Corruption
The Elene Church is primarily a representation of the Roman Catholic Church before the Counter-Reformation. Annias is corrupt and would do anything to get the Archprelate's throne. He has received gold from Otha, King of Zemoch, to buy votes in the election. Many of the Patriarchs' votes are for sale, and even the ones who aren't can be extremely devious.
Also, it is mentioned that the dungeons beneath the Basilica are horrible - no-one has come out of them alive, according to Baron Harparin. There are instruments of torture in them, and this is most likely a reference to the Inquisition, when heretics were tortured and killed by the Roman Catholic Church.
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Famous quotes containing the word corruption:
“The corruption of man is followed by the corruption of language.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“She saw in the rainbow the earth’s new architecture, the old, brittle corruption of houses and factories swept away, the world built up in a living fabric of Truth, fitting to the over-arching heaven.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“Luxury, or a refinement on the pleasures and conveniences of life, had long been supposed the source of every corruption in government, and the immediate cause of faction, sedition, civil wars, and the total loss of liberty. It was, therefore, universally regarded as a vice, and was an object of declamation to all satyrists, and severe moralists.”
—David Hume (1711–1776)