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:
“I condemn Christianity. I raise against the Christian church the most terrible accusation that any accuser has ever uttered. It is to me the ultimate conceivable corruption. It has possessed the will to the final corruption that is even possible. The Christian church has left nothing untouched by its depravity: it has turned every value into a disvalue, every truth into a falsehood, every integrity into a vileness of the soul.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“The corruption of the best things gives rise to the worst.”
—David Hume (1711–1776)
“The corruption of the age is produced by the individual contribution of each one of us; some contribute treachery, others injustice, irreligion, tyranny, avarice, cruelty, in accordance with their greater power; the weaker ones bring stupidity, vanity, passivity, and I am one of them.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)