Temple Hierarchy

Within the temple there is a strict hierarchy. From top to bottom the positions are: High Bishop, High Priest, Blue Priests, Grey Priest Attendants, Apprentice Grey Priest Attendant, Grey Priests and Apprentice Grey Priests. Unbaptised orphans are officially not even considered Human individuals.

Any member of the temple becomes an apprentice priest or shrine maiden upon their baptism. It is currently unclear whether this apprenticeship lasts until their coming of age or if it is finished sooner.

Spoiler from Part 4 Volume 3

The leader of the highest ranked temple within the Sovereignty is called the Sovereign High Bishop.

One of his duties is performing the coming of age ceremonies at the graduation of nobles at the Royal Academy.

The High Bishop acts as the head of the temple for his or her duchy. All major decisions require his or her approval.

This position can only be held by nobles.

The High Bishop's duties include, but are not limited to


 * Conducting religious ceremonies
 * Safe-keeping the bible and bible key
 * Manage the restricted books
 * Manage the chalices used in the Spring Prayer
 * Organise the home visits after the Harvest Festival
 * Deciding which Blue Priest is sent to perform a noble's baptism at their home.

While not technically a duty, it is tradition for the High Bishop to personally perform the baptisms for members of the archducal family.

According to Lady Eglantine a long time ago it was tradition for a child of the archduke to hold the post of High Bishop and all the archduke's children would participate in the spreading of mana throughout the duchies in spring.

When we begin Ascendance of a Bookworm, Bezewanst is the head of the temple in Ehrenfest. He is first introduced in Part 1 Volume 3. As the story is told from Myne's point of view, he is only mentioned a few times, as Myne tries to avoid meeting Bezewanst. Bezewanst's next significant appearance is at the climax (also the end) of the Apprentice Shrine Maiden arc.

Bezewanst is sentenced to death by Sylvester for the crimes he committed. Rozemyne is then promoted to head of the temple and becomes the High Bishop. Ferdinand is the High Priest, and remains so when Rozemyne takes over. With Royemyne as High Bishop his work was lessened, because the former High Bishop did not fulfil any of his (paper) work. Due to Rozemyne's young age and her many other duties, Ferdinand takes over the work that the High Bishop is supposed to do that Rozemyne herself cannot do, and she, in exchange, helps with his work.


 * Ehrenfest temple:
 * Bezewanst (Deceased)
 * Rozemyne

The High Priest acts as the head administrator of the temple and does most of the day-to-day routine work.

This position can only be held by nobles.

The High Priest's duties include, but are not limited to


 * Overseeing the temple's budget
 * Overseeing the temple's inventory
 * Managing the temple's correspondence, unless it's addressed to individual priests
 * Handling the assignment of grey priests as attendants
 * Handling the sale of grey priests


 * Ehrenfest temple:
 * Ferdinand

The orphanage director is in charge of overseeing the orphanage. For this purpose the orphanage has two sets of chambers, one for men and one for women above the respective wing of the orphanage, for the director to live in.

They are assigned a budget by the High Priest with which they are supposed to cloth and take care of the orphans. Food expanses are not traditionally part of this budget, because of how food is handled in the temple by being made for the Blue Priest and the left-obers tickling down the hierarchy as "Divine Gifts".

Until several years ago the Ehrenfest temple orphanage was overseen by Sister Margaret. Because of a lack of oversight, she was able to embezzle the majority of the orphanages budget for her own personal use. This could happen because the previous High Priest, like pretty much all Blue Robes, didn't care about commoner orphans and upon taking the post Ferdinand was too swamped with his own work, work the High Bishop refused to do and work pushed on him by the Archduke to deal with the issue, leading the orphanage to deteriorate.

The situation became even worse when at the conclusion of the civil war a purge was carried out among the nobility, even in duchies that had remained neutral or were on the winning side. Almost any Blue Priest that was halfway competent or had an acceptable mana capacity was either transfered to the main temple in the Sovereignty or called back to noble society, leaving the temple in Ehrenfest with just ten Blue Priests.

As a result the amount of Divine Gifts was insufficient to feed all the orphans. Even after the High Bishop sold of as many Grey Priests and Shrine Maidens and had many others executed, while keeping only those of fair appearance, there was still not enough food to go around.

