The Silver Shields

The Creed of 381, engraved in Greek and Latin at the order of Pope Leo III (c. 810)

Leo III, bishop of Rome

A pope’s answer to being told what his own office could do: the older words, in metal, where everyone coming in would walk past them.

Catch rate: 12 / 255
Base research: 180
Stat total: 298

Base stats

Every stat is a checkable fact about the actual book, not a designer's mood. Bars are drawn against the highest value any book reaches.

Stamina58

Contend86

Defend70

Popularity84

Total298

Why these numbers

The game's own explanation, as a reader sees it in the backpack.

Stamina 58

Low. The shields themselves are long gone. What survives is the record that they were made, and what was written on them.

Contend 86

High. It is the Creed, unedited, set up where the argument was happening. Few things contend harder for their length.

Defend 70

Fairly high. The Creed was agreed by an ecumenical council, and a pope had it cut in silver so that nobody could change it.

Popularity 84

Quick. Two shields in a doorway at St Peter’s. Nobody has to find them or read them out; they are simply there.

Cited for this book

A council at Toledo added the Filioque to the Creed in 589. Around 810, Pope Leo III refused to add it at Rome. He believed the doctrine, but said he had no right to change a creed the whole church had agreed. He had the Creed without it cut into two silver shields. Rome added the word in 1014. Reformed confessions hold the doctrine true.

Moves learned

By levelling up. A book that develops keeps what it knew and learns the rest on its new schedule.

Lv	Move	Type	Cat.	Pwr	Acc	PP
1	The Silver Shields	Bible	Argument	92	100%	5
1	Random Verse	Bible	Argument	10	100%	30
13	Affirm	—	Status	—	—	1
18	Chapter…	Bible	Scripture	—	—	12
24	Through the Son	Theology Proper	Argument	84	100%	10
28	No Superior, No Equal	History	Argument	76	100%	15

The quotes behind its moves

How to read these. In Scholar’s Dream, books argue with each other. Each thing a book can do in a debate is a move, and most moves carry a real quotation — the words the book puts on the table when it uses that move.

Strong against lists the opposing books and arguments a move was written to answer. Used against one of them, it hits much harder than usual: ×2 means twice the normal force, ×4 four times. It is the game’s way of saying: this is the sentence that answers that argument. Open an entry to read why.

“…the Filioque was added without the knowledge and against the teaching of the East by churches (in Spain and France) which had nothing to do with the original production.”
Schaff, History of the Christian Church IV §108 (1885), public domain, stating the Greek reply. Leo III’s shields are recorded in the Liber Pontificalis.public domain

The Silver Shields

BibleArgument · power 92 · 100% accurate

In the gameA pope who believed the doctrine refused to put it in the Creed, because he did not think the office reached that far. He had the older words cut in silver so nobody could argue about what they had been.

Strong against

×3The Bull of 1054a book · why?

A pope who believed the doctrine still would not touch the Creed. The office in whose name this was written did not always think it reached this far.

“For in him we live, and move, and have our being. As some of your own poets have said.”
Acts 17:28 (WEB) — Paul at the Areopagus, quoting the Athenians’ own poets back to them.

Affirm

Status

In the gamePick the part of the opponent’s case that is true and affirm it. That point can no longer be used against you, and the opponent’s Defend falls sharply. It deals no damage. Affirm something false and you have only agreed with an error.

“The Greeks approach the Latins by the admission that the Spirit proceeds from the Father through the Son (this was the doctrine of Cyril of Alexandria and John of Damascus)…”
Schaff, History of the Christian Church IV §108 (1885), public domain.public domain

Through the Son

Theology ProperArgument · power 84 · 100% accurate

In the gameThe formula through the Son was written down before the Filioque quarrel began, and it has been offered at every attempt to end it, at Ferrara in 1439 and at Bonn in 1875. It has not healed the split, but it is still there to use.

“Photius would tolerate no superior, Nicolas no equal.”
Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church IV §70 (1885), public domain.public domain

No Superior, No Equal

HistoryArgument · power 76 · 100% accurate

In the gameNine words that hold the whole quarrel. Schaff wrote them about the ninth century and they fit the eleventh without a syllable changed.