the second year of his reign and the second action being his closure of all chapter houses except the one on Wallach IX in 10573 Through Leto s reign the order functioned primarily within its schools The closure of all but three of its embassies and Leto s refusal to allow a permanent Bene Gessent embassy on Arrakis severely limited its overt political activities Notations m the legisla ttve files from the final twelve hundred years of Leto s empire show a drastic reduction in the membership Reverend Mothers once numbering m the thousands were fewer than three hundred dunng any five >ear period at the end of the empire With membership decreasing, responsibility for governance was no longer limited to an elite group Rather than becoming specialists Reverend Moth ers had to become generahsts For example the \Velbeck Abndgement of the annual em pire assessments shows that by 13500 Rever end Mothers sent on ambassadorial missions also had to serve as emissanae espion and CHOAM negotiators By this late period of Leto s empire the Bene Gessent had formed auxiliary canons for emergency governance situations Appar ently these canons were used to run what remained of the Sisterhood dunng the Scat tenng and the Starvation The auxiliary can ons detail a loosely structured Council of Proctors General and Proctors Superior who handled policy and judiciary matters as well as basic governance Unfortunately many of the records and documents ol this penod are fragmented and m disarra) It does appear, though that some governance was maintained BENE GESSERTT HISTORY 119 BENE GESSERTT HISTORY through the school system still left to the Sisterhood Whether or not there is any connection between the governance of the historic Bene Gessent and that of the modern order is impossible to ascertain because the documents pertaining to the modem order are not available to us Rumors claim the Matres Executnce line still functions, but the portion of the Archives holding current canons is sealed, thus, the records which could support or deny the stones are unavailable JAC Further references: s o RANKS, a o HISTORY BENE GESSERIT HISTORY. Discoveries m the Rakis Hoard particularly in shigawire tapes of Our Lady and Mother Ghamraa's Book of the Voices, present a possible Bene Gessent history which sketches back into Terran prehistory To those trained in Bene Gessent institutions, the varied and ancient traditions of the order described in these tapes prove fascinating, both professionally and personally ANCIENT TER