Berserk, Total War: Second Son of Nobles

Chapter 158 Progressive Youth Pros

While the king was sharing a warm moment with his family, Archbishop Mitland also seemed to be in a good mood in the Mitland Cathedral not far from the palace.

In the summer of 1447, thanks to his various achievements in Midland, the Archbishop of Midland defeated many competitors and successfully achieved re-election, which meant that he could continue to serve as the religious leader of this vast country for another five years.

The reason why Archbishop Midland was successful was not only because of his daily preaching work and his connections in the King's Office, but also because he was the first archbishop in various countries to own a religious knightly order. John's efficient handling of cultists was also recognized by the top leaders of the King's Office.

It can be said that thanks to what John has done for the French Royal Palace in recent years, Archbishop Midland, who had been slacking off, has successfully extended his political life. Of course, the sudden good thing made the archbishop overjoyed.

Thinking back to the time when he had supported so many nobles against all odds, in the end, except for John, the others were either incompetent or went back on their word, using the church's money to do their own things and basically ignoring their previous promises.

On the contrary, the Archbishop only gave John's cousin a bishop position in a border area, and he received such a reward. Although such a position is unattainable for clergymen of common origin, it can be said to be a punishment for those of noble origin. So much so that the Archbishop wondered if he could give himself more rewards if he transferred Pros back to Wendam.

"Sir, a letter from the Bishop of Franche-Comté."

Just as the archbishop was lost in his thoughts, a servant pushed the door open and placed a letter on his desk.

"It really comes to whatever you want."

After reading the letter, the archbishop thought that Pros wanted to make another request to him. This time, the archbishop understood that Pros was now his living signboard, and he could no longer be as indecisive as before.

Thinking of this, the archbishop opened the envelope. He thought that Pros wanted to seek some job or resources from him this time, but after the archbishop took out the letter and read it carefully, he felt a little unbelievable.

In the letter, Pros first praised the archbishop for appointing him as a bishop and expressed his loyalty to the God of Light, and then asked the archbishop to appoint him as an inquisitor.

"Inquisitor?" The archbishop was shocked when he saw this profession. Although he had decades of experience as a clergyman, he still believed that most of these inquisitors were just a bunch of lunatics. Not only him, but almost no one in the entire religious circle liked them except for the top leaders.

Since its establishment, the Inquisition has been used as a thug by some people with ulterior motives. It can be said that every inquisitor is stained with the blood of innocent people. They and their subordinates have committed massacres in the French Palace and neighboring countries. Sometimes, not only a few people were punished, but more often a village or a town disappeared.

Although the country of the French King's Hall is said to be a paradise on earth, under the management of these clergy, the lives of the lower-class people are not much better than those in other places. It can even be said that if you accidentally say something insulting about the bishop and the God of Light, it won't be long before the door of your home is kicked open by the religious inquisitors and the person is taken to prison.

If your family is well-off and someone comes to redeem you, you can still save your life. But if you are a civilian who has no food to eat, you will either be sent to the slave market to become a slave and be sold for a high price by the judges, or you will become a cultist who will be burned at the stake on an ordinary day.

However, this was not the worst, and the archbishop could not help but recall the past.

At that time, he was just a newly appointed priest of the French Royal Court who had just returned from the holy war. He was in charge of managing a small village in the diocese of an archbishop of the French Royal Court.

As luck would have it, when he first arrived, he happened to catch up with a large-scale event held by the Pope's Office. As expected, the top leaders of the Pope's Office were preparing to increase taxes this year.

In order to complete the task, he ran around, not only supervising the villagers' harvest work, but also mobilizing women to weave. After a month of high-intensity work when the harvest day arrived, he was exhausted physically and mentally and finally paid enough taxes. In addition to the tax officials, there was also a team of troops led by the judge who was responsible for collecting the taxes.

At that time, when the sun had just risen, he and a group of village gentry who received the news were waiting for the arrival of the tax collector at the entrance of the village. After everyone waited for a while, a few small black dots appeared on the horizon. As the distance got closer, several carriages drove towards the village.

