Bishop Fabian dropped his gavel, and the dull impact echoed in the hall, indicating the official start of the Inquisition.
According to the due process, the arraignment officer should first announce the charges and ask the defendant whether he pleads guilty. If the suspect admits guilt, the trial will enter the church's probation and training stage; if he does not plead guilty, the trial will enter the main trial, and the suspect will
If a person is finally found guilty, he will be regarded as a stubborn person and severely punished.
This is a bit like the slogan often seen in prisons in previous lives: "Leniency for those who confess, severity for those who resist."
Father Paul walked up to Todd, and the two looked at each other. The former asked first: "Father in Heaven! Should I call you Brother Todd, or Brother Todd?"
This question may not seem strange at first sight, but upon closer inspection, it becomes difficult to answer.
If Todd recognized the title of layman, it would be tantamount to leaning towards the side of the church, and he would surely lose the support of the monastery; if he recognized the title of monk, it would be tantamount to leaning towards the side of the monastery, which would alienate the priests and knights who had helped him.
Before the trial began, Paul used such a dilemma to force Todd to take sides between the "church" and the "ascetic" faction.
The person involved took his time and read aloud a story from the sacred text.
"While the good and merciful saint was shepherding sheep, he encountered an evil wolf asking for a sick and young lamb. The saint said this, go away, the Lord never abandons an obedient and pious child."
When he said this, the monks and church personnel present immediately understood what he meant.
Whether they are monks in the monastery or people in the church, they are all servants of the Heavenly Father. Any act of abandonment and harm is a blasphemy against the holy will.
As a result, the first round of the confrontation.
Father Paul asked for trouble, and was secretly humiliated by Todd using the word "wolf".
The second round begins.
Deliberately skipping the questioning, Paul went directly to the main trial stage and announced the first crime loudly.
"Lying about the number of holy relics and misappropriating church property".
Paul claimed that someone reported to the church that Todd had brought back twenty-eight boxes of crystal relics from the north, but only gave seventeen boxes to the church. He also publicly announced that he was willing to hand over all the crystals to the church. This was intentional.
Cheating is just trying to gain fame!
As soon as this statement came out, those who knew about it in the audience were first shocked, and then angry. The knights and priests who had been members of the visiting delegation immediately loudly refuted this ridiculous statement.
Because what I said was really shameless.
To take a step back, Todd brought the crystals back from the north. Whether he wanted to give them to the church or not was his business. Even if he didn’t give a box of crystals, he couldn’t be blamed. Moreover, he didn’t say anything about this kind of thing at the time, but chose to
To raise it now is obviously to create a "groundless" charge.
Queen Mary listened intently to the argument in the hall, and gradually understood the whole story.
She thought to herself that anyone who was not particularly stupid would understand that this was entirely a crime imposed on the monks, but Todd could not refute it at all. Because he made a fatal mistake. When the ship went to sea and docked, he
He did not take or notify any church personnel to supervise the ship, and this behavior fell into the trap. The Inquisition can fully say that because there was no supervision, Todd had the opportunity to hide the crystal relic and committed the crime of disrespect to the Holy Spirit.
The queen tilted her head, holding her cheeks with her hands, with a distressed look on her face. If she were faced with this kind of accusation, how would she defend herself? Find the sailors at sea or the onlookers, and ask them to come forward to testify?... No
, their testimony may not have enough credibility.
After thinking about it, this crime is completely a dead end. You know that it is a false proposition, but you have no evidence to refute it.
"Todd, do you have something to say?" Father Paul's face showed a proud look. This was a crime he and the bishop settled on after repeated discussions. Once confirmed, there would be reason to send the monk to the heresy interrogation room.
, tortured him to extract a confession, and asked him to tell the exact location where the crystal was found, so as to solve Bishop Fabian's current troubles.
The defendant suddenly became the object of everyone's attention.
How will he defend himself?
This question became the unanimous thought of everyone present.
After thinking for a few seconds, Todd moved.
He first knocked the floor under him with his knuckles, then looked at the wide pulpit in front of him. To everyone's surprise, he suddenly asked a strange question: "It was sent here before to place the crystal."
Do you still have the wooden box?"
When the assistant deacon of the cathedral heard this, he immediately stood up and said: "They are all here and are now stored in the warehouse."
"Very good, please get them all here." Watching the church staff get up to get the boxes, Todd walked up to the pulpit, started from one side of the end, and began to measure the distance with his steps.
Paul threw the indictment on the table angrily and shouted: "Todd! I'm asking you if you plead guilty! Don't try to delay time with tricks like pretentiousness!"
The defendant ignored him, but walked into the audience, found familiar knights and priests in the visiting group, and asked eleven of them to come forward to assist him.
Then, after some questioning, he found a knight who had dealt with North Island pirates in front of everyone, and asked the following questions.
Todd first asked: "Excuse me, do you know the types of ships commonly used by North Island pirates?"
The knight nodded and replied: "Yes, there are generally two types of ships. Warships (langskip) and cargo ships (knorr). When going south to plunder, the former is used."
"Can you tell me the approximate size and draft of the warship?"
"No problem, the regular size is 17.4 meters long (57 feet) and 2.6 meters (8.5 feet) at the widest point. The draft varies according to the weight of the ship, generally 45 centimeters to 65 centimeters."
"What's the situation about crew allocation?"
"There are 16 oar positions on each side, and the maximum load of the entire ship is 48 people. If you just want the ship to move, you will need at least 12 people."
"Thank you very much for your answer." Todd picked up a hemp rope he had just found and handed it to the knight: "I have one last thing to trouble you with. Please use this rope on the ground of the pulpit.
Give it a rough appearance of a warship."
The knight thought for a while and used hemp rope to place an "oval" shape on the ground.
Queen Mary's beautiful light blue eyes were flowing quietly and as moist as waves. She already somewhat understood what the monk wanted to do. It was just such a whimsical "self-defense" that she thought she had no way to do it.
think.
"It's so interesting..."
The maid didn't hear the hostess's whisper clearly and asked quickly: "Your Majesty, what did you say?"
"No, nothing."
Soon, the church staff brought in seventeen empty wooden boxes that had been used to store crystals. Todd also motioned to the eleven priests and knights around him to sit staggered in the oval surrounded by hemp ropes.
After everyone was seated, the monk said to the church staff: "Okay, please put all the wooden boxes into the oval. You can choose any way to place them, but please pay attention to two points. First, please do not put the wooden boxes into the oval.
The edge of the box should go over the rope; secondly, please do not stack the wooden boxes more than 45 centimeters high."
People placed these wooden boxes horizontally, vertically, or sideways to avoid the twelve people sitting there. After a lot of effort, they finally embedded them within the scope of the hemp rope. Although there were still some gaps,
But that's room for supplies, tents and weapons.
Almost everyone present saw a fact.
A pirate warship, even with the minimum crew number of twelve oarsmen, taking into account navigation safety and cargo placement, it is already the limit to carry seventeen wooden boxes of this size. The so-called transporting back twenty-eight boxes of crystals
The statement is completely nonsense and lies in nonsense.
The so-called crime of "lying about the number of holy relics and misappropriating church property" is a joke.
The faces of Father Paul and Bishop Fabian turned from white to red, from red to black. When the former saw the angry look cast by the latter, he was so excited that he shouted loudly: "Now I declare Todd's second charge of heresy.
"
"Disobeying Heavenly Father's instructions and practicing alchemy in private".
Amid everyone's exclamations, Todd slowly stood up from the ground. Queen Mary covered her lips with a folding fan and leaned forward.