#771 - The Origin of the Holy See (asking for monthly ticket recommendation)

“It's not impossible.” Nick fiddled with his long shawl hair, then composed himself and said, “No, I'm almost certain that Herpo will not simply die like that.”

“What exactly happened back then? Can you tell me in detail?”

Although Nick dispelled Anduin's doubts, he was still very curious about Herpo. A dark wizard who had lived for two thousand years, if he suddenly emerged to cause trouble, the damage would definitely be more terrible than the runic snakes of the Silver Spears.

“The situation back then was very complicated, and there are many details that I still don't fully understand.”

Nick pondered for a moment, then recounted the past in detail.

“In the wizarding world of the Middle Ages, there was a lack of communication between wizarding communities, and the major magical disciplines were not as numerous as they are now. Many communities didn't even have the concept of a country or collective. Organizations like the Ministry of Magic had not yet appeared, and a large number of wizards lived scattered around.”

“Often, even magic schools were not the first choice for wizards; they preferred to personally guide their children.”

“Fortunately, there was still a lot of exchange between the leading scholars in Europe at that time. I was staying in Cairo all year round, studying and exchanging ideas with other alchemical scholars.”

“To this end, we established an organization dedicated to the research and development of alchemy, which was the predecessor of the International Alchemical Research Center. At that time, we called it the Alchemical Society, and I was the first president of the Alchemical Society.”

Anduin didn't understand why Nick was talking about these seemingly irrelevant things, but out of politeness, he didn't interrupt him. Moreover, he was very interested in these contents that had never been recorded in history. At least, he didn't know that the Alchemical Society was the predecessor of the International Alchemical Research Center.

“Subsequently, a sudden plague swept through several Muggle countries in an instant, and even spread to Egypt.”

“In fact, at the beginning, the disasters in the Muggle world did not affect the lives of wizards, and most wizards were indifferent to the suffering of Muggles.”

“Unfortunately, although I sympathized with the Muggles' plight at the time, I didn't have the idea of intervening.”

“It was only with the spread of the plague that witch hunts appeared in European countries! They believed that this plague was the masterpiece of 'evil creatures called wizards'.”

“Although we scoffed at this at the time, the Muggles' guesses turned out to be correct.”

“In the years when witch hunts were prevalent, those Muggles began to hunt down wizards in large numbers. Although most of the people they caught were not real wizards, many wizards still suffered.”

Nick seemed to recall some unpleasant past, and sighed softly, lowering his head.

“With the abilities of wizards, those Muggles shouldn't be able to do anything to them, right?” Anduin looked at him in confusion. “A simple Muggle Repelling Charm would be enough to keep them from being harassed.”

“Yes, for most wizards, those Muggles were like headless flies running around. Many wizards even took the initiative to be caught, and then watched the Muggles fail to burn them to death, just to have fun.”

Nick chuckled, then shook his head again.

“But that's only for some wizards. Do you remember the background I just mentioned? The communication between wizards back then was not as frequent as it is now.”

“Therefore, the abilities of wizards also varied. Some wizards were severely specialized, and some wizards might only know less than ten spells. So, facing groups of Muggle soldiers, they were not much stronger than mortals.”

“Moreover, it wasn't all Muggles who were hunting wizards at that time!” Nick paused, then revealed a shocking secret, “The organizations that led the witch hunts back then included the Vatican!”

“The Vatican? Those special wizards who study holy magic?” Anduin responded casually.

“What holy magic, what special wizards.” Nick curled his lips in contempt. “They are just a bunch of fools blinded by power.”

“You probably don't know the origin of the Vatican. After the conflicts back then, both sides hid it very deeply, and even deliberately let later generations forget that past.”

Anduin shook his head honestly when he heard this. He really knew very little about the secrets between the Vatican and ordinary wizards. He only knew that the relationship between the two sides seemed to be very bad, basically in a state of non-interference and each going their own way.

