Chapter 567: Faith and Regulation

"Your Highness, I don't think these despicable gods should be allowed to enter our family territory and build temples to confuse the ignorant people, these self-proclaimed spokesmen and worshippers of the gods in the world are in fact just a bunch of vultures and greedy jackals chasing wealth, and wherever they are rich, they will flock to the gods, in the name of the gods, to loot the wealth of the believers, and even join forces to fight against the lord's rule. www.biquge.info So I don't think we can let those temple messengers from the city of Morent build a temple in our family territory, lest the tail be too big. ”

Staunchly opposed was Viscount Hickde, the governor of the province of Makinogahara, who had been notified to come to the meeting to discuss whether or not to allow the temples to preach in the Northland. He was originally a trainee teacher at the Imperial Capital Maupal Academy, but later took refuge in the war on the island of Hirowas, becoming the clerk of Shiratori Town. After Lorist recovered the island of Hilowas, he naturally joined the Norton family and rose to the position of governor with excellent administrative skills.

As we all know, the Clisson Empire was strong back then, and several emperors of the Clisson royal family never gave any face to the temple. During the reign of Cleison IV, there was also an audience of envoys from the major temples, hoping to obtain permission to divide an area of the imperial capital to build a temple, but Cleison IV flatly refused.

Cleison IV's answer was that the empire was founded by his own ancestors with the sword in their hands, and it was nothing to do with the gods. He had only heard that warriors would pray to their gods before the battle, but he had never heard that the gods' blessings would come after victory. Therefore, it is better to believe in the gods than to believe in the sword in your own hands, at least life and death can be in your own hands.

Cleison IV rejected a request to build a temple area within the imperial capital, allowing only a few temples to build temples on the outskirts of the imperial capital. For example, the Temple of the God of War, the Temple of Knowledge and Wisdom, the Temple of Mother Earth, the Temple of the Silver Moon Goddess, etc. Because the Clison royal family clearly does not support the attitude of disbelief, most of the residents of the imperial capital are pan-believers, belonging to the kind of people who go to worship when they see something in the temple, and they should not be seen if they have nothing to do, so that these temples can only be maintained by barely being developed in the imperial capital, and most of them withdrew to the city of Morent after the war.

As the training of grassroots and junior bureaucrats in the Clison Kingdom, the Mupal Academy has always followed in the footsteps of the Clisian royal family, so the students and teachers trained are mostly opposed to the temples, believing that these temples will increase the variables in the jurisdictional territory, especially since they are easy to incite and hijack public opinion and oppose the legitimate ruling rights and interests of the lord. Therefore, it is clear that Governor Hicked was adamantly opposed to allowing these temples to be built in the family domain.

Shi Fatzi stood up and spoke, believing that after the family used the city of Morent as a wholesale market and transit point for the goods and goods produced in the family domain, the peeps and infiltration of those temples faced by the family domain were inevitable. As Governor Hicked had said, the Norton Domain, now with its large population, prosperous commerce, and wealthy people, was a big fat in the eyes of those temples, and it was impossible for the sanctimonious temple bishops and priests to give up what they were trying to achieve.

In terms of strength and armed force, these temples are not much of a threat compared to the Norton family. However, it is worth noting that these temples are good at playing with people's hearts, and if the family prohibits these temples from preaching to the people in the family territory on the surface, then these temples will only add more trouble to the family's rule if they go underground. Today, there are more than 3 million people in the whole of the Northland, and there are nearly 60 towns of small scale, and most of the people are refugees who have been forcibly relocated. Although the Norton family gave them a stable and prosperous life, after all, the time was short, and the hearts of the people did not really belong to the Norton family.

Shi Fatzi's opinion is that the Norton family is now supporting the Freedom Alliance, and these temples are also a very powerful faction in the Freedom Alliance's ruling council. Refusing these temples is simple, but the consequences are likely to be hostile to the forces of these temples, to the point of forming a faction against the Nortons in the Liberal Alliance, which will hinder and hinder the actions and strategies that the Nortons will take in the city of Morient in the future.

Therefore, Shi Fatzi's opinion is that he can agree to the request of these temples to build temples in the family territory, but he must implement effective supervision and control of these temples. This will not only gain the support of the temple forces in the ruling council of the Liberty Alliance, but also effectively pacify the people in the family domain, and reduce the conflicts and daily skirmishes between the lords from all over the town, which is a good thing to kill two birds with one stone.

