I, the Ming Dynasty, can still save me

Chapter 661: Ming Catholic Reform

On the north-facing avenue in Rome, several carriages bearing the flags of the Holy See were speeding northward, attracting the attention of pedestrians on both sides of the road.

This team was Sun Yuanhua's Ming envoy team. Although the Holy See did not agree with Sun Yuanhua's request, it still respected the Ming envoy.Not only did they send a cardinal to escort Sun Yuanhua and others, but they also sent a motorcade to escort them to Pisa to meet Galileo and others.

The principals of this trip, the Ming envoys Sun Yuanhua and Xu Xiake, were sitting in one of the carriages. Sun Yuanhua was reading a book with great interest, while Xu Xiake couldn't help but open the curtains of the carriage and looked out of the carriage, trying to see what was happening along the way. The scenery is as far as the eye can see.

Seeing Xu Xiake like this, Sun Yuanhua closed the book and shook his head, secretly thinking that this man was really full of energy. Ever since he came to Europe, he has been full of curiosity about everything here, and even now he doesn't necessarily have a moment of rest.

"Zhensheng (Xu Xiake's name), it's been half a year since you came to Europe with the Ming Dynasty envoy and I. In the past six months, do you think the customs and customs of these European countries are very different from those of the Ming Dynasty?"

Seeing the imperial envoy asking questions, Xu Xiake also sat upright, thought for a while and replied:

"Your Majesty the Imperial Envoy, although I had contact with missionaries when I was in Ming Dynasty, I was still very curious about Westerners. I felt that they were very friendly when they came to Ming Dynasty to preach or do business, and although Western things I don’t have my Ming Dynasty porcelain, silk and other items, but they are quite unique.

But after I actually came and spent half a year with them, I found that they were fearful of power but not moral, and they knew shame but lacked etiquette.As far as I know, although the size of the whole of Europe is similar to that of our Ming Dynasty, the princes stand side by side, killing each other and fighting wars. In addition, the Catholic Church leaps above all other countries, uniting vertically and horizontally, with an incomparable momentum, which is very different from our Ming Dynasty. "

Listening to Xu Xiake's comments, Sun Yuanhua slowly nodded in agreement.

It is said that seeing is worth hearing a hundred times. Their previous impressions of the West or European countries were limited to the stories of Matteo Ricci or Tang Ruowang. Therefore, they had many beautiful and exotic imaginations about the West. They felt that they probably believed in God, and they should all be the same. A person who is reasonable and has extremely high moral cultivation.

But when he came to Europe, he found that it was completely different from what he had imagined.

During his six months in Spain and Rome, he did not just eat, drink and have fun, but also learned the local language and collected as much information as possible, which also made him understand more and more the current situation in Europe.

First, when he was in Spain, he discovered that the people's livelihood in Spain was in decline and prices were soaring. However, the King of Spain ignored the people's hardship and went on a military rampage and expanded his army crazily. The purpose of doing this was actually to defeat the Protestant heresy in the north.

Not only did he do this, but it seemed that the whole of Europe was plunged into religious wars.This puzzled Sun Yuanhua. After all, there were very few wars caused by religion in China. At most, they were the Yellow Turban Uprising and the Red Turban Mingjiao Uprising in the late Yuan Dynasty.

The situation in Europe was completely different. Divine power was actually superior to royal power.Even though Matteo Ricci, Tang Ruowang and others had introduced him before.But when he came to Europe and personally saw various countries fighting over religion, he was still shocked.

The development of things always exceeded his expectations. He originally thought that the situation in Spain was already very bad.But when he came to Rome, he discovered that various behaviors within the Holy See shocked him, and his views were completely shattered.

During the two months in Rome when he was waiting for a reply from the Holy See, he, Xu Xiake and others used broken Latin to inspect and communicate around Rome.

He originally wanted to take this opportunity to learn about the customs and customs of this thousand-year-old city, but he did not expect that much of the information he learned was related to the dirty things done by the Holy See.

Among them, the Holy See openly sells official positions and clergy positions in various European countries. Many clergy even violate Catholic doctrine and openly marry and have children, causing illegitimate children everywhere.He originally thought that this was just an exception, but he did not expect that this kind of thing had already been acquiesced in the Holy See. Even the current Pope Urban VIII had an illegitimate child.

This couldn't help but make him feel that his outlook was ruined. These people were completely different from what he had imagined.

And under this opportunity, he also gradually understood that the Protestant heresy that emerged in the northern countries of Europe was caused by dissatisfaction with the Holy See.

Thanks to his status as an envoy of the Ming Dynasty, many people knew everything about them, and they could also access a lot of information so that he could understand the reasons in detail.

It turns out that more than 100 years ago, there was a pastor named Martin Luther. He was dissatisfied with the prevalence of corruption in the church and the priests' repeated violations of doctrine. He also hated the fact that the church openly sold "indulgences" like waste paper in order to make money.

So he publicly proposed that the pope had no right to interfere with the secular government, claiming that if the church could not reform itself, the state government should save it.

He also called the Roman Church "the biggest thief and robber in the world under the banner of the Holy Church and Saint Peter."He also made it clear that the Pope is not the final interpreter of the Bible. Every believer can directly communicate with God and become a priest, without the need for a priest to be an intermediary.

These words were shocking even to a casual believer like Sun Yuanhua, let alone the people at the time.

The resulting religious reform not only plunged Catholicism into a whirlpool of chaos, but also dragged the entire Europe into the quagmire of war, even now.

However, Sun Yuanhua did not care about this. On the contrary, after Urban VIII explicitly refused to Ming believers from worshiping heaven, ancestors, and Confucius, he was also worried about how to properly handle the matter.

But Martin Luther's reforms reminded him, and he couldn't help but think that since there were people in Europe who could set up a banner to reform Catholicism, why couldn't the Ming Dynasty.

You must know that after Buddhism was introduced to China, it was only accepted after it was integrated with China.If Buddhism can do it, then Catholicism must do it too.

And as long as the Catholic Church is reformed to be more in line with Chinese culture, wouldn't it be easier to be accepted by the Ming Dynasty, and missionary work might be smoother?

It doesn't matter if Sun Yuanhua doesn't want to, but once the idea of ​​reform arises, this idea is like a seed, taking root and sprouting in Sun Yuanhua's mind, constantly growing, making Sun Yuanhua think a lot.

But he also knew that he was in no hurry. All this had to be discussed with his teacher Xu Guangqi and others. What he had to do now was to continue traveling in Europe, complete the tasks assigned to him by the emperor, and collect information along the way. All news about the Protestant Reformation as well.

While Sun Yuanhua was thinking, a voice sounded from outside the carriage.

"Dear Ming Dynasty envoy, pizza has arrived!"

(End of this chapter)