So, I was given the pleasant assignment of doing the wording for Augusta’s Crucible, and I was told the motif on the scroll was game related – so I decided to base the scroll around the prohibition of games by the church (since Augusta loves games it could be a well taken joke to forbid her from playing games … with certain exceptions).
I went digging and found a papal decree from the Council in Trullo from the 7th century that is filled with edicts or ‘canons’ that dictate what a person of the church can cannot do – this I translated to tenants that members of the Order of the Crucible can and cannot do – and put in the actual responsibilities for companions of the Crucible, using the language from the Council in Trello wherever possible.
Incidentally I'm happy I could take the introduction of CANON I and turn it into a unique scroll salutation.
The core ‘canon’ was ‘a layman should not plug at dice’ … I changed that to 'thou shalt not plug at dice or engage in unruly games of chance' ... and then added a bunch of loopholes so Augusta would continue to be my friend.
Here is selected wording from the Council in Trello used for the actual scroll:
THE CANONS OF THE COUNCIL IN TRULLO.
(Labbe and Cossart, Concilia, Tom. VI., col. 1135 et seqq.)
CANON I. THAT order is best of all which makes every word and act begin and end in God. Wherefore that piety may be clearly set forth by us and that the Church of which Christ is the foundation may be continually increased and advanced, and that it may be exalted above the cedars of Lebanon; now therefore we, by divine grace at the beginning of our decrees, define that the faith set forth by the God-chosen Apostles who themselves had both seen and were ministers of the Word, shall be preserved without any innovation, unchanged and inviolate. Moreover the faith of the three hundred and eighteen holy and blessed fathers who were assembled at Nice under Constantine our Emperor, against the impious Arius, and the gentile diversity of deity or rather (to speak accurately) multitude of gods taught by him, who by the unanimous acknowledgment of the faithful revealed and declared to us the consubstantiality of the Three Persons comprehended in the Divine Nature, not suffering this faith to lie hidden under the bushel of ignorance, but openly teaching the faithful to adore with one worship the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, confuting and scattering to the winds the opinion of different grades, and demolishing and overturning the puerile toyings fabricated out of sand by the heretics against orthodoxy. Likewise also we confirm that faith which was set forth by the one hundred and fifty fathers who in the time of Theoriesins the Elder, our Emperor, assembled in this imperial city, accepting their decisions with regard to the Holy Ghost in assertion of his godhead, and expelling the profane Macedonius (together with all previous enemies of the truth) as one who dared to judge Him to be a servant who is Lord, and who wished to divide, like a robber, the inseparable unity, so that there might be no perfect mystery of our faith. And together with this odious and detestable contender against the truth, we condemn Apollinaris, priest of the same iniquity, who impiously belched forth that the Lord assumed a body unendowed with a soul, (1) thence also inferring that his salvation wrought for us was imperfect. Moreover what things were set forth by the two hundred God-bearing fathers in the city of Ephesus in the days of Theodosius our Emperor, the son of Arcadius; these doctrines we assent to as the unbroken strength of piety, teaching that Christ the incarnate Son of God is one; and declaring that she who bare him without human seed was the immaculate Ever-Virgin, glorifying her as literally and in very truth the Mother of God. We condemn as foreign to the divine scheme the absurd division of Nestorius, who teaches that the one Christ consists of a man separately and of the Godhead separately and renews the Jewish impiety. Moreover we confirm that faith which at Chalcedon, the Metropolis, was set forth in accordance with orthodoxy by the six hundred and thirty God-approved fathers in the time of Marcian, who was our Emperor, which handed down with a great and mighty voice, even unto the ends of the earth, that the one Christ, the son of God, is of two natures, and must be glorified (2) in these two natures, and which cast forth from the sacred precincts of the Church as a black pestilence to be avoided, Eutyches, babbling stupidly and inanely, and teaching that the great mystery of the incarnation (oikonwmias) was perfected in thought only. And together with him also Nestorius and Dioseorus of whom the former was the defender and champion of the division, the latter of the confusion [of the two natures in the one Christ], both of whom fell away from the divergence of their impiety to a common depth of perdition and denial of God. 360 Also we recognize as inspired by the Spirit the pious voices of the one hundred and sixty-five God-beating fathers who assembled in this imperial city in the time of our Emperor Justinian of blessed memory, and we teach them to those who come after us; for these synodically anathematized and execrated Theodore of Mopsuestia (the teacher of Nestorius), and Origen, and Didymus, and Evagrius, all of whom reintroduced feigned Greek myths, and brought back again the circlings of certain bodies and souls, and deranged turnings [or transmigrations] to the wanderings or dreamings of their minds, and impiously insulting the resurrection of the