Penance
Synod Judgement
Overview
The Synod is responsible for ensuring the behaviour of individual citizens does not debase the Empire. A crucial part of that responsibility is to identify moments when a person's actions have not been virtuous and try to guide them back to the Way. Penance is a crucial tool to help achieve that, allowing an Assembly to open a way for a citizen to redeem their Virtue. A judgement of penance is employed where the assembly believes the subject to have engaged in both virtuous and unvirtuous behaviour. The judgement recommends how the target can correct their unvirtuous behaviour.
For many years the only option available to the Synod was to condemn an individual for their invidious actions - criminal or unvirtuous. Penance was created following the work of stormcrow Jorma Steelhail from 379YE to 380YE, to expand the scope of the Synod's powers to allow a range of different edicts to be issued - in accordance with the judgement of the Synod.
Judgement
A judgement of penance must state who is being given the penance and what action or actions they are atoning for. The judgement must individually name each person receiving penance. A judgement may only name more than one individual if they are members of the same oathsworn band - either a banner, sect, or coven - at the time the judgement is raised. Penance should only be used in this way where members of the band acted together in unison on the thing they are receiving penance for.
A judgement of penance may be brought before any assembly of the Synod for approval. When the judgement is raised in a national assembly, it may only offer penance to members of that nation. The virtue assemblies may grant penance to anyone - but they are expected to focus their judgement on matters concerning their virtue.
Any dispensation of penance requires a lesser majority to pass.
Nothing dries faster than a tear.
Marcher ProverbOutcome
A successful judgement of penance will be noted and recorded in the official Synod records, but it is the responsibility of the priest who brought the judgement to ensure that all are aware of the outcome.
The common way to employ penance is to work with the individual who the priest has identified has fallen short to set a penance that they agree to on some level. When used in this way the judgement offers the offender a way to redeem their Virtue by engaging with the Synod. In effect, the penance becomes a contract between with the priest and the person they have judged, an agreement between them on how they might mend their ways. Putting the judgement through the Synod serves to demonstrate to everyone that an investigation has taken place, and that those judged have been given a way to regain their Virtue.
Penance does not legally compel the target to undertake the actions specified - there are no legal penalties for failing to comply - but the Synod may take further action if the recipient does not complete their penance. In addition to castigation, the Synod could consider revocation or even a Writ of Excommunication following a failure or refusal to complete penance. The Synod may think worse of someone who has been offered a path back to Virtue but who did not take that path, either because they tried and failed or because they refused to try at all.
It is perfectly legal to set a penance without discussing it with the recipient if the priest believes the situation requires it. Creating a penance without the agreement of the other party increases the chance that they will refuse to cooperate. Provoking such a response may even be the priest's intention, but care should be taken. A priest risks being castigated by their peers in the Synod for abusing their powers if they deliberately create a penance that is wildly out of proportion to the unvirtuous actions a person has been accused of. If a priest wants the support of their Assembly to force a citizen to mend their ways, it will certainly help to ensure the penance fits the deed.
Legal Consequences
A judgement of penance will not bolster a plea of clemency at trial - it may even make it harder for the defendant to establish that their actions were virtuous, if the Synod has judged that their actions fell short of that standard. However, a magistrate is likely to take any penance into account when passing judgement. A character who murders someone is not going to escape execution by completing a simple penance, but a citizen who commits a lesser crime but has publicly completed a penance that required them to financially support others can expect that to be taken into account if they are fined by the magistrates.
Inquisition
A priest who conducts an inquisition may choose to escalate the inquisition to a penance if they believe it is appropriate. To do this they submit a new judgement of penance for consideration by the same Assembly. This judgement does not count against the limit of one judgement per priest per summit, provided it is submitted by the same priest who submitted the judgement of inquisition and to the same assembly. It must not name a new target not named in the inquisition; it may use less names than the original inquisition, but it may not add a new name to the list.
Further Reading
Core Reading
Click Expand to see a summary of judgements and other pages related to the SYnod.