Marin thought about it for a long time with a bitter face, and found that the money could not be spent. Pen ~ fun ~ Pavilion www.biquge.info The Roman Cardinals can spend it or not, but on the side of the Archbishop of Cologne, it must be spent.

The Holy See gave itself the very large Bishopric of Münster, which was the Archbishop of Cologne, and it would be strange if the Archbishop of Cologne knew about it.

Although, the Archbishop of Cologne is a subordinate of the Holy See. However, the Archbishop of Cologne is a powerful prince, and even the Holy See cannot command the Archbishop of Cologne casually.

What's more, if Marin used the Holy See to coerce the Archbishop of Cologne, he might really be embattled. Originally, among the seven electors, the Electors of Saxony and the Electors of Brandenburg were already very hostile to themselves. If you offend the Archbishop of Cologne again, you will offend the three Electors.

The two Electors, with their little brothers, Marin asked himself if he could barely fight. If the three electors formed a group to beat themselves together, Marin would have no confidence.

You know, the Archbishop of Cologne is not only one of the seven electors, but also the Grand Speaker of Burgundy (the Dutch region), and has absolute command over many episcopal states in the northwest and north of the Holy Roman Empire (such as the Bishopric of Münster).

If the Archbishop of Cologne had been offended, Marin would have to go to war with the Electors of Saxony and Brandenburg to the east, and the mainland would be attacked by a combination of the Archbishoprics of Cologne and its many affiliated bishops' states from the south and west.

Marin's territory is already scattered, and it is likely that it will be bad luck to fight the combined forces of the Electors of Saxony and Brandenburg in the east, and the group of bishops' states led by the Archbishopric of Cologne.

Therefore, the best solution would be to buy off the Archbishop of Cologne to agree to give up the Bishopric of Münster. In this way, Marin would not clash with the Archbishopric of Cologne.

Moreover, Marin also understood that because the archbishop of the Episcopal States was not hereditary. Therefore, the archbishops of those episcopal states, except for a few of them of high moral character, most of the bishops, will make a lot of money during their tenure. In this day and age, it was normal for the bishops of the episcopal states to make money. Even bribery of voters during elections is open. Just like when Alexander VI was electing the Pope, he asked the rival of the Sforza family to quit by saying to him, "How much do you want to quit?" Then, a team of mules, loaded with gold, swaggered to the residence of the cardinal of the House Sforza......

Therefore, in Western Europe in this era, if you encounter a problem, you can choose to use money to smash it. Of course, there are not many who are in a position to do this. Most of the aristocrats, because of the small output of land, coupled with their own luxurious life, spend a lot of money. Therefore, most nobles can't come up with a lot of money to bribe people.

Moreover, the secular aristocracy could often only rely on the output of their own domains for subsistence, and could not tax the landlords. Often, whichever aristocracy controlled more commercial cities had more taxes.

In other words, you can't make a fortune by farming. Why are the Electors of Saxony and the Duke of Saxony rich? Because Saxony is a region with a very developed handicraft industry in Germany. Unlike farming, the nobility was taxed to set up handicraft workshops and sell goods. Therefore, only in areas where industry and commerce were developed, the finances of the nobility would be a little better.

In contrast, however, the finances of episcopal states tend to be very good. Why? Because the episcopal state can tithe......

Tithing is a natural right of the Episcopal States. Although tithes were also levied in the territories of those secular princes, they were all levied by the churches in the countries of those secular princes, and had nothing to do with secular princes.

But the bishop has the right to call the tithes of the episcopal state, and not all of them are sent to Rome. Of course, even the tithe-collecting churches of the secular vassal states could withhold large amounts of tithes, and only send some of them to Rome.

So, the whole of Western Europe, everywhere, the churches were rich. Do you think that the people of the entire area where the church is located will give one-tenth of their income to the church, and the church will not be rich?

The bishop of the episcopal state could spend more than half of the tithes for state expenses, and only a small part of the tithes needed to be sent to Rome. Of course, some of these expenses are falsely stated. Some of these false reports became the private property of the bishop of the episcopal state. The tithes sent to Rome actually ended up in the treasury of the Papal States, in fact, not many of them were divided among the popes and cardinals of the Holy See......

Fortunately for Marin, as a nobleman, he did not need to pay "tithes". At least, no priest dared to tithe with him.

For the clergy in the land of East Friesian Lamber shall act according to Marin's eyes. At the beginning, when he invaded the East Friesian Lamber, Marin raised his butcher's knife and slaughtered countless nobles. Therefore, the clergy of the East Friesian Lam were afraid of Marin. And Taylor was directly thrown into Marin's arms.

With the clergy in the country obeying his orders, Marin actually evaded taxes......

Commercial tithes are the hardest to count. Because, no one knows exactly how much money the merchant makes. Of course, for those who were low-status pure merchants, or Jewish merchants, the church could send someone to check the accounts. Of course, businessmen can also make false accounts to evade taxes.

So, in fact, the main source of tithes is the harvest of the farmland. Every autumn harvest, the priests would go to the fields and wait for the "tax". For example, if you harvest 400 pounds of rye per acre, you should pay 40 pounds of rye to the church......

However, from the very beginning, Marin colluded with (or coerced) the local church to falsely report the yield, and the yield of 400 pounds per mu was still reported as less than 150 pounds. Therefore, the church in the Earl of East Friesian still levies tithes at a low standard of less than 15 pounds per acre. Of course, this standard is not lower than before. That said, the East Friesian Church is no less earning than before.

It's not that Marin likes to evade taxes, but because if the tithes of East Friesian Lambeth are too high, it will attract the attention of other countries, and let people know the secret of the extremely high yield per acre of East Friesian Lamber. Therefore, Marin has always colluded with the local church to falsely report the yield of crops, in order to keep the secret of high crop yields, not to evade taxes.

The archbishops of those archbishops' states, when they were campaigning, were actually full of money transactions. After Hermann IV became Archbishop of Cologne, he was also busy making money. For example, Marin had asked Herman IV to speak for him in the Imperial Parliament, and twice (the first time to make the East Friesian Lam a member of the Imperial Council of Princes, and the second time to have the Duchy of Schleswig join the Imperial Council of Princes) bribed Archbishop Hermann IV of Cologne for a total of 20,000 gold coins. And Herman IV laughed at it, and it was clear that he was not a moral priest......

Therefore, it is possible to pay Hermann IV to give up the Bishopric of Münster.

And as far as Marin knew, Herman IV did not have mistresses and illegitimate children like Alexander VI. Most of the money he amassed subsidized the family, that is, the Hesse family.

Hesseb is a poor country with barren land and a large population. Hermann IV was born into the Hessian family and was naturally concerned about the development of the Hessian country. Moreover, the aristocracy of this era has a very strong family concept. As a result, the large amount of money that Herman IV amassed, in addition to maintaining his own luxurious life, much of it subsidized the family.

Therefore, Marin's intention was, on the one hand, to bribe Herman IV himself; On the other hand, to bribe Hermann IV's relatives to help persuade Hermann IV to agree to give up the Bishopate of Münster......

It's just that I don't know how much this bribe will cost......

Unlike the previous request for Herman IV to vote for him at the Imperial Council, this time, Marin was going to "cut meat" in the ruling area of Herman IV. It would be an astronomical amount to get Herman IV to agree......