The Rise of the European Emperor

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Marin's practice of diverting the topic really had good results, and the countries quickly shifted their attention from the conflict between the Papal State and the Republic of Siena to the discussion of "tithe tax".

According to the logic, after the “tithes” are collected by the churches of various countries, the normal expenses of the local churches are excluded, and the rest should be handed over to the Holy See. However, that is only a theoretical situation. It's like theoretically friction is 0, but in practice it's impossible.

Behaviors such as deception, tax evasion and tax evasion are not unique to the East. Moreover, in this era, due to the backwardness of information, the Holy See is simply unable to confirm the amount of "tithes" that countries should pay. In the end, the Holy See had no choice but to adopt a stupid method-to calculate the "tithe tax" according to the output of the field. As for commercial income and mining income, there is no way to make specific statistics, and countries tacitly will not report these income to the Holy See. If this is the case, the Holy See will not receive much of the "tithes" that should be paid on the output per mu of land in various countries.

Because, the local church will falsely report the amount of "tithes". If you obviously received 100,000 gold coins, I will report you 10,000, what can you do?

If it is a country like the German Episcopal State, because the position of the bishop needs to be confirmed by the Holy See, more points have to be paid. And those sovereign countries are not so polite. Bishops in sovereign countries are often nominated by the countries themselves, and then go through a process to be confirmed by the Holy See. In this way, the bishop of a sovereign country is obviously on the side of the monarchs of various countries. Then, after the bishops supported by these monarchs come to power, they will also share the benefits from the "tithe tax" to the monarchs. Of course, these spoils will never be recorded in the annals of history, but will be quietly put into the pockets of the monarch himself, without anyone noticing.

Generally speaking, those who can be recommended as bishops are often the children of noble families, and often the non-eldest sons of big noble families.

After such a bishop takes power, he often pays great attention to the protection and expansion of the family's interests. For an aristocratic family, apart from money, titles and fiefdoms are probably the most important pursuits. In many cases, titles and fiefdoms are often more important than money.

Therefore, after a certain bishop takes office, he will often use the "tithes" obtained from corruption to secretly conduct py transactions with the king. For example, expanding the fief and even promoting the title of the noble family where the bishop belongs. Including non-inherited nephews and even illegitimate children who awarded fiefs and titles to bishops. The king took out titles and fiefdoms, and the bishop took out the greedy "tithes", and the two sides made an equivalent transaction, and everyone was happy...

The only one who is not happy is probably the Holy See. Because their interests have been ignored. However, the Holy See can't do anything about it. Because the Holy See can't tear itself apart with a sovereign country just because of money. Only during the period of the Crusades will the "tithes" of all countries be paid in full. In normal times, it is normal to give discounts to the Holy See. According to an article that Marin read in his previous life, during the Crusades, the "tithe" standard set by the Pope for England was 20,300 pounds per year (1291 standard),

That is 30450 marks silver. France and Germany have more people and cultivated land than England, and the tithe standard is naturally much higher. However, only when such a big event as the Crusades happens, the countries will come together. At other times, they would find all kinds of excuses to forfeit most of the tithes they originally paid, and only pay a small part to the Holy See. Without launching a "jihad" like the Crusades, the Holy See has no reason to force churches from all over the world to join forces. If you don't fight wars, why do you need so much money?

In normal years, the churches of various countries usually bribe the corresponding leaders of the College of Cardinals, trying to pay as few tithes as possible. In the end, those who fell into the holy library of the Holy See were basically meaningless...

Siena is a sovereign state, and a republic that deprived the bishops of their rule as early as 1167. Although it is very close to Rome, the Republic of Siena despises the Holy See. In addition to not being interested in the church, the Holy See has always been weak in military power, which is also an important reason why Siena dared to be presumptuous.

As a commercial republic, the 250,000 "tithe" is definitely not the whole of the Republic of Siena. It should be pointed out that in this era, the great aristocrats generally did not pay "tithes", and it was basically ordinary people who paid. Moreover, the collection standard of the "tithe tax" is mostly calculated according to the area of ​​cultivated land. Only those craftsmen with little background will be included in the collection of "tithe tax" like farmers.

Of course, this has nothing to do with the Holy See. Even if the annual "tithe" of the Republic of Siena is 250,000 gold coins, the Republic of Siena will only hand over a few thousand gold coins to the Holy See every year. If you encounter a bad year, simply don't pay.

Frankly speaking, Siena is right next to Rome, and it is so arrogant to do so, which is very slap in the face of the Holy See. The popes of all ages were very unhappy with Siena, the disobedient state in front of them, but the military of the Papal State has never been strong, and Siena's terrain is very steep, making it difficult to attack. Therefore, the popes of all ages have endured. Only Julius II, the "Pope of War", is quite ambitious and hopes to use Marin's hand to remove Siena, the "thorn in the eye" under the nose of the Holy See.

...

As time goes by, the autumn harvest begins to draw to a close. There was joy all over Europe, not only the farmers were happy, but the nobles were also very happy. Because, during the autumn harvest, these aristocrats have the most money in a year. It is said that in the early Middle Ages, because everyone was poor, even the king would take his army to the fiefdoms of the nobles after the autumn harvest, and fight the autumn wind in the name of "inspection". Eating and drinking on the territory... Of course, a noble family cannot afford to eat and drink like this. Therefore, the king at that time would take the army to take turns to eat in the territories of various nobles. Some poorer lords were directly eaten up...

Of course, that was the Dark Ages of the early Middle Ages. Now Europe is relatively developed, and the king will not do the embarrassing things of eating and drinking. The early lords would wage war over a few boxes of bees, they were all poor...

In this harvest season, when the whole world celebrated, an explosive news came from Austria——Maximilian I decided to lead an army to "March into Rome", seeking to be officially crowned emperor...

But at the same time, Maximilian I vowed that he led the army into Rome, and absolutely did not mean disrespect to the Pope. As for the reason... It is said that he was afraid that Swiss mercenaries would ambush him halfway...

Although this rhetoric is nonsense, it is not without reason. After all, the army of the Habsburg family is currently fighting a tug-of-war with the Swiss Resistance Army in central Switzerland. Those Swiss mercenaries seeking independence must have wanted to kill the "tyrant" Maximilian I. At least, they will be very similar to capturing Maximilian I, and then threatening the Habsburg family's army to withdraw from Switzerland... and the Swiss mercenaries are so powerful...

Therefore, it also makes sense for Maximilian I to bring an army to accompany him for protection. The only unreasonable thing is that Maximilian I brought 20,000 troops with him...