Book 4, Chapter 4: Matters Of Faith
According to the Catholic doctrine of Papal Supremacy, the Pope has full, supreme and universal power over the whole Church, by virtue of his office as Vicar of Christ and as the pastor of the entire Catholic Church.
The scriptural roots of this doctrine are found in the Christian Bible, specifically the section known as the Confession of Peter, recorded in Matthew 16, where Peter acknowledges Jesus as the Messiah and the Son of God, and Jesus instills in him the authority over the Church as Jesus’ successor, a mantle to which the subsequent popes of Rome are successors in turn.
Historically, during the first few centuries of the Christian Church, there was no central authority; doctrine was decided by consensus at councils convened by Byzantine Emperors, although some of those councils did acknowledge that the Roman Church was “head of all Churches” in a manner that made them first among equals as opposed to a legal head. It was only in the late 6th to early 8th centuries that the Byzantine hold on the Roman bishops was reduced and weakened, allowing the Roman popes to fully assert their authority over the western half of the Church as its head, even as they broke with the imperial Byzantine remnants of the Roman Empire. The Popes first gained support from the Frankish rulers, especially the Frankish king Pepin the Short, who ceded to the Roman Popes the Italian territories that would later become the Papal States. Later, Pope Leo III’s coronation of Charlemagne—done partially in response to and in protest against the ascension of Irene of Athens to the Byzantine imperial throne—further bolstered the Roman Church’s separation from the Byzantine Emperors by giving them a supportive secular authority.
From here, the trend towards increased centralization around the Pope of Rome continued, accelerating with the coming of the Dragon Mail of Berk in the mid-1000s, when the Roman Church began to assert its authority over investiture—the ability to choose and install bishops, abbots, and even the Pope himself into their high Church offices. Due to the decentralized nature of the Church in the preceding centuries, this had been the prerogative and privilege of secular nobility and royalty...
—Papal Supremacy (n.d.) In Wikikenna. Retrieved February 17, 1862
Tropes that appear in this chapter:
- Content Warnings:Chapter Trigger Warnings: Explicit single use of antisemitic slur
- Culture Clash: The Norse priests from Uppsala are surprised that Gothi is willing to just share her teachings with them, and that those teachings are written down.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Taskill is baffled that he is treated humanely in spite of being an enemy captive.
- Hypocrite: Pope Benedict has a whole stable of women even though technically, clerics are supposed to remain celibate, but it doesn't stop him from censuring other clergy over it.
- Irony: The Christian Pope is successfully exerting more authority on the French Churches through the use of the Dragon Mail, which is controlled by Norse Pagans. Duke William's courtiers are very much aware of the irony.
- Noodle Incident: Roger de Montgomery said something to Duke William's dragon Mjolnir that he hopes the dragon understands was just a joke.
- Obnoxious In-Laws: Eshter's former in-laws do not like her, not forgiving her for laughing during Dan's and their son's funeral.
- Realpolitik: Pope Benedict is making a lot of power plays to assert his authority:
- He censures Norman clergymen for not being celibate, never mind that this has been the situation for a long time, the Pope himself is also in violation of that rule, but no one is censuring him for it.
- He has appointed many lessor offices around Paris with his own appointments, with no apparent input from King Henry.
- He has sent his brother to be the Archbishop of the extremely recently formed Primate of Eire and Alba. Hakon doesn't believe this is done solely for giving the local Christians more priests of their own, being suspicious of the timing.
- The Reveal: Taskill, Alvin and Delilah were all once students under King Cnut's spymaster before Alvin and Delilah escaped and Taskill fell into disfavour as a result of failing to stop them.
- Ridiculous Exchange Rates: Berk's easy access to dragon scales means that it is not as valuable to them as it is to areas without such easy access, leading to unusual exchange rates to reflect the large disparity in value. Case in point, Eshter's regular payments to her former in-laws to pay off the mohar, by Eshter's own accounting, is still outstanding. By her former in-laws accounting, she has almost paid double what she had to pay.
- Speaks Fluent Animal: William is able to pick up some of what Mjolnir is saying.
- Sword Beam: Hiccup has figured out a trick for flinging his sword Inferno's fire at a distance.
- Torture Always Works: Norway doesn’t believe this if this quote is anything to go by.Norway had a law against torture for testimony, as it didn’t provide good statements.
