Editing Ecclesiarchy (section)

==History==
After the Emprah was hooked up to the Golden Throne, it was inevitable that various cults and sects would form in his wake. Over time many of these groups would fight, absorb, fade and/or coalesce into a somewhat stabilised organisation that was called the '''Cult of the Saviour Emperor''', which emerged out of this conflict as the eminent religious group in the Imperium. In M32 the cult managed to install its Ecclesiarch as a member of the [[High Lords of Terra]] and establishing itself as a genuine power player in Imperial politics, creating what became the state religion known as the '''Adeptus Ministorum'''.

It is important to note that prior to this, the Imperium ''was'' a secular state and it had taken nearly two thousand years for the shift towards forming a religious state to become a reality; but even then only two thirds of the Imperium followed the teachings of the Temple of the Saviour Emperor ''(Astartes and Mechanicus excepted)'', the rest either didn't get the memo, or followed one of the various other cults and groups, including the '''Confederation of Light''', which was the only serious contender to the Temple. Therefore one of the early acts of the new Ecclesiarch was to get the High Lords of Terra to agree to eradicate the [[Heresy|"spiritual threat"]] and declare the first War of Faith, eventually crushing the Confederation and forcing its remnants into hiding.

===Age of Apostasy===
{{Main|Age of Apostasy}}

The Ecclesiarchy was able to seize real political power around M36 in the wake of the [[Nova Terra Interregnum]]; after secular politics failed to reunite the twin empires of the Imperium, the Imperial Cult was able to leverage the widespread religious belief in the Emperor to bring Nova Terra back into the fold. However, this did not go smoothly; the Cataclysm of Souls resulted in vast amounts of bloodshed for anyone who rejected the Imperial Cult. This paved the way for the Age of Apostasy, when rival factions within the Imperial Cult battled for control of the church.

The Ecclesiarch, the head of the Ministorum, eventually supplanted the Master of the [[Administratum]] ''(the guy who actually runs the government)'' as head of the Council. To show just how much power they could wield, the Ecclesiarchy moved from Terra to Ophelia VII at great expense, leaving Terra to rot, then moved back once they felt that they made their point. This is a reference to real life, a similar period of time when the Pope moved the Holy See from Rome to Avignon and later moved it back in a clusterfuck which for complex reasons ultimately culminated in three different people claiming to be Pope at the same time.

After that, the Ecclesiarchy did what every powerful group does: become more interested in its own power than the people they're supposed to be ministering, and public funds and taxes ended up funneling their way into the church, religious officials were making decisions on national policy and the like, since the Ecclesiarchy figured that the church and the state should be pretty much the same thing. The Ecclesiarchy also had a standing army called the '''Frateris Templar''' which stood apart from the [[Imperial Guard]], but was presumably bad-ass considering how wealthy the church was at the time.

=== Reign of Blood ===
Things took a major turn for the worse when '''[[Goge Vandire]]''', the Master of the Administratum, became Ecclesiarch at the same time, making himself the single most powerful person in the Imperium and started the Reign of Blood. Even by 40k standards this guy was nutters: He convinced an all-female sect called the "Daughters of the Emperor" ([[Daughters of Terra|No, not them...]]) to rename themselves the "Brides of the Emperor" and become his bodyguards, they were also given the ''"finest weapons and armour"'' that the Administratum and the Ecclesiarchy could provide, which probably meant they were far better equipped than the later Sisters of Battle ever were.

He also instituted big brother policies of having [[Servo-skull]]s on every street corner listening for sedition, and engaged in mass executions/pillaging for the lulz, such as virus bombing planets, enslaving all female civilians of certain planets below the age of 12, melting polar ice caps etc, all the while claiming that he heard the voice of the Emperor himself.

A "rogue" preacher named [[Sebastian Thor]] and his "heretical" sect ''(the Confederation of Light who had been in hiding for around four thousand years)'', supported by a couple of Space Marine Chapters and the Adeptus Mechanicus, went "fuck this" and invaded Terra to remove Vandire from the throne (so to speak). To the surprise of all present (except the Brides/Daughters), the defenders not only held off the invaders, but actually managed to give them a real beating. Before things got out of hand, the Adeptus Custodes took the leader of the Daughters to the Golden Throne to have a chat with the Emperor. She got insanely pissed off by something that happened there and cut off Vandire's head.

===Thorian Reformation===

Afterwards, Thor didn't actually sit still and started travelling the Imperium to put things back together again and preaching the Emperor's good name. Once Terra had recovered, they had only one person in mind for the job of Ecclesiarch: Thor, but he refused to come back until the Imperium [[What|declared him a traitor]] and sent an army to collect him.

Back at the Imperial Palace, the Captain of the Custodes took him aside for a quiet word, and told him that he should either take the job or end up [[Blam|vanished]]. Thus, as the newly appointed Ecclesiarch, Thor started the Thorian Reformation, in which the Temple of the Saviour Emperor was supplanted by Thor's Confederation of Light. The Ecclesiarchy was stripped of all military power and the '''Frateris Templar''' was disbanded and there professional forces other than the sisters of battle where merged into the imperial guard and imperial navy so there expansion plans did happen in a way., but, fortunately for them, since they were specifically banned from keeping "''men'' under arms", they [[Rules lawyers|reformed]] the Daughters into the [[Sisters of Battle|Battle Sisters]] of the Adepta Sororitas. Why aren't women covered under "''men'' under arms" since "men under arms" is a euphemism for soldier? Because Imperial Bureaucracy, if there's a possible loophole somewhere, someone's going to exploit it, obeying only the literal letter of the law and (ironically in this case) not the spirit the imperium also gave them special exemption for them to make it iron clad like the black Templars.

The [[Inquisition]] also set up the [[Witchhunters|Ordo Hereticus]] as well as the Ordo Sanctorum to make sure no one deviated from these new rules. As well as giving rise to the '''Thorian''' faction of puritans, who believe that the Emperor used Thor as a vessel for his power and intent, and now search for other similar vessels as a means of potentially resurrecting the Emperor.

The reformed Ecclesiarchy is only slightly less corrupt and divorced from reality as it was before; but now they feel guilty and beat themselves -and everyone they minister to- about it! Occasionally, they even try (and fail) to fix it!