New Israeli Emperor Markus Abernathy has issued an ultimatum concerning the Sôgmô Gaius Soergel Publicola “so as to prevent any foreign incursions into the affairs of our most holy and apostolic empire,” although the emperor admits “that [það] of the impious state of Sandus has no record of participation in conflict against our Holy Empire.”
The ultimatum specifies that the empire considers its duty to “subdue the enemies of our faith and bring them to the obedience of the divine majesty,” which explicitly includes “William Soergel” as “priest of impiety and wickedness” — referring to the Sôgmô by þess birth name. Despite having been considered a Sandum enemy since 2013, the Central People’s Government of the State of Sandus has stated that it does not have strategic diplomatic policies concerning the Empire of New Israel and that the ultimatum comes as a surprise. The State of Sandus furthermore has no diplomatic relations with the empire, causing the government to be perplexed by the recent ultimatum.
The ultimatum from the New Israeli inquisition hopes to “suppress” the Sôgmô’s private beliefs, especially þess religious and social beliefs, and demanded a “full recantation of error” in order to be “brought into the fold of the one church of the one God.” The ultimatum claims that “the unity of Christendom is imperiled by vile and impious heresies, particularly those promulgated by a certain William Soergel, of the State of Sandus, who teaches iniquity and slander, preaches false doctrines, and writes, in both Latin and English, syncretistic doctrines that have been accepted by many, greatly diminishing the honor of God and the Catholic faith, endangering Christian souls, and bringing future confusion to all religious affairs.”
In addition, while claiming the Sôgmô “takes cruel pleasure in exploiting the privacy of others,” which the Sôgmô firmly denies, the Emperor has done the same in referring to the Sôgmô by his unofficial name — similar to calling Abernathy by his macronational name, which Veritum Sandus and the Sandum government has previously kept dutifully private. Here, the Emperor referred to a recent diplomatic conflict with the Austenasian emperor. Það took no pleasure in “exploiting the privacy” of M. Augustus but used logs from a private conversation begrudgingly in a public dispute when he felt pushed to extremes by Augustus — as is apparent in the logs of the conversation in the MicroPolitan Lounge, where Abernathy is not present.
In addition to the Sôgmô, the ultimatum also named Adam von Friedeck, King of Überstadt and Sandum socius citizen, because of the joint Buddhist-Christian-Pagan religious service between the Sôgmô and the King when von Friedeck visited Kremlum Sandus in July 2014. At that service, það reaffirmed the ecumenical nature of Sandus’s religious and sociocultural beliefs, embracing Sandus’s Christian majority while following his own personal religious beliefs as a Tibetan Buddhist and as a cultor Religionis Romanae which form the basis of Sandus’s cultural background. Rather than “trouble and demolish all religious peace and charity and all order and direction in the things of this world,” the meeting reaffirmed the Sandum sociopolitical order and reaffirmed compassion and peace amongst different religious backgrounds — reflecting the peaceful and compassionate nature of Sandum culture and society.
The new Sandum Minister of Diplomatic Affairs, Jacob Barnet Pharmacologus, commented on the ultimatum by saying, “The Lion need pay no heed to the opinion of the sheep, or their foolish Shepherd.” He also expressed Sandus’s solidarity with the other parties referred to in Abernathy’s ultimatum, mirroring the Sôgmô’s private message of support to Mercian Lord Spiritual Richard Hytholoday. The minister’s statement reflects Sandus’s new policy of eschewing superfluous diplomatic conflicts. “When we see these kind of statements being thrown about by certain members of the community, we cannot help but feel a certain sense of disinterest. That Markus chooses to condemn us is neither really news nor worth paying much heed to. Instead, however, we choose to reiterate our own religious openness and inclusivity; we stretch out our hand in solidarity to all those who are condemned by the unnecessary partisan comments of Markus. We choose to focus on this solidarity with the tolerant members of our community, be that with Mercia, with Shorewell, with Pende Johannes, or others.”
“Ultimately, no citizen of Sandus will lose sleep over the condemnations of a madman. We understand that Markus is a representative only of his own hatred, not of his whole religion,” Barnet Pharmacologus said.
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