Chapter 253: I Am Loyal to the Lord
Compared to Bishop Marl, who fought on the front lines, Bishop Claudy Newman’s position was more due to suitability.
He himself knew that, whether in terms of political balance or combat ability, he did not reach the standard of a true bishop. He only became the bishop of the Diocese of York’s Great Church because of his status as the illegitimate son of Knight Wolf.
Therefore, after taking on the duty of bishop of the Diocese of York’s Great Church, he had always been diligent. Aside from his daily work of guiding believers in prayer, whenever a decision needed to be made, he would always seek the advice of Monk Agamemnon without hesitation.
Following this way of handling matters, after he became bishop, everything developed smoothly.
Until some time ago, when Agamemnon issued an Anathema directly from the Clock Tower.
At first, Claudy was stunned. Then, by instinct, he prepared to respond, but once he thought through the consequences of the Anathema, he broke out in a cold sweat on the spot.
He wanted to seek Agamemnon for answers, but upon entering the Clock Tower, he did not see him.
After issuing the Anathema, Agamemnon had already departed, and in the end, Claudy could only sit idly on the first floor of the Clock Tower for half a day.
In the following days, he could only listen in the Great Church as certain people came to pass on messages, saying that this or that village’s priests and commoners had responded to the Anathema.
By the fifth day after Agamemnon issued the Anathema, when no more priests or commoners in the Diocese of York followed, Claudy’s troubles truly began.
The priests of the Diocese of York who had not responded to the Anathema all gathered together in the Great Church.
They wanted Bishop Claudy, as their leader, to tell them the reason behind the Anathema.
However, how could Claudy know the specific reason? Ever since he became bishop, he had merely been managing the Great Church and rarely had contact with members of the Senate.
Yet, seeing Claudy’s clueless expression, the priests were not surprised. They demanded to see Agamemnon, and Claudy could only helplessly reply that Agamemnon had already left the Clock Tower.
So, the priests had no choice but to wait at headquarters for Agamemnon’s return.
This allowed Claudy to breathe a sigh of relief.
The standards for training priests in the Church of the Sanctuary were extremely strict.
Besides steadfast faith and memorization of church scriptures, in combat ability they had to reach the level of a third-tier Upper Warrior.
Of course, with the Church of the Sanctuary providing them with ample food supplies, reaching that level only required maintaining a certain amount of training.
What troubled them most, however, was that they had to achieve an Upper evaluation in the history discipline of the Monastery, which Scholar Caleb considered to be the level required to manage the administration of a barony.
Beyond that, they also needed to raise their biological and natural sciences to the Intermediate evaluation.
Beginner, Intermediate, Upper, and Excellent—these were the graduation ranks that the senior scholars of the Monastery assigned to apprentices. Among each graduating batch of apprentices, only a handful reached the Upper level in their major discipline, while the majority received a mediocre Intermediate evaluation.
It was precisely because of such harsh requirements that the Church of the Sanctuary had only trained a little over fifty priests in three years.
Naturally, such training also made the priests more rational. At the very least, when they realized Claudy could not give them answers, they did not intentionally make things difficult for him.
By the ninth day after the Anathema, Agamemnon finally returned, and Claudy at last let out a sigh of relief.
However, after Agamemnon returned, he went straight to rest behind closed doors, leaving only a piece of parchment for Claudy.
“Currently, the number of deaths is around seven hundred. The injured are not included. The number of those fallen unconscious in sin is around twelve hundred. Now, that land is filled with the Lord’s devout believers. Viscount Youn, who called forth sin, has been purified, and his claws have been uprooted.” Claudy read aloud from the parchment.
The priests sitting on the pews looked slightly relieved.
“However, although the source of sin has already been purified, the sins of that land of Anathema are buried deep within the soil. Therefore, for a century, the Church will neither send nor allow priests trained by the Church to spread the Lord’s teachings upon that land.”
This statement made the priests furrow their brows tightly.
Swallowing hard, Claudy continued, “Two years ago, Priest Landon went to that land to spread the Lord’s teachings. Out of compassion, he was unwilling to leave. Therefore, Priest Landon shall become the bishop of that land of Anathema. He will purify sin there for the rest of his life. Only when the sin is eradicated will he return to the Church.”
The priests murmured quietly among themselves.
Claudy had no choice but to raise his voice slightly and say, “Thus, the Anathema ends here. The priests who went to the land of Anathema will gradually lead believers back. You must be prepared at all times to heal the wounded believers.”
With the parchment’s content finished, Claudy also exhaled in relief. Looking at the priests, he said, “The matter is concluded.”
The priests whispered to one another for a moment, then someone said, “We want to know the specifics of Bishop Landon’s situation.”
Claudy replied, “Monk Agamemnon said that in a few days, Dean Oscar will record this Anathema into a story. In that story, everything will be written more clearly, including the reason for the Anathema.”
The priests looked at each other. Could Oscar’s stories be trusted?
