An Introduction to the Longinian Creeds

Every kindred structure is riven with division. This is so because we are, by our natures, aggressive and confrontational. The Beast that beats within our breasts makes it so, raising its hackles whenever we encounter another of our kind. With such a nature, it is difficult to organize ourselves on a large scale.

The Lancea Sanctum is no different in this regards. The Sanctified are divided into as many (or more) Longinian Churches as there are praxes. Historically, each diocese of the Lancea Sanctum was its own self-enclosed body. It was established thus by this way because of an understanding of our natures, and of the vulnerability of corruption, paralysis, internal strife, or external assault in a unified structure.

This practice allowed the Lancea Sanctum to flourish in many places. In the ancient days, there was no need to wait for word to travel to and from a distant senior member of the Church. All matters were local and all decisions were local. This led to both a variety of practices and expressions of faith, as well as over time to the development of various creeds, broad sects within the Lancea Sanctum based on differing interpretations of the Testament and other early documents of the faith.

Broadly speaking, there are three major creeds within the Lancea Sanctum, a half dozen minor creeds, and myriad more diocese that operate without an espoused creed at all. In the modern nights in particular, as ease of travel has increased and the mixing of previously distinct cultures and races have risen cities around the world, many dioceses have Sanctified who adhere to differing creeds. This all makes for a very curious local Church where some worship using rituals that are clearly drawn from Catholicism, while others handle snakes and leap over bonfires in ecstatic displays of faith.

The most traditional and prominent within the Lancea Sanctum is the Monachal Creed, which yet makes up half of Sanctified around the world. The percentage may be lower in the United States, though no full census has ever been taken. The Monachal Creed draws its name from the Monachus, the first childe of Longinus, and draws heavily from the writings of the Monachus contained in The Sanguineous Catechism. Its rituals, as the oldest and most traditional of the Creeds, are drawn in structure from Catholicism.

The second of the major Creeds is the Westminster Creed. It is perhaps surprisingly modern, having only been penned and formalized in the 18th century as a delayed response to the Protestant Reformation that swept Europe two centuries prior. The Westminster Creed, while wishing to adhere to much of the traditional texts of the Lancea Sanctum, sought to shake free of many of the most ancient practices. It eschews the traditional rituals of the faith, crafted new and simpler ceremonies, as well as altered the names of various traditional offices within the Lancea Sanctum. It did so and blossomed in areas of the mortal world where Catholicism had never been or was no longer welcome.

The third of the major Creeds began here in the United States. The Tollison Creed was drafted in the 1920s by a former Pentecostal minister. In a similar fashion to Pentecostalism, where there is a belief that the Holy Spirit might move through any person at any time and direction from God is personal, so members of the Tollison Creed open themselves up to direct and personal experience with God, angels, or similar spirits. Theirs is a passionate and ecstatic faith, marked by extreme displays and personal revelations.

Some of the larger minor creeds include: the Iblic Creed, the Dammitic Creed, and Exotheists. The Iblic Creed, which was drafted in 1420 to reconcile the Islamic theology with the traditions of the Lancea Sanctum. The Dammitic Creed was founded in the 18th century to similarly reconcile Jewish traditions with the Lancea Sanctum. The Exotheists are the most modern of the minor creeds, following the publication of the Exotheist Manifesto in 1924, which eschews religious structures entirely while allowing that the Testament of Longinus might yet be an important philosophical treatise on kindred nature and how we might structure our requiems.

All of these creeds, and more, live under one very large roof within the Lancea Sanctum. The diversity occurred, at least in part, because of our earliest teachings and structure. We largely manage to reconcile ourselves in these modern nights, working together because despite our differences in our understanding of it, we do believe that there is an essential ordering to the world, and a place in it for us in accordance with God's plan.

Much more has and is required for a deep understanding of the Lancea Sanctum, and each of its many creeds, and the individual variations within them. However, I hope that this has at least presented some grounding for the diversity that exists and thrives under the auspices of this one covenant.

