When the Saint comes, she does not collect food

#171 - There is a devil in front of the Holy Father's throne

"Yes! Of course, there is!"

Horn looked around at everyone present and held up two fingers: "We have two examples. The first is to introduce external forces, such as Duchess Hema Stone introducing the Norn Great Lords (Old Barbarians, dual faith), or Catherine introducing the secret parties of Black Serpent Bay."

"We can't do that," Jeanne said with some experience. "We're not strong enough ourselves. No external force will support us for nothing."

Casting a surprised glance at Jeanne, Horn continued: "The second is to slowly cultivate our own strength internally, such as the Blago Monastery in Kasha County and the secret parties of Black Serpent Bay."

"That still won't work. We only have three months, and Abbot Huanno has only reached this level after cultivating two generations and preaching for thirty years. The secret parties have a history almost as long as the Empire's," Sisi retorted.

After thinking for a while, Bosak's smile became bitter: "For us, the former requires channels, and the latter requires time. Both require economic support and political capital. We have none of those."

All Horn had were clockwork guns, Holy Favor bloodline, and a vague reputation.

The clockwork guns still faced problems with power, firing frequency, number of shots, and so on, while the Holy Favor bloodline was uncertain. Horn himself didn't know when he could spread the Holy Favor or to whom.

"Don't be so pessimistic," Horn continued to analyze. "If we look at the essence through the phenomena, we'll find that they essentially introduced authority independent of the Church and the Empire based on material security."

"Take the secret parties as an example. They don't consider themselves Imperials, nor children of Messiah, so they don't fear the Empire's knights and priests.

What they fear is transcendence itself, not the knights.

But our refugees, when facing the Empire and the Church, don't treat them as enemies but as the side of justice, as if their uprising is wrong.

Even when fighting, they only use war to promote surrender, using war to get the Church to accept their surrender."

This widespread mentality is a manifestation of the lack of cohesion within the Salvation Army.

The lack of cohesion, the lack of confidence in the future, and the full of fear of the Imperial Church is the biggest crisis within the current Salvation Army.

To put it simply, the refugees are unwilling to give up their current interests in exchange for greater future benefits or greater benefits for everyone.

"Then isn't this a dead end?"

"Not really."

In fact, Horn had been thinking about these issues for some time, combining his interactions and observations with the refugees and serfs.

If qualities such as unwillingness to sacrifice oneself, unwillingness to honestly abide by the rules, unrealistic fantasies about reality, unscrupulous means, and exquisite egoism are called vermin nature,

then the elimination of individual vermin nature is almost impossible, but the collective unconscious vermin nature can be suppressed.

There are many things that can suppress collective vermin nature. In Horn's view, the imagined community is more suitable for the current level of world civilization.

The so-called imagined community, to give a simple example, is "The moment one thinks of Messiah's power and holiness, even the most impoverished farmer will involuntarily stand up straight in front of the witch."

The Messiah Church is a classic imagined community.

Specifically, what do the refugees think they belong to?

Are they River Valley people? Or Imperials? Or Messiah Church believers?

Obviously, these refugees identify more strongly with being believers than with being River Valley people or even being human.

Angels have descended, so how can they not believe in God?

As a believer of Messiah, is my behavior blasphemous? If last night was wrong, should I continue to be wrong?

"It's relatively simple to transfer from one imagined community to another, and there may even be convert zeal, but building an imagined community is a very long process. We don't have enough time to construct a new imagined community, and the remaining imagined communities almost all belong to the Church and the Empire."

Horn held up one finger: "Huanno gave us an inspiration. You see, even though Huanno's faction opposes the River Valley Church, why are the villagers willing to follow them?

Because in the eyes of the villagers, they are still part of the Messiah system and still represent authority.

In other words, it's very difficult for a priest to write a new scripture, but it's very easy to misread the old scripture."

Carrying a 屮-shaped cross to oppose the 屮-shaped cross, who wouldn't do that?

Horn had already modified the Messiah Church beyond recognition, and now he just needed to continue to modify it into the shape he wanted.

The common people had been deceived by the Church to the point where they didn't even know what the Messiah Church was really like, so Horn could say whatever he wanted.

Their foolish belief in the Messiah Church was originally a shackle used by the Church to suppress them, but it also gave Horn an opportunity.

Just as Messiah could swing chains to kill all sinners, Horn could also use this shackle to break the Church's head.

"Let me be blunt, our Papal State has to continue, and the Holy Father may even have to descend," Horn's bitter smile gradually disappeared as he said this. "However, it's not certain whether our Holy Father and the Church's Holy Father are the same Holy Father."

"Are you saying that we should establish a new Messiah Church sect?" Armand asked softly. "Then how should we determine our doctrines?"

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"There are many. For example, equality for all, rejection, we need to win over what groups, we will add what doctrines… But this matter is not urgent for the time being, we can take our time."

"Then Your Excellency, how should we tell the refugees and believers?"

"Isn't that simple?" Horn shrugged. "The Church has become like this now, there must be devils in front of the Holy Father's throne. After the Blueblood Orphans, the devils have already jumped out. The Duke is one, and so is Archbishop Constance of Feiliu Fort."

"Don't mention the Pope?"

"Don't mention him. The refugees can't handle it for the time being. After Constance, we'll put the hat on the Pope. For now, just throw dirt."

René suddenly asked: "What if, as you said, Johnny VIII betrays Constance? Won't the refugees betray us again?"

"As long as we can withstand the military pressure, the probability of them rebelling again is very small." Horn stepped forward and patted René's head. "The refugees' lack of confidence stems from a lack of military confidence. As long as we can train an army in three months that can defeat transcendent knights head-on, instead of relying on witches, there won't be this problem.

Then, they will sincerely shout the phrase 'The unequal people kill the unequal'."

René nodded as if he understood, and after Horn left, a strange light flashed in his eyes: "…I have some doubts."

Turning around and looking at everyone present, especially Armand and Jeanne, the high-level staff working on the front lines, Horn said seriously:

"During this period, your job is to promote this. Don't say that we are fighting against the Church or the Empire, but to portray our actions as an internal factional war within the Church, to eliminate the devils within the Church!"

"But it doesn't seem to last long?" Armand said hesitantly.

Horn shook his head: "Who cares how long it lasts? Let's stabilize the people's hearts first. We have other means."