I'm the Dauphin in France

Chapter 1343 The Archbishop Must Be Learned

Seeing that Archbishop Brian was coughing violently and almost collapsed, the church leaders rushed forward to help him back to bed and advised him to wait until he recovered before discussing the matter further.

Meanwhile, at the Saint-Protégés Monastery in the eastern suburbs of Paris, the Archbishop of Boulogne faced his make-up theological exam.

Four other priests were taking the make-up exam with him, but to save face for the archbishop, he was allowed to take the exam alone in the dean's office.

In fact, the Archbishop of Boulogne held the examination in utter contempt. His theological achievements were among the best in all of France's theological seminaries at the time, and he had frequently written about the Bible in recent years, making him a quintessential academic clergyman.

He had already decided that once he received an excellent assessment result, he would continue to call on everyone to boycott the committee sent by the Vatican.

Soon, two examiners placed the exam papers in front of him and bowed very politely, saying, "You have two hours to complete them, Your Excellency Archbishop. Please feel free to ask us for anything you require."

The Archbishop of Boulogne ignored them and glanced at the first question.

[As long as you honor Christ as Lord in your hearts, always be prepared to answer those who ask you why you have hope, but answer them gently and respectfully. _____]

He immediately smiled. This was a passage from 1 Peter in the New Testament, which he skillfully added afterward: "Keep a clear conscience so that those who accuse you of having good character in Christ may understand..."

"The Vatican has actually questioned the theological standards of the French Church."

He gave a soft hum and wrote with lightning speed, quickly completing the first 7 questions.

It was all from the scriptures, so it posed no difficulty for him.

Archbishop Boulogne turned to the first page of the exam paper, thinking he should be able to finish the assessment within 40 minutes, but suddenly froze on the spot.

The question is: [Please briefly describe the climate and characteristics of the indigenous people in the Allegheny Mountains region of North America.]

He immediately looked at the examiner standing to the side: "Did you take the wrong exam paper?"

The latter peeked over, smiled, and shook his head: "That's right, Your Excellency the Archbishop, this is a topic chosen by the Holy Father himself."

“These things are not in the Bible at all!” Archbishop Boulogne exclaimed angrily. “Why should I know anything about this mountain?!”

Another examiner explained politely, “This is necessary. Father Vigne’s missionary efforts in North America have added more than 100,000 faithful to the Vatican.”

"The Father said, how could we have achieved such outstanding missionary results if we did not understand the geography and population of the world?"

The Archbishop of Boulogne was so angry he almost blurted out, "I can't possibly go out and preach," but he managed to hold back.

After all, Father Vigne's achievements were too outstanding, and missionary work has always been one of the most important missions of the Catholic Church.

Archbishop Boulogne shook his head and skipped the eighth question. He figured as long as he answered 80% of the questions correctly, he could pass. He could just not get an excellent grade.

However, the ninth question once again left him speechless.

What are the limitations and shortcomings of Thomas Aquinas's four principles of nature?

He only knew that Aquinas was a great philosopher from 600 years ago whose ideas combined Aristotelian philosophy and theology to construct the framework of Thomism.

He did well in philosophy in school, but he mainly studied the more cutting-edge philosophical theories of Descartes and Spinoza, and didn't really study Aquinas much.

This time, Archbishop Boulogne did not protest to the examiners, after all, Aquinas's philosophical theories were closely related to theology, for example, he had proposed the "five ways of reasoning" to prove the existence of God.

Archbishop Boulogne racked his brains but couldn't even write down what the "four principles" were, so he had to skip them again.

The next question was about the laws governing celestial motion. He couldn't contain himself any longer and practically roared, "Why is there another astronomy question?!"

“Please calm down,” the examiner said in Latin. “As a qualified priest, you have an obligation to prevent events like those of Copernicus from impacting the Church, and this requires, first and foremost, sufficient theoretical knowledge.”

The two-hour assessment ended quickly, and the Archbishop of Boulogne walked out of the Dean's office with a livid face.

Apart from the contents of the scripture on the first page, he answered almost no questions correctly, probably not even reaching a 40% completion rate.

He noticed that the two priests who had come with him for the make-up exam were chatting and laughing, seemingly having done very well. Surprised, he stopped them and asked, "Do you know what Aquinas's four principles of natural law are?"

"This... I don't know, Your Excellency Archbishop."

How does Kant-Laplace's nebular theory explain the formation of the solar system?

The two shook their heads vigorously: "Never heard of it..."

"So how did you complete the assessment?"

"Huh? What does this have to do with the assessment?"

"You guys couldn't solve these problems either?"

"Huh?" The two priests exchanged a glance and asked in confusion, "There are no such questions, Your Excellency Archbishop."

"How could that be? What were you tested on then?"

"The contents of the New Testament and the Old Testament..."

The Archbishop of Boulogne was furious. Like a bull seeing a red cloth, he charged at the examiner and loudly questioned why his question was different from everyone else's.

"Please calm down," the examiner said unhurriedly. "The questions differ for different clergy. Your Excellency, the higher the rank, the greater the difficulty. This is to demonstrate your erudition."

Well, Joseph certainly wouldn't make things difficult for lower-ranking clergy; priests and archbishops were his targets.

The following day, the second round of assessments by the Vatican's review committee began.

Meanwhile, the results of the first round of assessments were also released, and a total of 6 people, including the Archbishop of Boulogne and three priests, failed the make-up exam.

Archbishop Boulogne eventually learned through various channels that the committee would likely send him a tutor from Rome to supervise his serious study of theology.

He and several other priests who had failed their make-up exams felt like the sky was falling, and they rushed to Archbishop Beaumont and others to discuss countermeasures.

However, by this time almost all the high-ranking priests had heard about how terrible the assessment was, so they began to frantically study various subjects such as philosophy, astronomy, geography, and even medicine, and had no time to pay attention to it at all.

As for Robespierre's proposal to take over the tithes, they had long forgotten about it.

During this period, the Ministry of Finance quietly approved the tax bureau's application to establish a "Tith Tax Division".

After the second round of assessments "broke down" two more archbishops, Brian finally managed to recover his health after constant visits from a number of high-ranking church officials.

However, his frail body could not withstand the loud noise of the train, so he could only travel to Baden by horse-drawn carriage.

When he finally arrived in Strasbourg, he received news that His Highness the Crown Prince had finished dealing with the Kells railway bridge matter and might be heading to Cologne.

(End of this chapter)