Anseau Roisel

**Anseau Roisel** was a Breton prelate who ruled the Prince-Bishopric of Morol from 3E 297.

## **Biography**

Anseau was born in the city of Morol on 24th Sun's Dawn 3E 268, under the sign of the Lover. He was officially the nephew of Garnier Roisel, who reigned as Prince-Bishop at the time of Anseau's birth. It is likely, however, that Anseau was the illegitimate son of Garnier (since the latter was not known to have any siblings, nor to have taken his vows of chastity seriously). Anseau was raised by his "uncle" in the splendid Episcopal Palace, where he received an excellent education at the Prince-Bishop's expense.

In the theocratic principality of Morol, the priestly caste reigned. According to the city's canons, a priest or priestess could not be ordained before the age of twenty. Despite this, Anseau was ordained by the Prince-Bishop at the age of twelve. At nineteen, he was appointed a Curate, one of the city's high priests. It was obvious that Garnier was grooming his kinsman to eventually succeed him as Prince-Bishop.

From his accession, Garnier was more prince than bishop. The grandiosity of his court surpassed that of many kings, and his lifestyle was equally decadent. Despite his geniality and generosity, Garnier incurred the reproval of a faction which emphasised the spiritual rather than secular responsibilities of the Prince-Bishop. When Garnier died in 3E 293, this faction succeeded in electing their own candidate, Arnaud Perignac, as Prince-Bishop.

If Garnier Roisel was excessively princely, then his successor proved insufficiently princely. Even the late Prince-Bishop's detractors were appalled when the ascetic Perignac installed the city's paupers in the Episcopal Palace (Perignac himself sleeping in a bare cell within the cathedral). On Perignac's orders, the priests and priestesses of Morol were stripped of their finery and jewels. Curates were bade to wash and kiss the feet of the poor within their districts. Anseau departed the city a year after Perignac's accession, ostensibly for study and pilgrimage. It is more likely that the proud prelate favoured exile over the indignities of this regime.

Both the clergy and the laity of Morol lamented the halcyon days of Garnier Roisel, for all its profligacy and revelry. Thus when Perignac succumbed to a fever (likely exacerbated by his austere lifestyle) in 3E 297, the clergy were almost unanimous in electing Garnier's supposed nephew as Prince-Bishop. The youngest Prince-Bishop in the city's history, it was hoped, would emulate his late kinsman. The svelte and urbane Anseau, returning from exile, did not disappoint his electors. He immediately took up residence in the Episcopal Palace (ejecting the poor from its halls), reinstated the lavish vestments of the clergy, and restored the princely dignity of his office.

As Prince-Bishop, Anseau Roisel was the golden mean between his two immediate predecessors. The sacred magnified the secular: '*My rank is closer to the gods than to man*', he pontificated before a delegation of burghers. Roisel endorsed the Peace of Torlan in 3E 298, but did not attend the summit in person. He considered it unbecoming for a prince to serve as his own emissary, assuring his councillors that '*absence is presence*'.