Crusade against the Pope

Chapter 419: The swallows in the halls of the rich and powerful in the old days fly into the homes of ordinary people

In EU4, the Islamic religious mechanism will have an axis of dogmatism and mysticism.

When the direction of piety leans towards dogmatism, it means that national tax revenue will increase, manpower modifiers will increase, even technology costs will be reduced, and even the loyalty of the Ulema, that is, religious scholars, will increase.

When piety leans toward mysticism, it represents an increase in missionary intensity, improved army morale, and a decrease in the loyalty of the ulema.

For a large religion, these two directions always exist at the same time. They are not some specific sects, but are closer to a division of tendencies.

For example, the most famous Islamic mysticism is Sufism.

Sufism is also called Sufism. Sufism is not an independent Islamic sect, but refers to Muslims who pursue an ascetic life and have mystical tendencies in religion. It refers more to a way of belief and life principles.

Therefore, Sufis can be found in any Muslim sect.

It is very difficult to describe Sufism accurately. We can only say that compared with more orthodox Islamic scholars, they place more emphasis on the inner connection with God, and relatively speaking, they believe that faith is more important than reason and dogma.

This leads to Sufis having certain anti-authoritarian traits.

Relatively speaking, it is relatively simple to understand dogmatism, which is the adherence to fixed beliefs and the rejection of doubt and critical thinking.

When these two are put side by side, it is difficult to judge which one is better.

After all, Sufism's anti-authority may mean that your XX has not strengthened your connection with God enough, and the interpretations of religious scholars are not pious enough, which affects their belief in God.

The relatively dogmatic side, on the other hand, believes that what the religious scholars said is correct and that a more in-depth interpretation of the Quran is needed.

Similar conflicts and contradictions between the two are actually reflected in many religions.

Even within Christianity, there is the Orthodox Hesikas who seek to achieve union with God through inner prayer and meditation, or people like John of the Cross who emphasize spirituality and mystical thinking.

In a sense, believers who have experienced or immersed themselves in that kind of spiritual practice have completely different values ​​from ordinary people.

For example, a Sufi practitioner can even chant the name of God repeatedly at night, causing himself to shed tears in the inner tremor and feel his communion with Allah.

Christian spiritual practitioners may not understand the true meaning of the scriptures, but simply pray and recite them, and be moved to tears, willing only to listen to the voice of the Lord in silence.

It can be summarized as: I don’t understand, but I am very pious.

However, due to its religious piety, it will be spontaneously promoted by many people in a religious society.

The official ideology of the Jerusalem Sect of Gellis needed to emphasize technological progress, the improvement of human society, and the fact that human practice was superior to fantasy. Therefore, the interpretation of spiritual practice was somewhat distorted.

In the official thinking of the Jerusalem Church, spiritual practice is no longer just a "private inner practice" between an individual and God.

And to experience that unique dimension of feeling in concrete acts of liberation is to empathize with the poor when living with them and witnessing their suffering.

It is when people are no longer numb, but are eager to contribute their strength to fight poverty, disease, injustice...

To paraphrase what Gillis wrote:
[The most precious thing a person has is life, which is given by God and is only given to him once.]

[Therefore, a person's life should be spent in this way: when a person looks back on the past, he will not regret wasting his time, nor will he be ashamed of being mediocre. ]

[In this way, when he is dying, he can say, I have devoted my entire life and all my energy to the most precious cause in life, fighting for the liberation of mankind and the coming of heaven.]

When he does this, he is a true Jerusalemite, a selfless follower of the Messiah.

The salvation here does not come from their worship of the Messiah, but more from their imitation of the Messiah, which makes the Messiah present in their hearts and enables them to accomplish the great cause of Christ together.

Is this good?
pretty good.

Is this reasonable?

Very reasonable indeed.

But the problem is that the standard is too high.

Many people, throughout their entire lives, have never felt that kind of calling, and have never imagined that one day they would risk their lives for a cause.

To these people, the official propaganda of Garys is undoubtedly empty talk, clichés, unrealistic, and something they should stay away from.

Ordinary believers also yearn for their own spiritual life. They need to understand the world and establish their own three views in a way that may be unofficial, incorrect, and unscientific, but simple enough.

This also means that mystical thought cannot be eradicated even among the believers of the Jerusalem Sect, the Kingdom of Jerusalem, and Gelis.

Iraklius became a representative, or embodiment, of this trend of thought, and many of the theological analyses he wrote were of this kind.

Take the article he is currently writing, for example, which provides another interpretation of Easter.

First, the content of the manuscript introduced the origin and calculation method of Easter, and then began the criticism.

The calendar problem, that is, the deviation of the Julian calendar from the true vernal equinox, was not discovered just now.

After all, measuring the changes in daylight time is not particularly difficult.

But the church ignored it for various reasons, which actually reflected a result: the Roman Church has long ceased to use truth as its standard, but has replaced the Lord's time with systems, rituals and man-made time.

Easter became a symbolic commemoration in the Roman Church.

All that was left were the priests chanting, the bishops offering sacrifices, and the people listening to these cumbersome formalities.

We have long since departed from the apocalyptic moment brought about by Jesus’ resurrection, which completely overturned order and liberated the oppressed.

This is the epitome of the corruption of Catholic theology and the rigidity of its system.

They used misplaced time to mark a moment of historical innovation, covering a crucified, naked, bleeding Messiah with gold ornaments and vestments.

In the early days, priests warned against this, and it is even more so now, proving that "the Church is an empty tomb if it only seeks remembrance and does not respond to the action of the Holy Spirit."

It is precisely because of the Lord's anger and dissatisfaction with the empty tomb that the current changes have taken place.

