Bluesqueak wrote:thanatos wrote:True.
And yet the Church will not have the ability to silence the Inner Circle by brute force, and as the Circle grows (which it will) and as the "Seijins" move upon the world in an effort to push various realms in the proper direction, no amount of moral standing will help to silence the voice of true heresy to the Church's doctrine. Nor do I think the Church will resolve all its internal financial issues even in 15-20 years, so as to be able to pull same sort of muscle it could before. I also think that the Church will no longer be able to completely restore the trust it had prior to the Jihad, even when the big reveal occurs. Though I still think that they need to prepare the ground for "alternative narratives" of the "creation" and the War Against the Fallen. It seems that this is where RFC is going with the "Lost Testament of Schueler" - Perhaps accompanied by the publication of many more "free thinking" books by authors that no longer need to worry about the church declaring their book heretical because they cause the readers to think or present a story that contravenes the Story of Creation.
It won't have the ability to silence the Inner Circle, true. But what it will have done is convinced a lot of Safeholdians that the true church had simply been hijacked by Clyntahn.
Remember, on Safehold Creation isn't a story. It's history. Documented history, with thousands of eyewitness accounts. Alternative narratives will basically need to explain why this documented, true history isn't 'true'; that's going to be difficult in the face of a Mother Church that has reclaimed its reputation as a holy, truthful church.
The bright side is that there clearly are available holes in the Safeholdian world view that can be used to convince people of the truth - because almost everyone presented with the real truth goes 'Oh, that explains a lot.' They don't like the loss of their faith, but the way RFC presents it, the genuine truth is simply a much better fit to the real world than the fake truth.
I'm not so sure Duchairn is willing or even able to divorce the Church from Clyntahn so cleanly or completely, especially when Clyntahn used the devoutness and faith of many, both within the Church and among the laity, to launch this war and commit such atrocities. Do you really think Duchairn or any group of devout clergyman will be able to say "the Jihad wasn't Mother Church's fault - It was all that vile Clyntahn's doing"? Especially since I am mortally certain that Charis will insist, as part of the peace settlement, that the Church as an institution and as part of its reforms accept responsibility for its failure to stop Clyntahn and for turning a deaf eye to all the suffering the Inquisition did "in God's name". Just look at all the measures Germany has taken since WWII to make amends for the crimes of Nazism (they do not allow Germans to forget their shameful past). Charis will have this template in OWL's records and a desire to force it on the Church.
As it is, I wonder if after sufficient time has past, a group of truly devout vicars might coalesce within the Church in opposition to Duchairn's willingness to allow certain innovations that are hurting their parishioners. That they demand from Duchairn that he roll back some of the attestations for various innovations because they feel Mother Church has paid her dues and must now reassert itself as "God's bride" in the world. And they won't care that Duchairn's will only extends to the Temple Lands and that many of their mainland allies are less than willing to comply with such a demand. I can easily imagine them telling Duchairn (and themselves) that they need only do their part and God will provide the rest. After all, Clyntahn had managed to convince himself that to get the miracle he expected God to provide to him personally (because he is God's champion after all), the Church needed to prove itself worthy.