I'm pretty sure Medugnatos said he had got the Prophet's blessing in person before he called the crusade, and the Prophet explicitly mentioned this when he said to the full members "I do not give my blessing lightly".
Medugnatos has said he got the prophet's blessing.
Hence Hireshmont's promise to stand down: the Prophet didn't give Medugnatos his blessing until Medugnatos had a clear, weasel-word proof commitment from Hireshmont to step down.
Yet another reason for Hireshmont's (and my) frequent focus on his stepping down and his personal political ambitions/lack thereof: because the Prophet apparently thought it important enough to make-or-break a blessing on the crusade.
Which seems odd to me. If you're purposefully playing your character in a theocracy... wouldn't you be pretty interested in the activity of the Astroist Church?
Well, only kinda. See, theocracies don't need to lobby the church: they ARE the church. They are pretty stable internally, large, powerful, etc. The church is never, ever going to turn on them unless they turn on the church.
Non-theocracies, however, need to lobby. They need to prove themselves. There are incentives to being dedicated which do not exist in theocracies, whose dedication is taken for granted.
For example: neither Selene Aristilien nor Leopold Arrakis spoke for or against the Crusade prior to its being called. Yet the church elders would assume that Leopold supports it, and would assume Selene either doesn't care or doesn't support it. Why? Because non-theocrats have to prove they are faithful: theocrats are assumed to be faithful until they do something that looks otherwise.
Interestingly, this is very similar to what Boreal Arrakis did when we destroyed Everguard. We had a big discussion in which Boreal did not participate and eventually decided to attack them, and then once we did he suddenly came out and denounced the war, which is what led to the split between him and Rowan. Rowan was utterly furious that he would silently sit back and not say anything against attacking Everguard and then suddenly publicly attack the war with no prior warning of his disaffection.
Maybe it's just a player habit. Its certainly a way to create conflict.
