Ch.198Burgundian Ecclesiasticism (1)

“You can’t just keep watching anymore, can you?”

“If things continue like this, the true church will disappear completely!!”

Meanwhile, while Claude was establishing a parliament, the orthodox faction of the Canaan Church was preparing their final resistance.

To resist the king who was trying to subordinate the church to the state under the pretext of eliminating corruption, to support the Holy Pontiff and protect the true faith.

“His Holiness… has chosen silence.”

“That can’t be…”

However, their resistance became futile before it even began.

The new Holy Pontiff was focused on capturing the hearts of the various monarchs who were stirred by the defeat in the Holy Empire.

It is the rule that the faith of a territory follows its lord, meaning that if one captures the lord’s heart, the Canaan Church could maintain its official position of faith even against the will of the people.

If there were a province where the majority believed in the Reformed Church but the lord governing that province followed the Canaan faith, both the Reformed Church and the Holy See would consider that province to follow the Canaan faith.

Empowered by this understanding, the newly enthroned Holy Pontiff Andrea prioritized embracing the monarchs who remained within Canaan’s fold rather than antagonizing heretics who had already left, which strengthened Lotharing’s church reform efforts.

“…Even if His Holiness remains silent for political reasons, someone must act.”

“But there are no orders from His Holiness. He has chosen silence.”

“Silence is not refusal. His Holiness neither endorsed the king’s church dissolution work nor opposed our resistance.”

To interpret silence itself as an expression of opinion when someone is silent because they don’t want to express any opinion—to assume that not rejecting your opinion means endorsing it—is an extremely irrational way of thinking.

However, their situation had made it impossible for them to think rationally.

It’s similar to the relationship between a mouse and a cat. Rationally, a mouse should always flee from a cat, but when cornered with no escape, the mouse will bite the cat.

“Is that so…?”

“Yes, indeed. His Holiness chose silence because he cannot publicly support us!”

If he couldn’t support them publicly, he would have sent a secret letter or shown support in some other way, but no one here realizes this fact. Or more precisely, they’re deliberately ignoring it.

After all, humans are animals optimized to interpret situations in ways favorable to themselves.

Above all, the fact that these religious figures in Lotharing still haven’t joined the pro-royal faction led by Armand and Jeanne proves they are serious hardliners.

Any religious person who can think normally would join the pro-royal faction that resolves contradictions and eliminates corruption.

“Isn’t that right…? His Holiness must be aware of the terrible things happening in Lotharing.”

“Yes! Of course, how could the noble Holy Pontiff, who has a duty to protect the priests, possibly help the king?”

In other words, while they’ve gathered here ostensibly to support the church’s independence, pledge loyalty to the Holy Pontiff, and oppose the king who is removing the Pontiff’s influence, in reality, they don’t actually care about any of that.

They’ve simply gathered to join forces against the king’s actions to resolve the church’s contradictions and eliminate corruption.

For them, the actions of a tyrant who causes suffering to those who serve God in the name of reform—when they had been living well and happily until now—are acts against God’s will that deserve severe condemnation.

“The Holy Pontiff has approved! Let us protect the church in service of God’s noble will!!”

“Hurrah!!”

They openly rebel against the church reform efforts.

Of course, this doesn’t mean an armed uprising. If they did that, they would have their necks cut off by the pig slaughterhouse machine like so many idealists before them.

The rebellion they’re raising is highly effective and can paralyze governance instantly.

A work slowdown.

This is a method that religious figures have favored since ancient times when opposing a monarch’s tyranny.

From a modern perspective, one might wonder what the big deal is about religious figures staging a work slowdown, but this is the medieval period where the church officially supervised, represented, and assisted in administration.

Without the church’s cooperation, weak lords can’t even collect taxes properly from their subjects. After all, all personal information of the subjects is registered in the church’s registry.

“Let’s see what happens without our cooperation!”

“Yes, let’s make them pay dearly for treating God’s servants so lowly!”

Of course, their slowdown, while perhaps effective in the past, is utterly useless at present.

Lotharing has already developed to the point where it can administer quite well without the church’s cooperation.

It has gone beyond managing just its direct territories to interfere with lords’ domains, usurping administrative rights and taking the lead in territory management.

