My Pen Pal Zhu Yuanzhang

Chapter 433: It's like the dream of the great-grandfather's mother
Although he knew what Catholicism was, Zhu Yuanzhang still didn't quite understand this sect. After listening to Li Han's talk, he became interested.

I also don't know which is stronger, the "God" in Catholicism or the Heavenly God and the Five Gods of China.

“As for why religious authority became one of the bonds for the king to maintain the integrity of the country, it has to start with the religious history and customs of Europe.

Since the beliefs surrounding "God" are so complicated, including Judaism, Christianity, Catholicism, Orthodoxy, etc., and the Crescent Moon Church believed by the Green Caliphate also has some relationship with "God", so I will not give a detailed explanation here, but simply talk about the historical evolution of Christianity and Catholicism.

In the sixth year of Jianwu, a strange man named Jesus appeared in the Arab Jerusalem area. His mother gave birth to him when she was still a virgin, so he was called the Son of God.

Jesus founded Christianity, which then spread to Europe, namely the Qin Dynasty recorded in the "Book of Han". They called themselves the Roman Empire.

Because of the exclusivity of Christianity and its refusal to recognize the divinity of the Roman emperor, Christianity was suppressed by the Roman Empire. Emperor Nero even ordered Jesus to be nailed to the cross, and then the soldiers stabbed him to death with spears.

A miraculous thing happened. Before being stabbed to death, Jesus predicted that he would be resurrected in three days, but was ridiculed by everyone. The Roman soldiers stabbed him to death and buried him in a tomb.

Three days later, a miracle really happened. Jesus climbed out of the tomb again and was resurrected. Everyone was shocked and accepted Jesus as the Son of God and became his believers.

Tsk tsk, is this true or not? Zhu Yuanzhang sneered. How do you see that this thing is similar to the story that "the mother of Emperor Gaozu of Han Dynasty dreamed of sexual intercourse between heaven and man"?
“Of course, the above content is all from the Catholic Bible. You can judge for yourself whether it is true or false.

Since the historical records in the Arab region and Europe more than a thousand years ago are so confusing and some records contradict each other, it is impossible to verify how Jesus came or even whether such a person existed. However, it is true that Christianity spread from Jerusalem to Europe.

The reason why Christianity was able to spread in Europe later had a lot to do with the Roman Empire's recognition of it as a state religion. With the spread of its doctrines, Christianity gradually evolved into Western Christianity and Eastern Christianity. Western Christianity is today's Catholicism, and Eastern Christianity is Eastern Orthodoxy.

After understanding the historical development of Christianity and Catholicism, you should be able to understand that in today's Europe, there is only one belief, that is, "God", and the right to interpret "God" is in the hands of the core of Catholicism - the Roman Catholic See.

Specifically, Europeans must become believers of "God" from birth. If they do not believe in "God", they will be ostracized as heretics or even executed. Having said that, you should understand how powerful the theocracy of Catholicism and the Roman Catholic Church is in Europe.

Because they control the people's beliefs!"

Seeing this, Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but feel a little horrified. A continent controlled by religion, where almost everyone is a devout man or woman. Tsk tsk, so barbaric and uncivilized, just like the Mongolian Tartars.

At this time he also understood why theocracy and royal power coexisted in Europe. It was not that royal power was too stupid, but that theocracy was too strong.

Everyone is a believer. If this scene happened in the Ming Dynasty, and everyone was a member of the White Lotus Sect, how scary it would be!

No wonder Count Makaros brought a Catholic monk with him when he was looking for a route to the East. It turned out that he was a military supervisor!

At the same time, he was somewhat thankful, thanking Confucius and the scholars over the past thousands of years for breaking superstition and making religion unable to raise its head in China. "It is precisely because the Roman Catholic Church controls faith that even the kings of European countries have to be crowned by the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church when they ascend the throne, otherwise it would not be in accordance with the law. Therefore, to a certain extent, in Europe today, theocracy is even higher than imperial power.

Now you can understand that the legitimacy of the king comes from his bloodline and the recognition of the Holy See. Therefore, they must rely on bloodline, marriage and divine authority to maintain the integrity of the country. The mixture of bloodline, marriage and religion has also created a complex political situation in Europe.

Therefore, when dealing with Europe, the Holy See is definitely an unavoidable link!
However, changes in the political situation will not remain stable forever just because of the existence of blood relations and in-laws. When the interests are great enough, betrayal, murder, and even war will follow, such as the war between England and France that has lasted for 31 years.

There were many reasons that led to this war, but the direct trigger was the political marriage between the daughter of King Philip IV of France and King Edward II of England sixty years ago.

Thirty-one years ago, King Philip V of France passed away. As the French royal family was not prosperous, the king had no brothers and no direct male descendants after his death, so who would ascend the throne became the biggest problem.

According to blood relationship, there are only two people qualified to inherit the throne, one of whom is Philip IV's nephew, Philippe de Valois.

The other is Philip IV's grandson, King Edward III of England.

The French naturally had to let Philip be king, but the English refused to accept this. Why could Philip be king but their Edward couldn't? So, in order to fight for the right to inherit the throne, the English crossed the channel and launched an attack on France.

This war is still going on, and will last for at least another 60 years. If you go to Europe now, you can still catch up with the war."

What the hell is this bullshit!

Zhu Yuanzhang's brows were almost twisted into a line. The throne of France should of course be inherited by Philip. Why should Edward be the King of France? You are just a grandson. What qualifications do you have? This is ten thousand times more abominable than the interference of foreign relatives in politics!

No wonder Lao Li never had anything good to say about England in his letter. This guy is really shameless to a certain extent.

"Having said so much, I think you should have a certain understanding of Europe. Of course, when you sail to Europe in the future, there is one family you must pay attention to, and that is the Habsburg family.

This family can be called the first family in Europe. This family has produced emperors or kings of many countries. Except for the islands of England, it controls almost most areas of Europe.

Therefore, when dealing with this family, if you are not ready to defeat Europe, I suggest you focus on making friends with them."

Make good friends?

Zhu Yuanzhang kept the Habsburg family in mind. If everyone could do business in harmony, then everyone would live in peace. But if they infringed upon the interests of the Ming Dynasty, then don't blame me, Zhu, for going to Europe!
(End of this chapter)