He left the country unhindered, for he was neither armed nor any other forbidden items, and he was indeed a priest of the Order of Geoffrey, so no one thought of stopping him. He was originally a native of Tournest, so he didn't need a guide to find the way to the parish of Ruhrhof - although the roads were now smooth, the directions and directions were not much, and it was easy for him to recognize.

He had walked thirty-five miles that day, and had reached a chapel in Lees, where it was getting late, and there he begged for food, and the natives brought him bread, cheese, and wine, and he accepted only bread, sprinkled it with salt, soaked it in clean water, and ate it.

He had finished praying and was eating, when he heard the sound of stones rolling outside.

"Is that the devil?" Puzzled in his heart, he drew a cross, and when the people next to him saw him, they told him that he was a miner, digging iron ore all night.

He walked out suspiciously, and by that time it was already dark, and he could see hundreds of torches on the hill, shining on the night shift miners where they were digging raw materials for the baroness's blast furnace. From the mines to the village, in the light of torches, horses, donkeys and porters carrying baskets and carts, the villagers proudly told him that these night workers were workers who came from the parishes of Romutto, Sogeny and even Rulhof in search of work, since daytime work was customary for the inhabitants of the parish of Tournest.

"Are so many people from other parishes?" The ascetic asked in surprise.

"Yes," said the local residents proudly, "they don't have anything to eat there." There are so many ghosts, don't they come to us? They are very religious people. Although he was poor, he ate nothing more than shallots and turnips. They drank whey, but once a month they had to go to the city of Turnest to pay their respects to St. Aubrey, to give a day's wages and thank him for giving them bread and security. ”

This made the ascetic even more anxious, because he thought that only the inhabitants of his own district were being deceived, and that the people of other parishes were also lured to this sinful place by bread and safety: "Do their bishops and priests leave them alone? ”

"Hey, are you just from abroad? Where can the mana of their bishops and priests compare to that of our bishops! The local population showed undisguised contempt for the clergy except for the Bishop of Tournest: "They can neither give birth to a pregnant woman in peace, nor drive away the evil spirits that possess the little ones, and their holy relics and prayers are useless – who does not know." They're just a bunch of liars. ”

"Liar?" Although it was an ignorant peasant who spoke, such blatant blasphemy surprised the ascetics.

"Naturally a liar!" The speaker was triumphant and unscrupulous, "They receive a lot of offerings, whether they are rich or poor, they always take the last two copper plates in the name of the gods and saints, leaving no one behind, but when a pregnant woman has a difficult birth, and a child is entangled by evil spirits." Their gods and saints are powerless! - In our case it is different, when the pregnant women are about to give birth, they go to St. Aubrey and stay in the hospital run by the venerable bishop. Then you can come back happily with a healthy baby in your arms – not like a dangerous birth, but like a relaxing trip. ”

"Really?"

"Ah, you can go anywhere and take a look. I assure you, there is no place in Neustria that is protected by St. Aubrey. He has many children and is healthy and lively. Untroubled by demons, each family here is comparable to the blessed Job when it comes to the number of children. There are three other families in the village who are pregnant and about to give birth, and I bet they are all happily preparing supplies for the pilgrimage to Turnest, and you will never see them afraid of the evil spirits that people everywhere else are accustomed to fear when women give birth! ”

Isn't it a great violation of God's intention to punish sinners who have eaten two fruits, even though they are rejoicing and are not afraid of the dangers of childbirth, and that the children they have thus given birth to are healthy and lively, because the women who were condemned by God to suffer the pain and danger of childbirth?

After steasing himself, he asked, "The children of every house are as many as Blessed Job, and they will have a daily bread?" ”

"Of course, with St. Aubrey and our most venerable bishop, how can they starve? Even if there is no iron ore here, there is enough land to feed them - since the new bishop took office, the fields here have yielded as much harvest in one year as in the past three years, and new fields have been cultivated, and even people from other dioceses have come here to farm for bread, and the children will never go without food! They will be healthy and live a long life, with plenty of bread and milk every day until the appointed day. ”

In other words, they don't expect to go to heaven one day sooner.

The ascetic had seen a similar attitude in the case of his uncle, a wealthy city butcher, who was so indulged in lucrative trading and worldly pleasures that he was preoccupied with the god of wealth and wine, and not much about heaven and the salvation of the soul, I am afraid.

His cousin, who had been nurtured by such people before, was now ......

He clenched his fists.

That night, the servants, who had been waiting for the bishop's cousin, finally reported the matter to the bishop, and after a series of searches with the population of the city gates, the direction of his exit from the city gates was determined—two fast horses were dispatched, but by the time they finally reached Leth, the ascetics had already gone overnight.

Thus the ascetic hurried day and night to the parish of Lerhof, and he saw a steady stream of people rushing to Tournest, to the abyss of blasphemy and depravity, and he had been astonished by the audacity of the villagers of Leos, but who were anxious to get out of the sea of suffering that God had given them, said that they were ten times bolder and more impudent than the villagers of Leth—what a sin it would be for the cousin who had seduced them—and he was so worried that he could scarcely eat, and when he reached the parish of Luhrhof, He was so disfigured that the Church could not make out of his relationship with the bishop from his face.

When he told the archbishop's men that he was a relative of the Bishop of Tournest and wanted to accuse the Bishop of Tournest of misconduct, they all thought that he was a relative of the previous bishop who had died in the divine judgment, because his present image had a resemblance to the dignity of the living skeleton, but he firmly denied this, and they knew that he was a relative of the current bishop, and that he had accuse him out of justice and not blood feud. (To be continued......)