Being besieged for a long time was the greatest blow to morale and cohesion. This was no exception to everyone, even the clergy of the Church who were originally firm in their beliefs and stances.
When the situation was stable and there were no major differences of interest, the Church could still maintain a balance and unity. Although there were many factions inside and outside the cathedral, and the clergy and clergy of all levels had major or minor conflicts of interest, at least they would maintain a superficial unity for the sake of their compatriots. In short, for the sake of the Holy Light, they would try not to bring any conflicts to the surface, so as not to affect the overall interests of the Church.
However, when the Church had no interests to gain, and even when the Church itself had become a threat, the unity on the surface would be divided from the inside out.
Not everyone supported the orders from the Plains of the Holy Spirit. Although the former Bishop of the South, Lemont, had the highest authority in the Louen Cathedral, he could not make all the clergy of the Holy Light stick together. As a diocese on the border of the kingdom, the Church of the South had a lot of hidden dangers of internal division from the very beginning.
The local clergy had always been resistant to the orders from the Plains of the Holy Spirit. In the past two years, the newly promoted young clergy in order to expand the influence of the diocese had conflicts with the old clergy in the cathedral. The lower clergy wanted more autonomy in this land far away from the center of the Church, while the upper clergy were always worried that the "barbaric, rude, and uncivilized" rural clergy would arbitrarily preach and tamper with the classics. Among them, there were also clergy with a conscience who were full of resistance to the Church's increasingly bad behavior in the past two years.
Under such circumstances, the former Bishop of the South, Lemont, led almost all the top forces in the Church to participate in the war against the Cecil family. This was actually a helpless move.
If he could defeat the oldest family in this land in this war and gain more prestige among the alliance of more than 40 nobles, Bishop Lemont would undoubtedly consolidate his position in this diocese, and most of the undercurrents in the Louen Cathedral would be quelled. If it were not for the fact that Cecil's place was full of immortals, his success rate would have been very high.
Unfortunately, he failed.
His failure even caused the entire South Church to stand against the Cecil Duchy, and the faith of the Holy Light was in danger of being forcibly eradicated on this land.
The priests who did not support Bishop Lemont's risky move in the first place were naturally resentful. Since Lemont was born in the Plains of the Holy Spirit, a large number of local priests also wavered. Since then, as the situation in Louen got worse and worse, the haze of insufficient supplies began to emerge. The order in the outer city was getting worse day by day. A large number of low-level priests had accumulated a huge amount of resentment. They could not bring their families to the inner city like the high-ranking priests. They even lived in the 'small church area' adjacent to the outer city. The chaos in the outer city had inevitably affected them, and it was getting worse day by day.
The leaflets that were sent into the city at this critical juncture had undoubtedly worsened the situation.
Almost everyone could guess that this was a "conspiracy" of Cecil's people. But so what? Could it be that the information on the flyer was false?
The upper echelons held the right to interpret the classics, and the middle-level priests amassed a huge amount of wealth with the atonement money. The archbishops in the Plains of the Holy Spirit were rich in the rich land, but they were bossy in the South, where everything was difficult. Now, something had happened. The bishop was dead, and a large number of Knight of the Holy See were also dead. The infuriated Cecil had sealed off the entire church, and everyone in the church had to bear the consequences together. Who would not be angry?
Fran? Bishop Belland's face was gloomy. He crumpled the printed matter in his hand into a ball and burned it to ashes with the Holy Light. He was thinking quickly in his mind.
Although the propaganda materials of Cecil's people were vulgar, almost all of the contents were true.
Anyone who had close contact with the Church of the Holy Light and had a little contact with the circle of priests could see the authenticity of these contents.
These things were secretly spread, and there was no way they could spread throughout the city in four days. So, he had to stop these things from spreading immediately.
He looked at the priest in front of him and said, "Go and inform the Disciplinary Friars to confiscate all the pamphlets that are being spread between the churches. Also, ask the exiled Knight and the Knight of the church to go to the outer city together and search door to door. Anyone who has this pamphlet for any reason must hand it in immediately. If they refuse to hand it in, they will be dealt with as heretics. "
"Yes."
"There is one more thing," Fran? Bishop Belland added, "If anyone actively hands it in or reports the hiders, they will be rewarded with food."
The Knight of the Holy See of the Louen Cathedral and the exiled Knight of the Holy See quickly took action.
The door of the church area, which had been closed for a long time, opened, and the heavily armed Knight rushed out and began to search door to door for "heretical evidence." The priests who were escorted by the Knight walked to the street and shouted with magic to warn all the civilians who hid the propaganda materials. During this process, the outer city suddenly became more and more chaotic.
The "experienced" Knight could not be unharmed in the process of breaking into houses and searching for materials.
Not only did the outer city begin to become chaotic, but the atmosphere in the church area of the inner city also immediately became tense.
The Disciplinary Friars in black robes with tattoos on their scalps walked silently into the small churches and began to interrogate all the friars and low-ranking priests. A large number of pamphlets were found in the corners of the churches or on the priests. The priests who hid the pamphlets were immediately punished. First, they were uniformly confined, then they were whipped and punished with magic.
The Church's Extraordinaries could not be punished in front of the civilians. In order to maintain the dignity of the Church, all the priests who were punished had to continue to be locked in the confinement room after being punished. They could not be released until they completed their complete confession.
In just one day, thousands of pamphlets, pamphlets, and leaflets were collected from all parts of the city. Fran?? Bishop Belland was shocked when he saw the large pile of printed materials. He did not expect there to be so many of them.
