"What does the Cabinet say?"

Constantine wanted to hear what they thought, and at the same time wanted to see their attitudes.

Calvo and Chavez looked at each other, stiffened their heads, and replied cautiously,

"The opinion of the Ecumenical Patriarch is that many secular clergy are willing to work for His Majesty and the Empire, according to the previous standards..."

"I'm not asking the Ecumenical Patriarch, I'm asking the opinion of the Cabinet."

Hearing Constantine say this, Calvo and the others breathed a sigh of relief,

"The opinion of the cabinet is naturally to try to select talents on our own, supplemented by the church's recommendation, and try not to let the church's power go any further."

The church is not harmonious, according to the way of practice, it can also be divided into secular clergy and ascetic, secular clergy are mostly well-educated, and actively participate in government affairs, when the state can control the church, secular clergy is the main source of imperial officials, many government officials are both politicians and theologians,

The ascetics, on the other hand, did not have so many requirements, but only needed to have a pious heart, so many uneducated people joined them, and for this reason they were often looked down upon by the secular clergy.

"So where is the cabinet going to receive talent?"

Constantine was puzzled, although he didn't want to admit it, but the power of the church at this time was too great, and many places that the administrative organs of the empire could not take into account were the churches and monasteries exercising the functions of government.

"We can relax the requirements and only require grassroots officials such as post envoys and storekeepers to be able to speak Greek, and for administrative personnel, such as officials of municipal and provincial governments, we can reduce the number of administrative personnel brought by provincial and municipal officials and be transferred by the central government, so that this group of people will have a higher level of education and stricter requirements."

The two of them already have a draft, so they answered the same answers.

"There are so many educated people, how should you select this group of people?"

Constantine asked again, he just wanted to see what the vision of the cabinet was, and whether it could play a role in opposing the church, even if only a little.

Constantine's aim was simple, to bring the church under the emperor's rule again, not only formally, but also to cooperate with all the actions of the emperor, and to follow the emperor's commands, as Constantine the Great, Theodosius the Great, and Justinian the Great did.

"It's better to conduct an assessment before they enter the company, screen out some talents with sufficient ability that the empire needs, and put them into work after simple training."

Calvo was ruthless, this proposal surprised Constantine, he didn't expect the cabinet to be so bold,

In any empire in the world, its official titles and titles are complementary to each other, in the East due to the implementation of the imperial examination system, the common people have opened the way to rise, but the West is different, the Western aristocracy is too powerful, the Western European fiefdom system allows the local nobles to have the strength to confront the king, in the Roman Empire, the governor is generally the senator, the Roman Republic, the tribune, the consul and even the dictator, none of them are ordinary people, even if you are from a civilian background, and really super capable, Outstanding meritorious service, in the process of rising, will definitely be recruited by the nobles,

Obviously, a count-governor wants to control the counties and dukes under his command, unless the emperor really cares about you, don't think about it, others are impossible to be convinced.

The assessment system means that capable people can be in a high position, and get the support of the central government, with the help of the central government, to be able to do things, but this breaks the European tradition for thousands of years, this is not a family and a country thing, no one will admit that they are worse than others, and more importantly, as a duke is worse than a viscount, does this mean that the family reputation is damaged, for European nobles, this is the most unacceptable thing.

"That's it, the nobles can agree? Or did the cabinet itself think it privately and didn't say it? ”

Constantine frowned, in his opinion, this is simply child's play, it is very simple to put people in that position, but if you want people to cooperate with you, how can you not convince people, in the face of a duke, no matter how rampant a person is, he will calm down, in the face of a knight, how can an ordinary nobleman put it in his eyes,

As for the promotion of knighthood, the large-scale flood of titles will inevitably lead to a decline in the credibility of the state, the aristocracy is a privileged class, Constantine recognizes and will maintain this, otherwise he will have no foundation to govern the country, the common people have a very low political voice, the economic voice is not high, and the military is not as good as the nobles who have received military training since childhood, that's all, unless a small country like Dietmarshin may still be able to let the peasants as the main body, Byzantium should not think about it.

"We didn't think about it in one step, and the assessment was divided into two forms,"

Calvo explains,

"One is the aristocratic assessment, this part of the people we plan to mainly add them to the supervision department, and use their names to deter the bulls, ghosts, snakes, and gods, and the other are high-ranking officials in various provinces and cities,"

"There is also a civilian assessment, which can hire some more talented civilians to be the deputies of the mayors of various municipal administrative districts, so that they can learn from experience first, so as to prepare for the future."