Leading the group was a carriage with the emblem of the French King's Office printed on it. This was usually the carriage that tax collectors rode in when performing their duties, and behind it was a giant iron carriage painted entirely in white.

The tax collector in the carriage in front got off first and trotted to the back door of the white iron carriage behind and opened it. Several fully armed soldiers and executioners wearing black masks came out first, and then a man wearing a red hat, a white cloak, and a white coat with gold trim walked out. This was the first time he saw the real appearance of the judge.

Under the supervision of the judge, he and the gentry reported this year's tax list to the tax collector, while the soldiers and executioners on the side were holding weapons and staring at the villagers who were carrying food and other supplies to the carriages. At this time, the archbishop wanted to secretly take a look at the judge's appearance, but when he found that the judge's murderous eyes were looking at him, his whole body trembled with fear for a while, and he could only look to the side to calm himself down.

Fortunately, the judge did not make things difficult for him. After verifying that everything was correct, the judge followed the tax collector into the carriage. After a cloud of dust, the convoy drove away from the village.

It was only at this time that he got some information about the judge from the accustomed gentry. For the local villagers, if the tax collector was the only one collecting taxes, then maybe they could be flexible, but if there was a judge, then they should not be clever and should pay the required amount.

A few days later, a priest from a neighboring village came to visit. During the conversation, he learned that a village was unable to pay taxes, and the entire village except the priest was massacred.

At that time, he was very shocked by this incident, because he had participated in the holy war to Kushan, and the general did not issue orders to massacre the pagans in the occupied areas. At most, he executed some people who were closely related to the Kushan army. The massacres were done by some mercenary groups and the armies under various lords. He did not expect that these people would be so cruel to his fellow countrymen of the same faith.

From then on, whenever he talked about the Inquisitor, he would feel a chill, so much so that he even felt disgusted with the French King's Office. Fortunately, he later became the Archbishop of Midland after various changes, and left the Inquisitor who made him feel disgusted. Otherwise, in a few years, he might really not be able to stand it and resign and go home.

Because it was abroad, although the local church had the Inquisition, it did not have the position of inquisitor. The Inquisition was more like a prison with its own execution ground than a trial institution. It was usually responsible for receiving some prisoners and clearing out some stubborn prisoners when the prison was saturated.

Out of disgust for the Inquisitor, although the Vatican later urged him to establish the position of Inquisitor and put it into operation as soon as possible, the Archbishop often delayed the appointment of the Inquisitor for various reasons.

He originally thought that he would never have to see these executioners again, but he didn't expect that his investment target wanted to become such a person. This made him feel that it was necessary to explain this position to Pross and then see what his decision would be.

A few days later, after receiving the letter, Pross complained to John who was sitting in his chair at work:

"I've said it before, even if we always exceed our targets, it's impossible for us to agree to a position just because we say so."

"That depends on how sincere you are. I've made inquiries. There is no one to take the position of judge. He is just testing you to see how strong your will is. Just keep writing letters until he agrees." John said nonchalantly. In his opinion, the archbishop probably wanted to throw this hot potato away a long time ago, and now that someone came to take it, he couldn't wait to give it to him. After all, this is a thankless job, and no normal person would be willing to do it.

Archbishop Mitland did not expect that Pros was so determined. He had clearly advised him not to jump into the trap, but letters requesting appointment continued to be sent to him from Franche-Comté, and the letters also said that he did so in order to spread the faith of the God of Light. The archbishop could not refuse at all.

Seeing that Pros was so determined, the archbishop didn't know what to say. After a sigh, he could only write a letter appointing Pros as the judge of Midland, printed the seal of the Midland Church at the end, and ordered someone to send the letter to the French King's Hall.

Looking at the departing messenger, the Archbishop sighed, and then said to himself:

"I hope Pros really wants to spread the glory of the Lord instead of doing something stupid."