The Emperor’s Reflection on Day 5

Good gentlemen of the council,

Today I must commend you on your performance during the fifth day of the council. As we all now know, the issues we are dealing with are contentious, but we are doing God’s work by working to solve them in order to unite the church and eventually the empire. And while you occasionally make missteps (for example, during some of the petty, technical fighting during the fourth council session), you have, for the most part, demonstrated a keen ability to learn from those failures in order to work toward unity, even if that means occasionally comprising your deeply held theological positions.

And while it has now been long established that I am no authority on theology, I have been able to learn much during these sessions. This is particularly true when you as council participants thoroughly explain the theological bases for your arguments, something that you frequently did during the last session and that I hope you continue to do in our final day. Based upon my observations, I believe that the creed as it currently stands will be received well by many in the church as well as by those who will be brought into the church under the authority of Rome. Further, when considered alongside the establishment of the new office of the Pope, which will allow for more close coordination between the church and state, I believe that this creed will provide a foundation for a unified expansion of the faith, so that one day all will fall under the authority of Christ.

During the last session, I was disappointed by your decision to allow the date of Easter to float based on the date of a Jewish holiday. And while I saw the establishment of the office of the Pope and increase in authority of the Metropolitan bishops as positive steps, the failure to use the calendar currently employed by the empire will undoubtedly be a problem in the future; you have missed an opportunity to create important fusion between the church and state. With that being said, you chose to require celibacy within the ranks of the clergy, a decision that many of you found agreeable despite some initial resistance within your ranks. All in all, I think that is important to remember that while the debates between us will be vigorous, at the end of the day, I am pleased so long as we can walk away with a unified decision.

Let us continue into our final day with the spirit of compromise at the forefront of our minds, as we prepare to end what has been an important and enlightening process.