Chapter 905: Chamber of Tears

Cleanliness is half of belief. Religions born in the Middle East generally love cleanliness, and even Catholicism loved cleanliness at the beginning.

There is more than one baptism in a person's life. In ancient times, the monks would take the baptized person and witnesses to the river for baptism, and what was washed away was the original sin of the person.

"I wish fate would set me free, as nature has set me free."

Belief in what is everyone's freedom should not be deprived when a person is still ignorant,

The baptism of the Baptists is after adulthood, not when a baby is born. Baptism symbolizes the burial and resurrection of Jesus, and is a sign of new life.

However, it is not that people will not make mistakes after adulthood, and even the smarter people make more troublesome mistakes.

The Vatican Secret Archives is located underground. At first it was set up together with the Pope's Library. In the 19th century, Napoleon robbed a round, and the books in the collection suffered huge losses and damages. However, some very precious documents were transferred and hidden by the monks in time. It was not robbed by soldiers wearing boots, which is similar to the caves on the Dead Sea.

These materials are hidden deep in the underground vaults, behind 53 miles of bookshelves.

Since 1878, the Vatican Secret Archives has loosened access restrictions and opened to scholars, but these data rooms are only part of it. There are also many materials that are secret and open only to the clergy of the Holy See.

Following the Swiss guards, Joseph walked through the narrow tunnel that could only be passed by one person. The only light source was the incandescent lamp on the top of the cave. There was a smell of spices in the air, and only the footsteps of the two could be heard. Voice.

Ancient documents are very fragile. If the humidity is too high, it will easily become moldy, and if it is too dry, it will easily turn into powder. It is more sensitive than red wine.

But even if the temperature and humidity are right, be careful of insects. Chinese people like to use camphor and rue to preserve books. Rue, a plant that can repel insects after drying, can also be used as a bookmark. A feeling of traveling back to a thousand years ago.

At that time, the Maritime Silk Road had not yet opened, and people could only trade along the land Silk Road. The Arab Empire was located in the middle of the East and West, and both ends were making money.

With this money, they not only built magnificent mosques, but also collected many books. The Arabs once held up the torch of civilization in that dark age.

Many people know Bruno who was burned to death in the Campo de' Fiori, but few people know the contribution made by the French astronomer.

*** Astronomers took the lead in using Aristotle's astronomical arguments in the 13th century, and abandoned Ptolemy's geocentric theory, believing that the earth is not the center of the universe.

The Europeans did not revise geocentric astronomy until the 16th century.

Apostasy was a great sin in the Middle Ages. The church insisted on the center of the earth, but Bruno and other scholars secretly supported that the earth is not the center of the universe. Even in the 21st century, if an American soldier makes friends with a Christian, even if the other party is a shepherd, he will be suspected.

The premise of freedom of belief is not to endanger national security, but also economic interests.

With the rise of the monastery economy, the church corrupted at an alarming rate, which was also promoted by secular rulers such as kings and nobles.

First, the construction of a monastery is a profitable investment. Once the monastery is completed, there will be donations from many believers, so that both bishops and secular rulers can share the benefits.

Second, the actual managers of many monasteries have been controlled by noble children who call themselves monks.

In the book of Exodus, there is the disaster of the firstborn son. The eldest son will inherit everything from his father, while the second son and the illegitimate son will not be so lucky. The responsible parents will arrange for them, some will learn to become knights, and some will be sent to the monastery. They brought all the secular things to the monastery, and threw poverty, abstinence, hard work and seriousness into the sky.

In addition to the religious reform, there was also the monastic reform during the same period, and two extreme factions emerged at that time.

One is the ascetic, these fakirs flaunt poverty and chastity with their naked and unkempt images. On the other hand, the monks in the monastery have changed from abstinence to indulgence, and this indulgence is still in a sanctimonious and hypocritical way, and its depravity is even deeper than the world.

Early asceticism was to eliminate distracting thoughts and keep the soul pure, focusing on good motives.

Later, asceticism focused on external asceticism, celibacy, poverty, and various physical tortures such as self-flagellation.

It's like semi-vegetarians and vegans within vegetarians, the former are primarily vegetarians with occasional meat consumption, and they avoid certain meats on the grounds of health, morality, or belief. Vegans, on the other hand, avoid all foods made from animals, which are harmful to health. Water is the source of life. Life is difficult to survive without water. Protein is also important, and there are plants in meat. Contains trace elements.

