When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

#208 - Holy Fathers

"The Holy Father Society? What the hell is that?" The water had barely entered his mouth when Horn almost spat it out.

How could these insects come up with new tricks after only three days of not being watched? Didn't he ask Armand to organize something a little more low-key?

"Your Excellency, I know you're anxious, but please, don't be, and let me explain slowly." Armand took out a handkerchief and wiped the saliva off his face.

Horn crossed his legs, looking as if he were saying, 'I'm listening to your excuses.'

When setting out, Horn gave Armand the task of investigating the movements and thoughts of these believers.

"The believers of our Savior Army are generally experiencing confusion after the collapse of their faith." Armand cut to the chase, taking out several pages of paper from a drawer and handing them to Horn.

Horn took the papers and quickly flipped through them, but the more he read, the more serious his expression became.

After the Blue Blood Monastery incident, a large number of Savior Army believers fell into a period of confusion regarding their faith.

On the one hand, due to the long-standing cultural and ideological invasion by the Church, they regarded the Messiah Church as a lofty existence. All their values were built on the foundation of the Messiah Church, and everything about the Messiah Church constituted their spiritual world.

On the other hand, the Blue Blood incident, the Juanno incident, and the long-standing extraordinary oppression—these experiences in the real world were completely contrary to the Messiah's spiritual world.

They couldn't accept rebelling against the Church, nor could they forgive the Church, so their values were essentially collapsing.

"Do you know that the frequency of crime has been high during this period?" Armand asked, subconsciously rotating an ink bottle in his hand as he watched Horn flip through the report.

Horn didn't even raise his head, but frowned and turned to the next page: "I know, so what?"

"I made a special trip to visit those criminal believers, and I discovered a very interesting phenomenon."

"What is it?"

"Those who commit crimes are often the most devout believers."

Horn's hand, which was flipping through the report, suddenly stopped. He looked up: "What do you mean by that?"

"These devout criminal believers, regardless of the reason, will likely attribute it to one concept." Seeing Horn look up, Armand stopped rotating the ink bottle.

"What concept?"

Armand said: "That is, 'The Messiah Church is doing this kind of thing, which means the doctrines are all false. The statements that tell us not to compete, not to kill, and not to steal are all false. We don't need to obey them.'"

In other words, it's self-abandonment after the collapse of faith. Without the constraints of the Messiah, they want to vent all the things they once wanted to do but didn't dare to.

This was actually because Horn's complaint session in Jeanneburg and the hatred education he gave while passing by the Blue Blood Monastery in Wild Spider Forest were too successful, making the conflict between these believers and the Church extremely sharp.

The collapse of faith led to a moral vacuum, and Thomas and others, in order to maintain order, established the Holy Father Society with a core group of extreme admirers of the Holy Son.

"Currently, this society has hundreds of members, and their purpose is to expel the Church, restore Kush, and demand that Kush people not fight Kush people."

Does this mean that after the collapse of the imagined community of the Church, in order to ensure that social order doesn't collapse, some insightful people have proposed using Kush to replace the Church as a community?

"This Holy Father Society is more about worshipping the Holy Son than worshipping the Holy Father." Armand said with distress, "They regard you as the chosen one, the savior, the leader. Your characteristics as a Kushite far outweigh your characteristics as the son of Messiah.

I think our ultimate goals are similar, so instead of letting it develop wildly, why not replace it? What do you think?"

After thinking for a while, Horn organized the report in his hand and placed it on the table: "How about this? Find an opportunity and I'll personally investigate it before making a decision. Keep what should be kept, and abolish what should be abolished."

"Okay, I've already contacted them, but there's one more thing that's my personal question."

"Speak." Horn said concisely.

"You keep talking about ideological transformation, so what is our main proposition after integrating the Holy Father Society?" Armand asked.

"Regarding the Holy Father Society's proposition..." He had actually been thinking about this question for a long time, and had only recently summarized some relatively clear ideas.

Walking to the window, Horn pondered for a long time before saying: "Armand, take note."

Armand took out several sheets of high-quality thick white paper, dipped his quill in ink, and waited for Horn to speak.

"First, be anti-Church but not anti-religion. First, we declare that the Pope of the Holy See's intentions are good, but they were carried out badly by the churches below. We just need to eliminate the Thousand River Valley Church.

After we eliminate the churches in the Thousand River Valley area and replace them, the Church will definitely disagree.

At that time, we'll say that the Holy Father's intentions were good, but they were carried out badly by the Pope below. We just need to eliminate the Pope."

The main purpose of doing this is to fill the collapse in the spiritual lives of the believers and maintain basic moral norms and social order.

If it were rigorous scholastic theology, this statement would be full of errors.

Theologians have spent centuries, nearly a thousand years, patching up every possible problem in the Gospels to prevent similar situations from occurring.

But Horn's subordinates are naturally not as rigorous as scholastic theologians. Even if some smart people know certain 'patches,' they will still see through it without saying it, and even deceive themselves.

Because under such desperate pressure, they are like drowning people, and no matter how dangerous the life-saving straw is, they have to grab it.

Even if Horn is a devil, they have to deceive themselves into believing that Horn is an angel.

Otherwise, if they are completely crushed from spirit to matter, what's the point of living?

"Second, advocate happiness in this life. What is the main contradiction for these believers now? It is the contradiction between the believers' desire for an increasingly rich material life and the Messiah Church's requirement for believers to live an ascetic life of poverty..."

Writing this, Armand's rapidly sliding pen tip slowed down: "Your Excellency, wouldn't doing this contradict the first point? Isn't this replacing 'divine right' with 'human rights'?"

"No, no, no, look, although the Former Gospel regards the Holy Tree and its people as the only ones beloved by the Holy Father, in the Latter Gospel, this love is extended to all living beings, especially intelligent ones.

Messiah even publicly declares that 'all thinking beings are the Holy Father's greatest masterpiece in the world.' Isn't this saying that humans also share divine characteristics?

Affirming the value of people and their secular behavior is affirming the Holy Trinity, and there is no conflict with the Messiah Church's doctrines.

Note that only the Church requires people to live an ascetic life. The Gospel only praises and pities the poor, and does not require everyone to live the life of the poor."

This is to win over citizens, small landowners, armed farmers, low-level monks, and other large middle classes.

Horn reads books until late every night, and his knowledge explosion is not without any gains. Although he hasn't undergone formal training, his theological level is already comparable to some rural bishops.

"Third, and also the most important point, is to propose on the basis of the first and second points..." At this point, Horn hesitated. He wondered if it was too radical to propose this proposition at this time?

But Horn thought again, he is the incarnation of the Holy Father in the world, and his right to interpret the scriptures as the son of Messiah is unlimited.

Even if there is a problem, he can let the Holy Father descend to punish him, and then let the Holy Father forgive him on behalf of the believers. A self-imposed penalty of three cups, and the Pope will follow suit.

Moreover, these two points are basically equated with 'abolishing serfdom and nobility' in the eyes of the Imperials, and have not yet reached the modern level of later generations.

After thinking for a long time, Horn finally said it: "All men are created equal, all men are born free."