Rex Mundi
http://www.shrunkenheadstudios.com/rexmundi/index2.html(It's an alternate history book with magic and Templars and lions and tigers, oh my! Here's a bit of the background.)
Church
Agents of the Inquisition assassinated Martin Luther in 1520, before the Reformation could gain enough momentum to loosen the Roman Church's grip on political power. However, Luther has become something of a martyr for less conservative Christians, and a largely non-violent Lutheran underground exists. A sizeable percentage of lower echelon clergymen are secretly Lutheran sympathizers, although the vast majority of Europe believes Luther died for his sins against Christ. Consequently the Protestant Reformation never occurred, and the Catholic Church is still a major political force throughout Europe, America and the colonies in Africa and Asia. Other upstart heresies, such as Calvinism, met fates similar to that of Lutheranism at the hands of the Inquisition. Some of these movements still survive and have evolved into terrorist undergrounds, Calvinism being the most extreme example.
In Rex Mundi, "crime" and "sin" are largely interchangeable terms. It is through this lack of distinction that the Roman Church maintains its power over the nations of Europe. The Church employs a permanent Inquisition, which serves two purposes. First, it is a spiritual police force, dedicated to exterminating heresies, witches, devil worshippers, Jews, Muslims… all those perceived to oppose the Church. Secondly, the Inquisition acts as a secular law enforcement agency with essentially the same powers as the FBI in present-day United States. Extra-ecclesiastical constabularies exist, but they are locally funded, often by corrupt landowners.
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