The High Sparrow
The Faith Militant
Zeal that captures the crown.
Reactionary Autocratic TheocratOne of 729 ideologies · enter the Autocratic Theocrat hall →- Role
- Religious leader (fiction)
- From
- Game of Thrones
- Region
- King's Landing
- Social band
- Reactionary
- Placement
- −10 · +90 · −80
§ Where The High Sparrow stands
3 axesThe High Sparrow preaches poverty and practises it, walking barefoot, feeding the destitute and condemning the luxury of lords and the corruption of the previous High Septon. In A Feast for Crows (2005) he wins Cersei's consent to rearm the Faith Militant in return for cancelling the crown's large debt to the Faith, but his programme is moral rather than economic: he demands repentance from the rich, not a new distribution of property.
He builds religious power into a rival state inside King's Landing. Armed Sparrows patrol the streets, smash wine casks, raid brothels and seize sinners, and the Faith's own tribunals try queens and lords whom the crown cannot protect. By the sixth season (2016) he has drawn King Tommen into an alliance of Faith and crown, and Tommen abolishes trial by combat, the escape Cersei had planned.
His morality is puritanical and punitive. In the show's fifth season (2015) the Faith Militant arrests Loras Tyrell over his homosexuality, and Cersei, having confessed to adultery, is shorn and made to walk naked through the city to the Red Keep while a septa rings a bell and calls out shame. His order rests on public penance, sexual discipline and enforced piety.
How close are you to The High Sparrow?
Three statements, one per axis. Answer them and we’ll drop you on the compass next to them.
§ The story
FictionThe High Sparrow is the leader of the Sparrows, a movement of barefoot, poor and devout followers of the Faith of the Seven, in George R. R. Martin's novel A Feast for Crows (2005) and in HBO's television adaptation Game of Thrones, where Jonathan Pryce plays him in the fifth and sixth seasons (2015–2016). A humble man who has given away his possessions and ministers to the destitute of King's Landing, he rises to become High Septon, the head of the Faith.
With Cersei Lannister's consent, the High Sparrow revives the Faith Militant, the armed wing of the Faith that the Targaryen kings had suppressed centuries earlier, and then turns it against the crown's own circle, imprisoning Margaery Tyrell and Cersei herself. On screen he forces Cersei's walk of atonement and draws King Tommen into an alliance of Faith and throne, until Cersei destroys the Great Sept of Baelor with wildfire, killing him. The character is often discussed as a study of religious populism and of zealots who use a ruler's protection to make themselves masters.
Notable for
- 01Led the Faith Militant (in-story)
- 02Cersei's walk of atonement
- 03Theocratic populist arc
Key works & moments
- 2005George R. R. Martin introduces the High Sparrow in the novel A Feast for Crows.
- Season 5Cersei arms the Faith Militant, which arrests Loras and Margaery Tyrell, then Cersei herself.
- Season 5Imposes Cersei's walk of atonement through the streets of King's Landing.
- Season 6Draws King Tommen into an alliance of Faith and crown; trial by combat is abolished.
- Season 6Dies when Cersei destroys the Great Sept of Baelor with wildfire.
§ Minds closest to The High Sparrow
All minds →
§ Also in the Autocratic Theocrat hall
Enter the hall →§ Common questions
4 answersWhat is the High Sparrow's political ideology?
The High Sparrow stands for militant religious populism, a movement of the devout poor that captures the state from below: on the 99ideologies three-axis compass, a Reactionary Autocratic Theocrat. Economically he leans slightly left (−10), preaching poverty and scorning noble luxury without proposing to redistribute property. On governance he is near the authoritarian extreme (+90), building an armed Faith above the crown, and socially he is strongly traditional (−80), enforcing sexual morality through arrest and public penance.
Is the High Sparrow left-wing or right-wing?
Mostly right-wing in compass terms, with a populist streak. His hostility to aristocratic luxury, his care for the poor and his contempt for corrupt elites sound egalitarian, which is why some viewers find him sympathetic at first. But he uses that support to impose religious law, persecute homosexuality and adultery and place the throne under the Faith, the hallmarks of authoritarian, traditionalist theocracy. He is best read as a theocratic populist rather than a figure of the left.
What is the Faith Militant in Game of Thrones?
The Faith Militant is the armed wing of the Faith of the Seven, made up of the Warrior's Sons, an order of knights, and the Poor Fellows, humble commoners. In the world's history it rose against the early Targaryen kings, was crushed by Maegor the Cruel and was finally disbanded under King Jaehaerys I. In A Feast for Crows and the show's fifth season, Cersei Lannister lets the High Sparrow restore it, hoping to use it against the Tyrells, but it soon arrests her too, turning the Faith into a rival power in the capital.
Which minds are closest to The High Sparrow?
On the 99ideologies three-axis compass, the minds closest to The High Sparrow are Girolamo Savonarola (99% alike), Hassan al-Banna (98% alike) and Abul A'la Maududi (97% alike). The furthest is Emma Goldman (0% alike).