Cardinal Leo was looking at the huge world map in the room, and he was lost in thought.
This time, on the orders of Pope Julius II, he led a large delegation of more than two hundred people to travel thousands of miles across the ocean to the Ming Dynasty.
On the one hand, it was to express the dissatisfaction of the Roman Pope to the Ming Empire, because Hong Kong Governor Tian Erniu directly killed the Archbishop of Cornwall in Hong Kong, and also confiscated most of the property of the Cornwall Church, and at the same time abolished the Church
The power to levy taxes and sell indulgences.
This has seriously shaken the interests of the Holy See and is a serious provocation to the Holy See. If it were not for the fact that the Ming Empire was the most powerful empire in the world, the Holy See would not even want to have any negotiations with the Ming Dynasty.
Instead, they will directly send troops to Hong Kong.
Another aspect is that we hope to have a good negotiation with the Ming Empire and allow Christianity and Catholicism to spread in the Ming Dynasty.
The Ming Dynasty has a vast territory and a large population. It is the most powerful empire in the world and occupies most of the world. However, most of the people in the Ming Empire are atheists and do not believe in God.
Buddhism and Taoism in the Ming Dynasty were relatively mild and did not force people to believe in the religion. It was important to have believers and it was okay not to believe. Therefore, the Holy See saw the hope of spreading the light of God to the East.
In Europe at this time, religion was still an extremely important matter. When Columbus opened a new route, the sailboats were still embroidered with huge crosses, holding a Bible in one hand and a sword in the other.
The conflict with the American Indians began with forcing the Indians to convert to Christianity. All this illustrates the Europeans' enthusiasm for spreading religion.
In one sentence, what drove Europeans to explore America was gold and God!
For such a huge Ming Empire, Europeans have wanted to spread Christianity to the Ming Dynasty for a long time, and of course it is not just Europeans.
The same goes for people from the Middle East and Tianzhu. The further west you go, the greater the influence of religion. To spread your own religion to the powerful Ming Empire, this is almost what many missionaries are doing.
However, there were extremely strict restrictions in the Ming Dynasty. Foreign missionaries were not allowed to preach in the Ming Dynasty. There were even extremely strict restrictions on the time and place where foreigners could move in the Ming Dynasty, which made it extremely difficult for the missionaries to preach.
Leo's main task when he came to Ming Dynasty this time was to obtain permission to preach in Ming Dynasty. As for the matters in Hong Kong, they were all trivial matters, just a matter of going to a small county.
"Such a huge empire, with such a large population, is in darkness. The light of the Lord cannot shine here. The people here are so pitiful!"
Looking at the huge world map in front of me, the territory of the Ming Dynasty covers almost the entire world, including America, Australia, and Asia. The westernmost territory of the Ming Empire has even reached the junction of Europe and Asia.
In addition, the Ming Dynasty also had extremely large colonies and vassal states. Tianzhu and the coastal areas of Africa were full of Ming Dynasty colonies and vassal states. These were actually considered the territory of the Ming Dynasty.
Compared with the huge Ming Empire, the whole of Europe seems so small.
"Yes, there are too many lost sheep here. They are ignorant and ignorant. They are in darkness and want the light, but they are blocked by the rulers of the Ming Empire."
Next to Leo, Cardinal Adrian also sighed.
The Ming Dynasty has a population of 1.5 billion, and the combined population of the entire Europe is only a fraction of the population of the Ming Dynasty. This makes them feel even more that they should spread the glory of the Lord to the Ming Dynasty.
"They just haven't felt the brilliance of the Lord. Once they feel the brilliance of the Lord, they will naturally become devout believers."
Leo was very confident about this.
This time when he came to Daming, he also did his homework and learned Daming dialect in advance. He even thought about translating the Bible in the future so that it could be spread in Daming.
I have a detailed understanding of all aspects of the Ming Dynasty, and a detailed and in-depth understanding of the politics, economy, culture, customs and many other aspects of the Ming Dynasty.
The more he learned about Ming Dynasty in detail, the more he felt that he should spread the glory of the Lord to Ming Dynasty.
"The Ming Dynasty has a huge territory, and most of the land in the world is already under the Ming Dynasty's territory."
"They also have the largest population in the world. According to last year's census, Ming Dynasty has a huge population of more than 150 million."
"The Ming Dynasty is still the richest country in the world. Along the way, we can feel the richness of the Ming Dynasty in everything we see and hear."
"Even the most ordinary people in the Ming Dynasty were able to wear gorgeous clothes, drink tea, eat meat, and even eat snow-white sugar every day."
