Ch.200Burgon Ecclesiasticism (3)

As the newly appointed Pope, Andrea’s health was deteriorating with each passing day, both mentally and physically.

To be precise, his mental health declined first, with his physical condition following suit.

“What on earth is Lotharing doing now?!”

Andrea had been working to restore the Canaan Church by implementing solutions within his papal authority without requiring a council—purging corrupt priests, halting the sale of indulgences, and cutting out the rot that had festered within the church for centuries.

Of course, opposing factions within the Canaan Church resisted these reforms with all their might, but no matter how corrupt the church had become, the Pope’s position remained absolute, allowing him to overcome such resistance.

However, the opposition wasn’t completely crushed, forcing the Canaan Church to focus on internal reorganization. As a result, the Papal Office couldn’t turn its attention outward, making it impossible to properly restrain the reckless actions of monarchs.

Yet Andrea hadn’t considered this a major problem, since the church had already failed to properly suppress heresy and had to accommodate the convenience of monarchs anyway.

“Why are you suddenly so concerned? It’s Lotharing—what else would you expect?”

But now it was different.

This was the consequence of turning a blind eye to the monarchs.

He had implemented church reforms even at the cost of diminishing church influence. After all, everyone in the Papal Office, including the Pope himself, had judged that lost influence could be restored once the reforms were completed.

But if things continued this way, that would be impossible.

If the Pope’s right to appoint clergy fell into the hands of monarchs and became customary, the church would never recover its influence.

“…You’re right, damn it.”

These were hardly words befitting a Pope’s mouth, but no one present seemed particularly concerned about that.

During the reform process, Andrea’s personality had become much more rough around the edges, and everyone had grown accustomed to it. Besides, given the circumstances, everyone harbored the same thoughts.

To have expectations of Lotharing—there were limits to foolishness.

“What will you do now? Precedent suggests immediate excommunication in such cases.”

“That’s impossible, as you well know.”

“Yes, given the King of Lotharing’s character, such an action would immediately drive him to convert to paganism.”

Some response was necessary, but determining the appropriate one was exceedingly difficult.

Excommunication? Such an act would cause the kingdoms of Lotharing and Caroling—major pillars of the Canaan Church—to break away entirely, resulting in a devastating and unprecedented catastrophe in church history.

In a different era, the Pope would have immediately excommunicated them, then incited church territories within Lotharing and Caroling to administrative sabotage, provoked vassals to rebellion, and given neighboring monarchs justification for diplomatic pressure. But at present, none of this was possible.

‘Damn it… the situation is too unfavorable.’

The church territories in Lotharing and Caroling had lost much of their power under the Bastard King, retaining only enough land and finances to sustain themselves, leaving them without meaningful leverage against the crown. Administrative sabotage had also become useless due to the highly developed administrative offices and population registries established under the Bastard King’s direction.

Inciting the vassals? What could nobles without private armies accomplish when their domains were filled with the king’s administrators?

Providing justification to neighboring monarchs had some potential, but even this was merely a superficial option.

The countries surrounding Lotharing and Caroling were limited to the Holy Empire, the Kingdom of Albion, and the Kingdom of Andalusia. The Holy Empire was likely to ignore the Pope’s words due to the matter of the Crusade; the Kingdom of Albion would be extremely reluctant to attack across the sea without a foothold; and the Kingdom of Andalusia was already overwhelmed dealing with pagan kingdoms to the south.

In other words, excommunication would inflict no harm whatsoever on the Bastard King ruling Lotharing and Caroling.

“But we cannot simply let this pass, can we?”

Yet quietly accepting it? This would drive an irreversible wedge into the Canaan Church—causing the great edifice of the church to collapse completely beyond repair.

If they quietly accepted this without excommunicating the Bastard King or lodging a comparable protest, other monarchs would make the same choices, completely undermining the Pope’s authority and destroying the Canaan Church’s identity as the central administrator of churches, ultimately leading to a catastrophic future where all churches become fragmented and struggle for survival independently.

‘…So I have two options.’

Either completely amputate an arm infected with cancer, or leave it be and watch the cancer spread throughout the body.

Haha… the answer is obvious to anyone.

Cutting off the arm would certainly be painful, but better than death.

