Under Theodora's coercion, several others reluctantly agreed to obey her. Seeing this, Theodora let them go and let Guo Kang go back to eat.
When she returned to her seat, Shi Ke glanced around for a few times. Seeing that nothing happened, he walked over. He pushed away Li Xuanying who was lying next to him and sat down.
"How is it?" he asked, "Can you tell me about it?"
Guo Kang himself didn't know what to do, so he told him the behavior of several other people at that time.
"Anyway, we finally compromised with each other for the time being." Guo Kang said: "Even Meltem said that it would be difficult to deal with her. At least we can calm down for a while."
"I don't think it's that simple." Shi Ke thought for a while and judged: "These people are very smart, we can't underestimate them."
"Is Meltem considered smart?" Guo Kang said helplessly.
"Yes, including Zhu Gengna, who is a brat, and your cheap sister who looks stupid." Shi Ke said with certainty: "I still know who is stupid, who just lacks enough experience, and who simply doesn't care. of."
"Are you so experienced?" Guo Kang said unexpectedly.
"Nonsense, that sister of mine is really stupid. As long as you compare with her, the characteristics of other people are self-evident." Shi Ke was obviously full of resentment.
"In that case..." Guo Kang became even more worried.
"These people will not give up." Shi Ke judged: "This is not peace, it is just a truce for up to twenty days."
When Guo Kang heard this, he felt even more unsure.
He decided to find a chance to avoid the limelight.
Of course, this time it wasn't that he was avoiding things on purpose, but that there was really nothing he could do to help. When the negotiations have reached this point, it is actually almost done.
For the Purple Horde Khanate, as long as the opponent is willing, everything else is not a problem. There will definitely be no resistance to this within the Khanate.
Romania, the core area of the Purple Horde Khanate, is nominally an Orthodox area, but the religious beliefs here are actually quite special. The local church calls itself the "Church of Rome," but its doctrinal connection with the Holy See or the Orthodox Church in Constantinople is not too close...or, in other words, it may not have any inheritance relationship.
Strictly speaking, the Romanian Church is actually the "Roman Orthodox Church." It did not originate from the existing church, but was created by the Khan himself.
Contrary to the common impression in Guo Kang's time, until the late Middle Ages and even modern times, in the vast European countryside, the theological level of most believers and even priests was as bad as their overall cultural level. Compared with the upper-level scribes who studied philosophy and theology, they were almost in a different world. In some remote areas, there are even "believers" who cannot even draw crosses.
In the final analysis, Europe at this time was just a feudal society - and it was original feudalism, not the kind of "feudalism" unique to Seris. Although the church is a rare "cultured" force here, its upper limit cannot exceed this era.
As an organization, the church also has no ability to bring its own order to the grassroots level. It can only rely on enfeoffment to give subordinates a strong sense of autonomy. Dioceses all over Europe are actually religious fiefdoms. As a local feudal lord, the diocese may not even be the first to listen to the Holy See. When the HRE was powerful, it could even order the Bishop of Mainz to be the vanguard and lead troops to attack the Pope of Rome.
In this case, the more downward the church's influence is, the more rapidly it declines. Moreover, in various places, there was great reliance on the personal level of bishops and priests as "tetrarchs".
But when the Purple Horde Khanate was first established, the local church was already on the verge of collapse due to war. The new local citizens, at most, know that they are probably believers in the God-worshipping religion. As for what the teachings are and what they should do in daily life, they basically have no idea. The only remaining country priests remembered a few scriptures and knew a few procedures of the ceremony. The others also had a black eye. After all, in this place, only those who can at least understand Greek, be literate, and be able to read the scriptures themselves have the basic ability to learn theology. This request was too extravagant at the time.
When the Purple Horde Khanate brought order to the countryside for the first time, conducted large-scale education in the army for the first time, and tried to establish its own organization in the countryside, it also had a way to teach everyone its own ideas. Opportunity. Moreover, because of their stronger organizational capabilities and the higher popularity of self-run education, they have a great advantage over other churches.
The person who set the tone for the God-worshiping religion was Patriarch Zhang at that time.
Patriarch Zhang was originally a Taoist priest, but he seemed to have failed in his hometown, so he ran out to try his luck. In the Golden Horde Khan, he met Boyan Timur, Guo Gai and others.
However, the Golden Horde Khanate believed in the Tianfang Sect at the time and found that Taoist Zhang was still not easy to get along with, so he switched to the Tianfang Sect and organized a small sect that attracted many herdsmen, so he called himself Imam Zhang.
Not long after everyone in the Zi Zhang faction began to rely on their own efforts, Imam Zhang also came here. At that time, due to the constant fighting among the nobles and the unwillingness of Boyan Timur and others to pay church taxes, many of the only priests and monks left. Although the people didn't understand anything, no one took the chanting with them, so they felt guilty and panicked for a while.
Seeing this, Imam Zhang stood up and took the initiative to lead everyone in chanting sutras and worshiping Heavenly Father. Anyway, the specifics of the prayer ceremony are pretty much the same, and the villagers also think that a certain pattern is enough, and there is no need to be too particular about it.
After discussing with Guo Gai, Imam Zhang called himself Patriarch Zhang and established the first church in the Purple Horde Khanate.
Although his theological level was questionable, Patriarch Zhang was very capable of organizing believers and quickly restored everyone's orderly religious life. In order to facilitate everyone's understanding, he also found Greek scriptures, annotated them in Chinese and local dialects, and explained them to everyone.
Patriarch Zhang was funny and approachable. He liked to use popular stories and metaphors when preaching, and even wrote some ballads and songs. Everyone enjoyed listening to his sermons, and in the end, even the surrounding territories had busybodies who came to join in the fun.
After he became famous, some nobles and priests accused him of being a heretic and even brought troops to beat him. But at that time, there were too many people coming to attack the Purple Tent, and Boyan Timur and others couldn't tell what they were doing. Anyway, just attack them in the same way. At that time, Guo Gai also felt that it was actually a good thing that other priests were jealous of him because of his popularity.
Guo Gai suggested that since this is the case, it is better to directly use his own signature.
Patriarch Zhang was convinced. He believes that the self-professions of various churches are now written in Greek and Latin without translation, making it difficult to understand and spread. Although there is Nestorianism, the influence of Nestorianism here seems to be very small and not enough to rely on. If you want to formalize the church, you still have to go your own way.
(End of chapter)
