- British Christianity is native to the island, established by immigrants four centuries ago. It has bishops and abbots, but no single figure rules over all of them. Their local kings or noblemen appoint these important leaders, who in turn are loyal to their regional lords.
- The Roman Church is part of a hierarchy that takes its orders from Rome, so the pope determines its bishops. The Roman Christian Church in Logres has one supreme churchman, the Archbishop of Carlion, a Cymric, Dubricus by name; there are also a dozen or so abbots of great houses.
Churchmen are not considered noble unless they are also landlords, which is not uncommon. Many noble families have made land grants to churches or abbeys, which in turn supply knights in the usual feudal manner.
Core Beliefs
Two types of Christianity are practiced. One is ancient, having been established in the first century A.D. by Joseph of Arimathea. It is called British Christianity. The second is derived from distant Rome, and is called Roman Christianity. Both types of Christianity share the most important beliefs and have more in common with each other than do the many forms of paganism practiced in the lands outside of Logres.
Differences and Similarities
The British Church has a flavor of its own, due in part to its early adaptation of local druidic beliefs. Evidence of this is found in the unusual tonsure adopted by the monks. In the Roman method, the top of the head is shaved (in the famous “Friar Tuck” style). But with the British method, the front of the head, from ear to ear, is shaved, leaving only a forelock.
Another major difference involves the question of authority. The British church feels that abbots, who oversee monasteries, are more important than bishops, who exist primarily to appoint new priests. Also, for the British Church, the local kings appoint both the abbots and bishops. The Romans accept only the authority of Rome to appoint their bishops, who have authority over the local abbots.
In the British Church, a monastery is always associated with a tribe or clan, and the abbacy is inherited by descendants of that family. The leader is called a coarb, and he acts in every way as both a temporal and an ecclesiastical leader for the holding. The coarb might be an abbot or bishop; however, his loyalty is not to a church hierarchy, but to the local clan or tribe that originally granted the land.
Most importantly, there is a dispute between the British and Roman Churches as to the date for Easter. The rationales behind this dispute are far too esoteric to go into here, but since Easter is the most important holy day for both churches, this dispute is prominent in the friction.
Finally, Pelagianism and Semi-Pelagianism dispute many points of the new dogma of Rome. Key points held by the Pelagians are that every person has a free will, and every person, pagan or Christian, is responsible for his own conduct; that mankind was not cursed by Original Sin and, hence, is inherently good; that every man has a right to be wrong; and that baptism is not necessary for salvation. Also, there is a stress on clerical poverty and social justice. All these things are denied by Roman dogma.
Yet although Christianity has not cemented itself into a single unitary church, and despite these differences, it unifies all of Britain and indeed western humanity against most other religions. It is, in fact, one of the two factors that unify all European peoples (the other being the feudal system). A person can travel from Ireland in the west to Anatolia in the east, and from Germany in the north to Spain in the south, and in every place he stops he will find the same belief in the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus Christ, even though the ceremonies, holy days, and certain aspects of morality may differ.