Crusade against the Pope

Chapter 399 Joining the Legion
The "Church" is actually the missionary organization of the Jerusalem Church.

This priest was a Jerusalem Patriarch who had received systematic theological training. He came to Alexandria to preach under the organization of the church.

In the two years since he came here, he has witnessed many scenes that he had never imagined in the past.

Here, human life is much cheaper than in Jerusalem.

Although Egypt is a rich land, the people here are always struggling on the brink of starvation.

He distributed unleavened bread during the weekly Mass. Although the amount was small, many people were saved by it.

Perhaps most of these people did not come for the teachings, but he did not care.

After all, one point that Gellis himself always emphasized was that being alive was more important than believing in religion.

But Nasser was obviously an accident. There was a fire in the heart of this young man, Nasser.

He was filled with anger at the current situation in Egypt. After joining the religious organization, he was not only satisfied with the weekly mass and bread distribution, but also took the initiative to help with various chores in order to get close to the priests, and then asked about various doctrinal details and sought answers.

Such people will undoubtedly be absorbed into the "church" and become the backbone.

Considering the current situation in Egypt, the religious leaders hope to allow such young people to act as "spies" to rise step by step within the Egyptian system, preach to more people, and prepare for the subsequent Egypt strategy.

As a missionary, the priest was not happy about this because it meant that Nasser would be at great risk and if discovered, execution would be the most basic possibility.

Faced with the orders from his superiors and the conflict of his own ideas, the priest finally did not choose to induce Nasser.

Instead, he simply explained the most basic situation and let Nasser make his own choice.

Nasser did not rush to answer, but continued: "You mean, this will bring a better future for the Egyptians?"

Faced with Nasser's question, the priest naturally nodded vigorously.

He dared not make any other guarantees, but he could be sure that the future of the Egyptians would be bright.

He saw this with his own eyes in Jerusalem.

“But you will face many dangers.”

The priest couldn't help but give another piece of advice.

"But don't you think it's dangerous to come here to preach? As far as I know, if someone reports you for spreading heresy, the Inquisition will come to arrest you."

When the priest mentioned the danger, Nasser couldn't help but smile.

They kept saying they were worried about other people's dangers, but they didn't care if they were in danger themselves. It was this simple emotion that made Nasser feel that the people in the "church" were trustworthy.

Because unlike those false, stone-built churches, "Church" is the church of the human heart, and they practice the words in the scriptures.

[Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.]

The priest couldn't help but sigh. The priest was actually a native of Egypt and he was also an Arab.

He was even once a mullah who followed Saladin to conquer Jerusalem.

Then he witnessed the true "prophet" in Jerusalem.

From that moment on, he understood what his innate mission was.

Later, what he saw and heard in Jerusalem made him more and more convinced that the path he believed in was correct.

Therefore, he must also spread those teachings to all directions.

In fact, missionary work is not an inherent mission of religion.

In other words, not all worship can be called religion.

From the beginning of human imagination, they have needed to explain everything they see.

Since we ourselves have thoughts, why can't other things think?
Before humans realized their uniqueness, the most primitive worship was born: pantheism, or animism.

The original worship was more of an answer than a worship. The ancient ancestors needed to explain everything they saw.

Can stones talk? Do prey have their own families? Is the thunder in the sky moved by people?

Then, is it possible for humans to communicate with all spirits in some way?
Since the purpose is to explain the world, it will naturally be affected by the scope of the world that people see.

The activity area of ​​most gathering tribes does not exceed 1000 square kilometers, so there is naturally no need to spread their answers.

This will not bring any benefit, nor will it please the souls back home.

However, with the progress of the times, the scope of human activities gradually expanded. Although the original myriad spirits were not directly rejected, polytheistic religions such as Greek mythology and Indian mythology began to emerge.

After all, if you leave your hometown and still want to get God's protection, you must have a group of gods who dominate the order of heaven and earth.

Since a group of gods dominate the world, it is normal to believe that there are gods that do not belong to this pantheon.

For example, the Egyptians, ancient Romans, and Aztecs, after conquering other ethnic groups, never thought of sending missionaries to change the local people's beliefs.

The Romans, on the other hand, would bring local gods back to the Pantheon.

This is actually the same for the Celestial Empire. Polytheistic religions are more tolerant than monotheistic ones.

Even the Romans and the Celestial Empire all had a common problem: they could not tolerate Christianity.

The Celestial Empire and the Romans did not ask Christians to give up their beliefs and rituals, but rather asked Christianity to respect the traditions of their respective empires and acknowledge that the emperors also possessed divinity.

When Christians refused, the two ancient empires persecuted Christians, and only a few thousand people were martyred in total.

But monotheistic religions are different. Under the concept of monotheism, emphasis is placed on exclusivity, absolute correctness, and an intolerance towards mistakes.

This issue was downplayed in later generations due to the rise of humanism and humanism.

But before that, even if all Christians believed in the divinity of Christ and his gospel of love and mercy.

Just because of different understandings of "love", people can start fighting.

But in a sense, it is precisely this kind of paranoid fanaticism that has prompted monotheistic religions to constantly iterate and actively attack outward.

It can be said that communication is the means by which all cultures survive.

Refusing to spread means that this religion and this culture will die out over time.

Therefore, Gellis did not reject the idea of ​​many people wanting to preach outside Jerusalem, but even encouraged it, and hoped that the sect could provide sufficient funding to help them.

The priest in front of Nasser was one of those who received subsidies from foreign forces.

……

The rhythm of war in the Middle Ages was indeed very subtle. Sometimes it came and went quickly, such as Antiochus's war against Aleppo.

