When the Saintess Arrives, No King Exist

"The Saint Father's Order? What kind of nonsense is that?" As soon as the water entered his mouth, Horn nearly spat it out.

How come these bugs come up with new tricks every three days? Didn't he ask Armand to organize something more low-key?

"Your Majesty, I know you're anxious, but please don't rush. Let me explain slowly." Armand took out a handkerchief and wiped the spit from his face.

Horn crossed his legs, looking as if he was ready to hear Armand's excuses.

At the time of departure, Horn had given Armand the task of investigating the movements and thoughts of these believers.

"Our Salvation Army believers generally have a sense of confusion after their faith collapsed," Armand began straightforwardly, taking a few sheets of paper from his drawer and handing them to Horn.

Horn took these sheets and quickly flipped through them, his expression growing more and more serious as he read.

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

On one hand, due to the long-standing cultural and ideological infiltration by the church, they regarded the Miseria Church as a sacred existence, and all their values were built on the foundation of the Miseria Church. Everything about Miseria constituted their spiritual world.

On the other hand, the Blue Blood incident, the Juanuo incident, and the long-standing extraordinary oppression, these experiences from the real world were completely contradictory to the Miseria spiritual world.

They couldn't accept either resisting the church or forgiving it, leaving their worldview fundamentally collapsed.

"Are you aware that the crime rate has been high recently?" Armand asked, spinning an ink bottle in his hand as he watched Horn read the report.

Horn didn't look up, only frowning as he turned to the next page: "I know, what's the matter?"

"I specially visited those believers who committed crimes and discovered a very interesting phenomenon."

"What is it?"

"Those who committed crimes were often the most devout believers before."

Horn's hand suddenly paused when flipping through the report, and he looked up: "What do you mean?"

"These devout believer criminals, no matter the reason, would most likely boil it down to one concept." Seeing Horn look up, Armand stopped spinning the ink bottle.

"What concept?"

Armand said, "That is, 'If the Miseria Church can do such things, then the doctrines are all false. Those teachings about not fighting, not killing, and not stealing are all false, and we don't need to follow them.'

In other words, it's a reckless abandon after faith collapses. Without Miseria's constraints, they want to unleash everything they once dared not do."

This was actually due to Horn's misery sessions at Joan of Arc Castle and hatred education at the Blue Blood Monastery in the Spider Forest being too successful, making the conflict between these believers and the church extremely sharp.

With the collapse of faith came a moral vacuum. To maintain order, Thomas and others used a portion of the extreme Saint's Grandson worshippers as the backbone to establish the Saint Father Order.

"Currently, this order has over a hundred people, and their aim is to expel the church, restore Kush, and call for Kush people not to fight each other."

Does this mean that after the imaginary community of the church collapses, a group of insightful individuals proposed using Kush to replace the church community to ensure social order doesn't collapse?

"The Saint Father Order, rather than worshipping the Holy Father, is more about worshipping the Saint's Grandson," Armand said in frustration. "They see you as a chosen one, a savior, a leader. Your qualities as a Kush person far surpass those of you as Miseria's son.

I thought our ultimate goal was similar. Instead of letting it develop savagely, why not replace it? What do you think?"

After thinking for a while, Horn organized the report in his hand and placed it on the table: "Let's do this. Find an opportunity for me to personally inspect it. Keep what's necessary; abolish what's not."

"Alright, I've already communicated with them, but there's still one personal question I have."

"Speak," Horn said concisely.

"You've always talked about ideological reform, so what's our stance after integrating the Saint Father Order?" Armand asked.

"About the stance of the Saint Father Order..." He had actually pondered this question for a long time and had only recently come up with some relatively clear ideas.

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

Armand took out a few sheets of fine, thick white paper, dipped a quill in ink, and waited for Horn to speak.

"First, oppose the church, not the religion. First, we assert that the intention of the Holy Seat City's Pope is good, but the church below executed it poorly, so we should just eliminate the Thousand River Valley Church.

Later, when we eliminate the church in the Thousand River Valley Region and replace it, the church will inevitably disagree.

At that time, we'll say the Holy Father's intention was good, but the Pope executed it poorly, so we should just eliminate the Pope."

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

If it were rigorous scholastic theology, this reasoning would be riddled with errors.

Theologians have spent centuries, nearly a thousand years, patching every possible problematic point of the Gospel to prevent such situations.

But the people under Horn aren't as rigorous as scholastic theology, and even those wise enough to see through certain "patches" would still keep silent and even deceive themselves.

Because under such desperate pressure, they are like drowning people, clinging to anything that might save them, no matter how dangerous that straw might be.

Even if Horn were the devil, they would deceive themselves into believing he was an angel.

Otherwise, if both their spirit and material life were shattered, what would be the point of living at all?

"Second, advocate for happiness in this life. Currently, what is the main contradiction among these believers? It is the contradiction between believers' desire for increasingly rich material life and the Miseria Church's demand for believers to live an ascetic life of poverty and contentment..."

At this point, Armand's previously swift pen slowed down: "Your Majesty, wouldn't doing this contradict the first point? Isn't this replacing 'divine rights' with 'human rights'?"

"No, no, no, look, though the 'Former Gospel' considers the Holy Tree and its people as the only beings loved by the Holy Father, the 'Latter Gospel' extends that love to all creatures, especially intelligent beings.

Miseria even openly declared, 'All thinking creatures are the Holy Father's greatest masterpiece on earth.' Isn't that saying humans also share divine characteristics?

Affirming human value and secular behavior is affirming the Holy Trinity and does not conflict with Miseria's teachings.

Note, it is only the church demanding ascetic life. The Gospel only praises and shows mercy to the poor but does not require everyone to live a life of poverty."

This point was to attract citizens, small landlords, armed farmers, and lower monks, including a large middle class.

Horn studied deep into the night every day, and his knowledge explosion wasn't without gain. Although he hadn't undergone formal training, his theological level could already rival some rural bishops.

"Third, and most importantly, based on the first and second points, introduce..." At this point, Horn hesitated, wondering if it was too radical to bring up this idea now?

But upon reflection, Horn reminded himself that he was the Holy Father's incarnation on earth, and his interpretation of Miseria was limitless.

Even if something went wrong, he could have the Holy Father descend to punish him and then have the Holy Father forgive him on behalf of the believers, with the Pope doing the same.

Moreover, these two points were almost synonymous with "abolishing serfdom and nobility" in the eyes of the Imperial People, though not to the extent of modernity in later generations.

After much contemplation, Horn finally said it: "All humans are born equal. All humans are born free."