Rheinbund
Established Nation
Abtei Herzogenrode
30 km northeast of Warnemünde, Eiffelland
The Abbey of Herzogenrode was one of the largest still existing abbeys in Eiffelland. Grounded in the beginning of the 12th century, the only building that was still from those days was the abbey church, an enormous romanesque cross church. All other abbey buildings were from the baroque and the rococo. Especially the library was a rococo-fest.
The abbey was situated at the edge of the estate Herzogenrode and the village of Herzogenrode. Both the estate and the village were property of the abbey. The estate was 4 km2 large, and consisted mainly of fruit trees and blueberry plants. Together with the inhabitants of the village, the monks took care of the estate. The abbey financed itself with selling fruit, jam and honey. Furthermore, it contained a major seminary. And it was the place where the Pope of the Tiburan Church had his residence.
Twenty-one years ago, Pope Pius XII acceded to the Papal Throne, and chose the Abbey in Herzogenrode as his residence. Consequence of this choice was, that the abbey had to be extended. New buildings were constructed next to the abbey. The major seminary as well as the bedrooms of the monks moved there. Also the Pope’s employees had their bedrooms and apartments in the new buildings. The abbot stayed in the abbot house, a part of the abbey was refurbished as the Pope’s residence, and the remainder of the abbey became offices from where the Pope reigned the Catholic Church and the abbot reigned the abbey.
Pope Pius XII was both very conservative and very authoritarian. He selected his staff not only based on quality and devotion to the Church, but also on docility and devotion to himself. He reigned the Church according to his own ideas; all others just carried out his orders, or based their deeds on what they thought that the Pope wanted.
This all went well until 10 years ago. The people around the Pope didn’t understand what was happening, but they did see that something was happening. Suddenly the Pope started to develop problems with finding the right words. He also started to ask questions he had asked five minutes ago. In the beginning, this did not lead to problems, but it started to become a problem when he started to fail to carry out his duties as the Pope. Later on, he became desoriented in the abbey he had lived in for many years, and he started to become really apathetic. And all this combined with sudden outbursts of anger, during which he gave the strangest orders. Luckily, the people of his staff were wise enough to not carry those orders out, but they were not capable enough to develop their own ideas on how to run The Church. The Pope hadn’t selected his staff with that in mind. So, when the Pope stopped reigning The Church, his men didn’t take over. That was eight years ago. Six years ago, the Pope didn’t know any more who the people in his staff were. He thought that his camerlengo was his father, and that the abbot was one of the teachers at his primary school.
Of course the Pope was investigated by a neurologist in Warnemünde, but he couldn’t do anything else than diagnosing Alzheimer’s Disease. And the Church Law didn’t foresee in removing the Pope from office, or at least taking tasks away from him. That was something the Pope had to decide himself. And during the period that the Pope still knew that he was the Pope, he didn’t realise the consequences of his disease, so he did not abdicate or delegate his tasks. At a certain moment, he just didn’t know any more that he was the Pope, and it was too late to abdicate or delegate his tasks. His staff became a flock of sheep without a shepherd. The Cardinals and Bishops outside Herzogenrode knew what was going on, but kept that a secret. Instead, they started to rule their dioceses themselves.
It was three days before All Saints Day and four days before All Souls Day, when the lost consciousness while sitting in his wheelchair. He rolled the Pope to his bed, and asked two monks to help him with putting the Pope into bed. Twelve hours later, in the early morning of Monday 30 October 2017, Pope Pius XII died. The court-physician diagnosed the Pope’s death. Then Camerlengo François Navarre took the small silver hammer that had been made for this occasion centuries ago. He ticked Pope Pius three times on the forehead with this little hammer, and shouted the baptismal name of the Pope. The Pope did not react. Then Navarre declared: “The Pope is dead.” He broke the Fisher Ring and the Papal Seal. Then everybody left the papal room. Navarre sealed the room, and took up his task to announce the death of Pope Pius XII to the world.
OOC: DISCLAIMER: This post is NOT about the Real Life Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli, who was Pope of the Roman Catholic Church from 1939 to 1958 under the name Pius XII. This post is about the roleplay figure Pius XII. Each and every similarity between the contents of this post and any living person or any person who ever lived is based on nothing else but coincidence.
