The day after next after the play, it was decided I would go to Mainz Cathedral with the Duke and Duchess. Of course the Duke and Duchess's carriage came to fetch me, and I rode with them.
Why I had been invited to Mainz Cathedral was not, of course, to show a man from the country the sights. My faith is thin, so I was full of doubt, but according to the Duchess a great High Priest from the Sophia Divine Kingdom was at Mainz Cathedral now, and if you visited the cathedral at this time you could receive a blessing in God's place from the High Priest. Only, that was extremely rare, and not for just anyone.
What kind of person is a High Priest? I asked. (In fact I used more polite words.) He is one of several under His Holiness the Pope, next after the Pope. For a man like me, short on faith and force-fed the underside of religion in a place called Japan, I end up thinking he must be soaked in greed and gold. Thoughts that would surely send me to hell.
