Clerical Control of Chevalie (concept)
For much of Chevalien history, the clergy has held equal or even higher authority than the secular lords. Beginning shortly after the first Life Path High King in 234 IS, the newly established Conclave of Raocourt would begin to exert great control over its lords and followers via the new faith. The most direct form of manipulation was through the concept of the 'Right of Choice' (who in a realm, if anyone, has the right to dictate which Lifepath an adherent can follow). Secular lords had great interest in being able to either decide their subjects' Path or remove any ability to determine it altogether, while the clergy wished to be able to choose in order to control the lords and commoners both.
Long conflicts over the concept and other conflicts of interest effectively ended in the 821 IS Concordate of Theyslaux, an agreement by the Chevalien Kings at the time that the ultimate Right of Choice rested with the clergy. This (along with the rise of northern bureucratic systems) led to an increasing codification of the clergy's rights to control Chevalien society, with the clergy often going so far as to use their power to have noble lords replaced with their chosen successors.
Conflict between the clergy and secular lords was increasingly common, culminating in the Anarchy of the Five Crowns in 878 IS, along with The Brutality. With the clergy splitting along secular lines and supporting various Kings, and the Anti-Magic Orders serving as mercenaries to the highest bidder, trust in the secular functions of the clergy plummeted.
After the Red River War, in the name of the honor of the Champion of Chevalie, the various Anti-Magic Orders swore to the 'Rites of Noncompliance', which stated that the Orders would no longer meddle in domestic Chevalien affairs. The similar 'Orders of Separation' formally broke the Anti-Magic Orders off of the Conclave of Raocourt's jurisdiction. With their militant branch now independent and with little good will among the nobility and the peasantry both, the Conclave and clergy at large struggled to maintain control of their flock.
The end of the Conclave's influence would come with the War of the Heretic Princes, where it had lost the majority of its church lands in the conflicts thanks to the opportunism of secular lords, and would never again come close to the amount of control it exerted over Chevalie thereafter. The next High King to reunite Chevalie after the event, Oliërs den va Hadcourte-Vedron, would famously require the assorted Wayfather's to prostrate themselves and request the right to crown him, a controversial yet clear sign that the function of the clergy would officially be secondary to that of the hereditary nobility.