Chapter 34: Masses In Motion

''The era of the Papacy between 904 and 1046, typically referred to as Saeculum Obscurum (Latin: Dark Age), is generally accepted to be the lowest depths of the Catholic Church's moral authority in its recorded fourteen centuries of history from Constantine I. During this time, beginning with the installation of Pope Sergius III in 904, and ending with the final deposing of Pope Benedict IX in 1046, the Church was controlled by a series of powerful and corrupt aristocratic families, who used the ecclesiastical power of the Papacy to increase their worldly influence, and visa versa. ''

''Corruption during this period was the norm, especially in the senior ranks of the Church, who set the trends for their underlings. Routine acts of corruption during this time period included the sale of Church offices and roles (simony), the sale of indulgences, framing scribes with secular crimes to force them to take Holy Orders, bribery, extortion, blackmail, cronyism, and the occasional assassination, as well more personal venality on the part of the individual priests.''

—The Second Flowering Of Yggdrasil: An Analysis Of The Norse Resurgence, 1710

Foreshadowing
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Epigraph Tie-In

 * The epigraph describes the corruption of the church and its clergy during the Dark Age. The chapter introduces one of these corrupt clergyman who helps Alvin by providing fraudulent identity papers.

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