Obviously, the biggest religion in Europe in 1529. The dominant faith of nearly all major powers (for the moment). Centered around the Papal States under Clement VIII.
I'm going to assume most forum members are familer with the main tenants of the church. I'll go furthur and boldly assume that most forum posters, being Irish, were probably baptized Catholics. So, no need to go into the belief system too much. There are some notable difference between some modern practices, most notably the mass, but nothing too huge.
The church is everywhere in Europe and has a lot of power especially in Italy and the HRE. If you're not a noble and the church wants you out of the way for some reason, you're fucked. If you are a noble and the curchc wants you out of the way, you're also fucked unless you're very high up.
In our universe, the Catholic Church is the main, respectable trainer and employer of magic users for a variety of purposes. Aside from that you have lots of Preists, Monks, Nuns, Bishops, Cardinals etc scattered all over the place.
The church operates the inquisition, the Gestapo of 1529. Of course the church also has a lot of good people around the place, being the only institution that really helps the poor in any fashion. As I said in Clement's page, the current Pope isn't a bad guy, just very unlucky and a tad stupid.
So ideas? Especiallt regarding structure, extent of power, that kind of thing.
Party of Five, a brilliant show, and often made me cry uncontrollably, suffered ultimately from a lack of rocket launchers.
- Joss Whedon
Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.