Sistine Order

Also known as the Fraternal Order of St. Sistine, the Sistine Order is a knightly monastic warrior order of the Rothian Catholic Church (RCC) founded in the 6th Century, admitting both men and women of faith as members (though only men may see combat). Sistine Knights originally were tasked solely with converting the lost and caring for the sick, evolving into their combative role gradually, as they had to protect new converts from outraged family and friends, bent on bringing them back to their heathen faith... or killing them in the process. Today, the Order has become a paramilitary group loyal to God, the Pope, then King, then the nation -- helping to protect Christians and innocents around the world. The goals of the Order also tend to roughly follow the policy goals of Inoroth proper, and they enjoy a close relationship with the Crown and the people.

Early Founding:
The Sistine Order was founded in 518 AD on the orders of Pope Frisco III to serve the poor, the unchurched, and the sick, especially those living beyond the fringes of the Rothian Empire. In two and a half centuries, the Order ballooned from a collection of a few dozen missionaries, clergy, and doctors located in the heart of the empire to an organization of over 12,000 members of skills almost as numerous scattered in small monasteries covering most of the known world. Twenty or so other Orders were absorbed by Papal Decree during this time, significantly the Order of St. John the Benevolent and the Order of Christ the Redeemer's Mercy.

The Sistine Order had not, by this point, been given a military jurisdiction, though several knighthoods and individual warriors pledged their services to defending it. Individual members were not, however, forbidden from possessing or using weapons for self defense, and in fact, monasteries in the more wild regions of the Empire and beyond found that they needed to train their monks to be able to fend off raids and sieges of robbers, bandits, and barbarians. In a few notable cases, there are records of great exploits in arms performed by men of the Sistine Order before its militarization, especially Father Lucius the Just and the slaying of the dragon-welp of Greyhorn, in what is today Northern Gratia, and the fourteen-month siege of the Sistine Monastery of Gioa in 690 AD by a barbarian Alkurdian army then in rebellion.

Rothian Civil War:
During the Mishmite Heresy and subsequent Persecution, the Sistine Order was ordered not to aid unconverted followers of Henri, a stance officially adopted as early as 734 AD. Unofficially, however, most members believed that their mission to the unchurched and the hurting could be applied in no better way than to aid Mishmites, and that their loyalty to God trumped any loyalty to man. Countless accounts exist of monasteries caring for, housing, and even hiding Mishmite Christians (MC's); doubtless, many acts are unrecorded. On several occasions, Sistine monasteries were besieged by those hunting MCs, the situations diffused by negotiations, the onset of winter, or secret tunnels whereby those persecuted could flee.

These actions did not go unnoticed by the Church, driving a wedge between the organizations and coming to a head in 779 AD, when Emperor Lucius I, at the behest of Pope Gregory IV, decreed that any found to be protecting Mishmite Heretics would be guilty of capital crimes against the Empire and worthy of death. Later that year, the Sistine Monastery of Pruda, in what is now the Province of Lapero, Inoroth, was besieged, attacked, breeched, and burned to the ground after its occupants refused to turn over eleven MC's, including five children and two women. All told, the one-sided massacre killed all fifty-nine Sistine Monks and another twenty or so non-MC travelers, in addition to the eleven MCs, bringing the total death toll (including two attacking soldiers who perished in the burning monastery while looting) to at least 92 men, women, and children.

The Pruda Incident, as it came to be known, was initially covered up, but members of the Protectionist movement discovered it and others after the pattern was repeated in another three or four Sistine monasteries the following year (780 AD). Debates over the ruthless handling of these otherwise loyal dissenters grew in the Senate, and these events were an important reason for the ultimate civil war that began a few years later in 783 AD.

During the massive civil war that followed, the Sistine Order officially remained loyal to the papacy, despite the Pruda Incident. They provided medical aid to any and all who came, be they rebels, MC's, loyalists, or even invading barbarians. However, still keeping with their mission aid all, the Order often suffered reprisals from the Church as a result. In fact, the ranks of the Order swelled with those who did not wish to choose a side, but still desired to do the work of God. At this time, many monasteries near especially volatile combat zones, or situated along the crumbling borders of the Empire, began the practice of arming and training certain monks specifically in warfare, not to fight in the war for any one faction, but to defend their charges from any threat while under Sistine care.

After the war, and with the institution of a new pope, relations between the Order and the Church began to be mended, and the military nature of the Order was recognized in it's renewed charter in 801 AD, with an addendum calling for them to defend those under their care, such as travelers, new converts, and the sick. It also called on the Sistine Order to aid their brothers and other Orders if possible, and merged dozens more orders, including several notable military orders, into the Sistine fold.

This formality only validated what practically already existed, as the monasteries had been defending themselves for centuries anyways. What the new charter did do, though, was a allow for a standardization of training and tactics, a more uniform and focused approach to defense, and the expansion of military force in a limited offensive capacity for the Order. Monasteries now were able to call on one another for aid, and were refitted or rebuilt more as fortresses. Armies of Sistine Knights were raised many times to defend against barbarian invasions and threats. This, in a time when Inorothian control was much smaller than the old Empire, and still shrinking, meant that the Sistine Order was able to maintain most of its monasteries through the chaos regardless, and in many ways they proved a vital, stabilizing force that blunted many an enemy invasion, perhaps discouraging many others from ever forming.

The Kurchi Affair:
Evocative title that has no substance... yet

Expansion:
Basically, as the borders solidify, so too does the role (and power/numbers) of the Sistine Order, with more and more of the Church Orders being absorbed in the process.

Modern Operations:
Today, the Sistine Order has monasteries across the globe, though most outside of Amplector do not have monks fulfilling the Ministry of Justice.

Ministries:
To better fulfill it's mission, the Sistine Order has been divided into three branches, called Ministries, each focusing on a part of the wider calling of the Organization. A member may only be, at least on paper, specialized in one ministry, though in practice one may have studied extensively in two or all three ministries at one time, especially among older members.

Ministries of Knowledge
The first duty of the Order is to Universities and Monasteries

Ministries of Mercy
Hospitals and Medicine

Ministries of Justice
Forts and Military Compounds