The supreme leader of the Church is known as the "Holy Light Pope", the first apostle and plenipotentiary agent of the sun god on earth, and according to the tradition of the empire, the emperor himself has always held the position, and is in a supreme position in both the religious and secular worlds.
But after all, the emperor is just a mortal, a "lucky person" who ascends to the throne through natural bloodline rather than layers of screening, his energy and knowledge are limited, except for a very small number of brilliant emperors in history, most emperors are unable to balance ecclesiastical and secular affairs, either leaning towards the former, or focusing more on the latter.
Emperor Charles IV was a mediocre ruler, and his hedonistic Majesty was not interested in boring and dogmatic religious affairs, which, combined with the illness of recent years, made it even more difficult to distract himself from running that large church.
In such a situation, the "ecumenical patriarch" of the Church, the second highest ranking of the church, becomes the "pope" in effect, and Emperor Charles usually only plays the role of a "rubber stamp" in religious matters.
The third largest in the Church is the "Grand Duke", whose main duties are to deal with disputes within the Church, punish the clergy who violate the precepts, and one of the most well-known duties is to combat heretics and cults.
Since the founding of the Church, the image of the "Grand Duke" has been associated with the "burning", as if the performance of the "Grand Duke" was directly proportional to the heretics burned during his tenure, so the image of the third-ranked church giant in people's minds is somewhat terrifying, and it is called the "Sword of Perot" by those who are in awe.
The contemporary "Grand Ducal Inquisition" Prince Frank is an outlier, a young legendary priest and Peero voter who is committed to changing the cold and rigid traditional image of the Church, and has been focusing on one thing in the past ten years: abolishing the Inquisition, abolishing the burning at the stake, and promoting a more tolerant and humane religious life.
His Royal Highness the Crown Prince's actions were praised by the Church reformers, but at the same time inevitably criticized by the conservatives, and the "Ecumenical Patriarch" Gregory openly complained more than once that his "Grand Duke" was digging into the corners of the Church and destroying his own foundations, and the contradictions between the two extended from religious affairs to the Imperial Cabinet, and each supported the ministers to compete for power and profit, and now the gladiatorial arena between the conservatives and the reformers has expanded to the Far Eastern provinces, and there is a-for-tat debate over the policy of "tithing".
Philip was a member of the princelings before he became the archbishop of the Far East, and was an important pawn of the reformists in the Far East.
Now the conservative lords are leviing "tithes" in the Far East, which has stirred up the citizens of Fort Atonement, and the reaction of the business community has been the most violent.
Philip learns from the Rev.
Janis installed in the "Club of the Awakened" that the business tycoons, who control the economic lifeblood of the capital, have banded together to organize anti-tax activities, and secretly buy off vibrant social groups to distribute weapons to professional thugs in preparation for making big news.
Philip was shocked by the magnitude of the influence of the "Club of the Awakened", which represented the general interests of the business and burghers of the Far East, and worried him that this political group was not only rich but also wielded knives, and that Rudolph's legion provided a strong military backing, or more bluntly, the "Club of the Awakened" itself was an alliance of interests formed by the Kolas family to seize power in the Far East.
When money and violence go hand in hand, Philip doesn't think there is any other force that can suppress the imminent revolution.
Worried by the tense situation in the Far Eastern provinces, he sent his right-hand man, the Reformer Denis, a reformist ideologue of the Church, to the "Club of the Awakened" to negotiate with Evgenia and other business leaders to find out their bottom line.
Not surprisingly, the other side not only resisted the tithing, but also demanded that the Imperial authorities completely abolish the "heretical original sin law" and the "imperial preferential system" that discriminated against Far Easterners.
In the face of this threatening ultimatum, Philip did not dare to slack off, and hurriedly wrote a letter to the crown prince, telling that the Far Eastern provinces were in extreme danger, that a social movement aimed at changing the status quo could no longer be stopped, and that in order to protect the interests of the church and the state, he suggested accepting the conditions offered by the "Club of the Awake", and that he should use this opportunity to expand the influence of the reformers and replace the armed revolution with a more moderate religious reform movement, so that the empire would certainly lose some benefits.
It would be better than the Pelo church in the Far Eastern provinces being uprooted.
Philip sent this urgent letter by spell, and received a handwritten reply from Prince Frank that afternoon.
In his letter, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince affirmed his pessimistic judgment of the situation in the Far East and conveyed his proposal to His Majesty the Emperor and the ministers at the cabinet meeting that had just been held, but the conservative forces were too stubborn to reject his reform plan and insist on the imposition of taxes in the Far Eastern provinces in accordance with the established policy.
What annoyed Frank the most was not the opposition of the conservative forces of the Church, represented by the Count of Muller, Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer, but the opposition of the military forces led by Prince Zygmunt to the reforms, and he could not do anything in such an isolated situation.
Philip felt that the attitude of the military was understandable, after all, the tithes in the Far East were to make up for military expenses, and the outbreak of revolution in the Far East was a good thing for the military, giving those ambitious young officers the excuse to send troops to the Far East to suppress the rebellion.
However, it was so simple to send troops to the Far East to suppress the rebellion, and Philip did not think so.
The generals of the military did not understand the situation in the Far East, they were arrogant and self-righteous, and only when they really fell into this quagmire would they regret how naïve their original ideas were.
Rudolf Kolas, who had spent nearly twenty years planning the armed revolution, had grown his army so strong that if he had not managed to prevent him from standing up and leading the Far Easterners to fight for independence, even if the Empire sent troops to the Far East, fighting the popular Kolas army in this vast and unfamiliar land would be doomed to continue to lose blood and pay a heavy price.
Prince Frank was equally pessimistic about the future of the Far East, and in his reply to Philip he unabashedly admitted: I am trying to prevent the Empire from slipping down the wrong path, but the key battlefield that will determine the course of events is not in the Imperial Capital but in the Fort of Atonement, you can be a little more bold in the Far East, act according to your judgment, I believe that you are wise enough to prevent the tragedy from happening and are willing to provide you with all the support, if you fear that your actions will attract criticism, I can give you a written assurance: just let it go, and I will be responsible for all the consequences
.
: