The term "Divine Stick" has been known for a long time, but at least in a country as powerful as the Empire of Light, no one would dare to openly call the temple like this. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

But for many people in the Empire of Light, these seemingly sanctimonious clergy are out-and-out moths and garbage. In the Empire of Light, ordinary clergy are higher than commoners, and as for those high-ranking clergy such as bishops, priests, or archbishops, their status is even the same as that of the nobles of those empires, which explains why the Leo archbishop can appear at an imperial duke's dinner.

In the Empire of Light, the temples and the people who served in the temples, from the pope and cardinals to the ordinary priests and monks, were all free from secular control to a certain extent. Although they did not have the transcendent status of magicians beyond the laws of the Empire, the clergy also had a lot of convenience and power over the commoners and even the nobility, first of all, they did not have to serve, whether it was military service or slavery, and their status was higher than that of ordinary people, and their level of dignity was comparable to that of the noble class of the Empire.

They even have one thing that is superior to the nobles: the clergy do not have to pay taxes! In the Empire of Light, in addition to the royal family, even the most noble lords or noble families need to pay taxes to the empire on a regular basis. Throughout the Empire, there are only two groups that do not have to pay taxes, one is the Magic Guild, and the other is the Temple of Light.

But the problem is not only here, it is a deep historical legacy.

I don't know when Mondevideo IV began to feel as if someone was invisibly taking power from him in this vast empire. Those people had a hierarchy superior to the imperial hierarchy, privileges beyond the laws of the empire, a large number of territories and people, rich wealth and absolute power to be submitted.

They are not the aristocratic class of the Empire, although the nobles of the Bright Empire also have privileges, they also own land and people, and they can also influence the tax revenue of the empire to a certain extent, and some big families also have objective wealth and eye-catching power.

They are not a union of magicians, although magicians also have special powers beyond the world, and magicians are also exempt from paying taxes to serve, and even enjoy a tax revenue from the annual appropriation of the empire.

Mondevia IV saw more and more clearly the faces of these men, dressed in luxurious and noble costumes, with vast lands and people, rich in wealth and formidable power. They had a large armed force, and even their own lands and taxes, and they were more noble than the nobles and more worldly than the magicians. They enjoy all the privileges enjoyed by all the elite classes of the Empire, but they are not as loyal to the royal family as the nobles, but they are more inclined to worldly power than the magicians who are ignorant of the world!

Mondevideo IV finally saw these people clearly, these people were also embroidered with the sun pattern symbolizing the royal family, and they came and went with the same elite knights, enjoying the worship of a large number of believers and people, and even consciously or unconsciously competing with the royal family. These people are the clergy of the Empire of Light, whether they are the Pope or the priests, and Mondvia IV has only one name for them in his heart: Divine Stick!

It should be said that Mondevideo IV was a very good emperor, and from the beginning of his succession to the throne, he was clearly aware that the most terrible, the most stable, and the most threatening class of the royal power in this country was the seemingly noble Empire of Light. Mondevideo IV had not been a loyal believer since childhood, unlike his mediocre father and brother, and he had been aware of this since before he inherited the vast empire.

In the entire Empire of Light, that maverick temple was particularly dazzling. They did not serve, did not pay taxes, had a large number of land, people and wealth, but had little loyalty to the royal family. They have privileges, but they are particularly concerned about worldly power, and they are always consciously or unconsciously provoking the authority of the royal family!

If the Ellios family was suppressed simply because they were too powerful or because they were not liked by Montevia IV, then the temple was an incomparably great threat to him! This threat came precisely from the most vulnerable part of Mondevia IV's heart - power! He could not tolerate the existence of such a temple of light as a threat to the royal rule in such a large country as the Empire of Light.

If anyone knew what he was thinking, they would probably be surprised, because in the eyes of most of the people of the Bright Empire, the temple should have been high and should have been on an equal footing with the royal family. Even in many cases, the influence of the temple, which has a large number of believers and high status, is much higher than that of the royal family!

Since Maude the Great, no matter whether the royal family is powerful or weak, whether the pope of the temple is strong or pure-hearted. The coronation of every emperor was presided over by the Pope, and this even became a common practice, and the bane was laid. Because over time, such an act is undoubtedly sending a dangerous signal to the people: the coronation of the emperor is presided over by the Pope, so it seems that the emperor's throne should also be conferred by the Pope!

The Temple of Light naturally did not react to such public opinion, but for the imperial family, especially for every emperor, this kind of remark was definitely a challenge to his authority and a blasphemy against the dignity of the imperial family. The conflict between royal power and theocracy has been going on for a long time, and Mondevideo IV was not the first emperor to realize this, and there have even been some very powerful emperors in history, either openly or covertly trying to take back power from the hands of the temple.

About three hundred years ago, there was an emperor in the Empire of Light who was also dissatisfied with the authority of the Temple, and his name was Shaun II, but in the history of the Empire of Light, many people called him a "fallen monarch". The title comes from his hostility to the Temple, since he was a child, Sean II was deeply influenced by the idea of imperial power, determined to suppress the power of the Temple, and when he succeeded to the throne, he directly declared the so-called "divine right of kings", and openly refused to be presided over by the Pope of the Temple.

Such a move immediately caused an uproar at the time, and the temple's reaction was even more crisp, the then Pope directly announced that the throne of Sean II was not presided over by the Pope, which was equivalent to not receiving the blessing of the goddess of light, and it was an illegal throne. The propaganda of the temple undoubtedly had a great impact on Sean's rule, and many scheming nobles and princes of other royal families also attacked and questioned the legitimacy of Sean II's throne because they were instructed by the temple.

For a time, most of the forces of the entire empire had defected to the side of the temple, and His Majesty the Emperor, who was isolated and helpless, was almost in a desperate situation.