Life of Being a Crown Prince in France

The few Archbishops in the room immediately widened their eyes in shock.

Such a significant matter as replacing Cardinals was decided by the Holy See without notifying these Spanish Archbishops to return to Rome for discussions.

Campos, seeing their faces filled with astonishment and reluctance, felt a surge of intense satisfaction within him.

Back in the day, when he followed His Majesty Charles III in reforming the Church, he was wearied by the various overt and covert tactics of these Archbishops. This time, he finally avenged past humiliations!

Initially, when the Crown Prince of France told him that the Church could be made to bow to the Spanish government, he didn’t believe it at all.

However, the Vatican actually replaced three Cardinals.

What Campos did not know was that this time, it was the Vatican that sought Joseph’s assistance—

Thousands of Roman citizens surrounded St. Peter’s Cathedral. Although there were no extreme actions, they had already sent representatives multiple times to the Pope, demanding the election of a Congress and the realization of secular autonomy.

The Holy See, under the day-and-night cries of the protesters, was as startled as a bird frightened by a bow, fearing the day when these people might break in.

And after Austria withdrew from Northern Italy, only France remained to help the Holy See quell the rebellion.

Joseph straightforwardly promised to let the Holy See spend money to “hire” the Milan Republic’s army to quell the unrest, with the condition that the Holy See “reorganize” the Spanish Church.

The Pope and dozens of Archbishops only discussed for half an hour before deciding to “sacrifice” three Spanish colleagues in exchange for peace in Rome.

According to Joseph’s request, apart from replacing three allegedly corrupt Spanish Cardinals, the Holy See also had to split the largest dioceses in Spain.

However, this “reform measure” might cause significant upheaval, so it had to wait until Campos completed the first step of weakening the Church’s power before it could officially commence.

The reason Joseph put so much effort into helping Spain solve the persistent issue with the Church was due to very far-reaching considerations.

Firstly, it was to help Charles IV extract a large sum of military funds from the Church.

Bear in mind, once war breaks out in Portugal, for every gold coin Spain invests, England would have to match it with a gold coin, or even more.

Because Spain is fighting in its backyard, while England has to transport soldiers and supplies over 1200 kilometers across the sea to Portugal.

Secondly, only by suppressing the Church’s power could Spain possibly end the decline that has lasted for a century and a half.

Joseph didn’t expect Spain, as an ally, to send troops to help him fight, but economically it had to be a reasonably good market, at the very least.

Moreover, the Spanish fleet still ranks third in Europe and can form a certain counterbalance to England, especially in America, where the two have irreconcilable conflicts.

On the other hand, given Spain’s natural resources, geographical conditions, and population, it is destined not to develop national strength that could threaten France in the industrial age.

An “harmless and beneficial” younger sibling like that, France would naturally lend a helping hand.

Campos looked again at the Archbishops and said in a deep voice, “Before all the military funding ‘donated’ by each diocese is fully accounted for, the Holy See’s investigation into corruption will continue for a while.”

This was an overt threat—without enough money handed over, those present could not guarantee that none of them would be dismissed for “alleged corruption.”

Although the Archbishops wore gloomy expressions, they all bowed their heads and dared not speak up.

Yes, they are deeply entrenched in Spain, with significant influence, capable of causing the King headaches in numerous ways, and in extreme cases, even inciting religious riots.

However, Joseph went straight for their “roots” this time.

No matter how powerful you were, if your Archbishop status was revoked, you would instantly transform from a mighty dragon to an insignificant worm.

Moreover, if the Holy See assigned a new Archbishop to your diocese, they would certainly begin by removing the former power base.

After several Archbishops left looking as though mourning the dead, Campos immediately picked up a glass of wine, raised it towards the north, and said sincerely, “To Spain’s true friend, the great ‘Son of Divine Favor,’ thank you for your support.”

How could he not be excited?

In his briefcase, there was another decree signed by Charles IV.

It stipulated that in the future, the monopoly taxes on tobacco, ironware, gunpowder, etc., in each diocese would be changed to be collected by the Spanish government.

At the same time, the Church’s land income would also be included in the ‘Royal Trinity Tax.’

Furthermore, the appointment and dismissal of clerics in each diocese would only take effect with the King’s signature.

If asking the Church to hand over a large amount of money was damaging to the Church, this decree would completely cut off the Church’s ability to generate income.

The nationalization of various monopoly taxes goes without saying, and most importantly, the King began to tax the Church’s land income—a Trinity Tax of about 30%.

Altogether, this could increase the Spanish government’s annual revenue by several million escudos!

Of course, Campos, as a veteran Church reformist, also knew this would inevitably provoke fierce resistance from the Church.

However, the Crown Prince of France had already prepared a “weapon” for him.

The Spanish dioceses would be split into 16.

The most powerful Toledo Diocese directly divided into three.

The newly emerging dioceses would be taxed according to the new reform model, and the newly appointed Archbishops were close confidants of His Majesty, who naturally would not oppose.

Which diocese would dare not to cooperate? The next division quota would befall you, directly shrinking your jurisdiction to a third of what it was before.

Campos could already foresee that with the help of the Crown Prince of France, the long-standing Church problem that successive Spanish kings had been unable to solve should be basically resolved by this time next year.

In fact, Joseph also wanted to use Spain as a pilot project to test his ideas on Church reform.

If implemented smoothly, then France could simply follow the blueprint.

If there were pitfalls, Spain could also help France step on them in advance, allowing him the leisure to make adjustments.

…

West Bank of the Rhine River.

The largest city in the Palatinate Region, Worms.

On a flat piece of meadow in the suburbs, 22 young men chased after a black and white soccer ball, running desperately.

A circle of five-tiered wooden steps surrounded the lawn, with four to five hundred spectators sitting on them, watching the match elegantly.

From time to time, attendants carrying drinks and snacks would inquire eagerly if they required anything.

In fact, at least seventy percent of the nobles and wealthy merchants from Worms who came to watch the game didn’t even understand football rules, but this didn’t stop them from spending a high ticket price of 10 florins to watch the game.

In reality, the black market ticket price had been driven up to as high as 35 florins.

Just because, for today’s match, the Crown Prince of France would attend in person.

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