Basil, the new Orthodox Patriarch and supreme head of the Church in Constantinople, now raised his arms to meet the cry, wandering in this infinite glory, and when the voice ceased, he watched the crowd below speak.

"Dear parishioners, Patriarch Theodosius' serious illness has led to his early resignation, and it will be up to me to take on the heavy responsibility of leading the Orthodox faithful, and I hope you will continue to assist me as you did with Lord Theodosius!"

"Ladies and gentlemen, we will now move on to the next important topic of this conference: the matter of missionary work to the peoples north of the Black Sea!"

The Emperor duly stood up and announced this earth-shattering plan to the ministers and Orthodox monks present, and it was also a gift that he had prepared wholeheartedly.

Everyone in the audience was in an uproar, whether it was Fucas and others, who represented the senate and the old bureaucracy of the empire, and priests from the dioceses of the Balkan Peninsula were stunned.

Alexios looked at the blank eyes of the attendees, and he smiled slightly: "Do you remember how the glory of God was spread in the world?"

Since the Saracen cavalry came from the south, we have lost Egypt, North Africa, Syria, and now even Anatolia has been lost to the Turks. ”

The younger generation, such as Dennis and Adonis, bowed their heads in shame, while the elderly Bulgarian Bishop Fyodor frowned.

He can still see a little bit of this emperor's character, it is absolutely impossible to be a true believer, and it is definitely impossible to support the development and growth of the church so simple, but thinking of his position, he is still silent.

Before the Roman Empire was divided, there were five dioceses, with the old diocese of Rome as the first diocese, the new Rome-Constantinople as the second, followed by the diocese of Jerusalem, Antioch and Alexandria.

However, with the great division of the Eastern and Western empires, and later doctrinal differentiation, Catholicism headed by the Pope of Rome and Orthodox Christianity headed by Constantinople gradually formed.

The ensuing invasion of the Arabs, the fall of Jerusalem, Antioch, and Alexandria, and the disappearance of the doctrine of God from these lands are painful in the hearts of Orthodox believers.

In fact, the emperor knew very well that after the division of the Roman Empire at the end of the fourth century AD, the differences between the eastern and western parts in terms of social, political, linguistic, and cultural traditions contributed to the division between the Latin-speaking western faction of Christianity and the Greek-speaking eastern faction.

The Roman Church in the west, which considered itself the successor of Jesus' disciple Peter, insisted that it had the precedence in the patriarchates.

The Church of Constantinople in the east, with the support of the Eastern Roman Emperor, competed with the Holy See for spheres of influence; This, coupled with doctrinal differences, culminated in mutual excommunication in 1054, officially splitting into Catholicism and Orthodoxy.

In Asia, where orthodox doctrine was replaced by pagans with their Allah, small states like Croatia were taken refuge in the papacy, and Italy and Sicily were incorporated into heretical beliefs

But there is no crisis for our faithful, there is no crisis for our bishops, God has warned us repeatedly, but we have done nothing! The heretics of Rome restored Jerusalem and Antioch! ”

Alexios looked at his courtiers, most of whom looked indignant, the first crusade of the Latins in the West did not leave a good impression on the subjects of the empire, and the robbery and rape were not insignificant.

But the Latins were so strong that they managed to recover the Holy Land from the Saracens, and the Orthodox Christians could be said to have achieved nothing.

"Now the Khan of the Cumans has asked me to send some learned priests to him to remove the faith of the old gods and baptize the subjects of the whole land.

Just like Vladimir back then, I will give him a crown and a beautiful Komnenos girl, but can the Church bring these uncivilized barbarians into the arms of God? ”

Dunnis couldn't hold back for a long time, and he was the first to squeeze out of the crowd: "Your Majesty the Emperor, I am willing to go to the court of the Cuman Khan to spread the teachings of God and teach those barbarians how to fear God!" ”

"Your Majesty, I'll go too!"

Adonis simply stood up and stood beside his friend, and he was very appreciative of the Emperor's request to open up a new source of faith.

The noble pursuit of the faith overwhelmed his originally sad mood, and now the seriously ill Patriarch Theodosius was not visible to him, and the somewhat discouraged Adonis also wanted to see the outside world.

Then a dozen young monks stepped forward one after another, and lowered their crossed hands, their faces already full of fanaticism.

A few of them were uncontrollably mad, and they sang the praises of God's name over and over again.

"Are they the only ones?"

The emperor looked at the monks in the audience, and more than half of the monks he had summoned this time were young people, many of whom were from aristocratic families and were well educated.

They were well versed in all kinds of Greek literature, and in fact they were rare scholars, but this time the gospel of God had to be sent with them.

Basil, with the Emperor's approval, stood up and spoke, and he held his scepter high above the top: "Human life is limited, but the soul of man is born again by faith, and is saved by God and has eternal life, and eternal blessings in the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven."

At the end of the world, humanity, including the dead, will be judged before God, the innocent will go to heaven, and the guilty will go to hell.

I hereby declare that all who wish to participate in this mission will be blessed by our Lord! ”

"If you are all such cowards, then what more qualifications do you have to shepherd living beings on behalf of God!"

Dennis, a somewhat fanatical believer, came out first and rebuked the rest of those who stood still, with fierce words that shamed the younger ones and the older ones.

The younger monks such as Principus, Jemari, Jean and others were incredulous about this mission, they were all sons of local aristocracy, and their greatest hobby in life was probably to fool people in the name of faith.

But they never thought of going to a foreign land to preach and persuade those terrible barbarians to convert to God.

And the old ones like Fyodor don't have many people to worry about, such an old man sent over, probably not back, so no one will force him to go, but of course he can go if he wants to.

When Dennis's words fell, the monks behind them, who had been cowering, gritted their teeth and walked out more than two hundred people.

Alexios smiled.