Crusade against the Pope

Chapter 375: The Ten Commandments
Beneath this binary appearance of “ourselves and others,” a consensus is actually gradually being reached within a civilizational system.

In other words, Catholic Europe, as a civilization, is no longer a loose individual, but has achieved mutual recognition and connection based on some common characteristics.

And there is a clear dividing line with other civilizations.

Take the First Crusade, for example.

This is unprecedented in human history.

Large numbers of soldiers and civilians from more than a dozen countries, without the king's permission or aristocratic organization, regarded each other as comrades-in-arms simply because of their common beliefs, joined together and launched an almost suicidal expedition to the east.

In fact, both the Peasants' Crusade and the Nobles' Crusade in the First Crusade were indeed tantamount to suicide.

The subsequent dukes' crusades achieved hard-fought victories, conquered the Holy Land, and established four Crusader states.

As for the Muslim world, although Jihad does exist, the Jihad in the Muslim world, if manifested in the military, often needs to rely on the rulers to organize and launch it.

It is better to say that the Muslim jihad is essentially a claim made by rulers to increase the legitimacy of their own war.

This situation in Catholic Europe became increasingly intense in later generations, to the point where, in the end, they were even able to reach the principle of "unity of the great powers" and jointly divide the world outside Europe.

When that era comes, we can say this: the world is mine, or it may be yours, but it will always belong to Western Europe.

Even the Principality of Moscow, Tsarist Russia, the Russian Empire... they tried for hundreds of years to integrate into Western Europe but failed.

This shows how deeply rooted this binary opposition between "ourselves and others" is.

For the world outside Catholic Europe, whether it is the Eastern Empire or the Ayyubid Dynasty.

In fact, they want to use the power of one country to fight against the entire civilization.

Perhaps the Ayyubids and Mamluks successfully expelled the Crusaders from the Levant in history.

But if we look at it over a longer period of time, it is just a fragment of the confrontation between the East and the West.

Hundreds of years later, colonists would return to the Crusade sites.

Nowadays, many people are not aware of this.

Even today in Catholic Europe itself, it is not very clear or definite.

But Gillis knew what was going on.

Gellis dared to say that Jerusalem would not suffer a military defeat while he was alive, but what would happen after he was gone?
No matter how invincible the Kingdom of Jerusalem is militarily, it will eventually decline.

By that time, like the Ottoman Empire, the Kingdom of Jerusalem might also face its decline.

From this we can see that beneath the surface of confrontation between countries, there is actually a confrontation between "ourselves and others", that is, a confrontation between civilizations.

Within a civilization, there may be changes in a family or surname, but it will not lead to the destruction of a country or race. However, when it comes to the topic of "our own people and others",

Whether it was Catholic Europe of this era or Western Europe of later generations, they were ruthless when it came to excommunicating people.

During the Thirty Years' War, the massacre of a city of only a few thousand people shocked Europe.

But almost no one cares about the atrocities committed by the Spanish in America. The world is not simply black and white. It can also be said that double standards are the characteristics of human beings.

In this case, don't expect ordinary Europeans to easily turn against the party simply because of some of the claims of Gillis' theology.

Although class contradictions are important, they are not always intensified. In addition to class contradictions, there are many other contradictions that shape the relationships between people.

It can be said that it is the complex identities brought about by multiple social entities that construct the real human society.

A person can be Scottish but support the Britannia Empire, be Catholic but identify with left-wing ideas, and be firmly opposed to LGBT but that does not prevent him from having a gay friend.

As a result, when faced with different questions, he would give various contradictory and double-standard answers.

Garys needs to plan ahead, because the enemies he has to fight against are already beyond the cognition of people of this era.

In the chess game played by Gellis, Catholic Europe was seen as a potential opponent, and the Orthodox world, which had hostile conflicts with Catholic Europe, became a potential ally.

Of course, many Orthodox churches have long been corrupt, and therefore, what Gellis wants to do is to reform these churches, taking their essence and discarding their dross.

Gailis also wants to purge those Pronian nobles who bite the people's necks greedily and suck blood, but do nothing.

"After Trebizond becomes independent, all monasteries in the former Cardia Military District will need to be identified. If there are any violations of the Ten Commandments, they will be dealt with resolutely. As for the former noble groups, they will also be treated in the same way."

"One of the benefits of doing this is that we can get a lot of land. If you want to truly transform the Georgian troops behind you into people you can trust, you should at least arrange land for them to survive in this country."

The Celestial Empire has its own three rules of conduct, and the Christian world also has its own basic consensus.

If one wants to determine whether a clergyman is pious, then no one can find fault with the Ten Commandments as the standard.

The first few points are hard to explain, but the latter ones are very straightforward.

The sixth is "Thou shalt not murder." The seventh is "Thou shalt not commit adultery." The eighth is "Thou shalt not steal." The ninth is "Thou shalt not bear false witness." The tenth is "Thou shalt not be greedy."

For the decadent monasteries or the Pronian nobles, they have taken all these commandments.

Using this as an excuse to confiscate the land of the nobles and monasteries could also be understood by ordinary serfs or peasants.

This would separate the aristocratic clergy group in Trebizond from the lower classes of the people and avoid large-scale unrest.

After this, how the land is divided specifically will depend on how much each side contributes after the war.

Listen to Gillis's full account.

Alexius felt a little dizzy. The confrontation between civilizations and the concepts of "ourselves and others" were too abstruse.

But fortunately, when Garys talked about the actual distribution of benefits later, he understood.

Not only him, but even the guards beside Alexios smiled after they understood.

In their view, this was clearly an attempt to find a reason to seize the land originally owned by the nobles and monasteries and then divide it among themselves.

(End of this chapter)