Chapter 176 "Anti-Serfdom Declaration" is a 6,400-word chapter!
Catholicism has gone through many changes as to who can go to heaven.
In the Middle Ages, the 12th century to be exact, the most emphasized point of Catholicism was that there was no salvation outside the church.
Only through acceptance of the salvation of Jesus Christ, which is baptism and faith, can the soul be saved.
Therefore, non-Christians, including Muslims, cannot enter heaven through their religious beliefs.
However, this view does not mean that it is consistent and universal among all theologians.
Just a few decades later, Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century proposed the concept of the Baptism of Desire.
“Those who are unable to accept Christianity due to geographical or cultural reasons, if they live an upright life, have a heart for the truth, and have the opportunity and are willing to be baptized, then God may give them grace and save them because of their inner intention. ”
This kind of thinking was clearly deepened in the Second Vatican Council in the 20th century.
Article 16 of the Church Constitution states: “Those who do not know God can be saved if they pursue truth and goodness according to their conscience and obey what they know in their actions.”
After Pope Francis, the 266th Pope of the Catholic Church, was elected in 2013, he said directly in his speech: "God's salvation is for everyone, even atheists. The important thing is that everyone follows their own conscience .”
These words of Gehris would have been shocking in the 12th century, but in later generations they would have been nothing more than part of theological speculation.
Of course, the citizens of Karak, including the priests and deacons under Amedeh...
But anyone who has seen Garris fall from the sky unscathed, and can teleport and kill Stephanie with a sword.
They all had only one reaction: Gareth! You are right! Say more! God is so merciful! You are so kind too!
The Lord created all things, so naturally all peoples are His people. The Lord is infinitely merciful, and He will naturally tolerate His people.
Because of kindness, because of conscience... it is possible for anyone to be saved.
It would be foolish to argue with someone who has a sword in his hand and is killing someone without a weapon in his hand.
And it would be even more foolish to argue with someone who can perform miracles.
The former may be killed, while the latter may be murdered and tortured.
But Arnaud had never seen it, so he just felt angry and heartbroken for a moment.
When he was beaten, he had accumulated a lot of anger. He had just met an acquaintance, and he pretended not to know him.
Now I heard the shocking remarks of the young man on the stage.
Arnault didn't even think about it for a moment, and immediately shouted to the man on the stage:
"Heresy! Heresy!"
"Treason!"
"The Saracens are not human beings! They are just a bunch of animals! A bunch of pagans! A bunch of bastards who are destined to miss heaven!"
As soon as these words came out, the young people on the stage stopped talking, and the surrounding citizens who were originally caught in a frenzy also fell silent.
For a time, Arnault became the center of attention in the square.
The young people on the stage didn't say anything, and the surrounding citizens didn't say anything either. They just looked at Arnault, which made Arnault feel terrified.
Facing the gazes of these hundreds of people, Arnault felt as if he had done something stupid, and was afraid that the guys around him would rush up and beat him up again.
Arnault even squatted down quite consciously, lowered his head and protected his head with both hands.
When Garris saw a rather pudgy middle-aged man with a bruised nose and swollen face, his clothes torn to pieces, making such a gesture, he couldn't help but laugh a little angrily.
"Everyone! Don't repay evil for evil, insult for insult! Let today's matter pass!"
Garris asked everyone not to hit the poor man, since most of the people present were Christians anyway. If a Saracen insists on punching, Garris will not really stop him.
In addition, today's lecture had the same content. After a brief ceremony, most people left.
Garris came to Arno in person, helped the middle-aged man up, and helped him pat the dust off his body.
Thanks to Garris's friendly gesture, Arnault became bolder, and when faced with Garris' questions, he also took the initiative to answer.
"You said you are a knight? And then you are also the owner of La Fleury Manor? Are you planning to go to Senator Etienne?"
Arnault nodded naturally.
Garris twitched the corners of his mouth.
"I think you probably don't want to see Senator Etienne."
"What's wrong?"
"Some time ago, when he was besieging the city, he advocated surrender and was beaten to death by the citizens."
When Arnault heard the news, he looked in disbelief. How could he have lost his supporter in the city after not seeing each other for a few months? !
"Uh, sir, who is the talker in this city now? I'm going to report! I'm going to report the inhumane treatment I encountered in Xiacheng District! A group of bitches robbed me!"
Arnault didn't mention anything. He came to the city to find escaped serfs. After all, the young man in front of him was obviously an abolitionist and he didn't want to bring trouble on himself.
