Ming Jiajing: Starting from Immortality

Chapter 303: Dark Ages, Light Comes!
Taoism and Buddhism.

The evils of the two great faiths in the world, combined, were no match for the lustful excesses of the Roman Catholic Church.

The soil of Taoist temples and Buddhist temples is not as good as the soil of monasteries, which nourishes the most evil flowers in the world.

Taoists, monks, and missionaries all have a doctrine that forbids marriage and beauty, that is, they remain celibate in the world.

However, in the East, especially in the Central Plains of the East, Taoists and monks had to serve the imperial power. The great Taoist masters and Buddhist magicians had to be conferred titles by the court, so the power over gods and Buddhas was granted by the emperor.

Gods and Buddhas dare not be enemies of imperial power.

There was once a great Confucian scholar named Dong Zhongshu who advocated the theory of "the interaction between heaven and man", but he ended up in a miserable way.

Although Dong Zhongshu was used by Emperor Wu of Han throughout his life, he was also feared by the emperor. He lived his whole life like walking on thin ice, living in fear all day long. The fear he lived in his later years is something that no living person can endure.

In Europe, the belief in "divine right of kings" runs through the hearts of all Europeans. Even the enthronement of the kings of European countries must be recognized by the Pope.

As time went on, celibacy became the most important means of governance in the hands of the Roman Church.

The reasons why it has become the most important means of ruling are, first, faith, and second, wealth.

Not to mention faith, the wealth accumulated by the church was concentrated rather than dispersed, and passed down from generation to generation rather than disappearing thanks to celibacy.

The entire Roman Catholic Church worships a pope who holds absolute power. Therefore, any expansion of the territory of any monastery represents the expansion of the influence of the entire church.

Clerical celibacy is the only means to separate clergy from local and partial interests, and can make monks become obedient tools for lower-level obedience to higher-level clergy and obey the Pope obediently.

For the church, abandoning the system of absolute beauty would be tantamount to giving up the possibility of ruling.

As monasteries became increasingly important instruments of church governance, and especially as the benefits of celibacy in accumulating great wealth became increasingly apparent, what was initially a voluntary and freely followed decision for the sake of faith became a strict law that all clergy had to follow.

Several hundred years ago, Pope Gregory VII issued a marriage prohibition edict, declaring that priests were not allowed to marry.

Abstinence, once the preserve of free will, gradually became the law, and vows of absolute purity were declared the highest virtue.

However, human instinct is far more powerful than artificial regulations and constraints. Except for a very small number of priests who are able to practice abstinence and meditation, most priests eventually succumb to their instincts.

Therefore, not only did the strictest rescue orders and punishments have no effect, but even the ugliest unnatural habits began to spread.

The Vatican, feeling shameful, even stated bluntly that "nuns and priests cannot commit adultery", "bishops should carefully check bedrooms, seal all suspicious doors and other dangerous places", and not let "nuns sleep in the same bed", etc.

But the causes of such bad habits have not been eliminated, so these measures are effective only in individual cases.

"Every policy from the top has its countermeasure from the bottom", this applies to any country. Priests are not allowed to marry, but they are not prohibited from having mistresses (lovers).

As a result, there was no quiet room in the entire European monastery. There were always guests visiting at night, both male and female.

In many places the monastery was the favourite inn of the nobility of the neighbourhood.

There the majestic knight was treated with the greatest hospitality, and Venus bestowed upon him the most exhilarating pleasures, more than anywhere else in the world.

The customers here were looking for prostitutes and doing all kinds of ugly things, more unrestrained than in brothels, and they didn't have to pay. The only requirement was their strength and abundant physical strength.

The prohibition of marriage between men and women has existed in the church for hundreds of years, and such scandals have only occurred for a few years.

Everyone was doing this carefully so as not to be noticed.

The Jinyiwei's pervasive intelligence capabilities are the foundation of their existence. Even in Europe, the Jinyiwei can still use their professional skills to find the priests' mistresses (lovers) one after another.

There are five hereditary monasteries in Portugal, and the Jinyiwei found concubines, mistresses and illegitimate children in all of them.

For example, in the monastery of Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, nine monks had seven concubines, two wives and nine children.

In the monastery of Porto, the second largest city in Portugal, there were eighteen monks, twelve concubines, twelve wives and twelve children.

In the convent in Cascais, Portugal's third-largest city, forty nuns have nineteen children.

And this is just the limit of the Jinyiwei's investigation, not the limit of the priests in the church.

Even the current Pope Peter VII had to flee when he was the Papal ambassador to Ancona because he forced himself on a young noblewoman.

In order to become a cardinal, he gave his sister to the previous pope, and the pope's many mistresses gave birth to twelve children for him.

Soon after becoming Pope, Peter VII rarely appeared in public. That was because he paid a heavy price for his debauchery.

According to church ceremonies, every Friday the Pope has to have his feet kissed.

But this was not the case for Peter VII, as his feet were almost completely rotten due to the price paid.

For hundreds of years, the ugliness of hundreds of thousands of priests, bishops, cardinals, and popes has refreshed the perception of human beings among the European guards.

With these "handles" in hand, it was easy for the Jinyiwei secret agents to operate. They revealed the names of the mistresses (lovers) and illegitimate children one by one, and none of the priests, bishops, and cardinals in the entire European continent could survive.

Generation after generation of popes have been innovating in the use of marriage bans and punishments for beauty, and Peter VII was no exception. When these scandals were exposed to the public, not to mention his status plummeting, no one could mentally or physically endure the church's laws of stripping, tying to a cross, and flogging eighty times.

Furthermore, the Jinyiwei knew one thing very well: only by binding people with interests can people be kept from getting off the boat. With the prosperity of tulips, everyone in the church was one of the beneficiaries.

The priests who obtained the money changed from being collaborators in the beginning to being controllers and manipulators now.

The church originally did not obey the royal family, but when he was in the Portuguese royal palace, Cardinal Howard, who was in charge of all the monasteries in Portugal, took advantage of the situation and pushed Dayon to the position of Cardinal of Porto.

The matter was reported to the Vatican, and the Pope readily agreed. Then, Peter VII prepared to travel to the East when spring came, because he heard that there was a way to cure him in the East.

On the shore, little Alfonso, who had heard everything, seemed to be stupid. He could not believe that such an independent and noble church and monastery could be like this.

Dayon did not tell little Alfonso about the royal family that the Alfonso family had once been loyal to, or the parliament in the same class. He looked at him and said in a deep voice: "It will all end."

Little Alfonso's eyes lit up. Yes, that ancient Eastern civilization would end all the darkness...

(End of this chapter)