- For the original timeline version, see Church.
The Church is an organization in the Castlevania animated series and Castlevania: Nocturne that seeks to ensure that God is worshiped in the land and destroy heathens.
History[]
In 1475, the Bishop of Targoviste discovered the technology given to Lisa Tepes by her husband, Dracula. Considering it witchcraft, the Bishop ordered Lisa's home to be destroyed and for her to be burned at the stake. Dracula realized what was going on minutes too late and confronted the crowd that saw his wife burned in a rage. Dracula declared that the citizens of Wallachia had one year to make peace with their God before he would take everything from them. In between 1475 and 1476, the Bishop was removed from Targoviste and stationed in Gresit, due to disagreements with the Archbishop on matters of clerical discipline.
One year after Lisa Tepes' death, Dracula made good on his threat. His army of demons attacked and swiftly destroyed Targoviste, along with the Archbishop of the Church. Dracula then bade his army spread and destroy all the cities in Wallachia. With both the capital of the country and the head of the Church gone, the power of running the Church and country passed down to the highest religious leader in each city; most prominently the Bishop in Gresit.
In between the time when Dracula declared war on the world and present day, the corrupt Church of Wallachia set out to shirk responsibility for the misdeed which begat hell on Earth. Many within the upper echelons of power cast blame upon the noble houses of modern society, in particular the House of Belmont, a family whom many within the region accused of the practice of dark magic, which allegedly had resulted in the troubles brought down on everyone by the Undead King and his minions. The Belmont Clan had been branded heretics by the oligarchy of the faith and excommunicated for dealing with creatures of the night on their behalf. As a consequence, much of the family's housings were burned to the ground, and members of the family were hunted and persecuted by suspicious and ignorant peasantry fed lies by the real perpetrators of the recent tribulations.
Trevor Belmont arrived in Gresit in 1476. The Bishop was in the process of prosecuting and exterminating a train of Speakers that came to offer the city aid. Trevor interfered with those efforts, leading to a battle between him and the military branch of the Bishop's Church. The Bishop tried to have all of his enemies killed before sunset but the sun did set and he himself was then killed by the demon Blue Fangs.
At the end of Season 1, all upper leadership and structure of the Church have been, presumably, destroyed. However, there are still low-level priests tending to Wallachian communities. The future of the Church and administration of Wallachia is in a state of uncertainty as cumulative seasons show much of the ecclesiastic class had fallen into ruin whence it became widespread knowledge that it was one of their own debased number whom kick started Dracula's onslaught upon Wallachia and the world.
During the start of Season 3, a priory belonging to Sala had fallen into disarray after a night creature assaulted the holy place, driving many within its halls insane with terrible visions and a means of reviving the Dark Lord from his infernal damnation. As if accommodating such events, news had spread of the ruling religions maleficence in regards to Lisa Tepes's unjust murder at the hands of the zealotic Bishop causing her husband and the King of all Vampires to unleash his horde of demons upon the land in revenge. Dragging Sala and many amongst his congregation further into madness and misotheism as a consequence.
In the wake of the capitol of Wallachia's destruction, it was reveled in the final season some years after that surviving denizens hunted down and eviscerated what's left of the Christian order so as to procure their holy water for mounting the Underground Court's defenses. When its leader, Zamfir, was asked where a priest could be found so they could consecrate the bodies of their dead king and queen, Zamfir dismissively admitted to flat out killing all the priests.
Regarding organizational structure[]
As of 1475, the Eastern Orthodox Church was the dominant political power in Wallachia. The cities of Wallachia seemed to be affiliated with each other by a shared cultural identity. Each Wallachian city would be led by a mayor, with the Church acting as the cultural head of the country. In short, Wallachia was a theocracy led by the Church.
While not officially in charge of the running of the cities, the Archbishop, Bishop, and lesser priests wielded incontestable power over all the citizens of Wallachia. Even the Mayor of Targoviste was terrified of angering the Bishop as he knew the Bishop could have him legally executed with a charge of heresy. The Archbishop was capable of excommunicating any Wallachian citizen or organization, making the excommunicated party a persona-non-grata throughout the entire country.
