Chapter 430 – The Pope’s meeting
Chapter 430 – The Pope’s Meeting
The Golden Dome Sanctuary, a complex of buildings located right in the middle of the City of Light’s urban area, most of the important institutions in the center of the Holy See, such as the Cardinal’s Court, the Evangelical Court, the Council of the Holy Throne, the Inquisition, and so on, were all located in this palace that covered an extremely wide area.
The palace also contained the most important figure in the entire Church of Light – His Holiness the Pope.
The current Pope is named Harrington II, and he has been in this seat for twelve years, while his own age is seventy-three.
His Holiness the Pope was currently listening to a report on the situation in Diagonal Bay within his own apartment, and there were many big names in attendance.
“There have been several armed conflicts in the borderlands between the two factions since last year.”
“The current situation shows no signs of easing, and the conflict between the two sides is growing.”
The director of the Inquisition, Tulls, a middle-aged man in his forties who was also the head of the Holy See’s intelligence, helplessly spread his hands and told the Pope so.
Harrington II turned to Cardinal Bloom, who was in charge of foreign affairs, with a headache, “Is there any news from the emissaries we sent?”
The Cardinal coughed awkwardly, “I just received a letter back saying that neither side wants to budge. Elvis thinks we’re too tolerant of heretics, but Nisborough thinks we’re leaning too far in favor of the Church of the Horned Bay.”
Harrington II shook his head, what a mess.
Director Tulls said with a worried look on his face, “There is reliable intelligence that both sides are gearing up their armies to prevent a possible large-scale war.”
The Pope said with some chagrin, “How did the situation in Horn Bay get to this point?”
Bishop Bloom whispered his opinion, “As a clergyman, Elvis’s faith in the Heavenly Father is unquestionable, but as a bishop of an archdiocese, he …… is not very flexible and adaptable.”
Harrington II said with chagrin, “Who pushed him into the position of Archdiocesan Bishop in the first place.”
The congregation glanced at each other and unspokenly chose to remain silent.
Alas, His Holiness is getting older and has a bad memory.
Seeing that no one responded to him, Harrington II pointed to himself and said with some surprise, “Huh? Could it be me?”
In order to avoid embarrassment for His Majesty, Bishop Bloom hurriedly said, “Elvis at that time was excellent in all aspects, pious, just, and clean, and was an excellent choice for the Archbishop of the Archdiocese.”
Director Tulls grunted in a voice that no one could hear, “And the sanest one in a group of lunatics.”
Bishop Bloom continued, “It was Anthony who made the expedition to Horn Bay, so the information then could be trusted, but I didn’t realize how paranoid Elvis would become now.”
Harrington II said, “Anthony? I remember that as a very capable and promising young man.”
Bloom replied, “Yes, this trip to the Holy See to mediate a dispute was also conducted by him, but unfortunately, he failed.”
Harrington II looked a bit depressed, “I have an unshirkable responsibility for things coming to this point.”
“How can it be attributed to you, Your Majesty?”
“Yes, it’s all because of that Elvis fellow’s messing around, having nothing to do with witch hunts.”
The crowd excused the Pope. The head of the Inquisition shook his head and said, “We have already sent several groups of people to instruct the local churches on how to recognize real witches, and tried our best to avoid false cases, but we still couldn’t stop the ‘witch hunt’ from spreading more and more, and a lot of people with ulterior motives have joined in, which quickly made it change its flavor. flavor.”
“For example, the inland countries of the Horned Bay represented by Yat Collins, they have always coveted the maritime trade of the coastal countries, and have always seized the opportunity to cause all sorts of trouble.”
Bloom said hatefully, “And Elvis was stupid enough to offend the powers that be in each country, really arrogant to the extreme. Now with the push from those in power in various countries, the people of the coastal countries have started to hate the church, what a disaster.”
Inquisition Director Tulls said solemnly, “Your Majesty, Your Excellencies, I think the situation in Horned Bay is already irreparable, what we should consider now is not how to stop the war, but rather, it’s time to think about which side we should support after the war occurs, to save for a rainy day.”
“Does it even need to be said? The Horned Bay Church, despite some wrongdoings, is still our own people, how can the Holy See turn its back on these devout followers?”
“Yes, if we stand on the sidelines and watch the fun, what will the other powers on the continent and the various local churches think of us? The Holy See will lose its prestige.”
“The Horned Bay coastal states are already on the verge of converting into heretics, I heard that they’re going to create some kind of ‘new sect’ to be on par with the Holy See, it’s simply treasonous.”
“Gentlemen, I have to remind you that a large portion of the Holy See’s finances are dependent on the input of the Horned Bay Church’s tithes, and once Horned Bay is out of our control, there is no need for me to tell you what serious consequences there will be.”
The congregation at the meeting expressed their opinions and took a unanimous stance – Elvis, no matter how idiotic, was an archbishop appointed by the Holy See.
The Holy Capital of Light could stop the radical witch hunts in the area or even punish this archbishop through continuous intervention, but right now he couldn’t be allowed to be taken out by a group of heretically inclined secular powers-that-be, or else where would the face of the Holy See go.
The general idea is that the dog that bites will be dealt with by its own family, and no outsiders will be allowed to interfere.
Pope Harrington II listened to the opinions of the crowd, his face worried, but in the end he said, “Alright.”
Thus, the tone of the situation in Diagonal Bay was set.
“Your Majesty, gentlemen, I have one more thing to mention.”
Director Tulls pulled out a thick book.
“Recently a book has appeared in Corner Bay that is very unfavorable to us – ‘The Chronicle of Grievances’, a book dedicated to all sorts of …… ahem, so-called ‘Grievances’ that have occurred in the Witch Hunt ‘, besides this one in Horn Bay, there are many more that have happened in history, and of course I must emphasize that all of them are made up through and through, except for the one in Horn Bay, which is a bit of solid material. But no one will bother to actually test the truth of the stories, and once this book circulates and opens, it will deal a huge blow to the reputation of the Church of the Light.”
His Holiness the Pope took the book and hurriedly flipped through a few pages, his face became gloomy and he threw it on the table with a grunt.
“Throughout is the ravings of a madman, who is the author?”
“Uh …… we haven’t found out yet, he’s well hidden.”
Tuls suggests, “We should mobilize our forces to ban the book elsewhere. I wouldn’t have worried about it in the old days, but since the advent of the Aldorian paper, the cost of book transcription has become considerably less expensive, so it will become more widely circulated.”
Bishop Bloom said, “There’s no need to be so careful, even if the paper became cheaper, someone would have to transcribe it word by word, and with such a thick book we don’t need to worry about it for a short time, we should concentrate on the upcoming war.”
“Well, that’s fine for now, but I hope you all don’t forget about this.”
Tulls nodded, in fact, he was just mentioning it in today’s meeting.
When I was organizing the novel today, I realized that the serial numbers of the first few chapter titles were wrong, 433, 434, 435 should be 423, 424, 425, there are no missing chapters. (T___T) Apologies to all the readers and lords.
(End of chapter)