Caphiric Pyramid
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The Caphirian Pyramid refers to a religious doctrine taught by the former Imperial Church. This belief states that all power metaphysically flows in a single hierarchy down from God, necessitating the oneness of state and church function. It rejects the Levantine Catholic understanding of the secular and ecclesiastical “arms” and proposes a single tiered hierarchy flowing from God through the Imperator of Caphiria. Adherents of this belief are known as "Hierarchists". Hierarchism is considered heretical by the Levantine Catholic Church.
From 1810 to 1905, it was considered the central tenet of the Imperial Church. It fell out of favor with mainstream theologians by the 1910s, and was replaced with the “Pragmatic Caesaropapism” model, which states that the Pope in Urceopolis is legitimate, but the office has remained vacant for centuries due to the supposed “Levantine inculturation” of the office. Despite this, many Caphirian traditionalists held to this belief, often becoming critics of subsequent Imperators for, in their view, reducing the dignity of his office. The mending of the Great Schism of 1615 in the 2030s lead to a schism between mainstream Caphirians and these traditionalists, who became the core members of the Non-Juring Movement. By the late 2030s, Non-Juring teaching stated that each Imperator since 1905 were invalid, as denying Hierarchism made them ipso facto heretics and invalid holders of the Imperial office.