Since the Accounting: A Chronicle of the Roman Khanate

Chapter 322 The troubles of the church
Gregory Pronsky was Cao Jian's uncle.As a great nobleman of Ryazan, he was also one of the main figures who participated in the conscription plan of the Cao clan that Guo Kang had learned from Joanna before.

On the way, Guo Kang was going to briefly tell Theodora about this person, but she said that she knew about it a long time ago, which made Guo Kang a little embarrassed.

In the end, Guo Kang was taught a lesson by Theodora again.

"I've already said, you need to pay more attention to some serious business." She warned in earnest, "You are now exposed to more and more things, and your level is getting higher and higher, whether it's uncles, aunts, or me, there is always someone It can't protect you. If you go on like this, sooner or later you will be tricked by these bad women with ulterior motives."

Apart from her inexplicable hostility, this statement actually makes sense.Guo Kang had no choice but to nod repeatedly and agreed.

"How did you find this Pronsky? Why did you come to the door at this time?" He thought for a while, but first asked Wu Han next to him to find out the general situation.

"Today, Master Wang is going to receive the priests from over there. He probably learned the news in advance, so he came with a few priests from his own territory." Wu Han replied: "Now Master Wang and the priests from the church The senior management is entertaining them and chatting briefly with everyone. We still have a lot of work to do in the future, so let’s get to know each other better now.”

"Is it what you said before, about reorganizing the parish?" Guo Kang asked.

"Yes." Wu Han nodded: "We plan to recruit all qualified folk priests, and the diocese also needs to adjust the plan. The situation over there is too chaotic now, so we can't manage it."

Guo Kang has heard about this for a long time, and he himself has made suggestions on this, so he is not surprised.Theodora obviously also knew about this, so she nodded accordingly.

"What is Pronsky here for?" Guo Kang continued to ask: "Does he want to install his own people, or is he trying to lobby us to change the plan?"

"I think he just wants to get close, and then convince us to support him so that he can get involved in the conscription." Wu Han expressed his thoughts.

Guo Kang nodded, thinking that should be the case.

Parish assignment is a very important thing.Because the division of parishes is actually the division of administrative districts.This is true for both the Eastern and Western churches.

The local organization of the church generally has three levels, the lowest being called the pastor or the parish.As the name suggests, it is probably the area responsible for a church.There may be more than one priest in a pastoral area, and the leader in charge of the church is called the parish priest.

Several neighboring pastoral districts form a parish.The word comes directly from the Roman diocese, the head of which was called a bishop.

Above the parish, it is called the province.This word is "province" in Greek, and its meaning and positioning are also very clear.The head of the province is called the Archbishop or Archbishop in the Catholic Church; in the Orthodox Church, he is generally called the Metropolitan.This is the highest level of local institutions.

However, the current situation is that this system is better maintained in Western churches.

As Roman rule in the western Mediterranean gradually collapsed, so did the local administration.However, the church system headed by the bishop of Rome has survived and continued to develop and improve.

Up to now, the Catholic church has already had a very advanced local management structure—not only has it always adhered to the centralized organization method, but it even has a "parallel county and state" structure and a subordinate "chieftain church".For example, some church organizations that are too far away and have their own unique customs, as long as they recognize the authority of the Bishop of Rome, they can also achieve mutual recognition, grant them certain titles, and give them courtesy.

The system of the church, known as the "hierarchy", began to take shape in the fifth century, and then gradually developed and matured.In places where there are strong tribal customs everywhere, this kind of system is so advanced that it doesn't seem like something from the same era.In fact, most of the time, it is indeed the tribal customs and enfeoffment systems in various places that are holding back the church.

Moreover, in the absence of strong support, this system sometimes gets in the way.Authoritative kings often did not take the church seriously, and these actions not only affected the local structure of the church, but also the center of the church.

Not to mention all kinds of divisions and confrontations in history, even in later generations there are many examples.In the era when Guo Kang lived, the Catholic Church had always been unable to do anything about the Serris region, so it insisted on the power to appoint the bishop, which made the two sides unable to recognize each other.

In fact, the right to appoint bishops is not a big deal.In Europe, if you have never confronted the Pope, you are ashamed to call yourself a big country.As long as there is a country with some power, no one has ever fought for this power.Even in Poland, where the royal power was declining and the church was powerful, the king and nobles appointed a few bishops on their own.As for the more recent ones, they even appointed popes themselves.After so many years, the church has long since become numb.

The biggest problem may be that in order to show its achievements, the church has set up a large number of provinces and dioceses in Serris.This led to dozens of archbishops and hundreds of bishops rushing into the Vatican as long as the two sides docked.

From the church's point of view, these people are obviously under the control of the Siris government—whether that is really the case is another matter, but it is not surprising that the church thinks so, after all, it is really the case in Europe.

And if so many people come in at once, it will directly destroy the political balance within the church, which is why no one dares to make concessions.This is also an unavoidable problem for their organization, which emphasizes the centralization of power.

As for the Orthodox Church in the East, the situation is different.Because the church has been under the emperor's management for a long time, priests and scholars in the west even directly call it the "emperor-patriarch system", believing that the church is actually a department under the empire.

Eastern Rome has always opposed this, and the reasons they gave include that the emperor himself is not a priest, and that the patriarch has the right to expel the emperor from church, and so on.But in practice, such things rarely happened, and the patriarch's power only came into play when other political forces overwhelmed a certain emperor.

Unable to explain this, Roman theologians used "harmony" as a substitute to describe the phenomenon in which religious and political power support each other.

In Guo Kang’s view, the system of Eastern Rome is actually more perfect, and it should continue to develop in the future to fully incorporate the church.But the biggest problem is that the strength of the Eastern Roman Empire itself is not good enough.

Those newborn countries that emerged in the old land of Eastern Rome and within the sphere of cultural influence re-enacted the situation around Seris: to confront Rome politically, then culturally and religiously must be with the Orthodox Church, to be precise, with the Monarchs The Patriarch of Tantenberg confronts.Therefore, in order to maintain independence, as long as countries have the strength to maintain independence, they will immediately find ways to build their own churches and get rid of the influence of the Patriarch of King Castle.

There is not much difference between them. In Western Europe, they may not be regarded as church organizations with different ceremonies, not even that kind of "religious toast".However, if you don't do this, you will never be able to get rid of the attachment state, and sooner or later you will be absorbed back.Therefore, even if it is created, it has to make a difference.

In short, everyone has their own troubles.And this is the root of many problems in the church at present.

　The regional divisions of the Catholic Church are not necessarily consistent with the administrative divisions of various countries.Churches are often lagging behind.Outer Mongolia has been divided for decades, but the church still calls it Kulun.

　　After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the parish was restored.The first bishop was not a local, but a Filipino priest named Bishop Huang Xudong appointed by the church.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)