A long-term siege is the biggest blow to morale and cohesion, and this is no exception for everyone - even the church priests who originally had firm beliefs and positions.
When the situation is stable and there are no major differences of interest, the church can still maintain balance and unity. Although there are many factions inside and outside the cathedral, there are large or small conflicts between priests and priests at all levels. interests are entangled in conflict points, but at least everyone will maintain superficial unity for the sake of fellow church members - in short, it is to give the Holy Light a face. If everyone has any conflicts, try not to bring them to the table and do not affect them. for the benefit of the church as a whole.
However, when the church has no interests to gain, and even the church itself has become the cause of threats, the superficial unity will be divided from the inside out.
Not everyone supports the order from the Holy Spirit Plain. Although the former southern bishop Lemont has the highest authority in Luan Cathedral, he cannot make all Holy Light priests monolithic - —As a diocese on the border of the kingdom, the Southern Church has had a lot of hidden dangers of internal divisions from the beginning.
The local pastors have always been resistant to the instructions from the Holy Spirit Plain. The young pastors who were newly promoted in the past two years in order to expand the influence of the diocese often have conflicts with the elders in the cathedral. The lower-level priests hope Gaining more autonomy in this land far away from the center of the church, the upper-level priests are always worried about the "barbaric, rude, and lack of civilized education" rural priests who preach at will and tamper with the classics. Among them, there is even more conscience. The priests are full of resistance to the church's increasingly bad behavior in the past two years...
Under the circumstances of many conflicts, former southern bishop Lemont brought almost all the top forces in the church to participate in the campaign against Cecil A family war is actually a helpless act.
If he can defeat the oldest family in this land in this war and gain higher prestige among the combined forces of more than forty nobles, then Bishop Lemont will undoubtedly be greatly improved. By consolidating his position in the diocese, most of the undercurrents in Louanne Cathedral will be quelled - if Cecil wasn't filled with a bunch of fairy players, his success rate would still be very high.
Unfortunately, he failed.
His failure even caused the entire southern church to stand against the Principality of Cecil, and the Holy Light Faith was in danger of being forcibly eradicated from this land.
The priests who originally did not support Bishop Lemont’s adventurous move were naturally resentful. Since Lemont was from the Holy Spirit Plain, a large number of local priests also became wavered. Since then, as the situation in Luan City has worsened, The situation is getting worse, the haze of insufficient supply of supplies begins to emerge, and the order in the outer city is getting worse day by day. A large number of low-level priests have also accumulated huge grievances: they cannot bring their families to the inner city like those high-ranking priests, and even They all live in the "little church district" adjacent to the outer city. The chaos in the outer city has inevitably affected them, and it is getting worse...
The leaflets circulating into the city at this juncture undoubtedly exacerbated the situation.
Almost everyone can think that this is a "conspiracy" of the Cecil people - but so what? Is what the flyer says false?
The upper echelons hold the power to interpret classics, and the middle-level priests use the atonement money to amass a huge amount of wealth. The archbishops of the Holy Spirit Plains are full of fat in the land of wealth, but they are pointing fingers at the difficult Southern Territory. Now something is wrong. , the bishop died, and a large group of papal knights also died. The outraged Cecilians blocked the entire church, but everyone in the church had to bear the consequences - who wouldn't be angry?
With a gloomy face, Bishop Fran Béran crumpled the printed matter in his hand into a ball and burned it to ashes with the holy light, while his mind was rapidly calculating——
< p>Although the Cecil people's promotional materials are crude in language, the terrible thing is that almost all of the contents are true.Anyone who has close contact with the Holy Light Church and has a little contact with the circle of priests can see the authenticity of these contents.
These things are spreading secretly, and it should not spread throughout the city in four days... so these things must be stopped immediately from continuing to ferment.
He looked at the priest in front of him: "Immediately notify the Discipline Monks to collect all the pamphlets circulated between churches - and also let the exiled knights and church knights go to the outer city together, door to door. Anyone who holds such a book for any reason must turn it in immediately. If he refuses to hand it over, he will be treated as a heretic. ”
"In addition," Fran Béran added, "if anyone actively turns it in or reports the hider, he will be rewarded with rations."
The Holy See knights of Luan Cathedral and those who defected here The exiled knights quickly launched into action.
The door to the church area that had been closed for a long time was opened, and the heavily armed knights rushed out and began to search for "heresy evidence" from house to house. The priest who was guarded by the knights went to the streets and used divine magic to carry out the attack. He shouted to warn all civilians hiding propaganda materials, and in the process, the outer city suddenly became more and more chaotic.
It is impossible for those "experienced" knights to make no mistakes when breaking into houses and searching for materials.
Not only did the outer city begin to become chaotic, but the atmosphere in the church district of the inner city also immediately became tense.
The ordained monks wearing black robes and tattoos on their scalps silently walked into each small church and began to question all the monks and low-level priests. A large number of brochures came from the corners of those churches. Or the priest was turned out, and the priest who hid the pamphlet was immediately punished - first with uniform confinement, then with whippings and magical punishments.
Superiors of the church cannot be punished in front of civilians. In order to maintain the dignity of the church, all punished priests will continue to be locked in the solitary room after accepting the punishment until they complete a thorough confession.Only after you regret can you let go.
In just one day, thousands of promotional materials were collected from various areas in the city. Some were brochures and some were leaflets. Bishop Fran Belland was shocked after seeing the large amount of printed matter. Incomparable - he didn't expect the number to be so large.
The printing quality of these prints is so exquisite, the text is clear, and the layout is neat. It is not at all like those wax plate printing products with poor craftsmanship. He can't imagine how those Cecil people can do it so beautifully. Printed—and so many printed.
