In these places, as in other parts of the Purple Horde, the church was largely needed to sustain education. Even the improvement of seeds and the study and introduction of excellent crops are in fact the traditional work of the church.

Zhu Wenkui told Guo Kang that he was puzzled by the situation. But Guo Kang thinks it's normal not to understand - he didn't understand it himself at the beginning, but later he understood it when he thought about ancient times.

In order to explain this reason to Zhu Wenkui and others, he thought about this issue for a while, and finally decided to use an example from ancient times.

The church is a religious organization, but in ancient times, historians, shamans, Confucian scholars, and even musicians, these professions related to sacrifices, secretaries, rituals, music, and so on, were also one.

For example, "Shuowen Jie Zi" says that Confucianism means sorcerer. Since the Yin Shang period, there have been people who have been responsible for presiding over various ceremonies, especially on important occasions of funerals. These people who master the rules of etiquette and specialize in presiding over ceremonies for people are called "Confucianism". Later, because of frequent contact with books and understanding of etiquette and culture, the scale of this term grew, and finally became a synonym for various readers.

It's the same on the European side. Those who administer religion inevitably preside over ceremonies and rituals, and those who preside over these important ceremonial occasions inevitably hold other positions. If they want to manage the sacrifices, they have to have a certain amount of knowledge and the ability to educate and learn. And all kinds of etiquette rules also need a large number of records as support, and can be spread and promoted everywhere.

Therefore, the normal development of the church will naturally have these functions.

The only problem is that Europe is lagging behind. Compared with the Central Plains, they are still at the level of the three generations of antiquity.

But fortunately, their organizational skills are much stronger than those of Confucianism - or, according to the standards of the Central Plains, there is not even a normal country at the level of the three dynasties of antiquity. Contrary to the previous crackdown on Taoist organizations, the local government had neither the motivation nor the ability to prohibit these "Western Confucians" from establishing organizations, and even to support their organizations and allow them to maintain basic administrative order. In the end, it became what it is now.

From this perspective, we can see why the church has so many additional functions.

Teaching is one of the most basic requirements of Confucian students in the Central Plains, and it is also a rare ancestral skill that has not gone out of fashion in various eras. On the European side...... You can't expect the illiterate tribal chiefs to teach. Therefore, it is only the church that can build schools.

The same is true for the introduction of improved varieties and the selection and breeding of various high-yielding grains, cash crops and even bees. In the Central Plains, it is called "persuading peasants", which is the basic professional requirement of intellectuals in the government, but as we all know, there is no such level of government in Europe...... Therefore, the related industries can only be left to the church to be responsible.

Similarly, the Church is one of the greatest patrons of music and the arts. Europeans also have the same need for "etiquette", thinking that only the Central Plains are poor and exquisite, and Europeans do not pay attention to etiquette and hierarchy, and that they can't bend their legs, which is a level of misunderstanding.

And it is the church that provides this kind of talent support. Liu Bang lost Confucianism, and the ministers just didn't pay attention to their behavior; The kings of Europe had no church, and not only did there be no festival or music in the court, but even the one who could count was gone......

As for the various ceremonies, including funerals, of course, the church is also responsible for it. In terms of the importance embodied in funeral rites, the church and the early Confucian scholars are the same thing.

Even, directly facing the church, the rituals, music, books, and mathematics can find that most of these functions overlap. As for the other two, it's not obvious. It's not that the priests don't - many remote places are extremely dangerous, and if you want to preach, you really need to have martial arts. But the church here really can't beat the barbarian tribes, so these things don't have a sense of existence.

From this point of view, it can be found that the church is actually an ancient witch organization whose functions have not been separated. Although knowledge in all aspects has developed and changed, and the current society is more developed than the three generations of antiquity, the organizational ability of the secular government is too stretched, resulting in the fact that these functions cannot be separated if they want to, so they can only continue to hold together and squat in the framework of the church......

In this way, the guests from the East will be able to understand.

In fact, it is true that the grassroots clergy not only preside over ceremonies, but also act as teachers, and often play the role of the three elders. Even at the time of the rebellion, these people belonged to the core talents like the lower-class scholars in the Central Plains. Guo Kang had suspected that the English were incapable of organizing, but that was a special case of England, not a common European character—it was all too common for priests to take the lead in rebellion and war in Germany and even in Eastern Europe. This situation is brewing now, and it will continue to emerge for hundreds of years to come.

In this way, it is easy to understand why it is only a matter of purchasing raw materials, but the church thinks it can help.

The teachings of the Roman Church, though very heretical in the eyes of people of other denominations, are the most important thing about the Church not in these doctrines, but in its organization.

Grand Lama Wang himself understands very well. In the early years, when Guo Kang first went to the church and tried to get support to conduct research, Lama Wang told him.

He told Guo Kang not to care too much about Jingyi, just understand those things in general, as the child of the commander and the future leader, he should pay attention to more essential things.

Believers are concerned about the various public services provided by the church—and of course, spiritual service is also important. But the key point lies in the services themselves. As long as you have a reasonable and self-consistent scripture, ordinary people don't really think too deeply, so people don't care which scripture you preach.

The so-called doctrine is actually a kind of rule to be followed. Its greatest function is to establish a common faith across geographies, to organize people through common theological ideas and ritual rules.

- Like the countries of the Central Plains, it is impossible to rely on those barbarian states, or the legitimacy of the barbarian states must in turn depend on the churches they provide, and such a common idea is needed to maintain the existence of the organization.

And in many cases, the accumulation of civilization here is far from enough, and there are no ways to come up with a variety of methods in the Central Plains. There is no choice but to continue to work hard for Heavenly Father and Heavenly Brother......

This is true even if the church hates heresy so much. For them, the infidels are the enemy of the cards, and everyone is already on the side. But heresy can undermine this "common understanding" that is so rare and valuable in Europe.

Therefore, even if ordinary people may not understand the difference, the church still has to strike hard at heresy, and strive to discover and eliminate it immediately in the embryonic stage, which seems to be much more sensitive than its counterparts in the Central Plains. Actually, this is also a very practical reason.

(End of chapter)