Chapter 545 [Sinclair's Worries]

Archbishop Sinclair looked at the magnificent temple with a worried expression.

Before coming to the northwest this time, he was still a little unimpressed. Although I had long heard that this Darling Chen had built a city in the northwest enclosure, the original impression of the northwest was that it was barren and sparsely populated. In his mind, the so-called new city built by Darling Chen in the northwest was probably just a dilapidated village.

But when he really came to this new city, Bishop Sinclair was shocked!

This new city built of loess bricks is not bad if it is beautiful, but at least it looks very imposing, and the building is quite grand. The houses and walls are atmospheric enough, and the streets are wide enough.

Although the population is not very large now, the small town of 10,000 people seems to be bustling.

What caught Sinclair's eyes the most was the temple!

The temple of the Peerless Martial Saint Sect!

Every evening, Sinclair stood on the second floor of his apartment, watching the sunset, and could hear the faint sound of prayer and singing in the wind.

The strange tunes of the songs, the vague lyrics, all made him feel very uncomfortable - as for the so-called "cultists" in white robes, Sinclair, who was a devout disciple of the goddess, felt uneasy!

He could clearly feel that the expressions and eyes on the faces of the believers in white robes were pious enough......! Individual people will have a faint crazy light in their eyes.

Sinclair is no stranger to this kind of light...... This kind of thing is called "fanaticism"! In the Holy Knights and Inquisition of the Temple of Light, the most devout cultists occasionally show such a gaze.

That magnificent and atmospheric temple, although it still looks a little simple, if it is the Cathedral of the Temple of Light in the imperial capital, the foundation of thousands of years of accumulation. Naturally, it looks much shabby. But in this northwest, it is already shocking enough.

In particular, Sinclair watched and observed from the sidelines for a few days, and the believers of these Peerless Martial Saint Sects prayed and sang every evening, and they had a complete set of rituals and a complete set of processes.

This made Sinclair even more uneasy!

Although there have been some other religions in the north and south of the Roland Empire since the empire opened the ban on religion, in Sinclair's opinion, they are all ignorant liars who are fooling around, petty fights to cheat money, and even many religions. There is not even a complete set of doctrines.

But...... This newborn Peerless Martial Saint Sect has made Sinclair feel like a great enemy!

Darling Chen is undoubtedly a religious genius! He formulated a complete set of doctrines, a complete set of etiquette norms, a complete set of prayer processes for this Peerless Martial Saint Sect, and even set a set of relatively strict internal personnel structure that Sinclair thought was very good: a general pyramid-shaped structure.

It can be seen that this Peerless Martial Saint Sect is by no means just a joke, this Darling Chen has ambitions that make Sinclair fear!

The most complicated thing for Sinclair was that he even had a lot of trouble with Darling Chen's Peerless Martial Saint Sect. There was a faint hint of envy!

Yes, it's envy.

In Darling Chen's territory, the Peerless Martial Saint Cult is the only religion.

That's it.

What made Sinclair, a veteran goddess believer, feel envious and even jealous the most was that Darling Chen had inadvertently accomplished something that the Temple of Light had wanted to do for a thousand years but had not been able to do:

Caesaropapism!

In Darling Chen's territory. Darling Chan himself is the supreme leader of the church and the ruling supreme leader here.

Civil Affairs, Production, Construction. Government, Military, Cultural ...... Religion!

All the powers are one.

Almost every household here believes in the Peerless Martial Saint Sect. Every household has a believer, or a servant of the church. At the same time, they were the people of Darling Chan, craftsmen, farmers, soldiers......

It's almost a small kingdom of independence, a perfect combination of government and religion!

What the Temple of Light had wanted to do for a thousand years but had failed to do, was done here by this Darling Chen—even though his territory and population were still weak.

Think about yourself...... The Temple of Light has been tirelessly fighting against the royal family of the Roland Empire for a thousand years, isn't this the situation it is asking for?

Based on this mentality, Sinclair has been quietly running into the street almost every evening in the past few days, coming to the street where the temple is located, and watching from a distance for a while.

Watch the faithful pray, sing—during the day, they take off their white robes, put on their work clothes, burn bricks, work as carpenters, blacksmiths, or take up arms as soldiers to patrol......

But in the evening, they would put on the robes of the believers and come to pray.

The more Sinclair looked, the more envious she felt...... At least in his heart, the kingdom of theocracy should be like this.

Pity...... They don't worship goddesses.

It's about what the martial gods...... Hum!

Heathen!

Sinclair didn't wear her own gown...... In fact, on her second day in the new city, Sinclair found herself an outlier.

This place is full of believers of the Peerless Martial Saint Sect, and if he goes out wearing the red robe of the Bishop of the Temple of Light, he will almost be like a lamb thrown into the wolves, which is really too eye-catching!

Wherever he went, he was watched and looked at with strange eyes.

Because...... Excluding dissidents and respecting their own religion is not something that the Temple of Light will do.

The Wushuang Martial Saint Sect founded by Chen Daolin also has a similar article in its teachings: except for the Wushuang Martial God, the rest of the Qiē religions are all false gods......

Here, Sinclair is helpless to find that he is a heretic.

Dressed in an ordinary linen robe borrowed from a servant, the bishop was able to walk the streets in peace.

There was some jamming at the other end of the street.

A house on the street was crushed by heavy snow the other day.

Originally, if it was in the imperial capital, no one would care about this kind of thing, and the homeowner could only consider himself unlucky. But here, in Darling Chen's domain, the situation is very different.

In the Peerless Martial Saint Sect, there is an organization called the "Brotherhood". This organization is not a full-time organization. It is composed of some devout believers in the church, as well as some members of higher prestige.