dead. Moreover [they condemned] what things were written by Theodoret against the right faith and against the Twelve Chapters of blessed Cyril, and that letter which is said to have been written by Ibas. Also we agree to guard untouched the faith of the Sixth Holy Synod, which first assembled in this imperial city in the time of Constantine, our Emperor, of blessed memory, which faith received still greater confirmation from the fact that the pious Emperor ratified with his own signet that which was written for the security of future generations. This council taught that we should openly profess our faith that in the incarnation of Jesus Christ, our true God, there are two natural wills or volitions and two natural operations; and condemned by a just sentence those who adulterated the true doctrine and taught the people that in the one Lord Jesus Christ there is but one will and one operation; to wit, Theodore of Pharan, Cyrus of Alexandria, Honorius of Rome, Sergius, Pyrrhus, Paul and Peter, who were bishops of this God-preserved city; Macarius, who was bishop of Antioch; Stephen, who was his disciple, and the insane Polychronius, depriving them henceforth from the communion of the body of Christ our God. And, to say so once for all, we decree that the faith shall stand firm and remain unsullied until the end of the world as well as the writings divinely handed down and the teachings of all those who have beautified and adorned the Church of God and were lights in the world, having embraced the word of life. And we reject and anathematize those whom they rejected and anathematized, as being enemies of the truth, and as insane ragers against God, and as lifters up of iniquity. But if any one at all shall not observe and embrace the aforesaid pious decrees, and teach and preach in accordance therewith, but shall attempt to set himself in opposition thereto, let him be anathema, according to the decree already promulgated by the up-proved holy and blessed Fathers, and let him be cast out and stricken off as an alien from the number of Christians. For our decrees add nothing to the things previously defined, nor do they take anything away, nor have we any such power.
NOTES. ANCIENT EPITOME OF CANON VIII. Whenever it is impossible to hold two synods a year, one at least shall be celebrated, between er and the month of October. This canon under file name of the "Sixth Synod" is referred to in Canon VI. of the Seventh Ecumenical Council (II. Nice), and the bishops of Quinisext are called "Fathers." VAN ESPEN. What at first was only allowed on account of necessity, little by little passed into general law, and at last was received as law, that once a year there was to be a meeting of the provincial synod.
CANON XVIII. THOSE clerics who in consequence of a barbaric incursion or on account of any other circumstance have gone abroad, we order to return again to their churches after the cause has passed away, or when the incursion of the barbarians is at an end. Nor are they to leave them for long without cause. If anyone shall not have returned according to the direction of this present canon--let him be cut off until he shall return to his own church. And the same shall be the punishment of the bishop who received him.
(Labbe and Cossart, Concilia, Tom. VI., col. 1135 et seqq.)
CANON I. THAT order is best of all which makes every word and act begin and end in God. Wherefore that piety may be clearly set forth by us and that the Church of which Christ is the foundation may be continually increased and advanced, and that it may be exalted above the cedars of Lebanon; now therefore we, by divine grace at the beginning of our decrees, define that the faith set forth by the God-chosen Apostles who themselves had both seen and were ministers of the Word, shall be preserved without any innovation, unchanged and inviolate. Moreover the faith of the three hundred and eighteen holy and blessed fathers who were assembled at Nice under Constantine our Emperor, against the impious Arius, and the gentile diversity of deity or rather (to speak accurately) multitude of gods taught by him, who by the unanimous acknowledgment of the faithful revealed and declared to us the consubstantiality of the Three Persons comprehended in the Divine Nature, not suffering this faith to lie hidden under the bushel of ignorance, but openly teaching the faithful to adore with one worship the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, confuting and scattering to the winds the opinion of different grades, and demolishing and overturning the puerile toyings fabricated out of sand by the heretics against orthodoxy. Likewise also we confirm that faith which was set forth by the one hundred and fifty fathers who in the time of Theoriesins the Elder, our Emperor, assembled in this imperial city, accepting their decisions with regard to the Holy Ghost in assertion of his godhead, and expelling the profane Macedonius (together with all previous enemies of the truth) as one who dared to judge Him to be a servant who is Lord, and who wished to divide, like a robber, the inseparable unity, so that there might be no perfect mystery of our faith. And together with this odious and detestable contender against the truth, we condemn Apollinaris, priest of the same iniquity, who impiously belched forth that the Lord assumed a body unendowed with a soul, (1) thence also inferring that his salvation wrought for us was imperfect. Moreover what things were set forth by the two hundred God-bearing fathers in the city of Ephesus in the days of Theodosius our Emperor, the