At the same time that Alfonso was developing his reform plans, the trial of the guilty nobles was proceeding in an orderly manner.

Obviously, no one wants to die, let alone die by execution, which is more humiliating than falling to death on horseback.

But the official money for them to buy their lives is not cheap, and the higher the title, the larger the amount.

Now that the power of capital is rising, the income of the aristocracy has not dropped significantly, but they need to spend more money to cope with the new luxuries.

Even in a traditional country like Spain, there are not a few nobles who borrow money to get by.

Originally, this joint operation with the clergy was a speculation, and whether it worked out or not, the wealthy earls and archdukes would lend more money.

But the operation suffered a complete failure, and even if many people were lucky enough to save their lives, they would inevitably face deportation.

Losing the title and having to go to other countries is obviously worthless.

In normal times, for the sake of their own honor and face, the earls and archdukes would keep their promises.

But the fines of so many people add up, and the gap is too big, and it is beyond their ability.

Not to mention that they can't protect themselves now, how can they still have the effort to care about so much, and the previous promises are naturally impossible to do.

In this case, at least half of the five thousand nobles who faced the most severe penal punishment could not make up enough fines, and these fellows had neither property nor estate, and lived on a single title.

Alfonso couldn't help it, except to say that there are always people who are going to die in the midst of change.

In fact, the relationship between the nobles is intertwined, and if you can set aside enough time, you may not have the opportunity to make up the fine.

But Alfonso's goal is to punish the opposition, not to take advantage of the opportunity to make money, and this cannot be delayed.

On July 20, the first death sentence was pronounced, and it was none other than Father Clarit.

The rules of the clergy were not common to the nobility, and in the Church only a few high-ranking clergy took an explicit part in the opposition to the royal family, and the priests below were at best indignant and did not take any real action.

These high-ranking clergy were all named, and there was no chance of redemption, so none of them wanted to run.

Because of the nature of the public execution of a clergyman, Clarit had been suspended by Bishop Andrew before he was executed.

Even so, he was still a priest of the Church, so Alfonso sent a letter to Pius IX, asking him to dismiss the priests.

This was of course impossible, and if it did, it would mean that the Roman Church had completely fallen under the control of Spain.

This covenant means that Alfonso will exterminate whoever he wants, and the whole world will be in opposition to Spain and the Church.

Therefore, Pius IX flatly rejected the offer.

But seeing the priest beheaded is also very bad.

So the Pope proposed to Alfonso that they could make a public statement recognizing the autonomy of the Spanish Church.

What Spain wants to do in the future has nothing to do with them.

In the tone of Pius IX, the specifics of this "irrelevant" are rather vague,

To put it simply, Bishop Andrew could dismiss Clarit on his own, and Rome would not recognize the legality of the excommunication, but would not impose any penalty on Andrew.

In this way, Clarit has a dual identity, but the left and right are just a posthumous name, and they are not important figures, everyone is dead, what is the identity after death, does it make much sense.

Of course, this treatment is at best a fig leaf, barely able to maintain the holy appearance of the church in front of the common people.

The prestige of the Church would still suffer greatly, and once introduced, countries such as France and Austria-Hungary would inevitably pursue the same religious status, and Rome would be put to the test quite severely.

In compensation, Pius IX said that the Spanish clergy should relinquish the power of the cardinals, and that this time had gone far beyond what he had agreed with Alfonso, and that Spain should provide more help to Rome.

Alfonso read the Pope's reply carefully, and smiled, this kind of thing just can't stop after it starts.

A while ago, Pius IX personally held a consecration ceremony for Andrew, and he had completely tied Rome and Spain to death.

If we can unswervingly follow Spain in the future, we may have a bright future.

But if it is capricious, it will offend everyone.

Therefore, even if the excommunication is a rather excessive request, the Pope is willing to help deal with it.

It's just that the other party obviously saw that he wanted to push Andrew to the throne, so he incidentally proposed that the Spanish priest could not serve as a cardinal.

This condition Alfonso could not agree to, and it was extremely unfair to the Spaniards that he could not serve as pope if he could not serve as a cardinal.

But he didn't want to persecute Pius IX too much, and he had recently let Rome do so much of a favor, and he wanted to give some expression.

It just so happened that the Pope sought the benefit of Rome at the end of his letter, indicating that the Church, having suffered a double blow from Italy and Spain, sensed that the theocracy was gone, and was ready to devote more attention to the Papal States.

The Papal States now have a population of 3 million, and the potential of building them well should not be underestimated.

At this point, Alfonso began to write a reply to the question of the issuance of a national bond in Spain through Pius IX's repeated proposals.

In the letter, he also promised to inject 2.5 million pounds into the Roman railway company in private names within a year for the construction of the main railway line from Rome to Reggio Calabria.

At present, Alfonso does not have so much money, but the new cigarettes are about to go on sale, and the low price is destined to wash the entire European market, and then there will be money.

Sure enough, the reply was delivered, and the Pope once again chose to give in.

The Church has no bottom line for Spain.

Within two days, Pius IX made a public declaration: "Considering that King Alfonso is a man who has been blessed by the Lord, in order to carry out the will of the Father at the first time, the Spanish Church is allowed to act cheaply to a certain extent." ”

Not long after this, Bishop Andrew, who had taken up the three positions of the new office, jumped out and announced that Perrigriner, Clarit and others would be excommunicated from the church and permanently excommunicated them.

Note that this does not include Bishop Antonio, as he did not intervene in the matter after he was scared away from Alfonso, and showed absolute neutrality in subsequent actions.

Considering that Antonio, despite his corruption, had not meddled in politics for decades as a clergyman, and that he was old, Alfonso decided to let him go.

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