Jean Durupt:
> On another subject, we can model the Rokari with
> medieval Europe.
Why should we? (I'm mostly being obnoxious, Jean)
> In the Roman Catholic church, there are three sorts
> of religious personnel:
> - - the monks who take the vow of celibacy (no sex)
> - - the priest who may not be married
> - - the deacons who may be married (not after they are
> ordained)
And in the Rokari church I'm envisioning, there are four sorts of
Wizards:
- -Lay Wizards. The guys who help out the "priests" (deacons?), clerks,
scribes, doctors, litigants, magicians-for-hire, sundry academics,
etc. These guys CAN marry, but may (as all other Wizards, but in
opposition to the other castes) IN NO WAY have sex outside of
marriage. As among all other Wizard caste members, Celibacy is seen
as a pious thing, and as they do not follow hereditary occupations
they will usually be expected to stay unmarried and Pure.
- -Members of the Holy Orders. They in 99% of the cases have to stay
unmarried, and thus cannot have sex without breaking their basic
caste vows. The reason is piety, but ALSO the fact that since they
are expected to spend most of their time working for their Order,
they do not have time to raise a family Correctly.
- -"Priests" - the parish Wizards, who conduct services and educate the
Farmers, and Chaplains, who serve Lords as well as Knights, on duty
as well as in their homes. These guys have more or less hereditary
jobs, and are SUPPOSED to produce an heir, as much as their Knightly
and Peasantly parishoners. Thus they OUGHT TO be married, of course
to a Lady of the Wizard Caste with the same status as them (and not
the daughter of some lowly Lay Wizard). Of course, they are expected
to take Vows of Celibacy and stay in a Platonic relationship with
their faithful wife as soon as they have produced enough sons
(daughters being an extra option).
- -Ecclesiastical Lords - Archbishops and Bishops, who really are
Lords (no, a lowly Wizard can in no ways become a Bishop - do you
make Knights into KINGS in your country as well - horrrible!),
not Wizards. They are simply a mega-version of the "priests" above,
but in their case producing a heir is even MORE important ("Imaging,
my dear, the day when someone else than a Garney holds the Bishopric
of Garney! The shame, the shame....") and finding a lady
appropriate to your status even more difficult.
Except for the fourth groups, moving through the various types in
your life is quite possible - many Wizards spend a year or two EITHER
in a monastery (as a novice of a Holy Order) OR at a University (as a
student, ie Lay Wizard). And of course, usually only the eldest son
of a hereditary service will inherit it from his father! The other
guys generally end up as monks or friars, or as Lay Wizards.
> > So we can still have an hereditary caste of wyzards, > many will
be deacons and not priests. >
Just out of curiosity (being Lutheran), what's the rate in RW
Catholic church of deacons vis-a-vis priests?
Erik (with a "k", my dear fellows - making it "Eric" opens up the
possibility of even more God Switches) Sieurin