Great time travel

Chapter 28, the holy city of Avignon

In the Provence countryside where the Black Death spread, apart from a few lucky farmers, two other types of people also survived a lot.

First of all, the lords and nobles huddled in the castle fortress. Their castles are generally far away from densely populated cities, and they are relatively closed.If these lords had implemented strict isolation measures immediately after the news of the plague spread, prohibiting merchants and travelers from entering, and not allowing their own people to go out without authorization, then the chances of surviving would be much higher-in the Black Death In the death frenzy of the invasion, less than one fifth of the people in the entire Provence region survived; but the number of nobles who survived was slightly higher than this sad ratio.

Of course, even those noble lords who are still alive, under the current desperate situation of "die as soon as you go out", can only hide in the house behind closed doors, letting the uninvited guests led by the traversers in their territory At the same time, he was worried that those militants would come to attack—not to mention how powerful these strange militants are, whether they can fight in or not, even if their castle is indestructible and well-defended, as long as they are attacked by such militants The help of outsiders brought in the plague during the battle, and these lingering dead houses had to be called by the Lord together.

But Li Wei and the others were "three lights" all the way (burning down the house, looting all the livestock, and losing all morals), and it was a lot of fun to move things and set fire to them, but they were not a real bandit group after all.Therefore, when they see those heavily guarded castles, they generally just bypass them from afar—negotiating with these vigilant and extremely neurotic guys and gradually disarming them is really too much trouble , and the benefits that can be obtained are limited.However, once they encounter the "undead castle" that has become a haunted house, they will unceremoniously break in and empty out any valuables inside: as the moral political commissar Guo said, this It's not devils entering the village, but waste utilization!

Then, even more troubling, were the missionaries of the country churches and monasteries—any time of catastrophic cataclysm is often the perfect time for a pandemic of religious fanaticism.Although the pervasiveness of the Black Death is frightening, there are still some fanatical priests who are not afraid of death walking around the streets, mobilizing the masses, spreading faith, and fooling them into doing various inexplicable things: beat yourself with a whip, use various Such strange ways to torture myself and my family, donate all property, wives and children, volunteer to work as cows and horses for the priests... I heard that Li Wei and his fellows from other places actually came to "rob business", or "rob The Lamb of the Lord", those radical magic sticks will naturally not have a good face.

Along the way from Marseilles to Avignon, there were mental patients shouting all kinds of strange slogans at both ends of the three days, and they appeared from time to time to oppose Li Wei and the others. The reason was simple and absurd-"The plague is God The punishment given to human beings, those who can cure diseases must be heretics and devils!"

Of course, after seeing the living "angels" perform miracles, and there are heavily armed knights and soldiers armed with threats, most of these fanatical magic sticks have regained their senses, and they all surrendered and knelt down, and even many people Immediately, he transformed himself into a die-hard fanatical follower of "Saint Li Wei".But apart from these guys who know the current affairs, there are also many diehards with granite heads. Even when they see an angel standing in front of them, they insist that this is an illusion or a devil, and they are about to fight with their fists aggressively. The appearance of normal communication.

Fortunately, although Europeans these days believe in the Virgin Mary, the idea of ​​the Virgin Mary like a white lotus is not very popular. Facing these fanatic religious lunatics who don't like oil and salt, Li Wei's team has no No one is loving enough to say "Treat them hard will turn more people into enemies. Treat them with kindness, give them everything they want, respect their personal beliefs, and reflect on what we did wrong to make them They will not follow to death"...but according to the typical medieval way of thinking, they decisively adopted a policy of humanitarian destruction against them. Whether they were young priests or archbishops, they were all treated as heretics, tied up and burned to ashes, so they didn't cause any trouble. What a mess.

Especially after more than 60 kilometers away from Marseille, they also met a cardinal who escaped from the city of Avignon to avoid the plague on the road.The cardinal seemed to have heard a little about the "miracle" of Marseilles, so at the beginning his attitude was quite arrogant. As soon as they met, he angrily accused Li Wei of abandoning the righteous way and worshiping heresy. As a priest serving God, This crooked way will never tolerate such a thing... But when a group of angels with wings floated over his head and aimed at his feet and cast a bunch of thunderbolts, he was immediately frightened to the point of shitting and making a fool of himself.