In just half a year, people far away in Egypt obtained news from the north through the fleet and learned that the Ayyubid dynasty was completely defeated and could only flee further east to seek help from the Caliph of Baghdad.

For ordinary Egyptians, they did not know what this meant, because the distant war, like the stories in the legend, seemed to have nothing to do with their lives.

But gradually, they realized the changes.

First, the Venetians did begin to blockade the ports of Egypt, and all merchant ships that did not fly the Venetian flag would be intercepted.

If it is confirmed that there are military contraband on the cargo of a merchant ship, it will be confiscated directly.

Even if there were no so-called military contraband, these merchant ships would be taken to the port of Jerusalem and told that they were not allowed to leave the port until the end of the war, but they were allowed to sell goods on the spot.

As a result, life will naturally become much more difficult for important transit ports in Egypt such as Alexandria.

The risk of unsold goods is enough to bankrupt many businessmen.

On the other hand, the Egyptian authorities began to actively expand their military in order to deal with the military crisis in Jerusalem.

Each legion began to recruit soldiers, intending to organize them according to the historical Roman organization.

This means that the number of people in each legion will reach 4800 to 6000.

Historically, each Roman legion was composed of infantry cohorts and centuries.

A century-man team originally consisted of a real hundred people, but later it was reduced to 80 people.

Six centuries made up a cohort, which meant that a cohort consisted of about 480 men, and 10 cohorts made up a legion.

Including some logistical personnel, the establishment number will be larger than 4800, but considering the reduction in staff due to various reasons, it will still be maintained at around 4800.

In this case, Egypt's military strength would swell to about 50,000 men.

Given Egypt's situation, supporting an army of 50,000 is not a particularly difficult task.

After all, Egypt didn't have much of anything else but two things: people and food.

The main reason why Saladin did not maintain a larger army before was that more troops would not be helpful in invading Jerusalem.

From the Nile Delta to Palestine, there is the uninhabited area of ​​the Sinai Peninsula, and it is impossible to collect food locally.

But the Egyptian upper class was worried that this number would not be enough to guard against the invasion of Jerusalem.

However, even if it expands its army, Egypt still requires that all soldiers joining the legion no longer believe in Islam.

No matter what, one must at least be able to say these three words: "My Lord, Jesus, Amen" in order to participate normally in the religious life of the Legion.

Under such circumstances, many people like Nasser, under the arrangement of the "church", also mixed in with the crowd of applicants.

Different from those people who are trying to take advantage of the situation and simply want to join the legion and make a living.

Nasser showed a very devout attitude towards naturalization.

Amid the contemptuous looks of many Egyptians around him, Nasser even recited the Lord's Prayer in Arabic.

"…but deliver us from evil. Amen."

When the Lord's Prayer was finished, the recruiting officer was already quite happy.

After meeting so many Egyptians who didn’t even know who Jesus was, suddenly finding one who could recite the scriptures was truly a rare sight!
Then the recruiting officer stood up, measured Nasser's height, asked about his age, and entered him into the roster.

"By the way, what's your Christian name?"

When entering the roster, the recruiting officer asked an extra question.

Nasser answered directly: "George"

A Christian name, also known as a baptismal name, Christian name or baptismal name, is a name with religious significance used in Christianity. Usually, a Christian name is given during the baptism ceremony.

In Catholic Europe at this time, infant baptism was common and available to everyone, so it can be said that everyone had a Christian name.

In fact, the Christian name is a name commonly used by Europeans at that time.

Since there are only so many words with religious meanings, this also led to an extremely high rate of duplicate names among ancient Europeans.

But compared to the more restricted Christian names, European surnames became more unconstrained and diverse in their subsequent evolution.

As for other believers who were not originally Christians, it is more likely that they will get a Christian name in addition to their original names to indicate that they are now Christians.

After hearing the name George, the recruiting officer thought about it and added the word Nasser to the list.

This is how he became Nasser George.

As for the meaning of these two names, the recruiting officer didn't even think about it.

Nasser himself would not explain.

The original meaning of Nasser is winner, helper, aider, and defender, while George comes from Saint George or George of Lydda.

He was an early Christian martyr, revered as a saint by Christianity. According to legend, he was a soldier in the Roman army, born in Cappadocia, Greece, and a member of the Praetorian Guard of the Roman Emperor Diocletian, but was sentenced to death for refusing to give up his Christian faith.

In subsequent legends, St. George once came to Libya in North Africa, where an evil dragon invaded the countryside and occupied the water source.

In order to obtain the evil dragon's mercy, people here need to offer two sheep to the dragon every day.

But the number of sheep is limited. When all the sheep are eaten, it is the people's turn.

The locals decided who to sacrifice by drawing lots.

Until one day, the lot fell on the king's daughter.

The king offered all his gold and silver to keep his daughter, but the people refused.

The princess was dressed up as a bride and sent to the lake to feed the dragon.

St. George arrives on the scene and the princess tries to drive him away, but he vows to stay.

As the two were talking, the dragon emerged from the pond. St. George crossed himself, rode toward the dragon, and stabbed it severely with his spear.

Then he made the princess throw her girdle to him, and he put it round the dragon's neck, and the dragon followed the princess wherever she went, like a "docile beast" on a leash.

The princess and St. George drove the dragon back into the city, frightening the residents.

At this time, St. George proposed that he would kill the dragon as long as people agreed to become Christians and be baptized.

In the end, 15,000 people, including King Silenius, converted to Christianity.

This story was told to Nasser by the priest, and the moral of the story is self-evident.

Just like the old story, Nasser is now a soldier in the legion.

(End of this chapter)