30 km northeast of Warnemünde, Eiffelland
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The Abbey of Herzogenrode was one of the largest still existing abbeys in Eiffelland. Grounded in the beginning of the 12th century, the only building that was still from those days was the abbey church, an enormous romanesque cross church. All other abbey buildings were from the baroque and the rococo. Especially the library was a rococo-fest.
The abbey was situated at the edge of the estate Herzogenrode and the village of Herzogenrode. Both the estate and the village were property of the abbey. The estate was 4 km2 large, and consisted mainly of fruit trees and blueberry plants. Together with the inhabitants of the village, the monks took care of the estate. The abbey financed itself with selling fruit, jam and honey. Furthermore, it contained a major seminary. And it was the place where the Pope of the Tiburan Church had his residence.
Twenty-one years ago, Pope Pius XII acceded to the Papal Throne, and chose the Abbey in Herzogenrode as his residence. Consequence of this choice was, that the abbey had to be extended. New buildings were constructed next to the abbey. The major seminary as well as the bedrooms of the monks moved there. Also the Pope’s employees had their bedrooms and apartments in the new buildings. The abbot stayed in the abbot house, a part of the abbey was refurbished as the Pope’s residence, and the remainder of the abbey became offices from where the Pope reigned the Catholic Church and the abbot reigned the abbey.
Pope Pius XII was both very conservative and very authoritarian. He selected his staff not only based on quality and devotion to the Church, but also on docility and devotion to himself. He reigned the Church according to his own ideas; all others just carried out his orders, or based their deeds on what they thought that the Pope wanted.
This all went well until 10 years ago. The people around the Pope didn’t understand what was happening, but they did see that something was happening. Suddenly the Pope started to develop problems with finding the right words. He also started to ask questions he had asked five minutes ago. In the beginning, this did not lead to problems, but it started to become a problem when he started to fail to carry out his duties as the Pope. Later on, he became desoriented in the abbey he had lived in for many years, and he started to become really apathetic. And all this combined with sudden outbursts of anger, during which he gave the strangest orders. Luckily, the people of his staff were wise enough to not carry those orders out, but they were not capable enough to develop their own ideas on how to run The Church. The Pope hadn’t selected his staff with that in mind. So, when the Pope stopped reigning The Church, his men didn’t take over. That was eight years ago. Six years ago, the Pope didn’t know any more who the people in his staff were. He thought that his camerlengo was his father, and that the abbot was one of the teachers at his primary school.
Of course the Pope was investigated by a neurologist in Warnemünde, but he couldn’t do anything else than diagnosing Alzheimer’s Disease. And the Church Law didn’t foresee in removing the Pope from office, or at least taking tasks away from him. That was something the Pope had to decide himself. And during the period that the Pope still knew that he was the Pope, he didn’t realise the consequences of his disease, so he did not abdicate or delegate his tasks. At a certain moment, he just didn’t know any more that he was the Pope, and it was too late to abdicate or delegate his tasks. His staff became a flock of sheep without a shepherd. The Cardinals and Bishops outside Herzogenrode knew what was going on, but kept that a secret. Instead, they started to rule their dioceses themselves.
It was three days before All Saints Day and four days before All Souls Day, when the lost consciousness while sitting in his wheelchair. He rolled the Pope to his bed, and asked two monks to help him with putting the Pope into bed. Twelve hours later, in the early morning of Monday 30 October 2017, Pope Pius XII died. The court-physician diagnosed the Pope’s death. Then Camerlengo François Navarre took the small silver hammer that had been made for this occasion centuries ago. He ticked Pope Pius three times on the forehead with this little hammer, and shouted the baptismal name of the Pope. The Pope did not react. Then Navarre declared: “The Pope is dead.” He broke the Fisher Ring and the Papal Seal. Then everybody left the papal room. Navarre sealed the room, and took up his task to announce the death of Pope Pius XII to the world.
OOC: DISCLAIMER: This post is NOT about the Real Life Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli, who was Pope of the Roman Catholic Church from 1939 to 1958 under the name Pius XII. This post is about the roleplay figure Pius XII. Each and every similarity between the contents of this post and any living person or any person who ever lived is based on nothing else but coincidence.