Emperor Constantine V awoke one morning to his minister at the door. "Lord Emperor, we have a messenger from the west."
"Assemble the court, I will attend shortly. Make sure that messenger is the last of my business for the day." replied the Emperor, and the minister obeyed.
All through that day, the Emperor heard reports of the progress of the re-paganification of Byzantium and pockets of resistance that were being hunted like dogs by the Emperor's hounds and butchered like common beef cattle. All the christians that did not submit were being crucified as Christ had been. Nowhere before had there been so many crosses than in Byzantium during this time.
Certain questions of trade had come up, too, and a few problems of succession for governors who had perished due to "The Hunt" as it had become known after 10 years of the persecution. Governors who would not submit to the Emperor's rule and were crucified beside the common people they once ruled over. There were only a few cases of this, however. Most of the nobility converted to save their dynasties from destruction.
The finding of Churches with torture chambers in their basements and the uncovering of extremely large stores of treasure that was horded by the church were good PR for the Emperor, especially when ordered these treasures be given back to the people they were extracted from.
"Now we will hear the messenger from the west" commanded the Emperor. A cardinal came forth wearing a finely embroidered red robe with a large caudy necklace of gold with rubies inlaid.
"Emperor... With all due respect... The only reason you rule, is because god allows you to. The only reason you became emperor was because god chose you. You have insulted god and his true believers. Hell will catch up with you quickly. You have chosen the path of Satan, and punishment will come. Oh. And your crazy is showing." said the cardinal. He sweated profusely, awaiting the Emperor's response.
The Emperor had not known what to expect from the messenger. Knowing it was from the west and seeing that he was a cardinal from the Pope made him aware that this was probably going to be a hostile message, but he had expected something much more befitting a man of the cloth. Something a little more diplomatic, perhaps... His face showed no sign of emotion, however. He folded his hands, and contemplated his response.
"Your eminence," he started, as he rose from his throne. "Perhaps you have seen the crucifictions across the country on your way to see me. No doubt you call them martyrs. You are to join them now. Guards, to the chopping block with this man." said the Emperor. The cardinal swore, and shouted something in occitan that the Emperor didn't quite understand, nor would it have mattered if he could have understood.
The Emperor followed, and his guard proceeded with them. They came to the chopping block, and the crowd gathered. "My people. We have come quite a way in the way of purging our empire of the sickness of christ's whores. Unfortunately, there is another brand of christianity in the west. Those who follow a pope who bribes, murders, and tricks his way to the throne he sits upon. He sends a messenger, speaking down on us for returning to the gods who made our empire glorious. He will be given to his god, the same as any Byzantine clergy. Through crucifiction.
The crowd cheered axaultingly at this prospect. After these years the pro-christian populace had been purged definitely in the imperial city, and only firm loyalists were around to witness this event. "To limbo with him" heard the emperor from one of the crowd.
"This priest has one way to save himself!" Proclaimed the Emperor. "He may denounce the Pope, and the god the Pope claims to represent."
Practically before the Emperor was done speaking, the cardinal had started cursing the pope, and before all the crowd, he screamed to the top of his lungs "God begone! I have no need of you now or ever for the rest of my life! I renounce my allegiance to the pope, and ask for no forgiveness from him! Lord Emperor, believe me, I want no part of the Pope's schemes any longer!" proclaimed the Cardinal. The Emperor smiled, and looked to the crowd. The crowd seemed angry with the cardinal still, and cried for his blood.
"See now, how cheap christianity is!" said the Emperor to his people "A leading man within the church so eager to save his skin, when he should be calling god down here to smite me. God has had almost 10 years since The Hunt started to smite me and he has yet to do so, because the old gods watch over me. They favor our conversion back to their ways! Now this former cardinal will be sent to hell with the rest of those outside on the crosses."
And the cardinal was crucified next to a thousand others outside the walls of Constantinople sobbing and weeping the whole while asking his imaginary friend for forgiveness as he rot and the birds picked him to death.
must have said something you didn't like...
