Since the Accounting: A Chronicle of the Roman Khanate

Chapter 452 The Power of the Roman State Church

"This is understandable." Joanna said: "The Mongols are a branch of the Khitan people, so they will naturally be influenced by them. However, the Roman side should not have reached the level of the Central Plains."

"I think it's almost the same," Eudosia replied.

"Why do you say that? Bansai Khan is not a priest king. Although everyone knows that the church is completely controlled by Rome, after all, there are still two systems in name, and it also has its own patriarch." Joanna said.

"That's to take care of the local people. Their church is just an organization under the government." Eudosia shook her head:

"The status of the church just depends on its financial power - do you think the Roman Church has its own independent financial power?"

"Indeed not," said Joanna.

"Their churches also own land and churches and accept donations from believers. But according to the law, these incomes and expenditures must be recorded in accounts and reported to the Ministry of Household Affairs for review. In theory, if the church funds are insufficient, the Khanate will allocate subsidies to maintain Operation. But due to local customs, the church's income is not low. Therefore, the court collects a lot of money from the church every year," Eudocia said.

"If it's not obvious now, I guess you will be able to see it more clearly in a few years." She thought for a while, and then added: "Judging from the recent trends in the Khan's court, they should soon try to bring the Tianfang Sect into the fold." It was incorporated. By then, everyone should be able to see the essence of this system."

"Then... why is this?" Joanna really couldn't understand.

"According to my understanding, this is because their belief is not actually a specific religion." Eudocia said.

"Professional theological scholars will use terms such as 'Crossianism', 'God-worshipping' and 'Nestorianism' to distinguish different sects. But in churches, when priests preach to ordinary believers, We will clearly tell everyone that our faith is the 'Roman God-worshipping religion'."

"In their teachings, they repeatedly emphasized that Brother Tian was the sage of Rome. Because Rome was a universal empire, it was chosen by Heavenly Father to undertake important missions; and Brother Tian was born here to prepare the future for the future. Be prepared for indoctrination.”

"In order to explain this theory, at the beginning of its establishment, the Roman Church proposed a concept called 'ordination.' They believed that there is only one supreme God, only one ultimate truth, and ultimately only one universal government. "

"This god cannot be described in words, so we take the liberty of calling him Heavenly Father; this set of truths cannot be summarized in simple words, so we forcefully use the word 'god worship' to summarize our understanding of it; this regime also It covers the whole world and cannot be compared with ordinary kingdoms and states, so we will use 'Roman Kingdom' as its common name."

"I don't know if you can understand what I say." She hesitated and tried to explain: "In short, they believe that Heavenly Father has his own set of rules of behavior that are transcendent from the world and do not change with the world. If the church conforms to Heavenly Father If they follow the principles, they will prosper, and if they don't, they will fail. That's why their 'Roman Church' was able to rise, but the original church in the old city of Rome gradually became corrupted, degenerated, and lost its prestige."

"Similarly, if a dynasty has enough virtue, it can rise and assume the mission of the Heavenly Father. Otherwise, it will decline. Therefore, New Rome will rise in the original remote provinces, while the old Roman dynasties will suffer from civil strife and barbarian invasions. Destroyed. This is because they lost their 'Wen De' and 'Wu De', so the destiny was transferred here."

"Fortunately, it's not too difficult to understand. Rather, it's quite intuitive." Joanna thought for a moment and nodded: "Their theory is probably quite easy to use."

"Yes, and the locals can accept it." Eudocia said: "For example, the Greek Orthodox Church in the city has been quarreling with the Catholic Church in Rome. The Bishop of Rome has always claimed that he has priority, so the Church His internal status is higher than that of the Patriarch of Constantinople." "Although the Orthodox Church has always been unwilling to accept this, even if they have an advantage in the debate and have the support of Basileus, they cannot deny that the Bishop of Rome does have the authority to control other people. The priority of the bishops. Because the city of Rome is indeed the former capital and origin of the empire, this rule was indeed unanimously adopted by everyone back then, so it is not easy to go back on it."

"When Emperor Constantine moved the capital, he put forward some theories to prove that this 'New Rome' was also a Roman city. But the Romans' own theories were too crude and not very useful."

"The Central Plains people are different. It is said that long before Homer's time, in the even longer mythical age, they began to study the theory of destiny transfer and dynasty replacement. By now, it has been very mature. Learn and refer to this theory , is obviously very conducive to future debates. Therefore, everyone is actually happy to accept it. As for those members of the 'Roman Church' who have been trained and supported by the Roman Khanate from the beginning, of course they support it."

"Then what do these theories have to do with our topic?" Joanna asked.

"I think that after the introduction of these theories, the Romans' faith can no longer be said to be a pure worship of God." Eudocia said.

"There are many religions and sects in the Central Plains, but the relationship between them does not seem to be the same as here. The relationship between the state power and these religions is also a different situation. I didn't understand the reason at first. I always thought it was a problem with religious teachings, but later I learned more about it and found out that it wasn’t because the religion there was inherently different, or that the people there didn’t need religion.”

"Why is that?" Joanna muttered, and then thought of something again: "I understand. They have a substitute, right?"

"In other words, they have a religion that is beyond religion, or in other words, a belief that is above belief." Eudosia replied: "I don't know if that's right. Maybe this is also some kind of...according to their words. Say, the ineffable.”

"The teachings I just introduced to you were what their bishop told me. You see, although at first it sounds like some additions and deletions have been made on the basis of traditional teachings, and they have been re-explained in Chinese terms, but After this description, the entire character of the faith has quietly changed."

"After adding these concepts, this doctrine allows for continuous trial and error, improvement, and even direct rewriting in principle. As long as the basic principles are followed, the coexistence of multiple different statements is acceptable. Among them The conflicts between them have been reduced to a very low level. Because everyone's common belief has gone beyond the doctrine itself, it is no longer allegiance to the religious order, but allegiance to the truth and Rome."

"I have a feeling: the true belief in the Central Plains is not Buddhism, Taoism, or Confucianism, which I don't know if it is a religion. Their true belief can actually be called the 'Han national religion.' It's the same here. Rather than saying that everyone Believing in the God-worshipping religion, it is better to say that what everyone believes in is the 'Roman State Religion', and it happens to be dominated by the God-worshipping religion." She shook her head: "I just said that sooner or later they will include the Tianfang Sect, too. Inferred from this situation.”

"That's it, I understand." Joanna suddenly realized: "Although this theory seems to have no restrictions, it itself is melting the boundaries of religion. Others don't matter, and this thing can also make everyone more united. . But the Jews can only rely on religion to organize themselves, so this religion that goes beyond religion will be fatal."

"But where did you learn it from?" She became curious: "Is this knowledge also used for writing scripts?"

"They can come from anywhere." Odosia thought for a while and said, "I have played with Li Lang for so many years, and through him, I have met a lot of people and read a lot of books. I understand the situation There are more theories and ideas that you can guess by yourself. I don’t know if the Roman Khanate deliberately designed it this way. But at least, they should have done it consciously. "

"Is that so..." Joanna stared at her and muttered like a mantra, still not seeming to believe it.But Eudocia looked calm.

"Okay." Joanna could only nod: "At least it makes sense..."

(End of this chapter)