Scholar at the University of Touraine and author of Church Rituals from a Secular Perspective (~1737) — the best-researched treatment of Church ritual, including divination, the party has found. (S7)
What We Know (all S7)
- The book is very recent — about two years old — well researched, and more a historical account than a manual: the historical impact of the Church, examined from outside it.
- On divination: most uses of divination rituals are sedate — a simple pro/con before a battle or endeavor. The one dramatic exception it records is Blessed Benedict (specific questions before the Third Crusade); Salemon Fouquier’s Fifth Crusade divinations were of the ordinary pro/con kind, at least according to the book (GM).
- Countess Balventia had read the book and recommended it — it is in her library.
Speculation
A secular study of Church rituals, written at Touraine — a city that fell to the crown in Summer 1736 — and published ~a year later. Someone was allowed to research and publish this, in a university town the war just chewed through. Either scholarship at Touraine survived the sack better than expected, or the book had a patron. Either way, the author is alive, current, and exactly the kind of source the party can approach without touching the Church itself.