As of 1476, during the time of Dracula's genocidal purge of Wallachia, the Church took a direct administrative role in Gresit under the Bishop's rule. This new Church acted as the religious head, acting governor, and secret police force of the city.
Regarding organizational values[]
It is implied that the values the Church preaches are those of traditional Christianity, as dictated by the Bible. In practice, however, the Church is extremely corrupt as of 1475. This corruption refers to both the Church's tyrannical rule over Wallachia and its twisted interpretation of its own Christian values that ignore the spirit of the rules.
The Church is guilty of many of the evilest trends that real-world Christian churches adopted throughout history: burning "heretics", violently suppressing alternate ideas, and ignoring positive Christian values to consolidate their power while parading God's name.
While the whole Wallachian Church is corrupt at its high levels of leadership, it was especially so under the Bishop in Gresit. This Church developed a dedicated military branch to kill all perceived dissenters or even groups the Bishop personally disliked. The Bishop built this military branch by conscripting thieves and thugs as priests. This military Church had so much disregard for the Sixth Commandment that they not only carried weapons but had those weapons forged to resemble Christian crosses.
The Church would often blaspheme the Ninth as well, using lies and misinformation to direct the masses against preconceived enemies. In this way, dissenting groups were cowed and the majority could be mobilized to strike at the target groups with mob mentality. The 1470s were thus a time of frequent superstition and injustice under the Church's rule.
Given just how twisted and unjust their approach to the churches own faith was. They also inadvertently undermine the Second as well, often abusing the name of their divinity in order to coerce the public into blind obedience under threat of excommunicate persecution or to excuse the murder of heretics in the eyes of the faith. The Archbishop of Targoviste often hiding behind the name of his lord to commit to certain activities and speak as though it was in the name of God behind the scenes. As did the Bishop of Gresit whom caused the calamity in a misguided act of zealotic duplicity sanctioned by the faith's directory.
While the upper leadership of the Church was corrupt. There were decent priests who adhered to the positive elements of the Church's teachings, evidenced by a brave priest who helped Trevor Belmont prepare holy water to save the people of Gresit. These priests still followed the rulings of their corrupt superiors, as part of the mobs. After the Battle of Gresit, the corrupt leadership of the Church seems to have been fully killed off, yet the faith of Christianity remains strong.
A new Church has yet to rise from the ashes in Season 3 onward.
As word had spread about the clergy's dirty deed which kick started the Vampire Lord's reign of terror, with many of its former abbotcy turning to Dracula and the Devil as focuses of religious faith. A few of the devastated Wallachian capitol city's denizens took to forcibly stealing their holy water and outright murdering any surviving churchmen in retribution for their misconduct begetting said calamity.
Relationship to God[]
The leadership of the Church often ignored its own values and, in the case of the Bishop, had their own twisted interpretation of God's will.
While God has made no direct impact on the events of the series in Season 1, He is implied to exist and be unhappy with those that run His religion.
Hell clearly exists in the animated series, implying Heaven and God also exist. The demon Blue Fangs stated that God neither has love for demons, nor would offer any protection to the degenerate cleric who bastardized his savior's true teachings.
The prophecy of the "sleeping soldier" of Gresit proves that fate is written by a force in the world of Castlevania. It is theoretically possible that God writes the future and chose soldiers other than His own Church to fight Dracula. A great many who preached divine sanctimony prior to the undead lord's ultimatum quickly renounced their faith and turned to devildom in response upon learning how the leadership of their order was behind said disaster.
One such prior turning his back on God entirely was Sala, coming to serve Dracula and the forces of hell itself in order to resurrect him. Gathering similarly broken pulpiteers –driven to derangement from events and recent revelations– coming from beyond Lindenfeld's region into their satanist enclave. All of whom learning from a peculiar night creature about how to resurrect their dark messiah by sacrificing the lives of an entire town it was situated in.
Gallery[]
