Religion in Tagmatium
Religion in Tagmatium has been dominated for over 1,700 years by Christianity in various forms and it is the state religion of the Greater Holy Empire of Tagmatium. The Emperor Methodianos adopted Christianity as his personal religion soon after he became sole emperor in 307, ending the crises of the previous century. He then took steps to promote Christianity although it was not until the reign of Valentianos I, in 383, that Christianity became the state religion of the Aroman Empire with the Edict of Matapon. Since then, Christianity has been the majority religion of Tagmatium, although the exact denomination has differed over time, as often varying emperors promoted the branch of the faith that held most true to them. The upheaval of the Enlightenment saw the Catholic Church and Orthodox Church, which had been most common in the south and north of the country respectively, driven from Tagmatium, with much of the hierarchy exiled. In its place, the Enlightened Aroman Church was installed as the dominant Christian denomination in the nation, which has remained the case since then. The most recent census, in 2019, showed that 95% (roughly 240 million) of the population of Tagmatium identified as Christian and 95% of that number, some 228 million, hold to the Enlightened Aroman Church.
It replaced various forms of religion, including the Aroman Imperial Cult, the Aromano-Laimiaic pantheon, Peninsular Laimiaic ancestor worship, Spectan nature spiritualism and more. The dominant form of Christianity in Tagmatium is the Enlightened Aroman Church, which drove out and replaced the other forms of Christianity during the Enlightenment in the late 600s. The religious affliations of the Tagmatine people are recorded by regular surveys, with the main official one being undertaken by the Holy Imperial Government every ten years. Until the mid 20th Century, there was also the implication of belonging to the state religion when it came to the definition of Aroman citizenship.
The next largest religious groups are the Catholic Christians, Coptic Christians and Orthodox Christians. These groups are mainly in the south of the country, although most cities and large towns have small populations of these religious minorities. Arome and Dymafos, as ancient centres of Christianity, are known to have especially large religious minorities from the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. The Orthodox Church, mainly in the form of the Suverinian Orthdox Church, is the largest, with 5 million adherents, followed by 4 million Coptic Christians and 3 million Catholics. A population of Gerenian Christians, at about 500,000, is focused on the northern port of Trapezon, as well as in the region of Kleisourakon. This number is estimated to have increased in the wake of the Cussian Crisis, as deportees were settled in Tagmatium but no official estimations have been made public by the Holy Imperial Government yet. Other Christian communities, such as those from the Amendentist churches, represent expatriate communities and number roughly 2 million altogther.
A small percentage of the Tagmatine population states itself to be either irreligious or Atheist, usually estimated to be around 1% or 3 million. Although the Holy Imperial Government guarantees religious freedom to its citizens, the irreligious or Atheist often suffer from some degree of discrimination. It is, however, stated to be illegal by the Tagmatine government. Other religious communities include a Yehudan community of roughly 1 million and a Salam community of 1 million, which are focussed mainly in the larger ports and cities of Tagmatium. Other groups include various religious groups from Orioni and other non-Christian nations from around the wurld, as well as Pagan groups that profess to follow differing pre-Christian religions originating within the Aroman Empire, and these all amount to around 6 million in total. The largest of the latter are the followers of the cult of the Unconquered Sun, orgininating in Kirvina, with roughly 4 million followers. However, there are smaller groups in other parts of Tagmatium, especially in more isolated areas. It is suggested that some of these have been able to resist conversion attempts for one and a half thousand years.