Director Codan also stood up to speak in a rare way, and he agreed with Shi Fatzi's proposition. As the head of the patrol system of the entire family domain, he is well aware of the current situation of the family territory. He informed everyone present about several criminal cases that had occurred in his family's domain for worshipping evil gods. At present, the more than 3 million people of the Northland are refugees from various provinces of the former Krisson Empire, and most of them are ignorant poor peasants.

Although the family has set up basic literacy schools in various towns, only a small percentage of children receive primary education. The family is not yet able to enforce adult literacy in its territory. Therefore, many farmers are grateful not for the benevolence of the Norton family, but for various gods after receiving basic livelihood security and surplus harvests. This has given some swindlers and cultists a loophole.

For example, several villages in the Red River Plain, near the Black Forest, suddenly worshipped a black witch god, and even held a blood sacrifice ceremony in the Black Forest on the night of the full moon, killing two ten-year-old boys and girls, believing that such a blood sacrifice would bring a good harvest. There is also a cult prevalent in the eastern Northlands, which worships a god called Wallis, who is said to be the younger brother of the god of the sun, the god of light, and the god of war, Sigwa, who has the magical powers of immortality and turning stones into gold, and he also imparts these two sacred skills to devout believers. Some of the people in the eastern region went bankrupt and donated all their belongings to this evil god, and even robbed and killed people because of the lack of offerings......

Director Codan said that the family domain was previously considered a remote and wild place, so there were no temples willing to preach here. At that time, because of the small number of people and the wide area, it didn't matter whether the people had faith or not. Most of the people of the Northland believe in the god of war and the god of the sun. But now, the people from different places have different beliefs, and there are even disputes and fights due to the different gods they believe.

Just like the two cults mentioned above, when the family sent a patrol team to capture the leaders, they were also blocked and abused by those believers, which almost led to a violent armed conflict. Therefore, Director Kodan believes that we should take the initiative to introduce these temples, after all, these temples believe in righteous gods, and their teachings have also withstood the test of time, which has an obvious positive effect on calming the people's hearts and putting an end to the encroachment of those cults......

Director Kodan's speech made most of the Norton family leaders who came to the meeting ponder, this is indeed a new problem, and people in the war years are easily satisfied, and they yearn for stability and peace. The Nortons gave them stability and made them rich. But now the Lords need spiritual satisfaction, and the Norton family is powerless in terms of faith, so Director Codan hopes that the family will take the initiative to welcome the arrival of those temples.

Viscount Camorra stated that while Viscount Schrader and Director Codan thought it would be beneficial for the family to accede to the temples' request to preach in the family domain at this stage, it was also important to take into account the disadvantages of the temples mentioned by Governor Hickd. At present, those temples are asking the Norton family to agree to some harsh demands and conditions in order to preach in the Northlands, but the family also needs to guard against these temples from gaining a foothold in the Northlands to hold public opinion hostage or incite the people to force the family to relax the supervision of the temples. In the past, some lords had trouble with the temples in their territories because of this, and even used force to expel the temples, and these examples are all history-based. Therefore, the average lord is very disgusted with a certain temple stepping into their family territory.

Viscount Camorra believes that if the temples of the city of Moriente enter the family territory to build temples and preach, the first thing is that they cannot divide the temple area like the city of Moriente, so that these temples collude together to form a temple power. These temples should be divided into districts in the various towns of the family domain. For example, in Beihai City, you can build the Temple of the Sea God and the Temple of the Wind God, because these two gods are related to sea shipping.

Fengle Yuan, which is dominated by agriculture, can worship the goddess of the earth mother and the goddess of harvest. The Red River, near the Black Forest, could have been built with the shrine of the goddess of the forest and the shrine of the goddess of the forest stream. Rock Castle and Raging Bear City can be included in the Sermon Scope of the Temple of War. Viscount Camorra quickly divided the more than sixty towns in the Northland into more than twenty gods, and suggested that perhaps the construction of temples in the province of Makinohara and the eastern part of the Northland would facilitate the naturalization of the grass and mountain barbarian tribes.