Based on the doctrine compiled by Dorin Chen, this organization promotes the doctrine of love and mutual help for all believers in the church. The Brotherhood has a diverse membership but draws only some of the most devout members of the faith, with strict rules and procedures.

The members of the brotherhood do the most on weekdays, which is to visit everywhere, and if there is something difficult in the believer's family, the brotherhood will try to lend a helping hand to carry forward the atmosphere of brotherhood and love for the family.

The owner of this house on the street was crushed by snow. Happens to be a believer. When the fraternity learned the news, it organized the members of the fraternity to come to the house to help build the house when they were on vacation.

This assistance is purely compulsory and does not receive a penny. As the host, it is enough to provide these craftsmen with meals when they are working.

This approach of the Brotherhood undoubtedly greatly strengthened the internal cohesion of the nascent church. Let more and more people feel the superiority of joining the church.

To put it bluntly, I feel that when I join this church, I have a great backing. When you encounter difficulties, you have a sense of security and steadfastness that someone will help you.

After a long time, it is naturally the desire of the people, and the sense of belonging to the church has become more and more solid.

Although the members of the fraternity are obligated to provide all kinds of assistance to the outside world, they also have a set of punishment mechanisms internally.

In the fraternity. We will also regularly commend the outstanding members of the meeting, that is, the advanced elements who have done a lot of things to help others in the recent past.

Those who receive the commendation will be received by the High Priest of the Peerless Martial Saint Sect, Lord Darling Chen.

Lord Darling Chan will give the medal. And it will be documented. In the coming year, when there is a change of position within the church, these members of the distinguished brotherhood will be promoted within the church.

Sinclair heard. Just before the New Year, there was a member of the Brotherhood who was honored for his recent excellence, and then his status was elevated from a servant of God to a full believer.

There is also a formal believer, who has also been promoted to deacon.

The current personnel structure of the Peerless Martial Saint Sect. In order from the lowest to the highest, they are: Servant of God (members of the unregular believers), full believers, deacons, bishops, priests, high priests.

The Supreme Leader, the High Priest, is naturally Darling Chan himself.

I heard that the core of his subordinates, the lady of his elven clan, sat in the position of a priest. Baron Pierre, the head of the interior of the new town, also occupied the position of priest. I heard that the young lady of the Liszt family also occupied the position of a priest.

Of the four priesthoods, one has been vacant for the time being, and it is said that Darling Chan is preparing to select a backbone of the army to fill it.

This made Sinclair a little uneasy.

The number one figure in Chen Daolin's army is naturally Montoya! Except for this holy knight, where else is he more important?

But Montoya was born in the Temple of Light, but he was born as a genuine holy knight, and he was a candidate for the head of the former Holy Knights!

Sinclair came to the northwest, in addition to showing Xiàn out of the Temple of Light's attraction to Darling Chen, another important task was to contact Montoya and Ade, the two people who had come out of the church to follow Darling Chen, in the name of Pope Heynckes.

These two are now the backbone of Darling Chen's command, and the church naturally wants to woo these two outsiders - and even beat one or two when comparing.

They can't really forget their original and their identity as goddess believers!

But what made Sinclair feel depressed was that he hadn't even gotten a chance to have a private contact with Montoya after coming for several days.

Montoya was present except for the first day of the knighthood - but in public, Sinclair didn't have a chance to say a few words to Montoya. That is, they greeted each other and saluted.

I remember that at that time, Montoya's impression of Sinclair was: cold.

Montoya simply saluted Sinclair as he could, and then stepped aside—something bad for Sinclair.

When he was in the imperial capital, he knew Montoya, and the two were no strangers to each other. After all, one is an archbishop and the other is a candidate for the head of the Holy Knights, both of whom are considered high-ranking members of the church, and it is normal for them to know each other well.

But when Montoya met in the northwest this time, when she saw Sinclair, she didn't seem to have the meaning of reminiscing.

The only thing that comforted Sinclair was that when she saluted, Montoya performed the ritual of a holy knight in the church.

But the problem is that in the next time, Sinclair wants to find an opportunity to talk to Montoya in private, and by the way, convey the meaning of the church's attention and importance to him...... But he couldn't find a chance again.

Montoya just left immediately after attending Chen Daolin's knighthood ceremony. Sinclair visited twice, only to be told that Lord Montoya was busy with military affairs and had gone to the Northwest Fortress to the north to inspect the defense line and put things in order.

As for Ade, who is in the other church, his position is not so important. According to Sinclair's understanding, Montoya can be said to be the first military person under Darling Chen, and that Ade is obviously not as important as Montoya, but was sent by Darling Chen to Paning to be a liaison officer, as for the military observation group and the like, Sinclair has no concept at all.

What made Sinclair feel helpless the most was that his task was not completed, so he naturally couldn't go back to the imperial capital in such a hurry.

But the knighthood ceremony has ended, but he doesn't leave. At first, Darling Chen was still very polite to himself, and would come to see him once a day to talk to him a few words, but then he gradually ignored it and left himself to the Baron Pierre.

The Baron Pierre, however, did not have the slightest good face, and although his attitude was quite polite, it was obviously much colder.

Especially that old face, every time I stare at myself, that face seems to say: What are you still doing here?

Fortunately, there was a war going on in the southern Panin defense area, which gave Bishop Sinclair a reason to continue: the roads were not safe during the war.

But I relied on it, and it seemed that it had been almost ten days.

The news of the great victory in Panin in the south has arrived.

At this moment, Bishop Sinclair could not find an excuse even if he wanted to stay.

Fortunately, it was at this time...... Montoya is finally back!'.

[I wish you all a happy new year and good health for the whole family!]

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(To be continued......)