Eagle Byzantium

Many generals, clerks, and members of the brotherhood gathered around, and Anna cited the previous public letter of condemnation sent by the Pope of Tuscany.

In fact, this letter was sent by Owen Seth out of anger when the "Four Popes" situation first emerged in Italy. However, he later expressed regret and withdrew it, but the original was retained by Gawain and Anna.

Sure enough, when Anna finished reading the content, everyone present was furious. They all asked His Majesty on the throne next to him, "Please be sure to expose the abominable behavior of the Patriarch St. Peter of Rome to the entire empire."

Gawain was playing the role of "calm" at this time. When Anna raised her silk handkerchief to wipe her tears, he raised his hand to warn everyone, "Now the imperial capital and the whole of Thrace are suffering from famine, and the counties of Anatolia Most of the funds were spent on the siege of Tyre on the eastern front. We have encountered great difficulties this year and have to get through it before winter. Don't set your sights on distant Italy. Please turn your anger into fighting spirit for the time being. ..."

"In order for His Majesty to successfully host the Adrianople Congress in the property registration month (September), we must take decisive action now to punish His Majesty's enemies." Many generals waved their fists to offer blessings for the future believers' conference.

The final unified action plan was: Andodat continued to besiege Tire in the east without letting go, while we dispatched two brigades from Constantinople (the current situation in Thrace, no matter how large-scale The military strength cannot be supported at all), coupled with capable cavalry and artillery, march westward along the Egnadia Avenue, and the target is the Holy Mountain of Assos east of Thessaloniki City!

To put it bluntly, they were taking advantage of the famine in spring and summer to go out, um, rob Thessalonica and Macedonia, and expand their territory westward. The charges for punishing Masdas have been established: "Inciting rebellion, desecrating the great palace and cathedral, usurping the purple robe and crimson boots of the imperial rank, and refusing to hand over the property of the sacred mountain of Athos."

Gawain's request is: "Destroy the sacred mountain of Athos and capture Masdas to be tried at the assembly of believers in Adrianople."

Within half a month after that, the news of the crusade against the Holy Mountain of Athos spread rapidly along various military roads and seaports: the Kole Adio Caves Monastery, the churches under the Patriarch of Antioch, and the Armenian Apostolic Church of Ani. , the Reform Society of Tarsus, the imam of the mosque (?) under the jurisdiction of the empire and the rabbis of the Jewish temple (?) all collectively spoke out and expressed their stance - resolutely supporting His Majesty Basileus Gawain's wise and decisive strategy, resolutely supporting the unity of the empire, and resolutely not allowing the Monastery of the Holy Mountain of Assos to be used in any name. and methods to divide the country, which are the "three determinations".

The city of Bari was in an uproar, and many Greek priests expressed sympathy for Masdas and strongly questioned the legality of Gawain's siege of the Holy Mountain of Athos. So Anselm, with the support of a group of confidants, brazenly carried out a purge of the "Bali Holy See". He required all members of the Holy See to swear "loyalty to all actions of His Majesty Basileus, because he is the messenger of God and the He who upholds law and righteousness with a sword is a shepherd The first is the agent whom he sends to shepherd the flock. Agents cannot rebel against the holy Basileus, just as wives cannot rebel against their husbands, and children cannot rebel against their parents. This is what St. Paul clearly stated in the Collected Works. Truth, whoever forgets it is a sinner.”

But a group of Greek priests came up with evidence documents, which are incredible.

It is "The Gift of Constantine the Great", that is, "DonatioConstantini".

This gift document was of course signed by the majestic Emperor Constantine, and was later included in the "Collection of Decree" by the Holy See. Of course, it happened that the Patriarch of Constantinople also kept this so-called gift.

The content inside is also quite honest: Emperor Constantine contracted leprosy and was cured by Christian priests from Rome. The emperor sighed with emotion, "It's better to be a follower of Christ." Then he actively asked to be baptized and wrote: received this gift document, saying that he would receive “visible power, glory, "Dignity and vitality" was given to Pope Sylvester in Rome at that time, and the Pope was given the power to rule the four archdioceses of Rome, Constantinople, Antioch, and Jerusalem, and also the Lateran Palace, the dioceses of various Italian cities, and almost The authority to rule the entire western territory of the empire was also packaged and given to the Pope.

The Patriarch of Constantinople also has a copy, but the content is slightly different. I believe everyone understands: Emperor Constantine gave him the jurisdiction of the entire eastern part of the Roman Empire, and gave him the same glory as the emperor. This It was also the source of courage and theoretical basis for the previous patriarchs to confront the emperor (at the end of the Macedonian dynasty, there was a patriarch who brazenly wore the emperor's purple robe and scarlet boots and stood up to the emperor).

It is no exaggeration to say that this document is first and foremost the foundation of the secular power of the Holy See of St. Peter in Rome, and of course it also belongs to the Patriarch of Constantinople. So now a group of Greek priests who were close to the Patriarch of Constantinople took out this document to resist Anselm's suppression.

As mentioned before, Gawain has been looking for spiritual weapons to suppress the Holy See and the Patriarch of Constantinople, and this "Gift of Constantine" quickly allowed him to find a way to crack it - that is, "with the son of a son". The spear attacks the shield." However, his instructions to Anselm were: "In the future, I will give you the jurisdiction of the entire eastern diocese, and do the rest as I say. Everything will be decided at the Adrianople Congress."

So Anselm directly called the civil army guards of Bari City, and detained all the opponents who dared to contradict him and Emperor Gawain, "awaiting the sentence after the Congress of Adrianople."

In early May, at the military meeting before the formal expedition, Gawain suddenly lifted the cloth covering the Mercury Map Table in front of everyone.

What appeared in front of everyone and Anna was the "New Roman Empire Regional Map" that had been divided.

The entire backbone was still based on the original military district system, but the attributes of the political districts were very different:

The vassal allies Armenia, Shirvan, Hadadi, Georgia, etc. are needless to say.

The special jurisdictions include Thrace (the location of the imperial capital), Samos (capital Smyrna), Bithynia (capital Prusa), Seleucia (capital Seleucia. Alaman City), Sicilchia (capital Tarsus), Chaldia (capital Trabzon), Kastamonu (capital Sinop);

There is no wrong version in the 16-9 book and forum!

There are eleven counties, including Lydia (capital Philadelphia), Anatolia (capital Iconium), Greater Cappadocia (capital Caesarea), Paphlagonia (originally the eastern part of this place, with the capital of Gangara), Amasya (capital Amasya City), Sebastia (capital Sebastian), New Mesopotamia (capital Melitene), Phrygia (capital Afyon), Greater Sis (capital Sis City), Lesser Sis (capital Vanka City), and New Miletus (the coastal area between the Samos area and Attalia).

As for the last autonomous region, Gawain has made new changes compared to the original plan on the small sunfish couch.