However, it’s okay to be scared, whether to admit it or not to admit it—although the living angel stood in front of him with an angry face, and even though the lightning cast by the angel had already exploded at his feet, the cardinal was still dead. The duck's mouth is stubborn, and he refuses to admit that the guy in front of him is an angel!
No way, you have to know what the religious people are most afraid of?The first fear is that a large number of believers will apostate or become atheists, and the second fear is of course that the true God will descend to earth—as the saying goes, "The closer to God, the less pious". They are high-level priests, and they usually know more about the gods they believe in... They may be happy to get a clay sculpture and wood sculpture, and spend a lot of money at the expense of labor and money to decorate it in a magnificent and beautiful way for Help yourself to fool believers to donate money and materials to present beauties, but you absolutely can't bear this clay sculpture and wood sculpture suddenly becoming a living thing, wanting this and that from yourself in a big way, and giving orders.

Indeed, Europeans in the Middle Ages were always known for their pious beliefs, and the clergy of the church kept declaring themselves as "servants of the Lord".But the problem is, if there was really an angel sent by God to the world to promulgate the decree at that time, the first reaction of the Holy See must be: "...The stake is ready, and the Inquisition is fully dispatched! Hurry up and send that pretending to be an angel." The birdman **** is on the road!"

Of course, it is more difficult to say who will send whom on the road next.There are more than one or two popes who died in an ugly manner in history. As long as this "angel" is powerful enough to resist the orders of the church, there will soon be many devout priests and nuns Don't throw away your morals, cut off the heads of those diehard bishops to repent... Otherwise, how do you think Protestantism came about in the future?

Therefore, in view of the fact that the granite-headed cardinal is really unable to communicate, and cannot act as a bridge between the traverser and the Holy See, the Levi knight who has been used to death in the past few years, after bowing his head for a while, can only quickly Regrettably, I blasted the cardinal into scum with a big fireball, and then continued on the journey, preparing to go to the city of Avignon to find the next senior priest who can communicate...

※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※

In short, everyone turned into a bandit group like this, burning villages, robbing things, extorting and extorting people, and plundering live people, evacuating countless abandoned villages, castles and monasteries, and burning a large number of heretics. All flames billowed and black smoke shot up into the sky, like devils crossing the border... But no matter how slow they walked, they finally approached the destination of this trip, the "Holy Land" of Avignon, where Pope Clement VI stayed.

——In 1348 when the Black Death broke out, the seat of the pope of the European Catholic Church was not in Rome, the eternal city of Italy, but moved to Avignon in Provence, France in 1309, known as "Avignon" in history prisoner".

The reason why this happened was originally because of the fierce conflict between the French king Philip IV and Pope Boniface VIII at the end of the thirteenth century-in the history of France, Philip IV was a A warlike and powerful monarch.In order to unify France and meet the military needs of fighting against Britain, Philip IV, who was short of financial resources, attempted to tax the church clergy who had been tax-free before, which naturally seriously damaged the interests of the church.

The new Pope Boniface VIII, who had just launched a coup and killed the previous Pope, was also a powerful figure. He immediately issued an encyclical in 1296 declaring that secular monarchs have no right to exercise any power over the church and clergy!This directly provoked a fierce struggle with Philip IV.

In the next few years, the two sides fought continuously, winning and losing each other.Finally, as the saying goes: Great minds disappear when all power is concentrated in one man—and, in many cases, there is no need to really concentrate all power in one man, And as long as this person thinks that all the power is concentrated on himself, he can turn him into a crazy idiot... Boniface VIII, who was eager to win, disregarded the fact that since the failure of the Crusades, the authority of the church has grown The reality of the decline in the rate of decline is actually ready to tear the face directly, first excommunicating the French King, announcing that he is no longer a Christian, anyone can rebel reasonably and legally, and then launch the Crusades to attack Paris!

——This not only seriously overestimates the existing appeal of the Catholic Church, but also pushes the Church to the precipice where it is hostile to the princes of all Europe.

Therefore, Philip IV, the king of France who got the news, decided to act first and played a leapfrog tactic under the acquiescence of other princes and many powerful factions in Italy. In 1303, he directly sent troops across the sea to attack The Papal State, led by the local power faction in Italy and the opposition within the church, broke into the villa of Pope Boniface VIII in one fell swoop.The invaders unceremoniously stripped Boniface VIII of his clothes, chained him up like a dog, paraded and beat him in public in Rome, and did everything he could to humiliate him, finally driving the Pope to death .

