Just as William was idle and wondering whether to go out for a walk, there was another knock on the door.

"My lord, I have important information to report to you!" William's appointed intelligence chief, Tus, said outside the door that he was no longer as stunned as he used to be, and that he could discern what needed to be reported and what could be solved by himself.

So this time he came to William's room to report, it must be a more important thing.

"What's going on?" William asked as he let Tus in, turned from his chair, and asked.

"That's the kind of adult, according to our eyeliner, the merchants who travel to and from the Denlenburg area and the Mandes Manor are talking about witches!" Tus said, handing the parchment report in his hand to William, who was not now brilliant in writing, but literacy was a must.

"What's more, through those caravans and wandering knights, we learned that the witch hunt has begun in the Kingdom of Ribourne, which is close to the Holy City, and the monasteries in several kingdoms, including the Kingdom of Lillard, have begun to hunt witches on a large scale!"

William took the report and looked at it.

It reads what the intelligence agents and the tavern have learned from the merchants and wandering knights.

The whole continent is now under the call of the Pope to set off a wave of witch hunting, it is said that this is because three months ago His Majesty the Pope found traces of witches in the holy city where he lived, the inhabitants of the holy city were persecuted, dozens of people died, and the witch was arrested and confessed that her hiding place was in the kingdom of Ribonne in the east of the continent, so the Pope issued an order to hunt witches in the east in a fit of rage.

"Although the past and nobles of the eastern kingdoms are dissatisfied with the church's practices, they all choose to tolerate it, but fortunately, the target of the arrest of witches in the kingdom of Cikma is actually not wide, mainly women who are engaged in cheap industries such as **, and others are basically not implicated, but there are also rumors that the church takes advantage of the pretext of hunting witches to extort commoners and some small nobles."

"As of now, more than 20,000 women in the twenty-seven kingdoms of the mainland have been branded as witches and burned at the stake, especially the kingdom of Riborn, where the witches are hiding, and this terrible number is still expanding with the extension of the order."

William looked at the report and said, "So what's going on on our side?" What's the reaction from the monastery? ”

"Hmm...... The monastery has not reacted much for the time being, and there have never been rumors of witches on our side, so they should not take action, but they have already stated that they will definitely support the Pope's decision. Tus told William everything he knew.

William frowned, there was also a monastery in his domain, called the Convent of St. Nero, which was right next to the manor, and there were more than twenty monks and seven or eight armed men in it.

Usually, there will be some fools and fools who run for most of the day, across the entire territory with eggs and a few copper coins that they don't know how long they have been saving to worship, this St. Nero's monastery has a strong sense of existence, but it is not weak, and it also has a lot of say in the territory.

Although they usually don't interfere much in the internal affairs of the territory, William always has some displeasure with them, no matter how much income the lords have, they always have to pay them 10%, and the rights that originally belonged to the lord were snatched away by them, how could William like it.

William's idea of belonging to the Celestial Empire still prevails, and there has never been a thing in the great unified Celestial Empire where divine power is greater than monarchical power, but whether it is in the Middle Ages or the current continent, this is a very normal thing.

But in any case, the current William can't afford to offend the church forces, not to mention their ability to instigate the people, if the current William shows a little resistance to the church, it will attract the suppression of higher-level church forces, and he can't afford this kind of blow anyway.

"Well, you go and keep an eye on St. Nero's Abbey, forget it, I'll go there today!"

William told Tus to continue with other matters, and he himself put on his coat and sword, and rode to the Abbey of St. Nero on his horse.

The convent of St. Nero is not large, but it has everything in it, and the prayer hall can accommodate more than a hundred people, and the most unacceptable thing for William is that they have serfs who do not accept William's jurisdiction, more than 200 people!

William didn't look at the busy serfs, dismounted, walked into the monastery, stopped a middle-aged monk casually, and asked, "Is Abbot Cruise there?" ”

The middle-aged monk glanced at William, immediately recognized him, and said respectfully: "It turned out to be Lord Baron, our dean is in the chapel room to worship the Holy Father, but he has been praying for a while, it is estimated that it will be over in ten minutes, please Lord Baron, please wait in the dean's study for a while!" ”

The middle-aged monk took William into the abbot's study, in fact, William was not familiar with the abbey, only occasionally made a show to the lords, four or five times a year, these monks also knew William.

The middle-aged monk took William to his study and left, while William sat on a chair and looked at the furnishings in the room.

There are a lot of furnishings in the study, and there are many books, most of which are manuscripts of prophetic sayings, as well as some prayer notes and various observations.

William was a little dissatisfied with the wealth of the abbey, and according to his estimates, the eleven tax of the lords, plus the contribution of their own serfs and knights, they earned more than 1,000 silver coins a year!

That's right, William's current income is huge, and it is true that he only has an income of more than 1,000 silver coins a year, but this is all under the premise of establishing William's development territory to increase the income of the people and the purchase and sale of vodka.

If William was just a landowner, a minor nobleman, without the support of these incomes, what would be the consequences, and the monastery equivalent to three or four quarters of the income would be able to pose a great threat to William.

Moreover, in other territories, monasteries are indeed the strongest force other than lords, and there are even many monasteries that are stronger than lords, and some kingdoms have even been hollowed out by the church and taken away their territories.

William was not without reason for being jealous of the power of the Church, and the Kingdom of Tskema alone occupied twenty percent of the territory belonging to the Church.

This is also the reason why the Kingdom of Tskma is not close to the Holy City, and it is said that more than 40% of the territory of the Kingdom of Riborn, which is next to the Holy City, has fallen into the hands of the Church, which is simply a land grabber with the nobles.

Just when William was worried about the church, the old abbot helped Cruise staggering through the door.

He was over sixty years old, and his voice was extremely old and hoarse, and he coughed dryly and greeted William: "It turns out that Lord Baron has arrived, I don't know what happened when your lord came to our abbey?" ”

"Ah, I have come to speak to the Dean about the Winter Day of Good Friday, for the Son to spread the Father's grace for us, and for whom He himself has died, and for whom we must pray." William didn't say it right away, but made a sloppy eye and first mentioned the Holy Friday in the winter as an excuse.

"Rest assured, Lord Baron, all the monks of our St. Nero's Monastery will preside over it when the time comes!"

William nodded, and then said, "Well, the people are very convinced of you, the dean, and it is rumored in private that you are the most faithful servant of the Holy Father!" ”

"Don't dare to be, the most faithful servant of the Holy Father is His Holiness the Pope, and I am just an old servant who wants to see the Holy Father at any time!" Dean Cruise smiled and said without being surprised.

After hearing this, William said in his heart: "It's okay if you are really an old servant, I really haven't seen a servant who collects taxes from everyone!" ”

"However, the people in the lord's domain are indeed simple and kind, every time they come to the monastery, they will give something that they are usually reluctant to eat, and they can occasionally take out luxuries such as honey!"

After hearing this, William felt unhappy for a while, the treatment of this group of foreign monks was actually better than his own.