Church of Nortend

The Cathedral and Abbey Church of St Laurence, commonly known as Sulthey Cathedral, is the seat of the Archbishop of Sulthey, the Primate of Erbonia.

The Church of Nortend is the state church of Great Nortend. It is established under Royal Proclamation and Acts of Parliament, and is considered to be an integral part of the Government of Great Nortend. Though the Archbishop of Sulthey is the most senior clergyman of the church, and is considered to be the Primate of Erbonia, the Sovereign of Great Nortend is by law the Supreme Governour of the Church Mundane, holding the title of Vicar of Christ.

History

Early Christianity

St Laurence is widely credited for the founding of the establishment of the church in Great Nortend in the 8th century. Though Christianity had arrived in the country around the 2nd century AD and converted much of the Ethlorek Hoebric people, the majority of the later influx of pagan Arlethians, the Nords, Sexers and Cardes, had not converted to the religion of the lands they now resided in.

===Early Middle Ages An abbot, canonised as Laurence of Sulthey, was sent as a missionary in 774 by Pope Zachary I to convert Arlethian people from paganism to Christianity. The reigning King of All Norts at the time, Egbert, desired the support of the military power of the Church, permitted Laurence to proselytise the Nords and Cardes of his kingdom though he himself was only baptised on his deathbed in 753 after being mortally wounded by an arrow during battle. Laurence founded Sulthey Cathedral on the Isle of Sulthey in 749, the year which is now generally considered the start of the Roman Catholic church in Great Nortend, and served for over thirty years as the Apostle to All Nortend. His mission was a great success and by the 10th century, most of the Arlethian and Hoebric population had converted to Roman Catholicism.

High Middle Ages

A typical late 12th century manor church. St Renwick's, in Culton, Southannering.

The Church flourished in the High Middle Ages, with numerous churches and chapels being established. By the late 12th century, nearly every manor had at least one church. In Lendert alone, 52 churches had been built by the time the Cathedral of St Peter had been completed in 1272.

Independence from Rome

The pivotal moment in the history of the Church was the declaration of independence from the Bishop of Rome. There had been simmering tensions in Erbonian society in the decades immediately preceeding, with controversy over the taxes payable to the Church and influence from Orthodox Christianity and Old Catholicism, which supported the principles of national autonomous churches.

The Church of Nortend as an independent national church was formally established as the state church with the passing of the Statute of Limmes in 1614 by King Alexander I and the Declaration of Supremacy. This Statute was passed with the consent of the Privy Council and later ratified by the Parliament in 1632. A legend surrounding the declaration relates that the King and the then-Archbishop of Sulthey heard from the Holy Ghost a message prophesising that, “Thy church shall be cloven and set upon the rock of Laurence, and the King shall I make Governour and Vicar over my flock”. The King and Archbishop of Sulthey, after the public assent to the Statute, were excommunicated by the Pope.

The establishment of the Church of Nortend, though widely popular amongst the general population, was not supported by much of the clergy and monastics, who felt it was heretical and contra scriptura. Though loyalists were not initially legally persecuted for their support of the Roman Catholic church, the controversy was, in the early and mid 17th century, increasingly manifested through violence between both sides.

The Acts of Cleaving forming the combined Kingdom of Nortend, Cardoby and Hambria in 1642 established the Church of Nortend as the established church of Hambria as well. Matters came to a head when the 12th Duke of Cardenbridge was captured and hanged by the Abbot and monks of Staithway in 1765. The 13th Duke introduced a Bill into the House of Lords after the death of Alexander I, who had opposed criminalisation, to criminalise allegiance to the Roman Catholic Church, leading to the use of the term 'Cardican' to refer to the Church of Nortend. Under the Act, many clergymen, such as the Bishop of Chepingstow, were executed for refusing to renounce against the Pope and escalated with the trial and execution of the Six Heretics, six clergymen who plotted with the Roman Church to invade Great Nortend and restore the Church in 1670 during the first few years of King William I's reign.

William declared that 'whosoever shall renounce the lawful, established catholick and orthodox Church of this Realm shall be sentenced to hang as a heretic'. He noted in the Carta Ecclesiasticae, or Charter of the Church, that the church before the split was little different to the Church afterwards, save for the removal of the Bishop of Rome as supreme head of the Church, and maintained the Alexanderian view that the Church was 'reformed, catholick and orthodox'.

Establishing a new identity

After the split, a new English bible translation and missal was proposed in Parliament as necessary for cementing the King's identity as the Supreme Mundane Governour of the Church as well as to keep more in-line with general Orthodox thinking which provided for the use of the vernacular. The King James's Bible had been published in 1611, a few years prior to the Declaration of Supremacy. The eventual Cardican authorised version of the Bible was dedicated to St Edmund in 1704 by King Henry V and drew heavily from King James's for inspiration and guidance and was widely accepted.

The publication of the Liturgy in English, however, proved controversial at the time, as the Latin rites of Chepingstow and Sulthey had been in use for many centuries prior and for nearly a century after Independence. A compromise was established between those supporting the vernacular and the more traditional minimalist advocates. The Latin text would be preserved side by side in the new English translations, and remain in use at the discretion of the minister. In practice, this meant that English was only used lessons, readings and chapters. Gradually however, Latin was supplanted by English in the other parts of the liturgy and nowadays only remains in widespread use at the Universities, at certain episcopal services, at ordinations and consistories, and on other certain special occasions occasioning great ceremony.

The Olnite Matter

Since the Establishment of the Church of Nortend, the doctrines of the church had officially little changed from the pre-Independence Catholic doctrines. Beginning in the 17th century, however, there was a growing popularity of Protestant concepts amongst portions of the country that sought to move the Church towards a more Protestant view.