……….

“…What are these bastards up to now?”

In the middle of working on the Senate, Armand suddenly came to me with news that the churches had collectively started behaving strangely.

Until yesterday, the churches hadn’t refused access to the registry of believers, but today they suddenly took collective action to deny further access to it.

There are various reasons written down, but even a quick glance reveals them to be nonsense.

“Is there a problem with tax collection?”

“No. The issuance of identification for subjects includes not only the vassals’ fiefs but also the subjects residing in Your Majesty’s direct territories, doesn’t it?”

“That’s right.”

Honestly, the church’s registry of believers is no longer that useful.

We have our own registry now. A better one at that.

The church can only verify the villagers living nearby, so their registry is small in scale, and unless all the registries from every church in the country are combined, they remain highly fragmented and difficult to navigate. My registry has none of these problems.

I’ve created resident registries for each administrative district designed for easy territory management, making them easy to understand at a glance. Since they were created under a single systematic rule, all local government offices across the country can work with the same efficiency.

Nevertheless, the reason we continued to use the church’s registry was simply to respect their tradition and prevent the fear and hostility that comes from feeling marginalized… but seeing these bastards throw the first punch, it seems that was pointless.

“Armand, what’s the situation with the Holy See?”

“Unchanged from before. It seems they prioritize pleasing the monarchs rather than implementing reforms.”

“Though it’s been a while since the new Holy Pontiff was enthroned, the lack of interference from the Holy See is no different from when it was in a brain-dead state.”

The previous Holy Pontiff became bedridden and unable to stand on two feet again due to the shock of the cardinals arbitrarily making a peace treaty with the Holy Empire, which put the Holy See in a brain-dead state unable to actively do anything.

Nevertheless, the previous Holy Pontiff clung to life for five years while confined to bed, and during those five years, monarchs who believed in the Canaan faith enjoyed freedom that went beyond absolute to the point of licentiousness.

And that freedom remained unchanged even after a new Holy Pontiff was enthroned.

I remember Holy Pontiff Andrea as having a very realistic outlook for a religious figure, having taken on the role of acting pontiff as a cardinal and negotiating with the Holy Empire… Well, it seems that even from his perspective, the current state of the Canaan Church is so hopeless that he must tolerate the monarchs’ excesses.

“Let me ask both Leclerc and Armand simultaneously: isn’t it wrong for religious figures to disobey God’s will and cause discord by resisting secular monarchs?”

“If they have the intention to obstruct administration and actually carry it out, it would constitute treason.”

“Yes, what belongs to the emperor should go to the emperor, and what belongs to God should go to God. If they used the emperor’s subjects and tax collection to intimidate the emperor, this is certainly wrong.”

Leclerc thinks in purely secular terms while Armand thinks theologically.

They both seem to disrespect me in strange ways, which suggests similar personalities, but they differ in aspects like this.

“How did previous Holy Pontiffs respond when similar incidents occurred in the past?”

“Looking at the church resistance incident in the Holy Empire 40 years ago… I recall that His Holiness Eugenio at the time declared opposition to all acts that create tension and violence between the emperor and the church, stating that intervention by external forces could complicate the situation and that a cautious approach was necessary.”

Wow, what an eloquent statement.

Opposing all acts that create tension and violence essentially means telling the emperor to shut up and bow his head, and the bit about external forces’ intervention is a warning for other monarchs besides the church and emperor to stay put.

If I had been the emperor at that time, my blood would have boiled.

“The current Holy Pontiff… doesn’t have the luxury or reason to say such things, right?”

“Yes, if he did, he would have already interfered with the church reform work happening in Lotharing.”

“Good, the answer is decided. From now on, the clergy of church territories belonging to the Kingdom of Lotharing will be appointed directly by the King of Lotharing, not by the Holy See.”

The right of monarchs to appoint clergy is… well, certainly very dangerous, but it’s also extremely attractive enough to outweigh that danger.

Being excommunicated is becoming a very realistic future… but since many positions in Lotharing’s churches are held by graduates of Dijon University’s theology department, which is deeply influenced by the royal family, excommunication won’t be that threatening.

If I really do get excommunicated, I’ll just take the opportunity to set up a completely new household.