At this point, it can be said that there was a clear answer, that is, to allow the temples of the city of Morente to enter the family domain to preach and build temples. The next step was to discuss how to effectively supervise these temples entering the Northland. Shi Fatzi spoke, first of all, the first stipulation is that no temple is allowed to oppose the policies and administrative measures imposed by the Norton family on the family territory, and any behavior of hijacking public opinion and inciting the people will be regarded as rebellion, and will be ruthlessly annihilated and expelled.

Director Speer hastened to his feet, and he believed that the second rule was that the temple should not extort money from the faithful within the scope of the sermon, and that no believer should make more than a certain amount of money for the temple in each month's period, otherwise he would have to be taxed three times as much. The temple must also truthfully declare the amount of money and goods donated from the believers each month, and allocate half of the amount to support the needy believers and treat the sick and wounded......

Director Kodan stated that no temple was allowed to shelter criminals in the Norton family's territory and protect the Norton family's hostile elements, and violators would be prosecuted. At the same time, no matter what the temple is, it has the obligation to assist the Norton family in maintaining law and order in the territory, cracking down on cults and quelling riots, instead of standing by under the pretext of neutrality when there is chaos in the Norton family's territory, and has the duty to cooperate with the Norton family patrol police's inquiries and investigations, and must not pass the buck or conceal it.

Viscount Camorra believed that each temple must follow the sermons of its own temple and should not interfere in the territory of other temples, compete for believers, and denigrate other temples. In the process of preaching, the freedom of belief of the individual must be respected, and the believer must not be forced to change his faith or force the will of others, and the believer's unpaid labor must not be used for the benefit of the temple.

Governor Hicked also changed his original view of refusing temples to enter the family domain, and he believed that if those temples had the power to teach the naturalization of the grass barbarian tribes and the mountain barbarian tribes, then the family might as well reward and financial support for these temples, and reward and punish those temples, so that it would be fair to those temples, and they would also encourage them to collect a large number of believers from the grass and mountain tribes to promote the belief of the gods.

Soon, in the midst of everyone's suggestion, eighteen regulations governing the temple's preaching within the family realm were included, and finally presented to Lorist.

Lorist looked at the eighteen regulations and asked with a smile which department was going to be responsible for supervising these temples, and everyone realized that they had forgotten the most important point, the Ministry of Administration, the Ministry of Armed Forces, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs recommended it for a long time before they felt that these departments did not seem to be very suitable to supervise these temples. But if there is no department to supervise them, then these regulations will only become a dead letter......

Lorist shook his head and said, "This way, with Viscount Sredder as the leader, Governor Hicked and Viscount Camorra as deputies to negotiate with those temple messengers, and after reaching an agreement with those temples according to these eighteen regulations, establish a family territory temple supervision committee, and let each temple send a representative to this committee as a supervision committee. If a temple violates the ordinance, the Guanguan Committee can impose fines and confiscate the preaching area.

Any temple is required to pay an annual sum of money for the running costs of this overseer, from which each overseer's work expenses and benefits, as well as salaries, are deducted. In addition, the position of the Overseer may be part-time, without affecting his or her duties in the Temple. At the same time, half of the fine for the temple that violates the regulations can be used as a bonus for the investigating committee, and the other half goes to the operating costs of the supervisory committee. If a temple is confiscated, the precinct can vote on the Overseer Committee to elect the successor temple.

Lorist was confident that the Oversight Council he had proposed would soon become the bread and butter of the temples, which would no longer form a force against the Norton oversight, as they had done in the city of Moronte, but would instead fight each other to expand the preaching area and scope of their temples. Of course, the Norton family will also send corresponding personnel into this regulatory committee, otherwise the temple representatives in this regulatory committee will only break their heads......

The negotiation team led by Shi Fatzi and the representatives of various temples from Morente City conducted arduous tug-of-war negotiations, and finally in July, the eighteen regulatory agreements provided by the Norton family were deeply refined, and the standards for dealing with various contradictions and conflicts in various situations were formulated, and finally the two sides reached a satisfactory agreement. From this moment on, the Eighteen Articles of the Temple Surveillance became the official enforcement decree of the Norton family domain.

It's a win-win for the Norton family and the various temples. After allowing the various temples to enter the family territory to preach, the Norton family effectively pacified the people and used the hands of the temple to eliminate and defeat those cults that spread privately in the territory. The temples in the city of Moriente found a more suitable place for evangelism, and the wealthy northlands and lords were enough to ensure that they could expand their temple beliefs and establish a solid temple foundation.

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