Ignoring this natural law, deliberate self-cultivation not only makes oneself painful, but also makes others uncomfortable. Not taking a bath has become the norm for medieval Europeans. Personal hygiene is not so good, let alone urban hygiene, where garbage is everywhere, rats are rampant, and densely populated. The population has become a hotbed for the spread of the Black Death.

Asceticism also affected trade, and a poor man who was poor would not spend money to buy things at all.

Extreme ascetics believe that the evil Satan and the good Christ are opposed, Christ represents the spiritual world, Satan represents the material world, the soul belongs to the spiritual world, and the body belongs to the material world, so nature is evil. Satan, the master of darkness, wants to use material temptations to lure people to degenerate, so we must reject all sensual pleasures in life, and torture our body, the fief of Satan, to qualify for heaven.

In the early days of capitalism, there was restrained enjoyment, except for those who were driven mad by the Black Death and wondered if they would survive tomorrow, and except for the profligate monks who practiced extreme hedonism in monasteries.

Today's capitalism has lost the advantage of rationality. The old man Eugenie Grandet enjoys accumulating personal wealth. He uses various means to make his property grow fabulously. He has a beautiful daughter Eugenie. , but was delayed by him to become an old girl. He thought that all the young men who came to propose marriage came for his money.

Once his wife died, Grandet, through a notary, asked his daughter to sign a certificate renunciating her mother's inheritance rights, and took all the family property into his own hands. Before the old Grandet died, he asked his daughter to put the gold on the table, and he kept staring at it, like a child who just knew how to watch. "It warms my heart," he said. At last he called Eugenie to him, and said to her: "Take care of everything! Come over there and give me an account!" The priest came to perform his last services. , brought a gilded crucifix to his lips to kiss, and Grandet, seeing the gold, made a frightful gesture and tried to grasp it, and this effort cost him his life, and he died.

Money is the only god old Grandet worshiped, and it became his hobby to observe gold alone. He tried his best to get other people's things through "legal" means, whether it was by chance or plunder. He will never stop reaching his goal, because for a person like him, life has no other value or pleasure.

He is worse than the people controlled by Mamun, at least Mamun built a temple of demons, and his property was "wasted" by his daughter after his death, but all she did was good deeds that he despised.

Although her love was destroyed by gold, the natural quality of human beings in her was not swallowed by money. The piles of gold were the chains that bound her, and she was a rich victim.

The economic foundation of many places in the *** region is agriculture. There is a "hadith" advocating that even if the end of the world comes, planting a tree is a great virtue.

Alchemy originated in Egypt and Greece, but it was actually formed in the Middle East. It was an Arab who first proposed the Philosopher's Stone.

There is a famous saying in alchemy: Agriculture is the great alchemy.

Due to the constraints of natural conditions, water is extremely scarce in many parts of the world. People try to use existing knowledge to improve the agricultural environment. The Arabic geometry "Khandaisha" comes from the Persian "Khandaiza". It means aqueduct.

They not only used the traditional Persian water conservancy construction experience, but also applied the technology of other civilizations. For example, Egypt measured the rise and fall of the Nile River. necessary for the life of pilgrims.

The Persians once invented a groundwater system called "Kana", which is regarded as the masterpiece of Fatima and a gift from Allah.

"Kana" is actually similar to Karez in Northwest China, and it was built at least 600 years earlier than "Kana".

Before the beginning of the Age of Discovery, the overland Silk Road was the main trade route.

The Silk Road is not only a trade, but also a process of civilization integration.

The "East" was far more civilized than the dark West, and this aroused the prying eyes of princes.

The Crusades robbed a lot of oriental trophies and returned them. These things are collected by various museums, including the Vatican Museum. There are also many Greek sculptures. Even after the looting by Lutherans and Napoleon, there are still many collections inside. But these only attract the worldly eye.

There is a sacristy in the Apostolic Palace, which displays many items of special significance to the Church.

The things stored in these bunkers are varied, not all religious artifacts, some exude evil power, and some even produce supernatural phenomena.

In 1939, nine separate bones were found beneath St. Peter's Basilica and the center of the Vatican City State. Even more surprising, the bones were found in the humble shoebox.