Queen Mary I had through her youth and early reign displayed a Protestant leaning in her faith, declaring the suspension of the initiation of any novices to religious establishments and appointing more protestant bishops. She, however, desired to marry Stuart Oln, the 5th Earl of Scode. Stuart was of the traditionalist branch of the Church of Nortend, and there sprung up two warring factions in Parliament, known as the 'Scodeliers' and the 'Droughers', which supported and opposed the marriage respectively. Ultimately, Mary I married the Earl in 1740 at the age of 27, and the Scodeliers grew to dominate politics and the Church.

Non-conformity

Despite an acceptance of the Church of Nortend as the established church of the realm, religious tensions still simmered under the surface and occasionally came to a boil. The Acts of Allowance in the 18th century permitted for the first time people to establish their own non-conformist 'chapels' for those dissatisfied with the traditionalist, Catholic practices of the Church, and have preachers and teachers so long as they did not proselytise, build buildings that looked like places of worship or threaten social stability. The last provision was used to quietly shut down non-conformist churches that were growing too large and popular, and ultimately resulted in their eventual decline in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Today here are only a number of congregationalist or independent chapelries, each professing support of a particular denomination but otherwise having little national structure or hierarchy.

Doctrine

The doctrine of the Church of Nortend was and is modelled on the traditional teachings of the Roman Catholic Church and Orthodox Church, with modifications especially during the period of the Reformation. These tenets are encapsulated in the Carta Ecclesiasticae, which has forty main points. The main differences between the Catholic and Cardican churches are, the belief in the Holy Mysteries, of the requirement for private confession of sins, and of clerical chastity, and the requirement for all that is said to be able to be understood by the people. Other differences, as noted in other denominations such as Lutheranism and Anglicanism, such as the rejection of the devotion to Mary, and of the sacraments of matrimony, communion, unction and holy orders, are not seen in the Church of Nortend. The Church adheres to the doctrine of the virgin birth of Jesus, however not to the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of Mary.

The Church of Nortend, unlike some more liberal churches, is highly conservative in social matters. It holds as doctrine that only husband shall carnally know only his wife, and vice versa. It prohibits the ordination of women, and of the presence of women behind the rood screen. Women are not permitted to speak in a church, except the Queen, and are only permitted to sing in the congregation and to say the responses.

In relation to scientific fields, the Church is more accepting of new ideas. The concept of evolution on the macro-scale however remains highly controversial. Whilst the story of creation is seen as literal, the Church does not completely find this repugnant to the theory of evolution.

Structure

The Archbishop of Limmes, the Most Reverend John Williams

Language

The main language of the liturgy as conducted in normal churches, cathedrals and chapels is English.

Latin is more senior official language of the Church, however, has declined in use. It remains used in the monastic offices. This occurs in monasteries, convents and abbeys regularly. Latin in these cases are used for the entire service and there is no singing or participation from the congregation.

It is more common that in services otherwise conducted in English, those portions sung solely by choir are in Latin. During Mattins and Evensong, the anthem is usually the only thing sung solely by them, whilst during the Communion, it is common that the Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Agnus Dei and responses (Gradual, Alleluia and Tracts) are sung only by the choir, at least on more solemn or festal occasions.

The three universities and most common and independent schools maintain the sole use of Latin and indeed on occasion, Ancient Greek.

Liturgy

In accordance with the Canons of the Church, the Church of Nortend formally recognises and prescribes the eight monastic hours of Nocturns (Night prayer), Mattins (Early morning prayer, also known as Lauds), Prime (Morning prayer), Terce (Late morning prayer), Sext (Noon prayer), None (Afternoon prayer), Vespers (Evening prayer) and Compline (Retiring prayer). Whilst this breviary is mandated for daily recital for clergymen and regulars, only three services are ordered in the Book of Liturgy for non-monastic or collegiate churches, which are Mattins, Terce and Vespers. They are formed from the simplification and condensation of individual offices; Nocturns, Mattins, Prime and Terce being merged into 'Mattins', and Sext, None, Vespers and Compline being merged into 'Vespers'.

Essentially no secular parish celebrates all eight hours daily, and only the largest towns have the ability and congregation numbers to celebrate even Mattins and Vespers daily. Indeed, it is generally the practice in most town and rural parishes that the parson or minister will celebrate Mattins, the Litany and Ante-communion on Sunday, with Vespers on Saturday, and Mattins on Wednesday. Of course, on days where the law compels attendance, every service is often filled with throngs.

On Sundays, Mattins is likely to be held early in the morning, followed by the Litany, and then the ante-communion service. On the first Sunday of a month, full communion is usually held, as well as on high feasts. By law, Mattins, Ante-communion and the Litany must finish before high noon.

Music

The Church of Nortend has a rich and long history of both choral and congregational singing and chants. Most parish churches maintain a vested choir of boys and men which provide choral singing and chant during services. This is typically accompanied by a pipe or reed organ, or sometimes a band of musicians, a quartet or orchestra.

The quire of the Cathedral of St Peter, Lendert-with-Cadell, looking towards the Chancel.

It is the tradition that all services are sung through, except in Lent wherein on Sunday services are sung. Even in parishes without a choir, congregational singing is considered a very important skill, which is helped by weekly practice. In a traditional service in accordance with the Book of Liturgy, almost everything other than the sentences, prayers and readings are sung in either simple monophonic chant or the more complex harmonic Cardican chant. Each service has a set of traditional hymns proper to the day and office which are sung to chant. These may be supplemented or in some cases, replaced, by more modern hymns printed in hymnals, which are sung in a more typical hymnal fashion.

Mattins and Vespers also both have provision for anthems, which are sung by the choir.