“Speaking of which, the origin of the Vatican has a little bit to do with Herpo. Two thousand years ago, before Herpo had researched Horcruxes, he often captured Muggles as experimental subjects to study magic. At that time, he had already begun to study plague magic, and spread plagues to let them spread among Muggles to test the effects.”

“And the most notorious plague that Herpo created at that time was a modified version of leprosy!”

“This virus spread rapidly in the Muggle world. Although the degree of harm was not as serious as the Black Death, it also caused the Muggles of that time to suffer.”

“Just when those Muggles were suffering, a group of kind-hearted wandering wizards appeared. Their leader was called Jesus by those Muggles!”

Anduin was slightly stunned when he heard this.

Ah? Does that mean that the god worshiped by the Muggle world is actually a wizard?

But after thinking about it carefully, he found that this didn't seem to be anything strange. If you interpret those supernatural stories in the Bible as magic, it's quite reasonable.

“To be honest, the appearance of the wizard Jesus was indeed out of kindness at the beginning. He was indeed a person full of great love.”

Nick also showed enough respect for the wizard who was worshiped as a god by Muggles.

“You must know that in that era, Muggles were no different from low-level creatures in the eyes of wizards. They were ignorant, stupid, and most of them couldn't even read.”

“But Jesus treated them equally, and his magical talent was also very strong. He developed a kind of magic that could condense a lot of positive energy, which is now what we call holy light magic.”

“Jesus and his companions used this magic to heal the Muggles of plagues, and even guided those Muggles with magical talents to the path of wizards, and let those wizards of Muggle origin use the magic they learned from him as his disciples to benefit more Muggles.”

Nick couldn't help but admire when talking about this predecessor, “In that era, it was indeed admirable that he could have such an enlightened idea.”

“As for what happened later, you can probably guess it. Jesus's good deeds and incomprehensible abilities made him regarded as a god by Muggles.”

“However, that Jesus was a free and undisciplined wizard after all, and he was unwilling to stay in Muggle society all the time, so he found an excuse to fake his death and get away. No one probably knows Jesus's later whereabouts now.”

“Of course, if the story ended here, there would be no later Vatican. Although Jesus left the Muggle world without any worries, he didn't know how much trouble he had left behind.”

Speaking of this, Nick's expression showed disgust again.

“Trouble? Are you referring to the Vatican?” Anduin couldn't help but mutter, “Yes, since Jesus ran away after doing good deeds, how did the Vatican appear?”

“The problem still lies with Jesus's disciples!” Nick sighed.

“You should know that occasionally some people with wizarding talents appear in the Muggle group. If these talents are not developed, or even not known at all, their lives are no different from ordinary Muggles.”

“And individual Muggles who understand that they have magical talents and actively suppress and hate this power are likely to become Obscurials.”

“So in our era, Obscurials were more common than they are now. Their appearance always caused a lot of destruction, which is why most Muggles hated and even feared wizards.”

“And during Jesus's time in Muggle society, in order to avoid these talented Muggles from causing trouble, he took the initiative to guide them to master their talents. In the end, he trained a total of 12 disciples, who were 12 Muggle wizards.”

“But these 12 disciples of Muggle origin had never been exposed to the wizarding world, and had never been exposed to wizards other than Jesus.”

“Even these people had not received any education. Before becoming wizards, they were just ordinary farmers, carpenters, and butchers.”

“Therefore, from the beginning, they had not recognized their wizarding identity, and even really regarded their teacher Jesus as a god!”

“This self-hypnosis made them gradually expand after Jesus left, and they created a church to enjoy power and fabricated a Bible to deceive the world. The first Pope was the chief disciple Peter. Of course, those Muggles called him Saint Peter.”

“You must know that Muggles at that time did not have much reason. Foolish worship and offerings allowed these disciples to gather a large number of believers, wealth, and power in a short period of time.”