The printing quality of these printed materials was so exquisite, the text was clear, and the layout was neat. They did not look like the crude wax printing products at all. He could not imagine how the Cecil people could print so delicately and print so many of them.
But in any case, these materials had to be destroyed immediately.
All the confiscated pamphlets were gathered together and sent to the big square outside the church area to be burned publicly. The messengers in robes ran three rounds in the city and drove all the civilians out of their homes to watch the burning scene in the square.
There was a sea of people in the square. Thousands of numb, sallow and emaciated civilians were herded into the square. Due to the lack of food supply, the people in the outer city had been half-starving for more than half a month. The ever-present hunger gnawed at everyone's heart. In fact, they did not want to come to the square at all. They might be able to reduce their energy consumption by lying on their bed at home, but gathering in the square would only make them hungrier.
But the Knight's swords and the priests' magic could not be disobeyed. They had to come even if they did not want to.
A wooden platform was set up in the middle of the square. A large number of confiscated pamphlets were packed up and thrown on the wooden platform by strong soldiers. A tall man in a priest's robe came to the front of the platform. The tall priest swept the whole square with a stern gaze. The holy light surged around him, slowly spreading the pressure of a supernatural being.
The civilians in the square were shocked and immediately kept quiet out of fear. A kind of speechless silence filled the square.
The tall priest looked at the scene in front of him with satisfaction and contempt. He then raised the staff in his hand and said, "You confused and stupid people! Without the guidance of the Lord, you would not know that you are sliding into the dangerous abyss of sin!
"The Cecil people were bewitched by the devil, and they have spread the power of the devil's bewitchment to the city!
"Look at these blasphemous documents. They were found in your backyard, your neighbor's house, and your own bedroom! Your eyes are not bright enough, and your wisdom is not enough, so you do not realize that these things are actually the contract signed between the Cecil people and the devil.
"They sent these contracts to the city to harm you! You are blessed by the Holy Light, but these 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 you are here to watch the purification ceremony, so you can still be saved. And the most hopeless among you will be purified with these contracts!"
A few more strong soldiers walked up and pushed a person who was tied up onto the stage. There was a slight commotion in the crowd below the stage, but most people just watched numbly, almost without any reaction.
The tall Priest looked at the numb crowd below, and then looked at the man who was tied up. It was a man in ragged clothes, and he had been beaten to the point of delirium. His face was so swollen that it was almost impossible to recognize his original appearance.
He was just a homeless man caught near the city gate. He was caught because he rashly collided with the soldiers, and the pamphlets were found on him.
The biggest advantage of this kind of homeless man was that no one would recognize him, and no one would cry out for him.
"This man has a large number of demon documents, and he refuses to hand them over!" The priest raised the staff in his hand and pointed at the man who had lost consciousness in a trance. "He also spread the contents of the documents everywhere, to bewitch the people around him, and make them question the Lord and the church!"
There was finally some commotion in the crowd, and it seemed that some people were really frightened by the priest's words. The tied-up man suddenly struggled, and he tried to stretch his neck as if he wanted to shout something. But the soldier next to him immediately punched him in the stomach, and the sharp pain immediately made the weak man fall into a semi-conscious state.
The priest frowned and looked at this moment of surprise. He waved the staff in his hand and said, "Push the blasphemer into the demon documents!"
The soldiers immediately dragged the tied-up man to the center of the platform, and then pushed him into the 'small mountain' of propaganda materials. Another disciplinary monk in a black robe came forward and poured flammable oil on the pile of books and the man.
There were whispers in the crowd. Some people nervously stepped back, some prayed in a low voice, and some twisted and excited faces, craning their necks to see what was happening on the platform.
Someone suddenly heard a whisper behind them, "Isn't that Old Sam … Old Sam can't read!"
The people who heard the whispers immediately turned to look for the speaker, wanting to ask more details, but they only saw the back of a departing figure.
Someone next to them was curious and asked in a low voice, "What's wrong?"
"The man on the platform who is going to be burned to death seems to be called Sam. He can't read."
A few people in ordinary sackcloth were pushing and shoving in the crowd. Wherever they passed, whispers of discussion began to spread.
"The man on the platform seems to be called Sam — he can't read!"
The commotion grew louder and louder. The whispered discussions turned into a buzzing sound. Although the scale was still very small, the priest standing on the stage finally noticed these unusual movements. A strange feeling rose in his heart. In this vague sense of uneasiness, he decisively gave up on the originally planned preaching and immediately raised his hand to summon a mass of holy light.
"Those who violate the will of the Lord shall be purified!"
The scorching holy light ignited the oil, ignited the pamphlets and flyers that promoted the dark inside of the Church of Holy Light, and ignited the illiterate Sam.
The people who were tied up writhed in the bonfire, screaming tragically. The onlookers in the square took a step back in unison in front of this terrible scene, and there were sounds of discussion from all directions. A man who looked like a farmer with a burlap bag on his shoulder stood closest to the execution ground. He seemed to be frightened by the scene of the execution at the stake and stood there in a daze until the nearby crowd began to retreat. Only then did he stagger back a little bit.
The priest standing on the platform had a gloomy face. The smell of burning in the air and the commotion of the ignorant lowlifes below made him particularly annoyed. At this moment, a very, very slight wave of magic suddenly came from a direction below the platform.
The cleric immediately looked in that direction, but he didn't see anything except for a group of frightened, foolish, and laughable civilians who were retreating in panic.
Maybe it was just an illusion.
The priest waved his hand irritably and turned around to leave under the escort of his attendant and the guard Knight.
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