Constantine pondered for a while,

"Bring in Kyrius, and I'll ask him for his opinion."

There was silence in the chamber, and Constantine was secretly thinking about it, waiting for the arrival of Kyrius.

As time passed, Kyrius also appeared in front of several people, and after saluting, he exchanged a few more words of greeting, and then Constantine spoke,

"How's the state of the Senate, Kerrius? The life of the patriarchs is still gone, right? ”

"With the concern of His Majesty Lao, the old nobles have set up factories in various places, and the embarrassing situation of the nobles has been alleviated."

Kyrius is the highest-ranking meritorious senator, and there are only a few meritorious veterans in total, so naturally he is equivalent to the leader of the nobility.

The senators of the Senate are divided into three levels from top to bottom: meritorious senators, tolerant senators and righteous senators, and meritorious senators, as the highest level of nobility, are in the political center of the empire, and naturally become the spokesmen of the aristocracy.

The aristocratic senators did not have fiefs, and some honorary nobles who did not have fiefs could only rely on the royalties issued by the empire to survive, and it was certainly not enough to be luxurious, so in the development of Constantine, the nobles devoted themselves to it even if they borrowed money.

"Hmm... I came to you because I wanted to ask you,"

Constantine paused,

"The empire is much larger than it used to be, so naturally it will need to increase the number of administrators, but..."

Before he finished speaking, Kyrius's eyes lit up,

"Your Majesty wants me to recommend a candidate? No problem, I'm willing to go to the trouble for Your Majesty. ”

"Of course, of course, I naturally believe in your loyalty, but a big tree can't make a forest, and we need more people."

Kyrius hesitated,

"That's... What does Your Majesty need me to do? ”

"The cabinet proposes to conduct separate evaluations among nobles and commoners, so that capable people can be in high positions and better display their talents, do you think the noble senators will agree to this proposal?"

"It's... That's great! ”

Kyrius' face was full of joy.

“？？？”

The three of Constantine looked at each other, puzzled by Kyrius' reaction.

Calvo coughed lightly,

"Aren't you worried about causing confusion by doing so, Elder Kyrius?"

"Chaos? What confusion? The capable go up, the mediocre go down, this has been handed down since the republic, what do these nobles who have no ability to eat and eat farts dare to say? ”

Kyrius was disdainful, but judging from his status as a representative of the aristocracy, his words basically represented the general opinion of the nobles.

"Then, aren't you worried that the nobles will be replaced by commoners?"

Kyrius laughed,

"His Excellency the Prime Minister will joke that the nobles have to learn etiquette, Greek and Latin, equestrianism, archery, swordsmanship, theology, logic, rhetoric, law, and so on from an early age, and that even if there is talent among the common people, it is impossible to compare it with a good nobleman, especially the nobles of the Roman Empire, who are more models of aristocracy."

Constantine's doubts were gone, even the biggest nobles didn't care, so he had nothing to worry about.

This is actually the reason why the aristocracy is too arrogant, they are so well educated, the country's resources are tilted, no one is afraid that the common people will surpass them, as long as it does not involve their fundamental interests, everyone has an attitude of indifference, and what are these fundamental interests? Official position? Title?

In fact, no, the most fundamental interest is fiefdom, or land, the Byzantine Empire is a large agricultural country, at its peak, the population of free farmers accounted for 85% of the country's population, there are people with land, and some people have the capital to compete with the government, not to mention that now the commoners are only arranged as deputies, even if they become provincial governors, as long as they are not justices, inspectors and the like, they don't care at all.

"Thank you, Patriarch Kyrius, for your answer."

After this, Constantine sent him out.

"Call all the cabinet members over, and let's arrange the assessment."

This expansion is mainly aimed at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Finance, while the War Department and the Ministry of the Navy have only a small number of symbolic recruitments, and none of them are very important posts.

After a short time, all the cabinet members arrived, and they were originally working not far from here, and the offices of several departments were located here.

After briefly explaining the matter of the assessment, Constantine gave the order,

"Each department issues exam questions according to its own situation, recruits in the face of the whole country, and the identity and background of the candidates must be examined, and if they are Sunnis who have converted to Christ, they do not have to refuse, as long as they are of good character and are not spies."