The Patarìa movement
The Pataria movement (from Pravenite dialect: Ragpickers) started in 815 amidst war and economic depressions, growing in size as the Jelkalan War drew on and the new men of the burghs fell on harder times. They criticized the clergy, whom they claimed should have contributed to the war instead of basking in opulence and excess. The movement proved immensely popular with the merchants of Pravend, and thus much money and power backed demands for the church to outlaw simony (the sale of church positions), clerical marriage and concubinage and to curb their excesses.
When rumors that the Rex's son supported the Pataria in secret and the queen visited the Archbishop Heahmond in the night spread like wild fire, and riots broke out thought West Vlandia daily, Heahmond of Pravend took decisive action. He seeked only those who spread the rumors, for the city relied too much on its merchants to risk a direct attack on the Pataria, but when one execution on the rows of gallows turned out to have been a quite influential man, he brought doom to himself. Archbishop Heahmond died on that same night. Angry mobs ravaged and set churches alight - the fire spilled and caused what is known as the Great Pravend Fire of 820.
Rex Amalareiks took a break from campaigning to deal with the crisis. He could not support either faction as he had to focus on the war and couldn't afford to have either the merchants or the clergy against him. He appeased the authorities with executing a hundred ruffians branded the starters of the riot - convenient scapegoats as the burgher instigators covered their tracks.
The new Archbishop Evoric maintains the stalemate until this day. The Pataria movement now also finds supporters among the lower clergy and some lords. Their main form of protest is refusing to attend mass from a priest which they deem immoral. The Pataria can be divided by the benefactors who wish the church to change through peaceful means and those who incite angry mobs to attack the corrupt clergy. Villages are divided by which side is supported. Among layman or clergyman, discussion about the Pataria often ends in a fight. It is not uncommon for brawls and riots to break out in towns across West Vlandia. The same violent repression that descended upon the Pataria made them violent in turn. And as these ideas spread and find adherents in Battanian, Sturgia and the Empire, strife and disdain are bound to have a renewed popularity in Calradia.
Written by Borrisnator