After hearing this, Garris touched his chin, where a little down had grown.
"As a talker, I should be one of them."
"By the way, let me announce something to you. Karak City will announce an "Anti-Serfdom Declaration" in a while."
"At that time, any products produced for free by serfs using forced labor will be prohibited from circulating in Karak City."
Garris spoke very ordinary words with his 37 degree Celsius mouth. There was no passion or hostility in his words.
But it severely stimulated Arno's fragile mind. The guy's eyes widened and he couldn't believe what nonsense Garris was talking about.
However, the response from hundreds of people in the square to Gehrys made Arnaud involuntarily believe that Gehrys was telling the truth.
The fun was getting even greater now, when I thought about my serfs leaving me, when I thought about such earth-shattering changes in Karak City, when I thought about having to cut the flesh of Muslims in the future!
Arnault felt like a knife was in his heart, and when he took a breath and gasped, he felt like he was breathing a knife into his lungs.
His heartbeat suddenly accelerated and he couldn't breathe. Garris's ordinary words had a different impact on Arno.
For a moment, Arnault's vision went dark and he fell limply to the ground.
Garris quickly got out of the way and spread his hands to the people around him, indicating that he had not hit anyone. Arnault's fall was entirely his own fault!
The two followers behind Arno hurriedly stepped forward to help their master, while Garris ignored them and left quickly. There was another meeting to be held later.
Citizens and merchants were not only free men, but also privileged people, like clergy and nobles, who enjoyed special urban regulations and were freed from the territorial rights and seigneurial rights that pressed on the peasants.
But the reason why freedom is a privilege is that it is opposed to widespread unfreedom.
Garris knew one thing very well. The political programs proposed by almost all cities in the Mediterranean region in this era were by no means overthrowing feudal society.
It should be said that almost all cities recognized the privileges and powers of princes, priests and nobles without dispute.
The residents of the city may dare to fight for their freedom and rights, but they do not want to cause earth-shaking, but only want simple concessions.
Citizens and merchants need free trade and markets to exist. This is what they need to survive.
When the freedom of the city was satisfied, they did not care about the world outside the city or the living conditions of the serfs.
In fact, after many free city-states became independent, their autocratic rule over surrounding rural areas was even worse than that of feudal lords.
It can be said that the city clearly retains freedom as a privilege within its walls.
To the citizens, the surrounding farmers seemed not to be their fellow villagers at all.
If they had the power, the city subjugated the peasantry to an authoritarian protectorate and assumed responsibility for the supply of cheap raw materials.
Wherever this was possible, it was done, as in the various city-states of Italy, which brought the surrounding countryside under their servitude.
Garris has a clear understanding that the vast majority of citizens in the city do not care about the lives of farmers. They will even prohibit more farmers from joining them for the sake of their monopoly production.
What the citizens of this era wanted was not to overthrow everything, although they sometimes resorted to violence, nor to hate the old system, but to force concessions from it.
And this is actually the purpose of Gallis coming here and the meaning of the existence of the Order.
Since the citizens in the city are not progressive enough, then Garris will lead the citizens to progress together, and the sect will be rooted in the city and in the countryside.
With the yearning for heaven and respect for the Father, we redefine the good and evil in this world, driving citizens and farmers to move towards a better tomorrow.
The seeds of freedom have been sown and will surely grow into towering trees.
……
The parliament hall in Karak City was retained. In fact, the identities of those members who refused to surrender were also retained.
Garris is not in a hurry to abolish the membership status of these councilors. After all, the municipal council system is more easily compatible with the Second Kingdom of Jerusalem currently designed by Garris than the feudal lords.
Of course, the rule regarding hereditary membership was abolished at the proposal of Bishop Amedeh during the city's recent celebrations, and the citizens unanimously approved of this proposal.
The current Karak City Council system has been changed to a four-year term, and members can be re-elected.
As for the more detailed various election regulations, Gehrys did not interfere too much.
In fact, he neither had the energy nor the willingness to issue direct orders as a superior.
When facing the newly born Karak City Municipal Council, Gehrys mostly made speeches again and again, using his charisma to persuade and educate.
In the second kingdom system designed by Garris: kingdom-county (city)-constituency (town)-village (community)
The Municipal Council of Karak City is essentially equivalent to the town council, one level lower than the Arnen County Council.
In the future, a new county will be born around Karak City.
