Apostolic Church (Eurth)

the Nicolaitan Church, also referred to as the Marianite Church or the Rosicrucian Church, and known to its communicants variously as the Remonstrant Church, the Apostolic Church, or the Catholic Church, is a Christian church on Eurth. It is the established religion in Isenheim, and the Church in Isenheim is the mother polity of the global communion, which consists otherwise of a number of regionally and nationally organized missionary dioceses. The Archbishop of Granstad, Primate of the Church in Isenheim and the ruler of the country, is also ordinary of the Nicolaitan Church.

The textual foundations of the Nicolaitan Church are the Bible and the Dogmaticon, which it holds contain the essential teachings of the Church that are required for salvation. The Nicolaitan Church teaches that it is a remnant of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church personally established by Jesus Christ and that it is infallible insofar as it repeats the truths revealed by Christ and doctrinally defined by the Apostles and the Fathers of the Church. It teaches that continuing infallibility in matters of faith and morals was lost to the Church as a result of the diarchic compromise of papal authority by the Iveric-Salvian Catholic Church, holding that there can be only one successor to Saint Peter.

The Church recognizes seven sacraments, and teaches that these sacraments, validly instituted in The Iveric-Salvian Church among others, are the manifestation of the visible church "against which the gates of hell will not prevail" and through which eternal life is made possible, despite the loss of infallibility and the visible papacy. The Church teaches that the greatest of these sacraments is the Eucharist, bread and wine which, in the sacramental union, becomes the actual body and blood of Jesus Christ. The Eucharist is the focal point of the Mass, the communal liturgical ritual of the Church, which is modeled closely on the Latin Rite of the Iveric-Salvian Church and celebrated by a minister ordained via laying of hands by a Bishop, under the principle of apostolic succession.

The Nicolaitan Church teaches that salvation is achieved by the Grace of God alone and that, as a result of original sin, man is totally depraved and unable to truly respond to God's call, but that through prevenient grace we are given the ability to freely choose the path of righteousness. In addition, the Church teaches that the saints, particularly the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Christ and Mediatrix of All Graces, having been purified of the stain of original sin, may properly be addressed with intercessionary prayers and venerated with the aim of increasing devotion to Christ.

The Nicolaitans are unique in advocating the direct, secular authority of bishops as not only acceptable, but as a necessary and fundamental part of the gospel message. As a result, they have often faced persecution from hostile governments outside of Isenheim, one of the main reasons for the Church's failure to attract a significant international following.