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The '''''Lectitio Divinitatus''''' (also ''Lectio Divinitatus'') was a book written by the [[Primarch]] [[Lorgar]]{{Fn|1}} during the [[Great Crusade]], before his fall to [[Chaos]]. {{Fn|1}}

It postulated the worship of the [[Emperor of Mankind]] as a divine being. The following of the ''Lectitio Divinitatus '' became an underground cult, believed to be the precursor of the [[Temple of the Saviour Emperor]] and the [[Imperial Cult]], the basis of the modern [[Adeptus Ministorum]]. During the Great Crusade such cults were frowned upon by the Emperor and the [[Council of Terra]], and most especially by the [[Astartes]] and those serving them.{{Fn|2}} The Emperor downplayed his power but those who believed in the Emperor's godhood were of the opinion - as [[Titus Cassar]] once put it - that "only the truly divine deny their divinity".{{Cite Thisfn|6}}

In the [[63rd Expeditionary Fleet]], commanded by [[Warmaster]] [[Horus]] himself, the cult was most prevalentand was referred to by the book's title. {{fn|7a}} Horus took steps to try to extinguish the cult, as he perceived it as a threat to his power. The [[remembrancer]] [[Euphrati Keeler]] — who was attached to the 63rd - became a major figure, venerated as a [[living saint]] and prophet of the Emperor. As a result, she was the target of Horus' s assassins at some point before she escaped from the ''[[Vengeful Spirit]]''.{{Cite Thisfn|7b}} Even some Astartes - such as [[Nathaniel Garro]], the [[Death Guard]] loyalist who led the ''[[Eisenstein]]'' escape - became part of the cult at one point.{{Fn|3}}

At some point after the Emperor was interred in the [[Golden Throne]], it may have been one of the cults that took part in the war that eventually saw the rise of the Church of the Saviour Emperor, a rival, rise to power as [[Ecclesiarchy|The Ecclesiarchy]] {{Fn|4}}

{{Cite}}*{{Endn|1}}: [[Scions of the Storm (Short Story)]] by [[Anthony Reynolds]]*{{Endn|2}}: [[Horus Rising (Novel)]] by [[Dan Abnett]], Part One, Chapter Three, pgs. 58–59*{{Endn|3}}: [[The Flight of the Eisenstein (Novel)]] by [[James Swallow]], Chapter Fourteen, pgs. 344–345

*{{Endn|5}}: [[Dark Imperium: Plague War (Novel)]] - Epilogue *{{Endn|6}}: [[False Gods (Novel)]], ch. 1*7: [[Galaxy in Flames (Novel)]]**{{endn|7a}}: ch. 1**{{endn|7b}}: ch. 14