Editing Church of Sanctaria (section)

===Development of the established Church (1380—1528)===
====Nation-building====
Gregory VI's official declaration of the Papal Kingdom of Sanctaria in 1380, and the subsequent swift quelling of rebellions, was just the first step the Church took in the late 14th century to assert their temporal power. In 1397, Patriarch Michael II announced all citizens were to pay tithes<ref>A form of church tax.</ref> regardless of their income "to support the governing of the Church". The income generated from these tithes, which often left struggling farmers and members of the lower-working class destitute because of their severity, predominantly went to the patriarch's own purse, with a nominal amount each year used to support the soldiers of the Blessed Army.

In 1413, to ensure the Church had eyes and control over every corner of the Kingdom, Patriarch Paul V created regional governors, called doges, who would act as governors or managers of newly created duchies; whole swathes of lands, townships, and even cities across the Kingdom divided up for easier organisation and control. These doges, all of whom were either favoured archbishops or wealthy landowners, were originally given a limited degree of authority in how to run their duchies, with many decisions needed the approval of the patriarch back in Sanctus; however as time went on, these doges were given even more authority in how to rule. Paul V's successor, Stephan V, in 1418 began to appoint nuncios, or ambassadors, to neighbouring countries and further afield, ostensibly with the motive of improving relations and trade, but, as time later proved, with the more duplicitous aim of missionary work and the encouragement of subversive faith militant groups to grow the influence of the Church in those nations too. Scholars now suggest that it was Stephan V's groundwork in this that later led to the successful, and relatively bloodless, coups in countries like [[Munsteran]] which resulted in the creation of the Papal States.

Stephan V also created what could be considered an early equivalent to the nation's [[Department of the Treasury (Sanctaria)|treasury]] in 1420, called the ''Atria Caritatum'', or Halls of Charities, which essentially took stock of the finances of the Patriarch and decided how much, if any at all, would be given to the destitute of the nation via alms or other charitable measures.

====Faith-based community development====
[[File:13thC Hospital.jpg|thumb|323x323px|An early hospital]]
Despite the Church's control of the Kingdom of Sanctaria, and its presence in everyday life, priests and bishops across the nation noted a drop in attendance at daily and weekly religious services across Sanctaria, particularly in urban centres, during the 15th century. Successive patriarchs' concentration on the building of their temporal power meant their focus on the spiritual matters of the citizenry and the nation had slipped. Patriarch Francis I took steps to combat this in 1444 when he issued his decree ''Educationem ad Pauperem'', or Education for the Poor. He mandated that all male children under the age of 12 be forced to attend catholic schooling, run by one of the Church's various mendicant orders. Though illiteracy had, by this time, become very rare in Sanctaria, as families taught each other to read rather than people learning in a strict educational setting. As men were considered the head of the family, and of society, in Sanctaria at this stage in its history, the focus was solely on male schooling. The education was to be entirely faith-based, with subjects like maths and science disposed of in favour of theology and (approved) philosophy. It was hoped, and proved to be successful, that this policy of education would encourage people to return to the Church for regular instruction through Mass.

When an outbreak of cholera in Corpus threatened to turn into a nationwide epidemic in 1479, Patriarch Simon VI directed that women in the service of the Church, i.e. nuns, train as nurses and travel throughout the affected areas, treating as much as they could. In what would become one of the first public hospitals in Sanctaria, the Hospital of St. Michael was established in 1483 in Sanctus as a permanent base for people with serious illness to travel to in the hopes of being cured. While much of the early treatments were solely faith-based, such as prayer, Sanctaria's trade with other countries in the [[International Democratic Union|IDU]] led to the import of medicines, which Patriarch Francis II in 1486 lauded as "miracles sent by the Lord himself, not to replace prayer, but to supplement it".

These early educational and medical facilities were the first indications of what would become cornerstones of how the Church grew and maintained its faithful, though patronage of schools and hospitals, a tradition that lasts to this day in modern Sanctaria.

====Council of Haven (1488—1508)====
Patriarchs in this era of history also concerned themselves with doctrinal matters of the Church and its faith, as well as focusing on community and temporal matters. In 1488, Francis II established the Council of Haven to meet biannually and to iron out differences in doctrine of the different theological factions of the Church who, while usually happy to co-exist peacefully, had in recent years become a distraction for the head of the Church. Francis II decreed that the resulting opinions of the Council of Haven, made up equally of different Church factions, would be the doctrine of the Church going forward, and required the leaders of all the groupings to agree to this stipulation before entering the Council. The Council, which would meet in the Archdiocese of [[Haven]] in the eastern part of Sanctaria, ended up lasting far longer than Francis II intended, outliving both Francis himself, who died in 1490, and his successor Gregory VII, who died in 1505.

