OK, here's something that's been niggling me for a while.

During the Age of Apostacy, and subsequent to Vandire's Reign of Blood the Ministorum was forbidding from having 'men under arms'. This is the whole reason for the foundation of the Adeptus Sororitas (from the prior Daughters/Brides of the Emperor).

In essence, the men of the Adeptus Ministorum are forbidden from carrying weapons.

Yet the clerics and priests in DH are basically combat - preachers, armed to the teeth and ready to burn and kill with abandon.

How dose that fit with the fluff then?

Luddite said:

No. The Ministorum is forbidden from having an armed force - not quite the same thing (and they've found plenty of ways around this ban, not just the Sisters). A cleric is allowed to bear arms, he's just not allowed to maintain an army of (male) soldiers.

"…Only a fool would assume that the Ecclesiarchy lacks military power"
-quote from Blood of Martyrs

But yeah… what macd21 said.

The Decree Passive demands that the Ecclesiarchy may not maintain forces of "Men at arms". This wording is consistently being horribly abused.

In the case of Adepta Sororitas, the argument is "These are WOmen at arms, so it doesn't count" and in other cases, like the case of the Frateris Militia, the definition of the sentence is being used circumvent its basic intent.

The Ecclesiarchy is not permitted to equip and maintain an army of trained soldiers, so that they can never again be the threat to the Imperium of whole, that they were during the age of apostacy. This is the intent of the Decree Passive. So the Ecclesiarchy simply collect a rageball of millions and millions of faithful, members of clergy or not, and ask them to "Arm yourselves!", whereupon they take their wave of expendable crazies and throw them at whatever problem they have.

These are 2 examples, but apparently, this is only scratching the surface of the willful misinterpretation of the Decree Passive, that goes on