During her time as orphanage director Margaret took sexual advantage of one of her attendants Fran, something that is frowned upon in noble society outside the temple. When this secret came to light, any dreams she had of ever returning to noble society were dashed, leading her to commit suicide. Due to the shortage of priests at the temple and nobody else in a theoretical position to take over being willing to take the responsibility, the post remained empty for the time being, leaving the grey priests to more or less fend for themselves.

To avoid the rest of the temple being bothered by the smells and sounds of dying children, the chambers of the unbaptised children was sealed by the High Bishops orders and only opened when there were enough divine gifts for any to tickle all the way down to them or to remove dead bodies.

This caused the place to go into a nightmarish state were corpses were often left lying were they died for days before being removed and dead-eyed children grew up in almost complete darkness, being forced to sleep in their own filth, since they couldn't even leave the rooms to reliefe themselves.

The situation was so horrific that it left many orphans traumatised and caused Myne to faint from the smell and sight when she first beheld it.

At first Myne tried to beg the High Priest to help the orphans, because she believed she wouldn't be able to shoulder the responsibility of the position of orphanage director with her poor health and young age, but after encouragement by her attendants and her close friend Lutz, eventually accepted the position.

Under her care the orphanage was turned completely around and she even implemented measures for the orphans to gather and cook food by themselves and earn money that enabled them to be fully fed regardless of the amount of divine gifts tickling down. In theory these measures should even presist should she ever have to leave her post as orphanage director.

Myne also made sure that all orphans are taught how to read and write, even before their baptism, in part to make life easier for the orphans once they are selected as attendants and in part for her ongoing long-term goal of raising the literacy rate of the entire world.


 * Ehrenfest temple:
 * Margaret (Deceased)
 * Myne (Former)
 * Rozemyne

Blue Priests and Shrine Maidens are nobles that for various reasons could not remain a part of noble society with their families. The majority of them joined the temple before they had the chance to attend the Royal Academy and thus are not considered true nobles and looked down upon by most other nobles.

Only nobles can become blue priests or shrine maidens unless very exceptional circumstances occur. The only such case known throughout Ehrenfest's history is the devouring commoner Myne being granted blue robes due to a combination of her unusually large amount of mana, the wealth she managed to earn despite being born to a poor family and the mana shortage from the purge.


 * Giving their mana during the Dedication Ritual
 * Perform religious services outside the capital at the Harvest Festival in their assigned provinces
 * Perform the Spring Prayer in their assigned provinces
 * Go to noble's mansions to perform Baptisms if selected
 * Assist the Knight's Order by performing the Healing Ritual after a successful Trombe extermination


 * Ehrenfest temple:
 * Christine (Former - recalled to noble society)
 * Egmont
 * Ferdinand (Former - recalled to noble society)
 * Frietack
 * Margaret (Deceased)
 * Myne (Former - Deceased)
 * Kampfer
 * Shikikoza (Former - recalled to noble society)

Grey Priest Attendants are the servants of the High Bishop, High Priest or Blue Priests. Their duties are whatever their master or mistress asks of them and can include anything from physical labour to performing music and painting. They can even be ordered to give sexual favours to their masters or their guests, which is refered to as "offering flowers" in noble society.

Due to the varity of tasks different masters might expect of their attendants, there is no unified attendant training. Instead individual training tailored toward the needs and wants of the master are given either by the master themselves or more often by their othe attendants.

The attendents live in rooms adjacent to their master's chambers so they can always be nearby should their services be required.

When a Blue Priest or Shrine Maiden dies or leaves the temple, their attendants return to the orphanage to serve as regular Grey Priests.

Grey Priests who have not been chosen as attendants live in the orphanage, regardless of their age. Their duties comprise mainly the cleaning of the entire temple, except the chambers of the Blue Priests, which are taken care of by their respective attendants.

Part of the education received by apprentice grey priests is a general foundation for serving nobles, which includes among other things the meaning and correct use of proper manners and Noble Euphemisms.

Unbaptised commoner orphans are not officially recognized as Humans by the temple and thus technically have no rights or responsibilities until their baptism, upon which they are recognized as individuals and become apprentice grey priests.

Orphans are strictly forbidden to leave their rooms without express permisison of the orphanage director.


 * In the anime the position of temple leader (High Bishop in LN) is called High Priest.
 * In the anime the position of temple head administrator (High Priest in LN) is called Head Priest.
 * "Divine Gifts" are called "Alms of the Gods" in the anime.