If there was only one skull, it would not have surprised the well-informed monks of the Inquisition, but as they cast their nets again and again, almost every time one or two round infant skulls rolled out, and when they cast the nets five times, and the skulls had accumulated to seven, even the monks unconsciously stopped and looked at Joshua.

When the first skull was recovered, one of the nuns screamed and fainted, and when the third, fourth, or even more skulls appeared, the nuns fell into a numb silence, and they sat on the ground and watched as the monks revealed their incriminating evidence little by little.

"That's enough." "Enough," said the abbot of the monastery, "Enough," she was about forty years old, plump and fair-skinned, and even a little younger than her peers, but in just a few hours, the devil seemed to have robbed her of her spirit, and shrunk her like a flower that bloomed to the extreme but was thrown into the fire, but she still tried to stand in front of Joshua, trying to find a glimmer of life for herself and the nuns in the convent: "My lord, if you want to prove our guilt, then we confess, "But don't go any further—the monastery is indeed the property of the Borgia family, but our greatest benefactor is the Duke of Urbino and his wife......"

The wide-brimmed hat in the darkness moved slightly.

"In 1501, the Duke of Urbino gave us the equivalent of 10,000 gold ducats – to atone for his wife, who, as you may know, was joined by the Venetians in the attack on Luclicia, the daughter of the Holy Father Alexander VI. Go and see the white marble statue of the Virgin Mary, on its pedestal, with the names of the Duke and his Lady inscribed, and the group of twelve sterling silver candlesticks, and the velvet and silk, and many pieces of porcelain, which are recorded in detail in the books of the monastery, and see, my lord, for I am not lying, and that there are many noble lords, their wives and daughters, who have also practiced or lived here temporarily, and if you allow these terrible things to spread outside, Isn't it to make them lose face? ”

Joshua was indeed taken aback when he heard the name of the Duke of Urbino, but on second thought, it was indeed quite possible that the Duchess of Urnino had taken revenge on Caesar. Borgia kidnapped her adopted daughter and left her fate unknown and decided to do so in Luclayia. When Borgia married Ferrara and crossed the Apennines, intending to cause the daughter of the Holy Father to suffer the same fate as his adopted daughter, when the matter was revealed, she left her unwitting husband and fled to Venice, so that the Duke of Urbino had to bend his knees and ask for forgiveness from Alexander VI, who was in the prime of life at the time, and the monastery belonged to Pedro. Borgia had, and at that time, the Duke of Urbino might have managed to bribe the cardinal in order to have one more person who could plead his case to the Holy Father on his behalf.

But in any case, the Duke of Urbino, who had regained his territory, would never be happy to see such a big scandal in the monastery where he left his name, and in addition to the Duke of Urbino - there was also the Marquise of Mantua, because Madame Urbino was her husband's sister, and the Marquise of Mantua was the daughter of the Duke of Ferrara, Alfonso. Esther's sister.

As for the other dignitaries, there is no need to mention, after all, during the reign of Alexander VI, there were too many people who tried to meet him in a way to meet him.

"And ......," continued the abbot of the monastery, hopefully, "but if such things were to be known to us, would they not have said that this is the domain of the Holy Father?" They don't understand the relationship. You may, sir, lock us up, or drive us away, or kill us, but so be it, let this remain a secret, and let the glory of the Father be dusted...... You're his disciple, you must be unwilling, right? ”

“…… Maybe you're right. Joshua said in the dark, "Mother Dean." "Stop," he said to the monks of the Inquisition—the abbot sighed softly, and relaxed, but her eyes widened suddenly—"we can't spend all our time here, so," said the young cardinal, in a soft voice, "go find some strong workers and drain all the water here." ”

The dean's mother let out a terrible cry, her mind was in a daze, she didn't understand, she had said so much, and the analysis was so clear, but she still couldn't change his mind—didn't he know that the crime he insisted on exposing was not only for her, but for them, and even he couldn't afford it? She rushed forward to grab Joshua's robe, but he flashed it, and she fell to the ground, her palms and nose were scratched, and her face was covered in blood, and the nuns screamed in amazement, and staggered up to help her, but she felt no pain in the slightest.

