child’s gaze merely follows as you depart. Once you sit, you entertain a small conversation with the Priest, one of which great enthusiasm on the part of the ordained man is spoken of in regards to the clergy before he takes up pen and paper and begins to ask you a few questions. “Very well, brother. We shall begin quite simply. What is your name?” {Answer} “And your age?” {Answer} “I know it may be clear, heh, but it is for the sake of records. What race of the descendants are you of?” {Answer} “You are able to read and write, yes?” {Answer} “And with that, are you at all familiar with the Holy Scrolls and Catechism of our Church?” {Answer} “You are of course baptized?” {Answer} “Good, good. Are you married? Do you have children?” {Answer} “In what way of the clergy do you wish to serve? As a Priest, a Monastic?” {Answer} “While this may not be accepted by the Prelate, depending on the needs of the Church, in what Diocese would you prefer to serve in? You can simply name a city or Kingdom.” {Answer} “A rather personal question, why have you chosen to walk this path in God?” {Answer} “And at last, are you truly devoted to this way of life? Prepared to take any vows involved with ordination and commit oneself to this lifetime bond with the Lord Almighty?” {Answer} “Wonderful, then that should be all.” he says as he gestures you out of the office with a smile, “This shall be brought to His Eminence, Manfried. You shall hear word of your acceptance and placement soon enough.” he nods before saying finally, “God bless you.” as you walk out and say so in return. And with that, you depart from the Basilica, awaiting the letter from the Prelate which states your acceptance and diocean assignment. A letter that shall change your life for what you believe will be the better. Credit to @Froschli for the format.

+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ Manfried sat within his office, a pen cradled within his lone hand, held before the page in contemplation of what to write. His gaze was soon drawn from the parchment however as a knock was heard at his door, “It is unlocked!” the Cardinal called, “Do enter!” At that, a young Acolyte entered with no letters or pages of which caused a brow to rise upon Manfried’s visage. Instead, the Acolyte came in with news of which he was soon to tell, “His Excellency, the Coadjutor Bishop of Helena, has departed permanently from the clergy and traveled somewhere afar of which I have not heard the location as of yet.” Cardinal Saint Julia’s left brow soon furrowed, accompanied by his right as he looked to the Acolyte with confusion of which was met with the same from the Acolyte as Manfried sat in silence. Just as Manfried had contemplated what to write on the page, he was now met with even further contemplation. However, soon his face softened and the silence was broke with a, “Thank you, brother. Is that all?” to which the Acolyte nodded and was dismissed by the Cardinal with a, “God bless you.” *** Later that night, after Manfried had made decent progress on the sermon he was writing, the pen slipped from his hand and he leaned back into the chair of his. The office of his had once again succumbed to silence and yet he was surrounded by noisy thoughts. He had received no letter and the only news he was told had been from the young Acolyte who had informed him of Griffith’s absence earlier that evening. And so, Manfried was left with questions alone, of which would perhaps later be answered. With that, he was left to ponder. *** An hour or so later, Manfried had decided he had pondered enough. While he certainly was left with no answers, merely guesses, his mind followed the same line of thought that Pius’s did. He knew that God watched over Griffith in his endeavor and that an action such as this meant something for the future of the Bishop. Of his friend. With that, he wrote no letter, he signed no name, he traveled nowhere (not yet at least). The Cardinal simply slipped his hand down into the bowels of his desk and pulled out a carefully procured bottle of wine. Expensive and tasteful, it had come straight from the vineyards of Ves, aged six years and saved by Cardinal Manfried for company. With that bottle of wine, he pulled out a simple glass. With the cork on the table and the bottle in hand he poured himself some and as he was not one to indulge, it would be the only glass for that night. Wine in hand, he stepped out into the gardens behind the reliquary and stared up at the night sky. He knew the Lord was up there and so too did he know that the Lord watched over Griffith. Manfried took comfort in that small connection they now shared. And so, his lone hand rose and with it the glass. A toast to his friend of who he had shared moments like their many years as friends before the Priesthood, their first journey to the Basilica where they would be inducted as Acolytes, their ordainments, their years as Priests, and their years as Bishop and Cardinal. “May you forever be under God’s light, warmed by it, graced by it, blessed by it. Stay safe, friend.. and God bless you.” he said with a warm smile. And so he took a drink and finished the rest of the glass in the garden as if Griffith was with him, two friends forever connected by God in the Seven Skies. +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+