Franz looked at the beautiful letterhead, and he couldn't help but wonder what Pius IX was thinking. To be honest, the British attitude towards the Great Famine in Ireland had raised Franz's blood pressure, and he didn't want to know what the Pope had to think about anymore.

Just letting out all the liberals in which Gregory XVI was imprisoned was enough to give Franz a headache.

Although the leper was not a good man and his methods were not very clever, at least he would not do such a self-digging thing.

Franz really couldn't think of how those shrewd cardinals could put such a person on the pope, and what he didn't know was that the latter's bowels were blue at this point.

As soon as Pius came to power, he first released the Vatican's felons, and then in the second step he swung his knife at the cardinals who pushed him to power.

The position of the cardinal is actually very respectable, and even the king usually has no power to remove him, or even the ability to do so.

But even the strongest fortress is fragile inside. These people, who are not usually bound by secular dogma, are unable to resist the will of the Pope.

It's not that no one wants to remove the pope, but to remove the pope, it is necessary to convene an ecumenical council with the participation of all cardinals.

However, it is not known whether the Pope had anticipated this day or whether he had acted in a crooked manner, and as soon as he came to power, he appointed a large number of cardinals from outside Europe, who chose not to pay tithes.

In the absence of the cardinals, the Grand Council could not be convened, or rather did not have enough credibility, and as a result, Pius IX was invincible.

The cardinals, who had previously claimed to remove the Pope by removing the Ecumenical Council, were the next targets, and the crime of defamation of the Holy See was big enough.

At this time, the only ones these cardinals can turn to are the powers, but the powers who have been tricked before also want to save face, and the latter know that the cost of wading into this troubled water is too great.

Because in the field of religion, the pope himself occupies the moral high ground, and at the same time it is an internal affair of the papal state, although the pope's operation is somewhat outrageous, as long as those words are not put into action, the great powers have no right to interfere.

Seeing that their opponents could no longer be defeated by conventional secular means, the cardinals thought of a method of spreading rumors.

Just before Pius IX ascended the throne, there were various natural disasters, especially the failed exorcism ritual and the devoured Vatican Gardens, all of which became the best material.

It's just that the more they choreograph, the more terrible they feel, because the disasters in recent years have indeed been too dense.

Droughts, floods, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, locust plagues, plagues (cholera), meteors (meteorites), and the completely unexplained late blight of potatoes are also classified as strange forces.

In this way, the ninth generation of Pius is completely the descendation of the demon king, and at this time, those "Satan" believers were released to manage the country.

At that time, the church often referred to non-believers as "Satan" believers, which was simply an either/or diode mentality.

So even if Franz was not religious, he had to pretend to be very religious, and even acquiesced to the character of "born saint".

Because accepting it will be much less troublesome, and not accepting it will put you in a passive position.

As for Pius IX, although he released the political prisoners held by the Vatican, he even appointed a large number of liberal officials.

Wherever he went, he chose to sit on a throne carried by twelve strong servants, always surrounded by hundreds of noble guards with muskets on their backs, Swiss guards armed with halberds, and papal generals still dressed in medieval armor.

This pomp and circumstance contrasted sharply with the ordinary people of the Papal States, who often had to feed their hunger on wild herbs and were poorly clothed.

At the same time, none of the Holy Water Company, the Holy Spirit Bank, and the Evangelical Pius IX set up by the previous pope were lost, and he chose to accept them all.

What's even more outrageous is that after the new pope came to power, he is also going to engage in a new model, that is, joining agents, allowing countries to pay for these projects in the name of the church on their own land, and then everyone will share the money.

A series of operations almost knocked Franz's jaw off, and the modern profiteers are no more than that. is ready to use the great powers as tools, and he still cuts his own leeks.

Mrs. Sophie actually thought about it seriously, and she seemed to be profitable.

"Franz, it may be good for Austria to have good relations with the Papal States, and those companies can also make money, and you see His Holiness says that these businesses support 80% of the tax revenues of the Papal States."

Franz held his forehead, his mother was really not suitable for business.

"His Holiness the Pope really makes money, so why do you borrow money from us every year? The taxes of the Papal States as a whole were not as large as the donations received by the Pope personally.

It is not certain that 80% of the Papal States alone can be compared to one of our Austrian provinces. You don't need to compare it with too rich provinces.

Compared with the more remote Galicia and Vojvodina, the Papal States' million-dollar tax collection is a joke, and even the Hungarians are better than them. ”

Mrs. Sophie was still a little hesitant, mainly because she especially wanted Franz to have a relationship with the Pope, which was actually a kind of traditional thinking at the time, believing that the royal family should have a good relationship with the church, so as to facilitate the use of its influence.

The problem is that the influence of the royal family is much stronger in Austria than in the Church, and the local Church has long been tamed and has not been approached by the so-called Pope at all.

"Franz, you are so good at business, maybe these businesses can be revitalized in your hands? I remember you selling all the uniforms I produced.

Why can't this little thing be done? ”

"Mother, we in Austria also have our own Holy Spirit Bank and Holy Water Company, but the former is used to help farmers and subsidize small businesses, and the latter sells alcohol, bleach, toothpaste, soap, toilet paper, and so on.

Although these things have not been fully accepted by the public at this time, the benefits are real.

And what is the Papal States selling? A glass of river water that I don't know how many days it has been put on costs 20 florins! If you exchange it for copper coins, fill a bag full of it!

(20 florins equals 9,600 quarter-fennigs, which is the smallest currency commonly used in trading, but there are smaller ones, but they are usually only used in the countryside.) ）

And the so-called Holy Spirit Bank is a loan shark! They would do anything for money, and if Jesus had known, they would have jumped down from the cross and beaten them! ”

Franz was about to speak when he was knocked on the head by Mrs. Sophie.

"How can you make fun of the Son?"

"Please forgive me, Amen!" Franz crossed the cross, he didn't want to continue to struggle with Mrs. Sophie, but something had to be said.

"Mother, do you think that if it is really so profitable and so good, then why don't the Jesuit priests under the Pope do it themselves?

There are seven big lies in the East, which are: asking for children with a lot of money, hiring with a high salary, selling at a loss, transferring a prosperous shop, recycling at a high price, joining an agent, and next time. ”

(End of chapter)