Transjordan as a whole is still too big, so cutting it into three counties is just right.
At such a town meeting, I first glanced at the people attending the meeting.
These people included the original city council members, church representatives, and representatives of the lower city. Basically, new town council members will emerge from these people.
"Everyone here, before today's meeting begins, I would like to read a message to you: I give you a new commandment: You should love one another; just as I have loved you, you also should love one another."
This is what Brother Tian said to his disciples at the Last Supper.
Garris said this before the meeting, which set the tone for the meeting.
"As we all know, in July the royal army of Jerusalem was defeated and Guy was captured. There was no one left in the kingdom who could stand alone!"
"Now Saladin's main army is besieging Acre! Once the city of Acre is defeated, Saladin will surely send his troops south to capture the holy city."
"When the Holy City is defeated, Saladin's tens of thousands of troops will surely sweep across the Holy Land and seize all the cities he can!"
"Saladin may have been a man of noble character, but his troops were not! The purpose of those troops participating in the war, apart from capturing the Holy City, was to make a fortune! Capture slaves!"
"Can we succumb to the servitude of others!"
Gehrys asked the people in the meeting, and the response he got was, of course, "No!" again and again.
Empty words such as dedication may inspire people to be brave for a while, but they will not last long.
Only when personal interests are involved can perseverance be possible.
"But, do you think you can stop Saladin's army on your own?"
"In the entire Transjordan territory, there are tens of thousands of citizens, but less than a quarter are Franks! There are only 5,000 people in the city of Karak!"
"With this mere number, how can we defend our freedom?"
"Only when tens of thousands of people in the entire territory rise together can we withstand Saladin's army!"
"So..."
When he said this, Garris paused, and his eyes swept across the entire parliament hall again, looking at these participants.
"So, we want freedom to be no longer a privilege, but universal, and we want to make slavery itself disappear from this world."
"Only when we love each other can we know that each other are brothers and sisters, and we can shake our fists at the evil ones together and defend each other together!"
"As my Father said, the fast he desires is to loose the chains of unrighteousness, to undo the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free, to break every yoke!"
This was the first time that Garris claimed that God was his father in the city of Karak, but no one questioned it.
The venue fell into a sea of applause. This was because Garris announced to the people in the venue a promising path to victory.
The entire Kingdom of Jerusalem, excluding those vassal states, had an actual Frankish population of only a few hundred thousand. It was naturally impossible to win with this number against a Saracen population of over ten million.
But if the national conflict is transformed into a conflict between freedom and slavery, then Muslims living under the Iqta system can also be allies.
As for the issue of religious beliefs?
Are there any religious issues?
The old prophet has returned from history, and the truth covered by dust is bound to be revealed to the world.
If you don't follow a living prophet, do you still believe in doctrines that have been tampered with by later generations?
Uthman, the Caliph of Islam, burned all copies of the Quran that were not his own.
The Catholic Church also uses the authority of the Holy See to make exclusive interpretations of the Bible and prohibit others from questioning it.
Many of those ancient secrets will be reiterated by Garris, once again bringing true and true "gospel" to all living beings in the world.
"Although we live in four parts of the world and have different languages and cultures, we come from the same origin and become one family!"
"At the same time, we have only one final destination! That is the kingdom of heaven that we all long for!"
"We want to spread the good news of the coming of the kingdom of heaven to all parts of heaven and earth. We will no longer distinguish between each other, and we will be united in Christ together..."
Holy! Holy! Holy!
[Almighty God the Father, all reverence and glory are yours through Christ, with Christ, in Christ, and in union with the Holy Spirit, be yours forever and ever. 】
……
The emergence of Garis made the existence of the Second Kingdom of Jerusalem a reality.
After completing the siege of Karak City, even the Muslims in the town respected Gairis.
But not all Muslims have this attitude. There is a group of Muslims who neither live in towns and enjoy urban autonomy, nor live in distant villages and are simply taxed.
They are serfs and non-free people. They live in manors, are bound to the land, and have a completely different life order from the outside world.
The origins of serfs in Western European manors were actually diverse.
But for the Kingdom of Jerusalem, everything was quite the same—the lords relied on force to forcibly convert certain Muslim villages into private estates.
Then a large number of Western European Franks who came with the lords and nobles joined them as free people or assisting administrators.
And such Muslims account for a considerable proportion in Transjordan territory.
The life of this group is naturally quite miserable compared to other groups.
