Any chance of the High Sparrow and sparrow movement kicking off some kind of Westerosi-equivalent version of the protestant reformation? Or do you think its more in the vein of something like Savonarola in 1490s Florance?

opinions-about-tiaras:

racefortheironthrone:

Unlikely. For one thing, they’ve already taken over the Church, so why split from it? More likely, it’s closer to Savonarola or John Ball – a religiously-infused reaction to the collapse of the social contract. 

I am not, of course, anonymous, but I can envision a world in which the splitting of the Faith happens in response to the Sparrows, rather than initiated by them.

The High Sparrow becoming the High Septon was more or less a palace coup. Other septons in other places may or may not kindly to the new regime.

I forget where you did it, Steven, but I believe you’ve written that a faith that declares all men equal before god needs to have a certain amount of hypocrisy built into it in order to function in a society where actually trying to impose that idea on everyone, from the highest to the lowest, would cause said society to implode. (Or something like that.) The High Sparrow can demonstrate a certain amount of political flexibility, but he seems to be highly interested in what would be a revolutionary makeover of Westerosi faith and culture, where living by the Faith of the Seven is actually enforced in a “pure” form.

I don’t think a lot of lords and well-heeled septons are going to take kindly to that at all. I can absolutely see them breaking away from the Great Sept and going their own way, especially if they can secure secular backing from a Great House in exchange for spiritual backing. I would be willing to bet a certain amount of money that the septons in the Starry Sept are looking at the diktats coming out of King’s Landing these days and going “what in the seven hells is going on?” I don’t think the Dornish are going to take kindly to the Faith actually trying to impose its notions of sexual purity on their culture. Etc.

That said, this is the kind of thing that could happen in theory but is unlikely to happen in the actual narrative we have; I don’t see a place for this kind of religious plotline at all, there’d be no reason for it. It’s plausible but probably won’t actually happen.

That assumes they last a longer time than the Shepherd and his flock. 

I don’t think they will.