Modern scholars generally accept that the biannual meetings of the Council, and their deliberations, were likely more of a headache for the patriarchs of the time than the groupings individually ever could have been, but all accept that if not for the Council's existence and task, the differences in later years would have likely ended up splitting the Church. Many theological scholars praise Francis II for his foresight in establishing the Council, and some within the Church still refer to him with the appellation of "Saviour of the Church".

The Council of Haven met until 1508 when, in the reign of Patriarch Thomas III, they issued what they said "shall be the doctrine of this, our Church, for all eternity". Their deliberations, which had focused on two central points of faith which all the groupings in attendance had hitherto had different opinions on, resulted in the following declarations being made, and sanctified, by Thomas III on 18 April 1508:

*The Church of Sanctaria "recognises the inherent holiness of individuals, but decries the belief these individuals can rise to rival or equal the beloved messengers and angels of the Lord our God", and;
*The Church of Sanctaria "acknowledges the role of the priest in the consecration of the wine and bread, but declares it heresy to assume mere mortals can achieve miracles of transubstantiation that rival Christ".

In effect the Council decided, to end decades of debate, that in the Eucharist, the wine and bread would be symbols of the blood and body of Christ, and not become them itself. They also decided that the Church would acknowledge Saints created prior to the establishment of the Church, but would designate no individual going forward as a Saint, and any individual so recognised from the establishment of the Church until the result of the Council of Haven would be stripped of their sainthood.

Contemporary letters of the time suggest the declaration had little effect on the faith of ordinary citizens, who didn't understand the finer points of theology or doctrine anyway, but the theologians who had argued for years on either side of the debate all accepted the Patriarch's declaration; that the Council also declared that "statements of faith made by the Archbishop of Sanctus shall be infallible and inviolable, save by a later Archbishop of the same See" probably contributed to the swift end of the matter, despite almost a century of arguments.

====International missionary efforts====
The Church's increasing forays in globalisation and international relations heightened its influence in the IDU, and the number of nuncios and missionary outposts increased dramatically. Successive patriarchs were quick to understand that the larger the presence that the Church had in other nations or regions, the more that people there would be exposed to its teachings, increasing its spiritual reach. An increased spiritual reach resulted in greater numbers of donations from abroad, as well as the pilgrimage of many new members of the Church, bringing with them new cultures, experiences, and riches.
[[File:Atlantaena 1500.jpg|left|thumb|323x323px|Pre-Catholic Atlantaena worship grounds]]
Simultaneously, the Church began to leverage this growing adherence to its teachings by citizens of other countries to its benefit in temporal and political matters. In August 1436, a group of Catholic-adherents in the nation of [[Mount Solace]] successfully lobbied the Royal Court there to acknowledge the Church of Sanctaria as a protected religion; a Church of Sanctaria priest, Monsignor Frederick Callary, was later appointed Chancellor of the Royal Court of Mount Solace, the most important civilian role, in December 1488. Callery, a close confident and puppet of the then-Patriarch Francis II, implemented a lot of policies favourable to the Kingdom of Sanctaria while he was in office, including designating the theocratic Kingdom a preferred trading partner in many mineral goods, which eastern Sanctaria was rich in.

However the direct involvement of the Church wasn't always necessary for the exponential growth of the religion. In Atlantaena, a nation which for thousands of years followed an aquatic-based belief system with a pantheon of gods, the Church of Sanctaria's sole missionary there - a bishop by the name of Alfonsus - conveyed a spiritual message that was apparently so convincing that within ten years, sixty percent of the Atlantaen population had converted; by March 1511 the entire nation of Atlantaena adhered to the Church of Sanctaria as a religion. On 14 August 1515, Atlantaena declared the Church of Sanctaria its official religion.

The Church of Sanctaria's missionary work also extended beyond the confines of the [[International Democratic Union|IDU]]; nations in other regions saw an increase in adherents to the Sanctarian Catholic Church, most notably nations such as [[Galway and Athlone]] and [[Buckingham]].

A natural part of the growth of the Church's spiritual flock was the execution of its guiding principles, such as "the Patriarch was the voice of God on Earth and was in practice the King of Kings on God's behalf". This culminated in 1528 when, on 05 May, the Grand Duke of Atlantaena declared that, in accordance with the teachings of the Sanctarian Catholic Church, he and his successors would forever be subservient to the Patriarch of the Kingdom of Sanctaria. Thomas IV seized on the declaration by the Atlantaen Sovereign to declare that the nation of Atlantaena would now be considered a part of the "greater Sanctarian nation and, now, empire". 

On 11 May 1528, Thomas IV declared the formation of the Papal States of Sanctaria, a new global federal monarchical state, with Sanctaria the jewel in the Crown. By the end of 1528, Mount Solace and Galway and Athlone had also joined the new Papal States of Sanctaria. By the end of the century, the number of nations who had joined the Papal States would number fourteen.