Chapter 208: Worship of the Holy Father
"Holy Father Order? What the hell is that?" Horn almost spit out the water as soon as it entered his mouth.

How come these bugs come up with new tricks when he's been left alone for three days? Didn't he ask Armand to organize something low-key?

"Your Majesty, I know you are anxious, but please don't be impatient and listen to me slowly." Armand took out a handkerchief and wiped the saliva off his face.

Horn crossed his legs, looking like he was going to listen to your quibbling.

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

"Our Salvation Army believers are generally confused after the collapse of their faith." Armand went straight to the point and took out a few pages of paper from the drawer and handed them to Horn.

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

After the Blue Blood Monastery incident broke out, a large number of Salvation Army believers fell into a period of confusion in their faith.

On the one hand, due to the long-term cultural and ideological invasion of the church, they regard Messiahism as a noble existence. All their three views are based on Messiahism, and everything in Messiahism constitutes their spiritual world.

On the other hand, the Blue Blood Incident, the Juano Incident, and the long-term supernatural oppression, these experiences and experiences in the real world are completely contrary to Mircella's spiritual world.

On the one hand, they could not accept that they were rebelling against the church, and on the other hand, they could not accept that they were forgiving the church. Their three views were basically in collapse.

"Are you aware that the crime rate has been high during this period?" Looking at Horn flipping through the report, Armand subconsciously spun the ink bottle in his hand.

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

"I specifically visited those believers who committed crimes, and I found 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 and asked, "What do you mean?"

"These devout criminals, no matter what the reason, most likely come down to one idea." Seeing Horn raise his head, Armand stopped turning the ink bottle.

"What concept?"

Armand said, "That is, 'If the Church of Messiah does this, it means that the teachings are all false. Those teachings that tell us not to fight, not to kill, and not to steal are all false. We don't need to obey them.'

In other words, it is the self-abandonment after the collapse of faith. Without the restraint of Mircella, they want to vent all the things they wanted to do but didn't dare to do before."

This was actually because Horn's grievance meeting at Jeanne d'Arc Castle and his hatred education when he passed by the Blue Blood Monastery in the Wild Spider Forest were too successful, which made the conflict between these believers and the church extremely sharp.

The collapse of faith brought about a moral vacuum. In order to maintain order, Thomas and others established the Order of the Holy Father with a group of extreme worshippers of the Holy Grandson as the backbone.

"There are currently hundreds of members in this order. Their purpose is to expel the church, restore Kush, and require Kushites not to fight Kushites."

What this means is that after the collapse of the imagined community of the church, in order to ensure that the social order does not collapse, some knowledgeable people proposed to use Kush to replace the church community?

"This order of worship of the Holy Father is more about worshipping the Holy Grandson than worshipping the Holy Father," Armand said distressedly, "They regard you as the chosen one, the savior, the leader, and your qualities as a Kushite far exceed your qualities as the son of Messiah.

I think our ultimate goal is similar. Instead of letting it develop wildly, we should replace it. What do you think? "

After thinking for a while, Horn sorted out the report in his hand and put it on the table. "How about this, I'll find an opportunity and go to investigate it myself. I'll keep what should be kept and abolish what should be abolished."

"Okay, I've already contacted them, but I still have one personal question."

"Go on," Horn said briefly. "You've been talking about ideological transformation, so what are our principles after we merge with the Order of the Holy Fathers?" Armand asked.

"Regarding the teachings of the Order of the Holy Father..." In fact, he had been thinking about this question for a long time, and only recently came up with some relatively clear ideas.

Walking to the window, Horn thought for a long time before saying, "Armand, remember this."

Armand pulled out some sheets of fine thick white paper, dipped his quill pen into ink, and waited for Horne to speak.

“First, we are against the church but not against religion. First, we declare that the intentions of the Pope of the Holy See City are good, but they were miscarried by the churches below. We just need to destroy the Thousand River Valley Church.

When we eliminate the churches in the Thousand River Valley area and replace them with our own, the churches will certainly not agree.

At that time, we will say that the Holy Father’s intentions were good, but they were badly implemented by the pope below, so we should just eliminate the pope.”

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

If it is rigorous scholastic theology, this statement is full of errors and omissions.

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

But the people under Horn are naturally not as rigorous as scholastic theology. Even if they are smart people who know some "patches", they will see through them but not say them, and may even deceive themselves.

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

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

Otherwise, if everything from the spiritual to the material is pierced, how can one still be alive?

"Second, promoting happiness in this life. What is the main contradiction among these believers at present? It is the contradiction between the believers' desire for an increasingly rich material life and the Messiah Church's requirement that believers live an ascetic life of contentment with poverty..."

At this point, Armand's pen slowed down: "Your Majesty, if we do this, doesn't it contradict the first point? Isn't this replacing 'divine right' with 'human rights'?"

“No, no, no, you see, although the First Gospel treats the Holy Tree and its people as the only ones loved by the Father, in the Second Gospel, this love is extended to all living things, especially intelligent ones.

Mircella even openly declared that "all thinking beings are the highest masterpieces of the Holy Father on earth." Doesn't this mean that humans also share the characteristics of God?

The affirmation of human value and human secular behavior is the affirmation of the Holy Trinity, and there is no conflict with the teachings of Messiahism.

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

This was done in order to win over a large number of middle-class people, including citizens, small landowners, armed peasants, and low-level monks.

Horn read until late at night every day, and his rapid knowledge acquisition was not without benefit. Although he had no formal training, his theological level was comparable to that of some country bishops.

"The 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 a bit radical to put forward this proposition at this time?

But Horn changed his mind and realized that he was the incarnation of the Holy Father on earth, and as the son of Messiah, his authority to interpret the scriptures was unlimited.

Even if something went wrong, let the Holy Father come down to earth to punish him, and then let the Holy Father forgive him on behalf of the believers. He punished himself by drinking three cups of wine, and the Pope did it.

Moreover, in the eyes of the imperial people, these two points were basically equated with "abolishing serfs and nobility", and had not yet reached the level of modern times.

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

(End of this chapter)