But no matter what, these things must be destroyed immediately.
All the confiscated brochures were gathered together and sent to the large square outside the church district to be burned publicly. The messengers in uniforms and robes ran three times around the city. Drive all civilians out of their homes and let them go to the square to watch the burning scene.
The large square was crowded with people, and those who were driven into the square were thousands of civilians with numb expressions and sallow faces: Due to insufficient food supply, the people in the outer city have been in a state of semi-starvation for almost half a month. The ever-present hunger gnaws at everyone's heart. In fact, they don't want to come to the square at all - lying on the bed at home may be able to reduce some physical exertion, but gathering here... everyone can only Getting hungrier.
But the swords of the knights and the spells of the priests cannot be disobeyed, and they have to come even if they don't come.
The wooden platform in the center of the square was erected. A large number of confiscated brochures were packed and carried by strong soldiers and thrown on the wooden platform. A tall man wearing a priest's robe came to the platform. In front of him, the tall priest swept the entire square with his stern gaze. Holy light surged around him, slowly spreading the pressure of the extraordinary.
The civilians in the square were shocked and fell into silence. A silent silence filled the square.
The tall priest looked at the scene in front of him with satisfaction and contempt, and then raised the staff in his hand high: "You confused and stupid people! Without the guidance of the Lord, you have no idea what you are doing. Sliding towards the abyss of danger and sin!
“The Cecil people are bewitched by the devil, and they have spread the power of the devil’s bewitchment into this city!
"Look at these blasphemous documents - they were taken from your backyards, from your neighbors' homes, from your own bedrooms! Your eyes are not bright enough and your wisdom is not enough There are so many, so you don’t realize at all that these things are actually contracts signed between Cecil and the devil——
“They sent these contracts to the city to harm you! You are favored by the Holy Light, but these devil's contracts have polluted you, and the Holy Light will stay away from you.
"Only fire can purify these blasphemous documents. You took the initiative to hand over these documents and watched the purification ceremony here, so you are still saved - and the most hopeless among you , and theseLet’s accept the devil’s contract and be purified together! ”
A few more strong soldiers came up and pushed a man who was tied up to the stage. There was a slight commotion in the crowd gathered under the stage, but there were more people. But he just watched numbly, with almost no reaction.
The tall priest looked around at the numb crowd below, and then looked at the tied man - he was a man in ragged clothes. Moreover, he had been beaten to the point of unconsciousness, his nose was so bruised and his face was so swollen that he could hardly see his original appearance.
It was just a homeless man caught near the city gate, because he recklessly collided with the soldiers, and he was found again. pamphlet, he was arrested.
The best thing about this kind of homeless man is that no one will know him, and no one will complain about him.
"This man is private. He hid a large amount of the devil's documents and refused to hand them over! "The priest raised his staff and pointed at the man who was in a trance and unconscious. "He also spreads the contents of the document everywhere to confuse the people around him and make everyone question the Lord and the church! ”
There was finally some commotion in the crowd. It seemed that someone was really frightened by the priest’s words, but the tied man suddenly struggled. He stretched his neck hard, as if he wanted to He shouted something - but the soldier next to him immediately punched him in the stomach, and the severe pain immediately caused the weak man to fall back into a semi-conscious state.
The priest frowned and looked at this moment. Unexpectedly, he waved his staff: "Push the blasphemer into those devil's documents! ”
The soldiers immediately dragged the tied man to the center of the stage, and then pushed him into the "hill" piled up with propaganda materials. There was another man in black robes. The discipline monk stepped forward and poured flammable grease on the pile of books and the man.
There were whispers in the crowd. Some people backed away nervously, some prayed in low voices, and some even showed their faces. With a distorted and excited look, he craned his neck to look at the action on the stage.
Someone suddenly heard a whisper from behind: "Isn't that Old Sam... Old Sam can't read!" ”
The people who heard the muttering immediately turned around to look for the speaker, wanting to find out more details, but they only saw a leaving figure.
Someone was curious next to them. He stood up and asked in a low voice: "What's wrong? "
"The man who is about to be burned to death seems to be named Sam. He can't read. ”
A few people wearing ordinary burlap clothes were pushing and shoving among the crowd. Wherever they passed, whispers gradually began to spread:
"The man on the stage seems to be named Sam - he is illiterate! "
The commotion grew from small to large, and the low-pitched discussions turned into a buzzing sound. Although the scale was still small, the priest standing on the stage finally noticed these unusual movements. A strange feeling arose in his heart. In this vague sense of uneasiness, he decisively gave up the planned announcement.Teach, and immediately raised his hand to summon a ball of holy light.
"Those who disobey the will of the Lord should be purified!"
The scorching Holy Light ignited the grease and ignited the brochures and leaflets that promoted the dark inside story of the Holy Light Church. , igniting the illiterate Sam.
The tied man writhed in the fire and let out a miserable howl. The crowd watching in the square took a step back in front of this terrible scene, and comments started coming from all directions. A man dressed as a farmer with a sack on his shoulder stood closest to the burning site. He seemed to be frightened by the sight of the burning. He stood there blankly until the nearby crowd They all started to retreat, and he followed them with a slight stagger.
The priest standing on the stage had a gloomy face. The smell of burning in the air and the commotion of the ignorant untouchables below made him particularly bored, who was already in a bad mood. But at this moment, there was a very, very slight sound. The magic wave suddenly came from a certain direction under the stage.
The priest immediately looked over there, but he found nothing except a group of terrified and ridiculous civilians retreating in a panic.
Maybe it’s just an illusion.
The priest waved his hands irritably, then turned and left here surrounded by his attendants and guard knights.