But misery also requires comparison. There is no saying that if they were replaced by Muslim feudal masters, the lives of these serfs would be improved.
You must know that in Egypt at the same time, on the rich land nourished by the Nile River, farmers could still be exploited to the point where they didn't even have any clothes!
Of course, clothes are not considered necessities of life in Egypt...
Noble lords, especially knights, usually rely on force as their duty.
They may know how to lead troops in battle and how to kill enemies with swords, but they are often very weak in managing territory.
Therefore, the lords would grant towns a certain degree of autonomy in exchange for sufficient taxes and military service.
Similarly, they would appoint a steward of the manor to manage the manor on their behalf, thereby obtaining a fixed tax or recruiting free people to join the army.
Ibn al-Jubair, a geographer and traveler who was hostile to the Franks, wrote the following words in his writing:
[At dawn on Monday we set off from Torun (Humphrey's territory) - may God destroy it! 】
[A road passes by estates inhabited by Muslims who lived well under the Franks - may God protect us from such temptations! 】
[The regulations imposed on them were to hand over half of their grain harvest at harvest and to pay a poll tax of one gold dinar and seven kilat, as well as a small tax on their fruit trees. 】
[Muslims own their own houses and rule themselves in their own way. This was how the estates and villages in Frankish territory were organized. 】
[Many Muslims want to settle here because life under Muslim rule is miserable. 】
[They praise the conduct of the Franks, whose justice they can always count on. 】
To briefly summarize, he is a traveler who discovered that the Franks only collected 50% of the tax, and as long as they paid enough tax, the lords were too lazy to care about the Muslims.
It really has the spirit of feudal contract!
So much so that the surrounding Muslim farmers even wanted to go to the Kingdom of Jerusalem and become a second-class person...
It can only be said that this is a worse world. The Franks who are willing to formulate the rules of the feudal system are already more human-like in the eyes of many people than the Sultans and Emirs who are "people with unlimited power".
This is the route of Ibn Jubair's journey.
Based on this situation, Garris said that the opposition between them and Saladin was not religious or ethnic, and could be transformed into "slavery or freedom".
The councilors in the city believe it, and in fact the Muslims in the town can believe it too.
After all, it is not a rare rumor that unlimited fighting competitions are held from time to time in Cairo or Alexandria.
As for the serfs outside the city, the reason why they did not want to be serfs was mainly because they longed for the freedom of the city, or the higher autonomy of other Muslim villages under the Franks.
It's not like they really want to go to Syria.
If the city of Karak can promote the freeization of serfs in nearby manors, coupled with the missionary ability of Garis, then it is not impossible to mobilize the power of the Muslim community and organize the Muslim people to resist Saladin.
In this process, Muslims will gain certain political participation rights, and serfs will be converted into free citizens.
Different manors will also be converted into free people's villages or become autonomous farms according to local conditions.
All of these manors belonging to Leonard will be directly seized.
As for those who are not Leonard, but the owner of the manor is not in the manor, Isabella announced that if there is no "royal tax" within one year, then the status of the owner of the manor will be abolished.
And like Arnaud, the manor owner who is still in his own territory has been recognized the right to use the land.
But serfdom must be abolished, the serfs in the original manor must be transformed into freemen, and rent and interest reductions must also be implemented.
Garris, or rather the Karak City Council, did not forcefully ban the manorial system.
First, because this manorial system is a model of collective production, it is necessary in this era.
The second reason is that manor owners like Arnault are still regarded as one of their own by quite a few people in the Parliament even if they have not violated any relevant laws. If the manor is rashly and forcibly seized, many people will feel the same way.
The third is Garris's own view that serfs were bound to the fields, but free people had the right to move freely.
In the subsequent reform movement, if manor owners like Arnaud were willing to transform into agricultural capitalists, then Guerris would be able to tolerate it.
Today's social situation does not allow one to become fat in one bite.
In the following days, Garris seemed to have returned to his time in Skar, dealing with all kinds of troublesome things.
The good news is that the first batch of Paladins have been approved by Simon and have officially left the army, and have been sent to Garris.
While accepting the teachings of Garris, these Paladins also began to organize into missionary preaching teams, traveling with Garris to preach in various manors.
Amidst such complicated things, Garris still had to take some time off from his busy schedule to organize a wedding and send blessings to the newlyweds.
One update is worth two updates, and I feel like I've regained my form. This weekend, I will definitely add more updates to pay off my debts.
(End of chapter)