ACI Assessment of The Roman Papacy

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------ Assessment of The Roman Papacy ------


Late Antiquity

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St. Peter's Basilica

The Vatican Primacy grounds its identity in the historical legacy of the Roman Papacy, claiming direct descendent from Catholic Church precursor organizations that once ruled over the veiled world. While the history of the Auctoritas Imperata is well-documented, few details are known regarding Papal groups of interest that preceded it.

Papal interest in anomalous phenomena dates back to the collapse of the Roman Empire and the pre-modern containment organization known as the Vanguard of Hercules. Initially dedicated to honoring and serving the Roman gods, the ascension of Emperor Constantine created internal divisions between Christian and pagan factions. Constantine's reported vision of seeing the chi-rho (⳩) symbol marked on the Sun before winning at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312 led many Vanguard soldiers to attribute his victory to an anomalous power. Emperor Julian's reformation of the Vanguard as a pagan defense force in 331 failed to reverse these trends.

A new Vanguard of Christ was formed under Emperor Theodosius in 347, though the division of the Roman Empire limited its influence in Western Europe. Sources suggest the Vanguard transitioned into a pre-modern agency of interest for the Byzantine Empire, playing an essential role in enforcing church doctrine passed by the first seven ecumenical councils.1 While many details of the Vanguard's history still remain unknown, records indicate the organization eventually eventually adopted Orthodox positions and broke communion with the Church of Rome during the Photian Schism in 863.

Middle Ages

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Lateran Palace, Headquarters of the Sacred Military

The Bishopric of Rome began accumulating more political and sovereign authority due to Byzantine forces largely abandoning the Italian Peninsula due to constant pagan and Arian2 barbarian invasions from northern Italy and Africa. The ratification of a security alliance between the Holy See and the Frankish Kingdom resulted in the establishment of the Papal States of the Church in 756.

The Sacred Military of the Lateran Palace, a pre-modern AoI of the Papal States, was formed to protect and defend the Bishop of Rome from spirits and monsters roaming the countryside due to Greco-Roman sorcery and the collapse of the Vanguard. Notable actions taken by the military include:

  • Defending the Exarchate of Ravenna from Arian barbarian raiders in 772.
  • Assisting the papal navy commanded by Pope John VIII capture a pirate base threatening the Italian coastline in 876.
  • Repelling an anomalous invasion by the Aghlabid Empire during the Raid on Rome in 869.

Despite these early successes, the Sacred Military suffered a massive defeat when the Norman army captured Pope Leo IX at the Battle of Civitate in 1053. Internal divisions caused by the tumultuous pontificates of Pope Benedict IX were exacerbated by Pope Gregory VII's reforms, which resulted in the excommunication of the Holy Roman Emperor, who proceeded to attack Rome and disband the Sacred Military. German witch-hunting groups gained control of various anomalies at this time.

Pope Urban II's declaration of the First Crusade caused an explosion of several anomalous military orders, such as the Angeli Plagam Eden3 and the Ordo Veri Crucis, some of which were later integrated into the RPC Authority as mobile specialized teams. The development of the anomalous capabilities of the Papacy during the Crusades marked the beginning of the era of the Auctoritas.

Auctoritas Era

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The Vatican Obelisk4 was contained St Peter's Square by the Auctoritas.

The first attempt at a papal containment organization was the Auctoritas Ecclesiastica Prima5 formed by Pope Innocent III at the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215. A branch of the papal inquisition, the intention of starting this first Auctoritas precursor was to centralize the vast network of anomalous military orders under the authority of the Pope.

The Auctoritas Ecclesiastica notably oversaw the successful inquisition of the Albigensian Crusade where several Cathar anomalies that had killed thousands of people were successfully contained and neutralized by the organization, including the leaders of the Cathar movement themselves. The Auctoritas also provided military assistance to the Outremer States6 against Islamic forces and the Latin Empire against Greek mercenaries.

During the Avignon Papacy, the Occultus Animus Inceptum was formed by the Council of Vienne in 1307 in response to the alleged Satanic infiltration of the Knights Templar. The Initiative was tasked with the personal defense and protection of the Pope in the Apostolic Palace and the rest of the Papal States, destroying any supernatural anomalies that could threaten the Papacy and protecting the holy relics of "God and St. Peter."