Sum Sanctus,

Simon Patterson Gloveli
Inquisitor Generalis de Lacus Magni

On Covenants

It is from the Lancea Sanctum that the kindred meaning of the word covenant arises. Kindred are, of course, prone to endless variations in the structuring of their requiems, in their practices, in their faiths, and in their cultures. In the truly ancient world, blood ruled. The line from which one came was everything. Further, kindred were few and far between due to the generally lower population of kine, leaving what would come to be known as praxis small, general distinct populations, each with their own traditions.

The Lancea Sanctum changed that. The earliest members shared the words of Longinus to other kindred without regard for lineage, without regards for ethnicity as mortal, without regards for the temporary and shifting borders of kingdoms on the map, without regards to whether one had been born male, female, or something more complicated. The Lancea Sanctum offered a Covenant with God. They offered to any who would hear a logical ordering to all things, a purpose and place that transcended anything save commitment. Kindred who were male, female, slave, noble, of any clan or bloodline, all were welcome and all were equal.

It is in response to the Lancea Sanctum that other covenants, in the modern kindred understanding of the word, were formed. The Invictus came to be an understanding of the temporal structure and power of kindred society. The Circle of the Crone came to be a covenant, rather than isolated practitioners and worshipers, in response to the Lancea Sanctum's activities. In more recent centuries, first the Ordo Dracul and more recently the Carthian Movement rose, challenging the assumptions of the natures of each individual and our society respectively. Yet we know each and every one by the common word of covenant, a word that originated in the kindred world with the Lancea Sanctum.

Having said all of this, I will now say that the Lancea Sanctum is more than a covenant in the modern kindred understanding of the word. It is more than a clearly defined and delineated group of kindred, that has no overlap with any other such ordering of kindred. The Lancea Sanctum properly harkens back to the origin of the word. Its members hold a Covenant with God, which is more than a covenant with other kindred. In this distinction, I will use Sanctified to mean part of the Covenant with God and Lancea Sanctum to mean part of the temporal Church of Longinus.

What does it mean to be Sanctified?

There are many answers, but the most common can be found in the five lines that comprise the Monachal Creed, the most traditional understanding of this Covenant with God, and the one to which at least half of the Lancea Sanctum around the world yet adhere to.

I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of Heaven and Earth. 

To be Sanctified is to believe in the God who forged and ordered the whole of Creation.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, who was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary to redeem Man from Sin through his death and resurrection.

To be Sanctified is to believe in the reality of the Christ, the virgin birth, and that through his sacrifice, mankind was offered redemption.

I believe that Longinus, by piercing the Savior’s side as he hung from the Cross, did reveal the divinity of Christ through fulfillment of the prophecies and that, while Longinus was rightly Damned for his blasphemy, his damnation was itself part of God’s Holy Plan.

To be Sanctified is to believe that the events described in the Testament of Longinus are true; that the spear bearer described in the Holy Bible pierced the side of Jesus Christ with the Spear of Destiny. This act was the culmination of God's Holy Plan for the mortal life of His Son and the deed was both an offering of redemption for mankind and damnation for Longinus.

I believe that for my sins I am damned to Hell and yet through damnation I may find my purpose in God’s Holy Plan.

The Beast beats in our breasts. Hunger threatens to overshadow our intellect. The Sun and the light of God are anathema to us. Each night we rise, we sin in our hearts, in our minds, and in the acts of predation that are necessary for us to survive. To be Sanctified is to know and accept this, that our damnation is eternal. Yet, through our Covenant with God, we have been shown a mercy; that we might continue to play a part in His Holy Plan and steer the living to the eternal salvation offered them by God.

Any who accept these five things can be Sanctified, whether they are a member of the temporal Church of Longinus, the Lancea Sanctum, or not. One need not be a member of the clergy to enter into a Covenant with God. Like Jesus's offering of salvation to all mankind, God offers a place in His Plan to all kindred who would enter into a Covenant with Him. How to do so can be found more fully within the Testament of Longinus, His Prophet sent to reveal this path to kindred society.

Sum Sanctus (I am Sanctified),

Simon Patterson Gloveli

Inquisitor Generalis de Lacus Magni