But seeing Claudy’s stiff expression, a face that said he was merely a messenger, they had no choice but to accept it.
Oscar worked quickly. Almost by the next day, he had finished compiling the story. After the priests read about Landon’s deeds within it, they all requested Claudy to allow them to leave the Diocese of York and go south to preach.
This once again gave Claudy a headache.
…
As the priests led believers who had responded to the Anathema away from the land, the news that Viscount Youn had been killed by the priests of the Church of the Sanctuary together with the commoners finally spread.
The regions controlled by the Senate and the Honorary Knights Order showed little reaction. But in the southern heartlands, the many nobles, great and small, were both shocked and enraged.
For commoners to kill a noble, to kill a lord—what outrageous insolence!
They were about to stir up trouble, to teach the Church of the Sanctuary and the Diocese of York a lesson.
But then, along with that news came another.
“After the Anathema was lifted, that land was abandoned by the Lord, it is land without a master. If a merciful lord is willing to shelter the commoners there, he may send troops to occupy the territory. So long as he protects those people, he shall be praised by the Lord.”
Thus, the barons and lords neighboring the land of Anathema decisively marched their armies into Viscount Youn’s territory.
The land of Anathema was already in chaos. Whenever their armies approached a village, the terrified gentry and commoners knelt on the ground to greet them. The faster the knights’ horses ran, the faster the land was occupied.
In just a few days, Viscount Youn’s territory was carved up among these nobles.
However, this behavior enraged the nobles of the southern heartlands.
They had been uniting to teach the Diocese of York a lesson, yet these few had “obeyed” the Church instead?
So, the nobles who had not gotten a share of the Anathema land boldly raised armies and attacked the original territories of those who had seized Youn’s lands.
The offensive of the heartland nobles’ coalition was fierce, and soon they captured the home territories of the nobles who had taken the Anathema land.
Those nobles were only two barons and a few lords. They were already struggling to absorb Viscount Youn’s land, so they had not cared much about their original holdings, treating it as an exchange of territory.
But the heartland nobles’ offensive did not stop. They continued their advance into the Anathema land[a].
Only then did those nobles realize the truth—that this was merely a pretext. The others wanted to devour the Anathema land as well!
Panic set in. It was too late to hastily form an alliance army. They recalled how, in recent days, they had vaguely heard some words suggesting that the Honorary Knights Order, being the Church of the Sanctuary’s knight order, would shelter the Lord’s believers.
They thought: We answered the Church’s call, came here to shelter the commoners of this land. Are we not merciful lords, devout believers of the Lord? Moreover, the people in our lands are all the Lord’s devout believers.
Ask anyone, and before speaking, he will surely first proclaim himself a devout believer of the Lord.
Then, as devout and merciful lords, should we not be sheltered by the Honorary Knights Order?
Thus, they hurriedly raised cross banners in every town and village of their territories and sent word seeking the protection of the Honorary Knights Order.
Almost within half a day of their request, the Honorary Knights Order, who happened to be resting nearby, accepted the invitation. They marched to the frontlines and blocked the southern nobles’ coalition army.
The Honorary Knights Order numbered only thirty-some men, but among them were eight knights and over twenty squires. Behind them, under the cross banners, gathered the armies of the nobles who had seized Viscount Youn’s land.
This level of force was already enough to deal a heavy blow to the coalition, so the southern nobles began considering retreat.
Though they had not feasted, the gains were barely acceptable.
Yet a clever noble suddenly proposed, “Since our original aim was to teach the Diocese of York and the Church of the Sanctuary a lesson, wouldn’t burying the Honorary Knights Order here serve just as well?”
They began considering this plan.
But before they could decide, the warriors of the Diocese of York invaded their lands under the banner of avenging Knight Wolf.
“Knight Wolf was personally conferred by Lord Pegira, entrusted with command of the lord’s military. Yet you, who swore allegiance to Lord Pegira, murdered him. That is rebellion!”
What followed was a list of names, nearly a third of the southern nobles. Would one Diocese of York declare war on so many?
The nobles laughed. “Even if you have a Holy Relic and we do not, was not Knight Wolf slain all the same?”
They immediately began mobilizing troops to confront the warriors of the Diocese of York.
But they were routed by the Diocese of York’s army, equipped with ballistae and catapults.
A single bolt from the powerful ballista could pierce through five armored warriors. A mid-sized catapult, suitable for field deployment, could in one volley smash a fortress. Armies charging forward had their morale shattered before they even reached the frontlines.
With such an army, Knight Julian led the Diocese of York’s forces, destroying a lord[b] in a single day, a baron in three.
Thus, the heartland nobles once more carefully checked the list issued by the Diocese of York. Finding their names absent, they shouted, “I am loyal to the Lord! Those who killed Knight Wolf are rebels. I respond to the Diocese of York’s call to suppress these treacherous nobles!”
[a]Bad choice of words - needs review
[b]What is lord as a title? I thought all nobles were lords?