son of Arcadius; these doctrines we assent to as the unbroken strength of piety, teaching that Christ the incarnate Son of God is one; and declaring that she who bare him without human seed was the immaculate Ever-Virgin, glorifying her as literally and in very truth the Mother of God. We condemn as foreign to the divine scheme the absurd division of Nestorius, who teaches that the one Christ consists of a man separately and of the Godhead separately and renews the Jewish impiety. Moreover we confirm that faith which at Chalcedon, the Metropolis, was set forth in accordance with orthodoxy by the six hundred and thirty God-approved fathers in the time of Marcian, who was our Emperor, which handed down with a great and mighty voice, even unto the ends of the earth, that the one Christ, the son of God, is of two natures, and must be glorified (2) in these two natures, and which cast forth from the sacred precincts of the Church as a black pestilence to be avoided, Eutyches, babbling stupidly and inanely, and teaching that the great mystery of the incarnation (oikonwmias) was perfected in thought only. And together with him also Nestorius and Dioseorus of whom the former was the defender and champion of the division, the latter of the confusion [of the two natures in the one Christ], both of whom fell away from the divergence of their impiety to a common depth of perdition and denial of God. 360 Also we recognize as inspired by the Spirit the pious voices of the one hundred and sixty-five God-beating fathers who assembled in this imperial city in the time of our Emperor Justinian of blessed memory, and we teach them to those who come after us; for these synodically anathematized and execrated Theodore of Mopsuestia (the teacher of Nestorius), and Origen, and Didymus, and Evagrius, all of whom reintroduced feigned Greek myths, and brought back again the circlings of certain bodies and souls, and deranged turnings [or transmigrations] to the wanderings or dreamings of their minds, and impiously insulting the resurrection of the dead. Moreover [they condemned] what things were written by Theodoret against the right faith and against the Twelve Chapters of blessed Cyril, and that letter which is said to have been written by Ibas. Also we agree to guard untouched the faith of the Sixth Holy Synod, which first assembled in this imperial city in the time of Constantine, our Emperor, of blessed memory, which faith received still greater confirmation from the fact that the pious Emperor ratified with his own signet that which was written for the security of future generations. This council taught that we should openly profess our faith that in the incarnation of Jesus Christ, our true God, there are two natural wills or volitions and two natural operations; and condemned by a just sentence those who adulterated the true doctrine and taught the people that in the one Lord Jesus Christ there is but one will and one operation; to wit, Theodore of Pharan, Cyrus of Alexandria, Honorius of Rome, Sergius, Pyrrhus, Paul and Peter, who were bishops of this God-preserved city; Macarius, who was bishop of Antioch; Stephen, who was his disciple, and the insane Polychronius, depriving them henceforth from the communion of the body of Christ our God. And, to say so once for all, we decree that the faith shall stand firm and remain unsullied until the end of the world as well as the writings divinely handed down and the teachings of all those who have beautified and adorned the Church of God and were lights in the world, having embraced the word of life. And we reject and anathematize those whom they rejected and anathematized, as being enemies of the truth, and as insane ragers against God, and as lifters up of iniquity. But if any one at all shall not observe and embrace the aforesaid pious decrees, and teach and preach in accordance therewith, but shall attempt to set himself in opposition thereto, let him be anathema, according to the decree already promulgated by the up-proved holy and blessed Fathers, and let him be cast out and stricken off as an alien from the number of Christians. For our decrees add nothing to the things previously defined, nor do they take anything away, nor have we any such power.
NOTES. ANCIENT EPITOME OF CANON VIII. Whenever it is impossible to hold two synods a year, one at least shall be celebrated, between er and the month of October. This canon under file name of the "Sixth Synod" is referred to in Canon VI. of the Seventh Ecumenical Council (II. Nice), and the bishops of Quinisext are called "Fathers." VAN ESPEN. What at first was only allowed on account of necessity, little by little passed into general law, and at last was received as law, that once a year there was to be a meeting of the provincial synod.
CANON XVIII. THOSE clerics who in consequence of a barbaric incursion or on account of any other circumstance have gone abroad, we order to return again to their churches after the cause has passed away, or when the incursion of the barbarians is at an end. Nor are they to leave them for long without cause. If anyone shall not have returned according to the direction of this present canon--let him be cut off until he shall return to his own church. And the same shall be the punishment of the bishop who received him.
NOTES. ANCIENT EPITOME OF CANON XVIII. Whoever has emigrated on account of an invasion of the barbarians, shall return to the Church to whose clergy he belongs as soon as the incursion ceases. But if he shall not do so, he shall be cut off together with him to whom he has gone.
