Crusade against the Pope

Chapter 161 We Will Never Be Slaves
[They clothed him with a purple robe and plaited a crown of thorns and put it on his head.]

—Mark 15:17
The crown of thorns symbolizes Christ's suffering and also his kingship.

However, Bishop Ame saw with his own eyes that a crown exactly like the one on Jesus' head appeared out of thin air!

"Crown, crown of thorns?!" the bishop cried out.

But Garys in front of him seemed to be smiling.

"What crown? Bishop, are you dazzled?"

Listening to Gailis's words, the bishop looked carefully, and after blinking, the crown suddenly disappeared.

For a moment, Amedei even wondered if he was dazzled.

But is this really just an illusion?

Rather than a hint from the Lord?
Amedee looked past Gérice's figure and behind him, meeting the gaze of the statue of Jesus with his head bowed.

A sacred throbbing emerged in Amedee's heart, but when he took the initiative to seek answers from Garys.

Gailis again ignored the previous signs and was unwilling to directly answer Amedee's doubts, but let Amedee fill in the blanks on his own.

"Amedei, from now on, I will mobilize the entire Lower Town."

"From now on, there will be people guarding the city walls day and night."

"From now on, I request to take over the guarding of the Upper Town. If possible, I will also take over the guarding of Karak Castle."

Listening to Garys' request, Amadei suppressed the doubts in his heart, and then he asked a question.

"Gailis, didn't you say before that people who have nothing shouldn't defend those who have everything?"

"Why have you decided to increase the city defense mission now?"

Hearing Amedee's question, Gailis smiled.

"In this world, the poor have nothing, but they have something more valuable."

“God is the Lord who blesses life, and our lives are nourished by the word of the Lord.”

“Life is therefore most sacred, for Christ lives in us.”

"The Kingdom of God is the Kingdom of Life, and the poor will fight for their lives!"

“Being sold into slavery is the most blasphemous violation of life. The poor will have to fight for their lives, the most precious gift given by God, until the end of the world.”

"We will never be slaves."

Amadeus opened his mouth and wanted to say something, but then closed it again because Catholicism had long been opposed to slavery.

From this perspective, Gellis argued for the necessity of the poor guarding the city walls, but in fact he was also disparaging the possible actions of the rich.

Those rich people, for the sake of their own wealth, would allow their brothers from the same clan to be sold into slavery by Adil...

Amedee nodded, indicating that he understood what Gairis meant. He promised Gairis that he would transfer the defense mission of Karak City to Gairis.

Only in this way can he prevent the rich people in the upper city from betraying the poor people in Karak and him, the bishop.

When all was settled, Amedee watched Gellis walk towards the church door.

Suddenly, the crown of thorns that had disappeared before reappeared on Gailis's head.

Just when Bishop Ame was surprised and wanted to catch up to ask what was going on.

The moment Gailis stepped out of the church, he disappeared from the spot.

what?
This……

Disappeared? !

Bishop Ame rushed out of the church nervously, but no matter how hard he looked, he could not find Garys.

Like a madman, he grabbed the poor people passing by and asked, "Have you seen Garys?! Have you seen him?"

The poor people were all puzzled, and even those who answered said that they had never seen Gaillis.

The bishop was left alone, leaning against the church door in a daze. Perhaps the many things he had experienced in his past life had made him doubt his faith.

But today, things seem to be getting serious.

Is there really someone in this world who can perform miracles?! [When the crown of thorns reappeared, the man had already stepped out of the temple and disappeared outside the door in an instant, leaving no trace.]

【Amei ran away in a hurry, but no matter how hard he looked, everyone around him denied it.】

—Karah 5:54
……

The city of Karak, with a population of six thousand, is crowded on a small platform of several hundred thousand square meters.

The plateau makes Karak easy to defend and difficult to attack, but it also restricts the city's development potential.

As a result, the city's downtown area is as crowded, dilapidated, and filled with various shacks that can hardly be called buildings, like an ant nest.

The upper city area was separated from the lower city area by a wall from the very beginning.

Prevent the disorderly, barbaric, ignorant and dirty citizens of the downtown area from easily crossing the line and disturbing the noble gentlemen of the upper city.

But now is a special situation. The city is under siege. Although the upper and lower urban areas are separated by walls, the main city walls are connected.

It is impossible for the soldiers guarding the city walls to deliberately distinguish between the upper and lower urban areas at this juncture, so someone is needed to coordinate the city's defense work.

This responsibility was originally held by Bishop Ame.

On the surface, Christianity is a religion rooted in peace, and Jesus repeatedly warned his apostles not to use violence.

Therefore, priests and bishops were responsible for the city's defense, which was extremely rare in contemporary Europe.

But in the Holy Land, due to special circumstances, it has become common.

In 1119, the city of Antioch was besieged by the Muslim Ghazi dynasty, and Bernardus, the then Patriarch of Antioch, took over the task of defending the city.

With the church as the center and using the church's bureaucratic system, a temporary military system was established, which successfully mobilized Christian citizens in the city to participate in defending the city.

In 1120, Baldwin II, then King of Jerusalem, and the Patriarch of Jerusalem held a meeting in Nablus, at which they formulated 25 decrees.

The main content of the decree is to divide the jurisdiction of secular royal power and religious theocracy.

Most of the statutes were sexual in nature, condemning a wide range of sexual crimes and spelling out penalties for those crimes.

However, because of the siege of Antioch in 1119, Article 20 of the decree stipulated that if a priest took up arms in self-defense, he would not be guilty, but this was only a temporary measure.

Simply put, priests and bishops should not become soldiers if they have a choice.

For this reason, Amedee convened another municipal council meeting in the city. He announced to the council members that there was now a better city defense chief to choose from, and he also had good news to tell everyone.

The city council hall, built with volcanic stone, can only accommodate dozens of people.

This is more like a restaurant than a parliament hall.

It is a restaurant where the upper-middle class people from the upper city share their meals with the ordinary citizens from the lower city.

Today, a meeting was held again in this restaurant of rich people.

Bishop Ame, with a solemn appearance and dressed in gorgeous vestments, stepped into the chaotic parliament hall with the guards clearing the way.

Now, all the seats in the parliament hall are occupied, even the Lord's Seat that was originally empty has someone sitting there.

The man was about forty years old, with golden brown hair piled on top of his head and a dignified and slightly cold face.

She is Stephanie.

"Amedei, you said there is a better city guard? Who is he? Where is he now?"

"Madam, you should know him, and he is here now." Amadeus made way to the side and Gailis walked into the parliament hall.

As soon as he walked in, the members of the parliament in the parliament hall began to murmur.

Because Garys's dress was quite different from what they expected.

In this solemn and sacred parliament hall, there is a poor man wearing patched clothes? !

How could he become the commander of the city defense when he didn't even have armor on?

However, Stephanie did not speak a word. She just looked at Garys with a gloomy face.

Indeed, she really knew Garys.

　First update. Since it is fresh code, I will post as much as I write. I hope to have four updates today.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)