Why didn't I see that before?

[avram]

I am an idiot. Three times now I’ve read the Book of the New Sun, and it’s not till just tonight, on page 331 of the second Short Sun book, that I realize that the torturers are priests.

It’s when Horn/Silk and his companions are trying to get into the Citadel of Nessus, and the guard asks Horn/Silk (who’s wearing a black robe and carrying a sword) if he’s a torturer that it came to me. At first, I thought that maybe Echidna created the dress of the augurs and sybils of the Vironese Faith after that of the torturers and witches. (Did the witches wear black/fuligin?) Then I remembered that Echidna had created the Faith as a parody of (presumably) Catholicism, and it came to me — the guild of torturers is a debased remnant of the Catholic Church. The torturer is not supposed to act as if he’s heard anything the client has said, much like a priest is not supposed to acknowledge outside of the confessional anything heard under the seal.

There are two points that have me doubting this realization. One is Katherine, the patron saint of the guild. She’s clearly Saint Katherine of Alexandria, but I don’t know what further conclusions to draw from this. Is Katherine associated with some current order that would be a plausible ancestor for the guild?

The second is the timing. The guild already exists in Typhon’s time. If Typhon’s wife created the Vironese Faith in parody of Catholicism, that implies that Catholicism was still around as a living faith, something important enough to be worth parodying.

Comments

[scottscidmore.livejournal.com]

Or possibly fragmentary records and legends? Consider if a bits of history of the Inquisition where known, along with other glimpses of the Church.

However, given Wolfe's Catholicism, I suspect that your conjecture is correct - Catholicism would still be around as a living faith, as Cordwainer Smith/Linebarger sw Christianity surviving into a distant future.

[hissilliness.livejournal.com]

I think that's too reductive. After all, the Pelerines are pseudo-RC too. And it's implied that there are numerous Pelerine-like orders in the Commonwealth that we don't get a look at. It's more that the Church is gonna always inform Wolfe's aesthetic.

I think a lot of that comes of his being a convert. I was struck recently by the lack of overt religious practice in Tolkien.