BALSAMON. The Fathers are worthy of great praise. For having regard to the honour of the ecclesiastical order and of each bishop, they have decreed that clergymen, who from just and valid causes have gone forth without letters dimissory from those who ordained them, should return to their own clergy soon as the cause which drove them forth ceases; and that they should not be enrolled on the clergy list of any other church. But whosoever cannot be persuaded to return is to be cut off, as well as the bishop who detains him. But someone will say, If a bishop who does such a thing is cut off by his Metropolitan; and likewise if a Metropolitan spurns this canon he is punished by the Patriarch. But if an autocephalous archbishop or a Patriarch other than the Patriarch of Constantinople (for he has a faculty for doing so) should be convicted of a breach of this Canon, by whom would he be cut off? I suppose by the Supreme Pontiff(1) (oiomai oun para tou meixo-nos arkierews).
NOTES. ANCIENT EPITOME OF CANON XXXIV. If clerics or monks enter into conspiracies or fraternities, or plots against the bishop or their fellow clerics, they shall be cast out of their grade. This is but a renewal of Canon xviij. of Chalcedon, which see with the notes.
NOTES. ANCIENT EPITOME OF CANON L. A layman should not plug at dice. This renews canons XLII. and XLIIJ. of the Apostolic canons.
And here is the wording of the final scroll:
The
Order that is best of all makes every word and act begin and end in Ealdormere,
from the Crown to subject. Wherefore
that talent may be clearly set forth in front of Roak and Hyrrokin, and Ealdormere
may be continually increased and advanced, and Baroness Augusta Weyfare may be
exalted in halls of this kingdom, now therefore we, by right of being the
patrons of the Order of the Crucible, define this lady kneeling here as one of
the assembled companions, and our word shall be preserved and inviolate.
And as we say once and for all that the Lady Augusta shall be numbered amongst the Crucible until the end of the world, we set down and decree her to observe the three tenants of such an Order.
TENANT 1 – Whenever it is possible, the Crown shall convene a council of the Order of the Crucible at least twice a year, and the gathering shall be celebrated and matters of skill and talent shall be discussed amongst the gathered companions, of which Baroness Augusta shall number as she is wise and knows of pigments and parchment and paints.
TENANT 2 – Companions of the Crucible are worthy of great praise, as long as they are not detained for continuing their arts and shall ply their trade for the enrichment of others, and shall be known by the badge of their order to be sought out and teach others, as Baroness Augusta has done, with countless scrolls created in alacrity of great beauty.
TENANT 3 – A Companion of the Crucible should not plug at dice or engage in unuly games of chance, unless it be a month of summer, a Saturday, a Sunday, or in celebration of a Saint’s Feast Day, as Baroness Augusta has never been known to do as she is an upstanding lady of the court.
If the Baroness Augusta Weyfare shall consent to these tenants, and receive this writ from the hand of the Crown, in accordance with this degree promulgated by the heralds and scribes in their service, she shall be acclaimed this day. This does not add to Augusta Weyfare’s talents as she has already proven her worth, nor does it take anything away as she is a lady of noble repute, such is the will of the Crown on the Xth day of August, Anno Societatis QQQ in court at the Pennsic Wars.
Hyrrokin Roak
(Based on the Canons of the Council in Trullo, AD 692)
And as we say once and for all that the Lady Augusta shall be numbered amongst the Crucible until the end of the world, we set down and decree her to observe the three tenants of such an Order.
TENANT 1 – Whenever it is possible, the Crown shall convene a council of the Order of the Crucible at least twice a year, and the gathering shall be celebrated and matters of skill and talent shall be discussed amongst the gathered companions, of which Baroness Augusta shall number as she is wise and knows of pigments and parchment and paints.
TENANT 2 – Companions of the Crucible are worthy of great praise, as long as they are not detained for continuing their arts and shall ply their trade for the enrichment of others, and shall be known by the badge of their order to be sought out and teach others, as Baroness Augusta has done, with countless scrolls created in alacrity of great beauty.
TENANT 3 – A Companion of the Crucible should not plug at dice or engage in unuly games of chance, unless it be a month of summer, a Saturday, a Sunday, or in celebration of a Saint’s Feast Day, as Baroness Augusta has never been known to do as she is an upstanding lady of the court.
If the Baroness Augusta Weyfare shall consent to these tenants, and receive this writ from the hand of the Crown, in accordance with this degree promulgated by the heralds and scribes in their service, she shall be acclaimed this day. This does not add to Augusta Weyfare’s talents as she has already proven her worth, nor does it take anything away as she is a lady of noble repute, such is the will of the Crown on the Xth day of August, Anno Societatis QQQ in court at the Pennsic Wars.
Hyrrokin Roak
(Based on the Canons of the Council in Trullo, AD 692)
If you would like to read the full text of the Canons of the Council of Trello, it can be found here:
Brand, Barenwalde