As the Auctoritas gradually became a personal army of the Pope, deposing the Hohenstaufen Dynasty and intervening in the Aragonese Crusade, members of the organization who felt more loyal to their secular monarchs than the Bishop of Rome began demanding regional autonomy. Internal divisions paralyzed the Auctoritas's response to the fall of the Crusader States. Future attempts by the organization to retake the Holy Land failed as they lacked sufficient support from European nobles.

As a result of the Western Schism, the Auctoritas splintered into three organizations after three different people claimed to be the legitimate Pope.7 The resulting chaos led to the total collapse of the organization and supernatural relics being unleashed across Europe and the Middle East.8 Many artifacts fell into the possession of the Ottoman Empire, which enabled them to conquer the city of Constantinople in 1453.

When Pope Callixtus III established the Auctoritas Imperata9 in 1456, it was in response to this threat. The Auctoritas was charged with surmounting the political divides of Europe to combat the Ottomans and their expansion with occult weapons, with the eventual goal of liberating Constantinople. For more information, please consult the document A Summary of the Late History of the Auctoritas Imperata.

Arcane Schism

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Reichskonkordat Treaty between the Vatican Primacy and GARD.

The July Revolution of 1830, which deposed King Charles X of France, was an event that galvanized pre-existing factions within the Auctoritas which were demanding independence from the Papacy. Traditionalist Catholics on the De Superiore Auctoritate Concilium10 and throughout the organization, however, were vehemently opposed to the First Directorate's decision to secularize into the modern authority in 1834.

Pope Gregory XVI rejected the Authority Agreement and commissioned the establishment of the Military Vicariate of the Papal States, a Catholic military force designed to put down Italian revolutionaries in the Papal States and attack members of the newly-formed Authority. These Catholic mercenary units, also known as Papal Zouaves11, attempted to restore Papal control over anomalous relics within the country. Unable to reverse the progress of the Risorgimento12 when the city of Rome declared itself a republic in 1849 and the Kingdom of Italy annexed the Papal States in 1870, the Vicarate was disbanded.

At the First Vatican Council in 1870, Pope Pius IX, who had earlier in his pontificate relinquished papal claims over the Authority, later retracted his approval of the Authority Agreement and reformed the Vicariate into the Vatican Primacy. Expressly directed to combat the Authority, The Primacy clashed with Authority operatives throughout the period known as the Arcane Schism. During World War I, The Primacy allied with Austria-Hungary's Occult Agency, leading to their entry into the war on the side of the Central Powers.

After signing the Lateran Treaty in 1912, which established the Vatican City-State, and the Reichskonkordat Treaty in 1933, the Primacy sided nominally with the Axis Powers in WWII. However, as a result of the Initiative defecting to GARD, the Primacy signed several agreements to join the Authority Coalition. During the Cold War, when the Authority and The Primacy formally ceased hostilities and agreed to coordinate activities against the Soviet Iron Initiative.13 During the Second Vatican Council in 1965, the Catholic Church embraced a series of liberal and modern reforms that resulted in The Primacy moderating its militant positions. Today, the agency is now a member the international anomalous community through UNAAC.

Holy See

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Map of Vatican City

The Holy See is the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome, also referred to as the Roman Papacy, that is divided between the Diocese14 of Rome and the Roman Curia, which consists of the administrative departments of the institutional church. As the Bishop of Rome, the Pope acts as the supreme pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Catholic Churches15, granting him ultimate authority over all matters related to the Catholic faith.

The State of the Vatican City is the sovereign territory of the Roman Papacy, consisting of the Apostolic Palace, St. Peter's Basilica, the Sistine Chapel, the Palazzo del Governatorato, and the Vatican Museums. The Vatican is surrounded by a large city wall protected by the Papal Swiss Guard16 and policed by the Vatican Gendarmerie Corps.17 The Vatican City-State was established during the Lateran Pact Treaties as the successor to the Papal States, which was dissolved during the Risorgimento.

As a dicastery18 of the Roman Curia, the Vatican Secretariat for Supernatural Primacy operates on behalf of the Pope, who has the authority to assume direct leadership of the containment agency at any time he deems appropriate. Vatican City's security forces work with the VSSP through the Directorate of Civil Protection and Security Services, which the Pontifical Commission for the State of Vatican City oversees.19

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