“I will excommunicate Claude, who rules as sovereign of Lotharing and Caroling. He has abandoned the moral obligation to live as a faithful husband by taking concubines, plundered holy churches and seized lands dedicated to God, sold time by charging interest on money, and despite committing numerous grave sins, shows no repentance. Now he attempts to turn churches that serve God into secular tools by selecting priests himself. This is an atrocious and grave sin, making him a devil-worshipper without equal in this world.”

This should have been done long ago. Political considerations be damned—he should have been excommunicated when the Bastard King was still the Duke of Burgundy.

At least then the catastrophe of losing Caroling might have been prevented.

By being too cautious, we missed too many opportunities to intervene. We must correct this now, starting immediately.

……….

“Hmm… surprisingly, I feel nothing.”

Despite having made every effort to avoid excommunication by the Papal Office throughout the past, those efforts had come to naught as he was finally excommunicated.

Yet he felt neither doomed nor anxious about it.

He had committed his actions fully prepared for excommunication, and even if excommunicated, no significant problems would arise.

“I’m surprised it took this long for you to be excommunicated, Your Majesty.”

“Is that criticism?”

“Criticism? You misunderstand. I’m merely impressed by Your Majesty’s diplomatic skill in delaying excommunication for several years.”

“…”

Leclerc, that bastard.

He’s not denying that I’ve been doing excommunication-worthy deeds for years now.

It’s truly pathetic that I can’t even get angry at his words.

Even I admit I went too far.

While loan interest and reclaiming church territories were necessary for a healthy society—though unfair—concubinage certainly deserved excommunication.

“What will you do now, Your Majesty? Will you follow countless historical precedents and prostrate yourself before the great cathedral of the Papal Office?”

“Heh… what about kidnapping the Pope instead and making him prostrate himself before the palace in Dijon?”

“…Are you serious?”

“No! You made a joke, so I responded with one!”

“Well… Your Majesty has always calmly carried out actions that others would consider unthinkable jokes.”

…What kind of person am I in his mind?

He should talk sense. No matter what, kidnapping the Pope is— wait a minute.

“Hmm, well…”

Could it actually be feasible?

I mean… I recall something like this happening on Earth. It’s been decades since my previous life, but I still remember the general outline.

The Avignon Papacy.

France kidnapped an uncooperative Pope and confined him in Avignon for about 70 years—an unprecedented event.

Come to think of it, that also started when the French king was excommunicated for taxing the church and reacted in anger… hmm, the situation is quite similar to mine.

If I kidnap the Pope and confine him in a church territory within my country, declare it the new Papal Office, and then fill the College of Cardinals with people from Lotharing—

“Your Majesty? Your Majesty, Your Majesty!”

“Ugh… why are you suddenly so loud?”

“Why? You’re not seriously considering it, are you?”

“Considering what?”

“Kidnapping His Holiness! Don’t play innocent. Unlike Lord Leclerc, I never saw Your Majesty before your coronation, but I’ve observed you enough as a monarch to know. Your eyes and expression clearly showed you were seriously considering kidnapping the Pope.”

Armand, who had come to deliver news of the excommunication, read my expression and was horrified, while beside him, Leclerc silently closed his eyes, deep in thought.

“Would it be so wrong?”

“Of course it would! Setting aside His Holiness’s political views that harm Lotharing, such an act would provoke massive backlash from churches both domestic and foreign! An unprecedented great crusade to rescue the Pope could erupt!”

Hmm… conventionally speaking, Armand’s view is correct.

But the crusade was already severely damaged recently, and monarchs unlikely to gain meaningful benefits from a fight to rescue the Pope would… probably not participate. No matter how devout, monarchs don’t move without profit. There might be occasional exceptions, but Lotharing’s national power could handle those exceptions.

Of course, this is merely speculation, and political situations don’t unfold based on predictions alone, so a crusade could indeed occur as Armand suggests.

In that case…

“If a crusade does break out, we can simply use the Pope’s mouth to dissolve it.”

Those gathered for the Pope’s sake would find it difficult to point their swords at him, and their possible actions would be greatly constrained.

Ah, I see why Cao Cao and Yuan Shao favored this tactic.