Christianity in Astyria

JESUS, EVERYONE. JESUS EVERYWHERE.

History

Arrival in Hesperidesia

In 64 AD, the Great Fire of Rome caused the Christian population of the city to become the targets of horrific attacks, having become the scapegoats of the Emperor Nero. In 66AD, after two years of intense persecution, a large fleet of refugees took to the the seas, hoping to find a safe haven beyond the pillars of Hercules. After two years at sea, stopping sporadically to pick up fresh food and water, the refugee fleet finally made landfall in a a land they proclaimed as "Hesperidesia", or the Land of the Hesperides. the initial landing was made around the area of modern day Paradise City, and it is here and in the surrounding areas that some of the oldest Roman ruins can be found.

Westward expansion

Southern Teudallum

Christianity arrived in Cadenza before it reached the rest of Trellin, brought by Roman refugees from Hesperidesia in 69 or 70 AD. The new religion was popular among the Cadenzans, and it became the island's majority religion no later than 85 AD. Christian missionaries from Cadenza, such as Saint Misrav, journeyed to Kur'zhet and the Trellinese and Hyseran mainland over the following centuries. In 122, the first Trellinese monarch - King Duder - converted to Christianity, though the faith did not achieve the same traction it had in Cadenza.

In 308, Christian missionaries arrived at the court of Duke Josev of Harimat. Although many of his people had already converted, it was his first encounter with missionaries, and they read him passages from the Gospels as they attempted to convert him. When they came to Matthew 27:57, Josev reportedly sat in stunned silence at the introduction of Joseph of Arimathea. The duke was struck by the similarity of his own name that of his duchy to this biblical figure and, inspired, he agreed to be baptised.

Valkea

Viking explorers first landed in Valkea in 1216, establishing settlements along the coast. Referred to as the Vikalki by the indigenous peoples of Valkea, they founded trading posts such as Dagsmark and Sorvisto which became the first footholds of Christianity. However, Christianisation efforts did not really begin until the middle of the 13th century.

Hindia Belanda

Main article: Church of Hindia Belanda

A statue of Jesus Christ as an Anjanian King, circa 1489. The fusion of local cultural element in Christian missionary efforts helped accelerate the spread of Christianity in Hindia Belanda.

Christianity first reached the islands that make up modern-day Hindia Belanda in the early 15th century, when Exponential expeditions moored their ships for the first time at Anjani, a port city and capital of the Anjani Empire. Following an agreement between the Anjanian King and the Exponential expedition, the first Catholic mission was built within Fort Tolokko, one of the first Exponential forts in the archipelago. Initial Christianisation efforts were feeble and hindered by frequent incursions of Hyangist militias who defended small settlements from Christian influence.

In 2007, a piece of andesite stela was unearthed at Bawah Raung Archaeological Site, bearing an inscription in Anjanian:

"... “Sembah kawula Diah Mariah kekasihing Hyang, Kawula tiyang pendosa, sami nuwun pangestudalem-ka samangkalhuwa, tuwin wharaka nua dulilihana kalauha'lani”"

"... Hail Mary, full of Grace, the Lord is with thee, pray for us sinners, now and at the time of our death"

The stela is carbon-dated to around 1403 and is believed to be part of an early, rudimentary chapel built by newly-converted Anjanian Catholics at the time. It is one of the earliest evidence of Christianity in Hindia Belanda, but references to Christianity and Judaism had already found their way to the island through Esoteric Shia scriptures by the 11th century.

The first Hindia Belandan ruler who converted to Christianity was Raden Kalu'awardana, the petty king of Bawah Raung, a vassal state of the Anjani Empire. He took the name of Bawakristus following his baptism in 1518 and formally supported the construction of Catholic missions in his petty kingdom, from where Exponential missionaries began to spread Catholicism to the rest of the Anjani Island. By the 1540s, almost thirty years after the Anjani Revolts, there were as many as 8,000 Catholics on the island of Anjani. Despite their large numbers, the early Anjanian Catholics were only nominally Christian, and old animist and Hyangist beliefs continued to play a significant role even after many had converted to Christianity. Christian concepts such as the original sin and incarnation were the most difficult for the Anjanians to embrace since they contradicted Austronesian folk beliefs that were still prevalent in Anjanian society at the time. Indeed, these Austronesian beliefs still provide a strong spiritual undercurrent in Hindia Belandan society even today.

Whilst missionary efforts proved successful on the island of Anjani, Exponential missionaries faced difficulties in spreading the religion to other islands, where Hyangism remained very strong even as late as the early 1600s. Ultimately, Exponential Catholic missionaries had little success in spreading Catholicism to the rest of the archipelago, despite intensive efforts. The defeat of the Exponents at the hands of the Noordenstaater Trading Company enabled Noordenstaater missionaries to diminish Catholic influence in the former Exponential settlements. With Exponential control on the region eroding, the Noordenstaaters were able to quickly take over many settlements and establish additional trading posts and small settlements. Christianisation of the animists and Hyangists resumed under the Noordenstaater Trading Company, whose missionaries ventured into more remote areas. The Roman Catholic kingdom of Bawah Raung converted to Lutheranism in 1690, marking a period of intense spread of the Lutheran faith in the archipelago. As most islands in the southern, western and northern parts of the archipelago had converted to Esoteric Shi'ism prior to the arrival of the Exponents, evangelisation efforts were limited to the eastern islands.