“Of course, not all the disciples lost their minds. I know a wizard named Judas, who was very dissatisfied with the actions of the other disciples.”

“Judas was more willing to live as a wizard, not as a spokesperson for God, and also believed that the other disciples' behavior of profiting in the name of Jesus tarnished the teacher's reputation.”

“And just when Judas was preparing to announce to the world that Jesus and the disciples were wizards, they struck first. The remaining 11 joined forces to kill Judas.”

“What is lamentable is that after the disciples removed Judas, they instead created him as a traitor in the Bible, a person who betrayed Jesus because he accepted a bribe of 30 silver coins, which is extremely ridiculous.”

Nick couldn't help but chuckle when he said this, and his expression was full of sarcasm.

Anduin was listening with a dumbfounded expression.

What? Doesn't that mean that the stories in the Bible are all fake?

Judas, who betrayed Jesus, was the loyal one, and the other 11 disciples were the traitors?

Isn't this too ironic!

What kind of dark fairy tale is this?

“So…” Nick stared at Anduin seriously, “From the beginning, the Vatican and we were not on the same path! They never had self-identification as wizards, and the wizarding world regarded them as heretics and mentally abnormal neurotics!”

“At the same time, since the establishment of the Vatican, they have begun to select people with magical talents from the Muggles, and brainwash and train them into believers or Templar Knights to serve the church.”

“This even indirectly led to the increasing gap between wizards and Muggles!”

“In fact, before that, the discrimination of pure-blood wizards against Muggle wizards was not so serious.”

“However, the Vatican's continuous absorption of Muggle wizards from the people greatly squeezed the living space of normal wizards, which made the hostility and hatred between the two sides greater and greater.”

“But later, many wizards discovered that the gap between the Vatican and them was gradually narrowing, and even their later strength gradually surpassed the wizarding world.”

“There was no way. The Muggles were too large, and with the unified leadership of the Vatican, their power was more concentrated, while the wizards were accustomed to a free and undisciplined life.”

“Therefore, in the period from two thousand years ago to one thousand years ago, wizards were constantly suppressed and even persecuted by the Vatican. They called themselves God's chosen people, and actually discriminated against other wizards.”

“Until later, some far-sighted wizards knew that this could not go on, and then magic schools appeared in Europe one after another!” Nick inadvertently revealed another big scoop.

“Ah? Could it be that magic schools were also forced to be established because of the Vatican?” Anduin was shocked, “Wasn't it to escape Muggle persecution?”

That's not right!

Anduin suddenly woke up. The wizards in the Vatican never thought of themselves as wizards.

So being persecuted by them is actually equivalent to being persecuted by Muggles! Maybe those persecutions were even led by the Vatican!

Thinking of this, Anduin's thoughts suddenly became clear. So those wizarding pioneers a thousand years ago were suppressed by the Vatican and realized that their power came from those Muggle wizards.

So they had to establish magic schools, so that on the one hand they could avoid the harassment of the Vatican, and on the other hand they could actively absorb Muggles with magical talents, guide them into wizards, not believers.

So magic schools are essentially competing with the Vatican for people! Weakening the Vatican's strength by drawing firewood from the bottom of the pot!

No wonder in that era, the founders of Hogwarts were willing to accept wizards of Muggle origin, but it was really difficult for them to compete with the Vatican for people they already hated.

Then Anduin suddenly thought that it was understandable that Salazar Slytherin was so repulsed by Muggle students back then.

I'm afraid he had a lot of conflicts with the Vatican before entering Hogwarts. He should hate those Muggles with church beliefs, not all Muggle students.

After all, in that era, almost everyone believed in Christ, even children in their teens were deeply influenced.

And it was really annoying to see a group of Muggle students with crosses around their necks at the beginning of school.

Maybe from the beginning, he didn't believe that magic schools could make those Muggle students abandon their beliefs, but now it seems that the strategy of magic schools is undoubtedly successful.