Rise of Empires: Spain.

Chapter 54: It is difficult to be guilty, and it is even more difficult to be innocent (begging to read)
Inside the huge and luxurious Royal Palace of Madrid, a conversation with a special meaning is taking place.

"Your Majesty, what is Prime Minister Primo going to do? Is he going to destroy the entire Spanish Church?" Archbishop Pedro showed his innocence and indignation as soon as he saw Carlo, trying to win Carlo's sympathy.

"What happened? Bishop Pedro." How could Carlo not understand what the people in the church had suffered? Carlo was even one of the planners of the plan to cleanse the church.

But it is better to pretend not to understand at this critical moment. At least Archbishop Pedro's indignation has been shared by Prime Minister Primo, and Carlo will not suffer any losses.

“I know that the assassination of Prime Minister Primo is a serious matter, but you can’t arrest the bishops of the church without evidence, right?

Your Majesty, the government has arrested more than ten bishops, and the arrest operation is still ongoing. If you don't stop it, I'm afraid I will be arrested by Prime Minister Primo tomorrow." Archbishop Pedro continued.

"It's not that serious, right? Bishop Pedro. I agreed to conduct a full-scale manhunt in Madrid. If a bishop is arrested, they must be suspects, right?

If you have any questions, you can go to Prime Minister Primo to protest. Marquis Primo is not an arbitrary person. If you can prove the innocence of those bishops, the government will definitely release them. "Carlo will not hinder Primo's cleansing of the church. The best way is to kick the ball to Primo.

Carlo's meaning was very simple. If Archbishop Pedro had sufficient evidence to prove that the bishops were innocent, he could certainly put pressure on Prime Minister Primo and demand that the government release the church personnel.

But this is where the difficulty lies.

Although Prime Minister Primo did not have complete evidence to prove the church's responsibility, it was still easy for him to produce some evidence to accuse these church members.

Proving guilt is difficult, proving innocence is even more difficult.

Archbishop Pedro obviously does not have enough evidence to prove the innocence of those church members, which also means that Prime Minister Primo has sufficient evidence to continue detaining those church members.

Seeing that he could not find any sympathy or shelter from Carlo, Archbishop Pedro finally realized that something was wrong.

Either Carlo really knows nothing and naively believes that the government's arrests are justified.

Either Carlo knew everything, or even the arrest of church members was planned by Carlo and the government with the purpose of liquidating the church.

But no matter which outcome it is, it is not a good thing for the current church and Archbishop Pedro.

If we cannot get the support of the king and rely solely on the power of the church to fight against the current government, it would be like an egg hitting a stone.

The fact that Primo controls the army means that the church is doomed to be unable to compete with the government.

And Carlo's words also reminded Archbishop Pedro that compared with the church, the government was obviously on the side of public opinion.

It is reasonable that the assassination of the Prime Minister led to a city-wide manhunt, right? It is reasonable to arrest suspects found during the manhunt, right?
As for why most of those arrested were church members, what responsibility does the government have?

As long as Archbishop Pedro cannot prove that the arrested people are innocent, the church will bear the responsibility of the suspected murder of the prime minister. Looking at Carlo with a plain smile on his face, Archbishop Pedro did not understand that the young king in front of him was playing dumb.

Archbishop Pedro was certain that most members of the church had nothing to do with the assassination, after all, the church's top brass knew nothing about it.

But the church at this moment could not escape suspicion at all, because the only victim of the decree abolishing tithes in Primo's Reform was the Spanish Church.

The church assassinated Primo, who promoted the reform, because it was dissatisfied with the government's abolition of the tithe, in an attempt to restore the payment of the tithe, which seemed to be a very reasonable reason.

No matter how much Archbishop Pedro and the church argued, they could not escape suspicion and could only passively endure this incident.

After walking out of the palace, Archbishop Pedro sighed and decided to go to Primo's residence to find a solution to the matter.

The church has no way to defend itself at this point, but it cannot allow the government to arrest church members.

The only way is to negotiate with Primo and reach a compromise on certain interests in exchange for the government's cancellation of the arrest of church members.

Primo is not just a guy from the military. Archbishop Pedro knew that if he held talks with Primo, even if he could resolve the incident, it would be a huge loss for the church.

But there was nothing that could be done at this time. If this were the heyday of the church, Archbishop Pedro would have challenged the government no matter what and would not have backed down at all.

Unfortunately, the influence of religion on the people has been greatly reduced, and it currently has no ability to overthrow the government.

More importantly, even the Pope is trapped in the Vatican Palace, what can these archbishops do?
Facts have proven that religious power can no longer be compared with political power. In front of the huge institution of the national government, religious forces must and have to give in.

In Primo's mansion, Prime Minister Primo is asking about the arrest.

When Primo heard the news that Archbishop Pedro wanted to see him, he smiled and didn't seem surprised at all.

"Dear Prime Minister, when will you give up arresting church members?" Pedro looked angry as he entered the room and was quite dissatisfied with the government's arrest behavior.

"Bishop Pedro, shouldn't you ask the bishops of the church? When all the escaped fish are caught, it is time for the police to stop their actions." Primo said with a smile.

"Mr. Prime Minister, you have arrested church members and bishops, not traitors who planned the assassination! I hope you can give me a reasonable explanation. Is this how you treat devout believers of God?" Archbishop Pedro always wanted to stay on the active side and kept challenging Prime Minister Primo.

"No, Bishop Pedro. If they have nothing to do with the assassination, I believe no police will come looking for them. If you want to exonerate them, please bring sufficient evidence." Prime Minister Primo is not a weak person. After hearing Archbishop Pedro's continuous questions, he stood up and sneered and said, "

If you don't have enough evidence to prove their innocence, can I understand that you want to challenge the government's authority for these bishops?"

First update, please support! I beg you brothers to give me a follow-up reading, today's follow-up reading is not important!
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(End of this chapter)