With the roar of the cannon, Krautz fell to the ground as if struck by lightning, the armor behind him shattered, and his flesh and blood were blurred.

Roland looked back in the direction where the cannon sound came from, and a huge figure appeared in the window of the temple, and the magic crystal heavy cannon on the trunk of the elephant was pointing at the square.

"Ellie, thank you." Roland waved and smiled at the behemoth of war.

"Angang~~" Ellie shook her elephant trunk very humanely, as if to say "a trivial matter".

Having lost his divine power, Krautz was no longer as brave as he had been, and he lost consciousness after being shot. Roland ordered the grenadiers to take the knights who had surrendered into custody. As for Clotz, Roland was not going to kill him...... The temple dungeon was still empty, and Philip's bed was just right for him.

Two grenadiers carried the unconscious Krautz onto a stretcher and carried him towards the temple. Roland watched their figures fade away, and his heart was mixed.

If he does not consider the political position and conflict of interest in reality, he has to admit that he has respect for Klautz, a loyal and unyielding "patriot", but everyone does not live in a vacuum, the reality is that the empire that Krautz loves so much is not the motherland approved by Roland Kolas, the empire that Klautz is proud of and willing to shed blood for represents the dual tyranny of the two spheres of faith and the secular in the minds of the Far Easterners, this brutal and ruthless monster deprives the Far Easterners of the right to seek spiritual sustenance, And robbed people of their wealth with exorbitant taxes and taxes, and never regarded the Far Easterners as a part of the country, how could the Far Easterners consider themselves citizens of the empire, and how could they love such a country as deeply as Klautz?

Varess's beliefs can be broadly divided into two categories, one with strong racist overtones and the other a universal religion that does not follow borders of blood, race, or gender.

The former is typical of the Tiamat church, which usually only absorbs dragon-blooded creatures, and most of the people who worship the elven god Corellon Larisian are elves, and most of the people who believe in the dwarf creation god Moradin are also dwarves, and if the religion has racial overtones, it is limited to be generally accepted by other races, and the advantage is that such a church is more cohesive, and it is easier to closely integrate with the government to create a single-race **** system.

The typical representative of the latter is the Church of Perot. According to its teachings, all beings under the sun are equal, and the old men of the sun are taught by all kinds, whether humans, dwarves, elves, halflings, gnomes, or any other race, as long as they agree with Perot's teachings, they can join the Church of the Light, of course—heretics are not counted.

The creed of the universal church is rooted in universal values, and the advantage is that it occupies the moral high ground, and the missionaries adopt an open and inclusive attitude, which is more likely to resonate with the majority of people, and the believers are spread to all corners of the multiverse.

The influence of the universal church is very large, but its universal character will inevitably weaken the believers' definition of kinship based on ethnicity, family and kinship, and then weaken the national identity based on factors such as blood, ethnicity, language, cultural tradition, and border (geography), which will lead to the conflict between church values and national interests.

There is a proverb in the Far East that satirizes the Pedro Church: when the clergy claim to care for all, it means that no one wants to be cared for by them.

In Roland's view, this proverb is similar to an aphorism on earth: the philosophers love the distant Tatars so that they do not love their neighbors.

When the interests of the empire and the church in the Far East cannot be both, Krautz chooses to maintain the national order, even if it is a rigid and anachronistic order, while Philip chooses to protect the religion but not the country, in the final analysis - all those who believe in the so-called "universal values" are potential traitors.

Roland traveled to Varess for two years and spent a lot of time collecting and reading the history of this world. In his view, the history of the Holy Assanian Empire since its inception is a vivid example of the transition between the universal church and state power from the "honeymoon period" to the "divorce".

The Holy Assanian Empire has gone through more than 1,600 years of ups and downs with **** as the foundation of the state, and now the foundation of the country has been shaken, and the conflict between the clergy and the imperial power is only the appearance, and the essential difference lies in the incompatibility between the universal church and the state system.

A powerful monarch or prophet can force the two together—as the founding fathers of the Holy Assanian Empire did—but there is a rift that will not be bridged. Over time, as one of the clerical powers and the regime declines, this dangerous balance will be upset, and the dominant side will show a strong incentive to suppress the other.

If the imperial regime and the Church of Perot are compared to a couple whose relationship is falling apart, the "religious reform" that Philip tried to carry out in the Far East is like the so-called slogan of "protecting the religion but not protecting the country" put forward by a wife carrying her husband out of the wall, just like advocating that "married women also have the freedom to pursue love, and a broken family will not be happy if they barely make do with it." Whether or not you agree with Philip's philosophy depends on what position you stand on.

Of course, Klautz, a patriot, could not tolerate the position of the "husband", while Roland stood on the position of the "old king next door...... From the standpoint of the Far Easterners, Roland has the responsibility to free the land under his feet from the clutches of the empire and establish a state that protects the rights and interests of the Far Easterners, and his idea is tantamount to treason in Krautz's view, and there are fundamental differences between the two sides, which is why Roland tends to preserve Philip but never considers a compromise with Krautz.

The Empire's conflict between church and state was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the Far East, and if it had not been for the good use of the conflict between Clotz and Philip, the Kolas family would not have been able to take the Keep Atonement and take control of the Far East.

That's it?

All happy?

No, it's not that simple, and there are more serious problems in front of Roland.

Listening to Klautz's angry words of "no way to serve the country", Roland felt the same way, and had to worry that if one day the Far East would also face the current predicament of the empire - after all, the Sindra Church, which advocates a positive spirit and encourages believers to brave the face of doom and make a difference, is also essentially a universal religion.

Is it possible to put the universal Church in the service of state power? Roland meditated, recalling what he had seen and heard before he crossed over, trying to find a feasible solution to the problem of "coexistence of church and state".