Next, Philip IV took advantage of the prestige of defeating Boniface VIII and forced a French bishop to become Pope two years later, named Clement V.But the problem is that the previous pope has always been monopolized by the Italians. When they learned that a gringo came to seize power, the pope in central Italy was suddenly in an uproar. Many Italian bishops openly declared that they would kill the French pope. !Faced with such an undisguised threat of death, the poor Pope Clement V did not dare to take office in the Vatican in Rome, for fear that he would die inexplicably as soon as he arrived in the Papal States.

But since he became the pope, he still had to go to the Holy See to take office, otherwise he would be automatically absent from work and resign.The countermeasure that Clement V came up with was reverse thinking: If I don’t take the mountain, let the mountain come and take me!Since those Italian cardinals do not welcome me, I will move the entire Holy See to France!After gaining the home court advantage, and backed by the King of Fa, the king of the land, let's see who we are going to punish whom!
Therefore, starting from 1309, with the great assistance of the King of France, the Catholic Church was moved to Avignon, and all subsequent popes were all French.It was not until 1377 that Pope Gregory XI got rid of the control of France and moved the Holy See back to Rome-but this was not the end of the Holy See in Avignon: just one year later, Gregory XI After the world died of illness, Avignon and Rome elected two new popes respectively, and the Germans (Holy Roman Empire) also stepped in and elected a third new pope!As a result, the three popes of the three nations of Germany, France, and Italy faced each other for a long time, sending troops to attack each other, and the "Catholic Schism" broke out that lasted for 40 years... By the end of the "Three Popes Rebellion", Avignon had fully served The Pope's residence for more than a century can be regarded as the religious holy place in medieval Europe second only to Rome.

Although the origin of the holy place of Avignon, no matter how you look at it, there is no sanctity to save all living beings, only naked battles and killings and power games... Moreover, the era of "Prisoner of Avignon" is also recognized It is an important historical turning point for the European Catholic Church to turn from prosperity to decline.But in any case, the presence of the Catholic Church and the spending power of those senior church members have indeed greatly revitalized the economy of Avignon, a small inland city, and brought a lot of wealth from France, Germany, Italy and even further afield. Places flowed in here, which stimulated the development and prosperity of the city. Leaving aside other things, the pilgrims and envoys who came and went to the Pope every year brought huge tourism revenue to Avignon.

Therefore, decades after the church settled in, this ordinary country town on the banks of the Rhone River has rapidly grown to a population of about 5. According to the social standards of medieval Europe, it can already be called a first-class city, almost able to It is on a par with Marseille, the capital of Provence.

The people of Avignon proudly believed that they replaced the Roman citizens and became the people closest to God and heaven in this world.

Regrettably, when the Black Death raged from the port of Marseilles, the divine power of the Catholic Church failed to keep the disease out of the city.

—Avignon was swallowed up by death after a short, meaningless struggle.

※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※

On the outskirts of Avignon, on the banks of the Rhone, Knight Levi and his group stood on the embankment, looking at the surging river, silent.

At this moment, among the tumbling waves of the Rhone River, there are countless rotten and swollen human and animal corpses. The number of them is so large that it even silts up the river, forming "floating islands" composed of corpses.And the originally clear river was also stained with a disgusting stench by so many corpses. The scene was so horrifying and miserable, it was like the Styx of hell. People couldn't help but want to vomit and cover their noses after seeing it.

Between the villages and fields on both sides of the Rhone River, there is also no smoke and rotting corpses everywhere.There are no farmers working in the fields, only wildly growing weeds, no pedestrians and caravans on the road, and no shadows of boats on the river... When everyone walks, it is like walking through a silent wilderness.

——Although this was originally supposed to be one of the richest regions in France with the highest degree of development, the richest products, and the most densely populated population!

And above the heads of their group, there are still a large number of crows croaking and gathering and circling all day long, as if they are waiting for something...

"...Well, it seems that the situation here in Avignon seems to be even more terrifying than in Marseilles!"

After staring blankly for a long time, Knight Li Wei finally broke the silence first, "... Hurry up and enter the city! This place is still waiting for us to save!"