Shoe boxes are something that is only available in modern times. The medieval shoe sellers did not have such fancy packaging, but everyone does not know how this shoe box did not damage the floor tiles, and was hidden in the underground of St. Peter’s Basilica, and no one knew who hid it I don't know whose bones it is.

After the British Pope Adrian IV choked to death, Alexander III began to fight for power with the German emperor.

He prohibited the clergy from studying chemistry and the laws of nature. In the same year, he and Louis VII of France laid the foundation stone for Notre Dame Cathedral. Alexander III also approved many privileges to the head of the French Knights Templar and the Knights under the jurisdiction of the Holy See, allowing them to own all the wealth they could plunder.

King Philip IV of France, the king of the earth, didn't want to have an "overlord" on his head telling him what to do, so he sent robbers to kidnap the pope.

As a result, Pope Boniface VIII, who was over 80 years old, was tossed to death by those gangsters who didn't know the severity, and Philip IV also took the opportunity to move the Holy See to Avignon at this time. weak.

Although the current Holy See is still in Rome, it can be understood as a "prisoner of the Vatican". After all, scientists and the world have the final say on everything.

There is no heaven, no hell, no awe, no restraint, dare to touch any taboo.

There are demons in this world, and scientists can only laugh at this superstition and scoff at it.

"What is your magic weapon? Father." The Swiss guard suddenly asked, "I heard you are an exorcist."

"Does an exorcist have to have a magic weapon?" Joseph said jokingly.

"As far as I know, yes, and I brought you here to find a magic weapon." The Swiss guard said, "I just lent it to you temporarily, and you have to return it when you run out."

"So I can choose any of these things?" Joseph asked.

"No, I'll take you to meet the person in charge of the warehouse." The Swiss guard said, "He's... quite weird."

Joseph looked behind him, there was a door there.

"Is he in there?"

"That's right."

"Okay." Joseph took a deep breath and pushed the door open.

It was a very ordinary room, but compared to those strange items, the cultivator in the black robe of the seminarian, with a helmet and goggles on his head, and stretched out his hands as if swimming was more eye-catching.

"What is he doing?" Joseph asked puzzled.

"I'm doing an experiment." The Swiss soldier said behind him. "That device was made by scientists funded by the Holy See. Its working principle is said to be to process the electromagnetic radiation left on objects by past events and convert them into visual images and audio."

"Does it work?"

"You should ask him," said the Swiss soldier, and then shouted "Father Brunn!" at the top of his voice.

The sleepwalking cultivator woke up suddenly. He took off his goggles, revealing a chubby face.

"Father Joseph wants to borrow something, you take him to the Hall of Tears."

"The Hall of Tears?" Joseph asked.

"Take only one, don't try to play tricks." The Swiss soldier said blankly, "Put everything on your body here."

"Didn't you search just now?" Joseph said displeased.

"This is the rule, you have no choice." The Swiss soldier said without giving in. "People who come in to borrow books can take nothing but knowledge. You are already much luckier than them."

Joseph stood for a while with an ugly face, and finally took out a lot of bits and pieces from his body.

A toy water gun filled with holy water, a cell phone, a bunch of keys, an olive wood Benedictine cross and a Bible copied in gold dust.

"Your equipment is really crude, Exorcist." The Swiss soldier looked at the things on the table and said with disgust.

"Otherwise what do you think there are? Silver bullets?" Joseph said angrily.

"Are you a Benedictine?" asked Father Bruin.

"No, this kind of cross is more common." Joseph said impatiently, "Do I need to take off my clothes?"

"No."

"Then let's go!" He had a bad temper and pushed Brunn, "Take me to the Hall of Tears!"

The attitude was terrible, almost Roman, but Father Brunn was not angry at all.

"Wait, I'm going to get the key." He said happily, and walked to the small room next door.

Dreams have been known since ancient times to be made up of metaphors and symbols.

Prophecies often do not speak directly of the events themselves, but of certain metaphors, and some are convinced that the third secret revealed is not the same as that revealed to the children of Fatima.

If the revealed secret is fabricated, there is a chance that the real secret is hidden somewhere in the Vatican Archives.

When it is quiet enough, sometimes people can hear whispers coming from behind, and when they turn their heads, it suddenly becomes quiet.

How bad that must have felt.

Because the evil of man is generalized to the evil of nature, it is just for human reason to conquer nature