"The newspaper of the Ming Empire said that the fiscal revenue of the Ming Empire this year for hundreds of years exceeded 70 million taels of silver. This was just the silver collected from commercial taxes. They also had extremely huge physical taxes. The food collected was said to have already
All the warehouses are full."
"Everything here is luxurious. Their houses are so tall and beautiful, and the decorations inside are so luxurious that they are comparable to European palaces."
"The Ming Dynasty was so wealthy that they could use cement to build spacious, clean roads leading to various places. Compared to the muddy Europe, this place was like a paradise."
"But there is no God here. People here basically don't believe in religion. This is a blank land, the most ideal place for missionary work."
"Adrian, as long as we can bring the glory of the Lord here, we will become the greatest missionaries in history!"
Leo became more and more excited as he talked, and he couldn't help but open his hands, as if he wanted to embrace the land.
Before coming to Ming Dynasty, he had heard too many rumors about Ming Dynasty.
He had read Marco Polo's travels. In the travels, in the far east, there was a rich country full of gold, where people wore silk and used porcelain.
He had heard European businessmen describe the Ming Dynasty. The European businessmen said that the people of the Ming Dynasty spent money like water and were very rich. For any business, tens of thousands of Ming Dynasty silver coins were easily spent. They waved the silver coins in their hands and bought them on the Mediterranean.
All the white slaves were wiped out.
They waved the silver dollars in their hands and easily bought all the goods in the hands of the Spaniards. The Spaniards relied on trade with the Ming Dynasty and became the richest country in a short period of time.
Leo has heard descriptions of the Ming Dynasty by Eastern European knights. The legendary Ming Dynasty possesses extremely powerful military force, and they have an extremely large and powerful order of knights.
The army of the Ming Dynasty swept across the grassland from east to west and entered the Ottoman Empire. They were invincible and invincible. They defeated the Ottoman Empire, which was extremely powerful in the eyes of Europeans, and had to sign a humiliating treaty.
treaty.
He had heard people say that the Ming Dynasty was huge. It was said that it would take several months to reach the westernmost part of the Ming Dynasty from the easternmost part of the Ming Dynasty, even by riding the fastest horse.
It takes more than two months to take a boat from the Golden Continent of the Ming Dynasty to the mainland of the Ming Dynasty. From the northernmost point of the Ming Dynasty to the southernmost point of the Ming Dynasty, you can experience spring, summer, autumn and winter.
This is the Ming Dynasty, a powerful empire that overlooks the entire world.
Before he came, he had heard too many rumors about the Ming Dynasty.
Along the way, he experienced it personally again.
He first set out from the Holy See, took a ship in the Mediterranean and arrived at the Mamluk Kingdom in Egypt, and then arrived at the Red Sea, taking a Ming Dynasty ship, passing through Africa, Tianzhu, Nanyang, Ryukyu, Songhu, and Tianjin, and experienced nearly
It took three months to arrive in Daming.
In Africa and Tianzhu, he saw many colonies and vassal states of the Ming Dynasty. Everywhere, there were colonies of the Ming Dynasty, and the ships sailing on the sea all flew the flag of the Ming Dynasty.
There are hundreds of Ming ships moored in any port, and the Ming people in gorgeous clothes, holding their heads proudly, live a leisurely life under the service of many slaves.
On the Island of Ceylon, he saw the wealth of the Ming Dynasty. The trade transactions between the major commercial houses on the Island of Ceylon were tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of taels of silver.
Thousands of slaves were transported ship after ship to the Nanyang region of the Ming Dynasty. In Nanyang, he saw mountains of snow sugar. The amount of sugar was beyond imagination. You must know that sugar is only available in Europe.
Only the truly rich and nobles can afford it, but in the Ming Dynasty, ordinary families can afford it.
In Songhu, he saw the prosperity of the Ming Dynasty. Along both sides of the Huangpu River, there were many high-rise buildings. Especially at night, whale oil lamps were lit, and the lights were bright and feasting, which was intoxicating.
In Tianjin and the capital of Ming Dynasty, he saw what a city is.
Millions of people live in a city, and the roads are neatly planned. The spacious cement roads are busy with traffic, and people come and go in an orderly manner.
In the huge industrial area, there is the roar of the machines in the factory, the goods being continuously produced, the dazzling array of goods in the shops on both sides of the street, and the lively scene of crowds of people in the football stadium...
Everything gave him the most authentic and real feeling about the Ming Dynasty, which was far richer and more prosperous than what was described in books.
It is also far richer than what the merchants have said, and more powerful than what the knights have said, because along the way, every Ming Dynasty person he has seen is extremely proud, no matter where they are.
In this place, the people of the Ming Dynasty are a symbol of nobility, and even the people of the vassal states of the Ming Dynasty are superior to others.