"Be merciful," she cried out in a hoarse voice, "be merciful." Adult ......"

"I'm not going to lock you up, I'm not going to drive you out, I'm not going to kill you." Joshua stared at the huge pool that had become calm again after putting away the nets, "But you ...... They will be judged and punished according to ecclesiastical and secular law. ”

——————

After two or three days, the huge pond was finally drained of water - from the thick mud no less than a hundred baby skulls were found, as well as countless tiny bones, and this ugly case shook the whole of Rome and was immediately delivered to His Holiness the Pontifical Majesty.

According to the nuns' confessions, they, and the nuns before them, had been engaged in a prostitute-like trade for more than a decade—their guests were mostly dignitaries and high-ranking officials, but also young lovers—and they recited scriptures and prayed during the day, living like real nuns, and at night they took up their headscarves, hid their hair short, put on jewels, wore velvet or silk dresses, and wore coats embroidered with gold thread, and enjoyed themselves with men like the muses of the god of love.

They use all kinds of contraceptive methods, such as praying to God or Mary, taking mercury, putting herbs and crocodile feces in their bodies, etc., but there is always a time when it fails, because they dare not abort because of the fear of Hellfire, but the children of nuns, unlike the children of bishops or priests, can be sent outside and raised by their brothers and sisters - they cannot even let anyone outside hear the cry of the baby, so if a nun wants to give birth, she has to go to the cellar and give birth to a baby not because the mother is asleep" not careful enough" to roll over and press until suffocated; It was because of the cold and fever in the cellar that he returned to God in a few days.

There were also several skulls the size of fists with frightening holes, which were caused by blunt blows, and the nuns could not prevaricate, but they had to admit that these were children with too tenacious vitality, and they had to stone them on the head to stop crying and struggling.

Of course, the final blame fell on the ubiquitous devils, the nuns, their benefactors and lovers, who were possessed by the devil and distracted, and who were convicted of crimes according to canon law, who were imprisoned for long periods of time or forced labor, and who were burned at the stake for the nuns who had done their hand on babies—along with the priest and his lover who performed the Black Mass and worshipped the devil.

As for the men who are also arguably responsible, they only need to pay a fine or work to pay for it.

The Duke of Urbino and his wife, yes, Alexander VI had joined his illegitimate son to meet God, and the Duchess of Urbino returned to Urbino from Venice, and although the Duke of Urbino was angry at her previous behavior and ridicule, the Duke of Urbino had to feign joy and take his wife back in view of the Duke of Ferrara's intransigence (his daughter was the wife of the Duchess's brother).

They had tried so hard to forget the past, but they did not expect to suffer again from Borgia, whose names were mentioned at the mention of the monastery that had given birth to and strangled more than a hundred illegitimate children...... Some nobles were also upset that they had done Mass there or practiced there.

Cardinal Grande Lovere was furious, but there was nothing he could do.

What he did not expect, however, was that a few days later, at a meeting of the Council of Cardinals, Cardinal Lovere Jr. would openly propose the "purity of the Church" – in short, the reaffirmation of the canon law of celibacy, i.e., the obligation of the clergy to maintain complete and permanent abstinence and celibacy for the sake of the kingdom of heaven; Even the loss of priesthood status does not exempt him from the obligation of celibacy, only the Pope can be exempted from the right to be celibacy.

He demanded a further thorough investigation of all the churches and monasteries in the city of Rome.

There was a terrible silence in the Great Hall—the thirty-seven cardinals present, and the thousands of clergy in Rome and the tens of thousands outside Rome, all of whom had enjoyed, or were enjoying the pleasure of sin, except for those who had unfortunately lost this masculine power, even the present Father Pius III, had been uninhibited for a long time in his youth...... It is not uncommon for people to say that even a young monk or priest who has no lover will have a warm aunt to recommend his niece or daughter, "A man must always have a woman by his side to take care of the washing", they always said with confidence.

And their illegitimate children were everywhere, and it was said that if a woman had three children, one of them must be a priest.

How is it possible to say that this phenomenon should be curbed or even eliminated?

But it is not this that the cardinals are worried about, they are worried about something hidden under this seemingly ridiculous plea – for example, reform.

。 m.