The miracle of the Resurrection of the Son, the Prophet, performed on the True Easter means:

[The true resurrection does not succumb to the calendar, church rituals or political authority, but responds to the rhythm of heaven and earth and is the direct intervention of the Lord in history.]

[His resurrection was not announced by a bishop, nor arranged by a liturgy, but was witnessed by celestial phenomena and suffering, which was an accusation against a dead faith.]

[His resurrection did not take place in a church, but in a stormy wilderness; it did not take place when the bells rang, but in a night when the clouds had not dispersed. This was a response to history.] Irak briefly introduced the various miracles of Gelis, and believed that all of these had profound implications, and were deliberately done by God to warn the world through Gelis.

It reminds believers that they should interact with God at a deeper level through everything revealed by Garys.

This idea is actually somewhat incompatible with the official Jerusalem sect, but it is more in line with the needs of ordinary believers.

At least, in this way, many ordinary people will no longer fall into self-doubt and worry whether they have been abandoned by God because they cannot understand the mathematics, physics, and chemistry formulas that Gillis discusses in the newspapers every now and then.

For many devout believers, the painful feeling of being unable to follow Garys' thoughts and footsteps is extremely torturous.

And Iraklius played the role of a comforter in this.

This is actually a re-refinement of the concept of justification by faith, which coincides with some of the original ideas of the Reformation.

The intention is to reduce the difficulty of joining the religion and make it easier to spread the faith. This is why in EU4, when the mystical tendency is high, the missionary intensity will be increased. After all, it actually reduces the believers' understanding of the doctrine, thereby achieving an effect of "I don't understand, but I believe" (to be more vivid - Protestants).

The concept of justification by faith was not originally created by Martin Luther in the 16th century.

In fact, this concept was first proposed by Saint Paul in the form of anti-legalism in the early days of Christianity.

By abandoning the complicated Jewish traditions, the threshold for joining Christianity was greatly lowered, allowing it to spread more widely.

From this perspective, whether it is the founding of Christianity or the subsequent religious reforms, they are essentially making originally complex things simpler, thereby increasing their dissemination and allowing ordinary believers to gain a greater sense of participation.

It is equivalent to making the "indulgence" cheaper.

Does Gillis like this change?

Of course he doesn’t like it, otherwise he wouldn’t say something like “I am not God”.

But he was actually powerless to stop the spread of this trend of thought. He could only restrain it, maintain a certain level of vigilance, and arrange people like Iraklui to provide limited guidance.

Iraklius was also happy to act as this kind of "official opposition". Anyway, he was using the method of praising Gairis to show his differences with the Jerusalem Patriarchate.

In his opinion, there is actually not much risk.

In addition to guiding public opinion, you can also earn a lot of royalties, enhance your own reputation, and make a lot of money by selling goods.

For him, this is the meaning of his life!

What's wrong with liking money?
……

Melisende walked in the new city area of ​​Tyre. After so many years of construction, the new city area of ​​Tyre has become recognized as the most livable city in the kingdom.

It not only has the original humid air of the ocean, providing a climate different from that of the inland, but also has the most complete public services.

Good roads, clean tap water, a safe urban environment, and convenient purchasing of goods are difficult to match in other regions.

"Good afternoon, Mei!"

"Uncle Ben, hello too, what's up? Out to buy some fish?"

"Ah ha ha……"

"Amei, you are still as beautiful as ever. I wonder who will be lucky enough to marry you in the future."

Melisende simply smiled, a little shyly, at the compliment, and did not respond.

Walking on the street, Melisende would greet familiar neighbors from time to time.

The enthusiasm and youthfulness that are unique to young girls always make everyone feel good about her.

But almost no one realized one thing: the girl who greeted them warmly, the "maid" serving Iraklius, was a real "princess".

But if you are a truly cultured person, you can actually detect certain clues from the name.

The name Melisende is actually a bit subtle, because it is not a name that an ordinary person would have.

It comes from the Old Germanic language meaning "hard-working strength" or "strong worker".

In the subsequent evolution, it became refined and courtly, and its actual meaning became "a resolute lady".

As the daughter of Sibylla and Guy, Melisende was naturally qualified to use this name, which was also a tribute to her great-grandmother, Queen Melisende who co-ruled Jerusalem with Fulk de Anjou.

It was during the reign of Queen Melisende that the lineage of succession to the throne passed to the House of Anjou.

Of course, that was all in the past. Now everyone knew that a new lineage was being born, and that had nothing to do with a "princess" like her.

Melisende was happy to enjoy this kind of relaxation that had nothing to do with politics or the palace, and lived a comfortable life every day.

Iraklius's residence was located in the Christian quarter of Tyre-Neustadt, on the east side of the city.

If Melisende wanted to buy the coffee beans that Irakliou wanted, she had to go to the port store in the old city, which meant crossing the entire new and old cities. The journey was not short, but fortunately, the young man walked briskly and didn't mind.

State-owned supply and marketing cooperatives were actually quite common in cities across the Kingdom of Jerusalem, but luxury goods like coffee beans were ultimately only available to a few people.

Therefore it is not available in all stores.

Walking in the new city area, even Melisende, who has lived here for a long time, can actually feel the vitality of this city.

In the past decade of development, Tyre has become a city with a population of 50,000.

Several horizontal and vertical roads divide Tyre into different areas, but the expansion of the town cannot keep up with the increase in population.

Every day a large number of pilgrims land here, and refugees from surrounding villages and even further away try to migrate here.

Abundant labor force and ever-changing production technologies make this place full of vitality, so much so that it is hailed as a land of opportunity.

In fact, it is not just Tyre that is like this. Other surrounding towns also show similar characteristics.

Melisende had heard Eracio occasionally mention that according to the latest kingdom statistics, about 35% of the population of the Kingdom of Jerusalem lived in towns, or in rural areas around towns that depended on towns for survival.

(End of this chapter)