Schism

Great Nortend

Main article: Church of Nortend

Through the 16th century, the Church faced increasing conflict with the king of Great Nortend over the exercise of temporal power by the Pope. Thomas Akeep, who was appointed Provost of Sulthey, railed against the ideas of ultramontanism and attempted to assert the temporal primacy of the King. He, along with the major chapter of Sulthey Cathedral, published the Declaration of Sulthey in 1540, consisting of four articles.

1. The Church only has power over matters spiritual, and the King therefore is not subordinate to the Church in temporal matters and thus cannot be deposed by the Church nor can his vassals freed from their oaths thereby.
2. The judgment of the Pope is not absolute in matters spiritual without the consent of the councils and bishops.
3. Exercise of the Church's power must be done in accordance with the canons established by the Holy Ghost through the received customs and traditions.
4. The King has the right to call councils and with their consent make laws concerning ecclesiastical matters and the Pope's bulls and letters may not be promulgated without their consent and that of the King.

Though the Declaration did not necessarily amount to heresy and outlined a generally Orthodox point of view, in 1534 Clement VII refused the appointment of Thomas Akeep to the See of Chepingstow, to hold office as the Lord High Chancellour. Despite being a relatively obscure pamphlet, this decision resulted in its wide promulgation in print, leading to the growth of stronger tensions throughout the Kingdom and calls for reform.

From 1545 to 1563, Erbonian prelates attended the Council of Trent but there was no effective reform coming. Over the next fifty years, various reformist sects developed advocating for more and more extreme reformation along Protestant lines. Finally in 1614, the Manfarham Proclamation was issued by Alexander I, followed by the Statute of Limmes later that year and the Statute of Supremacy in 1615. These Statutes established the Church of Nortend fully independent from the See of Rome and were passed with the consent of the Privy Council and later ratified by the Parliament in 1632.

A legend surrounding the proclamation relates that the King and the then-Archbishop of Sulthey heard from the Holy Ghost in a dream commanding that, “Thine house shall be cloven and We shall make thee/thy Lord Our Governour and Vicar over Our flock”. The King and Archbishop of Sulthey, after public assent to the Statute, were excommunicated by the Pope. The Statutes referred to the Declaration and upheld them as compatible with full independence from Rome. 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 Albish Magnanimous Revolution in 1665 led to the flight of Edmund III, the then Albish King of the House of Oln to Great Nortend. He was recognised and received by Alexander I and made the Earl of Scode, of the important Castle of Scode in Barminstershire. He gained influence at Court and introduced a true Lutheranism to the Church already receptive to Protestantism. Matters came to a head when the 12th Duke of Cardenbridge was captured and hanged by the Loyalist Abbot and monks of Staithway in 1668. The 13th Duke introduced a Bill into the House of Lords after the death of Alexander I who had opposed criminalisation later that year, to criminalise allegiance to the Pope, leading to the use of the term 'Cardican' to refer to the Church of Nortend. Under the Act, many clergymen, including the Pope's appointee as 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 Pope to invade Great Nortend and restore the Church in 1670 during the first few years of King William I's reign.

Despite the move to Lutheranism, relations between Great Nortend and Albeinland deteriorated over the reception of Edmund III. The outbreak of war between the Empire of Exponent and Albeinland exacerbated the hostility to Albeinland, despite the Empire's overt Catholicism. After the war, increasing trade with the Empire and its Occidentes Province (now the Auroran Confederacy) began a slow reversal of the Church of Nortend's leanings as a Catholic Renaissance developed at Court and through society. Notably, the Bishop of Rockingham sensationally converted to the Roman Church, leading to the recreation of the historical Bishopric of Corring.

With the development of a new stop-over in Noordenstaat trade with Great Nortend by the Empire declined until it practically ceased by 1710. The Catholic dominance at Court declined significantly. At the same time, here was a growing popularity of Protestant theology amongst some intellectuals and reformists who sought to move the Church towards a more Protestant leaning.

Their cause received the tacit support of Queen Mary, who had through her youth and early reign displayed a reformist leaning in her faith, declaring the suspension of the initiation of any novices to religious establishments and appointing more protestant-leaning bishops. She, however, desired to marry Charles de Oln, the 5th Earl of Scode and great-grandson of Edmund III. Stuart was of the traditional 'Roman Catholic' branch of the Church of Nortend. This naturally led to controversy and there sprung up two opposing factions in Parliament, known as the 'Scodeliers' and the 'Droughers', which supported and wished to 'draw apart', viz. 'drougher', the marriage respectively. Ultimately, Mary rebuffed the Droughers and wed the Earl of Scode in 1742 at the age of 27. Thenceforth, the Scodelier faction grew to dominate the Church of Nortend and effectively killed off any widespread desire or movement for Protestantism.

Crusades

Hesperidesian Crusades

Main article: Hesperidesian Crusades

Kur'zheti Crusades

Main article: Kur'zheti Crusades

Azmiri Crusade

Main article: Azmiri Crusade