I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 1334 Gale
Outside the Saint-Germain-des-Prés Abbey in Paris, second only to Notre Dame Cathedral, Marat, with a stern face, said rudely to Abbot Grenier, who was blocking his way, "If you insist on preventing me from carrying out my official duties, I will have no choice but to call in the service team."

The Service Team is an enforcement agency under the Notary Investigation Bureau, with the power to search, seize, and even temporarily detain.

Suddenly, a priest standing next to Abbot Grenier shouted to the crowd, "Unauthorized entry into the monastery is blasphemy against God, and we cannot stand by and watch them do this!"

The hundreds of citizens who had been silent until now suddenly became agitated.

The French have a deep-rooted religious faith, and the words of high-ranking clergy are considered divine pronouncements. Immediately, dozens of elders surrounded Marat and his companions, frantically making the sign of the cross, demanding that they leave.

Marlowe frowned, glanced at the 11-man service team, and whispered to his assistant, "Marlowe, go back and call everyone in the station..."

Just then, a whistle sounded in the distance, and sixty or seventy police officers jogged over in formation, separating all the passersby.

The head sheriff, with his hands behind his back, announced loudly, "The city hall just lost some important financial documents in this area. Anyone who finds them should hand them over to me immediately."

Everyone was stunned.

The sheriff glanced at Mara and waved to the policeman beside him: "To prevent spies from stealing documents, check everyone's bags immediately."

"Yes, sir!"

The old men surrounding the horse were the first to be pulled aside, and several policemen politely asked them to open their belongings.

Seeing this, onlookers who were a little further away, wanting to avoid trouble, quietly turned and left.

Across the street, a group of street theater troupes suddenly appeared, setting up a wooden stage and scenery, and enthusiastically inviting passersby to watch their performance.

Within ten minutes, only a few onlookers remained in front of the Saint-Germain-des-Prés Monastery.

Marat was overjoyed, pushed aside Abbot Grenier, and strode into the monastery.

The latter shouted angrily, "This is a serious act of blasphemy! You will be tried by the religious court!"

Mara stopped, turned his head slightly, and said disdainfully, "Only the people can judge me."

He continued walking inside, and the captain of the service team beside him leaned over, somewhat nervously saying, "Sir, those people from the church will definitely go to Versailles to cause us trouble..."

The Church wields considerable influence in French politics.

Mara smiled. "Don't worry. Do you think the police just happened to be passing by?"

"Ah? Isn't it?"

“How could His Highness the Crown Prince not have noticed the serious corruption problem within the church? He should be waiting for our report right now.”

Yes, Joseph had instructed the police department to cooperate with the Bureau of Fair Investigation at any time, as early as two weeks ago. Even the intelligence agency had people waiting nearby; if the police couldn't handle it, they would appear and help Mara and the others enter the monastery.

In fact, even the theater troupe across the street was arranged by Joseph through Denico.

Mara had his men take control of the monastery's various storerooms, and he was walking toward the finance office when a young priest suddenly appeared from under a pillar and stuffed a crumpled piece of paper into his hand.

Mara quickly unfolded the note, glanced at it, and a smile immediately appeared on his face.

The paper contained only four lines of text, detailing four expenditures of the monastery. People often assume the church is very wealthy, implying all clergy must be in cahoots, vehemently protecting its interests. However, in reality, most of the church's wealth is concentrated in the hands of a small number of high-ranking clergy, while lower-ranking clergy receive only fixed salaries.

Moreover, high-ranking church officials at the bishop level often deliberately leave "clerical" positions vacant so that the salaries of their subordinate "clerical" staff can fall into their hands, while other clergy members perform these tasks voluntarily.

According to a French decree of 1786, the annual salary of a parish priest in a lower parish was 700 livres, which was quite high. However, in reality, they only received about two-thirds of that. Sometimes they even had to pay for church expenses themselves, so they generally lived a very frugal life.

Therefore, the lower and middle-level clergy have a lot of opinions about the church leadership, and the young clergyman just now was one of the more radical ones.

With the "information," Marat discovered a deficit of nearly 5 francs in the renovation expenses of the Saint-Germain-des-Prés Abbey for several affiliated church schools last year in just over an hour.

As evening approached, he found evidence that the monastery had tampered with the tithe register last year, involving a sum of 18 francs.

He simply brought his people to stay at the monastery.

The next day at noon, a subordinate rushed over with a newly bought copy of the City News: "Sir, there's big news!"

Mara quickly glanced at the front page and excitedly called to his men, "Leona, take five men immediately and thoroughly investigate all the accounts related to the orphanage!"

……

In a room on the second floor of Notre Dame Cathedral, a dozen or so high-ranking priests sat in a circle with solemn expressions.

The abbot of Saint Martin de Schans Abbey sighed deeply: "If we let that Marat continue causing trouble, we'll all suffer sooner or later..."

In the past week, the Bureau of Justice has swept through 11 monasteries and numerous residences of high-ranking clergy in and around Paris like a whirlwind.

They were almost always successful, uncovering over a hundred instances of corruption, both major and minor.

Yesterday, the Fair Investigation Bureau also borrowed personnel from the Intelligence Bureau in preparation for expanding the scope of the investigation.

On the other side, large numbers of people gathered outside various welfare institutions, chanting slogans such as "natural human rights", "public disclosure of welfare institution accounts", and "the poor are not slaves".

In some places, people even stormed into welfare homes and released the detainees.

Archbishop Boulogne gritted his teeth and said, "We cannot sit idly by and wait to die."

“Immediately order all dioceses to proclaim that those people in Maratha are blasphemers, and that God will punish the world for their deeds!”

Abbot Lancelot of the Saint-Sulpice Monastery continued, "More importantly, we must use all our resources at Versailles to try and bring Roland and Dubison down."

On the surface, the Minister of Civil Affairs and the Commissioner for Compulsory Education are at the forefront of the movement to denounce church corruption.

A high-ranking priest sitting in the corner made a throat-slitting gesture and said in a chilling voice, "Why don't we just kill them..."

As the group was excitedly discussing, Archbishop Beaumont slowly stood up, raised his hand to signal them to be quiet, and then said in a low voice, "You have greatly underestimated His Highness the Crown Prince."

Yes, he had been dealing with the Crown Prince since the "potato incident" and knew how shrewd the prince was.

“This matter has already escalated to such a great extent. If you take any further unnecessary actions… think about the fate of those bankers and tax farmers back then.”

(End of this chapter)