There are three main branches of the Church: the main celebratory branch
(priests and parrishes, etc.), the monastic orders, and the Inquisition.
The Pope has supreme authority over all branches, and (nominally) all
Church members must do what he says.  However, Popes have been assasinated
and most modern Popes have been extremely aware of their political strength
(or lack thereof) in any given conflict, and act accordingly.

Most branches and divisions within the branches (i.e. different parrishes,
orders, monastaries, etc.) are autonomous from each other.  In region where
there are both monastaries and parrishs, the bishop will generally have a
higher authority than the Father Abbott; however, the Inquisitor General of
each region owes his alliegence to no one except the Pope and the Grand
Inquisitor.  Consequently, while monks and priests are general liked and
respected in the community (there are exceptions), the Inquisition in
universally feared and loathed even by other Church officials.  

A. Parrishes

The link between the Church and the community is the parrish, headed by a
bishop and generally run by priests.  The parrish is generally centered on
one city and its surrounding countryside. Even the smallest hamlets will
have at least one local priest, and the main city will contain hundreds,
including the bishop and the local Church headquarters.  The bishop is
responsible for the moral and spiritual health of everybody in his parrish.
He is also the diplomatic representative of the Pope to the local nobility.
The bishop generally takes orders directly from the Pope and his advisers,
and is usually given a significant amount of autonomy to run his parrish as
he sees fit.  In any city, the bishop certainly holds enough status to be a
major political player; whether he is skillful or ambitious enough to do so
is another matter.

The priests are the day to day contacts with the people, performing
spiritual celebrations, hearing confessions, advising the middle class
according to doctrine, etc.  Priests vary in the strength and type of their
personal convictions.  Some were drawn into the priesthood by the status of
the position and hope to rise in the heirarchy someday.  Others are fanatic
in their belief and live only to convert the heathen to the one true way.
Still others harbour a genuine concern for the welfare (both physical and
spiritual) of their fellow man.  But becoming a priest is a significant
investment of time and effort, so there are very few who become priests who
lack intellect or willpower.

B. Monastic Orders

There are several different monastic orders.  The three most interesting
ones are the Dogmists, the Terrans, and the Celestial Monks.  There are
others sects which have numbers rivalling these three, but they have little
affect on the world around them.  The Devoutists, for example, have
monastaries all throughout the empire, but they take no actions except to
pray for the good of the world and to run their small self-sufficient
farms.  (However, there can be great power in such places...)

B.1. Terran Monks

The Terrans were the first order to be created.  They were established by
Pope Milo the Great to act as roving missionaries to reunite (spiritually
and politically) the fragmented empire, and later to bring the faith to new
lands.  They now have the role of special agents of the central Church
heirarchy (the Pope and his advisors).  

Terrans are highly trained and are extremely devouted.  They are also very
adaptable to new situations and cultures.  This sometimes leads to a Terran
stand on certain points of doctrine, which holds great weight with the
Church leaders.  It was the Terrans who pushed for and finally established
the practice of assimilating major figures in local religions into the
legion of saints recognized by Church.  This established a link between
heathen religions and Church doctrine and made the conversion process much
more palatable for locals.

Because of the elite nature of these monks, Terrans are used only in very
special or delicate missions; the presence of a Terran is indication of
the extreme importance of a given situation.  Thus, Terrans are never
really based anywhere permanantly, except the capital of the Empire.

B.2. Dogmist Monks

The Dogmists were established to centralize and standardize the religious
education of the Church masses.  Eventually the Dogmists evolved into an
organization completely dedicated to the search for knowledge of all kinds
and in all forms.  This made them extremely powerful politically, as
sensitive issues were discovered that the nobility and/or the Church
heirarchy would rather had remained unknown.  Wisely, the Dogmists have
shown no interest in actually using such information unless the order
itself is being threatened.  This selective neutrality has insured their
survival as a Church institution.

The fundamental doctine of the order is that knowledge is a way of
understanding God's master plan for the universe.  Therefore, any method of
acquiring such knowledge (with a few obvious exceptions, such as making
sacrifices to Satan) is a worthwhile activity.  This basic principle has
led to the establishment of Dogmist universities as the major institutions
of learning in the world.  The Dogmists are the worlds foremost scientists,
mathematicians, philosophers, historians, and scholars.  Only the mage's
societies even come close to the amount of knowledge and skill that is
represented by the scholars at a Dogmist university.  There is no better
place to go to find the answer to any question.

There is a natural animosity between the mage's guilds and the Dogmists.
There are probably mage spies in the universities; there are definately
Dogmists monks who are accomplished magicians.  In fact, there are certain
dark rites which a select few Dogmists are the only ones (legally) allowed
to research.  Of course, the mage's guilds carry out such experiments
anyway, and they can get away with it because of their power and political
clout.  In some quarters the only reason the Dogmists are tolerated is
because they offset this clout to some extent.

When it comes to technology, however, the Dogmists have no equal.  The
Dogmists carry out many experiments and carry on great debates within their
own community on the nature of the universe.  Perhaps surprisingly,
doctrine very rarely gets in the way of technological progress, since the
Dogmists believe that observation of reality is the only way to understand
the nature of God's creations.  This has rumpled the feathers of some
conservatives in the church from time to time, but the technological
advances made by the Dogmists have given the Church a decided edge that
other political factions can only envy. 

B.3. Celestial Monks

These monks are nomads, wandering from community to community and doing
God's work among the working people.  They take a vow of poverty and live
on the donations of simple folk.  This instability has annoyed those in the
Church who feel that representatives of the religion should live in dignity
and grace.  However, attempts to stamp out the order have been largely
unsuccessful, for one simple reason: the Celestians are much loved by the
vast majority of Church laymen.  This is because the basic Celestial
principle is that life is a gift from God to be enjoyed and lived to its
fullest.  They preach laughter and celebration wherever they travel; most
Celestians are accomplished musicians and story-tellers.

This is not to say that the Celestians teach debauchery or indulgence.  In
fact, the stories they tell all have spiritual morals, and the celebrations
they conduct revolve around key articles of faith.  But the Celestians
simple do not seem to be as negative and guilt-inducing as the rest of the
Church officials.  The Church heirarchy has recognized the public relations
value of having such a group of monks who show the religion in such a good
light; the Celestial order is in no danger of extinction.

C. The Inquisition

This is a the instrument of fear, the secret police, the Gestapo of the
Church.  Think KGB.  All the Inquisitors are basically fanatic and
sadistic.  Nobody likes (or expects) the Inquisition.

(more later as I flesh this out. -ts).