In the books, author Philip Pullman crafted the Magisterium as a government-like body that is both seemingly omniscient and intimidating. In The Golden Compass, the first book in his trilogy, Pullman explains that the Magisterium was established after the death of Pope John Calvin (if that name sounds familiar, it should — as Nerdist points out , in our world, John Calvin was a leader of the Protestant Reformation). In the wake of his passing, the papacy changed and the “courts, colleges, and councils” that made up the church’s domain were consolidated into a powerful entity known as the Magisterium. Within the Magisterium, the Consistorial Court of Discipline is “the most active and feared of all the church’s bodies,” according to The Golden Compass. Over the course of the first season, a new villain will rise in the form of the terrifying General Oblation Board.